3,236 research outputs found
Dynamic resource constrained multi-project scheduling problem with weighted earliness/tardiness costs
In this study, a conceptual framework is given for the dynamic multi-project scheduling problem with weighted earliness/tardiness costs (DRCMPSPWET) and a mathematical programming formulation of the problem is provided. In DRCMPSPWET, a project arrives on top of an existing project portfolio and a due date has to be quoted for the new project while minimizing the costs of schedule changes. The objective function consists of the weighted earliness tardiness costs of the activities of the existing projects in the current baseline schedule plus a term that increases linearly with the anticipated completion time of the new project. An iterated local search based approach is developed for large instances of this problem. In order to analyze the performance and behavior of the proposed method, a new multi-project data set is created by controlling the total number of activities, the due date tightness, the due date range, the number of resource types, and the completion time factor in an instance. A series of computational experiments are carried out to test the performance of the local search approach. Exact solutions are provided for the small instances. The results indicate that the local search heuristic performs well in terms of both solution quality and solution time
Weighted p-bits for FPGA implementation of probabilistic circuits
Probabilistic spin logic (PSL) is a recently proposed computing paradigm
based on unstable stochastic units called probabilistic bits (p-bits) that can
be correlated to form probabilistic circuits (p-circuits). These p-circuits can
be used to solve problems of optimization, inference and also to implement
precise Boolean functions in an "inverted" mode, where a given Boolean circuit
can operate in reverse to find the input combinations that are consistent with
a given output. In this paper we present a scalable FPGA implementation of such
invertible p-circuits. We implement a "weighted" p-bit that combines stochastic
units with localized memory structures. We also present a generalized tile of
weighted p-bits to which a large class of problems beyond invertible Boolean
logic can be mapped, and how invertibility can be applied to interesting
problems such as the NP-complete Subset Sum Problem by solving a small instance
of this problem in hardware
Visual Feature Attribution using Wasserstein GANs
Attributing the pixels of an input image to a certain category is an
important and well-studied problem in computer vision, with applications
ranging from weakly supervised localisation to understanding hidden effects in
the data. In recent years, approaches based on interpreting a previously
trained neural network classifier have become the de facto state-of-the-art and
are commonly used on medical as well as natural image datasets. In this paper,
we discuss a limitation of these approaches which may lead to only a subset of
the category specific features being detected. To address this problem we
develop a novel feature attribution technique based on Wasserstein Generative
Adversarial Networks (WGAN), which does not suffer from this limitation. We
show that our proposed method performs substantially better than the
state-of-the-art for visual attribution on a synthetic dataset and on real 3D
neuroimaging data from patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and
Alzheimer's disease (AD). For AD patients the method produces compellingly
realistic disease effect maps which are very close to the observed effects.Comment: Accepted to CVPR 201
On EOQ cost models with arbitrary purchase and transportation costs
We analyze an economic order quantity cost model with unit out-of-pocket holding costs, unit opportunity costs of holding, fixed ordering costs, and general purchase-transportation costs. We identify the set of purchase-transportation cost functions for which this model is easy to solve and related to solving a one-dimensional convex minimization problem. For the remaining purchase-transportation cost functions, when this problem becomes a global optimization problem, we propose a Lipschitz optimization procedure. In particular, we give an easy procedure which determines an upper bound on the optimal cycle length. Then, using this bound, we apply a well-known technique from global optimization. Also for the class of transportation functions related to full truckload (FTL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments and the well-known carload discount schedule, we specialize these results and give fast and easy algorithms to calculate the optimal lot size and the corresponding optimal order-up-to-level
Effects of a saponin fraction extracted from Trigonella foenum-graecum L. and two commercially available saponins on sex ratio and gonad histology of Nile tilapa fry, Oreochromis niloticus (L.)
Over three million tonnes (t) of tilapia, mostly Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, L.), are produced annually making it the second most abundantly produced freshwater fish (FAO, 2010). Tilapia are mouthbreeders that often produce stunted populations under pond conditions; one means of prevention is to produce all-male fish with the additional advantage that males usually grow faster than females. All-male populations can be achieved by supplementing feed with androgens such as 17-α-Methyltestosterone (MT) during days 10â25 post-hatch (Pandian and Sheela, 1995). However, MT is considered to be carcinogenic (Velazquez and Alter, 2004), and Hulak et al. (2008) also showed that effluents of systems in which carp were fed diets containing MT caused masculinization of female fish. Furthermore, in aquaculture the application of hormones to fish destined for human consumption is prohibited in the European Union under directive 96/22/EC, article 5, which also prohibits import of animal products produced with hormones.
Kwon et al. (2000) showed that Fadrozole, a non-steroidal compound, caused masculinization in tilapia by inhibiting aromatase, which is the enzyme responsible for the conversion of endogenous androgens to estrogens. Steinbronn et al. (2004) were able to show that a dose of 2000 ppm Quillaja saponins (Sigma S-2149) inhibited reproduction of tilapia after dietary application for 32 days to first-feeding fry, suggesting saponins as a possible alternative to MT. These secondary plant compounds consist of either a steroid or triterpenoid basic structure (aglycone or sapogenin) plus one or more sugar side chains (Francis et al., 2002a).
In a previous experiment a saponin fraction from the soapbark tree (Quillaja saponaria M.) inhibited aromatase in vitro (Golan et al., 2008). The fenugreek plant (Trigonella foenum-graecum L), widely cultivated in the Middle East and Asia, also has a high saponin content. The experiment was therefore conducted to test whether saponin fractions from Q. saponaria and from T. foenum-graecum were able to influence the sex ratio and gonad histology of Nile tilapia
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