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The calibration of cameras plays a critical role in close-range photogrammetry because the precision of calibration has a direct effect on the quality of results. When handling image capture using a camera, traditional swarm intelligence algorithms such as genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization, in conjunction with Zhang's calibration method, frequently face difficulties regarding local optima and sluggish convergence. This study presents an enhanced hybrid optimization approach utilizing both the principles of differential evolution and particle swarm optimization, which is then employed in the context of camera calibration. Initially, we establish a measurement model specific to the camera in close-range photogrammetry and determine its interior orientation parameters. Subsequently, employing these parameters as initial values, we perform global optimization and iteration using the improved hybrid optimization algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is subsequently validated through simulation and comparative experiments. Compared to alternative approaches, the proposed algorithm enhances both the accuracy of camera calibration and the convergence speed. It effectively addresses the issue of other algorithms getting trapped in local optima due to image distortion. These research findings provide theoretical support for practical engineering applications in the field of control theory and optimization to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the distribution network planning problems, feeder routing is one of the most important and challenging issues. Feeder routing is defined as the optimal determination of the feeders' routes by minimizing the investment cost and satisfying the network constraints. To the best knowledge of the authors, solving feeder routing problem in multi-objective framework is rarely investigated in the previous literature. This paper develops a bi-objective modeling and optimization framework to efficiently solve the feeder routing problem of distribution network considering cost and power losses. Since feeder routing is a complex, high-dimensional and combinatorial optimization problem, a multi-objective differential crow search algorithm (MO-CSAdif) is proposed to obtain a well-distributed and widely spread Pareto front. On a real large distribution network, simulation results confirm the usefulness of the proposed optimization framework. It can be drawn that MO-CSAdif can be a promising method to optimally solve the feeder routing problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests day-ahead scheduling of microgrid with and without demand side management considering hydrogen storage and plug-in electric vehicles. This is a highly constrained mixed integer nonlinear programming problem which is solved by using quasi-oppositional fast convergence evolutionary programming (QOFCEP) technique. The concept of the quasi-opposition-based learning is incorporated in fast convergence evolutionary programming (FCEP) to improve the efficiency and quality of the solution. QOFCEP employs quasi-oppositional based learning (QOBL) for population initialization and generation jumping. The studied microgrid comprises three diesel generators, one mini-hydro power plant, two wind turbine generators, two solar PV plants, one hydrogen storage system and plug-in electric vehicles. Simulation outcomes of the suggested QOFCEP technique have been compared with those obtained by FCEP and differential evolution (DE). It is seen from numerical results that the cost obtained with DSM is about 0.81% lower than the cost obtained without DSM. It is also seen that the cost obtained from QOFCEP is about 0.52% and 0.78% lower than the cost obtained from FCEP and DE, respectively. The suggested QOFCEP technique has the ability to bestow superior-quality solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the mathematical model of Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) is established based on the directed graph, and a 3-stage multi-modal multi-objective differential evolution algorithm (3S-MMDEA) is proposed. In the first stage, in order to expand the range of individuals to be selected, a generalized opposition-based learning (GOBL) strategy is used to generate a reverse population. In the second stage, a search strategy of reachable distribution area is proposed, which divides the population with the selected individual as the center point to improve the convergence of the solution set. In the third stage, an improved individual variation strategy is proposed to legalize the mutant individuals, so that the individual after variation still falls within the range of the population, further improving the diversity of individuals to ensure the diversity of the solution set. Based on the synergy of the above three stages of strategies, the diversity of individuals is ensured, so as to improve the diversity of solution sets, and multiple equivalent optimal paths are obtained to meet the planning needs of different decision-makers. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is evaluated on the standard benchmark datasets of the problem. The experimental results show that the proposed 3S-MMDEA can improve the efficiency of logistics distribution and obtain multiple equivalent optimal paths. The method achieves good performance, superior to the most advanced VRPTW solution methods, and has great potential in practical projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrocracking process is an essential and widely used means to remove impurities such as sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen from heavy oil in refineries. The sulfur content in the tail oil of the hydrogenation process is a key quality index that must be strictly monitored and controlled. However, the traditional measurement ways of the sulfur content suffer from either large delays or high investment and maintenance costs. To this end, a predictive model named "adaptively regularized dynamic polynomial partial least squares (ARDPPLS)" is proposed to develop soft analyzer for sulfur content estimation. The ARDPPLS takes complicated characteristics of the hydrogenation process into consideration, including process dynamics, nonlinearities, and transportation delays of materials and energies. Specifically, the dynamics and nonlinearities are modeled by the finite impulse response paradigm and polynomial fitting, respectively, and the delays of explanatory variables are automatically determined using differential evolution. In particular, a Bayesian inference‐based adaptive regularization scheme for the polynomial partial least squares is designed to tackle overfitting that results from high‐order variable augmentation and high‐order polynomials. The performance of the ARDPPLS is evaluated by a real‐world industrial wax oil hydrocracking process, showing the effectiveness of the ARDPPLS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaheuristics are commonly employed as a means of solving many distinct kinds of optimization problems. Several natural-process-inspired metaheuristic optimizers have been introduced in the recent years. The convergence, computational burden and statistical relevance of metaheuristics should be studied and compared for their potential use in future algorithm design and implementation. In this paper, eight different variants of dragonfly algorithm, i.e. classical dragonfly algorithm (DA), hybrid memory-based dragonfly algorithm with differential evolution (DADE), quantum-behaved and Gaussian mutational dragonfly algorithm (QGDA), memory-based hybrid dragonfly algorithm (MHDA), chaotic dragonfly algorithm (CDA), biogeography-based Mexican hat wavelet dragonfly algorithm (BMDA), hybrid Nelder-Mead algorithm and dragonfly algorithm (INMDA), and hybridization of dragonfly algorithm and artificial bee colony (HDA) are applied to solve four industrial chemical process optimization problems. A fuzzy multi-criteria decision making tool in the form of fuzzy-measurement alternatives and ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS) is adopted to ascertain the relative rankings of the DA variants with respect to computational time, Friedman's rank based on optimal solutions and convergence rate. Based on the comprehensive testing of the algorithms, it is revealed that DADE, QGDA and classical DA are the top three DA variants in solving the industrial chemical process optimization problems under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf abnormalities pose a significant threat to agricultural productivity, particularly in medicinal plants such as Centella asiatica (Linn.) Urban (CAU), where they can severely impact both the yield and the quality of leaf-derived substances. In this study, we focus on the early detection of such leaf diseases in CAU, a critical intervention for minimizing crop damage and ensuring plant health. We propose a novel parallel-Variable Neighborhood Strategy Adaptive Search (parallel-VaNSAS) ensemble deep learning method specifically designed for this purpose. Our approach is distinguished by a two-stage ensemble model, which combines the strengths of advanced image segmentation and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to detect leaf diseases with high accuracy and efficiency. In the first stage, we employ U-net, Mask-R-CNN, and DeepNetV3++ for the precise image segmentation of leaf abnormalities. This step is crucial for accurately identifying diseased regions, thereby facilitating a focused and effective analysis in the subsequent stage. The second stage utilizes ShuffleNetV2, SqueezeNetV2, and MobileNetV3, which are robust CNN architectures, to classify the segmented images into different categories of leaf diseases. This two-stage methodology significantly improves the quality of disease detection over traditional methods. By employing a combination of ensemble segmentation and diverse CNN models, we achieve a comprehensive and nuanced analysis of leaf diseases. Our model's efficacy is further enhanced through the integration of four decision fusion strategies: unweighted average (UWA), differential evolution (DE), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and Variable Neighborhood Strategy Adaptive Search (VaNSAS). Through extensive evaluations of the ABL-1 and ABL-2 datasets, which include a total of 14,860 images encompassing eight types of leaf abnormalities, our model demonstrates its superiority. The ensemble segmentation method outperforms single-method approaches by 7.34%, and our heterogeneous ensemble model excels by 8.43% and 14.59% compared to the homogeneous ensemble and single models, respectively. Additionally, image augmentation contributes to a 5.37% improvement in model performance, and the VaNSAS strategy enhances solution quality significantly over other decision fusion methods. Overall, our novel parallel-VaNSAS ensemble deep learning method represents a significant advancement in the detection of leaf diseases in CAU, promising a more effective approach to maintaining crop health and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important irritant trace gas in the atmosphere, ammonia (NH3) significantly impacts human health and environment. Bottom-up emission inventories are widely used to estimate ammonia emissions and their geographical distributions over China. However, high uncertainties are still associated with emission inventories due to inaccurate emission factors used. The Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm is a population-based stochastic optimization algorithm used to solve complicated optimization problems. We quantify NH3 emissions and lifetime from Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) NH3 observations together with MERRA-2 wind fields based on the DE algorithm. Two inland cities, Urumchi and Golmud in China, are chosen to study of the NH3 emissions based on the distributions of NH3 total columns and wind fields. The NH3 emissions rate estimated is about 5.84 × 10−11 and 4.19 × 10−11 kg·m−2s−1 in Urumchi and in the Golmud area from May to September from 2008 to 2023, respectively. The lifetime of NH3 estimated in the two areas is 4.31 and 9.19 h, respectively. We compare the NH3 emissions and lifetime estimated in this study with the values in other studies, and the results show the reliability of the method used. This work is one of few quantitative studies of NH3 emissions from cities using satellite observations in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-objective optimization algorithms are widely employed in the optimization of Dividing-Wall Column (DWC). However, due to the inherent complexity of DWC design problems, the choice of different optimization algorithms significantly influences the results. This study aims to investigate the applicability of various multi-objective optimization algorithms in the design of ternary DWCs. Three multi-objective algorithms including multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA), multi-objective differential evolution with tabu list algorithm (MODE-TL), and multi-objective particle swarm algorithm (MOPSO) are used to solve the optimization problem of six configurations of dividing-wall columns including direct dividing-wall column, indirect dividing-wall column, Petlyuk dividing-wall column, and three configurations of liquid-only transfer dividing-wall column (LTS), and the optimization results are compared and analyzed. The results show that MOPSO has the worst performance and is relatively less applicable to dividing-wall columns. The MOGA has great global exploration ability but is sensitive to structure complicity. The MODE-TL algorithm can make balance between exploration and exploitation and is less sensitive to structure complicity and the number of variables. Finally, according to the comprehensive performance of the three algorithms, we conclude that MODE-TL has the highest applicability in ternary dividing-wall column optimization. [Display omitted] • Six alternative ternary DWCs, including liquid-only transfer DWCs, are designed and optimized. • The performance of three improved optimization algorithms in six configurations is compared and the reasons are analyzed. • The most applicable multi-objective algorithm for ternary DWCs' optimal design is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved algorithm based on tent chaotic map and difference mechanism is proposed to address the problem of poor population diversity and easily falling into local optimum in the lion swarm optimization algorithm. At first, an improved tent chaotic map is introduced to initialize the population position to increase diversity and ergodicity, thereby improving the global search capability. Second, a perturbation factor combined with a differential evolution mechanism is introduced to realize the adaptive positioning of the lioness and improve its ability to jump out of the local optimum. Following that, the proposed algorithm's superiority is tested on 10 multi-type benchmark functions and compared to six swarm intelligence algorithms. Finally, the improved algorithm is applied to optimize the initial weights and thresholds of BP neural networks. Then a new model is proposed and applied to the study of house price prediction. Experiments are conducted on two standard datasets, and results show that the proposed model's convergence speed, accuracy, and stability are better than the other three methods. On the Boston dataset, the mean square error of the training set and test set is 0.0016 and 0.0052, respectively, and the absolute error of more than 98% of the data is within 3%. On the Californian dataset, the mean square error of the training set and test set is 0.0149 and 0.0151, respectively, with more than 92.3% of the data within 5% absolute error, further validating the effectiveness, higher accuracy, and convergence performance of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that results produced by a heuristic optimisation algorithm cannot be considered reproducible unless the algorithm fully specifies what should be done with solutions generated outside the domain, even in the case of simple bound constraints. Currently, in the field of heuristic optimisation, such specification is rarely mentioned or investigated due to the assumed triviality or insignificance of this question. Here, we demonstrate that, at least in algorithms based on Differential Evolution, this choice induces notably different behaviours in terms of performance, disruptiveness, and population diversity. This is shown theoretically (where possible) for standard Differential Evolution in the absence of selection pressure and experimentally for the standard and state-of-the-art Differential Evolution variants, on a special test function and the BBOB benchmarking suite, respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate that the importance of this choice quickly grows with problem dimensionality. Differential Evolution is not at all special in this regard—there is no reason to presume that other heuristic optimisers are not equally affected by the aforementioned algorithmic choice. Thus, we urge the heuristic optimisation community to formalise and adopt the idea of a new algorithmic component in heuristic optimisers, which we refer to as the strategy of dealing with infeasible solutions. This component needs to be consistently: (a) specified in algorithmic descriptions to guarantee reproducibility of results, (b) studied to better understand its impact on an algorithm's performance in a wider sense (i.e., convergence time, robustness, etc.), and (c) included in the (automatic) design of algorithms. All of these should be done even for problems with bound constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Combining a novel protein feature extraction approach with PSSM matrices and commonly used feature extraction methods. • In terms of feature fusion, the differential evolution algorithm has been optimized. • Innovatively, feature selection is applied twice, once during feature extraction and then again after feature fusion. • Optimized the XGBoost algorithm to enhance classification efficiency. DNA-binding proteins are a class of proteins that can interact with DNA molecules through physical and chemical interactions. Their main functions include regulating gene expression, maintaining chromosome structure and stability, and more. DNA-binding proteins play a crucial role in cellular and molecular biology, as they are essential for maintaining normal cellular physiological functions and adapting to environmental changes. The prediction of DNA-binding proteins has been a hot topic in the field of bioinformatics. The key to accurately classifying DNA-binding proteins is to find suitable feature sources and explore the information they contain. Although there are already many models for predicting DNA-binding proteins, there is still room for improvement in mining feature source information and calculation methods. In this study, we created a model called DBPboost to better identify DNA-binding proteins. The innovation of this study lies in the use of eight feature extraction methods, the improvement of the feature selection step, which involves selecting some features first and then performing feature selection again after feature fusion, and the optimization of the differential evolution algorithm in feature fusion, which improves the performance of feature fusion. The experimental results show that the prediction accuracy of the model on the UniSwiss dataset is 89.32%, and the sensitivity is 89.01%, which is better than most existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a Hilbert space setting $ {\mathcal H} $ H , for convex optimization, we analyse the fast convergence properties as $ t \rightarrow +\infty $ t → + ∞ of the trajectories $ t \mapsto u(t) \in {\mathcal H} $ t ↦ u (t) ∈ H generated by a third-order in time evolution system. The function $ f: {\mathcal H} \to {\mathbb R} $ f : H → R to minimize is supposed to be convex, continuously differentiable, with $ {\rm argmin}_{{\mathcal H}} f \neq \emptyset $ argmin H f ≠ ∅. It enters into the dynamic through its gradient. Based on this new dynamical system, we improve the results obtained by Attouch et al. [Fast convex optimization via a third-order in time evolution equation. Optimization. 2020;71(5):1275–1304]. As a main result, when the damping parameter α satisfies $ \alpha \gt 3 $ α > 3 , we show that $ f(u(t)) - \inf _{{\mathcal H}} f = o(1/t^3) $ f (u (t)) − inf H f = o (1 / t 3) as $ t \rightarrow +\infty $ t → + ∞ , as well as the convergence of the trajectories. We complement these results by introducing into the dynamic an Hessian-driven damping term, which reduces the oscillations. In the case of a strongly convex function f, we show an autonomous evolution system of the third-order in time with an exponential rate of convergence. All these results have natural extensions to the case of a convex lower semicontinuous function $ f: {\mathcal H} \to \mathbb R\cup \{+\infty \} $ f : H → R ∪ { + ∞ }. Just replace f with its Moreau envelope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Whale Optimisation Algorithm (WOA) is a meta-heuristic model inspired by the hunting behaviours of humpback whales. Similar to many other meta-heuristic models, e.g., Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), and Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO), the WOA is susceptible to the issues of slow convergence and local optima. In this study, we address these short comings by first proposing an Enhanced WOA (EWOA) model for tackling single-objective optimisation. Specifically, EWOA integrates the WOA and Differential Evolution (DE). DE is a population-based algorithm that generates new candidate solutions by combining the existing ones, employing a simple yet robust formula. This amalgamation aids in generating diverse solutions during the exploration stage by utilising a non-linear coefficient vector, adaptive weight, and sub-population strategies. Furthermore, fast non-dominated sorting and crowding distance techniques from the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) are incorporated into EWOA, resulting in a multi-objective EWOA (MOEWOA) model. We evaluate both EWOA and MOEWOA with a broad spectrum of benchmark functions. The results from 51 single-objective optimisation problems indicate the usefulness of EWOA in terms of a fast convergence rate and with increased performance. On the other hand, MOEWOA demonstrates a better convergence rate and an effective balance between convergence and diversity in 12 multi-objective optimisation problems. In addition, MOEWOA successfully solves 21 complex multi-objective constrained mechanical design problems, outperforming other compared algorithms at the 95% confidence level. The empirical outcomes of our study indicate the potential of EWOA and MOEWOA for undertaking complex, real-world optimisation problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manual calculation of the compressive strength of concrete (CSC) is an expensive and time-consuming process. Soft computing methods outperform the statistical methods used to resolve these problems. Nonetheless, complicated prediction models are still incomplete and require more exploration. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) provide a better and faster technique featuring solitary hidden layers and have improved the generalization capacity. The present paper presents three ANN-based (shuffled complex evolution, evaporation rate based water cycle algorithm (ERWCA), and Cuckoo optimization algorithm) prediction models to anticipate the compressive strength of concrete efficiently. An available database from the UCI repository is employed to develop and access the model performance. A comparison is made between the prediction accuracies of the above three techniques. Using all models, a comparative investigation has been conducted to predict the compressive strength of concrete at the curing ages of 91, 56, and 28 days. The experimental findings obtained from the ERWCA-MLP method indicate its capability of robust CSC prediction. On average, this method achieves the minimum RMSE of 0.55314 and 0.43329 and R2 of 0.99803 and 0.99824. The statistical significance test and the comparative analysis of simulation results indicate the superiority of ERWCA-MLP in predicting the compressive strength of concrete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential evolution (DE) is a robust optimizer designed for solving complex domain research problems in the computational intelligence community. In the present work, a multi-hybrid DE (MHDE) is proposed for improving the overall working capability of the algorithm without compromising the solution quality. Adaptive parameters, enhanced mutation, enhanced crossover, reducing population, iterative division and Gaussian random sampling are some of the major characteristics of the proposed MHDE algorithm. Firstly, an iterative division for improved exploration and exploitation is used, then an adaptive proportional population size reduction mechanism is followed for reducing the computational complexity. It also incorporated Weibull distribution and Gaussian random sampling to mitigate premature convergence. The proposed framework is validated by using IEEE CEC benchmark suites (CEC 2005, CEC 2014 and CEC 2017). The algorithm is applied to four engineering design problems and for the weight minimization of three frame design problems. Experimental results are analysed and compared with recent hybrid algorithms such as laplacian biogeography based optimization, adaptive differential evolution with archive (JADE), success history based DE, self adaptive DE, LSHADE, MVMO, fractional-order calculus-based flower pollination algorithm, sine cosine crow search algorithm and others. Statistically, the Friedman and Wilcoxon rank sum tests prove that the proposed algorithm fares better than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research work, a differential evolution-based method has been used to compress the deep neural network architectures. The compression is achieved by selecting the most dominant filters/nodes during the training of the model. The usefulness of filters is established by the test accuracy of the model. The experimental results demonstrate that the performance of proposed model compares fairly well with other state of art model compression techniques. Moreover, the compression achieved with VGG16 on MNIST, CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets was 98.32, 98.5 and 93.54%, respectively. The corresponding compression achieved on ResNet50 was 85.24, 85.38 and 79.37%, while SqueezeNet which is already compressed model could also be compressed by 72.94, 73.77 and 44.59%, respectively. MobileNet, which is already a compact model developed for mobile applications, could also be compressed by 93.04, 93.74 and 76.37% on MNIST, CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets. The loss in accuracy in compressed models turns out to be less than 2%. Further, the compressed models report acceleration in inference time being 80.79% on VGG16, 74.14% on ResNet50, 42.96% on MobileNet and 11.79% on SqueezeNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suppressing the spontaneous emission in quantum emitters ensembles (atoms) is one of the topical problems in quantum optics and quantum technology. While many approaches are based on utilizing the subradiance effect in ordered quantum emitters arrays, the ensemble configurations providing the minimal spontaneous emission rate are yet unknown. In this work, we employ the differential evolution algorithm to identify the optimal configurations of a few atomic ensembles that support quantum states with maximal radiative lifetime. We demonstrate that atoms tend to assemble mostly in quasi-regular structures with specific geometry, which strongly depends on the minimally allowed interatomic distance r min . While the discovered specific non-radiative realizations of small ensembles cannot be immediately predicted, there is particular correspondence to the non-radiative states in the atomic lattices. In particular, we have found that states inheriting their properties either from the bound states in the continuum or band edge states of infinite lattices dominate across a wide range of r min values. Additionally, we show that for small interatomic distances, the linear arrays with modulated spacing have the smallest radiative losses exponentially decreasing as the size of the ensemble increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential evolution is a popular heuristic black-box numerical optimization algorithm which is often used due to its simplicity and efficiency. Parameter adaptation is one of the main directions of study regarding the differential evolution algorithm. The main reason for this is that differential evolution is highly sensitive to the scaling factor and crossover rate parameters. In this study, a novel adaptation technique is proposed which uses the success rate to replace the popular success history-based adaptation for scaling factor tuning. In particular, the scaling factor is sampled with a Cauchy distribution, whose location parameter is set as an nth order root of the current success rate, i.e., the ratio of improved solutions to the current population size. The proposed technique is universal and can be applied to any differential evolution variant. Here it is tested with several state-of-the-art variants of differential evolution, and on two benchmark sets, CEC 2017 and CEC 2022. The performed experiments, which include modifications of algorithms developed by other authors, show that in many cases using the success rate to determine the scaling factor can be beneficial, especially with relatively small computational resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the energy-intensive cement industry, focusing on a plant in Greece and its mill and kiln unit. The data utilized include manipulated, non-manipulated, and uncontrolled variables. The non-manipulated variables are computed based on the machine learning (ML) models and selected by the minimum value of the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) across nine (9) methods. In case the distribution of the data displayed in the user interface changes, the user should trigger the retrain of the AI models to ensure their accuracy and robustness. To form the objective function, the expert user should define the desired weight for each manipulated or non-manipulated variable through the user interface (UI), along with its corresponding constraints or target value. The user selects the variables involved in the objective function based on the optimization strategy, and the evaluation is based on the comparison of the optimized and the active value of the objective function. The differential evolution (DE) method optimizes the objective function that is formed by the linear combination of the selected variables. The results indicate that using DE improves the operation of both the cement mill and kiln, yielding a lower objective function value compared to the current values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray inspections of contraband are widely used to maintain public transportation safety and protect life and property when people travel. To improve detection accuracy and reduce the probability of missed and false detection, a contraband detection algorithm YOLOv8s-DCN-EMA-IPIO* based on YOLOv8s is proposed. Firstly, the super-resolution reconstruction method based on the SRGAN network enhances the original data set, which is more conducive to model training. Secondly, DCNv2 (deformable convolution net v2) is introduced in the backbone network and merged with the C2f layer to improve the ability of the feature extraction and robustness of the model. Then, an EMA (efficient multi-scale attention) mechanism is proposed to suppress the interference of complex background noise and occlusion overlap in the detection process. Finally, the IPIO (improved pigeon-inspired optimization), which is based on the cross-mutation strategy, is employed to maximize the convolutional neural network's learning rate to derive the optimal group's weight information and ultimately improve the model's detection and recognition accuracy. The experimental results show that on the self-built data set, the mAP (mean average precision) of the improved model YOLOv8s-DCN-EMA-IPIO* is 73.43%, 3.98% higher than that of the original model YOLOv8s, and the FPS is 95, meeting the deployment requirements of both high precision and real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) protocol is known for its suitability in highly reliable applications within industrial wireless sensor networks. One of the most significant challenges in TSCH is determining a schedule with a minimal slotframe size that can meet the required throughput for a heterogeneous network. We proposed a Priority-based Customized Differential Evolution (PCDE) algorithm based on the determination of a collision- and interference-free transmission graph. Our schedule can encompass sensors with different data rates in the given slotframe size. This study presents a comprehensive performance evaluation of our proposed algorithm and compares the results to the Traffic-Aware Scheduling Algorithm (TASA). Sufficient simulations were performed to evaluate different metrics such as the slotframe size, throughput, delay, time complexity, and Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) to prove that our approach achieves a significant result compared with this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Graph coloring approach has emerged as a valuable problem-solving tool for both theoretical and practical aspects across various scientific disciplines, including biology. In this study, we demonstrate the graph coloring's effectiveness in computational network biology, more precisely in analyzing protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks to gain insights about the viral infections and its consequences on human health. Accordingly, we propose a generic model that can highlight important hub proteins of virus-associated disease manifestations, changes in disease-associated biological pathways, potential drug targets and respective drugs. We test our model on SARS-CoV-2 infection, a highly transmissible virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic took significant human lives, causing severe respiratory illnesses and exhibiting various symptoms ranging from fever and cough to gastrointestinal, cardiac, renal, neurological, and other manifestations. Methods: To investigate the underlying mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced dysregulation of human pathobiology, we construct a two-level PPI network and employed a differential evolution-based graph coloring (DEGCP) algorithm to identify critical hub proteins that might serve as potential targets for resolving the associated issues. Initially, we concentrate on the direct human interactors of SARS-CoV-2 proteins to construct the first-level PPI network and subsequently applied the DEGCP algorithm to identify essential hub proteins within this network. We then build a second-level PPI network by incorporating the next-level human interactors of the first-level hub proteins and use the DEGCP algorithm to predict the second level of hub proteins. Results: We first identify the potential crucial hub proteins associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection at different levels. Through comprehensive analysis, we then investigate the cellular localization, interactions with other viral families, involvement in biological pathways and processes, functional attributes, gene regulation capabilities as transcription factors, and their associations with disease-associated symptoms of these identified hub proteins. Our findings highlight the significance of these hub proteins and their intricate connections with disease pathophysiology. Furthermore, we predict potential drug targets among the hub proteins and identify specific drugs that hold promise in preventing or treating SARS-CoV-2 infection and its consequences. Conclusion: Our generic model demonstrates the effectiveness of DEGCP algorithm in analyzing biological PPI networks, provides valuable insights into disease biology, and offers a basis for developing novel therapeutic strategies for other viral infections that may cause future pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The explosion of wireless network services has led to a need for new technologies and resource allocation schemes. Device-to-device (D2D) can reduce the access pressure of base station (BS) equipment, and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) can multiplex network spectrum resources. The integration of them can further improve the performance of multi-cell networks. However, users still face more interference in multi-cell networks. This paper analyzes the relationship between transmission power and serial interference cancellation decoding order. Aiming at maximizing the sum rate of D2Ds, we propose three feasible frameworks based on the differential evolution (DE) algorithm. First, we invoke a coevolution DE-based resource allocation (CDRA) framework, which encodes the RB assignment and power allocation into the same individual for evolution. Second, we propose an iteration-combining DE-based resource allocation (IDRA) framework, which adopts a two-step DE algorithm to solve optimal power allocation and RB assignment scheme iteratively. Lastly, we invoke the power-repairing DE-based resource allocation (PDRA) framework, which can perform power repair on individuals with failed evolution. Simulation results demonstrate that: (1) the integration of D2D and NOMA techniques is capable of enhancing the achievable sum rate of D2Ds; (2) the three proposed frameworks for multi-cell NOMA networks can effectively optimize the objective function. Compared with CDRA and IDRA, PDRA performs better in terms of convergence speed and maximum D2D rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the real market, the item's demand is substantially affected by the item's selling price and frequency of advertising. This study focuses on an optimal ordering policy followed by advertising, pricing, and preservation policies. The present study incorporates the quantity-dependent ordering cost and time-dependent holding cost. A partial prepayment scheme is developed for inventory purchase decisions. The spoilage impact can be effectively reduced by an optimal investment in refrigeration. The optimal decision policy has been proposed by using three metaheuristic algorithms, namely particle swarm optimization, real-coded genetic algorithm, and differential evolution algorithm. A comparison is made for these metaheuristic schemes based on the numerical illustrations. The parameter sensitivity is performed to get insights of the variability in the indicators of the inventory model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vortex search (VS) algorithm is a recently proposed swarm intelligence or evolutionary algorithm for solving continuous optimization problems inspired by the behavior of whirlpool. In this study, an approach based on VS algorithm is proposed to deal with uncapacitated facility location problem (UFLP) which is a pure problem in binary domain. The update mechanism of VS algorithm is not sufficiently useful for solving the binary optimization problems; therefore, a binary form of VS method called modified binary vortex search (for short MBVS) is proposed for solving UFLPs. Three important changes have been carried out on basic VS algorithm such as (1) converting continuous values to binary values; (2) using genetic mutation operators for enhancing the exploration ability and (3) a local search mechanism for extending the exploitation ability. Based on these changes, MBVS has been tested on fifteen different UFLP instances. The UFLPs dealt with in this study is one of the famous binary optimization problems. It is widely used for comparing the performance of superior algorithms. Once an analysis of 10 different transfer functions, a genetic mutation operator, a local search parameter and population size have been made on proposed method; then, it has been compared with some binary metaheuristic methods and their variants: genetic algorithm (GA)-based approaches such as GA-SP, GA-TP and GA-UP; binary particle swarm optimization algorithm (BPSO); binary versions of artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm such as binABC, DisABC and ABCbin; binary versions of differential evolution (DE) algorithm such as DisDe/rand and binDE and binary variants of the artificial algae algorithm (AAA) such as AAA-Tanh, AAA-Sig and binAAA methods. The experimental results and comparisons reveal that MBVS algorithm is highly competitive and robust optimizer for the problem addressed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We turn our attention on evaluating the most recent Hubble parameter data measured via the differential evolution of cosmic-chronometers from a deep learning perspective. To achieve this goal, we start our investigation by introducing the selected theoretical setup and compiling the most recent statistical data obtained in cosmology experiments. Then we implement a tuned version of the long-short term memory (LSTM) architecture and run it to predict possible values of the Cosmic Hubble parameter for different red-shift states. Since we observe a good correlation between the observed and predicted datasets of the Hubble parameter, we conclude that the machine learning approaches can play important roles in the future cosmology investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to study an abstract system which consists of a parabolic hemivariational inequality with a Hilfer fractional evolution equation involving history-dependent operators, which is called a Hilfer fractional differential hemivariational inequality. We first show existence and a priori estimates for the parabolic hemivariational inequality. Then, by using the well-known Bohnenblust-Karlin fixed point theorem, we prove an existence theorem for the Hilfer fractional differential hemivariational inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An accurate method is proposed to measure the electrical parameters describing the experimental charge‐discharge curves of Li‐ion batteries and a pack through an equivalent electric dynamic model based on heuristic optimization algorithms (eg, differential evolution approach). The accuracy of these parameters is critical for on‐board state of charge and Health (SOH) estimations of numerous applications and devices. The procedure is constructed, based on the simple Thévenin electrical model. Charge‐discharge experimental curves collected for different chemistry and capacity batteries are described with the model, revealing better estimation results with respect to other algorithms such as impedance‐based methodologies (decreasing the error until 64.19%) and particle swarm optimization based approaches (decreasing the error until 94.02%). The proposal was assessed with different chemistries, capacities and with a 28 battery pack (LiFeMnPO4, 100 Ah) used in an electric vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a typical intelligent device, magnetorheological (MR) dampers have been widely applied in vibration control and mitigation. However, the inherent hysteresis characteristics of magnetic materials can cause significant time delays and fluctuations, affecting the controllability and damping performance of MR dampers. Most existing mathematical models have not considered the adverse effects of magnetic hysteresis characteristics, and this study aims to consider such effects in MR damper models. Based on the magnetic circuit analysis of MR dampers, the Jiles–Atherton (J-A) model is adopted to characterize the magnetic hysteresis properties. Then, a weight adaptive particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) is introduced to the J-A model for efficient parameter identifications of this model, in which the differential evolution and the Cauchy variation are combined to improve the diversity of the population and the ability to jump out of the local optimal solution. The results obtained from the improved J-A model are compared with the experimental data under different working conditions, and it shows that the proposed J-A model can accurately predict the damping performance of MR dampers with magnetic hysteresis characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benefiting from cloud computing's elasticity, scalability, and pay-per-use model, more and more scientific applications are deployed in or migrated to the cloud. Workflow scheduling still faces many challenges due to the growing scales of workflows and the diversified user QoS requirements. In this work, we propose a Mutation-driven and population Grouping Poor and Rich Optimization algorithm (MG-PRO) for scheduling workflows in the cloud to minimize makespan while satisfying the budget constraints. Specifically, we first adopt the middle-class sub-population into the original Poor and Rich Optimization algorithm (PRO), and develop the update strategies for rich and middle-class sub-populations to increase the randomness and search diversity. Secondly, the update mechanism for rich individuals is enriched, and the middle-class sub-population is guided by elite rich individuals, which enhances the information exchange and sharing among sub-populations. Finally, an evolution-aware mutation strategy is designed, where the mutation probability is adjusted adaptively as the dynamic monitoring of the population update process, and the two-point and triangular crossover-based mutations are used alternately to intervene the evolution trajectory according to the degree of objective optimization, resulting in a better balance between exploration and exploration. Extensive experiments are conducted on well-known scientific workflows with different types and scales through WorkflowSim. The experimental results show that, in most cases, MG-PRO outperforms existing algorithms in terms of constraint satisfiability, solution quality and stability. It can generate near-optimal solutions with the different budget constraints satisfied in a relatively short time, for example, the makespan resulting from MG-PRO is at most 59.95% shorter than other meta-heuristic algorithms, and at least 7.33% shorter than all its peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a special issue of the journal Algorithms, featuring selected papers from the journal's editorial board members from 2022 and 2023. The issue includes 16 research papers covering a range of topics such as game theory, fault detection in cellular networks, optimization algorithms, machine learning, cryptocurrency trading, and more. Each paper presents its own unique research findings and methodologies. The issue aims to showcase the diverse research interests and expertise of the journal's editorial board members. [Extracted from the article]

The exploration of premium and new locations is regarded as a fundamental function of every evolutionary algorithm. This is achieved using the crossover and mutation stages of the differential evolution (DE) method. A best-and-worst position-guided novel exploration approach for the DE algorithm is provided in this study. The proposed version, known as "Improved DE with Best and Worst positions (IDEBW)", offers a more advantageous alternative for exploring new locations, either proceeding directly towards the best location or evacuating the worst location. The performance of the proposed IDEBW is investigated and compared with other DE variants and meta-heuristics algorithms based on 42 benchmark functions, including 13 classical and 29 non-traditional IEEE CEC-2017 test functions and 3 real-life applications of the IEEE CEC-2011 test suite. The results prove that the proposed approach successfully completes its task and makes the DE algorithm more efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on previous radar‐based human activity recognition (HAR), we expand the micro‐Doppler signature to 6 domains and exploit each domain with a set of handcrafted features derived from the literature and our patents. An adaptive thresholding method to isolate the region of interest is employed, which is then applied in other domains. To reduce the computational burden and accelerate the convergence to an optimal solution for classification accuracy, a holistic approach to HAR optimisation is proposed using a surrogate model‐assisted differential evolutionary algorithm (SADEA‐I) to jointly optimise signal processing, adaptive thresholding and classification parameters for HAR. Two distinct classification models are evaluated with holistic optimisation: SADEA‐I with support vector machine classifiers (SVM) and SADEA‐I with AlexNet. They achieve an accuracy of 89.41% and 93.54%, respectively. This is an improvement of ∼11.3% for SVM and ∼2.7% for AlexNet when compared to the performance without SADEA‐I. The effectiveness of our holistic approach is validated using the University of Glasgow human radar signatures dataset. This proof of concept is significant for dimensionality reduction and computational efficiency when facing a multiplication of radar representation domains/feature spaces and transmitting/receiving channels that could be individually tuned in modern radar systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fast growth of under developing mobile applications in recent years has emerged a diversity of delay-sensitive applications such as multimedia streaming, virtual reality, augmented reality, and online gaming applications to facilitate daily activities in different aspects of human life. Edge computing has been raised as an Internet-based distributed computing model to enable mobile devices to offload tasks to nearby edge servers rather than transfer them to remote cloud servers. A joint auto-scaling and task offloading approach in edge/cloud computing is proposed in this paper. Due to dynamic changes in usage and access to mobile applications over time, it requires addressing their workload fluctuations as challenging issues. The future workload is predicted using long short-term memory (LSTM) network, supported with the differential evolution (DE) algorithm for selecting the LSTM hyperparameters. A fuzzy Q-learning technique is also utilized to make scaling decisions at runtime, and a learning automata-based technique is used to make decisions on offloading tasks of mobile devices to edge/cloud layers. The proposed approach is validated using the iFogSim simulator under synthetic and real-world patterns. The results show that it achieves better performance in terms of execution time, energy consumption, and delay violation compared to the baseline approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substantial challenge posed by inherent hydrological forecasting uncertainty has critical implications for the optimization of real-time reservoir operations. In response, this study introduces a stochastic framework explicitly devised to comprehensively quantify the ramifications of hydrological forecasting uncertainty, notably its temporal correlations, on the outcomes of real-time reservoir optimization and risk assessment. Furthermore, this framework seeks to delineate the pivotal influence of incorporating or neglecting these temporal dynamics on the eventual results, while concurrently elucidating the underlying mechanisms governing these discernible influences. The framework adopts a comprehensive approach to simulating hydrological forecast uncertainty through ensemble forecasts and scenario trees, employing three methods (two Monte Carlo sampling-based methods and one Gaussian copula method) to generate inflow forecast ensembles. To improve the adaptability to uncertainties in inflow forecasts, the framework incorporates a transformation of the generated ensembles into scenario trees, serving as input for a stochastic optimization model that derives the final optimal decision based on optimizing the expected value of the objective function for all scenarios. Additionally, a parallel differential evolution algorithm is proposed to solve the stochastic optimization model efficiently. Risk assessment is performed to capture the uncertainty and corresponding risk associated with the reservoir optimal decision. The proposed framework is demonstrated in a flood control reservoir system in China, where several numerical experiments are conducted to explore the effect of forecast uncertainty level and temporal correlation on real-time reservoir optimal operation. Results show that the temporal correlation of inflows must be considered in both inflow stochastic simulation and reservoir stochastic optimization to avoid overestimating or underestimating operational risk, potentially leading to operation failures. By examining the risk simulation surface, reservoir operators can evaluate the robustness of operational decisions and make more reliable final decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tire pattern structure has a serious influence on automobile performance. In order to improve the tire performance, the strain energy density of tire tread under different working conditions was analyzed. The finite element model of longitudinal groove pattern of automobile tire was established to analyze the strain energy density under different working conditions, and the influence of parameter changes on the strain energy density of tire on dry road and slippery road was analyzed respectively. The multi-objective optimization model was established based on the finite element analysis results, and the function constraint conditions were set. Differential evolution method (DE) and non-dominated sorting genetic optimization method (NSGA-II) are used to design a multi-objective optimization program, which can quickly determine the optimization scheme after the input data. The finite element model was modified according to the optimization scheme and the strain energy density was analyzed. The results show that the performance of the optimized tire is greatly improved. The combination of finite element analysis technology and multi-objective optimization method can effectively reduce a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources in mechanical product structure optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) is an efficient meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the feeding behavior of whales. Although it has successfully solved many optimization problems, it still suffers from premature convergence and poor accuracy when solving complex problems. To address these issues, this paper proposes an improved whale optimization algorithm called EIWOA to improve the search efficiency and accuracy. First, we introduce a new global search mechanism and encircling prey strategy in EIWOA, which utilizes differential evolution, and sine-cosine search strategy to improve the global search efficiency and avoid premature convergence. Second, we use a lévy flight-based spiral update position strategy to improve the local search efficiency of the algorithm, thus improving the convergence speed and accuracy. Again, we introduce a balancing factor with fluctuating decay properties into EIWOA to better balance exploration and exploitation. Finally, we introduce a dynamic opposite learning-based whale-fall strategy in EIWOA to equip the algorithm with the ability to jump out of the local optimum. The qualitative analysis of the algorithm shows that the EIWOA algorithm converges quickly, is highly accurate, and has the ability to jump out of the local optimum. In order to validate the performance of the proposed EIWOA algorithm, we evaluated the algorithm on CEC2017 benchmark function and four real world engineering problems. We also conduct a comparative study of the EIWOA algorithm with EWOA, an excellent variant of WOA, as well as some excellent meta-heuristics developed recently. The results of numerical experiments demonstrate the superiority of the proposed EIWOA, which is further confirmed statistically by the results of Friedman's test and Wilcoxon signed rank test. The proposed EIWOA algorithm is significantly better than WOA and other competing algorithms in terms of convergence speed, accuracy and optimization ability in dealing with complex optimization problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ventilation resistance coefficients of a mine is vital to ventilation system safety management, diagnosis, and intelligentization. Airflow typically serves as the basis for inverting ventilation resistance coefficients. However, the issue of non-uniqueness in conventional nonlinear optimization methods affects the accuracy of inversion. Therefore, this study introduces a novel optimization approach based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) to invert resistance coefficients. In this methodology, inversion is regarded as a Markov decision process, with the ventilation network solving model (VNSM) embedded within the DRL environment. We design an agent utilizing deep neural networks, which dynamically adjusts the resistance coefficient state variables by interacting with the VNSM to enhance the consistency between theoretical and measured airflow. The consistency corresponds to the agent's reward. The proximal policy optimization is employed to optimize the agent's policy. In field experiment, the MAE between the airflow calculated and the measured airflow is 0.354, with MSE of 0.287, RMSE of 0.536, and MRE of 0.013. Compared with the standard genetic algorithm, differential evolution algorithm, and evolution strategy algorithm, the DRL method shows lower MRE, MAE, RMSE, and MSE values by 23.5%, 15.3%, 14.1%, and 26.4%, respectively. Additionally, DRL method exhibits smaller sensitivity differences for different roadways than others algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin hypercube design (LHD) is one of the most frequently used sampling methods. However, most LHDs generate data samples in a manner that hinders computational efficiency and space-filling performance when high dimensions and large samples are involved. Therefore, a sequential recursive evolution Latin hypercube design (RELHD) is proposed in this article, which adopts a permutation inheritance algorithm to update and optimize the LHD. A recursive split algorithm is also proposed and used to enhance the computational efficiency by dividing the sample set into smaller subsets. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the space-filling quality of the RELHD compares well with the enhanced stochastic evolutionary algorithm (ESE) in complex problems with large samples and high dimensions, with RELHD having a significantly higher computational efficiency than ESE. Finally, the sequential approach of RELHD proves to be a more efficient strategy when dealing with sampling-based analysis problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the mental stress of the human, the negative effects are known to be recent decades. Early detections of high level stresses are necessary to stop harmful consequences. Studies have proposed on wearable technologies which detect human stress. This study proposes stress detection systems which use physiological signals of people collected by wearable technologies and attached to human bodies. They can carry it during their daily routine. This work's proposed system includes removal of artifacts in bio signals and feature extractions from these cleaned signals. Since, DL (deep learning) based models are proven to be the best for these analyses, this article uses a random differential GWO (Grey wolf optimization) algorithm for feature extraction and a ML (machine learning) algorithm called RF (random forest) has been used for classification of the human body parameters like activities of the heart, conductance in skins and corresponding accelerometer signals. The proposed stress detection system is implemented with the real time data gathered from 21 participants. This approach can detect the stress of a human and prevent it from early stages with necessary lectures to avoid the negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of e-commerce, accurately predicting user purchase intentions has become a crucial factor for enhancing sales efficiency and optimizing the customer experience. Addressing the limitations of traditional ensemble strategies, which often suffer from subjective biases during the model design phase, this paper introduced an adaptive evolutionary ensemble learning model to predict user purchase intentions. This model adaptively selected the optimal base learners and meta-learners, incorporating both the predictive information from the base learners and the differential information between features to expand the feature dimensions, enhancing prediction accuracy. Moreover, to further refine the predictive capabilities of the model, this paper designed a binary adaptive differential evolution algorithm for feature selection, aiming to identify features that significantly influence the prediction outcome. Research results show that the binary adaptive differential evolution algorithm outperforms traditional optimization algorithms in global searches and feature selection. Compared to six common ensemble models and the DeepForest model, the proposed evolutionary ensemble model achieves a 2.76% and 2.72% increase in AUC value, respectively, and effectively mitigates the impacts of data imbalance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence maximization problem that has caused great attention in social network analysis aims at selecting a small set of influential spreaders so that the information cascade triggered by the seed set is maximized. The majority of the existing works mainly focus on developing single-stage seeding strategies that would ignite all the seeds before the influence spread. However, it cannot depict the scenarios of the practical, where ones would like to make further decisions based on observed activation. In this paper, we investigate the policies for the intractable sequential influence maximization problem. A Q-learning-driven discrete differential evolution algorithm based on the reinforcement Q-learning model, which is treated as a parameter controller to adaptively adjust the parameters during the evolution of the algorithm, is proposed. The policy distributes the seeding actions over the spreading process by estimating the latest node status of the network dynamically. Extensive simulations are conducted on six social networks of the practical, and the findings demonstrate the superiority and effectiveness of the hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm compared with the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to quantify impact damage in laminated composites using acoustic emission (AE) and to verify the AE results with finite element (FE) method. Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite specimens were subjected to quasi‐static out‐of‐plane indentation loading. A procedure, including feature extraction, feature selection, data dimensionality reduction, and data clustering using an evolutionary algorithm, that is, differential evolution (DE) optimization algorithm, was proposed to identify and quantify different damage mechanisms using AE. The AE results showed that the dominant damages were matrix cracking and delamination. For the quantitative evaluation of the AE results, the indentation test was simulated using the FE method. A FE model based on cohesive zone modeling and continuum damage mechanics was implemented to predict interlaminar and intralaminar damages. The quantity of the damaged elements associated with the matrix cracking and delamination was consistent with the AE results. This study showed the applicability of the AE for impact damage identification and quantification in composite structures. Highlights: Indentation damage in CFRP is experimentally quantified using the AE method.The DE algorithm is used to cluster the AE data.CZM and CDM are used to numerically model the damage.The AE clustering results are compared with the numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distribution companies (DISCOs) aim to maximize their annual profits by performing the optimal planning of distributed generators (DGs) or energy storage systems (ESSs) in the deregulated electricity markets. Some previous studies have focused on the simultaneous planning of DGs and ESSs for DISCO profit maximization but have rarely considered the reactive powers of DGs and ESSs. In addition, the optimization methods used for solving this problem are either traditional or outdated, which may not yield superior results. To address these issues, this paper simultaneously performs the optimal planning of DGs and ESSs in distribution networks for DISCO profit maximization. The utilized model not only takes into account the revenues of trading active and reactive powers but also addresses the active and reactive powers of DGs and ESSs. To solve the optimization problem, a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm (EA) called the oppositional social engineering differential evolution with Lévy flights (OSEDE/LFs) is proposed. The OSEDE/LFs is applied to optimize the planning model using the 30-Bus and IEEE 69-Bus networks as test systems. The results of the two case studies are compared with several other EAs. The results confirm the significance of the planning model in achieving higher profits and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach when compared with other EAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT) edge is an emerging technology of sensors and devices that communicate real-time data to a network. IoT edge computing was introduced to handle the latency concerns related to cloud computing data management, as the data are processed closer to their point of origin. Clustering and scheduling tasks on IoT edge computing are considered a challenging problem due to the diverse nature of task and resource characteristics. Metaheuristics and optimization methods are widely used in IoT edge task clustering and scheduling. This paper introduced a new task clustering and scheduling mechanism using differential evolution optimization on IoT edge computing. The proposed mechanism aims to optimize task clustering and scheduling to find optimal execution times for submitted tasks. The proposed mechanism for task clustering is based on the degree of similarity of task characteristics. The proposed mechanisms use an evolutionary mechanism to distribute system tasks across suitable IoT edge resources. The clustering tasks process categorizes tasks with similar requirements and then maps them to appropriate resources. To evaluate the proposed differential evolution mechanism for IoT edge task clustering and scheduling, this study conducted several simulation experiments against two established mechanisms: the Firefly Algorithm (FA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The simulation configuration was carefully created to mimic real-world IoT edge computing settings to ensure the proposed mechanism's applicability and the simulation results' relevance. In the heavyweight workload scenario, the proposed DE mechanism started with an execution time of 916.61 milliseconds, compared to FA's 1092 milliseconds and PSO's 1026.09 milliseconds. By the 50th iteration, the proposed DE mechanism had reduced its execution time significantly to around 821.27 milliseconds, whereas FA and PSO showed lesser improvements, with FA at approximately 1053.06 milliseconds and PSO stabilizing at 956.12 milliseconds. The simulation results revealed that the proposed differential evolution mechanism for edge task clustering and scheduling outperforms FA and PSO regarding system efficiency and stability, significantly reducing execution time and having minimal variation across simulation iterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing distributed energy resource (DER) penetration into distribution networks, such as through residential and commercial photovoltaics (PV), has emerged through a transition from passive to active networks, which takes the complexity of planning and operations to the next level. Optimal PV allocation (sizing and location) is challenging because it involves mixed-integer non-linear programming with three-phase non-linear unbalanced power flow equations. Meta-heuristic algorithms have proven their effectiveness in many complex engineering problems. Thus, in this study, we propose to achieve optimal PV allocation by using several basic evolutionary algorithms (EAs), particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial bee colony (ABC), differential evolution (DE), and their variants, all of which are applied for a study of their performance levels. Two modified unbalanced IEEE test feeders (13 and 37 bus) are developed to evaluate these performance levels, with two objectives: one is to maximize PV penetration, and the other is to minimize the voltage deviation from 1.0 p.u. To handle the computational burden of the sequential power flow and unbalanced network, we adopt an efficient iterative load flow algorithm instead of the commonly used and yet highly simplified forward–backward sweep method. A comparative study of these basic EAs shows their general success in finding a near-optimal solution, except in the case of the DE, which is known for solving continuous optimization problems efficiently. From experiments run 30 times, it is observed that PSO-related algorithms are more efficient and robust in the maximum PV penetration case, while ABC-related algorithms are more efficient and robust in the minimum voltage deviation case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intermittent nature of wind power generation induces great challenges for power bidding in the electricity market. The deployment of battery energy storage can improve flexibility for power bidding. This paper investigates an optimal power bidding strategy for a wind–storage hybrid power plant in the day-ahead electricity market. To handle the challenges of the uncertainties of wind power generation and electricity prices, the optimal bidding problem is formulated as a risk-aware scenario-based stochastic programming, in which a number of scenarios are generated using a copula-based approach to represent the uncertainties. These scenarios consider the temporal correlation of wind power generation and electricity prices between consecutive time intervals. In the stochastic programming, a more practical but nonlinear battery operation cost function is considered, which leads to a nonlinear constrained optimization problem. To solve the nonlinear constrained optimization problem, an ensemble differential evolution (EDE) algorithm is proposed, which makes use of the merits of an ensemble of mutant operators to generate mutant vectors. Moreover, a problem-specific constraint-handling technique is developed. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed EDE algorithm, it is compared with state-of-the-art DE-based algorithms for constrained optimization problems, including a constrained composite DE (C2oDE) algorithm and a novel DE (NDE) algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that the EDE algorithm is much more reliable and much faster in finding a better bidding strategy against benchmarking algorithms. More precisely, the average values of the success rate are 0.893, 0.667, and 0.96 for C2oDE, NDE, and EDE, respectively. Compared to C2oDE and NDE, the average value of the mean number of function evaluations to succeed with EDE is reduced by 76% and 59%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partition control of the fan array within a direct air‐cooling condenser (DACC) is recognized as a highly effective energy‐saving measure and a means to mitigate the adverse effects of ambient winds. This study focuses on the development of a dynamic partition model, which establishes the relationship between mass flow rate and fan array speed under windy conditions. The model is grounded in multivariable Hammerstein controlled autoregressive moving average (H‐CARMA) systems. Additionally, an innovative extended stochastic gradient algorithm, founded on the hierarchical identification principle, is introduced to estimate the model's unknown parameters. The recursive least square is employed as a benchmark to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the approach. Subsequently, leveraging the identified model, the model predictive controller based on the differential evolution method is designed to derive the optimal control law. Finally, simulation test and analysis are carried out to testify the effectiveness of our control strategy. The experiment result shows that the dynamic characteristics of the system have been significantly improved and the fan power consumption is reduced by 3.5% compared to the PID controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modification with efficient, stable and low-cost co-catalyst has been considered as a promising way to upgrade photocatalytic property of Mn x Cd 1−x S. Herein, Ni(HCO 3) 2 nanosheets were loaded on polyhedral Mn 0.2 Cd 0.8 S (MCS) surface through an in-situ hydrothermal method. As-prepared MCS/Ni(HCO 3) 2 composites exhibited the boosted H 2 evolution activities. The optimal H 2 evolution rate (17.7 mmol g−1 h−1) with the calculated AQE value (17.5%) at 420 nm was achieved over the MCS/Ni(HCO 3) 2 composite with 10 mol% loading amount of Ni(HCO 3) 2 , which reached 4.0 times of MCS alone. The boosted activity could be ascribed to highly efficient interfacial charge separation and abundant surface active site derived from the structural and functional advantages of MCS/Ni(HCO 3) 2 composite. This work gives a fresh perspective on the design and application of transition metal bicarbonate as co-catalysts towards H 2 evolution. [Display omitted] A novel Mn 0.2 Cd 0.8 S/Ni(HCO 3) 2 composite was fabricated and exhibited the enhanced H 2 evolution activity due to excellent charge separation efficiency and abundant surface active site. • Mn 0.2 Cd 0.8 S/Ni(HCO 3) 2 composite was in-situ constructed. • Interfacial contact between two component accelerated charge separation. • Ni(HCO 3) 2 co-catalysts provided abundant active reaction sites. • Co-catalyst modification was responsible for the enhanced H 2 evolution activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]