Validating plans with continuous effects

A critical element in the use of PDDL2.1, the modelling language developed for the International Planning Competition series, has been the common understanding of the semantics of the language. The fact that this has been implemented in plan validation software was vital to the progress of the competition. However, the validation of plans using actions with continuous effects presents new challenges (that precede the challenges presented by planning with those effects). In this paper we review the need for continuous effects, their semantics and the problems that arise in validation of plans that include them. We report our progress in implementing the semantics in an extended version of the plan validation software

FIRM SIZE AND MONITORING

We present a model of optimal monitoring expenditures. For any technology that yields a conventional ``S-shaped''' production function for monitoring, the optimal level of monitoring is shown to be higher in medium-sized firms than in both small and large firms. Further, the interaction between specialization and agency are shown to lead to an ``S-shaped'''' production function.

Plan validation and mixed-initiative planning in space operations

Bringing artificial intelligence planning and scheduling applications into the real world is a hard task that is receiving more attention every day by researchers and practitioners from many fields. In many cases, it requires the integration of several underlying techniques like planning, scheduling, constraint satisfaction, mixed-initiative planning and scheduling, temporal reasoning, knowledge representation, formal models and languages, and technological issues. Most papers included in this book are clear examples on how to integrate several of these techniques. Furthermore, the book also covers many interesting approaches in application areas ranging from industrial job shop to electronic tourism, environmental problems, virtual teaching or space missions. This book also provides powerful techniques that allow to build fully deployable applications to solve real problems and an updated review of many of the most interesting areas of application of these technologies, showing how powerful these technologies are to overcome the expresiveness and efficiency problems of real world problems

Summary of the Structure Function Session at Dis01

The status and ongoing developments in the field of deep inelastic scattering presented at the DIS01 workshop in Bologna are discussed from both the experimental and the theoretical perspective.Comment: Invited talk presented at the 9th International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS 2001), Bologna, Italy, 27 Apr - 1 May 2001, to appear in the Proceedings. (30 pages, 17 figures

RURAL POLICY AFTER THE RENAISSANCE: WESTERN EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

Agricultural and Food Policy,

IC-processed micro-motors: design, technology, and testing

Micro-motors having rotors with diameters between 60 and 120 μm have been fabricated and driven electrostatically to continuous rotation. These motors were built using processes derived from IC (integrated circuit) microcircuit fabrication techniques. Initial tests on the motors show that friction plays a dominant role in their dynamic behavior. Observed rotational speeds have thus far been limited to several hundred r.p.m., which is a small fraction of what would be achievable if only natural frequency were to limit the response. Experimental starting voltages are at least an order of magnitude larger than had been expected (60 V at minimum and above 100 V for some structures). Observations of asynchronous as well as synchronous rotation between the driving fields and the rotors can be explained in terms of the torque/rotor-angle characteristics for the motors

Integrated movable micromechanical structures for sensors and actuators

Movable pin-joints, gears, springs, cranks, and slider structures with dimensions measured in micrometers have been fabricated using silicon microfabrication technology. These micromechanical structures, which have important transducer applications, are batch-fabricated with an IC-compatible process. The movable mechanical elements are built on layers that are later removed so that they are freed for translation and rotation. An undercut-and-refill technique, which makes use of the high surface mobility of silicon atoms undergoing chemical vapor deposition, is used to refill undercut regions in order to form restraining flanges. Typical element sizes and masses are measured in micrometers and nanograms. The process provides the tiny structures in an assembled form avoiding the nearly impossible challenge of handling such small elements individually

Napoléon Coste: Composer and Guitarist in the Musical Life of 19th-Century Paris by Ari Van Vliet

Napoleon Coste: Composer and Guitarist in the Musical Life of 19th-Century Paris, by Van Vliet, Ari is reviewed

\u3ci\u3eLos Romeros: Royal Family of the Spanish Guitar\u3c/i\u3e by Walter Aaron Clark

A review of Los Romeros: Royal Family of the Spanish Guitar by Walter Aaron Clark