The pharmaceutical combination of Teneligliptin Hydrobromide hydrate (TEN) and Metformin Hydrochloride (MET) drugs is used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. A new analytical method: QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, Safe) has been developed for the quantification of Teneligliptin (TEN) and Metformin (MET) in bulk and tablet dosage forms. The analysis was performed on Agilent symmetry analytical column Eclipse plus C18 (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) ultra- performance liquid chromatography-Diode Array Detectors (UHPLC-DAD), while the detection was performed on 233 nm using Diode Array Detectors. Buffer and acetonitrile (65:35 v/v) were the mobile phase, run at a flow rate of 0.7 mL min−1 for isocratic elution. The buffer used in the mobile phase contained 50 mM potassium di-hydrogen phosphate, pH adjusted to 3.5±0.02 with orthophosphoric acid. The mean values of recovery were found to be 100.50% and 99.81%. The proposed method could be ideal for quantitative evaluation in pharmaceutical preparations of these drugs and also for their quality control in bulk manufacturing. Stress test covers: acid, base, peroxide, thermal and photolytic degradation; were conducted to show the specificity of the method and degradation.

Transnational corporations, which operate in competitive global marketplaces, have to build the best possible intra-supply chain model for meeting, on time, clients’ need for multiple products with the requisite quality. Since fabrication capacity is always limited, the introduction of the external provider option can assist in leveling utilization, smoothing manufacturing schedules, eliminating overtime usage, and shortening the length of the fabrication cycle. Seeking to support intra-supply chain planning, this research aims to provide a concurrent decision on rotation cycle length and delivery frequency for a multi-item vendor-buyer incorporated type of intra-supply chain system with an external provider and rework. First, a model is built to represent this hybrid inventory replenishing problem. Then, renewal reward theory, mathematical derivation, and Hessian matrix equations are utilized to arrive at the expected total cost of the model, as well as the best policies for both cycle time and distribution. Last, the applicability and sensitivity analyses of our results are exhibited by a numerical demonstration. The insights obtained from this study about critical system-related information, such as the individual and joint impacts of the variation in outsourcing and reworking-related features on the system’s optimal operating policy and various performance parameters, will offer crucial help to the managerial functions of planning and decision making in firms using this realistic multi-item hybrid intra-supply chain system.

It is a fact accepted by everybody that football is the most popular sport around the world. The result of a derby match may be very important for millions of people. Even the time seems to stop on a match day for so many people. Show and entertainment are the most important aspects of football. If soccer players have a high performance, a match may provide pleasure and excitement to audiences. Briefly, the performance and quality of soccer players are the key factors, which draw audiences. Goalkeepers are also one of the important components of football like other players playing different positions such as strikers, mid-fielders, and defenders. Moreover, a goalkeeper can affect the result of a match positively or negatively. Therefore, with the help of a mathematical approach as the methodological framework, it can be seen that the examination of the performance of goalkeepers can be beneficial for decision-makers performing in the fields of sport and the future studies. The current paper proposes an improved integrated multi-criteria decision-making approach to evaluate the selection of goalkeepers; and this model can be applied for goalkeeper’s performance analysis. The proposed model combines the weights of criteria calculated with the help of both the CRITIC and the PSI techniques by applying the weight aggregation operator. It also ranks the decision alternatives by implementing the WASPAS technique based on the final criteria weights obtained by using the weight aggregation operator. In addition, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis consisting of three stages was performed to verify the validation of the suggested hybrid model. It has been observed that A11 has remained the best option for all scenarios. As a result, the results of the sensitivity analysis prove that the proposed hybrid MCDM technique is a very useful, strong and applicable approach. Also, the results obtained by applying the proposed model are accurate, realistic, and reasonable according to the results of the validation test.

The processing time of the machine is assumed fixed in several studies. In many real industrial applications, the processing time is affected by learning and forgetting effects. This research proposes a scheduling approach to support a manufacturing system under learning/forgetting effect. The approach is supported by a Multi-Agent System to perform the scheduling activities in a quasi-real-time and in general manufacturing systems. A simulation environment is developed to test the proposed approach and the results are compared with a benchmark model for evaluating several performance measures of the manufacturing system. The simulation results highlight how the proposed approach improves all the performance measures under different conditions of inter-arrival time, learning and forgetting rates. A complete Analysis of the Variance highlights the main effects on the performance measures to support the decision maker of the manufacturing system.

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.

School bus routing problem is widely studied, however, social elements such as the interaction between children traveling on the same route have not been considered so far. In this way, this article has as its main objective to propose a methodology to solve the school bus routing problem, including affinity as a strategy to increase positive interrelationships between children, and with this, support in bullying situations during school trips. The methodology includes two stages, assigning children to vehicles considering affinities and defining vehicle routes. The main contribution is the consideration of affinity in the process of forming the groups of children that will be taken on the bus, evidencing a balance in the affinity of the groups. Additionally, from the methodological point of view, the integration of a modified group technology algorithm and a new assignment model are proposed that simplify the classic quadratic assignment problem. Consideration of affinity in school bus routing generates benefits from a social point of view.

In this paper, an optimization model for the Charging Station Location Problem of Electric Vehicles for Freight Transportation CSLP-EVFT is presented. This model aims to determine an optimal location strategy of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations EVCSs and the routing plan of a fleet of electric vehicles under battery driving range limitation, in conjunction with the impact on the power distribution system. Freight transportation is modeled under the mobility patterns followed by the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem CVRP for contracted fleet, and Shortest Path SP problem for subcontracted fleet. A linear formulation of the power flow is used in order to consider the impact on the electric grid. Several costs are examined, i.e., EVs routing, installation and energy consumption of EVCSs, and energy losses. Although uncertainties related to temporal variation of some aspects (number of customers and their demands, fleet size, power network nodes and routes) are not addressed, the proposed model represents a useful approach to evaluate multiple scenarios or to be introduced within stochastic optimization. Instead, the mathematical model is studied under the variation of EVs travel range that accounts for the advance of battery technology and sensitivity analysis. Additionally, the problem is reduced to a mixed integer non-linear mathematical model, which is linearized by using multivariable Taylor’s series.

In this study, several series of experiments on turning process of AISI 12L14 free cutting steel characterized by its self-lubrication and the high percentage of lead in its composition were performed to rate the influence of cutting conditions (Vc, f and ap) on the machining performance such as surface roughness, cutting force, cutting power and material removal rate. A computer generated optimal design of experiment based on the I-optimality criteria along with analysis of variance was created to study the characterizations in turning of this steel, and desirability function was utilized for the optimization. The global optimization, combined high surface quality and productivity with low cutting power consumption, gave 12 optimal setting points provided high desirability values. The obtained correlation for surface roughness, cutting force, material removal rate and cutting power were 99.4%, 95.5%, 99.7% and 94.3%, respectively.

In this paper, an efficient rolling horizon-based heuristic is presented to solve the integrated berth allocation and crane assignment problem in bulk ports. We were guided by a real case study of a multi-terminal port, owned by our Moroccan industrial partner, under several restrictions as high tides and installation’s availability. First, we proposed a mixed integer programming model for the problem. Then, we investigated a strategy to dissipate the congestion within the presented rolling horizon. A variety of experiments were conducted, and the obtained results show that the proposed methods were efficient from a practical point of view.

Human resource is the core issue of socio-economic development all over the world and human resource practice can serve as a sustainable competitive advantage, which are considered central in the company's performance. In the field of telecommunications services, there exists a need for research on human resource management practices to lay the groundwork for improving the human resource management regime in enterprises, which has received great interest of both business executives and researchers. The current paper aims to assess the impact of human resource management practices on enterprises' competitive advantages and business per-formance for the case of Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group enterprises. This study uses structural equation modeling with 117 parameters to be estimated when the total sample size is 773 observations. Research results show that: (1) Functional activities of human resource management, leading and encouraging changes, team and group activities, employee involvement, administrative activities are positively correlated with human resource management practices at Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group enterprises. Moreover, the quality of human resources, human resource behavior, human resource management practices have a positive effect on the competitive advantage of human resources at Vietnam Post and Telecommunica-tions Group enterprises. Furthermore, human resource management practices are found to have a positive effect on the business performance of Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group enterprises.