Genetic Algorithm in Stability of Non-Homogeneous Slopes
In recent years, genetic algorithm search procedure has been used to locate the critical slip surface of homogeneous slopes. It has been found that genetic algorithm is a robust search technique which often gives global solution. In the present study, genetic algorithm has been used to locate the critical slip surface of non-homogeneous slope in conjunction with slope stability analysis method developed by Janbu (1973) for generalized slip surface. The results obtained from the present study have been compared with those available in the literature [Greco (1996) and Zolfaghari et al. (2005)]. The effect of various genetic algorithm parameters (population size, number of generations, crossover probability and mutation probability) on the solution has been studied. It has been found from the results that Janbu's method (1973) of stability analysis along with genetic algorithm as search procedure gives a better solution in terms of getting minimum factor of safety, compared to other methods.
Genetic Algorithms in Searching the Critical Slip Surface
Evaluation of stability is essential prior to any construction involving natural or man-made slopes. Various methods are available to evaluate the stability of slopes. However, the limits equilibrium method has been used over the years because of its simplicity and reasonable accuracy. The limit equilibrium method consists of following two steps : (1) the formulation of objective function (expression for factor of safety which is a measure of stability of a particular trial slip surface), and (2) a search technique which finds the critical slip surface corresponding to the minimum factor of safety. 
A considerable research was carried out in the past to develop the expression for factor of safety for different shapes of slip surface. They are surveyed and described in several text books of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (e.g. Huang, 1983; Fang, 1997). Several traditional search techniques, such as calculus of variation (Baker and Garber, 1977; Castillo and Revilla, 1977, Ramamurthy et al. 1977) , linear programming (Martin, 1982), dynamic programming (Baker, 1980), simplex method (Nguyen, 1985) and sequential unconstrained minimization techniques (Bhowmik and Basudhar, 1989) are used by various investigators to locate the critical slip surface. The above search techniques are applied to locate the critical slip surface of both circular and noncircular shapes. Even though , some of the above methods are successfully applied to locate the critical slip surface, they do not guarantee the global minimum, often, the solution is starting point dependent, converging to local minimum and requires large number of function evaluations.
Insertion Loss Design of Symmetrical Lattice Piezoelectric Resonator Filters with Symmetrical or Unsymmetrical Pass Bands
The problem of designing symmetrical lattice filters whose arms consist of a number of piezoelectric resonators plus a broad-banding inductor is solved. The solution proceeds from a statement of the low-pass prototype transmission function which must be of the form \frac {1} {1+(P/Q)^2} where P and Q are polynomials in frequency which are neither even or odd. Although this low-pass prototype is not realizable in terms of resistors, inductors and capacitors, it is realizable if an additional element, a constant reactance, is introduced. The low-pass filter is transformed to a band-pass filter realizable with piezoelectric resonators by the use of low-pass to band-pass transformations together with O'Meara's transformation. Examples are given.