Adaptive Discretization for Computerized Tomography

Two adaptive discretization frameworks are tested for computerized tomography (CT) data reconstruction. Removal of inactive pixels is primary motivation. Efficient and user independent entropy optimized masking is employed for spatial filtering purposes. Density of nodes at high gradient of reconstructed physical property is used as adaptation criterion. An alternative option, independent from noisy projection data and nature of the physical properties, is also discussed. Sensitivity analysis between the uniform and nonuniform (evolved via adaptive route) reconstruction grid reveals the utility of nonuniform grids. Iterative and transform based reconstruction techniques are used. Outcomes are tested successfully on three real world projection data from two different compact CT setups and one commercial high-resolution micro-CT scanner.     

Mathematical formulation and heuristic algorithms for optimisation of auto-part milk-run logistics network considering forward and reverse flow of pallets

The operational planning of distribution network for automotive industry is complex with many conditions to consider, including heterogeneous fleet, enforcing the feasibility of 3D-packing of pallets into vehicles to address the vehicle's capacity in terms of weight and volume, compatibility of orders in a vehicle, returning empty pallets from assembly-plants backwards to suppliers, and delivery time windows. A mathematical model (MILP) is proposed that takes account of these conditions to minimise total transportation costs. The network structure can be a combination of direct shipment and milk-run for both forward and reverse flow of pallets. The model is solved optimally for small-size problems. For solving larger problems, a heuristic algorithm (in two versions) is proposed that uses a similarity measure to generate a reasonable list of orders. Best/first-fit strategies are employed to generate a feasible solution with the aid of a relaxed version of the proposed MILP. Improvement heuristics are also designed. Unlike most of existing constructive heuristics, our aim for developing the heuristic approach is to force routing decision, with all of its considerations, being made optimal. We also use the proposed best-fit strategy in the body of grouping evolution strategy (GES) algorithm to attain an effective meta-heuristic approach. The effectiveness of heuristics is tested on generated instances which demonstrates they are optimal for small-size problems. They are also tested on the data of daily auto-parts shipments gathered from the largest Iranian automobile company. Results demonstrate there exists a significant potential for cost saving through milk-run strategy compared with the direct shipping strategy.     

融合环境因素的有限空间毒气扩散危害程度分析

为探究环境因素对毒气扩散危害程度的影响,通过对比有限空间内外环境差异,了解气体在有限空间内受力情况,并以传统高斯烟羽模型为基础,考虑扩散气体与有限空间边界碰撞产生的反射作用,建立了适用于有限空间气体扩散的改进高斯烟羽模型。深度剖析有限空间气体扩散环境,挖掘气体扩散主要关联因子,构建风速、地表粗糙度对有限空间气体扩散的影响函数;参照有限空间环境特征,分别设置3种不同风速与2种不同地表粗糙度,推求6种不同环境条件下气体扩散面积,阐明风速与地表粗糙度对有限空间气体扩散的影响程度。结果表明:在单一风速条件下,风速越高,地表粗糙度越低,洞室内H2S气体滞留时间越短,洞室内气体的扩散面积越小;风速越低,地表粗糙度越高,洞室内气体的扩散面积越大。     

Sustainable optimization of waste management network over extended planning time horizon

This study proposes a multiperiod mixed integer linear programming model for the management of a single municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment plant with sustainability as the objective. Discrete and continuous variables define the capacity selections for diverse MSW technologies, and the operation of the MSW network, respectively. The economic target is considered to maximize the net present value. The environmental impact is the minimization of a normalized environmental objective function (NEOF). The social target is the maximization of jobs. An interesting feature about the research work is the requirement of biodrying technologies for MSW moisture content control. Due to the conflicted nature among the sustainability components, a multiobjective optimization (MO) is carried out to find the Pareto optimal solutions. The MO results show that the Pareto optimal solutions vary around profit range of $4.9–8.5 billion, NEOF impact range of 3.2–3.6 units, and social benefit range of 2700–4828 jobs.     

基于虚拟格网的建筑物点云轮廓线自动提取

在分析现有轮廓线提取方法不足的基础上，提出基于虚拟格网的建筑物轮廓线自动提取方法。该方法利用建筑物点云生成虚拟格网并进行二值填充；采用邻域分析方法进行边界格网的标记与追踪；为了避免边界追踪错误，设计了基于方向的单边缘格网抑制方法及基于距离的连接关系调整方法以改善提取结果质量；根据格网追踪结果，从原始建筑物点云中提取真实轮廓点以保持原始建筑物轮廓形态；采用随机抽样一致性估计及最小二乘拟合方法进行轮廓线规则化处理，实现建筑物轮廓线的自动提取。实验结果表明，该方法能快速从建筑物点云中提取轮廓线，可为建筑物轮廓线的自动提取提供一种可行的解决方案。     

Determining robust reaction kinetics from limited data

Accurate chemical kinetics are essential for reactor design and operation. However, despite recent advances in “big data” approaches, availability of kinetic data is often limited in industrial practice. Herein, we present a comparative proof-of-concept study for kinetic parameter estimation from limited data. Cross-validation (CV) is implemented to nonlinear least-squares (LS) fitting and evaluated against Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and genetic algorithm (GA) routines using synthetic data generated from a simple model reaction. As expected, conventional LS is fastest but least accurate in predicting true kinetics. MCMC and GA are effective for larger data sets but tend to overfit to noise for limited data. LS-CV strongly outperforms these methods at much reduced computational cost, especially for significant noise. Our findings suggest that implementation of CV with conventional regression provides an efficient approach to kinetic parameter estimation with high accuracy, robustness against noise, and only minimal increase in complexity.     

An improved particle swarm optimisation for unit commitment in microgrids with battery energy storage systems considering battery degradation and uncertainties

Using electric storage systems (ESSs) is known as a viable strategy to mitigate the volatility and intermittency of renewable distributed generators (DGs) in microgrids (MGs). Among different electric storage technologies, battery energy storage (BES) is considered as the best option. In unit commitment (UC) module, the set of committed dispatchable DGs along with their power, power exported to/imported from macrogrid and status and power of ESS units are determined. In this paper, BES degradation is considered in UC formulation and an efficient particle swarm optimisation with quadratic transfer function is proposed for solving UC in BES‐integrated MGs, while the uncertainties of demand, renewable generation and market price are considered and dealt with robust optimisation. UC is formulated as a multi‐objective optimisation problem whose objectives are MG operation cost and BES degradation. The resultant multi‐objective optimisation problem is converted into a single‐objective optimisation problem and the effect of weight factors on MG operation cost and BES lifecycle are investigated. The results show that by consideration of BES degradation in objective function, BES lifecycle increases from 350 to 500 and the minimum depth of charge increases from 5.5% to 34%; however, MG operation cost increases from $8717 to $8910.2. The results also show that by consideration of uncertainties, MG's operation cost increases by 8.22%.     

结合深度学习与相关反馈的遥感图像检索

目的 针对基于内容的图像检索存在低层视觉特征与用户对图像理解的高层语义不一致、图像检索的精度较低以及传统的分类方法准确度低等问题，提出一种基于卷积神经网络和相关反馈支持向量机的遥感图像检索方法。方法 通过对比度受限直方图均衡化算法对遥感图像进行预处理，限制遥感图像噪声的放大，采用自学习能力良好的卷积神经网络对遥感图像进行多层神经网络的监督学习提取丰富的图像特征，并将支持向量机作为基分类器，根据测试样本数据到分类超平面的距离进行排序得到检索结果，最后采用相关反馈策略对检索结果进行重新调整。结果 在UC Merced Land-Use遥感图像数据集上进行图像检索实验，在mAP（mean average precision）精度指标上，当检索返回图像数为100时，本文方法比LSH（locality sensitive Hashing）方法提高了29.4%，比DSH（density sensitive Hashing）方法提高了37.2%，比EMR（efficient manifold ranking）方法提高了68.8%，比未添加反馈和训练集筛选的SVM（support vector machine）方法提高了3.5%，对于平均检索速度，本文方法比对比方法中mAP精度最高的方法提高了4倍，针对复杂的遥感图像数据，本文方法的检索效果较其他方法表现出色。结论 本文提出了一种以距离评价标准为核心的反馈策略，以提高检索精度，并采用多距离结合的Top-k排序方法合理筛选训练集，以提高检索速度，本文方法可以广泛应用于人脸识别和目标跟踪等领域，对提升检索性能具有重要意义。     

Probabilistic tree-based representation for solving minimum cost integer flow problems with nonlinear non-convex cost functions

The minimum cost flow problem (MCFP) is the most generic variation of the network flow problem which aims to transfer a commodity throughout the network to satisfy demands. The problem size (in terms of the number of nodes and arcs) and the shape of the cost function are the most critical factors when considering MCFPs. Existing mathematical programming techniques often assume the cost functions to be linear or convex. Unfortunately, the linearity and convexity assumptions are too restrictive for modelling many real-world scenarios. In addition, many real-world MCFPs are large-scale, with networks having a large number of nodes and arcs. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic tree-based genetic algorithm (PTbGA) for solving large-scale minimum cost integer flow problems with nonlinear non-convex cost functions. We first compare this probabilistic tree-based representation scheme with the priority-based representation scheme, which is the most commonly-used representation for solving MCFPs. We then compare the performance of PTbGA with that of the priority-based genetic algorithm (PrGA), and two state-of-the-art mathematical solvers on a set of MCFP instances. Our experimental results demonstrate the superiority and efficiency of PTbGA in dealing with large-sized MCFPs, as compared to the PrGA method and the mathematical solvers.     

Enhancing stability region of time‐delayed smart power grids by non‐integer controllers

In this study, the impacts of non‐integer order controller on the stable parameter space of the microgrid (MG) frequency control system with fixed communication time delay are investigated and discussed with the help of the stability boundary locus (SBL) method. This study proposes a non‐integer order controller for the load frequency control (LFC) of the MG systems. To that end, the load frequency model of the MG is formulated and then the characteristic equations of this model are obtained. Then, with the help of this characteristic equation, the stable parameter space of the non‐integer controller is determined with regard to different time delay (τ ) and fractional integral order values (α ) using the SBL method. In order to show the accuracy of the obtained stable parameter space, time domain and generalized modified Mikhailov (GMM) criterion studies are carried out for different values of (τ ) and (α ). According to the results obtained, the areas of stable parameter space according to different α values and τ = 1.6 are calculated as 444.8860 for α = 0.4 , 342.9728 for α = 0.7 , 259.3578 for α = 1 , 216.2541 for α = 1.3 and 159.6826 for α = 1.6 . In addition, the areas of stable parameter space according to different τ values and α = 1.4 are calculated as 784.5222 for τ = 1 , 106.3219 for τ = 2 , 29.6959 for τ = 3 and 11.5946 for τ = 4 . Despite the extreme variability arising from nature of resources that make up the MG, the designed non integer order controller with the values selected within the stable parameter space stably carries out LFC control of the MG.