Solving the Travelling Salesman Problem Using an Ant Colony System Algorithm

Zakir Hussain Ahmed,Majid Yousefikhoshbakht,Abdul Khader Jilani Saudagar,Shakir Khan International Journal of Computer ScienceNetwork S 2023 International journal of computer science and netw Vol.23 No.2

The travelling salesman problem (TSP) is an important combinatorial optimization problem that is used in several engineering science branches and has drawn interest to several researchers and scientists. In this problem, a salesman from an arbitrary node, called the warehouse, starts moving and returns to the warehouse after visiting n clients, given that each client is visited only once. The objective in this problem is to find the route with the least cost to the salesman. In this study, a meta-based ant colony system algorithm (ACSA) is suggested to find solution to the TSP that does not use local pheromone update. This algorithm uses the global pheromone update and new heuristic information. Further, pheromone evaporation coefficients are used in search space of the problem as diversification. This modification allows the algorithm to escape local optimization points as much as possible. In addition, 3-opt local search is used as an intensification mechanism for more quality. The effectiveness of the suggested algorithm is assessed on a several standard problem instances. The results show the power of the suggested algorithm which could find quality solutions with a small gap, between obtained solution and optimal solution, of 1%. Additionally, the results in contrast with other algorithms show the appropriate quality of competitiveness of our proposed ACSA.

Preparation of porous ZIF-67 network interconnected by MWCNTs and decorated with Ag nanoparticles for improved non-enzymatic electrochemical glucose sensing

Elizbit,Liaqat Usman,Hussain Zakir,Baig Mutawara Mahmood,Khan Muzamil Ahmad,Arif Dooa 한국세라믹학회 2021 한국세라믹학회지 Vol.58 No.5

Due to porous structure, larger specifi c area, and potential to functionalize further, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are gaining attention in various fi elds, including electrochemical sensing of various analytes. MOFs are known to have excellent electrochemical activity because they mainly constitute a rich metallic center, possess huge specifi c area, and have multiple valence states. However, electrocatalytic activities of MOFs are greatly reduced due to their poor electronic conductivity for which high conductivity species are incorporated into the MOFs. In the present work, Co-based MOF (ZIF-67) was used as a porous matrix to encapsulate silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and on the surface of ZIF-67 multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were decorated to obtain Ag@ZIF-67/MWCNT nanocomposite for the non-enzymatic electrochemical detection of glucose. The surface morphology of the synthesized nanocomposite was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, while crystallographic characterization was performed by X-ray powder diff raction. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamper- ometry techniques were used to for the electrochemical monitoring of glucose. The electrochemical results demonstrated that Ag@ZIF-67/MWCNT showed an improved catalytic activity towards glucose in the concentration range of 33 μM to 400 μM with a low detection limit of 0.49 μM (S/N = 3), and reaction sensitivity of 13.014 μA μM −1   cm −2 as well as good selectivity in presence of ascorbic acid and uric acid.

The Impact of Education on Business Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in Public & Private Television Advertisements in Pakistan

Rani Gul,Sumaira Zakir,Imran Ali,Hafsa Karim,Rashid Hussain 대한산업공학회 2021 Industrial Engineeering & Management Systems Vol.20 No.2

The emergence of private and foreign TV channels since 2002 have brought strategic changes in advertisement policies, especially in majority adds where the number of women portrayals adds are encouraged. This phenomenon leads more opportunities for women entrepreneurship in media business industry. The present study has investigated that how education play a role in enhancing more business opportunities for women entrepreneurs in advertising media. Using qualitative approach, a comparative analysis of PTV news (public) and GEO news (private) channels was done channel gives more prominence and frequency to women opportunities in their ads broadcasted in prime time (9 to 10 pm) during 30 days of simultaneous period in June 2020 amid CIVID-19 pandemic. The results shows that less educated females as media practitioners in advertisements may get less opportunities and educated females avail lucrative opportunities in Media Industry. Educational richness makes women more capable to influence more audience and grab their attention towards specific product/service with ample marketing skills and entrepreneurial eminency. Results also show that ratio of educated females in private channel advertisements is comparatively high and opportunities for highly educated female practitioners as entrepreneur are high. It is concluded that we need to support young women"s entrepreneurial thinking and to facilitate creative business stratus and promote an enterprise-friendly culture and development of small and medium-sized businesses to achieve success, growth, and jobs (SMEs) for educated women entrepreneurs. The critical role education has now been widely recognised in fostering more business attitudes and behaviours. Education helps women to think creatively, to be successful problem solvers, to critically evaluate a business concept, to connect, to network, to lead and to assess every project.

Bone whitlockite: synthesis, applications, and future prospects

Batool Sadaf,Liaqat Usman,Babar Bushra,Hussain Zakir 한국세라믹학회 2021 한국세라믹학회지 Vol.58 No.5

Bone whitlockite (WH) exists in the collagen matrix along with hydroxyapatite (HA) and plays a vital role during earlier stages of bone development. It is present in short-range order and is diffi cult to identify in the bone, as compared to HA mineral, that covers 80% of the bone inorganic phase. It has the same structural analogy with β-TCP, but detailed structural and crystallographic analyses of bone have shown that β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) is merely a synthetic analog of bone whitlockite, having the same crystalline structure but diff erent chemically. WH contains magnesium at Ca(IV), Ca(V) positions, and HPO 4 2− on a threefold axis in a rhombohedral crystal lattice. Its biocompatibility, functionality, negative surface charge, mechanical strength, and stability in physiological solvents make it an ideal bone substitute as compared to hydroxyapatite (HA) and β-TCP. It has magnesium as a major component that has a strong affi nity with integrin protein. Integrin protein plays a vital role in bone tissue integration. It is bioresorbable and biodegradable and the rate of degradation complements with regeneration. However, despite these excellent properties, this material has always been overshadowed by other calcium phosphates (CaPs), because it is diffi cult to synthesize. In this review article, we present a comprehensive study on the diff erence in the crystalline structure of bone whitlockite and β-TCP, its presence in the natural system, and conditions under which its nucleation occurs in native bone and at lab scale. Furthermore, the reaction conditions that favor homogenous precipitation of synthetic WH and the role of magnesium in the stabilization of diff erent CaPs to obtain pure WH phase are also discussed. Finally, the applications of WH in biomedical and for heavy metal adsorption are summarized.

Synthesis and characterization of PANI/MOF-199/Ag nanocomposite and its potential application as non-enzymatic electrochemical sensing of dopamine

Nisar Asia,Khan Muzamil Ahmad,Hussain Zakir 한국세라믹학회 2022 한국세라믹학회지 Vol.59 No.3

In this research study, a highly selective and sensitive electrochemical sensor was designed by coating the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with the novel PANI/MOF-199/Ag nanocomposite for the non-enzymatic electrochemical detection of dopamine (DA). PANI/MOF-199/Ag nanocomposite was prepared by the in situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline monomer in the presence of MOF-199 followed by the deposition of Ag nanoparticles using an in situ chemical reduction route. Characterization techniques such as Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), and Raman analysis were used to find out the successful synthesis of the prepared samples. Meanwhile, the electrochemical performance was investigated by chronoamperometry (CA) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) not only at different molar concentrations of DA but also with various compositions of Ag nanoparticles loaded. The PANI/MOF-199/Ag-3% modified electrode exhibited good electro-catalytic activity with high sensitivity of 1.421 μA μM−1 cm− 2 and a low detection limit (LOD) of 0.22 μM (S/N = 3) towards DA. Moreover, in the presence of common interfering biological compounds such as glucose (Glu), uric acid (UA), and ascorbic acid (AA), the fabricated electrochemical sensor was found selective to DA detection.

Initiation, proliferation, and improvement of a micropropagation system for mass clonal production of banana through shoot-tip culture

Allah Jurio Khaskheli,Muharam Ali,Syad Zakir Hussain Shah,Zohra Fatima Memon,Saleem Awan,Muhammad Ibrahim Khaskheli,Mohsin Ali Khaskheli,Bilqees Magsi,Zareen Qambrani,Asad Ali Khaskheli 한국식물생명공학회 2021 JOURNAL OF PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY Vol.48 No.2

The present study aimed to evaluate the initiation, proliferation potential, and mass clonal production ability of a micropropagation system for banana through tissue culture. A total of 60 explants were cultured on basal media supplemented with various concentrations of BAP and NAA. Banana plants regenerated on MS basal medium (control) without the addition of BAP + NAA showed a significantly (P < 0.05) lower survival rate with no signs of shoots up to the end of the experimental period. The results further revealed that the performance in MSS-XI medium was almost 89%, followed by MSS-IX and MSS-X media, both of which showed performance up to 88%. In contrast, the performance in the MSS-XVI medium was less than 60%, at the less duration of time and highly shoot induction detected at MSS-XIII medium. The maximum number of shoots (4.9) was observed in the medium supplemented with growth adjuster MSS-XI, followed by the MSS-XII medium (4.5). Surprisingly, the best performance was observed for the MSR-VII medium approximately 16 days after initiation, while the lowest performance was observed with MSR-XI (approximately 31 days). The maximum rooting percentage (98%) was observed in the MSR-V to MSR-VIII media (98%), while the minimum rooting percentage was observed in MSR-XI (approximately 45%)

The effect of pH on the morphological transformation of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite during wet chemical synthesis

Awan Anum Ayub,Liaqat Usman,Hussain Zakir 한국세라믹학회 2023 한국세라믹학회지 Vol.60 No.6

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) is a prominent bioceramic, notably used in the biomedical field. Fundamental properties of the biomaterials are size and shape dependent. High purity, morphology, and size are the main properties to be addressed for clinical application. Therefore, this work reports the effect of pH and annealing temperature on HAP's shape, crystallite, and particle size. Morphologically different hydroxyapatite nanostructures are synthesised by wet chemical precipitation. Furthermore, the pH of the solution varied from 6 to 11, and the calcination temperature was changed from 300 °C to 900 °C. Various morphologies of hydroxyapatite nanopowders, such as spherical, distorted boxes, aggregated rods, flakes, and beaded rods-like clusters, have been achieved. Moreover, small crystallite and particle sizes of HAP were observed in an alkaline medium. The spherical-shaped hydroxyapatite with particle size between 21.54 nm to 78.89 nm was obtained at pH 11. In contrast, beaded rods, nanorods, nanoflakes and distorted boxes-like morphology with an average particle size between 28.28 nm and 202.43 nm were successfully synthesised in neutral to moderately basic pH. Moreover, the crystallite size between 8.4 to 77.7 nm was achieved by changing the pH and annealing temperature. The synthesised products were analysed by XRD, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy and SEM to determine the crystallinity, purity, chemical composition, vibrational modes, morphology, and particle size.

The Maximum Scatter Travelling Salesman Problem: A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm

Modhi Lafta Mutar,Mohammed F. Alrifaie,Mundher Mohammed Taresh,Zakir Hussain Ahmed,Asaad Shakir Hameed International Journal of Computer ScienceNetwork S 2023 International journal of computer science and netw Vol.23 No.6

In this paper, we consider the maximum scatter traveling salesman problem (MSTSP), a travelling salesman problem (TSP) variant. The problem aims to maximize the minimum length edge in a salesman's tour that travels each city only once in a network. It is a very complicated NP-hard problem, and hence, exact solutions can be found for small sized problems only. For large-sized problems, heuristic algorithms must be applied, and genetic algorithms (GAs) are found to be very successfully to deal with such problems. So, this paper develops a hybrid GA (HGA) for solving the problem. Our proposed HGA uses sequential sampling algorithm along with 2-opt search for initial population generation, sequential constructive crossover, adaptive mutation, randomly selected one of three local search approaches, and the partially mapped crossover along with swap mutation for perturbation procedure to find better quality solution to the MSTSP. Finally, the suggested HGA is compared with a state-of-art algorithm by solving some TSPLIB symmetric instances of many sizes. Our computational experience reveals that the suggested HGA is better. Further, we provide solutions to some asymmetric TSPLIB instances of many sizes.