Dipper Throated Optimization Algorithm for Unconstrained Function and Feature Selection

Dipper throated optimization(DTO)algorithm is a novel with a very efficient metaheuristic inspired by the dipper throated bird.DTO has its unique hunting technique by performing rapid bowing movements.To show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm,DTO is tested and compared to the algorithms of Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO),Whale Optimization Algorithm(WOA),Grey Wolf Optimizer(GWO),and Genetic Algorithm(GA)based on the seven unimodal benchmark functions.Then,ANOVA and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests are performed to confirm the effectiveness of the DTO compared to other optimization techniques.Additionally,to demonstrate the proposed algorithm’s suitability for solving complex realworld issues,DTO is used to solve the feature selection problem.The strategy of using DTOs as feature selection is evaluated using commonly used data sets from the University of California at Irvine(UCI)repository.The findings indicate that the DTO outperforms all other algorithms in addressing feature selection issues,demonstrating the proposed algorithm’s capabilities to solve complex real-world situations.

A Hybrid Neural Network and Box-Jenkins Models for Time Series Forecasting

Time series forecasting plays a significant role in numerous applications,including but not limited to,industrial planning,water consumption,medical domains,exchange rates and consumer price index.The main problem is insufficient forecasting accuracy.The present study proposes a hybrid forecastingmethods to address this need.The proposed method includes three models.The first model is based on the autoregressive integrated moving average(ARIMA)statistical model;the second model is a back propagation neural network(BPNN)with adaptive slope and momentum parameters;and the thirdmodel is a hybridization between ARIMA and BPNN(ARIMA/BPNN)and artificial neural networks and ARIMA(ARIMA/ANN)to gain the benefits of linear and nonlinearmodeling.The forecasting models proposed in this study are used to predict the indices of the consumer price index(CPI),and predict the expected number of cancer patients in the Ibb Province in Yemen.Statistical standard measures used to evaluate the proposed method include(i)mean square error,(ii)mean absolute error,(iii)root mean square error,and(iv)mean absolute percentage error.Based on the computational results,the improvement rate of forecasting the CPI dataset was 5%,71%,and 4%for ARIMA/BPNN model,ARIMA/ANN model,and BPNN model respectively;while the result for cancer patients’dataset was 7%,200%,and 19%for ARIMA/BPNNmodel,ARIMA/ANN model,and BPNNmodel respectively.Therefore,it is obvious that the proposed method reduced the randomness degree,and the alterations affected the time series with data non-linearity.The ARIMA/ANN model outperformed each of its components when it was applied separately in terms of increasing the accuracy of forecasting and decreasing the overall errors of forecasting.

Annealing Harmony Search Algorithm to Solve the Nurse Rostering Problem

A real-life problem is the rostering of nurses at hospitals.It is a famous nondeterministic,polynomial time(NP)-hard combinatorial optimization problem.Handling the real-world nurse rostering problem(NRP)constraints in distributing workload equally between available nurses is still a difficult task to achieve.The international shortage of nurses,in addition to the spread of COVID-19,has made it more difficult to provide convenient rosters for nurses.Based on the literature,heuristic-based methods are the most commonly used methods to solve the NRP due to its computational complexity,especially for large rosters.Heuristic-based algorithms in general have problems striking the balance between diversification and intensification.Therefore,this paper aims to introduce a novel metaheuristic hybridization that combines the enhanced harmony search algorithm(EHSA)with the simulated annealing(SA)algorithm called the annealing harmony search algorithm(AHSA).The AHSA is used to solve NRP from a Malaysian hospital.The AHSA performance is compared to the EHSA,climbing harmony search algorithm(CHSA),deluge harmony search algorithm(DHSA),and harmony annealing search algorithm(HAS).The results show that the AHSA performs better than the other compared algorithms for all the tested instances where the best ever results reported for the UKMMC dataset.