An ensemble of intelligent water drop algorithm for feature selection optimization problem

Master River Multiple Creeks Intelligent Water Drops (MRMC-IWD) is an ensemble model of the intelligent water drop, whereby a divide-and-conquer strategy is utilized to improve the search process. In this paper, the potential of the MRMC-IWD using real-world optimization problems related to feature selection and classification tasks is assessed. An experimental study on a number of publicly available benchmark data sets and two real-world problems, namely human motion detection and motor fault detection, are conducted. Comparative studies pertaining to the features reduction and classification accuracies using different evaluation techniques (consistency-based, CFS, and FRFS) and classifiers (i.e., C4.5, VQNN, and SVM) are conducted. The results ascertain the effectiveness of the MRMC-IWD in improving the performance of the original IWD algorithm as well as undertaking real-world optimization problems

Crow search algorithm with time varying flight length strategies for feature selection

Feature Selection (FS) is an efficient technique use to get rid of irrelevant, redundant and noisy attributes in high dimensional datasets while increasing the efficacy of machine learning classification. The CSA is a modest and efficient metaheuristic algorithm which has been used to overcome several FS issues. The flight length (fl) parameter in CSA governs crows\u27 search ability. In CSA, fl is set to a fixed value. As a result, the CSA is plagued by the problem of being hoodwinked in local minimum. This article suggests a remedy to this issue by bringing five new concepts of time dependent fl in CSA for feature selection methods including linearly decreasing flight length, sigmoid decreasing flight length, chaotic decreasing flight length, simulated annealing decreasing flight length, and logarithm decreasing flight length. The proposed approaches\u27 performance is assessed using 13 standard UCI datasets. The simulation result portrays that the suggested feature selection approaches overtake the original CSA, with the chaotic-CSA approach beating the original CSA and the other four proposed approaches for the FS task

Binary Black Widow Optimization Algorithm for Feature Selection Problems

This thesis addresses feature selection (FS) problems, which is a primary stage in data mining. FS is a significant pre-processing stage to enhance the performance of the process with regards to computation cost and accuracy to offer a better comprehension of stored data by removing the unnecessary and irrelevant features from the basic dataset. However, because of the size of the problem, FS is known to be very challenging and has been classified as an NP-hard problem. Traditional methods can only be used to solve small problems. Therefore, metaheuristic algorithms (MAs) are becoming powerful methods for addressing the FS problems. Recently, a new metaheuristic algorithm, known as the Black Widow Optimization (BWO) algorithm, had great results when applied to a range of daunting design problems in the field of engineering, and has not yet been applied to FS problems. In this thesis, we are proposing a modified Binary Black Widow Optimization (BBWO) algorithm to solve FS problems. The FS evaluation method used in this study is the wrapper method, designed to keep a degree of balance between two significant processes: (i) minimize the number of selected features (ii) maintain a high level of accuracy. To achieve this, we have used the k-nearest-neighbor (KNN) machine learning algorithm in the learning stage intending to evaluate the accuracy of the solutions generated by the (BBWO). The proposed method is applied to twenty-eight public datasets provided by UCI. The results are then compared with up-to-date FS algorithms. Our results show that the BBWO works as good as, or even better in some cases, when compared to those FS algorithms. However, the results also show that the BBWO faces the problem of slow convergence due to the use of a population of solutions and the lack of local exploitation. To further improve the exploitation process and enhance the BBWO’s performance, we are proposing an improvement to the BBWO algorithm by combining it with a local metaheuristic algorithm based on the hill-climbing algorithm (HCA). This improvement method (IBBWO) is also tested on the twenty-eight datasets provided by UCI and the results are then compared with the basic BBWO and the up-to-date FS algorithms. Results show that the (IBBWO) produces better results in most cases when compared to basic BBWO. The results also show that IBBWO outperforms the most known FS algorithms in many cases

History without time : Buffon's Natural History, as a non-mathematical physique

International audienceWhile "natural history" is practically synonymous with the name of Buffon, the term itself has been otherwise overlooked by historians of science. This essay attempts to address this omission by investigating the meanings of "physique," "natural philosophy," and "history," among other terms, with the purpose of understanding Buffon's actual objectives. It also shows that Buffon never claimed to be a Newtonian and should not be considered as such; the goal is to provide a historical analysis that resituates Buffon's thought within his own era. This is done, primarily, by eschewing the often-studied question of time in Buffon. Instead, this study examines the nontemporal meanings of the word "history" within the naturalist's theory and method. The title of his Natural History is examined both as an indicator of the kind of science that Buffon was hoping to achieve and as a source of great misinterpretation among his peers. Unlike Buffon, many of his contemporaries actually envisioned the study of nature from a Baconian perspective where history was restricted to the mere collection of facts and where philosophy, which was the implicit and ultimate goal of studying nature, was seen, at least for the present, as unrealizable. Buffon confronts this tendency insofar as his Histoire naturelle claims to be the real physique that, along with describing nature, also sought to identify general laws and provide clear insight into what true knowledge of nature is or should be. According to Buffon, history (both natural and civil) is not analogous to mathematics; it is a nonmathematical method whose scope encompasses both nature and society. This methodological stance gives rise to the "physicization" of certain moral concepts--a gesture that was interpreted by his contemporaries as Epicurean and atheist. In addition, Buffon reduces a number of metaphysically tainted historical concepts (e.g., antediluvian monuments) to objects of physical analysis, thereby confronting the very foundation of natural theology. In Buffon, as this essay makes clear, natural history is paving the way for a new physique (science of natural beings), independent from mathematics and from God, that treats naturalia in a philosophical and "historical" manner that is not necessarily "temporal.

The Theorist: Thomas Burnet and his sacred history of the earth

Thomas Burnet’s Telluris theoria sacra and its English translation the Theory of the earth, published in two volumes between 1681 and 1690, was one of the most widely-discussed and controversial philosophical and theological works of late-seventeenth-century England. In it, Burnet attempted to trace the earth’s history from the Creation, through the Deluge, Conflagration, and Millennium, to the final consummation. Despite its notoriety, a full, in-depth study of this work has yet to be produced in English. This thesis is a first step to providing such a study. The thesis is composed of six chapters. The first offers a detailed overview of the Theory’s two volumes and their historical context. Chapter two examines its philosophical, theological, scriptural, and antiquarian foundations. The third chapter looks at two early responses to the work, Burnet’s replies to these responses, and his hugely controversial supplement to the Theory, the Archaeologiae philosophicae, published in 1692. Chapter four examines the so-called “Burnet controversy”, a proliferation of writings which emerged following the publication of the Archaeologiae and which attacked the Theory and proposed alternative philosophical accounts of the earth’s history. The final two chapters explore the relationship between Burnet and two important Newtonians who were involved in the controversy, chapter five discussing William Whiston’s 1696 New theory of the earth and the sixth and final chapter analysing John Keill’s attack on and subsequent debate with Burnet

Systems Engineering

The book "Systems Engineering: Practice and Theory" is a collection of articles written by developers and researches from all around the globe. Mostly they present methodologies for separate Systems Engineering processes; others consider issues of adjacent knowledge areas and sub-areas that significantly contribute to systems development, operation, and maintenance. Case studies include aircraft, spacecrafts, and space systems development, post-analysis of data collected during operation of large systems etc. Important issues related to "bottlenecks" of Systems Engineering, such as complexity, reliability, and safety of different kinds of systems, creation, operation and maintenance of services, system-human communication, and management tasks done during system projects are addressed in the collection. This book is for people who are interested in the modern state of the Systems Engineering knowledge area and for systems engineers involved in different activities of the area. Some articles may be a valuable source for university lecturers and students; most of case studies can be directly used in Systems Engineering courses as illustrative materials

Oceanus.

v. 39, no. 2 (1996