Training Crisis Managers with PANDORA

Abstract. This short paper introduces a novel use of timeline-based planning as the core element of a dynamic training environment for crisis managers called PANDORA. A trainer is provided with a combination of planning and execution functions that allow him/her to maintain and adapt a "lesson plan" as the basis for the interaction between the trainer and a class of trainees. The training session is based on the concept of Scenario, that is a set of events and alternatives deployed on a timeline-based system, that shapes an abstract plan proposed to trainees. Throughout a training session a continuous planning, execution, re-planning loop takes place, based around trainer observation of trainees and self-reporting by trainees, which provides analysis of both their behavioral and psychological changes. These, combined with the trainee decisions about what actions to take to manage the crisis, are used to maintain an updated model of each user. In addition the trainer has the ability to directly intervene in a training session to, for example, interject new scenario events. The training session is therefore managed through a combination of automated analysis of trainee behaviour and decisions, coupled with trainer input and direction

A Game-Theoretic Approach to Timeline-Based Planning with Uncertainty

In timeline-based planning, domains are described as sets of independent, but interacting, components, whose behaviour over time (the set of timelines) is governed by a set of temporal constraints. A distinguishing feature of timeline-based planning systems is the ability to integrate planning with execution by synthesising control strategies for flexible plans. However, flexible plans can only represent temporal uncertainty, while more complex forms of nondeterminism are needed to deal with a wider range of realistic problems. In this paper, we propose a novel game-theoretic approach to timeline-based planning problems, generalising the state of the art while uniformly handling temporal uncertainty and nondeterminism. We define a general concept of timeline-based game and we show that the notion of winning strategy for these games is strictly more general than that of control strategy for dynamically controllable flexible plans. Moreover, we show that the problem of establishing the existence of such winning strategies is decidable using a doubly exponential amount of space

Policy Response, Social Media and Science Journalism for the Sustainability of the Public Health System Amid the COVID-19 Outbreak: The Vietnam Lessons

Vietnam, with a geographical proximity and a high volume of trade with China, was the first country to record an outbreak of the new Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2. While the country was expected to have a high risk of transmission, as of April 4, 2020—in comparison to attempts to contain the disease around the world—responses from Vietnam are being seen as prompt and effective in protecting the interests of its citizens, with 239 confirmed cases and no fatalities. This study analyzes the situation in terms of Vietnam’s policy response, social media and science journalism. A self-made web crawl engine was used to scan and collect official media news related to COVID-19 between the beginning of January and April 4, yielding a comprehensive dataset of 14,952 news items. The findings shed light on how Vietnam—despite being under-resourced—has demonstrated political readiness to combat the emerging pandemic since the earliest days. Timely communication on any developments of the outbreak from the government and the media, combined with up-to-date research on the new virus by the Vietnamese science community, have altogether provided reliable sources of information. By emphasizing the need for immediate and genuine cooperation between government, civil society and private individuals, the case study offers valuable lessons for other nations concerning not only the concurrent fight against the COVID-19 pandemic but also the overall responses to a public health crisis

Living on the land: redesigning land use relationships in the Philippi Horticultural Area

Since the mid-1800's the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA) has been of agricultural significance to Cape Town, producing food for the city. The Area also forms part of the remnant floodplain, and is essential in maintaining the recharge of the Cape Flats Aquifer, an important water source for Cape Town. Conflicting land use agendas are the major threat to resources in the PHA. Besides agriculture, there is an increasing demand on the City of Cape Town to provide housing in close proximity to the city centre. In light of this, re-zoning land in the PHA is being considered. While rezoning will address the demand for housing, it will put even further pressure on the current natural systems and water resources, as well as the historic presence of agriculture in the PHA. A new approach is required using landscape-based urban design to tackle what would usually be a planning predicament. Densification and development could be viable if they do not impact or encroach on the natural systems and agricultural land in the area, but rather help to sustain them. This requires introducing development typologies that work within the existing landscape and reconfiguring urban form to facilitate positive interfaces with both natural and agricultural systems. This project investigates integrating land use and experimentation with landscape and urban morphology as design tools in reconciling agendas, securing the agricultural and water resources in the PHA. The structuring land uses utilised are the urban fabric, agricultural land, natural systems and public open space. These are explored through a combination of geo-spatial mapping, collages, and a series of typologies that interrogate land use relationships in the PHA. Experimentation at multiple scales was used, a smaller area being used as a prototype for the larger area. Property lines significantly inform the framework for development, with consolidation and subdivision being the main tools for intervention. The project will re-organise the PHA in a way that enables mutually supportive land-use relationships, to secure the natural resources and function of the PHA while facilitating necessary development

Gentrification and public policies: Art and culture in urban transformation within the European context

The process of deindustrialization has led to a change in the economic system, and consequently to a demographic crisis. The effect on cities’ urban fabric was a discontinuous and fragmented territory that encouraged episodes of social marginalization and created the conditions for speculation to operate, originating from an uncontrolled real estate market. At the same time, creativity has assumed a fundamental role in the production system, increasingly attentive to the development of goods and services related to the cultural industry. Art integration in public policies as a catalyst for urban development is adopted by the political power in order to attract investments that can contribute to the increase of capital through the revitalization of parts of the city. In this scenario, this paper aims to systematize chronologically the information inherent to the relationship between gentrification, art and public policies in order to outline bottom-up strategies encouraged by the political power that determine a sustainable transformation of urban territory. A digital cartography in a timeline format will allow to highlight the consequential interconnections between theories, practices and historical events, showing the ambivalence of the performing arts as a promoter or moderator of gentrification, and the role of politics in the evolution of this socio-economic dynamic since its first establishment in 1964 until today. This draft is part of the investigation work on the PhD thesis in Architecture of Contemporary Metropolitan Territories, which aims to elaborate guidelines for public policies that, considering art and culture as fundamental parts of the metropolises’ citizens identity construction, may define a new role for industrial areas that have been abandoned after deindustrialization. The results of this thesis are essential to amplify the research on urban regeneration of territory, cities and built spaces, one of the guiding axes of the thematic agenda to investigate and innovate Portuguese architecture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Timelines Are Expressive Enough to Capture Action-Based Temporal Planning

Planning problems are usually expressed by specifying which actions can be performed to obtain a given goal. In temporal planning problems, actions come with a time duration and can overlap in time, which noticeably increase the complexity of the reasoning process. Action-based temporal planning has been thoroughly studied from the complexity-theoretic point of view, and has been proved to be EXPSPACE-complete in its general formulation. Conversely, timeline-based planning problems are represented as a collection of variables whose time-varying behavior is governed by a set of temporal constraints, called synchronization rules. Timelines provide a unified framework to reason about planning and execution under uncertainty. Timeline-based systems are being successfully employed in real-world complex tasks, but, in contrast to action-based planning, little is known on their computational complexity and expressiveness. In particular, a comparison of the expressiveness of the action- and timeline-based formalisms is still missing. This paper contributes a first step in this direction by proving the EXPSPACE-completeness of timeline-based planning with no temporal horizon and bounded temporal relations only. The result is shown via a reduction from action-based temporal planning, thus proving that timelines are expressive enough to capture it

Spartan Daily, October 21, 1985

Volume 85, Issue 37https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/7358/thumbnail.jp