Synthesis and in-vitro-antibacterial activity of [5-(furan-2-yl)-phenyl]-4,5-carbothioamide-pyrazolines

Cyclization of various different alkoxy [1-[2-(alkoxy)phenyl]-5-(furan-2-yl)-prop-2-en-1-one] chalcone with thiosemicarbazide in the presence of NaOH in ethanol afforded a series of novel 1-N-substituted cyclized pyrazoline analogues [5-(furan-2-yl)-3-[2-(alkoxy) phenyl]-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole-1-carbothioamide 2a–2d. The structures of these compounds were elucidated by IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, Fab mass spectrometry and their purities were confirmed by elemental analyses. In vitro antibacterial activity of these compounds were evaluated by the disk diffusion assay and then the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) strain of two Gram-positive and two Gram-negative bacteria like Aeromonas hydrophila, Yersinia enterocolitica, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus, among all the compounds, alkoxy [5-(furan-2-yl)-2-(benzyloxy)phenyl]-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole-1-carbothioamide 2b and 5-(furan-2-yl)-1-[2-(naphthalen-2-ylmethoxy) phenyl]-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole-1-carbothioamide 2d showed the most promising antibacterial agent when compared to gentamicin and tetracycline.     

Supplier selection and order allocation problem using a two-phase fuzzy multi-objective linear programming

The aim of this paper is to solve a supplier selection problem under multi-price level and multi-product using interactive two-phase fuzzy multi-objective linear programming (FMOLP) model. The proposed model attempts to simultaneously minimize total purchasing and ordering costs, a number of defective units, and late delivered units ordered from suppliers. The piecewise linear membership functions are applied to represent the decision maker’s fuzzy goals for the supplier selection and order allocation problem, and can be resulted in more flexibility via an interactive decision-making process. To demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed model, results of applying the proposed model are shown by a numerical example. The analytical results show that the proposed approach is effective in uncertain environments and provide a reliable decision tool for integrated multi-objective supplier selection problems.     

The Improved Modified Decomposition Method for the Treatment of Systems of Singular Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations with Initial Conditions

New developed inverse differential operators incorporated into the semi- analytical treatment of the modified decomposition method （MDM） are used to solve the systems of first and second-order singular nonlinear partial differential equations （PDEs） with initial conditions arising in physics. The new proposed method is called the improved modified decomposition method （IMDM）, and is used to the treatment of a few case study initial-value problems. The results obtained by the IMDM are in full agreement with the existing exact analytical solutions.     

Effect of the spectral half-width of the driving field on the bistability

The bistability behavior of a nonlinear absorbing medium inside a Fabry–Perot resonator driven by an external quasi-monochromatic field is studied. The driving field is considered to be of a Gaussian and Lorentzian spectral line profile. The effect of the spectral half-width on the bistability is discussed. The mathematical treatment is carried out through an interferometric point of view. The dependence of the driving intensity required to initiate bistability on the standing wave established inside the resonator is represented.     

Bare bones differential evolution

The barebones differential evolution (BBDE) is a new, almost parameter-free optimization algorithm that is a hybrid of the barebones particle swarm optimizer and differential evolution. Differential evolution is used to mutate, for each particle, the attractor associated with that particle, defined as a weighted average of its personal and neighborhood best positions. The performance of the proposed approach is investigated and compared with differential evolution, a Von Neumann particle swarm optimizer and a barebones particle swarm optimizer. The experiments conducted show that the BBDE provides excellent results with the added advantage of little, almost no parameter tuning. Moreover, the performance of the barebones differential evolution using the ring and Von Neumann neighborhood topologies is investigated. Finally, the application of the BBDE to the real-world problem of unsupervised image classification is investigated. Experimental results show that the proposed approach performs very well compared to other state-of-the-art clustering algorithms in all measured criteria.     

A constant-factor approximation algorithm for multi-vehicle collection for processing problem

We define the multiple-vehicle collection for processing problem (mCfPP) as a vehicle routing and scheduling problem in which items that accumulate at customer sites over time should be transferred by a series of tours to a processing facility. We show that this problem with the makespan objective (mCfPP( $C_{\max }$ )) is NP-hard using an approximation preserving reduction from a two-stage, hybrid flowshop scheduling problem. We develop a polynomial-time, constant-factor approximation algorithm to solve mCfPP( $C_{\max }$ ). The problem with a single site is analyzed as a special case with two purposes. First, we identify the minimum number of vehicles required to achieve a lower bound on the makespan, and second, we characterize the optimal makespan when a single vehicle is utilized.     

Gas sensor using gold doped copper oxide nanostructured thin films as modified cladding fiber

We investigate the spectral response of nanostructured copper oxides thin film. Gold was doped in two different concentrations (2% and 4%) using the spray method. A novel ammonia gas sensor at various concentrations (0-500 ppm) was fabricated by replacing CuO films with a clad region. In addition, the effect of gold doping on structural, optical, and morphological properties has been demonstrated. The study shows that the spectral intensity increases linearly with ammonia concentration. The 4% Au doped CuO presents higher sensitivity compared with 2% doped and pure copper oxides. Time response characteristics of the sensor are also reported.     

Efficient ecofriendly synthesis of pyrazole acryloyl analogs by amino acid catalysis

An easy and effective green approach of Knoevenagel condensation and arylidene formation with the substrates involves pyrazole-3-carbaldehydes and active methylenes under catalytic action of glycine (the simplest amino acid) in dimethylsulfoxide. These reactions were successfully carried out at room temperature.