High-Level Relay Hybrid Metaheuristic Method for Multi-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows

This paper presents an efficient hybrid metaheuristic solution for multi-depot vehicle routing with time windows (MD-VRPTW). MD-VRPTW involves the routing of a set of vehicles with limited capacity from a set of depots to a set of geographically dispersed customers with known demands and predefined time windows. The present work aims at using a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm in the class of High-Level Relay Hybrid (HRH) which works in three levels and uses an efficient genetic algorithm as the main optimization algorithm and tabu search as an improvement method. In the genetic algorithm various heuristics incorporate local exploitation in the evolutionary search. An operator deletion- retrieval strategy is executed which shows the efficiency of the inner working of the proposed method. The proposed algorithm is applied to solve the problems of the standard Cordeau??s Instances. Results show that proposed approach is quite effective, as it provides solutions that are competitive with the best known in the literature.     

Surface characterization of polyethylene terephthalate/silica nanocomposites

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) based nanocomposites containing hydrophilic (i.e. Aerosil 200 or Aerosil TT 600) or hydrophobic (i.e. Aerosil R 972) nano-silica were prepared by melt compounding. Influence of nano-silica type on surface properties of the resultant nanocomposites was investigated by the use of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle measurement (CAM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and reflectance spectroscopy (RS). The possible interaction between nano-silica particles and PET functional groups at bulk and surface were elucidated by transmission FTIR and FTIR-ATR spectroscopy, respectively. AFM studies of the resultant nanocomposites showed increased surface roughness compared to pure PET. Contact angle measurements of the resultant PET composites demonstrated that the wettability of such composites depends on surface treatment of the particular nano-silica particles used. SEM images illustrated that hydrophilic nano-silica particles tended to migrate to the surface of the PET matrix.     

Theoretical study on thermal behavior of passively Q-switched microchip Nd:YAG laser

This study deals with the thermal characterization of a continuous wave (CW-) and end-pumped passively Q-switched microchip Nd:YAG laser crystal by solving the rate and heat transfer equations in the laser cavity. In this approach, a parametric study has been performed to investigate the influence of the pumping parameters, cooling metal dimension and also the crystal dimension and doping concentration on the thermal behavior of the laser crystal. Obtained results reveal a closed correlation between the mentioned parameters and the thermal behavior of the crystal indicating that a proper selection of the laser parameters is essential to control the crystal's temperature and improve the performance of the laser accordingly.     

Noncommutative geometry inspired entropic inflation

Recently Verlinde proposed that gravity can be described as an emergent phenomena arising from changes in the information associated with the positions of material bodies. By using noncommutative geometry as a way to describe the microscopic microstructure of quantum spacetime, we derive modified Friedmann equation in this setup and study the entropic force modifications to the inflationary dynamics of early universe.     

Chemical vapor deposition synthesis of tunable unsubstituted polythiophene

Despite having exceptional electroactive properties, applications of unsubstituted polythiophene (PTh) have been limited due to its insolubility. To overcome this challenge, we have employed oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD) as a unique liquid-free technique to enable the oxidative polymerization of PTh using thiophene as the starting monomer and vanadium oxytrichloride as an effective vaporizable oxidant initiator. Vibrational and phototelectron spectroscopy indicated the formation of unsubstituted polythiophene. Cyclic voltammetry revealed its electrochromic behavior in solution. Significantly, polymer conjugation length and electrical conductivity can be tuned by controlling oCVD process variables. Polymerization is found to be adsorption-limited, so by providing sufficient monomer and limiting the amount of initiator at the growth surface, PTh is believed to be formed through α-α thiophene linkages.     

Rational design of biomimetic molecularly imprinted materials: theoretical and computational strategies for guiding nanoscale structured polymer development

In principle, molecularly imprinted polymer science and technology provides a means for ready access to nano-structured polymeric materials of predetermined selectivity. The versatility of the technique has brought it to the attention of many working with the development of nanomaterials with biological or biomimetic properties for use as therapeutics or in medical devices. Nonetheless, the further evolution of the field necessitates the development of robust predictive tools capable of handling the complexity of molecular imprinting systems. The rapid growth in computer power and software over the past decade has opened new possibilities for simulating aspects of the complex molecular imprinting process. We present here a survey of the current status of the use of in silico-based approaches to aspects of molecular imprinting. Finally, we highlight areas where ongoing and future efforts should yield information critical to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms sufficient to permit the rational design of molecularly imprinted polymers.     

Modeling action-interdependence in multiple criteria decision making

A problem of subset selection when actions are interdependent is formulated within a multiple criteria framework. More specifically, a novel definition and characterization of interdependence of actions applicable to Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) are presented. The effects of interdependence of actions on the modeling and resolution of a subset choice problem are shown, and the importance of taking interdependence of actions into account is discussed. Most of the discussion is generalized to independence and interdependence of sets of actions, which are then compared to the case of individual actions. A general approach to evaluate a combination of interdependent actions is proposed and the use of the multiple criteria structure to eliminate some difficulties in evaluating a set of interdependent actions is explained.