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This paper describes a valuable linear yaw-roll tractor-semitrailer (TST) model with five-degree-of-freedom (DOFs) for control algorithm development when steering and braking. The key parameters, roll stiffness, axle cornering stiffness, and fifth-wheel stiffness, are identified by the genetic algorithm (GA) and multistage genetic algorithm (MGA) based on TruckSim outputs to increase the accuracy of the model. Thus, the key parameters of the simplified model can be modified according to the real-time vehicle states by online lookup table and interpolation. The TruckSim vehicle model is built referring to the real tractor (JAC-HFC4251P1K7E33ZTF6×2) and semitrailer (Luyue LHX9406) used in the field test later. The validation of the linear yaw-roll model of a tractor-semitrailer using field test data is presented in this paper. The field test in the performance testing ground is detailed, and the test data of roll angle, roll rate, and yaw rate are compared with the outputs of the model with maps of the key parameters. The results indicate that the error of the tractor’s roll angle and semitrailer’s roll angle between model data and test data is 1.13% and 1.24%, respectively. The roll rate and yaw rate of the tractor and semitrailer are also in good agreement.

The digging resistance in a normal state is the key to excavator design and automated excavation. It is difficult to accurately predict, simulate, or directly measure the digging resistance in a normal state due to uncertainties in the soil properties and excavation parameters. In this paper, a research idea is proposed that uses the working device as the entry point to indirectly calculate the digging resistance in a normal state by measuring the motion parameters and the cylinder pressure intensity. Based on the rule of combination for spatial force systems, a method for combining and projecting the system of the digging resistance is proposed in which the system is projected as six parts, and the tangential force, normal force, and bending moment in the plane of symmetry of the working device are the objects of the solution to avoid redundant equations. Based on kinematics and dynamics models of the excavator and the force and moment equilibrium conditions of the working device, equations for the active-side calculation of the incomplete digging resistance are derived. Based on these equations, the motion parameters of the working device and data on the cylinder pressure intensity obtained by measurement are used to calculate the incomplete digging resistance. The validation scheme and process proposed use the incomplete digging resistance as the external load to obtain the simulated stress of the working device through transient analysis. The simulated stress and the measured stress corresponding to the position of the measurement point are extracted and compared. The results show that there is a difference in the size of the numerical value between the simulated and measured stress, but the variation law is highly consistent, which validates the calculation method. In this paper, an active-side calculation method is provided for the incomplete digging resistance in a normal state without considering the soil-tool interaction relationships, which lays a theoretical foundation for the study of the digging resistance characteristics in a normal state, as well as excavator design and automated excavation.

In order to detect infrared (IR) dim and small targets in a strong clutter background, a method based on local energy center of sequential image is proposed. This paper began by using improved anisotropy for background prediction (IABP), followed by target enhancement by improved high-order cumulates (HOC). Finally, on the basis of image preprocessing, the paper constructs a sequential image energy center detection algorithm that integrates the neighborhood, continuity, area, and energy and other motion characteristics of the target. Experiments showed that the improved anisotropic background predication could be loyal to the true background of the original image to the maximum extent, presenting a superior overall performance to other background prediction methods; the improved HOC significantly increased the signal-noise ratio of images; when the signal-noise ratio (SNR) is lower than 2.5 dB, the proposed method could effectively eliminate noise and detect targets.

In order to express the safety level of hull structures, IACS Common Structure Rules of Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers (CSR-H) makes new requirements of hull girder ultimate strength. Compared with original CSR (i.e., CSR-OT and CSR-BC), partial safety factors of hull girder ultimate strength in CSR-H have been partly modified, and new requirements of residual strength have been added in the rules for hull safety after grounded/collided damage. This paper compares the rule requirements of ultimate strength in CSR-H and CSR-OT/CSR-BC and explains the technical background of rule requirements. The hull girder ultimate strength is mainly analyzed by SMITH method in rule requirements due to fast and stable calculation results. This paper also uses nonlinear finite element method (NFEM) to explain the critical influence factors for hull girder ultimate strength implied in the rule requirements. Based on 5 typical Bulk Carriers and 4 typical Oil Tankers, the influence of hull girder ultimate strength and residual strength in CSR-H has been evaluated for ship building industry. The actual ship evaluation results can be used to instruct the new CSR-H ship design.

This paper presents a predictive control strategy for an image-based visual servoing scheme that employs evolutionary optimization. The visual control task is approached as a nonlinear optimization problem that naturally handles relevant visual servoing constraints such as workspace limitations and visibility restrictions. As the predictive scheme requires a reliable model, this paper uses a local model that is based on the visual interaction matrix and a global model that employs 3D trajectory data extracted from a quaternion-based interpolator. The work assumes a free-flying camera with 6-DOF simulation whose results support the discussion on the constraint handling and the image prediction scheme.

This paper presents a method to perform chord classification from recorded audio. The signal harmonics are obtained by using the Fast Fourier Transform, and timbral information is suppressed by spectral whitening. A multiple fundamental frequency estimation of whitened data is achieved by adding attenuated harmonics by a weighting function. This paper proposes a method that performs feature selection by using a thresholding of the uncertainty of all frequency bins. Those measurements under the threshold are removed from the signal in the frequency domain. This allows a reduction of 95.53% of the signal characteristics, and the other 4.47% of frequency bins are used as enhanced information for the classifier. An Artificial Neural Network was utilized to classify four types of chords: major, minor, major 7th, and minor 7th. Those, played in the twelve musical notes, give a total of 48 different chords. Two reference methods (based on Hidden Markov Models) were compared with the method proposed in this paper by having the same database for the evaluation test. In most of the performed tests, the proposed method achieved a reasonably high performance, with an accuracy of 93%.

Currently superresolution from a motion blurred image still remains a challenging task. The conventional approach, which preprocesses the blurry low resolution (LR) image with a deblurring algorithm and employs a superresolution algorithm, has the following limitation. The high frequency texture of the image is unavoidably lost in the deblurring process and this loss restricts the performance of the subsequent superresolution process. This paper presents a novel technique that performs motion deblurring and superresolution jointly from one single blurry image. The basic idea is to regularize the ill-posed reconstruction problem using an edge-preserving gradient prior and a sparse kernel prior. This method derives from an inverse problem approach under an efficient optimization scheme that alternates between blur kernel estimation and superresolving until convergence. Furthermore, this paper proposes a simple and efficient refinement formulation to remove artifacts and render better deblurred high resolution (HR) images. The improvements brought by the proposed combined framework are demonstrated by the processing results of both simulated and real-life images. Quantitative and qualitative results on challenging examples show that the proposed method outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods and effectively eliminates motion blur and artifacts in the superresolved image.

Feature interaction has gained considerable attention recently. However, many feature selection methods considering interaction are only designed for categorical features. This paper proposes a mixed feature selection algorithm based on neighborhood rough sets that can be used to search for interacting features. In this paper, feature relevance, feature redundancy, and feature interaction are defined in the framework of neighborhood rough sets, the neighborhood interaction weight factor reflecting whether a feature is redundant or interactive is proposed, and a neighborhood interaction weight based feature selection algorithm (NIWFS) is brought forward. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we compare NIWFS with other three feature selection algorithms, including INTERACT, NRS, and NMI, in terms of the classification accuracies and the number of selected features with C4.5 and IB1. The results from ten real world datasets indicate that NIWFS not only deals with mixed datasets directly, but also reduces the dimensionality of feature space with the highest average accuracies.

Multiplicative relations are one of most powerful techniques to express the preferences over alternatives (or criteria). In this paper, we propose a wide range of hesitant multiplicative fuzzy power aggregation geometric operators on multiattribute group decision making (MAGDM) problems for hesitant multiplicative information. In this paper, we first develop some compatibility measures for hesitant multiplicative fuzzy numbers, based on which the corresponding support measures can be obtained. Then we propose several aggregation techniques, and investigate their properties. In the end, we develop two approaches for multiple attribute group decision making with hesitant multiplicative fuzzy information and illustrate a real world example to show the behavior of the proposed operators.

The nearest neighbor is one of the most popular classifiers, and it has been successfully used in pattern recognition and machine learning. One drawback ofkNN is that it performs poorly when class distributions are overlapping. Recently, local probability center (LPC) algorithm is proposed to solve this problem; its main idea is giving weight to samples according to their posterior probability. However, LPC performs poorly when the value ofkis very small and the higher-dimensional datasets are used. To deal with this problem, this paper suggests that the gradient of the posterior probability function can be estimated under sufficient assumption. The theoretic property is beneficial to faithfully calculate the inner product of two vectors. To increase the performance in high-dimensional datasets, the multidimensional Parzen window and Euler-Richardson method are utilized, and a new classifier based on local probability centers is developed in this paper. Experimental results show that the proposed method yields stable performance with a wide range ofkfor usage, robust performance to overlapping issue, and good performance to dimensionality. The proposed theorem can be applied to mathematical problems and other applications. Furthermore, the proposed method is an attractive classifier because of its simplicity.

The paper presents the theoretical part of a method for identifying constitutive parameters involved in the modified Oyane ductile fracture criterion at high temperature. Quite a general rigid viscoplastic model is adopted to describe material behavior. The ductile fracture criterion is in general path-dependent and involves stresses. Therefore, the identification of constitutive parameters of this criterion is a difficult task which usually includes experimental research and numerical simulation. The latter requires a precisely specified material model and boundary conditions. It is shown in the present paper that for a wide class of material models usually used to describe the behavior of materials at high temperatures, the criterion is significantly simplified when the site of fracture initiation is located on traction free surfaces. In particular, this reduced criterion does not involve stresses. Since there are well established experimental procedures to determine the input data for the reduced criterion, the result obtained can be considered as a theoretical basis for the efficient method for identifying constitutive parameters of the modified Oyane ductile fracture criterion at high temperature. The final expression can also be used in computational models to increase the accuracy of predictions.

With the rapid development and application of CRFs (Conditional Random Fields) in computer vision, many researchers have made some outstanding progress in this domain because CRFs solve the classical version of the label bias problem with respect to MEMMs (maximum entropy Markov models) and HMMs (hidden Markov models). This paper reviews the research development and status of object recognition with CRFs and especially introduces two main discrete optimization methods for image labeling with CRFs: graph cut and mean field approximation. This paper describes graph cut briefly while it introduces mean field approximation more detailedly which has a substantial speed of inference and is researched popularly in recent years.

In this paper, an improved NSGA2 algorithm is proposed, which is used to solve the multiobjective problem. For the original NSGA2 algorithm, the paper made one improvement: joining the local search strategy into the NSGA2 algorithm. After each iteration calculation of the NSGA2 algorithm, a kind of local search strategy is performed in the Pareto optimal set to search better solutions, such that the NSGA2 algorithm can gain a better local search ability which is helpful to the optimization process. Finally, the proposed modified NSGA2 algorithm (MNSGA2) is simulated in the two classic multiobjective problems which is called KUR problem and ZDT3 problem. The calculation results show the modified NSGA2 outperforms the original NSGA2, which indicates that the improvement strategy is helpful to improve the algorithm.

In most synthesis evaluation systems and decision-making systems, data are represented by objects and attributes of objects with a degree of belief. Formally, these data can be abstracted by the form (objects; attributes; P), wherePrepresents a kind degree of belief between objects and attributes, such that,Pis a basic probability assignment. In the paper, we provide a kind of probability information system to describe these data and then employ rough sets theory to extract probability decision rules. By extension of Dempster-Shafer evidence theory, we can get probabilities of antecedents and conclusion of probability decision rules. Furthermore, we analyze the consistency of probability decision rules. Based on consistency of probability decision rules, we provide an inference method to finish inference of probability decision rules, which can be used to decide the class of a new objectx′. The conclusion points out that the inference method of the paper not only deals with precise information, but also imprecise or uncertain information as well.

This paper presents a method determining neighborhoods of the image pixels automatically in adaptive denoising. The neighborhood is named stationary neighborhood (SN). In this method, the noisy image is considered as an observation of a nonlinear time series (NTS). Image denoising must recover the true state of the NTS from the observation. At first, the false neighbors (FNs) in a neighborhood for each pixel are removed according to the context. After moving the FNs, we obtain an SN, where the NTS is stationary and the real state can be estimated using the theory of stationary time series (STS). Since each SN of an image pixel consists of elements with similar context and nearby locations, the method proposed in this paper can not only adaptively find neighbors and determine size of the SN according to the characteristics of a pixel, but also be able to denoise while effectively preserving edges. Finally, in order to show the superiority of this algorithm, we compare this method with the existing universal denoising algorithms.

In view of techniques for constructing high-order fuzzy time series models, there are three types which are based on advanced algorithms, computational method, and grouping the fuzzy logical relationships. The last type of models is easy to be understood by the decision maker who does not know anything about fuzzy set theory or advanced algorithms. To deal with forecasting problems, this paper presented novel high-order fuzz time series models denoted as GTS(M, N)based on generalized fuzzy logical relationships and automatic clustering. This paper issued the concept of generalized fuzzy logical relationship and an operation for combining the generalized relationships. Then, the procedure of the proposed model was implemented on forecasting enrollment data at the University of Alabama. To show the considerable outperforming results, the proposed approach was also applied to forecasting the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index. Finally, the effects of parametersMandN, the number of order, and concerned principal fuzzy logical relationships, on the forecasting results were also discussed.

A wide range of application domains from cognitive robotics to intelligent systems encompassing diverse paradigms such as ambient intelligence and ubiquitous computing environments require the ability to represent and reason about the spatial aspects of the environment within which an agent or a system is functional. Many existing spatial reasoners share a common limitation that they do not provide any checking functions for cross-consistency between the directional and the topological relation set. They provide only the checking function for path-consistency within a directional or topological relation set. This paper presents an efficient spatial reasoning algorithm working on a mixture of directional and topological relations between spatial entities and then explains the implementation of a spatial reasoner based on the proposed algorithm. Our algorithm not only has the checking function for path-consistency within each directional or topological relation set, but also provides the checking function for cross-consistency between them. This paper also presents an application system developed to demonstrate the applicability of the spatial reasoner and then introduces the results of the experiment carried out to evaluate the performance of our spatial reasoner.

This paper presents a new method of color aesthetic evaluation based on the combination of form and color. According to the human visual physiological and psychological characteristics, this paper first proposes a new form-color field theory for the coupled form-color aesthetic evaluation based on the psychophysical field theory and the Moon and Spencer model. Second, it builds a coupled form-color topological graph for describing their interaction and develops a strength calculation algorithm for color harmony based on the new form-color field theory. Finally, it develops an aesthetic measure evaluation model for coupled form-color fields to evaluate the new theory. The experiment results show that the new coupled form-color aesthetic evaluation method is useful and can be integrated into an intelligent evaluation process for color design scheme.

In recent years Grammatical Evolution (GE) has been used as a representation of Genetic Programming (GP) which has been applied to many optimization problems such as symbolic regression, classification, Boolean functions, constructed problems, and algorithmic problems. GE can use a diversity of searching strategies including Swarm Intelligence (SI). Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) is an algorithm of SI that has two main problems: premature convergence and poor diversity. Particle Evolutionary Swarm Optimization (PESO) is a recent and novel algorithm which is also part of SI. PESO uses two perturbations to avoid PSO’s problems. In this paper we propose using PESO and PSO in the frame of GE as strategies to generate heuristics that solve the Bin Packing Problem (BPP); it is possible however to apply this methodology to other kinds of problems using another Grammar designed for that problem. A comparison between PESO, PSO, and BPP’s heuristics is performed through the nonparametric Friedman test. The main contribution of this paper is proposing a Grammar to generate online and offline heuristics depending on the test instance trying to improve the heuristics generated by other grammars and humans; it also proposes a way to implement different algorithms as search strategies in GE like PESO to obtain better results than those obtained by PSO.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a three-dimensional grey interval relational degree model for dynamic Multiattribute decision making. In the model, the observed values are interval grey numbers. Elements are selected in the system as the points in anm-dimensional linear space. Then observation data of each element to different time and objects are as the coordinates of point. An optimization model is employed to obtain each scheme’s affiliate degree for the positive and negative ideal schemes. And a three-dimensional grey interval relational degree model based on time, index, and scheme is constructed in the paper. The result shows that the three-dimensional grey relational degree simplifies the traditional dynamic multiattribute decision making method and can better resolve the dynamic multiattribute decision making problem of interval numbers. The example illustrates that the method presented in the paper can be used to deal with problems of uncertainty such as dynamic multiattribute decision making.

In this paper, some basic concepts of multimodal transportation and swarm intelligence were described and reviewed and analyzed related literatures of multimodal transportation scheme decision and swarm intelligence methods application areas. Then, this paper established a multimodal transportation scheme decision optimization mathematical model based on transportation costs, transportation time, and transportation risks, explained relevant parameters and the constraints of the model in detail, and used the weight coefficient to transform the multiobjective optimization problems into a single objective optimization transportation scheme decision problem. Then, this paper is proposed by combining particle swarm optimization algorithm and ant colony algorithm (PSACO) to solve the combinatorial optimization problem of multimodal transportation scheme decision for the first time; this algorithm effectively combines the advantages of particle swarm optimization algorithm and ant colony algorithm. The solution shows that the PSACO algorithm has two algorithms’ advantages and makes up their own problems; PSACO algorithm is better than ant colony algorithm in time efficiency and its accuracy is better than that of the particle swarm optimization algorithm, which is proved to be an effective heuristic algorithm to solve the problem about multimodal transportation scheme decision, and it can provide economical, reasonable, and safe transportation plan reference for the transportation decision makers.

The paper proposes a procedure for design of PI controllers for hydraulic systems with long transmission lines which are described by models of high order. Design is based on the combination of the IE criterion and engineering specifications (settling time and relative stability) as well as on the application ofD-decomposition. In comparison with some known results, the method is of graphical character, and it is very simple (solving nonlinear algebraic equations is eliminated). The paper presents the algorithm of software procedure for design of the controller. The method is compared with other methods at the level of simulation, and its superiority is shown. By applying the Nyquist criterion, it is shown that the method possesses robustness in relation to non modelled dynamics.

In view of techniques for constructing high-order fuzzy time series models, there are three methods which are based on advanced algorithms, computational methods, and grouping the fuzzy logical relationships, respectively. The last kind model has been widely applied and researched for the reason that it is easy to be understood by the decision makers. To improve the fuzzy time series forecasting model, this paper presents a novel high-order fuzzy time series models denoted asGTS(M,N)on the basis of generalized fuzzy logical relationships. Firstly, the paper introduces some concepts of the generalized fuzzy logical relationship and an operation for combining the generalized relationships. Then, the proposed model is implemented in forecasting enrollments of the University of Alabama. As an example of in-depth research, the proposed approach is also applied to forecast the close price of Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index. Finally, the effects of the number of orders and hierarchies of fuzzy logical relationships on the forecasting results are discussed.

Feature extraction plays an important role in preprocessing procedure in dealing with small sample size problems. Considering the fact that LDA, LPP, and many other existing methods are confined to one case of the data set. To solve this problem, we propose an efficient method in this paper, named global between maximum and local within minimum. It not only considers the global structure of the data set, but also makes the best of the local geometry of the data set through dividing the data set into four domains. This method preserves relations of the nearest neighborhood, as well as demonstrates an excellent performance in classification. Superiority of the proposed method in this paper is manifested in many experiments on data visualization, face representative, and face recognition.

The flight dynamic equations in mathematics for aircraft response to the adverse weathers, such as wind shear, atmospheric turbulence, and in-flight icing, are nonlinear and unsteady. To effectively analyze the performance degradation and variations in stability of commercial aircraft that encountered these weather hazards, the nonlinear and dynamic (i.e., time dependent) aerodynamic models based on flight data would be needed. In the present paper, a numerical modeling method based on a fuzzy-logic algorithm will be presented to estimate the aerodynamic models for a twin-jet transport by using the flight data from the flight data recorder (FDR). The aerodynamic models having the capability to generate continuous stability derivatives, especially for sensitivity study of unknown factors in adverse weather conditions, will be demonstrated in this paper.

The periodic nonuniform sampling plays an important role in digital signal processing and other engineering fields. In this paper, we introduce the Gaussian regularization method to accelerate the convergence rate of periodic nonuniform sampling series. We prove that the truncation error of the Gaussian regularized periodic nonuniform sampling series decays exponentially. Numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate our result.

In order to control pests and eventually maintain the number of pests below the economic threshold, in this paper, based on the nonsmooth dynamical system, a two-stage-structured pest control Filippov model is proposed. We take the total number of juvenile and adult pest population as the control index to determine whether or not to implement chemical control strategies. The sliding-mode domain and conditions for the existence of regular and virtual equilibria, pseudoequilibrium, boundary equilibria, and tangent points are given. Further, the sufficient condition of the locally asymptotic stability of pseudoequilibrium is obtained. By numerical simulations, the local bifurcations of the equilibria are discussed. Our results show that the total number of pest populations can be successfully controlled below the economic threshold by taking suitable threshold policy.

The hydrodynamic coefficients are important parameters for predicting the motion of the glider and upgrading the hull design. In this paper, based on the Reynolds number similarity theory, 6 degrees of freedom (DOFs) of the fluid force and torque of a 1:1 full-scale glider model are measured. The present measurements were carried out at (2 - 14m/s) by varying attack angles and sideslip angles (-9 - 9°), respectively. The measurements were used to study the variation of the hydrodynamics of the glider, and the measurements have also been used to validate results obtained from a CFD code that uses RNG k-ε. The hydrodynamic force coefficients obtained from CFD accord well with the measurements. However, the torque coefficients difference is fairly large. Dynamics simulation results show that CFD results can be used to design and study the motion characteristics of gliders. In order to simplify the design process of gliders, we fit the empirical formula based on the experimental data and obtain a drag coefficient equation with Reynolds number. The influence of two kinds of appendages of the Conductance-Temperature-Depth (CTD) unit and thruster unit on the glider drag were studied by a contrast test. The analysis results can provide reference for design and the motion investigate of gliders.

This paper aims to achieve the accurate prediction of box girder deformation in SCS-enhanced PSC continuous box girder bridges. To this end, the authors proposed a box girder deformation prediction model based on unequal interval grey model (UIGM) and residual composite correction (RCC). Firstly, the tension forces of cables and the deformation data of box girder were regarded as the time sequence and the original unequal interval sequence, respectively, and the UIGM was constructed to predict the box girder deformation. Secondly, the sine function was constructed on the average features of the residual sequence waveform, and the periodic sequence function was generated by harmonic transform. The two functions were employed to extract the implicit periodic information and overcome the limitation of the UIGM (i.e., the UIGM only generates the change rate of a single index). Finally, the Markov chain method was adopted to treat the random fluctuations and further enhance the prediction accuracy and adaptability of the model. Then, the proposed UIGM-RCC was applied to predict the box girder deformation of Dongming Huanghe River Highway Bridge and forecast the settlement of a building mentioned in previous research. The results show that the proposed model can reflect the exact periodicity and random fluctuations of box girder deformation in SCS-enhanced PSC continuous box girder bridges. The research findings provide a meaningful reference for improving deformation prediction accuracy in SCS-enhanced structures.

Singular value (SV) difference is the difference in the singular values between a noisy image and the original image; it varies regularly with noise intensity. This paper proposes an image denoising method using the singular value difference in the wavelet domain. First, the SV difference model is generated for different noise variances in the three directions of the wavelet transform and the noise variance of a new image is used to make the calculation by the diagonal part. Next, the single-level discrete 2-D wavelet transform is used to decompose each noisy image into its low-frequency and high-frequency parts. Then, singular value decomposition (SVD) is used to obtain the SVs of the three high-frequency parts. Finally, the three denoised high-frequency parts are reconstructed by SVD from the SV difference, and the final denoised image is obtained using the inverse wavelet transform. Experiments show the effectiveness of this method compared with relevant existing methods.

Digital watermarking is a technique used to protect an author’s copyright and has become widespread due to the rapid development of multimedia technologies. In this paper, a novel watermarking algorithm using the nonsubsample shearlet transform is proposed, which combines the directional edge features of an image. A shearlet provides an optimal multiresolution and multidirectional representation of an image based on distributed discontinuities such as edges, which ensures that the embedded watermark does not blur the image. In the proposed algorithm, the nonsubsample shearlet transform is used to decompose the cover image into directional subbands, where different directional subbands represent different directional and textured features. The subband whose texture directionality is strongest is selected to carry the watermark and is thus suitable for the human visual system. Next, singular value decomposition is performed on the selected subband image. Finally, the watermark is embedded in the singular value matrix, which is beneficial for the watermarking robustness and invisibility. In comparison with related watermarking algorithms based on discrete wavelet transforms and nonsubsample contourlet transform domains, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is highly robust against scaling, cropping, and compression.

Segmentation of brain tissues is an important but inherently challenging task in that different brain tissues have similar grayscale values and the intensity of a brain tissue may be confused with that of another one. The paper accordingly develops an ICKFCM method based on kernelized fuzzy c-means clustering with ICA analysis for extracting regions of interest in MRI brain images. The proposed method first removes the skull region using a skull stripping algorithm. Through ICA, three independent components are then extracted from multimodal medical images containing T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and PD-weighted MRI images. As MRI signals can be regarded as a combination of the signals from brain matters, ICA can be used for contrast enhancement of MRI images. Finally, the three independent components are utilized as inputs by KFCM algorithm to extract different brain tissues. Relying on the decomposition of a multivariate signal into independent non-Gaussian components and using a more appropriate kernel-induced distance for fuzzy clustering, the proposed method is capable of achieving greater reliability in both theory and practice than other segmentation approaches. According to the experiment results, the proposed method is capable of accurately extracting the complicated shapes of brain tissues and still remaining robust against various types of noises.

Combining interval-valued hesitant fuzzy soft sets (IVHFSSs) and a new comparative law, we propose a new method, which can effectively solve multiattribute decision-making (MADM) problems. Firstly, a characteristic function of two interval values and a new comparative law of interval-valued hesitant fuzzy elements (IVHFEs) based on the possibility degree are proposed. Then, we define two important definitions of IVHFSSs including the interval-valued hesitant fuzzy soft quasi subset and soft quasi equal based on the new comparative law. Finally, an algorithm is presented to solve MADM problems. We also use the method proposed in this paper to evaluate the importance of major components of the well drilling mud pump.

For infrared images, it is a formidable challenge to highlight salient regions completely and suppress the background noise effectively at the same time. To handle this problem, a novel saliency detection method based on multiscale local sparse representation and local contrast measure is proposed in this paper. The saliency detection problem is implemented in three stages. First, a multiscale local sparse representation based approach is designed for detecting saliency in infrared images. Using it, multiple saliency maps with various scales are obtained for an infrared image. These maps are then fused to generate a combined saliency map, which can highlight the salient region fully. Second, we adopt a local contrast measure based technique to process the infrared image. It divides the image into a number of image blocks. Then these blocks are utilized to calculate the local contrast to generate a local contrast measure based saliency map. In this map, the background noise can be suppressed effectually. Last, to make full use of the advantages of the above two saliency maps, we propose combining them together using an adaptive fusion scheme. Experimental results show that our method achieves better performance than several state-of-the-art algorithms for saliency detection in infrared images.

This paper proposes an image watermarking method based on the fast discrete cosine transform (DCT) algorithm for implementation in digital signal processor. A digital watermark can be effectively embedded and efficiently extracted without the host image. The keys in watermarking process include four frequency coefficients in DCT, two random permutation vectors, and a quantization matrix for normalizing the watermark and the host image. The fast DCT algorithm has been shown to reduce the complexity of two-dimensional image transformation so that embedding/decoding an image watermark can be completed in real time within 0.33 seconds. The quality of both watermarked image and extracted (retrieved) watermark remains excellent. It is shown that the watermarking method is efficient in and robust to data cropping, transmission loss, and compression/decompression.

Wavelet transform is an effective method for removal of noise from image. But traditional wavelet transform cannot improve the smooth effect and reserve image’s precise details simultaneously; even false Gibbs phenomenon can be produced. This paper proposes a new image denoising method based on adaptive multiscale morphological edge detection beyond the above limitation. Firstly, the noisy image is decomposed by using one wavelet base. Then, the image edge is detected by using the adaptive multiscale morphological edge detection based on the wavelet decomposition. On this basis, wavelet coefficients belonging to the edge position are dealt with with the improved wavelet domain wiener filtering, and the others are dealt with with the improved Bayesian threshold and the improved threshold function. Finally, wavelet coefficients are inversely processed to obtain the denoised image. Experimental results show that this method can effectively remove the image noise without blurring edges and highlight the characteristics of image edge at the same time. The validation results of the denoised images with higher peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM) demonstrate their robust capability for real applications in the future.

Discrete cosine transform (DCT) has been an international standard in Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format to reduce the blocking effect in digital image compression. This paper proposes a fast discrete cosine transform (FDCT) algorithm that utilizes the energy compactness and matrix sparseness properties in frequency domain to achieve higher computation performance. For a JPEG image of8×8block size in spatial domain, the algorithm decomposes the two-dimensional (2D) DCT into one pair of one-dimensional (1D) DCTs with transform computation in only 24 multiplications. The 2D spatial data is a linear combination of the base image obtained by the outer product of the column and row vectors of cosine functions so that inverse DCT is as efficient. Implementation of the FDCT algorithm shows that embedding a watermark image of 32 × 32 block pixel size in a 256 × 256 digital image can be completed in only 0.24 seconds and the extraction of watermark by inverse transform is within 0.21 seconds. The proposed FDCT algorithm is shown more efficient than many previous works in computation.

It is very difficult to process and analyze high-dimensional data directly. Therefore, it is necessary to learn a potential subspace of high-dimensional data through excellent dimensionality reduction algorithms to preserve the intrinsic structure of high-dimensional data and abandon the less useful information. Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) are two popular dimensionality reduction methods for high-dimensional sensor data preprocessing. LDA contains two basic methods, namely, classic linear discriminant analysis and FS linear discriminant analysis. In this paper, a new method, called similar distribution discriminant analysis (SDDA), is proposed based on the similarity of samples’ distribution. Furthermore, the method of solving the optimal discriminant vector is given. These discriminant vectors are orthogonal and nearly statistically uncorrelated. The disadvantages of PCA and LDA are overcome, and the extracted features are more effective by using SDDA. The recognition performance of SDDA exceeds PCA and LDA largely. Some experiments on the Yale face database, FERET face database, and UCI multiple features dataset demonstrate that the proposed method is effective. The results reveal that SDDA obtains better performance than comparison dimensionality reduction methods.

In this paper, by suitably using the so-called push-back operation, a connection between the approximating and interpolatory subdivision, a new family of nonstationary subdivision schemes is presented. Each scheme of this family is a quasi-interpolatory scheme and reproduces a certain space of exponential polynomials. This new family of schemes unifies and extends quite a number of the existing interpolatory schemes reproducing exponential polynomials and noninterpolatory schemes like the cubic exponential B-spline scheme. For these new schemes, we investigate their convergence, smoothness, and accuracy and show that they can reach higher smoothness orders than the interpolatory schemes with the same reproduction property and better accuracy than the exponential B-spline schemes. Several examples are given to illustrate the performance of these new schemes.

This paper presents a fuzzy regression analysis method based on a general quadrilateral interval type-2 fuzzy numbers, regarding the data outlier detection. The Euclidean distance for the general quadrilateral interval type-2 fuzzy numbers is provided. In the sense of Euclidean distance, some parameter estimation laws of the type-2 fuzzy linear regression model are designed. Then, the data outlier detection-oriented parameter estimation method is proposed using the data deletion-based type-2 fuzzy regression model. Moreover, based on the fuzzy regression model, by using the root mean squared error method, an impact evaluation rule is designed for detecting data outlier. An example is finally provided to validate the presented methods.

Dimensionality reduction is extremely important for understanding the intrinsic structure hidden in high-dimensional data. In recent years, sparse representation models have been widely used in dimensionality reduction. In this paper, a novel supervised learning method, called Sparsity Preserving Discriminant Projections (SPDP), is proposed. SPDP, which attempts to preserve the sparse representation structure of the data and maximize the between-class separability simultaneously, can be regarded as a combiner of manifold learning and sparse representation. Specifically, SPDP first creates a concatenated dictionary by classwise PCA decompositions and learns the sparse representation structure of each sample under the constructed dictionary using the least square method. Secondly, a local between-class separability function is defined to characterize the scatter of the samples in the different submanifolds. Then, SPDP integrates the learned sparse representation information with the local between-class relationship to construct a discriminant function. Finally, the proposed method is transformed into a generalized eigenvalue problem. Extensive experimental results on several popular face databases demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

This paper reports on approaches to estimate the critical buckling loads of thin-walled T-sections with closed-form solutions. We first develop a model using energy conservation approach under the assumption that there is no correlation between the restraint coefficient and buckling half-wavelength. Secondly, we propose a numerical approach to estimate the critical buckling conditions under the more realistic torsional stiffener constraint condition. A dimensionless parameter correlated with constraint conditions is introduced through finite element (FE) analysis and data fitting technique in the numerical approach. The critical buckling coefficient and loads can be expressed as explicit functions of the dimensionless parameter. The proposed numerical approach demonstrates higher accuracy than the approach under noncorrelation assumption. Due to the explicit expression of critical buckling loads, the numerical approach presented here can be easily used in the design, analysis, and precision manufacture of T-section webs.

Multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) is an important branch of operations research which composes multiple-criteria to make decision. TOPSIS is an effective method in handling MCDM problem, while there still exist some shortcomings about it. Upon facing the MCDM problem, various types of uncertainty are inevitable such as incompleteness, fuzziness, and imprecision result from the powerlessness of human beings subjective judgment. However, the TOPSIS method cannot adequately deal with these types of uncertainties. In this paper, aD-TOPSIS method is proposed for MCDM problem based on a new effective and feasible representation of uncertain information, calledDnumbers. TheD-TOPSIS method is an extension of the classical TOPSIS method. Within the proposed method,Dnumbers theory denotes the decision matrix given by experts considering the interrelation of multicriteria. An application about human resources selection, which essentially is a multicriteria decision-making problem, is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposedD-TOPSIS method.

Neutrosophic sets have been introduced as a generalization of crisp sets, fuzzy sets, and intuitionistic fuzzy sets to represent uncertain, inconsistent, and incomplete information about a real world problem. For the first time, this paper attempts to introduce the mathematical representation of a transportation problem in neutrosophic environment. The necessity of the model is discussed. A new method for solving transportation problem with indeterminate and inconsistent information is proposed briefly. A real life example is given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method in neutrosophic approach.

Kinship verification from face images is a new and challenging problem in pattern recognition and computer vision, and it has many potential real-world applications including social media analysis and children adoptions. Most existing methods for kinship verification assume that each positive pair of face images (with kin relationship) has greater similarity score than those of negative pairs without kin relationships under a distance metric to be learned. In practice, however, this assumption is usually too strict for real-life kin samples. Instead, we propose in this paper learning a robust similarity model, under which the similarity score of each positive pair is greater than average similarity score of some negative ones. In addition, we develop an online similarity learning algorithm for more scalable application. We empirically evaluate the proposed methods on benchmark datasets, and experimental results show that our method outperforms some state-of-the-art kinship verification methods in terms of verification accuracy and computational efficiency.

In this paper, mobile robot navigation on a 3D terrain with a single obstacle is addressed. The terrain is modelled as a smooth, complete manifold with well-defined tangent planes and the hazardous region is modelled as an enclosing circle with a hazard grade tuned radius representing the obstacle projected onto the terrain to allow efficient path-obstacle intersection checking. To resolve the intersections along the initial geodesic, by resorting to the geodesic ideas from differential geometry on surfaces and manifolds, we present a geodesic-based planning and replanning algorithm as a new method for obstacle avoidance on a 3D terrain without using boundary following on the obstacle surface. The replanning algorithm generates two new paths, each a composition of two geodesics, connected via critical points whose locations are found to be heavily relying on the exploration of the terrain via directional scanning on the tangent plane at the first intersection point of the initial geodesic with the circle. An advantage of this geodesic path replanning procedure is that traversability of terrain on which the detour path traverses could be explored based on the local Gauss-Bonnet Theorem of the geodesic triangle at the planning stage. A simulation demonstrates the practicality of the analytical geodesic replanning procedure for navigating a constant speed point robot on a 3D hill-like terrain.

Image denoising is a fundamental problem in realm of image processing. A large amount of literature is dedicated to restoring an image corrupted by a certain type of noise. However, little literature is concentrated on the scenario of mixed noise removal. In this paper, based on the model of two-phase method for image denoising proposed by Cai et al. (2008) and the idea of variable splitting, we are capable of decomposing the image denoising problem into subproblems with closed form. Numerical results illustrate the validity and robustness of the proposed algorithms, especially for restoring the images contaminated by impulse plus Gaussian noise.

To help the newcomers understand a software system better during its development, the key classes are in general given priority to be focused on as soon as possible. There are numerous measures that have been proposed to identify key nodes in a network. As a metric successfully applied to evaluate the productivity of a scholar, little is known about whetherh-index is suitable to identify the key classes in weighted software network. In this paper, we introduced fourh-index variants to identify key classes on three open-source software projects (i.e., Tomcat, Ant, and JUNG) and validated the feasibility of proposed measures by comparing them with existing centrality measures. The results show that the measures proposed not only are able to identify the key classes but also perform better than some commonly used centrality measures (the improvement is at least 0.215). In addition, the finding suggests that mE-Weight defined by the weight of a node’s topkedges performs best as a whole.

With the development of national information processes, specific image information from secret departments or individuals is often required to be confidentially transmitted. Numerous image encryption methods exist, especially since the initial value sensitivity and other characteristics of chaos theory and chaos theory-based encryption have become increasingly important in recent years. At present, DNA coding constitutes a new research direction of image encryption that uses the four base pairs of DNA code and image pixel values to establish a special correspondence, in order to achieve pixel diffusion. There are eight DNA encoding rules, and current methods of selecting the DNA encoding rules are largely fixed. Thus, the security of encoded data is not high. In this paper, we use the Lorenz chaotic system, Chen’s hyperchaotic system, and the DNA encoding combination and present a new image encryption algorithm that can dynamically select eight types of DNA encoding rules and eight types of DNA addition and subtraction rules, with significant improvements in security. Through simulation experiments and histograms, correlations, and NPCR analyses, we have determined that the algorithm possesses numerous desirable features, including good encryption effects and antishear and antinoise performances.

It may be very difficult to achieve the optimal shift schedule in call centers which have highly uncertain and peaked demand during short time periods. Overlapping shift systems are usually designed for such cases. This paper studies shift scheduling and rostering problems for inbound call centers where overlapping shift systems are used. An integer programming model that determines which shifts to be opened and how many operators to be assigned to these shifts is proposed for the shift scheduling problem. For the rostering problem both integer programming and constraint programming models are developed to determine assignments of operators to all shifts, weekly days-off, and meal and relief break times of the operators. The proposed models are tested on real data supplied by an outsource call center and optimal results are found in an acceptable computation time. An improvement of 15% in the objective function compared to the current situation is observed with the proposed model for the shift scheduling problem. The computational performances of the proposed integer and constraint programming models for the rostering problem are compared using real data observed at a call center and simulated test instances. In addition, benchmark instances are used to compare our Constraint Programming (CP) approach with the existing models. The results of the comprehensive computational study indicate that the constraint programming model runs more efficiently than the integer programming model for the rostering problem. The originality of this research can be attributed to two contributions: (a) a model for shift scheduling problem and two models for rostering problem are presented in detail and compared using real data and (b) the rostering problem is considered as a task-resource allocation and considerably shorter computation times are obtained by modeling this new problem via CP.