Evolving comprehensible and scalable solvers using CGP for solving some real-world inspired problems

My original contribution to knowledge is the application of Cartesian Genetic Programming to design some scalable and human-understandable metaheuristics automatically; those find some suitable solutions for real-world NP-hard and discrete problems. This technique is thought to possess the ability to raise the generality of a problem-solving process, allowing some supervised machine learning tasks and being able to evolve non-deterministic algorithms. \\ Two extensions of Cartesian Genetic Programming are presented. Iterative My original contribution to knowledge is the application of Cartesian Genetic Programming to design some scalable and human-understandable metaheuristics automatically; those find some suitable solutions for real-world NP-hard and discrete problems. This technique is thought to possess the ability to raise the generality of a problem-solving process, allowing some supervised machine learning tasks and being able to evolve non-deterministic algorithms. \\ Two extensions of Cartesian Genetic Programming are presented. Iterative Cartesian Genetic Programming can encode loops and nested loop with their termination criteria, making susceptible to evolutionary modification the whole programming construct. This newly developed extension and its application to metaheuristics are demonstrated to discover effective solvers for NP-hard and discrete problems. This thesis also extends Cartesian Genetic Programming and Iterative Cartesian Genetic Programming to adapt a hyper-heuristic reproductive operator at the same time of exploring the automatic design space. It is demonstrated the exploration of an automated design space can be improved when specific types of active and non-active genes are mutated. \\ A series of rigorous empirical investigations demonstrate that lowering the comprehension barrier of automatically designed algorithms can help communicating and identifying an effective and ineffective pattern of primitives. The complete evolution of loops and nested loops without imposing a hard limit on the number of recursive calls is shown to broaden the automatic design space. Finally, it is argued the capability of a learning objective function to assess the scalable potential of a generated algorithm can be beneficial to a generative hyper-heuristic

2022-2023 Graduate School Catalog

Graduate students from more than 67 counties are providing outstanding leadership during the pandemic, as they conduct vital research to inform public health, contribute to the greater good, and stimulate the economy. Their scholarship spans 140 programs - from biomedical engineering to business administration, from history to horticulture, and from marine sciences to music performance

2023-2024 Graduate School Catalog

You and your peers represent more than 67 countries and your shared scholarship spans 140 programs - from business administration and biomedical engineering to history, horticulture, musical performance, marine science, and more. Your ideas and interests will inform public health, create opportunities for art and innovation, contribute to the greater good, and positively impact economic development in Maine and beyond

2021-2022 Graduate School Catalog

Graduate students from more than 67 counties are providing outstanding leadership during the pandemic, as they conduct vital research to inform public health, contribute to the greater good, and stimulate the economy. Their scholarship spans 140 programs - from biomedical engineering to business administration, from history to horticulture, and from marine sciences to music performance

A genre analysis on the roles of rhetorical structures and discourse markers in Malaysian newspaper reports

There are a number of issues related to the rhetorical structures of newspaper reports. From the ESP perspective, students of journalism courses still lack the knowledge of using appropriate rhetorical structures of newspaper reports. Understanding various forms, functions and positions of the linguistic structure of a genre is crucial to overcome the issues to achieve the communicative purposes embedded in the genre. However, there are limited studies on newspaper report’s structural linguistics patterns from the aspect of rhetorical structures (moves) and the use of discourse markers. Thus, there is a need to analyse how the rhetorical structures (moves) and the discourse markers are used in a newspaper report. Using the genre theory, this study analysed the frequency, patterns and the functional relations of moves and discourse markers in the corpus of online newspaper articles. The corpus consisted of ninety articles from the crime, politics and environmental news published in The Star newspaper. A corpus-based approach was used to code and calculate the frequency and patterns of the moves and discourse markers. The functions of the moves and the discourse markers were examined to see the relations within the moves. The data indicated that nine-move structures were identified with five optional moves and four obligatory moves. A hybrid and cyclical pattern emerged from the distributional patterns. Different grammatical word classes of discourse markers existed in the newspaper report. Based on the distributional patterns, the discourse markers occurred in the initial, middle and end of the sentences. Most of these discourse markers were found to serve a number of roles with the most occurrences of concession, evaluation, reason, and elaboration. The findings of this study can be useful for journalists, curriculum designers, translators, learners and instructors. Implication of the study revealed the importance of the rhetorical moves and DMs in specific genres for writers. Further analyses indicated the need for research of various patterns of the moves and DMs on the basis of large-scale genre research, analyse other sub-genres and comparison of newspaper reports with other countries in the future

Courtroom Discourses: An Analysis of the Westerfield Jury Trial

Alla luce del crescente interesse verso le complesse dinamiche che uniscono inestricabilmente i concetti di legge e linguaggio, questo lavoro mira ad osservare tali dinamiche in un particolare evento comunicativo, ovvero un processo con giuria popolare. Pi\uf9 specificatamente, viene analizzato il caso California vs Westerfield, svoltosi in California nel 2002. Lo studio si basa in particolare sull\u2019osservazione dei processi comunicativi che avvengono tra professionisti del mondo legale (in particolare giudice ed avvocati) e i giurati, che per definizione non possiedono una specifica conoscenza in ambito giuridico. La relazione tra esperti e non-esperti in un processo \ue8 inoltre determinata dalla peculiarit\ue0 che da un lato i professionisti detengono una posizione vantaggiosa in termini di potere comunicativo e di conoscenze specifiche, ma al contempo il potere decisionale \ue8 ascritto esclusivamente ai giurati. Lo scopo primario \ue8 quello di giungere ad una migliore comprensione della complessa natura delle tecniche e delle strategie discorsive che emergono nella relazione tra professionisti e non in questo specifico evento. Dal punto di vista delle dinamiche comunicative i giurati sembrano assumere un ruolo di passivi spettatori dell\u2019evento che viene loro presentato e la relazione tra diversi partecipanti \ue8 caratterizzata da un\u2019asimmetrica distribuzione dei turni e delle possibilit\ue0 di intervento. Tale relazione \ue8 determinata da specifiche pratiche e restrizioni procedurali di un evento che \ue8 per definizione altamente istituzionalizzato. Al contempo per\uf2 l\u2019analisi prende in considerazione le molteplici sfumature che definiscono queste dinamiche e le varie possibilit\ue0 che i giurati possiedono per intervenire in modo pi\uf9 attivo nel processo, in particolare alla luce dei recenti sviluppi procedurali. Il lavoro osserva l\u2019ibridit\ue0 del linguaggio usato in tribunale, adottando diverse prospettive. Innanzitutto si studia la complessa relazione che esiste tra la modalit\ue0 scritta e quella orale durante diverse fasi del processo. L\u2019ibridit\ue0 \ue8 anche analizzata dal punto di vista della commistione di diversi stili e registri. Inoltre, lo studio osserva se e in che modo le caratteristiche che vengono generalmente attribuite al linguaggio legale, quali la presenza di lessico altamente specializzato, di strutture sintattiche complesse e di un registro molto formale, emergono in questo specifico tipo di processo. Particolare attenzione \ue8 dedicata all\u2019osservazione delle modalit\ue0 attraverso le quali specifici concetti giuridici vengono illustrati ai giurati in base ai diversi scopi comunicativi. Diversi tipi di tensioni vengono osservati all\u2019interno di questo contesto, quali la giustapposizione di tecnicismi e colloquialismi, o il conflitto tra il desiderio di sensazionalismo e la necessit\ue0 di muoversi all\u2019interno di un quadro standardizzato e caratterizzato da specifici vincoli procedurali.Given the increasing interest in the complex dynamics that inextricably combine the concepts of law and language, this work aims to examine these dynamics focusing on a particular communicative event, namely a trial by jury. More specifically, the case under scrutiny is California vs Westerfield, which was tried in California in 2002. The study is based on the observation of the communicative processes taking place between professionals (specifically, judges and lawyers) and jurors, who by definition do not possess any specific legal knowledge. The relationship between experts and non-experts in a trial is also determined by the peculiarity that professionals assumes an advantageous position in terms of communicative power and specialized knowledge, while the decisional power is ascribed exclusively to the jury. The primary goal of this work is to reach a better understanding of the complex nature of the techniques and discursive strategies that emerge in the communicative relationship between professionals and laymen in this particular event. From a communicative perspective, the jurors seem to assume the role of passive spectators, and the relationship between different participants is characterized by an asymmetric distribution of turns and limited active intervention. These dynamics are determined by the specific practices and procedural restrictions of an event that is by definition highly institutionalized. At the same time, however, the analysis takes into account the many nuances that define these dynamics and the various possibilities that the jurors have to intervene more actively in the process, particularly in the light of recent procedural developments. The work aims to observe the hybridity of the language used in court, adopting different perspectives. First, it investigates the complex relationship that emerges between written and oral communication in different phases of the trial. Hybridity is also observed from the point of view of the combination of different styles and registers. The study also examines to what extent the characteristics that are generally attributed to legal language, such as the presence of highly specialized vocabulary, complex syntactic structures and a very formal register emerge in this specific context. Particular attention is devoted to the observation of the specific strategies adopted to illustrate legal ideas and concepts to the jurors in light of the speaker\u2019s various communicative purposes. Several kinds of tensions are observed within this context, such as the juxtaposition of colloquialisms and jargon, and the conflict between the desire for sensationalism and the need to move within a standardized framework that is characterized by specific procedural constraints