Identifying epidemic spreading dynamics of COVID-19 by pseudocoevolutionary simulated annealing optimizers

Neural Computing and Applications - At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic has triggered global public health concern. Here, a model integrating the daily intercity migration...     

A note on octonionic support vector regression

This note presents an analysis of the octonionic form of the division algebraic support vector regressor (SVR) first introduced by Shilton A detailed derivation of the dual form is given, and three conditions under which it is analogous to the quaternionic case are exhibited. It is shown that, in the general case of an octonionic-valued feature map, the usual "kernel trick" breaks down. The cause of this (and its interpretation) is discussed in some detail, along with potential ways of extending kernel methods to take advantage of the distinct features present in the general case. Finally, the octonionic SVR is applied to an example gait analysis problem, and its performance is compared to that of the least squares SVR, the Clifford SVR, and the multidimensional SVR.     

A scalable multi-attribute hybrid overlay for range queries on the cloud

Cloud computing has become a promising paradigm as next generation computing model, by providing computation, software, data access, and storage services that do not need to know the location of physical resources interconnected across the globe providing such services. In such an environment, important issues as information sharing and resource/service discovery arise. In order to overcome critical limitations in centralized approaches for information sharing and resource/service discovery, this paper proposes a framework of a scalable multi-attribute hybrid overlay featured with decentralized information sharing, flexible resource/service discovery, fault tolerance and load balancing. Additionally, the proposed hybrid overlay integrates a structured P2P system with an unstructured one to support complex queries. Mechanisms such as load balancing and fault tolerance implemented in our proposed system to improve the overall system performance are also discussed. Experimental results show that the performance of the proposed approach is feasible and stable, as the proposed hybrid overlay improves system performance by reducing the number of routing hops and balancing the load by migrating requests.     

Fuzzy local maximal marginal embedding for feature extraction

In graph-based linear dimensionality reduction algorithms, it is crucial to construct a neighbor graph that can correctly reflect the relationship between samples. This paper presents an improved algorithm called fuzzy local maximal marginal embedding (FLMME) for linear dimensionality reduction. Significantly differing from the existing graph-based algorithms is that two novel fuzzy gradual graphs are constructed in FLMME, which help to pull the near neighbor samples in same class nearer and nearer and repel the far neighbor samples of margin between different classes farther and farther when they are projected to feature subspace. Through the fuzzy gradual graphs, FLMME algorithm has lower sensitivities to the sample variations caused by varying illumination, expression, viewing conditions and shapes. The proposed FLMME algorithm is evaluated through experiments by using the WINE database, the Yale and ORL face image databases and the USPS handwriting digital databases. The results show that the FLMME outperforms PCA, LDA, LPP and local maximal marginal embedding.     

An SVD-based image watermarking in wavelet domain using SVR and PSO

The paper presents a novel blind watermarking scheme for image copyright protection, which is developed in the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and is based on the singular value decomposition (SVD) and the support vector regression (SVR). Its embedding algorithm hides a watermark bit in the low–low (LL) subband of a target non-overlap block of the host image by modifying a coefficient of U component on SVD version of the block. A blind watermark-extraction is designed using a trained SVR to estimate original coefficients. Subsequently, the watermark bit can be computed using the watermarked coefficient and its corresponding estimate coefficient. Additionally, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) is further utilized to optimize the proposed scheme. Experimental results show the proposed scheme possesses significant improvements in both transparency and robustness, and is superior to existing methods under consideration here.     

基于物联网的教育与教学设备监控的研究与应用

新的现代化技术服务于教育是高职院校现代教育发展的必然趋势,文章系统地叙述了高职院校为进一步推动物联网在教育与教学设备监控的应用,做了不断的探索和实践,以期对高职院校的教育与教学设备监控建设工作提供一些借鉴。     

Conductivity enhancement in transparetn ZnO films via Al-dopping produced by CW-CO2 laser-induced evaporation

Highly conductive transparent aluminium-doped ZnO (ZnO:A1) films were successfully deposited by CW-CO₂ laser-induced evaporation. Optimisation of evaporation parameters was based on laser power, substrate temperature, O₂ partial pressure in the vacuum chamber and amount of Al in the ZnO source pellet. ZnO:A1 films with an electrical resistivity as low as 6.6 × 10⁻²Ω·cm and an optical transmission of 80% at 500nm were obtained at laser power of 15 W, substrate temperature of about 200°C, O₂ partial pressure of 6—7 × 10⁻⁴ Torr and 5wt.% Al. Conductivity of ZnO films can be increased one order via Al-doping in ZnO films. The films obtained by laser-induced evaporation have compared quite favorably with the high quality films obtained by sputtering.     

Numerical Analysis of the Constrained Blister Test

The constrained blister test is investigated through finite element analysis to determine the applicabilities and the limitations of the new technique. Numerical results confirm that the strain energy release rate asymptotically approaches a constant value. These results also show that the test technique and the approximate solution for strain energy release rate are applicable for some practical cases.     

Properties of recycled high density polyethylene from milk bottles

The effect of virgin, high-density polyethylene (HDPE)/recycled HDPE composition on the physical properties of the blends was investigated. The recycled HDPE was obtained from a postconsumer cycle of milk bottles. It was found that elongation at break was the mechanical property mostly affected by the content of recycled HDPE. Overall, however, the recycled HDPE from milk bottles was found to be a material with useful properties not largely different from those of virgin resin and thus could be used, at an appropriate concentration in virgin HDPE, for different applications.     

Moisture Distribution and Dewatering Efficiency for Wet Materials

This review paper summarizes current research efforts toward a comprehensive view of wet material dewatering, considering the binding energy as the strength to hold water, and rupture energy given to remove moisture from materials.