Co-Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization Applied to the 7x7 Seega Game

Seega is an ancient Egyptian two-stage board game that, in certain aspects, is more difficult than chess. The two-player game is most commonly played on a 7 × 7 board, but is also sometimes played on a 5 × 5 or 9 × 9 board. In the first and more difficult stage of the game, players take turns placing one disk each on the board until the board contains only one empty cell. In the second stage players take turns moving disks of their color; a disk that becomes surrounded by disks of the opposite color is captured and removed from the board. Building on previous work, on the 5 × 5 version of Seega, we focus, in this paper, on the 7 × 7 board. Our approach employs co-evolutionary particle swarm optimization for the generation of feature evaluation scores. Two separate swarms are used to evolve White players and Black players, respectively; each particle represents feature weights for use in the position evaluation. Experimental results are presented and the performance of the full game engine are discussed

Applying Co-Evolutionary Particle Swam Optimization to the Egyptian Board Game Seega

Seega is an ancient Egyptian two-phase board game that, in certain aspects, is more difficult than chess. The two-player game is played on either a 5 × 5, 7 × 7, or 9 × 9 board. In the first and more difficult phase of the game, players take turns placing one disk each on the board until the board contains only one empty cell. In the second phase players take turns moving disks of their color; a disk that becomes surrounded by disks of the opposite color is captured and removed from the board. We have developed a Seega program that employs co-evolutionary particle swarm optimization in the generation of feature evaluation scores. Two separate swarms are used to evolve White players and Black players, respectively; each particle represents feature weights for use in the position evaluation. Experimental results are presented and the performance of the full game engine is discussed

Fast Color-Independent Ball Detection for Mobile Robots

This paper presents a novel scheme for fast color invariant ball detection in the RoboCup context. Edge filtered camera images serve as an input for an Ada Boost learning procedure that constructs a cascade of classification and regression trees (CARTs). Our system is capable to detect different soccer balls in the RoboCup and other environments. The resulting approach for object classification is real-time capable and reliable

A case of massive subcutaneous emphysema and transient ischemic attack due to argon plasma coagulation following endoscopic pilonidal sinus treatment

Pilonidalsinusisasmallholeaffectingtheskinandsubcutaneoustissue,whichusuallycontainshairandskindebris,resultinginthecreationoftheso-calledpilonidalcyst.Theendoscopicpilonidalsinustreatment(EPSiT)isaminimallyinvasiveprocedureconsistingoftheremovalofhairsandcauterizationofthecavityunderdirectendoscopicvision.Inourinstitution,weusedtoendthisprocedurewithargonplasmacoagulation(APC).Here,wediscussacaseof22-year-oldmanaffectedbypilonidaldisease,whodevelopedamassivesubcutaneousemphysemaandsuspectedtransientischemicattacksecondarytogasreabsorptionafteranEPSiTinwhichAPCwassedforthecoagulation

Pelvic Health Assessment in Adult Females Following Pediatric Appendicitis: A Monocentric Retrospective Case—Control Study

open10noAbstract: Background: The anatomical location of the appendix in females determines its close contact with the internal genitalia, involving the latter in case of acute appendicitis (AA). The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of pelvic health impairment in adult women who underwent appendicectomy during childhood. Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted including all female patients who underwent appendicectomy for acute appendicitis at our Center between January 1985 and December 1995. The patients were divided into two groups, i.e., complicated AA (Group A) and not complicated AA (Group B), and were asked to respond to a questionnaire investigating their general health status, fertility impairment, ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, endometriosis, and chronic pelvic pain. The same questionnaire was administered to female volunteers with past medical history (PMH) negative for AA. The data were compared using chi-square test and Fisher exact test (a p value < 0.05 was considered for statistical significance). Results: In total, 75 patients operated for AA during childhood (22 in Group A and 53 in group B) and 44 female volunteers with PMH negative for AA (group C) were enrolled in the study. Seventeen patients (77.3%) in group A, 40 (75.4%) in group B, and 29 (65.9%) in group C (p > 0.05) had pregnancies. The number of miscarriages among women who became pregnant in their life was 5 in group A, 13 in group B, and 12 in group C (p > 0.05). Chronic pelvic pain was reported by 7 out of 22 (31.8%) patients in group A, 7 out of 53 (13.2%) in group B, and 5 out of 44 (11.4%) in group C (A vs. C: p = 0.04, OR = 3.64; A vs. B: p = 0.06 and B vs. C: p = 0.52). Conclusions: In our series, AA, complicated or not, neither determined repercussions on fertility, risk of miscarriages, and ectopic pregnancies nor increased the risk of developing endometriosis. However, women who experienced complicated AA showed a higher prevalence of chronic pelvic pain onset in adulthood compared to healthy women.openParente, Giovanni; Di Mitri, Marco; D’Antonio, Simone; Cravano, Sara; Thomas, Eduje; Vastano, Marzia; Lunca, Robert; Gargano, Tommaso; Libri, Michele; Lima, MarioParente, Giovanni; Di Mitri, Marco; D’Antonio, Simone; Cravano, Sara; Thomas, Eduje; Vastano, Marzia; Lunca, Robert; Gargano, Tommaso; Libri, Michele; Lima, Mari