Multi-rendezvous Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization with Beam P-ACO

The design of spacecraft trajectories for missions visiting multiple celestial bodies is here framed as a multi-objective bilevel optimization problem. A comparative study is performed to assess the performance of different Beam Search algorithms at tackling the combinatorial problem of finding the ideal sequence of bodies. Special focus is placed on the development of a new hybridization between Beam Search and the Population-based Ant Colony Optimization algorithm. An experimental evaluation shows all algorithms achieving exceptional performance on a hard benchmark problem. It is found that a properly tuned deterministic Beam Search always outperforms the remaining variants. Beam P-ACO, however, demonstrates lower parameter sensitivity, while offering superior worst-case performance. Being an anytime algorithm, it is then found to be the preferable choice for certain practical applications.Comment: Code available at https://github.com/lfsimoes/beam_paco__gtoc

Identification of Novel Functional Inhibitors of Acid Sphingomyelinase

We describe a hitherto unknown feature for 27 small drug-like molecules, namely functional inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM). These entities named FIASMAs (Functional Inhibitors of Acid SphingoMyelinAse), therefore, can be potentially used to treat diseases associated with enhanced activity of ASM, such as Alzheimer's disease, major depression, radiation- and chemotherapy-induced apoptosis and endotoxic shock syndrome. Residual activity of ASM measured in the presence of 10 µM drug concentration shows a bimodal distribution; thus the tested drugs can be classified into two groups with lower and higher inhibitory activity. All FIASMAs share distinct physicochemical properties in showing lipophilic and weakly basic properties. Hierarchical clustering of Tanimoto coefficients revealed that FIASMAs occur among drugs of various chemical scaffolds. Moreover, FIASMAs more frequently violate Lipinski's Rule-of-Five than compounds without effect on ASM. Inhibition of ASM appears to be associated with good permeability across the blood-brain barrier. In the present investigation, we developed a novel structure-property-activity relationship by using a random forest-based binary classification learner. Virtual screening revealed that only six out of 768 (0.78%) compounds of natural products functionally inhibit ASM, whereas this inhibitory activity occurs in 135 out of 2028 (6.66%) drugs licensed for medical use in humans

Multilinguisme et variétés linguistiques en Europe à l’aune de l’intelligence artificielle Multilinguismo e variazioni linguistiche in Europa nell’era dell’intelligenza artificiale Multilingualism and Language Varieties in Europe in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Il presente volume è il frutto di una riflessione interdisciplinare e multilingue maturata attorno a diversi eventi organizzati nell’ambito del panel concernente i diritti e le variazioni linguistiche in Europa nell’era dell’intelligenza artificiale all’interno del progetto Artificial Intelligence for European Integration, promosso dal Centro studi sull’Europa TO-EU dell’Università di Torino e cofinanziato dalla Commissione europea. L’interrogativo iniziale che abbiamo voluto sollevare è se l’IA potesse avere un impatto negativo sulle varietà linguistiche e sul multilinguismo, valore “aggiunto” dell’UE, o se potesse, e in che modo, divenire utile per la promozione di essi. Il volume, interamente inedito, può dirsi tra i primi ad affrontare, almeno in Europa, questo tipo di tematiche.This book is the outcome of an interdisciplinary multilingual reflection carried out on research into linguistic rights, multilingualism and language varieties in Europe in the age of artificial intelligence. It is part of the Artificial Intelligence for European Integration project, promoted by the Centre of European Studies To-EU of the University of Turin and co-financed by the European Commission. Our aim was to investigate more generally the negative and/or positive outcomes of AI on language varieties and multilingualism, the latter a key value for the EU. The result is a volume of original unpublished research being made generally available for the first time, at least in Europe.Ce livre a été élaboré à partir d’une réflexion interdisciplinaire et multilingue qui a été menée dans le cadre d’une recherche sur les droits, le multilinguisme et les variétés linguistiques en Europe à l’aune de l’intelligence artificielle à l’intérieur du projet Artificial Intelligence for European Integration promu par le Centre d’études européennes To-EU de l’Université de Turin et cofinancé par la Commission de l’Union européenne. Notre propos était de réfléchir plus généralement sur les conséquences négatives et/ou positives de l’IA sur les variétés linguistiques et le multilinguisme, ce dernier étant une valeur de l’UE. Ce que nous proposons par ce numéro est un livre inédit qui peut se vanter d’être parmi les premiers à s’occuper de ce type de thématique, du moins en Europe