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In this paper, we propose a master–slave methodology to address the problem of optimal integration (location and sizing) of Distributed Generators (DGs) in Direct Current (DC) networks. This proposed methodology employs a parallel version of the Population-Based Incremental Learning (PPBIL) optimization method in the master stage to solve the location problem and the Vortex Search Algorithm (VSA) in the slave stage to solve the sizing problem. In addition, it uses the reduction of power losses as the objective function, considering all the constraints associated with the technical conditions specific to DGs and DC networks. To validate its effectiveness and robustness, we use as comparison methods, different solution methodologies that have been reported in the specialized literature, as well as two test systems (the 21 and 69-bus test systems). All simulations were performed in MATLAB. According to the results, the proposed hybrid (PPBIL–VSA) methodology provides the best trade-off between quality of the solution and processing times and exhibits an adequate repeatability every time it is executed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most popular algorithms used in unsupervised learning are clustering algorithms. Clustering algorithms are used to group samples into a number of classes or clusters based on the distances of the given sample features. Therefore, how to define the distance between samples is important for the clustering algorithm. Traditional clustering algorithms are generally based on the Mahalanobis distance and Minkowski distance, which have difficulty dealing with set-based data and uncertain nonlinear data. To solve this problem, we propose the granular vectors relative distance and granular vectors absolute distance based on the neighborhood granule operation. Further, the neighborhood granular meanshift clustering algorithm is also proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of neighborhood granular meanshift clustering is proved from two aspects of internal metrics (Accuracy and Fowlkes–Mallows Index) and external metric (Silhouette Coeffificient) on multiple datasets from UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository (UCI). We find that the granular meanshift clustering algorithm has a better clustering effect than the traditional clustering algorithms, such as Kmeans, Gaussian Mixture and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, industry is undergoing an exponential increase in binary-based combinatorial problems. In this regard, metaheuristics have been a common trend in the field in order to design approaches to successfully solve them. Thus, a well-known strategy includes the employment of continuous swarm-based algorithms transformed to perform in binary environments. In this work, we propose a hybrid approach that contains discrete smartly adapted population-based strategies to efficiently tackle binary-based problems. The proposed approach employs a reinforcement learning technique, known as SARSA (State–Action–Reward–State–Action), in order to utilize knowledge based on the run time. In order to test the viability and competitiveness of our proposal, we compare discrete state-of-the-art algorithms smartly assisted by SARSA. Finally, we illustrate interesting results where the proposed hybrid outperforms other approaches, thus, providing a novel option to tackle these types of problems in industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]