A New Metaheuristic Bat-Inspired Algorithm

Metaheuristic algorithms such as particle swarm optimization, firefly algorithm and harmony search are now becoming powerful methods for solving many tough optimization problems. In this paper, we propose a new metaheuristic method, the Bat Algorithm, based on the echolocation behaviour of bats. We also intend to combine the advantages of existing algorithms into the new bat algorithm. After a detailed formulation and explanation of its implementation, we will then compare the proposed algorithm with other existing algorithms, including genetic algorithms and particle swarm optimization. Simulations show that the proposed algorithm seems much superior to other algorithms, and further studies are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

A Random Matrix Model of Adiabatic Quantum Computing

We present an analysis of the quantum adiabatic algorithm for solving hard instances of 3-SAT (an NP-complete problem) in terms of Random Matrix Theory (RMT). We determine the global regularity of the spectral fluctuations of the instantaneous Hamiltonians encountered during the interpolation between the starting Hamiltonians and the ones whose ground states encode the solutions to the computational problems of interest. At each interpolation point, we quantify the degree of regularity of the average spectral distribution via its Brody parameter, a measure that distinguishes regular (i.e., Poissonian) from chaotic (i.e., Wigner-type) distributions of normalized nearest-neighbor spacings. We find that for hard problem instances, i.e., those having a critical ratio of clauses to variables, the spectral fluctuations typically become irregular across a contiguous region of the interpolation parameter, while the spectrum is regular for easy instances. Within the hard region, RMT may be applied to obtain a mathematical model of the probability of avoided level crossings and concomitant failure rate of the adiabatic algorithm due to non-adiabatic Landau-Zener type transitions. Our model predicts that if the interpolation is performed at a uniform rate, the average failure rate of the quantum adiabatic algorithm, when averaged over hard problem instances, scales exponentially with increasing problem size.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Informing investment to reduce inequalities: a modelling approach

Background: Reducing health inequalities is an important policy objective but there is limited quantitative information about the impact of specific interventions. Objectives: To provide estimates of the impact of a range of interventions on health and health inequalities. Materials and methods: Literature reviews were conducted to identify the best evidence linking interventions to mortality and hospital admissions. We examined interventions across the determinants of health: a ‘living wage’; changes to benefits, taxation and employment; active travel; tobacco taxation; smoking cessation, alcohol brief interventions, and weight management services. A model was developed to estimate mortality and years of life lost (YLL) in intervention and comparison populations over a 20-year time period following interventions delivered only in the first year. We estimated changes in inequalities using the relative index of inequality (RII). Results: Introduction of a ‘living wage’ generated the largest beneficial health impact, with modest reductions in health inequalities. Benefits increases had modest positive impacts on health and health inequalities. Income tax increases had negative impacts on population health but reduced inequalities, while council tax increases worsened both health and health inequalities. Active travel increases had minimally positive effects on population health but widened health inequalities. Increases in employment reduced inequalities only when targeted to the most deprived groups. Tobacco taxation had modestly positive impacts on health but little impact on health inequalities. Alcohol brief interventions had modestly positive impacts on health and health inequalities only when strongly socially targeted, while smoking cessation and weight-reduction programmes had minimal impacts on health and health inequalities even when socially targeted. Conclusions: Interventions have markedly different effects on mortality, hospitalisations and inequalities. The most effective (and likely cost-effective) interventions for reducing inequalities were regulatory and tax options. Interventions focused on individual agency were much less likely to impact on inequalities, even when targeted at the most deprived communities

Moyal star product approach to the Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation

The Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation to the eigenvalues of a one-dimensional quantum Hamiltonian is derived through order $\hbar^2$ (i.e., including the first correction term beyond the usual result) by means of the Moyal star product. The Hamiltonian need only have a Weyl transform (or symbol) that is a power series in $\hbar$, starting with $\hbar^0$, with a generic fixed point in phase space. The Hamiltonian is not restricted to the kinetic-plus-potential form. The method involves transforming the Hamiltonian to a normal form, in which it becomes a function of the harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian. Diagrammatic and other techniques with potential applications to other normal form problems are presented for manipulating higher order terms in the Moyal series.Comment: 27 pages, no figure

« Further Thoughts on an Enigma: The Tortuous Life of Nicolò Manucci, 1638-c. 1720 ». The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2008, p. 35-76.

The four-volume travel account (Storia del Mogor) of Nicolò Manucci has long been considered a primary source of critical importance in 17th-century Mughal studies. Employed initially under the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh and other nobility, and then later interacting with the Portuguese and the English, the Venetian Manucci is profiled in this article by Sanjay Subrahmanyam as one of those rare, cultural “go-betweens”, or passeurs culturels, who are situated in the liminal spaces of early mode..

Richard Eaton. Shrines, Cultivators, and Muslim ‘Conversion’ in Punjab and Bengal, 1300-1700

This historiographical analysis of conversion in northern India suggests a much more nuanced approach to the introduction and adoption of Muslim culture during the 10th-16th centuries. Eaton challenges several established paradigms about how and why southern Asians adopted “Islam”. Following a long discussion about why we should reconsider our understanding of “conversions” on the southern Asian frontier, Eaton examines two zones with respect to Indo-Islamic interactions and conversion practi..

« The Vezir and the Mulla: A Late Safavid Period Debate on Friday Prayer », in : Michele Bernardini, Masashi Haneda and Maria Szuppe, eds., Eurasian Studies [Liber Amicorum. Études sur l’Iran médiéval et moderne offertes à Jean Calmard]. Vol. V/1-2, 2006, pp. 237-269.

This article contextualizes the debate among the Usuli and Akhbari schools of law regarding the validity of congregational prayer-leading in the Twelver Shi’ite community in the late Safavid era. Newman begins with the foundational Usuli arguments of ‘Alī al-Karakī (d. 1534) and his relatively controversial position that prayer was wujūb taḫyirī (obligatory) and that learned faqīhs could be appointed to lead congregational prayer sessions. Newman provides a systematic overview of the 16th and..

« A Sugar banquet for the Shah: Anglo-Dutch competition at the Iranian court of Šāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn (r. 1694-1722) », in : Michele Bernardini, Masashi Haneda, Maria Szuppe, eds., Eurasian Studies [Liber Amicorum : Études sur l’Iran médiéval et moderne offertes à Jean Calmard]. Vol. V/1-2, 2006, pp. 195-217.

This article details the invitation and singular visit of Šāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn (r. 1694-1722) to the main Isfahani residency of the East India Company in 1699. Matthee provides a lucid description of late 17th century Iranian political economy, and the degree to which Dutch and English East India Company officials contested one another over access to staple commodities (namely silk). Most important, however, was the ability to access the Safavid royal household, and enter into direct negotiation..

« Shared Affinities: ḥoseynīyes and emāmbāres », in : Michele Bernardini, Masashi Haneda and Maria Szuppe, eds., Eurasian Studies [Liber Amicorum : Études sur l’Iran médiéval et moderne offertes à Jean Calmard]. Vol. V/1-2, 2006, pp. 69-78.

This short article examines how popular Shi‘ite piety was practised in specific edifices and buildings in pre-modern Iran and India. Ḥusayn’s martyrdom at Karbalā in 680 has undoubtedly dominated popular Shi‘ite piety, and not surprisingly there has been an emergence of scripted and staged commemorations of this event in majority-Shi‘ite communities. In the Iranian context, Chelkowski focuses on the development of the “super dome” ‘Takiye-ye Dowlat’ built by Naṣīr al-Dīn Šāh in late 19th cent..

« Between Arabs, Turks and Iranians: The Town of Basra, 1600-1700 ». Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 69/1, 2006, pp. 53-78.

As the Persian Gulf became increasingly important in 17th century global trade dynamics, the city of Basra assumed a comparable geopolitical significance as an entrepôt linking the Persian Gulf with the Tigris-Euphrates river complex, the Hijaz, and the southern reaches of the Iranian Plateau. Moreover, this region was host to a number of local elite constituencies who vacillated between the two dominant, centralizing empires of west Asia: the Ottoman and Safavid empires. Rudi Matthee’s state..