Hybrid flow shop scheduling problems using improved fireworks algorithm for permutation

Prior studies are lacking which address permutation flow shop scheduling problems and hybrid flow shop scheduling problems together to help firms find the optimized scheduling strategy. The permutation flow shop scheduling problem and hybrid flow shop scheduling problems are important production scheduling types, which widely exist in industrial production fields. This study aimed to acquire the best scheduling strategy for making production plans. An improved fireworks algorithm is proposed to minimize the makespan in the proposed strategies. The proposed improved fireworks algorithm is compared with the fireworks algorithm, and the improvement strategies include the following: (1) A nonlinear radius is introduced and the minimum explosion amplitude is checked to avoid the waste of optimal fireworks; (2) The original Gaussian mutation operator is replaced by a hybrid operator that combines Cauchy and Gaussian mutation to improve the search ability; and (3) An elite group selection strategy is adopted to reduce the computing costs. Two instances from the permutation flow shop scheduling problem and hybrid flow shop scheduling problems were used to evaluate the improved fireworks algorithm’s performance, and the computational results demonstrate the improved fireworks algorithm’s superiority

Modeling the Seasonal Variability of the Plasma Environment in Saturn's Magnetosphere between Main Rings and Mimas

The detection of O2+ and O+ ions over Saturn's main rings by the Cassini INMS and CAPS instruments at Saturn orbit insertion (SOI) in 2004 confirmed the existence of the ring atmosphere and ionosphere. The source mechanism was suggested to be primarily photolytic decomposition of water ice producing neutral O2 and H2 (Johnson et al., 2006). Therefore, we predicted that there would be seasonal variations in the ring atmosphere and ionosphere due to the orientation of the ring plane to the sun (Tseng et al., 2010). The atoms and molecules scattered out of the ring atmosphere by ion-molecule collisions are an important source for the inner magnetosphere (Johnson et al., 2006; Martens et al. 2008; Tseng et al., 2010 and 2011). This source competes with water products from the Enceladus' plumes, which, although possibly variable, do not appear to have a seasonal variability (Smith et al., 2010). Recently, we found that the plasma density, composition and temperature in the region from 2.5 to 3.5 RS exhibited significant seasonal variation between 2004 and 2010 (Elrod et al., 2011). Here we present a one-box ion chemistry model to explain the complex and highly variable plasma environment observed by the CAPS instrument on Cassini. We combine the water products from Enceladus with the molecules scattered from a corrected ring atmosphere, in order to describe the temporal changes in ion densities, composition and temperature detected by CAPS. We found that the observed temporal variations are primarily seasonal, due to the predicted seasonal variation in the ring atmosphere, and are consistent with a compressed magnetosphere at SOI.Comment: This is submitted to P&S

Using neighborhood rough set theory to address the smart elderly care in multi-level attributes

The neighborhood rough set theory was adopted for attributes reduction and the weight distribution of condition attributes based on the concept of importance level. Smart elderly care coverage rate is low in China. A decisive role in the adoption of smart elderly care is still a problem that needs to be addressed. This study contributes to the adoption of smart elderly care was selected as the decision attribute. The remaining attributes are used as conditional attributes and the multi-level symmetric attribute set for assessing acceptance of smart elderly care. Prior studies are not included smart elderly care adoption attributes in multi-levels; hence, this problem needs to be addressed. The results of this study indicate that the condition attribute of gender has the greatest influence on the decision attribute. The condition attribute of living expenses for smart elderly care has the second largest impact on decision attribute. Children’s support for the elderly decency of the novel elderly care system and the acceptance of non-traditional elderly care methods belong to the primary condition attribute of traditional concept. The result indicates traditional concepts have a certain impact on the adoption of smart elderly care and a condition attribute of residence also has a slight influence on the symmetric decision attribute. The sensitivity analysis shows the insights for uncertainties and provides as a basis for the analysis of the attributes in the smart elderly care service adoption

Implementation of a Deutsch-like quantum algorithm utilizing entanglement at the two-qubit level, on an NMR quantum information processor

We describe the experimental implementation of a recently proposed quantum algorithm involving quantum entanglement at the level of two qubits using NMR. The algorithm solves a generalisation of the Deutsch problem and distinguishes between even and odd functions using fewer function calls than is possible classically. The manipulation of entangled states of the two qubits is essential here, unlike the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm and the Grover's search algorithm for two bits.Comment: 4 pages, two eps figure

FGF receptor genes and breast cancer susceptibility: results from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium

Background:Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women. Genome-wide association studies have identified FGFR2 as a breast cancer susceptibility gene. Common variation in other fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors might also modify risk. We tested this hypothesis by studying genotyped single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and imputed SNPs in FGFR1, FGFR3, FGFR4 and FGFRL1 in the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Methods:Data were combined from 49 studies, including 53 835 cases and 50 156 controls, of which 89 050 (46 450 cases and 42 600 controls) were of European ancestry, 12 893 (6269 cases and 6624 controls) of Asian and 2048 (1116 cases and 932 controls) of African ancestry. Associations with risk of breast cancer, overall and by disease sub-type, were assessed using unconditional logistic regression. Results:Little evidence of association with breast cancer risk was observed for SNPs in the FGF receptor genes. The strongest evidence in European women was for rs743682 in FGFR3; the estimated per-allele odds ratio was 1.05 (95 confidence interval=1.02-1.09, P=0.0020), which is substantially lower than that observed for SNPs in FGFR2. Conclusion:Our results suggest that common variants in the other FGF receptors are not associated with risk of breast cancer to the degree observed for FGFR2. © 2014 Cancer Research UK

Access of energetic particles to Titan's exobase: a study of Cassini's T9 flyby

We study how the local electromagnetic disturbances introduced by Titan affect the ionization rates of the atmosphere. For this, we model the precipitation of energetic particles, specifically hydrogen and oxygen ions with energies between 1 keV and 1 MeV, into Titan's exobase for the specific magnetospheric configuration of the T9 flyby. For the study, a particle tracing software package is used which consists of an integration of the single particle Lorentz force equation using a 4th order Runge-Kutta numerical method. For the electromagnetic disturbances, the output of the A.I.K.E.F. hybrid code (kinetic ions, fluid electrons) is used, allowing the possibility of analyzing the disturbances and asymmetries in the access of energetic particles originated by their large gyroradii. By combining these methods, 2D maps showing the access of each set of particles were produced. We show that the access of different particles is largely dominated by their gyroradii, with the complexity of the maps increasing with decreasing gyroradius, due to the larger effect that local disturbances introduced by the presence of the moon have in the trajectory of the particles with lower energies. We also show that for particles with gyroradii much larger than the moon's radius, simpler descriptions of the electromagnetic environment can reproduce similar results to those obtained when using the full hybrid simulation description, with simple north-south fields being sufficient to reproduce the hybrid code results for O+ ions with energies larger than 10 keV but not enough to reproduce those for H+H+ ions at any of the energies covered in the present study. Finally, by combining the maps created with upstream plasma flow measurements by the MIMI/CHEMS instrument, we are able to estimate normalized fluxes arriving at different selected positions of the moon's exobase. We then use these fluxes to calculate energy deposition and non-dissociative N2 ionization rates for precipitating O+O+ and H+H+ ions and find differences in the ion production rates of up to almost 80% at the selected positions. All these results combined show that the electromagnetic field disturbances present in the vicinity of Titan significantly affect the contribution of energetic ions to local ionization profiles

Characterisation of the selective binding of antibiotics vancomycin and teicoplanin by the VanS receptor regulating type A vancomycin resistance in the enterococci

A-type resistance towards "last-line" glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin in the leading hospital acquired infectious agent, the enterococci, is the most common in the UK. Resistance is regulated by the VanRASA two-component system, comprising the histidine sensor kinase VanSA and the partner response regulator VanRA. The nature of the activating ligand for VanSA has not been identified, therefore this work sought to identify and characterise ligand(s) for VanSA. In vitro approaches were used to screen the structural and activity effects of a range of potential ligands with purified VanSA protein. Of the screened ligands (glycopeptide antibiotics vancomycin and teicoplanin, and peptidoglycan components N-acetylmuramic acid, D-Ala-D-Ala and Ala-D-y-Glu-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala) only glycopeptide antibiotics vancomycin and teicoplanin were found to bind VanSA with different affinities (vancomycin 70 μM; teicoplanin 30 and 170 μM), and were proposed to bind via exposed aromatic residues tryptophan and tyrosine. Furthermore, binding of the antibiotics induced quicker, longer-lived phosphorylation states for VanSA, proposing them as activators of type A vancomycin resistance in the enterococci. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Fine-Scale Mapping of the 5q11.2 Breast Cancer Locus Reveals at Least Three Independent Risk Variants Regulating MAP3K1

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