We show that the Schreier sets $S_{\alpha }(\alpha <{\omega }_1)$ have the following dichotomy property. For every hereditary collection ℱ of finite subsets of ℱ, either there exists infinite $M={\left(m_i\right)}_{i=1}^{\infty }\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ such that $S_{\alpha }\left(M\right)=m_i:i\in E:E\in S_{\alpha }\subseteq ℱ$, or there exist infinite $M={\left(m_i\right)}_{i=1}^{\infty },N\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ such that $ℱ\left[N\right]\left(M\right)=m_i:i\in F:F\in ℱandF\subset N\subseteq S_{\alpha }$.

Applying results of the infinitary Ramsey theory, namely the dichotomy principle of Galvin-Prikry, we show that for every sequence ${\left({\alpha }_j\right)}_{j=1}^{\infty }$ of scalars, there exists a subsequence ${\left({\alpha }_{k_j}\right)}_{j=1}^{\infty }$ such that either every subsequence of ${\left({\alpha }_{k_j}\right)}_{j=1}^{\infty }$ defines a universal series, or no subsequence of ${\left({\alpha }_{k_j}\right)}_{j=1}^{\infty }$ defines a universal series. In particular examples we decide which of the two cases holds.

Lovász gave a short proof of Brooks’ theorem by coloring greedily in a good order. We give a different short proof by reducing to the cubic case.

We give an alternative proof of W. T. Gowers' theorem on block bases by reducing it to a discrete analogue on specific countable nets. We also give a Ramsey type result on k-tuples of block sequences in a normed linear space with a Schauder basis.

We propose a new linkage learning genetic algorithm called the Factor Graph based Genetic Algorithm (FGGA). In the FGGA, a factor graph is used to encode the underlying dependencies between variables of the problem. In order to learn the factor graph from a population of potential solutions, a symmetric non-negative matrix factorization is employed to factorize the matrix of pair-wise dependencies. To show the performance of the FGGA, encouraging experimental results on different separable problems...

Using the Kramer-Mesner method, $4$-$(26,6,\lambda )$ designs with $PSL(2,25)$ as a group of automorphisms and with $\lambda$ in the set $\{30,51,60,81,90,111\}$ are constructed. The search uses specific partitioning of columns of the orbit incidence matrix, related to so-called “quasi-designs”. Actions of groups $PSL(2,25)$, $PGL(2,25)$ and twisted $PGL(2,25)$ are being compared. It is shown that there exist $4$-$(26,6,\lambda )$ designs with $PGL(2,25)$, respectively twisted $PGL(2,25)$ as a group of automorphisms and with $\lambda$ in the set $\{51,60,81,90,111\}$. With $\lambda$ in the set $\{60,81\}$, there exist designs which possess all three considered groups...