The first human infected with the Covid-19 virus was traced to a seafood market in Wuhan, China. Research shows that there are comparable types of viruses found in different and mutually distant areas. This raises several questions: what if the virus originated in another location? How will future waves of epidemics behave if they originate from different locations with a smaller/larger population than Wuhan? To explore these questions, we implement an agent-based model within fractal cities. Cities radiate gravitational social attraction based on their Zipfian population. The probability and predictability of contagion events are analyzed by examining fractal dimensions and lacunarity. Results show that weak gravitational forces of small locations help dissipate infections across country quicker if the pathogen had originated from that location. Gravitational forces of large cities help contain infections within them if they are the starting locations for the pathogen. Greater connectedness and symmetry allow for a more predictable epidemic outcome since there are no obstructions to spreading. To test our hypothesis, we implement datasets from two countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and two diseases, Ebola and Covid-19, and obtain the same results.
This study focuses on the challenges of aviation maintenance technician (AMT) scheduling and constructs a model based on personnel satisfaction and the parallel execution of aircraft maintenance tasks. To obtain the scheduling scheme from the constructed NP-hard model, an interactive multiswarm bacterial foraging optimization (IMSBFO) algorithm is proposed using multi-swarm coevolution, structural recombination, and three information interactive mechanisms among individuals. Moreover, considering the distributed feature of the AMT scheduling problem, a specific mechanism is designed to convert continuous solution to a binary AMT scheduling scheme. Finally, a series of comparative experiments highlight the efficiency and superiority of our proposed IMSBFO algorithm, and the optimal scheduling scheme owns the delicate balance between the work and rest time.
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