Vaccination Schedule under Conditions of Limited Vaccine Production Rate

The paper is devoted to optimal vaccination scheduling during a pandemic to minimize the probability of infection. The recent COVID-19 pandemic showed that the international community is not properly prepared to manage a crisis of this scale. Just after the vaccines had been approved by medical agencies, the policymakers needed to decide on the distribution strategy. To successfully fight the pandemic, the key is to find the equilibrium between the vaccine distribution schedule and the available supplies caused by limited production capacity. This is why society needs to be divided into stratified groups whose access to vaccines is prioritized. Herein, we present the problem of distributing protective actions (i.e., vaccines) and formulate two mixed-integer programs to solve it. The problem of distributing protective actions (PDPA) aims at finding an optimal schedule for a given set of social groups with a constant probability of infection. The problem of distributing protective actions with a herd immunity threshold (PDPAHIT) also includes a variable probability of infection, i.e., the situation when herd immunity is obtained. The results of computational experiments are reported and the potential of the models is illustrated with examples.

Dynamic Scheduling of Contextually Categorised Internet of Things Services in Fog Computing Environment

Fog computing emerged as a concept that responds to the requirements of upcoming solutions requiring optimizations primarily in the context of the following QoS parameters: latency, throughput, reliability, security, and network traffic reduction. The rapid development of local computing devices and container-based virtualization enabled the application of fog computing within the IoT environment. However, it is necessary to utilize algorithm-based service scheduling that considers the targeted QoS parameters to optimize the service performance and reach the potential of the fog computing concept. In this paper, we first describe our categorization of IoT services that affects the execution of our scheduling algorithm. Secondly, we propose our scheduling algorithm that considers the context of processing devices, user context, and service context to determine the optimal schedule for the execution of service components across the distributed fog-to-cloud environment. The conducted simulations confirmed the performance of the proposed algorithm and showcased its major contribution—dynamic scheduling, i.e., the responsiveness to the volatile QoS parameters due to changeable network conditions. Thus, we successfully demonstrated that our dynamic scheduling algorithm enhances the efficiency of service performance based on the targeted QoS criteria of the specific service scenario.

On the Use of Deep Neural Networks to Improve Flights Estimated Time of Arrival Predictions

Predictable operations are the basis of efficient air traffic management. In this context, accurately estimating the arrival time to the destination airport is fundamental to make tactical decisions about an optimal schedule of landing and take-off operations. In this paper, we evaluate different deep learning models based on LSTM architectures for predicting estimated time of arrival of commercial flights, mainly using surveillance data from OpenSky Network. We observed that the number of previous states of the flight used to make the prediction have great influence on the accuracy of the estimation, independently of the architecture. The best model, with an input sequence length of 50, has reported a MAE of 3.33 min and a RMSE of 5.42 min on the test set, with MAE values of 5.67 and 2.13 min 90 and 15 min before the end of the flight, respectively.

Study on Construction Resource Optimization and Uncertain Risk of Urban Sewage Pipe Network

With considering sewage pipe network upgrading projects in the “villages” in cities, the optimization of construction resources and the assessment of delay risks could be achieved. Based on the schedule-cost hypothetical theory, the mathematical model with constraint indicators was established to obtain the expression of optimal resource input, and conclude the method to analyze the schedule uncertainties. The analysis showed that cyclical footage of pipe could be regarded as a relatively fixed value, and the cost can be regarded as a function that depending on the number of working teams. The optimal number of teams and the optimal schedule occurred when the minimum total cost achieved. In the case of insufficient meteorological data, the Monte Carlo simulation method and uncertainty analysis method can be applied to assess the impact of rainfall on the total construction period, correspondingly the probability of such risk could be derived. The calculation showed that the risk of overdue completion varied significantly according to the construction starting time. It was necessary to take rainfall risk into consideration and make corresponding strategies and measures.

Hybrid RSO Algorithm with SFLA for Scientific Workflow Scheduling in Cloud Using Clustering Techniques

An inevitable part of the cloud computing environment is virtualization, as it can multiplex or combine many virtual machines in a single physical machine, and simultaneously an isolated environment is provided to every virtual machine. An important issue in cloud computing is workflow scheduling, which maps tasks of workflow to VMs based on various functional and non-functional requisites. Workflow scheduling is an NP-hard optimization problem and it is quite hard to achieve an optimal schedule. Metaheuristic algorithms helped in solving the problem of cloud task scheduling and this was compared to other heuristics. Reactive Search (RSO) and its structure will consist of a local heuristic based on a certain neighborhood complemented by making use of a memory-based mechanism. The Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA) is based on swarm evolution that imitates information exchange divided into memeplexes when searching for food. This paper proposes a new set of optimization heuristics along with hybrid optimizations (RSO - SFLA) to solve problems in combinatorial optimization.

A Priority List-Based Binary Crow Search Algorithm for Unit Commitment Problem

Abstract-This paper proposes a novel hybrid technique that combines the priority list (PL) with the binary crow search algorithm (BCSA) for solving the unit commitment problem (UCP). Firstly, the PL method aims to sort the generating units in ascending order according to their average full load costs which are the total costs that are computed at the maximum generation outputs. Secondly, the BCSA is developed and employed to search for the optimal schedule of the generating units to face the next hourly demand with minimum total operating costs that are related to the optimal power generation schedule at certain loading level. BCSA is a new meta-heuristic optimizer, which is featured of the crow's intelligence. It has only two adjustable parameters that make its implementation very simple and easy compared to other optimization techniques. Its effectiveness and feasibility were confirmed by 4, 10, and 26-unit systems and the results are compared with those obtained by GA, PSO, APSO, and BDE. The simulation results demonstrate the capability of the proposed PLBCSA in solving the UC problem with good convergence rate compared with the previous methods in the literature. Around of 2-4% reduction in the total costs is achieved using the proposed PLBCSA for the 26-unit test system compared with GA, PSO and the implemented PL-BPSO solutions.

Integration of Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Program and Project Management Tool to Support Sustainable Cost-Optimal Construction Scheduling

This paper presents the integration of mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP) and project management tool (PMT) to support sustainable cost-optimal construction scheduling. An integrated structure of a high-level system for exact optimization and PMT was created. To ensure data compatibility between the optimization system and PMT and to automate the process of obtaining a cost-optimal schedule, a data transformation tool (DTT) was developed within a spreadsheet application. The suggested system can determine: (i) an optimal project schedule with associated network diagram and Gantt chart in continuous or discrete time units; (ii) optimal critical and non-critical activities, including their early start, late start, early finish, late finish along with total and free slack times; and (iii) minimum total project cost along with the allocation of direct and indirect costs. The system provides functionalities such as: (i) MINLP can be updated, and schedules can be re-optimized; (ii) the optimal schedule can be saved as a baseline to track changes; (iii) different optimization algorithms can be engaged whereby switching between them does not require model changes; (iv) PMT can be used to track task completion in the optimized schedule; (v) calendar settings can be changed; and (vi) visual reports can be generated to support efficient project management. Results of cost-optimal project scheduling are given in a conventional PMT environment, which raises the possibility that the proposed system will be more widely used in practice. Integration of MINLP and PMT allows each software to be used for what it was initially designed. Their combination leads to additional information and features of optimized construction schedules that would be significantly more difficult to achieve if used separately. Application examples are given in the paper to show the advantages of the proposed approach.

Energy Management Scheduling for Microgrids in the Virtual Power Plant System using Artificial Neural Networks

This study uses an artificial neural network (ANN) as an intelligent controller for the management and scheduling of a number of microgrids (MGs) in virtual power plants (VPP). Two ANN-based scheduling control approaches are presented: the ANN-based backtracking search algorithm (ANN-BBSA) and ANN-based binary practical swarm optimization (ANN-BPSO) algorithm. Both algorithms provide the optimal schedule for every distribution generation (DG) to limit fuel consumption, reduce CO2 emission, and increase the system efficiency towards smart and economic VPP operation as well as grid decarbonization. Different test scenarios are executed to evaluate the controllers’ robustness and performance under changing system conditions. The test cases are different load curves to evaluate the ANN’s performance on untrained data. The untrained and trained load models used are real-load parameter data recorders in northern parts of Malaysia. The test results are analyzed to investigate the performance of these controllers under varying power system conditions. Additionally, a comparative study is performed to compare their performances with other solutions available in the literature based on several parameters. Results show the superiority of the ANN-based controllers in terms of cost reduction and efficiency.

A Multithreading Based Enhanced Process Scheduling Technique for Heterogeneous Distributed Environment

Multithreading is ability of a central processing unit (CPU) or a single core within a multi-core processor to execute multiple processes or threads concurrently, appropriately supported by operating system. This approach differs from multiprocessing, as with multithreading processes & threads have to share resources of a single or multiple cores: computing units, CPU caches, & translation lookaside buffer (TLB). Multiprocessing systems include multiple complete processing units, multithreading aims to increase utilization of a single core by using thread-level as well as instruction-level parallelism. Objective of research is increase efficiency of scheduling dependent task using enhanced multithreading. gang scheduling of parallel implicit-deadline periodic task systems upon identical multiprocessor platforms is considered. In this scheduling problem, parallel tasks use several processors simultaneously. first algorithm is based on linear programming & is first one to be proved optimal for considered gang scheduling problem. Furthermore, it runs in polynomial time for a fixed number m of processors & an efficient implementation is fully detailed. Second algorithm is an approximation algorithm based on a fixed-priority rule that is competitive under resource augmentation analysis in order to compute an optimal schedule pattern. Precisely, its speedup factor is bounded by (2?1/m). Both algorithms are also evaluated through intensive numerical experiments. In our research we have enhanced capability of Gang Scheduling by integration of multi core processor & Cache & make simulation of performance in MATLAB.