Dynamic regional harmony search with opposition and local learning

ABSTRACT Harmony search (HS), as an emerging metaheuristic algorithm mimicking the musician's improvisation behavior, has demonstrated strong efficacy in solving various numerical and real-world optimization problems. To deal with the deficiencies in the original HS such as premature convergence and stagnation, a dynamic regional harmony search (DRHS) algorithm with opposition and local learning is proposed. DRHS utilizes opposition-based initialization, and performs independent harmony searches with respect to multiple groups created by periodically and randomly regrouping the harmony memory. Besides the traditional harmony improvisation operators, an opposition-based harmony creation scheme is used in DRHS to update each group memory. Any prematurely converged group will be restarted with its size being doubled to enhance exploration. Local search is periodically applied to exploit promising regions around topranked candidate solutions. The performance of DRHS has been evaluated and compared to the original HS using 12 numerical test problems taken from the CEC2005 benchmark. DRHS consistently outperforms HR on all test problems at both 10D and 30D. Harmony search (HS) [7]-[15], as an emerging metaheuristic algorithm, mimics the musicians' improvisation behavior. In HS, a candidate solution of an optimization problem corresponds to a musical harmony composed of notes played by a group of musicians. Each decision variable in a candidate solution is analogous to a musician with its value range analogized by the pitch range within which the corresponding musician plays the note. The quality of candidate solutions corresponds to the euphoniousness of musical harmonies. By simulating how a group of musicians keep enriching their experiences to collaboratively seek for the most euphonious harmony in the improvisation procedure, HS searches for global optima using harmony improvisation operators to iteratively evolve the harmony memory (HM) that consists of promising candidate solutions. Categories and Subject Descriptors HS has been successfully applied in a wide range of applications [8]- To address the above issues, we propose a dynamic regional harmony search (DRHS) algorithm incorporating opposition-based learning • Opposition-based learning is used to produce a HM that can better cover the entire solution space. • The HM is randomly split into multiple groups. Each group performs HS independently. The HM is periodically regrouped. During the searching, any prematurely converged group will be restarted with its size being doubled. This dynamic regional search scheme can force each group to independently exploit different sub-regions of the solution space while attempting to prevent both stagnation and premature convergence. • Each group first generates a new harmony using the original harmony improvisation operators. Then, an opposite harmony is created by applying the opposition-based learning to that new harmony with respect to the corresponding group. Among these two newly generated harmonies, the one with bette

Towards an understanding of the means-ends relationship in citizenship education

While it is clear that all educational undertakings consist of ends and means, the relationship between the two is far from straightforward. This article proposes a framework for understanding the relationship in the context of citizenship education. Qualitative research was undertaken of three educational initiatives in Brazil: the schools of the Landless Movement, the Plural School framework in the city of Belo Horizonte, and the Voter of the Future programme, run by the Electoral Tribunals. Case studies were carried out of each, involving documentary analysis, interviews and observations. Analysis of the relationship between ends and means in each case gave rise to two key frames: the first, ‘proximity’, refers to the extent to which ends and means are separate or unified; the second, ‘rationale’, refers to the grounds on which means are chosen. Finally, the implications of this framework for understanding curriculum are drawn out

Supporting arts and enterprise skills in communities through creative engagement with the local area

The project proposes a framework and methodology of artistic and creative social intervention that empowers and supports engagement with communities of young people affected by change in their local environment. This is a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Knowledge Transfer Fellowship aimed at building new and innovative models of creative community engagement and collaboration. The project supports active citizenship among young people by facilitating social capacity building through enterprise structures and transferring the creative lead in socially responsive arts projects to those in need of empowerment. The initial action research project is utilising an arts and enterprise participation model to create self-branded commodities that will give a role to young people within a wider, community driven, gun crime reduction and social cohesion programme. The model seeks to sustain the commitment of those participating by focussing on metrics and benchmarks that young people in the project can own and influence. The blend of creative agendas and enterprise goals provides a breadth of purpose and opportunity, linking outputs to specific environmental and social impacts. The project evidences the role and function of arts media in multi-strand learning and participation projects. As educational policy and practice (14+ age range) in the UK moves more towards action based learning for transferable life skills, the project provides a methodology emphatic of team and collaborative process, individual responsibility and creativity. The process develops ownership and shared responsibility in relation to community initiatives; fostering fresh creativity and a diversity of approach in the exploration of social, physical and racial issues arising from economic disadvantage. The knowledge transfer process is targeting a toolkit relating to multi-agency project working, creative research and action learning, empowerment and applied social arts practices

Building together / buildings together

A discussion of the problem of creating unified places in a pluralistic multicultural society

Leadership styles of successful middle school principals

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the principal's leadership style and the successful school. Furthermore, this study specifically examines the leadership style of the successful principal in the middle school. Authoritative middle school specialists throughout North Carolina submitted names of principals whom they consider to be exemplary middle school leaders. From this list, thirty-one principals were selected to complete Elias Porter's Strength Deployment Inventory and the Job Interactions Survey. To serve as a counterpoint to each principal's perception of his leadership style, five teachers, selected at random in each school, were asked to complete Porter's Strength Deployment Inventory, Feedback Edition

Conflict, Inequality and Dialogue for Conflict Resolution in Latin America: The Cases of Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela

human development, aid, trade, security