Constructing the Yellow Brick Road: Preventing Discrimination in Financial Services Against the LGBTQ+ Community

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning (“LGBTQ+”) community lacks explicit statutory protections from discrimination in financial services. After the Supreme Court held in Bostock that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity was illegal, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an informal interpretive rule for the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B that made discrimination in the access to credit based on sexual orientation or gender identity illegal. However, this article argues that an informal interpretive rule is easily rescinded and does not provide sufficient protection. Thus, alternative action is needed to create more durable protection from discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community in the provision of financial services. Additionally, the increased use of AI in the financial industry magnifies the need for more durable protections to prevent the accidental usage of biased data to build and train the industry’s AI algorithms. This article examines the potential and limitations of existing consumer protection laws, possible pathways to create more permanent protection, and potential impacts from regulatory changes. This article also considers additional regulatory changes to other consumer protection statutes that may be needed to enable the identification of discriminatory acts. These changes may require financial institutions to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data – something that must be done with sensitivity because of a data privacy issue unique to the community: accidental outing

A New Approach on Many Objective Diversity Measurement

In multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) methods, selecting the best {it local guide} (the global best particle) for each particle of the population from a set of Pareto-optimal solutions has a great impact on the convergence and diversity of solutions, especially when optimizing problems with high number of objectives. here, we introduce the Sigma method as a new method for finding best local guides for each particle of the population. The Sigma method is implemented and is compared with another method, which uses the strategy of an existing MOPSO method for finding the local guides. These methods are examined for different test functions and the results are compared with the results of a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA)

Evolutionary population dynamics and multi-objective optimisation problems

Griffith Sciences, School of Information and Communication TechnologyFull Tex

Production of Noncarbonated Lemon Orange Juice

Citrus fruits are rich in nutrients and the phytochemicals needed for a healthy life. The present study is an attempt to examine production of noncarbonated orange juice with lemon. To this end, 11 juice formulations with different percentages of organ concentrate and natural lemon flavors were prepared and physicochemical (pH, acidity, density, brix, dry mass, and ethanol), microbial (lactic acid bacteria, acid-fast bacteria, alcohol fast bacteria, mold, and yeast), and sensory properties were examined. It was found that increase of percentages of orange concentrate and lemon natural flavor in the formulation led to significant increase in total dry mass, acidity, and ethanol level. On the other hand, as result of this increase, density remained almost unchanged and pH level significantly decreased. The results of microbial tests showed that number of acid lactic bacteria, acid-fast bacteria, mold, and yeast decreased in all treatments and there was no significant difference among the treatments in this regard. The treatments, regarding physicochemical and microbial properties, were at standard range and all the samples were drinkable. Regarding sensory properties, treatment No. 6 (4.6% orange concentrate and 0.08% lemon natural flavor) was better than other treatments as to taste, color, aroma, appearance, and general acceptability. Overal results indicated that 4.6% of orange concentrate and 0.08% of lemon natural flavor was the best formulation of a noncarbonated orange juic

Multiobjective Monte Carlo Tree Search for Real-Time Games

Multiobjective optimization has been traditionally a matter of study in domains like engineering or finance, with little impact on games research. However, action-decision based on multiobjective evaluation may be beneficial in order to obtain a high quality level of play. This paper presents a multiobjective Monte Carlo tree search algorithm for planning and control in real-time game domains, those where the time budget to decide the next move to make is close to 40 ms. A comparison is made between the proposed algorithm, a single-objective version of Monte Carlo tree search and a rolling horizon implementation of nondominated sorting evolutionary algorithm II (NSGA-II). Two different benchmarks are employed, deep sea treasure (DST) and the multiobjective physical traveling salesman problem (MO-PTSP). Using the same heuristics on each game, the analysis is focused on how well the algorithms explore the search space. Results show that the algorithm proposed outperforms NSGA-II. Additionally, it is also shown that the algorithm is able to converge to different optimal solutions or the optimal Pareto front (if achieved during search)

Evaluation of an antimicrobial stewardship program in an Australian tertiary paediatric hospital

University of Technology Sydney. Graduate School of Health.Background: The rise of antimicrobial resistance has been described as a threat to human health. Judicious use of antimicrobials, through antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is a key component of the World Health Organization’s Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance. AMS programs involve multiple strategies to ensure optimal antimicrobial selection, dosage, route of administration and duration of therapy to maximise the benefit of antimicrobials, whilst minimising the associated collateral damage. Although AMS has been a requirement for hospital accreditation in Australia since 2013 implementation and evaluation of AMS in Australian tertiary paediatric hospitals has been limited by the complexities in the patient population, and the local infrastructure and resources. Aim: Evaluate an AMS program in an Australian tertiary paediatric hospital Methods: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention core elements of AMS for hospitals provided a framework for six studies, two studies focused on the use of the local computerised decision support and approval system (CDSS). The CDSS was assessed as an intervention to reduce inappropriate broad-spectrum antibiotic use for community-acquired pneumonia, compliance with the CDSS and its utility as a tracking tool were explored in a second study. Educational needs of nursing and non-consultant medical staff were determined using two different survey approaches. Candidate units of measure for antimicrobial surveillance were developed and used to evaluate the impact of AMS in the paediatric intensive care setting in a quasi-experimental design study. Results: Children with suspected uncomplicated community-acquired pneumonia were predominantly prescribed guideline-concordant narrow-spectrum penicillins at admission to hospital both before and after CDSS implementation. CDSS use was uncommon after standard pharmacy and AMS working hours, with ongoing implications for AMS involvement the next standard working day. Broad-spectrum antibiotics, potentially suitable for long term trend analysis were identified. Both standard adult defined daily doses and vial-based estimates did not identify an association between implementation of the CDSS and a reduction in restricted antibiotic use