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We examine the relation between corporate social performance and stock portfolios performances. Based on Kinder, Lydenberg and Domini social performance ratings, the study constructs and evaluates different sets of equity portfolios that differ in social performance. The high-ranked portfolios provide, in most cases, higher average returns than their low-ranked counterparts over the 1995-2006 period. In addition, we observe that the relation social-financial performance depends also on the economic cycle and consequently, on the market performance. Socially responsible investments seem to be more popular during bearish market periods and less popular during bullish market periods. Finally, our results suggest that in some industries, the differences of performances are more significant than in others. In other words, the relation social-financial performance seems to be considerably affected by the nature of firms’ activities. Therefore, our empirical results suggest that industry is an important factor that should be taken in consideration in studies on the relation between social and financial performance

High energetic aluminum nanoparticles are mainly used as additive in solid rocket propellants. However, fabrication of these aluminized energetic materials is associated with decreasing the burning rate of propellants due to problems such as oxidation and agglomeration of nanoparticles. In this study, to improve combustion performance of aluminum nanoparticles, coating by metallic Ni shell was studied. Nickel coating of aluminum nanoparticles was performed through electroless deposition (ED) subsequently, morphology and chemical composition of Ni-coated nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). These studies show that a uniform Ni layer with a thickness of 10nm is coated on the surface of Al nanoparticles. Thermal analysis of uncoated and Ni-coated aluminum nanoparticles was done using differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). The results of thermal analysis indicate that, coating the aluminum particles by Ni, leads to improvement in combustion performance of aluminum nanoparticles through decreasing critical ignition temperature, ignition delay time of the nanoparticles and promoting the ignition by exothermic chemical reactions between Al and Ni