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In this paper, an enhanced hybrid chameleon swarm algorithm (CSA) is proposed and applied to the degree reduction problem of disk Wang–Ball (DWB) curve. CSA is a novel population-based algorithm inspired by the hunting behavior of chameleons, its simplicity and easy implementation make it applied to different fields. However, it suffers from premature convergence and easy to fall into local optimum, especially in the face of complex optimization problems. Therefore, this paper proposes an enhanced hybrid CSA (CCECSA, for short). Compared with the classic CSA, the proposed CCECSA mainly introduces three improvements: (1) The crisscross optimization algorithm is mixed to avoid premature convergence, in which the horizontal and vertical crossover can generate moderation solutions to increase the diversity of the population. (2) Elite guidance mechanism is introduced to speed up the convergence. (3) Competitive substitution mechanism is added to replace the worst individual, and an interference strategy is set to prevent the algorithm from falling into a local optimum. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed CCECSA are demonstrated by the comparison results with some advanced meta-heuristic algorithms on CEC2014, CEC2017, and 4 engineering design examples. In addition, for the degree reduction problem of DWB curves, the multi-degree reduction optimization models of its center curve and radius function are established respectively. At the same time, the optimal center curve and radius function of the approximating DWB curves of lower degree are obtained by the proposed CCECSA. The experimental results show that the proposed CCECSA achieves the optimal solution with better convergence and robustness. The source code of CCECSA is publicly available in the supplementary material related to this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whale optimization algorithm (WOA), as an advanced optimization algorithm with simple structure, has been favored by various fields. However, there are some disadvantages of WOA, such as slow convergence speed, low precision and falling into local optimal value easily. In this paper, a novel improved whale optimization algorithm (IWOA) with multi-strategy and hybrid algorithm is proposed to overcome above shortcomings. Firstly, IWOA initializes the population by chaotic mapping to avoid the initial population distribution of WOA deviating from the optimal value. Secondly, IWOA combines the pheromone of the black widow algorithm and the opposition-based learning strategy to modify the population, which improves the convergence speed and the global performance of WOA respectively. Finally, the adaptive coefficients and the new update modes replace the original update modes, which makes the structure of WOA simpler and more accurate. In addition, the convergence of IWOA is also proved in this paper. On the one hand, to demonstrate the effectiveness of IWOA, 23 benchmark functions are used to test various performance of the algorithm. On the other hand, in order to prove the superiority of IWOA, the experimental results are compared and analyzed with other optimization algorithms. Simulation results show that IWOA proposed in this paper owns excellent performance in convergence speed, stability, accuracy and global performance, compared with other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a chaotic strategy-based quadratic opposition-based learning adaptive variable-speed whale optimization algorithm is proposed. The improved algorithm is used to solve the problems that the whale optimization algorithm's convergence accuracy and convergence speed are insufficient. Firstly, the proposed algorithm is initialized by a method based on chaotic maps and quadratic opposition-based learning strategy to obtain a population with better ergodicity. Secondly, by introducing an adaptive variable speed adjustment factor, each search link unites to form a negative feedback regulation network, thereby effectively balancing the algorithm's exploration ability and exploitation ability. Finally, 20 benchmark test functions and 3 complex constrained engineering optimization problems were used to conduct extensive tests on the improved algorithm. The results show that the improved algorithm has better performance than others in terms of convergence speed and convergence accuracy in a majority of cases, and can effectively jump out of the local optimum. [Display omitted] • Firstly, this paper proposed a quadratic Opposition-Base Learning strategy based on Bernoulli map, and successfully obtained a higher quality initial whale population. • Secondly, this paper proposed a new variable speed adjustment factor and a cooperative convergence factor, and combine them with individual fitness to form a negative feedback adjustment network. Experiments show that the algorithm has good self-adjusting ability. • Finally, the range of some of the original random numbers in whale optimization algorithm has been changed. This adjustment allows the algorithm to have a more variable search range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to propose a new assessment system module for handling the comprehensive answers written through the answer interface. Design/methodology/approach: The working principle is under three major phases: Preliminary semantic processing: In the pre-processing work, the keywords are extracted for each answer given by the course instructor. In fact, this answer is actually considered as the key to evaluating the answers written by the e-learners. Keyword and semantic processing of e-learners for hierarchical clustering-based ontology construction: For each answer given by each student, the keywords and the semantic information are extracted and clustered (hierarchical clustering) using a new improved rider optimization algorithm known as Rider with Randomized Overtaker Update (RR-OU). Ontology matching evaluation: Once the ontology structures are completed, a new alignment procedure is used to find out the similarity between two different documents. Moreover, the objects defined in this work focuses on "how exactly the matching process is done for evaluating the document." Finally, the e-learners are classified based on their grades. Findings: On observing the outcomes, the proposed model shows less relative mean squared error measure when weights were (0.5, 0, 0.5), and it was 71.78% and 16.92% better than the error values attained for (0, 0.5, 0.5) and (0.5, 0.5, 0). On examining the outcomes, the values of error attained for (1, 0, 0) were found to be lower than the values when weights were (0, 0, 1) and (0, 1, 0). Here, the mean absolute error (MAE) measure for weight (1, 0, 0) was 33.99% and 51.52% better than the MAE value for weights (0, 0, 1) and (0, 1, 0). On analyzing the overall error analysis, the mean absolute percentage error of the implemented RR-OU model was 3.74% and 56.53% better than k-means and collaborative filtering + Onto + sequential pattern mining models, respectively. Originality/value: This paper adopts the latest optimization algorithm called RR-OU for proposing a new assessment system module for handling the comprehensive answers written through the answer interface. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first work that uses RR-OU-based optimization for developing a new ontology alignment-based online assessment of e-learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to apply grey wolf optimizer (GWO) algorithm for steady state analysis of self-excited induction generators (SEIGs) supplying isolated loads. Design/methodology/approach: Taking the equivalent circuit of SEIG, the impedances representing the stator, rotor and the connected load are reduced to a single loop impedance in terms of the unknown frequency, magnetizing reactance and core loss resistance for the given rotor speed. This loop impedance is taken as the objective function and minimized using GWO to solve for the unknown parameters. By including the value of the desired voltage as a constraint, the formulated objective function is also extended for estimating the required excitation capacitance. Findings: The experimental results obtained on a three phase 415 V, 3.5 kW SEIG and the corresponding predetermined performance characteristics agree closely, thereby validating the proposed GWO method. Moreover, a comparative study of GWO with genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization techniques reveals that GWO exhibits much quicker convergence of the objective function. Originality/value: The important contributions of this paper are as follows: for the first time, GWO has been introduced for the SEIG performance predetermination and computation of the excitation capacitance for attaining the desired terminal voltage for the given load and speed; the predicted performance accuracy is improved by considering the variable core loss of the SEIG; and GWO does not require derivations of lengthy equations for calculating the SEIG performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests a new hybrid algorithm by integrating two population-based algorithms: Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) and Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA), to solve complex nonlinear systems and unconstrained optimization problems. WOFPA denotes the suggested algorithm, a hybrid Whale Optimization Algorithm and Flower Pollination Algorithm. Nonlinear systems can be cast into unconstrained optimization problems, called merit functions, where the optimal solutions for the merit functions are equivalent to the solutions of nonlinear systems. WOFPA aims to decrease the execution time and the complexity of WOA and FPA. WOFPA has the advantages of WOA and FPA; WOFPA is a high-quality algorithm to solve both problems, nonlinear systems and unconstrained optimization problems. For example, FPA may have a premature convergence in the local optima, and WOFPA subdues the disadvantage of FPA. Numerical experiments of 14 benchmarks nonlinear systems and 30 CEC 2014 benchmarks unconstrained optimization functions with various dimensions are employed to test the performance of WOFPA. To have a further investigation for the performance of WOFPA, WOFPA is compared with WOA, FPA, and other existing algorithms from the literature. Two non-parametric statistical tests, Wilcoxon statistical test and the Friedman test, are conducted for this study to check the performance of the proposed algorithms and other compared algorithms and the significance of our results. The experiment results demonstrate that WOFPA performs better than other algorithms in the literature by getting the optimum solutions for most nonlinear systems and optimization problems and proves its efficiency compared with other existing algorithms. • This paper proposes a new hybridization Whale Optimization Algorithm and Flower Pollination Algorithm. • We solve system of nonlinear equations and unconstrained optimization problem. • The efficiency and effectiveness of our algorithm are provided. • Experimental results prove the superiority of our algorithm over the state-of-the-arts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the operation of the salp swarm algorithm(SSA), the leaders fall into local optimum, which leads to the population falling into local optimum problem. In this paper, a salp swarm algorithm based on Harris Eagle foraging strategy is proposed(ISSAHF). Harris hawk optimization algorithms of four types of feeding mechanism are integrated into salp location update process optimization algorithm follower. To strengthen the exploitation of potential areas, complemented by a multi-point leadership crossover strategy to maintain a balance between exploitation and exploration. The performance of the proposed ISSAHF was compared, and Wilcoxon's statistical analysis was performed on 20 benchmark functions including unimodal, multimodal, and partial CEC2014. Finally, ISSAHF is applied to three practical engineering optimization problems to evaluate its optimization performance further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In evolutionary multiobjective optimization, effectiveness refers to how an evolutionary algorithm performs in terms of converging its solutions into the Pareto front and also diversifying them over the front. This is not an easy job, particularly for optimization problems with more than three objectives, dubbed many-objective optimization problems. In such problems, classic Pareto-based algorithms fail to provide sufficient selection pressure towards the Pareto front, whilst recently developed algorithms, such as decomposition-based ones, may struggle to maintain a set of well-distributed solutions on certain problems (e.g., those with irregular Pareto fronts). Another issue in some many-objective optimizers is rapidly increasing computational requirement with the number of objectives, such as hypervolume-based algorithms and shift-based density estimation (SDE) methods. In this paper, we aim to address this problem and develop an effective and efficient evolutionary algorithm (E3A) that can handle various many-objective problems. In E3A, inspired by SDE, a novel population maintenance method is proposed to select high-quality solutions in the environmental selection procedure. We conduct extensive experiments and show that E3A performs better than 11 state-of-the-art many-objective evolutionary algorithms in quickly finding a set of well-converged and well-diversified solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conventional sparse Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) algorithms, the l 0 -norm is often used instead of the l 1 -norm to relax convexity constraints. The approach presented in this paper can be mathematically reformulated as a linear problem, which can be efficiently solved using various convex optimization techniques. While this method effectively circumvents the NP-Hard complexity associated with the l 0 -norm, it does come with certain potential challenges. For example, the observation matrix must meet the criteria of the Restricted Isometry Property (RIP) and other stringent conditions. In this research, a novel STAP algorithm is introduced, which is based on a non-convex penalty function. This innovative algorithm substitutes the traditional l 0 -norm with a custom-designed non-convex penalty function and is applied to the Direct Filter Processor (DFP), solved using the recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm. The resulting algorithm, known as g p -RLS, is demonstrated through Monte Carlo simulations to outperform other l 1 -based and reduced-rank STAP algorithms in terms of faster convergence, improved signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio (SCNR), and enhanced target detection performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed optimization algorithms have the advantages of privacy protection and parallel computing. However, the distributed nature of these algorithms makes the system vulnerable to external attacks. This paper presents two penalty function based resilient algorithms for constrained distributed optimization under static and dynamic attacks. The objective function of the optimization problem is extended to nonsmooth ones and the convergence of the proposed algorithms in this case are proved under some mild conditions. Simulation experiments are performed and compared with some existing resilient primal-dual optimization algorithms using median-based mean estimator. For static attack, the proposed algorithm has better performance and faster convergence rate in the simulation experiments. For dynamic attack, the proposed algorithm has better performance and robustness in the simulation experiments, which illustrate that the proposed algorithms are more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data clustering is one of the most common and challenging problems in the machine learning domain. It requires an efficient method to be addressed. This paper proposed a new version of the Flow Direction Algorithm (FDA) to solve various optimization problems. The proposed method is called FDAOA, which enhanced the performance of the original Flow Direction Algorithm by the arithmetic operators that have been used in the Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA). The main aim of the proposed FDAOA is to avoid the recognized weaknesses in the original methods; stuck in the local area, premature convergence, and weak equilibrium between the exploration and exploitation search mechanisms. The proposed method is tested on two sets of various problems to validate its performance. In the first set, twenty-three benchmark functions are used, which belong to three categories; seven unimodal functions, six multimodal functions, and ten fixed dimension functions. In the second set, eight common data clustering problems are used to prove the ability of the proposed FDAOA to deal with real-world optimization problems. The results of the proposed method are compared with other well-established methods, and the proposed FDAOA achieved promising output compared to the other methods on various tested problems. The proposed method got the optimal clustering solutions almost in all the tested data clustering problems with clear significant improvements against the other comparative methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In this paper, proposing a novel design of DE for Knapsack problems is reported. • A dual representation of solutions in continuous and binary is introduced. • New efficient fitness evaluation and repairing method is proposed. • Results demonstrated the efficiency of Novel DE in solving Knapsack problems. • Novel DE defined new solutions, better than best-known ones for 5 large instances. The capability of the conventional differential evolution algorithm to solve optimization problems in continuous spaces has been well demonstrated and documented in the literature. However, differential evolution has been commonly considered inapplicable for several binary/permutation-based real-world problems because of its arithmetic reproduction operator. Moreover, many limitations of the standard differential evolution algorithm, such as slow convergence and becoming trapped in local optima, have been defined. In this paper, a novel technique which makes a simple differential evolution algorithm suitable and very effective for solving binary-based problems, such as binary knapsack ones, is proposed. It incorporates new components, such as representations of solutions, a mapping method and a diversity technique. Also, a new efficient fitness evaluation approach for calculating and, at the same time, repairing knapsack candidate solutions, is introduced. To assess the performance of this new algorithm, four datasets with a total of 44 instances of binary knapsack problems are considered. Its performance and those of 22 state-of-the-art algorithms are compared, with the experimental results demonstrating its superiority in terms of both the quality of solutions and computational times. It is also capable of finding new solutions which are better than the current best ones for five large knapsack problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a 3-layer feed-forward neuronet model, trained by novel beetle antennae search weights-and-structure-determination (BASWASD) algorithm. On the one hand, the beetle antennae search (BAS) algorithm is a memetic meta-heuristic optimization algorithm capable of solving combinatorial optimization problems. On the other hand, neuronets trained by a weights-and-structure-determination (WASD) algorithm are known to resolve the shortcomings of traditional back-propagation neuronets, including slow speed of training and local minimum. Combining the BAS and WASD algorithms, a novel BASWASD algorithm is created for training neuronets, and a multi-input BASWASD neuronet (MI-BASWASDN) model is introduced. Using a power sigmoid activation function and while managing the model fitting and validation, the BASWASD algorithm finds the optimal weights and structure of the MI-BASWASDN. Four financial datasets, taken from the European Central Bank publications, validate and demonstrate the MI-BASWASDN model's outstanding learning and predicting performance. Also included is a comparison of the MI-BASWASDN model to three other well-performing neural network models, as well as a MATLAB kit that is publicly available on GitHub to promote and support this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the distributed constrained optimization problem over a directed graph is considered. We assume that the digraph has a row-stochastic adjacency matrix, which corresponds to the case when agents assign weights to the received information individually. We present an algorithm that converges to the optimal solution even with a time-varying stepsize which is not attenuated to zero. The choice of stepsizes is relatively easy. The usable type of stepsizes is added. The diminishing or constant stepsizes can be used in our algorithm. Equality constraints and set constraints are also considered in this paper. Convergence analysis of the proposed algorithm relies on a conversion theorem between column-stochastic and row-stochastic matrices. Finally, the results of the numerical simulation are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A supervised multi-view model is proposed to realize a block-based feature selection. • The proposed model is composed of all sharing sub-models in each class. • The sparse regularizer can enhance the sparsity of blocks from features and views. • The proposed algorithm can realize the block separation and independent solution. • Numerical experiments show the effectiveness of our method on large-scale datasets. With the increasing scale of obtained multi-view data, how to deal with large-scale multi-view data quickly and efficiently is a significant problem. In this paper, a novel supervised multi-view feature selection method based on locally sparse regularization and block computing is proposed to solve the problem. Specifically, the multi-view dataset is firstly divided into sub-blocks according to classes and views. Then with the aid of the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), a sharing sub-model is proposed to perform feature selection on each class by integrating each view's locally sparse regularizers and shared loss that makes all views share a common penalty and regresses samples to their labels. Finally, all the sharing sub-models are fused to form the final general additive feature selection model, in which each sub-block adjusts its corresponding variables to perform block-based feature selection. In the optimization process, the proposed model can be decomposed into multiple separate subproblems, and an efficient optimization algorithm is proposed to solve them quickly. The comparison experiments with several state-of-the-art feature selection methods show that the proposed method is superior in classification accuracy and training speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a population-based random-search optimization technique that has become an increasingly important branch of swarm intelligence studies. Population diversity is an effective measurement that shows the distribution of particles in a search space. In this paper, we propose a diversity-based PSO algorithm that is combined with multiple techniques, and population diversity is used as a search-strategy selection criterion for particles. When diversity is high, we suggest implementing a search strategy that has a strong exploration ability. When diversity is low, we suggest implementing a search strategy that has a strong exploitation ability. In addition to our diversity-based method, we introduce a gradient-based local-search technique, multi-crossover operation, and disturbance strategy to help improve the performance of the proposed algorithm. In the experiments, we compare the proposed algorithm with 10 advanced PSO variants based on 40 widely used benchmark functions, including the CEC2017 benchmark. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm yields a better solution accuracy and convergence speed than those of other PSO variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the online convex optimization (OCO) with long-term constraints which is widely used in various resource allocations and recommendation systems. Different from the most existing works, our work adopts a dynamic benchmark to analyze the optimization performance since the dynamic benchmark is more common than the static benchmark in practical applications. Moreover, compared with many constrained OCO works ignoring the Slater condition, we study the effect of the Slater condition on the constraint violation bounds and obtain the better performance of the constraint violations when the Slater condition holds. More importantly, we propose a novel iterative optimization algorithm based on the virtual queues to achieve sublinear regret and constraint violations. Finally, we apply our dynamic OCO model to a resource allocation problem in cloud computing and the results of the experiments validate the effectiveness of our algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new algorithm, called BTLBO, is proposed to balance between exploration and exploitation. • A new Tutoring Phase is added to TLBO to accelerate the convergence to the global optimum. • A new Restarting Phase is added to TLBO to promote convergence to the global optimum. • Control parameters are self-adaptively tuned. • The superiority of BTLBO is verified by solving standard benchmarks and real world optimization problems. Teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) is a population-based metaheuristic algorithm which simulates the teaching and learning mechanisms in a classroom. The TLBO algorithm has emerged as one of the most efficient and attractive optimization techniques. Even though the TLBO algorithm has an acceptable exploration capability and fast convergence speed, there may be a possibility to converge into a local optimum during solving complex optimization problems and there is a need to keep a balance between exploration and exploitation capabilities. Hence, a Balanced Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization (BTLBO) algorithm is proposed in this paper. The proposed BTLBO algorithm is a modification of the TLBO algorithm and it consists of four phases: (1) Teacher Phase in which a weighted mean is used instead of a mean value for keeping the diversity, (2) Learner Phase, which is same as the learner phase of basic TLBO algorithm, (3) Tutoring Phase, which is a powerful local search for exploiting the regions around the best ever found solution, and (4) Restarting Phase, which improves exploration capability by replacing inactive learners with new randomly initialized learners. An acceptable balance between the exploration and exploitation capabilities is achieved by the proposed BTLBO algorithm. To evaluate the performance of BTLBO algorithm, several experimental studies are conducted on standard benchmark suits and the results are compared with several TLBO variants and state-of-the-art population-based optimization algorithms. The results are in excellent agreement and confirm the efficiency of BTLBO algorithm with accelerated exploitation and exploration capabilities with an appropriate balance between such criteria for solving complex optimization problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The concept and verification method of affine invariance are presented. • Six algorithms are employed to analyze their affine invariances. • PSO, OFA and DE are affine invariant, GWO, SCA and BOA are not affine invariant. • Multiple experimental comparisons are executed to verify algorithms' affine invariance. An algorithm whose performance depends on the objective function being aligned with a privileged coordinate system is a poor choice in general because it is unlikely that the optimal orientation will be known in advance. In this paper, a property of meta -heuristic algorithms, named affine invariance, is introduced to verify whether the algorithm is depended on the privileged coordinate system or not. The concept of affine invariance is described in detail, and some classical algorithms, efficient in most test and actual problems, are proved to be affine invariant. While some recent algorithms in the literature are proved to be not affine invariant. As a conclusion, particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution (DE) and optimal foraging algorithm (OFA) are affine invariant, while grey wolf optimizer (GWO), sine cosine algorithm (SCA) and butterfly optimization algorithm (BOA) are not affine invariant. Furthermore, comparison tests are designed to support the theoretical analysis results. In these tests, same random numbers and initial population are used to avoid the influence of randomness, thus, the conclusion is reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many-objective problems, how to maintain the diversity and convergence of the distribution of the solution set over Pareto front (PF) has always been the research emphasis. In the iteration process, the state of population is critical to improve the level of evolution. Therefore, this paper will use two convergence and diversity indicators to further strengthen the usage of evolutionary state information and propose a dynamic learning strategy. In addition, a dynamic learning strategy based many-objective evolutionary algorithm (MaOEA) is proposed, called dynamic learning evolution algorithm (DLEA), which continuously changes the direction of learning: convergence and diversity in the iteration process. The purpose is to make the algorithm prefer to convergence in the early iteration and prefer to diversity when it is close to PF in the late iteration, so that the convergence and diversity of the final solution set can be well maintained. And then, the performance of DLEA is measured by two indicators. Meanwhile, DLEA will be compared with four state-of-the-art algorithms on the DTLZ and MaF, and its performance will be verified on a many-objective combinatorial problem. And the experimental results and Friedman test show that DLEA has great advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constrained multi-objective optimization problems (CMOPs) are difficult to handle because objectives and constraints need to be considered simultaneously, especially when the constraints are extremely complex. Some recent algorithms work well when dealing with CMOPs with a simple feasible region; however, the effectiveness of most algorithms degrades considerably for CMOPs with complex feasible regions. To address this issue, this paper proposes a multi-stage evolutionary algorithm, where constraints are added one after the other and handled in different stages of evolution. Specifically, in the early stages, the algorithm only considers a small number of constraints, which can make the population efficiently converge to the potential feasible region with good diversity. As the algorithm moves to the later stages, more constraints are considered to search the optimal solutions based on the solutions obtained in the previous stages. Furthermore, a strategy for sorting the constraint-handling priority according to the impact on the unconstrained Pareto front is proposed, which can accelerate the convergence of the algorithm. Experimental results on five benchmark suites and three real-world applications showed that the proposed algorithm outperforms several state-of-the-art constraint multi-objective evolutionary algorithms when dealing with CMOPs, especially for problems with complex constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new fractal search space decomposition-based algorithm to address the issue of scaling up the divide and conquer approach to deal with large scale problems (up to 50 continuous decision variables). The proposed algorithm, called polyFrac, fractally decomposes the search space using hyper-polytopes. It allows moving throughout different granularity levels by only computing the average of vertices of a hyper-polytope to obtain the coordinates of the centroids. Only the most promising hyper-polytopes are decomposed into child-polytopes. Then, a simple deterministic local search (single solution-based metaheuristic) is used to perform the intensification process to find the best solution within the selected lowest hyper-polytope. The proposed algorithm performance is evaluated on the well-known SOCO 2011, CEC 2013, and CEC 2017 benchmarks and compared with 26 states of the art algorithms. A real-world optimization problem is also used to calibrate its performance. The obtained results show that polyFrac outperforms all the algorithms. Moreover, experimental results and analysis suggest that polyFrac is a highly competitive optimization algorithm for solving large-scale and complex optimization problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, the decomposition-based multiobjective optimization evolutionary algorithm (MOEA/D) has displayed promising performance when dealing with multiobjective optimization problems (MOPs). However, for some complex MOPs, the conventional MOEA/D often leads to the loss of population diversity in the iterative process, and the convergence performance of the population is weakened in the mean time. In this paper, a novel MOEA/D, based on improved multiple adaptive dynamic selection strategies and elite archive strategy (MOEA/D-IMA), is proposed to improve the population diversity and convergence. First, a novel differential evolution (DE) operator is constructed, which constitutes an operator pool with other DE operators. According to the search information of the current population, an adaptive dynamic selection strategy is proposed, which is used by MOEA/D-IMA to select a suitable DE operator to replace the simulated binary crossover (SBX) operator. Second, a parameter adaptive dynamic selection strategy is proposed to enhance the robustness of MOEA/D-IMA by using the information of population evolution state. Third, an elite archive strategy is introduced to improve the convergence and diversity of the population where mutual dominance of individuals and their aggregation distance is employed. Finally, the proposed MOEA/D-IMA is compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms on three suits of 18 test problems. Experimental results indicate that the proposed MOEA/D-IMA can significantly improve the optimization performance when coping with MOPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Purpose of this paper are Real power loss reduction, voltage stability enhancement and minimization of Voltage deviation. Design/methodology/approach: In HLG approach as per Henry gas law sum of gas dissolved in the liquid is directly proportional to the partial pressure on above the liquid. Gas dissolving in the liquid which based on Henry gas law is main concept to formulate the proposed algorithm. Populations are divided into groups and all the groups possess the similar Henry constant value. Exploration and exploitation has been balanced effectively. Ranking and position of the worst agents is done in order to avoid the local optima. Then in this work Mobula alfredi optimization (MAO) algorithm is projected to solve optimal reactive power problem. Foraging actions of Mobula alfredi has been imitated to design the algorithm. String foraging, twister foraging and backward roll foraging are mathematically formulated to solve the problem. In the entire exploration space the Mobula alfredi has been forced to discover new regions by assigning capricious position. Through this approach, exploration competence of the algorithm has been improved. In all iterations, the position of the Mobula alfredi has been updated and replaced with the most excellent solution found so far. Exploration and exploitation capabilities have been maintained sequentially. Then in this work balanced condition algorithm (BCA) is projected to solve optimal reactive power problem. Proposed BCA approach based on the conception in physics- on the subject of the mass; incoming, exit and producing in the control volume. Preliminary population has been created based on the dimensions and number of particles and it initialized capriciously in the exploration space with minimum and maximum concentration. Production control parameter and Production probability utilized to control the exploration and exploitation. Findings: Proposed Henry's Law based -soluble gas optimization (HLG) algorithm, Mobula alfredi optimization (MAO) algorithm and BCA are evaluated in IEEE 30 bus system with L-index (Voltage stability) and also tested in standard IEEE 14, 30, 57, 118, 300 bus test systems without L- index. Real power loss minimization, voltage deviation minimization, and voltage stability index enhancement has been attained. Originality/value: For the first time Henry's Law based -soluble gas optimization (HLG) algorithm, Mobula alfredi optimization (MAO) algorithm and BCA is projected to solve the power loss reduction problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is a nature-inspired meta-heuristic that has been utilized as a powerful optimization tool in a wide range of applications since its inception in 1995. Due to the flexibility of its parameters and concepts, PSO has appeared in many variants, probably more than any other meta-heuristic algorithm. This paper introduces the Generalized Particle Swarm Optimization (GEPSO) algorithm as a new version of the PSO algorithm for continuous space optimization, which enriches the original PSO by incorporating two new terms into the velocity updating equation. These terms aim to deepen the interrelations of particles and their knowledge sharing, increase variety in the swarm, and provide a better search in unexplored areas of the search space. Moreover, a novel procedure is utilized for dynamic updating of the particles' inertia weights, which controls the convergence of the swarm towards a solution. Also, since parameters of heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms have a significant influence on their performance, a comprehensive guideline for parameter tuning of the GEPSO is developed. The computational results of solving numerous well-known benchmark functions by the GEPSO, original PSO, Repulsive PSO (REPSO), PSO with Passive Congregation (PSOPC), Negative PSO (NPSO), Deterministic PSO (DPSO), and Line Search-Based Derivative-Free PSO (LS-DF-PSO) approaches showed that the GEPSO outperformed the compared methods in terms of mean and standard deviation of fitness function values and runtimes. • Presenting a more robust interrelation between particles in the proposed algorithm. • Introducing a more efficient exploration way in the search space. • Presenting a stronger mechanism to update velocity and position of the proposed algorithm compared to the original PSO algorithm. • Proposing a dynamic inertial weight adjustment mechanism. • Confirming efficacy of the performance of the proposed algorithm in comparison to other variants of the PSO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge of solving nonlinear equation systems is how to locate multiple optimal solutions simultaneously in a single run. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel algorithm by combining a diversity indicator, multi-objective optimization technique, and clustering technique. Firstly, a diversity indicator is designed to maintain the diversity of the population. Then, a K-means clustering-based selection strategy is introduced to locate the promising solutions. Finally, the local search is used to accelerate the convergence of population. The experimental results on 30 nonlinear equation systems show that the proposed algorithm is better than six state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of convergence rate and success rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an adaptive observer-based fault-tolerant control (FTC) strategy is proposed for a class of Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems with both actuator and sensor faults under external disturbances. FTC approach is developed to compensate the actuator faults and to stabilize the faulty system. Furthermore, using H ∞ optimization technique, an adaptive fuzzy observer is developed, not only to achieve a simultaneous estimation of system states, sensor and actuator faults, but also to attenuate the influence of disturbances. In terms of linear matrices inequalities (LMIs), sufficient conditions of the existence of observer and controller are derived. We overcome the drawback of two-step algorithm by proposing a single-step one which allows to solve only the strict LMIs. Therefore, the obtained results present an acceptable compromise between conservatism reduction and computational complexity. Finally, two numerical examples which one of them is an application to a cart motion model are presented to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In model predictive control (MPC), the control input is computed by solving a constrained finite-time optimal control (CFTOC) problem at each sample in the control loop. The main computational effort when solving the CFTOC problem using an active-set (AS) method is often spent on computing the search directions, which in MPC corresponds to solving unconstrained finite-time optimal control (UFTOC) problems. This is commonly performed using Riccati recursions or generic sparsity exploiting algorithms. In this paper, the focus is efficient search direction computations for AS type methods. The system of equations to be solved at each AS iteration is changed only by a low-rank modification of the previous one, and exploiting this structured change is important for the performance of AS-type solvers. In this paper, theory for how to exploit these low-rank changes by modifying the Riccati factorization between AS iterations in a structured way is presented. A numerical evaluation of the proposed algorithm shows that the computation time can be significantly reduced by modifying, instead of re-computing, the Riccati factorization. This speedup can be important for AS-type solvers used for linear, nonlinear, and hybrid MPC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is concerned with the private distributed optimization problem for multi-agent systems, where all agents cooperatively minimize the sum of individual convex objective functions with the additional requirement that the functions remain differential privacy. Based on the augmented Lagrangian algorithm, an effective distributed algorithm is presented to ensure the privacy by perturbing primal estimates with additive Laplace noises. The proposed algorithm is more likely to have a faster convergence rate compared to the primal-based algorithms, and has less computational burden contrast with the ADMM-based private algorithms. By means of an important factorization of weighted Laplacian matrix, it is proven that the error between optimal solution and ergodic average estimates is bounded, which is related to the privacy level. Within this framework, trade-offs between privacy level and convergence accuracy are analyzed. Finally the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel method to compute the distance to instability for linear time-invariant delay systems with multiple delays, subjected to combined uncertainties on the system matrices and the delay parameters. The method is able to fully exploit structure and possible interdependencies between the uncertainties affecting the coefficient matrices, the property that realistic perturbations are real valued, and the structure of the delay equation. The resulting algorithm relies on a characterization in terms of the pseudospectral abscissa and on techniques from optimization over manifolds of matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In extracting hidden information from a data, its high dimension can create challenges in the quality of the extracted information and the search space size. Attribute reduction based on minimizing both missed information and selected subset attributes is logical solution for the challenge. Rough set theory (RST) is an information recognition technique in uncertain data that it shows the value missed information for the selected attributes. In this paper, a multi-objective attribute reduction (MOAR) is modeled by designing a new effective cost function to optimize the minimum number of attributes with the maximum dependency coefficient of the RST. Due to the MOAR is an NP-hard problem, an enhanced draft of cultural algorithm, as a continuous optimization algorithm, is proposed to solve it, as a discrete problem for the first time. The cultural algorithm (CA) with a dual inheritance system is enhanced by utilizing just normative and situational components to generate new individuals and planning a novel heuristic to discrete population and belief spaces. With regard to design the research problem, the CA and five algorithms are implemented to compare their results on twelve well-known UCI datasets in three categories sizes; small, middle and large. The tuning algorithm's parameters to find the best possible values are done and different size of the population is considered to evaluate the sensitivity of the algorithms on the population size parameter. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is able to find competitive results when compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the problem of achieving average consensus over a random time-varying sequence of directed graphs by extending the class of so-called push-sum algorithms to such random scenarios. Provided that an ergodicity notion, which we term the directed infinite flow property, holds and the auxiliary states of agents are uniformly bounded away from zero infinitely often, we prove the almost sure convergence of the evolutions of this class of algorithms to the average of initial states. Moreover, for a random sequence of graphs generated using a so-called time-varying $B$ -irreducible probability matrix, we establish convergence rates for the proposed push-sum algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a path planning approach for rotary unmanned aerial vehicles (R-UAVs) in a known static rough terrain environment. This approach aims to find collision-free and feasible paths with minimum altitude, length and angle variable rate. First, a three-dimensional (3D) modeling method is proposed to reduce the computation burden of the dynamic models of R-UAVs. Considering the length, height and tuning angle of a path, the path planning of R-UAVs is described as a tri-objective optimization problem. Then, an improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed. To render the algorithm more effective in dealing with this problem, a vibration function is introduced into the collided solutions to improve the algorithm efficiency. Meanwhile, the selection of the global best position is taken into account by the reference point method. Finally, the experimental environment is built with the help of the Google map and the 3D terrain generator World Machine. Experimental results under two different rough terrains from Guilin and Lanzhou of China demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed algorithm in finding Pareto optimal paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The first study of the data repairing problem for jointly resolving inconsistencies and conflicts. • An iterative algorithm to jointly infer the source reliability degrees and the repaired result under DCs. • Two scalable strategies for the iterative algorithm by optimal grouping entities and pruning candidate values, respectively. • Experimental results clearly demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms both constraint-based data repairing and conflict resolution baselines. It is crucial to identify and resolve the inconsistencies and conflicts in data. To tackle the inconsistencies, integrity constraints are involved to constrain the attribute values of related entities. As for the multi-source conflicts, the true values of each entity are identified by trusting the reliable sources. In practice, it is common that inconsistencies and conflicts simultaneously appear. To deal with this case, traditional techniques would separately resolve the inconsistencies and conflicts, by conducting different approaches based on the above principles. However, such a procedure may not be the appropriate solution. Specifically, locally resolving conflicts for a certain entity may overlook the information from its related entities, while enforcing constraints on related entities may miss correct values of these entities in turn. To jointly resolve the inconsistencies and conflicts, this paper proposes a novel technique powered by integrity constraints and source reliability. The key component of our solution is to incorporate denial constraints, an expressive type of integrity constraint, into the process of conflict resolution. We formulate it as an optimization problem and develop an iterative algorithm to solve it. Benefiting from this algorithm, the repaired result is not only supported by reliable sources but also satisfies the denial constraints. Additionally, we also propose two optimal strategies to ensure that it is scalable under massive constraints. Experimental results on real-world datasets demonstrate the high accuracy and scalability of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unpredictable packet loss that occurs in the channel connecting a local sensor and a remote estimator will deteriorate the performance of state estimation. To relieve this detrimental impact, an online linear temporal coding scheme is studied in this paper. If the packet of the last step is lost, a linear combination of the current and the last measurements with proper weights is transmitted; otherwise, only the current data is sent. By virtue of the innovation sequence approach, a linear minimum mean-squared error estimation algorithm is designed. To optimize performance, a novel estimator is also proposed which provides a recursive expression of the error covariances. The proposed two algorithms are proved to be equivalent via a set of transformations. With the aid of some optimization techniques, a recursive algorithm is presented to obtain the optimal coding weight in terms of minimizing the average estimation error covariance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note presents further results based on the recent paper [J. Liang, H. Chen, and J. Lam, “An improved criterion for controllability of Boolean control networks,” IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 6012–6018, Nov. 2017]. After some optimizations, the conventional method can be more efficient than the method used in the above paper. We also propose an improved method via combining the well known Tarjan's algorithm and depth-first search technique for the controllability analysis of Boolean control networks (BCNs). As a result, the computational complexity will not exceed $O(N^2)$ with $N=2^n$ , where $n$ is the number of state-variables in a BCN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Achieving a balance between convergence and diversity in many-objective optimization is a great challenge. This paper suggests an evolutionary algorithm based on a region search strategy to deal with different kinds of benchmark problems. In the proposed algorithm, each solution is associated with a region, and the region search strategy is applied to constrain the updating process; this strategy will enhance the diversity of population without losing convergence. A new normalization procedure is used for dealing with scaled problems. Moreover, the comparison of two solutions is based on both dominance relation and perpendicular distance; the result shows the algorithm's reliability for solving both convex and concave problems. The performance of the proposed algorithm is validated by several well-known benchmark problems with different properties. Seven state-of-the-art algorithms are compared and the experimental results demonstrate that the introduced algorithm performs the best on almost all benchmark problems. Furthermore, the proposed strategy depicts a high computational efficiency for solving the problems with a high dimension of objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Salient object detection has received much attention in the past decades. One of the representative approaches is utilizing the convex hull prior to find the salient object in the image. Recently, researchers have proposed many variant methods, which are based the convex hull prior. Nevertheless, most of them used a single center to construct the convex hull prior (CHP) map, while few attention has been made on the use of multiple centers. In this paper, we propose a multi-center convex hull prior based solution for salient object detection. To strengthen our solution, we also integrate two non-trivial optimizations: the first one is used to obtain an enhanced global color distinction prior (GCDP) map, and the second one is used to refine the preliminary saliency map. We conduct extensive experiments based on several widely used benchmarking datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that our solution is effective and competitive, compared against state-of-the-art saliency detection algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Two simple and efficient correntropy-based adaptation algorithms, l0-MCC and MB-l0-MCC, are proposed for robust CS reconstruction. • A novel and comprehensive theoretical analysis on convergence of l0-MCC is given. • Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms achieve superior performance as compared to existing state-of-the-art robust reconstruction algorithms in many aspects. Abstract Robust compressive sensing (CS) aims to recover the sparse signals from noisy measurements perturbed by non-Gaussian (i.e., heavy-tailed) noises, where traditional CS reconstruction algorithms may perform poorly owing to utilizing the l 2 error norm in optimization. In this paper, we propose a novel maximum correntropy adaptation approach for robust CS reconstruction. The task is formulated as a l 0 regularized maximum correntropy criterion (l 0 -MCC) optimization problem and is solved by adaptive filtering approach. The proposed l 0 -MCC algorithm has a simple algorithm structure and can adaptively estimate the sparsity. It can efficiently alleviate the negative impact of noise in the presence of large outliers. Moreover, a novel theoretical analysis on convergence of l 0 -MCC is also performed. Furthermore, a mini-batch-based l 0 -MCC (MB- l 0 -MCC) algorithm is developed to speed up the convergence. Comparison with existing robust CS reconstruction algorithms is conducted via simulations, showing that the proposed methods can achieve better performance than existing state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distributed convex optimization problem is studied in this paper for any fixed and connected network with general constraints. To solve such an optimization problem, a new type of continuous-time distributed subgradient optimization algorithm is proposed based on the Karuch–Kuhn–Tucker condition. By using tools from nonsmooth analysis and set-valued function theory, it is proved that the distributed convex optimization problem is solved on a network of agents equipped with the designed algorithm. For the case that the objective function is convex but not strictly convex, it is proved that the states of the agents associated with optimal variables could converge to an optimal solution of the optimization problem. For the case that the objective function is strictly convex, it is further shown that the states of agents associated with optimal variables could converge to the unique optimal solution. Finally, some simulations are performed to illustrate the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a class of stochastic source-seeking problems to drive a mobile robot to the minimizer of a source signal. Our approach is first analyzed in an obstacle-free scenario, where measurements of the signal at the robot location and information of a contact sensor are required. We extend our results to environments with obstacles under mild assumptions on the step size. Our approach builds on the simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation idea to obtain information of the signal field. We prove the practical convergence of the algorithms to a ball whose size depends on the step size that contains the location of the source. The novelty relies in that we consider nondifferentiable convex functions, a fixed step size, and the environment may contain obstacles. Our proof methods employ nonsmooth Lyapunov function theory, tools from convex analysis, and stochastic difference inclusions. Finally, we illustrate the applicability of the proposed algorithms in a two-dimensional scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Since noise is an inevitable factor in real-world applications, designing robust image recovery technologies is crucial for the application of a compressive sensing (CS) system. However, current CS approaches rarely consider noise, or they only consider the noise generated in the process of transmission. Almost all CS approaches will breakdown when the original image is corrupted by noise due to natural or artificial factors, especially non-Gaussian noise. In this paper, we propose a nonconvex m-estimator-based robust image CS approach to recover the original clean images from the compressed measurements of their corrupted versions. We simultaneously conduct reconstructing and denoising in a unified framework. We also use a weighted schatten- p norm to better exploit the nonlocal low-rank property. In addition, we developed an efficient iterative scheme based on the half-quadratic theory and the alternating direction method of multipliers to solve the resulting nonconvex optimization problem. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can recover the clean images accurately when the original images are corrupted by non-Gaussian noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A mapping between the covering array domain and the graph domain. • A greedy algorithm to construct CAs and MCAs in the graph domain. • Matching and improvement of upper bounds for CAs and MCAs. Abstract Combinatorial interaction testing is an effective method to assess the functionality of hardware and software components, and usually, covering arrays (CAs) and mixed covering arrays (MCAs) are used as test-suites. The main contributions of this work are the development of a graph representation for the problem of constructing CAs and MCAs, and the creation of a competitive greedy algorithm to solve the construction problem of CAs and MCAs in the graph domain. The representation that we introduce in this paper is denoted as Coverage in Nodes (CN) and our algorithm is called Graph Based Greedy Algorithm (GBGA). We have compared the performance of GBGA with other state-of-the-art greedy algorithm regarding the construction of CAs and MCAs. It is remarkable to note that we were able to define 13 new upper bounds for MCAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the problem of a leader that seeks to optimally influence the opinions of agents in a directed network through connecting with a limited number of the agents (“direct followers”), possibly in the presence of a fixed competing leader. The settings involving a single leader and two competing leaders are unified into a general combinatoric optimization problem, for which two heuristic approaches are developed. The first approach is based on a convex relaxation scheme, possibly in combination with the $\ell _1$ -norm regularization technique, and the second is based on a greedy selection strategy. The main technical novelties of this work are in the establishment of supermodularity of the objective function and convexity of its continuous relaxation. The greedy approach is guaranteed to have a lower bound on the approximation ratio sharper than $(1-1/e)$ , while the convex approach can benefit from efficient (customized) numerical solvers to have practically comparable solutions possibly with faster computation times. The two approaches can be combined to provide improved results. In numerical examples, the approximation ratio can be made to reach ${\text{90}\%}$ or higher depending on the number of direct followers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with a general class of distributed constrained optimization problems over a multiagent network, where the global objective function is represented by the sum of all local objective functions. Each agent in the network only knows its own local objective function, and is restricted to a global nonempty closed convex set. We discuss the scenario where the communication of the whole multiagent network is expressed as a sequence of time-varying general unbalanced directed graphs. The directed graphs are required to be uniformly jointly strongly connected and the weight matrices are only row-stochastic. To collaboratively deal with the optimization problems, existing distributed methods mostly require the communication graph to be fixed or balanced, which is impractical and hardly inevitable. In contrast, we propose a new distributed projection subgradient algorithm which is applicable to the time-varying general unbalanced directed graphs and does not need each agent to know its in-neighbors’ out-degree. When the objective functions are convex and Lipschitz continuous, it is proved that the proposed algorithm exactly converges to the optimal solution. Simulation results on a numerical experiment are shown to substantiate feasibility of the proposed algorithm and correctness of the theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a discrete-time distributed and noncooperative routing algorithm, which is proved, via Lyapunov arguments, to asymptotically converge to a specific equilibrium condition among the traffic flows over the network paths, known as Wardrop equilibrium. This convergence result improves the discrete-time algorithms in the literature, which achieve approximate convergence to the Wardrop equilibrium. Numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reduction of a source distribution is a collection of smaller sized distributions that are collectively equivalent to the source distribution with respect to the property of decomposability. That is, an arbitrary language is decomposable with respect to the source distribution if and only if it is decomposable with respect to each smaller sized distribution (in the reduction). The notion of reduction of distributions has previously been proposed to improve the complexity of decomposability verification. In this paper, we address the problem of generating (optimal) reductions of distributions automatically. A (partial) solution to this problem is provided, which consists of an incremental algorithm for the production of candidate reductions and a reduction validation procedure. In the incremental production stage, backtracking is applied whenever a candidate reduction that cannot be validated is produced. A strengthened substitution-based proof technique is used for reduction validation, while a fixed template of candidate counter examples is used for reduction refutation; put together, they constitute our (partial) solution to the reduction verification problem. In addition, we show that a recursive approach for the generation of (small) reductions is easily supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes distributed algorithms to solve robust convex optimization (RCO) when the constraints are affected by nonlinear uncertainty. We adopt a scenario approach by randomly sampling the uncertainty set. To facilitate the computational task, instead of using a single centralized processor to obtain a “global solution” of the scenario problem (SP), we resort to multiple interconnected processors that are distributed among different nodes of a network to simultaneously solve the SP. Then, we propose a primal-dual subgradient algorithm and a random projection algorithm to distributedly solve the SP over undirected and directed graphs, respectively. Both algorithms are given in an explicit recursive form with simple iterations, which are especially suited for processors with limited computational capability. We show that, if the underlying graph is strongly connected, each node asymptotically computes a common optimal solution to the SP with a convergence rate $O(1/(\sum _{t=1}^k\zeta ^t))$ , where $\lbrace \zeta ^t\rbrace$ is a sequence of appropriately decreasing stepsizes. That is, the RCO is effectively solved in a distributed way. The relations with the existing literature on robust convex programs are thoroughly discussed and an example of robust system identification is included to validate the effectiveness of our distributed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Fuzzy objective relation systems are an important class of datasets that are generalizations of many types of decision tables. This paper proposes an approach, based on relation systems and fuzzy sets, to reduce data redundancy in fuzzy objective relation systems. We study lower and upper approximation reductions of a relation system for a given fuzzy set. As a generalization of such reductions, we consider lower and upper approximation reductions of fuzzy objective relation systems and give their corresponding reduction algorithms using methods based on the discernibility matrix. We note that the usual positive region reduction for a decision table can be considered a special case of our lower approximation reduction. Finally, we provide two examples from the UCI datasets to verify our theoretical results. These results can help in the decision making analysis of fuzzy objective relation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Active learning is a man-machine interaction scenario in which the machine acquires information actively from the expert. Cost-sensitive active learning balances the misclassification cost with the teacher cost paid for label queries. Inspired by granular computing (GrC) and three-way decision (3WD), this paper presents a new algorithm called cost-sensitive active learning through density clustering under a label uniform distribution model (CADU). CADU iteratively divides the universe, queries labels, and classifies instances until each label is queried or predicted. The density clustering technique is used to divide the universe into blocks. A label uniform distribution model is built to calculate the expected label distribution of each block. According to the teacher and misclassification cost settings, an optimization function is designed to determine the number of labels to be queried. Comparison study with 10 state-of-the-art algorithms are undertaken on 12 public datasets. Results show that CADU outperforms others in terms of average cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]