Search results for "image processing"
showing 10 items of 3285 documents
Franchising in Europe: Exploring the Case of Spain with Self-organizing Time Maps
2016
Economic crises affect both the organizational side and the brand side of the franchise. Using self-organizing time maps, this study examines how franchise brand behavior influences decisions by potential franchisees in Spain. The findings confirm that franchising offers an alternative to the business turnaround strategy, which firms apply when faced with adverse changes in the environment such as those caused by the economic crisis in Spain. Results show that all franchise brands within the same sector behaved similarly, except for brands in the catering sector, which displayed varying responses to the economic changes. The authors discuss the implications of these results for future franc…
Tabu search with strategic oscillation for the maximally diverse grouping problem
2013
We propose new heuristic procedures for the maximally diverse grouping problem (MDGP). This NP-hard problem consists of forming maximally diverse groups—of equal or different size—from a given set of elements. The most general formulation, which we address, allows for the size of each group to fall within specified limits. The MDGP has applications in academics, such as creating diverse teams of students, or in training settings where it may be desired to create groups that are as diverse as possible. Search mechanisms, based on the tabu search methodology, are developed for the MDGP, including a strategic oscillation that enables search paths to cross a feasibility boundary. We evaluate co…
On the generalized directed rural postman problem
2014
The generalized directed rural postman problem (GDRPP) is a generic type of arc routing problem. In the present paper, it is described how many types of practically relevant single-vehicle routing problems can be modelled as GDRPPs. This demonstrates the versatility of the GDRPP and its importance as a unified model for postman problems. In addition, an exact and a heuristic solution method are presented. Computational experiments using two large sets of benchmark instances are performed. The results show high solution quality and thus demonstrate the practical usefulness of the approach.
GRASP with path relinking for the orienteering problem
2014
In this paper, we address an optimization problem resulting from the combination of the well-known travelling salesman and knapsack problems. In particular, we target the orienteering problem, originated in the context of sport, which consists of maximizing the total score associated with the vertices visited in a path within the available time. The problem, also known as the selective travelling salesman problem, is NP-hard and can be formulated as an integer linear program. Since the 1980s, several solution methods for this problem have been developed and applied to a variety of fields, particularly in routing and tourism. We propose a heuristic method—based on the Greedy Randomized Adapt…
Improving demand forecasting accuracy using nonlinear programming software
2006
We address the problem of forecasting real time series with a proportion of zero values and a great variability among the nonzero values. In order to calculate forecasts for a time series, the model coefficients must be estimated. The appropriate choice of values for the smoothing parameters in exponential smoothing methods relies on the minimization of the fitting errors of historical data. We adapt the generalized Holt–Winters formulation so that it can consider the starting values of the local components of level, trend and seasonality as decision variables of the nonlinear programming problem associated with this forecasting procedure. A spreadsheet model is used to solve the problems o…
Event-Triggered Sleeping for Synchronous DC MAC IN WSNs: Mechanism and DTMC Modeling
2016
Overhearing and idle listening are two primary sources for unnecessary energy consumption in wireless sensor networks. Although introducing duty cycling in medium access control (MAC) reduces idle listening, it cannot avoid overhearing in a network with multiple contending nodes. In this paper, we propose an event-triggered sleeping (ETS) mechanism for synchronous duty-cycled (DC) MAC protocols in order to avoid overhearing when a node is not active. This ETS mechanism applies to any synchronous DC MAC protocols and makes them more energy efficient. Furthermore, we develop a two dimensional discrete time Markov chain model to evaluate the performance of the proposed ETS mechanism by integra…
Fuzzy Distributed Genetic Approaches for Image Segmentation
2010
This paper presents a new image segmentation algorithm (called FDGA-Seg) based on a combination of fuzzy logic, multiagent systems and genetic algorithms. We propose to use a fuzzy representation of the image site labels by introducing some imprecision in the gray tones values. The distributivity of FDGA-Seg comes from the fact that it is designed around a MultiAgent System (MAS) working with two different architectures based on the master-slave and island models. A rich set of experimental segmentation results given by FDGA-Seg is discussed and compared to the ICM results in the last section.
Mass appraisal of residential real estate using multilevel modelling
2016
Mass appraisal, or the automatic valuation of a large number of real estate assets, has attracted the attention of many researchers, who have mainly approached this issue employing traditional econometric models such as Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). However, this method does not consider the hierarchical structure of the data and therefore assumes the unrealistic hypothesis of the independence of the individuals in the sample. This paper proposes the use of the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) to overcome this limitation. The HLM also gives valuable information on the percentage of the variance error caused by each level in the hierarchical model. In this study HLM was applied to a large dat…
Mass Measurements with the CSS2 and CIME cyclotrons at GANIL
2005
Commune avec ACEN; This paper presents two original direct mass-measurement techniques developed at GANIL using the CSS2 and CIME cyclotrons as high-resolution mass spectrometers. The mass measurement with the CSS2 cyclotron is based on a time-of-flight method along the spiral trajectory of the ions inside the cyclotron. The atomic mass excesses of 68Se and 80Y recently measured with this technique are -53.958(246) MeV and -60.971(180) MeV, respectively. The new mass-measurement technique with the CIME cyclotron is based on the sweep of the acceleration radio-frequency of the cyclotron. Tests with stable beams have been performed in order to study the accuracy of this new mass-measurement m…
A New Iterative Estimation Procedure for the Localization of Passive Stationary Objects from Received RF Signals in Indoor Environments
2019
This paper deals with the localization of passive stationary objects from the received radio- frequency (RF) signals in 3-dimensional (3D) indoor environments. Each object located in the 3D indoor environment is modelled by a single point scatterer. The propagation space is equipped with a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication system. The employed channel model is flexible and allows to have a line-of-sight (LOS) component as well as single- and double- bounce scattering components. Here, we present a new accurate iterative estimation technique for computing the optimal coordinates as well as the number of the main stationary objects (scatterers) in indoor areas. The …