109 research outputs found
The Value and Costs of Modularity: A Cognitive Perspective
This paper discusses the issue of modularity from a problem-solving perspective. Modularity is in fact a decomposition heuristic, through which a complex problem is decomposed into independent or quasi-independent sub-problems. By means of a model of problem decomposition, this paper studies the trade-offs of modularity: on the one hand finer modules increase the speed of search, but on the other hand they usually determine lock-in into sub-optimal solutions. How effectively to balance this trade-off depends upon the problem environment and its complexity and volatility: we show that in stationary and complex environments there exists an evolutionary advantage to over-modularization, while in highly volatile – though “simple” – en- vironments, contrary to usual wisdom, modular search is inefficient. The empirical relevance of our findings is discussed, especially with reference to the literature on system integration.modularity, problem solving, complex systems
Multi-Criteria Optimal Planning for Energy Policies in CLP
In the policy making process a number of disparate and diverse issues such as
economic development, environmental aspects, as well as the social acceptance
of the policy, need to be considered. A single person might not have all the
required expertises, and decision support systems featuring optimization
components can help to assess policies. Leveraging on previous work on
Strategic Environmental Assessment, we developed a fully-fledged system that is
able to provide optimal plans with respect to a given objective, to perform
multi-objective optimization and provide sets of Pareto optimal plans, and to
visually compare them. Each plan is environmentally assessed and its footprint
is evaluated. The heart of the system is an application developed in a popular
Constraint Logic Programming system on the Reals sort. It has been equipped
with a web service module that can be queried through standard interfaces, and
an intuitive graphic user interface.Comment: Accepted at ICLP2014 Conference as Technical Communication, due to
appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP
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