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A critical part of supporting the development of students' algorithmic thinking is understanding the challenges that emerge when students engage with algorithmatizing tasks--tasks that require the creation of an algorithm. Knowledge of these challenges can serve as a basis upon which educators can build effective strategies for enhancing students' algorithmic thinking skills. This paper presents three illustrative cases of emergent challenges evident as students grapple with the process of creating an algorithm. The first challenge highlights discrepancies between the method with which students solve a problem and the algorithm they create, and claim would, when implemented, solve the same problem. The second challenge pertains to the persistence of students' normatively incorrect algorithms, despite going through multiple iterations of testing and revising. Finally, the third challenge concerns issues around the use of test problems for supporting students in their creation of generalized algorithms. These three challenges are discussed using student data (illustrative cases) from three different mathematical algorithmatizing tasks. Suggestions are put forth for addressing some of these challenges, with a particular emphasis on practical pedagogical suggestions for cultivating students' mathematical thinking in the context of algorithmatizing tasks.

Computational thinking (CT) is an important 21st-century skill. This paper aims at investigating predictors of CT self-efficacy among high-school students. The hypothesized predictors are grouped into three areas: (1) student characteristics, (2) home environment, and (3) learning opportunities. CT self-efficacy is measured with the Computational Thinking Scales (CTS) that comprises five dimensions: creativity, algorithmic thinking, cooperativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. N = 202 high-school students act as the sample, linear regression as the analysis method. The best prediction is possible for algorithmic thinking (R[superscript 2] = 0.511). For cooperativity, the explanatory power of our model it is weak (R[superscript 2] = 0.146). Across all five CTS dimensions, CT self-concept is the best predictor for CT self-efficacy. [For the full proceedings, see ED636095.]

This paper reviews algorithmic or artificial intelligence (AI) bias in education technology, especially through the lenses of speculative fiction, speculative and liberatory design. It discusses the causes of the bias and reviews literature on various ways that algorithmic/AI bias manifests in education and in communities that are underrepresented in EdTech software development. While other recent work has responded to mainstream or private sector technology development, this review looks elsewhere where practitioners, artists, and activists engage underrepresented communities in brainstorming processes to identify and solve tough challenges. Their creative work includes films, toolkits, applications, prototypes and other physical artifacts, and other future-facing ideas that can provide guideposts for private sector development. Acknowledging the gaps in what has been studied, this paper proposes a different approach that includes speculative and liberatory design thinking, which can help developers better understand the educational and personal contexts of underrepresented groups. Early efforts to advocate for fairness and equity in AI and EdTech by groups such as the Algorithmic Justice League, the EdTech Equity Project, and EdSAFE AI Alliance is also explored.

This paper presents an application of the Kalman filter in signal processing in instrumentation systems when the conditions of the environment generate a large amount of interference for the acquisition of signals from measurement systems. The unwanted interferences make important use of the instrumentation system resources and do not represent useful information under any aspect. A simulation is presented using the Matlab tool, which remarkably facilitates the information processing so that the corresponding actions are taken according to the information obtained, taking advantage of the current resources offered by the embedded systems and the required measurements are obtained with enough accuracy.

This paper analyses how pre-service teachers approach the notion of the infinite limit of a sequence from two perspectives: Specialized Content Knowledge and Advanced Mathematical Thinking. The aim of this study is to identify the difficulties associated with this notion and to classify them. In order to achieve this, an exploratory qualitative approach was applied using a sample of 12 future teachers. Among the results, we can affirm that pre-service teachers mainly use algorithmic procedures to solve tasks in which this type of limit is implicit, although they would consider a resolution that specifically involves the notion with an intuitive approach if they had to explain it to their students.

This study explores student flexibility in mathematics by examining the relationship between accuracy and strategy use for solving arithmetic and algebra problems. Core to procedural flexibility is the ability to select and accurately execute the most appropriate strategy for a given problem. Yet the relationship between strategy selection and accurate execution is nuanced and poorly understood. In this paper, this relationship was examined in the context of an assessment where students were asked to complete the same problem twice using different approaches. In particular, we explored (a) the extent to which students were more accurate when selecting standard or better-than-standard strategies, (b) whether this accuracy-strategy use relationship differed depending on whether the student solved a problem for the first time or the second time, and (c) the extent to which students were more accurate when solving algebraic versus arithmetic problems. Our results indicate significant associations between accuracy and all of these aspects--we found differences in accuracy based on strategy, problem type, and a significant interaction effect between strategy and assessment part. These findings have important implications both for researchers investigating procedural flexibility as well as secondary mathematics educators who seek to promote this capacity among their students.

The aim of this paper is to present a teaching proposal for the theoretical part relating to the first- and second-order linear difference equations with constant coefficients suitable for the first-year students at various types of universities. In contradistinction to the methods often applied (memorization of algorithms without a proper conceptual understanding), we provide an alternative methodological way-out for lecturers that is partially based on posing suitable questions and constructing the knowledge. Our approach is therefore characterized by the minimal input knowledge imposed on students. In fact, we assume that students are acquainted only with the summation of terms of geometric sequences and with solving linear and quadratic equations.

We introduce "Ricerca Operativa Applicazioni Reali" (ROAR; in English, "Real Applications of Operations Research"), a three-year project for higher secondary schools. Its main aim is to improve students' interest, motivation, and skills related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines by integrating mathematics and computer science through operations research. ROAR offers examples and problems closely connected with students' everyday life or with the industrial reality, balancing mathematical modeling and algorithmics. The project is composed of three teaching units, addressed to grades 10, 11, and 12. The implementation of the first teaching unit took place in Spring 2021 at the scientific high school IIS Antonietti in Iseo (Brescia, Italy). In particular, in this paper, we provide a full description of this first teaching unit in terms of objectives, prerequisites, topics and methods, organization of the lectures, and digital technologies used. Moreover, we analyze the feedback received from students and teachers involved in the experimentation, and we discuss advantages and disadvantages related to distance learning that we had to adopt because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Procedural knowledge space theory (PKST) was recently proposed by Stefanutti (British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 72(2) 185-218, 2019) for the assessment of human problem-solving skills. In PKST, the problem space formally represents how a family of problems can be solved and the knowledge space represents the skills required for solving those problems. The Markov solution process model (MSPM) by Stefanutti et al. (Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 103, 102552, 2021) provides a probabilistic framework for modeling the solution process of a task, via PKST. In this article, three adaptive procedures for the assessment of problem-solving skills are proposed that are based on the MSPM. Beside execution correctness, they also consider the sequence of moves observed in the solution of a problem with the aim of increasing efficiency and accuracy of assessments. The three procedures differ from one another in the assumption underlying the solution process, named pre-planning, interim-planning, and mixed-planning. In two simulation studies, the three adaptive procedures have been compared to one another and to the continuous Markov procedure (CMP) by Doignon and Falmagne (1988a). The last one accounts for dichotomous correct/wrong answers only. Results show that all the MSP-based adaptive procedures outperform the CMP in both accuracy and efficiency. These results have been obtained in the framework of the Tower of London test but the procedures can also be applied to all psychological and neuropsychological tests that have a problem space. Thus, the adaptive procedures presented in this paper pave the way to the adaptive assessment in the area of neuropsychological tests., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The simple vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a common topic of discussion in introductory operations research/management science courses. The VRP can be framed in a variety of ways, and it can be difficult to solve to optimality. For solution purposes, introductory textbooks demonstrate how Excel's Evolutionary Solver (ES) add-in produces a routing. The ES utilizes a genetic algorithm with a heuristic stopping rule to produce a routing that is not guaranteed to be optimal. Beyond pointing out that search controls, such as maximum execution time, may be extended and followed by restart(s) of ES, textbook treatments do not offer alternative ways to continue the search for a possibly better routing. In this paper, a suite of ways is presented in which students may investigate beyond what ES produces or any other optimality-uncertain VRP solution method. The suite includes perturbation methods and other ways that function within an Excel spreadsheet environment that is popular with students and textbook writers. Because there is no demonstrable feature that confirms optimality, the student problem Solver must settle for a 'best found' result as unsettling as it may be. The incertitude is addressed.

In order to cope with the rapid growth of flights and limited crew members, the rational allocation of crew members is a strategy to greatly alleviate scarcity. However, if there is no appropriate allocation plan, some flights may be canceled because there is no pilot in the scheduling period. In this paper, we solved an airline crew rostering problem (CRP). We model the CRP as an integer programming model with multiple constraints and objectives. In this model, the schedule of pilots takes into account qualification restrictions and language restrictions, while maximizing the fairness and satisfaction of pilots. We propose the design of two hybrid metaheuristic algorithms based on a genetic algorithm, variable neighborhood search algorithm and the Aquila optimizer to face the trade-off between fairness and crew satisfaction. The simulation results show that our approach preserves the fairness of the system and maximizes the fairness at the cost of crew satisfaction.

Copyright of Journal of Computer Engineering & Applications is the property of Beijing Journal of Computer Engineering & Applications Journal Co Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In order to solve the problems of the current art circulation information is not transparent and the centralized trading authority is asymmetric, this paper proposed a art blockchain certificate traceability model based on three chains. First, in view of the large amount of data in a single piece of artwork information, this paper proposed a blockchain-based symmetric searchable encryption algorithm, and used the interplanetary file system to securely store artwork circulation records on-chain and off-chain. Secondly, for the characteristics of the increasing effective data of artwork information, this paper proposed a blockchain-based inverted fast query and traceability algorithm to help data users realize fast traceability and positioning. At the same time, this paper proposed for the first time that the false information alliance chain stores false art circulation records to realize the processing of false information. Finally, experiments verify the feasibility of the model for big data security storage and fast query traceability. Experiments show that the model is feasible and the query method is efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

0-1 Knapsack problem (KP) is NP-hard. Approximate solution is vital for solving KP exactly. In this paper, a fast polynomial time approximate solution (FPTAS) is proposed for KP. FPTAS is a local search algorithm. The best approximate solution to KP can be found in the neighborhood of the solution of upper bound for exact k -item knapsack problem (E- k KP) where k is near to the critical item s . FPTAS, in practice, often achieves high accuracy with high speed in solving KP. The computational experiments show that the approximate algorithm for KP is valid., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known conflicts financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Zhengyuan Wang et al.)

This paper introduces a new human-based metaheuristic algorithm called Sewing Training-Based Optimization (STBO), which has applications in handling optimization tasks. The fundamental inspiration of STBO is teaching the process of sewing to beginner tailors. The theory of the proposed STBO approach is described and then mathematically modeled in three phases: (i) training, (ii) imitation of the instructor's skills, and (iii) practice. STBO performance is evaluated on fifty-two benchmark functions consisting of unimodal, high-dimensional multimodal, fixed-dimensional multimodal, and the CEC 2017 test suite. The optimization results show that STBO, with its high power of exploration and exploitation, has provided suitable solutions for benchmark functions. The performance of STBO is compared with eleven well-known metaheuristic algorithms. The simulation results show that STBO, with its high ability to balance exploration and exploitation, has provided far more competitive performance in solving benchmark functions than competitor algorithms. Finally, the implementation of STBO in solving four engineering design problems demonstrates the capability of the proposed STBO in dealing with real-world applications., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Objective: While the challenge of estimating the efficacy of therapies using observational data has received a lot of attention, little work has been done on estimating the treatment effect from interventions. In this paper, we tackle this problem by proposing an early guidance system based on a causal Bayesian network (CBN) for recommending personalized interventions. We are interested in the elderly fall prevention context. The objective is to develop a practical tool to help doctors estimate the effects of each intervention (or compound interventions) on a given patient and then choose the one that best fits each patient's health situation to reduce the risk of falling., Methods: On a real-world elderly information base, we undertake an empirical investigation for the proposed approach, which is based on a 44-node CBN. Then, we describe what is possible to achieve using state-of-the-art machine learning methods, namely Support Virtual Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), and Bayesian Network (BN), and how well these methods can be used in recommending personalized interventions compared to the proposed approach., Results: 1174 elderly patients from Lille University Hospital, between January 2005 and December 2018 are included. The results reveal that none of the classifiers is significantly superior to the others, even if BN delivers somewhat better results (41.6%) and DT most often slightly lower performance (31.2%). Results also show that none of these three classifiers performs comparable to the proposed system (89.7%). The interventions recommended by the system are in agreement with the expert's judgment to a satisfactory level. The reaction of the physicians to the proposed system in its first trial version was very favorable., Conclusion: The study showed the efficacy and utility of the causality-based strategy in recommending tailored interventions to prevent elderly falls compared to automated learning methods that had failed to infer a solid interventional paradigm for precision medicine., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Dynamic economic dispatch (DED) is a multi constraint and nonlinear complex problem, which is embodied in the dynamic decision-making coupled with each other in time and space. It is generally transformed into a high-dimensional multi constraint optimization problem. In this paper, a multi Strategy firefly algorithm (MSRFA) is proposed to solve the DED problem. MSRFA puts forward three strategies through the idea of opposite learning strategy and rough data reasoning to optimize the initialization and iteration process of the algorithm, improve the convergence speed of the algorithm in medium and high dimensions, and improve the escape ability when the algorithm falls into local optimization; The performance of MSRFA is tested in the simulation experiment of DED problem. The experimental results show that MSRFA can search the optimal power generation cost and minimum load error in the experiment, which reflects MSRFA superior stability and ability to jump out of local optimization. Therefore, MSRFA is an efficient way to solve the DED problem.

Many real-world problems can be classified as multimodal optimization problems (MMOPs), which require to locate global optima as more as possible and refine the accuracy of found optima as high as possible. When dealing with MMOPs, how to divide population and obtain effective niches is a key to balance population diversity and convergence during evolution. In this paper, a self-organizing map (SOM) based differential evolution with dynamic selection strategy (SOMDE-DS) is proposed to improve the performance of differential evolution (DE) in solving MMOPs. Firstly, a SOM based method is introduced as a niching technique to divide population reasonably by using the similarity information among different individuals. Secondly, a variable neighborhood search (VNS) strategy is proposed to locate more possible optimal regions by expanding the search space. Thirdly, a dynamic selection (DS) strategy is designed to balance exploration and exploitation of the population by taking advantages of both local search strategy and global search strategy. The proposed SOMDE-DS is compared with several widely used multimodal optimization algorithms on benchmark CEC'2013. The experimental results show that SOMDE-DS is superior or competitive with the compared algorithms.

The critical node detection problem (CNDP) refers to the identification of one or more nodes that have a significant impact on the entire complex network according to the importance of each node in a complex network. Most methods consider the CNDP as a single-objective optimization problem, which requires more prior knowledge to a certain extent. This paper proposes a membrane evolution algorithm MEA-CNDP to solve biobjective CNDP. MEA-CNDP includes a population initialization strategy based on the evaluation of decision variables, a strategy to transform the main objective, a strategy to update the membrane inherited pool, and four membrane evolutionary operators. The numerical experiments on 16 benchmark problems with random and logarithmic weights show that MEA-CNDP outperforms other algorithms in most cases. In particular, MEA-CNDP has unique advantages in dealing with large-scale sparse bi-CNDP., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Yaochang Xu and Ping Guo.)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are useful tools for many applications. However, autonomous path planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in unfamiliar environments is a challenging problem when facing a series of problems such as poor consistency, high influence by the native controller of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. In this paper, we investigate reinforcement learning-based autonomous local path planning methods for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with high autonomous decision-making capability and locally high portability. We propose an autonomous local path planning algorithm based on the TD3 strategy to solve the problem of local obstacle avoidance and path planning in unfamiliar environments using autonomous decision-making of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The simulation results on Gazebo show that our method can effectively realize the autonomous local path planning task for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, the success rate of path planning with our method can reach 93% under the interference of no obstacles, and 92% in the environment with obstacles. Finally, our method can be used for autonomous path planning of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in unfamiliar environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In industry, the task of defect classification and defect localization is an important part of defect detection system. However, existing studies only focus on one task and it is difficult to ensure the accuracy of both tasks. This paper proposes a defect detection system based on improved Yolo_v4, which greatly improves the detection ability of minor defects. For K_Means algorithm clustering prianchors question with strong subjectivity, the paper proposes the Density Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm to determine the number of Anchors. To solve the problem of low detection rate of small targets caused by insufficient reuse rate of low-level features in CSPDarknet53 feature extraction network, this paper proposes an ECA-DenseNet-BC-121 feature extraction network to improve it. And the Dual Channel Feature Enhancement (DCFE) module is proposed to improve the local information loss and gradient propagation obstruction caused by quad chain convolution in PANet networks to improve the robustness of the model. The experimental results on the fabric surface defect detection datasets show that the mAP of the improved Yolo_v4 is 98.97%, which is 7.67% higher than SSD, 3.75% higher than Faster_RCNN, 10.82% higher than Yolo_v4 tiny, and 5.35% higher than Yolo_v4, and the detection speed reaches 39.4 fps. It can meet the real-time monitoring needs of industrial sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distributive power of the arithmetic operators: multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction, gives the arithmetic optimization algorithm (AOA) its unique ability to find the global optimum for optimization problems used to test its performance. Several other mathematical operators exist with the same or better distributive properties, which can be exploited to enhance the performance of the newly proposed AOA. In this paper, we propose an improved version of the AOA called nAOA algorithm, which uses the high-density values that the natural logarithm and exponential operators can generate, to enhance the exploratory ability of the AOA. The addition and subtraction operators carry out the exploitation. The candidate solutions are initialized using the beta distribution, and the random variables and adaptations used in the algorithm have beta distribution. We test the performance of the proposed nAOA with 30 benchmark functions (20 classical and 10 composite test functions) and three engineering design benchmarks. The performance of nAOA is compared with the original AOA and nine other state-of-the-art algorithms. The nAOA shows efficient performance for the benchmark functions and was second only to GWO for the welded beam design (WBD), compression spring design (CSD), and pressure vessel design (PVD)., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Artificial intelligence is an enabling technology for autonomous surface vehicles, with methods such as evolutionary algorithms, artificial potential fields, fast marching methods, and many others becoming increasingly popular for solving problems such as path planning and collision avoidance. However, there currently is no unified way to evaluate the performance of different algorithms, for example with regard to safety or risk. This paper is a step in that direction and offers a comparative study of current state-of-the art path planning and collision avoidance algorithms for autonomous surface vehicles. Across 45 selected papers, we compare important performance properties of the proposed algorithms related to the vessel and the environment it is operating in. We also analyse how safety is incorporated, and what components constitute the objective function in these algorithms. Finally, we focus on comparing advantages and limitations of the 45 analysed papers. A key finding is the need for a unified platform for evaluating and comparing the performance of algorithms under a large set of possible real-world scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the development of general algorithm for solving to the stability problem of anisotropic plates using the additional load discretization method. The study of the stability problem is relevant for all types of structural elements and machine parts, and its importance is especially increasing with respect to anisotropic thin plates. This is due to the fact that with the use of new structures and materials, the material intensity is reduced, the area of application of thin-walled systems with low stiffness, for which the danger of elastic loss of stability increases, and, therefore, the importance and relevance of the theory and methods of practical solution of problems of elastic stability of such structures increases. In many works, analytical expressions for determination of critical load are given. At present, the determination of critical loads causes great difficulties in their numerical determination. Therefore, the article presents the most effective numerical and analytical solution of this problem. As a rule, to solve stability problems of anisotropic plates, different representations of the bending deflection function in different rows are used. But the use of such representations is justified only under certain boundary conditions and under the condition of uniformly distributed load. The study described in this paper offers a way to overcome these difficulties, allowing the numerical values of critical forces to be determined without much difficulty. With increasing grid density, the accuracy of the critical load value increases rapidly and with an 8×8 grid, the deviation from the exact solution equal to is 1 %. From a practical point of view, the discovered mechanism of numerical realization of this problem allows to improve engineering design calculations of stability of anisotropic plates with different conditions on supports and with different loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the performance of the spectral moment estimation algorithm commonly used in engineering degrades under the conditions of low SNR, this paper introduces the Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) to the spectral moment estimation of weather signals based on the correlation of the signals of adjacent range cells. To solve the problem that the hidden layer nodes of ELM algorithm are difficult to be determined, the Bidirectional Extreme Learning Machine (B-ELM) algorithm is applied to achieve the high resolution of spectral moments. Firstly, to improve the SNR of the training samples, time-domain pulse signals are converted into weather power spectrum by Welch method. Then, the parameters of the B-ELM hidden layer nodes are directly calculated by backpropagation of network residuals. The model parameters are optimized according to the least-squares solution, where the optimal number of hidden layer nodes is determined adaptively. Finally, the optimized B-ELM model is employed for the spectral moment estimation of weather signals. The algorithm is validated to be fast and accurate for spectral moment estimation using the measured IDRA weather radar data and is easy to implement in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of lack of detail information and serious damage to the texture of the light source area when the dark channel prior dehazing algorithm processes fog images at night, this paper proposes a dehazing algorithm for nighttime fog images using the dark‐state point light source model. By introducing the dark state point light source model, the dark channel credibility weight factor and the pseudo dehazing image, combined with the nighttime image imaging model, the improved transmittance distribution is obtained, and the fog image at night is dehazed. The experimental results show that the image processed by the algorithm in this paper has little loss of texture details, high image definition, and the contrast between the light and dark of the image is better stretched, which can effectively dehaze the fog image at night. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater acoustic channels often have to face the interference of impulsive noise, which is usually modeled by α-stable distribution in simulation experiments. To solve the problem of underwater acoustic channel estimation under impulsive noise, this paper proposes a convex combination–variable-step-size least mean p-norm algorithm. The algorithm incorporates a convex combination into the variable-step-size least mean p-norm algorithm and uses the convex combination of different convergence domains provided by changing the parameters of the Gaussian function to further improve the effect after convergence. The simulation results of channel estimation show that the convex combination–variable-step-size least mean p-norm algorithm provides a more stable, robust, and universal solution than the variable-step-size least mean p-norm algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Rapid-exploration Random Tree (RRT) autonomous detection algorithm based on the multi-guide-node deflection strategy andKarto Simultaneous Localization andMapping (SLAM) algorithmwas proposed to solve the problems of low efficiency of detecting frontier boundary points and drift distortion in the process of map building in the traditional RRT algorithm in the autonomous detection strategy of mobile robot. Firstly, an RRT global frontier boundary point detection algorithm based on the multi-guide-node deflection strategy was put forward, which introduces the reference value of guide nodes' deflection probability into the random sampling function so that the global search tree can detect frontier boundary points towards the guide nodes according to random probability. After that, a new autonomous detection algorithm for mobile robots was proposed by combining the graph optimization-based Karto SLAM algorithm with the previously improved RRT algorithm. The algorithm simulation platform based on the Gazebo platform was built. The simulation results show that compared with the traditional RRT algorithm, the proposed RRT autonomous detection algorithm can effectively reduce the time of autonomous detection, plan the length of detection trajectory under the condition of high average detection coverage, and complete the task of autonomous detection mapping more efficiently. Finally, with the help of the ROS-based mobile robot experimental platform, the performance of the proposed algorithm was verified in the real environment of different obstacles. The experimental results show that in the actual environment of simple and complex obstacles, the proposed RRT autonomous detection algorithm was superior to the traditional RRT autonomous detection algorithm in the time of detection, length of detection trajectory, and average coverage, thus improving the efficiency and accuracy of autonomous detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous driving technology has made a lot of outstanding achievements with deep learning, and the vehicle detection and classification algorithm has become one of the critical technologies of autonomous driving systems. The vehicle instance segmentation can perform instance-level semantic parsing of vehicle information, which is more accurate and reliable than object detection. However, the existing instance segmentation algorithms still have the problems of poor mask prediction accuracy and low detection speed. Therefore, this paper proposes an advanced real-time instance segmentation model named FIR-YOLACT, which fuses the ICIoU (Improved Complete Intersection over Union) and Res2Net for the YOLACT algorithm. Specifically, the ICIoU function can effectively solve the degradation problem of the original CIoU loss function, and improve the training convergence speed and detection accuracy. The Res2Net module fused with the ECA (Efficient Channel Attention) Net is added to the model’s backbone network, which improves the multi-scale detection capability and mask prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the Cluster NMS (Non-Maximum Suppression) algorithm is introduced in the model’s bounding box regression to enhance the performance of detecting similarly occluded objects. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of FIR-YOLACT to the based methods and the effectiveness of all components. The processing speed reaches 28 FPS, which meets the demands of real-time vehicle instance segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a road crack detection algorithm based on an improved SparseInst network, called the SparseInst-CDSM algorithm, aimed at solving the problems of low recognition accuracy and poor real-time detection of existing algorithms. The algorithm introduces the CBAM module, DCNv2 convolution, SPM strip pooling module, MPM mixed pooling module, etc., effectively improving the integrity and accuracy of crack recognition. At the same time, the central axis skeleton of the crack is extracted using the central axis method, and the length and maximum width of the crack are calculated. In the experimental comparison under the self-built crack dataset, SparseInst-CDSM has an accuracy of 93.66%, a precision of 67.35%, a recall of 66.72%, and an IoU of 84.74%, all higher than mainstream segmentation models such as Mask-RCNN and SOLO that were compared, reflecting the superiority of the algorithm proposed in this paper. The comparison results of actual measurements show that the algorithm error is within 10%, indicating that it has high effectiveness and practicality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryo-electron micrograph images have various characteristics such as varying sizes, shapes, and distribution densities of individual particles, severe background noise, high levels of impurities, irregular shapes, blurred edges, and similar color to the background. How to demonstrate good adaptability in the field of image vision by picking up single particles from multiple types of cryo-electron micrographs is currently a challenge in the field of cryo-electron micrographs. This paper combines the characteristics of the MixUp hybrid enhancement algorithm, enhances the image feature information in the pre-processing stage, builds a feature perception network based on the channel self-attention mechanism in the forward network of the Swin Transformer model network, achieving adaptive adjustment of self-attention mechanism between different single particles, increasing the network's tolerance to noise, Incorporating PReLU activation function to enhance information exchange between pixel blocks of different single particles, and combining the Cross-Entropy function with the softmax function to construct a classification network based on Swin Transformer suitable for cryo-electron micrograph single particle detection model (Swin-cryoEM), achieving mixed detection of multiple types of single particles. Swin-cryoEM algorithm can better solve the problem of good adaptability in picking single particles of many types of cryo-electron micrographs, improve the accuracy and generalization ability of the single particle picking method, and provide high-quality data support for the three-dimensional reconstruction of a single particle. In this paper, ablation experiments and comparison experiments were designed to evaluate and compare Swin-cryoEM algorithms in detail and comprehensively on multiple datasets. The Average Precision is an important evaluation index of the evaluation model, and the optimal Average Precision reached 95.5% in the training stage Swin-cryoEM, and the single particle picking performance was also superior in the prediction stage. This model inherits the advantages of the Swin Transformer detection model and is superior to mainstream models such as Faster R-CNN and YOLOv5 in terms of the single particle detection capability of cryo-electron micrographs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fabric defect detection is an important part of the textile industry, aiming at the problems of many types of fabric defects, small size defects and unbalanced samples, an improved YOLOv5 fabric defect detection algorithm, FD-YOLOv5, was proposed. First, the coordinate attention module is embedded in the YOLOv5 backbone network structure to replace the bottleneck structure in the original network model. While reducing the amount of parameters and calculation, it enhances the ability of the network to extract features and improves the model's ability to detect small target defects. Secondly, a smoother Mish activation function is used in the original model convolution structure for model training, which improves the nonlinear expression ability of the model; the SIoU loss function considering the direction of the anchor box is used to improve the convergence speed and detection accuracy of the model. Finally, combining the focal loss and GHM loss functions as the target confidence loss function to solve the problem of sample imbalance in the fabric defect dataset. The experimental results based on the public fabric defect dataset of Aliyun TianChi shows that the mAP@.5 and mAP@.5:.95 of the improved algorithm are 65.1% and 30.4%, respectively, which are 8.3% and 3.2% higher than the original model, respectively, and the parameter amount, calculation amount and weight of the model are reduced by 8.4%, 11.2% and 14.3%, respectively, compared with the original model. Even compared with the state-of-the-art YOLOv7 model, the mAP@.5 value of the proposed model is improved by 6.5%. Although the FPS value is lower than YOLOv7 model, it also achieves a detection speed of 79 frames per second, which can meet the real-time demand. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in this paper, which can provide a reference for the automatic detection method of fabric defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this study is a clustering algorithm using various technologies. This paper compares clustering algorithms that are more commonly used to analyze urban road network trajectories, the growth curve model, with the elbow method and the x-means algorithm. Experiments were conducted with various volumes of big data to determine calculation time, accuracy, and ways to increase calculation time. These results can be used to manage traffic jams in congested areas and city streets. Considering the widespread use of clustering algorithms for solving various problems, this study proposes to introduce GCM, SPGK methods for monitoring and analyzing the state of congestion on city roads. The work was carried out in the following steps: research and selection of methods based on efficiency and time, implementation of parallel computing technologies to improve computation speed, demonstration of the selected method based on collected data from a real city with visualization of the results. The growth curve model algorithm has been proven to be almost 5 times more effective than the elbow method and the x-means algorithm. The time allocated for data processing has been calculated. An increase in the volume of processed data showed an almost stable execution time t=3 s for the GCM algorithm for data with a volume of up to almost 2,000 units. The effectiveness of SPGK-means was shown for different values of the number of points. Models of the Chengdu transport network obtained using a clustering algorithm with maximum grid density of neighborhoods are presented. There are some deviations between the grid and the road network due to the large grid size. This error is explained by an error of up to one between the points and the real grid. The results obtained clearly show how optimization of congested roads can be influenced. They provide information to obtain data on available routes, which allows you to analyze the road network individually and as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal operation of reservoir groups is a strongly constrained, multi-stage, and high-dimensional optimization problem. In response to this issue, this article couples the standard Pelican optimization algorithm with adaptive ε constraint methods, and further improves the optimization performance of the algorithm by initializing the population with a good point set, reverse differential evolution, and optimal individual t-distribution perturbation strategy. Based on this, an improved Pelican algorithm coupled with adaptive ε constraint method is proposed (ε-IPOA). The performance of the algorithm was tested through 24 constraint testing functions to find the optimal ability and solve constraint optimization problems. The results showed that the algorithm has strong optimization ability and stable performance. In this paper, we select Sanmenxia and Xiaolangdi reservoirs as the research objects, establish the maximum peak-cutting model of terrace reservoirs, apply the ε-IPOA algorithm to solve the model, and compare it with the ε-POA (Pelican algorithm coupled with adaptive ε constraint method) and ε-DE (Differential Evolution Algorithm) algorithms, the results indicate that ε. The peak flow rate of the Huayuankou control point solved by the IPOA algorithm is 12,319 m3/s, which is much lower than the safe overflow flow rate of 22,000 m3/s at the Huayuankou control point, with a peak shaving rate of 44%, and other algorithms do not find effective solutions meeting the constraint conditions. This paper provides a new idea for solving the problem of flood control optimal operation of cascade reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key of development for OLED devices is compatibility between organic materials. Therefore, the construction of the materials' properties DB should be followed in order to advance characterization and prediction of the OLED device. In particular, it is necessary to build a number of organic materials DB unlike the conventional Si‐based homo‐junction and alloy changing only heterojunction. So, it should be built based on the organic material parameters, SIMDB (Simulation DB), it is possible to predict and optimize driving voltage and efficiency characteristics for OLED devices. However, the skilled Engineer gets to decide on the simple repeat operation and time consumption for calibrating the material parameter/structure (4~5 layer device based on 20,000 times or more). In order to solve such problems, this paper presents an automatic optimization for electro‐optical characteristics of OLED device. The proposed method and tool are based on a unique heuristic algorithm, which is obtained from accumulated manual calibration experience. In other words, the convergence know‐how is applied random search algorithm and heuristic algorithm were constructed in‐house optimizer enables automated extraction of OLED properties. Finally, by utilizing the built SIMDB is expected to various factors affecting the OLED elements is optimized to be analyzed and prior prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding of optimization algorithm's behavior is a vital part that is needed for quality progress in the field of stochastic optimization algorithms. To be able to overcome this deficiency, we need to establish new standards for understanding optimization algorithm behavior, which will provide understanding of the working principles behind the stochastic optimization algorithms. In their paper I Evolutionary algorithms and submodular functions: benefits of heavy-tailed mutations i , Quinzan et al. develop suitable Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) to tackle submodular optimization problems. The paper I Improving convergence in swarm algorithms by controlling range of random movement i by Chaudhary and Banati studies the applicability of the IS technique over different swarm algorithms employing different random distributions. [Extracted from the article]

Effective data communication is a crucial aspect of the Social Internet of Things (SIoT) and continues to be a significant research focus. This paper proposes a data forwarding algorithm based on Multidimensional Social Relations (MSRR) in SIoT to solve this problem. The proposed algorithm separates message forwarding into intra- and cross-community forwarding by analyzing interest traits and social connections among nodes. Three new metrics are defined: the intensity of node social relationships, node activity, and community connectivity. Within the community, messages are sent by determining which node is most similar to the sender by weighing the strength of social connections and node activity. When a node performs cross-community forwarding, the message is forwarded to the most reasonable relay community by measuring the node activity and the connection between communities. The proposed algorithm was compared to three existing routing algorithms in simulation experiments. Results indicate that the proposed algorithmsubstantially improves message delivery efficiency while lessening network overhead and enhancing connectivity and coordination in the SIoT context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial physical optimizer (APO), as a new heuristic stochastic algorithm, is difficult to balance convergence and diversity when dealing with complex multi-objective problems. This paper introduces the advantages of R2 indicator and target space decomposition strategy, and constructs the candidate solution of external archive pruning technology selection based on APO algorithm. A hybrid strategy guided multi-objective artificial physical optimizer algorithm (HSGMOAPO) is proposed. Firstly, R2 indicator is used to select the candidate solutions that have great influence on the convergence of the whole algorithm. Secondly, the target space decomposition strategy is used to select the remaining solutions to improve the diversity of the algorithm. Finally, the restriction processing method is used to improve the ability to avoid local optimization. In order to verify the comprehensive ability of HSGMOAPO algorithm in solving multi-objective problems, five comparison algorithms were evaluated experimentally on standard test problems and practical problems. The results show that HSGMOAPO algorithm has good convergence and diversity in solving multi-objective problems, and has the potential to solve practical problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problem of the poor performance of a flame detection algorithm in a complex forest background, such as poor detection performance, insensitivity to small targets, and excessive computational load, there is an urgent need for a lightweight, high-accuracy, real-time detection system. This paper introduces a lightweight object-detection algorithm called GS-YOLOv5s, which is based on the YOLOv5s baseline model and incorporates a multi-scale feature fusion knowledge distillation architecture. Firstly, the ghost shuffle convolution bottleneck is applied to obtain richer gradient information through branching. Secondly, the WIoU loss function is used to address the issues of GIoU related to model optimization, slow convergence, and inaccurate regression. Finally, a knowledge distillation algorithm based on feature fusion is employed to further improve its accuracy. Experimental results based on the dataset show that compared to the YOLOv5s baseline model, the proposed algorithm reduces the number of parameters and floating-point operations by approximately 26% and 36%, respectively. Moreover, it achieved a 3.1% improvement in mAP0.5 compared to YOLOv5s. The experiments demonstrate that GS-YOLOv5s, based on multi-scale feature fusion, not only enhances detection accuracy but also meets the requirements of lightweight and real-time detection in forest fire detection, commendably improving the practicality of flame-detection algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cracks are one of the main types of tunnel-lining defects. At present, there are no particularly good methods for identifying tunnel-lining cracks. The methods that are used are associated with problems such as poor robustness, low detection efficiency, and inconsistency in defect identification. Vision-based crack identification algorithms that use images of tunnel-lining cracks are also affected by problems such as weak features, irregular shapes, random development, and small proportions. In light of this, we propose in this paper a neural network that integrates U-net and FPN (feature pyramid network) pyramid structure characteristics. Because of its ability to output deep feature information, an SK (selective kernel) attention mechanism was integrated to increase the weight of effective feature regions and improve the detection accuracy of feature maps. An RPN (region proposal network) regional detection network was used for multi-scale regional screening, and non-maximum suppression was used to eliminate repeated anchor frames between different regions. The continuity of cracks was determined using adaptive regional expansion. The region segmentation network was also combined with multi-scale feature maps. Finally, the segmentation results for regions of fine features could be mapped to the whole image to identify cracks, thereby solving the problem that arises when textural features of cracks are weak and cannot be accurately identified. For testing purposes, photos of tunnel-lining crack defects were used. The algorithm described in this paper was able to combine deep and shallow features to identify more abundant crack features, and the recognition accuracy of the crack classification network reached 98.51%. With respect to crack segmentation, the algorithm's segmentation accuracy reached 94.55%, and its single processing time reached 60.76 ms, indicating more accurate and efficient segmentation performance, compared with FCNs (fully convolutional networks) and classical U-net networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fog computing aims to mitigate data communication delay by deploying fog nodes to provide servers in the proximity of users and offload resource-hungry tasks that would otherwise be sent to distant cloud servers. In this paper, we propose an effective fog device deployment algorithm based on a new metaheuristic algorithm–search economics–to solve the optimization problem for the deployment of fog computing systems. The term "effective" in this paper refers to that the developed algorithm can achieve better performance in terms of metrics such as lower latency and less resource usage. Compared with conventional metaheuristic algorithms, the proposed algorithm is unique in that it first divides the solution space into a set of regions to increase search diversity of the search and then allocates different computational resources to each region according to its potential. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, we compare it with several classical fog computing deployment algorithms. The simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm provides lower network latency and higher quality of service than the other deployment algorithms evaluated in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chip pad inspection is of great practical importance for chip alignment inspection and correction. It is one of the key technologies for automated chip inspection in semiconductor manufacturing. When applying deep learning methods for chip pad inspection, the main problem to be solved is how to ensure the accuracy of small target pad detection and, at the same time, achieve a lightweight inspection model. The attention mechanism is widely used to improve the accuracy of small target detection by finding the attention region of the network. However, conventional attention mechanisms capture feature information locally, which makes it difficult to effectively improve the detection efficiency of small targets from complex backgrounds in target detection tasks. In this paper, an OCAM (Object Convolution Attention Module) attention module is proposed to build long-range dependencies between channel features and position features by constructing feature contextual relationships to enhance the correlation between features. By adding the OCAM attention module to the feature extraction layer of the YOLOv5 network, the detection performance of chip pads is effectively improved. In addition, a design guideline for the attention layer is proposed in the paper. The attention layer is adjusted by network scaling to avoid network characterization bottlenecks, balance network parameters, and network detection performance, and reduce the hardware device requirements for the improved YOLOv5 network in practical scenarios. Extensive experiments on chip pad datasets, VOC datasets, and COCO datasets show that the approach in this paper is more general and superior to several state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional camera sensors rely on human eyes for observation. However, human eyes are prone to fatigue when observing objects of different sizes for a long time in complex scenes, and human cognition is limited, which often leads to judgment errors and greatly reduces efficiency. Object recognition technology is an important technology used to judge the object's category on a camera sensor. In order to solve this problem, a small-size object detection algorithm for special scenarios was proposed in this paper. The advantage of this algorithm is that it not only has higher precision for small-size object detection but also can ensure that the detection accuracy for each size is not lower than that of the existing algorithm. There are three main innovations in this paper, as follows: (1) A new downsampling method which could better preserve the context feature information is proposed. (2) The feature fusion network is improved to effectively combine shallow information and deep information. (3) A new network structure is proposed to effectively improve the detection accuracy of the model. From the point of view of detection accuracy, it is better than YOLOX, YOLOR, YOLOv3, scaled YOLOv5, YOLOv7-Tiny, and YOLOv8. Three authoritative public datasets are used in these experiments: (a) In the Visdron dataset (small-size objects), the map, precision, and recall ratios of DC-YOLOv8 are 2.5%, 1.9%, and 2.1% higher than those of YOLOv8s, respectively. (b) On the Tinyperson dataset (minimal-size objects), the map, precision, and recall ratios of DC-YOLOv8 are 1%, 0.2%, and 1.2% higher than those of YOLOv8s, respectively. (c) On the PASCAL VOC2007 dataset (normal-size objects), the map, precision, and recall ratios of DC-YOLOv8 are 0.5%, 0.3%, and 0.4% higher than those of YOLOv8s, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the wave of artificial intelligence and deep learning sweeping the world, there are many algorithms based on deep learning for image defog research. However, there is still serious color distortion, contrast reduction, incomplete fog removal, and other problems. To solve these problems, this paper proposes an improved image defogging network based on the traditional cycle-consistent adversarial network. We add the self-attention module and atrous convolution multi-scale feature fusion module on the basis of the traditional CycleGAN network to enhance the feature extraction capability of the network. The perceptual loss function is introduced into the loss function of the model to enhance the texture sense of the generated image. Finally, by comparing several typical defogging algorithms, the superiority of the defogging model proposed in this paper is proved qualitatively and quantitatively. Among them, on the indoor synthetic data set, the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index Measurement (SSIM) of the network designed by us can reach 23.22 and 0.8809, respectively. On the outdoor synthetic data set, the PSNR and SSIM of our designed network can be as high as 25.72 and 0.8859, respectively. On the real data set, the PSNR and SSIM of our designed network can reach 21.02 and 0.8166, respectively. It is proved that the defogging network in this paper has good practicability and universality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]