Trade credit mainly signifies increase in order quantity when retailer offers a trade credit to the customer. From the customer’s view, granting trade credit not only increases sales and revenue but also increases opportunity cost. So, the choice to offer trade credit is an important managerial consideration. Moreover another significant decision on purchasing is to include (or not to include) cash discount benefits and the motivations behind it. Therefore, the major objective of this article is to derive the inventory models for deteriorating items by maximizing the total profit of the retailer. The models includes the cash discount for the retailer depending on ordering quantity and also cash discount for the customer depending on the time. The customer’s demand is expressed as a function of time and price, which is appropriate for the products for which demand increases initially and after sometime it starts to decrease. Lastly, numerical examples along with sensitivity analysis are done, which extracts some fruitful managerial insights.

The present study investigates an inventory model for non-instantaneous deteriorating items under inflationary conditions with partially backlogged shortages. In today’s market structure consumers are looking for goods for which there is a delay in deterioration. At the same time, the consumers’ willingness to wait has been decreased over time, which leads to lost sales. Moreover in financial decision-making, the effects of inflation and time value of money cannot be oblivious to an inventory system. In this scenario, managing inventory of goods remains a challenging task for the decision makers, who may also have to rent warehouse under different prevailing factors such as, bulk discount, limited space in the retail outlet, or increasing inflation rates. With a focus on reduction of costs and increasing customer service, warehouse decision models are crucial for an organization’s profitability. Hence a mathematical model has been developed in the view of above scenario, in order to determine the optimal policy for the decision maker, by minimizing the present worth of total cost. The optimization procedure has been illustrated by a numerical example and detailed sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution has been performed to showcase the effect of various parameters. Managerial implications has also been presented to aid the decision making process.

A clean and efficient, mediated in water and assisted by ultrasound method for the synthesis of a series of N-substituted 1-amino-3-ferrocenyl-3-oxoprop-1-enes starting from acetyl ferrocene was developed. Our approach offers shortening of the reaction time under the mild reaction conditions and easy work up procedure.

Pioglitazone hydrochloride (PGH) is an oral anti-hyperglycemic agent used in the treatment of type-2 diabetes mellitus. Potassium permanganate was found to oxidize PGH both in acidic and basic conditions, based on which two simple and sensitive methods were developed for its determination in bulk sample and tablets, and validated. In the first method (indirect method), PGH was reacted with a measured excess of standard permanganate in H₂SO₄ medium, and the residual oxidant was determined by measuring its absorbance at 550 nm. The second method (Direct method) entails treating PGH with permanganate in NaOH medium, followed by the measurement of the resulting bluish-green manganite at 610 nm. Experimental variables affecting the reactions were studied and optimized. Under optimum conditions, linear relationships with good correlation coefficients were found between absorbance and concentration in the ranges, 1.25 – 25 µg mL^-1 (Indirect method) and 1-12 µg mL^-1 (Direct method) with respective molar absorptivity values of 1.10 × 10⁴ and 2.77 × 10⁴ l mol^-1 cm^-1. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.36 and 1.08 (Indirect method) and 0.23 and 0.69 µg mL^-1 (Direct method). Intra-day and inter-day precisions were satisfactory, with %RSD values of ≤2.11, and the respective accuracies were excellent with %RE values of ≤2. The methods were also validated for robustness, ruggedness and selectivity. The methods were applied to the determination of PGH in its tablets with good accuracy and precision, and no interference from the tablet additives was encountered. The results were also compared with those obtained by a reference method.

An ecofriendly methods for the synthesis of medicinally important class of heterocyclic scaffold, pyrazole 4-carbonitrile derivatives by one pot three component reaction of malononitrile, phenyl hydrazine and aromatic aldehyde has been achieved at room temperature. Greener protocols of reaction are followed by using sodium chloride to accelerate the reaction in aqueous media. Present methodology is a condition based divergence on synthesis of pyrazole by using simple salts, which offers several advantages like use of aqueous media and high yield of product along with short reaction time, simple work up procedure, no waste or by products, avoid the use of heavy metals or nanoparticles are the fascinating characteristics of reaction.

An ecofriendly methods for the synthesis of medicinally important class of heterocyclic scaffold, pyrazole 4-carbonitrile derivatives by one pot three component reaction of malononitrile, phenyl hydrazine and aromatic aldehyde has been achieved at room temperature. Greener protocols of reaction are followed by using sodium chloride to accelerate the reaction in aqueous media. Present methodology is a condition based divergence on synthesis of pyrazole by using simple salts, which offers several advantages like use of aqueous media and high yield of product along with short reaction time, simple work up procedure, no waste or by products, avoid the use of heavy metals or nanoparticles are the fascinating characteristics of reaction.

In this study, an ensemble algorithm has been proposed, called Quasi-Oppositional Symbiosis Organisms Search (QOSOS) algorithms, by incorporating the quasi-oppositional based learning (QOBL) strategy into the newly proposed Symbiosis Organisms Search (SOS) algorithm for solving unconstrained global optimization problems. The QOBL is incorporated into the basic SOS algorithm due to the balance of the exploration capability of QOBL and the exploitation potential of SOS algorithm. To validate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed Quasi-Oppositional Symbiosis Organisms Search (QOSOS) algorithms, it is applied to solve unconstrained global optimization problems. Also, the proposed QOSOS algorithm is applied to solve two real world global optimization problems. One is gas transmission compressor design optimization problem and another is optimal capacity of the gas production facilities optimization problem. The performance of the QOSOS algorithm is extensively evaluated and compares favorably with many progressive algorithms.

The objective of this paper was to have a study on the perceptions of stakeholders of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects for factors affecting the attractiveness of road projects in India. A questionnaire survey was conducted among major PPP project participants of Indian PPP road projects. Fifteen attractive factors were shortlisted through a literature survey for designing the questionnaire. Collected data was analyzed with factor analysis and descriptive statistical analysis. The findings resulted in three components: effectiveness of the private sector, effective time and cost management, and the public sector’s economic benefit. Eight factors were identified as highly affecting the attractiveness of PPP in Indian road projects. PPP provides ample diversity of net benefits to both the public and private sectors. During the project development stage, both sectors have to formulate decisions based on appropriate assessment criteria. Therefore, the reflection of attractive factors will assist the public-sector to select PPP in the road sector. It also helps to establish the strategy for road projects using PPP.

The development of techniques that allow producing high-finish surfaces of geometrically-complex parts of difficult-to-machine materials by electrical discharge machining (EDM) is an emerging research area. The aim of this work is to study the application of electrolytic-plasma polishing technique for the high-quality surface finish of the parts obtained by EDM process. The structural alloy steel 38KH2N2MA (GOST 4543 – 71) was selected as the processing material. The morphology of the machined surface was examined using optical micrographs. It was observed that applying the electrolytic plasma polishing for the duration of 5 minutes results in reducing the surface roughness of the ED machined surface by a factor of 5. It is also concluded that the combined action of EDM with electrolytic plasma polishing method is suitable for attaining the desired surface finish.