33,860 research outputs found
Genetic Transfer or Population Diversification? Deciphering the Secret Ingredients of Evolutionary Multitask Optimization
Evolutionary multitasking has recently emerged as a novel paradigm that
enables the similarities and/or latent complementarities (if present) between
distinct optimization tasks to be exploited in an autonomous manner simply by
solving them together with a unified solution representation scheme. An
important matter underpinning future algorithmic advancements is to develop a
better understanding of the driving force behind successful multitask
problem-solving. In this regard, two (seemingly disparate) ideas have been put
forward, namely, (a) implicit genetic transfer as the key ingredient
facilitating the exchange of high-quality genetic material across tasks, and
(b) population diversification resulting in effective global search of the
unified search space encompassing all tasks. In this paper, we present some
empirical results that provide a clearer picture of the relationship between
the two aforementioned propositions. For the numerical experiments we make use
of Sudoku puzzles as case studies, mainly because of their feature that
outwardly unlike puzzle statements can often have nearly identical final
solutions. The experiments reveal that while on many occasions genetic transfer
and population diversity may be viewed as two sides of the same coin, the wider
implication of genetic transfer, as shall be shown herein, captures the true
essence of evolutionary multitasking to the fullest.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Estimation of Commodity Specific Production Costs Using German Farm Accountancy Data
A central problem in estimating per unit costs of production originates from the fact that most farms produce multiple outputs and standard farm-accounting data are only available at the whole-farm level. The seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) approach is used to estimate per unit production costs based on German farm accountancy data. Special emphasis is put on outlier detection prior to the estimation of production costs to increase the robustness of the results. Outlier observations are identified based on the Mahalanobis distance for each observation on the data set. It was observed that less negative cost coefficients are estimated after the exclusion of the outliers. The time series analysis of cost estimation based on SUR regression shows the costs of arable crops after 2004, affected by rising prices of fertilizer, seeds and energy, while the increase of livestock production costs after 2006 is attributed to feed costs.Multi-output, outlier detection, production costs, Seemingly Unrelated Regression, Agricultural Finance,
A Tale of Two Data-Intensive Paradigms: Applications, Abstractions, and Architectures
Scientific problems that depend on processing large amounts of data require
overcoming challenges in multiple areas: managing large-scale data
distribution, co-placement and scheduling of data with compute resources, and
storing and transferring large volumes of data. We analyze the ecosystems of
the two prominent paradigms for data-intensive applications, hereafter referred
to as the high-performance computing and the Apache-Hadoop paradigm. We propose
a basis, common terminology and functional factors upon which to analyze the
two approaches of both paradigms. We discuss the concept of "Big Data Ogres"
and their facets as means of understanding and characterizing the most common
application workloads found across the two paradigms. We then discuss the
salient features of the two paradigms, and compare and contrast the two
approaches. Specifically, we examine common implementation/approaches of these
paradigms, shed light upon the reasons for their current "architecture" and
discuss some typical workloads that utilize them. In spite of the significant
software distinctions, we believe there is architectural similarity. We discuss
the potential integration of different implementations, across the different
levels and components. Our comparison progresses from a fully qualitative
examination of the two paradigms, to a semi-quantitative methodology. We use a
simple and broadly used Ogre (K-means clustering), characterize its performance
on a range of representative platforms, covering several implementations from
both paradigms. Our experiments provide an insight into the relative strengths
of the two paradigms. We propose that the set of Ogres will serve as a
benchmark to evaluate the two paradigms along different dimensions.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
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