Heuristic Search in LegalTech: Dynamic Allocation of Legal Cases to Legal Staff

We investigate an allocation problem inspired by the process of assigning legal cases (matters) to staff in law firms. Addressing this problem is important as it can prevent issues around unbalanced workloads and over-recruitment, thus decreasing costs. This initial study on the topic frames the problem as a combinatorial dynamic single-objective problem (minimising tardiness) with constraints modelling staff-client relationships, staff capacities, and earliest start dates of matters. The paper motivates the allocation problem and puts it in context with the literature. Further contributions include: (i) a formal problem definition, (ii) the proposal and validation of a feature-rich problem generator to create realistic test cases, (iii) an initial analysis of the performance of selected heuristics (a greedy approach, a nature-inspired approach, and random search) on different test instances, and finally (iv) a discussion on directions for future research.</p

An improved Gbest guided artificial bee colony (IGGABC) algorithm for classification and prediction tasks

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) performance depends on network topology, activation function, behaviors of data, suitable synapse\u27s values and learning algorithms. Many existing works used different learning algorithms to train ANN for getting high performance. Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is one of the latest successfully Swarm Intelligence based technique for training Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). Normally Gbest Guided Artificial Bee Colony (GGABC) algorithm has strong exploitation process for solving mathematical problems, however the poor exploration creates problems like slow convergence and trapping in local minima. In this paper, the Improved Gbest Guided Artificial Bee Colony (IGGABC) algorithm is proposed for finding global optima. The proposed IGGABC algorithm has strong exploitation and exploration processes. The experimental results show that IGGABC algorithm performs better than that standard GGABC, BP and ABC algorithms for Boolean data classification and time-series prediction tasks

A Multidimensional Multiple-Choice Knapsack Model for Resource Allocation in a Construction Equipment Manufacturer Setting Using an Evolutionary Algorithm

Part 2: Knowledge Discovery and SharingInternational audienceThis paper presents an approach to production resource allocation. The approach is applied to a real-world problem within the construction equipment manufacturing industry. A multidimensional knapsack problem formulated; was the proposed model being based on an evolutionary algorithm using a three-dimensional binary-coded chromosome. Various tests were carried out to show the appropriateness of the solution. The experiment results suggest to be satisfactory from the manufacturing company perspective

The Interface Between Tectonic Evolution and Cold-Water Coral Dynamics in the Mediterranean

Circulation and water properties in the Mediterranean basin, and thus the living conditions for marine biota, including cold-water corals, are a strong function of the connectivity of the basin with neighbouring water masses. The configuration of the basin and its connections with adjacent basins are governed by the interplay of large scale and regional scale geodynamical (or tectonic) processes within the Mediterranean region. As to surface area, it appears that the Mediterranean basin as a whole is closing whereas some of its sub-basins are opening, at the expense of the eastern Mediterranean basin. More important are opening or closure of gateway connections. The pertinent Mediterranean gateways to the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea are potentially subject to minor changes resulting from tectonics. However, the impact of such possible changes on marine conditions, including those for cold-water corals, would be slow and of minor magnitude compared to the effects of climate change. Typical aspects of cold-water coral occurrences in the Mediterranean region, notably the uplift and outcrops of Plio-Pleistocene communities and the presence of steep faults (with steered fluid seeps providing nutrients) as preferred production areas, are accounted for by vertical motions in subduction zone evolution