Evolutionary improvement of programs

Most applications of genetic programming (GP) involve the creation of an entirely new function, program or expression to solve a specific problem. In this paper, we propose a new approach that applies GP to improve existing software by optimizing its non-functional properties such as execution time, memory usage, or power consumption. In general, satisfying non-functional requirements is a difficult task and often achieved in part by optimizing compilers. However, modern compilers are in general not always able to produce semantically equivalent alternatives that optimize non-functional properties, even if such alternatives are known to exist: this is usually due to the limited local nature of such optimizations. In this paper, we discuss how best to combine and extend the existing evolutionary methods of GP, multiobjective optimization, and coevolution in order to improve existing software. Given as input the implementation of a function, we attempt to evolve a semantically equivalent version, in this case optimized to reduce execution time subject to a given probability distribution of inputs. We demonstrate that our framework is able to produce non-obvious optimizations that compilers are not yet able to generate on eight example functions. We employ a coevolved population of test cases to encourage the preservation of the function's semantics. We exploit the original program both through seeding of the population in order to focus the search, and as an oracle for testing purposes. As well as discussing the issues that arise when attempting to improve software, we employ rigorous experimental method to provide interesting and practical insights to suggest how to address these issues

The effect of cyber-attacks on stock returns

A widely debated issue in recent years is cybercrime. Breaches in the security of accessibility, integrity and confidentiality of information involve potentially high explicit and implicit costs for firms. This paper investigates the impact of information security breaches on stock returns. Using event-study methodology, the study provides empirical evidence on the effect of announcements of cyber-attacks on the market value of firms from 1995 to 2015. Results show that substantial negative market returns occur following announcements of cyber-attacks. Financial entities often suffer greater negative effects than other companies and non-confidential cyber-attacks are the most dangerous, especially for the financial sector. Overall findings seem to show a link between cybercrime and insider trading

Be vicarious: the challenge for project management in the service economy

Purpose. The paper aims to answer to the following questions: which are the critical dynamic capabilities to survive in the rubber landscape of service economy? Does it exist in service economy a dynamic capabilities provider? Methodology. The paper combines the literature review on dynamic capability perspective and that on vicariance to the Project Management professional services. Findings. Firstly, the paper identifies vicariance as an intriguing dynamic capability, crucial to survive in the rubber landscape of service economy. Secondly, the paper sheds light on Project Management (PM) as a vicarious that provides vicariance. Practical implications. For each critical organizational dimension, the paper identifies the links among the service economy challenges and the vicariance typology required to the project manager to face those challenge. Originality/value.The approach to conceive the PM as a vicarious that provides vicariance is original and leads to new insights on the professional services management. In fact, on one hand, dynamic capabilities cannot easily be bought through a market transaction; on the other hand, they must be built. This building can be achieved internally, by the organization itself (i.e. hierarchy), or through a partnership (i.e. hybrid form among hierarchy and market). PM professional services enrich organizations with additional information variety according to a hybrid (i.e. non- market) coordination model

The PMBOK standard evolution: leading the rising complexity

The aim of this work is to enlighten how the Standard for Project Management (part II of PMBOK® Guide) has evolved over the last 30 years as it has introjected the perspective of complexity. The several contexts (private firms, public institutions etc.) in which Project Management is applied become more and more complex (i.e. uncertain and characterized by unpredictable feedbacks among their own variables and their environments). This needs an enrichment (and perhaps a new conceptualization) of the endowment of information variety provided by the Standard for Project Management with respect to the specific requisite variety asked at a local level (i.e. the specific organizational contexts), to lead a project with efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. The traditional Standard for Project Management can no longer be considered as a “comfort zone” (i.e. a set of established and “familiar” frameworks, rules and tools aiming to ensure certain and predictable results). On the contrary, the Standard for Project Management should shift towards an open standard, that is able to consistently co-evolve with the increasingly complex contexts that even more ask for new tools, creative solutions and original combinations between exploitative and explorative knowledge

Boundary-Work and Dynamics of Exclusion by Law:International Investment Law as a Case Study

This chapter explores the thesis that a powerful way to sustain inequalities and realize exclusion is through the construction of ideational boundaries. It is argued that doctrinal legal method can function as a means to crystallize boundaries and (re-)produce exclusion. Critical legal scholarship comes to the rescue in identifying dynamics of exclusion. Within the realm of critical approaches to law, critique of ideology and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) appear particularly illuminating. It is further contended that critical legal scholarship, by means of exposing contradictions and eroding boundaries, can be instrumental in defying exclusion in practice. The regime of International Investment Law (IIL) is taken as a case study to show how boundaries can be (and have been) erected in ways that reproduce relations of domination. IIL is an illustrative case as other legal domains rest on similarly constructed boundaries (eg between the economic and the non-economic). The IIL case also shows how critical legal perspectives, by breaking free of doctrinal legal analysis, can contribute to change, possibly paving the way to transformative change in practice

Resource and dependency based test case generation for RESTful Web services

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The Somewhat Less than Super Adventures of The Gargoyle and The Sparrow, Including the Pseudo-comical Incident of the Fan Fiction and What Transpired After

What do superheroes do when they retire? Are they expected to go out and reinvent themselves, maybe write a heartwarming memoir--or worse, sit in silence for the rest of their days as if it never happened? Two out of three of those wouldn\u27t make for very interesting theatre, so I went with Option 1. Frank and Eddie (formerly known as masked avengers The Gargoyle and The Sparrow) haven\u27t seen much of each other since leaving the trade, so when Eddie visits his old comrade out of the blue after fifteen years, it\u27s odd enough. When he pulls out a scheme to get back into the spotlight that involves them emulating superfan Katharine\u27s G/S fan fiction and posing as a married couple, the duo can only be bound for stranger tides. My play is a farce exploring camraderie, the reasons we mask ourselves, the motivations behind fan fiction, and a what-if scenario different enough from Birdman that I felt comfortable writing it to completion

On how the ECT fuels the fossil fuel economy:<i>Rockhopper v Italy</i> as a case study

The central thesis of this article is that the Energy Charter Treaty can be deployed to expand the fossil fuel industry’s rights and contextually counter democratic forces that animate the ecological transition. More specifically, the article shows the entanglement between the suppression of ecological democracy and the expansion of fossil rights. To offer a more granular understanding of how the Energy Charter Treaty empowers the fossil industry, this article zooms in on the case of Rockhopper v Italy. The case was launched in 2017 by the UK company Rockhopper against the Italian Republic because the latter denied a production concession for offshore oil drilling off the coast of Italy. After a long process of resistance from local communities, in 2016, the Italian government adopted a law of general applicability banning offshore drilling within 12 nautical miles of the coast. Drawing on political theory, this article conceptualises people’s successful forms of resistance to the oil extractivist project as ecological democracy. By unpacking the main facts underpinning this case and the legal reasoning in the award, the article shows how the Rockhopper award has bestowed new property rights on the fossil fuel investor while contextually compressing democratic spaces vital for the ecological transition..</p