This paper proposes a refined version of particle swarm optimization technique for the optimum design of steel structures. Swarm is composed of a number of particles and each particle in the swarm represents a candidate solution of the optimum design problem. Design constraints in accordance with ASD-AISC (Allowable Stress Design Code of American Institute of Steel Institution) are imposed by t...

Optimum design of steel frames is a complicated process because the designer has to consider a large number of nonlinear constraints which are imposed by steel design codes while also dealing with discrete design variables. Obtaining the optimum solution to discrete programming problems was never easy until the emergence of metaheuristic techniques. The firefly algorithm, one of the recent meta...

This paper presents a novel approach to solve multiclass classification problems using pure evolutionary techniques. The proposed approach is called Evolution of Geometric Structures algorithm, and consists in the evolution of several geometric structures such as hypercubes, hyperspheres, hyperoctahedrons, etc. to obtain a first division of the samples space, which will be re-evolved in a secon...

A Theory of Employment Guarantees: Contestability, Credibility and Distributional Concerns* This paper develops a theory of employment guarantees when labour markets are imperfect and when the credibility of government policy announcements could be in doubt. The basic feature of an EGS is that any individual who satisfies a set of specified criteria is guaranteed public employment at a given wa...

Hot Dry Rock (HDR) is the most potential renewable geothermal energy in future. Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) effective method for development and utilization of HDR resources, fractures are main flow channels one important conditions studying heat transfer process EGS. Therefore, mechanism EGS have been hot spots research. Due to particularity mathematical models transfer, research this fie...

An in situ arsenic removal method applicable to highly contaminated water is presented. The method is based in the use of steel wool, lemon juice and solar radiation. The method was evaluated using water from the Camarones River, Atacama Desert in northern Chile, in which the arsenic concentration ranges between 1000 and 1300 microg L(-1). Response surface method analysis was used to optimize t...

The increasing steel price makes a tool with a high quality algorithm to reduce steel beam waste more important. The cut-optimization of stored steel beams is a classical cut-optimization problem with one exception, because beams are stored in several different lengths, the algorithm should not only deal with where a beam should be cut it should choose the appropriate length of stock beam to us...

This paper presents a systematic methodology for sustainable process systems design, combining the principles of industrial ecology, process design and process integration, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and multi-objective optimization (MOO). The superstructure considers an extended decision perimeter and embeds models based either on flowsheeting software or average market technologies, for whic...

In anosognosia for hemiplegia, patients may claim having performed willed actions with the paralyzed limb despite unambiguous evidence to the contrary. Does this false belief of having moved reflect the functioning of the same mechanisms that govern normal motor performance? Here, we examined whether anosognosics show the same temporal constraints known to exist during bimanual movements in hea...