The aim of this work is to present a reliability and profit analysis of a two-dissimilar parallel unit system under the assumption that operative unit cannot fail after post repair inspection and replacement and there is only one repair facility. Failure and repair times of each unit are assumed to be uncorrelated. Using regenerative point technique various reliability characteristics are obtained which are useful to system designers and industrial managers. Graphical behaviors of mean time to system failure (MTSF) and profit function have also been studied. In this paper, some important measures of reliability characteristics of a two non-identical unit standby system model with repair, inspection and post repair are obtained using regenerative point technique.

Differential Search (DS) algorithm is a new meta-heuristic for solving real-valued numerical optimization. This paper introduces a new method based on DS for solving Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP). The RCPSP is aimed to schedule a set of activities at minimal duration subject to precedence constraints and the limited availability of resources. The proposed method is applied to PSPLIB case studies and its performance is evaluated in comparison with some of state of art methods. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective. Also, it is among the best algorithms for solving RCPSP.

In the context of supply chain management, supplier selection plays a key role in reaching desirable production planning. In today & apos; s competitive world, many enterprises have focused on selecting the appropriate suppliers in an attempt to reduce purchasing costs and improve quality products and services. Supplier selection is a multi-criteria decision problem, which includes different qualitative and quantitative criteria such as purchase cost, on time delivery, quality of service, etc. In this study, a fuzzy multi-objective mathematical programming model is presented to select appropriate supplier and assign desirable order to different supplies. The proposed model was implemented for an organization by considering 16 different scenarios and the results are compared with two other existing methods.

This paper considers a multi-objective version of the Multiple Traveling Salesman Problem (MOmTSP). In particular, two objectives are considered: the minimization of the total traveled distance and the balance of the working times of the traveling salesmen. The problem is formulated as an integer multi-objective optimization model. A non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is proposed to solve the MOmTSP. The solution scheme allows one to find a set of ordered solutions in Pareto fronts by considering the concept of dominance. Tests on real world instances and instances adapted from the literature show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

The main aim of the present paper is to analyze the stochastic behavior of a cold standby system with concept of preventive maintenance, priority and maximum repair time. For this purpose, a stochastic model is developed in which initially one unit is operative and other is kept as cold standby. There is a single server who visits the system immediately as and when required. The server takes the unit under preventive maintenance after a maximum operation time at normal mode if one standby unit is available for operation. If the repair of the failed unit is not possible up to a maximum repair time, failed unit is replaced by new one. The failure time, maximum operation time and maximum repair time distributions of the unit are considered as exponentially distributed while repair and maintenance time distributions are considered as arbitrary. All random variables are statistically independent and repairs are perfect. Various measures of system effectiveness are obtained by using the technique of semi-Markov process and RPT. To highlight the importance of the study numerical results are also obtained for MTSF, availability and profit function.

Distribution and optimum allocation of emergency resources are the most important tasks, which need to be accomplished during crisis. When a natural disaster such as earthquake, flood, etc. takes place, it is necessary to deliver rescue efforts as quickly as possible. Therefore, it is important to find optimum location and distribution of emergency relief resources. When a natural disaster occurs, it is not possible to reach some damaged areas. In this paper, location and multi-depot vehicle routing for emergency vehicles using tour coverage and random sampling is investigated. In this study, there is no need to visit all the places and some demand points receive their needs from the nearest possible location. The proposed study is implemented for some randomly generated numbers in different sizes. The preliminary results indicate that the proposed method was capable of reaching desirable solutions in reasonable amount of time.

A simple, efficient and green one-pot, four-component synthesis of highly substituted polyhydronaphthalenes in aqueous media is described. The method has such advantages as short reaction times, high yields, mild reaction conditions, operational simplicity and environmentally benign.

This study investigated the selective synthesis of aryl-bis(2-hydroxy-1-naphthyl)methane for the first time under microwave irradiation in solvent-free medium within 5 min using 10 mol % of B(HSO4)3 (BSA) as reusable solid acid catalyst. The same reaction could also be conducted at 90-100 °C in neat for the formation of alkyl or aryl 14H-dibenzoxanthenes in presence of BSA catalyst with excellent yields.

Experimental and computational approaches were used to estimate the lipophilicity of novel 1,2,4-triazole derivatives. These derivatives have been subjected to this research, because they exhibit antimicrobial activity. The chromatographic analysis of RP-HPLC and RP-TLC was carried out using methanol-water or acetonitrile-water as mobile phase. The linear relationships between logk (or R_M) values and the concentration of organic modifier were obtained. The lipophilicity was expressed as chromatographically derived descriptors: ?logk?_W, S, ?0 and scores logk and R_Mcorresponding to the first principal component. The experimental lipophilicity data have been compared with the computer calculated lipophilicity parameters (milogP, clogP, ALOGPs, AClogP, AlogP, MLOGP, KOWWIN, XLOGP2, XLOGP3, ?logP?_ChS) of the same molecules. The matrices were created with ?logk?_W or R_M^0and logP and they have been the subject of PCA analysis.

Selective oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols to the corresponding aldehydes and ketones was achieved efficiently using K2S2O8/activated charcoal system. All reactions were carried out at solvent?free conditions (40?45 ?C) within 15?60 min to give the products in high to excellent yields.