A hybrid particle swarm optimization with local search for stochastic resource allocation problem

Discrete and stochastic resource allocation problems are difficult to solve because of the combinatorial explosion of feasible search space. Resource management is important area and a significant challenge is encountered when considering the relationship between uncertainty factors and inputs and outputs of processes in the service and manufacturing systems. These problems are unavailable in closed-form expressions for objective function. In this paper, we propose \(\hbox {PSO}_{\mathrm{OTL}}\), a new approach of the hybrid simulation optimization structure, to achieve a near optimal solution with few simulation replications. The basic search algorithm of particle swarm optimization (PSO) is applied for proper exploration and exploitation. Optimal computing budget allocation combined with PSO is used to reduce simulation replications and provide reliable evaluations and identifications for ranking particles of the PSO procedure. Two-sample t tests were used to reserve good particles and maintain the diversity of the swarm. Finally, trapping in local optimum in the design space was overcome by using the local search method to generate new diverse particles when a similar particle exists in the swarm. This study proposed intelligent manufacturing technology, called the \(\hbox {PSO}_{\mathrm{OTL}}\), and compared it with four algorithms. The results obtained demonstrate the superiority of \(\hbox {PSO}_{\mathrm{OTL}}\) in terms of search quality and computational cost reduction.     

Piezo-driven acoustic streaming in an electrowetting-on-dielectric digital microfluidics device

We report the integration of a lead zirconate titanate, \(\hbox {Pb[Zr}_{x}\hbox {Ti}_{1-x}\hbox {O}_{3}\)] (PZT), piezoelectric transducer disk into the top plate of an otherwise conventional electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWD) digital microfluidics device to demonstrate on-demand induction of circulating fluid flow within single 200 nL droplets. Microparticle image velocimetry was used to measure in-plane velocity distributions for PZT excitation voltages that ranged from 0 to 50 \(\hbox {V}_{\text {RMS}}\). Intra-droplet streaming velocities in excess of 2.0 \(\hbox {mm}\cdot \hbox {s}^{-1}\) were observed without droplet breakup or damage to the EWD device layer. Additionally, we found median intra-droplet streaming velocity to depend quadratically on PZT excitation voltage up to the stress limit of the interfacial boundary. Our approach offers an alternative device architecture for active micromixing strategies in EWD digital microfluidics laboratory-on-chip systems.     

A multi-agent based approach to dynamic scheduling with flexible processing capabilities

A multi-agent based system is proposed to simultaneous scheduling of flexible machine groups and material handling system working under a manufacturing dynamic environment. The proposed model is designed by means of \(\hbox {Prometheus}^{\mathrm{TM}}\) methodology and programmed in \(\hbox {JACK}^{\mathrm{TM}}\) agent based systems development environment. Each agent in the model is autonomous and has an ability to cooperate and negotiate with the other agents in the system. Due to these abilities of agents, the structure of the system is more suitable to handle dynamic events. The proposed dynamic scheduling system is tested on several test problems the literature and the results are quite satisfactory because it generates effective schedules for both dynamic cases in the real time and static problem sets. Although the model is designed as an online method and has a dynamic structure, obtained schedule performance parameters are very close to those obtained from offline optimization based algorithms.     

Cubature formulae for nearly singular and highly oscillating integrals

The paper deals with the approximation of integrals of the type

$$\begin{aligned} I(f;{\mathbf {t}})=\int _{{\mathrm {D}}} f({\mathbf {x}}) {\mathbf {K}}({\mathbf {x}},{\mathbf {t}}) {\mathbf {w}}({\mathbf {x}}) d{\mathbf {x}},\quad \quad {\mathbf {x}}=(x_1,x_2),\quad {\mathbf {t}}\in \mathrm {T}\subseteq \mathbb {R}^p, \ p\in \{1,2\} \end{aligned}$$

where \({\mathrm {D}}=[-\,1,1]^2\), f is a function defined on \({\mathrm {D}}\) with possible algebraic singularities on \(\partial {\mathrm {D}}\), \({\mathbf {w}}\) is the product of two Jacobi weight functions, and the kernel \({\mathbf {K}}\) can be of different kinds. We propose two cubature rules determining conditions under which the rules are stable and convergent. Along the paper we diffusely treat the numerical approximation for kernels which can be nearly singular and/or highly oscillating, by using a bivariate dilation technique. Some numerical examples which confirm the theoretical estimates are also proposed.

     

Symmetric triangular approximations of fuzzy numbers under a general condition and properties

We consider the set \(\mathcal {P}\) of real parameters associated to a fuzzy number, in a general form which includes the most important characteristics already introduced for fuzzy numbers. We find the set \(\mathcal {P}_{\mathrm{s}}\subset \mathcal {P}\) with the property that for any given fuzzy number there exists at least a symmetric triangular fuzzy number which preserves a fixed parameter \(p\in \mathcal {P}\). We compute the symmetric triangular approximation of a fuzzy number which preserves the parameter \(p\in \mathcal {P }_{\mathrm{s}}\). The uniqueness is an immediate consequence; therefore, an approximation operator is obtained. The properties of scale and translation invariance, additivity and continuity of this operator are studied. Some applications related with value and expected value, as important parameters, are given too.     

Entanglement witness criteria of strong-<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-separability for multipartite quantum states

Let \(H_{1}, H_{2},\ldots ,H_{n}\) be separable complex Hilbert spaces with \(\dim H_{i}\ge 2\) and \(n\ge 2\). Assume that \(\rho \) is a state in \(H=H_1\otimes H_2\otimes \cdots \otimes H_n\). \(\rho \) is called strong-k-separable \((2\le k\le n)\) if \(\rho \) is separable for any k-partite division of H. In this paper, an entanglement witnesses criterion of strong-k-separability is obtained, which says that \(\rho \) is not strong-k-separable if and only if there exist a k-division space \(H_{m_{1}}\otimes \cdots \otimes H_{m_{k}}\) of H, a finite-rank linear elementary operator positive on product states \(\Lambda :\mathcal {B}(H_{m_{2}}\otimes \cdots \otimes H_{m_{k}})\rightarrow \mathcal {B}(H_{m_{1}})\) and a state \(\rho _{0}\in \mathcal {S}(H_{m_{1}}\otimes H_{m_{1}})\), such that \(\mathrm {Tr}(W\rho )<0\), where \(W=(\mathrm{Id}\otimes \Lambda ^{\dagger })\rho _{0}\) is an entanglement witness. In addition, several different methods of constructing entanglement witnesses for multipartite states are also given.     

Generic construction of an $$\mathrm {}$$-secure key exchange protocol in the standard model

LaMacchia, Lauter and Mityagin presented a strong security model for authenticated key agreement, namely the \(\mathrm {eCK}\) model. They also constructed a protocol, namely the NAXOS protocol, that enjoys a simple security proof in the \(\mathrm {eCK}\) model. However, the NAXOS protocol uses a random oracle-based technique to combine the long-term secret key and the per session randomness, so-called NAXOS trick, in order to achieve the \(\mathrm {eCK}\) security definition. For NAXOS trick-based protocols, the leakage of per session randomness modeled in the \(\mathrm {eCK}\) model is somewhat unnatural, because the \(\mathrm {eCK}\) model leaks per session randomness, while the output of the NAXOS trick computation remains safe. In this work, we present a standard model \(\mathrm {eCK}\)-secure protocol construction, eliminating the NAXOS trick. Moreover, our protocol is a generic construction, which can be instantiated with arbitrary suitable cryptographic primitives. Thus, we present a generic \(\mathrm {eCK}\)-secure, NAXOS-free, standard model key exchange protocol. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper on generic transformation of a \(\mathrm {CCA2}\)-secure public-key encryption scheme to an \(\mathrm {eCK}\)-secure key exchange protocol in the standard model.     

A Neumann series of Bessel functions representation for solutions of Sturm–Liouville equations

A Neumann series of Bessel functions (NSBF) representation for solutions of Sturm–Liouville equations and for their derivatives is obtained. The representation possesses an attractive feature for applications: for all real values of the spectral parameter \(\omega \) the estimate of the difference between the exact solution and the approximate one (the truncated NSBF) depends on N (the truncation parameter) and the coefficients of the equation and does not depend on \(\omega \). A similar result is valid when \(\omega \in {\mathbb {C}}\) belongs to a strip \(\left| \hbox {Im }\omega \right| <C\). This feature makes the NSBF representation especially useful for applications requiring computation of solutions for large intervals of \(\omega \). Error and decay rate estimates are obtained. An algorithm for solving initial value, boundary value or spectral problems for the Sturm–Liouville equation is developed and illustrated on a test problem.     

The complexity of online voter control in sequential elections

Previous work on voter control, which refers to situations where a chair seeks to change the outcome of an election by deleting, adding, or partitioning voters, takes for granted that the chair knows all the voters’ preferences and that all votes are cast simultaneously. However, elections are often held sequentially and the chair thus knows only the previously cast votes and not the future ones, yet needs to decide instantaneously which control action to take. We introduce a framework that models online voter control in sequential elections. We show that the related problems can be much harder than in the standard (non-online) case: For certain election systems, even with efficient winner problems, online control by deleting, adding, or partitioning voters is \(\mathrm {PSPACE}\)-complete, even if there are only two candidates. In addition, we obtain (by a new characterization of coNP in terms of weight-bounded alternating Turing machines) completeness for \({\mathrm {coNP}}\) in the deleting/adding cases with a bounded deletion/addition limit, and we obtain completeness for \({\mathrm {NP}}\) in the partition cases with an additional restriction. We also show that for plurality, online control by deleting or adding voters is in \({\mathrm {P}}\), and for partitioning voters is \({\mathrm {coNP}}\)-hard.     

Spatial-spectral-combined sparse representation-based classification for hyperspectral imagery

Recently, sparse representation-based classification (SRC), which assigns a test sample to the class with minimum representation error via a sparse linear combination of all the training samples, has successfully been applied to hyperspectral imagery. Alternatively, spatial information, which means the adjacent pixels belong to the same class with a high probability, is a valuable complement to the spectral information. In this paper, we have presented a new spectral-spatial-combined SRC method, abbreviated as SSSRC or \(\mathrm{S}^{3}\mathrm{RC}\), to jointly consider the spectral and spatial neighborhood information of each pixel to explore the spectral and spatial coherence by the SRC method. Furthermore, a fast interference-cancelation operation is adopted to accelerate the classification procedure of \(\mathrm{S}^{3}\mathrm{RC}\), named \(\mathrm{FS}^{3}\mathrm{RC}\). Experimental results have shown that both the proposed SRC-based approaches, \(\mathrm{S}^{3}\mathrm{RC}\) and \(\mathrm{FS}^{3}\mathrm{RC}\), could achieve better performance than the other state-of-the-art methods.     

The Outer-connected Domination Number of Sierpiński-like Graphs

An outer-connected dominating set in a graph G = (V, E) is a set of vertices D ? V satisfying the condition that, for each vertex v ? D, vertex v is adjacent to some vertex in D and the subgraph induced by V?D is connected. The outer-connected dominating set problem is to find an outer-connected dominating set with the minimum number of vertices which is denoted by \(\tilde {\gamma }_{c}(G)\). In this paper, we determine \(\tilde {\gamma }_{c}(S(n,k))\), \(\tilde {\gamma }_{c}(S^{+}(n,k))\), \(\tilde {\gamma }_{c}(S^{++}(n,k))\), and \(\tilde {\gamma }_{c}(S_{n})\), where S(n, k), S ⁺(n, k), S ⁺⁺(n, k), and S _n are Sierpi\(\acute {\mathrm {n}}\)ski-like graphs.     

Another Sub-exponential Algorithm for the Simple Stochastic Game

We study the problem of solving simple stochastic games, and give both an interesting new algorithm and a hardness result. We show a reduction from fine approximation of simple stochastic games to coarse approximation of a polynomial sized game, which can be viewed as an evidence showing the hardness to approximate the value of simple stochastic games. We also present a randomized algorithm that runs in \(\tilde{O}(\sqrt{|V_{\mathrm{R}}|!})\) time, where |V _R| is the number of RANDOM vertices and \(\tilde{O}\) ignores polynomial terms. This algorithm is the fastest known algorithm when |V _R|=ω(log?n) and \(|V_{\mathrm{R}}|=o(\sqrt{\min{|V_{\min}|,|V_{\max}|}})\) and it works for general (non-stopping) simple stochastic games.     

Endogenous Economic Growth,Climate Change and Societal Values: A Conceptual Model

In this paper, I propose an evolutionary model that is an alternative to conventional models of growth and the environment. Global economic growth, the evolution of the human population, \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\) emissions, and the state of the environment are endogenous. Societal values are the main driver of all economic variables. They determine the different types of investment, the level of aggregate consumption and employment. Societal values evolve over time in response to economic and environmental conditions. The model is applied to generate possible scenarios for the twenty-first century. A baseline calibration generates an average global GDP growth rate of 3.6% p.a. and a global population level of 11.2 billion people in 2100. Mean global temperate in 2100 will be \(1.77\,{^{\circ }}\hbox {C}\) higher than in 1995. These results are probably too optimistic. Sensitivity analyses show how these outcomes depend on various parameters. If values respond to environmental conditions only, global warming would reach \(2.5\,{^{\circ }}\hbox {C}\) and a lower impact of investment in carbon efficiency could lead to average temperature increase by \(4.8\,{^{\circ }}\hbox {C}\). The model is a novel conceptual framework that can be extended in many dimensions.     

On-board communication-based relative localization for collision avoidance in Micro Air Vehicle teams

To avoid collisions, Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) flying in teams require estimates of their relative locations, preferably with minimal mass and processing burden. We present a relative localization method where MAVs need only to communicate with each other using their wireless transceiver. The MAVs exchange on-board states (velocity, height, orientation) while the signal strength indicates range. Fusing these quantities provides a relative location estimate. We used this for collision avoidance in tight areas, testing with up to three AR.Drones in a \(4\,\mathrm{m}~\mathbf {\times }~4\,\mathrm{m}\) area and with two miniature drones (\(\approx 50\,\mathrm{g}\)) in a \(2~\mathrm{m}~\mathbf {\times }~2~\mathrm{m}\) area. The MAVs could localize each other and fly several minutes without collisions. In our implementation, MAVs communicated using Bluetooth antennas. The results were robust to the high noise and disturbances in signal strength. They could improve further by using transceivers with more accurate signal strength readings.     

Two generalized Wigner–Yanase skew information and their uncertainty relations

In this paper, we first define two generalized Wigner–Yanase skew information \(|K_{\rho ,\alpha }|(A)\) and \(|L_{\rho ,\alpha }|(A)\) for any non-Hermitian Hilbert–Schmidt operator A and a density operator \(\rho \) on a Hilbert space H and discuss some properties of them, respectively. We also introduce two related quantities \(|S_{\rho ,\alpha }|(A)\) and \(|T_{\rho ,\alpha }|(A)\). Then, we establish two uncertainty relations in terms of \(|W_{\rho ,\alpha }|(A)\) and \(|\widetilde{W}_{\rho ,\alpha }|(A)\), which read

$$\begin{aligned}&|W_{\rho ,\alpha }|(A)|W_{\rho ,\alpha }|(B)\ge \frac{1}{4}\left| \mathrm {tr}\left( \left[ \frac{\rho ^{\alpha }+\rho ^{1-\alpha }}{2} \right] ^{2}[A,B]^{0}\right) \right| ^{2},\\&\sqrt{|\widetilde{W}_{\rho ,\alpha }|(A)| \widetilde{W}_{\rho ,\alpha }|(B)}\ge \frac{1}{4} \left| \mathrm {tr}\left( \rho ^{2\alpha }[A,B]^{0}\right) \mathrm {tr} \left( \rho ^{2(1-\alpha )}[A,B]^{0}\right) \right| . \end{aligned}$$

     

A Framework for Certified Boolean Branch-and-Bound Optimization

We consider optimization problems of the form (S, cost), where S is a clause set over Boolean variables x ₁?...?x _n , with an arbitrary cost function \(\mathit{cost}\colon \mathbb{B}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\), and the aim is to find a model A of S such that cost(A) is minimized. Here we study the generation of proofs of optimality in the context of branch-and-bound procedures for such problems. For this purpose we introduce \(\mathtt{DPLL_{BB}}\), an abstract DPLL-based branch-and-bound algorithm that can model optimization concepts such as cost-based propagation and cost-based backjumping. Most, if not all, SAT-related optimization problems are in the scope of \(\mathtt{DPLL_{BB}}\). Since many of the existing approaches for solving these problems can be seen as instances, \(\mathtt{DPLL_{BB}}\) allows one to formally reason about them in a simple way and exploit the enhancements of \(\mathtt{DPLL_{BB}}\) given here, in particular its uniform method for generating independently verifiable optimality proofs.     

A Linearized Local Conservative Mixed Finite Element Method for Poisson–Nernst–Planck Equations

In this paper, a linearized local conservative mixed finite element method is proposed and analyzed for Poisson–Nernst–Planck (PNP) equations, where the mass fluxes and the potential flux are introduced as new vector-valued variables to equations of ionic concentrations (Nernst–Planck equations) and equation of the electrostatic potential (Poisson equation), respectively. These flux variables are crucial to PNP equations on determining the Debye layer and computing the electric current in an accurate fashion. The Raviart–Thomas mixed finite element is employed for the spatial discretization, while the backward Euler scheme with linearization is adopted for the temporal discretization and decoupling nonlinear terms, thus three linear equations are separately solved at each time step. The proposed method is more efficient in practice, and locally preserves the mass conservation. By deriving the boundedness of numerical solutions in certain strong norms, an unconditionally optimal error analysis is obtained for all six unknowns: the concentrations p and n, the mass fluxes \({{\varvec{J}}}_p=\nabla p + p {\varvec{\sigma }}\) and \({{\varvec{J}}}_n=\nabla n - n {\varvec{\sigma }}\), the potential \(\psi \) and the potential flux \({\varvec{\sigma }}= \nabla \psi \) in \(L^{\infty }(L^2)\) norm. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the efficiency and to validate the convergence theorem of the proposed method.     

Fast LH$$*$$

Linear Hashing is an efficient and widely used version of extendible hashing. LH\(*\) is its distributed version that stores key-value pairs on up to hundreds of thousands of sites in a distributed system. LH\(*\) implements the dictionary data structure efficiently by not using a central component and allows the key-based operations of insertion, deletion, actualization, and retrieval as well as the scan operation. Because it does not use a central addressing component, clients or servers in LH\(*\) can commit an addressing error by sending a request to a wrong server. This server then forwards the message to the correct server either directly or in one but never more than one additional forward operation. We discuss here methods to avoid this double forward, which, while rare, still might breach quality of service guarantees. We compare our methods with \(\mathrm{LH}*_{\mathrm{RS}^{\mathrm{\tiny P2P}}}\) that pushes information about changes in the file structure to clients, whether they are active or not. A second problem especially relevant in high churn environments such as modern data centers is that sites can suddenly become inaccessible. The various high and scalable reliability versions of LH\(*\) then reconstruct the data lost on this site elsewhere. We present a solution to the resulting “wandering bucket” problem that allows clients to find the data at their new location.     

From LTL to deterministic automata

We present a new algorithm to construct a (generalized) deterministic Rabin automaton for an LTL formula \(\varphi \). The automaton is the product of a co-Büchi automaton for \(\varphi \) and an array of Rabin automata, one for each \({\mathbf {G}}\)-subformula of \(\varphi \). The Rabin automaton for \({\mathbf {G}}\psi \) is in charge of recognizing whether \({\mathbf {F}}{\mathbf {G}}\psi \) holds. This information is passed to the co-Büchi automaton that decides on acceptance. As opposed to standard procedures based on Safra’s determinization, the states of all our automata have a clear logical structure, which allows for various optimizations. Experimental results show improvement in the sizes of the resulting automata compared to existing methods.