Evolutionary computation, offers practical advantages to the researcher facing difficult optimization problems. These advantages are multi-fold, including the simplicity of the approach, its robust response to changing circumstance, its flexibility, and many other facets. The evolutionary approach can be applied to problems where heuristic solutions are not available or generally lead to unsatisfactory results. As a result, evolutionary computation have received increased interest, particularly with regards to the manner in which they may be applied for practical problem solving. In this chapter, we review the development of the field of evolutionary computations from standard genetic algorithms to genetic programming, passing by evolution strategies and evolutionary programming. For each of these orientations, we identify the main differences from the others. We also, describe the most popular variants of genetic programming. These include linear genetic programming (LGP), gene expression programming (GEP), multi-expresson

The method of finding a sequence of characters, called the pattern, in another much longer sequence of characters, called the text, is known as pattern matching. Several patternmatching algorithms exist, that locate all the positions where a pattern occurs in a text. In this paper we have presented an algorithm which implements a divide and conquer technique, which divides the text in smaller independent sub-texts and then looks for the existence of the pattern in each such subtext. The said divide and conquer method thus eventually finds all the occurrences of the pattern in the given text. The points of division have been chosen using a genetic algorithm.

Quinolones are widely used, broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents. In screens for genes that, when overexpressed, allow Escherichia coli to grow on otherwise lethal concentrations of the fluoroquinolone norfloxacin, the ydhE gene was identified. We have shown that ydhE encodes a multidrug efflux pump with a narrower substrate range than that of its closest homologue, encoded by norM, and named the gene norE. The relative contributions to drug resistance of NorE compared with the two other known E. coli quinolone pumps, AcrAB and MdfA, have been defined. Overexpression of each of the three pumps separately resulted in roughly similar levels of quinolone resistance, whereas simultaneous overexpression of norE or mdfA in combination with acrAB gave synergic increases in quinolone resistance. The level of quinolone resistance mediated by efflux pumps seems to be constrained to an ∼10-fold maximum, even with increased production of the pumps. We measured the drug resistance of an isogenic set of strains con-taining the various permutations of single, double and triple drug efflux pump mutants. The ∆norE and ∆mdfA mutants were somewhat more susceptible to fluoroquinolones than the parent strain, and acrAB mutants were four- to six-fold more susceptible. Mutants lacking two or

for two tumour suppressor loci on chromosomal bands 1p35-36 involved in neuroblastoma: one probably imprinted, another associated with N-myc amplification