The relevant literature showed that many heuristic techniques have been investigated for constrained portfolio optimization problem but none of these studies presents multi-objective Scatter Search approach. In this work, we present a hybrid multi-objective population-based evolutionary algorithm based on Scatter Search with an external archive to solve the constrained portfolio selection probl...

We introduce a new multiobjective evolutionary algorithm called PESA (the Pareto Envelope-based Selection Algorithm), in which selection and diversity maintenance are controlled via a simple hyper-grid based scheme. PESA's selection method is relatively unusual in comparison with current well known multiobjective evolutionary algorithms, which tend to use counts based on the degree to which sol...

Male genital tract obstructions may result from infections, previous inguinal and scrotal surgery (vasectomy) and congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD). Microsurgery can sometimes be successful in treating the obstruction. In other cases and in cases of failed surgical intervention, the patient can be treated by microsurgical or percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (MESA,...

The management of (dis)stress is an important factor for a long and healthy life. Yet, stress affects people differently and everyone manages stress in different ways. In this paper we introduce PeSA, the Personality-enabled Stress Assistant, an agent-based application that accounts for this individualism. PeSA merges several agent techniques: Reinforcement learning is used to learn about prefe...

transfer service, exploded onto the scene in 2007. In just three years, it has attracted over 9.5 million customers, in a country with only 8.4 million bank accounts. Every month, more than US$320 million flows through M-PESA in person-to-person transfers, and the numbers keep rising. By nearly all accounts, M-PESA has been an admirable success and has expanded access to basic financial service...

OBJECTIVES Evaluation of the presence of spermatozoa in vas deferens fluid after a long interval of unilateral and homolateral percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (PESA) in vasectomized men. When found, the spermatozoa were evaluated including concentration and motility, in order to verify the patency of the epididymal tubules. MATERIALS AND METHODS Four patients, numbered in a progressi...

Abstract Amino acid (AA) was used as a green grafting agent to functionalize polyepoxysuccinic (PESA), and three AA-modified PESA (AA-PESA) CaCO3 scale inhibitors were obtained change the structural singleness of further improve its comprehensive properties. The structures AA-PESA characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy nuclear magnetic resonance hydrogen (1HNMR) spectro...

INTRODUCTION Congenital bilateral absence of vas deferens (CBAVD) is a non-treatable cause of obstructive azoospermia (OA). However, the affected men can father children by undergoing sperm retrieval (SR) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). MATERIALS AND METHODS This video describes percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (PESA), performed on a 36 year--old male with CBAVD. In PESA ...