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Abstract: Materials selection is an onerous but very important activity in the design process. An inappropriate choice of material(s) can adversely affect the productivity and profitability and hence reputation of a manufacturing organization. The complexity of materials selection makes multi-criteria analysis an invaluable tool in the engineering design process. However, the application of various multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods can yield different results, especially when alternatives lead to similar performance. Therefore, an aggregation technique is proposed in this paper for optimal decision-making. In this approach, ranking orders obtained by various MCDM methods are used as the input of the suggested procedure and the outputs are aggregation rankings, which help designers and engineers to reach a consensus on materials selection for a specific application. An illustrative example is given to demonstrate the application of this procedure and its effectiveness in obtaining optimal materials selection. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Benzene is a known hematotoxic and leukemogenic agent with hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) niche being the potential target. Occupational and environmental exposure to benzene has been linked to the incidences of hematological disorders and malignancies. Previous studies have shown that benzene may act via multiple modes of action targeting HSCs niche, which include induction of chromosomal and micro RNA aberrations, leading to genetic and epigenetic modification of stem cells and probable carcinogenesis. However, understanding the mechanism linking benzene to the HSCs niche dysregulation is challenging due to complexity of its microenvironment. The niche is known to comprise of cell populations accounted for HSCs and their committed progenitors of lymphoid, erythroid, and myeloid lineages. Thus, it is fundamental to address novel approaches via lineage-directed strategy to elucidate precise mechanism involved in benzene-induced toxicity targeting HSCs and progenitors of different lineages. Here, we review the key genetic and epigenetic factors that mediate hematotoxicological effects by benzene and its metabolites in targeting HSCs niche. Overall, the use of combined genetic, epigenetic, and lineage-directed strategies targeting the HSCs niche is fundamental to uncover the key mechanisms in benzene-induced hematological disorders and malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present nonmagnetic organic transistors with wideband-gap polymer:bis[(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-N, \C^2]-(picolinato)iridium(III) (P36HCTPSi:FIrpic) mixed heterojunctions, achieving a high stable current gain of 73 and 14% organic magnetocurrent effect over a wide range of collector–emitter voltages and an external magnetic field, respectively. We employed a substrate heating treatment technique during deposition of the mixed emitter layer to achieve low surface roughness and, consequently, improved the on-to-off current ratio of around \10^5. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We have studied the effects of the fullerene \C70 on the device performance of a composite-emitter multilayer metal-base transistor (MBT). It is shown that the higher molecular weight leads to high common–emitter current gain \beta of over 252 in a wide range of collector–emitter voltage. By selecting an appropriate maximum and minimum base current IB, an on-to-off current ratio \4.73 \times \10^6 is achieved. This is a substantial improvement over an identical MBT employing \C60 having \beta = \8 and on-to-off current ratio 4.25. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]