La interpretacion consecutiva: metodologia y tecnicas (Consecutive Interpretation: Methodology and Techniques).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drallny, Ines

1987-01-01

Describes the purpose and appropriate methodology for various levels of interpreter training, for both consecutive and simultaneous interpretation. The importance of relating the intent of the text to the explicit language forms through which that intent is realized is discussed, and appropriate criteria for evaluation of student interpreters are…

Relaciones Culturales de Mexico: Convenios de Intercambio Cultural y Asistencia Tecnica (Mexican Cultural Relations: Cultural Exchange and Technical Assistance Agreements).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

n10 p43-83, 1971

1971-01-01

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1500 words) describing briefly Mexico's cultural relations with 23 nations with which she has cultural exchange agreements. The reasons for cultural exchange are stated, such as the belief that cultural relations promote good relations among nations. The agreements concluded between…

Low energy supergravity: R-parity breaking and the top quark mass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carena, Marcela S.; Wagner, Carlos E. M.

1987-03-01

We study the process of spontaneous R-parity breaking in minimal low energy supergravity models. We show that it is very hard to obtain models with heavy top quarks if one wants to preserve the radiative breaking of SU(2)L⊗U(1)Y without breaking R-parity. Fellow of Consejo National de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas.

"Design for All in the Context of the Information Society": Integration of a Specialist Course in a Generalist M.Sc. Program in Electrical and Electronics Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Godino-Llorente, J. I.; Fraile, R.; Gonzalez de Sande, J. C.; Osma-Ruiz, V.; Saenz-Lechon, N.

2012-01-01

This paper describes an educational research experience that took place in the Electrical & Electronics Engineering Master's program offered at the Escuela Universitaria de Ingenieria Tecnica de Telecomunicacion, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. The focus is to provide details of the motivation behind and the design and…

Three Dimensional Modeling of Breaking

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-09-30

Three Dimensional Modeling of Breaking Robert A. Dalrymple Dept of Civil Engineering The Johns Hopkins University 3400 North Charles Street...University,Dept of Civil Engineering,3400 North Charles Street,Baltimore,MD,21218 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING...R.A. Dalrymple, A.J.C. Crespo, and D. Cerquiero, "Uso de la Tecnica SPH para el Estudio de la Interaccion entre Olas y Estructuras," Ingenieria del

Terminology of Technical and Vocational Education. Revised Edition = Terminologie de l'Enseignement Technique et Professionnel. Edition Revisee = Terminologia de la Ensenanza Tecnica y Profesional. Edicion Revisada.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

International Bureau of Education, Paris (France).

This five-language glossary of vocational-technical terms is intended to serve a dual purpose: (1) to establish a generally acceptable international terminology in five of the working languages of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco)--Arabic, English, French, Russian, and Spanish--in order to facilitate…

Piscicultura. Productor Comercial de Peces. Guia Tecnica. Documento de trabajo, Programa de Educacion Agricola (Fish Farming. Commercial Fish Producer. Technical Guide. Curriculum Document, Agriculture Education Program).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puerto Rico State Dept. of Education, Hato Rey. Area for Vocational and Technical Education.

This curriculum guide begins with an introduction, course description, and description of the occupation of commercial fish farmer. A course outline covers five units: starting a business, establishing the fish farm, managing the enterprise, harvesting the fish, and administering the business. For each unit, the following are provided: terminal…

On the Existence of a Free Boundary for a Class of Reaction-Diffusion Systems.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-02-01

I. Diaz. "Soluciones con soporte compacto para alguno. problemas semilineales". Collect. Math. 30 (1979), 141-179. -26- [121 J. I. Diaz. Tecnica de ...supersoluciones locales para problemas estacionarios no lineales: applicacion al estudio de flujoe subsonicos. Memory of the Real Academia de Ciencias...nonlinearity, nonlinear boundary conditions, dead core set, chemical reactions Work Unit Number I - Applied Analysis (1) Seccion de Matematicas

Present Status of Physics Research in Spain: Some Impressionistic Remarks,

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-03-08

Asesora de eration and Development (OECD) publica- Investigacion Cientffica y Tecnica tion, "Science and Technology Indica- (CAICYT), which is an...interministerial tors: Resources Devoted to R&D" (Paris, body closely tied to the Direcion Gener- 1984), places Spain in the category of al de Politica...does not itself gious university departments. " ... facilitate the establishment of de - Another important figure to remem- sirable science policy

Relationship of Estuarine Plant Contaminants to Existing Data Bases

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-02-01

shipyards. 3) Mouriscas - located near the old tidal-mill of Quinta das Mouriscas, a few Km west of the Aguas de Moura channel. The fine sediments...globulus) from natural (mean values) and industrialized areas (maximum values) in the Chile coast. (Gonzilez & Bergqvist, 1986). NATURAL HEAVILY...Sector del Secano Costero de Ia V Re- gion. Agricultura Tecnica ( Chile ), 46: 299-306. HARDIMAN, R.T., Banin, A. & Jacoby, B. (1984). The Effect of Soil

Aplicacion de nuevas tecnicas y procedimientos para la ensenanza de la lectura-escritura (Application of the New Techniques and Procedures for Teaching Reading-Writing).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Instituto Nacional de Pedagogia (Mexico).

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of experiments performed in Mexico, D. F. by way of introducing new techniques for teaching reading and writing, particularly in the remedial classes. The first part of the document deals with a series of experiments carried out with first grade remedial groups as follows:…

Combustion and Flammability Characteristics of Solids at Microgravity in very Small Velocity Flows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sanchez-Tarifa, C.; Rodriguez, M.

1999-01-01

Fires still remain as one of the most important safety risks in manned spacecraft. This problem will become even more important in long endurance non orbital flights in which maintenance will be non existing or very difficult. The basic process of a fire is the combustion of a solid at microgravity conditions in O2/N2 mixtures. Although a large number of research programs have been carried out on this problem, especially on flame spreading, several aspects of these processes are not yet well understood. It may be mentioned, for example, the temperature and characteristic of low emissivity flames in the visual range that take place in some conditions at microgravity; and there exists a lack of knowledge on the influence of key parameters, such as convective flow velocities of the order of magnitude of typical oxygen diffusion velocities. The "Departamento de Motopropulsion y Termofluidodinamica" of the "Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronauticos" is conducting a research program on the combustion of solids at reduced gravity conditions within O2/N2 mixtures. The material utilized has been polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) in the form of rectangular slabs and hollow cylinders. The main parameters of the process have been small convective flow velocities (including velocity angle with the direction of the spreading flame) and oxygen concentration. Some results have also been obtained on the influence of material thickness and gas pressure.

Modelizacion, control e implementacion de un procesador energetico paralelo para aplicacion en sistemas multisalida

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferreres Sabater, Agustin

Cualquier sistema electronico que incluya un procesado o tratamiento de la senal, y ademas, algun tipo de actuador mecanico generalmente necesita, como minimo, dos tensiones diferentes de alimentacion. Excluyendo los sistemas de alimentacion distribuida, la solucion tecnica mas utilizada para proporcionar dos o mas tensiones consiste en las fuentes de alimentacion multisalida. En una fuente de alimentacion multisalida los diferentes circuitos que conforman cada salida comparten un mismo transformador de potencia optimizando coste, masa, y volumen. Las ventajas obtenidas con este procedimiento tienen en su contra el efecto que sobre cada salida individual provocan las demas en su conjunto debido, principalmente, a los efectos de los elementos parasitos de los componentes. Un cambio de carga en una de las salidas produce un transitorio que es visto por todas las demas como un efecto de impedancia cruzada, y al final del transitorio, la tension de cada salida es diferente respecto a la que tenian antes del transitorio. Este ultimo resultado se conoce como regulacion cruzada. La disminucion de los efectos de la regulacion cruzada ha sido objeto de estudio durante los ultimos anos. El objetivo ha sido el desarrollo de distintas estrategias que permiten, desde disminuir los efectos de la regulacion cruzada hasta los niveles deseables, a eliminarla completamente. El resultado final suele suponer una penalizacion sobre el diseno del sistema directamente proporcional al grado de regulacion a conseguir en las distintas salidas. Entre las soluciones propuestas para eliminar la regulacion cruzada las tecnicas de post-regulacion se han consolidado como la opcion mas aceptada ya que, pueden aplicarse a cualquier convertidor y no suponen ninguna complejidad adicional a la hora de plantear el diseno. En esta Tesis Doctoral se abordara el estudio de la tecnica conocida como postregulacion mediante transformador controlado, que si bien se ha empleado en convertidores resonantes, su modelizacion, y aplicacion en convertidores PWM, esta aun por estudiar y valorar. El primer Capitulo consiste en una breve introduccion al problema de la regulacion cruzada y la impedancia cruzada para posteriormente describir las tecnicas de post-regulacion actualmente mas empleadas, con especial atencion al post-regulador con transformador controlado. El Capitulo segundo trata del estudio de las caracteristicas estaticas del postregulador con transformador controlado. Partiendo de los estudios disponibles sobre el postregulador se plantean mejoras en su modo de actuacion y se discuten tres alternativas diferentes para controlar el transformador. Las dos primeras consisten en emplear un convertidor auxiliar Boost en sus dos modos de funcionamiento, continuo y discontinuo. La tercera consiste en controlar el transformador con una tension PWM directamente, sin filtrado. Finalmente se comprueba experimentalmente, para el estado estacionario, el funcionamiento del post-regulador para cada uno de los tres metodos de control. El Capitulo tercero trata de la dinamica de la salida controlada con el post-regulador cuando este emplea un convertidor auxiliar tipo Boost. Mediante la tecnica de promediado de variables de estado se propone el modelo de pequena senal, tanto para el modo continuo como para el modo discontinuo de funcionamiento del convertidor auxiliar. Los resultados mas significativos de esta seccion son las expresiones analiticas de las impedancias cruzadas y de la impedancia de la salida post-regulada. Como complemento al modelo de pequena senal se plantea un modelo de gran senal implementado sobre el simulador Pspice. Con este nuevo modelo se reproducen los resultados obtenidos con el modelo de pequena senal y ademas es posible simular los transitorios en las tensiones de salida ante cambios de carga. La modelizacion del convertidor cuando el transformador se controla con una tension PWM sin filtrar es el objetivo del Capitulo 4. En las secciones siguientes del Capitulo se plantea el correspondiente modelo de gran senal aplicado a un nuevo prototipo experimental, de mayor tension de entrada y mayores corrientes de salida. El final del Capitulo contrasta los resultados experimentales con los teoricos confirmando la utilidad del modelo de gran senal como una herramienta basica de diseno. Finalmente, en el Capitulo 5, se presentan las conclusiones y la valoracion de los diferentes estudios plateados a lo largo de la Tesis Doctoral.

Thin films for gas sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pires, Jose Miguel Alves Correia

Nos ultimos anos tem-se assistido a um aumento dos investimentos na investigacao de novos materiais para aplicacao em sensores. Apesar de ja existir um bom numero de dispositivos explorados comercialmente, muitas vezes, quer devido aos elevados custos de producao, quer devido a uma crescente exigencia do ponto de vista das caracteristicas de funcionamento, continua a ser necessario procurar novos materiais ou novas formas de producao que permitam baixar os custos e melhorar o desempenho dos dispositivos. No campo dos sensores de gases tem-se verificado continuos avancos nos ultimos anos. Continua todavia a ser necessario conhecer melhor, tanto os processos de producao dos materiais, como os mecanismos que regulam a sensibilidade dos dispositivos aos gases, de modo a orientar adequadamente a investigacao dos novos materiais, nomeadamente no que se refere a optimizacao dos parâmetros que nao satisfazem ainda os requisitos do mercado. Um dos materiais que tem mostrado melhores qualidades para aplicacao em sensores de gases de tipo resistivo e o dioxido de estanho. Este material tem sido produzido sob diversas formas e usando diferentes tecnicas, como sejam: sol-gel [1], pulverizacao catodica (sputtering) por magnetrao [2-4], sinterizacao de pos [5, 6], ablacao laser [7] ou RGTO [8]. Os resultados obtidos revelam que as caracteristicas dos dispositivos sao muito dependentes das tecnicas usadas na sua producao. A deposicao usando sputtering reactivo por magnetrao e uma tecnica que permite obter filmes finos de oxido de estanho com diferentes caracteristicas, quer do ponto de vista da estrutura, quer da composicao, e por isso, tambem, com diferentes sensibilidades aos gases. No âmbito deste trabalho, foram produzidos filmes de SnO2 usando sputtering DC reactivo com diferentes condicoes de deposicao. Os substratos usados foram lâminas de vidro e o alvo foi estanho com 99.9% de pureza. Foi estudada a influencia da atmosfera de deposicao, da pressao parcial do O2, da temperatura do substrato e da potencia da descarga na estrutura do material depositado. Durante a deposicao, alem dos parâmetros ja referidos, foram tambem registados a pressao de base antes da entrada dos gases de sputtering, os fluxos de oxigenio e argon durante a deposicao, a distância alvo-substrato, o tempo de deposicao, a corrente e a tensao aplicadas ao magnetrao. Foram feitas algumas experiencias usando uma fonte RF, para comparacao. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

Phase Transitions in Planning Problems: Design and Analysis of Parameterized Families of Hard Planning Problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hen, Itay; Rieffel, Eleanor G.; Do, Minh; Venturelli, Davide

2014-01-01

There are two common ways to evaluate algorithms: performance on benchmark problems derived from real applications and analysis of performance on parametrized families of problems. The two approaches complement each other, each having its advantages and disadvantages. The planning community has concentrated on the first approach, with few ways of generating parametrized families of hard problems known prior to this work. Our group's main interest is in comparing approaches to solving planning problems using a novel type of computational device - a quantum annealer - to existing state-of-the-art planning algorithms. Because only small-scale quantum annealers are available, we must compare on small problem sizes. Small problems are primarily useful for comparison only if they are instances of parametrized families of problems for which scaling analysis can be done. In this technical report, we discuss our approach to the generation of hard planning problems from classes of well-studied NP-complete problems that map naturally to planning problems or to aspects of planning problems that many practical planning problems share. These problem classes exhibit a phase transition between easy-to-solve and easy-to-show-unsolvable planning problems. The parametrized families of hard planning problems lie at the phase transition. The exponential scaling of hardness with problem size is apparent in these families even at very small problem sizes, thus enabling us to characterize even very small problems as hard. The families we developed will prove generally useful to the planning community in analyzing the performance of planning algorithms, providing a complementary approach to existing evaluation methods. We illustrate the hardness of these problems and their scaling with results on four state-of-the-art planners, observing significant differences between these planners on these problem families. Finally, we describe two general, and quite different, mappings of planning problems to QUBOs, the form of input required for a quantum annealing machine such as the D-Wave II.

Defects and Materials Characterization by Analysis of Ultrasonic Signals. Study of a Technique to Measure Ultrasonic Attenuation

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-05-01

los M todos de Ensayos No Destructivos de Control de la Calidad de los Materiales ". Editado por Instituto Nacional de T6cnica AeroespaciaL...STUDY OF A TECH!4IUE TO MEASURE ULTRASONIC ATTENUATION. Carlos Valdecantos; Jos6 Miguel instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA) Torrej6n de ...FORCE OFFICE OF SCIETIFIC RESEARCH Bolling AFB, D.C. 20332 ,: and EUJROPEAN OFFICE OF AEROSPACE .RESEARCH AND ,EZr--’. EN , London, England. 2

Shock Front Distortion and Richtmyer-Meshkov-like Growth Caused by a Small Pre-Shock Non-Uniformity

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

Washington, DC 20375, USA 2 Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales , Universidad de Castilla-la Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain...the right of all the singularities of sP ~ . For ideal gases , as is the case in this work, the right-hand sides of Eqs. (43) and (46) do not have...3957 (1980); M. A. Tsikulin, E. G. Popov, Radiative Properties of Shock Waves in Gases (in Russian) (Moscow, Nauka, 1977). 13 J. Grun, R. Burris, G

Prospective Model and Its Methodology of Supplies for the Repair and Maintenance of the Venezuelan Naval Ships to the Third Level.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-06-01

coastal zone where the entry into Lake Maracaibo is located, as well as Amuay, Punta Cardon, Aruba and Curazao. The mideastern coastal zone is Puerto La ...6 1131. LIST OF REFERENCES 1. Ander-Egg, EzequielI Introduccion a las Tecnicas de Investigacion Social, bditorial liermanitas, Huenos Aires...Francisco, "El control integralo de gestion." Editorial Qunitana Madrid, March 1975. 4. Conceptos Basicos, Ministerio de la Defensa l.A. Diques y

US-Latin American Workshop on Molecular and Materials Sciences: Theoretical and Computational Aspects Held at the University of Florida, Gainesville, on February 8-10, 1994

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-08-09

Observables During a Collision Inst. de Fisica , Cuernavaca, Mexico Ruben D. Santiago Acosta An Algebraic Model for 3-dimensional Atom-Diatom Inst C...STRUCTURES. MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATION M. C .Donnamaria and J. R. Grigera Instituto de Fisica de Liquidos y Sistemas Biologicos (IFLYSIB),CONICET...Crybiology, 1981, 18, 631. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work has been partially funded by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET) of

A continuum of sociotechnical requirements for patient-centered problem lists.

PubMed

Collins, Sarah; Tsivkin, Kira; Hongsermeier, Tonya; Dubois, David; Nandigam, Hari Krishna; Rocha, Roberto A

2013-01-01

Specific requirements for patient-centered health information technology remain ill-defined. To create operational definitions of patient-centered problem lists, we propose a continuum of sociotechnical requirements with five stages: 1) Intradisciplinary Care Planning: Viewing and searching for problems by discipline; 2) Multi-disciplinary Care Planning: Categorizing problem states to meet discipline-specific needs; 3) Interdisciplinary Care Planning: Sharing and linking problems between disciplines; 4) Integrated and Coordinated Care Planning: Associating problems with assessments, tasks, interventions and outcomes across disciplines for coordination, knowledge development, and reporting; and 5) Patient-Centered Care Planning: Engaging patients in identification of problems and maintenance of their problem list.

Immediate and Sustained Effects of Planning in a Problem-Solving Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delaney, Peter F.; Ericsson, K. Anders; Knowles, Martin E.

2004-01-01

In 4 experiments, instructions to plan a task (water jugs) that normally produces little planning altered how participants solved the problems and resulted in enhanced learning and memory. Experiment 1 identified planning strategies that allowed participants to plan full solutions to water jugs problems. Experiment 2 showed that experience with…

A case study in programming a quantum annealer for hard operational planning problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rieffel, Eleanor G.; Venturelli, Davide; O'Gorman, Bryan; Do, Minh B.; Prystay, Elicia M.; Smelyanskiy, Vadim N.

2015-01-01

We report on a case study in programming an early quantum annealer to attack optimization problems related to operational planning. While a number of studies have looked at the performance of quantum annealers on problems native to their architecture, and others have examined performance of select problems stemming from an application area, ours is one of the first studies of a quantum annealer's performance on parametrized families of hard problems from a practical domain. We explore two different general mappings of planning problems to quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problems, and apply them to two parametrized families of planning problems, navigation-type and scheduling-type. We also examine two more compact, but problem-type specific, mappings to QUBO, one for the navigation-type planning problems and one for the scheduling-type planning problems. We study embedding properties and parameter setting and examine their effect on the efficiency with which the quantum annealer solves these problems. From these results, we derive insights useful for the programming and design of future quantum annealers: problem choice, the mapping used, the properties of the embedding, and the annealing profile all matter, each significantly affecting the performance.

Radioactive source materials in Los Estados Unidos de Venezuela

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wyant, Donald G.; Sharp, William N.; Rodriguez, Carlos Ponte

1953-01-01

This report summarizes the data available on radioactive source materials in Los Estados Unidos de Venezuela accumulated by geologists of the Direccions Tecnica de Geolgia and antecedent agencies prior to June 1951, and the writers from June to November 1951. The investigation comprised preliminary study, field examination, office studies, and the preparation of this report, in which the areas and localities examined are described in detail, the uranium potentialities of Venezuela are summarized, and recommendations are made. Preliminary study was made to select areas and rock types that were known or reported to be radioactive or that geologic experience suggests would be favorable host for uranium deposits, In the office, a study of gamma-ray well logs was started as one means of amassing general radiometric data and of rapidly scanning many of ye rocks in northern Venezuela; gamma-ray logs from about 140 representative wells were examined and their peaks of gamma intensity evaluated; in addition samples were analyzed radiometrically, and petrographically. Radiometic reconnaissance was made in the field during about 3 months of 1951, or about 12 areas, including over 100 localities in the State of Miranda, Carabobo, Yaracuy, Falcon, Lara, Trujillo, Zulia, Merida, Tachira, Bolivar, and Territory Delta Amacuro. During the course of the investigation, both in the filed and office, information was given about geology of uranium deposits, and in techniques used in prospecting and analysis. All studies and this report are designed to supplement and to strengthen the Direccion Tecnica de Geologias's program of investigation of radioactive source in Venezuela now in progress. The uranium potentialities of Los Estados de Venezuela are excellent for large, low-grade deposits of uraniferous phospahtic shales containing from 0.002 to 0.027 percent uranium; fair, for small or moderate-sized, low-grade placer deposits of thorium, rare-earth, and uranium minerals; poor, for high-grade hydrothermal pitchblende deposits; and highly possible for small, medium- to high-grade despots of carnotite-or copper-uranium bearing sandstone. Recommendations for the Venezuelan uranium program include 1) the systematic collection of a mass general radiometric data by examining sample collections, expanding the gamma-ray program, encouraging the use of Geiger counter by field geologists, and by enlisting the aid of the general public; 2) , the examination of specific areas or localities, chosen on the basis of geologic favorability from the results of the amassing of data, or obtained by hints and rumors; 3), the organization of a unit within the Direccion Tecnica de Geologica to direct, collection, and collate metric data. It is emphasized that to be most fruitful the program requires the application of sounds and imaginative geologic theory.

UAV path planning using artificial potential field method updated by optimal control theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yong-bo; Luo, Guan-chen; Mei, Yue-song; Yu, Jian-qiao; Su, Xiao-long

2016-04-01

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) path planning problem is an important assignment in the UAV mission planning. Based on the artificial potential field (APF) UAV path planning method, it is reconstructed into the constrained optimisation problem by introducing an additional control force. The constrained optimisation problem is translated into the unconstrained optimisation problem with the help of slack variables in this paper. The functional optimisation method is applied to reform this problem into an optimal control problem. The whole transformation process is deduced in detail, based on a discrete UAV dynamic model. Then, the path planning problem is solved with the help of the optimal control method. The path following process based on the six degrees of freedom simulation model of the quadrotor helicopters is introduced to verify the practicability of this method. Finally, the simulation results show that the improved method is more effective in planning path. In the planning space, the length of the calculated path is shorter and smoother than that using traditional APF method. In addition, the improved method can solve the dead point problem effectively.

Network planning under uncertainties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, Kwok Shing; Cheung, Kwok Wai

2008-11-01

One of the main focuses for network planning is on the optimization of network resources required to build a network under certain traffic demand projection. Traditionally, the inputs to this type of network planning problems are treated as deterministic. In reality, the varying traffic requirements and fluctuations in network resources can cause uncertainties in the decision models. The failure to include the uncertainties in the network design process can severely affect the feasibility and economics of the network. Therefore, it is essential to find a solution that can be insensitive to the uncertain conditions during the network planning process. As early as in the 1960's, a network planning problem with varying traffic requirements over time had been studied. Up to now, this kind of network planning problems is still being active researched, especially for the VPN network design. Another kind of network planning problems under uncertainties that has been studied actively in the past decade addresses the fluctuations in network resources. One such hotly pursued research topic is survivable network planning. It considers the design of a network under uncertainties brought by the fluctuations in topology to meet the requirement that the network remains intact up to a certain number of faults occurring anywhere in the network. Recently, the authors proposed a new planning methodology called Generalized Survivable Network that tackles the network design problem under both varying traffic requirements and fluctuations of topology. Although all the above network planning problems handle various kinds of uncertainties, it is hard to find a generic framework under more general uncertainty conditions that allows a more systematic way to solve the problems. With a unified framework, the seemingly diverse models and algorithms can be intimately related and possibly more insights and improvements can be brought out for solving the problem. This motivates us to seek a generic framework for solving the network planning problem under uncertainties. In addition to reviewing the various network planning problems involving uncertainties, we also propose that a unified framework based on robust optimization can be used to solve a rather large segment of network planning problem under uncertainties. Robust optimization is first introduced in the operations research literature and is a framework that incorporates information about the uncertainty sets for the parameters in the optimization model. Even though robust optimization is originated from tackling the uncertainty in the optimization process, it can serve as a comprehensive and suitable framework for tackling generic network planning problems under uncertainties. In this paper, we begin by explaining the main ideas behind the robust optimization approach. Then we demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed framework by giving out some examples of how the robust optimization framework can be applied to the current common network planning problems under uncertain environments. Next, we list some practical considerations for solving the network planning problem under uncertainties with the proposed framework. Finally, we conclude this article with some thoughts on the future directions for applying this framework to solve other network planning problems.

Compiling Planning into Scheduling: A Sketch

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bedrax-Weiss, Tania; Crawford, James M.; Smith, David E.

2004-01-01

Although there are many approaches for compiling a planning problem into a static CSP or a scheduling problem, current approaches essentially preserve the structure of the planning problem in the encoding. In this pape: we present a fundamentally different encoding that more accurately resembles a scheduling problem. We sketch the approach and argue, based on an example, that it is possible to automate the generation of such an encoding for problems with certain properties and thus produce a compiler of planning into scheduling problems. Furthermore we argue that many NASA problems exhibit these properties and that such a compiler would provide benefits to both theory and practice.

Case mix planning in hospitals: a review and future agenda.

PubMed

Hof, Sebastian; Fügener, Andreas; Schoenfelder, Jan; Brunner, Jens O

2017-06-01

The case mix planning problem deals with choosing the ideal composition and volume of patients in a hospital. With many countries having recently changed to systems where hospitals are reimbursed for patients according to their diagnosis, case mix planning has become an important tool in strategic and tactical hospital planning. Selecting patients in such a payment system can have a significant impact on a hospital's revenue. The contribution of this article is to provide the first literature review focusing on the case mix planning problem. We describe the problem, distinguish it from similar planning problems, and evaluate the existing literature with regard to problem structure and managerial impact. Further, we identify gaps in the literature. We hope to foster research in the field of case mix planning, which only lately has received growing attention despite its fundamental economic impact on hospitals.

Problem identification for Virginia's highway safety plan.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1982-01-01

Problem identification is recognized as an important component of highway safety planning. Under the NHTSA/FHWA concept, problem identification is the first step in program planning and in the development of effective countermeasure programs. The ann...

Bridging the Gap Between Planning and Scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, David E.; Frank, Jeremy; Jonsson, Ari K.; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Planning research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has often focused on problems where there are cascading levels of action choice and complex interactions between actions. In contrast. Scheduling research has focused on much larger problems where there is little action choice, but the resulting ordering problem is hard. In this paper, we give an overview of M planning and scheduling techniques, focusing on their similarities, differences, and limitations. We also argue that many difficult practical problems lie somewhere between planning and scheduling, and that neither area has the right set of tools for solving these vexing problems.

Optimal rail container shipment planning problem in multimodal transportation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Chengxuan; Gao, Ziyou; Li, Keping

2012-09-01

The optimal rail container shipment planning problem in multimodal transportation is studied in this article. The characteristics of the multi-period planning problem is presented and the problem is formulated as a large-scale 0-1 integer programming model, which maximizes the total profit generated by all freight bookings accepted in a multi-period planning horizon subject to the limited capacities. Two heuristic algorithms are proposed to obtain an approximate optimal solution of the problem. Finally, numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the proposed formulation and heuristic algorithms.

Choosing Objectives in Over-Subscription Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, David E.

2003-01-01

Many NASA planning problems are over-subscription problems - that is, there are a large number of possible goals of differing value, and the planning system must choose a subset &it car! be accomplished within the limited time and resources available. Examples include planning for telescopes like Hubble, SIRTF, and SOFIA; scheduling for the Deep Space Network; and planning science experiments for a Mars rover. Unfortunately, existing planning systems are not designed to deal with problems like this - they expect a well-defined conjunctive goal and terminate in failure unless the entire goal is achieved. In this paper we develop techniques for over-subscription problems that assist a classical planner in choosing which goals to achieve, and the order in which to achieve them. These techniques use plan graph cost-estimation techniques to construct an orienteering problem, which is then used to provide heuristic advice on the goals and goal order that should considered by a planner.

25 CFR 47.10 - How is the local educational financial plan developed?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... notes any problem with the plan, he or she must: (i) Notify the local board and local supervisor of the problem within two weeks of receiving the plan; (ii) Make arrangements to assist the local school supervisor and board to correct the problem; and (iii) Refer the problem to the Director of the Office of...

45 CFR 95.610 - Submission of advance planning documents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... and implementation; (v) A commitment to conduct/prepare the problem(s) needs assessment, feasibility... statement of the problem/need that the existing capabilities can not resolve, new or changed program..., planning activities/deliverables, State and contractor resource needs, planning project procurement...

45 CFR 95.610 - Submission of advance planning documents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... and implementation; (v) A commitment to conduct/prepare the problem(s) needs assessment, feasibility... statement of the problem/need that the existing capabilities can not resolve, new or changed program..., planning activities/deliverables, State and contractor resource needs, planning project procurement...

45 CFR 95.610 - Submission of advance planning documents.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... and implementation; (v) A commitment to conduct/prepare the problem(s) needs assessment, feasibility... statement of the problem/need that the existing capabilities can not resolve, new or changed program..., planning activities/deliverables, State and contractor resource needs, planning project procurement...

Act first, think later: the presence and absence of inferential planning in problem solving.

PubMed

Ormerod, Thomas C; Macgregor, James N; Chronicle, Edward P; Dewald, Andrew D; Chu, Yun

2013-10-01

Planning is fundamental to successful problem solving, yet individuals sometimes fail to plan even one step ahead when it lies within their competence to do so. In this article, we report two experiments in which we explored variants of a ball-weighing puzzle, a problem that has only two steps, yet nonetheless yields performance consistent with a failure to plan. The results fit a computational model in which a solver's attempts are determined by two heuristics: maximization of the apparent progress made toward the problem goal and minimization of the problem space in which attempts are sought. The effectiveness of these heuristics was determined by lookahead, defined operationally as the number of steps evaluated in a planned move. Where move outcomes cannot be visualized but must be inferred, planning is constrained to the point where some individuals apply zero lookahead, which with n-ball problems yields seemingly irrational unequal weighs. Applying general-purpose heuristics with or without lookahead accounts for a range of rational and irrational phenomena found with insight and noninsight problems.

Mars MetNet Precursor Mission Status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harri, Ari-Matti; Aleksashkin, Sergey; Guerrero, Héctor; Schmidt, Walter; Genzer, Maria; Vazquez, Luis; Haukka, Harri

2013-04-01

A new kind of planetary exploration mission for Mars is being developed in collaboration between the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Lavochkin Association (LA), Space Research Institute (IKI) and Institutio Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA). The Mars MetNet mission is based on a new semi-hard landing vehicle called MetNet Lander (MNL), using an inflatable entry and descent system instead of rigid heat shields and parachutes as earlier semi-hard landing devices have used. This way the ratio of the payload mass to the overall mass is optimized. The landing impact will burrow the payload container into the Martian soil providing a more favorable thermal environment for the electronics and a suitable orientation of the telescopic boom with external sensors and the radio link antenna. It is planned to deploy several tens of MNLs on the Martian surface operating at least partly at the same time to allow meteorological network science. For the precursor mission (MMPM) intended to verify the landing concept and key technology during a real Mars mission all qualification activities are completed and the payload and system flight model components are being manufactured. The descent processes dynamic properties are monitored by a special 3-axis accelerometer combined with a 3-axis gyrometer. The data will be sent via auxiliary beacon antenna throughout the descent phase starting shortly after separation from the spacecraft. Details of the current MMPM system and payload configuration and their performance parameters will be shown.

Trimodal interpretation of constraints for planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krieger, David; Brown, Richard

1987-01-01

Constraints are used in the CAMPS knowledge based planning system to represent those propositions that must be true for a plan to be acceptable. CAMPS introduces the make-mode for interpreting a constraint. Given an unsatisfied constraint, make evaluation mode suggests planning actions which, if taken, would result in a modified plan in which the constraint in question may be satisfied. These suggested planning actions, termed delta-tuples, are the raw material of intelligent plan repair. They are used both in debugging an almost-right plan and in replanning due to changing situations. Given a defective plan in which some set of constraints are violated, a problem solving strategy selects one or more constraints as a focus of attention. These selected constraints are evaluated in the make-mode to produce delta-tuples. The problem solving strategy then reviews the delta-tuples according to its application and problem-specific criteria to find the most acceptable change in terms of success likelihood and plan disruption. Finally, the problem solving strategy makes the suggested alteration to the plan and then rechecks constraints to find any unexpected consequences.

Application of heuristic satellite plan synthesis algorithms to requirements of the WARC-88 allotment plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heyward, Ann O.; Reilly, Charles H.; Walton, Eric K.; Mata, Fernando; Olen, Carl

1990-01-01

Creation of an Allotment Plan for the Fixed Satellite Service at the 1988 Space World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) represented a complex satellite plan synthesis problem, involving a large number of planned and existing systems. Solutions to this problem at WARC-88 required the use of both automated and manual procedures to develop an acceptable set of system positions. Development of an Allotment Plan may also be attempted through solution of an optimization problem, known as the Satellite Location Problem (SLP). Three automated heuristic procedures, developed specifically to solve SLP, are presented. The heuristics are then applied to two specific WARC-88 scenarios. Solutions resulting from the fully automated heuristics are then compared with solutions obtained at WARC-88 through a combination of both automated and manual planning efforts.

Artificial Neural Network Based Mission Planning Mechanism for Spacecraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Zhaoyu; Xu, Rui; Cui, Pingyuan; Zhu, Shengying

2018-04-01

The ability to plan and react fast in dynamic space environments is central to intelligent behavior of spacecraft. For space and robotic applications, many planners have been used. But it is difficult to encode the domain knowledge and directly use existing techniques such as heuristic to improve the performance of the application systems. Therefore, regarding planning as an advanced control problem, this paper first proposes an autonomous mission planning and action selection mechanism through a multiple layer perceptron neural network approach to select actions in planning process and improve efficiency. To prove the availability and effectiveness, we use autonomous mission planning problems of the spacecraft, which is a sophisticated system with complex subsystems and constraints as an example. Simulation results have shown that artificial neural networks (ANNs) are usable for planning problems. Compared with the existing planning method in EUROPA, the mechanism using ANNs is more efficient and can guarantee stable performance. Therefore, the mechanism proposed in this paper is more suitable for planning problems of spacecraft that require real time and stability.

Incremental planning to control a blackboard-based problem solver

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Durfee, E. H.; Lesser, V. R.

1987-01-01

To control problem solving activity, a planner must resolve uncertainty about which specific long-term goals (solutions) to pursue and about which sequences of actions will best achieve those goals. A planner is described that abstracts the problem solving state to recognize possible competing and compatible solutions and to roughly predict the importance and expense of developing these solutions. With this information, the planner plans sequences of problem solving activities that most efficiently resolve its uncertainty about which of the possible solutions to work toward. The planner only details actions for the near future because the results of these actions will influence how (and whether) a plan should be pursued. As problem solving proceeds, the planner adds new details to the plan incrementally, and monitors and repairs the plan to insure it achieves its goals whenever possible. Through experiments, researchers illustrate how these new mechanisms significantly improve problem solving decisions and reduce overall computation. They briefly discuss current research directions, including how these mechanisms can improve a problem solver's real-time response and can enhance cooperation in a distributed problem solving network.

Planning and problem-solving training for patients with schizophrenia: a randomized controlled trial

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The purpose of this study was to assess whether planning and problem-solving training is more effective in improving functional capacity in patients with schizophrenia than a training program addressing basic cognitive functions. Methods Eighty-nine patients with schizophrenia were randomly assigned either to a computer assisted training of planning and problem-solving or a training of basic cognition. Outcome variables included planning and problem-solving ability as well as functional capacity, which represents a proxy measure for functional outcome. Results Planning and problem-solving training improved one measure of planning and problem-solving more strongly than basic cognition training, while two other measures of planning did not show a differential effect. Participants in both groups improved over time in functional capacity. There was no differential effect of the interventions on functional capacity. Conclusion A differential effect of targeting specific cognitive functions on functional capacity could not be established. Small differences on cognitive outcome variables indicate a potential for differential effects. This will have to be addressed in further research including longer treatment programs and other settings. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00507988 PMID:21527028

IRIS Assessment Plan for Uranium (Scoping and Problem Formulation Materials)

EPA Science Inventory

In January 2018, EPA released the IRIS Assessment Plan for Uranium (Oral Reference Dose) (Scoping and Problem Formulation Materials). An IRIS Assessment Plan (IAP) communicates to the public the plan for assessing each individual chemical and includes summary informatio...

77 FR 32183 - Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation by Transmission Owning and Operating Public Utilities

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-31

... it would not wait for systemic problems to undermine transmission planning before action is taken... that the development of transmission facilities can involve long lead times and complex problems... rather than allowing the problems in transmission planning and cost allocation to continue or to increase...

IRIS Assessment Plan for Uranium (Scoping and Problem Formulation Materials)

EPA Science Inventory

In January 2018, EPA released the IRIS Assessment Plan for Uranium (Oral Reference Dose) (Scoping and Problem Formulation Materials). An IRIS Assessment Plan , or IAP communicates to the public the plan for assessing each individual chemical and includes summary informat...

Congruence between nursing problems in nursing care plans and NANDA nursing diagnoses.

PubMed

Varsi, Cecilie; Ruland, Cornelia M

2009-01-01

This study abstracted nursing problems documented in cancer patients' nursing care plans to analyze (1) which nursing problems were documented and (2) the degree of congruence between the abstracted problems and NANDA nursing diagnoses. 236 unique nursing problems were identified and could be mapped to 32 NANDA nursing diagnoses. However, only 4.3% had a precise match with NANDA, Thirty-eight percent were classified as similar and the rest were broader, narrower or no match. Thus NANDA only partially covered problems written by nurses in the care plans for this group of patients.

Planning pitfalls

Treesearch

James H. Freeman

1977-01-01

The subject this morning is planning and the problems peculiar to planning for management on public lands. As I am sure you know, we could devote entire seminars to problems encountered in planning. However, within the scope of the program today, we have the opportunity to touch briefly on some of the more important highlights of planning with the focus on major...

Mars MetNet Precursor Mission Status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harri, A.-M.; Aleksashkin, S.; Guerrero, H.; Schmidt, W.; Genzer, M.; Vazquez, L.; Haukka, H.

2013-09-01

We are developing a new kind of planetary exploration mission for Mars in collaboration between the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Lavochkin Association (LA), Space Research Institute (IKI) and Institutio Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA). The Mars MetNet mission is based on a new semi-hard landing vehicle called MetNet Lander (MNL). The scientific payload of the Mars MetNet Precursor [1] mission is divided into three categories: Atmospheric instruments, Optical devices and Composition and structure devices. Each of the payload instruments will provide significant insights in to the Martian atmospheric behavior. The key technologies of the MetNet Lander have been qualified and the electrical qualification model (EQM) of the payload bay has been built and successfully tested.

Mars MetNet Mission Status

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harri, A.-M.; Aleksashkin, S.; Arruego, I.; Schmidt, W.; Genzer, M.; Vazquez, L.; Haukka, H.; Palin, M.; Nikkanen, T.

2015-10-01

New kind of planetary exploration mission for Mars is under development in collaboration between the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Lavochkin Association (LA), Space Research Institute (IKI) and Institutio Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA). The Mars MetNet mission is based on a new semihard landing vehicle called MetNet Lander (MNL). The scientific payload of the Mars MetNet Precursor [1] mission is divided into three categories: Atmospheric instruments, Optical devices and Composition and structure devices. Each of the payload instruments will provide significant insights in to the Martian atmospheric behavior. The key technologies of the MetNet Lander have been qualified and the electrical qualification model (EQM) of the payload bay has been built and successfully tested.

Practical Problems in Connection with the Planning and Introduction of Information Systems. Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klose, Traugott

Major reforms brought about in July 1969 at the Free University of Berlin in its organization, planning, and decision making are reviewed. Specific problems are addressed, such as plans for introducing an information system on technical data and space use, plans for an information system on personnel employed by the university, and plans for an…

An Analysis of Categorical and Quantitative Methods for Planning Under Uncertainty

PubMed Central

Langlotz, Curtis P.; Shortliffe, Edward H.

1988-01-01

Decision theory and logical reasoning are both methods for representing and solving medical decision problems. We analyze the usefulness of these two approaches to medical therapy planning by establishing a simple correspondence between decision theory and non-monotonic logic, a formalization of categorical logical reasoning. The analysis indicates that categorical approaches to planning can be viewed as comprising two decision-theoretic concepts: probabilities (degrees of belief in planning hypotheses) and utilities (degrees of desirability of planning outcomes). We present and discuss examples of the following lessons from this decision-theoretic view of categorical (nonmonotonic) reasoning: (1) Decision theory and artificial intelligence techniques are intended to solve different components of the planning problem. (2) When considered in the context of planning under uncertainty, nonmonotonic logics do not retain the domain-independent characteristics of classical logical reasoning for planning under certainty. (3) Because certain nonmonotonic programming paradigms (e.g., frame-based inheritance, rule-based planning, protocol-based reminders) are inherently problem-specific, they may be inappropriate to employ in the solution of certain types of planning problems. We discuss how these conclusions affect several current medical informatics research issues, including the construction of “very large” medical knowledge bases.

Sustainable aggregate production planning in the chemical process industry - A benchmark problem and dataset.

PubMed

Brandenburg, Marcus; Hahn, Gerd J

2018-06-01

Process industries typically involve complex manufacturing operations and thus require adequate decision support for aggregate production planning (APP). The need for powerful and efficient approaches to solve complex APP problems persists. Problem-specific solution approaches are advantageous compared to standardized approaches that are designed to provide basic decision support for a broad range of planning problems but inadequate to optimize under consideration of specific settings. This in turn calls for methods to compare different approaches regarding their computational performance and solution quality. In this paper, we present a benchmarking problem for APP in the chemical process industry. The presented problem focuses on (i) sustainable operations planning involving multiple alternative production modes/routings with specific production-related carbon emission and the social dimension of varying operating rates and (ii) integrated campaign planning with production mix/volume on the operational level. The mutual trade-offs between economic, environmental and social factors can be considered as externalized factors (production-related carbon emission and overtime working hours) as well as internalized ones (resulting costs). We provide data for all problem parameters in addition to a detailed verbal problem statement. We refer to Hahn and Brandenburg [1] for a first numerical analysis based on and for future research perspectives arising from this benchmarking problem.

Adaptable mission planning for kino-dynamic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bush, Lawrence A. M.; Jimenez, Tony R.; Williams, Brian C.

Autonomous systems can perform tasks that are dangerous, monotonous, or even impossible for humans. To approach the problem of planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) we present a hierarchical method that combines a high-level planner with a low-level planner. We pose the problem of high-level planning as a Selective Traveling Salesman Problem (STSP) and select the order in which to visit our science sites. We then use a kino-dynamic path planner to create a large number of intermediate waypoints. This is a complete system that combines high and low level planning to achieve a goal. This paper demonstrates the benefits gained by adaptable high-level plans versus static and greedy plans.

Plan-graph Based Heuristics for Conformant Probabilistic Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramakrishnan, Salesh; Pollack, Martha E.; Smith, David E.

2004-01-01

In this paper, we introduce plan-graph based heuristics to solve a variation of the conformant probabilistic planning (CPP) problem. In many real-world problems, it is the case that the sensors are unreliable or take too many resources to provide knowledge about the environment. These domains are better modeled as conformant planning problems. POMDP based techniques are currently the most successful approach for solving CPP but have the limitation of state- space explosion. Recent advances in deterministic and conformant planning have shown that plan-graphs can be used to enhance the performance significantly. We show that this enhancement can also be translated to CPP. We describe our process for developing the plan-graph heuristics and estimating the probability of a partial plan. We compare the performance of our planner PVHPOP when used with different heuristics. We also perform a comparison with a POMDP solver to show over a order of magnitude improvement in performance.

Completable scheduling: An integrated approach to planning and scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gervasio, Melinda T.; Dejong, Gerald F.

1992-01-01

The planning problem has traditionally been treated separately from the scheduling problem. However, as more realistic domains are tackled, it becomes evident that the problem of deciding on an ordered set of tasks to achieve a set of goals cannot be treated independently of the problem of actually allocating resources to the tasks. Doing so would result in losing the robustness and flexibility needed to deal with imperfectly modeled domains. Completable scheduling is an approach which integrates the two problems by allowing an a priori planning module to defer particular planning decisions, and consequently the associated scheduling decisions, until execution time. This allows a completable scheduling system to maximize plan flexibility by allowing runtime information to be taken into consideration when making planning and scheduling decision. Furthermore, through the criteria of achievability placed on deferred decision, a completable scheduling system is able to retain much of the goal-directedness and guarantees of achievement afforded by a priori planning. The completable scheduling approach is further enhanced by the use of contingent explanation-based learning, which enables a completable scheduling system to learn general completable plans from example and improve its performance through experience. Initial experimental results show that completable scheduling outperforms classical scheduling as well as pure reactive scheduling in a simple scheduling domain.

Search Complexities for HTN Planning

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-01

AUTHORS 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAMES AND ADDRESSES 15. SUBJECT TERMS b . ABSTRACT 2. REPORT TYPE 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT 15. NUMBER OF...43 3.1 Complexity of plan-existence for propositional delete-free STRIPS and HTN planning with various restrictions ( k ...paper, we are concerned with two HTN decision problems: plan-existence, for whether a problem has any solution, and k -length-plan-existence, for whether a

Robustness of mission plans for unmanned aircraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niendorf, Moritz

This thesis studies the robustness of optimal mission plans for unmanned aircraft. Mission planning typically involves tactical planning and path planning. Tactical planning refers to task scheduling and in multi aircraft scenarios also includes establishing a communication topology. Path planning refers to computing a feasible and collision-free trajectory. For a prototypical mission planning problem, the traveling salesman problem on a weighted graph, the robustness of an optimal tour is analyzed with respect to changes to the edge costs. Specifically, the stability region of an optimal tour is obtained, i.e., the set of all edge cost perturbations for which that tour is optimal. The exact stability region of solutions to variants of the traveling salesman problems is obtained from a linear programming relaxation of an auxiliary problem. Edge cost tolerances and edge criticalities are derived from the stability region. For Euclidean traveling salesman problems, robustness with respect to perturbations to vertex locations is considered and safe radii and vertex criticalities are introduced. For weighted-sum multi-objective problems, stability regions with respect to changes in the objectives, weights, and simultaneous changes are given. Most critical weight perturbations are derived. Computing exact stability regions is intractable for large instances. Therefore, tractable approximations are desirable. The stability region of solutions to relaxations of the traveling salesman problem give under approximations and sets of tours give over approximations. The application of these results to the two-neighborhood and the minimum 1-tree relaxation are discussed. Bounds on edge cost tolerances and approximate criticalities are obtainable likewise. A minimum spanning tree is an optimal communication topology for minimizing the cumulative transmission power in multi aircraft missions. The stability region of a minimum spanning tree is given and tolerances, stability balls, and criticalities are derived. This analysis is extended to Euclidean minimum spanning trees. This thesis aims at enabling increased mission performance by providing means of assessing the robustness and optimality of a mission and methods for identifying critical elements. Examples of the application to mission planning in contested environments, cargo aircraft mission planning, multi-objective mission planning, and planning optimal communication topologies for teams of unmanned aircraft are given.

Group Planning and Task Efficiency with Complex Problems. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawson, E. D.

One hundred eighty 4-man groups (90 of men and 90 of women) using 3 types of net (All-Channel, Wheel and Circle) under 3 conditions (Planning Period (PP), Rest Period (RP) and Control) were run in a single session with 5 complex problems to determine whether a single 2-minute planning period after solution of the first problem would result in…

Responsive consumerism: empowerment in markets for health plans.

PubMed

Elbel, Brian; Schlesinger, Mark

2009-09-01

American health policy is increasingly relying on consumerism to improve its performance. This article examines a neglected aspect of medical consumerism: the extent to which consumers respond to problems with their health plans. Using a telephone survey of five thousand consumers conducted in 2002, this article assesses how frequently consumers voice formal grievances or exit from their health plan in response to problems of differing severity. This article also examines the potential impact of this responsiveness on both individuals and the market. In addition, using cross-group comparisons of means and regressions, it looks at how the responses of "empowered" consumers compared with those who are "less empowered." The vast majority of consumers do not formally voice their complaints or exit health plans, even in response to problems with significant consequences. "Empowered" consumers are only minimally more likely to formally voice and no more likely to leave their plan. Moreover, given the greater prevalence of trivial problems, consumers are much more likely to complain or leave their plans because of problems that are not severe. Greater empowerment does not alleviate this. While much of the attention on consumerism has focused on prospective choice, understanding how consumers respond to problems is equally, if not more, important. Relying on consumers' responses as a means to protect individual consumers or influence the market for health plans is unlikely to be successful in its current form.

Short-Sighted Probabilistic Planning

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-01

2005). The 1st Probabilistic Track of the International Planning Competition. Journal of Artificial Intelli - gence Research, 24(1):851–887. [Zhou and...A short-sighted problem is a relaxed problem in which the state space of the original problem is pruned and artificial goals are added to...A short-sighted problem is a relaxed problem in which the state space of the original problem is pruned and artificial goals are added to heuris

The NASA planning process, appendix D. [as useful planning approach for solving urban problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Annett, H. A.

1973-01-01

The planning process is outlined which NASA used in making some fundamental post-Apollo decisions concerning the reuseable space shuttle and the orbiting laboratory. It is suggested that the basic elements and principles of the process, when combined, form a useful planning approach for solving urban problems. These elements and principles are defined along with the basic strengths of the planning model.

Report of the Tape Recorder Action Plan Committee, 21 March 1972

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

A NASA/AF Tape Recorder Action Plan Committee was formed in January 1972 to investigate tape recorder problems and to recommend an action plan to NASA management. The committee collected data on tape recorder failure history, pinpointed problem areas, discussed needed technical and management changes, and proposed an action plan for the recommended approaches.

Trends in state outdoor recreation from periodic to process planning: the Minnesota example

Treesearch

William H. Becker; George Orning

1980-01-01

After a decade of trial, a change in federal planning philosophy is forcing many state recreation planning programs to change. Ten years of experience showed that plans produced periodically - every five years - grew stale and failed to provide the flexibility necessary to meet changing recreation markets and environmental problems. Recognizing these problems, the...

An Interactive Strategy for Solving Multi-Criteria Decision Making of Sustainable Land Revitalization Planning Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mayasari, Ruth; Mawengkang, Herman; Gomar Purba, Ronal

2018-02-01

Land revitalization refers to comprehensive renovation of farmland, waterways, roads, forest or villages to improve the quality of plantation, raise the productivity of the plantation area and improve agricultural production conditions and the environment. The objective of sustainable land revitalization planning is to facilitate environmentally, socially, and economically viable land use. Therefore it is reasonable to use participatory approach to fullfil the plan. This paper addresses a multicriteria decision aid to model such planning problem, then we develop an interactive approach for solving the problem.

A study of the performance of patients with frontal lobe lesions in a financial planning task.

PubMed

Goel, V; Grafman, J; Tajik, J; Gana, S; Danto, D

1997-10-01

It has long been argued that patients with lesions in the prefrontal cortex have difficulties in decision making and problem solving in real-world, ill-structured situations, particularly problem types involving planning and look-ahead components. Recently, several researchers have questioned our ability to capture and characterize these deficits adequately using just the standard neuropsychological test batteries, and have called for tests that reflect real-world task requirements more accurately. We present data from 10 patients with focal lesions to the prefrontal cortex and 10 normal control subjects engaged in a real-world financial planning task. We also introduce a theoretical framework and methodology developed in the cognitive science literature for quantifying and analysing the complex data generated by problem-solving tasks. Our findings indicate that patient performance is impoverished at a global level but not at the local level. Patients have difficulty in organizing and structuring their problem space. Once they begin problem solving, they have difficulty in allocating adequate effort to each problem-solving phase. Patients also have difficulty dealing with the fact that there are no right or wrong answers nor official termination points in real-world planning problems. They also find it problematic to generate their own feedback. They invariably terminate the session before the details are fleshed out and all the goals satisfied. Finally, patients do not take full advantage of the fact that constraints on real-world problems are negotiable. However, it is not necessary to postulate a 'planning' deficit. It is possible to understand the patients' difficulties in real world planning tasks in terms of the following four accepted deficits: inadequate access to 'structured event complexes', difficulty in generalizing from particulars, failure to shift between 'mental sets', and poor judgment regarding adequacy and completeness of a plan.

A Problem-Solving Model for Literacy Coaching Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toll, Cathy A.

2017-01-01

Literacy coaches are more effective when they have a clear plan for their collaborations with teachers. This article provides details of such a plan, which involves identifying a problem, understanding the problem, deciding what to do differently, and trying something different. For each phase of the problem-solving model, there are key tasks for…

Health care planning and education via gaming-simulation: a two-stage experiment.

PubMed

Gagnon, J H; Greenblat, C S

1977-01-01

A two-stage process of gaming-simulation design was conducted: the first stage of design concerned national planning for hemophilia care; the second stage of design was for gaming-simulation concerning the problems of hemophilia patients and health care providers. The planning design was intended to be adaptable to large-scale planning for a variety of health care problems. The educational game was designed using data developed in designing the planning game. A broad range of policy-makers participated in the planning game.

Decomposability and scalability in space-based observatory scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muscettola, Nicola; Smith, Stephen F.

1992-01-01

In this paper, we discuss issues of problem and model decomposition within the HSTS scheduling framework. HSTS was developed and originally applied in the context of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) scheduling problem, motivated by the limitations of the current solution and, more generally, the insufficiency of classical planning and scheduling approaches in this problem context. We first summarize the salient architectural characteristics of HSTS and their relationship to previous scheduling and AI planning research. Then, we describe some key problem decomposition techniques supported by HSTS and underlying our integrated planning and scheduling approach, and we discuss the leverage they provide in solving space-based observatory scheduling problems.

Using Sequence Diagrams to Detect Communication Problems Between Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lindvall, Mikael; Ackermann, Chris; Stratton, William C.; Sibol, Deane E.; Ray, Arnab; Yonkwa, Lyly; Kresser, Jan; Godfrey, Sally H.; Knodel, Jens

2008-01-01

Many software systems are evolving complex system of systems (SoS) for which inter-system communication is both mission-critical and error-prone. Such communication problems ideally would be detected before deployment. In a NASA-supported Software Assurance Research Program (SARP) project, we are researching a new approach addressing such problems. In this paper, we show that problems in the communication between two systems can be detected by using sequence diagrams to model the planned communication and by comparing the planned sequence to the actual sequence. We identify different kinds of problems that can be addressed by modeling the planned sequence using different level of abstractions.

Planning abilities and chess: a comparison of chess and non-chess players on the Tower of London task.

PubMed

Unterrainer, J M; Kaller, C P; Halsband, U; Rahm, B

2006-08-01

Playing chess requires problem-solving capacities in order to search through the chess problem space in an effective manner. Chess should thus require planning abilities for calculating many moves ahead. Therefore, we asked whether chess players are better problem solvers than non-chess players in a complex planning task. We compared planning performance between chess ( N=25) and non-chess players ( N=25) using a standard psychometric planning task, the Tower of London (ToL) test. We also assessed fluid intelligence (Raven Test), as well as verbal and visuospatial working memory. As expected, chess players showed better planning performance than non-chess players, an effect most strongly expressed in difficult problems. On the other hand, they showed longer planning and movement execution times, especially for incorrectly solved trials. No differences in fluid intelligence and verbal/visuospatial working memory were found between both groups. These findings indicate that better performance in chess players is associated with disproportionally longer solution times, although it remains to be investigated whether motivational or strategic differences account for this result.

Implementation of Discharge Plans for Chronically Ill Elders Discharged Home.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Proctor, Enola K.; And Others

1996-01-01

Addresses the extent to which discharge plans for elderly patients with congestive heart failure were implemented as planned, tested the consequences of implementation problems, and identified factors associated with implementation problems. Implications for hospital discharge planners and home health care are discussed. (KW)

Retention Plan: Action Plans to Retain Traditional and Non-Traditional Students at a Regional University. AIR 1983 Annual Forum Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Longmore, Myron J.

A retention plan was developed to quantify and qualify the attrition problem and to establish action plans to improve retention for a regional university serving many nontraditional students. Cameron University, a state institution in Oklahoma, provides both associate and bachelor degree programs. The attrition problems were difficult to identify…

Meaning and Problems of Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brieve, Fred J.; Johnston, A. P.

1973-01-01

Examines the educational planning process. Discusses what planning is, how methodological planning can work in education, misunderstandings about planning, and difficulties in applying the planning methodology. (DN)

Organization Development: A Case Study in Blockages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McIntyre, Martin

1981-01-01

Organization Development is a management science that defines and solves organizational problems. Procedures include: (1) diagnosis of problem; (2) gathering of data related to problem; (3) obtaining feedback; (4) developing various change strategies; (5) developing an action plan; and (6) implementing the plan. (CJ)

Mars MetNet Mission - Martian Atmospheric Observational Post Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harri, A.-M.; Haukka, H.; Aleksashkin, S.; Arruego, I.; Schmidt, W.; Genzer, M.; Vazquez, L.; Siikonen, T.; Palin, M.

2017-09-01

A new kind of planetary exploration mission for Mars is under development in collaboration between the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Lavochkin Association (LA), Space Research Institute (IKI) and Institutio Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA). The Mars MetNet mission is based on a new semi-hard landing vehicle called MetNet Lander (MNL). The scientific payload of the Mars MetNet Precursor [1] mission is divided into three categories: Atmospheric instruments, Optical devices and Composition and structure devices. Each of the payload instruments will provide significant insights in to the Martian atmospheric behavior. The key technologies of the MetNet Lander have been qualified and the electrical qualification model (EQM) of the payload bay has been built and successfully tested.

Theoretical orientations in environmental planning: An inquiry into alternative approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Briassoulis, Helen

1989-07-01

In the process of devising courses of action to resolve problems arising at the society-environment interface, a variety of planning approaches are followed, whose adoption is influenced by—among other things—the characteristics of environmental problems, the nature of the decision-making context, and the intellectual traditions of the disciplines contributing to the study of these problems. This article provides a systematic analysis of six alternative environmental planning approaches—comprehensive/rational, incremental, adaptive, contingency, advocacy, and participatory/consensual. The relative influence of the abovementioned factors is examined, the occurrence of these approaches in real-world situations is noted, and their environmental soundness and political realism is evaluated. Because of the disparity between plan formulation and implementation and between theoretical form and empirical reality, a synthetic view of environmental planning approaches is taken and approaches in action are identified, which characterize the totality of the planning process from problem definition to plan implementation, as well as approaches in the becoming, which may be on the horizon of environmental planning of tomorrow. The suggested future research directions include case studies to verify and detail the presence of the approaches discussed, developing measures of success of a given approach in a given decision setting, and an intertemporal analysis of environmental planning approaches.

Responsive Consumerism: Empowerment in Markets for Health Plans

PubMed Central

Elbel, Brian; Schlesinger, Mark

2009-01-01

Context: American health policy is increasingly relying on consumerism to improve its performance. This article examines a neglected aspect of medical consumerism: the extent to which consumers respond to problems with their health plans. Methods: Using a telephone survey of five thousand consumers conducted in 2002, this article assesses how frequently consumers voice formal grievances or exit from their health plan in response to problems of differing severity. This article also examines the potential impact of this responsiveness on both individuals and the market. In addition, using cross-group comparisons of means and regressions, it looks at how the responses of “empowered” consumers compared with those who are “less empowered.” Findings: The vast majority of consumers do not formally voice their complaints or exit health plans, even in response to problems with significant consequences. “Empowered” consumers are only minimally more likely to formally voice and no more likely to leave their plan. Moreover, given the greater prevalence of trivial problems, consumers are much more likely to complain or leave their plans because of problems that are not severe. Greater empowerment does not alleviate this. Conclusions: While much of the attention on consumerism has focused on prospective choice, understanding how consumers respond to problems is equally, if not more, important. Relying on consumers’ responses as a means to protect individual consumers or influence the market for health plans is unlikely to be successful in its current form. PMID:19751285

Improving supervision: a team approach.

PubMed

1993-01-01

This issue of "The Family Planning Manager" outlines an interactive team supervision strategy as a means of improving family planning service quality and enabling staff to perform to their maximum potential. Such an approach to supervision requires a shift from a monitoring to a facilitative role. Because supervisory visits to the field are infrequent, the regional supervisor, clinic manager, and staff should form a team to share ongoing supervisory responsibilities. The team approach removes individual blame and builds consensus. An effective team is characterized by shared leadership roles, concrete work problems, mutual accountability, an emphasis on achieving team objectives, and problem resolution within the group. The team supervision process includes the following steps: prepare a visit plan and schedule; meet with the clinic manager and staff to explain how the visit will be conducted; supervise key activity areas (clinical, management, and personnel); conduct a problem-solving team meeting; conduct a debriefing meeting with the clinic manager; and prepare a report on the visit, including recommendations and follow-up plans. In Guatemala's Family Planning Unit, teams identify problem areas on the basis of agreement that a problem exists, belief that the problem can be solved with available resources, and individual willingness to accept responsibility for the specific actions identified to correct the problem.

Optimization of multi-objective integrated process planning and scheduling problem using a priority based optimization algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ausaf, Muhammad Farhan; Gao, Liang; Li, Xinyu

2015-12-01

For increasing the overall performance of modern manufacturing systems, effective integration of process planning and scheduling functions has been an important area of consideration among researchers. Owing to the complexity of handling process planning and scheduling simultaneously, most of the research work has been limited to solving the integrated process planning and scheduling (IPPS) problem for a single objective function. As there are many conflicting objectives when dealing with process planning and scheduling, real world problems cannot be fully captured considering only a single objective for optimization. Therefore considering multi-objective IPPS (MOIPPS) problem is inevitable. Unfortunately, only a handful of research papers are available on solving MOIPPS problem. In this paper, an optimization algorithm for solving MOIPPS problem is presented. The proposed algorithm uses a set of dispatching rules coupled with priority assignment to optimize the IPPS problem for various objectives like makespan, total machine load, total tardiness, etc. A fixed sized external archive coupled with a crowding distance mechanism is used to store and maintain the non-dominated solutions. To compare the results with other algorithms, a C-matric based method has been used. Instances from four recent papers have been solved to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed method is an efficient approach for solving the MOIPPS problem.

On Reformulating Planning as Dynamic Constraint Satisfaction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frank, Jeremy; Jonsson, Ari K.; Morris, Paul; Koga, Dennis (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

In recent years, researchers have reformulated STRIPS planning problems as SAT problems or CSPs. In this paper, we discuss the Constraint-Based Interval Planning (CBIP) paradigm, which can represent planning problems incorporating interval time and resources. We describe how to reformulate mutual exclusion constraints for a CBIP-based system, the Extendible Uniform Remote Operations Planner Architecture (EUROPA). We show that reformulations involving dynamic variable domains restrict the algorithms which can be used to solve the resulting DCSP. We present an alternative formulation which does not employ dynamic domains, and describe the relative merits of the different reformulations.

Constraint-based integration of planning and scheduling for space-based observatory management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muscettola, Nicola; Smith, Steven F.

1994-01-01

Progress toward the development of effective, practical solutions to space-based observatory scheduling problems within the HSTS scheduling framework is reported. HSTS was developed and originally applied in the context of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) short-term observation scheduling problem. The work was motivated by the limitations of the current solution and, more generally, by the insufficiency of classical planning and scheduling approaches in this problem context. HSTS has subsequently been used to develop improved heuristic solution techniques in related scheduling domains and is currently being applied to develop a scheduling tool for the upcoming Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) mission. The salient architectural characteristics of HSTS and their relationship to previous scheduling and AI planning research are summarized. Then, some key problem decomposition techniques underlying the integrated planning and scheduling approach to the HST problem are described; research results indicate that these techniques provide leverage in solving space-based observatory scheduling problems. Finally, more recently developed constraint-posting scheduling procedures and the current SWAS application focus are summarized.

SOFIA's Choice: Automating the Scheduling of Airborne Observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frank, Jeremy; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

1999-01-01

This paper describes the problem of scheduling observations for an airborne telescope. Given a set of prioritized observations to choose from, and a wide range of complex constraints governing legitimate choices and orderings, how can we efficiently and effectively create a valid flight plan which supports high priority observations? This problem is quite different from scheduling problems which are routinely solved automatically in industry. For instance, the problem requires making choices which lead to other choices later, and contains many interacting complex constraints over both discrete and continuous variables. Furthermore, new types of constraints may be added as the fundamental problem changes. As a result of these features, this problem cannot be solved by traditional scheduling techniques. The problem resembles other problems in NASA and industry, from observation scheduling for rovers and other science instruments to vehicle routing. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In 2 we describe the observatory in order to provide some background. In 3 we describe the problem of scheduling a single flight. In 4 we compare flight planning and other scheduling problems and argue that traditional techniques are not sufficient to solve this problem. We also mention similar complex scheduling problems which may benefit from efforts to solve this problem. In 5 we describe an approach for solving this problem based on research into a similar problem, that of scheduling observations for a space-borne probe. In 6 we discuss extensions of the flight planning problem as well as other problems which are similar to flight planning. In 7 we conclude and discuss future work.

Generalizable open source urban water portfolio simulation framework demonstrated using a multi-objective risk-based planning benchmark problem.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trindade, B. C.; Reed, P. M.

2017-12-01

The growing access and reduced cost for computing power in recent years has promoted rapid development and application of multi-objective water supply portfolio planning. As this trend continues there is a pressing need for flexible risk-based simulation frameworks and improved algorithm benchmarking for emerging classes of water supply planning and management problems. This work contributes the Water Utilities Management and Planning (WUMP) model: a generalizable and open source simulation framework designed to capture how water utilities can minimize operational and financial risks by regionally coordinating planning and management choices, i.e. making more efficient and coordinated use of restrictions, water transfers and financial hedging combined with possible construction of new infrastructure. We introduce the WUMP simulation framework as part of a new multi-objective benchmark problem for planning and management of regionally integrated water utility companies. In this problem, a group of fictitious water utilities seek to balance the use of the mentioned reliability driven actions (e.g., restrictions, water transfers and infrastructure pathways) and their inherent financial risks. Several traits of this problem make it ideal for a benchmark problem, namely the presence of (1) strong non-linearities and discontinuities in the Pareto front caused by the step-wise nature of the decision making formulation and by the abrupt addition of storage through infrastructure construction, (2) noise due to the stochastic nature of the streamflows and water demands, and (3) non-separability resulting from the cooperative formulation of the problem, in which decisions made by stakeholder may substantially impact others. Both the open source WUMP simulation framework and its demonstration in a challenging benchmarking example hold value for promoting broader advances in urban water supply portfolio planning for regions confronting change.

Hierarchical Motion Planning for Autonomous Aerial and Terrestrial Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowlagi, Raghvendra V.

Autonomous mobile robots---both aerial and terrestrial vehicles---have gained immense importance due to the broad spectrum of their potential military and civilian applications. One of the indispensable requirements for the autonomy of a mobile vehicle is the vehicle's capability of planning and executing its motion, that is, finding appropriate control inputs for the vehicle such that the resulting vehicle motion satisfies the requirements of the vehicular task. The motion planning and control problem is inherently complex because it involves two disparate sub-problems: (1) satisfaction of the vehicular task requirements, which requires tools from combinatorics and/or formal methods, and (2) design of the vehicle control laws, which requires tools from dynamical systems and control theory. Accordingly, this problem is usually decomposed and solved over two levels of hierarchy. The higher level, called the geometric path planning level, finds a geometric path that satisfies the vehicular task requirements, e.g., obstacle avoidance. The lower level, called the trajectory planning level, involves sufficient smoothening of this geometric path followed by a suitable time parametrization to obtain a reference trajectory for the vehicle. Although simple and efficient, such hierarchical decomposition suffers a serious drawback: the geometric path planner has no information of the kinematical and dynamical constraints of the vehicle. Consequently, the geometric planner may produce paths that the trajectory planner cannot transform into a feasible reference trajectory. Two main ideas appear in the literature to remedy this problem: (a) randomized sampling-based planning, which eliminates the geometric planner altogether by planning in the vehicle state space, and (b) geometric planning supported by feedback control laws. The former class of methods suffer from a lack of optimality of the resultant trajectory, while the latter class of methods makes a restrictive assumption concerning the vehicle kinematical model. We propose a hierarchical motion planning framework based on a novel mode of interaction between these two levels of planning. This interaction rests on the solution of a special shortest-path problem on graphs, namely, one using costs defined on multiple edge transitions in the path instead of the usual single edge transition costs. These costs are provided by a local trajectory generation algorithm, which we implement using model predictive control and the concept of effective target sets for simplifying the non-convex constraints involved in the problem. The proposed motion planner ensures "consistency" between the two levels of planning, i.e., a guarantee that the higher level geometric path is always associated with a kinematically and dynamically feasible trajectory. The main contributions of this thesis are: 1. A motion planning framework based on history-dependent costs (H-costs) in cell decomposition graphs for incorporating vehicle dynamical constraints: this framework offers distinct advantages in comparison with the competing approaches of discretization of the state space, of randomized sampling-based motion planning, and of local feedback-based, decoupled hierarchical motion planning, 2. An efficient and flexible algorithm for finding optimal H-cost paths, 3. A precise and general formulation of a local trajectory problem (the tile motion planning problem) that allows independent development of the discrete planner and the trajectory planner, while maintaining "compatibility" between the two planners, 4. A local trajectory generation algorithm using mpc, and the application of the concept of effective target sets for a significant simplification of the local trajectory generation problem, 5. The geometric analysis of curvature-bounded traversal of rectangular channels, leading to less conservative results in comparison with a result reported in the literature, and also to the efficient construction of effective target sets for the solution of the tile motion planning problem, 6. A wavelet-based multi-resolution path planning scheme, and a proof of completeness of the proposed scheme: such proofs are altogether absent from other works on multi-resolution path planning, 7. A technique for extracting all information about cells---namely, the locations, the sizes, and the associated image intensities---directly from the set of significant detail coefficients considered for path planning at a given iteration, and 8. The extension of the multi-resolution path planning scheme to include vehicle dynamical constraints using the aforementioned history-dependent costs approach. The future work includes an implementation of the proposed framework involving a discrete planner that solves classical planning problems more general than the single-query path planning problem considered thus far, and involving trajectory generation schemes for realistic vehicle dynamical models such as the bicycle model.

Planning applications of remote sensing in Arizona

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, R. B.; Mouat, D. A.

1976-01-01

Planners in Arizona have been experiencing the inevitable problems which occur when large areas of rural and remote lands are converted to urban-recreational uses over a relatively short period of time. Among the planning problems in the state are unplanned and illegal subdivisions, surburban sprawl, surface hydrologic problems related to ephemeral stream overflow, rapidly changing land use patterns, large size of administrative units, and lack of land use inventory data upon which to base planning decisions.

One Way or Another

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zazzali, Christian

2003-01-01

Even experienced project managers can t anticipate every potential problem. Part of planning ahead should include allowing oneself the flexibility to rethink the plan and improvise if necessary. Unique solutions to problems sometimes create a set of new problems unique in nature as well. In dealing with sudden changes in planning, try to consider what other elements of the project will be affected, but don t second guess yourself into a state of inaction because you can t anticipate every contingency.

Symbolic and Verbal Representation Process of Student in Solving Mathematics Problem Based Polya's Stages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anwar, Rahmad Bustanul; Rahmawati, Dwi

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research was to reveal how the construction process of symbolic representation and verbal representation made by students in problem solving. The construction process in this study referred to the problem-solving stage by Polya covering; 1) understanding the problem, 2) devising a plan, 3) carrying out the plan, and 4) looking…

EUROPA2: Plan Database Services for Planning and Scheduling Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bedrax-Weiss, Tania; Frank, Jeremy; Jonsson, Ari; McGann, Conor

2004-01-01

NASA missions require solving a wide variety of planning and scheduling problems with temporal constraints; simple resources such as robotic arms, communications antennae and cameras; complex replenishable resources such as memory, power and fuel; and complex constraints on geometry, heat and lighting angles. Planners and schedulers that solve these problems are used in ground tools as well as onboard systems. The diversity of planning problems and applications of planners and schedulers precludes a one-size fits all solution. However, many of the underlying technologies are common across planning domains and applications. We describe CAPR, a formalism for planning that is general enough to cover a wide variety of planning and scheduling domains of interest to NASA. We then describe EUROPA(sub 2), a software framework implementing CAPR. EUROPA(sub 2) provides efficient, customizable Plan Database Services that enable the integration of CAPR into a wide variety of applications. We describe the design of EUROPA(sub 2) from the perspective of both modeling, customization and application integration to different classes of NASA missions.

Avenues into Food Planning: A Review of Scholarly Food System Research

PubMed Central

Brinkley, Catherine

2014-01-01

This review summarizes several avenues of planning inquiry into food systems research, revealing gaps in the literature, allied fields of study and mismatches between scholarly disciplines and the food system life cycle. Planners and scholars in associated fields have identified and defined problems in the food system as ‘wicked’ problems, complex environmental issues that require systemic solutions at the community scale. While food justice scholars have contextualized problem areas, planning scholars have made a broad case for planning involvement in solving these wicked problems while ensuring that the functional and beneficial parts of the food system continue to thrive. This review maps the entry points of scholarly interest in food systems and planning’s contributions to its study, charting a research agenda for the future. PMID:24932131

Automation--planning to implementation; the problems en route.

PubMed Central

Pizer, I H

1976-01-01

Once the major decision to automate library processes is made, there are a variety of problems which may be encountered before the planned system becomes operational. These include problems of personnel, budget, procurement of adjunct services, institutional priorities, and manufacturing uncertainties. Actual and potential difficulties are discussed. PMID:1247703

Planning meals: Problem-solving on a real data-base

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrne, Richard

1977-01-01

Planning the menu for a dinner party, which involves problem-solving with a large body of knowledge, is used to study the daily operation of human memory. Verbal protocol analysis, a technique devised to investigate formal problem-solving, is examined theoretically and adapted for analysis of this task. (Author/MV)

Battling Arrow's Paradox to Discover Robust Water Management Alternatives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasprzyk, J. R.; Reed, P. M.; Hadka, D.

2013-12-01

This study explores whether or not Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, a theory of social choice, affects the formulation of water resources systems planning problems. The theorem discusses creating an aggregation function for voters choosing from more than three alternatives for society. The Impossibility Theorem is also called Arrow's Paradox, because when trying to add more voters, a single individual's preference will dictate the optimal group decision. In the context of water resources planning, our study is motivated by recent theoretical work that has generalized the insights for Arrow's Paradox to the design of complex engineered systems. In this framing of the paradox, states of society are equivalent to water planning or design alternatives, and the voters are equivalent to multiple planning objectives (e.g. minimizing cost or maximizing performance). Seen from this point of view, multi-objective water planning problems are functionally equivalent to the social choice problem described above. Traditional solutions to such multi-objective problems aggregate multiple performance measures into a single mathematical objective. The Theorem implies that a subset of performance concerns will inadvertently dictate the overall design evaluations in unpredictable ways using such an aggregation. We suggest that instead of aggregation, an explicit many-objective approach to water planning can help overcome the challenges posed by Arrow's Paradox. Many-objective planning explicitly disaggregates measures of performance while supporting the discovery of the planning tradeoffs, employing multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) to find solutions. Using MOEA-based search to address Arrow's Paradox requires that the MOEAs perform robustly with increasing problem complexity, such as adding additional objectives and/or decisions. This study uses comprehensive diagnostic evaluation of MOEA search performance across multiple problem formulations (both aggregated and many-objective) to show whether or not aggregating performance measures biases decision making. In this study, we explore this hypothesis using an urban water portfolio management case study in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The diagnostic analysis shows that modern self-adaptive MOEA search is efficient, effective, and reliable for the more complex many-objective LRGV planning formulations. Results indicate that although many classical water systems planning frameworks seek to account for multiple objectives, the common practice of reducing the problem into one or more highly aggregated performance measures can severely and negatively bias planning decisions.

Planning for Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindstrom, Caj-Gunnar

1984-01-01

Decision processes for strategic planning for higher education institutions are outlined using these parameters: institutional goals and power structure, organizational climate, leadership attitudes, specific problem type, and problem-solving conditions and alternatives. (MSE)

Strategic Planning for Information Systems: The Evidence from a Successful Implementation in an Academic Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Richard B.; And Others

1991-01-01

Demonstrates how an information systems plan can be successfully developed and implemented within an academic setting. Six guidelines for information systems planning are provided; problems are identified and recommendations to address the problems are suggested; and information systems objectives are discussed, including business communications,…

Pharmacist care plans and documentation of follow-up before the Iowa Pharmaceutical Case Management program.

PubMed

Becker, CoraLynn; Bjornson, Darrel C; Kuhle, Julie W

2004-01-01

To document drug therapy problems and their causes and assess pharmacist follow-up of patients with identified drug therapy problems. Cross-sectional analysis. Iowa. 160 pharmacists who submitted 754 pharmaceutical care plans in an effort to qualify for participation in the Iowa Pharmaceutical Case Management program. Care plans were assessed for drug therapy problems and causes and for documentation of pharmacist follow-up (actual, none, or intent to follow up). Pharmacists documented a wide variety of drug therapy problems and causes, including adverse drug reactions (20.1% of care plans), need for additional drug therapy (18.9%), lack of patient adherence to therapy (16.3%), incorrect medication being prescribed (14.1%), and drug dose too high (10.0%). Pharmacist follow-up with patients was not optimal, with 31% of care plans providing documentation of actual follow-up. Another 42.2% of plans indicated that the pharmacist intended to contact the patient for follow-up but either did not do so or did not record the intervention. No actual follow-up or intent to follow up was recorded in 26.8% of care plans. Pharmacists practicing in independent pharmacies followed up with patients more frequently than those in other settings (36.4% of care plans, compared with 22.7%, 23.2%, and 28.4% for chain, clinic, and franchise pharmacies). Pharmacists were more likely to follow up when the identified problem involved drug safety rather than effectiveness (36.2% versus 28.3% of care plans). Documentation of pharmacist follow-up with patients was less than optimal. In addition to identifying drug therapy problems and causes, pharmacists must complete the care continuum through documentation of patient monitoring and follow-up to transform the philosophy and vision of the pharmaceutical care concept into a practice of pharmacy recognized and rewarded by patients and payers.

Optimal Planning and Problem-Solving

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clemet, Bradley; Schaffer, Steven; Rabideau, Gregg

2008-01-01

CTAEMS MDP Optimal Planner is a problem-solving software designed to command a single spacecraft/rover, or a team of spacecraft/rovers, to perform the best action possible at all times according to an abstract model of the spacecraft/rover and its environment. It also may be useful in solving logistical problems encountered in commercial applications such as shipping and manufacturing. The planner reasons around uncertainty according to specified probabilities of outcomes using a plan hierarchy to avoid exploring certain kinds of suboptimal actions. Also, planned actions are calculated as the state-action space is expanded, rather than afterward, to reduce by an order of magnitude the processing time and memory used. The software solves planning problems with actions that can execute concurrently, that have uncertain duration and quality, and that have functional dependencies on others that affect quality. These problems are modeled in a hierarchical planning language called C_TAEMS, a derivative of the TAEMS language for specifying domains for the DARPA Coordinators program. In realistic environments, actions often have uncertain outcomes and can have complex relationships with other tasks. The planner approaches problems by considering all possible actions that may be taken from any state reachable from a given, initial state, and from within the constraints of a given task hierarchy that specifies what tasks may be performed by which team member.

A two-stage path planning approach for multiple car-like robots based on PH curves and a modified harmony search algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeng, Wenhui; Yi, Jin; Rao, Xiao; Zheng, Yun

2017-11-01

In this article, collision-avoidance path planning for multiple car-like robots with variable motion is formulated as a two-stage objective optimization problem minimizing both the total length of all paths and the task's completion time. Accordingly, a new approach based on Pythagorean Hodograph (PH) curves and Modified Harmony Search algorithm is proposed to solve the two-stage path-planning problem subject to kinematic constraints such as velocity, acceleration, and minimum turning radius. First, a method of path planning based on PH curves for a single robot is proposed. Second, a mathematical model of the two-stage path-planning problem for multiple car-like robots with variable motion subject to kinematic constraints is constructed that the first-stage minimizes the total length of all paths and the second-stage minimizes the task's completion time. Finally, a modified harmony search algorithm is applied to solve the two-stage optimization problem. A set of experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

[The problem of post-marketing surveillance planning on drugs for infectious disease].

PubMed

Sato, J

2001-12-01

In principle, a new drug is approved via the assessments of safety and efficacy by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW). After approval, conduct of post-marketing surveillance is requested by law in order to assess the safety and efficacy of the drug in a large number of patients. Before initiating a surveillance, submission to MHLW of a document on the plan of survey is necessary in the purpose of inspection if it includes any ethical or regulatory problem or not. Through the inspections of the plans submitted during the period of April 1998 and March 2000, many problems have been pointed out. In this report, the author introduces some of the concrete problems noted in the plans on drugs for infectious diseases and shows some of the guidance made by the authority how to improve them. It is expected that such practical analyses of cases may be useful for future planning of post-marketing surveillance on drugs for infectious diseases.

Research Utilizing Problem Solving (RUPS) - Classroom Version. Description of Teacher Inservice Education Materials.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Education Association, Washington, DC. Project on Utilization of Inservice Education R & D Outcomes.

The workshop instructional materials described here are designed to try out a systematic problem solving process as a way of working toward improvements in the school setting. Topics include diagnosis using force field technique, small group dynamics, planning for action, and planning a RUPS (Research Using Problem Solving) project. This…

The Team-Based Internal Supervision System Development for the Primary Schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tubsuli, Nattapong; Julsuwan, Suwat; Tesaputa, Kowat

2017-01-01

Internal supervision in the school is currently experiencing various problems. Supervision preparation problems are related to: lacking of supervision plan, lacking of holistic and systematic planning, and lacking of analysis in current conditions or requirements. While supervision operational problems are included: lacking of supervision…

A hybrid algorithm optimization approach for machine loading problem in flexible manufacturing system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Vijay M.; Murthy, ANN; Chandrashekara, K.

2012-05-01

The production planning problem of flexible manufacturing system (FMS) concerns with decisions that have to be made before an FMS begins to produce parts according to a given production plan during an upcoming planning horizon. The main aspect of production planning deals with machine loading problem in which selection of a subset of jobs to be manufactured and assignment of their operations to the relevant machines are made. Such problems are not only combinatorial optimization problems, but also happen to be non-deterministic polynomial-time-hard, making it difficult to obtain satisfactory solutions using traditional optimization techniques. In this paper, an attempt has been made to address the machine loading problem with objectives of minimization of system unbalance and maximization of throughput simultaneously while satisfying the system constraints related to available machining time and tool slot designing and using a meta-hybrid heuristic technique based on genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization. The results reported in this paper demonstrate the model efficiency and examine the performance of the system with respect to measures such as throughput and system utilization.

Metacognitive experience of mathematics education students in open start problem solving based on intrapersonal intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sari, D. P.; Usodo, B.; Subanti, S.

2018-04-01

This research aims to describe metacognitive experience of mathematics education students with strong, average, and weak intrapersonal intelligence in open start problem solving. Type of this research was qualitative research. The research subject was mathematics education students in Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta in academic year 2017/2018. The selected students consisted of 6 students with details of two students in each intrapersonal intelligence category. The research instruments were questionnaire, open start problem solving task, and interview guidelines. Data validity used time triangulation. Data analyses were done through data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusion. Based on findings, subjects with strong intrapersonal intelligence had high self confidence that they were able to solve problem correctly, able to do planning steps and able to solve the problem appropriately. Subjects with average intrapersonal intelligence had high self-assessment that they were able to solve the problem, able to do planning steps appropriately but they had not maximized in carrying out the plan so that it resulted incorrectness answer. Subjects with weak intrapersonal intelligence had high self confidence in capability of solving math problem, lack of precision in taking plans so their task results incorrectness answer.

Planning Under Continuous Time and Resource Uncertainty: A Challenge for AI

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bresina, John; Dearden, Richard; Meuleau, Nicolas; Smith, David; Washington, Rich; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

There has been considerable work in Al on decision-theoretic planning and planning under uncertainty. Unfortunately, all of this work suffers from one or more of the following limitations: 1) it relies on very simple models of actions and time, 2) it assumes that uncertainty is manifested in discrete action outcomes, and 3) it is only practical for very small problems. For many real world problems, these assumptions fail to hold. A case in point is planning the activities for a Mars rover. For this domain none of the above assumptions are valid: 1) actions can be concurrent and have differing durations, 2) there is uncertainty concerning action durations and consumption of continuous resources like power, and 3) typical daily plans involve on the order of a hundred actions. We describe the rover problem, discuss previous work on planning under uncertainty, and present a detailed. but very small, example illustrating some of the difficulties of finding good plans.

Rotational-path decomposition based recursive planning for spacecraft attitude reorientation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Rui; Wang, Hui; Xu, Wenming; Cui, Pingyuan; Zhu, Shengying

2018-02-01

The spacecraft reorientation is a common task in many space missions. With multiple pointing constraints, it is greatly difficult to solve the constrained spacecraft reorientation planning problem. To deal with this problem, an efficient rotational-path decomposition based recursive planning (RDRP) method is proposed in this paper. The uniform pointing-constraint-ignored attitude rotation planning process is designed to solve all rotations without considering pointing constraints. Then the whole path is checked node by node. If any pointing constraint is violated, the nearest critical increment approach will be used to generate feasible alternative nodes in the process of rotational-path decomposition. As the planning path of each subdivision may still violate pointing constraints, multiple decomposition is needed and the reorientation planning is designed as a recursive manner. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed method has been successfully applied in two SPARK microsatellites to solve onboard constrained attitude reorientation planning problem, which were developed by the Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites and launched on 22 December 2016.

A Working Plan for Treating the Engineering Faculty Shortage Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shoup, Terry E., Ed.

In view of the consequences of the engineering faculty shortage problem on engineering capabilities in the future in the United States, a working plan which will serve as a national agenda for prompt action has been developed. This plan involves the three key groups (federal government, academic community, industry) who have the vision,…

Let's Recycle! Lesson Plans for Grades K-6 and 7-12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC. Solid Waste Management Office.

The purpose of this guide is to inform students of solid waste problems and disposal options. Lesson plans deal specifically with waste and recycling and include interdisciplinary approaches to these problems. The manual is divided in two sections - K-6 and 7-12. Activities are designed to allow the teacher maximum flexibility, and plans may be…

Method and apparatus for planning motions of robot manipulators

DOEpatents

Chen, Pang C.; Hwang, Yong K.

1996-01-01

Method and apparatus for automatically planning motions of robot manipulators. The invention rapidly finds a collision-free path in a cluttered robot environment, if one exists, from any starting configuration of the robot manipulator to any ending configuration. The time to solution of a motion planning problem is not uniform, but proportional to the complexity of the problem.

Students’ Relational Understanding in Quadrilateral Problem Solving Based on Adversity Quotient

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Safitri, A. N.; Juniati, D.; Masriyah

2018-01-01

The type of research is qualitative approach which aims to describe how students’ relational understanding of solving mathematic problem that was seen from Adversity Quotient aspect. Research subjects were three 7th grade students of Junior High School. They were taken by category of Adversity Quotient (AQ) such quitter, camper, and climber. Data collected based on problem solving and interview. The research result showed that (1) at the stage of understanding the problem, the subjects were able to state and write down what is known and asked, and able to mention the concepts associated with the quadrilateral problem. (2) The three subjects devise a plan by linking concepts relating to quadrilateral problems. (3) The three subjects were able to solve the problem. (4) The three subjects were able to look back the answers. The three subjects were able to understand the problem, devise a plan, carry out the plan and look back. However, the quitter and camper subjects have not been able to give a reason for the steps they have taken.

Planning for the scientific use of the international Space Station complex

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Halpern, R. E.

1988-01-01

Plans for the development of an international Space Station complex in cooperation with Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency are reviewed. The discussion covers the planned uses of the Space Station, the principal research facilities, allocation of the resources available to the research facilities, and tactical and strategic planning related to the Space Station project. Particular attention is given to problems related to microgravity sciences and approaches to the solutions of these problems.

PRACTICAL: Planning and Resource Allocation in C2-Domains With Time Critical Algorithms (PRACTICAL: Planning en Allocatie in C2-Domeinen Met Tijdkritische Algoritmen)

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-02-01

the (re)planning framework, incorporating the demonstrators CALIGULA and ALLOCATOR for resource allocation and scheduling respectively. In the Command...demonstrator CALIGULA for the problem of allocating frequencies to a radio link network. The problems in the domain of scheduling are dealt with. which has...demonstrating the (re)planning framework, incorporating the demonstrators CALIGULA and ALLOCATOR for resource allocation and scheduling respectively

Automated Planning for a Deep Space Communications Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Estlin, Tara; Fisher, Forest; Mutz, Darren; Chien, Steve

1999-01-01

This paper describes the application of Artificial Intelligence planning techniques to the problem of antenna track plan generation for a NASA Deep Space Communications Station. Me described system enables an antenna communications station to automatically respond to a set of tracking goals by correctly configuring the appropriate hardware and software to provide the requested communication services. To perform this task, the Automated Scheduling and Planning Environment (ASPEN) has been applied to automatically produce antenna trucking plans that are tailored to support a set of input goals. In this paper, we describe the antenna automation problem, the ASPEN planning and scheduling system, how ASPEN is used to generate antenna track plans, the results of several technology demonstrations, and future work utilizing dynamic planning technology.

Applying ant colony optimization metaheuristic to solve forest transportation planning problems with side constraints

Treesearch

Marco A. Contreras; Woodam Chung; Greg Jones

2008-01-01

Forest transportation planning problems (FTPP) have evolved from considering only the financial aspects of timber management to more holistic problems that also consider the environmental impacts of roads. These additional requirements have introduced side constraints, making FTPP larger and more complex. Mixed-integer programming (MIP) has been used to solve FTPP, but...

Demography: a tool for understanding the wildland-urban interface fire problems

Treesearch

James B. Davis

1989-01-01

Fire managers across the nation are confronting the rapidly developing problem created by movement of people into wildland areas, increasing what has been termed the wildland-urban interface. The problem is very complex from the standpoint of fire planning and management. To plan and manage more effectively, fire managers should identify three types of interface areas...

7 CFR Exhibit A to Subpart B of... - Grant Agreement-Growth Management and Housing Planning for Approved Designated Energy Impacted Areas

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... met; (iii) Problems, delays, or adverse conditions which will materially affect attainment of planned... process which will improve local conditions and alleviate problems associated with increased coal or... Grantee programs, projects, related activities, and problems. (b) The Grantee shall inform the Grantor as...

Behavioral Approaches to the Assessment and Remediation of Academic Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lentz, Francis E., Jr.

There has been an increasing call for school psychologists to spend time collecting data that are functionally related to the planning of academic interventions. In order to identify the problem and plan for remediation, data must be taken that bear directly on the child's academic problems in the classroom and the curricular sequences actually…

Teaching for Connection: Critical Thinking Skills, Problem Solving, and Academic and Occupational Competencies. Lesson Plans.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedges, Lowell E.

This document contains 48 sample lesson plans that practicing teachers of vocational and academic education have developed to train vocational students to think critically and to solve problems. Discussed in the introduction are the following topics: critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making as the building blocks of teaching;…

A representation for error detection and recovery in robot task plans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lyons, D. M.; Vijaykumar, R.; Venkataraman, S. T.

1990-01-01

A general definition is given of the problem of error detection and recovery in robot assembly systems, and a general representation is developed for dealing with the problem. This invariant representation involves a monitoring process which is concurrent, with one monitor per task plan. A plan hierarchy is discussed, showing how diagnosis and recovery can be handled using the representation.

Calculus Problem Solving Behavior of Mathematic Education Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rizal, M.; Mansyur, J.

2017-04-01

The purpose of this study is to obtain a description of the problem-solving behaviour of mathematics education students. The attainment of the purpose consisted of several stages: (1) to gain the subject from the mathematic education of first semester students, each of them who has a high, medium, and low competence of mathematic case. (2) To give two mathematical problems with different characteristics. The first problem (M1), the statement does not lead to a resolution. The second problem (M2), a statement leads to problem-solving. (3) To explore the behaviour of problem-solving based on the step of Polya (Rizal, 2011) by way of thinking aloud and in-depth interviews. The obtained data are analysed as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994) but at first, time triangulation is done or data’s credibility by providing equivalent problem contexts and at different times. The results show that the behavioral problem solvers (mathematic education students) who are capable of high mathematic competency (ST). In understanding M1, ST is more likely to pay attention to an image first, read the texts piecemeal and repeatedly, then as a whole and more focus to the sentences that contain equations, numbers or symbols. As a result, not all information can be received well. When understanding the M2, ST can link the information from a problem that is stored in the working memory to the information on the long-term memory. ST makes planning to the solution of M1 and M2 by using a formula based on similar experiences which have been ever received before. Another case when implementing the troubleshooting plans, ST complete the M1 according to the plan, but not all can be resolved correctly. In contrast to the implementation of the solving plan of M2, ST can solve the problem according to plan quickly and correctly. According to the solving result of M1 and M2, ST conducts by reading the job based on an algorithm and reasonability. Furthermore, when SS and SR understand the problem of M1 and M2 similar to the ST’s, but both of the problem solvers read the questions with not complete so that they cannot pay attention to the questions of the problems. SS and SR create and execute M2 plan same as ST, but for M1, SS and SR cannot do it, but only active on reading the statement of the problem. On the checking of the M2 task, SS and SR retrace the task according to the used formula.

Research and application of genetic algorithm in path planning of logistics distribution vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yong; Zhou, Heng; Wang, Ying

2017-08-01

The core of the logistics distribution system is the vehicle routing planning, research path planning problem, provide a better solution has become an important issue. In order to provide the decision support for logistics and distribution operations, this paper studies the problem of vehicle routing with capacity constraints (CVRP). By establishing a mathematical model, the genetic algorithm is used to plan the path of the logistics vehicle to meet the minimum logistics and transportation costs.

Temporal planning for transportation planning and scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frederking, Robert E.; Muscettola, Nicola

1992-01-01

In this paper we describe preliminary work done in the CORTES project, applying the Heuristic Scheduling Testbed System (HSTS) to a transportation planning and scheduling domain. First, we describe in more detail the transportation problems that we are addressing. We then describe the fundamental characteristics of HSTS and we concentrate on the representation of multiple capacity resources. We continue with a more detailed description of the transportation planning problem that we have initially addressed in HSTS and of its solution. Finally we describe future directions for our research.

Report of the National Research Conference on Consumer and Homemaking Education (Columbus, Ohio, June 2-5, 1970). Leadership Training Series No. 31.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorman, Anna M.

To determine priorities for critical problems facing consumer and homemaking education and plan research projects which focus on these critical problems, a 5-day conference was attended by 107 vocational-technical education specialists and educators. Conference sessions were planned to (1) identify critical research problem areas and prepare a…

Decision-Theoretic Control of Planetary Rovers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zilberstein, Shlomo; Washington, Richard; Bernstein, Daniel S.; Mouaddib, Abdel-Illah; Morris, Robert (Technical Monitor)

2003-01-01

Planetary rovers are small unmanned vehicles equipped with cameras and a variety of sensors used for scientific experiments. They must operate under tight constraints over such resources as operation time, power, storage capacity, and communication bandwidth. Moreover, the limited computational resources of the rover limit the complexity of on-line planning and scheduling. We describe two decision-theoretic approaches to maximize the productivity of planetary rovers: one based on adaptive planning and the other on hierarchical reinforcement learning. Both approaches map the problem into a Markov decision problem and attempt to solve a large part of the problem off-line, exploiting the structure of the plan and independence between plan components. We examine the advantages and limitations of these techniques and their scalability.

Investigating the enhanced Best Performance Algorithm for Annual Crop Planning problem based on economic factors.

PubMed

Adewumi, Aderemi Oluyinka; Chetty, Sivashan

2017-01-01

The Annual Crop Planning (ACP) problem was a recently introduced problem in the literature. This study further expounds on this problem by presenting a new mathematical formulation, which is based on market economic factors. To determine solutions, a new local search metaheuristic algorithm is investigated which is called the enhanced Best Performance Algorithm (eBPA). eBPA's results are compared against two well-known local search metaheuristic algorithms; these include Tabu Search and Simulated Annealing. The results show the potential of the eBPA for continuous optimization problems.

Distributed Market-Based Algorithms for Multi-Agent Planning with Shared Resources

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-02-01

1 Introduction 1 2 Distributed Market-Based Multi-Agent Planning 5 2.1 Problem Formulation...over the deterministic planner, on the “test set” of scenarios with changing economies. . . 50 xi xii Chapter 1 Introduction Multi-agent planning is...representation of the objective (4.2.1). For example, for the supply chain mangement problem, we assumed a sequence of Bernoulli coin flips, which seems

Influence of Planning Time and First-Move Strategy on Tower of Hanoi Problem-Solving Performance of Mentally Retarded Young Adults and Nonretarded Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spitz, Herman H.; And Others

1985-01-01

In two experiments using a computer-interfaced problem, planning time of 50 retarded young adults was as long as or longer than that of higher performing nonretarded children. In neither group was there a reliable correlation between planning time and performance. There were group differences in preferred strategies, possibly associated with…

A unified motion planning approach for redundant and non-redundant manipulators with actuator constraints. Ph.D. Thesis Final Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chung, Ching-Luan

1990-01-01

The term trajectory planning has been used to refer to the process of determining the time history of joint trajectory of each joint variable corresponding to a specified trajectory of the end effector. The trajectory planning problem was solved as a purely kinematic problem. The drawback is that there is no guarantee that the actuators can deliver the effort necessary to track the planned trajectory. To overcome this limitation, a motion planning approach which addresses the kinematics, dynamics, and feedback control of a manipulator in a unified framework was developed. Actuator constraints are taken into account explicitly and a priori in the synthesis of the feedback control law. Therefore the result of applying the motion planning approach described is not only the determination of the entire set of joint trajectories but also a complete specification of the feedback control strategy which would yield these joint trajectories without violating actuator constraints. The effectiveness of the unified motion planning approach is demonstrated on two problems which are of practical interest in manipulator robotics.

Dual stage potential field method for robotic path planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Pradyumna Kumar; Parida, Pramod Kumar

2018-04-01

Path planning for autonomous mobile robots are the root for all autonomous mobile systems. Various methods are used for optimization of path to be followed by the autonomous mobile robots. Artificial potential field based path planning method is one of the most used methods for the researchers. Various algorithms have been proposed using the potential field approach. But in most of the common problems are encounters while heading towards the goal or target. i.e. local minima problem, zero potential regions problem, complex shaped obstacles problem, target near obstacle problem. In this paper we provide a new algorithm in which two types of potential functions are used one after another. The former one is to use to get the probable points and later one for getting the optimum path. In this algorithm we consider only the static obstacle and goal.

Optimization of spatiotemporally fractionated radiotherapy treatments with bounds on the achievable benefit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaddy, Melissa R.; Yıldız, Sercan; Unkelbach, Jan; Papp, Dávid

2018-01-01

Spatiotemporal fractionation schemes, that is, treatments delivering different dose distributions in different fractions, can potentially lower treatment side effects without compromising tumor control. This can be achieved by hypofractionating parts of the tumor while delivering approximately uniformly fractionated doses to the surrounding tissue. Plan optimization for such treatments is based on biologically effective dose (BED); however, this leads to computationally challenging nonconvex optimization problems. Optimization methods that are in current use yield only locally optimal solutions, and it has hitherto been unclear whether these plans are close to the global optimum. We present an optimization framework to compute rigorous bounds on the maximum achievable normal tissue BED reduction for spatiotemporal plans. The approach is demonstrated on liver tumors, where the primary goal is to reduce mean liver BED without compromising any other treatment objective. The BED-based treatment plan optimization problems are formulated as quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problems. First, a conventional, uniformly fractionated reference plan is computed using convex optimization. Then, a second, nonconvex, QCQP model is solved to local optimality to compute a spatiotemporally fractionated plan that minimizes mean liver BED, subject to the constraints that the plan is no worse than the reference plan with respect to all other planning goals. Finally, we derive a convex relaxation of the second model in the form of a semidefinite programming problem, which provides a rigorous lower bound on the lowest achievable mean liver BED. The method is presented on five cases with distinct geometries. The computed spatiotemporal plans achieve 12-35% mean liver BED reduction over the optimal uniformly fractionated plans. This reduction corresponds to 79-97% of the gap between the mean liver BED of the uniform reference plans and our lower bounds on the lowest achievable mean liver BED. The results indicate that spatiotemporal treatments can achieve substantial reductions in normal tissue dose and BED, and that local optimization techniques provide high-quality plans that are close to realizing the maximum potential normal tissue dose reduction.

Effective Planning of the Future of the Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sentsov, A.; Bolsunovskaya, Yu; Bolsunovskaya, L.

2014-08-01

The problems of the Arctic region have become the most important ones in the world. Political risks hinder the industrial development of the region. This paper addresses the problem of planning and modeling the future of this region. It presents the problems of developing a model of the future due to the ideologies and strategies of two main actors in the Arctic, the United States and the Russian Federation. The effects of a bipolar perception of the future of the region and of the whole world are shown. A model of the effective planning of the future of the Arctic region is proposed.

Exact and explicit optimal solutions for trajectory planning and control of single-link flexible-joint manipulators

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, Guanrong

1991-01-01

An optimal trajectory planning problem for a single-link, flexible joint manipulator is studied. A global feedback-linearization is first applied to formulate the nonlinear inequality-constrained optimization problem in a suitable way. Then, an exact and explicit structural formula for the optimal solution of the problem is derived and the solution is shown to be unique. It turns out that the optimal trajectory planning and control can be done off-line, so that the proposed method is applicable to both theoretical analysis and real time tele-robotics control engineering.

Study of the Cherokee Nuclear Station: projected impacts, monitoring plan, and mitigation options for Cherokee County, South Carolina

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Peelle, E.; Schweitzer, M.; Scharre, P.

1979-07-01

This report inventories Cherokee County's capabilities and CNS project characteristics, projects expected impacts from the interaction of the two defines four options for Cherokee County decision makers, and presents a range of possible mitigation and monitoring plans for dealing with the problems identified. The four options and general implementation guidelines for each are presented after reviewing pertinent features of other mitigation and monitoring plans. The four options include (1) no action, (2) preventing impacts by preventing growth, (3) selective growth in designated areas as services can be supplied, and (4) maximum growth designed to attract as many in-movers as possiblemore » through a major program of capital investiments in public and private services. With the exception of the no action option, all plans deal with impacts according to some strategy determined by how the County wishes to manage growth. Solutions for impact problems depend on which growth strategy is selected and what additional resources are secured during the impact period. A monitoring program deals with the problems of data and projections uncertainty, while direct action is proposed to deal with the institutional problems of delay of the needed access road, timeing and location problems from the tax base mismatch, and lack of local planning capability.« less

Minimization In Digital Design As A Meta-Planning Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, William P. C.; Wu, Jung-Gen

1987-05-01

In our model-based expert system for automatic digital system design, we formalize the design process into three sub-processes - compiling high-level behavioral specifications into primitive behavioral operations, grouping primitive operations into behavioral functions, and grouping functions into modules. Consideration of design minimization explicitly controls decision-making in the last two subprocesses. Design minimization, a key task in the automatic design of digital systems, is complicated by the high degree of interaction among the time sequence and content of design decisions. In this paper, we present an AI approach which directly addresses these interactions and their consequences by modeling the minimization prob-lem as a planning problem, and the management of design decision-making as a meta-planning problem.

TDRSS momentum unload planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cross, George R.; Potter, Mitchell A.; Whitehead, J. Douglass; Smith, James T.

1991-01-01

A knowledge-based system is described which monitors TDRSS telemetry for problems in the momentum unload procedure. The system displays TDRSS telemetry and commands in real time via X-windows. The system constructs a momentum unload plan which agrees with the preferences of the attitude control specialists and the momentum growth characteristics of the individual spacecraft. During the execution of the plan, the system monitors the progress of the procedure and watches for unexpected problems.

Occurrence of oral health problems and planned measures in dependent older people in nursing care.

PubMed

Rantzow, Veronica; Andersson, Pia; Lindmark, Ulrika

2018-06-26

The aim of the study was to describe oral health problems and planned measures in older people receiving nursing care. Poor oral health conditions have a negative impact on the quality of life of older people. Therefore, oral care is an important task in daily nursing activities. Data were obtained from the web-based Swedish national quality register Senior Alert. Data regarding oral health status and planned measures in individuals ≥65 years from one county in Sweden between July 2014 and June 2015 were included. The Revised Oral Assessment Guide - the Jönköping (ROAG-J), was used routinely by nursing staff in nursing care facilities to measure oral health status. Oral assessments were made on 2567 individuals (65.7% women). The most common oral health problem was related to "Teeth" (43.0%), which indicates deficient oral hygiene and/or broken teeth. At least one measure was planned in all the participants. The most common planned measures were "Moistening of the mouth" (16.6%), followed by "Brushing - assistance or complete help" (13.5%). Oral health problems were common, and planned measures did not seem to be sufficient to address the identified problems. The results indicate that greater priority should be given to the oral health care of older people in nursing care. The study highlights the importance of not only identifying oral health problems but also having knowledge and strategies for oral health care. Collaboration is needed to support nurses in caring for the oral health care of older people in nursing homes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Far-field mission planning for nap-of-the-earth flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deutsch, Owen L.; Desai, Mukund; Mcgee, Leonard A.

1987-01-01

In the face of numerically superior hostile forces, deployment of individual vehicles to the right place, at the right time, and the ability to plan missions with less conservatism, will become significant force multipliers. Far-field mission planning is one of the enabling technologies that will facilitate force coordination through management of mission timeline, vehicle survivability and fuel constraints. On-board replanning is required to deal responsively with departures from nominal plan execution that result from imperfect knowledge of and temporal variability in the mission environment. The far-field planning problem is posed as a constrained optimization problem and algorithms and structural organization are proposed for the solution.

Optimal Limited Contingency Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meuleau, Nicolas; Smith, David E.

2003-01-01

For a given problem, the optimal Markov policy over a finite horizon is a conditional plan containing a potentially large number of branches. However, there are applications where it is desirable to strictly limit the number of decision points and branches in a plan. This raises the question of how one goes about finding optimal plans containing only a limited number of branches. In this paper, we present an any-time algorithm for optimal k-contingency planning. It is the first optimal algorithm for limited contingency planning that is not an explicit enumeration of possible contingent plans. By modelling the problem as a partially observable Markov decision process, it implements the Bellman optimality principle and prunes the solution space. We present experimental results of applying this algorithm to some simple test cases.

PlanWorks: A Debugging Environment for Constraint Based Planning Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Daley, Patrick; Frank, Jeremy; Iatauro, Michael; McGann, Conor; Taylor, Will

2005-01-01

Numerous planning and scheduling systems employ underlying constraint reasoning systems. Debugging such systems involves the search for errors in model rules, constraint reasoning algorithms, search heuristics, and the problem instance (initial state and goals). In order to effectively find such problems, users must see why each state or action is in a plan by tracking causal chains back to part of the initial problem instance. They must be able to visualize complex relationships among many different entities and distinguish between those entities easily. For example, a variable can be in the scope of several constraints, as well as part of a state or activity in a plan; the activity can arise as a consequence of another activity and a model rule. Finally, they must be able to track each logical inference made during planning. We have developed PlanWorks, a comprehensive system for debugging constraint-based planning and scheduling systems. PlanWorks assumes a strong transaction model of the entire planning process, including adding and removing parts of the constraint network, variable assignment, and constraint propagation. A planner logs all transactions to a relational database that is tailored to support queries for of specialized views to display different forms of data (e.g. constraints, activities, resources, and causal links). PlanWorks was specifically developed for the Extensible Universal Remote Operations Planning Architecture (EUROPA(sub 2)) developed at NASA, but the underlying principles behind PlanWorks make it useful for many constraint-based planning systems. The paper is organized as follows. We first describe some fundamentals of EUROPA(sub 2). We then describe PlanWorks' principal components. We then discuss each component in detail, and then describe inter-component navigation features. We close with a discussion of how PlanWorks is used to find model flaws.

Application of Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm in the Heating System Planning Problem

PubMed Central

Ma, Rong-Jiang; Yu, Nan-Yang; Hu, Jun-Yi

2013-01-01

Based on the life cycle cost (LCC) approach, this paper presents an integral mathematical model and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for the heating system planning (HSP) problem. The proposed mathematical model minimizes the cost of heating system as the objective for a given life cycle time. For the particularity of HSP problem, the general particle swarm optimization algorithm was improved. An actual case study was calculated to check its feasibility in practical use. The results show that the improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithm can more preferably solve the HSP problem than PSO algorithm. Moreover, the results also present the potential to provide useful information when making decisions in the practical planning process. Therefore, it is believed that if this approach is applied correctly and in combination with other elements, it can become a powerful and effective optimization tool for HSP problem. PMID:23935429

Planning and managing future space facility projects. [management by objectives and group dynamics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sieber, J. E.; Wilhelm, J. A.; Tanner, T. A.; Helmreich, R. L.; Burgenbauch, S. F.

1979-01-01

To learn how ground-based personnel of a space project plan and organize their work and how such planning and organizing relate to work outcomes, longitudinal study of the management and execution of the Space Lab Mission Development Test 3 (SMD 3) was performed at NASA Ames Research Center. A view of the problems likely to arise in organizations and some methods of coping with these problems are presented as well as the conclusions and recommendations that pertain strictly to SMD 3 management. Emphasis is placed on the broader context of future space facility projects and additional problems that may be anticipated. A model of management that may be used to facilitate problem solving and communication - management by objectives (MBO) is presented. Some problems of communication and emotion management that MBO does not address directly are considered. Models for promoting mature, constructive and satisfying emotional relationships among group members are discussed.

The Proposal of the Model for Developing Dispatch System for Nationwide One-Day Integrative Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Hyun Soo; Choi, Hyung Rim; Park, Byung Kwon; Jung, Jae Un; Lee, Jin Wook

The problems of dispatch planning for container truck are classified as the pickup and delivery problems, which are highly complex issues that consider various constraints in the real world. However, in case of the current situation, it is developed by the control system so that it requires the automated planning system under the view of nationwide integrative planning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to suggest model to develop the automated dispatch system through the constraint satisfaction problem and meta-heuristic technique-based algorithm. In the further study, the practical system is developed and evaluation is performed in aspect of various results. This study suggests model to undergo the study which promoted the complexity of the problems by considering the various constraints which were not considered in the early study. However, it is suggested that it is necessary to add the study which includes the real-time monitoring function for vehicles and cargos based on the information technology.

Investigating the enhanced Best Performance Algorithm for Annual Crop Planning problem based on economic factors

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

The Annual Crop Planning (ACP) problem was a recently introduced problem in the literature. This study further expounds on this problem by presenting a new mathematical formulation, which is based on market economic factors. To determine solutions, a new local search metaheuristic algorithm is investigated which is called the enhanced Best Performance Algorithm (eBPA). eBPA’s results are compared against two well-known local search metaheuristic algorithms; these include Tabu Search and Simulated Annealing. The results show the potential of the eBPA for continuous optimization problems. PMID:28792495

Use of Models in Urban Transportation Planning

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1973-04-01

The report describes the most commonly used models in urban transportation planning. A background on urban transportation planning is given including changes in planning objectives and the effects of Federal legislation. General concepts and problems...

A model for solving the prescribed burn planning problem.

PubMed

Rachmawati, Ramya; Ozlen, Melih; Reinke, Karin J; Hearne, John W

2015-01-01

The increasing frequency of destructive wildfires, with a consequent loss of life and property, has led to fire and land management agencies initiating extensive fuel management programs. This involves long-term planning of fuel reduction activities such as prescribed burning or mechanical clearing. In this paper, we propose a mixed integer programming (MIP) model that determines when and where fuel reduction activities should take place. The model takes into account multiple vegetation types in the landscape, their tolerance to frequency of fire events, and keeps track of the age of each vegetation class in each treatment unit. The objective is to minimise fuel load over the planning horizon. The complexity of scheduling fuel reduction activities has led to the introduction of sophisticated mathematical optimisation methods. While these approaches can provide optimum solutions, they can be computationally expensive, particularly for fuel management planning which extends across the landscape and spans long term planning horizons. This raises the question of how much better do exact modelling approaches compare to simpler heuristic approaches in their solutions. To answer this question, the proposed model is run using an exact MIP (using commercial MIP solver) and two heuristic approaches that decompose the problem into multiple single-period sub problems. The Knapsack Problem (KP), which is the first heuristic approach, solves the single period problems, using an exact MIP approach. The second heuristic approach solves the single period sub problem using a greedy heuristic approach. The three methods are compared in term of model tractability, computational time and the objective values. The model was tested using randomised data from 711 treatment units in the Barwon-Otway district of Victoria, Australia. Solutions for the exact MIP could be obtained for up to a 15-year planning only using a standard implementation of CPLEX. Both heuristic approaches can solve significantly larger problems, involving 100-year or even longer planning horizons. Furthermore there are no substantial differences in the solutions produced by the three approaches. It is concluded that for practical purposes a heuristic method is to be preferred to the exact MIP approach.

7 CFR 621.34 - Recipient responsibility.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... data, analyzing problems, planning and formulating proposals, and considering financial plans. Active public participation is solicited in the planning process through means such as questionnaires, public...

The quality of paper-based versus electronic nursing care plan in Australian aged care homes: A documentation audit study.

PubMed

Wang, Ning; Yu, Ping; Hailey, David

2015-08-01

The nursing care plan plays an essential role in supporting care provision in Australian aged care. The implementation of electronic systems in aged care homes was anticipated to improve documentation quality. Standardized nursing terminologies, developed to improve communication and advance the nursing profession, are not required in aged care practice. The language used by nurses in the nursing care plan and the effect of the electronic system on documentation quality in residential aged care need to be investigated. To describe documentation practice for the nursing care plan in Australian residential aged care homes and to compare the quantity and quality of documentation in paper-based and electronic nursing care plans. A nursing documentation audit was conducted in seven residential aged care homes in Australia. One hundred and eleven paper-based and 194 electronic nursing care plans, conveniently selected, were reviewed. The quantity of documentation in a care plan was determined by the number of phrases describing a resident problem and the number of goals and interventions. The quality of documentation was measured using 16 relevant questions in an instrument developed for the study. There was a tendency to omit 'nursing problem' or 'nursing diagnosis' in the nursing process by changing these terms (used in the paper-based care plan) to 'observation' in the electronic version. The electronic nursing care plan documented more signs and symptoms of resident problems and evaluation of care than the paper-based format (48.30 vs. 47.34 out of 60, P<0.01), but had a lower total mean quality score. The electronic care plan contained fewer problem or diagnosis statements, contributing factors and resident outcomes than the paper-based system (P<0.01). Both types of nursing care plan were weak in documenting measurable and concrete resident outcomes. The overall quality of documentation content for the nursing process was no better in the electronic system than in the paper-based system. Omission of the nursing problem or diagnosis from the nursing process may reflect a range of factors behind the practice that need to be understood. Further work is also needed on qualitative aspects of the nurse care plan, nurses' attitudes towards standardized terminologies and the effect of different documentation practice on care quality and resident outcomes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stunden abstract. Der Einsatz von Nachrichten im Leistungskurs "Social Problems" (Class-Hour Plan. The Introduction of News in the Honors Course "Social Problems")

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pegler, Klaus

1977-01-01

Gives a detailed ESL (English as a second language) class-hour plan for using a BBC radio news program on vandalism as a social problem. Teaching goals, teaching materials and methodology are discussed. The working texts are appended; the news tests are available free from the author. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

A Diagnostic Taxonomy of Adult Career Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Robert E.; Cellini, James V.

1981-01-01

Developed a taxonomy for the differential diagnosis of adult career development problems. Problem categories identified were: (1) problems in career decision making; (2) problems in implementing career plans; (3) problems in organizational/institutional performance; and (4) problems in organizational/institutional adaption. (Author)

Mobile transporter path planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baffes, Paul; Wang, Lui

1990-01-01

The use of a genetic algorithm (GA) for solving the mobile transporter path planning problem is investigated. The mobile transporter is a traveling robotic vehicle proposed for the space station which must be able to reach any point of the structure autonomously. Elements of the genetic algorithm are explored in both a theoretical and experimental sense. Specifically, double crossover, greedy crossover, and tournament selection techniques are examined. Additionally, the use of local optimization techniques working in concert with the GA are also explored. Recent developments in genetic algorithm theory are shown to be particularly effective in a path planning problem domain, though problem areas can be cited which require more research.

Re-introducing Conceptual and Detailed Planning: Differentiating Between Decision Making and Problem Identification

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-17

emphasizes its importance. BG Edward Cardon and LTC Steve Leonard point out, “many of the concepts underpinning design are not...70 BG Edward C. Cardon and LTC Steve Leonard, “Unleashing Design; Planning and the Art of Battle Command,” Military Review Mar...Apr (2010): 2. 71 Cardon and Leonard, “Unleashing Design; Planning and the Art of Battle Command,” 3. 33 structured problems using complexity theory

Distributed query plan generation using multiobjective genetic algorithm.

PubMed

Panicker, Shina; Kumar, T V Vijay

2014-01-01

A distributed query processing strategy, which is a key performance determinant in accessing distributed databases, aims to minimize the total query processing cost. One way to achieve this is by generating efficient distributed query plans that involve fewer sites for processing a query. In the case of distributed relational databases, the number of possible query plans increases exponentially with respect to the number of relations accessed by the query and the number of sites where these relations reside. Consequently, computing optimal distributed query plans becomes a complex problem. This distributed query plan generation (DQPG) problem has already been addressed using single objective genetic algorithm, where the objective is to minimize the total query processing cost comprising the local processing cost (LPC) and the site-to-site communication cost (CC). In this paper, this DQPG problem is formulated and solved as a biobjective optimization problem with the two objectives being minimize total LPC and minimize total CC. These objectives are simultaneously optimized using a multiobjective genetic algorithm NSGA-II. Experimental comparison of the proposed NSGA-II based DQPG algorithm with the single objective genetic algorithm shows that the former performs comparatively better and converges quickly towards optimal solutions for an observed crossover and mutation probability.

Distributed Query Plan Generation Using Multiobjective Genetic Algorithm

PubMed Central

Panicker, Shina; Vijay Kumar, T. V.

2014-01-01

A distributed query processing strategy, which is a key performance determinant in accessing distributed databases, aims to minimize the total query processing cost. One way to achieve this is by generating efficient distributed query plans that involve fewer sites for processing a query. In the case of distributed relational databases, the number of possible query plans increases exponentially with respect to the number of relations accessed by the query and the number of sites where these relations reside. Consequently, computing optimal distributed query plans becomes a complex problem. This distributed query plan generation (DQPG) problem has already been addressed using single objective genetic algorithm, where the objective is to minimize the total query processing cost comprising the local processing cost (LPC) and the site-to-site communication cost (CC). In this paper, this DQPG problem is formulated and solved as a biobjective optimization problem with the two objectives being minimize total LPC and minimize total CC. These objectives are simultaneously optimized using a multiobjective genetic algorithm NSGA-II. Experimental comparison of the proposed NSGA-II based DQPG algorithm with the single objective genetic algorithm shows that the former performs comparatively better and converges quickly towards optimal solutions for an observed crossover and mutation probability. PMID:24963513

Manpower Aspects of Educational Planning. Problems for the Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris (France). International Inst. for Educational Planning.

This report, a compilation of symposium papers presented by participants from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds, examines several urgent and complex problems that lie beyond the purview of the traditional "manpower approach" to educational planning. Although the participants represented developing as well as developed countries, the…

Organisational Problems in Planning Educational Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris (France). Directorate for Scientific Affairs.

Papers submitted to a meeting of economists, educators, and government officials discuss the organizational implications of the link between education and economic growth. Following an introduction by Henning Friis, the authors and titles of the papers are (1) Necat Erder, "Some Administrative Problems in Educational Planning," (2) Raymond…

Planning Educational Small Computer Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiser, Chester

This paper defines problems of school officials in dealing with the new information society, and suggests a planning framework applicable to the design of school and district microcomputer systems. Educators' problems in addressing the demands and opportunities of the emergent information society include inadequate comprehension of a major shift…

Opportunities and Problems in Marketing Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coe, Barbara J.; Welch, Joe

1988-01-01

A description and discussion of a university market penetration plan looks at problems and opportunities related to market selection, establishment of performance objectives, timing, use of human resources, developing a promotional plan and activities, doing a market survey, garnering alumni support, using the media, and using college-community…

Planning Following Stroke: A Relational Complexity Approach Using the Tower of London

PubMed Central

Andrews, Glenda; Halford, Graeme S.; Chappell, Mark; Maujean, Annick; Shum, David H. K.

2014-01-01

Planning on the 4-disk version of the Tower of London (TOL4) was examined in stroke patients and unimpaired controls. Overall TOL4 solution scores indicated impaired planning in the frontal stroke but not non-frontal stroke patients. Consistent with the claim that processing the relations between current states, intermediate states, and goal states is a key process in planning, the domain-general relational complexity metric was a good indicator of the experienced difficulty of TOL4 problems. The relational complexity metric shared variance with task-specific metrics of moves to solution and search depth. Frontal stroke patients showed impaired planning compared to controls on problems at all three complexity levels, but at only two of the three levels of moves to solution, search depth and goal ambiguity. Non-frontal stroke patients showed impaired planning only on the most difficult quaternary-relational and high search depth problems. An independent measure of relational processing (viz., Latin square task) predicted TOL4 solution scores after controlling for stroke status and location, and executive processing (Trail Making Test). The findings suggest that planning involves a domain-general capacity for relational processing that depends on the frontal brain regions. PMID:25566042

Massively parallel support for a case-based planning system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kettler, Brian P.; Hendler, James A.; Anderson, William A.

1993-01-01

Case-based planning (CBP), a kind of case-based reasoning, is a technique in which previously generated plans (cases) are stored in memory and can be reused to solve similar planning problems in the future. CBP can save considerable time over generative planning, in which a new plan is produced from scratch. CBP thus offers a potential (heuristic) mechanism for handling intractable problems. One drawback of CBP systems has been the need for a highly structured memory to reduce retrieval times. This approach requires significant domain engineering and complex memory indexing schemes to make these planners efficient. In contrast, our CBP system, CaPER, uses a massively parallel frame-based AI language (PARKA) and can do extremely fast retrieval of complex cases from a large, unindexed memory. The ability to do fast, frequent retrievals has many advantages: indexing is unnecessary; very large case bases can be used; memory can be probed in numerous alternate ways; and queries can be made at several levels, allowing more specific retrieval of stored plans that better fit the target problem with less adaptation. In this paper we describe CaPER's case retrieval techniques and some experimental results showing its good performance, even on large case bases.

A Dynamic Bioinspired Neural Network Based Real-Time Path Planning Method for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Real-time path planning for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a very difficult and challenging task. Bioinspired neural network (BINN) has been used to deal with this problem for its many distinct advantages: that is, no learning process is needed and realization is also easy. However, there are some shortcomings when BINN is applied to AUV path planning in a three-dimensional (3D) unknown environment, including complex computing problem when the environment is very large and repeated path problem when the size of obstacles is bigger than the detection range of sensors. To deal with these problems, an improved dynamic BINN is proposed in this paper. In this proposed method, the AUV is regarded as the core of the BINN and the size of the BINN is based on the detection range of sensors. Then the BINN will move with the AUV and the computing could be reduced. A virtual target is proposed in the path planning method to ensure that the AUV can move to the real target effectively and avoid big-size obstacles automatically. Furthermore, a target attractor concept is introduced to improve the computing efficiency of neural activities. Finally, some experiments are conducted under various 3D underwater environments. The experimental results show that the proposed BINN based method can deal with the real-time path planning problem for AUV efficiently. PMID:28255297

A Dynamic Bioinspired Neural Network Based Real-Time Path Planning Method for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.

PubMed

Ni, Jianjun; Wu, Liuying; Shi, Pengfei; Yang, Simon X

2017-01-01

Real-time path planning for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a very difficult and challenging task. Bioinspired neural network (BINN) has been used to deal with this problem for its many distinct advantages: that is, no learning process is needed and realization is also easy. However, there are some shortcomings when BINN is applied to AUV path planning in a three-dimensional (3D) unknown environment, including complex computing problem when the environment is very large and repeated path problem when the size of obstacles is bigger than the detection range of sensors. To deal with these problems, an improved dynamic BINN is proposed in this paper. In this proposed method, the AUV is regarded as the core of the BINN and the size of the BINN is based on the detection range of sensors. Then the BINN will move with the AUV and the computing could be reduced. A virtual target is proposed in the path planning method to ensure that the AUV can move to the real target effectively and avoid big-size obstacles automatically. Furthermore, a target attractor concept is introduced to improve the computing efficiency of neural activities. Finally, some experiments are conducted under various 3D underwater environments. The experimental results show that the proposed BINN based method can deal with the real-time path planning problem for AUV efficiently.

Heuristic Search for Planning with Different Forced Goal-Ordering Constraints

PubMed Central

Zhang, Weiming; Cui, Jing; Zhu, Cheng; Huang, Jincai; Liu, Zhong

2013-01-01

Planning with forced goal-ordering (FGO) constraints has been proposed many times over the years, but there are still major difficulties in realizing these FGOs in plan generation. In certain planning domains, all the FGOs exist in the initial state. No matter which approach is adopted to achieve a subgoal, all the subgoals should be achieved in a given sequence from the initial state. Otherwise, the planning may arrive at a deadlock. For some other planning domains, there is no FGO in the initial state. However, FGO may occur during the planning process if certain subgoal is achieved by an inappropriate approach. This paper contributes to illustrate that it is the excludable constraints among the goal achievement operations (GAO) of different subgoals that introduce the FGOs into the planning problem, and planning with FGO is still a challenge for the heuristic search based planners. Then, a novel multistep forward search algorithm is proposed which can solve the planning problem with different FGOs efficiently. PMID:23935443

PM2006: a highly scalable urban planning management information system--Case study: Suzhou Urban Planning Bureau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jing, Changfeng; Liang, Song; Ruan, Yong; Huang, Jie

2008-10-01

During the urbanization process, when facing complex requirements of city development, ever-growing urban data, rapid development of planning business and increasing planning complexity, a scalable, extensible urban planning management information system is needed urgently. PM2006 is such a system that can deal with these problems. In response to the status and problems in urban planning, the scalability and extensibility of PM2006 are introduced which can be seen as business-oriented workflow extensibility, scalability of DLL-based architecture, flexibility on platforms of GIS and database, scalability of data updating and maintenance and so on. It is verified that PM2006 system has good extensibility and scalability which can meet the requirements of all levels of administrative divisions and can adapt to ever-growing changes in urban planning business. At the end of this paper, the application of PM2006 in Urban Planning Bureau of Suzhou city is described.

Task Assignment and Path Planning for Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Using 3D Dubins Curves †

PubMed Central

Zhang, Meiyan; Zheng, Yahong Rosa

2017-01-01

This paper investigates the task assignment and path planning problem for multiple AUVs in three dimensional (3D) underwater wireless sensor networks where nonholonomic motion constraints of underwater AUVs in 3D space are considered. The multi-target task assignment and path planning problem is modeled by the Multiple Traveling Sales Person (MTSP) problem and the Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to solve the MTSP problem with Euclidean distance as the cost function and the Tour Hop Balance (THB) or Tour Length Balance (TLB) constraints as the stop criterion. The resulting tour sequences are mapped to 2D Dubins curves in the X−Y plane, and then interpolated linearly to obtain the Z coordinates. We demonstrate that the linear interpolation fails to achieve G1 continuity in the 3D Dubins path for multiple targets. Therefore, the interpolated 3D Dubins curves are checked against the AUV dynamics constraint and the ones satisfying the constraint are accepted to finalize the 3D Dubins curve selection. Simulation results demonstrate that the integration of the 3D Dubins curve with the MTSP model is successful and effective for solving the 3D target assignment and path planning problem. PMID:28696377

Task Assignment and Path Planning for Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Using 3D Dubins Curves †.

PubMed

Cai, Wenyu; Zhang, Meiyan; Zheng, Yahong Rosa

2017-07-11

This paper investigates the task assignment and path planning problem for multiple AUVs in three dimensional (3D) underwater wireless sensor networks where nonholonomic motion constraints of underwater AUVs in 3D space are considered. The multi-target task assignment and path planning problem is modeled by the Multiple Traveling Sales Person (MTSP) problem and the Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to solve the MTSP problem with Euclidean distance as the cost function and the Tour Hop Balance (THB) or Tour Length Balance (TLB) constraints as the stop criterion. The resulting tour sequences are mapped to 2D Dubins curves in the X - Y plane, and then interpolated linearly to obtain the Z coordinates. We demonstrate that the linear interpolation fails to achieve G 1 continuity in the 3D Dubins path for multiple targets. Therefore, the interpolated 3D Dubins curves are checked against the AUV dynamics constraint and the ones satisfying the constraint are accepted to finalize the 3D Dubins curve selection. Simulation results demonstrate that the integration of the 3D Dubins curve with the MTSP model is successful and effective for solving the 3D target assignment and path planning problem.

[Planning driven by health priorities. Master planning criteria].

PubMed

Tresserras, Ricard

2008-12-01

With the aim of responding to a number of problems detected in health plan evaluations, a new direction has been proposed in Catalonia which would lead to the improved unification of the strategic and operational approaches, and leadership. The master plans that tackle those health problems with the greatest impact were created along these lines. This article presents the most salient aspects of the master plans for oncology, circulatory diseases, mental health and addictions, immigration and the field of social healthcare. Their organisational structure, mission and functions are presented, commenting on the prioritisation of activities and the principal benchmark elements of the healthcare model in the definition of planning criteria for services incorporated into the Health Map. Finally, mention is made of the evaluation procedures. The in-depth study of priority settings has resulted in significant progress towards unifying health and service planning.

Intervention into a turbulent urban situation: A case study. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caldwell, G. M., Jr.

1973-01-01

The application is reported of NASA management philosophy and techniques within New Castle County, Delaware, to meet actual problems of community violence. It resulted in restructuring the county approach to problems of this nature, and development of a comprehensive system for planning, based on the NASA planning process. The method involved federal, state, and local resources with community representatives in solving the problems. The concept of a turbulent environment is presented with parallels drawn between NASA management experience and problems of management within an urban arena.

Connecting Learning & Technology for Effective Lesson Plan Design.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seamon, Mary P.

This paper focuses on the design of effective lesson plans using the Internet. Effective lesson design helps students to explore ideas, acquire and synthesize information, and frame and solve problems. The creative problem solving which depends upon context, interrelationships, and real-world activities is available through Internet projects.…

The Vicious Circle of Illiteracy, Over Population and Poverty--Functional Literacy and Family Life Planning Education Approach to Tackle It

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khajapeer, M.

1976-01-01

The interrelated nature of the problems of illiteracy, overpopulation, and poverty in developing countries is explored and an integrated approach to solving these problems in India, the Functional Literacy and Family Life Planning Education program, is described. (MS)

Combining qualitative and quantitative spatial and temporal information in a hierarchical structure: Approximate reasoning for plan execution monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoebel, Louis J.

1993-01-01

The problem of plan generation (PG) and the problem of plan execution monitoring (PEM), including updating, queries, and resource-bounded replanning, have different reasoning and representation requirements. PEM requires the integration of qualitative and quantitative information. PEM is the receiving of data about the world in which a plan or agent is executing. The problem is to quickly determine the relevance of the data, the consistency of the data with respect to the expected effects, and if execution should continue. Only spatial and temporal aspects of the plan are addressed for relevance in this work. Current temporal reasoning systems are deficient in computational aspects or expressiveness. This work presents a hybrid qualitative and quantitative system that is fully expressive in its assertion language while offering certain computational efficiencies. In order to proceed, methods incorporating approximate reasoning using hierarchies, notions of locality, constraint expansion, and absolute parameters need be used and are shown to be useful for the anytime nature of PEM.

Observations on SOFIA Observation Scheduling: Search and Inference in the Face of Discrete and Continuous Constraints

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frank, Jeremy; Gross, Michael; Kuerklu, Elif

2003-01-01

We did cool stuff to reduce the number of IVPs and BVPs needed to schedule SOFIA by restricting the problem. The restriction costs us little in terms of the value of the flight plans we can build. The restriction allowed us to reformulate part of the search problem as a zero-finding problem. The result is a simplified planning model and significant savings in computation time.

[Discussion of some problems in the new centurial planning material the therapeutics of acupuncture and moxibustion].

PubMed

Yang, Yun-kuan; Hu, You-ping; Wang, Yan

2006-11-01

Some problems were found for argument in the teaching of The Therapeutics of Acupuncture & Moxibustion, the new centurial national advanced Chinese medical school's planning material, including errors in compiling, some concepts lacking definition, and some acupuncture treatment methods in the material deviating off clinical practice, etc.. Study on these problems so as to make the teaching material more perfect, more scientific, accurate and authoritative.

The Myth of Employee Planning for Retirement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrison, Malcolm H.

1975-01-01

A survey of male hourly-wage earners indicates employees face serious problems in planning for income security in retirement. Retirement preparation programs that supply information and technical planning expertise are needed to assist employees in realistic retirement planning. (EA)

Learning Chemistry and beyond with a Lesson Plan on Potato Crisps, Which Follows a Socio-Critical and Problem-Oriented Approach to Chemistry Lessons--A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marks, Ralf; Bertram, Stefanie; Eilks, Ingo

2008-01-01

This paper discusses a chemistry lesson plan on potato crisps for 10th grade (age range 15-16) chemistry classes in Germany. The lesson plan focuses on the discussion about low-fat and low-carb diets as they are presented in everyday media such as TV or newspapers in Germany. The discussion follows a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to…

Research-Based Development of a Lesson Plan on Shower Gels and Musk Fragrances Following a Socio-Critical and Problem-Oriented Approach to Chemistry Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marks, Ralf; Eilks, Ingo

2010-01-01

A case is described of the development of a lesson plan for 10th grade (age range 15-16) chemistry classes on the chemistry of shower gels. The lesson plan follows a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching. This means that, aside from learning about the basic chemistry of the components making up modern shower gels in…

Search Problems in Mission Planning and Navigation of Autonomous Aircraft. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krozel, James A.

1988-01-01

An architecture for the control of an autonomous aircraft is presented. The architecture is a hierarchical system representing an anthropomorphic breakdown of the control problem into planner, navigator, and pilot systems. The planner system determines high level global plans from overall mission objectives. This abstract mission planning is investigated by focusing on the Traveling Salesman Problem with variations on local and global constraints. Tree search techniques are applied including the breadth first, depth first, and best first algorithms. The minimum-column and row entries for the Traveling Salesman Problem cost matrix provides a powerful heuristic to guide these search techniques. Mission planning subgoals are directed from the planner to the navigator for planning routes in mountainous terrain with threats. Terrain/threat information is abstracted into a graph of possible paths for which graph searches are performed. It is shown that paths can be well represented by a search graph based on the Voronoi diagram of points representing the vertices of mountain boundaries. A comparison of Dijkstra's dynamic programming algorithm and the A* graph search algorithm from artificial intelligence/operations research is performed for several navigation path planning examples. These examples illustrate paths that minimize a combination of distance and exposure to threats. Finally, the pilot system synthesizes the flight trajectory by creating the control commands to fly the aircraft.

Enroute flight planning: Evaluating design concepts for the development of cooperative problem-solving concepts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Philip J.; Mccoy, C. Elaine

1991-01-01

The goals of this research were to develop design concepts to support the task of enroute flight planning. And within this context, to explore and evaluate general design concepts and principles to guide the development of cooperative problem solving systems. A detailed model is to be developed of the cognitive processes involved in flight planning. Included in this model will be the identification of individual differences of subjects. Of particular interest will be differences between pilots and dispatchers. The effect will be studied of the effect on performance of tools that support planning at different levels of abstraction. In order to conduct this research, the Flight Planning Testbed (FPT) was developed, a fully functional testbed environment for studying advanced design concepts for tools to aid in flight planning.

Dynamic resource allocation in conservation planning

USGS Publications Warehouse

Golovin, D.; Krause, A.; Gardner, B.; Converse, S.J.; Morey, S.

2011-01-01

Consider the problem of protecting endangered species by selecting patches of land to be used for conservation purposes. Typically, the availability of patches changes over time, and recommendations must be made dynamically. This is a challenging prototypical example of a sequential optimization problem under uncertainty in computational sustainability. Existing techniques do not scale to problems of realistic size. In this paper, we develop an efficient algorithm for adaptively making recommendations for dynamic conservation planning, and prove that it obtains near-optimal performance. We further evaluate our approach on a detailed reserve design case study of conservation planning for three rare species in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Copyright ?? 2011, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. All rights reserved.

Network Flows

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-01

production or service activity over time. In these instances it is often convenient to formulate a network flow problem on a "space—time network" with several...planning model in production planning, the economic lot size problem, is an important example. In this problem context, we wish to meet prescribed...demands d^ for a product in each of the T time periods. In each period, we can produce at level Xj and /or we can meet the demand by drav^g upon inventory I

(Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG)) Fiscal Year 2017 Oversight Plan

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

the DoD has made progress in acquisition program management, but the DoD continues to experience programmatic problems , such as cost overruns and...later than originally planned, which results in increased expenses in DoD’s acquisition programs. Part of the problem is that weapons manufacturers...manner. The DoD OIG has also identified significant problems with past performance reporting across the DoD. The Federal Acquisition Regulations

Error Detection and Recovery for Robot Motion Planning with Uncertainty.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-07-01

plans for these problems . This intuition-which is a heuristic claim, so the reader is advised to proceed with caution--should be verified or disproven...that might work. but fail in a --reasonable" way when they cannot. While EDR is largely motivated by the problems of uncertainty and model error. its...definition for EDR strategies and show how they can be computed. This theory represents what is perhaps the first systematic attack on the problem of

Optimization in the utility maximization framework for conservation planning: a comparison of solution procedures in a study of multifunctional agriculture

PubMed Central

Stoms, David M.; Davis, Frank W.

2014-01-01

Quantitative methods of spatial conservation prioritization have traditionally been applied to issues in conservation biology and reserve design, though their use in other types of natural resource management is growing. The utility maximization problem is one form of a covering problem where multiple criteria can represent the expected social benefits of conservation action. This approach allows flexibility with a problem formulation that is more general than typical reserve design problems, though the solution methods are very similar. However, few studies have addressed optimization in utility maximization problems for conservation planning, and the effect of solution procedure is largely unquantified. Therefore, this study mapped five criteria describing elements of multifunctional agriculture to determine a hypothetical conservation resource allocation plan for agricultural land conservation in the Central Valley of CA, USA. We compared solution procedures within the utility maximization framework to determine the difference between an open source integer programming approach and a greedy heuristic, and find gains from optimization of up to 12%. We also model land availability for conservation action as a stochastic process and determine the decline in total utility compared to the globally optimal set using both solution algorithms. Our results are comparable to other studies illustrating the benefits of optimization for different conservation planning problems, and highlight the importance of maximizing the effectiveness of limited funding for conservation and natural resource management. PMID:25538868

Optimization in the utility maximization framework for conservation planning: a comparison of solution procedures in a study of multifunctional agriculture

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kreitler, Jason R.; Stoms, David M.; Davis, Frank W.

2014-01-01

Quantitative methods of spatial conservation prioritization have traditionally been applied to issues in conservation biology and reserve design, though their use in other types of natural resource management is growing. The utility maximization problem is one form of a covering problem where multiple criteria can represent the expected social benefits of conservation action. This approach allows flexibility with a problem formulation that is more general than typical reserve design problems, though the solution methods are very similar. However, few studies have addressed optimization in utility maximization problems for conservation planning, and the effect of solution procedure is largely unquantified. Therefore, this study mapped five criteria describing elements of multifunctional agriculture to determine a hypothetical conservation resource allocation plan for agricultural land conservation in the Central Valley of CA, USA. We compared solution procedures within the utility maximization framework to determine the difference between an open source integer programming approach and a greedy heuristic, and find gains from optimization of up to 12%. We also model land availability for conservation action as a stochastic process and determine the decline in total utility compared to the globally optimal set using both solution algorithms. Our results are comparable to other studies illustrating the benefits of optimization for different conservation planning problems, and highlight the importance of maximizing the effectiveness of limited funding for conservation and natural resource management.

High performance techniques for space mission scheduling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Stephen F.

1994-01-01

In this paper, we summarize current research at Carnegie Mellon University aimed at development of high performance techniques and tools for space mission scheduling. Similar to prior research in opportunistic scheduling, our approach assumes the use of dynamic analysis of problem constraints as a basis for heuristic focusing of problem solving search. This methodology, however, is grounded in representational assumptions more akin to those adopted in recent temporal planning research, and in a problem solving framework which similarly emphasizes constraint posting in an explicitly maintained solution constraint network. These more general representational assumptions are necessitated by the predominance of state-dependent constraints in space mission planning domains, and the consequent need to integrate resource allocation and plan synthesis processes. First, we review the space mission problems we have considered to date and indicate the results obtained in these application domains. Next, we summarize recent work in constraint posting scheduling procedures, which offer the promise of better future solutions to this class of problems.

Urban Planning Problems of Agglomerations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olenkov, V. D.; Tazeev, N. T.

2017-11-01

The article explores the state of the air basin of the Chelyabinsk agglomeration and gives the examples of solutions for the pollution problems from the point of view of city planning. The main features and structure of the modern urban agglomerations are considered, the methods for determining their boundaries are studied and the main problems are identified. The study of the boundaries and territorial structure of the Chelyabinsk urban agglomeration is conducted, and a general description of the territory is given. The data on the change in the volume of pollutant emissions into the atmosphere and the index of atmospheric pollution for the period 2003-2015 are given basing on the annual comprehensive reports regarding the state of the environment. The review of the world experience of city-planning actions on the decision of ecological problems is carried out. The most suitable ways for the ecological problems solving in the Chelyabinsk agglomeration are considered. The authors give recommendations for the ecological situation improving in the territory of the Chelyabinsk agglomeration.

Global planning of several plants

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bescos, Sylvie

1992-01-01

This paper discusses an attempt to solve the problem of planning several pharmaceutical plants at a global level. The interest in planning at this level is to increase the global control over the production process, to improve its overall efficiency, and to reduce the need for interaction between production plants. In order to reduce the complexity of this problem and to make it tractable, some abstractions were made. Based on these abstractions, a prototype is being developed within the framework of the EUREKA project PROTOS, using Constraint Logic Programming techniques.

Problems of Implementation of Strategic Plans for Secondary Schools' Improvement in Anambra State

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chukwumah, Fides Okwukweka; Ezeugbor, Carol Obiageli

2015-01-01

This study investigated the extent of problems of strategic plans implementation for secondary schools' improvement in Anambra State, Nigeria for quality education provision. The study used a descriptive survey design paradigm. Respondents comprised 217 principals. There was no sampling. All the principals were used. Data were collected using…

Applying an AI Planner to Military Operations Planning

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-01-12

This paper describes a prototype system for quickly developing joint military courses of action. The system, SOCAP (System for Operations Crisis...display and applies this technology to military operations planning. This paper describes the Socap problem domain, how SIPE-2 was used to address this problem, and the strengths and weaknesses of our approach.

A computer-based tutorial structure for teaching and applying a complex process

Treesearch

Daniel L. Schmoldt; William G Bradshaw

1991-01-01

Economic accountability concerns for wildfire prevention planning have led to the development of an ignition management approach to fire problems. The Fire Loss Prevention Planning Process (FLPPP) systematizes fire problem analyses and concomitantly establishes a means for evaluating prescribed prevention programs. However, new users of the FLPPP have experienced...

Evaluating Retirement Income Security for Illinois Public School Teachers. Public Pension Project Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Richard W.; Southgate, Benjamin G.

2014-01-01

The financial problems afflicting the Illinois teacher pension plan have grabbed headlines. An equally important problem, though underappreciated, is that relatively few teachers benefit much from the plan. This report evaluates the pension benefits provided to Illinois public school teachers. The researchers project annual and lifetime pension…

Small Village Planning Problems in the Netherlands.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groot, Jacob P.

The problems associated with small villages are among the most difficult in Dutch physical planning, for they encompass the support of minimum social services in small towns and villages; the preservation of areas of ecological and scenic value; the acommodation of a growing population desirous of a home in the country or continued country living;…

Implementation of 1978-1979 Contingency Plans. Reports 1, 3 & 4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Los Angeles Community Coll. District, CA.

Three reports are presented that address the problem of implementing 1978-79 contingency plans developed by the Los Angeles Community College District in response to a June 1978 property tax reduction initiative, Proposition 13. Report No. 1 provides an overview of district problems resulting from the tax limitation measure. Fiscal and educational…

Digital Story-Based Problem Solving Applications: Preservice Primary Teachers' Experiences and Future Integration Plans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kilic, Çigdem; Sancar-Tokmak, Hatice

2017-01-01

This case study investigates how preservice primary school teachers describe their experiences with digital story-based problem solving applications and their plans for the future integration of this technology into their teaching. Totally 113 preservice primary school teachers participated in the study. Data collection tools included a…

An Investigation of Generalized Differential Evolution Metaheuristic for Multiobjective Optimal Crop-Mix Planning Decision

PubMed Central

Olugbara, Oludayo

2014-01-01

This paper presents an annual multiobjective crop-mix planning as a problem of concurrent maximization of net profit and maximization of crop production to determine an optimal cropping pattern. The optimal crop production in a particular planting season is a crucial decision making task from the perspectives of economic management and sustainable agriculture. A multiobjective optimal crop-mix problem is formulated and solved using the generalized differential evolution 3 (GDE3) metaheuristic to generate a globally optimal solution. The performance of the GDE3 metaheuristic is investigated by comparing its results with the results obtained using epsilon constrained and nondominated sorting genetic algorithms—being two representatives of state-of-the-art in evolutionary optimization. The performance metrics of additive epsilon, generational distance, inverted generational distance, and spacing are considered to establish the comparability. In addition, a graphical comparison with respect to the true Pareto front for the multiobjective optimal crop-mix planning problem is presented. Empirical results generally show GDE3 to be a viable alternative tool for solving a multiobjective optimal crop-mix planning problem. PMID:24883369

An investigation of generalized differential evolution metaheuristic for multiobjective optimal crop-mix planning decision.

PubMed

Adekanmbi, Oluwole; Olugbara, Oludayo; Adeyemo, Josiah

2014-01-01

This paper presents an annual multiobjective crop-mix planning as a problem of concurrent maximization of net profit and maximization of crop production to determine an optimal cropping pattern. The optimal crop production in a particular planting season is a crucial decision making task from the perspectives of economic management and sustainable agriculture. A multiobjective optimal crop-mix problem is formulated and solved using the generalized differential evolution 3 (GDE3) metaheuristic to generate a globally optimal solution. The performance of the GDE3 metaheuristic is investigated by comparing its results with the results obtained using epsilon constrained and nondominated sorting genetic algorithms-being two representatives of state-of-the-art in evolutionary optimization. The performance metrics of additive epsilon, generational distance, inverted generational distance, and spacing are considered to establish the comparability. In addition, a graphical comparison with respect to the true Pareto front for the multiobjective optimal crop-mix planning problem is presented. Empirical results generally show GDE3 to be a viable alternative tool for solving a multiobjective optimal crop-mix planning problem.

A Metadata Action Language

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Golden, Keith; Clancy, Dan (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The data management problem comprises data processing and data tracking. Data processing is the creation of new data based on existing data sources. Data tracking consists of storing metadata descriptions of available data. This paper addresses the data management problem by casting it as an AI planning problem. Actions are data-processing commands, plans are dataflow programs and goals are metadata descriptions of desired data products. Data manipulation is simply plan generation and execution, and a key component of data tracking is inferring the effects of an observed plan. We introduce a new action language for data management domains, called ADILM. We discuss the connection between data processing and information integration and show how a language for the latter must be modified to support the former. The paper also discusses information gathering within a data-processing framework, and show how ADILM metadata expressions are a generalization of Local Completeness.

An Integrated Planning Representation Using Macros, Abstractions, and Cases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baltes, Jacky; MacDonald, Bruce

1992-01-01

Planning will be an essential part of future autonomous robots and integrated intelligent systems. This paper focuses on learning problem solving knowledge in planning systems. The system is based on a common representation for macros, abstractions, and cases. Therefore, it is able to exploit both classical and case based techniques. The general operators in a successful plan derivation would be assessed for their potential usefulness, and some stored. The feasibility of this approach was studied through the implementation of a learning system for abstraction. New macros are motivated by trying to improve the operatorset. One heuristic used to improve the operator set is generating operators with more general preconditions than existing ones. This heuristic leads naturally to abstraction hierarchies. This investigation showed promising results on the towers of Hanoi problem. The paper concludes by describing methods for learning other problem solving knowledge. This knowledge can be represented by allowing operators at different levels of abstraction in a refinement.

Planning and Design: A Systems Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozeman, William C.; Clements, Mary A.

1981-01-01

Explains "purpose design," a planning and problem-solving strategy involving determination of planning purposes, generation and selection of solutions, specification of solution details, implementation, and evaluation. Describes the application of purpose design to the planning of an alumni association at Black Hawk College, a community…

Integrating deliberative planning in a robot architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elsaesser, Chris; Slack, Marc G.

1994-01-01

The role of planning and reactive control in an architecture for autonomous agents is discussed. The postulated architecture seperates the general robot intelligence problem into three interacting pieces: (1) robot reactive skills, i.e., grasping, object tracking, etc.; (2) a sequencing capability to differentially ativate the reactive skills; and (3) a delibrative planning capability to reason in depth about goals, preconditions, resources, and timing constraints. Within the sequencing module, caching techniques are used for handling routine activities. The planning system then builds on these cached solutions to routine tasks to build larger grain sized primitives. This eliminates large numbers of essentially linear planning problems. The architecture will be used in the future to incorporate in robots cognitive capabilites normally associated with intelligent behavior.

Modeling an integrated hospital management planning problem using integer optimization approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sitepu, Suryati; Mawengkang, Herman; Irvan

2017-09-01

Hospital is a very important institution to provide health care for people. It is not surprising that nowadays the people’s demands for hospital is increasing. However, due to the rising cost of healthcare services, hospitals need to consider efficiencies in order to overcome these two problems. This paper deals with an integrated strategy of staff capacity management and bed allocation planning to tackle these problems. Mathematically, the strategy can be modeled as an integer linear programming problem. We solve the model using a direct neighborhood search approach, based on the notion of superbasic variables.

Development and demonstration of an on-board mission planner for helicopters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deutsch, Owen L.; Desai, Mukund

1988-01-01

Mission management tasks can be distributed within a planning hierarchy, where each level of the hierarchy addresses a scope of action, and associated time scale or planning horizon, and requirements for plan generation response time. The current work is focused on the far-field planning subproblem, with a scope and planning horizon encompassing the entire mission and with a response time required to be about two minutes. The far-feld planning problem is posed as a constrained optimization problem and algorithms and structural organizations are proposed for the solution. Algorithms are implemented in a developmental environment, and performance is assessed with respect to optimality and feasibility for the intended application and in comparison with alternative algorithms. This is done for the three major components of far-field planning: goal planning, waypoint path planning, and timeline management. It appears feasible to meet performance requirements on a 10 Mips flyable processor (dedicated to far-field planning) using a heuristically-guided simulated annealing technique for the goal planner, a modified A* search for the waypoint path planner, and a speed scheduling technique developed for this project.

Optimal allocation model of construction land based on two-level system optimization theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Min; Liu, Yanfang; Xia, Yuping; Lei, Qihong

2007-06-01

The allocation of construction land is an important task in land-use planning. Whether implementation of planning decisions is a success or not, usually depends on a reasonable and scientific distribution method. Considering the constitution of land-use planning system and planning process in China, multiple levels and multiple objective decision problems is its essence. Also, planning quantity decomposition is a two-level system optimization problem and an optimal resource allocation decision problem between a decision-maker in the topper and a number of parallel decision-makers in the lower. According the characteristics of the decision-making process of two-level decision-making system, this paper develops an optimal allocation model of construction land based on two-level linear planning. In order to verify the rationality and the validity of our model, Baoan district of Shenzhen City has been taken as a test case. Under the assistance of the allocation model, construction land is allocated to ten townships of Baoan district. The result obtained from our model is compared to that of traditional method, and results show that our model is reasonable and usable. In the end, the paper points out the shortcomings of the model and further research directions.

Path planning and energy management of solar-powered unmanned ground vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaplan, Adam

Many of the applications pertinent to unmanned vehicles, such as environmental research and analysis, communications, and information-surveillance and reconnaissance, benefit from prolonged vehicle operation time. Conventional efforts to increase the operational time of electric-powered unmanned vehicles have traditionally focused on the design of energy-efficient components and the identification of energy efficient search patterns, while little attention has been paid to the vehicle's mission-level path plan and power management. This thesis explores the formulation and generation of integrated motion-plans and power-schedules for solar-panel equipped mobile robots operating under strict energy constraints, which cannot be effectively addressed through conventional motion planning algorithms. Transit problems are considered to design time-optimal paths using both Balkcom-Mason and Pseudo-Dubins curves. Additionally, a more complicated problem to generate mission plans for vehicles which must persistently travel between certain locations, similar to the traveling salesperson problem (TSP), is presented. A comparison between one of the common motion-planning algorithms and experimental results of the prescribed algorithms, made possible by use of a test environment and mobile robot designed and developed specifically for this research, are presented and discussed.

Estate Planning for Parents of LD Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothschild, Edmund W.

1986-01-01

An attorney offers advice to parents regarding estate planning for their learning disabled children. Problems are discussed regarding issues for the minor and planning for the grown child incapable of managing financial affairs. (CL)

Planning Multitechnology Access Networks with Performance Constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chamberland, Steven

Considering the number of access network technologies and the investment needed for the “last mile” of a solution, in today’s highly competitive markets, planning tools are crucial for the service providers to optimize the network costs and accelerate the planning process. In this paper, we propose to tackle the problem of planning access networks composed of four technologies/architectures: the digital subscriber line (xDSL) technologies deployed directly from the central office (CO), the fiber-to-the-node (FTTN), the fiber-to-the-micro-node (FTTn) and the fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP). A mathematical programming model is proposed for this planning problem that is solved using a commercial implementation of the branch-and-bound algorithm. Next, a detailed access network planning example is presented followed by a systematic set of experiments designed to assess the performance of the proposed approach.

Solution and reasoning reuse in space planning and scheduling applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Verfaillie, Gerard; Schiex, Thomas

1994-01-01

In the space domain, as in other domains, the CSP (Constraint Satisfaction Problems) techniques are increasingly used to represent and solve planning and scheduling problems. But these techniques have been developed to solve CSP's which are composed of fixed sets of variables and constraints, whereas many planning and scheduling problems are dynamic. It is therefore important to develop methods which allow a new solution to be rapidly found, as close as possible to the previous one, when some variables or constraints are added or removed. After presenting some existing approaches, this paper proposes a simple and efficient method, which has been developed on the basis of the dynamic backtracking algorithm. This method allows previous solution and reasoning to be reused in the framework of a CSP which is close to the previous one. Some experimental results on general random CSPs and on operation scheduling problems for remote sensing satellites are given.

Geologic map of the Venezuela part of the Puerto Ayacucho 2 degrees x 3 degrees Quadrangle, Amazonas Federal Territory, Venezuela

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wynn, Jeffrey C.; Olmore, Steven D.; Mendoza, Vicente; García, Andrés; Rendon, Ines; Estanga, Yasmin; Rincon, Haydee; Martinez, Felix; Lugo, Elis; Rivero, Nelson; Schruben, Paul G.

1994-01-01

This map is one of a series of 1:500,000-scale maps that, along with several other products, stems from a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana, Tecnica Minera, C.A. (TECMIN), a Venezuelan Government-owned mining and mineral exploration company. The agreement covered cooperative work carried out in the Precambrian Shield of southern Venezuela during 1987-1991 and included a geologic and mineral resource inventory, technology transfer, and scientific training (Wynn and others, in press). The Precambrian Guayana Shield (Escudo de Guyana, not to be confused with the neighboring country of Guyana) includes some of the oldest known rocks in the world (Mendoza, 1977) and also covers parts of neighboring Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, Columbia, and Brazil. In Venezuela, it underlies most of Bolivar state and all of the Amazonas Federal Territory (see index map).

Developement of a Fluxgate Magnetometer for the KITSAT-3 Satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hwang, S. H.; Lee, D. H.; Min, K. W.; Shin, Y. H.; Choi, C. R.; Nobuhito, O.

1997-12-01

The magnetometer is one of the most important payloads of scientific satellites to monitor the near-earth space environment. The electromagnetic variations of the space environment can be observed with the electric and magnetic field measurements. In practice, it is well known that the measurement of magnetic fields needs less technical complexities than that of electric fields in space. Therefore the magnetometer has long been recognized as one of the basic payloads for the scientific satellites. In this paper, we discuss the scientific fluxgate magnetometer which will be on board the KITSAT-3. The main circuit design of the present magnetometer is based on that of KISAT-1 and -2 but its facilities have been re-designed to improve the resolution to about 5nT for scientific purpose. The calibration and noise level test of this circuit have been performed at the laboratory of the Tierra Tecnica company in Japan.

Improving Energy Efficiency in CNC Machining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pavanaskar, Sushrut S.

We present our work on analyzing and improving the energy efficiency of multi-axis CNC milling process. Due to the differences in energy consumption behavior, we treat 3- and 5-axis CNC machines separately in our work. For 3-axis CNC machines, we first propose an energy model that estimates the energy requirement for machining a component on a specified 3-axis CNC milling machine. Our model makes machine-specific predictions of energy requirements while also considering the geometric aspects of the machining toolpath. Our model - and the associated software tool - facilitate direct comparison of various alternative toolpath strategies based on their energy-consumption performance. Further, we identify key factors in toolpath planning that affect energy consumption in CNC machining. We then use this knowledge to propose and demonstrate a novel toolpath planning strategy that may be used to generate new toolpaths that are inherently energy-efficient, inspired by research on digital micrography -- a form of computational art. For 5-axis CNC machines, the process planning problem consists of several sub-problems that researchers have traditionally solved separately to obtain an approximate solution. After illustrating the need to solve all sub-problems simultaneously for a truly optimal solution, we propose a unified formulation based on configuration space theory. We apply our formulation to solve a problem variant that retains key characteristics of the full problem but has lower dimensionality, allowing visualization in 2D. Given the complexity of the full 5-axis toolpath planning problem, our unified formulation represents an important step towards obtaining a truly optimal solution. With this work on the two types of CNC machines, we demonstrate that without changing the current infrastructure or business practices, machine-specific, geometry-based, customized toolpath planning can save energy in CNC machining.

Enroute flight planning: Evaluating design concepts for the development of cooperative problem-solving systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Philip J.

1995-01-01

There are many problem-solving tasks that are too complex to fully automate given the current state of technology. Nevertheless, significant improvements in overall system performance could result from the introduction of well-designed computer aids. We have been studying the development of cognitive tools for one such problem-solving task, enroute flight path planning for commercial airlines. Our goal has been two-fold. First, we have been developing specific system designs to help with this important practical problem. Second, we have been using this context to explore general design concepts to guide in the development of cooperative problem-solving systems. These design concepts are described below, along with illustrations of their application.

Planning Minimum-Energy Paths in an Off-Road Environment with Anisotropic Traversal Costs and Motion Constraints

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-06-01

problems, and (3) weighted-region problems. Since the minimum-energy path-planning problem addressed in this dissertation is a hybrid between the two...contains components that are strictly vehicle dependent, components that are strictly terrain dependent, and components representing a hybrid of...Single Segment Braking/Multiple Segment Hybrid Using Eq. (3.46), the traversal cost U 1,.-1 can be rewritten as Uop- 1 = mgD Itan01 , (4.12a) and the

Succession Planning in England: New Leaders and New Forms of Leadership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bush, Tony

2011-01-01

There are concerns about the supply of head teachers in many countries. In England, this problem arises from demographic changes and the perceived difficulty of the job. The National College responded to this problem by initiating a Succession Planning programme. This article reports the main findings from the external evaluation of the programme…

Problem-Solving Strategies for Career Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McBryde, Merry J.; Karr-Kidwell, PJ

The need for new expertise in problem solving in the work setting has emerged as a woman's issue because work outside the home has become a primary means for personal goal attainment for about half the women in the United States and because traditional career patterns and norms are ineffective. Career planning is the process of individual career…

Impact of Teachers' Planned Questions on Opportunities for Students to Reason Mathematically in Whole-Class Discussions around Mathematical Problem-Solving Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enoch, Sarah Elizabeth

2013-01-01

While professional developers have been encouraging teachers to plan for discourse around problem solving tasks as a way to orchestrate mathematically productive discourse (Stein, Engle, Smith, & Hughes, 2008; Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver, 2009) no research has been conducted explicitly examining the relationship between the plans…

National Training Course. Emergency Medical Technician. Paramedic. Instructor's Lesson Plans. Module VII. Central Nervous System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (DOT), Washington, DC.

This instructor's lesson plan guide on the central nervous system is one of fifteen modules designed for use in the training of emergency medical technicians. Four units of study are presented: (1) anatomy and physiology; (2) assessment of patients with neurological problems; (3) pathophysiology and management of neurological problems; (4)…

Problems and Procedures in Planning a Situation Based Video Test on Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masonis, Edward J.

This paper briefly outlines some problems one must solve when developing a video-based test to evaluate what a teacher knows about learning and instruction. Consideration is given to the effect the use of videotapes of actual classroom behavior have on test planning. Two methods of incorporating such situational material into the test…

Massachusetts Public Fire and Safety Education Curriculum Planning Guidebook. Second Version.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, Stow.

This updated curriculum planning guidebook is a resource for fire educators throughout the state of Massachusetts. It is designed to be a tool in efforts to: identify fire problems in the community; select appropriate behaviors and lessons to correct the fire problems; design fire education programs; and implement and evaluate the programs. The…

RESEARCH ON THE USE OF A COUNSELEE PROBLEM CLASSIFICATION PLAN AT THE JUNIOR HIGH LEVEL.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BLAKSLEE, ROBERT W.

A CLASSIFICATION PLAN FOR MAINTAINING CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS WAS CONSTRUCTED TO HELP THE COUNSELOR SAVE TIME AND STILL HAVE A USABLE RECORD OF HIS SESSIONS AND, WHEN ALL RECORDS ARE ANALYZED AND SUMMARIZED, TO PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT THE TYPES OF PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY STUDENTS. THE SCHOOL COUNSELOR CLASSIFICATION CATEGORIES CONSISTED OF (1) TWO…

Layered Safe Motion Planning for Autonomous Vehicles.

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-09-01

The major problem addressed by this research is how to plan a safe motion for autonomous vehicles in a two dimensional, rectilinear world. With given start and goal configurations, the planner performs motion planning which

Planning for Office Automation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mick, Colin K.

1983-01-01

Outlines a practical approach to planning for office automation termed the "Focused Process Approach" (the "what" phase, "how" phase, "doing" phase) which is a synthesis of the problem-solving and participatory planning approaches. Thirteen references are provided. (EJS)

Problem-based Learning Using the Online Medicare Part D Plan Finder Tool

PubMed Central

Stebbins, Marilyn R.; Lai, Eric; Smith, Amanda R.; Lipton, Helene Levens

2008-01-01

Objectives To implement didactic and problem-based learning curricular innovations aimed at increasing students' knowledge of Medicare Part D, improving their ability to apply the online Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder tool to a patient case, and improving their attitudes toward patient advocacy for Medicare beneficiaries. Methods A survey instrument and a case-based online Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder tool exercise were administered to a single group (n = 120) of second-year pharmacy graduate students prior to and following completion of a course on health policy. Three domains (knowledge, skill mastery and attitudes) were measured before and after two 90-minute lectures on Medicare Part D. Results The online Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder exercise and Medicare Part D didactic lectures had positive effects on students' knowledge of Part D, attitudes toward patient advocacy, and ability to accurately use the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder tool. Conclusions The success of these didactic and problem-based curricular innovations in improving pharmacy students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding Part D warrants further evaluation to determine their portability to clinical settings and other pharmacy schools. PMID:18698399

A model for effective planning of SME support services.

PubMed

Rakićević, Zoran; Omerbegović-Bijelović, Jasmina; Lečić-Cvetković, Danica

2016-02-01

This paper presents a model for effective planning of support services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The idea is to scrutinize and measure the suitability of support services in order to give recommendations for the improvement of a support planning process. We examined the applied support services and matched them with the problems and needs of SMEs, based on the survey conducted in 2013 on a sample of 336 SMEs in Serbia. We defined and analysed the five research questions that refer to support services, their consistency with the SMEs' problems and needs, and the relation between the given support and SMEs' success. The survey results have shown a statistically significant connection between them. Based on this result, we proposed an eight-phase model as a method for the improvement of support service planning for SMEs. This model helps SMEs to plan better their requirements in terms of support; government and administration bodies at all levels and organizations that provide support services to understand better SMEs' problems and needs for support. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stochastic Evolutionary Algorithms for Planning Robot Paths

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fink, Wolfgang; Aghazarian, Hrand; Huntsberger, Terrance; Terrile, Richard

2006-01-01

A computer program implements stochastic evolutionary algorithms for planning and optimizing collision-free paths for robots and their jointed limbs. Stochastic evolutionary algorithms can be made to produce acceptably close approximations to exact, optimal solutions for path-planning problems while often demanding much less computation than do exhaustive-search and deterministic inverse-kinematics algorithms that have been used previously for this purpose. Hence, the present software is better suited for application aboard robots having limited computing capabilities (see figure). The stochastic aspect lies in the use of simulated annealing to (1) prevent trapping of an optimization algorithm in local minima of an energy-like error measure by which the fitness of a trial solution is evaluated while (2) ensuring that the entire multidimensional configuration and parameter space of the path-planning problem is sampled efficiently with respect to both robot joint angles and computation time. Simulated annealing is an established technique for avoiding local minima in multidimensional optimization problems, but has not, until now, been applied to planning collision-free robot paths by use of low-power computers.

A bat algorithm with mutation for UCAV path planning.

PubMed

Wang, Gaige; Guo, Lihong; Duan, Hong; Liu, Luo; Wang, Heqi

2012-01-01

Path planning for uninhabited combat air vehicle (UCAV) is a complicated high dimension optimization problem, which mainly centralizes on optimizing the flight route considering the different kinds of constrains under complicated battle field environments. Original bat algorithm (BA) is used to solve the UCAV path planning problem. Furthermore, a new bat algorithm with mutation (BAM) is proposed to solve the UCAV path planning problem, and a modification is applied to mutate between bats during the process of the new solutions updating. Then, the UCAV can find the safe path by connecting the chosen nodes of the coordinates while avoiding the threat areas and costing minimum fuel. This new approach can accelerate the global convergence speed while preserving the strong robustness of the basic BA. The realization procedure for original BA and this improved metaheuristic approach BAM is also presented. To prove the performance of this proposed metaheuristic method, BAM is compared with BA and other population-based optimization methods, such as ACO, BBO, DE, ES, GA, PBIL, PSO, and SGA. The experiment shows that the proposed approach is more effective and feasible in UCAV path planning than the other models.

Stick with a School Maintenance Plan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennedy, Mike

2012-01-01

The U.S. Department of Education's "Planning Guide for Maintaining School Facilities" states that a sound facilities maintenance plan serves as evidence that school facilities are, and will be, cared for appropriately. On the other hand, negligent facilities maintenance planning can cause real problems. Budget restraints and cuts in…

Money: Savings Shock.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capots, Michele M.

2001-01-01

As many teachers near their retirement years, they discover that their retirement plans are insufficient and their financial planning was inappropriate. This paper describes some of the problems with the 403(b) plan (an investment plan for public school employees and certain tax-exempt organizations), explaining how teachers are beginning to…

Developing a plan for primary health care facilities in Soweto, South Africa. Part II: Applying locational criteria.

PubMed

Doherty, J; Rispel, L; Webb, N

1996-12-01

This article is the second of a two-part series describing the development of a ten-year plan for primary health care facility development in Soweto. The first article concentrated on the political problems and general methodological approach of the project. This second article describes how the technical problem of planning in the context of scanty information was overcome. The reasoning behind the various assumptions and criteria which were used to assist the planning of the location of facilities is explained, as well as the process by which they were applied. The merits and limitations of this planning approach are discussed, and it is suggested that the approach may be useful to other facility planners, particularly in the developing world.

Engagement of health plans and employers in addressing racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Meredith B; Landon, Bruce E; Normand, Sharon-Lise T; Ahmad, Thaniyyah S; Epstein, Arnold M

2009-04-01

Disparities in access to and quality of health care along racial and ethnic lines are an important national problem. Health care purchasers and payers have a potentially important role to play in alleviating this problem. Using national surveys of 609 employers and 252 health plans with HMO products in 41 U.S. markets, we examined awareness of racial and ethnic disparities in health care access and quality, perceptions of employer and health plan role in addressing disparities, and reported efforts to measure and reduce disparities. Our findings suggest that most health plans and many employers are aware of the existence of substantial disparities and that health plans, but not employers, have taken steps to examine and influence patterns of care by race and ethnicity among their members.

Design for Life. Abortion. A Student's Lesson Plan [and] A Teacher's Lesson Plan [and] A Lawyer's Lesson Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Estelle; And Others

One of a series of secondary level teaching units presenting case studies with pro and con analyses of particular legal problems, the document consists of a student's lesson plan, a teacher's lesson plan, and a lawyer's lesson plan for a unit on abortion. The lessons are designed to expose students to the Supreme Court's decision concerning…

Time and truth in plans

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hazelton, Lyman R., Jr.

1990-01-01

Some of the logical components of a rule based planning and scheduling system are described. The researcher points out a deficiency in the conventional truth maintenance approach to this class of problems and suggests a new mechanism which overcomes the problem. This extension of the idea of justification truth maintenance may seem at first to be a small philosophical step. However, it embodies a process of basic human reasoning which is so common and automatic as to escape conscious detection without careful introspection. It is vital to any successful implementation of a rule based planning reasoner.

Improving performance through concept formation and conceptual clustering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fisher, Douglas H.

1992-01-01

Research from June 1989 through October 1992 focussed on concept formation, clustering, and supervised learning for purposes of improving the efficiency of problem-solving, planning, and diagnosis. These projects resulted in two dissertations on clustering, explanation-based learning, and means-ends planning, and publications in conferences and workshops, several book chapters, and journals; a complete Bibliography of NASA Ames supported publications is included. The following topics are studied: clustering of explanations and problem-solving experiences; clustering and means-end planning; and diagnosis of space shuttle and space station operating modes.

Strategic Planning and Online Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLaughlin-Graham, Karen; Berge, Zane L.

2005-01-01

Strategic planning is a critical part of sustaining distance education. Through such planning, the organization can solve business problems that involve training and education in an effective and often cost savings manner compared to in-person training efforts. This paper examines the strategic planning process as it relates to sustaining distance…

31 CFR 29.301 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... retirement benefits under the Police and Firefighters Plan or the Teachers Plan. (2) This subpart provides... problems. (b)(1) This subpart applies only to benefits under the Police and Firefighters Plan or the Teachers Plan for individuals who have performed service creditable under these programs on or before June...

31 CFR 29.301 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... retirement benefits under the Police and Firefighters Plan or the Teachers Plan. (2) This subpart provides... problems. (b)(1) This subpart applies only to benefits under the Police and Firefighters Plan or the Teachers Plan for individuals who have performed service creditable under these programs on or before June...

31 CFR 29.301 - Purpose and scope.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... retirement benefits under the Police and Firefighters Plan or the Teachers Plan. (2) This subpart provides... problems. (b)(1) This subpart applies only to benefits under the Police and Firefighters Plan or the Teachers Plan for individuals who have performed service creditable under these programs on or before June...

40 CFR 130.6 - Water quality management plans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Water quality management plans. 130.6... QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT § 130.6 Water quality management plans. (a) Water quality management (WQM... when they are needed to address water quality problems. (1) Total maximum daily loads. TMDLs in...

Energy Management Lesson Plans for Vocational Agriculture Instructors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedges, Lowell E., Ed.; Miller, Larry E., Ed.

This notebook provides vocational agricultural teachers with 10 detailed lesson plans on the major topic of energy management in agriculture. The lesson plans present information about energy and the need to manage it wisely, using a problem-solving approach. Each lesson plan follows this format: lesson topic, lesson performance objectives,…

40 CFR 264.227 - Emergency repairs; contingency plans.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 25 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Emergency repairs; contingency plans... FACILITIES Surface Impoundments § 264.227 Emergency repairs; contingency plans. (a) A surface impoundment... days after detecting the problem. (c) As part of the contingency plan required in subpart D of this...

Review: Optimization methods for groundwater modeling and management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeh, William W.-G.

2015-09-01

Optimization methods have been used in groundwater modeling as well as for the planning and management of groundwater systems. This paper reviews and evaluates the various optimization methods that have been used for solving the inverse problem of parameter identification (estimation), experimental design, and groundwater planning and management. Various model selection criteria are discussed, as well as criteria used for model discrimination. The inverse problem of parameter identification concerns the optimal determination of model parameters using water-level observations. In general, the optimal experimental design seeks to find sampling strategies for the purpose of estimating the unknown model parameters. A typical objective of optimal conjunctive-use planning of surface water and groundwater is to minimize the operational costs of meeting water demand. The optimization methods include mathematical programming techniques such as linear programming, quadratic programming, dynamic programming, stochastic programming, nonlinear programming, and the global search algorithms such as genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, and tabu search. Emphasis is placed on groundwater flow problems as opposed to contaminant transport problems. A typical two-dimensional groundwater flow problem is used to explain the basic formulations and algorithms that have been used to solve the formulated optimization problems.

The ANMLite Language and Logic for Specifying Planning Problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Butler, Ricky W.; Siminiceanu, Radu I.; Munoz, Cesar A.

2007-01-01

We present the basic concepts of the ANMLite planning language. We discuss various aspects of specifying a plan in terms of constraints and checking the existence of a solution with the help of a model checker. The constructs of the ANMLite language have been kept as simple as possible in order to reduce complexity and simplify the verification problem. We illustrate the language with a specification of the space shuttle crew activity model that was constructed under the Spacecraft Autonomy for Vehicles and Habitats (SAVH) project. The main purpose of this study was to explore the implications of choosing a robust logic behind the specification of constraints, rather than simply proposing a new planning language.

To Prosecute or Not? Enforcement of Federal Criminal Regulatory Statutes. Revised Edition. A Student's Lesson Plan [and] A Teacher's Lesson Plan [and] A Lawyer's Lesson Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Estelle; And Others

One of a series of secondary level teaching units presenting case studies with pro and con analyses of particular legal problems, the document consists of a student's lesson plan, a teacher's lesson plan, and a lawyer's lesson plan for a unit about the enforcement of federal criminal regulatory statutes. The lesson plan presents an analysis of the…

Model and algorithm for container ship stowage planning based on bin-packing problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Wei-Ying; Lin, Yan; Ji, Zhuo-Shang

2005-09-01

In a general case, container ship serves many different ports on each voyage. A stowage planning for container ship made at one port must take account of the influence on subsequent ports. So the complexity of stowage planning problem increases due to its multi-ports nature. This problem is NP-hard problem. In order to reduce the computational complexity, the problem is decomposed into two sub-problems in this paper. First, container ship stowage problem (CSSP) is regarded as “packing problem”, ship-bays on the board of vessel are regarded as bins, the number of slots at each bay are taken as capacities of bins, and containers with different characteristics (homogeneous containers group) are treated as items packed. At this stage, there are two objective functions, one is to minimize the number of bays packed by containers and the other is to minimize the number of overstows. Secondly, containers assigned to each bays at first stage are allocate to special slot, the objective functions are to minimize the metacentric height, heel and overstows. The taboo search heuristics algorithm are used to solve the subproblem. The main focus of this paper is on the first subproblem. A case certifies the feasibility of the model and algorithm.

Problem solving of student with visual impairment related to mathematical literacy problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pratama, A. R.; Saputro, D. R. S.; Riyadi

2018-04-01

The student with visual impairment, total blind category depends on the sense of touch and hearing in obtaining information. In fact, the two senses can receive information less than 20%. Thus, students with visual impairment of the total blind categories in the learning process must have difficulty, including learning mathematics. This study aims to describe the problem-solving process of the student with visual impairment, total blind category on mathematical literacy issues based on Polya phase. This research using test method similar problems mathematical literacy in PISA and in-depth interviews. The subject of this study was a student with visual impairment, total blind category. Based on the result of the research, problem-solving related to mathematical literacy based on Polya phase is quite good. In the phase of understanding the problem, the student read about twice by brushing the text and assisted with information through hearing three times. The student with visual impairment in problem-solving based on the Polya phase, devising a plan by summoning knowledge and experience gained previously. At the phase of carrying out the plan, students with visual impairment implement the plan in accordance with pre-made. In the looking back phase, students with visual impairment need to check the answers three times but have not been able to find a way.

La preparacion en ciencia de los candidatos a maestros del nivel elemental primario segun la reforma de la educacion cientifica en Puerto Rico: Una propuesta de secuencia curricular

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez Plaza, Evelyn

El proposito de esta investigacion fue identificar los componentes de la preparacion en ciencia que deben recibir los estudiantes del Bachillerato en Artes en Educacion Elemental, Nivel Primario, de acuerdo a los documentos que dirigen la reforma de la educacion cientifica en Puerto Rico. Tambien, se identificaron los componentes de los cursos que forman parte de la preparacion en ciencia de estos estudiantes. Se compararon los componentes de la preparacion en ciencia y los componentes de los cursos para determinar congruencias y discrepancias. Con los datos recopilados se identificaron los componentes de los cursos de una secuencia curricular para la preparacion en ciencia de los candidatos a maestros del nivel elemental primario. La secuencia curricular que se propone en esta investigacion incluye cursos de contenido cientifico y de metodologia en la ensenanza de la ciencia disenados para satisfacer las necesidades de los candidatos. Se recomienda que en los procesos para el diseno, la implantacion y la evaluacion de estos cursos participen profesores de ciencia, profesores de educacion y maestros del nivel elemental primario. Todos los cursos de la secuencia curricular deben tener un enfoque constructivista. Las experiencias educativas que se incluyan en los cursos deben aspirar a desarrollar en los candidatos los atributos de la cultura cientifica y actitudes positivas hacia la ciencia y hacia la ensenanza de esta disciplina. El modelaje por parte de los profesores que ensenen los cursos de la secuencia curricular es fundamental en el desarrollo profesional de los candidatos. Se recomienda que en los cursos de contenido cientifico se estudien los conceptos y los conocimientos cientificos que forman parte del curriculo de Kindergarten a tercer grado de forma integrada y con una profundidad universitaria. Estos cursos deben tener un enfoque interdisciplinario e incluir el estudio de la naturaleza de la ciencia y un componente de laboratorio para desarrollar los procesos de la ciencia y las destrezas de la investigacion cientifica. En los cursos de metodologia en la ensenanza de la ciencia se deben estudiar los modelos, los metodos, las estrategias y las tecnicas mas efectivas para la ensenanza y el aprendizaje de la ciencia, asi como las tecnicas de avaluacion.

Embedding Game-Based Problem-Solving Phase into Problem-Posing System for Mathematics Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Kuo-En; Wu, Lin-Jung; Weng, Sheng-En; Sung, Yao-Ting

2012-01-01

A problem-posing system is developed with four phases including posing problem, planning, solving problem, and looking back, in which the "solving problem" phase is implemented by game-scenarios. The system supports elementary students in the process of problem-posing, allowing them to fully engage in mathematical activities. In total, 92 fifth…

[Problems of population and agricultural development in Rwanda].

PubMed

Sibomana, J M

1984-01-01

The primary goal of law 3/81 created by the National Office of Population (l'Office National de la Population--ONAPU) in 1981, is to establish a demographic policy consistent with national realities and designed to ease the problem of overpopulation. ONAPU supports family planning for all of Rwanda as an approach to the population situation. The family planning objective promotes conscientious and wanted procreation. It encourages couples to have children in accordance with a preestablished plan, which takes into account the size of the family and the calendar of procreation. Unmatched population growth with limited economic growth have been major concerns for ONAPU; hence, emphasis on maintaining a level of equilibrium between the 2 is a national priority. In the meantime, increased population growth has been causing agricultural problems. Small amounts of land available for cultivation and rudimentary agricultural technology necessitate a change in the financial organization of this sector. Simultaneously, there is an abundance of agricultural workers and a threat of famine due to population demands outstripping subsistence yields. If the population growth rate of Rwanda remains at 3.79%, the land will be insufficient. To avoid future problems, a financial revolution which involves both the agricultural and nonagricultural sectors must be planned. Economic, social, and cultural reorganization is critical, especially for family planning. The policy of spacing births will not be accepted without amelioration 1st family and community health.

Assessment of planning abilities in individuals with mild cognitive impairment using an open-ended problem-solving task.

PubMed

Sanders, Chad; Low, Christina; Schmitter-Edgecombe, Maureen

2014-01-01

There is currently limited research evaluating planning abilities, a core subcomponent of executive functioning, in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In the present study, we utilized the "Amap Task," an open-ended problem-solving task, to separately evaluate the formulation and execution components of planning ability in individuals with MCI. Thirty-seven cognitively healthy older adults and 37 individuals with MCI used a map layout of a university apartment to develop and write out a strategy (formulation stage) to successfully complete a list of tasks (e.g., retrieve and fill a water pitcher before placing it in the refrigerator). Subsequently, participants carried out the tasks in the apartment with the aid of their formulated plan (execution stage). MCI participants performed more poorly than older adult (OA) controls during both the formulation and execution stages on measures of task accuracy and task efficiency. However, both groups were able to adjust and improve task accuracy and efficiency from formulation to task execution. Finally, MCI participants took significantly longer to complete the task and adhered less to their formulated plans during task completion. Using an open-ended problem-solving task, the findings revealed that individuals with MCI experienced difficulties with both the formulation and execution components of planning. Like controls, participants with MCI were able to successfully modify their plan online, improving their performance from task formulation to task execution.

Teaching the Societal Dimension of Chemistry Using a Socio-Critical and Problem-Oriented Lesson Plan Based on Bioethanol Usage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feierabend, Timo; Eilks, Ingo

2011-01-01

This paper discusses a chemistry lesson plan based on the use of ethanol as an alternative and renewable energy source. The lessons were developed by participatory action research and follow a socio-critical and problem-oriented approach to chemistry teaching. This approach specifically focuses on the handling of scientific and technological…

Evaluation of scheduling techniques for payload activity planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bullington, Stanley F.

1991-01-01

Two tasks related to payload activity planning and scheduling were performed. The first task involved making a comparison of space mission activity scheduling problems with production scheduling problems. The second task consisted of a statistical analysis of the output of runs of the Experiment Scheduling Program (ESP). Details of the work which was performed on these two tasks are presented.

Self-Regulatory Speech during Planning and Problem-Solving in Children with SLI and Their Typically Developing Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdul Aziz, Safiyyah; Fletcher, Janet; Bayliss, Donna M.

2017-01-01

Background: Past research with children with specific language impairment (SLI) has shown them to have poorer planning and problem-solving ability, and delayed self-regulatory speech (SRS) relative to their typically developing (TD) peers. However, the studies are few in number and are restricted in terms of the number and age range of…

Klein's Plan B in the Early Teaching of Analysis: Two Theoretical Cases of Exploring Mathematical Links

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kondratieva, Margo; Winsløw, Carl

2018-01-01

We present a theoretical approach to the problem of the transition from Calculus to Analysis within the undergraduate mathematics curriculum. First, we formulate this problem using the anthropological theory of the didactic, in particular the notion of praxeology, along with a possible solution related to Klein's "Plan B": here,…

How to Stop Dealing with the Same Types of Problems Day after Day, Part 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Gary

2005-01-01

Gaining expertise in leadership requires time, commitment, an adequate knowledge base, and a working plan for learning and growth. Without a plan for learning, only tacit or "how-to" expertise is developed. Leaders often know how to solve the problems facing them, but fail to analyze and act on the underlying causes. This results in administrators…

How to Stop Dealing with the Same Types of Problems Day after Day, Part 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Gary

2005-01-01

Gaining expertise in leadership requires time, commitment, an adequate knowledge base, and a working plan for learning and growth. Without a plan for learning, only tacit or "how-to" expertise is developed. Leaders often know how to solve the problems facing them, but they fail to analyze and act on the underlying causes. This results in…

Building Consistency between Title, Problem Statement, Purpose, & Research Questions to Improve the Quality of Research Plans and Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newman, Isadore; Covrig, Duane M.

2013-01-01

Consistency in the title, problem, purpose, and research question improve the logic and transparency of research. When these components of research are aligned research design and planning are more coherent and research reports are more readable. This article reviews the process for checking for and improving consistency. Numerous examples of…

Assessing Problematic Video Gaming Using the Theory of Planned Behavior: A Longitudinal Study of Dutch Young People

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haagsma, Maria C.; King, Daniel L.; Pieterse, Marcel E.; Peters, Oscar

2013-01-01

Although excessive video gaming has been linked to a range of psychological problems in young people, there have been few systematic attempts to conceptualize problem gaming using established psychological theory. The aim of this study was to examine problematic game use (PGU) using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A two-wave, six-month…

Age Differences in Strategic Planning as Indexed by the Tower of London

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albert, Dustin; Steinberg, Laurence

2011-01-01

The present study examined age differences in performance on the Tower of London, a measure of strategic planning, in a diverse sample of 890 individuals between the ages of 10 and 30. Although mature performance was attained by age 17 on relatively easy problems, performance on the hardest problems showed improvements into the early 20s.…

A Framework for Dynamic Constraint Reasoning Using Procedural Constraints

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jonsson, Ari K.; Frank, Jeremy D.

1999-01-01

Many complex real-world decision and control problems contain an underlying constraint reasoning problem. This is particularly evident in a recently developed approach to planning, where almost all planning decisions are represented by constrained variables. This translates a significant part of the planning problem into a constraint network whose consistency determines the validity of the plan candidate. Since higher-level choices about control actions can add or remove variables and constraints, the underlying constraint network is invariably highly dynamic. Arbitrary domain-dependent constraints may be added to the constraint network and the constraint reasoning mechanism must be able to handle such constraints effectively. Additionally, real problems often require handling constraints over continuous variables. These requirements present a number of significant challenges for a constraint reasoning mechanism. In this paper, we introduce a general framework for handling dynamic constraint networks with real-valued variables, by using procedures to represent and effectively reason about general constraints. The framework is based on a sound theoretical foundation, and can be proven to be sound and complete under well-defined conditions. Furthermore, the framework provides hybrid reasoning capabilities, as alternative solution methods like mathematical programming can be incorporated into the framework, in the form of procedures.

Virtual manufacturing in reality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papstel, Jyri; Saks, Alo

2000-10-01

SMEs play an important role in manufacturing industry. But from time to time there is a shortage in resources to complete the particular order in time. Number of systems is introduced to produce digital information in order to support product and process development activities. Main problem is lack of opportunity for direct data transition within design system modules when needed temporary extension of design capacity (virtuality) or to implement integrated concurrent product development principles. The planning experience in the field is weakly used as well. The concept of virtual manufacturing is a supporting idea to solve this problem. At the same time a number of practical problems should be solved like information conformity, data transfer, unified technological concepts acceptation etc. In the present paper the proposed ways to solve the practical problems of virtual manufacturing are described. General objective is to introduce the knowledge-based CAPP system as missing module for Virtual Manufacturing in the selected product domain. Surface-centered planning concept based on STEP- based modeling principles, and knowledge-based process planning methodology will be used to gain the objectives. As a result the planning module supplied by design data with direct access, and supporting advising environment is expected. Mould producing SME would be as test basis.

Lessons Learned In Developing Multiple Distributed Planning Systems for the International Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maxwell, Theresa G.; McNair, Ann R. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The planning processes for the International Space Station (ISS) Program are quite complex. Detailed mission planning for ISS on-orbit operations is a distributed function. Pieces of the on-orbit plan are developed by multiple planning organizations, located around the world, based on their respective expertise and responsibilities. The "pieces" are then integrated to yield the final detailed plan that will be executed onboard the ISS. Previous space programs have not distributed the planning and scheduling functions to this extent. Major ISS planning organizations are currently located in the United States (at both the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)), in Russia, in Europe, and in Japan. Software systems have been developed by each of these planning organizations to support their assigned planning and scheduling functions. Although there is some cooperative development and sharing of key software components, each planning system has been tailored to meet the unique requirements and operational environment of the facility in which it operates. However, all the systems must operate in a coordinated fashion in order to effectively and efficiently produce a single integrated plan of ISS operations, in accordance with the established planning processes. This paper addresses lessons learned during the development of these multiple distributed planning systems, from the perspective of the developer of one of the software systems. The lessons focus on the coordination required to allow the multiple systems to operate together, rather than on the problems associated with the development of any particular system. Included in the paper is a discussion of typical problems faced during the development and coordination process, such as incompatible development schedules, difficulties in defining system interfaces, technical coordination and funding for shared tools, continually evolving planning concepts/requirements, programmatic and budget issues, and external influences. Techniques that mitigated some of these problems will also be addressed, along with recommendations for any future programs involving the development of multiple planning and scheduling systems. Many of these lessons learned are not unique to the area of planning and scheduling systems, so may be applied to other distributed ground systems that must operate in concert to successfully support space mission operations.

Lessons Learned in Developing Multiple Distributed Planning Systems for the International Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maxwell, Theresa G.

2002-01-01

The planning processes for the International Space Station (ISS) Program are quite complex. Detailed mission planning for ISS on-orbit operations is a distributed function. Pieces of the on-orbit plan are developed by multiple planning organizations, located around the world, based on their respective expertise and responsibilities. The pieces are then integrated to yield the final detailed plan that will be executed onboard the ISS. Previous space programs have not distributed the planning and scheduling functions to this extent. Major ISS planning organizations are currently located in the United States (at both the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)), in Russia, in Europe, and in Japan. Software systems have been developed by each of these planning organizations to support their assigned planning and scheduling functions. Although there is some cooperative development and sharing of key software components, each planning system has been tailored to meet the unique requirements and operational environment of the facility in which it operates. However, all the systems must operate in a coordinated fashion in order to effectively and efficiently produce a single integrated plan of ISS operations, in accordance with the established planning processes. This paper addresses lessons learned during the development of these multiple distributed planning systems, from the perspective of the developer of one of the software systems. The lessons focus on the coordination required to allow the multiple systems to operate together, rather than on the problems associated with the development of any particular system. Included in the paper is a discussion of typical problems faced during the development and coordination process, such as incompatible development schedules, difficulties in defining system interfaces, technical coordination and funding for shared tools, continually evolving planning concepts/requirements, programmatic and budget issues, and external influences. Techniques that mitigated some of these problems will also be addressed, along with recommendations for any future programs involving the development of multiple planning and scheduling systems. Many of these lessons learned are not unique to the area of planning and scheduling systems, so may be applied to other distributed ground systems that must operate in concert to successfully support space mission operations.

An Architecture for Autonomic Web Service Process Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Colm; Xue Wang, Ming; Pahl, Claus

Web service composition is a technology that has received considerable attention in the last number of years. Languages and tools to aid in the process of creating composite Web services have been received specific attention. Web service composition is the process of linking single Web services together in order to accomplish more complex tasks. One area of Web service composition that has not received as much attention is the area of dynamic error handling and re-planning, enabling autonomic composition. Given a repository of service descriptions and a task to complete, it is possible for AI planners to automatically create a plan that will achieve this goal. If however a service in the plan is unavailable or erroneous the plan will fail. Motivated by this problem, this paper suggests autonomous re-planning as a means to overcome dynamic problems. Our solution involves automatically recovering from faults and creating a context-dependent alternate plan. We present an architecture that serves as a basis for the central activities autonomous composition, monitoring and fault handling.

A model and solving algorithm of combination planning for weapon equipment based on Epoch-era analysis method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Meng; Zhang, Huaiqiang; Zhang, Kan

2017-10-01

Focused on the circumstance that the equipment using demand in the short term and the development demand in the long term should be made overall plans and took into consideration in the weapons portfolio planning and the practical problem of the fuzziness in the definition of equipment capacity demand. The expression of demand is assumed to be an interval number or a discrete number. With the analysis method of epoch-era, a long planning cycle is broke into several short planning cycles with different demand value. The multi-stage stochastic programming model is built aimed at maximize long-term planning cycle demand under the constraint of budget, equipment development time and short planning cycle demand. The scenario tree is used to discretize the interval value of the demand, and genetic algorithm is designed to solve the problem. At last, a case is studied to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed mode.

[Problem solving abilities of nursing students: the experience of the bachelor degree course in nursing at the University of Udine].

PubMed

Bulfone, Giampiera; Galletti, Caterina; Vellone, Ercole; Zanini, Antonietta; Quattrin, Rosanna

2008-01-01

The process nurses adopt to solve the patients' problems is known as "Problem Solving" in the literature. Problem Solving Abilities include Diagnostic Reasoning, Prognostic Judgment and Decision Making. Nursing students apply the Problem Solving to the Nursing Process that is the mental and operative approach that nurses use to plan the nursing care. The purpose of the present study is to examine if there is a positive relationship between the number of Educational Tutorial Strategies (Briefing, Debriefing and Discussion according to the Objective Structured Clinical Examination Methodology) used for nursing students and their learning of Problem Solving Abilities (Diagnostic Reasoning, Prognostic Judgment and Decision Making). The study design was retrospective, descriptive and comparative. The Problem Solving Instrument, specifically developed for this study and proved for its reliability and validity, was used to collect the data from a sample of 106 nursing care plans elaborated by the second-year students of the Bachelor Degree in Nursing of the University of Udine. Nursing care plans were elaborated during three times consecutively, after students had participated in different Educational Tutorial Strategies. Results showed that the more the students took part in a higher number of Educational Tutorial Strategies the more they significantly increased their Problem Solving Abilities. The results demonstrate that it is important to use Educational Tutorial Strategies in the nursing education to teach skills.

Nursing's role in Y2K planning.

PubMed

Simpson, R L

1999-04-01

Why haven't more nurses fulfilled their role in Y2K planning? Nurses need to apply their skills and expertise to solving often overlooked problems such as point-of-service applications, transactions with business partners, and contingency planning.

Resource Allocation Algorithms for the Next Generation Cellular Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amzallag, David; Raz, Danny

This chapter describes recent results addressing resource allocation problems in the context of current and future cellular technologies. We present models that capture several fundamental aspects of planning and operating these networks, and develop new approximation algorithms providing provable good solutions for the corresponding optimization problems. We mainly focus on two families of problems: cell planning and cell selection. Cell planning deals with choosing a network of base stations that can provide the required coverage of the service area with respect to the traffic requirements, available capacities, interference, and the desired QoS. Cell selection is the process of determining the cell(s) that provide service to each mobile station. Optimizing these processes is an important step towards maximizing the utilization of current and future cellular networks.

Probabilistic Reasoning for Plan Robustness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schaffer, Steve R.; Clement, Bradley J.; Chien, Steve A.

2005-01-01

A planning system must reason about the uncertainty of continuous variables in order to accurately project the possible system state over time. A method is devised for directly reasoning about the uncertainty in continuous activity duration and resource usage for planning problems. By representing random variables as parametric distributions, computing projected system state can be simplified in some cases. Common approximation and novel methods are compared for over-constrained and lightly constrained domains. The system compares a few common approximation methods for an iterative repair planner. Results show improvements in robustness over the conventional non-probabilistic representation by reducing the number of constraint violations witnessed by execution. The improvement is more significant for larger problems and problems with higher resource subscription levels but diminishes as the system is allowed to accept higher risk levels.

With Interest It Comes To...Unconscionable Clauses in Sales Contracts. A Student's Lesson Plan [and] A Teacher's Lesson Plan [and] A Lawyer's Lesson Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Estelle; And Others

One of a series of secondary level teaching units presenting case studies with pro and con analysis of particular legal problems, the document presents a student's lesson plan, a teacher's lesson plan, and a lawyer's lesson plan on unconscionable clauses in sales contracts. The unit acquaints students with the operation of sales contracts and…

An interactive computer approach to performing resource analysis for a multi-resource/multi-project problem. [Spacelab inventory procurement planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schlagheck, R. A.

1977-01-01

New planning techniques and supporting computer tools are needed for the optimization of resources and costs for space transportation and payload systems. Heavy emphasis on cost effective utilization of resources has caused NASA program planners to look at the impact of various independent variables that affect procurement buying. A description is presented of a category of resource planning which deals with Spacelab inventory procurement analysis. Spacelab is a joint payload project between NASA and the European Space Agency and will be flown aboard the Space Shuttle starting in 1980. In order to respond rapidly to the various procurement planning exercises, a system was built that could perform resource analysis in a quick and efficient manner. This system is known as the Interactive Resource Utilization Program (IRUP). Attention is given to aspects of problem definition, an IRUP system description, questions of data base entry, the approach used for project scheduling, and problems of resource allocation.

Three-Dimensional Path Planning for Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicle Based on Predator-Prey Pigeon-Inspired Optimization in Dynamic Environment.

PubMed

Zhang, Bo; Duan, Haibin

2017-01-01

Three-dimension path planning of uninhabited combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) is a complicated optimal problem, which mainly focused on optimizing the flight route considering the different types of constrains under complex combating environment. A novel predator-prey pigeon-inspired optimization (PPPIO) is proposed to solve the UCAV three-dimension path planning problem in dynamic environment. Pigeon-inspired optimization (PIO) is a new bio-inspired optimization algorithm. In this algorithm, map and compass operator model and landmark operator model are used to search the best result of a function. The prey-predator concept is adopted to improve global best properties and enhance the convergence speed. The characteristics of the optimal path are presented in the form of a cost function. The comparative simulation results show that our proposed PPPIO algorithm is more efficient than the basic PIO, particle swarm optimization (PSO), and different evolution (DE) in solving UCAV three-dimensional path planning problems.

Tour of a Simple Trigonometry Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poon, Kin-Keung

2012-01-01

This article focuses on a simple trigonometric problem that generates a strange phenomenon when different methods are applied to tackling it. A series of problem-solving activities are discussed, so that students can be alerted that the precision of diagrams is important when solving geometric problems. In addition, the problem-solving plan was…

The results of STEM education methods for enhancing critical thinking and problem solving skill in physics the 10th grade level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soros, P.; Ponkham, K.; Ekkapim, S.

2018-01-01

This research aimed to: 1) compare the critical think and problem solving skills before and after learning using STEM Education plan, 2) compare student achievement before and after learning about force and laws of motion using STEM Education plan, and 3) the satisfaction of learning by using STEM Education. The sample used were 37 students from grade 10 at Borabu School, Borabu District, Mahasarakham Province, semester 2, Academic year 2016. Tools used in this study consist of: 1) STEM Education plan about the force and laws of motion for grade 10 students of 1 schemes with total of 14 hours, 2) The test of critical think and problem solving skills with multiple-choice type of 5 options and 2 option of 30 items, 3) achievement test on force and laws of motion with multiple-choice of 4 options of 30 items, 4) satisfaction learning with 5 Rating Scale of 20 items. The statistics used in data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test (Dependent). The results showed that 1) The student with learning using STEM Education plan have score of critical think and problem solving skills on post-test higher than pre-test with statistically significant level .01. 2) The student with learning using STEM Education plan have achievement score on post-test higher than pre-test with statistically significant level of .01. 3) The student'level of satisfaction toward the learning by using STEM Education plan was at a high level (X ¯ = 4.51, S.D=0.56).

Study the Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choate, Joyce S.

1990-01-01

The initial step of a strategic process for solving mathematical problems, "studying the question," is discussed. A lesson plan for teaching students to identify and revise arithmetic problems is presented, involving directed instruction and supervised practice. (JDD)

Distance estimation and collision prediction for on-line robotic motion planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kyriakopoulos, K. J.; Saridis, G. N.

1992-01-01

An efficient method for computing the minimum distance and predicting collisions between moving objects is presented. This problem is incorporated into the framework of an in-line motion-planning algorithm to satisfy collision avoidance between a robot and moving objects modeled as convex polyhedra. In the beginning, the deterministic problem where the information about the objects is assumed to be certain is examined. L(1) or L(infinity) norms are used to represent distance and the problem becomes a linear programming problem. The stochastic problem is formulated where the uncertainty is induced by sensing and the unknown dynamics of the moving obstacles. Two problems are considered: First, filtering of the distance between the robot and the moving object at the present time. Second, prediction of the minimum distance in the future in order to predict the collision time.

The Hemophilia Games: An Experiment in Health Education Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Heart and Lung Inst. (DHEW/PHS), Bethesda, MD.

The Hemophilia Health Education Planning Project was designed to (1) create a set of tools useful in hemophilia planning and education, and (2) create a planning model for other diseases with similar factors. The project used the game-simulations technique which was felt to be particularly applicable to hemophilia health problems, since as a…

Practical Suggestions for Family Planning Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Health Services Administration (DHEW/PHS), Rockville, MD. Bureau of Community Health Services.

This manual is designed to address some of the basic problems of those who work in family planning education, and is based on the recurring questions and concerns of participants in a nationwide series of DHEW-sponsored family planning education and communication workshops. The manual proceeds chronologically, dealing first with the planning of a…

Computer planning tools applied to a cable logging research study

Treesearch

Chris B. LeDoux; Penn A. Peters

1985-01-01

Contemporary harvest planning software was used in planning the layout of cable logging units for a production study of the Clearwater Yarder in upstate New York. Planning software, including payload analysis and digital terrain models, allowed researchers to identify layout and yarding problems before the experiment. Analysis of proposed ground profiles pinpointed the...

State Vocational Education Planning: An Assessment of Issues and Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawrence, John E. S., Ed.; Dane, J. K., Ed.

The Dynamic Analysis and Strategic Planning (DASP) Program Division of the Center for Occupational Education at North Carolina State University is concerned with its need for information about the actual operation of planning systems and the development of a planning and information system for vocational education. To this end a three part…

Temporal and Resource Reasoning for Planning, Scheduling and Execution in Autonomous Agents

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muscettola, Nicola; Hunsberger, Luke; Tsamardinos, Ioannis

2005-01-01

This viewgraph slide tutorial reviews methods for planning and scheduling events. The presentation reviews several methods and uses several examples of scheduling events for the successful and timely completion of the overall plan. Using constraint based models the presentation reviews planning with time, time representations in problem solving and resource reasoning.

IRIS Assessment Plan for Ammonia and Ammonium Salts Noncancer Oral (Scoping and Problem Formulation Materials)

EPA Science Inventory

In April 2018, EPA released the draft IRIS Assessment Plan for Ammonia and Ammonium Salts Noncancer Oral. An IRIS Assessment Plan (IAP) communicates to the public the plan for assessing each individual chemical and includes summary information on the IRIS Program’s sco...

Software for Project-Based Learning of Robot Motion Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moll, Mark; Bordeaux, Janice; Kavraki, Lydia E.

2013-01-01

Motion planning is a core problem in robotics concerned with finding feasible paths for a given robot. Motion planning algorithms perform a search in the high-dimensional continuous space of robot configurations and exemplify many of the core algorithmic concepts of search algorithms and associated data structures. Motion planning algorithms can…

Is the malpractice crisis filtering down to family planning?

PubMed

1986-06-01

Evidence now exists that the insurance industry is including contraceptive researchers and family planning clinics in its crackdown on malpractice and liability policies. Family planning practioners have been lumped together with private physicians under the category "Profit-buster" for most major insurers, and the effects are just beginning to show. The liability problems of family planning clinics overlap those of physicians and drug companies. Essentially, they, too, can be held responsible for the products they prescribe and dispense to their clients. When the family planning clinic of NEWCAP, Inc., a community action program in Wisconsin, was abruptly dropped by its insurer in November, the staff was puzzled. NEWCAP had a spotless record and had experienced no previous insurance problems. The insurance company justified its actions by explaining it was getting out of the malpractice field altogether. Although NEWCAP's dilemma seems to be unique at this time, family planning organizations are concerned about the future. The malpractice crackdown also is causing problems for contraceptive researchers. Over the past few years, research and development programs have suffered because of difficulty in obtaining product liability insurance. Due to insurance costs, the Popuation Council's US clinical trials of the promising NORPLANT contraceptive implant were pared down to the minimum number required for Food and Drug Administration approval. Family Planning International's clinical trials of the biodegradable contraceptive implant Capronor have been postponed because an insurer could not be found. Acquiring insurance does not put the researcher over the hurdle, according to Richard Lincoln, senior vice president of the Alan Guttmacher Institute. There are more problems ahead after the research is completed. Dr. Harold Nash, New York's Population Council, has some suggestions for alleviating what seems to be a growing problem. If interest rates increase and insurers raise rates across the board, "they will start seeing a good return on their investments, and the problem will just go away," he said. "But if that doesn't happen, and maybe even if it does, some legislative remedies are needed to control all this litigation." Several different ideas now are being considered by state legislatures and by Congress. One suggestion is to limit the contingency fees that lawyers can charge. Another is to limit the amount of damages that can be levied based on pain and suffering. A third considers the problem of frivolous suits and would require a plantiff entering into a trivial suit to pay the expenses incurred by the defendant.

Two arm robot path planning in a static environment using polytopes and string stretching. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schima, Francis J., III

1990-01-01

The two arm robot path planning problem has been analyzed and reduced into components to be simplified. This thesis examines one component in which two Puma-560 robot arms are simultaneously holding a single object. The problem is to find a path between two points around obstacles which is relatively fast and minimizes the distance. The thesis involves creating a structure on which to form an advanced path planning algorithm which could ideally find the optimum path. An actual path planning method is implemented which is simple though effective in most common situations. Given the limits of computer technology, a 'good' path is currently found. Objects in the workspace are modeled with polytopes. These are used because they can be used for rapid collision detection and still provide a representation which is adequate for path planning.

Special Report. States Doubt Clean Air Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Environmental Science and Technology, 1974

1974-01-01

This special report reviews air quality control plans formulated by each state. Comparisons of these plans and discussions on the degree of implementation achieved by state governments are presented. Problems surrounding the establishment and implementation of EPA approved plans are discussed. (JP)

[Puebla: the contradictions of growth and urban planning in the nineties].

PubMed

Perez Mendoza, S; Rojas Bonilla, J L; Vazquez Lopez, J

1991-12-01

A series of questions and observations are presented relating to urban problems resulting from demographic growth and economic development in the city of Puebla, Mexico. Although the date used are primarily for the city of Puebla, the metropolitan conurbation in its totality should be the true focus of study. The major problems in the city of Puebla result from the inability of market forces to satisfy growing needs for employment, housing, and transport, and from limitations on the ability of the municipal administration to provide and improve the public services demanded by the population. If the metropolitan area is not viewed as a whole, there is a great risk that uncontrolled growth will continue while problems in the conurbation will be underestimated. Puebla's most rapid period of growth occurred in the 1960s, when significant development took place in manufacturing. An inventory of proposed solutions to problems of urban development and social welfare in Puebla was conducted using data from the Development Plan of the state of Puebla for 1987-93 and reports of the state government and of municipal government programs for 1987-1990 and 1990-1993. The various plans mention 281 separate proposals, 218 actions, and 16 strategies. Severe financial limitations and technical and conceptual shortcomings however will probably prevent many from being implemented. Among the persisting problems in Puebla that have been recognized but are likely to worsen are the 38% deficit of drinking water and 30% loss through leakage and waste; the lack of water treatment and inadequate capacity of the sewage system and the failure to operate 7 existing water treatment plants because of the high cost; the lack of solid waste disposal facilities and existence of only 1 landfill that receives only 32% of the 1450 tons of solid waste produced daily; the lack of paved roads and failure to maintain existing roads, and poor planning and inadequacy of public transportation routes. The current 3-year plan contains few significant public works that would address these problems. The basic principal for future planning should be that those who obtain the most benefits from the city should contribute the most to pay for the use of urban facilities. A program of metropolitan-wide planning should be initiated to provide order in the pattern of urban land use, integrating urban and suburban areas.

Differences in the Processes of Solving Physics Problems between Good Physics Problem Solvers and Poor Physics Problem Solvers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finegold, M.; Mass, R.

1985-01-01

Good problem solvers and poor problem solvers in advanced physics (N=8) were significantly different in their ability in translating, planning, and physical reasoning, as well as in problem solving time; no differences in reliance on algebraic solutions and checking problems were noted. Implications for physics teaching are discussed. (DH)

Multi-GPU implementation of a VMAT treatment plan optimization algorithm.

PubMed

Tian, Zhen; Peng, Fei; Folkerts, Michael; Tan, Jun; Jia, Xun; Jiang, Steve B

2015-06-01

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) optimization is a computationally challenging problem due to its large data size, high degrees of freedom, and many hardware constraints. High-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) have been used to speed up the computations. However, GPU's relatively small memory size cannot handle cases with a large dose-deposition coefficient (DDC) matrix in cases of, e.g., those with a large target size, multiple targets, multiple arcs, and/or small beamlet size. The main purpose of this paper is to report an implementation of a column-generation-based VMAT algorithm, previously developed in the authors' group, on a multi-GPU platform to solve the memory limitation problem. While the column-generation-based VMAT algorithm has been previously developed, the GPU implementation details have not been reported. Hence, another purpose is to present detailed techniques employed for GPU implementation. The authors also would like to utilize this particular problem as an example problem to study the feasibility of using a multi-GPU platform to solve large-scale problems in medical physics. The column-generation approach generates VMAT apertures sequentially by solving a pricing problem (PP) and a master problem (MP) iteratively. In the authors' method, the sparse DDC matrix is first stored on a CPU in coordinate list format (COO). On the GPU side, this matrix is split into four submatrices according to beam angles, which are stored on four GPUs in compressed sparse row format. Computation of beamlet price, the first step in PP, is accomplished using multi-GPUs. A fast inter-GPU data transfer scheme is accomplished using peer-to-peer access. The remaining steps of PP and MP problems are implemented on CPU or a single GPU due to their modest problem scale and computational loads. Barzilai and Borwein algorithm with a subspace step scheme is adopted here to solve the MP problem. A head and neck (H&N) cancer case is then used to validate the authors' method. The authors also compare their multi-GPU implementation with three different single GPU implementation strategies, i.e., truncating DDC matrix (S1), repeatedly transferring DDC matrix between CPU and GPU (S2), and porting computations involving DDC matrix to CPU (S3), in terms of both plan quality and computational efficiency. Two more H&N patient cases and three prostate cases are used to demonstrate the advantages of the authors' method. The authors' multi-GPU implementation can finish the optimization process within ∼ 1 min for the H&N patient case. S1 leads to an inferior plan quality although its total time was 10 s shorter than the multi-GPU implementation due to the reduced matrix size. S2 and S3 yield the same plan quality as the multi-GPU implementation but take ∼4 and ∼6 min, respectively. High computational efficiency was consistently achieved for the other five patient cases tested, with VMAT plans of clinically acceptable quality obtained within 23-46 s. Conversely, to obtain clinically comparable or acceptable plans for all six of these VMAT cases that the authors have tested in this paper, the optimization time needed in a commercial TPS system on CPU was found to be in an order of several minutes. The results demonstrate that the multi-GPU implementation of the authors' column-generation-based VMAT optimization can handle the large-scale VMAT optimization problem efficiently without sacrificing plan quality. The authors' study may serve as an example to shed some light on other large-scale medical physics problems that require multi-GPU techniques.

Coordinating space telescope operations in an integrated planning and scheduling architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Muscettola, Nicola; Smith, Stephen F.; Cesta, Amedeo; D'Aloisi, Daniela

1992-01-01

The Heuristic Scheduling Testbed System (HSTS), a software architecture for integrated planning and scheduling, is discussed. The architecture has been applied to the problem of generating observation schedules for the Hubble Space Telescope. This problem is representative of the class of problems that can be addressed: their complexity lies in the interaction of resource allocation and auxiliary task expansion. The architecture deals with this interaction by viewing planning and scheduling as two complementary aspects of the more general process of constructing behaviors of a dynamical system. The principal components of the software architecture are described, indicating how to model the structure and dynamics of a system, how to represent schedules at multiple levels of abstraction in the temporal database, and how the problem solving machinery operates. A scheduler for the detailed management of Hubble Space Telescope operations that has been developed within HSTS is described. Experimental performance results are given that indicate the utility and practicality of the approach.

Co-optimizing Generation and Transmission Expansion with Wind Power in Large-Scale Power Grids Implementation in the US Eastern Interconnection

DOE PAGES

You, Shutang; Hadley, Stanton W.; Shankar, Mallikarjun; ...

2016-01-12

This paper studies the generation and transmission expansion co-optimization problem with a high wind power penetration rate in the US Eastern Interconnection (EI) power grid. In this paper, the generation and transmission expansion problem for the EI system is modeled as a mixed-integer programming (MIP) problem. Our paper also analyzed a time series generation method to capture the variation and correlation of both load and wind power across regions. The obtained series can be easily introduced into the expansion planning problem and then solved through existing MIP solvers. Simulation results show that the proposed planning model and series generation methodmore » can improve the expansion result significantly through modeling more detailed information of wind and load variation among regions in the US EI system. Moreover, the improved expansion plan that combines generation and transmission will aid system planners and policy makers to maximize the social welfare in large-scale power grids.« less

Anticipating students' reasoning and planning prompts in structured problem-solving lessons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vale, Colleen; Widjaja, Wanty; Doig, Brian; Groves, Susie

2018-02-01

Structured problem-solving lessons are used to explore mathematical concepts such as pattern and relationships in early algebra, and regularly used in Japanese Lesson Study research lessons. However, enactment of structured problem-solving lessons which involves detailed planning, anticipation of student solutions and orchestration of whole-class discussion of solutions is an ongoing challenge for many teachers. Moreover, primary teachers have limited experience in teaching early algebra or mathematical reasoning actions such as generalising. In this study, the critical factors of enacting the structured problem-solving lessons used in Japanese Lesson Study to elicit and develop primary students' capacity to generalise are explored. Teachers from three primary schools participated in two Japanese Lesson Study teams for this study. The lesson plans and video recordings of teaching and post-lesson discussion of the two research lessons along with students' responses and learning are compared to identify critical factors. The anticipation of students' reasoning together with preparation of supporting and challenging prompts was critical for scaffolding students' capacity to grasp and communicate generality.

Analyzing and Detecting Problems in Systems of Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lindvall, Mikael; Ackermann, Christopher; Stratton, William C.; Sibol, Deane E.; Godfrey, Sally

2008-01-01

Many software systems are evolving complex system of systems (SoS) for which inter-system communication is mission-critical. Evidence indicates that transmission failures and performance issues are not uncommon occurrences. In a NASA-supported Software Assurance Research Program (SARP) project, we are researching a new approach addressing such problems. In this paper, we are presenting an approach for analyzing inter-system communications with the goal to uncover both transmission errors and performance problems. Our approach consists of a visualization and an evaluation component. While the visualization of the observed communication aims to facilitate understanding, the evaluation component automatically checks the conformance of an observed communication (actual) to a desired one (planned). The actual and the planned are represented as sequence diagrams. The evaluation algorithm checks the conformance of the actual to the planned diagram. We have applied our approach to the communication of aerospace systems and were successful in detecting and resolving even subtle and long existing transmission problems.

Adaptation and Validation of the Tower of London Test of Planning and Problem Solving in People with Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masson, J. D.; Dagnan, D.; Evans, J.

2010-01-01

Background: There is a need for validated, standardised tools for the assessment of executive functions in adults with intellectual disabilities (ID). This study examines the validity of a test of planning and problem solving (Tower of London) with adults with ID. Method: Participants completed an adapted version of the Tower of London (ToL) while…

Center of Gravity within the Ill-Structured Problem

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-04

NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER Chad Livingston...Simon, Decision Making and Problem Solving 28 Cardon and Leonard, Unleashing Design, Planning and the Art of Battle Command, 2 11 complex, ill...Command. "Commander’s Appreciation and Campaign Design." Fort Monroe, VA, January 2008. Edward Cardon and Steve Leonard. "Unleashing Design, Planning

Confronting the implications of wicked problems: changes needed in Sierra Nevada National Forest planning and problem solving

Treesearch

Hal Salwasser

2004-01-01

Thirty years ago, the fate of migratory deer in the Sierra Nevada was thought to be the major forest wildlife issue. Ten years later, agencies were building the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System to allow managers to integrate all terrestrial vertebrates with timber management in comprehensive National Forest planning. Another ten years after that, Tom...

A Bat Algorithm with Mutation for UCAV Path Planning

PubMed Central

Wang, Gaige; Guo, Lihong; Duan, Hong; Liu, Luo; Wang, Heqi

2012-01-01

Path planning for uninhabited combat air vehicle (UCAV) is a complicated high dimension optimization problem, which mainly centralizes on optimizing the flight route considering the different kinds of constrains under complicated battle field environments. Original bat algorithm (BA) is used to solve the UCAV path planning problem. Furthermore, a new bat algorithm with mutation (BAM) is proposed to solve the UCAV path planning problem, and a modification is applied to mutate between bats during the process of the new solutions updating. Then, the UCAV can find the safe path by connecting the chosen nodes of the coordinates while avoiding the threat areas and costing minimum fuel. This new approach can accelerate the global convergence speed while preserving the strong robustness of the basic BA. The realization procedure for original BA and this improved metaheuristic approach BAM is also presented. To prove the performance of this proposed metaheuristic method, BAM is compared with BA and other population-based optimization methods, such as ACO, BBO, DE, ES, GA, PBIL, PSO, and SGA. The experiment shows that the proposed approach is more effective and feasible in UCAV path planning than the other models. PMID:23365518

Divide et impera: subgoaling reduces the complexity of probabilistic inference and problem solving

PubMed Central

Maisto, Domenico; Donnarumma, Francesco; Pezzulo, Giovanni

2015-01-01

It has long been recognized that humans (and possibly other animals) usually break problems down into smaller and more manageable problems using subgoals. Despite a general consensus that subgoaling helps problem solving, it is still unclear what the mechanisms guiding online subgoal selection are during the solution of novel problems for which predefined solutions are not available. Under which conditions does subgoaling lead to optimal behaviour? When is subgoaling better than solving a problem from start to finish? Which is the best number and sequence of subgoals to solve a given problem? How are these subgoals selected during online inference? Here, we present a computational account of subgoaling in problem solving. Following Occam's razor, we propose that good subgoals are those that permit planning solutions and controlling behaviour using less information resources, thus yielding parsimony in inference and control. We implement this principle using approximate probabilistic inference: subgoals are selected using a sampling method that considers the descriptive complexity of the resulting sub-problems. We validate the proposed method using a standard reinforcement learning benchmark (four-rooms scenario) and show that the proposed method requires less inferential steps and permits selecting more compact control programs compared to an equivalent procedure without subgoaling. Furthermore, we show that the proposed method offers a mechanistic explanation of the neuronal dynamics found in the prefrontal cortex of monkeys that solve planning problems. Our computational framework provides a novel integrative perspective on subgoaling and its adaptive advantages for planning, control and learning, such as for example lowering cognitive effort and working memory load. PMID:25652466

The Design and Development of an Intelligent Planning Aid

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-07-01

reasons why widening the scope of TACPLAK’s applicability make sense. First# plan execution and monitoring (and the re-planning that then occurs) are...Orsssnu, contracting officer’s representative I», KKY voees o Decision Making Tactical Planning Taxonomy Problem Solving ii M ifrntitr *r MM* I...planning aid. It documents the development of a decision- making , planning, and decision-aiding analytical framework comprising a set of models, s generic

Continual planning and scheduling for managing patient tests in hospital laboratories.

PubMed

Marinagi, C C; Spyropoulos, C D; Papatheodorou, C; Kokkotos, S

2000-10-01

Hospital laboratories perform examination tests upon patients, in order to assist medical diagnosis or therapy progress. Planning and scheduling patient requests for examination tests is a complicated problem because it concerns both minimization of patient stay in hospital and maximization of laboratory resources utilization. In the present paper, we propose an integrated patient-wise planning and scheduling system which supports the dynamic and continual nature of the problem. The proposed combination of multiagent and blackboard architecture allows the dynamic creation of agents that share a set of knowledge sources and a knowledge base to service patient test requests.

Optimal motion planning for collision avoidance of mobile robots in non-stationary environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kyriakopoulos, K. J.; Saridis, G. N.

1992-01-01

An optimal control formulation of the problem of collision avoidance of mobile robots moving in general terrains containing moving obstacles is presented. A dynamic model of the mobile robot and the dynamic constraints are derived. Collision avoidance is guaranteed if the minimum distance between the robot and the object is nonzero. A nominal trajectory is assumed to be known from off-line planning. The main idea is to change the velocity along the nominal trajectory so that collisions are avoided. Time consistency with the nominal plan is desirable. A numerical solution of the optimization problem is obtained. A perturbation control type of approach is used to update the optimal plan. Simulation results verify the value of the proposed strategy.

Power Distribution System Planning with GIS Consideration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wattanasophon, Sirichai; Eua-Arporn, Bundhit

This paper proposes a method for solving radial distribution system planning problems taking into account geographical information. The proposed method can automatically determine appropriate location and size of a substation, routing of feeders, and sizes of conductors while satisfying all constraints, i.e. technical constraints (voltage drop and thermal limit) and geographical constraints (obstacle, existing infrastructure, and high-cost passages). Sequential quadratic programming (SQP) and minimum path algorithm (MPA) are applied to solve the planning problem based on net price value (NPV) consideration. In addition this method integrates planner's experience and optimization process to achieve an appropriate practical solution. The proposed method has been tested with an actual distribution system, from which the results indicate that it can provide satisfactory plans.

Resource Constrained Planning of Multiple Projects with Separable Activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujii, Susumu; Morita, Hiroshi; Kanawa, Takuya

In this study we consider a resource constrained planning problem of multiple projects with separable activities. This problem provides a plan to process the activities considering a resource availability with time window. We propose a solution algorithm based on the branch and bound method to obtain the optimal solution minimizing the completion time of all projects. We develop three methods for improvement of computational efficiency, that is, to obtain initial solution with minimum slack time rule, to estimate lower bound considering both time and resource constraints and to introduce an equivalence relation for bounding operation. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is demonstrated by numerical examples. Especially as the number of planning projects increases, the average computational time and the number of searched nodes are reduced.

Web-based GIS for collaborative planning and public participation: an application to the strategic planning of wind farm sites.

PubMed

Simão, Ana; Densham, Paul J; Haklay, Mordechai Muki

2009-05-01

Spatial planning typically involves multiple stakeholders. To any specific planning problem, stakeholders often bring different levels of knowledge about the components of the problem and make assumptions, reflecting their individual experiences, that yield conflicting views about desirable planning outcomes. Consequently, stakeholders need to learn about the likely outcomes that result from their stated preferences; this learning can be supported through enhanced access to information, increased public participation in spatial decision-making and support for distributed collaboration amongst planners, stakeholders and the public. This paper presents a conceptual system framework for web-based GIS that supports public participation in collaborative planning. The framework combines an information area, a Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) and an argumentation map to support distributed and asynchronous collaboration in spatial planning. After analysing the novel aspects of this framework, the paper describes its implementation, as a proof of concept, in a system for Web-based Participatory Wind Energy Planning (WePWEP). Details are provided on the specific implementation of each of WePWEP's four tiers, including technical and structural aspects. Throughout the paper, particular emphasis is placed on the need to support user learning throughout the planning process.

Software for Optimizing Plans Involving Interdependent Goals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Estlin, Tara; Gaines, Daniel; Rabideau, Gregg

2005-01-01

A computer program enables construction and optimization of plans for activities that are directed toward achievement of goals that are interdependent. Goal interdependence is defined as the achievement of one or more goals affecting the desirability or priority of achieving one or more other goals. This program is overlaid on the Automated Scheduling and Planning Environment (ASPEN) software system, aspects of which have been described in a number of prior NASA Tech Briefs articles. Unlike other known or related planning programs, this program considers interdependences among goals that can change between problems and provides a language for easily specifying such dependences. Specifications of the interdependences can be formulated dynamically and provided to the associated planning software as part of the goal input. Then an optimization algorithm provided by this program enables the planning software to reason about the interdependences and incorporate them into an overall objective function that it uses to rate the quality of a plan under construction and to direct its optimization search. In tests on a series of problems of planning geological experiments by a team of instrumented robotic vehicles (rovers) on new terrain, this program was found to enhance plan quality.

7 CFR 634.13 - Project applications.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LONG TERM CONTRACTING RURAL CLEAN WATER PROGRAM Project Authorization and Funding... State or areawide 208 water quality management plan. (c) Applications shall contain the following... water quality problem (3) Objectives and planned action, (4) Schedule for carrying out the plan, and (5...

A negotiation methodology and its application to cogeneration planning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, S.M.; Liu, C.C.; Luu, S.

Power system planning has become a complex process in utilities today. This paper presents a methodology for integrated planning with multiple objectives. The methodology uses a graphical representation (Goal-Decision Network) to capture the planning knowledge. The planning process is viewed as a negotiation process that applies three negotiation operators to search for beneficial decisions in a GDN. Also, the negotiation framework is applied to the problem of planning for cogeneration interconnection. The simulation results are presented to illustrate the cogeneration planning process.

Intelligent Planning and Scheduling for Controlled Life Support Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leon, V. Jorge

1996-01-01

Planning in Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) requires special look ahead capabilities due to the complex and long-term dynamic behavior of biological systems. This project characterizes the behavior of CELSS, identifies the requirements of intelligent planning systems for CELSS, proposes the decomposition of the planning task into short-term and long-term planning, and studies the crop scheduling problem as an initial approach to long-term planning. CELSS is studied in the realm of Chaos. The amount of biomass in the system is modeled using a bounded quadratic iterator. The results suggests that closed ecological systems can exhibit periodic behavior when imposed external or artificial control. The main characteristics of CELSS from the planning and scheduling perspective are discussed and requirements for planning systems are given. Crop scheduling problem is identified as an important component of the required long-term lookahead capabilities of a CELSS planner. The main characteristics of crop scheduling are described and a model is proposed to represent the problem. A surrogate measure of the probability of survival is developed. The measure reflects the absolute deviation of the vital reservoir levels from their nominal values. The solution space is generated using a probability distribution which captures both knowledge about the system and the current state of affairs at each decision epoch. This probability distribution is used in the context of an evolution paradigm. The concepts developed serve as the basis for the development of a simple crop scheduling tool which is used to demonstrate its usefulness in the design and operation of CELSS.

Sparsity constrained split feasibility for dose-volume constraints in inverse planning of intensity-modulated photon or proton therapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Penfold, Scott; Zalas, Rafał; Casiraghi, Margherita; Brooke, Mark; Censor, Yair; Schulte, Reinhard

2017-05-01

A split feasibility formulation for the inverse problem of intensity-modulated radiation therapy treatment planning with dose-volume constraints included in the planning algorithm is presented. It involves a new type of sparsity constraint that enables the inclusion of a percentage-violation constraint in the model problem and its handling by continuous (as opposed to integer) methods. We propose an iterative algorithmic framework for solving such a problem by applying the feasibility-seeking CQ-algorithm of Byrne combined with the automatic relaxation method that uses cyclic projections. Detailed implementation instructions are furnished. Functionality of the algorithm was demonstrated through the creation of an intensity-modulated proton therapy plan for a simple 2D C-shaped geometry and also for a realistic base-of-skull chordoma treatment site. Monte Carlo simulations of proton pencil beams of varying energy were conducted to obtain dose distributions for the 2D test case. A research release of the Pinnacle 3 proton treatment planning system was used to extract pencil beam doses for a clinical base-of-skull chordoma case. In both cases the beamlet doses were calculated to satisfy dose-volume constraints according to our new algorithm. Examination of the dose-volume histograms following inverse planning with our algorithm demonstrated that it performed as intended. The application of our proposed algorithm to dose-volume constraint inverse planning was successfully demonstrated. Comparison with optimized dose distributions from the research release of the Pinnacle 3 treatment planning system showed the algorithm could achieve equivalent or superior results.

Computer Supported Argument Visualisation: Modelling in Consultative Democracy Around Wicked Problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ohl, Ricky

In this case study, computer supported argument visualisation has been applied to the analysis and representation of the draft South East Queensland Regional Plan Consultation discourse, demonstrating how argument mapping can help deliver the transparency and accountability required in participatory democracy. Consultative democracy for regional planning falls into a category of problems known as “wicked problems”. Inherent in this environment is heterogeneous viewpoints, agendas and voices, built on disparate and often contradictory logic. An argument ontology and notation that was designed specifically to deal with consultative urban planning around wicked problems is the Issue Based Information System (IBIS) and IBIS notation (Rittel & Webber, 1984). The software used for argument visualisation in this case was Compendium, a derivative of IBIS. The high volume of stakeholders and discourse heterogeneity in this environment calls for a unique approach to argument mapping. The map design model developed from this research has been titled a “Consultation Map”. The design incorporates the IBIS ontology within a hybrid of mapping approaches, amalgamating elements from concept, dialogue, argument, debate, thematic and tree-mapping. The consultation maps developed from the draft South East Queensland Regional Plan Consultation provide a transparent visual record to give evidence of the themes of citizen issues within the consultation discourse. The consultation maps also link the elicited discourse themes to related policies from the SEQ Regional Plan providing explicit evidence of SEQ Regional Plan policy-decisions matching citizen concerns. The final consultation map in the series provides explicit links between SEQ Regional Plan policy items and monitoring activities reporting on the ongoing implementation of the SEQ Regional Plan. This map provides updatable evidence of and accountability for SEQ Regional Plan policy implementation and developments.

Regional cooperation in transportation planning.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-02-01

As Floridas urbanized areas grow and merge, : neighboring jurisdictions experience interrelated : problems and opportunities, and regional : cooperation becomes an imperative. In the : transportation sector, Floridas metropolitan : planning org...

School Finance Reform in New Mexico, 1974. An Overview.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hale, Jim

This report provides an overview of the State school aid distribution plan passed by the New Mexico legislature in 1974. The previous school finance plan, passed in 1969, and the problems school districts experienced under that plan are briefly described, followed by a discussion of the 1974 legislation. The new plan is a weighted-pupil formula…

Promoting Post-School Success for All: The Role of Collaboration in Person-Centered Transition Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michaels, Craig A.; Ferrara, Denise L.

2006-01-01

Successful collaboration and problem solving are the foundational processes on which meaningful transition plans are constructed. This article discusses the process of planning for the transition from school to adult life for students with disabilities and suggests that person-centered planning is an ideal vehicle for promoting collaboration and…

Planning with Shared Vision: A Project Study Examining the Planning Process of School Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Dennis J.

2013-01-01

The process of planning for school principals has become more difficult in recent years because of a shift from simple administrative duties to management duties. Evidence suggests that many school principals lack the resources, training, and guidance to meet and sustain federal planning standards. This problem is important to district…

Thinking around the Corner: The Development of Planning Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaller, Cristopher P.; Rahm, Benjamin; Spreer, Joachim; Mader, Irina; Unterrainer, Josef M.

2008-01-01

The ability to plan and search ahead is essential for problem solving in most situations in everyday life. To investigate the development of planning and related processes, a sample of four- and five-year-old children was examined in a variant of the Tower of London, a frequently used neuropsychological assessment tool of planning abilities. The…

Motion Planning and Synthesis of Human-Like Characters in Constrained Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Liangjun; Pan, Jia; Manocha, Dinesh

We give an overview of our recent work on generating naturally-looking human motion in constrained environments with multiple obstacles. This includes a whole-body motion planning algorithm for high DOF human-like characters. The planning problem is decomposed into a sequence of low dimensional sub-problems. We use a constrained coordination scheme to solve the sub-problems in an incremental manner and a local path refinement algorithm to compute collision-free paths in tight spaces and satisfy the statically stable constraint on CoM. We also present a hybrid algorithm to generate plausible motion by combing the motion computed by our planner with mocap data. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm on a 40 DOF human-like character and generate efficient motion strategies for object placement, bending, walking, and lifting in complex environments.

Legal Briefing: Medicare Coverage of Advance Care Planning.

PubMed

Pope, Thaddeus Mason

2015-01-01

This issue's "Legal Briefing" column covers the recent decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand Medicare coverage of advance care planning, beginning 1 January 2016. Since 2009, most "Legal Briefings" in this journal have covered a wide gamut of judicial, legislative, and regulatory developments concerning a particular topic in clinical ethics. In contrast, this "Legal Briefing" is more narrowly focused on one single legal development. This concentration on Medicare coverage of advance care planning seems warranted. Advance care planning is a frequent subject of articles in JCE. After all, it has long been seen as an important, albeit only partial, solution to a significant range of big problems in clinical ethics. These problems range from medical futility disputes to decision making for incapacitated patients who have no available legally authorized surrogate. Consequently, expanded Medicare coverage of advance care planning is a potentially seismic development. It may materially reduce both the frequency and severity of key problems in clinical ethics. Since the sociological, medical, and ethical literature on advance care planning is voluminous, I will not even summarize it here. Instead, I focus on Medicare coverage. I proceed, chronologically, in six stages: 1. Prior Medicare Coverage of Advance Care Planning 2. Proposed Expanded Medicare Coverage in 2015 3. Proposed Expanded Medicare Coverage in 2016 4. The Final Rule Expanding Medicare Coverage in 2016 5. Remaining Issues for CMS to Address in 2017 6. Pending Federal Legislation. Copyright 2015 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

A global approach to kinematic path planning to robots with holonomic and nonholonomic constraints

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Divelbiss, Adam; Seereeram, Sanjeev; Wen, John T.

1993-01-01

Robots in applications may be subject to holonomic or nonholonomic constraints. Examples of holonomic constraints include a manipulator constrained through the contact with the environment, e.g., inserting a part, turning a crank, etc., and multiple manipulators constrained through a common payload. Examples of nonholonomic constraints include no-slip constraints on mobile robot wheels, local normal rotation constraints for soft finger and rolling contacts in grasping, and conservation of angular momentum of in-orbit space robots. The above examples all involve equality constraints; in applications, there are usually additional inequality constraints such as robot joint limits, self collision and environment collision avoidance constraints, steering angle constraints in mobile robots, etc. The problem of finding a kinematically feasible path that satisfies a given set of holonomic and nonholonomic constraints, of both equality and inequality types is addressed. The path planning problem is first posed as a finite time nonlinear control problem. This problem is subsequently transformed to a static root finding problem in an augmented space which can then be iteratively solved. The algorithm has shown promising results in planning feasible paths for redundant arms satisfying Cartesian path following and goal endpoint specifications, and mobile vehicles with multiple trailers. In contrast to local approaches, this algorithm is less prone to problems such as singularities and local minima.

Distance estimation and collision prediction for on-line robotic motion planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kyriakopoulos, K. J.; Saridis, G. N.

1991-01-01

An efficient method for computing the minimum distance and predicting collisions between moving objects is presented. This problem has been incorporated in the framework of an in-line motion planning algorithm to satisfy collision avoidance between a robot and moving objects modeled as convex polyhedra. In the beginning the deterministic problem, where the information about the objects is assumed to be certain is examined. If instead of the Euclidean norm, L(sub 1) or L(sub infinity) norms are used to represent distance, the problem becomes a linear programming problem. The stochastic problem is formulated, where the uncertainty is induced by sensing and the unknown dynamics of the moving obstacles. Two problems are considered: (1) filtering of the minimum distance between the robot and the moving object, at the present time; and (2) prediction of the minimum distance in the future, in order to predict possible collisions with the moving obstacles and estimate the collision time.

Mathematics Unit Plans. PACE '94.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiles, Clyde A., Ed.; Schoon, Kenneth J., Ed.

This booklet contains mathematics unit plans for Algebra 1, Geometry, Math for Technology, Mathematical Problem Solving, and Pre-Algebra developed by PACE (Promoting Academic Excellence In Mathematics, Science & Technology for Workers of the 21st Century). Each unit plan contains suggested timing, objectives, skills to be acquired, workplace…

Systematic Planning for Educational Facilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGuffey, Carroll W.

This monograph provides a systematic approach to the problem of planning educational facilities. It first presents a conceptual framework for a general facilities planning and management system called Facilities Resource Allocation Management Evaluation System (FRAMES). The main components of FRAMES are identified as: (1) needs assessment, (2)…

Ten common estate planning mistakes to avoid.

PubMed

Harper, M E

2000-01-01

While most Americans are aware of the importance of estate planning, many fail to make the proper arrangements for their heirs. Problems can arise from a number of mistake, such as underestimating assets, relying solely on a will, or not planning for estate tax payments.

Environmental Planning in Jonah's Basin: A Simulation Game and Experimental Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horsley, Doyne

1982-01-01

Described is a successfully field tested simulation which will help high school or college level students become familiar with flood hazards. Students assume the roles of members of the Jonah's Basin planning commission and plan solutions to the area's flood problems. (RM)

EIA application in China's expressway infrastructure: clarifying the decision-making hierarchy.

PubMed

Zhou, Kai-Yi; Sheate, William R

2011-06-01

China's EIA Law came into effect in 2003 and formally requires road transport infrastructure development actions to be subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). EIAs (including project EIA and plan EIA, or strategic environmental impact assessment, SEA) have been being widely applied in the expressway infrastructure planning field. Among those applications, SEA is applied to provincial level expressway network (PLEI) plans, and project EIA is applied to expressway infrastructure development 'projects' under PLEI plans. Three case studies (one expressway project EIA and two PLEI plan SEAs) were examined to understand currently how EIAs are applied to expressway infrastructure development planning. Through the studies, a number of problems that significantly influence the quality of EIA application in the field were identified. The reasons causing those problems are analyzed and possible solutions are suggested aimed at enhancing EIA practice, helping deliver better decision-making and ultimately improving the environmental performance of expressway infrastructure. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Planning perception and action for cognitive mobile manipulators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaschler, Andre; Nogina, Svetlana; Petrick, Ronald P. A.; Knoll, Alois

2013-12-01

We present a general approach to perception and manipulation planning for cognitive mobile manipulators. Rather than hard-coding single purpose robot applications, a robot should be able to reason about its basic skills in order to solve complex problems autonomously. Humans intuitively solve tasks in real-world scenarios by breaking down abstract problems into smaller sub-tasks and use heuristics based on their previous experience. We apply a similar idea for planning perception and manipulation to cognitive mobile robots. Our approach is based on contingent planning and run-time sensing, integrated in our knowledge of volumes" planning framework, called KVP. Using the general-purpose PKS planner, we model information-gathering actions at plan time that have multiple possible outcomes at run time. As a result, perception and sensing arise as necessary preconditions for manipulation, rather than being hard-coded as tasks themselves. We demonstrate the e ectiveness of our approach on two scenarios covering visual and force sensing on a real mobile manipulator.

A novel artificial intelligence method for weekly dietary menu planning.

PubMed

Gaál, B; Vassányi, I; Kozmann, G

2005-01-01

Menu planning is an important part of personalized lifestyle counseling. The paper describes the results of an automated menu generator (MenuGene) of the web-based lifestyle counseling system Cordelia that provides personalized advice to prevent cardiovascular diseases. The menu generator uses genetic algorithms to prepare weekly menus for web users. The objectives are derived from personal medical data collected via forms in Cordelia, combined with general nutritional guidelines. The weekly menu is modeled as a multilevel structure. Results show that the genetic algorithm-based method succeeds in planning dietary menus that satisfy strict numerical constraints on every nutritional level (meal, daily basis, weekly basis). The rule-based assessment proved capable of manipulating the mean occurrence of the nutritional components thus providing a method for adjusting the variety and harmony of the menu plans. By splitting the problem into well determined sub-problems, weekly menu plans that satisfy nutritional constraints and have well assorted components can be generated with the same method that is for daily and meal plan generation.

Realization of planning design of mechanical manufacturing system by Petri net simulation model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Yanfang; Wan, Xin; Shi, Weixiang

1991-09-01

Planning design is to work out a more overall long-term plan. In order to guarantee a mechanical manufacturing system (MMS) designed to obtain maximum economical benefit, it is necessary to carry out a reasonable planning design for the system. First, some principles on planning design for MMS are introduced. Problems of production scheduling and their decision rules for computer simulation are presented. Realizable method of each production scheduling decision rule in Petri net model is discussed. Second, the solution of conflict rules for conflict problems during running Petri net is given. Third, based on the Petri net model of MMS which includes part flow and tool flow, according to the principle of minimum event time advance, a computer dynamic simulation of the Petri net model, that is, a computer dynamic simulation of MMS, is realized. Finally, the simulation program is applied to a simulation exmple, so the scheme of a planning design for MMS can be evaluated effectively.

Regional cooperation in transportation planning : [summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-01-01

As Floridas urbanized areas grow and merge, : neighboring jurisdictions experience interrelated : problems and opportunities, and regional : cooperation becomes an imperative. In the : transportation sector, Floridas metropolitan : planning org...

An examination of the potential applications of automatic classification techniques to Georgia management problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rado, B. Q.

1975-01-01

Automatic classification techniques are described in relation to future information and natural resource planning systems with emphasis on application to Georgia resource management problems. The concept, design, and purpose of Georgia's statewide Resource AS Assessment Program is reviewed along with participation in a workshop at the Earth Resources Laboratory. Potential areas of application discussed include: agriculture, forestry, water resources, environmental planning, and geology.

The Investigation of the Effects of Physical Education Lessons Planned in Accordance with Cooperative Learning Approach on Secondary School Students' Problem Solving Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorucu, Alpaslan

2016-01-01

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the effects of physical education lessons planned in accordance with cooperative learning approach on secondary school students' problem solving skills. The research was conducted on 48 students studying at Konya/Selçuklu Sehit Mustafa Çuhadar Secondary School in fall semester of 2015-2016…

A Requirements Analysis Model for Selection of Personal Computer (PC) software in Air Force Organizations

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-09-01

Institute of Technology Air University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Systems Management Dexter R... management system software Diag/Prob Diagnosis and problem solving or problem finding GR Graphics software Int/Transp Interoperability and...language software Plan/D.S. Planning and decision support or decision making PM Program management software SC Systems for Command, Control, Communications

An optimization design for evacuation planning based on fuzzy credibility theory and genetic algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, D.; Zhang, W. Y.

2017-08-01

Evacuation planning is an important activity in disaster management. It has to be planned in advance due to the unpredictable occurrence of disasters. It is necessary that the evacuation plans are as close as possible to the real evacuation work. However, the evacuation plan is extremely challenging because of the inherent uncertainty of the required information. There is a kind of vehicle routing problem based on the public traffic evacuation. In this paper, the demand for each evacuation set point is a fuzzy number, and each routing selection of the point is based on the fuzzy credibility preference index. This paper proposes an approximate optimal solution for this problem by the genetic algorithm based on the fuzzy reliability theory. Finally, the algorithm is applied to an optimization model, and the experiment result shows that the algorithm is effective.

Efficient greedy algorithms for economic manpower shift planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nearchou, A. C.; Giannikos, I. C.; Lagodimos, A. G.

2015-01-01

Consideration is given to the economic manpower shift planning (EMSP) problem, an NP-hard capacity planning problem appearing in various industrial settings including the packing stage of production in process industries and maintenance operations. EMSP aims to determine the manpower needed in each available workday shift of a given planning horizon so as to complete a set of independent jobs at minimum cost. Three greedy heuristics are presented for the EMSP solution. These practically constitute adaptations of an existing algorithm for a simplified version of EMSP which had shown excellent performance in terms of solution quality and speed. Experimentation shows that the new algorithms perform very well in comparison to the results obtained by both the CPLEX optimizer and an existing metaheuristic. Statistical analysis is deployed to rank the algorithms in terms of their solution quality and to identify the effects that critical planning factors may have on their relative efficiency.

State Dementia Plans and the Alzheimer's Disease Movement: Framing Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Motivation.

PubMed

Arbogast, Charlotte E; Welleford, E Ayn; Netting, F Ellen

2017-07-01

An interpretive analysis of 38 state dementia plans compares similarities and differences in diagnostic framing (problem identification/trends/issues), prognosis framing (addressing the problem), and motivational framing (calls for action) across plans. In framing diagnosis, only 6 plans used dementia alone in their titles. In framing prognosis and the subsequent call to action, state plans were consistent in their dire prognostications about the progressive and fatal consequences of the disease with a primary focus on the cost. Motivational language mirrored that of the Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Movement, from raising awareness to using inflammatory words to incite action. The language used set up the frame for clinical interventions that may not distinguish between types of dementia and could undercut the provision of person-centered care, shifts the victimization focus from persons with AD to caregivers and ultimately the state, and may subintentionally reflect cultural biases.

Planning for Multiagent Using ASP-Prolog

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Son, Tran Cao; Pontelli, Enrico; Nguyen, Ngoc-Hieu

This paper presents an Answer Set Programming based approach to multiagent planning. The proposed methodology extends the action language \\cal B in [12] to represent and reason about plans with cooperative actions of an individual agent operating in a multiagent environment. This language is used to formalize multiagent planning problems and the notion of a joint plan for multiagent in the presence of cooperative actions. Finally, the paper presents a system for computing joint plans based on the ASP-Prolog system.

Diverse Planning for UAV Control and Remote Sensing

PubMed Central

Tožička, Jan; Komenda, Antonín

2016-01-01

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are suited to various remote sensing missions, such as measuring air quality. The conventional method of UAV control is by human operators. Such an approach is limited by the ability of cooperation among the operators controlling larger fleets of UAVs in a shared area. The remedy for this is to increase autonomy of the UAVs in planning their trajectories by considering other UAVs and their plans. To provide such improvement in autonomy, we need better algorithms for generating alternative trajectory variants that the UAV coordination algorithms can utilize. In this article, we define a novel family of multi-UAV sensing problems, solving task allocation of huge number of tasks (tens of thousands) to a group of configurable UAVs with non-zero weight of equipped sensors (comprising the air quality measurement as well) together with two base-line solvers. To solve the problem efficiently, we use an algorithm for diverse trajectory generation and integrate it with a solver for the multi-UAV coordination problem. Finally, we experimentally evaluate the multi-UAV sensing problem solver. The evaluation is done on synthetic and real-world-inspired benchmarks in a multi-UAV simulator. Results show that diverse planning is a valuable method for remote sensing applications containing multiple UAVs. PMID:28009831

Cognitive functioning and employment among people with schizophrenia in vocational rehabilitation.

PubMed

Lexén, Annika; Hofgren, Caisa; Stenmark, Richard; Bejerholm, Ulrika

2016-06-16

Employment is central to recovery in schizophrenia, but little attention has been paid to its relationship with cognitive functioning. This cross-sectional study adds to the knowledge base of relationships between cognitive functioning and gaining competitive employment, work hours per week, and monthly income among people with schizophrenia in vocational rehabilitation. It also examines which area of cognitive function may be decisive for gaining employment. Thirty-nine vocational rehabilitation participants were administered a cognitive battery based on MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery. Socio-demographic, clinical, and vocational data were gathered and analyzed with nonparametric statistics. Individuals with competitive employment differed from those without competitive employment in attention and psychomotor speed, delayed verbal recall, immediate visual recall, and planning, reasoning, and problem-solving. Higher scores in immediate and delayed verbal recall and planning, reasoning, and problem-solving correlated with more work hours per week and higher income. Immediate visual recall was related to higher income. Higher scores in planning, reasoning, and problem-solving was an indicator of competitive employment (OR = 1.48). Higher order cognitive functioning of planning, reasoning, and problem-solving may have a central role in gaining employment. The findings should be considered in compensation for or improving cognitive functions for vocational rehabilitation participants.

Diverse Planning for UAV Control and Remote Sensing.

PubMed

Tožička, Jan; Komenda, Antonín

2016-12-21

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are suited to various remote sensing missions, such as measuring air quality. The conventional method of UAV control is by human operators. Such an approach is limited by the ability of cooperation among the operators controlling larger fleets of UAVs in a shared area. The remedy for this is to increase autonomy of the UAVs in planning their trajectories by considering other UAVs and their plans. To provide such improvement in autonomy, we need better algorithms for generating alternative trajectory variants that the UAV coordination algorithms can utilize. In this article, we define a novel family of multi-UAV sensing problems, solving task allocation of huge number of tasks (tens of thousands) to a group of configurable UAVs with non-zero weight of equipped sensors (comprising the air quality measurement as well) together with two base-line solvers. To solve the problem efficiently, we use an algorithm for diverse trajectory generation and integrate it with a solver for the multi-UAV coordination problem. Finally, we experimentally evaluate the multi-UAV sensing problem solver. The evaluation is done on synthetic and real-world-inspired benchmarks in a multi-UAV simulator. Results show that diverse planning is a valuable method for remote sensing applications containing multiple UAVs.

[Care plan for patients in prone decubitus. An experience from practice].

PubMed

Oliva Torras, E; Subirana Casacuberta, M; Sebastià, M P; Jover Sancho, C; Solà Solé, N

1995-01-01

Offering a specific integral attention to patients with SDRA in prone decubitus positions makes us establish a performance plan with the aim to know the problems derived from the change in position, the time staying in prone decubitus and to standardize a care plan. We review the clinic records of the patients admitted in our unit from March '93 to March '95 who were positioned in prone decubitus. Taking as a base the nursing care model of V. Henderson and the taxonomy of NANDA, we analyse the needs which have been altered, and determine the nursing diagnosis, complications and most frequent interdependent problems establishing the aim to accomplish, planning the performance and rationalization. Five patients were positioned in prone decubitus before planning the performance and four more afterwards. All the patients tolerated SNG diet keeping a correct bowel transit. One patient showed an ulcera at frontal level. There were neither comeal ulceras nor alterations in the oral mucossa. The vascular accesses remained permeable. DP caused facial and periorbital edema in all the patients. We did not observe any increase in the amount of bronchial secretions. The eight patients who tolerated the change in position stayed in prone decubitus for an average of 77 hours, with a range of 10 to 216 hours. Four patients were discharged from the hospital, two of whom showed movility alterations, independently of the time staying in prone decubitus. We state explicitly the nursing care, determine five nursing diagnosis, one problem and seven interdependent complications. Establishing the nursing care from the experience and review of the records has allowed us to be more specific and objective. Standardizing the specific care plans makes the nursing care easier when dealing with real problems as well as with the care of complications derived from this situation.

Developing a Web-Based Ppgis, as AN Environmental Reporting Service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ranjbar Nooshery, N.; Taleai, M.; Kazemi, R.; Ebadi, K.

2017-09-01

Today municipalities are searching for new tools to empower locals for changing the future of their own areas by increasing their participation in different levels of urban planning. These tools should involve the community in planning process using participatory approaches instead of long traditional top-down planning models and help municipalities to obtain proper insight about major problems of urban neighborhoods from the residents' point of view. In this matter, public participation GIS (PPGIS) which enables citizens to record and following up their feeling and spatial knowledge regarding problems of the city in the form of maps have been introduced. In this research, a tool entitled CAER (Collecting & Analyzing of Environmental Reports) is developed. In the first step, a software framework based on Web-GIS tool, called EPGIS (Environmental Participatory GIS) has been designed to support public participation in reporting urban environmental problems and to facilitate data flow between citizens and municipality. A web-based cartography tool was employed for geo-visualization and dissemination of map-based reports. In the second step of CAER, a subsystem is developed based on SOLAP (Spatial On-Line Analytical Processing), as a data mining tools to elicit the local knowledge facilitating bottom-up urban planning practices and to help urban managers to find hidden relations among the recorded reports. This system is implemented in a case study area in Boston, Massachusetts and its usability was evaluated. The CAER should be considered as bottom-up planning tools to collect people's problems and views about their neighborhood and transmits them to the city officials. It also helps urban planners to find solutions for better management from citizen's viewpoint and gives them this chance to develop good plans to the neighborhoods that should be satisfied the citizens.

The menu-setting problem and subsidized prices: drug formulary illustration.

PubMed

Olmstead, T; Zeckhauser, R

1999-10-01

The menu-setting problem (MSP) determines the goods and services an institution offers and the prices charged. It appears widely in health care, from choosing the services an insurance arrangement offers, to selecting the health plans an employer proffers. The challenge arises because purchases are subsidized, and consumers (or their physician agents) may make cost-ineffective choices. The intuitively comprehensible MSP model--readily solved by computer using actual data--helps structure thinking and support decision making about such problems. The analysis uses drug formularies--lists of approved drugs in a plan or institution--to illustrate the framework.

Well-planned due diligence can protect buyers of healthcare entities.

PubMed

Doty, L W; Campbell, A T

2000-10-01

Conducting a thorough due diligence is essential for any buyer that plans to acquire a healthcare entity, including a hospital or a group practice, because it provides an opportunity for the buyer to uncover billing or other fraud-and-abuse problems within the selling organization. These problems can be significant, because the buyer can be held liable for undiscovered billing problems that result in investigation, prosecution, and penalties. It is important for the buyer to ascertain who bears the liability of fraud-and-abuse violations and attempt to protect itself from assuming such liability.

Management of a stage-structured insect pest: an application of approximate optimization.

PubMed

Hackett, Sean C; Bonsall, Michael B

2018-06-01

Ecological decision problems frequently require the optimization of a sequence of actions over time where actions may have both immediate and downstream effects. Dynamic programming can solve such problems only if the dimensionality is sufficiently low. Approximate dynamic programming (ADP) provides a suite of methods applicable to problems of arbitrary complexity at the expense of guaranteed optimality. The most easily generalized method is the look-ahead policy: a brute-force algorithm that identifies reasonable actions by constructing and solving a series of temporally truncated approximations of the full problem over a defined planning horizon. We develop and apply this approach to a pest management problem inspired by the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata. The model aims to minimize the cumulative costs of management actions and medfly-induced losses over a single 16-week season. The medfly population is stage-structured and grows continuously while management decisions are made at discrete, weekly intervals. For each week, the model chooses between inaction, insecticide application, or one of six sterile insect release ratios. Look-ahead policy performance is evaluated over a range of planning horizons, two levels of crop susceptibility to medfly and three levels of pesticide persistence. In all cases, the actions proposed by the look-ahead policy are contrasted to those of a myopic policy that minimizes costs over only the current week. We find that look-ahead policies always out-performed a myopic policy and decision quality is sensitive to the temporal distribution of costs relative to the planning horizon: it is beneficial to extend the planning horizon when it excludes pertinent costs. However, longer planning horizons may reduce decision quality when major costs are resolved imminently. ADP methods such as the look-ahead-policy-based approach developed here render questions intractable to dynamic programming amenable to inference but should be applied carefully as their flexibility comes at the expense of guaranteed optimality. However, given the complexity of many ecological management problems, the capacity to propose a strategy that is "good enough" using a more representative problem formulation may be preferable to an optimal strategy derived from a simplified model. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America.

Gender and rapid alterations of hemispheric dominance during planning.

PubMed

Schuepbach, Daniel; Skotchko, Tatjana; Duschek, Stefan; Theodoridou, Anastasia; Grimm, Simone; Boeker, Heinz; Seifritz, Erich

2012-01-01

Mental planning and carrying out a plan provoke specific cerebral hemodynamic responses. Gender aspects of hemispheric laterality using rapid cerebral hemodynamics have not been reported. Here, we applied functional transcranial Doppler sonography to examine lateralization of cerebral hemodynamics of the middle cerebral arteries of 28 subjects (14 women and 14 men) performing a standard planning task. There were easy and difficult problems, and mental planning without motor activity was separated from movement execution. Difficult mental planning elicited lateralization to the right hemisphere after 2 or more seconds, a feature that was not observed during movement execution. In females, there was a dominance to the left hemisphere during movement execution. Optimized problem solving yielded an increased laterality change to the right during mental planning. Gender-related hemispheric dominance appears to be condition-dependent, and change of laterality to the right may play a role in optimized performance. Results are of relevance when considering laterality from a perspective of performance enhancement of higher cognitive functions, and also of psychiatric disorders with cognitive dysfunctions and abnormal lateralization patterns such as schizophrenia. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

China's territorial planning problems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheng Lu

1983-09-01

This article examines China's territorial planning problems. The task of developing and managing national territory means effectively linking manpower resources and natural resources, and accurately coordinating the relationship between man and the natural world. The goals are to examine the state of the national territory, to adapt general methods to local situations in developing soil, water, climatic, biological, mineral, and marine resources, and to develop and allocate productivity in an equitable way. Topics considered include economic zoning as a foundation for national territorial planning, and national territorial plans as a basis for national economic long-range planning. Economic zoning (which ismore » zoning of the entire economy, and which differs from zoning for farming, forestry, and water conservancy) is based on China's natural resources and population distribution, the existing economic foundation for industrial and agricultural production, the condition of communications and transportation, existing major economic centers, and historically formed economic relationships, with the provinces constituting a unit (for convenience in providing direction and making plans). Economic zoning highlights a region's characteristics, points the way toward its economic development, and also provides a scientific basis for territorial planning.« less

Suggestions for Formulating Collaborative Remote Sensing Emergency Plan Based on Case Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, B.; Wang, F.; Zheng, X.; Qi, M.

2017-09-01

With the rapid development of the Remote Sensing (RS) technology, Remote Sensing Services for Emergency Monitoring (RSSEM) are playing a more and more important role in the field of emergency management, where the collaborative RS approaches (including such as Space-Air-Ground platforms) can provide the decision-makers a quick access to the detailed, real-time information about the emergencies. However, there are still some problems in the current mechanism of RSSEM, for example, the inappropriate choices of the collaborative RS approaches, the miscellaneous procedures and so on. It is urgent to formulate a collaborative RS emergency plan for regulating the applications of the RS monitoring approaches in order to be well prepared for the emergency management. In our studies, creating a good collaborative RS emergency plan is the main research objective. This paper is divided into four parts. The Part Ⅰ gives a brief introduction about the research background. The Part Ⅱ investigates four case studies to analyze the applications of the RS technologies under the guidance of the available RS related emergency plans, and then points out the existing problems in the mechanism of the RSSEM. The Part Ⅲ proposes our suggestions for formulating the collaborative RS emergency plan to explore the countermeasures of the problems pointed out in the Part Ⅱ. The last part concludes this paper and discusses the future work of the collaborative RS emergency plan.

Parallel plan execution with self-processing networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dautrechy, C. Lynne; Reggia, James A.

1989-01-01

A critical issue for space operations is how to develop and apply advanced automation techniques to reduce the cost and complexity of working in space. In this context, it is important to examine how recent advances in self-processing networks can be applied for planning and scheduling tasks. For this reason, the feasibility of applying self-processing network models to a variety of planning and control problems relevant to spacecraft activities is being explored. Goals are to demonstrate that self-processing methods are applicable to these problems, and that MIRRORS/II, a general purpose software environment for implementing self-processing models, is sufficiently robust to support development of a wide range of application prototypes. Using MIRRORS/II and marker passing modelling techniques, a model of the execution of a Spaceworld plan was implemented. This is a simplified model of the Voyager spacecraft which photographed Jupiter, Saturn, and their satellites. It is shown that plan execution, a task usually solved using traditional artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, can be accomplished using a self-processing network. The fact that self-processing networks were applied to other space-related tasks, in addition to the one discussed here, demonstrates the general applicability of this approach to planning and control problems relevant to spacecraft activities. It is also demonstrated that MIRRORS/II is a powerful environment for the development and evaluation of self-processing systems.

Family planning: an integral part of mental health care.

PubMed

Muhuhu, P

1982-01-01

Discusses problems in the provision of maternal health care to mentally ill women; delineates problems faced in terms of health care, and ways in which these problems can be solved. The pregnant woman who is also emotionally ill faces some special problems during pregnancy. Emotional reactions to pregnancy, present in all women, may be exacerbated to dangerous levels. Also, the effect of psychotropic drugs on the fetus is a matter of concern, since long term treatment regimens have been found to negatively affect the fetus. Issues of social concern also arise, having to do with the frequent and unplanned pregnancies which often typify the mentally ill woman. In this regard, selection of a contraceptive method for the mentally ill requires careful thought because of the side effects brought on by the combination of oral contraceptives with certain psychotropic medication. The need for family planning education in psychiatric settings and for effective identification of mentally ill individuals during the general admission process are highlighted. As it is, traditional admissions procedures are failing to detect mentally ill maternal patients. Support groups in psychiatric settings have been found to be effective in maintaining motivation towards family planning among women, as well as in answering concerns regarding emotional problems. It is suggested that a workshop or a series of inservice classes would be of great benefit in alerting personnel to the special needs of this category of patients and in promoting the integration of family planning with mental health services.

Working memory and organizational skills problems in ADHD.

PubMed

Kofler, Michael J; Sarver, Dustin E; Harmon, Sherelle L; Moltisanti, Allison; Aduen, Paula A; Soto, Elia F; Ferretti, Nicole

2018-01-01

This study tested model-driven predictions regarding working memory's role in the organizational problems associated with ADHD. Children aged 8-13 (M = 10.33, SD = 1.42) with and without ADHD (N = 103; 39 girls; 73% Caucasian/Non-Hispanic) were assessed on multiple, counterbalanced working memory tasks. Parents and teachers completed norm-referenced measures of organizational problems (Children's Organizational Skills Scale; COSS). Results confirmed large magnitude working memory deficits (d = 1.24) and organizational problems in ADHD (d = 0.85). Bias-corrected, bootstrapped conditional effects models linked impaired working memory with greater parent- and teacher-reported inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and organizational problems. Working memory predicted organization problems across all parent and teacher COSS subscales (R 2  = .19-.23). Approximately 38%-57% of working memory's effect on organization problems was conveyed by working memory's association with inattentive behavior. Unique effects of working memory remained significant for both parent- and teacher-reported task planning, as well as for teacher-reported memory/materials management and overall organization problems. Attention problems uniquely predicted worse organizational skills. Hyperactivity was unrelated to parent-reported organizational skills, but predicted better teacher-reported task planning. Children with ADHD exhibit multisetting, broad-based organizational impairment. These impaired organizational skills are attributable in part to performance deficits secondary to working memory dysfunction, both directly and indirectly via working memory's role in regulating attention. Impaired working memory in ADHD renders it extraordinarily difficult for these children to consistently anticipate, plan, enact, and maintain goal-directed actions. © 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Nutrition Problem Classification for Children and Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Health Services Administration (DHEW/PHS), Rockville, MD. Bureau of Community Health Services.

This nutrition problem classification system is an attempt to classify the nutritional needs and problems of children and youth. Its two most important uses are problem identification and monitoring for individual patients and creation of an information base for developing program plans for intervention in a service population. The classification…

Impact of Guided Reflection with Peers on the Development of Effective Problem Solving Strategies and Physics Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Andrew J.; Singh, Chandralekha

2016-01-01

Students must learn effective problem solving strategies in order to develop expertise in physics. Effective problem solving strategies include a conceptual analysis of the problem followed by planning of the solution, and then implementation, evaluation, and reflection upon the process. Research suggests that converting a problem from the initial…

Improving of Junior High School Visual Thinking Representation Ability in Mathematical Problem Solving by CTL

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Surya, Edy; Sabandar, Jozua; Kusumah, Yaya S.; Darhim

2013-01-01

The students' difficulty which was found is in the problem of understanding, drawing diagrams, reading the charts correctly, conceptual formal mathematical understanding, and mathematical problem solving. The appropriate problem representation is the basic way in order to understand the problem itself and make a plan to solve it. This research was…

Geothermal Energy: Prospects and Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritter, William W.

1973-01-01

An examination of geothermal energy as a means of increasing the United States power resources with minimal pollution problems. Developed and planned geothermal-electric power installations around the world, capacities, installation dates, etc., are reviewed. Environmental impact, problems, etc. are discussed. (LK)

Facility Master Plans: An Essential First Step in the Building Development Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wickerham, Wendell E.

2002-01-01

Discusses the importance of the facility master plan (FMP) in defining project scope and validating or challenging the work of consultants. Offers three case studies illustrating how facility master plans averted problems or led to unanticipated benefits for the colleges involved. (EV)

Marketing Education's National Marketing Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zwissler, Karen

1987-01-01

Discusses formation of the National Council for Marketing Education and how its Marketing Strategy Committee developed a plan to tackle the image problem. The committee chose five target audiences and developed a strategy to reach each target. The plan was introduced in October 1987 through a national videoconference. (CH)

Planning Perspectives for Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, A. P., Ed.; McNamara, James F., Ed.

This book presents a collection of previously published journal articles dealing with the theory, practice, and research of planning. The various readings were selected to stimulate thought and action in educational planning, rather than to present solutions to specific problems. The articles include "Knowledge and Action: A Guide to Planning…

Phased Restoration Plan for Degraded Land in North Korea by the Clustered Distribution Pattern of Suitable Afforestation Plants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, S. G.; Lee, W. K.; Choi, H. A.; Yoo, H.; Song, C.; Son, Y.; Cha, S.; Bae, S. W.

2017-12-01

Degraded forest of North Korea (DPRK; The Democratic People's Republic of Koprea) is not only confined itself, it could cause serious problem in Korean Peninsula. The importance of restoration for degraded land has increased to improve an healthy ecosystem and solve a shortage of food in North Korea lately. On the other hand, although effort of North Korea government, degraded problem have consistently got worse. There are two main reasons it does not show effectively. The most critical one is absence of technique and information to restore, they concentrate urgent problem which is related to a poor food supply. The other problem is that they demand an efficiency plan in a short period. In these aspect, this study aims selecting suitable tree by spatial characteristics and establishing phased restoration plan to support policy decision about a degraded land in North Korea. The suitable tree for restoration is taken from references which involve natural plant distribution of North and South Korea (ROK; Republic of Korea). Optimal environmental predicted map is deducted from accumulated data of plant physiology whose endemic environmental optimal range individually. It is integrated a map by order of priorities that first is suitable tree species according to the region, and second is clustering distribution rate in a same species. The two types of priority is applied to weighting method. The research result shows that 23 afforestation species fit to restore, and lager distributed plants agree with the major species in Korean Peninsula. The integrated map considers weight of priorities, and it appears that Picea jezoensis is matched the widest. The integrated map shows a view of suitable restoration according to the space, but this is finespun to utilize in a policy. Therefore It provides 3 step plan to support policy decision by Block Statistics, as 12.5km (long-term general plan), 5km (medium-term detailed plan), 1km (short-term implementation plan).

The Higher Education System in Israel: Guidelines on the Development of the System and Its Planning for 1988 with a First Glance at 1995.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harari, Haim

Israel's current higher education system and projections for the future are examined. Higher education planning is also discussed, with attention to the establishment of the Planning and Grants Committee, basic data for system planning, and problems requiring decisions. Information on institutions, students, and budgets is provided, including…

An effectiveness monitoring program for the northwest forest plan: new approaches to common monitoring problems

Treesearch

Craig Palmer; Barry Mulder; Barry Noon

2000-01-01

The Northwest Forest Plan is a large-scale ecosystem management plan for federal lands in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. An effectiveness monitoring program has been developed to determine the extent to which the goals and objectives of this Plan are being achieved. Priority resources identified for ecological monitoring include late-successional and old-...

The effectiveness of problem-based learning on students’ problem solving ability in vector analysis course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mushlihuddin, R.; Nurafifah; Irvan

2018-01-01

The student’s low ability in mathematics problem solving proved to the less effective of a learning process in the classroom. Effective learning was a learning that affects student’s math skills, one of which is problem-solving abilities. Problem-solving capability consisted of several stages: understanding the problem, planning the settlement, solving the problem as planned, re-examining the procedure and the outcome. The purpose of this research was to know: (1) was there any influence of PBL model in improving ability Problem solving of student math in a subject of vector analysis?; (2) was the PBL model effective in improving students’ mathematical problem-solving skills in vector analysis courses? This research was a quasi-experiment research. The data analysis techniques performed from the test stages of data description, a prerequisite test is the normality test, and hypothesis test using the ANCOVA test and Gain test. The results showed that: (1) there was an influence of PBL model in improving students’ math problem-solving abilities in vector analysis courses; (2) the PBL model was effective in improving students’ problem-solving skills in vector analysis courses with a medium category.

The limits of scientific planning: Doxiadis and the Tehran Action Plan.

PubMed

Madanipour, Ali

2010-01-01

Tehran after the Second World War experienced a modernization drive and rapid population growth. In 1972, the Greek planner, Constantinos Doxiadis, who had already undertaken major housing and planning projects in Iran, was invited to prepare an action plan for the city, to guide the future investment for easing the city's problems. Doxiadis saw cities as nightmares, but advocated that a holistic scientific analysis and a naturalist approach to urban growth management could address their problems. In applying his ideas to Tehran, however, the limits of his ideas of scientific planning became evident, not only through contextual pressures, such as lack of time and data, but also through the planning consultant's approach, in which commercial considerations and the application of readymade solutions could shape the outcome. Rather than working with the context, Doxiadis followed the modernist tenet of breaking with the past, proposing the creation of West Tehran, an alternative to the city where all future growth should take place on a utopian basis. The radical nature of his proposals, his death, and a turbulent revolution aborted the impact of his action plan on Tehran, while faith in modernist scientific planning was widely being abandoned.

Motion Planning and Task Assignment for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Cooperating with Unattended Ground Sensors

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-24

problem was formalized as the Dubins travelling salesman problem (TSP). In the second phase of the research we have...given constraints on its motion. This problem was formalized as the Dubins travelling salesman problem (TSP). The contributions of the study in the... problem was formalized as the Dubins travelling salesman problem (TSP). The Dubins Travelling Salesperson Problem (DTSP) and its variants [8, 12,

From analytic inversion to contemporary IMRT optimization: Radiation therapy planning revisited from a mathematical perspective

PubMed Central

Censor, Yair; Unkelbach, Jan

2011-01-01

In this paper we look at the development of radiation therapy treatment planning from a mathematical point of view. Historically, planning for Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) has been considered as an inverse problem. We discuss first the two fundamental approaches that have been investigated to solve this inverse problem: Continuous analytic inversion techniques on one hand, and fully-discretized algebraic methods on the other hand. In the second part of the paper, we review another fundamental question which has been subject to debate from the beginning of IMRT until the present day: The rotation therapy approach versus fixed angle IMRT. This builds a bridge from historic work on IMRT planning to contemporary research in the context of Intensity-Modulated Arc Therapy (IMAT). PMID:21616694

Scaling Up Decision Theoretic Planning to Planetary Rover Problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meuleau, Nicolas; Dearden, Richard; Washington, Rich

2004-01-01

Because of communication limits, planetary rovers must operate autonomously during consequent durations. The ability to plan under uncertainty is one of the main components of autonomy. Previous approaches to planning under uncertainty in NASA applications are not able to address the challenges of future missions, because of several apparent limits. On another side, decision theory provides a solid principle framework for reasoning about uncertainty and rewards. Unfortunately, there are several obstacles to a direct application of decision-theoretic techniques to the rover domain. This paper focuses on the issues of structure and concurrency, and continuous state variables. We describes two techniques currently under development that address specifically these issues and allow scaling-up decision theoretic solution techniques to planetary rover planning problems involving a small number of goals.

Decision Model for Planning and Scheduling of Seafood Product Considering Traceability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agustin; Mawengkang, Herman; Mathelinea, Devy

2018-01-01

Due to the global challenges, it is necessary for an industrial company to integrate production scheduling and distribution planning, in order to be more efficient and to get more economics advantages. This paper presents seafood production planning and scheduling of a seafood manufacture company which produces simultaneously multi kind of seafood products, located at Aceh Province, Indonesia. The perishability nature of fish highly restricts its storage duration and delivery conditions. Traceability is a tracking requirement to check whether the quality of the product is satisfied. The production and distribution planning problem aims to meet customer demand subject to traceability of the seafood product and other restrictions. The problem is modeled as a mixed integer linear program, and then it is solved using neighborhood search approach.

Junior high school students’ reflective thinking on fraction problem solving: In case of gender differences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rasyid, M. A.; Budiarto, M. T.; Lukito, A.

2018-01-01

This study aims to describe reflective thinking of junior high school students on solving the fractions problem in terms of gender differences. This research is a qualitative approach involving one male student and one female student in seventh grade. The data were collected through the assignment of fractional problem solving and interview, then the data were triangulated and analyzed by three stages, namely data condensation, data display and conclusion. The results showed that the subjects of male and female were reacting, elaborating and contemplating at each stage of solving the fractions problem. But at the stage of devising the plan, the female subject was contemplating, relying more on their beliefs, did not consider their experience, in addition, the female subject didn’t use experience of the steps she planned to solve the problem of fractions.

Understanding planning ability measured by the Tower of London: an evaluation of its internal structure by latent variable modeling.

PubMed

Koppenol-Gonzalez, Gabriela V; Bouwmeester, Samantha; Boonstra, A Marije

2010-12-01

The Tower of London (TOL) is a widely used instrument for assessing planning ability. Inhibition and (spatial) working memory are assumed to contribute to performance on the TOL, but findings about the relationship between these cognitive processes are often inconsistent. Moreover, the influence of specific properties of TOL problems on cognitive processes and difficulty level is often not taken into account. Furthermore, it may be expected that several planning strategies can be distinguished that cannot be extracted from the total score. In this study, a factor analysis and a latent class regression analysis were performed to address these issues. The results showed that 4 strategy groups that differed with respect to preplanning time could be distinguished. The effect of problem properties also differed for the 4 groups. Additional analyses showed that the groups differed on average planning performance but that there were no significant differences between inhibition and spatial working memory performance. Finally, it seemed that multiple factors influence performance on the TOL, the most important ones being the score measurements, the problem properties, and strategy use.

Divide et impera: subgoaling reduces the complexity of probabilistic inference and problem solving.

PubMed

Maisto, Domenico; Donnarumma, Francesco; Pezzulo, Giovanni

2015-03-06

It has long been recognized that humans (and possibly other animals) usually break problems down into smaller and more manageable problems using subgoals. Despite a general consensus that subgoaling helps problem solving, it is still unclear what the mechanisms guiding online subgoal selection are during the solution of novel problems for which predefined solutions are not available. Under which conditions does subgoaling lead to optimal behaviour? When is subgoaling better than solving a problem from start to finish? Which is the best number and sequence of subgoals to solve a given problem? How are these subgoals selected during online inference? Here, we present a computational account of subgoaling in problem solving. Following Occam's razor, we propose that good subgoals are those that permit planning solutions and controlling behaviour using less information resources, thus yielding parsimony in inference and control. We implement this principle using approximate probabilistic inference: subgoals are selected using a sampling method that considers the descriptive complexity of the resulting sub-problems. We validate the proposed method using a standard reinforcement learning benchmark (four-rooms scenario) and show that the proposed method requires less inferential steps and permits selecting more compact control programs compared to an equivalent procedure without subgoaling. Furthermore, we show that the proposed method offers a mechanistic explanation of the neuronal dynamics found in the prefrontal cortex of monkeys that solve planning problems. Our computational framework provides a novel integrative perspective on subgoaling and its adaptive advantages for planning, control and learning, such as for example lowering cognitive effort and working memory load. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Engineering management of large scale systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sanders, Serita; Gill, Tepper L.; Paul, Arthur S.

1989-01-01

The organization of high technology and engineering problem solving, has given rise to an emerging concept. Reasoning principles for integrating traditional engineering problem solving with system theory, management sciences, behavioral decision theory, and planning and design approaches can be incorporated into a methodological approach to solving problems with a long range perspective. Long range planning has a great potential to improve productivity by using a systematic and organized approach. Thus, efficiency and cost effectiveness are the driving forces in promoting the organization of engineering problems. Aspects of systems engineering that provide an understanding of management of large scale systems are broadly covered here. Due to the focus and application of research, other significant factors (e.g., human behavior, decision making, etc.) are not emphasized but are considered.

Keep Out - Danger! Use of Devices Which Can Cause Death or Serious Bodily Injury in Defense of Real and/or Personal Property. A Student's Lesson Plan [and] A Teacher's Lesson Plan [and] A Lawyer's Lesson Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Estelle; And Others

One of a series of secondary level teaching units presenting case studies with pro and con analysis of particular legal problems, the document presents a student's lesson plan, a teacher's lesson plan, and a lawyer's lesson plan for introducing torts (any wrong, other than a breach of contract, resulting in a personal injury or property damage…

A Generalized Orienteering Problem for Optimal Search and Interdiction Planning

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA DISSERTATION A GENERALIZED ORIENTEERING PROBLEM FOR OPTIMAL SEARCH AND INTERDICTION PLANNING by Jesse...provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently...16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: a . REPORT b. ABSTRACT c. THIS PAGE 17. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON 19b

Rotation Rate Sensing via Magnetostatic Surface Wave Propagation on a Thick Yig Ring.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-03

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Background . . . . . . . . I Statement of the Problem. o o . 4 Plan of Attack. o. . o o o • 4 Sequence of...crystal growth process. It was subsequently suggested that the thin film disfiguration problem could be avoided by ma- chining the desired ring...sensor provide any practical advantages that would make it a better choice over current rate sensing schemes? Plan of Attack This thesis concerns itself

Sequential quadratic programming-based fast path planning algorithm subject to no-fly zone constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Wei; Ma, Shunjian; Sun, Mingwei; Yi, Haidong; Wang, Zenghui; Chen, Zengqiang

2016-08-01

Path planning plays an important role in aircraft guided systems. Multiple no-fly zones in the flight area make path planning a constrained nonlinear optimization problem. It is necessary to obtain a feasible optimal solution in real time. In this article, the flight path is specified to be composed of alternate line segments and circular arcs, in order to reformulate the problem into a static optimization one in terms of the waypoints. For the commonly used circular and polygonal no-fly zones, geometric conditions are established to determine whether or not the path intersects with them, and these can be readily programmed. Then, the original problem is transformed into a form that can be solved by the sequential quadratic programming method. The solution can be obtained quickly using the Sparse Nonlinear OPTimizer (SNOPT) package. Mathematical simulations are used to verify the effectiveness and rapidity of the proposed algorithm.

Having it all: national benefit equity and local payment parity in Medicare.

PubMed

Dowd, Bryan; Feldman, Roger

2002-01-01

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has identified two important problems with the Medicare+Choice (M+C) program: nationwide geographic inequity in government-financed benefits, and unequal government payments for M+C plans versus fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare in the same market area. MedPAC concludes that both problems cannot be solved simultaneously. We argue that both problems could be solved if Congress discontinued its policy of underwriting the cost of FFS Medicare. Instead, Congress should define a national entitlement benefit package and have all health plans submit bids on the package in each market area. The government's premium contribution should be equal to the lowest bid submitted by a qualified health plan in each market area. The contribution could be adjusted for health risk, the special obligations of FFS Medicare, and welfare enhancements associated with FFS Medicare that are valued by both beneficiaries and taxpayers but unrelated to beneficiaries' health status.

Problems, Perplexities, and Politics of Program Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schneider, Gail Thierbach

All educational evaluations share common problems, perplexities, and political considerations. Logistic problems include incomplete definition of purpose, unclear timelines and personnel allocations, inadequate support services, and the lack of a program plan. Interpersonal dynamics and conflicts plus unwieldy committee structures are perplexities…

7 CFR 621.10 - Description.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

...; defining and determining the extent of the problems; and formulating alternative plans, including land treatment, nonstructural or structural measures, or combinations thereof, that would solve existing problems... require only inventories of available resources and associated problems to be used by other agencies in...

Making Strategic Planning Work: Experiences from a Private University. AIR 1986 Annual Forum Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Susy S.

Issues in implementating strategic planning in higher education management are considered, along with successful strategies and problem areas in implementing an integrated planning and budgeting process at DePaul University, a comprehensive Catholic university. Key implementation issues are as follows: (1) maintaining an organizational balance…

Plan to Improve Student Attendance in California Public Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California State Dept. of Education, Sacramento.

The plan described in this report was developed in response to language in the 1979 Budget Act that required the California Department of Education to development a comprehensive plan for addressing problems in administering the state's attendance laws and attendance accounting requirements. The current attendance accounting procedures and…

The Copernican Plan: Restructuring the American High School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, Joseph M.

A new perspective on the practical problems of changing secondary schools to enhance learning is called "the Copernican Plan" because its implementation would change the schools as completely as Copernicus's ideas changed the perception of our solar system. The plan proposes major restructuring of virtually all the basic systems within a…

Demographic, Employment and Development Trends: The Need for Integrated Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farooq, Ghazi M.; MacKellar, F. Landis

1990-01-01

The authors contend that problems associated with rapid population growth in developing countries must be tackled through comprehensive planning. They discuss impacts of demography on labor supply and demand and migration. Then they propose a practical framework for population and human resource development planning and policy formation. (SK)

Planning for Change in Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ostergren, Bertil

This document, adapted to readers who are not familiar with institutional details in Swedish higher education, outlines planning and management at regional and central levels. Emphasis is placed on qualitative aspects of planning and on identification of obstacles and possibilities of change and innovation. A central problem for the study is to…

Video: useful tool for delivering family planning messages.

PubMed

Sumarsono, S K

1985-10-01

In 1969, the Government of Indonesia declared that the population explosion was a national problem. The National Family Planning Program was consequently launched to encourage adoption of the ideal of a small, happy and prosperous family norm. Micro-approach messages are composed of the following: physiology of menstruation; reproductive process; healthy pregnancy; rational family planning; rational application of contraceptives; infant and child care; nutrition improvement; increase in breastfeeding; increase in family income; education in family life; family health; and deferred marriage age. Macro-approach messages include: the population problem and its impact on socioeconomic aspects; efforts to cope with the population problem; and improvement of women's lot. In utilizing the media and communication channels, the program encourages the implementation of units and working units of IEC to produce IEC materials; utilizes all possible existing media and IEC channels; maintains the consistent linkage between the activity of mass media and the IEC activities in the field; and encourages the private sector to participate in the production of IEC media and materials. A media production center was set up and carries out the following activities: producing video cassettes for tv broadcasts of family planning drama, family planning news, and tv spots; producing duplicates of the video cassettes for distribution to provinces in support of the video network; producing teaching materials for family planning workers; and transfering family planning films into video cassettes. A video network was developed and includes video monitors in family planning service points such as hospitals, family planning clinics and public places like bus stations. In 1985, the program will be expanded by 50 mobile information units equipped with video monitors. Video has potentials to increase the productivity and effectiveness of the family planning program. The video production process is cheaper and simpler than film production. Video will be very helpful as a communication aid in group meetings. It can also be used as a teaching aid for training.

Problem Solving in a Middle School Robotics Design Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Norton, Stephen J.; McRobbie, Campbell J.; Ginns, Ian S.

2007-07-01

Little research has been conducted on how students work when they are required to plan, build and evaluate artefacts in technology rich learning environments such as those supported by tools including flow charts, Labview programming and Lego construction. In this study, activity theory was used as an analytic tool to examine the social construction of meaning. There was a focus on the effect of teachers’ goals and the rules they enacted upon student use of the flow chart planning tool, and the tools of the programming language Labview and Lego construction. It was found that the articulation of a teacher’s goals via rules and divisions of labour helped to form distinct communities of learning and influenced the development of different problem solving strategies. The use of the planning tool flow charting was associated with continuity of approach, integration of problem solutions including appreciation of the nexus between construction and programming, and greater educational transformation. Students who flow charted defined problems in a more holistic way and demonstrated more methodical, insightful and integrated approaches to their use of tools. The findings have implications for teaching in design dominated learning environments.

Drainage network optimization for inundation mitigation case study of ITS Surabaya

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savitri, Yang Ratri; Lasminto, Umboro

2017-06-01

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Surabaya is one of engineering campus in Surabaya with an area of ± 187 ha, which consists of building and campus facilities. The campus is supported by drainage system planned according to the ITS Master Plan on 2002. The drainage system is planned with numbers of retention and detention pond based on the city concept of Zero Delta Q concept. However, in the rainy season, it frequently has inundation problems in several locations. The problems could be identified from two major sources, namely the internal campus facilities and external condition connected with the city drainage system. This paper described the capabilities of drainage network optimization to mitigate local urban drainage problem. The hydrology-hydraulic investigation was done by utilizing the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) developed by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The mitigation is based on several alternative that based on the existing condition and regarding the social problem. The study results showed that the management of the flow from external source could reduce final stored volume of the campus main channel by 31.75 %.

Dealing with complex and ill-structured problems: results of a Plan-Do-Check-Act experiment in a business engineering semester

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riis, Jens Ove; Achenbach, Marlies; Israelsen, Poul; Kyvsgaard Hansen, Poul; Johansen, John; Deuse, Jochen

2017-07-01

Challenged by increased globalisation and fast technological development, we carried out an experiment in the third semester of a global business engineering programme aimed at identifying conditions for training student in dealing with complex and ill-structured problems of forming a new business. As this includes a fuzzy front end, learning cannot be measured in traditional, quantitative terms; therefore, we have explored the use of reflection to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. The experiment adopted a Plan-Do-Check-Act approach and concluded with developing a plan for new learning initiatives in the subsequent year's semester. The findings conclude that (1) problem-based learning develops more competencies than ordinarily measured at the examination, especially, the social/communication and personal competencies are developed; (2) students are capable of dealing with a complex and ambiguous problem, if properly guided. Four conditions were identified; (3) most students are not conscious of their learning, but are able to reflect if properly encouraged; and (4) improving engineering education should be considered as an organisational learning process.

[To be better informed: the population problem in Rwanda and the scope of its solution].

PubMed

Gakwaya, D

1993-12-01

As part of its IEC program, Rwanda's National Office of Population (ONAPO) produced a 4-volume work entitled "The Demographic problem in Rwanda and the framework of its solution". The work places Rwanda's population problem in historical context by noting the progressive acceleration of the growth rate beginning in 1940. The population increased from 1,913,000 in 1940 to 3,735,000 in 1970 and 7,149,215 in 1991. The strategies initially proposed for maintaining balance between population and production included resettlement schemes to reduce population pressure in crowded zones and increase production. ONAPO was created to address the problem more directly. The first and most important of the volumes analyzes the relationship between population problems and national development. The problems discussed in relation to population include agriculture and food supply, nutrition, health and health care, education and school attendance, employment, migration and urbanization, environment, integration of women into development, changing attitudes and customs, and family planning. The second volume discusses food production and food self-sufficiency at a time when population is increasing rapidly but food production is declining. A model produced by ONAPO attempts to analyze the interrelationships between population and food production. Population factors included in the model are fertility, mortality, and migration. Twelve vegetable crops and 7 animal products evolve in the model according to area devoted to them, yield, soil quality, fallow, deforestation, and erosion. Agricultural products are transformed in the model to calories, protein, and fats. Different scenarios result from the combination of different factors, and their effect is to reduce or increase the volume of population and consequently the number f calories available per person and per day. Volume 3, on costs and benefits of family planning in Rwanda, compares 3 situations; no family planning, realistic family planning, and optimistic family planning. It demonstrates the savings in health, education, agriculture, and elsewhere that would result from a lower rate of population growth. Volume 4, on Rwanda's population policy and plan of action, summarizes the population policy and its components of family planning, reduction of early childhood mortality, promotion of family welfare, training and research, and migration. Specific objectives include increasing contraceptive prevalence from 12% in 1990 to 48.4% in 2000, reducing the growth rate from 3.6% in 1990 to 2% in 2000, and increasing life expectancy at birth from 49 years in 1985 to 53.5 in 2000.

Monitored execution of robot plans produced by STRIPS.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fikes, R. E.

1972-01-01

We describe PLANEX1, a plan executor for the Stanford Research Institute robot system. The problem-solving program STRIPS creates a plan consisting of a sequence of actions, and PLANEX1 program carries out the plan by executing the actions. PLANEX1 is designed so that it executes only that portion of the plan necessary for completing the task, reexecutes any portion of the plan that has failed to achieve the desired results, and initiates replanning in situations where the plan can no longer be effective in completing the task. The scenario for an example plan execution is given.

TH-EF-BRB-05: 4pi Non-Coplanar IMRT Beam Angle Selection by Convex Optimization with Group Sparsity Penalty

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

O’Connor, D; Nguyen, D; Voronenko, Y

Purpose: Integrated beam orientation and fluence map optimization is expected to be the foundation of robust automated planning but existing heuristic methods do not promise global optimality. We aim to develop a new method for beam angle selection in 4π non-coplanar IMRT systems based on solving (globally) a single convex optimization problem, and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method by comparison with a state of the art column generation method for 4π beam angle selection. Methods: The beam angle selection problem is formulated as a large scale convex fluence map optimization problem with an additional group sparsity term thatmore » encourages most candidate beams to be inactive. The optimization problem is solved using an accelerated first-order method, the Fast Iterative Shrinkage-Thresholding Algorithm (FISTA). The beam angle selection and fluence map optimization algorithm is used to create non-coplanar 4π treatment plans for several cases (including head and neck, lung, and prostate cases) and the resulting treatment plans are compared with 4π treatment plans created using the column generation algorithm. Results: In our experiments the treatment plans created using the group sparsity method meet or exceed the dosimetric quality of plans created using the column generation algorithm, which was shown superior to clinical plans. Moreover, the group sparsity approach converges in about 3 minutes in these cases, as compared with runtimes of a few hours for the column generation method. Conclusion: This work demonstrates the first non-greedy approach to non-coplanar beam angle selection, based on convex optimization, for 4π IMRT systems. The method given here improves both treatment plan quality and runtime as compared with a state of the art column generation algorithm. When the group sparsity term is set to zero, we obtain an excellent method for fluence map optimization, useful when beam angles have already been selected. NIH R43CA183390, NIH R01CA188300, Varian Medical Systems; Part of this research took place while D. O’Connor was a summer intern at RefleXion Medical.« less

A new Monte Carlo-based treatment plan optimization approach for intensity modulated radiation therapy.

PubMed

Li, Yongbao; Tian, Zhen; Shi, Feng; Song, Ting; Wu, Zhaoxia; Liu, Yaqiang; Jiang, Steve; Jia, Xun

2015-04-07

Intensity-modulated radiation treatment (IMRT) plan optimization needs beamlet dose distributions. Pencil-beam or superposition/convolution type algorithms are typically used because of their high computational speed. However, inaccurate beamlet dose distributions may mislead the optimization process and hinder the resulting plan quality. To solve this problem, the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation method has been used to compute all beamlet doses prior to the optimization step. The conventional approach samples the same number of particles from each beamlet. Yet this is not the optimal use of MC in this problem. In fact, there are beamlets that have very small intensities after solving the plan optimization problem. For those beamlets, it may be possible to use fewer particles in dose calculations to increase efficiency. Based on this idea, we have developed a new MC-based IMRT plan optimization framework that iteratively performs MC dose calculation and plan optimization. At each dose calculation step, the particle numbers for beamlets were adjusted based on the beamlet intensities obtained through solving the plan optimization problem in the last iteration step. We modified a GPU-based MC dose engine to allow simultaneous computations of a large number of beamlet doses. To test the accuracy of our modified dose engine, we compared the dose from a broad beam and the summed beamlet doses in this beam in an inhomogeneous phantom. Agreement within 1% for the maximum difference and 0.55% for the average difference was observed. We then validated the proposed MC-based optimization schemes in one lung IMRT case. It was found that the conventional scheme required 10(6) particles from each beamlet to achieve an optimization result that was 3% difference in fluence map and 1% difference in dose from the ground truth. In contrast, the proposed scheme achieved the same level of accuracy with on average 1.2 × 10(5) particles per beamlet. Correspondingly, the computation time including both MC dose calculations and plan optimizations was reduced by a factor of 4.4, from 494 to 113 s, using only one GPU card.

Evaluating the Suitability of Mathematical Thinking Problems for Senior High-School Students by Including Mathematical Sense Making and Global Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Velzen, Joke H.

2016-01-01

The mathematics curriculum often provides for relatively few mathematical thinking problems or non-routine problems that focus on a deepening of understanding mathematical concepts and the problem-solving process. To develop such problems, methods are required to evaluate their suitability. The purpose of this preliminary study was to find such an…

Problem Solving. Workplace Strategies for Thoughtful Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diller, Janelle; Moore, Rita

This learning module is designed to enable participants to look at problems from a variety of perspectives, to apply a basic problem-solving strategy, to implement a plan of action, and to identify problems that are of particular importance to their workplace. The module includes units for six class sessions. Each unit includes the following…

Distributed problem solving by pilots and dispatchers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orasanu, Judith; Wich, Mike; Fischer, Ute; Jobe, Kim; Mccoy, Elaine; Beatty, Roger; Smith, Phil

1993-01-01

The study addressed the following question: Are flight planning problems solved differently by PILOTS and DISPATCHERS when they work alone versus when they work together? Aspect of their performance that were of interest include the following: Problem perception and definition; Problem solving strategies and information use; Options considered; Solution and rational; and errors.

Neglecting the Importance of the Decision Making and Care Regimes of Personal Support Workers: A Critique of Standardization of Care Planning through the RAI/MDS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kontos, Pia C.; Miller, Karen-Lee; Mitchell, Gail J.

2010-01-01

Purpose: The Resident Assessment Instrument-Minimum Data Set (RAI/MDS) is an interdisciplinary standardized process that informs care plan development in nursing homes. This standardized process has failed to consistently result in individualized care planning, which may suggest problems with content and planning integrity. We examined the…

Flexible benefits plans. Perceptions of their effectiveness.

PubMed

Agho, A O

1995-01-01

Flexible benefits plans have been used in businesses since the 1970s to control healthcare costs and meet the needs of an increasingly diverse work force. More recently, healthcare organizations have begun to implement the flexible benefits concept. This study collected data from human resources executives at hospitals with and without flex plans to investigate how they perceive the effectiveness of and the problems associated with such plans.

Creating Energy Choices for the Future. A Summary of the National Plan for Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Energy Research and Development Administration, Washington, DC.

This booklet, which highlights and explains the 1975 National Energy Plan, is intended to improve the general public's understanding of U.S. energy policy. Sections in the publication include: (1) The Energy Problem and the Need for Planning; (2) Basic Principles of the Plan and How They Apply; (3) Overcoming the Oil and Gas Shortage; (4) The…

Theory of Planned Behavior including self-stigma and perceived barriers explain help-seeking behavior for sexual problems in Iranian women suffering from epilepsy.

PubMed

Lin, Chung-Ying; Oveisi, Sonia; Burri, Andrea; Pakpour, Amir H

2017-03-01

To apply the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the two additional concepts self-stigma and perceived barriers to the help-seeking behavior for sexual problems in women with epilepsy. In this 18-month follow-up study, TPB elements, including attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention along with self-stigma and perceived barriers in seeking help for sexual problems were assessed in n=818 women with epilepsy (94.0% aged ≤40years). The basic TPB model (model 1) and the TPB model additionally including self-stigma and perceived barriers (Model 2) were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Both SEM models showed satisfactory model fits. According to model, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention explained 63.1% of the variance in help-seeking behavior. Variance was slightly higher (64.5%) when including self-stigma and perceived barriers (model 2). In addition, the fit indices of the models were better highlighting the importance of self-stigma and perceived barriers in help-seeking behavior for sexual problems. Theory of Planned Behavior is useful in explaining help-seeking behavior for sexual problems in women with epilepsy. Self-stigma and perceived barriers are additional factors that should be considered in future interventions aiming to adopt TPB to improve help-seeking behavior for sexual problems. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fuzzy Multi-Objective Transportation Planning with Modified S-Curve Membership Function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peidro, D.; Vasant, P.

2009-08-01

In this paper, the S-Curve membership function methodology is used in a transportation planning decision (TPD) problem. An interactive method for solving multi-objective TPD problems with fuzzy goals, available supply and forecast demand is developed. The proposed method attempts simultaneously to minimize the total production and transportation costs and the total delivery time with reference to budget constraints and available supply, machine capacities at each source, as well as forecast demand and warehouse space constraints at each destination. We compare in an industrial case the performance of S-curve membership functions, representing uncertainty goals and constraints in TPD problems, with linear membership functions.

[A preliminary analysis of the high birth rate in India].

PubMed

Shao, N

1981-01-01

The author first provides some basic demographic data for India and points out that the current annual rate of population growth of 2.45 percent is slightly higher than the annual increase in food production. Problems in the areas of employment, education, housing, and transportation, as well as the general problem of poverty, are seen as a consequence of this imbalance. The lack of success of the national family planning program is attributed primarily to the failure to achieve a satisfactory rate of economic growth. Contributory factors include early marriage, the low status of women, the desire for large families, and administrative problems associated with the family planning program.

Air Pollution over the States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Environmental Science and Technology, 1972

1972-01-01

State plans for implementing air quality standards are evaluated together with problems in modeling procedures and enforcement. Monitoring networks, standards, air quality regions, and industrial problems are also discussed. (BL)

Safe motion planning for mobile agents: A model of reactive planning for multiple mobile agents

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fujimura, Kikuo.

1990-01-01

The problem of motion planning for multiple mobile agents is studied. Each planning agent independently plans its own action based on its map which contains a limited information about the environment. In an environment where more than one mobile agent interacts, the motions of the robots are uncertain and dynamic. A model for reactive agents is described and simulation results are presented to show their behavior patterns. 18 refs., 2 figs.

Coordinating robot motion, sensing, and control in plans. LDRD project final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xavier, P.G.; Brown, R.G.; Watterberg, P.A.

1997-08-01

The goal of this project was to develop a framework for robotic planning and execution that provides a continuum of adaptability with respect to model incompleteness, model error, and sensing error. For example, dividing robot motion into gross-motion planning, fine-motion planning, and sensor-augmented control had yielded productive research and solutions to individual problems. Unfortunately, these techniques could only be combined by hand with ad hoc methods and were restricted to systems where all kinematics are completely modeled in planning. The original intent was to develop methods for understanding and autonomously synthesizing plans that coordinate motion, sensing, and control. The projectmore » considered this problem from several perspectives. Results included (1) theoretical methods to combine and extend gross-motion and fine-motion planning; (2) preliminary work in flexible-object manipulation and an implementable algorithm for planning shortest paths through obstacles for the free-end of an anchored cable; (3) development and implementation of a fast swept-body distance algorithm; and (4) integration of Sandia`s C-Space Toolkit geometry engine and SANDROS motion planer and improvements, which yielded a system practical for everyday motion planning, with path-segment planning at interactive speeds. Results (3) and (4) have either led to follow-on work or are being used in current projects, and they believe that (2) will eventually be also.« less

Discrete Optimization Model for Vehicle Routing Problem with Scheduling Side Cosntraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juliandri, Dedy; Mawengkang, Herman; Bu'ulolo, F.

2018-01-01

Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is an important element of many logistic systems which involve routing and scheduling of vehicles from a depot to a set of customers node. This is a hard combinatorial optimization problem with the objective to find an optimal set of routes used by a fleet of vehicles to serve the demands a set of customers It is required that these vehicles return to the depot after serving customers’ demand. The problem incorporates time windows, fleet and driver scheduling, pick-up and delivery in the planning horizon. The goal is to determine the scheduling of fleet and driver and routing policies of the vehicles. The objective is to minimize the overall costs of all routes over the planning horizon. We model the problem as a linear mixed integer program. We develop a combination of heuristics and exact method for solving the model.

Two-machine flow shop scheduling integrated with preventive maintenance planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Shijin; Liu, Ming

2016-02-01

This paper investigates an integrated optimisation problem of production scheduling and preventive maintenance (PM) in a two-machine flow shop with time to failure of each machine subject to a Weibull probability distribution. The objective is to find the optimal job sequence and the optimal PM decisions before each job such that the expected makespan is minimised. To investigate the value of integrated scheduling solution, computational experiments on small-scale problems with different configurations are conducted with total enumeration method, and the results are compared with those of scheduling without maintenance but with machine degradation, and individual job scheduling combined with independent PM planning. Then, for large-scale problems, four genetic algorithm (GA) based heuristics are proposed. The numerical results with several large problem sizes and different configurations indicate the potential benefits of integrated scheduling solution and the results also show that proposed GA-based heuristics are efficient for the integrated problem.

Planning and Problem Solving

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-10-01

Artificial Intelig ~ence (Vol. III, edited by Paul R. Cohen and’ Edward A.. Feigenbaum)’, The chapter was written B’ Paul Cohen, with contributions... Artificial Intelligence (Vol. III, edited by Paul R. Cohen and EdWard A. Feigenbaum). The chapter was written by Paul R. Cohen, with contributions by Stephen...Wheevoats"EntermdI’ Planning and Problem ’Solving by Paul R. Cohen Chaptb-rXV-of Volumec III’of the Handbook of Artificial Intelligence edited by Paul R

Ground Systems Development Environment (GSDE) interface requirements and prototyping plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Church, Victor E.; Philips, John; Bassman, Mitchell; Williams, C.

1990-01-01

This report describes the data collection and requirements analysis effort of the Ground System Development Environment (GSDE) Interface Requirements study. It identifies potential problems in the interfaces among applications and processors in the heterogeneous systems that comprises the GSDE. It describes possible strategies for addressing those problems. It also identifies areas for further research and prototyping to demonstrate the capabilities and feasibility of those strategies and defines a plan for building the necessary software prototypes.

The use of 3-D sensing techniques for on-line collision-free path planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayward, V.; Aubry, S.; Jasiukajc, Z.

1987-01-01

The state of the art in collision prevention for manipulators with revolute joints, showing that it is a particularly computationally hard problem, is discussed. Based on the analogy with other hard or undecidable problems such as theorem proving, an extensible multi-resolution architecture for path planning, based on a collection of weak methods is proposed. Finally, the role that sensors can play for an on-line use of sensor data is examined.

TRADOC Service School Reports. ’Soft Skill Areas.’

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-09-01

situation where Theory Y is appropriate I. Categorize present situation J. Encourage subordinates to participate in planning and decision making activities...soldier I. Assist the soldier in developing a plan for improvement J. Assess extent of the problem K. Define the problem in precise behavioral terms L...THEMSELVES TO THESE CATEGORIES AND SHOULD REPORT ANY AREA WHICH MAY BE PERCEIVED TO FALL WITHIN THE AREA OF SOFT-SKILLS. THE INTENT IS NOT TO CONDUCT A

State/Tribal Transportation Planning Relations and Strategies

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-09-01

Both ISTEA and the creation of Regional Transportation Organizations, growth : management legislation, have resulted in a greatly increased need to coordinate : transportation planning with Native American Tribes. Some of the problems : encountered a...

What is the Nondominated Formulation? A Demonstration of de Novo Water Supply Portfolio Planning Under Deep Uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasprzyk, J. R.; Reed, P. M.; Characklis, G. W.; Kirsch, B. R.

2010-12-01

This paper proposes and demonstrates a new interactive framework for sensitivity-informed de Novo programming, in which a learning approach to formulating decision problems can confront the deep uncertainty within water management problems. The framework couples global sensitivity analysis using Sobol’ variance decomposition with multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) to generate planning alternatives and test their robustness to new modeling assumptions and scenarios. We explore these issues within the context of a risk-based water supply management problem, where a city seeks the most efficient use of a water market. The case study examines a single city’s water supply in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) in Texas, using both a 10-year planning horizon and an extreme single-year drought scenario. The city’s water supply portfolio comprises a volume of permanent rights to reservoir inflows and use of a water market through anticipatory thresholds for acquiring transfers of water through optioning and spot leases. Diagnostic information from the Sobol’ variance decomposition is used to create a sensitivity-informed problem formulation testing different decision variable configurations, with tradeoffs for the formulation solved using a MOEA. Subsequent analysis uses the drought scenario to expose tradeoffs between long-term and short-term planning and illustrate the impact of deeply uncertain assumptions on water availability in droughts. The results demonstrate water supply portfolios’ efficiency, reliability, and utilization of transfers in the water supply market and show how to adaptively improve the value and robustness of our problem formulations by evolving our definition of optimality to discover key tradeoffs.

An Adaptive Clustering Approach Based on Minimum Travel Route Planning for Wireless Sensor Networks with a Mobile Sink.

PubMed

Tang, Jiqiang; Yang, Wu; Zhu, Lingyun; Wang, Dong; Feng, Xin

2017-04-26

In recent years, Wireless Sensor Networks with a Mobile Sink (WSN-MS) have been an active research topic due to the widespread use of mobile devices. However, how to get the balance between data delivery latency and energy consumption becomes a key issue of WSN-MS. In this paper, we study the clustering approach by jointly considering the Route planning for mobile sink and Clustering Problem (RCP) for static sensor nodes. We solve the RCP problem by using the minimum travel route clustering approach, which applies the minimum travel route of the mobile sink to guide the clustering process. We formulate the RCP problem as an Integer Non-Linear Programming (INLP) problem to shorten the travel route of the mobile sink under three constraints: the communication hops constraint, the travel route constraint and the loop avoidance constraint. We then propose an Imprecise Induction Algorithm (IIA) based on the property that the solution with a small hop count is more feasible than that with a large hop count. The IIA algorithm includes three processes: initializing travel route planning with a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) algorithm, transforming the cluster head to a cluster member and transforming the cluster member to a cluster head. Extensive experimental results show that the IIA algorithm could automatically adjust cluster heads according to the maximum hops parameter and plan a shorter travel route for the mobile sink. Compared with the Shortest Path Tree-based Data-Gathering Algorithm (SPT-DGA), the IIA algorithm has the characteristics of shorter route length, smaller cluster head count and faster convergence rate.

Working Notes from the 1992 AAAI Spring Symposium on Practical Approaches to Scheduling and Planning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Drummond, Mark; Fox, Mark; Tate, Austin; Zweben, Monte

1992-01-01

The symposium presented issues involved in the development of scheduling systems that can deal with resource and time limitations. To qualify, a system must be implemented and tested to some degree on non-trivial problems (ideally, on real-world problems). However, a system need not be fully deployed to qualify. Systems that schedule actions in terms of metric time constraints typically represent and reason about an external numeric clock or calendar and can be contrasted with those systems that represent time purely symbolically. The following topics are discussed: integrating planning and scheduling; integrating symbolic goals and numerical utilities; managing uncertainty; incremental rescheduling; managing limited computation time; anytime scheduling and planning algorithms, systems; dependency analysis and schedule reuse; management of schedule and plan execution; and incorporation of discrete event techniques.

Path Planning Algorithms for Autonomous Border Patrol Vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lau, George Tin Lam

This thesis presents an online path planning algorithm developed for unmanned vehicles in charge of autonomous border patrol. In this Pursuit-Evasion game, the unmanned vehicle is required to capture multiple trespassers on its own before any of them reach a target safe house where they are safe from capture. The problem formulation is based on Isaacs' Target Guarding problem, but extended to the case of multiple evaders. The proposed path planning method is based on Rapidly-exploring random trees (RRT) and is capable of producing trajectories within several seconds to capture 2 or 3 evaders. Simulations are carried out to demonstrate that the resulting trajectories approach the optimal solution produced by a nonlinear programming-based numerical optimal control solver. Experiments are also conducted on unmanned ground vehicles to show the feasibility of implementing the proposed online path planning algorithm on physical applications.

Strategic planning for national security: Lessons from business experience. Interim report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bracken, P.

1990-02-01

United States defense planning is at a crossroads and it is therefore useful to review not only discrete issues, but even basic concepts of strategic planning. This Note reviews concepts used in the business world to build insights about how to view current and prospective problems, opportunities, and choices. The author draws upon the business literature for both ideas and metaphors. He observes that U.S. national security planning could profit greatly from an approach that distinguishes among core, environmental, and hedging strategies, and that considers security analogs to such business concepts as defining the business, dealing with new competitors, controllingmore » the intensity of competition, entry and exit barriers, and the need to redeploy assets and restructure the organization. He then relates these concepts to specific problems of national security interest.« less

A genetic technique for planning a control sequence to navigate the state space with a quasi-minimum-cost output trajectory for a non-linear multi-dimnensional system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hein, C.; Meystel, A.

1994-01-01

There are many multi-stage optimization problems that are not easily solved through any known direct method when the stages are coupled. For instance, we have investigated the problem of planning a vehicle's control sequence to negotiate obstacles and reach a goal in minimum time. The vehicle has a known mass, and the controlling forces have finite limits. We have developed a technique that finds admissible control trajectories which tend to minimize the vehicle's transit time through the obstacle field. The immediate applications is that of a space robot which must rapidly traverse around 2-or-3 dimensional structures via application of a rotating thruster or non-rotating on-off for such vehicles is located at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama. However, it appears that the development method is applicable to a general set of optimization problems in which the cost function and the multi-dimensional multi-state system can be any nonlinear functions, which are continuous in the operating regions. Other applications included the planning of optimal navigation pathways through a transversability graph; the planning of control input for under-water maneuvering vehicles which have complex control state-space relationships; the planning of control sequences for milling and manufacturing robots; the planning of control and trajectories for automated delivery vehicles; and the optimization and athletic training in slalom sports.

Plans, preferences or going with the flow: An online exploration of women's views and experiences of birth plans.

PubMed

Divall, Bernie; Spiby, Helen; Nolan, Mary; Slade, Pauline

2017-11-01

To explore women's views of birth plans, and experiences of their completion and use. A qualitative, descriptive study, using Internet-mediated research methods. The discussion boards of two well-known, UK-based, online parenting forums, where a series of questions relating to birth plans were posted. Members of the selected parenting forums who had written and used, or who had chosen not to write or use, a birth plan. Women responded with a range of views and experiences relating to the completion and use of birth plans. The benefits of birth plans were described in terms of communication with healthcare professionals, potentially enhancing awareness of available options, and maintaining a sense of control during labour and birth. However, many respondents believed the idea of 'planning' birth was problematic, and described a reluctance to write a formal plan. The support of healthcare professionals, particularly midwives, was considered essential to the success of both writing and using birth plans. Our findings show a continued debate among women on the benefits and challenges involved in writing and using birth plans, suggesting problems for a 'one size fits all' approach often seen in the use of birth plan templates. In the context of maternity policy supporting women's choice and personalised care, and as a way of acknowledging perceived problems of 'planning' for birth, a flexible approach to birth plans is required, including the consideration of employing alternative nomenclature. Birth plans remain a point of contention in care contexts around the world. Midwives and other healthcare providers play a central role in supporting women to discuss available options, whether or not they decide to complete a formal birth plan. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vesicoureteral Reflux

MedlinePlus

... problems, such as urinary incontinence , bedwetting , and urinary retention bowel problems, such as constipation Most children with ... Coordinating Committees Strategic Plans & Reports Research Areas FAQs Jobs at NIDDK Visit Us Contact Us News News ...

Sequential decision making in computational sustainability via adaptive submodularity

USGS Publications Warehouse

Krause, Andreas; Golovin, Daniel; Converse, Sarah J.

2015-01-01

Many problems in computational sustainability require making a sequence of decisions in complex, uncertain environments. Such problems are generally notoriously difficult. In this article, we review the recently discovered notion of adaptive submodularity, an intuitive diminishing returns condition that generalizes the classical notion of submodular set functions to sequential decision problems. Problems exhibiting the adaptive submodularity property can be efficiently and provably near-optimally solved using simple myopic policies. We illustrate this concept in several case studies of interest in computational sustainability: First, we demonstrate how it can be used to efficiently plan for resolving uncertainty in adaptive management scenarios. Secondly, we show how it applies to dynamic conservation planning for protecting endangered species, a case study carried out in collaboration with the US Geological Survey and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Optimizing decentralized production-distribution planning problem in a multi-period supply chain network under uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nourifar, Raheleh; Mahdavi, Iraj; Mahdavi-Amiri, Nezam; Paydar, Mohammad Mahdi

2017-09-01

Decentralized supply chain management is found to be significantly relevant in today's competitive markets. Production and distribution planning is posed as an important optimization problem in supply chain networks. Here, we propose a multi-period decentralized supply chain network model with uncertainty. The imprecision related to uncertain parameters like demand and price of the final product is appropriated with stochastic and fuzzy numbers. We provide mathematical formulation of the problem as a bi-level mixed integer linear programming model. Due to problem's convolution, a structure to solve is developed that incorporates a novel heuristic algorithm based on Kth-best algorithm, fuzzy approach and chance constraint approach. Ultimately, a numerical example is constructed and worked through to demonstrate applicability of the optimization model. A sensitivity analysis is also made.

Intelligent Text Retrieval and Knowledge Acquisition from Texts for NASA Applications: Preprocessing Issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2001-01-01

In this contract, which is a component of a larger contract that we plan to submit in the coming months, we plan to study the preprocessing issues which arise in applying natural language processing techniques to NASA-KSC problem reports. The goals of this work will be to deal with the issues of: a) automatically obtaining the problem reports from NASA-KSC data bases, b) the format of these reports and c) the conversion of these reports to a format that will be adequate for our natural language software. At the end of this contract, we expect that these problems will be solved and that we will be ready to apply our natural language software to a text database of over 1000 KSC problem reports.

A solution procedure for mixed-integer nonlinear programming formulation of supply chain planning with quantity discounts under demand uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Sisi; Nishi, Tatsushi

2014-11-01

Quantity discount policy is decision-making for trade-off prices between suppliers and manufacturers while production is changeable due to demand fluctuations in a real market. In this paper, quantity discount models which consider selection of contract suppliers, production quantity and inventory simultaneously are addressed. The supply chain planning problem with quantity discounts under demand uncertainty is formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem (MINLP) with integral terms. We apply an outer-approximation method to solve MINLP problems. In order to improve the efficiency of the proposed method, the problem is reformulated as a stochastic model replacing the integral terms by using a normalisation technique. We present numerical examples to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.

The Florida Adult Literacy Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Florida State Dept. of Education, Tallahassee. Div. of Vocational, Adult, and Community Education.

This document presents the Adult Literacy Plan for the state of Florida. Section 1 provides a rationale for the plan. Section 2 sets forth goals and objectives. The statutory intent is described in Section 3, which focuses on the Florida Model Literacy Program Act of 1987 (FMLPA). Section 4 presents a statement of the problem. It provides…

State Planning, Budgeting, and Accountability: Approaches for Higher Education. AAHE-ERIC/Higher Education Research Report No. 6, 1982.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floyd, Carol Everly

Statewide planning for higher education and the approaches that states take to budgeting and accountability are reviewed in this monograph. Statewide planning involves identifying problems and collecting relevant data, analyzing interrelationships among variables, and choosing the most desirable alternatives to reach objectives. State-level higher…

Population Control, Family Planning and Planned Parenthood.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilmar, Norman A.

Remarks in this article were made as part of a panel discussion presented at the Planned Parenthood-World Population combined Southeast Council and National Board Meeting, Savannah, Georgia, in May 1970. The problems and consequences of an increasing birth rate are indicated along with the need for reducing present rates of population growth and…

A case study: using members' values to increase plan awareness.

PubMed

Monfiletto, E; Greitzer, C; Tortu, D

1994-02-01

Consumer awareness of a health plan is the direct result of name recognition and overall health plan identity. After many name changes and transitioning ownerships, Greater Atlantic Health Service found that its membership was waning, and a lack of consumer awareness of the HMO was a substantial part of the problem.

Fuels planning: science synthesis and integration

Treesearch

Rachel White; Sarah McCaffrey

2007-01-01

A century of fire suppression has created heavy fuel loads in many U.S. forests, leading to increasingly intense wildfires. Addressing this problem will require widespread fuels treatments, yet fuels treatment planners do not always have access to the current scientific information that can help guide their planning process. The Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and...

A Comparative Analysis of the Budget Process in the Venezuelan and U.S. Navies.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-01

accounting problems in particular agencies. The DINCA developed a document, Sistema de Contabilidad de la Ejecucion Financiera del Presupuesto para...orienta- tion of the "Plan Operativo Anual" (POA) - Operative Annual Plan. During the Navy’s mid-range planning process the POA is produced. By means of

Health Plan Performance Measurement within Medicare Subvention.

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-06-01

the causes of poor performance (Siren & Laffel, 1996). Although outcomes measures such as nosocomial infection rates, admission rates for select...defined. Traditional outcomes measures include infection rates, morbidity, and mortality. The problem with these traditional measures is... Maternal /Child Care Indicators Nursing Staffing Indicators Outcome Indicators Technical Outcomes Plan Performance Stability of Health Plan

An Exploratory Qualitative Inquiry of Key Indicators on IT Disaster Recovery Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Brian

2016-01-01

Disaster recovery planning is a crucial component to maintaining a business's economic stability. However, it is unclear how key performance indicators (KPIs) are perceived in the emergency medical service (EMS) industry during the disaster recover planning process. The problem addressed in this study was to understand KPIs and their components.…

The Place of Education in Manpower Planning in Developing Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fapohunda, Olanrewaju J.

1974-01-01

Defines manpower planning and outlines its objectives, describes the effects of education on economic growth in developing countries, and discusses problems of education in manpower planning: questions of the source of education, the content, and the percentage of the population ot be educated at a given time. Important political limitations are…

Transition Goals for Youth with Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Problems: Parent and Student Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Judith R.; State, Talida M.; Wills, Howard P.; Custer, Beth A.; Miller, Elaine

2017-01-01

Transition planning is a mandated component of individualized education plans (IEPs) designed to ensure successful transition to adult life for students with disabilities. Students with social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) needs experience poor post-school outcomes, suggesting a need for more effective transition planning. This study evaluated…

ReACT!: An Interactive Educational Tool for AI Planning for Robotics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dogmus, Zeynep; Erdem, Esra; Patogulu, Volkan

2015-01-01

This paper presents ReAct!, an interactive educational tool for artificial intelligence (AI) planning for robotics. ReAct! enables students to describe robots' actions and change in dynamic domains without first having to know about the syntactic and semantic details of the underlying formalism, and to solve planning problems using…

Developing Student Potential in the 1990's. A Strategic Plan for Centralia College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Centralia Coll., WA.

This strategic planning report was prepared by Centralia College (CC) in order to assess the college's internal and external environment, identify problems, and prescribe recommendations. Material for the report was compiled by eight committees/task forces concerned with: (1) strategic planning; (2) institutional mission, philosophy, and goals;…

Estate Planning; A Suggested Outline for an Adult Group. Bulletin 151.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New York State Education Dept., Albany. Bureau of Business Education.

This course outline on estate planning is designed for teachers and leaders in New York State public school adult education programs. Basic elements in estate planning (inventory, objectives, analysis, problem areas, administration, and others) are outlined, followed by information and guidelines on accumulating an estate, conserving an estate,…

Understanding Planned Change among Remote Nonfaculty Employees in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lubin, Erin Heather

2017-01-01

Implementing planned change in online university divisions with remote nonfaculty employees is a unique challenge. The problem that compelled this study was the need to understand the challenges of implementing planned change for a group of geographically remote nonfaculty employees who served as field team members (FTM) in an online university's…

IRIS Assessment Plan for Ammonia and Ammonium Salts Noncancer Oral (Scoping and Problem Formulation Materials)

EPA Science Inventory

In April 2018, EPA released the draft IRIS Assessment Plan for Ammonia and Ammonium Salts Noncancer Oral. The IAP communicates to the public the plan for assessing each individual chemical and includes summary information on the IRIS Program’s scoping and initial proble...

Boston Dropouts: Planning a Community Response.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, MA.

This pamphlet summarizes a conference in Boston on May 6, 1986. Its goal was to assess and plan strategies for the dropout problem in the Boston Public Schools. The Boston Compact, the draft plan contained in this document and prepared before the conference, served as the focus for discussion. Educators and administrators from across the country…

Language Planning Orientations and Bilingual Education in Peru.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hornberger, Nancy H.

1988-01-01

Considers the status and corpus planning aspects of three of Peru's Quechua policies in light of the language planning orientations of language-as-problem, language-as-right, and language-as-resource. Current Quechua/Spanish bilingual education recognizes the rights of Quechua speakers and the role of the language as a national resource.…

Improving Human Services: Methods for Systematic Planning, Evaluation, and Staff Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, G. Brian; And Others

This monograph speaks to the basic problems confronting human services programs, and offers suggestions for improving guidance services. Specific concerns addressed are: (1) the need for more systematic program planning and evaluation; (2) an approach to effective planning and evaluation; (3) development of staff skills for use in the…

Solving Constraint-Satisfaction Problems In Prolog Language

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nachtsheim, Philip R.

1991-01-01

Technique for solution of constraint-satisfaction problems uses definite-clause grammars of Prolog computer language. Exploits fact that grammar-rule notation viewed as "state-change notation". Facilitates development of dynamic representation performing informed as well as blind searches. Applicable to design, scheduling, and planning problems.

Planning Readings: A Comparative Exploration of Basic Algorithms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piater, Justus H.

2009-01-01

Conventional introduction to computer science presents individual algorithmic paradigms in the context of specific, prototypical problems. To complement this algorithm-centric instruction, this study additionally advocates problem-centric instruction. I present an original problem drawn from students' life that is simply stated but provides rich…

Recovering from execution errors in SIPE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilkins, D. E.

1987-01-01

In real-world domains (e.g., a mobile robot environment), things do not always proceed as planned, so it is important to develop better execution-monitoring techniques and replanning capabilities. These capabilities in the SIPE planning system are described. The motivation behind SIPE is to place enough limitations on the representation so that planning can be done efficiently, while retaining sufficient power to still be useful. This work assumes that new information given to the execution monitor is in the form of predicates, thus avoiding the difficult problem of how to generate these predicates from information provided by sensors. The replanning module presented here takes advantage of the rich structure of SIPE plans and is intimately connected with the planner, which can be called as a subroutine. This allows the use of SIPE's capabilities to determine efficiently how unexpected events affect the plan being executed and, in many cases, to retain most of the original plan by making changes in it to avoid problems caused by these unexpected events. SIPE is also capable of shortening the original plan when serendipitous events occur. A general set of replanning actions is presented along with a general replanning capability that has been implemented by using these actions.

[Some psychological problems in family planning work].

PubMed

Chen, J

1983-11-29

Psychology has significance in family planning work, because it may promote the scientific nature of family planning work and thus increase its effectiveness. Since people have some common aspects in their psychological process, family planning workers should master some common rules of the people's psychological process in order to understand psychological trends and possible behavior. Through this method, family planning workers may find how to adjust to problems they may encounter in their daily work, such as the worries about a single child being too lonely, spoiled, and hard to handle for the parents, the traditional belief that more children represent good fortune, and more male children may provide security for one's old age. Traditionally, the Chinese people believed that only male children can carry on the family line and that more children will provide a larger labor force, which is beneficial to a family's financial situation. In family planning work, all such incorrect ways of thinking should be corrected and revised. Studies of children's psychology should also be developed so that children may develop a healthy mentality. All these are crucial to the success of family planning work and the promotion of population quality.

Neural Network Solves "Traveling-Salesman" Problem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thakoor, Anilkumar P.; Moopenn, Alexander W.

1990-01-01

Experimental electronic neural network solves "traveling-salesman" problem. Plans round trip of minimum distance among N cities, visiting every city once and only once (without backtracking). This problem is paradigm of many problems of global optimization (e.g., routing or allocation of resources) occuring in industry, business, and government. Applied to large number of cities (or resources), circuits of this kind expected to solve problem faster and more cheaply.

Dynamic Control of Plans with Temporal Uncertainty

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morris, Paul; Muscettola, Nicola; Vidal, Thierry

2001-01-01

Certain planning systems that deal with quantitative time constraints have used an underlying Simple Temporal Problem solver to ensure temporal consistency of plans. However, many applications involve processes of uncertain duration whose timing cannot be controlled by the execution agent. These cases require more complex notions of temporal feasibility. In previous work, various "controllability" properties such as Weak, Strong, and Dynamic Controllability have been defined. The most interesting and useful Controllability property, the Dynamic one, has ironically proved to be the most difficult to analyze. In this paper, we resolve the complexity issue for Dynamic Controllability. Unexpectedly, the problem turns out to be tractable. We also show how to efficiently execute networks whose status has been verified.

Software for project-based learning of robot motion planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moll, Mark; Bordeaux, Janice; Kavraki, Lydia E.

2013-12-01

Motion planning is a core problem in robotics concerned with finding feasible paths for a given robot. Motion planning algorithms perform a search in the high-dimensional continuous space of robot configurations and exemplify many of the core algorithmic concepts of search algorithms and associated data structures. Motion planning algorithms can be explained in a simplified two-dimensional setting, but this masks many of the subtleties and complexities of the underlying problem. We have developed software for project-based learning of motion planning that enables deep learning. The projects that we have developed allow advanced undergraduate students and graduate students to reflect on the performance of existing textbook algorithms and their own variations on such algorithms. Formative assessment has been conducted at three institutions. The core of the software used for this teaching module is also used within the Robot Operating System, a widely adopted platform by the robotics research community. This allows for transfer of knowledge and skills to robotics research projects involving a large variety robot hardware platforms.

[Methodology for an appreciative, dynamic and collaborative process: 3rd Canary Islands (Spain) Health Plan].

PubMed

O'Shanahan Juan, José Joaquín; Hernández Rodríguez, Miguel Ángel; Del Otero Sanz, Laura; Henríquez Suárez, José Andrés; Mahtani Chugani, Vinita

The need for new approaches to strategic planning by incorporating the perspectives of professionals and inhabitants has led to a new model for the 3rd Canary Islands (Spain) Health Plan (IIIPSC). A dual-phase participatory process using qualitative techniques is proposed: 1) local phase: a quantitative and qualitative study based on training and a research-action-participation initiative; and 2) insular phase: health conferences with face-to-face discussion of results in each health area (island) and proposals for action. The process prioritises problems and establishes a specific action plan for each island through initiatives that are considered to be viable, grouped by themes and weighted according to the potential impact on priority problems. This process of interaction may help to guide planning model changes and health policy decision-making, and was included in the IIIPSC Project for its parliamentary procedure. Copyright © 2016 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Consideration of Environmental Factors in Planning and Development of Urban Areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kustysheva, I.

2017-11-01

Environmental factors, in varying degrees, always have a direct influence on the urban environment formation and the provision of favorable and safe conditions for the life of the population. Their role in the planning and development of urban areas remains an integral part of the management of such areas. Management should be aimed at improving the efficiency of use of the territories and ecological environment improvement. Planning must be done with the consideration of identified ecological processes in cities on the basis of the information about their occurrence in the past and present. Currently, cities face a multitude of problems that require urgent and immediate solutions. One of the most important issues is the poor state of the urban environment, so the environmental factors remain one of the most critical problems that should be considered by the authorities while implementing the urban areas’ development plans. The article discusses the role of environmental factors in the management and planning of urban territories by the example of the city of Tobolsk.

Multi-GPU implementation of a VMAT treatment plan optimization algorithm

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tian, Zhen, E-mail: Zhen.Tian@UTSouthwestern.edu, E-mail: Xun.Jia@UTSouthwestern.edu, E-mail: Steve.Jiang@UTSouthwestern.edu; Folkerts, Michael; Tan, Jun

Purpose: Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) optimization is a computationally challenging problem due to its large data size, high degrees of freedom, and many hardware constraints. High-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) have been used to speed up the computations. However, GPU’s relatively small memory size cannot handle cases with a large dose-deposition coefficient (DDC) matrix in cases of, e.g., those with a large target size, multiple targets, multiple arcs, and/or small beamlet size. The main purpose of this paper is to report an implementation of a column-generation-based VMAT algorithm, previously developed in the authors’ group, on a multi-GPU platform tomore » solve the memory limitation problem. While the column-generation-based VMAT algorithm has been previously developed, the GPU implementation details have not been reported. Hence, another purpose is to present detailed techniques employed for GPU implementation. The authors also would like to utilize this particular problem as an example problem to study the feasibility of using a multi-GPU platform to solve large-scale problems in medical physics. Methods: The column-generation approach generates VMAT apertures sequentially by solving a pricing problem (PP) and a master problem (MP) iteratively. In the authors’ method, the sparse DDC matrix is first stored on a CPU in coordinate list format (COO). On the GPU side, this matrix is split into four submatrices according to beam angles, which are stored on four GPUs in compressed sparse row format. Computation of beamlet price, the first step in PP, is accomplished using multi-GPUs. A fast inter-GPU data transfer scheme is accomplished using peer-to-peer access. The remaining steps of PP and MP problems are implemented on CPU or a single GPU due to their modest problem scale and computational loads. Barzilai and Borwein algorithm with a subspace step scheme is adopted here to solve the MP problem. A head and neck (H and N) cancer case is then used to validate the authors’ method. The authors also compare their multi-GPU implementation with three different single GPU implementation strategies, i.e., truncating DDC matrix (S1), repeatedly transferring DDC matrix between CPU and GPU (S2), and porting computations involving DDC matrix to CPU (S3), in terms of both plan quality and computational efficiency. Two more H and N patient cases and three prostate cases are used to demonstrate the advantages of the authors’ method. Results: The authors’ multi-GPU implementation can finish the optimization process within ∼1 min for the H and N patient case. S1 leads to an inferior plan quality although its total time was 10 s shorter than the multi-GPU implementation due to the reduced matrix size. S2 and S3 yield the same plan quality as the multi-GPU implementation but take ∼4 and ∼6 min, respectively. High computational efficiency was consistently achieved for the other five patient cases tested, with VMAT plans of clinically acceptable quality obtained within 23–46 s. Conversely, to obtain clinically comparable or acceptable plans for all six of these VMAT cases that the authors have tested in this paper, the optimization time needed in a commercial TPS system on CPU was found to be in an order of several minutes. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that the multi-GPU implementation of the authors’ column-generation-based VMAT optimization can handle the large-scale VMAT optimization problem efficiently without sacrificing plan quality. The authors’ study may serve as an example to shed some light on other large-scale medical physics problems that require multi-GPU techniques.« less

Drill Down Tool Evaluation Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eliason, Bert; Morris, Kelsey

2015-01-01

Data-based decision making is enhanced by identifying a precise problem statement or question to explore. When looking at a problem, the nearer we get to the precise problem (e.g., where and when it is occurring, who is involved, and why the problem is continuing in context and location) the more quickly we can build an action plan to effectively…

Neurons and the Process Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zambo, Ron; Zambo, Debby

2011-01-01

The classic Chickens and Pigs problem is considered to be an algebraic problem with two equations and two unknowns. In this article, the authors describe how third-grade teacher Maria is using it to develop a problem-based lesson because she is looking to her students' future needs. As Maria plans, she considers how a series of problems with the…

Developmental Pathway Modeling in Considering Behavior Problems in Young Russian Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruchkin, Vladislav; Gilliam, Walter S.; Mayes, Linda

2008-01-01

In planning interventions it is essential to understand how adverse risk factors in early childhood are associated with child mental health problems, whether some types of problems can be better explained by the specific risk factors, and whether early risk factors are differently related to different types of child behavior problems. A community…

When Shoes Become Hammers: Goal-Derived Categorization Training Enhances Problem-Solving Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chrysikou, Evangelia G.

2006-01-01

Problem-solving theories have not examined how solvers navigate their knowledge to interpret problem situations or to plan strategies toward goals. In this article, the author argues that success in problem solving depends on the solver's ability to construct goal-derived categories, namely categories that are formed ad hoc to serve goals during…

Planning paths to multiple targets: memory involvement and planning heuristics in spatial problem solving.

PubMed

Wiener, J M; Ehbauer, N N; Mallot, H A

2009-09-01

For large numbers of targets, path planning is a complex and computationally expensive task. Humans, however, usually solve such tasks quickly and efficiently. We present experiments studying human path planning performance and the cognitive processes and heuristics involved. Twenty-five places were arranged on a regular grid in a large room. Participants were repeatedly asked to solve traveling salesman problems (TSP), i.e., to find the shortest closed loop connecting a start location with multiple target locations. In Experiment 1, we tested whether humans employed the nearest neighbor (NN) strategy when solving the TSP. Results showed that subjects outperform the NN-strategy, suggesting that it is not sufficient to explain human route planning behavior. As a second possible strategy we tested a hierarchical planning heuristic in Experiment 2, demonstrating that participants first plan a coarse route on the region level that is refined during navigation. To test for the relevance of spatial working memory (SWM) and spatial long-term memory (LTM) for planning performance and the planning heuristics applied, we varied the memory demands between conditions in Experiment 2. In one condition the target locations were directly marked, such that no memory was required; a second condition required participants to memorize the target locations during path planning (SWM); in a third condition, additionally, the locations of targets had to retrieved from LTM (SWM and LTM). Results showed that navigation performance decreased with increasing memory demands while the dependence on the hierarchical planning heuristic increased.

Notes on Current Planning for Higher Education in the Federal Republic of Germany.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heister, Matthias M.

1985-01-01

Objectives, methods, and problems of higher education planning agencies are described, and the work of the Bund-Lander-Kommission fur Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung is given particular emphasis. (Author/RM)

Aviation Capacity Enhancement (ACE) Plan

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-12-31

A comprehensive review of Federal Aviation Administration programs intended to improve the capacity of the National Air Transportation System. The Plan describes the extent of capacity and delay problems currently associated with air travel in the U....

1995 Aviation Capacity Enhancement (ACE) Plan

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-12-31

A comprehensive review of Federal Aviation Administration programs intended to improve : the capacity of the National Air Transportation System. The Plan describes the extent of capacity : and delay problems currently associated with air travel in th...

Planning Complex Projects Automatically

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Henke, Andrea L.; Stottler, Richard H.; Maher, Timothy P.

1995-01-01

Automated Manifest Planner (AMP) computer program applies combination of artificial-intelligence techniques to assist both expert and novice planners, reducing planning time by orders of magnitude. Gives planners flexibility to modify plans and constraints easily, without need for programming expertise. Developed specifically for planning space shuttle missions 5 to 10 years ahead, with modifications, applicable in general to planning other complex projects requiring scheduling of activities depending on other activities and/or timely allocation of resources. Adaptable to variety of complex scheduling problems in manufacturing, transportation, business, architecture, and construction.

Hospital churn and casemix instability: implications for planning and educating the nursing workforce.

PubMed

Chiarella, Mary; Roydhouse, Jessica K

2011-02-01

Health workforce planning is a priority for Australian governments at both state and federal levels. Nursing shortages are a significant problem and addressing these shortages is likely to be a component of any workforce plan. This paper looks at the case of hospital nursing and argues that casemix, workforce and management instability inhibit workforce planning for hospital nursing. These issues are related and any efforts to objectively plan the hospital nursing workforce must seek to address them in order to succeed.

Grasp planning under uncertainty

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Erkmen, A. M.; Stephanou, H. E.

1989-01-01

The planning of dexterous grasps for multifingered robot hands operating in uncertain environments is covered. A sensor-based approach to the planning of a reach path prior to grasping is first described. An on-line, joint space finger path planning algorithm for the enclose phase of grasping was then developed. The algorithm minimizes the impact momentum of the hand. It uses a Preshape Jacobian matrix to map task-level hand preshape requirements into kinematic constraints. A master slave scheme avoids inter-finger collisions and reduces the dimensionality of the planning problem.

The profile of conceptual comprehension of pre-service teacher in the mathematical problem solving with low emotional intelligence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prayitno, S. H.; Suwarsono, St.; Siswono, T. Y. E.

2018-03-01

Conceptual comprehension in this research is the ability to use the procedures that are owned by pre-service teachers to solve problems by finding the relation of the concept to another, or can be done by identifying the type of problem and associating it with a troubleshooting procedures, or connect the mathematical symbols with mathematical ideas and incorporate them into a series of logical reasoning, or by using prior knowledge that occurred directly, through its conceptual knowledge. The goal of this research is to describe the profile of conceptual comprehensin of pre-service teachers with low emotional intelligence in mathematical problems solving. Through observation and in-depth interview with the research subject the conclusion was that: pre-service teachers with low emotional intelligence pertained to the level of formal understanding in understanding the issues, relatively to the level of intuitive understanding in planning problem solving, to the level of relational understanding in implementing the relational problem solving plan, and pertained to the level of formal understanding in looking back to solve the problem.

A Multivariate Model of Physics Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taasoobshirazi, Gita; Farley, John

2013-01-01

A model of expertise in physics problem solving was tested on undergraduate science, physics, and engineering majors enrolled in an introductory-level physics course. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypothesized relationships among variables linked to expertise in physics problem solving including motivation, metacognitive planning,…

The PPP: Problem Panel Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Russell K.

The Problem Panel Project is an instructor-developed, one-semester course in contemporary problems. Based on the inquiry approach, the course is structured for independent research and group work and requires no traditionally-structured daily lesson plans. The course is divided into six procedural points. First, students decide which contemporary…

Planning continuing training.

PubMed

Nacef, T; Argellies, J L

1982-01-01

Suggests new direction in the approach to planning continued training of medical personnel. Under this new scheme, health problems themselves will be the sole basis for the planning of the continuing training program. This approach assures the involvement of health professionals at various levels and fosters a multiprofessional involvement in continuing training. It is also recommended that the preventive aspects of medicine be stressed far more than is typical of traditional hospital services. The method for decision making in program planning includes 6 steps: 1) choice of health problem to be solved (includes considerations of severity of the problems and the degree to which continuing training will be of value); 2) analysis of the number and type of health personnel needed; 3) determination of desired skill acquisition; 4) analysis of teaching/educational requirements; 5) inventory of resources (time, facilities, staff, instructional materials) available; 6) evaluation. Coordination at different levels, both national and regional, ensures the cohesion of the multiprofessional continuing training system. Regional cell groups, composed of 2 paramedicals and a doctor administer continuing training sessions under policy established at a national level by a national advisory committee. This approach makes continuing training an important and immediate component of health policy aimed at delivering basic health services to the entire population.

Homeland security: sharing and managing critical incident information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashley, W. R., III

2003-09-01

Effective critical incident response for homeland security requires access to real-time information from many organizations. Command and control, as well as basic situational awareness, are all dependant on quickly communicating a dynamically changing picture to a variety of decision makers. For the most part, critical information management is not unfamiliar or new to the public safety community. However, new challenges present themselves when that information needs to be seamlessly shared across multiple organizations at the local, state and federal level in real-time. The homeland security problem does not lend itself to the traditional military joint forces planning model where activities shift from a deliberate planning process to a crisis action planning process. Rather, the homeland security problem is more similar to a traditional public safety model where the current activity state moves from complete inactivity or low-level attention to immediate crisis action planning. More often than not the escalation occurs with no warning or baseline information. This paper addresses the challenges of sharing critical incident information and the impacts new technologies will have on this problem. The value of current and proposed approaches will be critiqued for operational value and areas will be identified for further development.

Planning nonlinear access paths for temporal bone surgery.

PubMed

Fauser, Johannes; Sakas, Georgios; Mukhopadhyay, Anirban

2018-05-01

Interventions at the otobasis operate in the narrow region of the temporal bone where several highly sensitive organs define obstacles with minimal clearance for surgical instruments. Nonlinear trajectories for potential minimally invasive interventions can provide larger distances to risk structures and optimized orientations of surgical instruments, thus improving clinical outcomes when compared to existing linear approaches. In this paper, we present fast and accurate planning methods for such nonlinear access paths. We define a specific motion planning problem in [Formula: see text] with notable constraints in computation time and goal pose that reflect the requirements of temporal bone surgery. We then present [Formula: see text]-RRT-Connect: two suitable motion planners based on bidirectional Rapidly exploring Random Tree (RRT) to solve this problem efficiently. The benefits of [Formula: see text]-RRT-Connect are demonstrated on real CT data of patients. Their general performance is shown on a large set of realistic synthetic anatomies. We also show that these new algorithms outperform state-of-the-art methods based on circular arcs or Bézier-Splines when applied to this specific problem. With this work, we demonstrate that preoperative and intra-operative planning of nonlinear access paths is possible for minimally invasive surgeries at the otobasis.

Fuzzy Linear Programming and its Application in Home Textile Firm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasant, P.; Ganesan, T.; Elamvazuthi, I.

2011-06-01

In this paper, new fuzzy linear programming (FLP) based methodology using a specific membership function, named as modified logistic membership function is proposed. The modified logistic membership function is first formulated and its flexibility in taking up vagueness in parameter is established by an analytical approach. The developed methodology of FLP has provided a confidence in applying to real life industrial production planning problem. This approach of solving industrial production planning problem can have feedback with the decision maker, the implementer and the analyst.

Implementation of National Space Policy on US Air Force End of Life Operations and Orbital Debris Mitigation

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-06-01

procedures have been driven by the rising significance of the orbital debris problem in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Therefore current EOL plans are...does not display a currently valid OMB control number. 1. REPORT DATE JUN 2012 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2012 to 00-00-2012 4...by the rising significance of the orbital debris problem in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Therefore current EOL plans are written largely with the aim of

Structure Constraints in a Constraint-Based Planner

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pang, Wan-Lin; Golden, Keith

2004-01-01

In this paper we report our work on a new constraint domain, where variables can take structured values. Earth-science data processing (ESDP) is a planning domain that requires the ability to represent and reason about complex constraints over structured data, such as satellite images. This paper reports on a constraint-based planner for ESDP and similar domains. We discuss our approach for translating a planning problem into a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) and for representing and reasoning about structured objects and constraints over structures.

Estudio de la estructura logica utilizada en la ensenanza y el aprendizaje de los conceptos sobre el comportamiento de gases en el curso introductorio de quimica a nivel universitario

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Costa Diaz, Agnes

El estudio que se presenta es de caracter cualitativo, un estudio multicasos donde se estudia la estructura logica utilizada por cuatro (4) profesores universitarios que ensenan el curso introductorio de quimica, en la planificacion, presentacion y evaluacion del tema sobre el comportamiento de los gases. Se utilizaron varias fuentes de informacion como: cuestionarios de profesores y estudiantes, entrevistas, grabaciones videomagnetofonicas, materiales didacticos y una prueba conceptual, entre otros. La informacion recopilada fue analizada de acuerdo al orden logico del contenido presentado, el estilo de ensenanza del profesor, las tecnicas y estrategias utilizadas para el desarrollo de destrezas de pensamiento, el ambiente fisico en el salon de clase y los instrumentos de evaluacion y avaluo. El estudio demuestra que lo que los profesores piensan y planifican para hacer sus presentaciones no necesariamente es lo que ocurre en el salon de clases. El desarrollo de destrezas de pensamiento, que constituye una prioridad de los profesores, no se elaboran efectivamente. El uso de las estrategias de resolucion de problemas numericos predomino. La participacion del estudiante en el salon de clases fue limitada y no se logro demostrar el desarrollo de las destrezas de pensamiento deseadas. Aunque los profesores tienen su propio estilo de ensenanza, el orden logico del contenido presentado en clase fue el mismo o siguio muy de cerca el orden establecido por el libro de texto. Los profesores utilizaron preferentemente la tiza y la pizarra para sus presentaciones y la dinamica en el salon de clases fue esencialmente tradicional. Los profesores hicieron su presentacion y los estudiantes copiaron pasivamente la informacion. Las evaluaciones de los estudiantes fueron esencialmente, pruebas escritas de seleccion multiple de acuerdo con el estilo en que se les enseno. El avaluo fue casi inexistente. La prueba conceptual administrada revela un aprendizaje pobre en los conceptos mas basicos sobre el comportamiento de los gases. El estudio senala que la ejecutoria del profesor en todos los aspectos de la ensenanza y el aprendizaje es un factor clave que debe darsele prioridad. Se recomienda que el profesor, en general, tenga un conocimiento basico de las teorias de aprendizaje, de los factores que afectan el aprendizaje y las tecnicas y estrategias mas efectivas en el desarrollo de destrezas de pensamiento entre sus estudiantes. La estructura de la disciplina debe incluir tanto lo experimental como lo teorico.

Multipass Target Search in Natural Environments

PubMed Central

Otte, Michael W.; Sofge, Donald; Gupta, Satyandra K.

2017-01-01

Consider a disaster scenario where search and rescue workers must search difficult to access buildings during an earthquake or flood. Often, finding survivors a few hours sooner results in a dramatic increase in saved lives, suggesting the use of drones for expedient rescue operations. Entropy can be used to quantify the generation and resolution of uncertainty. When searching for targets, maximizing mutual information of future sensor observations will minimize expected target location uncertainty by minimizing the entropy of the future estimate. Motion planning for multi-target autonomous search requires planning over an area with an imperfect sensor and may require multiple passes, which is hindered by the submodularity property of mutual information. Further, mission duration constraints must be handled accordingly, requiring consideration of the vehicle’s dynamics to generate feasible trajectories and must plan trajectories spanning the entire mission duration, something which most information gathering algorithms are incapable of doing. If unanticipated changes occur in an uncertain environment, new plans must be generated quickly. In addition, planning multipass trajectories requires evaluating path dependent rewards, requiring planning in the space of all previously selected actions, compounding the problem. We present an anytime algorithm for autonomous multipass target search in natural environments. The algorithm is capable of generating long duration dynamically feasible multipass coverage plans that maximize mutual information using a variety of techniques such as ϵ-admissible heuristics to speed up the search. To the authors’ knowledge this is the first attempt at efficiently solving multipass target search problems of such long duration. The proposed algorithm is based on best first branch and bound and is benchmarked against state of the art algorithms adapted to the problem in natural Simplex environments, gathering the most information in the given search time. PMID:29099087

The development of rural area residence based on participatory planning case study: A rural residential area of Pucungrejo village, Magelang through "neighborhood development" program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

KP, R. M. Bambang Setyohadi; Wicaksono, Dimas

2018-03-01

The poverty is one of the prevailing problems in Indonesia until now. Even a change of the era of governance has not succeeded in eradicating the problem of poverty. The program of poverty alleviation program has always been a focus in the budget allocation in all era of leadership in Indonesia. Those programs were strategic because it prepared the foundation of community self-reliance in the form of representative, entrenched and conducive community leadership institutions to develop of social capital of society in the future. Developing an area of the village requires an integrated planning (Grand Design) to figure out the potential and the problems existing in the rural area as well as the integration of the rural area surrounding. In addition, the grand design needs to be synchronized to the more comprehensive spatial plan with a hierarchical structure such as RTBL, RDTRK / RRTRK, RTRK, and RTRW. This rural area management plan can be oriented or refer to the pattern developed from neighborhood Development program which is part of the PNPM Mandiri program. The neighborhood development program is known as residential area development plan whose process involves of the entire community. Therefore, the regional development up to the scale of the environment requires the planning phase. Particularly, spatial planning which emphasizes the efforts to optimize sectorial development targets to be integrated into an integrated development process must be conducted, in addition to taking into consideration the opportunities, potentials and limitations of the resources, the level of interconnection with the central government within the district and between sub-districts and rural areas.

Inspection logistics planning for multi-stage production systems with applications to semiconductor fabrication lines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Kyle Dakai

Since the market for semiconductor products has become more lucrative and competitive, research into improving yields for semiconductor fabrication lines has lately received a tremendous amount of attention. One of the most critical tasks in achieving such yield improvements is to plan the in-line inspection sampling efficiently so that any potential yield problems can be detected early and eliminated quickly. We formulate a multi-stage inspection planning model based on configurations in actual semiconductor fabrication lines, specifically taking into account both the capacity constraint and the congestion effects at the inspection station. We propose a new mixed First-Come-First-Serve (FCFS) and Last-Come-First-Serve (LCFS) discipline for serving the inspection samples to expedite the detection of potential yield problems. Employing this mixed FCFS and LCFS discipline, we derive approximate expressions for the queueing delays in yield problem detection time and develop near-optimal algorithms to obtain the inspection logistics planning policies. We also investigate the queueing performance with this mixed type of service discipline under different assumptions and configurations. In addition, we conduct numerical tests and generate managerial insights based on input data from actual semiconductor fabrication lines. To the best of our knowledge, this research is novel in developing, for the first time in the literature, near-optimal results for inspection logistics planning in multi-stage production systems with congestion effects explicitly considered.

Curriculum Planning and Some Current Health Problems. Educational Studies and Documents, No. 13.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Southworth, Warren H.

This document is a supplement to the UNESCO Source Book "Planning for Health Education in Schools" by C. E. Turner. It is intended for those directly concerned with curriculum planning in relation to health--school administrators, health education supervisors, curriculum specialists, individual teachers--but it is also thought to be of interest to…

New Hampshire State Plan for Career Education. Planning Years: 1976-77 & 1977-78. Implementation Years 1978-83.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New Hampshire State Dept. of Education, Concord.

Two hundred representatives from the community, special interest groups, and the educational field cooperated in writing a preliminary state plan for career education focusing on the following problems: high unemployment rate of society's untrained youth, the diminished ability of the job market to absorb unskilled workers, lack of trained persons…

Evaluation of a collaborative model: a case study analysis of watershed planning in the intermountain west

Treesearch

Gary Bentrup

2001-01-01

Collaborative planning processes have become increasingly popular for addressing environmental planning issues, resulting in a number of conceptual models for collaboration. A model proposed by Selin and Chavez suggests that collaboration emerges from a series of antecedents and then proceeds sequentially through problem-setting, direction-setting, implementation, and...

The Impact of Federal Programs and Policies on Manpower Planning for Scientists and Engineers: Problems and Progress.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scientific Manpower Commission, Washington, DC.

This document reports the results of a workshop held to assess the impact of federal programs and legislation on manpower planning for scientists and engineers. Included are presentations relating to manpower utilization and planning via federal government agencies and professional societies for scientists and engineers. It was concluded that the…

Planning for the Elderly Without Architecture Is Like Architecture for the Elderly Without Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bednar, Michael; And Others

1977-01-01

A joint project between the separate divisions of planning and architecture at the UVA School of Architecture was conducted to allow graduate students to study the environmental needs of the elderly. The case-study approach was undertaken in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the year-long project was seen as a "real World" problem. (LBH)

A Work Force for Environment and Energy. A Master Plan for Environmental/Energy Higher Education in Illinois.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Illinois Inst. for Environmental Quality, Chicago.

This master plan for environmental and energy higher education in Illinois is a direct result of a mandate from the Illinois General Assembly. To prepare students to confront our nation's environmental problems, each university will submit a management and development plan, designed to preserve existing environmental values and provide…

Methodology for Planning Technical Education: With a Case Study of Polytechnics in Bangladesh.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritzen, Jozef M.; Balderston, Judith B.

A product of research first begun by one of the authors in Bangladesh, this book develops a comprehensive set of methods for planning technical education. Wherever possible, the authors draw on existing tools, fitting them to the specific context of technical education. When faced with planning problems for which existing methods are ill suited…

Education and Rural Development Planning. Report of a Regional Seminar (Bangkok, December 8-16, 1980).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Bangkok (Thailand). Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific.

The report of a regional seminar on rural development planning specifies as its objectives: to study the problems of rural development planning, and to elucidate training requirements for managers of rural development projects, with particular reference to the links between education and productive work and employment. The first chapter gives…

Problems in the Assistant Language Teacher System and English Activity at Japanese Public Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohtani, Chie

2010-01-01

In 2001, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) released the "Rainbow Plan" as the educational reform plan for the twenty-first century. As part of the plan, MEXT will make English education activities compulsory at Japanese public elementary schools beginning in 2011. The purpose of the Rainbow Plan…

ROENTGEN: case-based reasoning and radiation therapy planning.

PubMed Central

Berger, J.

1992-01-01

ROENTGEN is a design assistant for radiation therapy planning which uses case-based reasoning, an artificial intelligence technique. It learns both from specific problem-solving experiences and from direct instruction from the user. The first sort of learning is the normal case-based method of storing problem solutions so that they can be reused. The second sort is necessary because ROENTGEN does not, initially, have an internal model of the physics of its problem domain. This dependence on explicit user instruction brings to the forefront representational questions regarding indexing, failure definition, failure explanation and repair. This paper presents the techniques used by ROENTGEN in its knowledge acquisition and design activities. PMID:1482869

Large-scale linear programs in planning and prediction.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-06-01

Large-scale linear programs are at the core of many traffic-related optimization problems in both planning and prediction. Moreover, many of these involve significant uncertainty, and hence are modeled using either chance constraints, or robust optim...

From analytic inversion to contemporary IMRT optimization: radiation therapy planning revisited from a mathematical perspective.

PubMed

Censor, Yair; Unkelbach, Jan

2012-04-01

In this paper we look at the development of radiation therapy treatment planning from a mathematical point of view. Historically, planning for Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) has been considered as an inverse problem. We discuss first the two fundamental approaches that have been investigated to solve this inverse problem: Continuous analytic inversion techniques on one hand, and fully-discretized algebraic methods on the other hand. In the second part of the paper, we review another fundamental question which has been subject to debate from the beginning of IMRT until the present day: The rotation therapy approach versus fixed angle IMRT. This builds a bridge from historic work on IMRT planning to contemporary research in the context of Intensity-Modulated Arc Therapy (IMAT). Copyright © 2011 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Preventing maternal and child malnutrition: the nutrition component of the Mesoamerican Health Initiative 2015].

PubMed

Rivera, Juan A; Martorell, Reynaldo; González, Wendy; Lutter, Chessa; Cossío, Teresa González de; Flores-Ayala, Rafael; Uauy, Ricardo; Delgado, Hernán

2011-01-01

To describe the regional master plan of nutrition to address maternal and child malnutrition in a 5- year period developed by the Nutrition Technical Group. The Nutrition Technical Group developed a situation analysis describing the main nutrition problems, policies and programs in Mesoamerica. The situation analysis and a literature review about effective interventions to address malnutrition were conducted to develop a nutrition master plan. The Nutrition Technical Group held various meetings to develop, discuss and validate the master plan. Theory of change identified problems and barriers, the actions to be developed, the changes and impacts expected. A package of interventions is proposed to reduce undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies useful under different epidemiological contexts. The nutrition master plan provides a guideline of best practices that can be used for evidence-informed decision making and the development of national policies and programs to reduce malnutrition.