Modeling and Optimization of Solar Collector Design for the Improvement of Solar-Air Source Heat Pump Building Heating System

To enhance system stability,solar collectors have been integrated with air-source heat pumps.This integration facilitates the concurrent utilization of solar and air as energy sources for the system,leading to an improvement in the system’s heat generation coefficient,overall efficiency,and stability.In this study,we focus on a residential building located in Lhasa as the target for heating purposes.Initially,we simulate and analyze a solar-air source heat pump combined heating system.Subsequently,while ensuring the system meets user requirements,we examine the influence of solar collector installation angles and collector area on the performance of the solar-air source heat pump dual heating system.Through this analysis,we determine the optimal installation angle and collector area to optimize system performance.

Resilience assessment and optimization method of city road network in the post-earthquake emergency period

The post-earthquake emergency period,which is a sensitive time segment just after an event,mainly focuses on saving life and restoring social order.To improve the seismic resilience of city road networks,a resilience evaluation method used in the post-earthquake emergency period is proposed.The road seismic damage index of a city road network can consider the influence of roads,bridges and buildings along the roads,etc.on road capacity after an earthquake.A function index for a city road network is developed,which reflects the connectivity,redundancy,traffic demand and traffic function of the network.An optimization model for improving the road repair order in the post-earthquake emergency period is also developed according to the resilience evaluation,to enable decision support for city emergency management and achieve the best seismic resilience of the city road network.The optimization model is applied to a city road network and the results illustrate the feasibility of the resilience evaluation and optimization method for a city road network in the post-earthquake emergency period.

A Composite Transformer-Based Multi-Stage Defect Detection Architecture for Sewer Pipes

Urban sewer pipes are a vital infrastructure in modern cities,and their defects must be detected in time to prevent potential malfunctioning.In recent years,to relieve the manual efforts by human experts,models based on deep learning have been introduced to automatically identify potential defects.However,these models are insufficient in terms of dataset complexity,model versatility and performance.Our work addresses these issues with amulti-stage defect detection architecture using a composite backbone Swin Transformer.Themodel based on this architecture is trained using a more comprehensive dataset containingmore classes of defects.By ablation studies on the modules of combined backbone Swin Transformer,multi-stage detector,test-time data augmentation and model fusion,it is revealed that they all contribute to the improvement of detection accuracy from different aspects.The model incorporating all these modules achieves the mean Average Precision(mAP)of 78.6% at an Intersection over Union(IoU)threshold of 0.5.This represents an improvement of 14.1% over the ResNet50 Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network(R-CNN)model and a 6.7% improvement over You Only Look Once version 6(YOLOv6)-large,the highest in the YOLO methods.In addition,for other defect detection models for sewer pipes,although direct comparison with themis infeasible due to the unavailability of their private datasets,our results are obtained from a more comprehensive dataset and have superior generalization capabilities.

Optimisation of Thermal Comfort of Building in a Hot and Dry Tropical Climate: A Comparative Approach between Compressed Earth/Concrete Block Envelopes

Compressed earth blocks (CEB) are an alternative to cement blocks in the construction of wall masonry. However, the optimal architectural construction methods for adequate thermal comfort for occupants in hot and arid environments are not mastered. This article evaluates the influence of architectural and constructive modes of buildings made of CEB walls and concrete block walls, to optimize and compare their thermal comfort in the hot and dry tropical climate of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Two identical pilot buildings whose envelopes are made of CEB and concrete blocks were monitored for this study. The thermal models of the pilot buildings were implemented in the SketchUp software using an extension of EnergyPlus. The models were empirically validated after calibration against measured thermal data from the buildings. The models were used to do a parametric analysis for optimization of the thermal performances by simulating plaster coatings on the exterior of walls, airtight openings and natural ventilation depending on external weather conditions. The results show that the CEB building displays 7016 hours of discomfort, equivalent to 80.1% of the time, and the concrete building displays 6948 hours of discomfort, equivalent to 79.3% of the time. The optimization by modifications reduced the discomfort to 2918 and 3125 hours respectively;i.e. equivalent to only 33.3% for the CEB building and 35.7% for the concrete building. More study should evaluate thermal optimizations in buildings in real time of usage such as residential buildings commonly used by the local middle class. The use of CEB as a construction material and passive means of improving thermal comfort is a suitable ecological and economical option to replace cementitious material.

Artificial neural network optimized by differential evolution for predicting diameters of jet grouted columns

A novel and effective artificial neural network(ANN) optimized using differential evolution(DE) is first introduced to provide a robust and reliable forecasting of jet grouted column diameters.The proposed computational method adopts the DE algorithm to tackle the difficulties in the training and performance of neural networks and optimize the four quintessential hyper-parameters(i.e.the epoch size,the number of neurons in a hidden layer,the number of hidden layers,and the regularization parameter) that govern the neural network efficacy.This approach is further enhanced by a stochastic gradient optimization algorithm to allow ’expensive’ computation efforts.The ANN-DE is first trained using a prepared jet grouting dataset,then verified and compared with the prevalent machine learning tools,i.e.neural networks and support vector machine(SVM).The results show that,the ANN-DE outperforms the existing methods for predicting the diameter of jet grouting columns since it well balances training efficiency and model performance.Specifically,the ANN-DE achieved root mean square error(RMSE)values of 0.90603 and 0.92813 for the training and testing phases,respectively.The corresponding values were 0.8905 and 0.9006 for the optimized ANN,then,0.87569 and 0.89968 for the optimized SVM,respectively.The proposed paradigm is bound to be useful for solving various geotechnical engineering problems regardless of multi-dimension and nonlinearity.

Establishment of an optimized CTC detection model consisting of EpCAM,MUC1 and WT1 in epithelial ovarian cancer and its correlation with clinical characteristics

Objective:Emerging studies have demonstrated the promising clinical value of circulating tumor cells(CTCs)for diagnosis,disease assessment,treatment monitoring and prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer.However,the clinical application of CTC remains restricted due to diverse detection techniques with variable sensitivity and specificity and a lack of common standards.Methods:We enrolled 160 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer as the experimental group,and 90 patients including 50 patients with benign ovarian tumor and 40 healthy females as the control group.We enriched CTCs with immunomagnetic beads targeting two epithelial cell surface antigens(EpCAM and MUC1),and used multiple reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)detecting three markers(EpCAM,MUC1 and WT1)for quantification.And then we used a binary logistic regression analysis and focused on EpCAM,MUC1 and WT1 to establish an optimized CTC detection model.Results:The sensitivity and specificity of the optimized model is 79.4%and 92.2%,respectively.The specificity of the CTC detection model is significantly higher than CA125(92.2%vs.82.2%,P=0.044),and the detection rate of CTCs was higher than the positive rate of CA125(74.5%vs.58.2%,P=0.069)in early-stage patients(stage I and II).The detection rate of CTCs was significantly higher in patients with ascitic volume≥500 mL,suboptimal cytoreductive surgery and elevated serum CA125 level after 2 courses of chemotherapy(P<0.05).The detection rate of CTC;and CTC;was significantly higher in chemo-resistant patients(26.3%vs.11.9%;26.4%vs.13.4%,P<0.05).The median progression-free survival time for CTC;patients trended to be longer than CTC;patients,and overall survival was shorter in CTC;patients(P=0.043).Conclusions:Our study presents an optimized detection model for CTCs,which consists of the expression levels of three markers(EpCAM,MUC1 and WT1).In comparison with CA125,our model has high specificity and demonstrates better diagnostic values,especially for early-stage ovarian cancer.Detection of CTC;and CTC;had predictive value for chemotherapy resistance,and the detection of CTC;suggested poor prognosis.

EEG Emotion Recognition Using an Attention Mechanism Based on an Optimized Hybrid Model

Emotions serve various functions.The traditional emotion recognition methods are based primarily on readily accessible facial expressions,gestures,and voice signals.However,it is often challenging to ensure that these non-physical signals are valid and reliable in practical applications.Electroencephalogram(EEG)signals are more successful than other signal recognition methods in recognizing these characteristics in real-time since they are difficult to camouflage.Although EEG signals are commonly used in current emotional recognition research,the accuracy is low when using traditional methods.Therefore,this study presented an optimized hybrid pattern with an attention mechanism(FFT_CLA)for EEG emotional recognition.First,the EEG signal was processed via the fast fourier transform(FFT),after which the convolutional neural network(CNN),long short-term memory(LSTM),and CNN-LSTM-attention(CLA)methods were used to extract and classify the EEG features.Finally,the experiments compared and analyzed the recognition results obtained via three DEAP dataset models,namely FFT_CNN,FFT_LSTM,and FFT_CLA.The final experimental results indicated that the recognition rates of the FFT_CNN,FFT_LSTM,and FFT_CLA models within the DEAP dataset were 87.39%,88.30%,and 92.38%,respectively.The FFT_CLA model improved the accuracy of EEG emotion recognition and used the attention mechanism to address the often-ignored importance of different channels and samples when extracting EEG features.

Optimized Two-Level Ensemble Model for Predicting the Parameters of Metamaterial Antenna

Employing machine learning techniques in predicting the parameters of metamaterial antennas has a significant impact on the reduction of the time needed to design an antenna with optimal parameters using simulation tools.In this paper,we propose a new approach for predicting the bandwidth of metamaterial antenna using a novel ensemble model.The proposed ensemble model is composed of two levels of regression models.The first level consists of three strong models namely,random forest,support vector regression,and light gradient boosting machine.Whereas the second level is based on the ElasticNet regression model,which receives the prediction results from the models in the first level for refinement and producing the final optimal result.To achieve the best performance of these regression models,the advanced squirrel search optimization algorithm(ASSOA)is utilized to search for the optimal set of hyper-parameters of each model.Experimental results show that the proposed two-level ensemble model could achieve a robust prediction of the bandwidth of metamaterial antenna when compared with the recently published ensemble models based on the same publicly available benchmark dataset.The findings indicate that the proposed approach results in root mean square error(RMSE)of(0.013),mean absolute error(MAE)of(0.004),and mean bias error(MBE)of(0.0017).These results are superior to the other competing ensemble models and can predict the antenna bandwidth more accurately.

Knowledge expression,numerical modeling and optimization application of ethylene thermal cracking:From the perspective of intelligent manufacturing

Applications of process systems engineering(PSE)in plants and enterprises are boosting industrial reform from automation to digitization and intelligence.For ethylene thermal cracking,knowledge expression,numerical modeling and intelligent optimization are key steps for intelligent manufacturing.This paper provides an overview of progress and contributions to the PSE-aided production of thermal cracking;introduces the frameworks,methods and algorithms that have been proposed over the past10 years and discusses the advantages,limitations and applications in industrial practice.An entire set of molecular-level modeling approaches from feedstocks to products,including feedstock molecular reconstruction,reaction-network auto-generation and cracking unit simulation are described.Multilevel control and optimization methods are exhibited,including at the operational,cycle,plant and enterprise level.Relevant software packages are introduced.Finally,an outlook in terms of future directions is presented.

MODELING, VALIDATION AND OPTIMAL DESIGN OF THE CLAMPING FORCE CONTROL VALVE USED IN CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION

Associated dynamic performance of the clamping force control valve used in continuously variable transmission （CVT） is optimized. Firstly, the structure and working principle of the valve are analyzed, and then a dynamic model is set up by means of mechanism analysis. For the purpose of checking the validity of the modeling method, a prototype workpiece of the valve is manufactured for comparison test, and its simulation result follows the experimental result quite well. An associated performance index is founded considering the response time, overshoot and saving energy, and five structural parameters are selected to adjust for deriving the optimal associated performance index. The optimization problem is solved by the genetic algorithm （GA） with necessary constraints. Finally, the properties of the optimized valve are compared with those of the prototype workpiece, and the results prove that the dynamic performance indexes of the optimized valve are much better than those of the prototype workpiece.

Modeling the dynamic optimal advertising in stochastic condition

An effort to model the dynamic optimal advertising was made with the uncertainty of sales responses in consideration. The problem of dynamic advertising was depicted as a Markov decision process with two state variables. When a firm launches an advertising campaign, it may predict the probability that the campaign will obtain the sales réponse. This probability was chosen as one state variable. Cumulative sales volume was chosen as another state variable which varies randomly with advertising. The only decision variable was advertising expenditure. With these variables, a multi-stage Markov decision process model was formulat ed. On the basis of some propositions the model was analyzed. Some analytical results about the optimal strategy have been derived, and their practical implications have been explained.

The 3D simulation and optimized management model of groundwater systems based on eco-environmental water demand

Through the study of mutual process between groundwater systems and eco-environmental water demand, the eco-environmental water demand is brought into groundwater systems model as the important water consumption item and unification of groundwater抯 economic, environmental and ecological functions were taken into account. Based on eco-environmental water demand at Da抋n in Jilin province, a three-dimensional simulation and optimized management model of groundwater systems was established. All water balance components of groundwater systems in 1998 and 1999 were simulated with this model and the best optimal exploitation scheme of groundwater systems in 2000 was determined, so that groundwater resource was efficiently utilized and good economic, ecologic and social benefits were obtained.

An Optimized CNN Model Architecture for Detecting Coronavirus (COVID-19) with X-Ray Images

This paper demonstrates empirical research on using convolutional neural networks(CNN)of deep learning techniques to classify X-rays of COVID-19 patients versus normal patients by feature extraction.Feature extraction is one of the most significant phases for classifying medical X-rays radiography that requires inclusive domain knowledge.In this study,CNN architectures such as VGG-16,VGG-19,RestNet50,RestNet18 are compared,and an optimized model for feature extraction in X-ray images from various domains invol-ving several classes is proposed.An X-ray radiography classifier with TensorFlow GPU is created executing CNN architectures and our proposed optimized model for classifying COVID-19(Negative or Positive).Then,2,134 X-rays of normal patients and COVID-19 patients generated by an existing open-source online dataset were labeled to train the optimized models.Among those,the optimized model architecture classifier technique achieves higher accuracy(0.97)than four other models,specifically VGG-16,VGG-19,RestNet18,and RestNet50(0.96,0.72,0.91,and 0.93,respectively).Therefore,this study will enable radiol-ogists to more efficiently and effectively classify a patient’s coronavirus disease.

Optimized Cognitive Learning Model for Energy Efficient Fog-BAN-IoT Networks

In Internet of Things (IoT), large amount of data are processed andcommunicated through different network technologies. Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) plays pivotal role in the health care domain with an integration ofIoT and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The amalgamation of above mentioned toolshas taken the new peak in terms of diagnosis and treatment process especially inthe pandemic period. But the real challenges such as low latency, energy consumption high throughput still remains in the dark side of the research. This paperproposes a novel optimized cognitive learning based BAN model based on FogIoT technology as a real-time health monitoring systems with the increased network-life time. Energy and latency aware features of BAN have been extractedand used to train the proposed fog based learning algorithm to achieve low energyconsumption and low-latency scheduling algorithm. To test the proposed network,Fog-IoT-BAN test bed has been developed with the battery driven MICOTTboards interfaced with the health care sensors using Micro Python programming.The extensive experimentation is carried out using the above test beds and variousparameters such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1score and specificity has beencalculated along with QoS (quality of service) parameters such as latency, energyand throughput. To prove the superiority of the proposed framework, the performance of the proposed learning based framework has been compared with theother state-of-art classical learning frameworks and other existing Fog-BAN networks such as WORN, DARE, L-No-DEAF networks. Results proves the proposed framework has outperformed the other classical learning models in termsof accuracy and high False Alarm Rate (FAR), energy efficiency and latency.

Modeling and Optimization of Surface Roughness of Epoxy/Nanoparticles Composite Coating

In power plants,flue gases can cause severe corrosion damage in metallic parts such as flue ducts,heat exchangers,and boilers.Coating is an effective technique to prevent this damage.A robust fuzzy model of the surface roughness(Ra and Rz)of flue gas ducts coated by protective composite coating from epoxy and nanoparticles was constructed based on the experimental dataset.The proposed model consists of four nanoparticles(ZnO,ZrO2,SiO2,and NiO)with 2%,4%,6%,and 8%,respectively.Response surface methodology(RSM)was used to optimize the process parameters and identify the optimal conditions for minimum surface roughness of this coated duct.To prove the superiority of the proposed fuzzy model,the model results were compared with those obtained by ANOVA,with the coefficient of determination and the root-mean-square error(RMSE)used as metrics.For Ra,for the first output response,using ANOVA,the coefficient-of-determination values were 0.9137 and 0.4037,respectively,for training and prediction.Similarly,for Rz,the second output response,the coefficient-of-determination results were 0.9695 and 0.4037,respectively,for training and prediction.In the fuzzy modeling of Ra,for the first output response,the RMSE values were 0.0 and 0.1455,respectively,for training and testing.The values for the coefficient of determination were 1.00 and 0.9807,respectively,for training and testing.The results prove the superiority of fuzzy modeling.For modeling the second output response Rz,the RMSE values were 0.0 and 0.0421,respectively,for training and testing,and the coefficient-of-determination values were 1.00 and 0.9959,respectively,for training and testing.

Torsional stiffness modeling and optimization of the rubber torsion bushing for a light tracked vehicle

Taking the rubber torsion bushing of a certain type of all-terrain tracked vehicle as the research object,a theoretical model of torsional stiffness was proposed according to the non-linear characteristics of rubber components and structural feature of the suspension. Simulations were carried out under different working conditions to obtain root mean square of vertical weighted acceleration as the evaluation index for ride performance of the all-terrain tracked vehicle,with a dynamics model of the whole vehicle based on the theoretical model of the torsional stiffness and standard road roughness as excitation input. Response surface method was used to establish the parametric optimization model of the torsional stiffness. The evaluation index showed that ride performance of the vehicle with optimized torsional stiffness model of suspension was improved compared with previous model fromexperiment. The torsional stiffness model of rubber bushing provided a theoretical basis for the design of the rubber torsion bushing in light tracked vehicles.

A robust optimization model for demand response management with source-grid-load collaboration to consume wind-power

To accommodate wind power as safely as possible and deal with the uncertainties of the output power of winddriven generators,a min-max-min two-stage robust optimization model is presented,considering the unit commitment,source-network load collaboration,and control of the load demand response.After the constraint functions are linearized,the original problem is decomposed into the main problem and subproblem as a matrix using the strong dual method.The minimum-maximum of the original problem was continuously maximized using the iterative method,and the optimal solution was finally obtained.The constraint conditions expressed by the matrix may reduce the calculation time,and the upper and lower boundaries of the original problem may rapidly converge.The results of the example show that the injected nodes of the wind farms in the power grid should be selected appropriately;otherwise,it is easy to cause excessive accommodation of wind power at some nodes,leading to a surge in reserve costs and the load demand response is continuously optimized to reduce the inverse peak regulation characteristics of wind power.Thus,the most economical optimization scheme for the worst scenario of the output power of the generators is obtained,which proves the economy and reliability of the two-stage robust optimization method.

Double-Layer-Optimizing Method of Hybrid Energy Storage Microgrid Based on Improved Grey Wolf Optimization

To reduce the comprehensive costs of the construction and operation of microgrids and to minimize the power fluctuations caused by randomness and intermittency in distributed generation,a double-layer optimizing configuration method of hybrid energy storage microgrid based on improved grey wolf optimization(IGWO)is proposed.Firstly,building a microgrid system containing a wind-solar power station and electric-hydrogen coupling hybrid energy storage system.Secondly,the minimum comprehensive cost of the construction and operation of the microgrid is taken as the outer objective function,and the minimum peak-to-valley of the microgrid’s daily output is taken as the inner objective function.By iterating through the outer and inner layers,the system improves operational stability while achieving economic configuration.Then,using the energy-self-smoothness of the microgrid as the evaluation index,a double-layer optimizing configuration method of the microgrid is constructed.Finally,to improve the disadvantages of grey wolf optimization(GWO),such as slow convergence in the later period and easy falling into local optima,by introducing the convergence factor nonlinear adjustment strategy and Cauchy mutation operator,an IGWO with excellent global performance is proposed.After testing with the typical test functions,the superiority of IGWO is verified.Next,using IGWO to solve the double-layer model.The case analysis shows that compared to GWO and particle swarm optimization(PSO),the IGWO reduced the comprehensive cost by 15.6%and 18.8%,respectively.Therefore,the proposed double-layer optimizationmethod of capacity configuration ofmicrogrid with wind-solar-hybrid energy storage based on IGWO could effectively improve the independence and stability of the microgrid and significantly reduce the comprehensive cost.

Many-Objective Optimization-Based Task Scheduling in Hybrid Cloud Environments

Due to the security and scalability features of hybrid cloud architecture,it can bettermeet the diverse requirements of users for cloud services.And a reasonable resource allocation solution is the key to adequately utilize the hybrid cloud.However,most previous studies have not comprehensively optimized the performance of hybrid cloud task scheduling,even ignoring the conflicts between its security privacy features and other requirements.Based on the above problems,a many-objective hybrid cloud task scheduling optimization model(HCTSO)is constructed combining risk rate,resource utilization,total cost,and task completion time.Meanwhile,an opposition-based learning knee point-driven many-objective evolutionary algorithm(OBL-KnEA)is proposed to improve the performance of model solving.The algorithm uses opposition-based learning to generate initial populations for faster convergence.Furthermore,a perturbation-based multipoint crossover operator and a dynamic range mutation operator are designed to extend the search range.By comparing the experiments with other excellent algorithms on HCTSO,OBL-KnEA achieves excellent results in terms of evaluation metrics,initial populations,and model optimization effects.

A novel model to evaluate spatial structure in thinned conifer-broadleaved mixed natural forests

In order to ensure the effective analysis and reconstruction of forests,it is key to ensure the quantitative description of their spatial structure.In this paper,a distance model for the optimal stand spatial structure based on weighted Voronoi diagrams is proposed.In particular,we provide a novel methodological model for the comprehensive evaluation of the spatial structure of forest stands in natural mixed conifer-broadleaved forests and the formulation of management decision plans.The applicability of the rank evaluation and the optimal solution distance model are compared and assessed for different standard sample plots of natural mixed conifer-broadleaved forests.The effect of crown width on the spatial structure unit of the trees is observed to be higher than that of the diameter at breast height.Moreover,the influence of crown length is greater than that of tree height.There are nine possible spatial structure units determined by the weighted Voronoi diagram for the number of neighboring trees in the central tree,with an average intersection of neighboring crowns reaching 80%.The rank rating of natural forest sample plots is correlated with the optimal solution distance model,and their results are generally consistent for natural forests.However,the rank rating is not able to provide a quantitative assessment.The optimal solution distance model is observed to be more comprehensive than traditional methods for the evaluation of the spatial structure of forest stands.It can effectively reflect the trends in realistic stand spatial structure factors close to or far from the ideal structure point,and accurately assesses the forest spatial structure.The proposed optimal solution distance model improves the integrated evaluation of the spatial structure of forest stands and provides solid theoretical and technical support for sustainable forest management.