Multiobjective Monte Carlo Tree Search for Real-Time Games

Multiobjective optimization has been traditionally a matter of study in domains like engineering or finance, with little impact on games research. However, action-decision based on multiobjective evaluation may be beneficial in order to obtain a high quality level of play. This paper presents a multiobjective Monte Carlo tree search algorithm for planning and control in real-time game domains, those where the time budget to decide the next move to make is close to 40 ms. A comparison is made between the proposed algorithm, a single-objective version of Monte Carlo tree search and a rolling horizon implementation of nondominated sorting evolutionary algorithm II (NSGA-II). Two different benchmarks are employed, deep sea treasure (DST) and the multiobjective physical traveling salesman problem (MO-PTSP). Using the same heuristics on each game, the analysis is focused on how well the algorithms explore the search space. Results show that the algorithm proposed outperforms NSGA-II. Additionally, it is also shown that the algorithm is able to converge to different optimal solutions or the optimal Pareto front (if achieved during search)

Multi-objective tree search approaches for general video game playing

The design of algorithms for Game AI agents usually focuses on the single objective of winning, or maximizing a given score. Even if the heuristic that guides the search (for reinforcement learning or evolutionary approaches) is composed of several factors, these typically provide a single numeric value (reward or fitness, respectively) to be optimized. Multi-Objective approaches are an alternative concept to face these problems, as they try to optimize several objectives, often contradictory, at the same time. This paper proposes for the first time a study of Multi-Objective approaches for General Video Game playing, where the game to be played is not known a priori by the agent. The experimental study described here compares several algorithms in this setting, and the results suggest that Multi-Objective approaches can perform even better than their single-objective counterparts

Paediatric antimicrobial stewardship and safe prescribing: An assessment of medical staff knowledge and behaviour

Objective: Determine baseline knowledge of antimicrobial stewardship, and safe prescribing among junior medical officers, monitor their level of participation in interactive education during protected teaching time and assess day-to-day prescribing behaviours over the subsequent 3-month period. Methods: A voluntary and anonymous survey of all non-consultant level medical officers was conducted with the use of an audience response system during mandatory face-to-face orientation sessions at a tertiary paediatric hospital. Routine prescribing audits monitored compliance with national and locally derived quality use of medicines indicators. Results: Eighty-six percent of medical officers participated by responding to at least one question (171/200). Response rate for individual questions ranged between 31% and 78%. Questions that addressed adverse drug reactions, documentation and monitoring for empiric antibiotics and the error-prone abbreviations IU and U were correctly answered by over 90% of participants. Other nonstandard and error-prone abbreviations were less consistently identified. In practice, 68% of patients had complete adverse drug reaction documentation (113/166). Error-prone abbreviations were identified on 5% of audited medication orders (47/976), approximately half included a documented indication and intended dose. Conclusions: Participants demonstrated a good understanding of safe prescribing and antimicrobial stewardship. Audits of prescribing identified potential discrepancies between prescribing knowledge and behaviours

Regulation of Electrical Distribution Companies via Efficiency Assessments and Reward-Penalty Scheme

Improving performance of electrical distribution companies, as the natural monopoly entities in electric industry, has always been one of the main concerns of the regulators. In this paper, a new incentive regulatory scheme is proposed to improve the performances of electrical distribution companies. The proposed scheme utilizes several efficiency assessments and a 3-dimentional reward-penalty scheme (3DRPS). Through efficiency assessments, economic efficiency and service quality, as two aspects of companies’ performances, are assessed and according to the results of such assessments, reasonable capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) for each company are calculated. Then, according to the reasonable CAPEX and OPEX, allowed revenues are calculated for next regulatory period. Moreover, the 3DRPS on quality is used to encourage the companies to maintain and improve their service quality during the regulatory period. The 3DRPS gives the incentive to the companies based on changes in their quality indices. The incentives are added to companies’ allowed revenues. Finally, the proposed scheme is applied to Iranian distribution companies and the results are discussed

Data structures for non-dominated sets: implementations and empirical assessment of two decades of advances

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from ACM via the DOI in this recordGenetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO ’20), 8-12 July 2020, Cancún, MexicoMany data structures have been developed over the last two decades for the storage and efficient update of unconstrained sets of mutually non-dominating solutions. Typically, analysis has been provided in the original works for these data structures in terms of worst/average case complexity performance. Often, however, other aspects such as rebalancing costs of underlying data structures, cache sizes, etc., can also significantly affect behaviour. Empirical performance comparison has often (but not always) been limited to run-time comparison with a basic linear list. No comprehensive comparison between the different specialised data structures proposed in the last two decades has thus far been undertaken. We take significant strides in addressing this here. Eight data structures from the literature are implemented within the same overarching open source Java framework. We additionally highlight and rectify some errors in published work --- and offer additional efficiency gains. Run-time performances are compared and contrasted, using data sequences embodying a number of different characteristics. We show that in different scenarios different data structures are preferable, and that those with the lowest big O complexity are not always the best performing. We also find that performance profiles can vary drastically with computational architecture, in a non-linear fashion.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Innovate U

Molt-dependent transcriptomic analysis of cement proteins in the barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite

Abstract Background A complete understanding of barnacle adhesion remains elusive as the process occurs within and beneath the confines of a rigid calcified shell. Barnacle cement is mainly proteinaceous and several individual proteins have been identified in the hardened cement at the barnacle-substrate interface. Little is known about the molt- and tissue-specific expression of cement protein genes but could offer valuable insight into the complex multi-step processes of barnacle growth and adhesion. Methods The main body and sub-mantle tissue of the barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite (basionym Balanus amphitrite) were collected in pre- and post-molt stages. RNA-seq technology was used to analyze the transcriptome for differential gene expression at these two stages and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to analyze the protein content of barnacle secretions. Results We report on the transcriptomic analysis of barnacle cement gland tissue in pre- and post-molt growth stages and proteomic investigation of barnacle secretions. While no significant difference was found in the expression of cement proteins genes at pre- and post-molting stages, expression levels were highly elevated in the sub-mantle tissue (where the cement glands are located) compared to the main barnacle body. We report the discovery of a novel 114kD cement protein, which is identified in material secreted onto various surfaces by adult barnacles and with the encoding gene highly expressed in the sub-mantle tissue. Further differential gene expression analysis of the sub-mantle tissue samples reveals a limited number of genes highly expressed in pre-molt samples with a range of functions including cuticular development, biominerialization, and proteolytic activity. Conclusions The expression of cement protein genes appears to remain constant through the molt cycle and is largely confined to the sub-mantle tissue. Our results reveal a novel and potentially prominent protein to the mix of cement-related components in A. amphitrite. Despite the lack of a complete genome, sample collection allowed for extended transcriptomic analysis of pre- and post-molt barnacle samples and identified a number of highly-expressed genes. Our results highlight the complexities of this sessile marine organism as it grows via molt cycles and increases the area over which it exhibits robust adhesion to its substrate.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115487/1/12864_2015_Article_2076.pd

Regression Error Characteristic Optimisation of Non-Linear Models.

Copyright © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. The final publication is available at link.springer.comBook title: Multi-Objective Machine LearningIn this chapter recent research in the area of multi-objective optimisation of regression models is presented and combined. Evolutionary multi-objective optimisation techniques are described for training a population of regression models to optimise the recently defined Regression Error Characteristic Curves (REC). A method which meaningfully compares across regressors and against benchmark models (i.e. ‘random walk’ and maximum a posteriori approaches) for varying error rates. Through bootstrapping training data, degrees of confident out-performance are also highlighted

Agreement between units of measure for paediatric antibiotic utilisation surveillance using hospital pharmacy supply data

© 2019, Grupo de Investigacion en Atencion Farmaceutica. All rights reserved. Background: Drug utilisation studies from paediatric hospitals that do not have access to patient level data on medication use are limited by a lack of standardised units of measures that reflect the varying daily dosage requirements among patients. The World Health Organization’s defined daily dose is frequently used in adult hospitals for benchmarking and longitudinal analysis but is not endorsed for use in paediatric populations. Objective: Explore agreement between standard adult-based defined daily doses (DDD) and paediatric estimates of daily injectable antibiotic use in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit that does not have access to individual patient-level data. Methods: Hospital pharmacy antibiotic use reports and age-specific occupied bed-day data from 1 January 2010 to 31 May 2016 were extracted. Paediatric reference dosages and frequencies for antibiotics were defined and applied to three paediatric units of measure. Measures were applied to extracted data, agreement between antibiotic use measured in the adult DDD and each of the paediatric measures was assessed visually via Bland-Altman plots and linear regression for each antibiotic. Results: Thirty one different antibiotics were used throughout the study period. Despite varying daily dosages in grams, the daily use of vials was unchanged from birth to 18 years for thirteen antibiotics. Agreement between DDD and vial-based measures was closer than the total recommended daily dose that did not account for wastage during preparation and administration. Vial-based measures were unaffected by vial size changes due to drug shortage. Conclusions: Agreement between the DDD and vial-based measures of use supports the use of DDD for select antibiotics that may be targeted by antimicrobial stewardship programs. Vial based measures should be further explored in hospitals with single vial policies; detailed understanding of hospital practice is needed before inter-hospital comparisons are made

Penicillin - getting prescribing right for children

Penicillins are commonly prescribed to children. Recommendations in the product information may not be the most appropriate doses for children and may list clinical indications that are preferably treated with other antibiotics Reputable guidelines, for example Therapeutic Guidelines: Antibiotic, offer up-to-date advice on optimal choice, route, dosage and duration of oral penicillins in children In most instances, the child’s weight should be used to calculate the dose in mg per kg without exceeding the maximum adult dose When prescribing higher weight-based doses of amoxicillin or flucloxacillin, check the volume of oral liquid required to complete a treatment course to ensure adequate suppl