Solving a large-scale crew pairing problem

Airline companies seek to solve the problem of determining an assignment of crews to a pre-determined flight schedule with minimum total cost, called the Crew Pairing Problem (CPP). Most of the existing studies focus on the CPP of North American airlines, which widely differs from that of most European airline companies in terms of the objective function, the flight structure, and the planning horizon. In this study, we develop an optimization-driven heuristic algorithm that can efficiently handle large-scale instances of the CPP that must be solved on a monthly basis. We perform computational experiments using flight schedules of an European airline company to test the performance of the solution method. Our computational results demonstrate that our algorithm is able to provide high-quality solutions to monthly instances with up to 27?000 flight legs.     

Exact solutions of some systems of fractional differential‐difference equations

In this paper, the ‐expansion method is proposed to establish hyperbolic and trigonometric function solutions for fractional differential‐difference equations with the modified Riemann–Liouville derivative. The fractional complex transform is proposed to convert a fractional partial differential‐difference equation into its differential‐difference equation of integer order. We obtain the hyperbolic and periodic function solutions of the nonlinear time‐fractional Toda lattice equations and relativistic Toda lattice system. The proposed method is more effective and powerful for obtaining exact solutions for nonlinear fractional differential–difference equations and systems. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis,crystal structure,chromatographic seperation,and thermogravimetric investigation of a ONNO type asymmetric Schiff base and its trinuclear complexes

1,3-Propanediamine was put to react with 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 2-hydroxyacetophenone sequentially in aprotic medium. The crystalline product was examined by high performance liquid chromatography. The composition was 66% asymmetric Schiff base N(2-hydroxybenzylidene)-N′(2-hydroxyacetophenone)-1,3-propanediamine (SALLACH₂) and 33% bis-N,N′(2-hydroxyacetophenylidene)-1,3-propanediamine (LACH2). As the crystals were uniform and of appropriate size, the molecular model of the material was revealed by X-ray diffraction. It was seen that two molecules of SALLACH₂ and one molecule of LACH₂ formed the mixed crystals. The substance was separated to its components and the asymmetric Schiff base was purified with a silica column. The substance was characterized with elemental analysis, FT-IR, MS, ¹HNMR, and ¹³C NMR. In addition, six tri-nuclear complex with the nuclear structure of Ni^II-Ni^II-Ni^II, Ni^II-Cu^II-Ni^II, Ni^II-Mn^II-Ni^II were prepared from this Schiff base and stoichiometry was determined by elemental analysis, FT-IR and thermogravimetry. Finally, the molecular structures of two complexes were brought to light by XRD which highlights the asymmetry of the ligand more clearly.     

Mixed ligand complexes of coumarilic acid/nicotinamide with transition metal complexes

Coumarilate–nicotinamide complexes of Co^II and Zn^II were synthesized and investigated by elemental analysis, magnetic susceptibility, solid state UV–Vis, direct injection probe mass spectra, FTIR spectra, thermoanalytic TG-DTG/DTA, and crystal X-ray diffraction methods. It was obtained that both complex structures contain 2 mol aqua ligands, 2 mol coumarilate (CCA^?) and 2 mol nicotinamide (NA) ligands per formula unit. The CCA^? and NA ligands were bonded to metal cations as monodentate through acidic oxygen and nitrogen of pyridine ring, respectively. Thermal decomposition of each complex starts with dehydration and continue removing of 1 mol NA ligand. The thermal dehydration of the complexes takes place in one or two steps. The decomposition mechanism and thermal stability of the investigated complexes are interpreted in terms of their structures. The final decomposition products are found to be metal oxides.     

Synthesis of new benzothiazole derivatives bearing thiadiazole as monoamine oxidase inhibitors

Monoamine oxidases (MAO) are enzymes that catalyze the oxidative deamination of monoamines such as dopamine, noradrenaline, adrenaline, and serotonin. Recent studies have shown that numerous benzothiazole derivatives exhibit hMAO inhibitory activity in the micromolar concentration range. In this study, a novel series of benzothiazole-thiadiazole (5a-5l ) was synthesized and characterized their chemical structures by ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, and Mass spectroscopy. These compounds were evaluated as inhibitors for types A and B MAO enzymes. Compounds 5f and 5l were the most active derivatives in the series with an IC₅₀ values of 0.107 ± 0.003 and 0.128 ± 0.004, respectively. Furthermore, cytotoxicity of compounds 5f and 5l were investigated and found as non-cytotoxic.     

A New Stationary Phase for Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography: Polyacrylate-Based Hydrophilic,Monosized-Porous Beads with Zwitterionic Molecular Brushes

Hydrophilic, polyacrylate-based, monosized-porous beads with zwitterionic molecular brushes were synthesized as a new stationary medium for hydrophilic interaction chromatography. Monosized-porous poly(glycerol-1,3-diglycerolate diacrylate-co-glycerol dimethacrylate), poly(GDGDA-co-GDMA), beads 5 μm in size were obtained by a staged-shape template polymerization. As an initiator for surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP), bromine functionality was obtained on the beads by reacting their hydroxyl groups with 3-(aminopropyl)triethoxysilane and α-bromoisobutyryl bromide, respectively. Zwitterionic molecular brushes on the hydrophilic poly(GDGDA-co-GDMA) beads were generated by SI-ATRP of a sulfobetaine monomer, [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium hydroxide (MESH). Poly(MESH)-grafted poly(GDGDA-co-GDMA), poly(MESH)g-poly(GDGDAco-GDMA), beads were slurry packed into the microbore columns with 2 mm i.d. and evaluated as stationary medium for the separation of organic acids, nucleosides and peptides using microbore columns in hydrophilic interaction chromatography with the plate numbers up to 30,000 plates m^?1.     

Synthesis of Dihydropyrans and Dihydrofurans via Radical Cyclization of Unsaturated Alcohols and 1,3‐Dicarbonyl Compounds

The oxidative cyclization reactions of 1,3‐dicarbonyl compounds 1a – 1c and α,β‐unsaturated alcohols 2a – 2f with Mn(OAc)₃ were performed, leading to dihydrofurans. Treatment of 1a and 1b with 2‐methylbut‐3‐en‐2‐ol ( 2a ) gave dihydrofurans 3aa and 3ba , and dihydropyrans 4aa and 4ba , as unexpected products. While the reaction of 2‐methylbut‐3‐yn‐2‐ol ( 2b ) with acetylacetone ( 1b ) yielded a bifuran, ethyl acetoacetate ( 1a ) led to a mixture of furan, bifuran, and salicylate derivatives. Besides, surprisingly, styryl‐substituted dihydrofurans were obtained from the reactions of 1,3‐dicarbonyl compounds and (3E)‐2,4‐diphenylbut‐3‐en‐2‐ol. The reaction mechanisms were proposed for the formation of the different products, considering intermediates in these reaction mixtures.     

Dichlorotriethylphosphine-[N-formyl-N,N′-bis(3,4-dimethoxy)benzyl-trimethylenediamine] platinum(II)

By treatment of 1,3-bis(3,4-dimethoxybenzyl)-3,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidinium chloride (1) with KOBu ^t and [PtCl₂(PEt₃)₂]₂ N-coordinated platinum complex (2) is obtained. The Pt atom is coordinated in square planar arrangements by two chloride ions in a trans-configuration, the N-formyl-N,N′-bisaryltrimethylenediamine nitrogen atom, and the phosphine P atom. An extensive three-dimensional network of three C-H…O hydrogen bonds, two C-H…π and one π…π interactions are responsible for the crystal stabilization. Intermolecular hydrogen bonds and C-H…π interactions produce R ₂ ² (6), R ₂ ² (22), R ₂ ² (24), R ₃ ³ (23), R ₄ ⁴ (26), and R ₄ ⁴ (32) rings.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Novel N-, S-, O-Substituted P-Chloranil Derivatives

A series of novel N-, S-, and O-substituted p-chloranil derivatives were synthesized from the reactions of p-chloranil (1) and related nucleophiles in sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃) solution of acetonitrile or in chloroform with Et₃N. The structures of novel compounds were characterized by using microanalysis, Fourier transform–infrared, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and mass spectrometry.     

An investigation of Zn/ZnO:Al/p-Si/Al heterojunction diode by sol–gel spin coating technique

Present study shows the structural, morphological, optical characterization of sol–gel spin coated ZnO:Al film and investigation of device efficiency of Zn/ZnO:Al/p-Si/Al heterojunction diode structure. X-ray diffraction study indicates that film has hexagonal polycrystalline structure with (002) preferential direction. Atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope images exhibit that surface of ZnO:Al/p-Si consists of homogenously scattered nanoparticles. The surface roughness of ZnO:Al film is found to be 15.24 nm. The band gap value of ZnO:Al film deposited on glass substrate is calculated to be 3.34 eV. The electrical characterization of Zn/ZnO:Al/p-Si/Al heterojunction structure is made by current–voltage (I–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements. From these measurements, the heterojunction structure shows a rectifying behavior under a dark condition. The ideality factor and barrier height of Zn/n-ZnO:Al/p-Si/Al structure are calculated as 3.23 and 0.68 eV. The heterojunction structure have diode characteristic with rectification ratio at 64.4 at +2.0 V in the dark. The results suggest that Zn/ZnO:Al/p-Si/Al heterojunction diode can be successfully used in many optoelectronic applications.