Self-Organizing Networks in Complex Infrastructure Projects

While significant importance is given to establishing formal organizational and contractual hierarchies, existing project management techniques neglect the management of self-organizing networks in large-infrastructure projects. We offer a case-specific illustration of self-organization using network theory as an investigative lens. The findings have shown that these networks exhibit a high degree of sparseness, short path lengths, and clustering in dense “functional” communities around highly connected actors, thus demonstrating the small-world topology observed in diverse real-world self-organized networks. The study underlines the need for these non-contractual functions and roles to be identified and sponsored, allowing the self-organizing network the space and capacity to evolve

On self-organising mechanisms from social, business and economic domains

This paper discusses examples of socially inspired self-organisation approaches and their use to build socially-aware, self-organising computing systems. The paper presents different mechanisms originating from existing social systems, such as stigmergy from social insects behaviours, epidemic spreading, gossiping, trust and reputation inspired by human social behaviours, as well as other approaches from social science related to business and economics. It also elaborates on issues related to social network dynamics, social network patterns, social networks analysis, and their relation to the process of self-organisation. The applicability of socially inspired approaches in the engineering of self-organising computing systems is then illustrated with applications concerning WWW, computer networks and business communities

Morphological changes of glass bead particles upon an abrasive blasting as characterized by settling and flotation experiments

The recent developments in mineral processing led researchers to look for alternative methods and propose new mechanisms for enhancing the efficiency of relatively costly processes (e.g., flotation, aggregation), where especially dealing with fine particles. Finer the particles, the higher the role of their surface on their behavior and properties. The importance of particle morphology becomes even clearer when particle-particle and particle-bubble interactions are considered. In this study, the effect of particle shape “roundness” on the surface wettability and flotation response was investigated upon producing fine particles with the “abrasion blasting” method. In order to provide a fundamental perspective, adsorption measurements were also carried out along with the flotation experiments under the same conditions. In addition to these, zeta potential measurements were also carried out with both spherical and blasted particles as a function of collector concentration. The results suggested that the roundness of particles decreased up to a certain nozzle pressure value, which was followed by higher adsorption degrees and consequently higher flotation recoveries. Additionally, settling rate tests were also performed with very fine material to show the effect of particle morphology on particle-particle interactions. The results showed that while lower settling rate values were obtained for spherical ones, higher values were obtained in the case of the ground and blasted samples in the presence of DI water. It was concluded from this study that the “Abrasive blasting method” could be an effective alternative for tuning the surface morphology of particles and their wettability, which in turn can affect the particle interactions in the system

Dynamic epistemic logic for implicit and explicit beliefs

The dynamic turn in Epistemic Logic is based on the idea that notions of information should be studied together with the actions that modify them. Dynamic epistemic logics have explored how knowledge and beliefs change as consequence of, among others, acts of observation and upgrade. Nevertheless, the omniscient nature of the represented agents has kept finer actions outside the picture, the most important being the action of inference. Following proposals for representing non-omniscient agents, recent works have explored how implicit and explicit knowledge change as a consequence of acts of observation, inference, consideration and even forgetting. The present work proposes a further step towards a common framework for representing finer notions of information and their dynamics. We propose a combination of existing works in order to represent implicit and explicit beliefs. Then, after adapting definitions for the actions of upgrade and retraction, we discuss the action of inference on beliefs, analyzing its differences with respect to inference on knowledge and proposing a rich system for its representation

A case report of severe conjunctival edema due to traumatic pericarditis in a 10 months old Holstein calf

A 10 months old Holstein calf with a history of anorexia and visual system disorders was referred to the Veterinary Medical and Teaching Hospital of TehranUniversity. On Clinical examination body temperature of 34.8oc and respiratory rate of 33 per minute were recorded. Severe edema was observed in the intermandibular space, brisket, vagina and conjunctiva and the jugular veins were bilaterally distended and pulsatile. Auscultation of the heart revealed muffled heart sound and decreased amplitude of P, QRS and T waves were observed from the electrocardiogram was performed from the left fifth intercostals space and fibrinous exudate was withdrawn. Severe conjunctival edema of this calf was due to cardiac insufficiency

Abduction for (non-omniscient) agents

Among the non-monotonic reasoning processes, abduction is one of the most important. Usually described as the process of looking for explanations, it has been recognized as one of the most commonly used in our daily activities. Still, the traditional definitions of an abductive problem and an abductive solution mention only theories and formulas, leaving agency out of the picture. Our work proposes a study of abductive reasoning from an epistemic and dynamic perspective, making special emphasis on non-ideal agents. We begin by exploring what an abductive problem is in terms of an agent’s information, and what an abductive solution is in terms of the actions that modify it. Then we explore the different kinds of abductive problems and abductive solutions that arise when we consider agents whose information is not closed under logical consequence, and agents whose reasoning abilities are not complete

Self-Organisation : Paradigms and Applications

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Self-Organisation : paradigms and applications

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