A Computational Comparison of Evolutionary Algorithms for Water Resource Planning for Agricultural and Environmental Purposes

The use of water resources for agricultural purposes, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, is a matter of increasing concern across the world. Optimisation techniques can play an important role in improving the allocation of land to different crops, based on a utility function (such as net revenue) and the water resources needed to support these. Recent work proposed a model formulation for an agricultural region in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area of the Murray-Darling River basin in Australia, and found that the well-known NSGA-II technique could produce sensible crop mixes while preserving ground and surface water for environmental purposes. In the present study we apply Differential Evolution using two different solution representations, one of which explores the restricted space in which no land is left fallow. The results improve on those of the prior NSGA-II and demonstrate that a combination of solution representations allows Differential Evolution to more thoroughly explore the multiobjective space of profit versus environment

An Introduction to Temporal Optimisation using a Water Management Problem

Optimisation problems usually take the form of having a single or multiple objectives with a set of constraints. The model itself concerns a single problem for which the best possible solution is sought. Problems are usually static in the sense that they do not consider changes over time in a cumulative manner. Dynamic optimisation problems to incorporate changes. However, these are memoryless in that the problem description changes and a new problem is solved - but with little reference to any previous information. In this paper, a temporally augmented version of a water management problem which allows farmers to plan over long time horizons is introduced. A climate change projection model is used to predict both rainfall and temperature for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area in Australia for up to 50 years into the future. Three representative decades are extracted from the climate change model to create the temporal data sets. The results confirm the utility of the temporal approach and show, for the case study area, that crops that can feasibly and sustainably be grown will be a lot fewer than the present day in the challenging water-reduced conditions of the future

Integrating continuous differential evolution with discrete local search for meander line RFID antenna design

The automated design of meander line RFID antennas is a discrete self-avoiding walk(SAW) problem for which efficiency is to be maximized while resonant frequency is to beminimized. This work presents a novel exploration of how discrete local search may beincorporated into a continuous solver such as differential evolution (DE). A prior DE algorithmfor this problem that incorporates an adaptive solution encoding and a bias favoringantennas with low resonant frequency is extended by the addition of the backbite localsearch operator and a variety of schemes for reintroducing modified designs into the DEpopulation. The algorithm is extremely competitive with an existing ACO approach and thetechnique is transferable to other SAW problems and other continuous solvers. The findingsindicate that careful reintegration of discrete local search results into the continuous populationis necessary for effective performance

The economic impact of cybercrime and cyber espionage

Introduction Is cybercrime, cyber espionage, and other malicious cyber activities what some call “the greatest transfer of wealth in human history,” or is it what others say is a “rounding error in a fourteen trillion dollar economy?” The wide range of existing estimates of the annual loss—from a few billion dollars to hundreds of billions—reflects several difficulties. Companies conceal their losses and some are not aware of what has been taken. Intellectual property is hard to value. Some estimates relied on surveys, which provide very imprecise results unless carefully constructed. One common problem with cybersecurity surveys is that those who answer the questions “self-select,” introducing a possible source of distortion into the results. Given the data collection problems, loss estimates are based on assumptions about scale and effect— change the assumption and you get very different results. These problems leave many estimates open to question. The Components of Malicious Cyber Activity In this initial report we start by asking what we should count in estimating losses from cybercrime and cyber espionage. We can break malicious cyber activity into six parts: The loss of intellectual property and business confidential information Cybercrime, which costs the world hundreds of millions of dollars every year The loss of sensitive business information, including possible stock market manipulation Opportunity costs, including service and employment disruptions, and reduced trust for online activities The additional cost of securing networks, insurance, and recovery from cyber attacks Reputational damage to the hacked company Put these together and the cost of cybercrime and cyber espionage to the global economy is probably measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. To put this in perspective, the World Bank says that global GDP was about $70 trillion in 2011. A$400 billion loss—the high end of the range of probable costs—would be a fraction of a percent of global income. But this begs several important questions about the full benefit to the acquirers and the damage to the victims from the cumulative effect of cybercrime and cyber espionage

Directing Structure and Reactivity in Synthetic Uranium Complexes

The coordination chemistry of uranium is not well understood. This fact is at the crux of all issues in modern synthetic uranium chemistry. Imposing simple design principles including steric pressure and coordinative saturation have proven most effective for the rational synthesis of uranium complexes. In this work, the effect of minor perturbations to the electronic structure on the gross molecular structure is investigated. Intramolecular non-covalent interactions are shown to influence the primary and secondary coordination sphere at uranium ions. Forces common in supramolecular assembly similarly control the orientation of ligands about the metal center. Insight is provided into the inverse trans influence, a thermodynamic phenomenon that preferentially stabilizes reactive uranium-ligand bonds in a preferred axial bonding orientation. Leveraging the inverse trans influence allowed for the first reported synthesis of uranium(VI)-alkyl and -acetylide complexes, and the establishment of an inverse trans influence ligand series. The role of covalency in stabilizing uranium-ligand bonds is explored

Biomechanical evaluation of a 6.5-mm headless, tapered variable pitch screw (Acutrak Plus) in equine and synthetic bone

Objectives – To compare compression pressure (CP) of 6.5mm Acutrak Plus (AP) and 4.5mm AO cortical screws (AO) when placed in simulated lateral condylar fractures of variable thickness in cadaveric equine third metacarpal (MC3) bones, and to compare pullout force and strength of AP and AO screws when placed in a synthetic bone substitute. Results – The AO screw configurations generated significantly greater compressive pressure compared to the AP configurations. The ratio of mean CP for AP screws to AO screws at 20, 12, and 8-mm, were 21.6%, 26.2%, and 34.2% respectively. For the pullout study, the AP constructs generated a significantly higher pullout force and strength (60% greater) when compared to the AO constructs. Conclusion – Mean CP for AP screw fixations are weaker than those for AO screw fixations, most notably with the 20 mm fragments. The 12- and 8-mm groups have comparatively better compression characteristics than the 20-mm group, however they are still significantly weaker than the AO fixations. Pullout characteristics for AP screws were expected however don’t correlate with compressions characteristics based mainly on screw thread design. Clinical Relevance – Given that the primary goals of surgical repair are to achieve rigid fixation, primary bone healing, and good articular alignment, based on these results, it is recommended that caution should be used when choosing the AP screw for repair of lateral condylar fractures, especially complete fractures. Since interfragmentary compression plays a factor in the overall stability of a repair, it is recommended for use only in patients with thin lateral condyle fracture fragments, as the compression tends to decrease with an increase in thickness. Typically, pullout and compression characteristics are directly proportional for many compression screws, but based on screw thread design, most notably the thread pitch and angulation, greater pullout characteristics are expected with the AP screw without the concurrent increased compressive force and strength. Further works needs to be performed including single cycle to failure and cyclic fatigue testing prior to use in clinical cases

Robust temporal optimisation for a crop planning problem under climate change uncertainty

Considering a temporal dimension allows for the delivery of rolling solutions to complex real-world problems. Moving forward in time brings uncertainty, and large margins for potential error in solutions. For the multi-year crop planning problem, the largest uncertainty is how the climate will change over coming decades. The innovation this paper presents are novel methods that allow the solver to produce feasible solutions under all climate models tested, simultaneously. Three new measures of robustness are introduced and evaluated. The highly robust solutions are shown to vary little across different climate change projections, maintaining consistent net revenue and environmental flow deficits

Early life programming as a target for prevention of child and adolescent mental disorders

This paper concerns future policy development and programs of research for the prevention of mental disorders based on research emerging from fetal and early life programming. The current review offers an overview of findings on pregnancy exposures such as maternal mental health, lifestyle factors, and potential teratogenic and neurotoxic exposures on child outcomes. Outcomes of interest are common child and adolescent mental disorders including hyperactive, behavioral and emotional disorders. This literature suggests that the preconception and perinatal periods offer important opportunities for the prevention of deleterious fetal exposures. As such, the perinatal period is a critical period where future mental health prevention efforts should be focused and prevention models developed. Interventions grounded in evidence-based recommendations for the perinatal period could take the form of public health, universal and more targeted interventions. If successful, such interventions are likely to have lifelong effects on (mental) health

Palmitoylation of Desmoglein 2 Is a Regulator of Assembly Dynamics and Protein Turnover.

Desmosomes are prominent adhesive junctions present between many epithelial cells as well as cardiomyocytes. The mechanisms controlling desmosome assembly and remodeling in epithelial and cardiac tissue are poorly understood. We recently identified protein palmitoylation as a mechanism regulating desmosome dynamics. In this study, we have focused on the palmitoylation of the desmosomal cadherin desmoglein-2 (Dsg2) and characterized the role that palmitoylation of Dsg2 plays in its localization and stability in cultured cells. We identified two cysteine residues in the juxtamembrane (intracellular anchor) domain of Dsg2 that, when mutated, eliminate its palmitoylation. These cysteine residues are conserved in all four desmoglein family members. Although mutant Dsg2 localizes to endogenous desmosomes, there is a significant delay in its incorporation into junctions, and the mutant is also present in a cytoplasmic pool. Triton X-100 solubility assays demonstrate that mutant Dsg2 is more soluble than wild-type protein. Interestingly, trafficking of the mutant Dsg2 to the cell surface was delayed, and a pool of the non-palmitoylated Dsg2 co-localized with lysosomal markers. Taken together, these data suggest that palmitoylation of Dsg2 regulates protein transport to the plasma membrane. Modulation of the palmitoylation status of desmosomal cadherins can affect desmosome dynamics

Computably enumerable Turing degrees and the meet property

Working in the Turing degree structure, we show that those degrees which contain computably enumerable sets all satisfy the meet property, i.e. if a is c.e. and b < a, then there exists non-zero m < a with b ^m = 0. In fact, more than this is true: m may always be chosen to be a minimal degree. This settles a conjecture of Cooper and Epstein from the 80s