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As a classical combinatorial optimization problem, the traveling salesman problem (TSP) has been extensively investigated in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research. Due to being NP-complete, it is still rather challenging to solve both effectively and efficiently. Because of its high theoretical significance and wide practical applications, great effort has been undertaken to solve it from the point of view of intelligent search. In this paper, we propose a two-stage probe-based search optimization algorithm for solving both symmetric and asymmetric TSPs through the stages of route development and a self-escape mechanism. Specifically, in the first stage, a reasonable proportion threshold filter of potential basis probes or partial routes is set up at each step during the complete route development process. In this way, the poor basis probes with longer routes are filtered out automatically. Moreover, four local augmentation operators are further employed to improve these potential basis probes at each step. In the second stage, a self-escape mechanism or operation is further implemented on the obtained complete routes to prevent the probe-based search from being trapped in a locally optimal solution. The experimental results on a collection of benchmark TSP datasets demonstrate that our proposed algorithm is more effective than other state-of-the-art optimization algorithms. In fact, it achieves the best-known TSP benchmark solutions in many datasets, while, in certain cases, it even generates solutions that are better than the best-known TSP benchmark solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mathematical side of applied problems in multiple subject areas (biology, pattern recognition, etc.) is reduced to the problem of discrete optimization in the following mathematical method. We were provided a network and graphs in its leaves, for which we needed to find a rearrangement of graphs by non-leaf nodes, in which the given functional reached its minimum. Such a problem, even in the simplest case, is NP-hard, which means unavoidable restrictions on the network, on graphs, or on the functional. In this publication, this problem is addressed in the case of all graphs being so-called "structures", meaning directed-loaded graphs consisting of paths and cycles, and the functional as the sum (over all edges in the network) of distances between structures at the endpoints of every edge. The distance itself is equal to the minimal length of sequence from the fixed list of operations, the composition of which transforms the structure at one endpoint of the edge into the structure at its other endpoint. The list of operations (and their costs) on such a graph is fixed. Under these conditions, the given discrete optimization problem is called the reconstruction problem. This paper presents novel algorithms for solving the reconstruction problem, along with full proofs of their low error and low polynomial complexity. For example, for the network, the problem is solved with a zero error algorithm that has a linear polynomial computational complexity; and for the tree the problem is solved using an algorithm with a multiplicative error of at most two, which has a second order polynomial computational complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, metaheuristic methods have shown remarkable efficacy in resolving complex combinatorial challenges across a broad spectrum of fields. Nevertheless, the escalating complexity of these problems necessitates the continuous development of innovative techniques to enhance the performance and reliability of these methods. This paper aims to contribute to this endeavor by examining the impact of solution initialization methods on the performance of a hybrid algorithm applied to the set union knapsack problem (SUKP). Three distinct solution initialization methods, random, greedy, and weighted, have been proposed and evaluated. These have been integrated within a sine cosine algorithm employing k-means as a binarization procedure. Through testing on medium- and large-sized SUKP instances, the study reveals that the solution initialization strategy influences the algorithm's performance, with the weighted method consistently outperforming the other two. Additionally, the obtained results were benchmarked against various metaheuristics that have previously solved SUKP, showing favorable performance in this comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybridized algorithms are commonly employed to improve the performance of any existing method. However, an optimal learning algorithm composed of evolutionary and swarm intelligence can radically improve the quality of the final neuron states and has not received creative attention yet. Considering this issue, this paper presents a novel metaheuristics algorithm combined with several objectives—introduced as the Hybrid Election Algorithm (HEA)—with great results in solving optimization and combinatorial problems over a binary search space. The core and underpinning ideas of this proposed HEA are inspired by socio-political phenomena, consisting of creative and powerful mechanisms to achieve the optimal result. A non-systematic logical structure can find a better phenomenon in the study of logic programming. In this regard, a non-systematic structure known as Random k Satisfiability (RANkSAT) with higher-order is hosted here to overcome the interpretability and dissimilarity compared to a systematic, logical structure in a Discrete Hopfield Neural Network (DHNN). The novelty of this study is to introduce a new multi-objective Hybrid Election Algorithm that achieves the highest fitness value and can boost the storage capacity of DHNN along with a diversified logical structure embedded with RANkSAT representation. To attain such goals, the proposed algorithm tested four different types of algorithms, such as evolutionary types (Genetic Algorithm (GA)), swarm intelligence types (Artificial Bee Colony algorithm), population-based (traditional Election Algorithm (EA)) and the Exhaustive Search (ES) model. To check the performance of the proposed HEA model, several performance metrics, such as training–testing, energy, similarity analysis and statistical analysis, such as the Friedman test with convergence analysis, have been examined and analyzed. Based on the experimental and statistical results, the proposed HEA model outperformed all the mentioned four models in this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]