Diagnosis is a critical preventive step in Coronavirus research which has similar manifestations with other types of pneumonia. CT scans and X-rays play an important role in that direction. However, processing chest CT images and using them to accurately diagnose COVID-19 is a computationally expensive task. Machine Learning techniques have the potential to overcome this challenge. This paper proposes two optimization algorithms for feature selection and classification of COVID-19. The proposed framework has three cascaded phases. Firstly, the features are extracted from the CT scans using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) named AlexNet. Secondly, a proposed features selection algorithm, Guided Whale Optimization Algorithm (Guided WOA) based on Stochastic Fractal Search (SFS), is then applied followed by balancing the selected features. Finally, a proposed voting classifier, Guided WOA based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), aggregates different classifiers' predictions to choose the most voted class. This increases the chance that individual classifiers, e.g. Support Vector Machine (SVM), Neural Networks (NN), k-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Decision Trees (DT), to show significant discrepancies. Two datasets are used to test the proposed model: CT images containing clinical findings of positive COVID-19 and CT images negative COVID-19. The proposed feature selection algorithm (SFS-Guided WOA) is compared with other optimization algorithms widely used in recent literature to validate its efficiency. The proposed voting classifier (PSO-Guided-WOA) achieved AUC (area under the curve) of 0.995 that is superior to other voting classifiers in terms of performance metrics. Wilcoxon rank-sum, ANOVA, and T-test statistical tests are applied to statistically assess the quality of the proposed algorithms as well.

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Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and early detection can significantly decrease the associated mortality rate. Different kinds of segmentation methods were applied to extract regions of interest from breast cancer images that are necessary to improve the classification. In this paper, a segmentation method for breast cancer from thermal images is introduced based on a proposed Chaotic Salp Swarm Algorithm (CSSA). Although the Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA) shows superiority in singleobjective optimization problems, it suffers from a low convergence rate and local optima stagnation. In the proposed method, a segmentation algorithm is formulated using the quick-shift method for superpixels extraction whose parameters are optimized by CSSA. The quick-shift method generates compact and nearly uniform superpixels by clustering the breast thermal image pixels. CSSA algorithm is developed based on ten chaotic maps to enhance the original SSA convergence rate while accuracy could be improved by controlling the balance between exploration and exploitation. The proposed algorithm is applied to realworld thermal images for the breast area. The results demonstrate that the proposed CSSA algorithm achieves fast convergence for the unimodal benchmark functions and outperforms the original SSA algorithm. Moreover, a dataset from Mastology Research with Infrared Image (DMR-IR) is used to test the performance of the proposed algorithm. In experiments, the proposed optimized segmentation algorithm extracts the breast area from the background accurately where the region of interest is focused on the breast area and removes the unwanted area such as underarms and stomach which intern can enhance the results of cancer detection. Furthermore, the proposed algorithms achieve robustness for the segmentation of different healthy and unhealthy cases images compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

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In recent years, scarce water resources became one of the main problems that endanger human species existence and the advancement of any nation. In this research, smart water meters were implemented, distributed, and installed in a regional area in Cairo while data were collected at uniform intervals then sent to the cloud instantly. The solution paradigm uses an Internet of Things (IoT) based on micro-services and containers. The design incorporates real-time streaming and infrastructure performance optimization to store data. A second layer to analyze the acquired data was used to model water consumption using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). The designed LSTM is validated and tested to be utilized in the forecast of future water demand. Moreover, two alternative machine learning methods, namely Support Vector Regression and Random Forest commonly utilized in time series forecasting applications, were used for a comparative analysis of which LSTM has proven to be superior. The proper integration of the system elements is the key to the proposed system success. Based on the success of the designed system, it can be applicable on a national scale. That can enable the optimal management of consumers' demand and improve water infrastructure utilization. The proposed paradigm presents a testbed for various scenarios that can be used in water resources management.

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