Abstract This paper provides a novel, unique, and improved optimization algorithm called the modified Orca Predation Algorithm (mOPA). The mOPA is based on the original Orca Predation Algorithm (OPA), which combines two enhancing strategies: Lévy flight and opposition-based learning. The mOPA method is proposed to enhance search efficiency and avoid the limitations of the original OPA. This mOPA method sets up to solve the global optimization issues. Additionally, its effectiveness is compared with various well-known metaheuristic methods, and the CEC’20 test suite challenges are used to illustrate how well the mOPA performs. Case analysis demonstrates that the proposed mOPA method outperforms the benchmark regarding computational speed and yields substantially higher performance than other methods. The mOPA is applied to ensure that all load demand is met with high reliability and the lowest energy cost of an isolated hybrid system. The optimal size of this hybrid system is determined through simulation and analysis in order to service a tiny distant location in Egypt while reducing costs. Photovoltaic panels, biomass gasifier, and fuel cell units compose the majority of this hybrid system’s configuration. To confirm the mOPA technique’s superiority, its outcomes have been compared with the original OPA and other well-known metaheuristic algorithms.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women; therefore, effective early detection of this cancer can reduce its mortality rate. Breast cancer detection and classification in the early phases of development may allow for optimal therapy. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have enhanced tumor detection and classification efficiency in medical imaging compared to traditional approaches. This paper proposes a novel classification model for breast cancer diagnosis based on a hybridized CNN and an improved optimization algorithm, along with transfer learning, to help radiologists detect abnormalities efficiently. The marine predators algorithm (MPA) is the optimization algorithm we used, and we improve it using the opposition-based learning strategy to cope with the implied weaknesses of the original MPA. The improved marine predators algorithm (IMPA) is used to find the best values for the hyperparameters of the CNN architecture. The proposed method uses a pretrained CNN model called ResNet50 (residual network). This model is hybridized with the IMPA algorithm, resulting in an architecture called IMPA-ResNet50. Our evaluation is performed on two mammographic datasets, the mammographic image analysis society (MIAS) and curated breast imaging subset of DDSM (CBIS-DDSM) datasets. The proposed model was compared with other state-of-the-art approaches. The obtained results showed that the proposed model outperforms the compared state-of-the-art approaches, which are beneficial to classification performance, achieving 98.32% accuracy, 98.56% sensitivity, and 98.68% specificity on the CBIS-DDSM dataset and 98.88% accuracy, 97.61% sensitivity, and 98.40% specificity on the MIAS dataset. To evaluate the performance of IMPA in finding the optimal values for the hyperparameters of ResNet50 architecture, it compared to four other optimization algorithms including gravitational search algorithm (GSA), Harris hawks optimization (HHO), whale optimization algorithm (WOA), and the original MPA algorithm. The counterparts algorithms are also hybrid with the ResNet50 architecture produce models named GSA-ResNet50, HHO-ResNet50, WOA-ResNet50, and MPA-ResNet50, respectively. The results indicated that the proposed IMPA-ResNet50 is achieved a better performance than other counterparts.