A New Approach for Software Cost Estimation with a Hybrid Tabu Search and Invasive Weed Optimization Algorithms

Due to the ever-increasing progress of software projects and their widespread impact on all industries, models must be designed and implemented to analyze and estimate costs and time. Until now, most of the software cost estimation (SCE) has been based on the analyst’s experiences and similar projects and these models are often inaccurate and inappropriate. The project will not be finished in the specified time and will include additional costs. Algorithmic models such as COCOMO are not very accurate in SCE. They are linear and the appropriate value for effort factors is not considered. On the other hand, artificial intelligence models have made significant progress in the cost estimation modeling of software projects in the past three decades. These models determine the correct value for effort factors through iteration and training, providing a more accurate estimate compared to algorithmic models. This paper employs a hybrid model incorporating the Tabu Search (TS) algorithm and the Invasive Weed Optimization (IWO) algorithm for SCE. IWO algorithm solutions are improved using the TS algorithm. The NASA60, NASA63, NASA93, KEMERER, and MAXWELL datasets are used for the evaluation. The proposed model has been able to reduce the MMRE rate compared to the IWO algorithm and the TS algorithm. The proposed model on the NASA60, NASA63, NASA93, KEMERER, and MAXWELL datasets obtained values of MMRE of 15.43, 17.05, 28.75, 58.43, and 22.46, respectively

The Ability of implementing Cloud Computing in Higher Education - KRG

Cloud computing is a new technology. CC is an online service can store and retrieve information, without the requirement for physical access to the files on hard drives. The information is available on a system, server where it can be accessed by clients when it’s needed. Lack of the ICT infrastructure of universities of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) can use  this new technology, because of economical advantages, enhanced data managements, better maintenance, high performance, improve availability and accessibility therefore achieving an easy maintenance  of organizational  institutes. The aim of this research is to find the ability and possibility to implement the cloud computing in higher education of the KRG. This research will help the universities to start establishing a cloud computing in their services. A survey has been conducted to evaluate the CC services that have been applied to KRG universities have by using cloud computing services. The results showed that the most of KRG universities are using SaaS. MHE-KRG universities and institutions are confronting many challenges and concerns in term of security, user privacy, lack of integration with current systems, and data and documents ownership

Understanding Student’s Learning & e-Learning Style Before University Enrollment: A Case Study in Five High Schools / Sulaimani-KRG

In spite of the advantages of e-learning which have been talked about in different past researches; it is a basic issue to better understand the reasons why a few numbers of students have been disappointed with the e-learning background. Along these lines, these examinations of the researches among students are fulfillment, behavioral goals, and the adequacy of the conventional learning framework that KRG utilizes with worldwide using of e-learning system. A total of 500 secondary school students of 11 and 12 grades was surveyed using a standard survey of questionnaires. The outcomes demonstrated that apparent self-viability is a basic factor that impacts students' fulfillment with the e-learning framework and shows how the customary framework has numerous disadvantages. Seen convenience and saw fulfillment both add the student’s behavioral expectation to utilize the e-learning framework. Besides, e-learning viability can be affected by multimedia guideline, intuitive learning exercises, and e-learning framework quality. This examination proposes an applied model for student’s fulfillment, behavioral aim, and viability of utilizing the e-learning framework before enrolling in the university

Hybrid Soft Computing Approach for Determining Water Quality Indicator: Euphrates River

Recent approaches toward solving the regression problems which are characterized by dynamic and nonlinear pattern such as machine learning modeling (including artificial intelligence (AI) approaches) have proven to be useful and successful tools for prediction. Approaches that integrate predictive model with optimization algorithm such as hybrid soft computing have resulted in the enhancement of the accuracy and preciseness of models during problem predictions. In this research, the implementation of hybrid evolutionary model based on integrated support vector regression (SVR) with firefly algorithm (FFA) was investigated for water quality indicator prediction. The monthly water quality indicator (WQI) that was used to test the hybrid model over a period of 10 years belongs to the Euphrates River, Iraq. The use of the WQI as an application for this research was stimulated based on the fact that WQI is usually calculated using a manual formulation which takes much time, efforts and occasionally may be associated with errors that were not intended during the subindex calculations. The parameters considered during the formulation of the prediction model were water quality parameters as input and WQI as output. The SVR model was used to verify the accuracy of the inspected SVR–FFA model. Different statistical metrics such as best fit of goodness and absolute error measures were used to evaluate the model. The performance of the hybrid model in recognizing the dynamic and nonlinear pattern characteristics was high and remarkable compared to the pure model. The SVR–FFA model was also demonstrated to be a good and robust soft computing technique toward the prediction of WQI. The proposed model enhanced the absolute error measurements (e.g., root mean square error and mean absolute error) over the SVR-based model by 42 and 58%, respectively

Rainfall Pattern Forecasting Using Novel Hybrid Intelligent Model Based ANFIS-FFA

In this study, a new hybrid model integrated adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system with Firefly Optimization algorithm (ANFIS-FFA), is proposed for forecasting monthly rainfall with one-month lead time. The proposed ANFIS-FFA model is compared with standard ANFIS model, achieved using predictor-predictand data from the Pahang river catchment located in the Malaysian Peninsular. To develop the predictive models, a total of fifteen years of data were selected, split into nine years for training and six years for testing the accuracy of the proposed ANFIS-FFA model. To attain optimal models, several input combinations of antecedents’ rainfall data were used as predictor variables with sixteen different model combination considered for rainfall prediction. The performances of ANFIS-FFA models were evaluated using five statistical indices: the coefficient of determination (R2), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), Willmott’s Index (WI), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE). The results attained show that, the ANFIS-FFA model performed better than the standard ANFIS model, with high values of R2, NSE and WI and low values of RMSE and MAE. In test phase, the monthly rainfall predictions using ANFIS-FFA yielded R2, NSE and WI of about 0.999, 0.998 and 0.999, respectively, while the RMSE and MAE values were found to be about 0.272 mm and 0.133 mm, respectively. It was also evident that the performances of the ANFIS-FFA and ANFIS models were very much governed by the input data size where the ANFIS-FFA model resulted in an increase in the value of R2, NSE and WI from 0.463, 0.207 and 0.548, using only one antecedent month of data as an input (t-1), to almost 0.999, 0.998 and 0.999, respectively, using five antecedent months of predictor data (t-1, t-2, t-3, t-6, t-12, t-24). We ascertain that the ANFIS-FFA is a prudent modelling approach that could be adopted for the simulation of monthly rainfall in the present study region

Novel Hybrid Data-Intelligence Model for Forecasting Monthly Rainfall with Uncertainty Analysis

In this research, three different evolutionary algorithms (EAs), namely, particle swarm optimization (PSO), genetic algorithm (GA) and differential evolution (DE), are integrated with the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model. The developed hybrid models are proposed to forecast rainfall time series. The capability of the proposed evolutionary hybrid ANFIS was compared with the conventional ANFIS in forecasting monthly rainfall for the Pahang watershed, Malaysia. To select the optimal model, sixteen different combinations of six different lag attributes taking into account the effect of monthly, seasonal, and annual history were considered. The performances of the forecasting models were assessed using various forecasting skill indicators. Moreover, an uncertainty analysis of the developed forecasting models was performed to evaluate the ability of the hybrid ANFIS models. The bound width of 95% confidence interval (d-factor) and the percentage of observed samples which was enveloped by 95% forecasted uncertainties (95PPU) were used for this purpose. The results indicated that all the hybrid ANFIS models performed better than the conventional ANFIS and for all input combinations. The obtained results showed that the models with best input combinations had the (95PPU and d-factor) values of (91.67 and 1.41), (91.03 and 1.41), (89.74 and 1.42), and (88.46 and 1.43) for ANFIS-PSO, ANFIS-GA, ANFIS-DE, and the conventional ANFIS, respectively. Based on the 95PPU and d-factor, it is concluded that all hybrid ANFIS models have an acceptable degree of uncertainty in forecasting monthly rainfall. The results of this study proved that the hybrid ANFIS with an evolutionary algorithm is a reliable modeling technique for forecasting monthly rainfall.Validerad;2019;Nivå 2;2019-04-12 (johcin)</p