The majority of the algorithms used to solve hard optimization problems today are population metaheuristics. These methods are often presented under a purely algorithmic angle, while insisting on the metaphors which led to their design. We propose in this article to regard population metaheuristics as methods making evolution a probabilistic sampling of the objective function, either explicitly...

Asthma is the most frequent respiratory process both in pediatric and adult ages, but when sharing symptoms with other processes, sometimes there are certain diagnostic doubts and especially therapeutic. The distinction is the bronchiospasm crisis due to the existence of bronchial hyperresponsiveness, the origin of which may be genetic, which causes the onset of asthma to be at an early age, or...

We describe a simple transformation that allows for the fast recovery of a tree from the probabilities such a tree induces on the colourations of its leaves under a simple Markov process (with unknown parameters). This generalizes earlier results by not requiring the transition matrices associated with the edges of the tree to be of a particular form, or to be related by some fixed rate matrix,...

The family of Toll-like receptors plays an essential role in the induction of the immune response. These receptors sense the presence of microbial ligands and activate the nuclear factorB transcription factor. We review the key studies that led from the formulation of the concept of pattern recognition receptors to the characterization of Toll-like receptors, insisting on the important role pla...

We consider finite element operators defined on “rough” functions in a bounded polyhedron Ω in RN . Insisting on preserving positivity in the approximations, we discover an intriguing and basic difference between approximating functions which vanish on the boundary of Ω and approximating general functions which do not. We give impossibility results for approximation of general functions to more...

The author participated very early in the use of immunosuppressors in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. He reviews evidence which support their use. IV Methylprednisolone, azathioprine and mitoxantrone are supported in their use by evidence of a level appropriate to the date of their generation while Cyclosporine A and Cyclophosphamide are not. The author also reviews the benefits and side e...

A 21-year–old man was re ferred to an ophthalmology clinic insisting on getting rid of his glasses which he had been using for 11 years. Gross ocular examination was normal except for small eyes. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 20/40 and 20/50 with +16.00 and +18.00 diopter (D) glasses in his right and left eyes respectively. No ocular deviation was observed and slit lamp and fundus exa...

Amongst the best practices that constitute Linked Data, one of the foremost is to use only HTTP-URIs as identifiers for RDF resources. This is so that the URI will resolve in a Linked Data browser to give information about the named resource. At the same time, Linked Data takes a resource-centric, as opposed to page-centric, approach to resolution. We argue that this approach can, in certain ca...

Traditional Chinese Medicine is the crystallization of people’s exploration way life and health for thousands years, which contains rich philosophical ideas, medical theories treatment methods. Therefore, by clarifying connotation significance excellent traditional culture TCM analyzing realistic dilemmas in its integration into civic education colleges universities, we aim to enhance ideology ...