Solving Traveling Salesman Problem with Time Windows Using Hybrid Pointer Networks with Time Features

This paper introduces a time efficient deep learning-based solution to the traveling salesman problem with time window (TSPTW). Our goal is to reduce the total tour length traveled by -*the agent without violating any time limitations. This will aid in decreasing the time required to supply any type of service, as well as lowering the emissions produced by automobiles, allowing our planet to recover from air pollution emissions. The proposed model is a variation of the pointer networks that has a better ability to encode the TSPTW problems. The model proposed in this paper is inspired from our previous work that introduces a hybrid context encoder and a multi attention decoder. The hybrid encoder primarily comprises the transformer encoder and the graph encoder; these encoders encode the feature vector before passing it to the attention decoder layer. The decoder consists of transformer context and graph context as well. The output attentions from the two decoders are aggregated and used to select the following step in the trip. To the best of our knowledge, our network is the first neural model that will be able to solve medium-size TSPTW problems. Moreover, we conducted sensitivity analysis to explore how the model performance changes as the time window width in the training and testing data changes. The experimental work shows that our proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art model for TSPTW of sizes 20, 50 and 100 nodes/cities. We expect that our model will become state-of-the-art methodology for solving the TSPTW problems.

A High-Frequency Vibration Error Compensation Method for Terahertz SAR Imaging Based on Short-Time Fourier Transform

High-frequency vibration error of a moving radar platform easily introduces a non-negligible phase of periodic modulation in radar echoes and greatly degrades terahertz synthetic aperture radar (THz-SAR) image quality. For solving the problem of THz-SAR image-quality degradation, the paper proposes a multi-component high-frequency vibration error estimation and compensation approach based on the short-time Fourier transform (STFT). To improve the robustness of the method against noise effects, STFT is used to extract the instantaneous frequency (IF) of a high-frequency vibration error signal, and the vibration parameters are coarsely obtained by the least square (LS) method. To reduce the influence of the STFT window widths, a method based on the maximum likelihood function (MLF) is developed for determining the optimal window width by a one-dimensional search of the window widths. In the case of high noise, many IF estimation values seriously deviate from the true ones. To avoid the singular values of IF estimation in the LS regression, the random sample consensus (RANSAC) is introduced to improve estimation accuracy. Then, performing the STFT with the optimal window width, the accurate vibration parameters are estimated by LS regression, where the singular values of IF estimation are excluded. Finally, the vibration error is reconstructed to compensate for the non-negligible phase of the platform-induced periodic modulation. The simulation results prove that the error compensation method can meet THz-SAR imaging requirements, even at a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

Adaptive Multiple Second-order Synchrosqueezing Wavelet Transform and Its Application in Wind Turbine Gearbox Fault Diagnosis

Wind turbines usually operate in harsh environments and in working conditions of variable speed, which easily causes their key components such as gearboxes to fail. The gearbox vibration signal of a wind turbine has nonstationary characteristics, and the existing Time-Frequency (TF) Analysis (TFA) methods have some problems such as insufficient concentration of TF energy. In order to obtain a more apparent and more congregated Time-Frequency Representation (TFR), this paper proposes a new TFA method, namely Adaptive Multiple Second-order Synchrosqueezing Wavelet Transform (AMWSST2). Firstly, a short-time window is innovatively introduced on the foundation of classical Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT), and the window width is adaptively optimized by using the center frequency and scale factor. After that, a smoothing process is carried out between different segments to eliminate the discontinuity and thus Adaptive Wavelet Transform (AWT) is generated. Then, on the basis of the theoretical framework of Synchrosqueezing Transform (SST) and accurate Instantaneous Frequency (IF) estimation by the utilization of second-order local demodulation operator, Adaptive Second-order Synchrosqueezing Wavelet Transform (AWSST2) is formed. Considering that the quality of actual time-frequency analysis is greatly disturbed by noise components, through performing multiple Synchrosqueezing operations, the congregation of TFR energy is further improved, and finally, the AMWSST2 algorithm studied in this paper is proposed. Since Synchrosqueezing operations are performed only in the frequency direction, this method AMWSST2 allows the signal to be perfectly reconstructed. For the verification of its effectiveness, this paper applies it to the processing of the vibration signal of the gearbox of a 750 kW wind turbine.

Concept Drift Adaptation with Incremental–Decremental SVM

Data classification in streams where the underlying distribution changes over time is known to be difficult. This problem—known as concept drift detection—involves two aspects: (i) detecting the concept drift and (ii) adapting the classifier. Online training only considers the most recent samples; they form the so-called shifting window. Dynamic adaptation to concept drift is performed by varying the width of the window. Defining an online Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier able to cope with concept drift by dynamically changing the window size and avoiding retraining from scratch is currently an open problem. We introduce the Adaptive Incremental–Decremental SVM (AIDSVM), a model that adjusts the shifting window width using the Hoeffding statistical test. We evaluate AIDSVM performance on both synthetic and real-world drift datasets. Experiments show a significant accuracy improvement when encountering concept drift, compared with similar drift detection models defined in the literature. The AIDSVM is efficient, since it is not retrained from scratch after the shifting window slides.

Prefix Imputation of Orphan Events in Event Stream Processing

In the context of process mining, event logs consist of process instances called cases. Conformance checking is a process mining task that inspects whether a log file is conformant with an existing process model. This inspection is additionally quantifying the conformance in an explainable manner. Online conformance checking processes streaming event logs by having precise insights into the running cases and timely mitigating non-conformance, if any. State-of-the-art online conformance checking approaches bound the memory by either delimiting storage of the events per case or limiting the number of cases to a specific window width. The former technique still requires unbounded memory as the number of cases to store is unlimited, while the latter technique forgets running, not yet concluded, cases to conform to the limited window width. Consequently, the processing system may later encounter events that represent some intermediate activity as per the process model and for which the relevant case has been forgotten, to be referred to as orphan events. The naïve approach to cope with an orphan event is to either neglect its relevant case for conformance checking or treat it as an altogether new case. However, this might result in misleading process insights, for instance, overestimated non-conformance. In order to bound memory yet effectively incorporate the orphan events into processing, we propose an imputation of missing-prefix approach for such orphan events. Our approach utilizes the existing process model for imputing the missing prefix. Furthermore, we leverage the case storage management to increase the accuracy of the prefix prediction. We propose a systematic forgetting mechanism that distinguishes and forgets the cases that can be reliably regenerated as prefix upon receipt of their future orphan event. We evaluate the efficacy of our proposed approach through multiple experiments with synthetic and three real event logs while simulating a streaming setting. Our approach achieves considerably higher realistic conformance statistics than the state of the art while requiring the same storage.

Radiological characteristics of mixed composition intraorbital foreign body

Orbital trauma is commonly complicated by retention of intraorbital foreign bodies. A 39-year-old man presented following a penetrating injury to the right orbit, with CT evidence of foreign bodies in the right anterior and posterior medial orbit. The foreign bodies were found to be a mixed composition of metal and wood. Characterising wood on CT imaging is difficult due to its radiolucency and low density, which can be mistaken for air in the setting of traumatic orbital emphysema. Increasing the window width on bone window settings can be used to distinguish wood from air, which is crucial for facilitating its complete surgical removal.

3D Helmholtz resonator with two close point-like windows: Regularisation for Dirichlet case

In this paper, a model of 3D Helmholtz resonator with two close point-like windows is considered. The Dirichlet condition is assumed at the boundary. The model is based on the theory of self-adjoint extensions of symmetric operators in Pontryagin space. The model is explicitly solvable and allows one to obtain the equation for resonances (quasi-eigenvalues) in an explicit form. A proper choice of the model parameter leads to the coincidence of the model solution with the main term of the asymptotics (in the window width) of the realistic solution, corresponding to small windows. A regularization is suggested to obtain a realistic limiting result for two merging windows.

Optimal resource allocation in networked control systems using viterbi algorithm

This paper presents an optimal bandwidth allocation method for a networked control system (NCS) which includes time-driven sensor, event-driven controller and random channels. A hidden markov model (HMM) with a discretized state space is formulated for the random traffic to predict the network states using a suitable data window. Network bandwidth is allocated based on the predicted traffic state subject to bounds on the deterministic traffic that guarantee acceptable NCS performance and do not exceed hardware limitations. Bandwidth allocation uses minimization of unmet bandwidth demand. A stability condition is derived for a variable but bounded sampling period interval. Computer simulation results show the effect of varying the number of discrete states for the HMM and the window width on bandwidth allocation. The results compare favorably with a published approach based on fuzzy logic.

Nonlinear Noise Reduction for the Airborne Transient Electromagnetic Method based on Kernel Minimum Noise Fraction

The airborne transient electromagnetic method has become a powerful tool to explore deep resource and tectonic structures. However, aircraft vibrations and flight environments produce very strong and complex nonlinear noise and result in poor data quality compared to ground transient electromagnetic methods. Consequently, the reduction of airborne electromagnetic noises is of vital importance to data inversion and imaging. To suppress and remove the nonlinear noise, we propose using kernel minimum noise fraction (KMNF), which is a nonlinear generalized method of minimum noise fraction. First, an adaptive variable window-width filtering algorithm is used to evaluate the noises and perform the preliminary denoising. Then, we adopt the two filter methods, which are minimum noise fraction (MNF) and KMNF to suppress the noise. The results show that these two methods can both suppress noise and make the decay curves smooth, but kernel MNF is more effective for the nonlinear characteristics of noise and it does not weaken the anomaly. Finally, field data from the Qinling mine area is processed, using the MNF and KMNF methods. The results show that nonlinear noise is suppressed by both methods but the results of KMNF are better than those of the linear MNF method.