感兴趣区域的非线性变换多描述编码

介绍一种基于感兴趣区域的非线性变换的多描述图像编码,能够与目前的标准图像压缩算法兼容,对图像的感兴趣区域进行更好的保护。由感兴趣区域的非线性几何变换产生冗余,对图像进行采样形成多描述编码。通过仿真实验,证实当图像在差错信道下传输而丢失描述时,该算法能够使图像感兴趣区域得到更好的恢复。     

利用反馈的车牌字符分割算法

字符分割是车牌识别系统的重要步骤。提出一种利用反馈的车牌字符分割算法。首先,对车牌图像进行预处理;其次,根据车牌图像的垂直投影进行字符粗分割;最后,通过两级反馈进行字符精分割。第一级反馈是字符个数与字符宽度反馈,第二级反馈是字符识别反馈。实验结果表明,算法对光照不均、对比度较小、倾斜、污迹、字符粘连和断裂等严重退化的车牌图像具有很好的字符分割性能。     

Variable neighborhood search approaches for scheduling jobs on parallel machines with sequence-dependent setup times, precedence constraints, and ready times

In this paper, we discuss a scheduling problem for jobs on identical parallel machines. Ready times of the jobs, precedence constraints, and sequence-dependent setup times are considered. We are interested in minimizing the performance measure total weighted tardiness that is important for achieving good on-time delivery performance. Scheduling problems of this type appear as subproblems in decomposition approaches for large scale job shops with automated transport of the jobs as, for example, in semiconductor manufacturing. We suggest several variants of variable neighborhood search (VNS) schemes for this scheduling problem and compare their performance with the performance of a list based scheduling approach based on the Apparent Tardiness Cost with Setups and Ready Times (ATCSR) dispatching rule. Based on extensive computational experiments with randomly generated test instances we are able to show that the VNS approach clearly outperforms heuristics based on the ATCSR dispatching rule in many situations with respect to solution quality. When using the schedule obtained by ATCSR as an initial solution for VNS, then the entire scheme is also fast and can be used as a subproblem solution procedure for complex job shop decomposition approaches.     

Can the uncertainty in brass casting blending problem be managed? A probability/possibility transformation approach

Problems about the uncertainty in raw material compositions are a critical issue for the blending problems. It is feared that uncertainty in raw material compositions would often cause percent values of the actual blend to go out of specification limits. In this paper, the aleatory and epistemic uncertainties have been handled simultaneously in a blending optimization problem for brass casting. The aleatory and epistemic uncertainties are modeled by using probability and possibility theories respectively. However, the probabilistic and the possibilistic uncertainties are different from the each other. Therefore to solve the mathematical model, including these uncertainties, a transformation of any type of uncertainty to the other is needed. In this study, probabilistic uncertainties are transformed to the possibilistic uncertainties by considering Rong and Lahdelma’s (2008) and the Dubois, Prade, and Sandri (1993) and Dubois, Foulloy, Mauris, and Prade (2004) transformation approaches. This transformation process converts the former model to a possibilistic model. Then the possibilistic models, obtained from each transformation, are solved by using α cuts approach. The solutions of the two possibilistic models have shown that the model, which uses Dubois’s transformation, prepares blends with lower cost than the other model, which uses Rong and Lahdelma’s transformation.     

Metaheuristics for the dynamic stochastic dial-a-ride problem with expected return transports

The problem of transporting patients or elderly people has been widely studied in literature and is usually modeled as a dial-a-ride problem (DARP). In this paper we analyze the corresponding problem arising in the daily operation of the Austrian Red Cross. This nongovernmental organization is the largest organization performing patient transportation in Austria. The aim is to design vehicle routes to serve partially dynamic transportation requests using a fixed vehicle fleet. Each request requires transportation from a patient's home location to a hospital (outbound request) or back home from the hospital (inbound request). Some of these requests are known in advance. Some requests are dynamic in the sense that they appear during the day without any prior information. Finally, some inbound requests are stochastic. More precisely, with a certain probability each outbound request causes a corresponding inbound request on the same day. Some stochastic information about these return transports is available from historical data. The purpose of this study is to investigate, whether using this information in designing the routes has a significant positive effect on the solution quality. The problem is modeled as a dynamic stochastic dial-a-ride problem with expected return transports. We propose four different modifications of metaheuristic solution approaches for this problem. In detail, we test dynamic versions of variable neighborhood search (VNS) and stochastic VNS (S-VNS) as well as modified versions of the multiple plan approach (MPA) and the multiple scenario approach (MSA). Tests are performed using 12 sets of test instances based on a real road network. Various demand scenarios are generated based on the available real data. Results show that using the stochastic information on return transports leads to average improvements of around 15%. Moreover, improvements of up to 41% can be achieved for some test instances.     

On the qualitative behaviors of solutions of third order nonlinear differential equations

We present some new results about oscillation and asymptotic behavior of solutions of third order nonlinear differential equations of the form

(r₂(t)(r₁(t)y^′)^′)^′+p(t)y^′+q(t)f(y(g(t)))=0.     

A novel differential evolution algorithm for bi-criteria no-wait flow shop scheduling problems

This paper presents a novel discrete differential evolution (DDE) algorithm for solving the no-wait flow shop scheduling problems with makespan and maximum tardiness criteria. First, the individuals in the DDE algorithm are represented as discrete job permutations, and new mutation and crossover operators are developed based on this representation. Second, an elaborate one-to-one selection operator is designed by taking into account the domination status of a trial individual with its counterpart target individual as well as an archive set of the non-dominated solutions found so far. Third, a simple but effective local search algorithm is developed to incorporate into the DDE algorithm to stress the balance between global exploration and local exploitation. In addition, to improve the efficiency of the scheduling algorithm, several speed-up methods are devised to evaluate a job permutation and its whole insert neighborhood as well as to decide the domination status of a solution with the archive set. Computational simulation results based on the well-known benchmarks and statistical performance comparisons are provided. It is shown that the proposed DDE algorithm is superior to a recently published hybrid differential evolution (HDE) algorithm [Qian B, Wang L, Huang DX, Wang WL, Wang X. An effective hybrid DE-based algorithm for multi-objective flow shop scheduling with limited buffers. Computers & Operations Research 2009;36(1):209–33] and the well-known multi-objective genetic local search algorithm (IMMOGLS2) [Ishibuchi H, Yoshida I, Murata T. Balance between genetic search and local search in memetic algorithms for multiobjective permutation flowshop scheduling. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 2003;7(2):204–23] in terms of searching quality, diversity level, robustness and efficiency. Moreover, the effectiveness of incorporating the local search into the DDE algorithm is also investigated.     

New delay-dependent exponential stability criteria of BAM neural networks with time delays

In this paper, the global exponential stability is investigated for the bi-directional associative memory networks with time delays. Several new sufficient conditions are presented to ensure global exponential stability of delayed bi-directional associative memory neural networks based on the Lyapunov functional method as well as linear matrix inequality technique. To the best of our knowledge, few reports about such “linearization” approach to exponential stability analysis for delayed neural network models have been presented in literature. The method, called parameterized first-order model transformation, is used to transform neural networks. The obtained conditions show to be less conservative and restrictive than that reported in the literature. Two numerical simulations are also given to illustrate the efficiency of our result.