Multi-Agent Election-Based Hyper-Heuristics

Hyper-heuristics are high-level methodologies responsible for automatically discover how to combine elements from a low-level heuristic set in order to solve optimization problems. Agents, in turn, are autonomous component responsible for watching an environment and perform some actions according to their perceptions. Thus, agent-based techniques seem suitable for the design of hyper-heuristics. This work presents an agent-based hyper-heuristic framework for choosing the best low-level heuristic. The proposed framework performs a cooperative voting procedure, considering a set of quality indicator voters, to define which multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) should generate more new solutions along the execution.

Who put the Holes in the Swiss Cheese? Currency Crisis Under Appreciation Pressure

We examine the reasons why the SNB gave up the lower floor of the 1.20 CHF/EUR exchange rate arrangement. Three types of shocks played a role: Exogenous shocks to the autonomous component of money demand, interest rate decreases of the ECB, as well as appreciation expectations. In order to defend these shocks, the SNB intervened heavily in the foreign exchange market. This led to an accumulation of reserves in the central bank’s balance sheet of the size of 80% of Swiss GDP. Interestingly, the SNB did not lower the interest rate into the negative range during the time period where the peg was in place. Hence, the SNB did not do ”whatever it takes” to defend the peg.

Defaults in Morphological Theory

Default-based analyses of linguistic data are most prevalent in morphological descriptions because morphology is pervaded by idiosyncrasy and irregularity, and defaults allow for a representation of the facts by construing regularity not as all or nothing but as a matter of degree. Defaults manifest themselves in a variety of ways in a group of morphological theories that have received much attention in the last few years, and whose main ideas and claims have been recently consolidated as important monographs. In May 2012 a workshop was convened at the University of Kentucky in Lexington to show-case default usage in four prominent theories of morphology. The presenters were key proponents of the theories, in most cases a theory’s author. The role of defaults was outlined in Construction Morphology, Network Morphology, Paradigm Function Morphology, and Word Grammar. With reference to these theories, as well as the lexical syntactic framework of HPSG, this book addresses questions about the role of defaults in the lexicon, including: (1) Does a defaults-based account of language have implications for the architecture of the grammar, particularly the proposal that morphology is an autonomous component? (2) How does a default differ from the canonical or prototypical in morphology? (3) Do defaults have a psychological basis? (4) How do defaults help us understand language as a sign-based system that is flawed, where the one to one association of form and meaning breaks down in the morphology?

E46K α-synuclein pathological mutation causes cell-autonomous toxicity without altering protein turnover or aggregation

α-Synuclein (aSyn) is the main driver of neurodegenerative diseases known as “synucleinopathies,” but the mechanisms underlying this toxicity remain poorly understood. To investigate aSyn toxic mechanisms, we have developed a primary neuronal model in which a longitudinal survival analysis can be performed by following the overexpression of fluorescently tagged WT or pathologically mutant aSyn constructs. Most aSyn mutations linked to neurodegenerative disease hindered neuronal survival in this model; of these mutations, the E46K mutation proved to be the most toxic. While E46K induced robust PLK2-dependent aSyn phosphorylation at serine 129, inhibiting this phosphorylation did not alleviate aSyn toxicity, strongly suggesting that this pathological hallmark of synucleinopathies is an epiphenomenon. Optical pulse-chase experiments with Dendra2-tagged aSyn versions indicated that the E46K mutation does not alter aSyn protein turnover. Moreover, since the mutation did not promote overt aSyn aggregation, we conclude that E46K toxicity was driven by soluble species. Finally, we developed an assay to assess whether neurons expressing E46K aSyn affect the survival of neighboring control neurons. Although we identified a minor non–cell-autonomous component spatially restricted to proximal neurons, most E46K aSyn toxicity was cell autonomous. Thus, we have been able to recapitulate the toxicity of soluble aSyn species at a stage preceding aggregation, detecting non–cell-autonomous toxicity and evaluating how some of the main aSyn hallmarks are related to neuronal survival.

Morskie i zamorskie podróże idei antropologii

The maritime and overseas journeys of the idea of anthropologyThis article discusses the very concept of anthropology, which was born at the end of 19th century, termed the “history of ideas”, and still exists in contemporary literary theory, especially as part of what is referred to as “spatial turn”. As with the similar concept proposed earlier by Ernst Curtius, it is focused on topics treated as the autonomous component of an anonymous, unpersonal, and in fact unhistorical discourse. On the contrary, the article tends to prove that travelling theories were always strongly connected with travelling theorists. In contrast, the author attempts to consider the interrelations between the two conceptions of anthropology: the philosophical and the linguistic, taking into account the material left in texts connected with the journey from Göteborg to New York by Roman Jakobson and Ernst Cassirer. The reconstruction of their possible discussions on board proves that the boundary between their projects, usually drawn in the history of culture, is weaker than could be supposed. Morskie i zamorskie podróże idei antropologiiArtykuł podejmuje dyskusję z koncepcją antropologii kulturowej wyłonioną po tzw. zwrocie spacjalnym i skupioną na wędrówkach pojęć. Ze względu na depersonalizację rozważanego materiału wciąż mieści się ona w modelu XIX-wiecznej jeszcze proweniencji, bliska historii idei i topice. Dyskusja została przeprowadzona na materiale nielicznych świadectw wiążących się z podróżą morską z Europy do USA, a w istocie ucieczką przed kolejną falą nazizmu, podczas której doszło do przypadkowego spotkania Romana Jakobsona i Ernsta Cassirera. Rekonstrukcja ich możliwych dialogów podczas piętnastu dni rejsu, wsparta na metodologicznej propozycji historii domyślnej wyprowadzonej z praktyki filologicznej Tadeusza Zielińskiego, pozwala odkryć silne związki między ich projektami, a tym samym między koncepcjami antropologii filozoficznej i antropologii lingwistycznej. Wyłaniające się ze świadectw tekstowych konwergencje podważają rozgraniczanie obu tych modernistycznych projektów, zwykle dokonywane w historii dyscypliny. Pozwalają także na reinterpretację rozpowszechnionych ujęć postawy profesjonalizmu uznawanej za typową dla uczonego nowoczesnego i utożsamianej z politycznym i społecznym niezaangażowaniem.

Bringing AI to E-Learning

This paper presents a newly developed student model agent, which is the basic part of an e-learning environment that incorporates Intelligent Agents and Computational Intelligence Techniques. The e-learning environment consists of three parts, the E-learning platform Front-End, the Student Questioner Reasoning and the Student Model Agent. The basic aim of this contribution is to describe in detail the agent’s architecture and the innovative features it provides to the e-learning environment through its utilization as an autonomous component. Several basic processes and techniques are facilitated through the agent in order to provide intelligence to the e-learning environment.