Genetic algorithms with DNN-based trainable crossover as an example of partial specialization of general search

Universal induction relies on some general search procedure that is doomed to be inefficient. One possibility to achieve both generality and efficiency is to specialize this procedure w.r.t. any given narrow task. However, complete specialization that implies direct mapping from the task parameters to solutions (discriminative models) without search is not always possible. In this paper, partial specialization of general search is considered in the form of genetic algorithms (GAs) with a specialized crossover operator. We perform a feasibility study of this idea implementing such an operator in the form of a deep feedforward neural network. GAs with trainable crossover operators are compared with the result of complete specialization, which is also represented as a deep neural network. Experimental results show that specialized GAs can be more efficient than both general GAs and discriminative models.Comment: AGI 2017 procedding, The final publication is available at link.springer.co

Wildlife disease elimination and 1 density dependence

Disease control by managers is a crucial response to emerging wildlife epidemics, yet the means of control may be limited by the method of disease transmission. In particular, it is widely held that population reduction, while effective for controlling diseases that are subject to density-dependent transmission, is ineffective for controlling diseases that are subject to frequency-dependent transmission. We investigate control for horizontally transmitted diseases with frequency-dependent transmission where the control is via nonselective (for infected animals) culling or harvesting and the population can compensate through density-dependent recruitment or survival. Using a mathematical model, we show that culling or harvesting can eradicate the disease, even when transmission dynamics are frequency-dependent. E 24 radication can be achieved under frequency-dependent transmission when density-dependent population regulation induces compensatory growth of new, healthy individuals, which has the net effect of reducing disease prevalence by dilution. We also show that if harvest is used simultaneously with vaccination and there is high enough transmission coefficient, application of both controls may be less efficient than when vaccination alone is used. We illustrate the effects of these control approaches on disease prevalence using assumed parameters for chronic wasting disease in deer where the disease is transmitted directly among deer and through the environment

Geoadditive Regression Modeling of Stream Biological Condition

Indices of biotic integrity (IBI) have become an established tool to quantify the condition of small non-tidal streams and their watersheds. To investigate the effects of watershed characteristics on stream biological condition, we present a new technique for regressing IBIs on watershed-specific explanatory variables. Since IBIs are typically evaluated on anordinal scale, our method is based on the proportional odds model for ordinal outcomes. To avoid overfitting, we do not use classical maximum likelihood estimation but a component-wise functional gradient boosting approach. Because component-wise gradient boosting has an intrinsic mechanism for variable selection and model choice, determinants of biotic integrity can be identified. In addition, the method offers a relatively simple way to account for spatial correlation in ecological data. An analysis of the Maryland Biological Streams Survey shows that nonlinear effects of predictor variables on stream condition can be quantified while, in addition, accurate predictions of biological condition at unsurveyed locations are obtained

Taylor approximations of operator functions

This survey on approximations of perturbed operator functions addresses recent advances and some of the successful methods.Comment: 12 page

Data-Driven Prediction and Design of bZIP Coiled-Coil Interactions

Selective dimerization of the basic-region leucine-zipper (bZIP) transcription factors presents a vivid example of how a high degree of interaction specificity can be achieved within a family of structurally similar proteins. The coiled-coil motif that mediates homo- or hetero-dimerization of the bZIP proteins has been intensively studied, and a variety of methods have been proposed to predict these interactions from sequence data. In this work, we used a large quantitative set of 4,549 bZIP coiled-coil interactions to develop a predictive model that exploits knowledge of structurally conserved residue-residue interactions in the coiled-coil motif. Our model, which expresses interaction energies as a sum of interpretable residue-pair and triplet terms, achieves a correlation with experimental binding free energies of R = 0.68 and significantly out-performs other scoring functions. To use our model in protein design applications, we devised a strategy in which synthetic peptides are built by assembling 7-residue native-protein heptad modules into new combinations. An integer linear program was used to find the optimal combination of heptads to bind selectively to a target human bZIP coiled coil, but not to target paralogs. Using this approach, we designed peptides to interact with the bZIP domains from human JUN, XBP1, ATF4 and ATF5. Testing more than 132 candidate protein complexes using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay confirmed the formation of tight and selective heterodimers between the designed peptides and their targets. This approach can be used to make inhibitors of native proteins, or to develop novel peptides for applications in synthetic biology or nanotechnology.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award GM067681

New species of Entomobryini from Russia and Armenia (Collembola, Entomobryomorpha)

This paper is part of the results of a systematic study of the specimens of Entomobrya and related genera from various European museums and other material obtained from private collections. Various new species from Russia and Armenia were identified: Entomobrya karasukensis n. sp., Entomobrya tuvinica n. sp., Entomobrya pseudolanuginosa n. sp., Entomobrya stebaevae n. sp., Entomobrya kuznetsovae n. sp., Entomobrya brinevi n. sp., Entomobrya primorica n. sp., Entomobrya kabardinica n. sp., Entomobrya taigicola n. sp., Entomobryoides sotoadamesi n. sp. and Prodrepanura altaica n. sp. from Russia, and Entomobrya armeniensis n. sp. from Armenia. For the identification and description of these species we used the set of characters proposed by Jordana and Baquero (2005)

Quantum Field Theory in fractal space-time with negative Hausdorff-Colombeau dimensions.The solution cosmological constant problem

We introduce Hausdorff-Colombeau measure in respect with negative fractal dimensions. Axiomatic quantum field theory in spacetime with negative fractal dimensions is proposed.Spacetime is modelled as a multifractal subset of $R^{4}$ with positive and negative fractal dimensions.The cosmological constant problem arises because the magnitude of vacuum energy density predicted by quantum field theory is about 120 orders of magnitude larger than the value implied by cosmological observations of accelerating cosmic expansion. We pointed out that the fractal nature of the quantum space-time with negative Hausdorff-Colombeau dimensions can resolve this tension. The canonical Quantum Field Theory is widely believed to break down at some fundamental high-energy cutoff $E$ and therefore the quantum fluctuations in the vacuum can be treated classically seriously only up to this high-energy cutoff. In this paper we argue that Quantum Field Theory in fractal space-time with negative Hausdorff-Colombeau dimensions gives high-energy cutoff on natural way. In order to obtain disered physical result we apply the canonical Pauli-Villars regularization up to $E$. It means that there exist the ghost-driven acceleration of the univers hidden in cosmological constant.Comment: 206 pages,3 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0901.2208, arXiv:astro-ph/9708045, arXiv:1805.12293, arXiv:hep-th/0012253, arXiv:hep-th/9502025, arXiv:0912.4757, arXiv:0901.3775 by other author

Limits of using the results of polygraph testing in criminal procedure

An offer for restrictions, concerning the limits of use of polygraph testing results as orientation information at pre-trial stages of criminal proceedings, was made in this articl

Changes of the body functions during long-term hypokinesia

Prolonged hypokinesis (100-170 days) studied in 2000 rats kept in cages limiting their mobility provoked considerable changes in the gaseous and energetic metabolism: an elevation of the total gaseous metabolism and of the rate of O2 requirement by the muscles (in the late periods of hypokinesis) and a change in the intensity of tissue respiration of the liver and myocardium. There also proved to be a reduction in the level of phosphorylation and separation of oxidative phosphorylation in the myocardium, liver, and partially in the skeletal muscle. Prolonged hypokinesia led to changes in tissue metabolism: a disturbance of development of the animals, a marked delay and an increase in the weight of the organism and the muscular system, and disturbances of the mineral and protein metabolism. Prolonged hypokinesis also lead to exhaustion of the hypothalamus-hypophysis-adrenal cortex system