The multiple travelling salesman problem (MTSP) is one of the widely studied combinatorial optimization problems with various theoretical and practical applications. However, most of the studies intended to deal with classical MTSP, very limited attention has been given to an open multiple travelling salesman problem and its variants. In this paper, an open multiple travelling salesman problem with load balancing constraint (OMTSPLB) is addressed. The OMTSPLB differs from the conventional MTSP, in which all the salesmen start from the central depot and need not come back to it after visiting the given number of cities by accomplishing the load balance constraint, which helps in fairly distributing the task among all salesmen. The problem aims to minimize the overall traversal distance/cost for operating open tours subject to the load balancing constraint. A zero-one integer linear programming (0-1 ILP) model and an efficient metaheuristic genetic algorithm (GA), is established for the OMTSPLB. Since no existing study on OMTSPLB, the proposed GA is tested on the relaxed version of the present model, comparative results are reported. The comparative results show that the proposed GA is competent over the existing algorithms. Furthermore, extensive experiments are carried out on OMTSPLB and the results show that proposed GA can find the global solution effectively.

The corrosion inhibition power of an eco-friendly green inhibitor Ixora coccinea extract (ICE) for mild steel in 1 M HCl and 0.5 M H2SO₄ was analysed using physicochemical and electrochemical techniques. 1–5 v/v% ICE was prepared and added into the corrosive acidic media for different analyses. Weight loss measurements conducted for a period of 24hrs for mild steel immersion revealed 89.38% and 77.96% inhibition capacity of ICE in 1 M HCl and 0.5 M H2SO₄ medium respectively. Electrochemical impedance parameters show that as concentration is increased, efficiency increases and double layer capacitance decreases. Potentiodynamic polarization techniques are also in good agreement with impedance studies and exhibit the mixed type inhibition character of ICE. Electrochemical noise spectrum also strongly supports the anti-corrosive property of ICE and the magnitude of noise signal decreases concerning the increase in ICE concentration. Ixorene, which is one of the major constituents of Ixora coccinea leaves was also studied for its corrosion inhibition nature by quantum mechanical calculations and was found to match with all other results. Adsorption studies of ICE are in accordance with Langmuir isotherm. Surface morphological studies confirm the formation of a protective barrier on mild steel surface in both media, i.e., 1 M HCl and 0.5 M H2SO₄.

One-pot synthesis of highly substituted pyridines has been demonstrated via multicomponent reaction of aldehydes, malononitrile and thiophenol using Mg-Al hydrotalcite as a solid base and reusable catalyst. The catalytic activity is intimately connected to the basicity of the catalyst. The best activities were observed with the Mg/Al: 5 catalyst. The catalyst could be reused for further run without a significant loss in activity. The protocol was also applicable for various aromatic aldehydes which affords desired product in good to excellent yield.

A simple and efficient method for the synthesis of fifteen novel ketene dithioacetals (2-(6-amino5-cyano-4-aryl-4H-1,3-dithiin-2-ylidene) malononitrile) via a one-pot three-component reaction of activated methylene group malononitrile with carbon disulfide in the presence of arylidene malononitriles were reported. The effects of LiOH.H₂O as a base at different concentrations have been investigated and can provide products in good yields at 40-50ºC temperature (54-89%). All the synthesized ketene dithioacetals compounds (MCB1-MCB15) were checked for favorable pharmacokinetic param¬eters along with toxicities which are based on drug-likeness explained by Lipinski’s rule of five by Med chem designer software correlated with that of pkCSM online tool. Explorations of synthesized ketene dithioacetals compounds for the antimicrobial study were found to be effective towards Staphylococcus aureus (MCB5 and MCB13) with a zone of inhibition at 26mm and 22mm which is compared to that of standard ciprofloxacin (26mm). This made our study to explore the inhibition mechanism with the help of molecular docking studies with possible binding energies (-6.4 to -8.9 kJ/mol) by pyrx 0.8 software to represent a good prediction of interactions between the ligand and protein (2XCT). Further evaluation of druggability and ADMET predictions compounds MCB5 and MCB13 were found to be effective. Based on the in-vitro and in-silico studies a series of ketene dithioacetals compounds may be helpful for further studying SAR and designing more potent antimicrobials.

Nickel based bimetallic nanocrystals, iridium-nickel play an imperative role in catalysis, electrocatalysis, and magnetic applications. In the present work Ir-Ni bimetallic nanoalloys were synthesized by modified polyol reduction method with different cationic, anionic, and non-ionic surface active agents like CTAB, SDS, TSC, and PVP. The non-ionic surface active agent PVP produced a better effect on nanoparticle size than cationic and anionic surfactants. The synthesized bimetallic nanocrystals were characterized by UV-Vis, XRD, FTIR, FESEM, and HRTEM techniques. XRD and FTIR verify the nature of synthesized bimetallic nanocrystals and the interaction between stabilizers and nanoparticles. HRTEM studies reveal that the PVP stabilized Ir-Ni (3:1) and Ir-Ni (1:1) bimetallic nanocrystals are small in size and less dispersed. Particle size range of these nanoparticles is from (1.77-2.36) nm. FESEM images show that nanoparticles are in quasi spherical shape. EDX analysis indicates that the resultant particles are core shell structure with Ni core and Ir shell.

The novel class of multi-substituted indolylimidazole derivatives series substituted 3-(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1H-indole and substituted 5-bromo-3-(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1H-indole was synthesized utilising a green and efficient one-pot four components condensation of indole-3-carbaldehyde, benzil, ammonium acetate and various amines under microwave irradiation using Amberlyst A-15 as a recyclable catalyst. The catalyst Amberlyst A-15 has recovered from the reaction mixture and reused repeatedly for the next reaction. The key advantage of this process involves eco-friendly, very short reaction time, cost-effectiveness with the reusability of catalyst, easy workup, and purification of the product with excellent yields. FTIR, 1HNMR and Mass spectrometric studies analyzed and established the structures of all newly synthesized compounds.

Due to the new hopes for treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) diseases by Teriflunomide (TFN), in this project, a cheap, robust, and fully validated method has been developed both for determination of assay content in API (active pharmaceutical ingredient), and for related impurities analysis (RIA). To operate the method, a common C18, end-capped (250 × 4.6) mm, 5µm liquid chromatography column, was applied. The mobile phase A was prepared by dissolving 2.74 g (20mM) of PDP (potassium dihydrogen phosphate) and 3.72 g (50mM) of PC (potassium chloride) in water (1000 mL). Then, pH was adjusted to 3.0 by adding OPA (ortho-phosphoric acid) 85%; while, the mobile phase B was acetonitrile (ACN) (100%). In order to confirm the experimental data about the λmax of TFN, we have used the Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (BOMD) simulations, quantum mechanics (QM), and TD-DFT calculations. According to the results, the method showed a high level of suitability, specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, repeatability, robustness, and reliable detection limit.

Flow shop scheduling problems with rudimentary criteria of minimum makespan are the most important investigated problems in the field of scheduling. Generally during the process of generating an optimal sequence, multiple partial sequences claiming the optimal value of makespan are observed. In this paper a novel tie-breaking rule to select one of the best optimal sequences out of all possible partial sequences is developed which then applied to Nawaz-Enscore-Ham (NEH) heuristic to solve the scheduling problems in permutation flowshop without increasing the computational complexity. The performance of proposed heuristic is tested with other existing tie-breaking heuristics of similar complexity over Taillard and VRF's instances. Computational results reveal that in terms of solution quality, the proposed heuristic outperforms over the other NEH based heuristics of the same complexity reported in literature.

Sulfonamides are a very good antibacterial agent that targets essential bacterial enzymes specifically DNA gyrase. The objective of the present work was to investigate the molecular docking of the (4-(tert-butyl)-N,N-diethylbenzenesulfonamide) with the DNA gyrase of S. aureus. The energy-free topoisomerase activity of the A subunit, which breaks the DNA, is inhibited by 4-quilones such as nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin. The energy transducing activity of the B subunit is inhibited by novobiocin and other coumarin antibiotics. Single crystal X-ray diffractometer study was carried out to understand the structure, physical and chemical reactive parameters, the title compound is crystallized under monoclinic crystal system with the space group of P21/C. To understand the behaviour of the title compound in living organism, Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion analysis was done using Swiss ADME and Osiris data warrior tool. Further, Toxicity of the title compound was predicted by using PKCSM online software.

The corrosion inhibition efficiency of the Schiff base N,N’-(5,5-dimethylcyclohexane-1,3-diylidene)dianiline (DmChDa) on mild steel in 1M HCl and 0.5M H₂SO₄ was evaluated using gravimetric, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical noise measurement. Experimental results established that DmChDa possess relatively high corrosion inhibition capacity. Langmuir and El-Awady adsorption isotherms were obeyed by the Schiff base in 1M HCl and 0.5M H₂SO₄ respectively. SEM analysis showed that DmChDa was adsorbed on the steel surface during corrosion inhibition. The variation of metal dissolution with temperature was also examined using gravimetric study.