A novel weather parameters prediction scheme and their effects on crops

Weather forecast is significantly imperative in today’s smart technological world. A precise forecast model entails a plentiful data in order to attain the most accurate predictions. However, a forecast of future rainfall from historical data samples has always been challenging and key area of research. Hence, in modern weather forecasting a combo of computer models, observation, and knowledge of trends and patterns are introduced. This research work has presented a fitness function based adaptive artificial neural network scheme in order to forecast rainfall and temperature for upcoming decade (2021-2030) using historical weather data of 20 different districts of Karnataka state. Furthermore, effects of these forecasted weather parameters are realized over five major crops of Karnataka namely rice, wheat, jowar, maize, and ragi with the intention of evaluation for efficient crop management in terms of the passing relevant messages to the farmers and alternate measures such as suggesting other geographical locations to grow the same crop or growing other suitable crops at same geographical location. A graphical user interface (GUI) application has been developed for the proposed work in order to ease out the flow of work.

Enhancing Search-based Testing with Testability Transformations for Existing APIs

Search-based software testing (SBST) has been shown to be an effective technique to generate test cases automatically. Its effectiveness strongly depends on the guidance of the fitness function. Unfortunately, a common issue in SBST is the so-called flag problem , where the fitness landscape presents a plateau that provides no guidance to the search. In this article, we provide a series of novel testability transformations aimed at providing guidance in the context of commonly used API calls (e.g., strings that need to be converted into valid date/time objects). We also provide specific transformations aimed at helping the testing of REST Web Services. We implemented our novel techniques as an extension to EvoMaster , an SBST tool that generates system-level test cases. Experiments on nine open-source REST web services, as well as an industrial web service, show that our novel techniques improve performance significantly.

A multi-objective algorithm for virtual machine placement in cloud environments using a hybrid of particle swarm optimization and flower pollination optimization

The demand for virtual machine requests has increased recently due to the growing number of users and applications. Therefore, virtual machine placement (VMP) is now critical for the provision of efficient resource management in cloud data centers. The VMP process considers the placement of a set of virtual machines onto a set of physical machines, in accordance with a set of criteria. The optimal solution for multi-objective VMP can be determined by using a fitness function that combines the objectives. This paper proposes a novel model to enhance the performance of the VMP decision-making process. Placement decisions are made based on a fitness function that combines three criteria: placement time, power consumption, and resource wastage. The proposed model aims to satisfy minimum values for the three objectives for placement onto all available physical machines. To optimize the VMP solution, the proposed fitness function was implemented using three optimization algorithms: particle swarm optimization with Lévy flight (PSOLF), flower pollination optimization (FPO), and a proposed hybrid algorithm (HPSOLF-FPO). Each algorithm was tested experimentally. The results of the comparative study between the three algorithms show that the hybrid algorithm has the strongest performance. Moreover, the proposed algorithm was tested against the bin packing best fit strategy. The results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the best fit strategy in total server utilization.

Generalized Poisson-Nernst-Planck-Based Physical Model of the O2|LSM|YSZ Electrode

The paper presents a generalized Poisson-Nernst-Planck model of an yttria-stabilized zirconia electrolyte developed from first principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics which allows for spatial resolution of the space charge layer. It takes into account limitations in oxide ion concentrations due to the limited availability of oxygen vacancies. The electrolyte model is coupled with a reaction kinetic model describing the triple phase boundary with electron conducting lanthanum strontium manganite and gaseous phase oxygen. By comparing the outcome of numerical simulations based on different formulations of the kinetic equations with the results of EIS and CV measurements we attempt to discern the existence of separate surface lattice sites for oxygen adatoms and surface oxides from the assumption of shared ones. Moreover, we show that the mass-action kinetics model is sensitive to oxygen partial pressure unlike exponential kinetics models. The resulting model is fitted to a dataset of EIS and CVs spanning multiple temperatures and pressures, using various relative weights of EIS and CV data in the fitness function. The model successfully describes the physics of the interface around the OCV.

Particle Swarm Optimisation for Edge Detection in Noisy Images

<p>Detection of continuous and connected edges is very important in many applications, such as detecting oil slicks in remote sensing and detecting cancers in medical images. The detection of such edges is a hard problem particularly in noisy images and most edge detection algorithms suffer from producing broken and thick edges in such images. The main goal of this thesis is to reduce broken edges by proposing an optimisation model and a solution method in order to detect edges in noisy images. This thesis suggests a newapproach in the framework of particle swarm optimisation (PSO) to overcome noise and reduce broken edges through exploring a large area and extracting the global structure of the edges. A fitness function is developed based on the possibility score of a curve being fitted on an edge and the curvature cost of the curve with two constraints. Unlike traditional algorithms, the new method can detect edges with greater continuity in noisy images. Furthermore, a new truncation method within PSO is proposed to truncate the real values of particle positions to integers in order to increase the diversity of the particles. This thesis also proposes a local thresholding technique for the PSObased edge detection algorithm to overcome the problem of detection of edges in noisy images with illuminated areas. The local thresholding technique is proposed based on themain idea of the Sauvola-Pietkinenmethod which is a way of binarisation of illuminated images. It is observed that the new local thresholding can improve the performance of the PSO-based edge detectors in the illuminated noisy images. Since the performance of using static topologies in various applications and in various versions of PSO is different , the performance of six different static topologies (fully connected, ring, star, tree-based, von Neumann and toroidal topologies)within threewell-known versions of PSO (Canonical PSO, Bare Bones PSO and Fully Informed PSO) are also investigated in the PSO-based edge detector. It is found that different topologies have different effects on the accuracy of the PSO-based edge detector. This thesis also proposes a novel dynamic topology called spatial random meaningful topology (SRMT) which is an adoptation version of a gradually increasing directed neighbourhood (GIDN). The new dynamic topology uses spatial meaningful information to compute the neighbourhood probability of each particle to be a neighbour of other particles. It uses this probability to randomly select the neighbours of each particle at each iteration of PSO. The results show that the performance of the proposed method is higher than that of other topologies in noisy images in terms of the localisation accuracy of edge detection.</p>

Particle Swarm Optimisation for Edge Detection in Noisy Images

<p>Detection of continuous and connected edges is very important in many applications, such as detecting oil slicks in remote sensing and detecting cancers in medical images. The detection of such edges is a hard problem particularly in noisy images and most edge detection algorithms suffer from producing broken and thick edges in such images. The main goal of this thesis is to reduce broken edges by proposing an optimisation model and a solution method in order to detect edges in noisy images. This thesis suggests a newapproach in the framework of particle swarm optimisation (PSO) to overcome noise and reduce broken edges through exploring a large area and extracting the global structure of the edges. A fitness function is developed based on the possibility score of a curve being fitted on an edge and the curvature cost of the curve with two constraints. Unlike traditional algorithms, the new method can detect edges with greater continuity in noisy images. Furthermore, a new truncation method within PSO is proposed to truncate the real values of particle positions to integers in order to increase the diversity of the particles. This thesis also proposes a local thresholding technique for the PSObased edge detection algorithm to overcome the problem of detection of edges in noisy images with illuminated areas. The local thresholding technique is proposed based on themain idea of the Sauvola-Pietkinenmethod which is a way of binarisation of illuminated images. It is observed that the new local thresholding can improve the performance of the PSO-based edge detectors in the illuminated noisy images. Since the performance of using static topologies in various applications and in various versions of PSO is different , the performance of six different static topologies (fully connected, ring, star, tree-based, von Neumann and toroidal topologies)within threewell-known versions of PSO (Canonical PSO, Bare Bones PSO and Fully Informed PSO) are also investigated in the PSO-based edge detector. It is found that different topologies have different effects on the accuracy of the PSO-based edge detector. This thesis also proposes a novel dynamic topology called spatial random meaningful topology (SRMT) which is an adoptation version of a gradually increasing directed neighbourhood (GIDN). The new dynamic topology uses spatial meaningful information to compute the neighbourhood probability of each particle to be a neighbour of other particles. It uses this probability to randomly select the neighbours of each particle at each iteration of PSO. The results show that the performance of the proposed method is higher than that of other topologies in noisy images in terms of the localisation accuracy of edge detection.</p>

Learning how to search: generating effective test cases through adaptive fitness function selection

Search-based test generation is guided by feedback from one or more fitness functions—scoring functions that judge solution optimality. Choosing informative fitness functions is crucial to meeting the goals of a tester. Unfortunately, many goals—such as forcing the class-under-test to throw exceptions, increasing test suite diversity, and attaining Strong Mutation Coverage—do not have effective fitness function formulations. We propose that meeting such goals requires treating fitness function identification as a secondary optimization step. An adaptive algorithm that can vary the selection of fitness functions could adjust its selection throughout the generation process to maximize goal attainment, based on the current population of test suites. To test this hypothesis, we have implemented two reinforcement learning algorithms in the EvoSuite unit test generation framework, and used these algorithms to dynamically set the fitness functions used during generation for the three goals identified above. We have evaluated our framework, EvoSuiteFIT, on a set of Java case examples. EvoSuiteFIT techniques attain significant improvements for two of the three goals, and show limited improvements on the third when the number of generations of evolution is fixed. Additionally, for two of the three goals, EvoSuiteFIT detects faults missed by the other techniques. The ability to adjust fitness functions allows strategic choices that efficiently produce more effective test suites, and examining these choices offers insight into how to attain our testing goals. We find that adaptive fitness function selection is a powerful technique to apply when an effective fitness function does not already exist for achieving a testing goal.

Metaheuristics with Deep Learning-Enabled Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosis and Classification Model

Parkinson's disease (PD) affects the movement of people, including the differences in writing skill, speech, tremor, and stiffness in muscles. It is significant to detect the PD at the initial stages so that the person can live a peaceful life for a longer time period. The serious levels of PD are highly risky as the patients get progressive stiffness, which results in the inability of standing or walking. Earlier studies have focused on the detection of PD effectively using voice and speech exams and writing exams. In this aspect, this study presents an improved sailfish optimization algorithm with deep learning (ISFO-DL) model for PD diagnosis and classification. The presented ISFO-DL technique uses the ISFO algorithm and DL model to determine PD and thereby enhances the survival rate of the person. The presented ISFO is a metaheuristic algorithm, which is inspired by a group of hunting sailfish to determine the optimum solution to the problem. Primarily, the ISFO algorithm is applied to derive an optimal subset of features with a fitness function of maximum classification accuracy. At the same time, the rat swarm optimizer (RSO) with the bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU) is employed as a classifier to determine the existence of PD. The performance validation of the IFSO-DL model takes place using a benchmark Parkinson’s dataset, and the results are inspected under several dimensions. The experimental results highlighted the enhanced classification performance of the ISFO-DL technique, and therefore, the proposed model can be employed for the earlier identification of PD.

Fault diagnosis of rolling bearings based on improved direct fast iterative filtering and spectral amplitude modulation

As the transient impulse components in early fault signals are weak and easily buried by strong background noise, the fault features of rolling bearings are difficult to be extracted effectively. Focusing on this issue, a novel method based on improved direct fast iterative filtering and spectral amplitude modulation (IDFIF-SAM) is presented for detecting the early fault of rolling bearings. First, the ratio of the average crest factor of autocorrelation envelope spectrum to the average envelope entropy is taken as the fitness function to search the optimal parameters of direct fast iterative filtering (DFIF) adaptively via particle swarm optimization (PSO). Then, the efficient kurtosis entropy (EKE) index is being employed to choose the suitable components to reconstruct the signal. Finally, the reconstructed signal is subjected to spectral amplitude modulation (SAM) to strengthen the impulse features. The superiority of improved direct fast iterative filtering (IDFIF) over fixed-parameter DFIF, fast iterative filtering (FIF), and hard thresholding fast iterative filtering (HTFIF) is clarified through the simulated signal. Moreover, the comparative experimental analysis shows that the proposed IDFIF-SAM method can identify the early fault feature of rolling bearings more effectively.

A Robust Fractional-Order PID Controller Based Load Frequency Control Using Modified Hunger Games Search Optimizer

In this article, a recent modified meta-heuristic optimizer named the modified hunger games search optimizer (MHGS) is developed to determine the optimal parameters of a fractional-order proportional integral derivative (FOPID) based load frequency controller (LFC). As an interconnected system’s operation requires maintaining the tie-line power and frequency at their described values without permitting deviations in them, an enhanced optimizer is developed to identify the controllers’ parameters efficiently and rapidly. Therefore, the non-uniform mutation operator is proposed to strengthen the diversity of the solutions and discover the search landscape of the basic hunger games search optimizer (HGS), aiming to provide a reliable approach. The considered fitness function is the integral time absolute error (ITAE) comprising the deviations in tie-line power and frequencies. The analysis is implemented in two networks: the 1st network comprises a photovoltaic (PV) plant connected to the thermal plant, and the 2nd network has four connected plants, which are PV, wind turbine (WT), and 2 thermal units with generation rate constraints and governor dead-band. Two different load disturbances are imposed for two studied systems: static and dynamic. The results of the proposed approach of MHGS are compared with the marine predators algorithm (MPA), artificial ecosystem based optimization (AEO), equilibrium optimizer (EO), and Runge–Kutta based optimizer (RUN), as well as movable damped wave algorithm (DMV) results. Moreover, the performance specifications of the time responses of frequencies and tie-line powers’ violations comprising rise time, settling time, minimum/maximum setting values, overshoot, undershoot, and the peak level besides its duration are calculated. The proposed MHGS shows its reliability in providing the most efficient values for the FOPID controllers’ parameters that achieve the lowest fitness of 0.89726 in a rapid decaying. Moreover, the MHGS based system becomes stable the most quickly as it has the shortest settling time and is well constructed as it has the smallest peak, overshoots at early times, and then the system becomes steady. The results confirmed the competence of the proposed MHGS in designing efficient FOPID-LFC controllers that guarantee reliable operation in case of load disturbances.