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This paper presents a new variant of periodic vehicle routing problem in which the reaching time to the customers affects market share. Thus, there is a competition between distributors to achieve more market share by reaching the customers earlier than others; moreover, travel time between each two pairs of customers is uncertain. This situation is called an uncertain competitive environment. For the given problem, a new bi-objective mathematical model including minimization of total traveled time and maximization of the market share is presented. In order to solve this model, a multi-objective particle swarm (MOPSO) and local MOPSO algorithms are applied; and to evaluate the algorithm performance, some samples are generated; and the results of algorithms are compared based on some comparison metrics. The results demonstrate that the proposed LMOPSO algorithm leads to a better performance compared to the MOPSO in most comparison metrics.

Telomere length (TL) is recognized as a biomarker of aging and shorter telomeres are linked with shorter lifespan. Inter-individual variability in telomere length is highly heritable. However, there has been a resurgence of interest in the controversial relationship between diet and TL. Evaluating the impact of diet at the food group and dietary pattern level will provide greater insight into the effect of diet on TL dynamics, which are of significant importance in health and longevity. This article reports the first systematic review of the relation between food groups, dietary patterns and TL in human populations based on PRISMA guidelines. Design: PubMed, Science Direct, The Cochrane Library and Google Scholar databases were electronically searched for all relevant studies, up to November 2015. Among the 17 included studies, 3 and 10 of them were regarding the effect of dietary patterns and various food groups on TL, respectively. Also, in 4 studies, both dietary patterns and different food groups were assessed in relation to TL. Mediterranean dietary pattern was related to longer TL in 3 studies. Five studies indicated beneficial effect of fruits or vegetables on TL. In 7 studies, a reverse association between TL and intake of cereals, processed meat, and fats and oils was reported. Our systematic review supports the health benefits of adherence to Mediterranean diet on TL. Except for the fruits and vegetables, which showed positive association with TL, results were inconsistent for other dietary factors. Also, certain food categories including processed meat, cereals and sugar-sweetened beverages may be associated with shorter TLs. However, additional epidemiological evidence and clinical trials should be considered in future research in order to develop firm conclusions in this regard.

This paper describes the results of an experimental study on the usage of high-frequency, high-voltage, low direct current spark discharge plasma to examine the catalytic role of chlorine (Cl2) gas on the selective and rapid conversion of light hydrocarbons in the natural gas stream. Our results indicate that the cold DC-spark discharge method in the presence of small amount of chlorine gas is a useful method for decomposition of methane into gaseous constituents and carbon at relatively low power consumption (10 W). Presence of Cl2boosts the conversion rate of methane (the main constituent of natural gas) to C2hydrocarbons, as well as formation of nano-graphene, and apparently, molecular hydrogen. Our results indicate that conversion of methane increases by a factor of ~3 in the presence of 6–8 % of chlorine gas. This method is adopted as an efficient and selective routine for the formation of nano-carbons such as graphene using natural gas along with a trace amount of Cl2in an inert atmosphere such as argon bath gas.