We investigate, using mean-field theory and simulation, the effect of asymmetry on the critical behavior and probability density of Bak–Sneppen models. Two kinds of anisotropy are investigated: (i) different numbers of sites to the left and right of the central (minimum) site are updated and...

This paper presents an improved extremal optimization (IEO) algorithm for solving the asymmetric traveling salesman problem (ATSP). At each update step, the IEO algorithm proceeds through two main steps: extremal dynamics and cooperative optimization. As an improvement of extremal optimization...