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This study aims at understanding the role of the tools chosen throughout the processes of solving a non-routine mathematical problem and communicating its solution. In assuming that problem-solving is a synchronous activity of mathematization and expression of mathematical thinking we take our proposed Mathematical Problem Solving with Technology (MPST) model to analyze the processes of solving-and-expressing-problems. Resorting to qualitative methods for data collection and analysis, we report on the case of an 8th grader working on a covariation problem to examine the role that paper-and-pencil and digital tools play in the development of a conceptual model of the situation. We found that the resources used throughout the solving-and-expressing activity influenced the depth of the conceptual model developed, within a process of progressive mathematization. Whereas paper-and-pencil led to the emergence of a conceptual model based on exploring particular cases, the digital transformation of the solution was triggered by the process of communicating its mathematical justification and expanded the previous model. Moreover, the complexity of this activity is evidenced by its multiple sequences of processes. Finally, the integration process seems crucial as the concomitant use of technological and mathematical resources precedes major advancements in the expansion of the conceptual model.

Paper waste in the mockups design with regular, irregular, and amorphous patterns is a critical problem in digital printing presses. Paper waste reduction directly impacts production costs, generating business and environmental benefits. This problem can be mapped to the two-dimensional irregular bin-packing problem. In this paper, an iterated local search algorithm using a novel neighborhood structure to detect overlaps between amorphous shapes is introduced. This algorithm is used to solve the paper waste problem, modeled as one 2D irregular bin-packing problem. The experimental results show that this approach works efficiently and effectively to detect and correct the overlaps between regular, irregular, and amorphous figures.

This short paper concerns the analysis of the M/M/k queueing system with customer abandonment. In this system, service managers provide a finite buffer space, which is a waiting area that prevents customers from abandoning the system. Abandonment of the system can occur from reneging (exiting from the queue while waiting), and/or balking (leaving the system without waiting). We derive an analytical expression to represent the impact of the buffer space capacity on the delay probability and the abandonment probability for a system with deferred abandonment. The result indicates the provision of the buffer space in a large system could only increase the delay probability while the abandonment probability remains unchanged. Despite the benevolent intentions of service managers, providing a buffer space may exacerbate the performance of larger systems.

Pulp washing process has the features of multivariate, time delay, nonlinearity. Considering the difficulties of modeling and optimal control in pulp washing process, a data-driven operational-pattern optimization method is proposed to model and optimize the pulp washing process in this paper. The most important quality indexes of pulp washing performance are residual soda in the washed pulp and Baume degree of extracted black liquor. Considering the difficulties of modeling, online measurement of these indexes, two-step neural networks, and multivariate logistic regression are used to establish the prediction models of residual soda and Baume degree. The mathematical model of the washing process can be identified, and the indexes can meet the production requirements. In the target of better product quality, low cost, and low energy consumption, a multiobjective problems is solved by ant colony optimization algorithm based on the optimized operational-pattern database. It shows that the theoretical analyses are correct and the practical applications are feasible, optimization control system has been designed for the pulp washing process, and the practical results show that pulp production increased by 20% and water consumption decreased by nearly 30%. This method is effective in the pulp washing process.

Fractal is a common feature of many deterministic complex networks. The complex networks with fractal features have interesting structure and good performance. The network based on hypergraph is named hypernetwork. In this paper, we construct a hypernetwork model with fractal properties, and obtain its topological properties. Moreover, according to the exact controllability theory, we obtain the node controllability and the hyperedge controllability of the fractal hypernetwork. The simulation results show that the measure of hyperedge controllability is smaller than that of node in the fractal hypernetwork. In addition, We compare the controllability of three types of hypernetwork, which are easier to control by their hyperedges. It is shown the fractal hypernetwork constructed in this paper has the best controllability. Because of the good controllability of our fractal hypernetwork model, it is suitable for the topology structure of many real systems.

The mean curvature-based image deblurring model is widely used to enhance the quality of the deblurred images. However, the discretization of the associated Euler-Lagrange equations produce a nonlinear ill-conditioned system which affect the convergence of the numerical algorithms like Krylov subspace methods. To overcome this difficulty, in this paper, we present two new symmetric positive definite (SPD) preconditioners. An efficient algorithm is presented for the mean curvature-based image deblurring problem which combines a fixed point iteration (FPI) with new preconditioned matrices to handle the nonlinearity and ill-conditioned nature of the large system. The eigenvalues analysis is also presented in the paper. Fast convergence has shown in the numerical results by using the proposed new preconditioners.

The main objective of this work is to explore and characterize the idea of $ s $-type preinvex function and related inequalities. Some interesting algebraic properties and logical examples are given to support the newly introduced idea. In addition, we attain the novel version of Hermite-Hadamard type inequality utilizing the introduced preinvexity. Furthermore, we establish two new identities, and employing these, we present some refinements of Hermite-Hadamard-type inequality. Some special cases of the presented results for different preinvex functions are deduced as well. Finally, as applications, some new inequalities for the arithmetic, geometric and harmonic means are established. Results obtained in this paper can be viewed as a significant improvement of previously known results. The awe-inspiring concepts and formidable tools of this paper may invigorate and revitalize for additional research in this worthy and absorbing field.

Lot sizing models involve operational and tactical decisions. These decisions may entail multi-level production processes such as assembly operations with multiple plants and limited capacities. Lot sizing problems are widely recognized as NP-hard problems therefore difficult to solve, especially the ones with multiple plants and capacity constraints. The level of complexity rises to an even higher level when there is an interplant transfer between the plants. This paper presents a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based solution methodology applied to large scale multi-plant capacitated lot sizing problem with interplant transfer (MPCLSP-IT). Although the GA has been a very effective and widely accepted meta-heuristic approach used to solve large scale complex problems, it has not been employed for MPCLSP-IT problem. This paper solves the MPCLSP-IT problem in large scale instances by using a genetic algorithm, and in doing so successfully obtains a better solution in terms of computation time when compared to the results obtained by the other methods such as Lagrangian relaxation, greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) heuristics, and GRASP-path relinking techniques used in extant literature.

The B-spline curves have been grasped tremendous achievements inside the widely identified field of Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD). In CAGD, spline functions have been used for the designing of various objects. In this paper, new Quadratic Trigonometric B-spline (QTBS) functions with two shape parameters are introduced. The proposed QTBS functions inherit the basic properties of classical B-spline and have been proved in this paper. The proposed scheme associated with two shape parameters where the classical B-spline functions do not have. The QTBS has been used for designing of different parts of airplane like winglet, airfoil, turbo-machinery blades and vertical stabilizer. The designed part can be controlled or changed using free parameters. The effect of shape parameters is also expressed.

This paper proposes a simple, accurate and effective empirical formula to determine the number of supporting nodes in a newly-developed method, the localized method of fundamental solutions (LMFS). The LMFS has the merits of meshless, high-accuracy and easy-to-simulation in large-scale problems, but the number of supporting nodes has a certain impact on the accuracy and stability of the scheme. By using the curve fitting technique, this study established a simple formula between the number of supporting nodes and the node spacing. Based on the developed formula, the reasonable number of supporting nodes can be determined according to the node spacing. Numerical experiments confirmed the validity of the proposed methodology. This paper perfected the theory of the LMFS, and provided a quantitative selection strategy of method parameters.

This paper focuses on the finite-time anti-synchronization for a class of delayed master-slave inertial neural networks. By means of using the property of quadratic inequality of one variable and designing the fractional and polynomial controllers of time variable, two sufficient conditions to assure the finite-time anti-synchronization for the master-slave delayed inertial neural networks are established. Our controllers designed related to time variable t and the study method on the finite-time anti-synchronization are different from these in the existing papers.

This paper proposes a new multi-objective bi-level programming model for the ring road bus lines and fare design problems. The proposed model consists of two layers: the traffic management operator and travelers. In the upper level, we propose a multi-objective bus lines and fares optimization model in which the operator’s profit and travelers’ utility are set as objective functions. In the lower level, evolutionary multi agent model of travelers’ bounded rational reinforcement learning with social interaction is introduced. A solution algorithm for the multi-objective bi-level programming is developed on the basis of the equalization algorithm of OD matrix. A numerical example based on a real case was conducted to verify the proposed models and solution algorithm. The computational results indicated that travel choice models with different degrees of rationality significantly changed the optimization results of bus lines and the differentiated fares; furthermore, the multi-objective bi-level programming in this paper can generate the solution to reduce the maximum section flow, increase the profit, and reduce travelers’ generalized travel cost.

In the paper, the comparison between the efficiency of using artificial intelligence methods and the efficiency of using classical methods in modelling the industrial processes is made, considering as a case study the separation process of the 18O isotope. Firstly, the behavior of the considered isotopic separation process is learned using neural networks. The comparison between the efficiency of these methods is highlighted by the simulations of the process model, using the mentioned modelling techniques. In this context, the final part of the paper presents the proposed model being simulated in different scenarios that can occur in practice, thus resulting in some interesting interpretations and conclusions. The paper proves the feasibility of using artificial intelligence methods for industrial processes modeling; the obtained models being intended for use in designing automatic control systems.

Recently developed methods in spontaneous speech analytics require the use of speaker separation based on audio data, referred to as diarization. It is applied to widespread use cases, such as meeting transcription based on recordings from distant microphones and the extraction of the target speaker’s voice profiles from noisy audio. However, speech recognition and analysis can be hindered by background and point-source noise, overlapping speech, and reverberation, which all affect diarization quality in conjunction with each other. To compensate for the impact of these factors, there are a variety of supportive speech analytics methods, such as quality assessments in terms of SNR and RT60 reverberation time metrics, overlapping speech detection, instant speaker number estimation, etc. The improvements in speaker verification methods have benefits in the area of speaker separation as well. This paper introduces several approaches aimed towards improving diarization system quality. The presented experimental results demonstrate the possibility of refining initial speaker labels from neural-based VAD data by means of fusion with labels from quality estimation models, overlapping speech detectors, and speaker number estimation models, which contain CNN and LSTM modules. Such fusing approaches allow us to significantly decrease DER values compared to standalone VAD methods. Cases of ideal VAD labeling are utilized to show the positive impact of ResNet-101 neural networks on diarization quality in comparison with basic x-vectors and ECAPA-TDNN architectures trained on 8 kHz data. Moreover, this paper highlights the advantage of spectral clustering over other clustering methods applied to diarization. The overall quality of diarization is improved at all stages of the pipeline, and the combination of various speech analytics methods makes a significant contribution to the improvement of diarization quality.

The aim of this paper is to compute the exact solutions and conservation of a generalized (1 + 1) dimensional system. This can be achieved by employing symbolic manipulation software such as Maple, Mathematica, or MATLAB. In theoretical physics and in many scientific applications, the mentioned system naturally arises. Time, space, and scaling transformation symmetries lead to novel similarity reductions and new exact solutions. The solutions obtained include solitary waves and cnoidal and snoidal waves. The familiarity of closed-form solutions of nonlinear ordinary and partial differential equations enables numerical solvers and supports stability analysis. Although many efforts have been dedicated to solving nonlinear evolution equations, there is no unified method. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that Lie point symmetry analysis in conjunction with an ansatz method has been applied on this underlying equation. It should also be noted that the methods applied in this paper give a unique solution set that differs from the newly reported solutions. In addition, we derive the conservation laws of the underlying system. It is also worth mentioning that this is the first time that the conservation laws for the equation under study are derived.

The traditional set stability of Boolean networks (BNs) refers to whether all the states can converge to a given state subset. Different from the existing results, the set stability investigated in this paper is whether all states in a given initial set can converge to a given destination set. This paper studies the set stability and set stabilization avoiding undesirable sets of BNs and Boolean control networks (BCNs), respectively. First, by virtue of the semi-tensor product (STP) of matrices, the dynamics of BNs avoiding a given undesirable set are established. Then, the set reachability and set stability of BNs from the initial set to destination set avoiding an undesirable set are investigated, respectively. Furthermore, the set stabilization of BCNs from the initial set to destination set avoiding a given undesirable set are investigated. Finally, a design method for finding the time optimal set stabilizer is proposed, and an example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the results.

This paper is devoted to further strengthening, in the current asymmetric information environment, the informed level of operators about network performance. Specifically, in view of the burst and perishability of a packet loss event, to better meet the real-time requirements of current high-speed backbone performance monitoring, a model for Packet Loss Measurement at the access network boundary Based on Sampled Flow (PLMBSF) is presented in this paper under the premise of both cost and real-time. The model overcomes problems such as the inability of previous estimation to distinguish between packet losses before and after the monitoring point, deployment difficulties and cooperative operation consistency. Drawing support from the Mathis equation and regression analysis, the measurement for packet losses before and after the monitoring point can be realized when using only the sampled flows generated by the access network boundary equipment. The comparison results with the trace-based passive packet loss measurement show that although the proposed model is easily affected by factors such as flow length, loss rate, sampling rate, the overall accuracy is still within the acceptable range. In addition, the proposed model PLMBSF, compared with the trace-based loss measurement is only different in the input data granularity. Therefore, PLMBSF and its advantages are also applicable to aggregated traffic.

The paper aims to analyze the vibrations of a summing box, used in heavy vehicles. An experimental setup is proposed and used for the analysis of these vibrations transmitted by the box housing, based on the measurement of the mechanical impedance. It is then shown that a simpler measurement, namely that of the generated noise spectrum, can provide equally useful results, with less effort and in a shorter time. The experimental setup is much simpler, involving a sonometer arranged in the experimental assembly. The symmetry of the box allows us to facilitate the execution of the experimental assembly, and the use of the symmetrical structure to facilitate the calculation of vibrations. The results obtained using this method in the case of a redesigned adder box are presented in the paper.

In this paper, the attitudes of experts are observed for the possible changes after taking a certain decision. The decision is taken by two persons with different fields of expertise. There is also an annotation of such changes due to the interference of a third person, which is main idea of this paper. These observations are done by developing fuzzy soft differential equations with the help of optimum fuzzy soft constants (OFSCs), which are obtained through the ranking coefficients. The ranking of alternatives is based on the coefficients, which are obtained through a decision-making process. Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is exploited to rank the alternatives, and the attitudes of resource persons are examined through phase portraits and line graphs of the respective system of differential equations. The utilization of TOPSIS is a practice of multi-criteria decision-making in the analysis of human behaviours. Dual hesitant fuzzy soft sets are taken to represent the initial data.

In a previous paper, the problem of how the preventive maintenance organization for the k-out-of-n: F system could be used, in order to maximize system availability, was considered. The current paper continues these investigations using a different optimization criterion. The proposed approach is based on decision making theory for regenerative processes. We propose a general procedure for comparing different preventive maintenance strategies based on the ordered statistics distributions, aiming to choose the best one with respect to cost-type criterion. The lifetime distributions of system units are usually unknown and only one or two of their moments are available. For this reason, we pay special attention to the sensitivity analysis of decision making about preventive maintenance, taking into account the shape of the system unit lifetime distributions. A numerical study of two examples based on a real-world system illustrates the results of the proposed approach.

Most of the papers published so far in literature have focused on the theoretical phenomena underlying the formation of chaos, rather than on the investigation of potential applications of chaos to the real world. This paper aims to bridge the gap between chaos theory and chaos applications by presenting a survey of very recent applications of chaos. In particular, the manuscript covers the last three years by describing different applications of chaos as reported in the literature published during the years 2018 to 2020, including the matter related to the symmetry properties of chaotic systems. The topics covered herein include applications of chaos to communications, to distributed sensing, to robotic motion, to bio-impedance modelling, to hardware implementation of encryption systems, to computing and to random number generation.

Increasingly, cities worldwide are striving for green travel and slow traffic, and vigorously developing people-oriented urban pedestrian traffic with sustainability has become a fixture in recent discourse. This paper comprehensively considers the sidewalk’s facilities environment and the status of pedestrian traffic flow; divides the urban pedestrian road system (UPRS) into five subsystems around the underpass, overpass, crosswalk, sidewalk, and road crosswalk; and introduces the basic structure as well as the function of each system. Then, the indicators are classified into two types of crosswalk facilities and sidewalk facilities, and a comprehensive pedestrian road indicator system with the combination of subjective and objective is established. Consequently, the integration of the fuzzy AHP and DEA-based symmetrical technique for the subjective evaluation indicator combined with pedestrian traffic characteristics is developed. A nine-step semantics scale of relative importance was used so that the symmetry of the response of pedestrian satisfaction was maintained. Fuzzy evaluation based on AHP is further modeled, and the DEA is employed to achieve an overall evaluation of the quality of service (QoS) for UPRS. The applicability of the established evaluation system is finally verified through a real case study in Harbin, China. The serviceability assessment method in this paper provides a new idea for planners to conduct sustainability evaluation for UPRS in future urban renewal development.

This paper centers on a discrete-time retrial queue where the server experiences breakdowns and repairs when arriving customers may opt to follow a discipline of a last-come, first-served (LCFS)-type or to join the orbit. We focused on the extensive analysis of the system, and we obtained the stationary distributions of the number of customers in the orbit and in the system by applying the generation function (GF). We provide the stochastic decomposition law and the application bounds for the proximity between the steady-state distributions for the queueing system under consideration and its corresponding standard system. We developed recursive formulae aimed at the calculation of the steady-state of the orbit and the system. We proved that our discrete-time system approximates M/G/1 with breakdowns and repairs. We analyzed the busy period of an auxiliary system, the objective of which was to study the customer’s delay. The stationary distribution of a customer’s sojourn in the orbit and in the system was the object of a thorough and complete study. Finally, we provide numerical examples that outline the effect of the parameters on several performance characteristics and a conclusions section resuming the main research contributions of the paper.

The aim of the present tutorial paper is to recall notions from manifold calculus and to illustrate how these tools prove useful in describing system-theoretic properties. Special emphasis is put on embedded manifold calculus (which is coordinate-free and relies on the embedding of a manifold into a larger ambient space). In addition, we also consider the control of non-linear systems whose states belong to curved manifolds. As a case study, synchronization of non-linear systems by feedback control on smooth manifolds (including Lie groups) is surveyed. Special emphasis is also put on numerical methods to simulate non-linear control systems on curved manifolds. The present tutorial is meant to cover a portion of the mentioned topics, such as first-order systems, but it does not cover topics such as covariant derivation and second-order dynamical systems, which will be covered in a subsequent tutorial paper.

There has been a persistent requirement for safeguarding documents and the data they contain, either in printed or electronic form. This is because the fabrication and faking of documents is prevalent globally, resulting in significant losses for individuals, societies, and industrial sectors, in addition to national security. Therefore, individuals are concerned about protecting their work and avoiding these unlawful actions. Different techniques, such as steganography, cryptography, and coding, have been deployed to protect valuable information. Steganography is an appropriate method, in which the user is able to conceal a message inside another message (cover media). Most of the research on steganography utilizes cover media, such as videos, images, and sounds. Notably, text steganography is usually not given priority because of the difficulties in identifying redundant bits in a text file. To embed information within a document, its attributes must be changed. These attributes may be non-displayed characters, spaces, resized fonts, or purposeful misspellings scattered throughout the text. However, this would be detectable by an attacker or other third party because of the minor change in the document. To address this issue, it is necessary to change the document in such a manner that the change would not be visible to the eye, but could still be decoded using a computer. In this paper, an overview of existing research in this area is provided. First, we provide basic information about text steganography and its general procedure. Next, three classes of text steganography are explained: statistical and random generation, format-based methodologies, and linguistics. The techniques related to each class are analyzed, and particularly the manner in which a unique strategy is provided for hiding secret data. Furthermore, we review the existing works in the development of approaches and algorithms related to text steganography; this review is not exhaustive, and covers research published from 2016 to 2021. This paper aims to assist fellow researchers by compiling the current methods, challenges, and future directions in this field.

This paper studies the multi-depot joint distribution vehicle routing problem considering energy consumption with time-dependent networks (MDJDVRP-TDN). Aiming at the multi-depot joint distribution vehicle routing problem where the vehicle travel time depends on the variation characteristics of the road network speed in the distribution area, considering the influence of the road network on the vehicle speed and the relationship between vehicle load and fuel consumption, a multi-depot joint distribution vehicle routing optimization model is established to minimize the sum of vehicle fixed cost, fuel consumption cost and time window penalty cost. Traditional vehicle routing problems are modeled based on symmetric graphs. In this paper, considering the influence of time-dependent networks on routes optimization, modeling is based on asymmetric graphs, which increases the complexity of the problem. A hybrid genetic algorithm with variable neighborhood search (HGAVNS) is designed to solve the model, in which the nearest neighbor insertion method and Logistic mapping equation are used to generate the initial solution firstly, and then five neighborhood structures are designed to improve the algorithm. An adaptive neighborhood search times strategy is used to balance the diversification and depth search of the population. The effectiveness of the designed algorithm is verified through several groups of numerical instances with different scales. The research can enrich the relevant theoretical research of multi-depot vehicle routing problems and provide the theoretical basis for transportation enterprises to formulate reasonable distribution schemes.

In this paper, the mixed performance and reachable set of uncertain discrete systems with slow variation interval time-varying delay are considered. The original uncertain discrete systems with interval time-varying delay are first transformed into a switched system. Then, the proposed improved results are used to guarantee the stability and reachable set of the uncertain system with slow variation interval time-varying delay. The mixed performance (H2/H∞) can be derived in the same formulation simultaneously. The design scheme of robust switched control is also developed in this paper. The gains of the controller can be designed and switched to achieve stabilization and mixed performance of the system according to the delay value. Some comparisons with published results are made to show the main contribution of the proposed approach. Finally, some numerical examples are illustrated to show the main results.

Helicopters are extraordinarily complex mechanisms. Such complexity makes it difficult to model, simulate and pilot a helicopter. The present paper proposes a mathematical model of a fantail helicopter type based on Lie-group theory. The present paper first recalls the Lagrange–d’Alembert–Pontryagin principle to describe the dynamics of a multi-part object, and subsequently applies such principle to describe the motion of a helicopter in space. A good part of the paper is devoted to the numerical simulation of the motion of a helicopter, which was obtained through a dedicated numerical method. Numerical simulation was based on a series of values for the many parameters involved in the mathematical model carefully inferred from the available technical literature.

The sum of Big Data generated from different sources is increasing significantly with each passing day to extent that it is becoming challenging for traditional storage methods to store this massive amount of data. For this reason, most organizations have resolved to use third-party cloud storage to store data. Cloud storage has advanced in recent times, but it still faces numerous challenges with regard to security and privacy. This paper discusses Big Data security and privacy challenges and the minimum requirements that must be provided by future solutions. The main objective of this paper is to propose a new technical framework to control and manage Big Data security and privacy risks. A design science research methodology is used to carry out this project. The proposed framework takes advantage of Blockchain technology to provide secure storage of Big Data by managing its metadata and policies and eliminating external parties to maintain data security and privacy. Additionally, it uses mobile agent technology to take advantage of the benefits related to system performance in general. We present a prototype implementation for our proposed framework using the Ethereum Blockchain in a real data storage scenario. The empirical results and framework evaluation show that our proposed framework provides an effective solution for secure data storage in a Big Data environment.

The processing of a sparse matrix is a hot topic in the recommendation system. This paper applies the method of hesitant fuzzy set to study the sparse matrix processing problem. Based on the uncertain factors in the recommendation process, this paper applies hesitant fuzzy set theory to characterize the historical ratings embedded in the recommendation system and studies the data processing problem of the sparse matrix under the condition of a hesitant fuzzy set. The key is to transform the similarity problem of products in the sparse matrix into the similarity problem of two hesitant fuzzy sets by data conversion, data processing, and data complement. This paper further considers the influence of the difference of user ratings on the recommendation results and obtains a user’s recommendation list. On the one hand, the proposed method effectively solves the matrix in the recommendation system, on the other hand, it provides a feasible method for calculating similarity in the recommendation system.

This paper deals with the problem of managing the risks of complex systems under targeted attacks. It is usually solved by using Defender–Attacker models or similar ones. However, such models do not consider the influence of the defending system structure on the expected attack outcome. Our goal was to study how the structure of an abstract system affects its integral risk. To achieve this, we considered a situation where the Defender knows the structure of the expected attack and can arrange the elements to achieve a minimum of integral risk. In this paper, we consider a particular case of a simple chain attack structure. We generalized the concept of a local risk function to account for structural effects and found an ordering criterion that ensures the optimal placement of the defending system’s elements inside a given simple chain structure. The obtained result is the first step to formulate the principles of optimally placing system elements within an arbitrarily complex network. Knowledge of these principles, in turn, will allow solving the problems of optimal allocation of resources to minimize the risks of a complex system, considering its structure.

Much applied research uses expert judgment as a primary or additional data source, thus the problem solved in this publication is relevant. Despite the expert’s experience and competence, the evaluation is subjective and has uncertainty in it. There are various reasons for this uncertainty, including the expert’s incomplete competence, the expert’s character and personal qualities, the expert’s attachment to the opinion of other experts, and the field of the task to be solved. This paper presents a new way to use the Bayesian method to reduce the uncertainty of an expert judgment by correcting the expert’s evaluation by the a posteriori mean function. The Bayesian method corrects the expert’s evaluation, taking into account the expert’s competence and accumulated long-term experience. Since the paper uses a continuous case of the Bayesian formula, perceived as a continuous approximation of experts’ evaluations, this is not only the novelty of this work, but also a new result in the theory of the Bayesian method and its application. The paper investigates various combinations of the probability density functions of a priori information and expert error. The results are illustrated by the example of the evaluation of distance learning courses.

A nonlinear approach to identifying combinations of CpGs DNA methylation data, as biomarkers for Alzheimer (AD) disease, is presented in this paper. It will be shown that the presented algorithm can substantially reduce the amount of CpGs used while generating forecasts that are more accurate than using all the CpGs available. It is assumed that the process, in principle, can be non-linear, hence, a non-linear approach might be more appropriate. The proposed algorithm selects which CpGs to use as input data in a classification problem that tries to distinguish between patients suffering from AD and healthy control individuals. This type of classification problem is suitable for techniques, such as support vector machines. The algorithm was used both at a single dataset level, as well as using multiple datasets. Developing robust algorithms for multi-datasets is challenging, due to the impact that small differences in laboratory procedures have in the obtained data. The approach that was followed in the paper can be expanded to multiple datasets, allowing for a gradual more granular understanding of the underlying process. A 92% successful classification rate was obtained, using the proposed method, which is a higher value than the result obtained using all the CpGs available. This is likely due to the reduction in the dimensionality of the data obtained by the algorithm that, in turn, helps to reduce the risk of reaching a local minima.

In order to play the important role of electric vehicles to promote the realization of the 3060 double carbon target, electric vehicles have seen explosive growth. However, due to the tight symmetry between the number and distribution of electric vehicles and their corresponding charging facilities, the layout of charging facilities has higher requirements. This paper collects travel data in the form of a traffic travel questionnaire for electric vehicle users. Based on the vehicle parking demand model of the queuing theory and Monte Carlo simulation, the paper gives the number of stopping vehicles and the time of vehicles stopping in different places such as residential areas, workplaces, supermarket parking and roadside. In addition, based on the Bass prediction model, the main parameters are modeled in the model, and the price correction coefficient is introduced. The improved Bass model is used to predict the growth trend of electric vehicles in different regions in different years and in different incentive sites. By predicting the ownership of urban electric vehicles and accurately grasping the distribution and operation of electric vehicles, this paper can provide guidance and suggestions for the planning and construction of charging facilities in different regions, effectively reduce the investment cost of charging facilities and guide local governments to formulate reasonable planning schemes.

Ranking of interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (IVIFNs) is an important task for solving real-life Decision-Making problems. It is a potential area of research that has attracted the researchers working in fuzzy mathematics. Researchers worldwide are looking for a unique ranking principle that can be used to discriminate any two arbitrary IVIFNs. Various ranking functions on the set of IVIFNs have been proposed. However, every method has some drawbacks in ranking arbitrary IVIFNs due to the partial ordering. This paper introduces a new ranking principle for comparing two arbitrary IVIFNs by defining a new score function based on the non-membership value of IVIFNs. In this paper, firstly, the limitations of a few well-known and existing ranking methods for IVIFNs have been discussed. Secondly, a new non-membership score on the class of IVIFNs has been introduced. Thirdly, the superiority of the proposed score function in ranking arbitrary IVIFNs over the existing methods has been demonstrated. Finally, the proposed non-membership score function has been utilized in interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS (IVIF-TOPSIS) using numerical examples.

The existing multi-layer tree is of dynamic linked list type which has many limitations and is complicated due to the pointer-node structure. Static array representation gives more flexibility in programming of algorithms and operations like insertion, deletion, and search. It also reduces the storage space. This paper presents a new method for representing multi-layer forest data structure in array format. It also explains various tree operations, unique data compression algorithm and migration algorithm between traditional approach and the proposed data structure. Most of the fundamental algorithms like those from artificial intelligence that employ decision trees are based on trees/forest data structure. The current paper brings a completely new idea in the representation of these data structures without employing recursion and targeting memory optimizations with reduced code complexities. The applications of forest data structures are many and span over various interdisciplinary areas of Engineering, Medicine, Aviation, Locomotive, Marine, etc. The proposed novel approach not just introduces a new method to look at the tree data structure but also provides the flexibility to adapt to the existing methods as per the user needs. A few such applications in Simulink debugging and the Forest visualisation have been discussed in detail in this paper.

The research paper is devoted to developing a mathematical approach for dealing with time-varying parameters in rolling window logit models for credit risk assessment. Forecasting coefficients yields a better model accuracy than a trivial approach of using computed past statistics parameters for the next time period. In this paper, a new method of dealing with time-varying parameters of scoring models is proposed, which is aimed at computing the default probability of a borrower. It was empirically shown that in a continuously changing economic environment factors’ influence on a target variable is also changing. Therefore, forecasting coefficients yields a better financial result than simply applying parameters obtained by accumulated statistics over past time periods. The paper develops a new theoretical approach, incorporating a combination of the ARIMA class model, the DCC-GARCH model and the state–space model, which is more accurate, than using only the ARIMA model. Rigorous simulation testing is provided to confirm the efficiency of the proposed method.

The paper discusses several control techniques for a class of systems described by fractional order equations. The paper presents the unit frequency criteria that ensure the closed loop control for: Fractional Order Linear Systems, Fractional Order Linear Systems with nonlinear components, Time Delay Fractional Order Linear Systems, Time Delay Fractional Order Linear Systems with nonlinear components. The stability criterion is proposed for the systems composed of fractional order subsystems. These techniques are used in two applications: Soft Exoskeleton Glove Control, studied as a nonlinear model with time delay and Disabled Man-Wheelchair model, analysed as a fractional-order multi-system.

This article belongs to the Section Computer and Engineering Science and Symmetry/Asymmetry. Speech intelligibility is a crucial element in oral communication that can be influenced by multiple elements, such as noise, channel characteristics, or speech disorders. In this paper, we address the task of speech intelligibility classification (SIC) in this last circumstance. Taking our previous works, a SIC system based on an attentional long short-term memory (LSTM) network, as a starting point, we deal with the problem of the inadequate learning of the attention weights due to training data scarcity. For overcoming this issue, the main contribution of this paper is a novel type of weighted pooling (WP) mechanism, called saliency pooling where the WP weights are not automatically learned during the training process of the network, but are obtained from an external source of information, the Kalinli’s auditory saliency model. In this way, it is intended to take advantage of the apparent symmetry between the human auditory attention mechanism and the attentional models integrated into deep learning networks. The developed systems are assessed on the UA-speech dataset that comprises speech uttered by subjects with several dysarthria levels. Results show that all the systems with saliency pooling significantly outperform a reference support vector machine (SVM)-based system and LSTM-based systems with mean pooling and attention pooling, suggesting that Kalinli’s saliency can be successfully incorporated into the LSTM architecture as an external cue for the estimation of the speech intelligibility level. The work leading to these results has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness through TEC2017-84395-P (MINECO) and TEC2017-84593-C2-1-R (MINECO) projects (AEI/FEDER, UE), and the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid under Strategic Action 2018/00071/001.

For non-linear systems (NLSs), the state estimation problem is an essential and important problem. This paper deals with the nonlinear state estimation problems in nonlinear and non-Gaussian systems. Recently, the Bayesian filter designer based on the Bayesian principle has been widely applied to the state estimation problem in NLSs. However, we assume that the state estimation models are nonlinear and non-Gaussian, applying traditional, typical nonlinear filtering methods, and there is no precise result for the system state estimation problem. Therefore, the larger the estimation error, the lower the estimation accuracy. To perfect the imperfections, a projection filtering method (PFM) based on the Bayesian estimation approach is applied to estimate the state. First, this paper constructs its projection symmetric interval to select the basis function. Second, the prior probability density of NLSs can be projected into the basis function space, and the prior probability density solution can be solved by using the Fokker–Planck Equation (FPE). According to the Bayes formula, the proposed estimator utilizes the basis function in projected space to iteratively calculate the posterior probability density, thus, it avoids calculating the partial differential equation. By taking two illustrative examples, it is also compared with the traditional UKF and PF algorithm, and the numerical experiment results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the novel nonlinear state estimation filter algorithm.

This work presents a multistart algorithm for solving the capacitated vehicle routing problem with 2D loading constraints (2L-CVRP) allowing for the rotation of goods. Research dedicated to graph theory and symmetry considered the vehicle routing problem as a classical application. This problem has complex aspects that stimulate the use of advanced algorithms and symmetry in graphs. The use of graph modeling of the 2L-CVRP problem by undirected graph allowed the high performance of the algorithm. The developed algorithm is based on metaheuristics, such as the Constructive Genetic Algorithm (CGA) to construct promising initial solutions, a Tabu Search (TS) to improve the initial solutions on the routing problem, and a Large Neighborhood Search (LNS) for the loading subproblem. Although each one of these algorithms allowed to solve parts of the 2L-CVRP, the combination of these three algorithms to solve this problem was unprecedented in the scientific literature. In our approach, a parallel mechanism for checking the loading feasibility of routes was implemented using multithreading programming to improve the performance. Additionally, memory structures such as hash-tables were implemented to save time by storing and querying previously evaluated results for the loading feasibility of routes. For benchmarks, tests were done on well-known instances available in the literature. The results proved that the framework matched or outperformed most of the previous approaches. As the main contribution, this work brings higher quality solutions for large-size instances of the pure CVRP. This paper involves themes related to the symmetry journal, mainly complex algorithms, graphs, search strategies, complexity, graph modeling, and genetic algorithms. In addition, the paper especially focuses on topic-related aspects of special interest to the community involved in symmetry studies, such as graph algorithms and graph theory.

An anonymous authentication and key agreement (AAKA) protocol provides anonymous members symmetric authentication and establishes a symmetric session key for secure communication in public networks. Today, numerous popular remote services are based on multi-server architecture, such as the internet of things (IoT), smart cities, cloud services, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET), and telecare medicine information systems (TMIS). Many researchers have attempted to design AAKA protocols in multi-server environments for various applications. However, many of these have security defects, even if they have so-called “formal” security proofs. In this paper, we analyze related AAKA protocols to identify the common design defects, expound the process of designing secure AAKA protocols, and explain why the present AAKA protocols still suffer attacks, despite having security proofs. We instruct readers on how to design a secure AAKA protocol and how to prove the security. This paper will therefore be helpful for the design of new AAKA protocols, and for ensuring their security.

Class imbalance, as a phenomenon of asymmetry, has an adverse effect on the performance of most machine learning and overlap is another important factor that affects the classification performance of machine learning algorithms. This paper deals with the two factors simultaneously, addressing the class overlap under imbalanced distribution. In this paper, a theoretical analysis is firstly conducted on the existing class overlap metrics. Then, an improved method and the corresponding metrics to evaluate the class overlap under imbalance distributions are proposed based on the theoretical analysis. A well-known collection of the imbalanced datasets is used to compare the performance of different metrics and the performance is evaluated based on the Pearson correlation coefficient and the ξ correlation coefficient. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed class overlap metrics outperform other compared metrics for the imbalanced datasets and the Pearson correlation coefficient with the AUC metric of eight algorithms can be improved by 34.7488% in average.

For time-invariant Metzler linear MIMO systems, this paper proposes an original approach reflecting necessary matching conditions, specifically structural system constraints and necessary positiveness in solving the problem of MIMO PID control. Covering the matching conditions by the supporting structure of measurement, refining the controller and system parameter constraints and introducing enhanced equivalent system descriptions, the reformulated design task is consistent with PID control law parameter representation and is formulated as a linear matrix inequality feasibility problem. Characterization of the PID control law parameters is permitted to highlight dynamical properties of the closed-loop system and the structural influence of the control derivative gain value in the design step. For the first time, the paper comprehensively sets the synthesis standard for PID control of MIMO Metzler systems because others for the given task have not been created at present.

Pension funds became a fundamental part of financial security in pensioners’ lives, guaranteeing stable income throughout the years and reducing the chance of living below the poverty level. However, participating in a pension accumulation scheme does not ensure financial safety at an older age. Various pension funds exist that result in different investment outcomes ranging from high return rates to underperformance. This paper aims to demonstrate alternative clustering of Latvian second pillar pension funds, which may help system participants make long-range decisions. Due to the demonstrated ability to extract meaningful features from raw time-series data, the convolutional neural network was chosen as a pension fund feature extractor that was used prior to the clustering process. In this paper, pension fund cluster analysis was performed using trained (on daily stock prices) convolutional neural network feature extractors. The extractors were combined with different clustering algorithms. The feature extractors operate using the black-box principle, meaning the features they learned to recognize have low explainability. In total, 32 models were trained, and eight different clustering methods were used to group 20 second-pillar pension funds from Latvia. During the analysis, the 12 best-performing models were selected, and various cluster combinations were analyzed. The results show that funds from the same manager or similar performance measures are frequently clustered together.

Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation provides a fast and effective method for marginal inference on Bayesian hierarchical models. This methodology has been implemented in the R-INLA package which permits INLA to be used from within R statistical software. Although INLA is implemented as a general methodology, its use in practice is limited to the models implemented in the R-INLA package. Spatial autoregressive models are widely used in spatial econometrics but have until now been missing from the R-INLA package. In this paper, we describe the implementation and application of a new class of latent models in INLA made available through R-INLA. This new latent class implements a standard spatial lag model, which is widely used and that can be used to build more complex models in spatial econometrics. The implementation of this latent model in R-INLA also means that all the other features of INLA can be used for model fitting, model selection and inference in spatial econometrics, as will be shown in this paper. Finally, we will illustrate the use of this new latent model and its applications with two datasets based on Gaussian and binary outcomes.

The mutual confrontation between image steganography and steganalysis causes both to iterate continuously, and as a result, the dimensionality of the steganalytic features continues to increase, leading to an increasing spatio-temporal overhead. To this end, this paper proposes a fast steganalytic feature selection method based on a similar cross-entropy. Firstly, the properties of cross-entropy are investigated, through the discussion of different models, and the intra-class similarity criterion and inter-class similarity criterion based on cross-entropy are presented for the first time. Then, referring to the design principles of Fisher’s criterion, the criterion of feature contribution degree is further proposed. Secondly, the variation of the cross-entropy function of a univariate variable is analyzed in principle, thus determining the normalized range and simplifying the subsequent analysis. Then, within the normalized range, the variation of the cross-entropy function of a binary variable is investigated and the setting of important parameters is determined. Thirdly, the concept of similar cross-entropy is further presented by analyzing the changes in the value of the feature contribution measure under different circumstances, and based on this, the criterion for the feature contribution measure is updated to decrease the complexity of the calculation. Remarkably, the contribution measure criterion devised in this paper is a symmetrical structure, which equitably measures the contribution of features in different situations. Fourth, the feature component with the highest contribution is selected as the final selected feature based on the result of the feature metric. Finally, based on the Bossbase 1.01 image base that is a unique standard and recognized base in steganalysis, the feature selection on 8 kinds of low and high-dimensional steganalytic features is carried out. Through extensive experiments, comparison with several classic and state-of-the-art methods, the method designed in this paper attains competitive or even better performance in detection accuracy, calculation cost, storage cost and versatility.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has emerged as a flexible software design style. SOA focuses on the development, use, and reuse of small, self-contained, independent blocks of code called web services that communicate over the network to perform a certain set of simple tasks. Web services are integrated as composite services to offer complex tasks and to provide the expected services and behavior in addition to fulfilling the clients’ requests according to the service-level agreement (SLA). Web service selection and composition problems have been a significant area of research to provide the expected quality of service (QoS) and to meet the clients’ expectations. This research paper presents a hybrid web service composition model to solve web service selection and composition problems and to optimize web services’ resource utilization using k-means clustering and knapsack algorithms. The proposed model aims to maximize the service compositions’ QoS and minimize the number of web services integrated within the service composition using the knapsack algorithm. Additionally, this paper aims to track the service compositions’ QoS attributes by evaluating and tracking the web services’ QoS using the reward function and, accordingly, use the k-means algorithm to decide to which cluster the web service belongs. The experimental results on a real dataset show the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in comparison with the results of the state–action–reward–state–action (SARSA) and multistage forward search (MFS) algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed model reduces the average time of the web service selection and composition processes to 37.02 s in comparison to 47.03 s for the SARSA algorithm and 42.72 s for the MFS algorithm. Furthermore, the average of web services’ resource utilization results increased by 4.68% using the proposed model in comparison to the resource utilization by the SARSA and MFS algorithms. In addition, the experimental results showed that the average number of service compositions using the proposed model improved by 26.04% compared with the SARSA and MFS algorithms.

The covariance allocation principle is one of the most widely used capital allocation principles in practice. Risks change over time, so capital risk allocations should be time-dependent. In this paper, we propose a dynamic covariance capital allocation principle based on the variance-covariance of risks that change over time. The conditional correlation of risks is modeled by means of a dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) model. Unlike the static approach, we show that in our dynamic capital allocation setting, the distribution of risk capital allocations can be estimated, and the expected future allocations of capital can be predicted, providing a deeper understanding of the stochastic multivariate behavior of risks. The methodology presented in the paper is illustrated with an example involving the investment risk in a stock portfolio.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have good performance for data transmission, and the data transmission of sensor nodes has the function of symmetry. However, the wireless sensor nodes are facing great pressure in data transmission due to the increasing amount and types of data that easily cause premature energy consumption of some nodes and, thus, affects data transmission. Clustering algorithm is a common method to balance energy consumption, but the existing algorithms fail to balance the network oad effectively for big data transmission. Therefore, an optimal data transmission with data-location integration (ODTD-LI) is proposed for WSNs in this paper. For optimal data transmission, we update the network topology once for one round. In the proposed algorithm, we perform calculations of the optimal cluster heads, clustering and data transmission routing through three steps. We first deploy N homogeneous and symmetry nodes in a square area randomly and calculate the optimal number of cluster heads according to the node ocations. then, the optimal number of cluster heads, energy consumption, the distances and degrees of the nodes are taken into consideration during the clustering phase. Direct communication is carried out within a cluster, and the member nodes of the cluster pass the information directly to the cluster head. Lastly, an optimal hybrid routing from each cluster node to Sink is constructed for data transmission after clustering. The simulations verify the good performance of the proposed algorithm in view of the ifetime, average delay, coverage rate (CR) and oad balance of the network compared with the existing algorithms. Through the research conducted in this paper, we find that our work has good performance for selecting the hybrid routing in the network with the nodes randomly arranged.