Exploitation Of Linkage Learning In Evolutionary Algorithms

One major branch of enhancing the performance of evolutionary algorithms is the exploitation of linkage learning. This monograph aims to capture the recent progress of linkage learning, by compiling a series of focused technical chapters to keep abreast of the developments and trends in the area of linkage. In evolutionary algorithms, linkage models the relation between decision variables with the genetic linkage observed in biological systems, and linkage learning connects computational optimization methodologies and natural evolution mechanisms. Exploitation of linkage learning can enable us to design better evolutionary algorithms as well as to potentially gain insight into biological systems. Linkage learning has the potential to become one of the dominant aspects of evolutionary algorithms; research in this area can potentially yield promising results in addressing the scalability issues.

In recent years, the issue of linkage in GEAs has garnered greater attention and recognition from researchers. Conventional approaches that rely much on ad hoc tweaking of parameters to control the search by balancing the level of exploitation and exploration are grossly inadequate. As shown in the work reported here, such parameters tweaking based approaches have their limits; they can be easily ”fooled” by cases of triviality or peculiarity of the class of problems that the algorithms are designed to handle. Furthermore, these approaches are usually blind to the interactions between the decision variables, thereby disrupting the partial solutions that are being built up along the way.

Genetic algorithms (GAs) are powerful search techniques based on principles of evolution and widely applied to solve problems in many disciplines. However, most GAs employed in practice nowadays are unable to learn genetic linkage and suffer from the linkage problem. The linkage learning genetic algorithm (LLGA) was proposed to tackle the linkage problem with several specially designed mechanisms. While the LLGA performs much better on badly scaled problems than simple GAs, it does not work well on uniformly scaled problems as other competent GAs. Therefore, we need to understand why it is so and need to know how to design a better LLGA or whether there are certain limits of such a linkage learning process. This book aims to gain better understanding of the LLGA in theory and to improve the LLGA's performance in practice. It starts with a survey of the existing genetic linkage learning techniques and describes the steps and approaches taken to tackle the research topics, including using promoters, developing the convergence time model, and adopting subchromosomes.

In recent years, the issue of linkage in GEAs has garnered greater attention and recognition from researchers. Conventional approaches that rely much on ad hoc tweaking of parameters to control the search by balancing the level of exploitation and exploration are grossly inadequate. As shown in the work reported here, such parameters tweaking based approaches have their limits; they can be easily ”fooled” by cases of triviality or peculiarity of the class of problems that the algorithms are designed to handle. Furthermore, these approaches are usually blind to the interactions between the decision variables, thereby disrupting the partial solutions that are being built up along the way.

Researchers and practitioners alike are increasingly turning to search, op timization, and machine-learning procedures based on natural selection and natural genetics to solve problems across the spectrum of human endeavor. These genetic algorithms and techniques of evolutionary computation are solv ing problems and inventing new hardware and software that rival human designs. The Kluwer Series on Genetic Algorithms and Evolutionary Computation pub lishes research monographs, edited collections, and graduate-level texts in this rapidly growing field. Primary areas of coverage include the theory, implemen tation, and application of genetic algorithms (GAs), evolution strategies (ESs), evolutionary programming (EP), learning classifier systems (LCSs) and other variants of genetic and evolutionary computation (GEC). The series also pub lishes texts in related fields such as artificial life, adaptive behavior, artificial immune systems, agent-based systems, neural computing, fuzzy systems, and quantum computing as long as GEC techniques are part of or inspiration for the system being described. This encyclopedic volume on the use of the algorithms of genetic and evolu tionary computation for the solution of multi-objective problems is a landmark addition to the literature that comes just in the nick of time. Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are receiving increasing and unprecedented attention. Researchers and practitioners are finding an irresistible match be tween the popUlation available in most genetic and evolutionary algorithms and the need in multi-objective problems to approximate the Pareto trade-off curve or surface.

The aim of this book is to provide a strong theoretical support for understanding and analyzing the behavior of evolutionary algorithms, as well as for creating a bridge between probability, set-oriented numerics and evolutionary computation. The volume encloses a collection of contributions that were presented at the EVOLVE 2011 international workshop, held in Luxembourg, May 25-27, 2011, coming from invited speakers and also from selected regular submissions. The aim of EVOLVE is to unify the perspectives offered by probability, set oriented numerics and evolutionary computation. EVOLVE focuses on challenging aspects that arise at the passage from theory to new paradigms and practice, elaborating on the foundations of evolutionary algorithms and theory-inspired methods merged with cutting-edge techniques that ensure performance guarantee factors. EVOLVE is also intended to foster a growing interest for robust and efficient methods with a sound theoretical background. The chapters enclose challenging theoretical findings, concrete optimization problems as well as new perspectives. By gathering contributions from researchers with different backgrounds, the book is expected to set the basis for a unified view and vocabulary where theoretical advancements may echo in different domains.

“Practical Applications of Evolutionary Computation to Financial Engineering” presents the state of the art techniques in Financial Engineering using recent results in Machine Learning and Evolutionary Computation. This book bridges the gap between academics in computer science and traders and explains the basic ideas of the proposed systems and the financial problems in ways that can be understood by readers without previous knowledge on either of the fields. To cement the ideas discussed in the book, software packages are offered that implement the systems described within. The book is structured so that each chapter can be read independently from the others. Chapters 1 and 2 describe evolutionary computation. The third chapter is an introduction to financial engineering problems for readers who are unfamiliar with this area. The following chapters each deal, in turn, with a different problem in the financial engineering field describing each problem in detail and focusing on solutions based on evolutionary computation. Finally, the two appendixes describe software packages that implement the solutions discussed in this book, including installation manuals and parameter explanations.

The papers in this volume are the refereed papers presented at AI-2011, the Thirty-first SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence, held in Cambridge in December 2011 in both the technical and the application streams. They present new and innovative developments and applications, divided into technical stream sections on Planning, Evolutionary Algorithms, Speech and Vision, and Machine Learning, followed by application stream sections on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Machine Learning, Evolutionary Algorithms and AI in Action. The volume also includes the text of short papers presented as posters at the conference. This is the twenty-eighth volume in the Research and Development in Intelligent Systems series, which also incorporates the nineteenth volume in the Applications and Innovations in Intelligent Systems series. These series are essential reading for those who wish to keep up to date with developments in this important field.