20,304 research outputs found
Genetic algorithms with guided and local search strategies for university course timetabling
This article is posted here with permission from the IEEE - Copyright @ 2011 IEEEThe university course timetabling problem (UCTP) is a combinatorial optimization problem, in which a set of events has to be scheduled into time slots and located into suitable rooms. The design of course timetables for academic institutions is a very difficult task because it is an NP-hard problem. This paper investigates genetic algorithms (GAs) with a guided search strategy and local search (LS) techniques for the UCTP. The guided search strategy is used to create offspring into the population based on a data structure that stores information extracted from good individuals of previous generations. The LS techniques use their exploitive search ability to improve the search efficiency of the proposed GAs and the quality of individuals. The proposed GAs are tested on two sets of benchmark problems in comparison with a set of state-of-the-art methods from the literature. The experimental results show that the proposed GAs are able to produce promising results for the UCTP.This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of U.K. under Grant EP/E060722/1
Recommended from our members
A Haystack Heuristic for Autoimmune Disease Biomarker Discovery Using Next-Gen Immune Repertoire Sequencing Data.
Large-scale DNA sequencing of immunological repertoires offers an opportunity for the discovery of novel biomarkers for autoimmune disease. Available bioinformatics techniques however, are not adequately suited for elucidating possible biomarker candidates from within large immunosequencing datasets due to unsatisfactory scalability and sensitivity. Here, we present the Haystack Heuristic, an algorithm customized to computationally extract disease-associated motifs from next-generation-sequenced repertoires by contrasting disease and healthy subjects. This technique employs a local-search graph-theory approach to discover novel motifs in patient data. We apply the Haystack Heuristic to nine million B-cell receptor sequences obtained from nearly 100 individuals in order to elucidate a new motif that is significantly associated with multiple sclerosis. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the Haystack Heuristic in computing possible biomarker candidates from high throughput sequencing data and could be generalized to other datasets
Dynamic load balancing for the distributed mining of molecular structures
In molecular biology, it is often desirable to find common properties in large numbers of drug candidates. One family of
methods stems from the data mining community, where algorithms to find frequent graphs have received increasing attention over the
past years. However, the computational complexity of the underlying problem and the large amount of data to be explored essentially
render sequential algorithms useless. In this paper, we present a distributed approach to the frequent subgraph mining problem to
discover interesting patterns in molecular compounds. This problem is characterized by a highly irregular search tree, whereby no
reliable workload prediction is available. We describe the three main aspects of the proposed distributed algorithm, namely, a dynamic
partitioning of the search space, a distribution process based on a peer-to-peer communication framework, and a novel receiverinitiated
load balancing algorithm. The effectiveness of the distributed method has been evaluated on the well-known National Cancer
Instituteâs HIV-screening data set, where we were able to show close-to linear speedup in a network of workstations. The proposed
approach also allows for dynamic resource aggregation in a non dedicated computational environment. These features make it suitable
for large-scale, multi-domain, heterogeneous environments, such as computational grids
A local and global tour on MOMoT
Many model transformation scenarios require flexible execution strategies as they should produce models with the highest
possible quality. At the same time, transformation problems often span a very large search space with respect to possible
transformation results. Recently, different proposals for finding good transformation results without enumerating the
complete search space have been proposed by using meta-heuristic search algorithms. However, determining the impact of
the different kinds of search algorithms, such as local search or global search, on the transformation results is still an open
research topic. In this paper, we present an extension to MOMoT, which is a search-based model transformation tool, for
supporting not only global searchers for model transformation orchestrations, but also local ones. This leads to a model
transformation framework that allows as the first of its kind multi-objective local and global search. By this, the advantages
and disadvantages of global and local search for model transformation orchestration can be evaluated. This is done in a
case-study-based evaluation, which compares different performance aspects of the local- and global-search algorithms
available in MOMoT. Several interesting conclusions have been drawn from the evaluation: (1) local-search algorithms
perform reasonable well with respect to both the search exploration and the execution time for small input models, (2) for
bigger input models, their execution time can be similar to those of global-search algorithms, but global-search algorithms
tend to outperform local-search algorithms in terms of search exploration, (3) evolutionary algorithms show limitations in
situations where single changes of the solution can have a significant impact on the solutionâs fitness.Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad TIN2015-70560-RJunta de AndalucĂa P12-TIC-186
Load Balancing via Random Local Search in Closed and Open systems
In this paper, we analyze the performance of random load resampling and
migration strategies in parallel server systems. Clients initially attach to an
arbitrary server, but may switch server independently at random instants of
time in an attempt to improve their service rate. This approach to load
balancing contrasts with traditional approaches where clients make smart server
selections upon arrival (e.g., Join-the-Shortest-Queue policy and variants
thereof). Load resampling is particularly relevant in scenarios where clients
cannot predict the load of a server before being actually attached to it. An
important example is in wireless spectrum sharing where clients try to share a
set of frequency bands in a distributed manner.Comment: Accepted to Sigmetrics 201
Hearing the clusters in a graph: A distributed algorithm
We propose a novel distributed algorithm to cluster graphs. The algorithm
recovers the solution obtained from spectral clustering without the need for
expensive eigenvalue/vector computations. We prove that, by propagating waves
through the graph, a local fast Fourier transform yields the local component of
every eigenvector of the Laplacian matrix, thus providing clustering
information. For large graphs, the proposed algorithm is orders of magnitude
faster than random walk based approaches. We prove the equivalence of the
proposed algorithm to spectral clustering and derive convergence rates. We
demonstrate the benefit of using this decentralized clustering algorithm for
community detection in social graphs, accelerating distributed estimation in
sensor networks and efficient computation of distributed multi-agent search
strategies
Optimization Algorithms for Large-Scale Real-World Instances of the Frequency Assignment Problem
Nowadays, mobile communications are experiencing a strong growth, being more and more indispensable. One of the key issues in the design of mobile networks is the Frequency Assignment Problem (FAP). This problem is crucial at present and will remain important in the foreseeable future. Real world instances of FAP typically involve very large networks, which can only be handled by heuristic methods. In the present work, we are interested in optimizing frequency assignments for problems described in a mathematical formalism that incorporates actual interference information, measured directly on the field, as is done in current GSM networks. To achieve this goal, a range of metaheuristics have been designed, adapted, and rigourously compared on two actual GSM networks modeled according to the latter formalism. In order to generate quickly and reliably high quality solutions, all metaheuristics combine their global search capabilities with a local-search method specially tailored for this domain. The experiments and statistical tests show that in general, all metaheuristics are able to improve upon results published in previous studies, but two of the metaheuristics emerge as the best performers: a population-based algorithm (Scatter Search) and a trajectory based (1+1) Evolutionary Algorithm. Finally, the analysis of the frequency plans obtained offers insight about how the interference cost is reduced in the optimal plans.Publicad
- âŠ