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Manufacturing/re-manufacturing facility location and allocation systems have attracted many researchers and manufacturers because of globalisation, increasing competition, technological advancement and reduced product life cycle. In this paper, a multi-stage, multi-product capacitated closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network is proposed with an objective to optimise the total supply chain cost. The network also includes reuse, reprocessing and disposal of parts. Customer demands and returns are fluctuating, thereby causing an uncertain environment. To handle the uncertain parameters, a scenario-based mixed integer linear programming was developed and implemented in a cartridge manufacturing industry. Scenarios were framed by changing the demand, return rate, reprocessing rate, reassembling rate and disposal rate. Totally, 125 scenarios were analysed and effect on the percentage change in total cost was studied. The model is solved using CPLEX, an optimisation tool. Computational properties and complexities in solving the problems are studied. Some insights are provided for the model based on different scenarios.

In this paper, a 3 DoF (Degree of Freedom) novel PRS (Prismatic-Revolute- Spherical) type parallel mechanisms has been designed and presented. The combination of striaght and arc type linkages for 3 DOF parallel mechanism is introduced for the first time. The performances of the mechanisms are evaluated based on the indices such as Minimum Singular Value (MSV), Condition Number (CN), Local Conditioning Index (LCI), Kinematic Configuration Index (KCI) and Global Conditioning Index (GCI). The overall reachable workspace of all mechanisms are presented. The kinematic measure, dexterity measure and workspace analysis for all the mechanism have been evaluated and compared.

A sufficient understanding of the failure mechanisms that govern the mechanical behavior and failure modes of natural fiber composites is essential. In this regard, acoustic emission (AE) is a potential technique to monitor the mechanical behaviour and to provide the required information about the failure mechanism of natural fiber-reinforced polymer composites. The purpose and novelty of this study is to investigate for first time, the fracture behaviour of banana/ramie/epoxy composites under a 3-point bending test. During the test procedure, the AE parameters were recorded to evaluate the crack growth from the initial crack to the final fracture of the specimen and to determine the damage locations. AE parameters, such as amplitude, frequency, cumulative hits, and AE energy distributions, were used to identify the failure mechanisms associated with matrix cracking, delamination, fiber-matrix debonding, and fiber breakage. Based on these findings, the cumulative effect of AE events (counts/hits) represents the stress risers that cause failure in the specimen. Because natural fiber composites are brittle materials, they weaken when subjected to tensile loads. For this reason, the outermost bottom layer experienced more failure than the compressive layers during the bending of the specimen. The failure modes were studied using scanning electron microscopy. It was observed from the AE activity that the stress level at the crack initiation is 10–15% higher than the stress magnitude at the fracture stage.

The sugarcane industry is technologically pioneering in the area of food production. On the other side, this industry produces a huge amount of by-products. Proper handling of these by-products has remained a challenge. An efficient multi-echelon Sugarcane Supply Chain Network (SSCN) is designed and proposed in this paper to handle the by-products produced by the sugarcane industry that can be utilized further with little modification. It helps to reduce the overall working cost of the network. Usually, the supply chain problems are complex in nature, and complexity further increases with increasing problem instances. Metaheuristics techniques are, in general, applied to handle such NP-hard problems. This work proposes three hybrid metaheuristics algorithms, namely H-GASA, a hybrid of Genetic Algorithm with Simulated Annealing, H-KASA, a hybrid of Keshtel Algorithm with Simulated Annealing, and H-RDASA, a hybrid of Red Deer Algorithm with Simulated Annealing to handle the complexity of the problem. The algorithms’ performance is probed using the Taguchi experiments, and the best combinations of parameters are identified. This hybrid algorithms’ efficacy is compared with their basic version of the algorithms, i.e. GA, KA, RDA, and SA using different criteria. A set of test problems is generated to ensure the capability of the presented model. The obtained results suggest that H-KASA significantly outperforms in small-sized problems, while the H-RDASA significantly outperforms in medium- and large-sized problem instances. In addition, the sensitivity analysis confirms that by adopting this proposed multi-echelon SSCN, decision-makers can achieve a significant cost reduction of 8.3% in terms of the total cost.

In this paper the problem of permutation flow shop scheduling is considered with the objective of minimizing the makespan. An attempt is made to schedule the jobs using a new approach called greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP). It is a competitive algorithm and is a metaheuristic for combinatorial optimization. The performance of GRASP is then compared with that of NEH heuristics. The comparison is carried out with the benchmark problems taken from Carlier (1978), Reeves (1995) and Taillard (1993).

Globalization has enlightened market with both opportunity and risk by bringing a more connected business environment, which ensures more customers and new markets. In contrast, it also brought a larger extent of competitors. The more collaborative environment can help companies to focus on their core competence to simultaneously reduce cost and participate more profitably in their trade. Uncertainty is a major outcome of the globalization process; firms are developing new methods and strategies to deal with risk and take control of uncertainty factors. This work introduces a novel approach that could help in collecting the end-of-life and end-of-use products from the end-users. These collected products enter the value chain and help in reducing the overall cost of the supply chain. A mixed-integer linear programming model has been formulated to assess the overall cost of the supply chain for the presented study. Due to the NP-hardness of the problem, few well-known metaheuristics and hybrid approaches are proposed as solution techniques for the first time. The Taguchi method is used to obtain the best combinations of algorithm parameters. In addition, problem instances are generated to validate the proposed model for a real-world case. Finally, the effectiveness of the algorithms is compared by using different criteria.

Infusion of silicon filler introduces a strong interaction with the polymer matrix used to develop a hybrid composite with improved structural qualities. This research work investigates the thermal and erosive wear resistance characteristics of recovered silicon-filled glass fiber hybrid epoxy polymer composites. The silicon wafer cutting waste filler was used to fabricate polymer composites with different weight fractions (0, 1, 3, 5, and 10%) and filler sizes (coarse 50 μm and fine 10 μm). The air-jet sand erosion testing on silicon-filled composites with different impact velocities, impingement angles, erodent sizes, and concentrations of silicon filler was analyzed through Taguchi design analyzis. The results from the Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) analyzis showed that fine silicon particle-filled polymer composites were higher than those of coarse silicon particle-filled composite laminates. The thermal stability of the composites increased with the addition of filler material by inhibiting the diffusion of volatile decomposition. Besides, the char yield of fine silicon particle-filled composites was 5–10% higher than that of coarse silicon particle-filled composites. According to the air-jet sand erosion testing results, the erosion rate was more dependent on silicon filler loading, impact velocity, and erodent sizes than on filler size. A fine silicon-filled 10% composite showed a minimum erosion rate at an impact velocity of 50 m/s, an impingement angle of 35 degrees, and an erodent size of 50 μm. The silicon-filled composites exhibited higher thermal and erosive wear resistance properties than the unfilled composites.

Customer demands and returns are fluctuating, thereby causing an uncertain environment. Many researchers and the manufacturers are trying to propose suitable network to adopt uncertainty. In this paper, a multi-stage, multi-product capacitated closed loop supply chain (CLSC) network is proposed with objective to optimize the total supply chain cost. To handle the uncertain parameters a scenario-based mixed integer linear programming was developed. Scenarios were framed by changing the demand, return rate, reprocessing rate, reassembling rate, and disposal rate. Totally, 125 scenarios were analysed and effect on the percentage change in total cost was studied. The model is solved using CPLEX, an optimization tool. Computational properties and complexities in solving the problems are studied. Some insights are provided for the model based on different scenarios.

This umbrella review aimed to determine the various drugs used to treat trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and to evaluate their efficacies as well as side effects by surveying previously published reviews. An online search was conducted using PubMed, CRD, EBSCO, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library with no limits on publication date or patients’ gender, age, and ethnicity. Reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials pertaining to drug therapy for TN, and other relevant review articles added from their reference lists, were evaluated. Rapid reviews, reviews published in languages other than English, and reviews of laboratory studies, case reports, and series were excluded. A total of 588 articles were initially collected; 127 full-text articles were evaluated after removing the duplicates and screening the titles and abstracts, and 11 articles were finally included in this study. Except for carbamazepine, most of the drugs had been inadequately studied. Carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine continue to be the first choice for medication for classical TN. Lamotrigine and baclofen can be regarded as second-line drugs to treat patients not responding to first-line medication or for patients having intolerable side effects from carbamazepine. Drug combinations using carbamazepine, baclofen, gabapentin, ropivacaine, tizanidine, and pimozide can yield satisfactory results and improve the tolerance to the treatment. Intravenous lidocaine can be used to treat acute exaggerations and botulinum toxin-A can be used in refractory cases. Proparacaine, dextromethorphan, and tocainide were reported to be inappropriate for treating TN. Anticonvulsants are successful in managing trigeminal neuralgia; nevertheless, there have been few studies with high levels of proof, making it challenging to compare or even combine their results in a statistically useful way. New research on other drugs, combination therapies, and newer formulations, such as vixotrigine, is awaited. There is conclusive evidence for the efficacy of pharmacological drugs in the treatment of TN.