Among the metaheuristic algorithms, population-based algorithms are an explorative search algorithm superior to the local search algorithm in terms of exploring the search space to find globally optimal solutions. However, the primary downside of such algorithms is their low exploitative capability, which prevents the expansion of the search space neighborhood for more optimal solutions. The firefly algorithm (FA) is a population-based algorithm that has been widely used in clustering problems. However, FA is limited in terms of its premature convergence when no neighborhood search strategies are employed to improve the quality of clustering solutions in the neighborhood region and exploring the global regions in the search space. On the

This paper proposes improving the structure of the neural controller based on the identification model for nonlinear systems. The goal of this work is to employ the structure of the Modified Elman Neural Network (MENN) model into the NARMA-L2 structure instead of Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) model in order to construct a new hybrid neural structure that can be used as an identifier model and a nonlinear controller for the SISO linear or nonlinear systems. Two learning algorithms are used to adjust the parameters weight of the hybrid neural structure with its serial-parallel configuration; the first one is supervised learning algorithm based Back Propagation Algorithm (BPA) and the second one is an intelligent algorithm n

Background: Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has enormously affected various healthcare services including the one of community pharmacy. The ramifications of these effects on Iraqi community pharmacies and the measures they have taken to tackle the spread of COVID-19  is yet to be explored. In this cross sectional survey, infection control measures by community pharmacies in Sulaimani city/Iraq has been investigated.        

Methods: Community pharmacists were randomly allocated  to participate in a cross-sectional survey via visiting their pharmacies and filling up the questionnaire form.

Results and discussion:

The research focuses on determination of best location of high elevated tank using the required head of pump as a measure for this purpose. Five types of network were used to find the effect of the variation in the discharge and the node elevation on the best location. The most weakness point was determined for each network. Preliminary tank locations were chosen for test along the primary pipe with same interval distance. For each location, the water elevation in tank and pump head was calculated at each hour depending on the pump head that required to achieve the minimum pressure at the most weakness point. Then, the sum of pump heads through the day was determined. The results proved that there is a most economical lo

In this paper, we derive and prove the stability bounds of the momentum coefficient µ and the learning rate ? of the back propagation updating rule in Artificial Neural Networks .The theoretical upper bound of learning rate ? is derived and its practical approximation is obtained

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is one of the important statistical methods that are widely used in a range of applications in various fields, which simulates the work of the human brain in terms of receiving a signal, processing data in a human cell and sending to the next cell. It is a system consisting of a number of modules (layers) linked together (input, hidden, output). A comparison was made between three types of neural networks (Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN), Back propagation network (BPL), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN). he study found that the lowest false prediction rate was for the recurrentt network architecture and using the Data on graduate students at the College of Administration and Economics, Univer

Passive optical network (PON) is a point to multipoint, bidirectional, high rate optical network for data communication. Different standards of PONs are being implemented, first of all PON was ATM PON (APON) which evolved in Broadband PON (BPON). The two major types are Ethernet PON (EPON) and Gigabit passive optical network (GPON). PON with these different standards is called xPON. To have an efficient performance for the last two standards of PON, some important issues will considered. In our work we will integrate a network with different queuing models such M/M/1 and M/M/m model. After analyzing IPACT as a DBA scheme for this integrated network, we modulate cycle time, traffic load, throughput, utilization and overall delay

The aim of this paper is to approximate multidimensional functions f∈C(R^s) by developing a new type of Feedforward neural networks (FFNS) which we called it Greedy ridge function neural networks (GRGFNNS). Also, we introduce a modification to the greedy algorithm which is used to train the greedy ridge function neural networks. An error bound are introduced in Sobolov space. Finally, a comparison was made between the three algorithms (modified greedy algorithm, Backpropagation algorithm and the result in [1]).