Simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is a popular intelligent optimization algorithm which has been successfully applied in many fields. Parameters’ setting is a key factor for its performance, but it is also a tedious work. To simplify parameters setting, we present a list-based simulated annealing (LBSA) algorithm to solve traveling salesman problem (TSP). LBSA algorithm uses a novel list-based cooling schedule to control the decrease of temperature. Specifically, a list of temperatures is created first, and then the maximum temperature in list is used by Metropolis acceptance criterion to decide whether to accept a candidate solution. The temperature list is adapted iteratively according to the topology of the solution space of the problem. The effectiveness and the parameter sensitivity of the list-based cooling schedule are illustrated through benchmark TSP problems. The LBSA algorithm, whose performance is robust on a wide range of parameter values, shows competitive performance compared with some other state-of-the-art algorithms.

List-based simulated annealing (LBSA) algorithm is a novel simulated annealing algorithm where list-based cooling scheme is used to control the change of parameter temperature. Aiming to improve the efficiency of the LBSA algorithm for largescale optimization problems, this paper proposes an enhanced LBSA (ELBSA) algorithm for solving large-scale traveling salesman problem (TSP). The ELBSA algorithm can drive more sampling at more suitable temperatures and from more promising neighborhoods. Specifically, heuristic augmented sampling strategy is used to ensure that more neighbors are from promising neighborhoods, systematic selection strategy is proposed to guarantee that each component of the current solution has a chance to be improved, and variable Markov chain length (VMCL), based on arithmetic sequence, is used to sample more neighbors at more suitable temperatures. Extensive experiments were performed to show the contribution of the heuristic augmented sampling strategy, and to verify the advantage of using systematic selection and VMCL. Comparative experiments, which were conducted on a wide range of large-scale TSP instances, show that the ELBSA algorithm is better than or competitive with most other state-ofthe-art metaheuristics.

In the field of object detection, enhancing algorithm performance in complex scenarios represents a fundamental technological challenge. To address this issue, this paper presents an efficient optimized YOLOv8 model with extended vision (YOLO-EV), which optimizes the performance of the YOLOv8 model through a series of innovative improvement measures and strategies. First, we propose a multi-branch group-enhanced fusion attention (MGEFA) module and integrate it into YOLO-EV, which significantly boosts the model’s feature extraction capabilities. Second, we enhance the existing spatial pyramid pooling fast (SPPF) layer by integrating large scale kernel attention (LSKA), improving the model’s efficiency in processing spatial information. Additionally, we replace the traditional IOU loss function with the Wise-IOU loss function, thereby enhancing localization accuracy across various target sizes. We also introduce a P6 layer to augment the model’s detection capabilities for multi-scale targets. Through network structure optimization, we achieve higher computational efficiency, ensuring that YOLO-EV consumes fewer computational resources than YOLOv8s. In the validation section, preliminary tests on the VOC12 dataset demonstrate YOLO-EV’s effectiveness in standard object detection tasks. Moreover, YOLO-EV has been applied to the CottonWeedDet12 and CropWeed datasets, which are characterized by complex scenes, diverse weed morphologies, significant occlusions, and numerous small targets. Experimental results indicate that YOLO-EV exhibits superior detection accuracy in these complex agricultural environments compared to the original YOLOv8s and other state-of-the-art models, effectively identifying and locating various types of weeds, thus demonstrating its significant practical application potential.

Effective weed management is essential for protecting crop yields in cotton production, yet conventional deep learning approaches often falter in detecting small or occluded weeds and can be restricted by large parameter counts. To tackle these challenges, we propose YOLO-ACE, an advanced extension of YOLOv5s, which was selected for its optimal balance of accuracy and speed, making it well suited for agricultural applications. YOLO-ACE integrates a Context Augmentation Module (CAM) and Selective Kernel Attention (SKAttention) to capture multi-scale features and dynamically adjust the receptive field, while a decoupled detection head separates classification from bounding box regression, enhancing overall efficiency. Experiments on the CottonWeedDet12 (CWD12) dataset show that YOLO-ACE achieves notable mAP@0.5 and mAP@0.5:0.95 scores—95.3% and 89.5%, respectively—surpassing previous benchmarks. Additionally, we tested the model’s transferability and generalization across different crops and environments using the CropWeed dataset, where it achieved a competitive mAP@0.5 of 84.3%, further showcasing its robust ability to adapt to diverse conditions. These results confirm that YOLO-ACE combines precise detection with parameter efficiency, meeting the exacting demands of modern cotton weed management.

List-based simulated annealing (LBSA) algorithm, which uses list-based cooling scheme to control the change of parameter temperature, was first proposed for traveling salesman problem. This paper extends the application of LBSA algorithm for 0–1 knapsack problem (0-1 KP). A hybrid greedy repair and optimization operator, which combines density-based and value-based greedy repair and optimization operators, is designed to get better balance between intensification and diversification. Extensive experiments were performed to show the effectiveness and parameter robustness of a list-based cooling scheme and to verify the advantage of using hybrid greedy repair and optimization operator. Comparing experiments, which were conducted on small-scale, medium-scale, and large-scale 0–1 KP instances, have shown that LBSA algorithm is better than or competitive with other state-of-the-art metaheuristics.