RGFGA: An efficient representation and crossover for grouping genetic algorithms

There is substantial research into genetic algorithms that are used to group large numbers of objects into mutually exclusive subsets based upon some fitness function. However, nearly all methods involve degeneracy to some degree. We introduce a new representation for grouping genetic algorithms, the restricted growth function genetic algorithm, that effectively removes all degeneracy, resulting in a more efficient search. A new crossover operator is also described that exploits a measure of similarity between chromosomes in a population. Using several synthetic datasets, we compare the performance of our representation and crossover with another well known state-of-the-art GA method, a strawman optimisation method and a well-established statistical clustering algorithm, with encouraging results

ICARUS: Intelligent coupon allocation for retailers using search

Many retailers run loyalty card schemes for their customers offering incentives in the form of money off coupons. The total value of the coupons depends on how much the customer has spent. This paper deals with the problem of finding the smallest set of coupons such that each possible total can be represented as the sum of a pre-defined number of coupons. A mathematical analysis of the problem leads to the development of a genetic algorithm solution. The algorithm is applied to real world data using several crossover operators and compared to well known straw-person methods. Results are promising showing that considerable time can be saved by using this method, reducing a few days worth of consultancy time to a few minutes of computation

Decolonizing Social Work “Best Practices” through a Philosophy of Impermanence

In the book, Decolonizing Social Work, a common theme is how decolonization requires more than surface level change. In social work, changing theories and intervention practices will not bring true transformation without attending to underlying western beliefs that perpetuate problems. This essay uses Shawn Wilson’s metaphor of an island to identify one such belief, explain how it is damaging to social work practice, and propose an alternative (Wilson, 2013). I first explain this alternative through a story of successful decolonization of sacred practices by the Zuni people. I then apply lessons learned from this story to the social work concepts of best practices and evidence-based practice. My overall argument is that these concepts can have destructive effects when informed by a belief in permanence, and that these concepts are better realized through an underlying philosophy of impermanence

Stripped of Justification: The Eleventh Circuit\u27s Abolition of the Reasonable Suspicion Requirement for Booking Strip Searches in Prisons

Part II of this Note will provide an historical judicial background of the decisions leading up to the Powell v. Barrett decision. This section will first take a brief look at the history of the prison strip search before conducting an in-depth analysis at the Bell v. Wolfish decision, including the facts, rationale, and ambiguities of the decision. Next, this Note will examine the subsequent use of the Bell v. Wolfish decision by the federal courts in the context of strip searches conducted pursuant to facilities\u27 booking policies, focusing on the rise of the “reasonable suspicion” standard. Part III of this Note will look at the decision in Powell itself. This section will start by examining the factual background of the case. It will then delve into a detailed analysis of the rationale that the Eleventh Circuit employed to reach its decision and demonstrate why this rationale is misapplied in light of the Supreme Court\u27s decision in Bell v. Wolfish and the federal court decisions that followed. Finally, this Note will examine reactions from other circuit courts since the Eleventh Circuit decided Powell

Algorithms for the workflow satisfiability problem engineered for counting constraints

The workflow satisfiability problem (WSP) asks whether there exists an assignment of authorized users to the steps in a workflow specification that satisfies the constraints in the specification. The problem is NP-hard in general, but several subclasses of the problem are known to be fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) when parameterized by the number of steps in the specification. In this paper, we consider the WSP with user-independent counting constraints, a large class of constraints for which the WSP is known to be FPT. We describe an efficient implementation of an FPT algorithm for solving this subclass of the WSP and an experimental evaluation of this algorithm. The algorithm iteratively generates all equivalence classes of possible partial solutions until, whenever possible, it finds a complete solution to the problem. We also provide a reduction from a WSP instance to a pseudo-Boolean SAT instance. We apply this reduction to the instances used in our experiments and solve the resulting PB SAT problems using SAT4J, a PB SAT solver. We compare the performance of our algorithm with that of SAT4J and discuss which of the two approaches would be more effective in practice

The Gravitational Lens CFRS03.1077

An exquisite gravitational arc with a radius of 2.1" has been discovered around the z = 0.938 field elliptical galaxy CFRS03.1077 during HST observations of Canada-France Redshift Survey (CFRS) fields. Spectroscopic observations of the arc show that the redshift of the resolved lensed galaxy is z = 2.941. This gravitational lens-source system is well-fitted using the position angle and ellipticity derived from the visible matter distribution and an isothermal mass profile with a mass corresponding to sigma =387+-5 km/s. Surprisingly, given the evidence for passive evolution of elliptical galaxies, this is in good agreement with an estimate based on the fundamental plane for z = 0 ellipticals. This, perhaps, indicates that this galaxy has not shared in the significant evolution observed for average elliptical galaxies at z ~ 1. A second elliptical galaxy with similar luminosity from the CFRS survey, CFRS 14.1311 at z=0.807, is also a lens but in this case the lens model gives a much smaller mass-to-light ratio, i.e., it appears to confirm the expected evolution. This suggests that this pair of field elliptical galaxies may have very different evolutionary histories, a significant result if confirmed. Clearly, CFRS03.1077 demonstrates that these "Einstein rings" are powerful probes of high redshift galaxies.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Ap.

Learning from a Funders' Collaborative: The Human Services Strategic Restructuring Pilot Project

In 2009, Eighteen funders in Northeast Ohio joined together in the Human Services Strategic Restructuring Pilot Project (the Collaborative) to examine how to support nonprofit organizations in strategic restructuring. This the final report on that project

Relaxing benevolence: on the undesirability of socialist calculation when planners are human

The Austrian calculation argument suggests that inability to engage in economic calculation worsened outcomes in socialist states. We suggest that this is hardly the case. When Austrian assumptions of benevolence are relaxed, inability to engage in economic calculation prevents the non-benevolent planner from fully extracting all available surplus from the citizenry. Consequently, when planners are non-benevolent, calculation ceases to be a relevant argument against the desirability of central planning; its normative force reverses absent benevolent planners