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This chapter proposes a multiobjective model to design a Closed Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) network. The first objective is to minimize the total cost of the network, while the second objective is to minimize the carbon emission resulting from production, transportation, and disposal processes using carbon cap and carbon tax regularity policies. In the third objective, we maximize the service level of retailers by using maximum covering location as a measure of service level. To model the proposed problem, a physical programming approach is developed. This work contributes to the literature in designing an optimum CLSC network considering the service level objective and product substitution.

School-wide positive behavior support (PBS) is a systems approach to prevention and intervention involving multiple levels of support. At the universal level (all students), prevention of behavior problems involves four very basic steps that are repeated with smaller numbers of students and greater intensity as directed by data. The first step is the prediction of problems or failures. To the extent to which we can predict a problem by time, location, student, and other contexts, we have the information to prevent. Prediction leads directly into the second step, which involves the development of effective prevention practices. The key to effective prevention is to approach all problems from an instructional perspective by considering what needs to be taught and how the environment can be arranged to increase the probability of success. The third step involves creating consistency with prevention efforts. Instructional efforts that are inconsistent are not effective in teaching new behavior. The last step involves development of the simplest way of monitoring performance so that those students who are not responding (i.e., are falling through the screen) may be quickly identified. This chapter describes the key features of effective universal systems as they are specifically related to the prevention of behavior problems and provides an overview of how such systems are developed, implemented, and sustained.

Frequently, problems involving a management activity involve the incurring of a setup charge for the activity. In these cases, the total cost of the activity is the sum of the variable cost related to the level of the activity and a set up cost required to initiate the activity. In this research, we will also use goals that involve demand management of service centers based upon the revenue potential of the customer districts they will serve.

The optimal location of plants by a global firm is analyzed for the first time using measures of distance along the spherical surface of Planet Earth. With a uniform distribution of customers an optimal location strategy will normally seek a space-filling configuration of identical areas that are as near circular as possible. The hexagonal space-filling solution for location on an infinite plane cannot be generalized to the surface of a sphere. Different spatial patterns are required for different numbers of plants; these may be based on triangles, squares, or pentagons. The chapter reviews the current state of knowledge on the topic, drawing on theories of spherical geometry and regular convex polyhedra, and on applications in physics, chemistry, and medicine. Overall, there appears to be no general solution to the problem; only a set of quite different solutions for various special cases. The lack of any general solution to this central problem in international business illustrates the “impossibility” referred to in the title of this chapter.