In this article, a manpower allocation and cell loading problem is studied, where demand is sto-chastic. The inter-cell and intra-cell movements are considered and attention is focused on as-signing operators with different skill levels to operations, because cell performance in addition to load cell is dependent on manpower. The purpose of this article is manpower allocation in cellu-lar manufacturing with consideration to learning and training policies. The manpower skill levels are determined in order to enhance production rate. The main contribution of this approach is the scenarios of training and learning in addition to the combination of training and learning being simulated. By using these three scenarios, the skill level of workers increase which reduces the processing time. In this regard cell layout is static where processing times and customer demand follow a normal distribution. As one of the significant costs of industrial unit is related to pro-duction cost, this study has attempted to reduce these costs by increasing the skill level of opera-tor which causes to reduce the processing time. Scenarios are evaluated by using a simulation method that finally attained results indicate this simulation provides better manpower assign-ments.

Engaging customer is the burning issue for companies especially the service sector, either online or offline. Minimizing the customer disengagement is the same like reducing dissatisfaction or churn. Customer disengagement may be caused by many factors, ad skepticism is one of them; ad skepticism has two main antecedents personality variable and consumption/influencing varia-bles. This research explores the relationship of ad skepticism with customer disengagement through personality variables which are cynicism, reactance and self-esteem. The unit of analysis is the telecom and banking industry of Pakistan which is foreseeing an era of virtual currency and both are customer oriented industries. Only offline disengagement is researched and data is collected from the Business centers of telecom and banking branches dealing with virtual curren-cy in Pakistan. Hypothetical model is given after digging the relevant literature; model is tested through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Eight hypotheses were purposed from the connections of model, all hypotheses are accepted except the cynicism posi-tive effect on social ad skepticism. This can be due to commonality of social and charity in Paki-stani society, Muslims consider charity as a pious act and they do not think for cynic behavior in charity or social related works. The results manifest that customers in telecom industry are hav-ing ad skepticism and that is becoming the cause of their disengagement. Further, social ad skep-ticism has more impact on the customer disengagement than the general ad skepticism. While the reactance has more effect on general ad skepticism than other antecedents and cynicism has the lowest impact on social ad skepticism than other antecedents.

In a Pay What You Want (PWYW) setting companies empower their customers to fix the prices buyers voluntarily pay for a delivered product or service. The seller agrees to any price (includ-ing zero) customers are paying. For about ten years researchers empirically investigate customer reactions to and economic outcomes of this pricing method. The present paper distinguishes PWYW from other voluntary payment mechanisms and reviews 72 English- or German-speaking PWYW publications, which appeared between January 2006 and September 2016 and contain 97 independent empirical data sets. Prior PWYW research is structured with the help of a conceptual framework which incorporates payment procedure design, buyer, seller, focal sales object and market context characteristics as factors potentially influencing customer perceptions of the PWYW scheme and their behavioral reactions to PWYW offers. The review discusses both consistent key findings as well as contradictory results and derives recommendations for future empirical PWYW research efforts.

This study aims to investigate the technology acceptance and purchase intention for Third Generation (3G) technology in Pakistan’s telecom sector. In such respect, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used to find the effects of the independent variables (Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Value, Perceived Enjoyment, Personal Innovativeness and Price) on dependent variable (purchase intention). The study population consisted of smartphone users among Millennials in district Haripur-a region in transition towards urbanization. 200 respondents provided the useable data. The results of the study show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived value, perceived enjoyment, personal innovativeness, and price have a significant and positive relationship with purchase intention which validates the growing acceptance of advanced technologies in such regions.

A novel one-pot, solvent-free method for the synthesis of dithiocarbamates was developed through the reaction of corresponding alkyl halides, amines and carbon disulfide employing catalytic amount of benzyl trimethyl ammonium hydroxide (Triton-B). The reaction conditions are milder with extremely simple work-up procedures than the reported methods, afforded high yields (82-98%) of the desired products.

Polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized chemically in an acidic medium in the presence of ammonium persulfate (APS) as an oxidizing agent. PANI/montmorillonite nano-composites were prepared in the presence of various amounts of modified clay (from 1 to 5 wt.%) by solution casting method. The free standing film of polyaniline and PANI/clay nano-composites was obtained by vaporization of solvent contain. Products were characterized by FT-IR spectra, SEM image, and XRD pattern. Thermal stability was also studied by TGA analysis, electrical conductivity was measured by four point probe technique and mechanical properties were studied by tensile strength. The PANI/clay nano-composites thermal and mechanical properties were observed to be remarkably improved. For example, polyaniline containing nano-clay has less weight loss compared to pure polyaniline. In addition Young’s modulus and strength at break point was increased in the case of polyaniline containing nano-clay The importance of our work is to provide a narrow look on the thermal and physical properties of polyaniline by the incorporation of montmorillonite into its structure as well as investigation of the conductivity of PANI/MMT nanocomposites as a potential conductive polymer to be used in solar cells or have corrosion protection applications.

The process described herein proceeds to obtaining diclofenac choline from choline bicarbonate and diclofenac acid in mild conditions, using non-toxic solvent, with the same impurity profile deriving from diclofenac particle as for diclofenac sodium EP. The substance is also substantially free from impurities deriving from choline and free from inorganic by-products, what means that the quality may be accepted for use as an active substance in medicine.

Many attempts have been made since 1960th to obtain ester prodrugs of metronidazole active moiety to be used for parenteral forms, with the same action against microorganisms. Until now there is not any ester prodrug marketed for this route of administration. The synthesis from metronidazole and citric acid of new ester prodrug of metronidazole with citric acid in a form of disodium salt and the way of purification were described. The structure of sodium metronidazole citrate was elucidated with IR, MS, ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR spectra. Also impurities present in this ester were identified using ¹H NMR technique. Additionally, the solubility in water was measured as well as pH of 10% (w/w) aqueous solution, and both values indicated that there is a possibility to obtain concentrated solutions for injection of neutral pH, even without need of buffering. Finally, the Ames assay using six tester strains S. typhimurium TA98, TA100, TA1535, TA1537 and E. coli uvrA, [pKM101] shown weak genotoxic potential, comparable with metronidazole

The corrosion inhibition efficiencies of two novel Schiff bases, namely (E)-3-[thiophen-2-ylmethyleneamino]benzoic acid (T2YMABA) and (E)-4-(5-[(2-phenylhydrazono) methyl]thiophen-2-yl)benzoic acid (PHMT2YBA) on mild steel (MS) in 1.0M HCl solution has been investigated and compared using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization analysis. The Schiff bases exhibited very good corrosion inhibitions on mild steel in 1.0M HCl medium and the inhibition efficiency increased with the increase in concentration of the inhibitor. Polarization studies revealed that T2YMABA acted as a mixed type inhibitor whereas PHMT2YBA molecules acted as anodic inhibitor.

The separation at the source of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is an initiative that facilitates the subsequent recycling work and contributes to palliate the negative impacts of the traditional unsorted collection system. This paper presents a multi-objective integer linear programming model of the determination of the optimal location of assorted waste bins in an urban area. We consider, jointly, the objectives of minimizing the investment cost and the average distance from the dwellings to the bins. The model was applied in simulated instances of an Argentinian medium-size city, contributing to the transition from the current door-to-door based system to a community bins system. To solve this problem, we apply both the weighting method, which has been used to solve similar problems in the literature, and a novel version of the augmented ε-constraint method (AUGMECON2). The results over simulated scenarios show that, in general, AUGMECON2 has a better performance, yielding a larger number of efficient solutions at lower computation times.