Two new hybrid algorithms are proposed to improve the performances of the meta-heuristic optimization algorithms, namely the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) and Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA). Firstly, it advances the hierarchy and position updating of the mathematical model of GWO, and then the SGWO algorithm is proposed based on the advantages of SFLA and GWO. It not only improves the ability of local search, but also speeds up the global convergence. Secondly, the SGWOD algorithm based on SGWO is proposed by using the benefit of differential evolution strategy. Through the experiments of the 29 benchmark functions, which are composed of the functions of unimodal, multimodal, fixed-dimension and composite multimodal, the performances of the new algorithms are better than that of GWO, SFLA and GWO-DE, and they greatly balances the exploration and exploitation. The proposed SGWO and SGWOD algorithms are also applied to the prediction model based on the neural network. Experimental results show the usefulness for forecasting the power daily load.

Visual secret sharing is a secret sharing scheme where the decryption requires no computation. It has found many applications in online transaction security, privacy protection, and bar code security, etc. Recently, researches have indicated that combining visual secret sharing with the widely used Quick Response code may provide additional security mechanism to online transaction. However, current methods are either pixel-based, which requires high computational complexity or module-based, which sacrifices error correction capability of the original Quick Response code. Designing module-based visual secret sharing for the Quick Response code without sacrificing error correction capability is a challenging problem. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a (3, 3)-threshold visual secret sharing for Quick Response code scheme that fully explores the extra freedom provided by color visual secret sharing and color stacking. The binary secret Quick Response code is encoded into color shares. By stacking all the three shares, a binary color Quick Response code can be reconstructed. After the inherent pre-processing steps in a standard Quick Response code decoder, the original binary secret Quick Response code can be completely reconstructed. Thus, the original error correction capability of the Quick Response code is fully preserved. Theoretical analysis shows that the visual secret sharing for Quick Response code is secure under the condition that the computational device available to the attacker is limited to a decoder for standard Quick Response code. Experimental results verify that the secret Quick Response code cannot be reconstructed from just one share or any two shares. However, it can be 100% reconstructed once the three shares are stacked. The proposed visual secret sharing for Quick Response code is module-based, and it does not sacrifice the error correction capability. Furthermore, No extra pre-processing steps other than the standard Quick Response code decoder are required.

The migration and predation of grasshoppers inspire the grasshopper optimization algorithm (GOA). It can be applied to practical problems. The binary grasshopper optimization algorithm (BGOA) is used for binary problems. To improve the algorithm’s exploration capability and the solution’s quality, this paper modifies the step size in BGOA. The step size is expanded and three new transfer functions are proposed based on the improvement. To demonstrate the availability of the algorithm, a comparative experiment with BGOA, particle swarm optimization (PSO), and binary gray wolf optimizer (BGWO) is conducted. The improved algorithm is tested on 23 benchmark test functions. Wilcoxon rank-sum and Friedman tests are used to verify the algorithm’s validity. The results indicate that the optimized algorithm is significantly more excellent than others in most functions. In the aspect of the application, this paper selects 23 datasets of UCI for feature selection implementation. The improved algorithm yields higher accuracy and fewer features.