We analyze the dynamics of evolutionary games in which fitness is defined as an affine function of the expected payoff and a constant contribution. The resulting inhomogeneous replicator equation has an homogeneous equivalent with modified payoffs. The affine terms also influence the stochastic dynamics of a two-strategy Moran model of a finite population. We then apply the affine fitness funct...

The Taylor-Frank method for making kin selection models when fitness is a nonlinear function of a continuous phenotype requires this function to be differentiable. This assumption sometimes fails for biologically important fitness functions, for instance in microbial data and the theory of repeated n-person games, even when fitness functions are smooth and continuous. In these cases, the Taylor...

Diversity in a population is often cited as a major facilitator for the evolution of new complex features. The intuition behind this dynamic is that if a population is exploring multiple regions of a fitness landscape, more opportunities exist to find new functionality. We use the digital evolution software platform Avida to explore the effect of multiple limited resources on phenotypic Shannon...

A reduct is a subset of attributes that are jointly sufficient and individually necessary for preserving a particular property of a given information table. A general definition of an attribute reduct is presented. Specifically, we discuss the following issues: First, there are a variety of properties that can be observed in an information table. Second, the preservation of a certain property b...

This study analyzes the quality and the size of the strategic network of higher education institutions. The study analyses the concept of fitness for purpose in quality assurance. It also analyses the transaction costs of networking that have consequences on the number of members in the network. Empirical evidence is presented of the Consortium on Applied Research and Professional Education, wh...

This paper describes a domain-independent approach to the use of genetic programming for object detection problems in which the locations of small objects of multiple classes in large images must be found. The evolved program is scanned over the large images to locate the objects of interest. The paper develops three terminal sets based on domain-independent pixel statistics and considers two d...

We present the system SIGEL that combines the simulation and visualization of robots with a Genetic Programming system for the automated evolution of walking. It is designed to automatically generate control programs for arbitrary robots without depending on detailed analytical information of the robots’ kinematic structure. Different fitness functions as well as a variety of parameters allow t...

A diallelic two-locus model is investigated in which the loci determine the genotypic value of a quantitative trait additively. Fitness has two components: stabilizing selection on the trait and a frequency-dependent component, as induced for instance if the ability to utilize different food resources depends on this trait. Since intraspecific competition induces disruptive selection, this mode...

This paper describes a method for mapping a sequence of notes to a set of guitar fretboard positions (tablature). The method uses a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find playable tablature through the use of a fitness function that assesses the playability of a given set of fretboard positions. Tests of the algorithm on a variety of compositions demonstrate an excellent ability of the GA to discover e...

We investigate the automatic construction of visual scenes via a hybrid evolutionary/hill-climbing approach using a correlationbased fitness function. This forms part of The Painting Fool system, an automated artist which is able to render the scenes using simulated art materials. We further describe a novel method for inventing fitness functions using the HR descriptive machine learning system...