Applications of Soft Computing Methods in Backbreak Assessment in Surface Mines: A Comprehensive Review

Geo-engineering problems are known for their complexity and high uncertainty levels,requiring precise defini-tions,past experiences,logical reasoning,mathematical analysis,and practical insight to address them effectively.Soft Computing(SC)methods have gained popularity in engineering disciplines such as mining and civil engineering due to computer hardware and machine learning advancements.Unlike traditional hard computing approaches,SC models use soft values and fuzzy sets to navigate uncertain environments.This study focuses on the application of SC methods to predict backbreak,a common issue in blasting operations within mining and civil projects.Backbreak,which refers to the unintended fracturing of rock beyond the desired blast perimeter,can significantly impact project timelines and costs.This study aims to explore how SC methods can be effectively employed to anticipate and mitigate the undesirable consequences of blasting operations,specifically focusing on backbreak prediction.The research explores the complexities of backbreak prediction and highlights the potential benefits of utilizing SC methods to address this challenging issue in geo-engineering projects.

Deployment of Edge Computing Nodes in IoT:Effective Implementation of Simulated Annealing Method Based on User Location

Edge computing paradigm for 5G architecture has been considered as one of the most effective ways to realize low latency and highly reliable communication,which brings computing tasks and network resources to the edge of network.The deployment of edge computing nodes is a key factor affecting the service performance of edge computing systems.In this paper,we propose a method for deploying edge computing nodes based on user location.Through the combination of Simulation of Urban Mobility(SUMO)and Network Simulator-3(NS-3),a simulation platform is built to generate data of hotspot areas in Io T scenario.By effectively using the data generated by the communication between users in Io T scenario,the location area of the user terminal can be obtained.On this basis,the deployment problem is expressed as a mixed integer linear problem,which can be solved by Simulated Annealing(SA)method.The analysis of the results shows that,compared with the traditional method,the proposed method has faster convergence speed and better performance.

Real-Time Monitoring Method for Cow Rumination Behavior Based on Edge Computing and Improved MobileNet v3

[Objective]Real-time monitoring of cow ruminant behavior is of paramount importance for promptly obtaining relevant information about cow health and predicting cow diseases.Currently,various strategies have been proposed for monitoring cow ruminant behavior,including video surveillance,sound recognition,and sensor monitoring methods.How‐ever,the application of edge device gives rise to the issue of inadequate real-time performance.To reduce the volume of data transmission and cloud computing workload while achieving real-time monitoring of dairy cow rumination behavior,a real-time monitoring method was proposed for cow ruminant behavior based on edge computing.[Methods]Autono‐mously designed edge devices were utilized to collect and process six-axis acceleration signals from cows in real-time.Based on these six-axis data,two distinct strategies,federated edge intelligence and split edge intelligence,were investigat‐ed for the real-time recognition of cow ruminant behavior.Focused on the real-time recognition method for cow ruminant behavior leveraging federated edge intelligence,the CA-MobileNet v3 network was proposed by enhancing the MobileNet v3 network with a collaborative attention mechanism.Additionally,a federated edge intelligence model was designed uti‐lizing the CA-MobileNet v3 network and the FedAvg federated aggregation algorithm.In the study on split edge intelli‐gence,a split edge intelligence model named MobileNet-LSTM was designed by integrating the MobileNet v3 network with a fusion collaborative attention mechanism and the Bi-LSTM network.[Results and Discussions]Through compara‐tive experiments with MobileNet v3 and MobileNet-LSTM,the federated edge intelligence model based on CA-Mo‐bileNet v3 achieved an average Precision rate,Recall rate,F1-Score,Specificity,and Accuracy of 97.1%,97.9%,97.5%,98.3%,and 98.2%,respectively,yielding the best recognition performance.[Conclusions]It is provided a real-time and effective method for monitoring cow ruminant behavior,and the proposed federated edge intelligence model can be ap‐plied in practical settings.

Direct computing methods for turn flows in traffic assignment

Two methods based on a slight modification of the regular traffic assignmentalgorithms are proposed to directly compute turn flows instead of estimating them from link flows orobtaining them by expanding the networks. The first one is designed on the path-turn incidencerelationship, and it is similar to the computational procedure of link flows. It applies to thetraffic assignment algorithms that can provide detailed path structures. The second utilizes thelink-turn incidence relationship and the conservation of flow on links, a law deriving from thisrelationship. It is actually an improved version of Dial's logit assignment algorithm. The proposedapproaches can avoid the shortcomings both of the estimation methods, e. g. Furness's model andFrator's model, and of the network-expanding method in precision, stability and computation scale.Finally, they are validated by numerical examples.

Load prediction of grid computing resources based on ARSVR method

Based on the monitoring and discovery service 4 （MDS4） model, a monitoring model for a data grid which supports reliable storage and intrusion tolerance is designed. The load characteristics and indicators of computing resources in the monitoring model are analyzed. Then, a time-series autoregressive prediction model is devised. And an autoregressive support vector regression（ ARSVR） monitoring method is put forward to predict the node load of the data grid. Finally, a model for historical observations sequences is set up using the autoregressive （AR） model and the model order is determined. The support vector regression（SVR） model is trained using historical data and the regression function is obtained. Simulation results show that the ARSVR method can effectively predict the node load.

Computing Power Network:A Survey

With the rapid development of cloud computing,edge computing,and smart devices,computing power resources indicate a trend of ubiquitous deployment.The traditional network architecture cannot efficiently leverage these distributed computing power resources due to computing power island effect.To overcome these problems and improve network efficiency,a new network computing paradigm is proposed,i.e.,Computing Power Network(CPN).Computing power network can connect ubiquitous and heterogenous computing power resources through networking to realize computing power scheduling flexibly.In this survey,we make an exhaustive review on the state-of-the-art research efforts on computing power network.We first give an overview of computing power network,including definition,architecture,and advantages.Next,a comprehensive elaboration of issues on computing power modeling,information awareness and announcement,resource allocation,network forwarding,computing power transaction platform and resource orchestration platform is presented.The computing power network testbed is built and evaluated.The applications and use cases in computing power network are discussed.Then,the key enabling technologies for computing power network are introduced.Finally,open challenges and future research directions are presented as well.

Numerical Analysis of Bacterial Meningitis Stochastic Delayed Epidemic Model through Computational Methods

Based on theWorld Health Organization(WHO),Meningitis is a severe infection of the meninges,the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.It is a devastating disease and remains a significant public health challenge.This study investigates a bacterial meningitis model through deterministic and stochastic versions.Four-compartment population dynamics explain the concept,particularly the susceptible population,carrier,infected,and recovered.The model predicts the nonnegative equilibrium points and reproduction number,i.e.,the Meningitis-Free Equilibrium(MFE),and Meningitis-Existing Equilibrium(MEE).For the stochastic version of the existing deterministicmodel,the twomethodologies studied are transition probabilities and non-parametric perturbations.Also,positivity,boundedness,extinction,and disease persistence are studiedrigorouslywiththe helpofwell-known theorems.Standard and nonstandard techniques such as EulerMaruyama,stochastic Euler,stochastic Runge Kutta,and stochastic nonstandard finite difference in the sense of delay have been presented for computational analysis of the stochastic model.Unfortunately,standard methods fail to restore the biological properties of the model,so the stochastic nonstandard finite difference approximation is offered as an efficient,low-cost,and independent of time step size.In addition,the convergence,local,and global stability around the equilibria of the nonstandard computational method is studied by assuming the perturbation effect is zero.The simulations and comparison of the methods are presented to support the theoretical results and for the best visualization of results.

Air-Ground Collaborative Mobile Edge Computing:Architecture,Challenges,and Opportunities

By pushing computation,cache,and network control to the edge,mobile edge computing(MEC)is expected to play a leading role in fifth generation(5G)and future sixth generation(6G).Nevertheless,facing ubiquitous fast-growing computational demands,it is impossible for a single MEC paradigm to effectively support high-quality intelligent services at end user equipments(UEs).To address this issue,we propose an air-ground collaborative MEC(AGCMEC)architecture in this article.The proposed AGCMEC integrates all potentially available MEC servers within air and ground in the envisioned 6G,by a variety of collaborative ways to provide computation services at their best for UEs.Firstly,we introduce the AGC-MEC architecture and elaborate three typical use cases.Then,we discuss four main challenges in the AGC-MEC as well as their potential solutions.Next,we conduct a case study of collaborative service placement for AGC-MEC to validate the effectiveness of the proposed collaborative service placement strategy.Finally,we highlight several potential research directions of the AGC-MEC.

UAV-assisted cooperative offloading energy efficiency system for mobile edge computing

Reliable communication and intensive computing power cannot be provided effectively by temporary hot spots in disaster areas and complex terrain ground infrastructure.Mitigating this has greatly developed the application and integration of UAV and Mobile Edge Computing(MEC)to the Internet of Things(loT).However,problems such as multi-user and huge data flow in large areas,which contradict the reality that a single UAV is constrained by limited computing power,still exist.Due to allowing UAV collaboration to accomplish complex tasks,cooperative task offloading between multiple UAVs must meet the interdependence of tasks and realize parallel processing,which reduces the computing power consumption and endurance pressure of terminals.Considering the computing requirements of the user terminal,delay constraint of a computing task,energy constraint,and safe distance of UAV,we constructed a UAV-Assisted cooperative offloading energy efficiency system for mobile edge computing to minimize user terminal energy consumption.However,the resulting optimization problem is originally nonconvex and thus,difficult to solve optimally.To tackle this problem,we developed an energy efficiency optimization algorithm using Block Coordinate Descent(BCD)that decomposes the problem into three convex subproblems.Furthermore,we jointly optimized the number of local computing tasks,number of computing offloaded tasks,trajectories of UAV,and offloading matching relationship between multi-UAVs and multiuser terminals.Simulation results show that the proposed approach is suitable for different channel conditions and significantly saves the user terminal energy consumption compared with other benchmark schemes.

Multiframe-integrated, in-sensor computing using persistent photoconductivity

The utilization of processing capabilities within the detector holds significant promise in addressing energy consumption and latency challenges. Especially in the context of dynamic motion recognition tasks, where substantial data transfers are necessitated by the generation of extensive information and the need for frame-by-frame analysis. Herein, we present a novel approach for dynamic motion recognition, leveraging a spatial-temporal in-sensor computing system rooted in multiframe integration by employing photodetector. Our approach introduced a retinomorphic MoS_(2) photodetector device for motion detection and analysis. The device enables the generation of informative final states, nonlinearly embedding both past and present frames. Subsequent multiply-accumulate (MAC) calculations are efficiently performed as the classifier. When evaluating our devices for target detection and direction classification, we achieved an impressive recognition accuracy of 93.5%. By eliminating the need for frame-by-frame analysis, our system not only achieves high precision but also facilitates energy-efficient in-sensor computing.

Recent Advances in In-Memory Computing:Exploring Memristor and Memtransistor Arrays with 2D Materials

The conventional computing architecture faces substantial chal-lenges,including high latency and energy consumption between memory and processing units.In response,in-memory computing has emerged as a promising alternative architecture,enabling computing operations within memory arrays to overcome these limitations.Memristive devices have gained significant attention as key components for in-memory computing due to their high-density arrays,rapid response times,and ability to emulate biological synapses.Among these devices,two-dimensional(2D)material-based memristor and memtransistor arrays have emerged as particularly promising candidates for next-generation in-memory computing,thanks to their exceptional performance driven by the unique properties of 2D materials,such as layered structures,mechanical flexibility,and the capability to form heterojunctions.This review delves into the state-of-the-art research on 2D material-based memristive arrays,encompassing critical aspects such as material selection,device perfor-mance metrics,array structures,and potential applications.Furthermore,it provides a comprehensive overview of the current challenges and limitations associated with these arrays,along with potential solutions.The primary objective of this review is to serve as a significant milestone in realizing next-generation in-memory computing utilizing 2D materials and bridge the gap from single-device characterization to array-level and system-level implementations of neuromorphic computing,leveraging the potential of 2D material-based memristive devices.

MCWOA Scheduler:Modified Chimp-Whale Optimization Algorithm for Task Scheduling in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing provides a diverse and adaptable resource pool over the internet,allowing users to tap into various resources as needed.It has been seen as a robust solution to relevant challenges.A significant delay can hamper the performance of IoT-enabled cloud platforms.However,efficient task scheduling can lower the cloud infrastructure’s energy consumption,thus maximizing the service provider’s revenue by decreasing user job processing times.The proposed Modified Chimp-Whale Optimization Algorithm called Modified Chimp-Whale Optimization Algorithm(MCWOA),combines elements of the Chimp Optimization Algorithm(COA)and the Whale Optimization Algorithm(WOA).To enhance MCWOA’s identification precision,the Sobol sequence is used in the population initialization phase,ensuring an even distribution of the population across the solution space.Moreover,the traditional MCWOA’s local search capabilities are augmented by incorporating the whale optimization algorithm’s bubble-net hunting and random search mechanisms into MCWOA’s position-updating process.This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach using a two-story rigid frame and a simply supported beam model.Simulated outcomes reveal that the new method outperforms the original MCWOA,especially in multi-damage detection scenarios.MCWOA excels in avoiding false positives and enhancing computational speed,making it an optimal choice for structural damage detection.The efficiency of the proposed MCWOA is assessed against metrics such as energy usage,computational expense,task duration,and delay.The simulated data indicates that the new MCWOA outpaces other methods across all metrics.The study also references the Whale Optimization Algorithm(WOA),Chimp Algorithm(CA),Ant Lion Optimizer(ALO),Genetic Algorithm(GA)and Grey Wolf Optimizer(GWO).

Fabrication and integration of photonic devices for phase-change memory and neuromorphic computing

In the past decade,there has been tremendous progress in integrating chalcogenide phase-change materials(PCMs)on the silicon photonic platform for non-volatile memory to neuromorphic in-memory computing applications.In particular,these non von Neumann computational elements and systems benefit from mass manufacturing of silicon photonic integrated circuits(PICs)on 8-inch wafers using a 130 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor line.Chip manufacturing based on deep-ultraviolet lithography and electron-beam lithography enables rapid prototyping of PICs,which can be integrated with high-quality PCMs based on the wafer-scale sputtering technique as a back-end-of-line process.In this article,we present an overview of recent advances in waveguide integrated PCM memory cells,functional devices,and neuromorphic systems,with an emphasis on fabrication and integration processes to attain state-of-the-art device performance.After a short overview of PCM based photonic devices,we discuss the materials properties of the functional layer as well as the progress on the light guiding layer,namely,the silicon and germanium waveguide platforms.Next,we discuss the cleanroom fabrication flow of waveguide devices integrated with thin films and nanowires,silicon waveguides and plasmonic microheaters for the electrothermal switching of PCMs and mixed-mode operation.Finally,the fabrication of photonic and photonic–electronic neuromorphic computing systems is reviewed.These systems consist of arrays of PCM memory elements for associative learning,matrix-vector multiplication,and pattern recognition.With large-scale integration,the neuromorphic photonic computing paradigm holds the promise to outperform digital electronic accelerators by taking the advantages of ultra-high bandwidth,high speed,and energy-efficient operation in running machine learning algorithms.

Anti-Byzantine Attacks Enabled Vehicle Selection for Asynchronous Federated Learning in Vehicular Edge Computing

In vehicle edge computing(VEC),asynchronous federated learning(AFL)is used,where the edge receives a local model and updates the global model,effectively reducing the global aggregation latency.Due to different amounts of local data,computing capabilities and locations of the vehicles,renewing the global model with same weight is inappropriate.The above factors will affect the local calculation time and upload time of the local model,and the vehicle may also be affected by Byzantine attacks,leading to the deterioration of the vehicle data.However,based on deep reinforcement learning(DRL),we can consider these factors comprehensively to eliminate vehicles with poor performance as much as possible and exclude vehicles that have suffered Byzantine attacks before AFL.At the same time,when aggregating AFL,we can focus on those vehicles with better performance to improve the accuracy and safety of the system.In this paper,we proposed a vehicle selection scheme based on DRL in VEC.In this scheme,vehicle’s mobility,channel conditions with temporal variations,computational resources with temporal variations,different data amount,transmission channel status of vehicles as well as Byzantine attacks were taken into account.Simulation results show that the proposed scheme effectively improves the safety and accuracy of the global model.

Complementary memtransistors for neuromorphic computing: How, what and why

Memtransistors in which the source-drain channel conductance can be nonvolatilely manipulated through the gate signals have emerged as promising components for implementing neuromorphic computing.On the other side,it is known that the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor(CMOS)field effect transistors have played the fundamental role in the modern integrated circuit technology.Therefore,will complementary memtransistors(CMT)also play such a role in the future neuromorphic circuits and chips?In this review,various types of materials and physical mechanisms for constructing CMT(how)are inspected with their merits and need-to-address challenges discussed.Then the unique properties(what)and poten-tial applications of CMT in different learning algorithms/scenarios of spiking neural networks(why)are reviewed,including super-vised rule,reinforcement one,dynamic vision with in-sensor computing,etc.Through exploiting the complementary structure-related novel functions,significant reduction of hardware consuming,enhancement of energy/efficiency ratio and other advan-tages have been gained,illustrating the alluring prospect of design technology co-optimization(DTCO)of CMT towards neuro-morphic computing.

MatDEM-fast matrix computing of the discrete element method

Discrete element method can effectively simulate the discontinuity,inhomogeneity and large deformation and failure of rock and soil.Based on the innovative matrix computing of the discrete element method,the highperformance discrete element software MatDEM may handle millions of elements in one computer,and enables the discrete element simulation at the engineering scale.It supports heat calculation,multi-field and fluidsolid coupling numerical simulations.Furthermore,the software integrates pre-processing,solver,postprocessing,and powerful secondary development,allowing recompiling new discrete element software.The basic principles of the DEM,the implement and development of the MatDEM software,and its applications are introduced in this paper.The software and sample source code are available online(http://matdem.com).

A Method for Trust Management in Cloud Computing: Data Coloring by Cloud Watermarking

With the development of Internet technology and human computing, the computing environment has changed dramatically over the last three decades. Cloud computing emerges as a paradigm of Internet computing in which dynamical, scalable and often virtuMized resources are provided as services. With virtualization technology, cloud computing offers diverse services （such as virtual computing, virtual storage, virtual bandwidth, etc.） for the public by means of multi-tenancy mode. Although users are enjoying the capabilities of super-computing and mass storage supplied by cloud computing, cloud security still remains as a hot spot problem, which is in essence the trust management between data owners and storage service providers. In this paper, we propose a data coloring method based on cloud watermarking to recognize and ensure mutual reputations. The experimental results show that the robustness of reverse cloud generator can guarantee users＇ embedded social reputation identifications. Hence, our work provides a reference solution to the critical problem of cloud security.

Parallel Computing of a Variational Data Assimilation Model for GPS/MET Observation Using the Ray-Tracing Method

The Spectral Statistical Interpolation (SSI) analysis system of NCEP is used to assimilate meteorological data from the Global Positioning Satellite System (GPS/MET) refraction angles with the variational technique. Verified by radiosonde, including GPS/MET observations into the analysis makes an overall improvement to the analysis variables of temperature, winds, and water vapor. However, the variational model with the ray-tracing method is quite expensive for numerical weather prediction and climate research. For example, about 4 000 GPS/MET refraction angles need to be assimilated to produce an ideal global analysis. Just one iteration of minimization will take more than 24 hours CPU time on the NCEP's Cray C90 computer. Although efforts have been taken to reduce the computational cost, it is still prohibitive for operational data assimilation. In this paper, a parallel version of the three-dimensional variational data assimilation model of GPS/MET occultation measurement suitable for massive parallel processors architectures is developed. The divide-and-conquer strategy is used to achieve parallelism and is implemented by message passing. The authors present the principles for the code's design and examine the performance on the state-of-the-art parallel computers in China. The results show that this parallel model scales favorably as the number of processors is increased. With the Memory-IO technique implemented by the author, the wall clock time per iteration used for assimilating 1420 refraction angles is reduced from 45 s to 12 s using 1420 processors. This suggests that the new parallelized code has the potential to be useful in numerical weather prediction (NWP) and climate studies.

Security Implications of Edge Computing in Cloud Networks

Security issues in cloud networks and edge computing have become very common. This research focuses on analyzing such issues and developing the best solutions. A detailed literature review has been conducted in this regard. The findings have shown that many challenges are linked to edge computing, such as privacy concerns, security breaches, high costs, low efficiency, etc. Therefore, there is a need to implement proper security measures to overcome these issues. Using emerging trends, like machine learning, encryption, artificial intelligence, real-time monitoring, etc., can help mitigate security issues. They can also develop a secure and safe future in cloud computing. It was concluded that the security implications of edge computing can easily be covered with the help of new technologies and techniques.

Heuristic Computing Methods for Contact Plan Design in the Spatial-Node-Based Internet of Everything

To satisfy the increasing demands of high-speed transmission, high-efficiency computing, and real-time communications in the high-dynamic and heterogeneous networks, the Contact Plan Design(CPD) has attracted continuous attention in recent years, especially for the spatial-node-based Internet of Everything(IoE). In this paper, we study the NP-hardness of contact scheduling and the attenuation of atmospheric precipitation in the spatial-node-based IoE. Two heuristic computing methods for contact plan design are proposed by comprehensively considering the time-varying topology, the intermittent connectivity, and the adaptive transmission in different weather conditions, which are named Contact Plan Design-Particle Swarm Optimization(CPD-PSO) and Contact Plan Design-Greedy algorithm with the Minimum Delivery Time(CPD-GMDT) separately. For the population-based algorithm, CPD-PSO not only solves the CPD problem with a limited-resource condition, but also dynamically adjusts the search scope to ensure the continuous searching capability of the algorithm. For the CPD-GMDT that makes CP decisions based on the current state, the algorithm uses the idea of greedy algorithm to schedule Satellite-Platform Links(SPLs) and Inter Satellite Links(ISLs) respectively using the strategies of optimal matching and load balancing. The simulation results show that the proposed CPD-PSO outperforms Contact Plan Design-Genetic Algorithm(CPD-GA) in terms of fitness and delivery time, and CPD-GMDT presents better overall delay than Fair Contact Plan(FCP).