Generalized null space uncorrelated Fisher discriminant analysis for linear dimensionality reduction

We propose a generalized null space uncorrelated Fisher discriminant analysis (GNUFDA) technique integrating the uncorrelated discriminant analysis and weighted pairwise Fisher criterion. The GNUFDA can effectively deal with the small sample-size problem and perform satisfactorily when the dimensionality of the null space decreases with increase in the number of training samples per class and/or classes, C. The proposed GNUFDA can extract at most C-1 optimal uncorrelated discriminative vectors without being influenced by the null-space dimensionality.     

Random Forests with ensemble of feature spaces

Random Forests receive much attention from researchers because of their excellent performance. As Breiman suggested, the performance of Random Forests depends on the strength of the weak learners in the forests and the diversity among them. However, in the literature, many researchers only considered pre-processing of the data or post-processing of the Random Forests models. In this paper, we propose a new method to increase the diversity of each tree in the forests and thereby improve the overall accuracy. During the training process of each individual tree in the forest, different rotation spaces are concatenated into a higher space at the root node. Then the best split is exhaustively searched within this higher space. The location where the best split lies decides which rotation method to be used for all subsequent nodes. The performance of the proposed method here is evaluated on 42 benchmark data sets from various research fields and compared with the standard Random Forests. The results show that the proposed method improves the performance of the Random Forests in most cases.     

Differential Evolution Algorithm With Strategy Adaptation for Global Numerical Optimization

Differential evolution (DE) is an efficient and powerful population-based stochastic search technique for solving optimization problems over continuous space, which has been widely applied in many scientific and engineering fields. However, the success of DE in solving a specific problem crucially depends on appropriately choosing trial vector generation strategies and their associated control parameter values. Employing a trial-and-error scheme to search for the most suitable strategy and its associated parameter settings requires high computational costs. Moreover, at different stages of evolution, different strategies coupled with different parameter settings may be required in order to achieve the best performance. In this paper, we propose a self-adaptive DE (SaDE) algorithm, in which both trial vector generation strategies and their associated control parameter values are gradually self-adapted by learning from their previous experiences in generating promising solutions. Consequently, a more suitable generation strategy along with its parameter settings can be determined adaptively to match different phases of the search process/evolution. The performance of the SaDE algorithm is extensively evaluated (using codes available from P. N. Suganthan) on a suite of 26 bound-constrained numerical optimization problems and compares favorably with the conventional DE and several state-of-the-art parameter adaptive DE variants.     

An Accumulation Algorithm for Video Shot Boundary Detection

In this paper, an accumulation algorithm for video shot detection is introduced. The algorithm considers the properties of gradual transition. In a gradual transition, there is only a small difference between consecutive frames. The algorithm remembers the differences between consecutive frames and accumulates them. When the accumulation difference exceeds a threshold, an occurrence of shot transition is declared. Our main contributions are to introduce a frame C that remembers the changes from the beginning of a shot and detect the different types of boundaries (cut, fade, dissolve) at one process. We tested our algorithm with clips extracted from MPEG VCDs. The algorithm showed a good performance in detecting the gradual transitions as well as the abrupt cuts and has the ability to identify different types of boundaries.     

Solving dynamic economic emission dispatch problem considering wind power by multi-objective differential evolution with ensemble of selection method

Natural Computing - Clean energy resources such as wind power are playing an important role in power generation recently. In this paper, a modified version of multi-objective differential evolution...     

Solving manpower scheduling problem in manufacturing using mixed-integer programming with a two-stage heuristic algorithm

Manpower scheduling problem is one of the key scheduling problems with extensive applications in manufacturing. This paper presents a mixed-integer programming model with a two-stage heuristic algorithm for solving the manpower scheduling problem in the precision engineering industry. Firstly, a mixed-integer programming formulation is developed to model the manpower scheduling problem in this high-mix low-volume manufacturing environment. Secondly, a two-stage heuristic algorithm is proposed where the first stage is deployed to calculate the skill requirements for each shift by considering the jobs, machines, and their production schedule and the second stage is designed to assign operators to the machines by considering the skill set requirements and the operator's expressed preferences. Lastly, the computational results based on problem instances emulating real-world scenarios demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed heuristic.     

Comprehensive learning particle swarm optimizer for solving multiobjective optimization problems

This article presents an approach to integrate a Pareto dominance concept into a comprehensive learning particle swarm optimizer (CLPSO) to handle multiple objective optimization problems. The multiobjective comprehensive learning particle swarm optimizer (MOCLPSO) also integrates an external archive technique. Simulation results (obtained using the codes made available on the Web at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/EPNSugan) on six test problems show that the proposed MOCLPSO, for most problems, is able to find a much better spread of solutions and faster convergence to the true Pareto‐optimal front compared to two other multiobjective optimization evolutionary algorithms. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 21: 209–226, 2006.     

Comprehensive learning particle swarm optimizer for global optimization of multimodal functions

This paper presents a variant of particle swarm optimizers (PSOs) that we call the comprehensive learning particle swarm optimizer (CLPSO), which uses a novel learning strategy whereby all other particles' historical best information is used to update a particle's velocity. This strategy enables the diversity of the swarm to be preserved to discourage premature convergence. Experiments were conducted (using codes available from http://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/epnsugan) on multimodal test functions such as Rosenbrock, Griewank, Rastrigin, Ackley, and Schwefel and composition functions both with and without coordinate rotation. The results demonstrate good performance of the CLPSO in solving multimodal problems when compared with eight other recent variants of the PSO.     

A variable iterated greedy algorithm with differential evolution for the no-idle permutation flowshop scheduling problem

This paper presents a variable iterated greedy algorithm (IG) with differential evolution (vIG_DE), designed to solve the no-idle permutation flowshop scheduling problem. In an IG algorithm, size d of jobs are removed from a sequence and re-inserted into all possible positions of the remaining sequences of jobs, which affects the performance of the algorithm. The basic concept behind the proposed vIG_DE algorithm is to employ differential evolution (DE) to determine two important parameters for the IG algorithm, which are the destruction size and the probability of applying the IG algorithm to an individual. While DE optimizes the destruction size and the probability on a continuous domain by using DE mutation and crossover operators, these two parameters are used to generate a trial individual by directly applying the IG algorithm to each target individual depending on the probability. Next, the trial individual is replaced with the corresponding target individual if it is better in terms of fitness. A unique multi-vector chromosome representation is presented in such a way that the first vector represents the destruction size and the probability, which is a DE vector, whereas the second vector simply consists of a job permutation assigned to each individual in the target population. Furthermore, the traditional IG and a variable IG from the literature are re-implemented as well. The proposed algorithms are applied to the no-idle permutation flowshop scheduling (NIPFS) problem with the makespan and total flowtime criteria. The performances of the proposed algorithms are tested on the Ruben Ruiz benchmark suite and compared to the best-known solutions available at http://soa.iti.es/rruiz as well as to those from a recent discrete differential evolution algorithm (HDDE) from the literature. The computational results show that all three IG variants represent state-of-art methods for the NIPFS problem.     

Self-adaptive differential evolution with multi-trajectory search for large-scale optimization

In this paper, self-adaptive differential evolution (DE) is enhanced by incorporating the JADE mutation strategy and hybridized with modified multi-trajectory search (MMTS) algorithm (SaDE-MMTS) to solve large-scale continuous optimization problems. The JADE mutation strategy, the “DE/current-to-pbest” which is a variation of the classic “DE/current-to-best”, is used for generating mutant vectors. After the mutation phase, the binomial (uniform) crossover, the exponential crossover as well as no crossover option are used to generate each pair of target and trial vectors. By utilizing the self-adaptation in SaDE, both trial vector generation strategies and their associated control parameter values are gradually self-adapted by learning from their previous experiences in generating promising solutions. Consequently, suitable offspring generation strategy along with associated parameter settings will be determined adaptively to match different phases of the search process. MMTS is applied frequently to refine several diversely distributed solutions at different search stages satisfying both the global and the local search requirement. The initialization of step sizes is also defined by a self-adaption during every MMTS step. The success rates of both SaDE and the MMTS are determined and compared; consequently, future function evaluations for both search algorithms are assigned proportionally to their recent past performance. The proposed SaDE-MMTS is employed to solve the 19 numerical optimization problems in special issue of soft computing on scalability of evolutionary algorithms for large-scale continuous optimization problems and competitive results are presented.