Northeastern University London Repository
Not a member yet
1286 research outputs found
Sort by
Balmedie
No full textFlash Fiction, published in print anthology 'In Defence of Pseudo-science' by Reflex Press
Modelling the Social Interactions in Grey Wolf Optimizer
Get PDFSwarm Intelligence has been successfully used for solving high-dimensional and multimodal optimization problems. However, the wide range of swarm-based techniques, operators, and parameters requires prior knowledge before applying them to real-world problems. Because of this, we have been studying the meso-level characteristics that emerge from the social interactions within the swarm to understand each swarm-based technique's unique characteristics. In this paper, we model and study the interaction network of the Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) to capture its social behaviour. We used Portrait divergence to compare the similarity between network structures over experiments, simulations and iterations of the GWO. We also used Kullback divergence to compare the probability distributions of the network flows varying over experiments, simulations and iterations of the GWO. Furthermore, we discovered we could identify the GWO convergence using the interaction network approach. Comparing different simulations, we found that the wolves communicate using a stable network structure but not necessarily a stable network flow indicating variance in the number of highly influential wolves. We also point out patterns found in GWO that appears to be similar to other swarm-based algorithms (GPSO and FSS)
Boolean Binary Grey Wolf Optimizer
Get PDFSeveral binary swarm algorithms use the identical continuous proposal, adding a transfer function to mapping from continuous to binary space. It has been shown that binary operators are more appropriate and efficient for binary optimisation. Based on it, we proposed the Boolean Binary Grey Wolf Optimizer, a new version of Grey Wolf Optimizer to solve binary optimisation. Our proposal uniquely operates in the binary space using binary vector and boolean operators, precisely AND, OR, XOR, and NOT gates. We used OneMax, ZeroMax and 0-1 Knapsack to compare our proposal with bGWO1, bGWO2 and BPSO. In general, BBGWO outperformed the other swarm-based algorithms in different scenarios. Furthermore, analysing the swarm hamming distance and the unique candidate solutions through optimisation, we found that the proposal can overcome premature convergence, and most of the time, wolves are in different positions
Introduction. Debating Biopolitics
No full textEmerging out of the theoretical and practical urge to reflect on key contemporary debates arising in biopolitical scholarship, this timely book launches an in-depth investigation into the concept and history of biopolitics. In light of tumultuous political dynamics across the globe and new developments in this continually evolving field, the book reconsiders and expands upon Michel Foucault’s input to biopolitical studies
Women, Violence, Sovereignty: “Rakshasa” Marriage by Capture in Modern Indian Political Thought
Get PDFNineteenth-century colonial jurists, sociologists, and Indian nationalists revived the ancient Indian legal concept of rakshasa marriage by bride capture after vanquishing her kinsmen, which the Hindu “lawgiver” Manu condemned but permitted to the warrior caste alone. Only the Kshatriyas, India’s designated sovereigns, could break patriarchal and brahmanical authority in this way. But rakshasa marriage was also identified with the demon Ravana, who abducted Sita in the epic Ramayana, and with Hindu nationalism’s Muslim enemy. Preoccupied with the loss of kshatriyahood, Hindu nationalism uniquely premised sovereignty on the power to dispossess
enemy Fathers of their women: from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s celebration of epic hero Arjuna and Krishna’s own rakshasa marriages, to the appropriation of this supposedly Muslim method by the architect of Hindutva, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1967). Transcending the “sexual contract” in the Indian case, rakshasa marriage’s association of bride capture and miscegenation with sovereignty sheds new light on gendered Partition violence, beyond brahmanical notions of (defiled) purity and honor
Understanding European integration with bipartite networks of comparative advantage
Get PDFCore objectives of European common market integration are convergence and economic growth, but these are hampered by redundancy, and value chain asymmetries. The challenge is how to harmonize labor division to reach global competitiveness, meanwhile bridging productivity differences across the EU. We develop a bipartite network approach to trace pairwise co-specialization by applying the revealed comparative advantage method within and between the EU15 and Central and Eastern European (CEE). This approach assesses redundancies and the division of labor in the EU at the level of industries and countries. We find significant co-specialization among CEE countries but a diverging specialization between EU15 and CEE. Productivity increases in those CEE industries that have co-specialized with other CEE countries after EU accession, while co-specialization across CEE and EU15 countries is less related to productivity growth. These results show that a division of sectoral specialization can lead to productivity convergence between EU15 and CEE countries
Network analysis of England's single parent household COVID-19 control policy impact: a proof-of-concept study
Get PDFLockdowns have been a key infection control measure for many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. In England’s first lockdown, children of single parent households (SPHs) were permitted to move between parental homes. By the second lockdown, SPH support bubbles between households were also permitted, enabling larger within-household networks. We investigated the combined impact of these approaches on household transmission dynamics, to inform policymaking for control and support mechanisms in a respiratory pandemic context. This network modelling study applied percolation theory to a base model of SPHs constructed with population survey estimates of SPH family size. To explore putative impact, varying estimates were applied regarding extent of bubbling and proportion of Different-parentage SPHs (DSPHs) (in which children do not share both the same parents). Results indicate that the formation of giant components (in which Covid-19 household transmission accelerates) are more contingent on DSPHs than on formation of bubbles between SPHs; and that bubbling with another SPH will accelerate giant component formation where one or both are DSPHs. Public health guidance should include supportive measures that mitigate the increased transmission risk afforded by support bubbling among DSPHs. Future network, mathematical and epidemiological studies should examine both independent and combined impact of policies
Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600 Gifts as Objects
No full textGift-giving played an important role in political, social and religious life in medieval and early modern Europe. This volume explores an under-examined and often-overlooked aspect of this phenomenon: the material nature of the gift.
Drawing on examples from both medieval and early modern Europe, the authors from the UK and across Europe explore the craftsmanship involved in the production of gifts and the use of exotic objects and animals, from elephant bones to polar bears and 'living' holy objects, to communicate power, class and allegiance. Gifts were publicly given, displayed and worn and so the book explores the ways in which, as tangible objects, gifts could help to construct religious and social worlds. But the beauty and material richness of the gift could also provoke anxieties. Classical and Christian authorities agreed that, in gift-giving, it was supposed to be the thought that counted and consequently wealth and grandeur raised worries about greed and corruption: was a valuable ring payment for sexual services or a token of love and a promise of marriage? Over three centuries, Gift-Giving and Materiality in Europe, 1300-1600: Gifts as Objects reflects on the possibilities, practicalities and concerns raised by the material character of gifts