This study compares the relative efficacy of the continuation task and the model-as-feedbackwriting (MAFW) task in EFL writing development. Ninety intermediate-level Chinese EFL learnerswere randomly assigned to a con...This study compares the relative efficacy of the continuation task and the model-as-feedbackwriting (MAFW) task in EFL writing development. Ninety intermediate-level Chinese EFL learnerswere randomly assigned to a continuation group, a MAFW group, and a control group, each with30 learners. A pretest and a posttest were used to gauge L2 writing development. Results showedthat the continuation task outperformed the MAFW task not only in enhancing the overall qualityof L2 writing, but also in promoting the quality of three components of L2 writing, namely, content,organization, and language. The finding has important implications for L2 writing teaching andlearning.展开更多
Task scheduling in cloud computing is a multi-objective optimization problem,often involving conflicting objectives such as minimizing execution time,reducing operational cost,and maximizing resource utilization.Howev...Task scheduling in cloud computing is a multi-objective optimization problem,often involving conflicting objectives such as minimizing execution time,reducing operational cost,and maximizing resource utilization.However,traditional approaches frequently rely on single-objective optimization methods which are insufficient for capturing the complexity of such problems.To address this limitation,we introduce MDMOSA(Multi-objective Dwarf Mongoose Optimization with Simulated Annealing),a hybrid that integrates multi-objective optimization for efficient task scheduling in Infrastructure-as-a-Service(IaaS)cloud environments.MDMOSA harmonizes the exploration capabilities of the biologically inspired Dwarf Mongoose Optimization(DMO)with the exploitation strengths of Simulated Annealing(SA),achieving a balanced search process.The algorithm aims to optimize task allocation by reducing makespan and financial cost while improving system resource utilization.We evaluate MDMOSA through extensive simulations using the real-world Google Cloud Jobs(GoCJ)dataset within the CloudSim environment.Comparative analysis against benchmarked algorithms such as SMOACO,MOTSGWO,and MFPAGWO reveals that MDMOSA consistently achieves superior performance in terms of scheduling efficiency,cost-effectiveness,and scalability.These results confirm the potential of MDMOSA as a robust and adaptable solution for resource scheduling in dynamic and heterogeneous cloud computing infrastructures.展开更多
The iterative continuation task(ICT)requires English as a foreign language(EFL)learners to read a segment and write a continuation that aligns with the preceding segment of an English novel with successive turns,offer...The iterative continuation task(ICT)requires English as a foreign language(EFL)learners to read a segment and write a continuation that aligns with the preceding segment of an English novel with successive turns,offering exposure to diverse grammatical structures and opportunities for contextualized usage.Given the importance of integrating technology into second language(L2)writing and the critical role that grammar plays in L2 writing development,automated written corrective feedback provided by Grammarly has gained significant attention.This study investigates the impact of Grammarly on grammar learning strategies,grammar grit,and grammar competence among EFL college students engaged in ICT.This study employed a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design;56 participants were divided into an experimental group(n=28),receiving Grammarly feedback for ICT,and a control group(n=28),completing ICT without Grammarly feedback.Quantitative results revealed that both groups showed improvements in L2 grammar learning strategies,grit and competence.For the experimental group,significant differences were observed across all variables of L2 grammar learning strategies,grit,and competence between pre-and post-tests.For the control group,significant differences were only observed in the affective dimension of grammar learning strategies,Consistency of Interest(COI)of grammar grit,and grammar competence.However,the control group presented a significantly higher improvement in grammar competence.Qualitative analysis showed both positive and negative perceptions of Grammarly.The pedagogical implications of integrating Grammarly and ICT for L2 grammar development are discussed.展开更多
The cloud-fog computing paradigm has emerged as a novel hybrid computing model that integrates computational resources at both fog nodes and cloud servers to address the challenges posed by dynamic and heterogeneous c...The cloud-fog computing paradigm has emerged as a novel hybrid computing model that integrates computational resources at both fog nodes and cloud servers to address the challenges posed by dynamic and heterogeneous computing networks.Finding an optimal computational resource for task offloading and then executing efficiently is a critical issue to achieve a trade-off between energy consumption and transmission delay.In this network,the task processed at fog nodes reduces transmission delay.Still,it increases energy consumption,while routing tasks to the cloud server saves energy at the cost of higher communication delay.Moreover,the order in which offloaded tasks are executed affects the system’s efficiency.For instance,executing lower-priority tasks before higher-priority jobs can disturb the reliability and stability of the system.Therefore,an efficient strategy of optimal computation offloading and task scheduling is required for operational efficacy.In this paper,we introduced a multi-objective and enhanced version of Cheeta Optimizer(CO),namely(MoECO),to jointly optimize the computation offloading and task scheduling in cloud-fog networks to minimize two competing objectives,i.e.,energy consumption and communication delay.MoECO first assigns tasks to the optimal computational nodes and then the allocated tasks are scheduled for processing based on the task priority.The mathematical modelling of CO needs improvement in computation time and convergence speed.Therefore,MoECO is proposed to increase the search capability of agents by controlling the search strategy based on a leader’s location.The adaptive step length operator is adjusted to diversify the solution and thus improves the exploration phase,i.e.,global search strategy.Consequently,this prevents the algorithm from getting trapped in the local optimal solution.Moreover,the interaction factor during the exploitation phase is also adjusted based on the location of the prey instead of the adjacent Cheetah.This increases the exploitation capability of agents,i.e.,local search capability.Furthermore,MoECO employs a multi-objective Pareto-optimal front to simultaneously minimize designated objectives.Comprehensive simulations in MATLAB demonstrate that the proposed algorithm obtains multiple solutions via a Pareto-optimal front and achieves an efficient trade-off between optimization objectives compared to baseline methods.展开更多
In scenarios where ground-based cloud computing infrastructure is unavailable,unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)act as mobile edge computing(MEC)servers to provide on-demand computation services for ground terminals.To ad...In scenarios where ground-based cloud computing infrastructure is unavailable,unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)act as mobile edge computing(MEC)servers to provide on-demand computation services for ground terminals.To address the challenge of jointly optimizing task scheduling and UAV trajectory under limited resources and high mobility of UAVs,this paper presents PER-MATD3,a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning algorithm with prioritized experience replay(PER)into the Centralized Training with Decentralized Execution(CTDE)framework.Specifically,PER-MATD3 enables each agent to learn a decentralized policy using only local observations during execution,while leveraging a shared replay buffer with prioritized sampling and centralized critic during training to accelerate convergence and improve sample efficiency.Simulation results show that PER-MATD3 reduces average task latency by up to 23%,improves energy efficiency by 21%,and enhances service coverage compared to state-of-the-art baselines,demonstrating its effectiveness and practicality in scenarios without terrestrial networks.展开更多
In dynamic and uncertain reconnaissance missions,effective task assignment and path planning for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)present significant challenges.A stochastic multi-UAV reconnaissance scheduling p...In dynamic and uncertain reconnaissance missions,effective task assignment and path planning for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)present significant challenges.A stochastic multi-UAV reconnaissance scheduling problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization task with nonlinear objectives and coupled constraints.To solve the non-deterministic polynomial(NP)-hard problem efficiently,a novel learning-enhanced pigeon-inspired optimization(L-PIO)algorithm is proposed.The algorithm integrates a Q-learning mechanism to dynamically regulate control parameters,enabling adaptive exploration–exploitation trade-offs across different optimization phases.Additionally,geometric abstraction techniques are employed to approximate complex reconnaissance regions using maximum inscribed rectangles and spiral path models,allowing for precise cost modeling of UAV paths.The formal objective function is developed to minimize global flight distance and completion time while maximizing reconnaissance priority and task coverage.A series of simulation experiments are conducted under three scenarios:static task allocation,dynamic task emergence,and UAV failure recovery.Comparative analysis with several updated algorithms demonstrates that L-PIO exhibits superior robustness,adaptability,and computational efficiency.The results verify the algorithm's effectiveness in addressing dynamic reconnaissance task planning in real-time multi-UAV applications.展开更多
In recent years,fog computing has become an important environment for dealing with the Internet of Things.Fog computing was developed to handle large-scale big data by scheduling tasks via cloud computing.Task schedul...In recent years,fog computing has become an important environment for dealing with the Internet of Things.Fog computing was developed to handle large-scale big data by scheduling tasks via cloud computing.Task scheduling is crucial for efficiently handling IoT user requests,thereby improving system performance,cost,and energy consumption across nodes in cloud computing.With the large amount of data and user requests,achieving the optimal solution to the task scheduling problem is challenging,particularly in terms of cost and energy efficiency.In this paper,we develop novel strategies to save energy consumption across nodes in fog computing when users execute tasks through the least-cost paths.Task scheduling is developed using modified artificial ecosystem optimization(AEO),combined with negative swarm operators,Salp Swarm Algorithm(SSA),in order to competitively optimize their capabilities during the exploitation phase of the optimal search process.In addition,the proposed strategy,Enhancement Artificial Ecosystem Optimization Salp Swarm Algorithm(EAEOSSA),attempts to find the most suitable solution.The optimization that combines cost and energy for multi-objective task scheduling optimization problems.The backpack problem is also added to improve both cost and energy in the iFogSim implementation as well.A comparison was made between the proposed strategy and other strategies in terms of time,cost,energy,and productivity.Experimental results showed that the proposed strategy improved energy consumption,cost,and time over other algorithms.Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm increases the average cost,average energy consumption,and mean service time in most scenarios,with average reductions of up to 21.15%in cost and 25.8%in energy consumption.展开更多
The advent of the internet-of-everything era has led to the increased use of mobile edge computing.The rise of artificial intelligence has provided many possibilities for the low-latency task-offloading demands of use...The advent of the internet-of-everything era has led to the increased use of mobile edge computing.The rise of artificial intelligence has provided many possibilities for the low-latency task-offloading demands of users,but existing technologies rigidly assume that there is only one task to be offloaded in each time slot at the terminal.In practical scenarios,there are often numerous computing tasks to be executed at the terminal,leading to a cumulative delay for subsequent task offloading.Therefore,the efficient processing of multiple computing tasks on the terminal has become highly challenging.To address the lowlatency offloading requirements for multiple computational tasks on terminal devices,we propose a terminal multitask parallel offloading algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning.Specifically,we first establish a mobile edge computing system model consisting of a single edge server and multiple terminal users.We then model the task offloading decision problem as a Markov decision process,and solve this problem using the Dueling Deep-Q Network algorithm to obtain the optimal offloading strategy.Experimental results demonstrate that,under the same constraints,our proposed algorithm reduces the average system latency.展开更多
As an important complement to cloud computing, edge computing can effectively reduce the workload of the backbone network. To reduce latency and energy consumption of edge computing, deep learning is used to learn the...As an important complement to cloud computing, edge computing can effectively reduce the workload of the backbone network. To reduce latency and energy consumption of edge computing, deep learning is used to learn the task offloading strategies by interacting with the entities. In actual application scenarios, users of edge computing are always changing dynamically. However, the existing task offloading strategies cannot be applied to such dynamic scenarios. To solve this problem, we propose a novel dynamic task offloading framework for distributed edge computing, leveraging the potential of meta-reinforcement learning (MRL). Our approach formulates a multi-objective optimization problem aimed at minimizing both delay and energy consumption. We model the task offloading strategy using a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Furthermore, we propose a distributed edge computing adaptive task offloading algorithm rooted in MRL. This algorithm integrates multiple Markov decision processes (MDP) with a sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) network, enabling it to learn and adapt task offloading strategies responsively across diverse network environments. To achieve joint optimization of delay and energy consumption, we incorporate the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) into our framework. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed solution, achieving a 21% reduction in time delay and a 19% decrease in energy consumption compared to alternative task offloading schemes. Moreover, our scheme exhibits remarkable adaptability, responding swiftly to changes in various network environments.展开更多
This paper focuses on the problem of multi-station multi-robot spot welding task assignment,and proposes a deep reinforcement learning(DRL)framework,which is made up of a public graph attention network and independent...This paper focuses on the problem of multi-station multi-robot spot welding task assignment,and proposes a deep reinforcement learning(DRL)framework,which is made up of a public graph attention network and independent policy networks.The graph of welding spots distribution is encoded using the graph attention network.Independent policy networks with attention mechanism as a decoder can handle the encoded graph and decide to assign robots to different tasks.The policy network is used to convert the large scale welding spots allocation problem to multiple small scale singlerobot welding path planning problems,and the path planning problem is quickly solved through existing methods.Then,the model is trained through reinforcement learning.In addition,the task balancing method is used to allocate tasks to multiple stations.The proposed algorithm is compared with classical algorithms,and the results show that the algorithm based on DRL can produce higher quality solutions.展开更多
Recently,one of the main challenges facing the smart grid is insufficient computing resources and intermittent energy supply for various distributed components(such as monitoring systems for renewable energy power sta...Recently,one of the main challenges facing the smart grid is insufficient computing resources and intermittent energy supply for various distributed components(such as monitoring systems for renewable energy power stations).To solve the problem,we propose an energy harvesting based task scheduling and resource management framework to provide robust and low-cost edge computing services for smart grid.First,we formulate an energy consumption minimization problem with regard to task offloading,time switching,and resource allocation for mobile devices,which can be decoupled and transformed into a typical knapsack problem.Then,solutions are derived by two different algorithms.Furthermore,we deploy renewable energy and energy storage units at edge servers to tackle intermittency and instability problems.Finally,we design an energy management algorithm based on sampling average approximation for edge computing servers to derive the optimal charging/discharging strategies,number of energy storage units,and renewable energy utilization.The simulation results show the efficiency and superiority of our proposed framework.展开更多
With the rapid expansion of social media,analyzing emotions and their causes in texts has gained significant importance.Emotion-cause pair extraction enables the identification of causal relationships between emotions...With the rapid expansion of social media,analyzing emotions and their causes in texts has gained significant importance.Emotion-cause pair extraction enables the identification of causal relationships between emotions and their triggers within a text,facilitating a deeper understanding of expressed sentiments and their underlying reasons.This comprehension is crucial for making informed strategic decisions in various business and societal contexts.However,recent research approaches employing multi-task learning frameworks for modeling often face challenges such as the inability to simultaneouslymodel extracted features and their interactions,or inconsistencies in label prediction between emotion-cause pair extraction and independent assistant tasks like emotion and cause extraction.To address these issues,this study proposes an emotion-cause pair extraction methodology that incorporates joint feature encoding and task alignment mechanisms.The model consists of two primary components:First,joint feature encoding simultaneously generates features for emotion-cause pairs and clauses,enhancing feature interactions between emotion clauses,cause clauses,and emotion-cause pairs.Second,the task alignment technique is applied to reduce the labeling distance between emotion-cause pair extraction and the two assistant tasks,capturing deep semantic information interactions among tasks.The proposed method is evaluated on a Chinese benchmark corpus using 10-fold cross-validation,assessing key performance metrics such as precision,recall,and F1 score.Experimental results demonstrate that the model achieves an F1 score of 76.05%,surpassing the state-of-the-art by 1.03%.The proposed model exhibits significant improvements in emotion-cause pair extraction(ECPE)and cause extraction(CE)compared to existing methods,validating its effectiveness.This research introduces a novel approach based on joint feature encoding and task alignment mechanisms,contributing to advancements in emotion-cause pair extraction.However,the study’s limitation lies in the data sources,potentially restricting the generalizability of the findings.展开更多
A task allocation problem for the heterogeneous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm in unknown environments is studied in this paper.Considering that the actual mission environment information may be unknown,the UAV s...A task allocation problem for the heterogeneous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm in unknown environments is studied in this paper.Considering that the actual mission environment information may be unknown,the UAV swarm needs to detect the environment first and then attack the detected targets.The heterogeneity of UAVs,multiple types of tasks,and the dynamic nature of task environment lead to uneven load and time sequence problems.This paper proposes an improved contract net protocol (CNP) based task allocation scheme,which effectively balances the load of UAVs and improves the task efficiency.Firstly,two types of task models are established,including regional reconnaissance tasks and target attack tasks.Secondly,for regional reconnaissance tasks,an improved CNP algorithm using the uncertain contract is developed.Through uncertain contracts,the area size of the regional reconnaissance task is determined adaptively after this task assignment,which can improve reconnaissance efficiency and resource utilization.Thirdly,for target attack tasks,an improved CNP algorithm using the fuzzy integrated evaluation and the double-layer negotiation is presented to enhance collaborative attack efficiency through adjusting the assignment sequence adaptively and multi-layer allocation.Finally,the effectiveness and advantages of the improved method are verified through comparison simulations.展开更多
Blockchain technology,based on decentralized data storage and distributed consensus design,has become a promising solution to address data security risks and provide privacy protection in the Internet-of-Things(IoT)du...Blockchain technology,based on decentralized data storage and distributed consensus design,has become a promising solution to address data security risks and provide privacy protection in the Internet-of-Things(IoT)due to its tamper-proof and non-repudiation features.Although blockchain typically does not require the endorsement of third-party trust organizations,it mostly needs to perform necessary mathematical calculations to prevent malicious attacks,which results in stricter requirements for computation resources on the participating devices.By offloading the computation tasks required to support blockchain consensus to edge service nodes or the cloud,while providing data privacy protection for IoT applications,it can effectively address the limitations of computation and energy resources in IoT devices.However,how to make reasonable offloading decisions for IoT devices remains an open issue.Due to the excellent self-learning ability of Reinforcement Learning(RL),this paper proposes a RL enabled Swarm Intelligence Optimization Algorithm(RLSIOA)that aims to improve the quality of initial solutions and achieve efficient optimization of computation task offloading decisions.The algorithm considers various factors that may affect the revenue obtained by IoT devices executing consensus algorithms(e.g.,Proof-of-Work),it optimizes the proportion of sub-tasks to be offloaded and the scale of computing resources to be rented from the edge and cloud to maximize the revenue of devices.Experimental results show that RLSIOA can obtain higher-quality offloading decision-making schemes at lower latency costs compared to representative benchmark algorithms.展开更多
Fog computing is a key enabling technology of 6G systems as it provides quick and reliable computing,and data storage services which are required for several 6G applications.Artificial Intelligence(AI)algorithms will ...Fog computing is a key enabling technology of 6G systems as it provides quick and reliable computing,and data storage services which are required for several 6G applications.Artificial Intelligence(AI)algorithms will be an integral part of 6G systems and efficient task offloading techniques using fog computing will improve their performance and reliability.In this paper,the focus is on the scenario of Partial Offloading of a Task to Multiple Helpers(POMH)in which larger tasks are divided into smaller subtasks and processed in parallel,hence expediting task completion.However,using POMH presents challenges such as breaking tasks into subtasks and scaling these subtasks based on many interdependent factors to ensure that all subtasks of a task finish simultaneously,preventing resource wastage.Additionally,applying matching theory to POMH scenarios results in dynamic preference profiles of helping devices due to changing subtask sizes,resulting in a difficult-to-solve,externalities problem.This paper introduces a novel many-to-one matching-based algorithm,designed to address the externalities problem and optimize resource allocation within POMH scenarios.Additionally,we propose a new time-efficient preference profiling technique that further enhances time optimization in POMH scenarios.The performance of the proposed technique is thoroughly evaluated in comparison to alternate baseline schemes,revealing many advantages of the proposed approach.The simulation findings indisputably show that the proposed matching-based offloading technique outperforms existing methodologies in the literature,yielding a remarkable 52 reduction in task latency,particularly under high workloads.展开更多
Drawing upon self-determination theory,this study examines the effects of vicarious abusive supervision on third-party’s self-efficacy and task performance within organizational contexts.Data were collected via surve...Drawing upon self-determination theory,this study examines the effects of vicarious abusive supervision on third-party’s self-efficacy and task performance within organizational contexts.Data were collected via surveys from 337 employees across diverse organizations.The results indicate that vicarious abusive supervision significantly undermines both self-efficacy and task performance among employees who are indirectly exposed to such behavior but not directly targeted.Furthermore,self-efficacy serves as a mediator between vicarious abusive supervision and task performance;however,this mediating effect is attenuated for employees with a high promotion focus.These findings provide valuable theoretical and practical insights,particularly in the domain of organizational behavior,by emphasizing the critical role of promotion focus in mitigating the negative effects of vicarious abusive supervision.This research contributes to the organizational behavior literature by shifting the focus from the traditional supervisor-subordinate dynamic to a third-party perspective,thereby enriching our understanding of how vicarious abusive supervision impacts employees within organizational settings.The study underscores the importance of self-efficacy and promotion focus as key factors in unethical leadership contexts.展开更多
The authors regret that there were errors in the affiliations and the funding declaration in the original published version.The affiliations a and b of the original manuscript are"School of Information Engineerin...The authors regret that there were errors in the affiliations and the funding declaration in the original published version.The affiliations a and b of the original manuscript are"School of Information Engineering,Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Signal Processing and Intelligent Communications,Nanchang University,Nanchang 330031,China",and"School of Internet of Things Engineering,Jiangnan University,Wuxi 214122,China",respectively.The order of the two affiliations are not correct.展开更多
Porters play a crucial role in hospitals because they ensure the efficient transportation of patients,medical equipment,and vital documents.Despite its importance,there is a lack of research addressing the prediction ...Porters play a crucial role in hospitals because they ensure the efficient transportation of patients,medical equipment,and vital documents.Despite its importance,there is a lack of research addressing the prediction of completion times for porter tasks.To address this gap,we utilized real-world porter delivery data from Taiwan University Hospital,China,Yunlin Branch,Taiwan Region of China.We first identified key features that can influence the duration of porter tasks.We then employed three widely-used machine learning algorithms:decision tree,random forest,and gradient boosting.To leverage the strengths of each algorithm,we finally adopted an ensemble modeling approach that aggregates their individual predictions.Our experimental results show that the proposed ensemble model can achieve a mean absolute error of 3 min in predicting task response time and 4.42 min in task completion time.The prediction error is around 50%lower compared to using only the historical average.These results demonstrate that our method significantly improves the accuracy of porter task time prediction,supporting better resource planning and patient care.It helps ward staff streamline workflows by reducing delays,enables porter managers to allocate resources more effectively,and shortens patient waiting times,contributing to a better care experience.展开更多
Humans and animals have a fundamental ability to use experiences and environmental information to organize behavior.It often happens that humans and animals make decisions and prepare actions under uncertain situation...Humans and animals have a fundamental ability to use experiences and environmental information to organize behavior.It often happens that humans and animals make decisions and prepare actions under uncertain situations.Uncertainty would significantly affect the state of animals’minds,but may not be reflected in behavior.How to“read animals’mind state”under different situations is a challenge.Here,we report that neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex(mPFC)of rats can reflect the environmental uncertainty when the task situation changes from certain to uncertain.Rats were trained to perform behavioral tasks under certain and uncertain situations.Under certain situations,rats were required to simply repeat two nose-poking actions that each triggered short auditory tone feedback(single-task situation).Whereas under the uncertain situation,the feedback could randomly be either the previous tone or a short musical rhythm.No additional action was required upon the music feedback,and the same secondary nose-poking action was required upon the tone feedback(dual-task situation);therefore,the coming task was uncertain before action initiation.We recorded single-unit activity from the mPFC when the rats were performing the tasks.We found that in the dual task,when uncertainty was introduced,many mPFC neurons were actively engaged in dealing with the uncertainty before the task initiation,suggesting that the rats could be aware of the task situation change and encode the information in the mPFC before the action of task initiation.展开更多
文摘This study compares the relative efficacy of the continuation task and the model-as-feedbackwriting (MAFW) task in EFL writing development. Ninety intermediate-level Chinese EFL learnerswere randomly assigned to a continuation group, a MAFW group, and a control group, each with30 learners. A pretest and a posttest were used to gauge L2 writing development. Results showedthat the continuation task outperformed the MAFW task not only in enhancing the overall qualityof L2 writing, but also in promoting the quality of three components of L2 writing, namely, content,organization, and language. The finding has important implications for L2 writing teaching andlearning.
文摘Task scheduling in cloud computing is a multi-objective optimization problem,often involving conflicting objectives such as minimizing execution time,reducing operational cost,and maximizing resource utilization.However,traditional approaches frequently rely on single-objective optimization methods which are insufficient for capturing the complexity of such problems.To address this limitation,we introduce MDMOSA(Multi-objective Dwarf Mongoose Optimization with Simulated Annealing),a hybrid that integrates multi-objective optimization for efficient task scheduling in Infrastructure-as-a-Service(IaaS)cloud environments.MDMOSA harmonizes the exploration capabilities of the biologically inspired Dwarf Mongoose Optimization(DMO)with the exploitation strengths of Simulated Annealing(SA),achieving a balanced search process.The algorithm aims to optimize task allocation by reducing makespan and financial cost while improving system resource utilization.We evaluate MDMOSA through extensive simulations using the real-world Google Cloud Jobs(GoCJ)dataset within the CloudSim environment.Comparative analysis against benchmarked algorithms such as SMOACO,MOTSGWO,and MFPAGWO reveals that MDMOSA consistently achieves superior performance in terms of scheduling efficiency,cost-effectiveness,and scalability.These results confirm the potential of MDMOSA as a robust and adaptable solution for resource scheduling in dynamic and heterogeneous cloud computing infrastructures.
文摘The iterative continuation task(ICT)requires English as a foreign language(EFL)learners to read a segment and write a continuation that aligns with the preceding segment of an English novel with successive turns,offering exposure to diverse grammatical structures and opportunities for contextualized usage.Given the importance of integrating technology into second language(L2)writing and the critical role that grammar plays in L2 writing development,automated written corrective feedback provided by Grammarly has gained significant attention.This study investigates the impact of Grammarly on grammar learning strategies,grammar grit,and grammar competence among EFL college students engaged in ICT.This study employed a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design;56 participants were divided into an experimental group(n=28),receiving Grammarly feedback for ICT,and a control group(n=28),completing ICT without Grammarly feedback.Quantitative results revealed that both groups showed improvements in L2 grammar learning strategies,grit and competence.For the experimental group,significant differences were observed across all variables of L2 grammar learning strategies,grit,and competence between pre-and post-tests.For the control group,significant differences were only observed in the affective dimension of grammar learning strategies,Consistency of Interest(COI)of grammar grit,and grammar competence.However,the control group presented a significantly higher improvement in grammar competence.Qualitative analysis showed both positive and negative perceptions of Grammarly.The pedagogical implications of integrating Grammarly and ICT for L2 grammar development are discussed.
基金appreciation to the Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number(PNURSP2025R384)Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University,Riyadh,Saudi Arabia.
文摘The cloud-fog computing paradigm has emerged as a novel hybrid computing model that integrates computational resources at both fog nodes and cloud servers to address the challenges posed by dynamic and heterogeneous computing networks.Finding an optimal computational resource for task offloading and then executing efficiently is a critical issue to achieve a trade-off between energy consumption and transmission delay.In this network,the task processed at fog nodes reduces transmission delay.Still,it increases energy consumption,while routing tasks to the cloud server saves energy at the cost of higher communication delay.Moreover,the order in which offloaded tasks are executed affects the system’s efficiency.For instance,executing lower-priority tasks before higher-priority jobs can disturb the reliability and stability of the system.Therefore,an efficient strategy of optimal computation offloading and task scheduling is required for operational efficacy.In this paper,we introduced a multi-objective and enhanced version of Cheeta Optimizer(CO),namely(MoECO),to jointly optimize the computation offloading and task scheduling in cloud-fog networks to minimize two competing objectives,i.e.,energy consumption and communication delay.MoECO first assigns tasks to the optimal computational nodes and then the allocated tasks are scheduled for processing based on the task priority.The mathematical modelling of CO needs improvement in computation time and convergence speed.Therefore,MoECO is proposed to increase the search capability of agents by controlling the search strategy based on a leader’s location.The adaptive step length operator is adjusted to diversify the solution and thus improves the exploration phase,i.e.,global search strategy.Consequently,this prevents the algorithm from getting trapped in the local optimal solution.Moreover,the interaction factor during the exploitation phase is also adjusted based on the location of the prey instead of the adjacent Cheetah.This increases the exploitation capability of agents,i.e.,local search capability.Furthermore,MoECO employs a multi-objective Pareto-optimal front to simultaneously minimize designated objectives.Comprehensive simulations in MATLAB demonstrate that the proposed algorithm obtains multiple solutions via a Pareto-optimal front and achieves an efficient trade-off between optimization objectives compared to baseline methods.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.61701100.
文摘In scenarios where ground-based cloud computing infrastructure is unavailable,unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)act as mobile edge computing(MEC)servers to provide on-demand computation services for ground terminals.To address the challenge of jointly optimizing task scheduling and UAV trajectory under limited resources and high mobility of UAVs,this paper presents PER-MATD3,a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning algorithm with prioritized experience replay(PER)into the Centralized Training with Decentralized Execution(CTDE)framework.Specifically,PER-MATD3 enables each agent to learn a decentralized policy using only local observations during execution,while leveraging a shared replay buffer with prioritized sampling and centralized critic during training to accelerate convergence and improve sample efficiency.Simulation results show that PER-MATD3 reduces average task latency by up to 23%,improves energy efficiency by 21%,and enhances service coverage compared to state-of-the-art baselines,demonstrating its effectiveness and practicality in scenarios without terrestrial networks.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.T2121003,U24B20156)Open Fund of the National Key Laboratory of Helicopter Aeromechanics(No.2024-ZSJ-LB-02-06)。
文摘In dynamic and uncertain reconnaissance missions,effective task assignment and path planning for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)present significant challenges.A stochastic multi-UAV reconnaissance scheduling problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization task with nonlinear objectives and coupled constraints.To solve the non-deterministic polynomial(NP)-hard problem efficiently,a novel learning-enhanced pigeon-inspired optimization(L-PIO)algorithm is proposed.The algorithm integrates a Q-learning mechanism to dynamically regulate control parameters,enabling adaptive exploration–exploitation trade-offs across different optimization phases.Additionally,geometric abstraction techniques are employed to approximate complex reconnaissance regions using maximum inscribed rectangles and spiral path models,allowing for precise cost modeling of UAV paths.The formal objective function is developed to minimize global flight distance and completion time while maximizing reconnaissance priority and task coverage.A series of simulation experiments are conducted under three scenarios:static task allocation,dynamic task emergence,and UAV failure recovery.Comparative analysis with several updated algorithms demonstrates that L-PIO exhibits superior robustness,adaptability,and computational efficiency.The results verify the algorithm's effectiveness in addressing dynamic reconnaissance task planning in real-time multi-UAV applications.
基金supported and funded by theDeanship of Scientific Research at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University(IMSIU)(grant number IMSIU-DDRSP2503).
文摘In recent years,fog computing has become an important environment for dealing with the Internet of Things.Fog computing was developed to handle large-scale big data by scheduling tasks via cloud computing.Task scheduling is crucial for efficiently handling IoT user requests,thereby improving system performance,cost,and energy consumption across nodes in cloud computing.With the large amount of data and user requests,achieving the optimal solution to the task scheduling problem is challenging,particularly in terms of cost and energy efficiency.In this paper,we develop novel strategies to save energy consumption across nodes in fog computing when users execute tasks through the least-cost paths.Task scheduling is developed using modified artificial ecosystem optimization(AEO),combined with negative swarm operators,Salp Swarm Algorithm(SSA),in order to competitively optimize their capabilities during the exploitation phase of the optimal search process.In addition,the proposed strategy,Enhancement Artificial Ecosystem Optimization Salp Swarm Algorithm(EAEOSSA),attempts to find the most suitable solution.The optimization that combines cost and energy for multi-objective task scheduling optimization problems.The backpack problem is also added to improve both cost and energy in the iFogSim implementation as well.A comparison was made between the proposed strategy and other strategies in terms of time,cost,energy,and productivity.Experimental results showed that the proposed strategy improved energy consumption,cost,and time over other algorithms.Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm increases the average cost,average energy consumption,and mean service time in most scenarios,with average reductions of up to 21.15%in cost and 25.8%in energy consumption.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(62202215)Liaoning Province Applied Basic Research Program(Youth Special Project,2023JH2/101600038)+2 种基金Shenyang Youth Science and Technology Innovation Talent Support Program(RC220458)Guangxuan Program of Shenyang Ligong University(SYLUGXRC202216)the Basic Research Special Funds for Undergraduate Universities in Liaoning Province(LJ212410144067).
文摘The advent of the internet-of-everything era has led to the increased use of mobile edge computing.The rise of artificial intelligence has provided many possibilities for the low-latency task-offloading demands of users,but existing technologies rigidly assume that there is only one task to be offloaded in each time slot at the terminal.In practical scenarios,there are often numerous computing tasks to be executed at the terminal,leading to a cumulative delay for subsequent task offloading.Therefore,the efficient processing of multiple computing tasks on the terminal has become highly challenging.To address the lowlatency offloading requirements for multiple computational tasks on terminal devices,we propose a terminal multitask parallel offloading algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning.Specifically,we first establish a mobile edge computing system model consisting of a single edge server and multiple terminal users.We then model the task offloading decision problem as a Markov decision process,and solve this problem using the Dueling Deep-Q Network algorithm to obtain the optimal offloading strategy.Experimental results demonstrate that,under the same constraints,our proposed algorithm reduces the average system latency.
基金funded by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(J2023-024,J2023-027).
文摘As an important complement to cloud computing, edge computing can effectively reduce the workload of the backbone network. To reduce latency and energy consumption of edge computing, deep learning is used to learn the task offloading strategies by interacting with the entities. In actual application scenarios, users of edge computing are always changing dynamically. However, the existing task offloading strategies cannot be applied to such dynamic scenarios. To solve this problem, we propose a novel dynamic task offloading framework for distributed edge computing, leveraging the potential of meta-reinforcement learning (MRL). Our approach formulates a multi-objective optimization problem aimed at minimizing both delay and energy consumption. We model the task offloading strategy using a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Furthermore, we propose a distributed edge computing adaptive task offloading algorithm rooted in MRL. This algorithm integrates multiple Markov decision processes (MDP) with a sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) network, enabling it to learn and adapt task offloading strategies responsively across diverse network environments. To achieve joint optimization of delay and energy consumption, we incorporate the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) into our framework. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed solution, achieving a 21% reduction in time delay and a 19% decrease in energy consumption compared to alternative task offloading schemes. Moreover, our scheme exhibits remarkable adaptability, responding swiftly to changes in various network environments.
基金National Key Research and Development Program of China,Grant/Award Number:2021YFB1714700Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China,Grant/Award Number:2024M752364Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of CPSF,Grant/Award Number:GZB20240525。
文摘This paper focuses on the problem of multi-station multi-robot spot welding task assignment,and proposes a deep reinforcement learning(DRL)framework,which is made up of a public graph attention network and independent policy networks.The graph of welding spots distribution is encoded using the graph attention network.Independent policy networks with attention mechanism as a decoder can handle the encoded graph and decide to assign robots to different tasks.The policy network is used to convert the large scale welding spots allocation problem to multiple small scale singlerobot welding path planning problems,and the path planning problem is quickly solved through existing methods.Then,the model is trained through reinforcement learning.In addition,the task balancing method is used to allocate tasks to multiple stations.The proposed algorithm is compared with classical algorithms,and the results show that the algorithm based on DRL can produce higher quality solutions.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.61473066in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province under Grant No.F2021501020+2 种基金in part by the S&T Program of Qinhuangdao under Grant No.202401A195in part by the Science Research Project of Hebei Education Department under Grant No.QN2025008in part by the Innovation Capability Improvement Plan Project of Hebei Province under Grant No.22567637H
文摘Recently,one of the main challenges facing the smart grid is insufficient computing resources and intermittent energy supply for various distributed components(such as monitoring systems for renewable energy power stations).To solve the problem,we propose an energy harvesting based task scheduling and resource management framework to provide robust and low-cost edge computing services for smart grid.First,we formulate an energy consumption minimization problem with regard to task offloading,time switching,and resource allocation for mobile devices,which can be decoupled and transformed into a typical knapsack problem.Then,solutions are derived by two different algorithms.Furthermore,we deploy renewable energy and energy storage units at edge servers to tackle intermittency and instability problems.Finally,we design an energy management algorithm based on sampling average approximation for edge computing servers to derive the optimal charging/discharging strategies,number of energy storage units,and renewable energy utilization.The simulation results show the efficiency and superiority of our proposed framework.
文摘With the rapid expansion of social media,analyzing emotions and their causes in texts has gained significant importance.Emotion-cause pair extraction enables the identification of causal relationships between emotions and their triggers within a text,facilitating a deeper understanding of expressed sentiments and their underlying reasons.This comprehension is crucial for making informed strategic decisions in various business and societal contexts.However,recent research approaches employing multi-task learning frameworks for modeling often face challenges such as the inability to simultaneouslymodel extracted features and their interactions,or inconsistencies in label prediction between emotion-cause pair extraction and independent assistant tasks like emotion and cause extraction.To address these issues,this study proposes an emotion-cause pair extraction methodology that incorporates joint feature encoding and task alignment mechanisms.The model consists of two primary components:First,joint feature encoding simultaneously generates features for emotion-cause pairs and clauses,enhancing feature interactions between emotion clauses,cause clauses,and emotion-cause pairs.Second,the task alignment technique is applied to reduce the labeling distance between emotion-cause pair extraction and the two assistant tasks,capturing deep semantic information interactions among tasks.The proposed method is evaluated on a Chinese benchmark corpus using 10-fold cross-validation,assessing key performance metrics such as precision,recall,and F1 score.Experimental results demonstrate that the model achieves an F1 score of 76.05%,surpassing the state-of-the-art by 1.03%.The proposed model exhibits significant improvements in emotion-cause pair extraction(ECPE)and cause extraction(CE)compared to existing methods,validating its effectiveness.This research introduces a novel approach based on joint feature encoding and task alignment mechanisms,contributing to advancements in emotion-cause pair extraction.However,the study’s limitation lies in the data sources,potentially restricting the generalizability of the findings.
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China (12202293)Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2023NSFSC0393,2022NSFSC1952)。
文摘A task allocation problem for the heterogeneous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm in unknown environments is studied in this paper.Considering that the actual mission environment information may be unknown,the UAV swarm needs to detect the environment first and then attack the detected targets.The heterogeneity of UAVs,multiple types of tasks,and the dynamic nature of task environment lead to uneven load and time sequence problems.This paper proposes an improved contract net protocol (CNP) based task allocation scheme,which effectively balances the load of UAVs and improves the task efficiency.Firstly,two types of task models are established,including regional reconnaissance tasks and target attack tasks.Secondly,for regional reconnaissance tasks,an improved CNP algorithm using the uncertain contract is developed.Through uncertain contracts,the area size of the regional reconnaissance task is determined adaptively after this task assignment,which can improve reconnaissance efficiency and resource utilization.Thirdly,for target attack tasks,an improved CNP algorithm using the fuzzy integrated evaluation and the double-layer negotiation is presented to enhance collaborative attack efficiency through adjusting the assignment sequence adaptively and multi-layer allocation.Finally,the effectiveness and advantages of the improved method are verified through comparison simulations.
基金supported by the Project of Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Education Commission of China(No.KJZD-K202401105)High-Quality Development Action Plan for Graduate Education at Chongqing University of Technology(No.gzljg2023308,No.gzljd2024204)+1 种基金the Graduate Innovation Program of Chongqing University of Technology(No.gzlcx20233197)Yunnan Provincial Key R&D Program(202203AA080006).
文摘Blockchain technology,based on decentralized data storage and distributed consensus design,has become a promising solution to address data security risks and provide privacy protection in the Internet-of-Things(IoT)due to its tamper-proof and non-repudiation features.Although blockchain typically does not require the endorsement of third-party trust organizations,it mostly needs to perform necessary mathematical calculations to prevent malicious attacks,which results in stricter requirements for computation resources on the participating devices.By offloading the computation tasks required to support blockchain consensus to edge service nodes or the cloud,while providing data privacy protection for IoT applications,it can effectively address the limitations of computation and energy resources in IoT devices.However,how to make reasonable offloading decisions for IoT devices remains an open issue.Due to the excellent self-learning ability of Reinforcement Learning(RL),this paper proposes a RL enabled Swarm Intelligence Optimization Algorithm(RLSIOA)that aims to improve the quality of initial solutions and achieve efficient optimization of computation task offloading decisions.The algorithm considers various factors that may affect the revenue obtained by IoT devices executing consensus algorithms(e.g.,Proof-of-Work),it optimizes the proportion of sub-tasks to be offloaded and the scale of computing resources to be rented from the edge and cloud to maximize the revenue of devices.Experimental results show that RLSIOA can obtain higher-quality offloading decision-making schemes at lower latency costs compared to representative benchmark algorithms.
基金supported and funded by theDeanship of Scientific Research at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University(IMSIU)(grant number IMSIU-RP23082).
文摘Fog computing is a key enabling technology of 6G systems as it provides quick and reliable computing,and data storage services which are required for several 6G applications.Artificial Intelligence(AI)algorithms will be an integral part of 6G systems and efficient task offloading techniques using fog computing will improve their performance and reliability.In this paper,the focus is on the scenario of Partial Offloading of a Task to Multiple Helpers(POMH)in which larger tasks are divided into smaller subtasks and processed in parallel,hence expediting task completion.However,using POMH presents challenges such as breaking tasks into subtasks and scaling these subtasks based on many interdependent factors to ensure that all subtasks of a task finish simultaneously,preventing resource wastage.Additionally,applying matching theory to POMH scenarios results in dynamic preference profiles of helping devices due to changing subtask sizes,resulting in a difficult-to-solve,externalities problem.This paper introduces a novel many-to-one matching-based algorithm,designed to address the externalities problem and optimize resource allocation within POMH scenarios.Additionally,we propose a new time-efficient preference profiling technique that further enhances time optimization in POMH scenarios.The performance of the proposed technique is thoroughly evaluated in comparison to alternate baseline schemes,revealing many advantages of the proposed approach.The simulation findings indisputably show that the proposed matching-based offloading technique outperforms existing methodologies in the literature,yielding a remarkable 52 reduction in task latency,particularly under high workloads.
文摘Drawing upon self-determination theory,this study examines the effects of vicarious abusive supervision on third-party’s self-efficacy and task performance within organizational contexts.Data were collected via surveys from 337 employees across diverse organizations.The results indicate that vicarious abusive supervision significantly undermines both self-efficacy and task performance among employees who are indirectly exposed to such behavior but not directly targeted.Furthermore,self-efficacy serves as a mediator between vicarious abusive supervision and task performance;however,this mediating effect is attenuated for employees with a high promotion focus.These findings provide valuable theoretical and practical insights,particularly in the domain of organizational behavior,by emphasizing the critical role of promotion focus in mitigating the negative effects of vicarious abusive supervision.This research contributes to the organizational behavior literature by shifting the focus from the traditional supervisor-subordinate dynamic to a third-party perspective,thereby enriching our understanding of how vicarious abusive supervision impacts employees within organizational settings.The study underscores the importance of self-efficacy and promotion focus as key factors in unethical leadership contexts.
文摘The authors regret that there were errors in the affiliations and the funding declaration in the original published version.The affiliations a and b of the original manuscript are"School of Information Engineering,Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Signal Processing and Intelligent Communications,Nanchang University,Nanchang 330031,China",and"School of Internet of Things Engineering,Jiangnan University,Wuxi 214122,China",respectively.The order of the two affiliations are not correct.
基金supported by National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch Project NTUHYL 110.C018National Science and Technology Council,Taiwan.
文摘Porters play a crucial role in hospitals because they ensure the efficient transportation of patients,medical equipment,and vital documents.Despite its importance,there is a lack of research addressing the prediction of completion times for porter tasks.To address this gap,we utilized real-world porter delivery data from Taiwan University Hospital,China,Yunlin Branch,Taiwan Region of China.We first identified key features that can influence the duration of porter tasks.We then employed three widely-used machine learning algorithms:decision tree,random forest,and gradient boosting.To leverage the strengths of each algorithm,we finally adopted an ensemble modeling approach that aggregates their individual predictions.Our experimental results show that the proposed ensemble model can achieve a mean absolute error of 3 min in predicting task response time and 4.42 min in task completion time.The prediction error is around 50%lower compared to using only the historical average.These results demonstrate that our method significantly improves the accuracy of porter task time prediction,supporting better resource planning and patient care.It helps ward staff streamline workflows by reducing delays,enables porter managers to allocate resources more effectively,and shortens patient waiting times,contributing to a better care experience.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32060199,32360197,31971035,and 31771182)the Jiangxi Province Natural Science Foundation(20224ACB206016).
文摘Humans and animals have a fundamental ability to use experiences and environmental information to organize behavior.It often happens that humans and animals make decisions and prepare actions under uncertain situations.Uncertainty would significantly affect the state of animals’minds,but may not be reflected in behavior.How to“read animals’mind state”under different situations is a challenge.Here,we report that neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex(mPFC)of rats can reflect the environmental uncertainty when the task situation changes from certain to uncertain.Rats were trained to perform behavioral tasks under certain and uncertain situations.Under certain situations,rats were required to simply repeat two nose-poking actions that each triggered short auditory tone feedback(single-task situation).Whereas under the uncertain situation,the feedback could randomly be either the previous tone or a short musical rhythm.No additional action was required upon the music feedback,and the same secondary nose-poking action was required upon the tone feedback(dual-task situation);therefore,the coming task was uncertain before action initiation.We recorded single-unit activity from the mPFC when the rats were performing the tasks.We found that in the dual task,when uncertainty was introduced,many mPFC neurons were actively engaged in dealing with the uncertainty before the task initiation,suggesting that the rats could be aware of the task situation change and encode the information in the mPFC before the action of task initiation.
