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In this paper, a new human-based metaheuristic algorithm called Carpet Weaving Optimization (CWO) is introduced, which is inspired by human skills when weaving a carpet. The main source of inspiration in the design of CWO is taken from the communication between the carpet weaver and the map reader who try to weave a carpet according to the given pattern. The theory of CWO is stated and then mathematically modeled based on the simulation of the carpet weaving process. The effectiveness of CWO in optimization has been assessed across twenty-three standard benchmark functions encompassing unimodal, high-dimensional multimodal, and fixed-dimensional multimodal categories. The optimization outcomes underscore CWO's capability to yield favorable results across various optimization challenges, adeptly navigating between exploration, exploitation, and achieving a balanced search process. Comparative analysis against twelve rival algorithms demonstrates CWO's superior performance, consistently outshining competitors across all twenty-three benchmark functions and securing the top rank as the premier optimizer. Moreover, the efficacy of CWO in real-world applications has been scrutinized through its optimization of four engineering design quandaries. Simulation findings corroborate CWO's commendable performance in real-world and engineering contexts, as evidenced by its capacity to deliver superior values for design variables and objective functions compared to competing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents a novel nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm called Frilled Lizard Optimization (FLO), which emulates the unique hunting behavior of frilled lizards in their natural habitat. FLO draws its inspiration from the sit-and-wait hunting strategy of these lizards. The algorithm's core principles are meticulously detailed and mathematically structured into two distinct phases: (i) an exploration phase, which mimics the lizard's sudden attack on its prey, and (ii) an exploitation phase, which simulates the lizard's retreat to the treetops after feeding. To assess FLO's efficacy in addressing optimization problems, its performance is rigorously tested on fifty-two standard benchmark functions. These functions include unimodal, high-dimensional multimodal, and fixed-dimensional multimodal functions, as well as the challenging CEC 2017 test suite. FLO's performance is benchmarked against twelve established metaheuristic algorithms, providing a comprehensive comparative analysis. The simulation results demonstrate that FLO excels in both exploration and exploitation, effectively balancing these two critical aspects throughout the search process. This balanced approach enables FLO to outperform several competing algorithms in numerous test cases. Additionally, FLO is applied to twenty-two constrained optimization problems from the CEC 2011 test suite and four complex engineering design problems, further validating its robustness and versatility in solving real-world optimization challenges. Overall, the study highlights FLO's superior performance and its potential as a powerful tool for tackling a wide range of optimization problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research article concentrates on process conditions in addition to improving color selections in polymer compounders and developing more accurate simulation models. The feed rate (FR), temperature (T) and screw speed (SS) are three processing variables that the research investigates using general trends (GTs) and Box–Behnken design (BBD) response surface methodology. The identical set of processing settings was tweaked at three separate phases independently of one another. This study uses the experimental design to investigate process parameters' optimization while holding all other parameters constant. This design was given the name GT. To develop this design and its statistical optimization, this study used the software of the design expert method. A regression model was run in this design, which displayed collective as well as individual effects of the parameters on color images. The values of tri-stimulus color with the best optimization had the smallest proper color variance (dE*). To obtain information on pigment characteristics, an SEM image analysis was conducted, which aids in improving future designs and overcoming manufacturing issues that affect color fluctuation properties and waste reduction for various chemical grades, both of which enhance environmentally friendly processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunisia economic relies heavily on an agriculture key driver. Unfortunately, it yet faces challenges in water management in particularly southern regions having scarce rainfall. Inefficiencies in regular irrigation practized for date palm is addressed by this study. We propose here a smart irrigation system. Leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), we have conducted a solution for the Sahara oases. This was done by deploying an IoT sensor network for real-time environmental monitoring. AI algorithms have been used for data processing, enabling precise water predictions for date palms. Results showcase a substantial reduction in water usage, improved crop health, and enhanced yield. The study introduces a novel smart irrigation approach for southern Tunisia. A water optimization has resulted through remote control and monitoring via a cloud-based wireless communication system. Beyond advancing smart agriculture, the research offers crucial implications for mitigating water stress in arid regions, contributing to the transformation of agricultural landscapes. Smart irrigation systems emerge as a viable solution for optimizing water use and avoiding both over- and under-irrigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem statement: Nowadays, digital watermarks have recently become recognized as a solution for protecting copyright of the digital multimedia. For a watermark to be useful, it must be perceptually invisible and robust against any possible attack and image processing by those who seek to corsair the material, researchers have considered various approaches like JPEG compression, geometric distortions and noising. Approach: We proposed a framework based on the Hartung technique which depended on spread spectrum communication in discrete cosine transform (DCT). Results: For the experimental results, researchers had considered various approaches: JPEG compression, geometric distortions and noising. Results showed a good performance in the proposed method. Conclusion: The presented technique was applicable not only to MPEG-2 video, but also to other DCT coding videos like MPEG-1,H261 and H263. Future study could be on improving DCT and comparing it with existing methods. It could be on discrete wavelet transform that is relatively new and has useful properties for the image processing applications. Key words: Data hiding, video, watermarking, geometric distortions, JPEG Compression, transform domain., INTRODUCTION Digital watermarking has recently become a popular area of research due to the proliferation of digital data (image, audio, or video) in the Internet and the need to find [...]

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is vital for continuous organizational growth and development. OCB also plays an evident role in advancing the quality of health care services and practicing OCB in hospitals can be useful. Although OCBs' contributing factors have been studied in Jordan in earlier researches, the utilization of OCB in health sector is still a new topic. Therefore, this article aimed to investigate the impact of employees' gender and age on OCB at Jordanian governmental hospitals using a fuzzy approach. A convenient sample of 126 employees working in three main governmental hospitals in the north of Jordan has been taken. The collected data include linguistic terms that suffer from uncertainty which, in turn, cannot be dealt with traditional numerical values. This study indicates that gender impact on OCB has statistically significant differences at α =.05 in favor of males with the total score of 0.011% as far as altruism, courtesy, and civic virtue are concerned. Similarly, the effect of age factor on OCB is statistically significant differences at α =.05 in relation to courtesy, sportsmanship, and civic virtue with the total score of 0.27%. Finally, the results provide baseline data for further studies that may pay more attention toward employees' demographics in OCB. This study can support mangers and leaders holding dominant positions in public sector health care organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processor's technologies are advancing at a fast pace, introducing higher computational power. However, this requires the presence of data closer to the processing unit in order to utilize the introduced computational power. Allowing processes to execute in any processor, results in exploiting the potential of the computational power of the processors, However, this diminishes the locality factor 1, in other words, every time a process is scheduled to execute, it is required to migrate its data to the new processor. This has two consequences: Firstly, the data should reside in the main memory all the time. Second, when the process finishes execution, it is required to update the copy of the data in the cache to the main memory, and to load the data in the next execution period. The significance of this paper comes from the fact that new systems are equipped with more processors and more cores per processor. In the near future, processors with many cores are going to be available commercially, hence, it is important to provide an insight on how to execute the processes on such processors. In this paper the processor Affinity helps in achieving better performance, as the process's data is expected to reside in the processors cache rather than the main memory. However, this might affect the performance, as limiting the number of processors that processes allowed to execute in, which might degrade the performance of the application. This paper evaluates the processor affinity (or core affinity) in order to measure the factors of locality and computational power on the processes execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video on Demand (VOD) is a multimedia service which allows a remote user to select and then view video at his convenience at any time he wants, which makes the VOD become an important technology for many applications. Numerous periodic VOD broadcasting protocols have been proposed to support a large number of receivers. Broadcasting is an efficient transmission scheme to provide on-demand service for very popular movies. This paper proposes a new broadcasting scheme called Popularity Cushion Staggered Broadcasting (PCSB). The proposed scheme improves the Periodic Broadcasting (PB) protocols in the latest mobile VOD system, which is called MobiVoD system. It also, reduces the maximum waiting time of the mobile node, by partitioning the 1st segment of the whole video and storing it in the Local Media Forwarder (LMF) exactly in the Pool of RAM (PoR), and then transmitting them when the mobile nodes miss the 1st broadcasted segment. The results show that the PCSB is more efficient and better than the all types of broadcasting and caching techniques in the MobiVoD system. Furthermore, these results exhibits that system performance is stable under high dynamics of the system and the viewer's waiting time are less than the previous system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]