The present research investigated a segment of the micro-arthropod populations residing within nests of Messor arenarius ants in the Negev Desert of Israel. The total frequencies of micro-arthropods in the chaff of th...The present research investigated a segment of the micro-arthropod populations residing within nests of Messor arenarius ants in the Negev Desert of Israel. The total frequencies of micro-arthropods in the chaff of those ants’ nests were found to be higher than in the surrounding soil of the same nests. Acari (mites) were observed to be more abundant during the spring season, whereas their presence decreased during the summer months. Springtails (Collembola) were found to follow the Acari pattern, commonly found within the nests of those ants during spring but were absent during summer. Psocoptera order inhabiting soil habitats were infrequently encountered during spring, but their prevalence increased significantly during summer, particularly within the chaff of the ants’ nests, suggesting that chaff is their primary food source in the Negev Desert. Our research suggests that shifts in seasonality have important consequences on the distribution of soil invertebrate communities with implications on nutrient cycling.展开更多
Adaptability and dynamicity are special properties of social insects derived from the decentralized behavior of the insects. Authors have come up with designs for software solution that can regulate traffic congestion...Adaptability and dynamicity are special properties of social insects derived from the decentralized behavior of the insects. Authors have come up with designs for software solution that can regulate traffic congestion in a network transportation environment. The effectiveness of various researches on traffic management has been verified through appropriate metrics. Most of the traffic management systems are centered on using sensors, visual monitoring and neural networks to check for available parking space with the aim of informing drivers beforehand to prevent traffic congestion. There has been limited research on solving ongoing traffic congestion in congestion prone areas like car park with any of the common methods mentioned. This study focus however is on a motor park, as a highly congested area when it comes to traffic. The car park has two entrance gate and three exit gates which is divided into three Isle of parking lot where cars can park. An ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) was developed as an effective management system for controlling navigation and vehicular traffic congestion problems when cars exit a motor park. The ACO based on the nature and movement of the natural ants, simulates the movement of cars out of the car park through their nearest choice exit. A car park simulation was also used for the mathematical computation of the pheromone. The system was implemented using SIMD because of its dual parallelization ability. The result showed about 95% increase on the number of vehicles that left the motor park in one second. A clear indication that pheromones are large determinants of the shortest route to take as cars followed the closest exit to them. Future researchers may consider monitoring a centralized tally system for cars coming into the park through a censored gate being.展开更多
With the rise of image data and increased complexity of tasks in edge detection, conventional artificial intelligence techniques have been severely impacted. To be able to solve even greater problems of the future, le...With the rise of image data and increased complexity of tasks in edge detection, conventional artificial intelligence techniques have been severely impacted. To be able to solve even greater problems of the future, learning algorithms must maintain high speed and accuracy through economical means. Traditional edge detection approaches cannot detect edges in images in a timely manner due to memory and computational time constraints. In this work, a novel parallelized ant colony optimization technique in a distributed framework provided by the Hadoop/Map-Reduce infrastructure is proposed to improve the edge detection capabilities. Moreover, a filtering technique is applied to reduce the noisy background of images to achieve significant improvement in the accuracy of edge detection. Close examinations of the implementation of the proposed algorithm are discussed and demonstrated through experiments. Results reveal high classification accuracy and significant improvements in speedup, scaleup and sizeup compared to the standard algorithms.展开更多
Finger millet (FM) is rich in nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. However, the levels of nutrients and their bioaccessibility depend on the variety, the levels of ant nutrients, the chemical form of...Finger millet (FM) is rich in nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. However, the levels of nutrients and their bioaccessibility depend on the variety, the levels of ant nutrients, the chemical form of nutrients, and the type of processing methods used. The study determined the levels of selected nutrients, anti-nutrients, and bioaccessibility in raw and processed varieties of finger millet being developed by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) in Kenya. Raw finger millet seeds from KALRO Centers in Kenya were processed by malting for 60 hours and roasting at 110°C for 5 minutes as the optimal conditions. Levels of minerals were determined by AAS and AES, anti-nutrients by UV-visible spectrophotometer, proteins by the Pierce kit method, and vitamins by HPLC. The IE4115 and IE3779 showed the highest levels of nutrients and lowest levels of antinutrients hence preferred for processing and bioaccessibility studies. The level (mg/100 g) of selected minerals;K, Cr<sup>3+</sup>, Mg, Ca, P, Fe, and Zn were found to be highest in the following varieties of the FM;IE3779 (688.519 ± 1.57), IE 4115 (1.29 ± 0.07), IE4115 (294.38 ± 1.93), IE3779 (466.67 ± 4.17), IE4115 (250.92 ± 0.33), KERICHO P (16.98 ± 0.05) and IE4115 (64.10 ± 2.35) respectively. For β-carotene, vitamin B, B2, B3, B6 and B9 the levels were highest in the following varieties of FM;KAKW3 (0.023 ± 0.02), IE4115 (14.85 ± 0.16), IE4115 (12.998 ± 0.04), IE4115 (5.843 ± 0.07), IE3779 (0.06 ± 0.04) and KAKW4 (9.832 ± 0.08). Phytates, tannins, phenols, and oxalates were found to be lowest in the following varieties: IE3779 (14.20 ± 2.90, IE4115 (27.83 ± 0.73), NKFM1 (9.69 ± 0.07) and IE4115 (0.25 ± 0.01). The highest bioaccessibility values reported for K, Mg, Ca, P, Cr<sup>3+</sup>, Fe, and Zn were 89.53% (malting, IE3779), 49.28% (malting, IE4115), 60.41% (Malting, IE4115), 69.40% (malting, IE4115), 12.9% (malting, IE4115), 59.84% (malting, KAKW3) and 66.89% (roasting, IE3779) respectively (Table 8). For beta carotene, vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6 and B9 the values were 73.33% (malting, p224), 78.84% (malting, IE4115), 78.34 (malting, IE3779), 97.63% (malting, IE4115), 91.64% (malting, IE4115), and 77.52% (roasting, IE4115) (table The result on levels and bioaccessibility showed that IE4115 and IE3779 varieties were more nutritious and therefore should be promoted for nutritional security.展开更多
蚁群算法拥有良好的全局性、自组织性、鲁棒性,但传统蚁群算法存在许多不足之处。为此,针对算法在路径规划问题中的缺陷,在传统蚁群算法的状态转移公式中,引入目标点距离因素和引导素,加快算法收敛性和改善局部最优缺陷。在带时间窗的...蚁群算法拥有良好的全局性、自组织性、鲁棒性,但传统蚁群算法存在许多不足之处。为此,针对算法在路径规划问题中的缺陷,在传统蚁群算法的状态转移公式中,引入目标点距离因素和引导素,加快算法收敛性和改善局部最优缺陷。在带时间窗的车辆路径问题(vehicle routing problem with time windows,VRPTW)上,融合蚁群算法和遗传算法,并将顾客时间窗宽度以及机器人等待时间加入蚁群算法状态转移公式中,以及将蚁群算法的解作为遗传算法的初始种群,提高遗传算法的初始解质量,然后进行编码,设置违反时间窗约束和载重量的惩罚函数和适应度函数,在传统遗传算法的交叉、变异操作后加入了破坏-修复基因的操作来优化每一代新解的质量,在Solomon Benchmark算例上进行仿真,对比算法改进前后的最优解,验证算法可行性。最后在餐厅送餐问题中把带有障碍物的仿真环境路径规划问题和VRPTW问题结合,使用改进后的算法解决餐厅环境下送餐机器人对顾客服务配送问题。展开更多
针对传统蚁群算法在移动机器人路径规划中存在搜索盲目性、收敛速度慢及路径转折点多等问题,提出了一种基于改进蚁群算法的移动机器人路径规划算法。首先,利用跳点搜索(Jump Point Search,JPS)算法不均匀分配初始信息素,降低蚁群前期盲...针对传统蚁群算法在移动机器人路径规划中存在搜索盲目性、收敛速度慢及路径转折点多等问题,提出了一种基于改进蚁群算法的移动机器人路径规划算法。首先,利用跳点搜索(Jump Point Search,JPS)算法不均匀分配初始信息素,降低蚁群前期盲目搜索的概率;然后,引入切比雪夫距离加权因子和转弯代价改进启发函数,提高算法的收敛速度、全局路径寻优能力和搜索路径的平滑程度;最后,提出一种新的信息素更新策略,引入自适应奖惩因子,自适应调整迭代前、后期的信息素奖惩因子,保证了算法全局最优收敛。实验仿真结果表明,在不同地图环境下,与现有文献结果对比,该算法可以有效地缩短路径搜索的迭代次数和最优路径长度,并提高路径的平滑程度。展开更多
In recent years, Japan, and especially rural areas have faced the growing problems of debt-ridden local railway lines along with the population decline and aging population. Therefore, it is best to consider the disco...In recent years, Japan, and especially rural areas have faced the growing problems of debt-ridden local railway lines along with the population decline and aging population. Therefore, it is best to consider the discontinuation of local railway lines and introduce replacement buses to secure the transportation methods of the local people especially in rural areas. Based on the above background, targeting local railway lines that may be discontinued in the near future, appropriate bus stops when provided with potential bus stops were selected, the present study proposed a method that introduces routes for railway replacement buses adopting ant colony optimization (ACO). The improved ACO was designed and developed based on the requirements set concerning the route length, number of turns, road width, accessibility of railway lines and zones without bus stops as well as the constraint conditions concerning the route length, number of turns and zones without bus stops. Original road network data were generated and processed adopting a geographic information systems (GIS), and these are used to search for the optimal route for railway replacement buses adopting the improved ACO concerning the 8 zones on the target railway line (JR Kakogawa line). By comparing the improved ACO with Dijkstra’s algorithm, its relevance was verified and areas needing further improvements were revealed.展开更多
文摘The present research investigated a segment of the micro-arthropod populations residing within nests of Messor arenarius ants in the Negev Desert of Israel. The total frequencies of micro-arthropods in the chaff of those ants’ nests were found to be higher than in the surrounding soil of the same nests. Acari (mites) were observed to be more abundant during the spring season, whereas their presence decreased during the summer months. Springtails (Collembola) were found to follow the Acari pattern, commonly found within the nests of those ants during spring but were absent during summer. Psocoptera order inhabiting soil habitats were infrequently encountered during spring, but their prevalence increased significantly during summer, particularly within the chaff of the ants’ nests, suggesting that chaff is their primary food source in the Negev Desert. Our research suggests that shifts in seasonality have important consequences on the distribution of soil invertebrate communities with implications on nutrient cycling.
文摘Adaptability and dynamicity are special properties of social insects derived from the decentralized behavior of the insects. Authors have come up with designs for software solution that can regulate traffic congestion in a network transportation environment. The effectiveness of various researches on traffic management has been verified through appropriate metrics. Most of the traffic management systems are centered on using sensors, visual monitoring and neural networks to check for available parking space with the aim of informing drivers beforehand to prevent traffic congestion. There has been limited research on solving ongoing traffic congestion in congestion prone areas like car park with any of the common methods mentioned. This study focus however is on a motor park, as a highly congested area when it comes to traffic. The car park has two entrance gate and three exit gates which is divided into three Isle of parking lot where cars can park. An ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO) was developed as an effective management system for controlling navigation and vehicular traffic congestion problems when cars exit a motor park. The ACO based on the nature and movement of the natural ants, simulates the movement of cars out of the car park through their nearest choice exit. A car park simulation was also used for the mathematical computation of the pheromone. The system was implemented using SIMD because of its dual parallelization ability. The result showed about 95% increase on the number of vehicles that left the motor park in one second. A clear indication that pheromones are large determinants of the shortest route to take as cars followed the closest exit to them. Future researchers may consider monitoring a centralized tally system for cars coming into the park through a censored gate being.
文摘With the rise of image data and increased complexity of tasks in edge detection, conventional artificial intelligence techniques have been severely impacted. To be able to solve even greater problems of the future, learning algorithms must maintain high speed and accuracy through economical means. Traditional edge detection approaches cannot detect edges in images in a timely manner due to memory and computational time constraints. In this work, a novel parallelized ant colony optimization technique in a distributed framework provided by the Hadoop/Map-Reduce infrastructure is proposed to improve the edge detection capabilities. Moreover, a filtering technique is applied to reduce the noisy background of images to achieve significant improvement in the accuracy of edge detection. Close examinations of the implementation of the proposed algorithm are discussed and demonstrated through experiments. Results reveal high classification accuracy and significant improvements in speedup, scaleup and sizeup compared to the standard algorithms.
文摘Finger millet (FM) is rich in nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. However, the levels of nutrients and their bioaccessibility depend on the variety, the levels of ant nutrients, the chemical form of nutrients, and the type of processing methods used. The study determined the levels of selected nutrients, anti-nutrients, and bioaccessibility in raw and processed varieties of finger millet being developed by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) in Kenya. Raw finger millet seeds from KALRO Centers in Kenya were processed by malting for 60 hours and roasting at 110°C for 5 minutes as the optimal conditions. Levels of minerals were determined by AAS and AES, anti-nutrients by UV-visible spectrophotometer, proteins by the Pierce kit method, and vitamins by HPLC. The IE4115 and IE3779 showed the highest levels of nutrients and lowest levels of antinutrients hence preferred for processing and bioaccessibility studies. The level (mg/100 g) of selected minerals;K, Cr<sup>3+</sup>, Mg, Ca, P, Fe, and Zn were found to be highest in the following varieties of the FM;IE3779 (688.519 ± 1.57), IE 4115 (1.29 ± 0.07), IE4115 (294.38 ± 1.93), IE3779 (466.67 ± 4.17), IE4115 (250.92 ± 0.33), KERICHO P (16.98 ± 0.05) and IE4115 (64.10 ± 2.35) respectively. For β-carotene, vitamin B, B2, B3, B6 and B9 the levels were highest in the following varieties of FM;KAKW3 (0.023 ± 0.02), IE4115 (14.85 ± 0.16), IE4115 (12.998 ± 0.04), IE4115 (5.843 ± 0.07), IE3779 (0.06 ± 0.04) and KAKW4 (9.832 ± 0.08). Phytates, tannins, phenols, and oxalates were found to be lowest in the following varieties: IE3779 (14.20 ± 2.90, IE4115 (27.83 ± 0.73), NKFM1 (9.69 ± 0.07) and IE4115 (0.25 ± 0.01). The highest bioaccessibility values reported for K, Mg, Ca, P, Cr<sup>3+</sup>, Fe, and Zn were 89.53% (malting, IE3779), 49.28% (malting, IE4115), 60.41% (Malting, IE4115), 69.40% (malting, IE4115), 12.9% (malting, IE4115), 59.84% (malting, KAKW3) and 66.89% (roasting, IE3779) respectively (Table 8). For beta carotene, vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6 and B9 the values were 73.33% (malting, p224), 78.84% (malting, IE4115), 78.34 (malting, IE3779), 97.63% (malting, IE4115), 91.64% (malting, IE4115), and 77.52% (roasting, IE4115) (table The result on levels and bioaccessibility showed that IE4115 and IE3779 varieties were more nutritious and therefore should be promoted for nutritional security.
文摘蚁群算法拥有良好的全局性、自组织性、鲁棒性,但传统蚁群算法存在许多不足之处。为此,针对算法在路径规划问题中的缺陷,在传统蚁群算法的状态转移公式中,引入目标点距离因素和引导素,加快算法收敛性和改善局部最优缺陷。在带时间窗的车辆路径问题(vehicle routing problem with time windows,VRPTW)上,融合蚁群算法和遗传算法,并将顾客时间窗宽度以及机器人等待时间加入蚁群算法状态转移公式中,以及将蚁群算法的解作为遗传算法的初始种群,提高遗传算法的初始解质量,然后进行编码,设置违反时间窗约束和载重量的惩罚函数和适应度函数,在传统遗传算法的交叉、变异操作后加入了破坏-修复基因的操作来优化每一代新解的质量,在Solomon Benchmark算例上进行仿真,对比算法改进前后的最优解,验证算法可行性。最后在餐厅送餐问题中把带有障碍物的仿真环境路径规划问题和VRPTW问题结合,使用改进后的算法解决餐厅环境下送餐机器人对顾客服务配送问题。
文摘针对传统蚁群算法在移动机器人路径规划中存在搜索盲目性、收敛速度慢及路径转折点多等问题,提出了一种基于改进蚁群算法的移动机器人路径规划算法。首先,利用跳点搜索(Jump Point Search,JPS)算法不均匀分配初始信息素,降低蚁群前期盲目搜索的概率;然后,引入切比雪夫距离加权因子和转弯代价改进启发函数,提高算法的收敛速度、全局路径寻优能力和搜索路径的平滑程度;最后,提出一种新的信息素更新策略,引入自适应奖惩因子,自适应调整迭代前、后期的信息素奖惩因子,保证了算法全局最优收敛。实验仿真结果表明,在不同地图环境下,与现有文献结果对比,该算法可以有效地缩短路径搜索的迭代次数和最优路径长度,并提高路径的平滑程度。
文摘In recent years, Japan, and especially rural areas have faced the growing problems of debt-ridden local railway lines along with the population decline and aging population. Therefore, it is best to consider the discontinuation of local railway lines and introduce replacement buses to secure the transportation methods of the local people especially in rural areas. Based on the above background, targeting local railway lines that may be discontinued in the near future, appropriate bus stops when provided with potential bus stops were selected, the present study proposed a method that introduces routes for railway replacement buses adopting ant colony optimization (ACO). The improved ACO was designed and developed based on the requirements set concerning the route length, number of turns, road width, accessibility of railway lines and zones without bus stops as well as the constraint conditions concerning the route length, number of turns and zones without bus stops. Original road network data were generated and processed adopting a geographic information systems (GIS), and these are used to search for the optimal route for railway replacement buses adopting the improved ACO concerning the 8 zones on the target railway line (JR Kakogawa line). By comparing the improved ACO with Dijkstra’s algorithm, its relevance was verified and areas needing further improvements were revealed.