Minia University

About: Minia University is a education organization based out in Minya, Egypt. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 4967 authors who have published 8986 publications receiving 108384 citations.

MOSOA: A new multi-objective seagull optimization algorithm

Abstract: This study introduces the extension of currently developed Seagull Optimization Algorithm (SOA) in terms of multi-objective problems, which is entitled as Multi-objective Seagull Optimization Algorithm (MOSOA). In this algorithm, a concept of dynamic archive is introduced, which has the feature to cache the non-dominated Pareto optimal solutions. The roulette wheel selection approach is utilized to choose the effective archived solutions by simulating the migration and attacking behaviors of seagulls. The proposed algorithm is approved by testing it with twenty-four benchmark test functions, and its performance is compared with existing metaheuristic algorithms. The developed algorithm is analyzed on six constrained problems of engineering design to assess its appropriateness for finding the solutions of real-world problems. The outcomes from the empirical analyzes depict that the proposed algorithm is better than other existing algorithms. The proposed algorithm also considers those Pareto optimal solutions, which demonstrate high convergence.

A novel Black Widow Optimization algorithm for multilevel thresholding image segmentation

Abstract: Segmentation is a crucial step in image processing applications. This process separates pixels of the image into multiple classes that permits the analysis of the objects contained in the scene. Multilevel thresholding is a method that easily performs this task, the problem is to find the best set of thresholds that properly segment each image. Techniques as Otsu’s between class variance or Kapur’s entropy helps to find the best thresholds but they are computationally expensive for more than two thresholds. To overcome such problem this paper introduces the use of the novel meta-heuristic algorithm called Black Widow Optimization (BWO) to find the best threshold configuration using Otsu or Kapur as objective function. To evaluate the performance and effectiveness of the BWO-based method, it has been considered the use of a variety of benchmark images, and compared against six well-known meta-heuristic algorithms including; the Gray Wolf Optimization (GWO), Moth Flame Optimization (MFO), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), Sine–Cosine Algorithm (SCA), Slap Swarm Algorithm (SSA), and Equilibrium Optimization (EO). The experimental results have revealed that the proposed BWO-based method outperform the competitor algorithms in terms of the fitness values as well as the others performance measures such as PSNR, SSIM and FSIM. The statistical analysis manifests that the BWO-based method achieves efficient and reliable results in comparison with the other methods. Therefore, BWO-based method was found to be most promising for multi-level image segmentation problem over other segmentation approaches that are currently used in the literature.

Amorphous SiO2 NP-Incorporated Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Electrospun Nanofiber Membrane for High Flux Forward Osmosis Desalination.

Abstract: Novel amorphous silica nanoparticle-incorporated poly(vinylidine fluoride) electrospun nanofiber mats are introduced as effective membranes for forward osmosis desalination technology. The influence of the inorganic nanoparticle content on water flux and salt rejection was investigated by preparing electrospun membranes with 0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 wt % SiO2 nanoparticles. A laboratory-scale forward osmosis cell was utilized to validate the performance of the introduced membranes using fresh water as a feed and different brines as draw solution (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 M NaCl). The results indicated that the membrane embedding 0.5 wt % displays constant salt rejection of 99.7% and water flux of 83 L m–2 h–1 with 2 M NaCl draw solution. Moreover, this formulation displayed the lowest structural parameter (S = 29.7 μm), which represents approximately 69% reduction compared to the pristine membrane. Moreover, this study emphasizes the capability of the electrospinning process in synthesizing effective membranes as th...