Performance improvement of amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide ReRAM with SiO2 inserting layer

In this study, the resistive switching performance of amorphous indium–gallium–zinc oxide (a-IGZO) resistive switching random-access memory (ReRAM) was improved by inserting a thin silicon oxide layer between silver (Ag) top electrode and a-IGZO resistive switching layer. Compared with the single a-IGZO layer structure, the SiO₂/a-IGZO bi-layer structure exhibits the higher On/Off resistance ratio larger than 10³, and the lower operation power using a smaller SET compliance current. In addition, good endurance and excellent retention characteristics were achieved. Furthermore, multilevel resistance states are obtained through adjusting SET compliance current and RESET stop voltage, which shows a promise for high-performance nonvolatile multilevel memory application.     

Multi-level lot sizing and job shop scheduling with compressible process times: A cutting plane approach

This paper proposes an integer linear programming formulation for a simultaneous lot sizing and scheduling problem in a job shop environment. Among others, one of our realistic assumptions is dealing with flexible machines which enable the production manager to change their working speeds. Then, a number of valid inequalities are developed based on problem structures. As the valid inequalities can help in reducing the non-optimal parts of the solution space, they are dealt with as some cutting planes. The proposed cutting planes are used to solve the problem in (i) cut-and-branch, and (ii) branch-and-cut approaches. The performance of each cutting plane is investigated with CPLEX 12.2 on a set of randomly-generated test data. Then, some performance criteria are identified and the proposed cutting planes are ranked by TOPSIS method.     

Refinable bivariate quartic -splines for multi-level data representation and surface display

In this paper, a second-order Hermite basis of the space of -quartic splines on the six-directional mesh is constructed and the refinable mask of the basis functions is derived. In addition, the extra parameters of this basis are modified to extend the Hermite interpolating property at the integer lattices by including Lagrange interpolation at the half integers as well. We also formulate a compactly supported super function in terms of the basis functions to facilitate the construction of quasi-interpolants to achieve the highest (i.e., fifth) order of approximation in an efficient way. Due to the small (minimum) support of the basis functions, the refinable mask immediately yields (up to) four-point matrix-valued coefficient stencils of a vector subdivision scheme for efficient display of -quartic spline surfaces. Finally, this vector subdivision approach is further modified to reduce the size of the coefficient stencils to two-point templates while maintaining the second-order Hermite interpolating property.

     

GRASP with hybrid heuristic-subproblem optimization for the multi-level capacitated minimum spanning tree problem

We propose a GRASP using an hybrid heuristic-subproblem optimization approach for the Multi-Level Capacitated Minimum Spanning Tree (MLCMST) problem. The motivation behind such approach is that to evaluate moves rearranging the configuration of a subset of nodes may require to solve a smaller-sized MLCMST instance. We thus use heuristic rules to define, in both the construction and the local search phases, subproblems which are in turn solved exactly by employing an integer programming model. We report numerical results obtained on benchmark instances from the literature, showing the approach to be competitive in terms of solution quality. The proposed GRASP have in fact improved the best known upper bounds for almost all of the considered instances.     

A binary particle swarm optimization algorithm inspired by multi-level organizational learning behavior

Recently, nature-inspired algorithms have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers. Due to the fact that in BPSO the position vectors consisting of ‘0’ and ‘1’ can be seen as a decision behavior (support or oppose), in this paper, we propose a BPSO with hierarchical structure (BPSO_HS for short), on the basis of multi-level organizational learning behavior. At each iteration of BPSO_HS, particles are divided into two classes, named ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’, and different evolutionary strategies are used in each class. In addition, the mutation strategy is adopted to overcome the premature convergence and slow convergent speed during the later stages of optimization. The algorithm was tested on two discrete optimization problems (Traveling Salesman and Bin Packing) as well as seven real-parameter functions. The experimental results showed that the performance of BPSO_HS was significantly better than several existing algorithms.     

An optimization framework for solving capacitated multi-level lot-sizing problems with backlogging

This paper proposes two new mixed integer programming models for capacitated multi-level lot-sizing problems with backlogging, whose linear programming relaxations provide good lower bounds on the optimal solution value. We show that both of these strong formulations yield the same lower bounds. In addition to these theoretical results, we propose a new, effective optimization framework that achieves high quality solutions in reasonable computational time. Computational results show that the proposed optimization framework is superior to other well-known approaches on several important performance dimensions.     

Developing an efficient knowledge discovering model for mining fuzzy multi-level sequential patterns in sequence databases

Sequential pattern mining from sequence databases has been recognized as an important data mining problem with various applications. Items in a sequence database can be organized into a concept hierarchy according to taxonomy. Based on the hierarchy, sequential patterns can be found not only at the leaf nodes (individual items) of the hierarchy, but also at higher levels of the hierarchy; this is called multiple-level sequential pattern mining. In previous research, taxonomies based on crisp relationships between any two disjointed levels, however, cannot handle the uncertainties and fuzziness in real life. For example, Tomatoes could be classified into the Fruit category, but could be also regarded as the Vegetable category. To deal with the fuzzy nature of taxonomy, Chen and Huang developed a novel knowledge discovering model to mine fuzzy multi-level sequential patterns, where the relationships from one level to another can be represented by a value between 0 and 1. In their work, a generalized sequential patterns (GSP)-like algorithm was developed to find fuzzy multi-level sequential patterns. This algorithm, however, faces a difficult problem since the mining process may have to generate and examine a huge set of combinatorial subsequences and requires multiple scans of the database. In this paper, we propose a new efficient algorithm to mine this type of pattern based on the divide-and-conquer strategy. In addition, another efficient algorithm is developed to discover fuzzy cross-level sequential patterns. Since the proposed algorithm greatly reduces the candidate subsequence generation efforts, the performance is improved significantly. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm is much more efficient and scalable than the previous one. In mining real-life databases, our works enhance the model's practicability and could promote more applications in business.     

Solving multi-level multi-objective linear programming problems through fuzzy goal programming approach

In this paper, two new algorithms are presented to solve multi-level multi-objective linear programming (ML-MOLP) problems through the fuzzy goal programming (FGP) approach. The membership functions for the defined fuzzy goals of all objective functions at all levels are developed in the model formulation of the problem; so also are the membership functions for vectors of fuzzy goals of the decision variables, controlled by decision makers at the top levels. Then the fuzzy goal programming approach is used to achieve the highest degree of each of the membership goals by minimizing their deviational variables and thereby obtain the most satisfactory solution for all decision makers.