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Due to environmental concerns associated with conventional energy production, the use of renewable energy sources (RES) has rapidly increased in power systems worldwide, with photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbine (WT) technologies being the most frequently integrated. This study proposes a modified Bald Eagle Search Optimization Algorithm (LBES) to enhance the performance of the conventional BES optimizer and optimize the size and location of RES-based Distribution Generation (DG) and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in distribution systems (DS) to minimize power and energy losses. The modified BES algorithm enhances the exploration phase by utilizing both crossover and mutation techniques with the top three leaders. Moreover, a loss sensitivity factor (LSF) is applied to expedite the solution process by identifying appropriate candidate buses. The variability of solar irradiation and wind speed is modeled using Weibull and Beta probability distribution functions (PDF). To address issues related to high penetration of renewables and demand fluctuations, BESS is used to improve power supply continuity and mitigate fluctuations. The suggested approach is tested on typical 33- and 118-bus systems and compared to alternative methods. The results show significant reduction in energy losses (49.32%, 67.82%, and 64.89% for the 33-bus system and 41.9157%, 60.3766%, and 54.8317% for the 118-bus system) when integrating PV, WT-based DG, and PV + BESS units into the DS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical image segmentation is crucial in using digital images for disease diagnosis, particularly in post-processing tasks such as analysis and disease identification. Segmentation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography images pose distinctive challenges attributed to factors such as inadequate illumination during the image acquisition process. Multilevel thresholding is a widely adopted method for image segmentation due to its effectiveness and ease of implementation. However, the primary challenge lies in selecting the optimal set of thresholds to achieve accurate segmentation. While Otsu's between-class variance and Kapur's entropy assist in identifying optimal thresholds, their application to cases requiring more than two thresholds can be computationally intensive. Meta-heuristic algorithms are commonly employed in literature to calculate the threshold values; however, they have limitations such as a lack of precise convergence and a tendency to become stuck in local optimum solutions. In this paper, we introduce an improved chameleon swarm algorithm (ICSA) to address these limitations. ICSA is designed for image segmentation and global optimization tasks, aiming to improve the precision and efficiency of threshold selection in medical image segmentation. ICSA introduces the concept of the "best random mutation strategy" to enhance the search capabilities of the standard chameleon swarm algorithm (CSA). This strategy leverages three distribution functions—Levy, Gaussian, and Cauchy—for mutating search individuals. These diverse distributions contribute to improved solution quality and help prevent premature convergence. We conduct comprehensive experiments using the IEEE CEC'20 complex optimization benchmark test suite to evaluate ICSA's performance. Additionally, we employ ICSA in image segmentation, utilizing Otsu's approach and Kapur's entropy as fitness functions to determine optimal threshold values for a set of MRI images. Comparative analysis reveals that ICSA outperforms well-known metaheuristic algorithms when applied to the CEC'20 test suite and significantly improves image segmentation performance, proving its ability to avoid local optima and overcome the original algorithm's drawbacks. Medical image segmentation is essential for employing digital images for disease diagnosis, particularly for post-processing activities such as analysis and disease identification. Due to poor illumination and other acquisition-related difficulties, radiologists are especially concerned about the optimal segmentation of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Multilevel thresholding is the most widely used image segmentation method due to its efficacy and simplicity of implementation. The issue, however, is selecting the optimum set of criteria to effectively segment each image. Although methods like Otsu's between-class variance and Kapur's entropy help locate the optimal thresholds, using them for more than two thresholds requires a significant amount of processing resources. Meta-heuristic algorithms are commonly employed in literature to calculate the threshold values; however, they have limitations such as a lack of precise convergence and a tendency to become stuck in local optimum solutions. Due to the aforementioned, we present an improved chameleon swarm algorithm (ICSA) in this paper for image segmentation and global optimization tasks to be able to address these weaknesses. In the ICSA method, the best random mutation strategy has been introduced to improve the searchability of the standard CSA. The best random strategy utilizes three different types of distribution: Levy, Gaussian, and Cauchy to mutate the search individuals. These distributions have different functions, which help enhance the quality of the solutions and avoid premature convergence. Using the IEEE CEC'20 test suite as a recent complex optimization benchmark, a comprehensive set of experiments is carried out in order to evaluate the ICSA method and demonstrate the impact of combining the best random mutation strategy with the original CSA in improving both the performance of the solutions and the rate at which they converge. Furthermore, utilizing the Otsu approach and Kapur's entropy as a fitness function, ICSA is used as an image segmentation method to select the ideal threshold values for segmenting a set of MRI images. Within the experiments, the ICSA findings are compared with well-known metaheuristic algorithms. The comparative findings showed that ICSA performs better than other competitors in solving the CEC'20 test suite and has a significant performance boost in image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls play a pivotal role in resisting seismic and lateral loads within structural frameworks. A thorough examination of the existing literature was undertaken, covering a range of experimental and theoretical studies related to the design of RC shear walls. It was emphasized that comprehending shear failure behavior and precisely predicting the shear strength of RC walls holds considerable significance. To address this, the study proposes two models that integrate the support vector regression method with meta-heuristic optimization algorithms (Bat and GOA), utilizing 228 sets of experimental data. In identifying the parameters influencing the shear strength of RC shear walls, the study focused on eight influential factors. The comparison of the two proposed models in the current research with existing models and experimental data demonstrated their commendable accuracy, surpassing the performance of suggested empirical formulations. The prediction errors associated with the proposed models, when compared to experimental data, were notably low. An innovative approach was introduced in the research, presenting a novel method for predicting shear strength using the support vector regression method and the Bat optimization algorithm. A notable advantage of this formulation lies in its capacity to predict the shear strength across various configurations, including squat, cylindrical, and thin RC shear walls. Unlike some existing equations for predicting shear strength, this formulation exhibits no limitations. Through a comparative analysis with established equations, the computational framework's results suggest its successful applicability in building codes and construction practices. The proposed method contributes to the accurate prediction of shear strength in diverse RC shear wall configurations, offering a valuable tool for structural engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalation of cloud services, driven by their accessibility, improved performance, and cost-effectiveness, has led cloud service providers to consistently seek methods to expedite job completion, thereby boosting profits and reducing energy consumption expenses. Despite developing numerous scheduling algorithms, many of these techniques address only a specific objective within the scheduling process. To efficiently achieve better optimization results for the cloud task scheduling problem, a novel approach, the Enhanced Whale Optimization Algorithm (EWOA), is proposed. EWOA integrates the WOA with the Lévy flight. The incorporation of Lévy flight is tailored to broaden the search space of WOA, expediting convergence with adaptive crossover. The EWOA model is simulated using the Cloudsim tool and evaluated under diverse test conditions. The effectiveness of EWOA is assessed by employing various parameters and comparing them with existing algorithms. The results demonstrate that EWOA outperforms other algorithms in resource utilization, energy consumption, and execution cost, establishing its superiority in addressing the complexities of multi-objective cloud task scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a lot of time to solve optimization problems has become a challenge for metaheuristic algorithms. Due to independence of the metaheuristics components, parallel processing is a good option to reduce the computational time and to find high quality solutions that are close to the optimum with an acceptable cost. One of these metaheuristic algorithms is the Sailfish Optimizer (SFO) which is inspired by a group of hunting sailfish. The SFO algorithm uses a simple method to provide a dynamic balance between exploration and exploitation phases, creates a swarm diversity, avoids local optima, and guarantees high convergence speed. It has been shown that the SFO algorithm outperforms various state-of-art metaheuristic algorithms for multimodal and high dimensional benchmark functions and complicated real-world optimization problems in terms of accuracy and speed by CPU and GPU implementation. In this paper, to speedup this algorithm and increase its performance we propose a reconfigurable hardware version of SFO implemented on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The FPGA-based SFO can be a very good option in many applications with massive calculations. Due to the inherent parallelism and high computing capabilities of FPGA, the SFO algorithm gains optimum computational time despite the complexity of optimization problems. We have compared the performance of the proposed FPGA-based SFO with its CPU and GPU implementation and some other metaheuristic algorithms. The results show the FPGA implementation is considerably faster than the CPU and GPU implementation. Also, it outperforms other compared FPGA-based metaheuristic algorithms in terms of execution time and convergence speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering is a popular data analysis technique that can explore the structure of data through cluster analysis. Similar data are put into the same cluster, while dissimilar data allocate to other clusters. The similarity/dissimilarity among data objects is determined using a distance function. Further, clustering algorithms aim to choose the optimal set of centroids for obtaining better partitioning, but clustering accuracy is always susceptible. This issue of clustering is addressed through meta-heuristic algorithms. This research also aims to handle the accuracy issue and presents a new algorithm for effective cluster analysis. The proposed clustering algorithm is inspired by a water flow optimizer (WFO). The WFO algorithm performance is validated on the well-defined clustering problems based on SSE, accuracy (AR) and detection rate (DR) parameters. The results indicate that the WFO algorithm gets higher clustering results in terms of SSE, AR and DR than the same class of algorithms. The performance is also validated using Friedman statistical test followed by a post hoc test. Results indicated that the proposed WFO gets better statistical results than other clustering algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-solution-based optimization algorithms are computationally cheap yet powerful methods that can be used on various optimization tasks at minimal processing expenses. However, there is a considerable shortage of research in this domain, resulting in only a handful of proposed algorithms over the last four decades. This study proposes the Prism Refraction Search (PRS), a novel, simple yet efficient, single-solution-based metaheuristic algorithm for single-objective real-parameter optimization. PRS is a physics-inspired algorithm modeled on a well-known optimization paradigm in ray optics arising from the refraction of light through a triangular prism. The key novelty lies in its scientifically sound background that is supported by the well-established laws of physical optics. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on several numerical objectives, including 23 classical benchmark functions, the CEC-2017 test suite, and five standard real-world engineering design problems. Further, the results are analyzed using standard statistical tests to prove their significance. Extensive experiments and comparisons with state-of-the-art metaheuristic algorithms in the literature justify the robustness and competitive performance of the PRS algorithm as a lightweight and efficient optimization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) in agriculture has revolutionized the way farmers monitor and manage their crops. IoT-enabled sensors can provide real-time data on various environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and crop growth, which can be used to make informed decisions and optimize crop yield. However, the vast amount of data generated by these sensors poses a significant challenge in terms of data processing and communication. To address this challenge, clustering is often used to group the sensors into clusters and elect a cluster head (CH) to communicate with the gateway node. The selection of an appropriate CH and the optimal path for data transmission are critical factors that affect the performance of the IoT system. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to optimize the CH selection and path selection using modified fuzzy logic, Whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and enhanced crow swarm optimization (ECSO). Fuzzy logic is used to evaluate the relevant parameters such as energy, distance, overhead, trust, and node degree to select the most suitable CH. ECSO is then employed to find the optimal path for data transmission based on the selected CH. We evaluate the proposed approach using simulation experiments in a smart agriculture scenario. The results show that the proposed approach outperforms existing approaches in terms of throughput, packet delivery ratio, delay, and energy efficiency. The proposed system demonstrates substantial advantages in terms of throughput, with a remarkable throughput value of 68 Mbps, outperforming the other methods, including EQSR (12.5 Mbps), E2S-DRL (60 Mbps), and OSEAP. The packet delivery ratio (PDR) is also significantly higher for the proposed system, reaching 90.9%. The proposed approach can significantly improve the performance of IoT-enabled smart agriculture systems, leading to better crop yield and higher profitability for farmers. The results of the simulation experiments demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach over the existing one's throughput, packet delivery ratio (PDR), delay, and energy consumption efficiency is found in the result section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logistics distribution is one of the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions at present, and there are also such distribution problems in the shipbuilding process. With the increasing attention paid to environmental problems, how to effectively reduce the energy consumption of block transportation and improve the utilization rate of resources in the factory is the key problem that China's shipbuilding industry needs to solve at present. This article considers the time windows for block transportation tasks, as well as the self-loading constraints of different types of flat cars, and establishes an optimization model that minimizes the empty transport time and energy consumption of the flat cars as the optimization objective. Then, an Improved Genetic Whale Optimization Algorithm is designed, which combines the cross and mutation ideas of genetic algorithms and proposes a whale individual position updating mechanism under a mixed strategy. Furthermore, the performance and computational efficiency of the algorithm are verified through comparative analysis with other classical optimization algorithms on standard test examples. Finally, the shipyard's block transportation example proves that the energy-saving ship block transportation scheduling method can effectively improve the efficiency of shipbuilding enterprise's block transportation and reduce the energy consumption in the block transportation process. It proves the engineering practicality of the green dispatching method proposed in this paper, which can further provide a decision-making method for shipyard managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the current environmental situation and human health, a green manufacturing system is very essential in the manufacturing world. Several researchers have developed various types of green manufacturing models by considering green products, green investments, carbon emission taxes, etc. Motivated by this topic, a green production model is formulated by considering selling price, time, warranty period and green level dependent demand with a carbon emission tax policy. Also, the production rate of the system is an unknown function of time. Per unit production cost of the products is taken as increasing function of production rate and green level of the products. In our proposed model, carbon emission rate is taken as linear function of time. Then, an optimization problem of the production model is constructed. To validate of our proposed model, a numerical example is considered and solved it by AHA. Further, other five metaheuristics algorithms (AEFA, FA, GWOA, WOA and EOA) are taken to compare the results obtained from AHA. Also, concavity of the average profit function and convergence graph of different metaheuristics algorithms are presented. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to investigate the impact of different system parameters on our optimal policy and reach a fruitful conclusion from this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning and data mining rely on feature selection to reduce the dimension of data and increase the performance of algorithms. As a result of such a large search space, feature selection is a challenging task. Recently, evolutionary techniques have been gaining a lot of attention and showing some promise for solving feature selection problems. Recent studies have shown that Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) is widely used in various fields (e.g., data mining, machine learning, and cloud computing). Motivated by the extensive research efforts in the feature selection and WOA, we present a review of high-quality articles related to WOA-based feature selection algorithms published between 2017 and 2023. This paper discusses and compares WOA-based feature selection schemes based on merits and demerits, evaluation techniques, simulation environments, and important parameters. We begin by introducing feature selection process, and concepts of metaheuristic followed by their surveys. This study summarizes several domains where WOA is used and explains different types of features. Moreover, it categorizes the variants of WOA based on their learning process, parameter tuning, binary/discrete, and hybridization. According to the investigation results, few variations of WOA add new parameters or operators to the original. In addition, 60% of feature selection algorithms based on WOA focus on improving learning process. Finally, current issues and challenges are also discussed to identify future research areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of overlapping mangoes and leaves makes the segmentation process inaccurate. In addition, the variation in colour, texture, shape, temperature and shadow effects of the real conditioned image makes segmentation even more complex. The presence of outliers would further affect the classification accuracy. Many studies have reported the deep learning-based technique, but those methods failed to provide an effective solution due to the high processing stage and limited data usage. Hence, this work introduces a machine learning-based technique that reduces the problem of time-consuming predictions. This work aims to estimate the defected region of mangoes by enhanced segmentation and optimal feature selection to enhance classification accuracy. To detect mango fruit defects, initially, the collected mango images are pre-processed to smoothen and reduce image noise. This is achieved using the guided Gabor bilateral filter; the technique can reduce image noise without information loss. Then the obtained pre-processed image is segmented by considering the defect as a region of interest. The segmentation is achieved using the fuzzy level set method (FLSM), which creates clusters for an image's dynamic variation. Then, the features are extracted using the dual-tree complex transform (DT-CT) and the optimal features are selected using the metaheuristic algorithm adaptive tunicate swarm optimizer (ATSO). The obtained optimal features are used for the detection process, which uses an Extreme Gradient Tree boost classifier (EGTBoost) classifier and the output is generated using vote-based classification. This classifier accurately classifies the diseased and healthy mangoes. The experimentation is carried out on the Kaggle and the real-time datasets. The accuracy and precision values achieved by the proposed model are 0.969 and 0.986 on the Kaggle dataset, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development relies on access to electrical energy, which is crucial for society's growth. However, power shortages are challenging due to non-renewable energy depletion, unregulated use, and a lack of new energy sources. Ethiopia's Debre Markos distribution network experiences over 800 h of power outages annually, causing financial losses and resource waste on diesel generators (DGs) for backup use. To tackle these concerns, the present study suggests a hybrid power generation system, which combines solar and biogas resources, and integrates Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) and Pumped Hydro Energy Storage (PHES) technologies into the system. The study also thoroughly analyzes the current and anticipated demand connected to the distribution network using a backward/forward sweep load flow analysis method. The results indicate that the total power loss has reached its absolute maximum, and the voltage profiles of the networks have dropped below the minimal numerical values recommended by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards (i.e., 0.95–1.025 p.u.). After reviewing the current distribution network's operation, additional steps were taken to improve its effectiveness, using metaheuristic optimization techniques to account for various objective functions and constraints. In the results section, it is demonstrated that the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) outperforms other metaheuristic optimization techniques across three important objective functions: financial, reliability, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This comparison is based on the capability of the natural selection whale optimization algorithm (NSWOA) to achieve the best possible values for four significant metrics: Cost of Energy (COE), Net Present Cost (NPC), Loss of Power Supply Probability (LPSP), and GHG Emissions. The NSWOA achieved optimal values for these metrics, namely 0.0812 €/kWh, 3.0017 × 106 €, 0.00875, and 7.3679 × 106 kg reduced, respectively. This is attributable to their thorough economic, reliability, and environmental evaluation. Finally, the forward/backward sweep load flow analysis employed during the proposed system's integration significantly reduced the impact of new energy resources on the distribution network. This was evident in the reduction of total power losses from 470.78 to 18.54 kW and voltage deviation from 6.95 to 0.35 p.u., as well as the voltage profile of the distribution system being swung between 1 and 1.0234 p.u., which now comply with the standards set by the IEEE. Besides, a comparison of the cost and GHG emission efficiency of the proposed hybrid system with existing (grid + DGs) and alternative (only DGs) scenarios was done. The findings showed that, among the scenarios examined, the proposed system is the most economical and produces the least amount of GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an approach to enhance the differentiation task between benign and malignant Breast Tumors (BT) using histopathology images from the BreakHis dataset. The main stages involve preprocessing, which encompasses image resizing, data partitioning (training and testing sets), followed by data augmentation techniques. Both feature extraction and classification tasks are employed by a Custom CNN. The experimental results show that the proposed approach using the Custom CNN model exhibits better performance with an accuracy of 84% than applying the same approach using other pretrained models, including MobileNetV3, EfficientNetB0, Vgg16, and ResNet50V2, that present relatively lower accuracies, ranging from 74 to 82%; these four models are used as both feature extractors and classifiers. To increase the accuracy and other performance metrics, Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO), and Modified Gorilla Troops Optimization (MGTO) metaheuristic optimizers are applied to each model separately for hyperparameter tuning. In this case, the experimental results show that the Custom CNN model, refined with MGTO optimization, reaches an exceptional accuracy of 93.13% in just 10 iterations, outperforming the other state-of-the-art methods, and the other four used pretrained models based on the BreakHis dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fennec Fox algorithm (FFA) is a new meta-heuristic algorithm that is primarily inspired by the Fennec fox's ability to dig and escape from wild predators. Compared with other classical algorithms, FFA shows strong competitiveness. The "No free lunch" theorem shows that an algorithm has different effects in the face of different problems, such as: when solving high-dimensional or more complex applications, there are challenges such as easily falling into local optimal and slow convergence speed. To solve this problem with FFA, in this paper, an improved Fenna fox algorithm DEMFFA is proposed by adding sin chaotic mapping, formula factor adjustment, Cauchy operator mutation, and differential evolution mutation strategies. Firstly, a sin chaotic mapping strategy is added in the initialization stage to make the population distribution more uniform, thus speeding up the algorithm convergence speed. Secondly, in order to expedite the convergence speed of the algorithm, adjustments are made to the factors of the formula whose position is updated in the first stage, resulting in faster convergence. Finally, in order to prevent the algorithm from getting into the local optimal too early and expand the search space of the population, the Cauchy operator mutation strategy and differential evolution mutation strategy are added after the first and second stages of the original algorithm update. In order to verify the performance of the proposed DEMFFA, qualitative analysis is carried out on different test sets, and the proposed algorithm is tested with the original FFA, other classical algorithms, improved algorithms, and newly proposed algorithms on three different test sets. And we also carried out a qualitative analysis of the CEC2020. In addition, DEMFFA is applied to 10 practical engineering design problems and a complex 24-bar truss topology optimization problem, and the results show that the DEMFFA algorithm has the potential to solve complex problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Manta Ray Foraging Optimization Algorithm (MRFO) is a metaheuristic algorithm for solving real-world problems. However, MRFO suffers from slow convergence precision and is easily trapped in a local optimal. Hence, to overcome these deficiencies, this paper proposes an Improved MRFO algorithm (IMRFO) that employs Tent chaotic mapping, the bidirectional search strategy, and the Levy flight strategy. Among these strategies, Tent chaotic mapping distributes the manta ray more uniformly and improves the quality of the initial solution, while the bidirectional search strategy expands the search area. The Levy flight strategy strengthens the algorithm's ability to escape from local optimal. To verify IMRFO's performance, the algorithm is compared with 10 other algorithms on 23 benchmark functions, the CEC2017 and CEC2022 benchmark suites, and five engineering problems, with statistical analysis illustrating the superiority and significance of the difference between IMRFO and other algorithms. The results indicate that the IMRFO outperforms the competitor optimization algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several real-world scientific and industrial workflow applications adopt elastic and cost-efficient cloud services to fulfill their requirement. There are two stakeholders in the system, namely the user and the provider each of which tries to maximize its profit and at the same time minimize their possible overall costs. Since task scheduling algorithms for workflow executions determine which task should be possibly executed on what resources, they have a drastic impact on both the user's quality of experiences and on the underlying resource utilization. Indeed, an efficient task scheduling algorithm can meet service-level agreement (SLA) for both sides. For the sake of the importance of the issue, this survey presents a subjective taxonomy on the task scheduling schemes in the literature for workflow executions in cloud computing environments to be a guideline for future improvement. It classifies the literature based on the proposed algorithms in the literature, objectives, stakeholders' requirements, and evaluation metrics. This survey highlights research trends, challenges, research gaps, potential solutions, and future direction. It can also pave the way for further processing, improvement and strengthening of existing approaches or devising novel ones for interested researchers in the field of task scheduling problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arithmetic optimization algorithm (AOA) is a meta-heuristic optimization method based on mathematical operators proposed in recent years. Although it has good performance, it can also lead to insufficient local search ability and falling into local optima when solving complex optimization problems. In order to make up for the above shortcomings, the optimization performance of AOA is further improved. This paper proposes a hybrid algorithm based on AOA and particle swarm optimization (PSO) called HAOAPSO. Firstly, a compound opposition-based learning (COBL) strategy is introduced to broaden the scope of finding optimal solutions to help the algorithm better jump out of local optima. Secondly, PSO is combined with AOA that integrates COBL to improve the algorithm's local search ability, so as to improve the overall search efficiency of the algorithm. In addition, experiments are performed on 23 classical benchmark functions with different characteristics and five engineering design optimization problems, and the experimental results of HAOAPSO are compared with those of other well-known optimization algorithms to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The simulation results show that HAOAPSO can provide better solutions in most cases when solving global optimization problems such as engineering, with better convergence speed and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative energy sources are needed for a sustainable world due to rapidly increasing energy consumption, fossil fuels, and greenhouse gases worldwide. A hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) must be optimally dimensioned to be responsive to sudden load changes and cost-effective. In this study, the aim is to reduce the carbon emissions of a university campus by generating electricity from a hybrid energy production system with solar panels, wind turbine, a diesel generator, and battery components. On the university campus where the hybrid energy system will be installed, the ambient temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, and load demands have been recorded in our database. Optimization algorithms were used to select the power values of the system components to be installed using these data in an efficient and inexpensive manner according to the ambient conditions. For optimal sizing of HRES components, gray wolf optimizer combined with cuckoo search (GWOCS) technique was investigated using MATLAB/Simulink. In this way, it has been tried to increase their efficiency by combining current optimization techniques. The cornerstone of our optimization efforts for both on-grid and off-grid models pivots on a constellation of critical decision variables: the power harvested from wind turbines, the productivity of solar panels, the capacity of battery storage, and the power contribution of diesel generators. In our pursuit of minimizing the annual cost metric, we employ a tailor-made function, meticulously upholding an array of constraints, such as the quotient of renewable energy and the potential risk of power disruption. A robust energy management system is integral to our design, orchestrating the delicate power flow balance among micro-grid components—vital for satisfying energy demand. Upon analyzing the outcomes of the study, it is apparent that the proposed Scenario 1 HRES effectively utilizes solar and battery components within the off-grid model, surpassing the efficiency of four other hybrid scenarios under consideration. Regarding optimization processes, the off-grid model exhibits superior results with the implementation of the GWOCS algorithm, delivering faster and more reliable solutions relative to other methodologies. Conversely, the optimization of the on-grid model reaches its optimal performance with the application of the cuckoo search algorithm. A comprehensive comparison from both technical and economic view points suggests the on-grid model as the most feasible and suitable choice. Upon completion of the optimization process, the load demand is catered to by a combination of a 2963.827-kW solar panel, a 201.8896-kW battery, and an additional purchase of 821.9 MWh from the grid. Additionally, an energy surplus sale of 1379.8 MWh to the grid culminates in an annual cost of system (ACS) of 475782.8240 USD, a total net present cost of 4815520.2794 USD, and a levelized cost of energy of 0.12754 USD/kWh. Solar panels cover the entire system, and the renewable energy fraction is 100%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection (FS) is a crucial preprocessing step that aims to eliminate irrelevant and redundant features, reduce the dimensionality of the feature space, and enhance clustering efficiency and effectiveness. FS is categorized as NP-Hard due to the high number of existing solutions. Various metaheuristic methods have been developed to address the FS problem, yielding promising results. Particularly, particle swarm optimization (PSO), an evolutionary computing (EC) approach guided by swarm intelligence, has gained widespread adoption owing to its implementation simplicity and potential for global search. This paper analyzes several variants of PSO algorithms and introduces a new FS method called HPSO. The proposed approach utilizes an asynchronously adaptive inertia weight and an improved constriction factor. Additionally, it incorporates a chaotic map and a MAD fitness function with a feature count penalty to tackle the clustering FS problem. The efficiency of the developed method is evaluated against the genetic algorithm (GA) and well-known variants of PSO algorithms, including PSOs with fixed inertia weights, PSOs with improved inertia weights, PSOs with fixed constriction factors, PSOs with improved constriction factors, PSOs with adaptive inertia weights, and PSO's includes advanced learning exemplars and sophisticated structure topologies. This paper assesses two different reference text data sets, Reuters-21578 and Webkb. In comparison with competitive methods, the proposed HPSO method achieves higher clustering precision and selects a more informative feature set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid spread and daily usage of social networks have made them vulnerable to spammers. Therefore, detecting and eliminating spam and spammers has become more than necessary to reduce the risks that it poses to users' security. In order to achieve this goal, it is crucial to determine the exact features that help identify and classify whether a user is spam or not. This paper proposes a wrapper-based method for selecting the most important features. It is based on combining two recent metaheuristic algorithms, the Henry Gas Solubility Optimization Algorithm (HGSO) and the Equilibrium Optimizer Algorithm (EO), with the goal of choosing a small and most influential subset of features that give good performance and help in the spammer profile detection process. For the purpose of showing the ability of the proposed method to achieve the desired goals, several comparisons are conducted on a modified Social Honeypot dataset. The first comparison is made between HGSOEO and the two algorithms (HGSO and EO) that were used to develop the proposed algorithm to prove the power of hybridization. The two next comparisons are made against some classical filter- and wrapper-based feature selection methods. The last comparison is carried out against some well-known metaheuristic algorithms for feature selection. Experiments and analysis of the results show that the proposed model is more accurate than the algorithms and methods that we compared it to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fog computing is a computer architecture consisting of fog nodes, a collection of near-user edge devices. These fog nodes collaborate to perform computational services like data retrieval, processing, storage, etc. Resource allocation is one of the most critical and challenging problems in the fog environment for industrial applications. The significant aspects to consider while allocating resources are response time, throughput, and energy consumption. The proposed work formulated the resource allocation problem as a bi-objective minimization problem. The main aim of the work is to reduce energy consumption and makespan while allocating service requests to virtual machines. The proposed technique uses the league championship algorithm to select an efficient resource for productive and resourceful service allocation of tasks in fog computing. The proposed algorithm's performance is assessed by comparing it to three well-known metaheuristic algorithms. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior in terms of makespan and energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semantic segmentation of aerial images plays a pivotal role in extracting detailed information about land cover, infrastructure, and natural features. Traditional single-channel segmentation models struggle to harness the rich information present in multi-channel aerial images, such as multi-spectral or hyperspectral data. While the DeepLabV3 + architecture has shown remarkable success in semantic segmentation tasks by exploiting multi-scale context and atrous convolutions, its performance on aerial images remains suboptimal due to the unique challenges of this domain. With the motive of addressing the difficulties in the existing semantic segmentation techniques for aerial images, the adoption of deep learning techniques is utilized. A multi-objective derived Adaptive Multichannel deeplabv3 + (AMC-Deeplabv3 +) with a new meta-heuristic algorithm called Improved Beluga whale optimization (IBWO) algorithm is proposed in this paper. Here, the hyperparameters of Multichannel deeplabv3 + are optimized by the IBWO algorithm and this model intends to set new benchmarks in the accuracy and contextual understanding of aerial image segmentation by integrating multi-channel data processing techniques and preserving spatial context. The proposed model attains improved accuracies of 98.65% & 98.72% for dataset 1 and 2 respectively and also achieves the dice coefficient of 98.73% & 98.85% respectively, with a computation time of 113.0123 s. The evolutional outcomes of the proposed model show significantly better than the state-of-the-art techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection (FS) is crucial to transforming high-dimensional data into low-dimensional data. The FS approach selects influential traits and ignores the rest. This approach improves machine learning (ML) classifiers by reducing computational complexity and solution time. This empirical study presents a novel and effective methodology that uses two contemporary state-of-the-art soft-computing algorithms, the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) and the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA). We have also created the hybrid version (hGWWO) of these two approaches as our novel, innovative scientific contribution. The baseline algorithms above have been used previously for feature selection across different domains. According to our understanding, these three algorithms are being used for the first time in glaucoma identification, particularly on the publicly available benchmark dataset, ORIGA. The rising global prevalence of glaucoma prompted this proposed methodology's focus on the illness. This illness is second only to cataracts in causing visual loss. Medical imaging professionals are examining retinal scans to diagnose glaucoma. Manual eye screening and retinal fundus imaging for confirmation of this infection require skilled ophthalmologists. The screening analysis method is time-consuming, requires experienced staff, and is subject to observational differences. In order to overcome these issues and to support the medical fraternity, an artificial intelligence-supported computer-aided clinical decision support system (CA-CDSS) is implemented in the present endeavor for confirmation of this disease from retinal fundus images. Nature-inspired computing strategies for feature selection and ML models for classification are employed to classify fundus retinal images under investigation. From the ORIGA dataset, sixty-five features were retrieved. A subset of most influential features is selected from the original dataset using three soft-computing-based FS methods. ML classifiers are trained using this portion of data and evaluated using a 70:30 technique. The suggested method yielded 96.8% accuracy, 0.981 specificity, 0.992 sensitivity, 0.969 precision, and a 0.982 F1-score. This study shows fresh initiatives with positive effects on ophthalmologists, researchers, and the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar photovoltaic energy is the potential energy in the universe for generating electricity and meeting the required load demand. However, on account of partial shading conditions, the difficult task in the PV system is to track global maxima instead of local maxima and maintain the uninterrupted power supply. To solve this problem, a new metaheuristic algorithm is introduced in this paper such as a heap-based optimizer (HBO). The proposed method is developed in MATLAB/Simulink software. The system is examined under distinct irradiation conditions and compared their performance with other methods. The simulation results reveal that the suggested HBO shows a reliable enhancement as compared to other studied methods with regard to tracking maximum power, convergence time, and settling time. The extracted power efficiencies are 99.85% for case 1, 99.96% for case 2, and 99.92% for case 3. It is found that HBO shows better enrichment than other studied methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of microgrids arises from the growing integration of Renewable Energy Resources (RES) and Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) into Distribution Networks (DNs). Effective integration, coordination, and control of Multiple Microgrids (MMGs) whereas navigating the complexities of energy transition within this context poses a significant challenge. The dynamic operation of MMGs is a challenge faced by the traditional distributed hierarchical control techniques. The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques is a promising way to improve the control and dynamic operation of MMGs in future smart DNs. In this paper, an innovative hybrid optimization technique that originates from Cheetah Optimization (CHO) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) techniques is proposed, known as HYCHOPSO. Extensive benchmark testing validates HYCHOPSO's superiority over CHO and PSO in terms of convergence performance. The objective for this hybridization stems from the complementary strengths of CHO and PSO. CHO demonstrates rapid convergence in local search spaces, while PSO excels in global exploration. By combining these techniques, the aim is to leverage their respective advantages and enhance the algorithm's overall performance in addressing complex optimization problems. The contribution of this paper offering a unique approach to addressing optimization challenges in microgrid systems. Through a comprehensive comparative study, HYCHOPSO is evaluated against various metaheuristic optimization approaches, demonstrating superior performance, particularly in optimizing the design parameters of Proportional-Integral (PI) controllers for hierarchical control systems within microgrids. This contribution expands the repertoire of available optimization methodologies and offers practical solutions to critical challenges in microgrid optimization, enhancing the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of microgrid operations. HYCHOPSO achieves its optimal score within fewer than 50 iterations, unlike CHO, GWO, PSO, Hybrid-GWO-PSO, and SSIA-PSO, which stabilize after around 200 iterations. Across various benchmark functions, HYCHOPSO consistently demonstrates the lowest mean values, attains scores closer to the optimal values of the benchmark functions, underscoring its robust convergence capabilities.the proposed HYCHOPSO algorithm, paired with a PI controller for distributed hierarchical control, minimizes errors and enhances system reliability during dynamic MMG operations. Using HYCHOPSO framework, an accurate power sharing, voltage/frequency stability, seamless grid-to-island transition, and smooth resynchronization are achieved. This enhances the real application's reliability, flexibility, scalability and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The location planning of relief distribution centres (DCs) is crucial in humanitarian logistics as it directly influences the disaster response and service to the affected victims. In light of the critical role of facility location in humanitarian logistics planning, the study proposes a two-stage relief distribution location problem. The first stage of the model determines the minimum number of relief DCs, and the second stage find the optimal location of these DCs to minimize the total cost. To address a more realistic situation, restrictions are imposed on the coverage area and capacity of each DCs. In addition, for optimally solving this complex NP-hard problem, a novel two-phase algorithm with exploration and exploitation phase is developed in the paper. The first phase of the algorithm i.e., exploration phase identifies a near-optimal solution while the second phase i.e. exploitation phase enhances the solution quality through a close circular proximity investigation. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of the proposed algorithm with other well-known algorithms such as genetic algorithm, pattern search, fmincon, multistart and hybrid heuristics is also reported and computationally tested from small to large data sets. The results reveal that the proposed two-phase algorithm is more efficient and effective when compared to the conventional metaheuristic methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sand cat swarm optimization algorithm is a meta-heuristic algorithm created to replicate the hunting behavior observed by sand cats. The presented sand cat swarm optimization method (CWXSCSO) addresses the issues of low convergence precision and local optimality in the standard sand cat swarm optimization algorithm. It accomplished this through the utilization of elite decentralization and a crossbar approach. To begin with, a novel dynamic exponential factor is introduced. Furthermore, throughout the developmental phase, the approach of elite decentralization is incorporated to augment the capacity to transcend the confines of the local optimal. Ultimately, the crossover technique is employed to produce novel solutions and augment the algorithm's capacity to emerge from local space. The techniques were evaluated by performing a comparison with 15 benchmark functions. The CWXSCSO algorithm was compared with six advanced upgraded algorithms using CEC2019 and CEC2021. Statistical analysis, convergence analysis, and complexity analysis use statistics for assessing it. The CWXSCSO is employed to verify its efficacy in solving engineering difficulties by handling six traditional engineering optimization problems. The results demonstrate that the upgraded sand cat swarm optimization algorithm exhibits higher global optimization capability and demonstrates proficiency in dealing with real-world optimization applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum annealing (QA) holds promise for optimization problems in quantum computing, especially for combinatorial optimization. This analog framework attracts attention for its potential to address complex problems. Its gate-based homologous, QAOA with proven performance, has attracted a lot of attention to the NISQ era. Several numerical benchmarks try to compare these two metaheuristics, however, classical computational power highly limits the performance insights. In this work, we introduce a parametrized version of QA enabling a precise 1-local analysis of the algorithm. We develop a tight Lieb–Robinson bound for regular graphs, achieving the best-known numerical value to analyze QA locally. Studying MaxCut over cubic graph as a benchmark optimization problem, we show that a linear-schedule QA with a 1-local analysis achieves an approximation ratio over 0.7020, outperforming any known 1-local algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several optimization-based population search methods have been proposed; they use various operators that permit exploring the search space. These methods typically suffer from local search (LS) problems and are unbalanced between exploration and exploitation. Consequently, recent researchers sought to modify the algorithms to avoid search problems using local search techniques to intensify the exploitation when is necessary. This paper proposes a novel single-based local search optimization algorithm called the non-monopolize search (NO). The NO is a single-solution metaphor-free algorithm, and its operators are designed based to explore and exploit along the iterative process. The NO works only with a candidate solution, and the operators modify the dimension to move the current solution along the search space. The NO is an effective LS method that combines the benefits of exploration with exploitation. Different from other LS, the NO can escape from suboptimal solutions thanks to the randomness incorporated into its operators. This is the main advantage of the NO. Experiments are conducted on standard benchmark functions to validate the performance of the proposed non-monopolize search optimization technique. The results are compared with other well-known methods, and the proposed NO got better results. Moreover, the proposed NO can be considered a powerful alternative to improve the optimization algorithms' performance and help avoid local search problems. Source codes of NO are publicly available at https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/156154-the-non-monopolize-search-no. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To overcome the disadvantages of premature convergence and easy trapping into local optimum solutions, this paper proposes an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm (named NDWPSO algorithm) based on multiple hybrid strategies. Firstly, the elite opposition-based learning method is utilized to initialize the particle position matrix. Secondly, the dynamic inertial weight parameters are given to improve the global search speed in the early iterative phase. Thirdly, a new local optimal jump-out strategy is proposed to overcome the "premature" problem. Finally, the algorithm applies the spiral shrinkage search strategy from the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and the Differential Evolution (DE) mutation strategy in the later iteration to accelerate the convergence speed. The NDWPSO is further compared with other 8 well-known nature-inspired algorithms (3 PSO variants and 5 other intelligent algorithms) on 23 benchmark test functions and three practical engineering problems. Simulation results prove that the NDWPSO algorithm obtains better results for all 49 sets of data than the other 3 PSO variants. Compared with 5 other intelligent algorithms, the NDWPSO obtains 69.2%, 84.6%, and 84.6% of the best results for the benchmark function ( f 1 - f 13 ) with 3 kinds of dimensional spaces (Dim = 30,50,100) and 80% of the best optimal solutions for 10 fixed-multimodal benchmark functions. Also, the best design solutions are obtained by NDWPSO for all 3 classical practical engineering problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research paper, the intelligent learning abilities of the gray wolf optimization (GWO), multi-verse optimization (MVO), moth fly optimization, particle swarm optimization (PSO), and whale optimization algorithm (WOA) metaheuristic techniques and the response surface methodology (RSM) has been studied in the prediction of the mechanical properties of self-healing concrete. Bio-concrete technology stimulated by the concentration of bacteria has been utilized as a sustainable structural concrete for the future of the built environment. This is due to the recovery tendency of the concrete structures after noticeable structural failures. However, it requires a somewhat expensive exercise and technology to create the medium for the growth of the bacteria needed for this self-healing ability. The method of data gathering, analysis and intelligent prediction has been adopted to propose parametric relationships between the bacteria usage and the concrete performance in terms of strength and durability. This makes is cheaper to design self-healing concrete structures based on the optimized mathematical relationships and models proposed from this exercise. The performance of the models was tested by using the coefficient of determination (R2), root mean squared errors, mean absolute errors, mean squared errors, variance accounted for and the coefficient of error. At the end of the prediction protocol and model performance evaluation, it was found that the classified metaheuristic techniques outclassed the RSM due their ability to mimic human and animal genetics of mutation. Furthermore, it can be finally remarked that the GWO outclassed the other methods in predicting the concrete slump (Sl) with R2 of 0.998 and 0.989 for the train and test, respectively, the PSO outclassed the rest in predicting the flexural strength with R2 of 0.989 and 0.937 for train and test, respectively and the MVO outclassed the others in predicting the compressive strength with R2 of 0.998 and 0.958 for train and test, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concrete-filled steel tube columns (CFSTCs) are important elements in the construction sector and predictive analysis of their behavior is essential. Recent works have revealed the potential of metaheuristic-assisted approximators for this purpose. The main idea of this paper, therefore, is to introduce a novel integrative model for appraising the axial compression capacity (Pu) of CFSTCs. The proposed model represents an artificial neural network (ANN) supervised by satin bowerbird optimizer (SBO). In other words, this metaheuristic algorithm trains the ANN optimally to find the best contribution of input parameters to the Pu. In this sense, column length and the compressive strength of concrete, as well as the characteristics of the steel tube (i.e., diameter, thickness, yield stress, and ultimate stress), are considered input data. The prediction results are compared to five ANNs supervised by backtracking search algorithm (BSA), earthworm optimization algorithm (EWA), social spider algorithm (SOSA), salp swarm algorithm (SSA), and wind-driven optimization. Evaluating various accuracy indicators showed that the proposed model surpassed all of them in both learning and reproducing the Pu pattern. The obtained values of mean absolute percentage error of the SBO-ANN was 2.3082% versus 4.3821%, 17.4724%, 15.7898%, 4.2317%, and 3.6884% for the BSA-ANN, EWA-ANN, SOSA-ANN, SSA-ANN and WDA-ANN, respectively. The higher accuracy of the SBO-ANN against several hybrid models from earlier literature was also deduced. Moreover, the outcomes of principal component analysis on the dataset showed that the yield stress, diameter, and ultimate stress of the steel tube are the three most important factors in Pu prediction. A predictive formula is finally derived from the optimized SBO-ANN by extracting and organizing the weights and biases of the ANN. Owing to the accurate estimation shown by this model, the derived formula can reliably predict the Pu of concrete-filled steel tube columns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the stability of footings is a significant step in civil/geotechnical engineering projects. In this work, two novel predictive tools are suggested based on an artificial neural network (ANN) to analyze the bearing capacity of a footing installed on a two-layered soil mass. To this end, backtracking search algorithm (BSA) and equilibrium optimizer (EO) are employed to train the ANN for approximating the stability value (SV) of the system. After executing a set of finite element analyses, the settlement values lower/higher than 5 cm are considered to indicate the stability/failure of the system. The results demonstrated the efficiency of these algorithms in fulfilling the assigned task. In detail, the training error of the ANN (in terms of root mean square error—RMSE)) dropped from 0.3585 to 0.3165 (11.72%) and 0.2959 (17.46%) by applying the BSA and EO, respectively. Moreover, the prediction accuracy of the ANN climbed from 93.7 to 94.3% and 94.1% (in terms of area under the receiving operating characteristics curve—AUROC). A comparison between the elite complexities of these algorithms showed that the EO enjoys a larger accuracy, while BSA is a more time-effective optimizer. Lastly, an explicit mathematical formula is derived from the EO-ANN model to be conveniently used in predicting the SV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultra-high-pressure (UHP) water jetting is commonly used to remove rust from ship hulls. However, few studies have been undertaken to optimize the topology of reaction rotating sprinklers (RRS) using UHP. This work proposes two contributions aimed at optimizing the RRS topology and maximizing the efficiency of rust removal. The first contribution is a novel accumulative impinging-duration model, which can accurately quantify the spiral trajectory density of multiple water jets and provide a practical means to evaluate the feasibility of RRS topology. The second contribution is the development of a new meta-heuristic algorithm called adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA), which offers high-quality solutions for the combinatorial topology optimization problem associated with RRS. The AGA converges significantly faster than the conventional genetic algorithm (CGA) and avoids being trappped at a local optimum. The effectiveness of the proposed topology optimization method is demonstrated through two case studies involving RRS with different model specifications. The AGA significantly increases the utilization ratio of water-jet energy by more than 50.6 %, outperforming CGA. The rust-removal efficiency of AGA-optimized RRS is theoretically predicted by analyzing the maximal translation speed and further validated through field experiments. Results show that the rust-removal efficiency of AGA-optimized RRS for ship hulls is greatly improved, with improvements of over 50 % and 43 % in theoretical and practical verification, respectively. This research introduces a unique quantization method and an efficient optimization algorithm for practical RRS design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the compressibility of clay (Cc) for soft ground improvement and developed six optimized metaheuristic-based extreme learning machine (ELM) models (particle swarm optimization (PSO)-ELM, moth search optimization (MSO)-ELM, firefly optimization (FO)-ELM, cuckoo search optimization (CSO)-ELM, bees optimization (BO)-ELM, and ant colony optimization (ACO)-ELM) to predict Cc. A total of 739 laboratory tests were conducted to develop the models, and 517 datasets were used for training, while the remaining 222 samples were used for testing. The results showed that the accuracy of the developed models was improved by 3–5% compared to the original ELM model. The BO-ELM and MSO-ELM models were identified as the most effective models for predicting Cc, with accuracies ranging from 86.5% to 87%. The study suggests that the MSO-ELM model should be used if training time is critical. The developed models provide useful tools for predicting Cc, an essential parameter for soft ground improvement design, and can assist in the improvement of soft ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquila Optimization (AO) is a recently proposed meta-heuristic algorithm, which has been proved to be more competitive than other meta-heuristic algorithms in function optimization and practical applications. However, when solving more complex optimization problems, AO still has the shortcomings of local optimal stagnation and low solving accuracy. To overcome these shortcomings, an improved Aquila Optimization algorithm (IAO) is proposed in this paper. During the initialization of IAO population, a hybrid chaotic mapping mechanism was introduced to initialize the population, improving both the population diversity and the uniformity of the population distribution. The elite dimensional lens imaging learning strategy is introduced for elite individual to improve the optimization quality of the algorithm as elite individual has more useful information than ordinary individuals. Then the probabilistic jump mechanism of simulated annealing algorithm is used to select the position update mode to balance local development and global search. The experimental results on the CEC2005 test function verify the viability and effectiveness of IAO. IAO is used to the multi-threshold segmentation problem based on symmetric cross entropy to demonstrate its capacity to resolve practical optimization problems. The segmentation performance on different reference images shows that IAO has good segmentation performance in most cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of an electric vehicle charging station (EVCS) infrastructure plays a vital role in fostering the sustainable expansion of the electric vehicle sector. The unplanned placement of EVCS raises various technical and economic issues in the distribution network, and it can lead to increased energy losses in the distribution system. Installing EVCSs and DGs at strategically chosen positions is essential to minimize the impact of EV load on the distribution network. To address these issues, this work has proposed a whale optimization technique (WOT) for optimizing the placement and sizing of EVCS and DG. This novel approach of formulating the multi-objective problem of allocating electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, along with DGs and capacitors simultaneously improves the voltage stability, minimizes active and reactive power losses in the radial distribution system, and requires execution time. A forward–backward power flow method has been carried out for load flow calculations. The efficacy of the proposed approach has been applied on the standard IEEE-33 and 69-bus test systems and the obtained results have been compared with the other latest optimization techniques. The simulation results validate the performance and effectiveness of the Whale Optimization Technique, and it has been analyzed that the optimized sizes and allocation of EVCSs, DGs, and capacitors lead to an extensive reduction in power losses of 81.33% and 80% in the case of active power and 78.46% and 80.26% in the case of reactive power for the IEEE-33 and 69-bus test systems, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve high precision and robust control of switched reluctance machines (SRMs), this paper proposes a novel rotor position estimation method based on gain-optimized sliding mode observer (SMO) with neural networks and whale optimization algorithm. For the SMO, this paper uses the easily measured phase current to constitute the error function of the SMO, which requires less pre-stored data. Using the neural networks' powerful nonlinear mapping capability, the relationship between the sliding mode gains and speed estimation error and the position estimation error is obtained, and then the whale optimization algorithm is used to find the optimal sliding mode gains in the restricted range. The simulation and experiment results show that the accuracy of the SMO control system is significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an advanced metaheuristic approach termed the Enhanced Gorilla Troops Optimizer (EGTO), which builds upon the Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA) to enhance the search capabilities of the Gorilla Troops Optimizer (GTO). Like numerous other metaheuristic algorithms, the GTO encounters difficulties in preserving convergence accuracy and stability, notably when tackling intricate and adaptable optimization problems, especially when compared to more advanced optimization techniques. Addressing these challenges and aiming for improved performance, this paper proposes the EGTO, integrating high and low-velocity ratios inspired by the MPA. The EGTO technique effectively balances exploration and exploitation phases, achieving impressive results by utilizing fewer parameters and operations. Evaluation on a diverse array of benchmark functions, comprising 23 established functions and ten complex ones from the CEC2019 benchmark, highlights its performance. Comparative analysis against established optimization techniques reveals EGTO's superiority, consistently outperforming its counterparts such as tuna swarm optimization, grey wolf optimizer, gradient based optimizer, artificial rabbits optimization algorithm, pelican optimization algorithm, Runge Kutta optimization algorithm (RUN), and original GTO algorithms across various test functions. Furthermore, EGTO's efficacy extends to addressing seven challenging engineering design problems, encompassing three-bar truss design, compression spring design, pressure vessel design, cantilever beam design, welded beam design, speed reducer design, and gear train design. The results showcase EGTO's robust convergence rate, its adeptness in locating local/global optima, and its supremacy over alternative methodologies explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cooperative coevolution framework was introduced to address the shortcomings of metaheuristic algorithms in solving continuous large-scale global optimization problems. By dividing the problem into subcomponents which can be optimized separately, the framework can improve on both the solution's quality as well as the computational speed by exposing a degree of parallelism. Distributed computing platforms, such as Apache Spark, have long been used to improve the speed of different algorithms in solving computational problems. This work proposes a distributed implementation of the cooperative coevolution framework for solving large-scale global optimization problems on the Apache Spark distributed computing platform. By using a formerly outlined distributed variant of the cooperative coevolution framework, features of the Spark platform are utilized to enhance the computational speed of the algorithm while maintaining comparable search quality to other works in the literature. To test for the proposed implementation's improvement in computational speed, the CEC 2010 large-scale global optimization benchmark functions are used due to the diversity they offer in terms of complexity, separability and modality. Results of the proposed distributed implementation suggest that a speedup of up to ×3.36 is possible on large-scale global optimization benchmarks using the Apache Spark platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart agriculture is a popular domain due to its intensified growth in recent times. This domain aggregates the advantages of several computing technologies, where the IoT is the most popular and beneficial. In this work, a novel and effective deep learning-based framework is developed to detect intrusions in smart farming systems. The architecture is three-tier, with the first tier being the sensor layer, which involves the placement of sensors in agricultural areas. The second tier is the Fog Computing Layer (FCL), which consists of Fog nodes, and the proposed IDS is implemented in each Fog node. The gathered information is transferred to this fog layer for further data analysis. The third tier is the cloud computing layer, which provides data storage and end-to-end services. The proposed model includes a fused CNN model with the bidirectional gated recurrent unit (Bi-GRU) model to detect and classify intruders. An attention mechanism is included within the BiGRU model to find the key features responsible for identifying the DDoS attack. In addition, the accuracy of the classification model is improved by using a nature-inspired meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called the Wild Horse Optimization (WHO) algorithm. The last layer is the cloud layer, which collects data from fog nodes and offers storage services. The proposed system will be implemented in the Python platform, using ToN-IoT and APA-DDoS attack datasets for assessment. The proposed system outperforms the existing methods in accuracy (99.35%), detection rate (98.99%), precision (99.9%) and F-Score (99.08%) for the APA DDoS attack dataset and the achieved accuracy of the ToN-IoT dataset (99.71%), detection rate (99.02%), precision (99.89%) and F-score (99.05%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive radio (CR) technology is crucial for enabling dynamic spectrum management. CR allows opportunistic spectrum sharing with licensed primary radio (PR) users by allowing the so-called secondary users to dynamically access the under-utilized parts of the frequency bands that are allocated/licensed to the PR networks (PRNs). The CR system pays a utilization-dependent price to PRNs for utilizing the unused spectrum. An essential challenge in this domain is how to characterize the economic implications of spectrum sharing between the CR system and PRNs. Specifically, we consider a CR system with two competing CR service providers. This market model is known as the "duopoly model," a market structure premise that consists of two companies providing the same type of service. For such a model, we investigate the problem of maximizing the overall achieved profit in the CR system. Specifically, we mathematically formulate the profit-maximization spectrum assignment problem for the two CR providers subject to spectrum sharing, power distribution, spectrum pricing, and quality of service constraints. We demonstrate that this optimization problem is an NP-hard binary nonlinear programming problem. Therefore, we adopt a meta-heuristic optimization method based on Antlion Optimization to solve the problem suboptimally. Simulation results revealed that our proposed profit-aware optimization significantly outperforms traditional CR-based spectrum access mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) is a novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm. The algorithm is inspired by the behavior of Harris Hawks collaborating with each other to pursue prey in nature. The algorithm has the advantages of simple structure, fewer parameters, easy implementation, and excellent performance on high-dimensional problems. However, the algorithm also suffers from the inability to strike a good balance between exploration and exploitation, low convergence accuracy, and slow convergence speed in the early stage. In response to these defects, this paper will introduce three strategies to the HHO: a non-negative stochastic shrinkage exponential energy function, a Cauchy-Gaussian-based dynamic variance reduction selection strategy, and a greedy-difference-based selection strategy. The improved algorithm TSHHO is analyzed on the well-established 28 benchmark test functions, and four industrial engineering design problems. The experimental results show that the TSHHO algorithm proposed in this paper can achieve a better balance in the exploration and development stages,the strategies significantly improve the search efficiency, convergence accuracy, and robustness of the algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fog Computing paradigm that provisions low-latency computing services at the edge network, is a bonanza for supply chain computing resources in Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In different scenarios such as smart homes/healthcare systems, multiple IoT applications are distributed simultaneously in cloud and fog nodes to provide different IoT-based services. In addition, each program requires resources and has its desired quality of service (QoS) which should be met. One of the key challenges in fog computing environment is how to efficiently allocate resources to IoT applications because inefficient resource allocation leads to burdening providers high costs and it lowers down the delivered QoS to users. Since the majority of IoT applications are time-sensitive, the low delay and near physically allocated resources improve the amount of delivered QoS. Therefore, the resource clustering algorithms with the lowest distance error rate and the lowest delay as a consequence are favorable. The aim is to reduce clustering errors and improve the overall performance of the system. This paper formulates resource allocation to IoT applications in heterogeneous 4-layered fog platforms to an optimization problem. To solve this problem, a fusion approach incorporating a genetic algorithm (GA) and the k-means clustering approach is presented. Firstly, it utilizes the k-means approach and Jaccard measurement to cluster fog nodes with a minimum clustering rate. Then, the resources of fog clusters are allocated to IoT devices with the minimum error rate by incorporating GA algorithm. This selection of processing nodes in a fog layer helps to minimize latency and allows applications to access resources simultaneously. The simulation results in extensive scenarios prove the superiority of the proposed algorithm against other successful meta-heuristic approaches in terms of the objective function and lowest error/delay rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dams are among the most important civil engineering structures, but they are also susceptible to damage that can endanger their stability and functionality. It is therefore crucial to detect any damage in dams to ensure their long-term integrity and overall safety. In light of this, the present study proposes a new two-stage method for identifying damage in concrete gravity dams. In the first stage, a modal curvature-based damage index (MCBDI) is presented to detect the location of suspected damaged zones along the height of the dam. The mode shape data collected from some measurement points on the downstream side of the dam is used to accomplish this task. In the second stage, the pathfinder algorithm (PFA) as a powerful meta-heuristic optimization technique is applied to determine the severity of potentially damaged zones by minimizing an objective function specified in terms of natural frequencies and mode shapes. The capability and effectiveness of the proposed method are evaluated by implementing two numerical simulation examples of concrete gravity dams under both noise-free and noisy conditions. The results obtained suggest that the proposed two-stage method, comprising the MCBDI indicator and the PFA algorithm, represents an accurate and efficient approach for localizing and quantifying damage in concrete gravity dams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the drill penetration rate is a fundamental requirement in mining operations, profoundly impacting both the cost-effectiveness of mining activities and strategic mine planning. Given the intricate web of factors influencing rotary drilling performance, the necessity for advanced modeling techniques becomes evident. To this end, the hybrid extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) was utilized to gauge the penetration rate of rotary drilling machines, utilizing random search, grid search, Harris Hawk optimization (HHO), and the dragonfly algorithm (DA) as metaheuristic algorithms. Our research draws from extensive data collected in copper mine case studies, encompassing both field and investigational data. This dataset incorporates critical material properties, such as tensile strength (TS), uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), as well as vital rock-mass characteristics including joint direction (JD), joint spacing (JS), and bit diameter (D). Our investigation evaluates the reliability of these prediction methods using various performance indicators, including mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), average absolute relative error (AARE), and coefficient of determination (R2). The multivariate analysis reveals that the HHO-XGB model stands out, demonstrating superior prediction accuracy (MAE: 0.457; RMSE: 2.19; AARE: 2.29; R2: 0.993) compared to alternative models. Furthermore, our sensitivity analysis emphasizes the substantial impact of uniaxial compressive strength and tensile strength on the drill penetration rate. This underlines the importance of considering these material properties in mining operations. In conclusion, our research offers robust models for forecasting the penetration rate of similar rock formations, providing invaluable insights that can significantly enhance mining operations and planning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural engineering is a field with several optimization approaches. Concordantly, the goal in optimum design is the generation of the lightest, cheapest, or most sustainable engineering design for any type of structure or structural member. In this study, some optimization approaches were presented for structures including 25 and 72-bar space trusses. To find the smallest weights were ensured for both structures. Optimization approaches related to metaheuristics and modifications of them were developed by inspired by features of nature, abilities of lives and mechanisms of chemical/physical processes. The employed three techniques that are flower pollination algorithm, Jaya algorithm and the hybrid algorithm developed via them were compared to each other through some parameters by calculating different statistical expressions containing the best, average and standard deviation of the objective function. Also, the performance of whole metaheuristic versions is evaluated with some literature researches to find the most effective one to minimize the structural weights. These results have observed that the all versions of proposed metaheuristic algorithms are generally successful, and effective to minimize the objective function comparison to algorithms used in previous studies. Moreover, the best values of objective functions can be decreased at the 0.02–0.06 rates as minimum and maximum compared to the previous studies and algorithms, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utilization of cloud computing environments is highly popular for carrying out workflow executions due to its ability to provide clients with immediate access to computing resources. Among the various workflow scheduling problems in the cloud, deadline-constrained workflow scheduling has garnered increasing attention in recent years. This paper introduces a hybrid scheduling algorithm known as Partial Critical Path–Ant Colony Optimization (PCP–ACO), which aims to minimize the execution cost of a workflow while ensuring that it meets the user-defined deadline in cloud environments. PCP–ACO is a list scheduling algorithm that combines the PCP heuristic algorithm with the meta-heuristic ACO to achieve faster convergence. The list scheduling algorithm consists of two phases: task ordering and resource selection. In the case of PCP–ACO, the first step involves calculating a topological sort of the workflow tasks to assign priority to each task. Subsequently, the ACO meta-heuristic is employed to allocate the appropriate resource to each task of the workflow, based on their respective sub-deadlines that are computed using the PCP heuristic. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, several experiments were conducted using five real scientific workflows. The results demonstrate that PCP–ACO outperforms the IC-PCP, L-ACO, and HP-GA algorithms in terms of average execution cost, achieving reductions of 19%, 17.3%, and 21.5%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately estimating evaporation is essential for water managers to formulate effective rules and policies. The complexity arising from intricate interactions within the soil-atmosphere system makes evaporation a challenging parameter to predict. In the past decade, Machine Learning techniques rooted in soft computing have emerged as potent tools for addressing the intricacies and non-linearities in hydrology. Surprisingly, there has been no prior research exploring the impact of reservoir water temperature on evaporation modeling. Consequently, this study aimed to employ a hybridized Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) integrated with four optimization algorithms: Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO), and Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA). The focus was on modeling the monthly evaporation of the Boukourdane Dam in Algeria for the period of September 1996 to August 2016 and examining how the reservoir's water temperature influences model performance based on four performance indicators, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), scatter index (SI) and Correlation Coefficient (R). The findings underscored the significance of incorporating the water temperature parameter. Among the models, ANFIS-HHO demonstrated the highest accuracy with MAE, RMSE and R values of 1.28, 1.21 mm and 0.92, respectively during test period. Moreover, results revealing a notable impact of reservoir water temperature on evaporation forecasting and the addition of this parameter provide an increase in R and decrease in RMSE about 4.54% and 17.98% respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]