A Projective Simulation Scheme for Partially-Observable Multi-Agent Systems

We introduce a kind of partial observability to the projective simulation (PS) learning method. It is done by adding a belief projection operator and an observability parameter to the original framework of the efficiency of the PS model. I provide theoretical formulations, network representations, and situated scenarios derived from the invasion toy problem as a starting point for some multi-agent PS models.Comment: 28 pages, 21 figure

Social Media and Hotel E-Marketing in Iran: The Case of Parsian International Hotels

With a quantitative study, this research has aimed to investigate the role of social media in Iranian hotels’ electronic marketing. A questionnaire technique was used on a sample of 140 marketers who work in the Parsian International Hotels’ marketing department. For data evaluation an SPSS program was used. Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Cochran, Regression, Non-standardized coefficients and Standard coefficient tests were carried out. Based on the findings, we can state that social media are still not an important marketing tool for Iranian hotels. Facebook and YouTube are the media which are most used for marketing purposes as videos and photos can be used on these sites more than others. The results show that the marketing abilities of Parsian Hotels improve with the increasing use of social media, but the hotel marketing sector has failed to fully utilize internet opportunity as a marketing tool

Investigating Educational Needs of Roodbar Olive Orchaodist: Regarding Development of Olive Gardens

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate educational needs of Roodbar olive orchaodist in order to development of olive gardens. The specific objectives of the study included Identify personal and social variables and the economic status of Roodbar olive farmers and Identify the relation it with educational needs of olive farmers. The nature of this educational research was descriptive correlational. The target population chosen by random sampling method consisted of 100 olive producers located within villages of Roodbar Township that these villages have olive gardens in Gilan Province. The data collected with questionnaire. Both content and face validities were gained through a panel of extension and gardening experts. Reliability was gained by selecting 28 olive farmers who live in Vyiaie rural and Choronbach alpha was gained 0/81 in all. Findings indicated that the mean age was 56/61 years with standard deviation of 11 .The findings of this study showed that contacts with experts and the numbers of homage effect on educational needs also t-test reveal that significant different is between studying groups and educational needs

An Improved Method for the Estimation of the Energy Consumption and Savings of Code-Compliant office Buildings in Different Climates

Degree day methods are used in the estimation of building energy consumption and climate classification for buildings (e.g. in ASHRAE Standard 169-2013, which is adopted in ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2016). This study, first assessed the effectiveness of the conventional degree days in estimating building energy consumption in different moisture regimes. The analysis was done by comparing the energy performance of the DOE/PNNL medium office prototype building models in the 801 locations in the U.S. The results revealed large variations in the annual energy consumption of the models in the different moisture regimes within each climate zone. Furthermore, large differences in the estimated energy savings by utilization of daylight were shown in different locations. In addition, detailed pairwise analyses were performed to analyze the large variation in the cooling or heating energy consumption in sites with similar Cooling Degree Days (CDD) or Heating Degree Days (HDD), respectively. The analysis revealed that the influential weather parameters that affected the building energy consumption were not fully accounted for in a conventional degree day method. In other words, the level of aggregation of the data in the conventional degree day method masks some of the informative characteristics of the outdoor dry-bulb temperature. To resolve these discrepancies, a split-degree day method was proposed to calculate the split-Cooling Degree Days (sCDD) and the split-Heating Degree Days (sHDD). The results show that in the regression models using the split degree days compared to the conventional degree days, the coefficient of determination of the estimations of the energy consumption increased for the total annual energy use (from 0.913 to 0.965), the heating energy use (from 0.891 to 0.981), the cooling energy use (from 0.979 to 0.982), and the fan energy use (from 0.383 to 0.722). Similar results were shown for the models with higher thermal mass. The proposed method can be used for building energy consumption estimation, weather-normalized building energy savings calculation, and climate classification. Moreover, a new adjustment method was developed using the proposed split-degree day method that reduces the variations in the above code values in the performance compliance path in different locations from 14% to 2%

The use of recycled aggregates for High-performance Self-compacting concrete production

Due to the favorable characteristics of Self-compacting Concrete (SCC) and the unique properties of High-Performance Concrete (HPC), as well as its rising application in the construction industry, this type of concrete remains the matter of interest and research. Also, due to the environmental issues connected with natural aggregates in concrete production, replacing natural aggregates with recycled aggregates is a more sustainable technique to produce concrete. This project investigates the use of recycled fine aggregates (RFA) for high- performance self-compacting concrete. The impact of three types of recycled fine aggregates (Ceramic, Concrete and Mixed) on the physical, mechanical and durability properties of concrete was evaluated. For that, many tests have been conducted to analyse the behavior of this type of concrete. Also, the influence of the incorporation of fly ash in this particular concrete with 30% and 50% replacement was assessed. Moreover, the analysis of autogenous shrinkage to determine the possibility of RFAs as an internal curing agent. Also, this type of concrete's capacity to continue performing its intended purpose while maintaining its serviceability and durability by the drying shrinkage and chloride diffusion. The test results in general showed that this type of concrete fulfilled the SCC requirements and that concrete with recycled ceramic aggregates showed higher compressive strength than conventional concrete and can act as an internal curing agent. However, the concretes with RFAs have low chloride resistance when mixed with only 100% Portland cement

Effect of shir-e-khesht (billinaster drop) consumption by the neonates or their mothers on the neonatal icter

زمینه و هدف: زردی یکی از مشکلات شایع دوران نوزادی است که برای درمان آن از نور درمانی، دارو درمانی، تعویض خون و یا طب سنتی استفاده می کنند. در طب سنتی ایران از ماده ای به نام شیر خشت، (استخراج شده از گیاهان جنس Cotoneaster) جهت درمان زردی نوزادی استفاده می گردد. هدف این تحقیق تعیین تاثیر مصرف شیر خشت (قطره بیلی ناستر) توسط نوزاد یا مادر در بهبودی زردی نوزادان تحت فتوتراپی بود. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه کارآزمایی بالینی 120 نوزاد مبتلا به زردی مراجعه کننده به بخش اطفال بیمارستان هاجر شهرکرد بر اساس روش در دسترس انتخاب و به ترتیب مراجعه در 4 گروه قرار داده شدند. در گروه اول مادر شیر خشت، در گروه دوم مادر و نوزاد هر دو شیرخشت، در گروه سوم نوزاد شیرخشت و درگروه چهارم نوزاد فقط پلاسبو (آب مقطر) دریافت کرد. فتوتراپی در شرایط یکسان برای تمام نوزادان انجام شد. آزمایشات لازم جهت رد نمودن عامل پاتولوژیک زردی انجام گرفت. داده ها به کمک آزمون های آماری کای دو، آنالیز واریانس مشاهدات تکرار شده، آنالیز واریانس، دانت و کروسکال والیس بین گروه ها مقایسه شد. یافته ها: میــزان بیلی روبین طی مطالعه در هر 4 گروه کاهش معنی داری داشت (05/0

Transverse Isotropic and Orthotropic Composites: Experiments, Identification and Finite Element Analysis

Die konstitutive Modellierung und numerische Analyse des Verhaltens von Verbundwerkstoffen, insbesondere von transversal isotropen und orthotropen Werkstoffen, hat in der Industrie große Aufmerksamkeit bekommen. Dies ist vor allem durch die Verwendung von Verbundwerkstoffen für ein breites Spektrum von Anwendungen in verschiedenen Branchen erkennbar. Vorteile von Verbundwerkstoffen wie hohe Festigkeit und Flexibilität bei der Konstruktion machen diese attraktiv. Aufgrund vieler Designfaktoren bei Verbundwerkstoffen, wie zum Beispiel das Verbinden mit anderen Bauteilen, sind Löcher in Laminaten unvermeidlich. Die Fasern werden in der Regel durch Bohren eines Lochs im Laminat bzw. unterbrochen. Alternativ können die Fasern um die Löcher herum gelegt werden. Eines der Ziele dieser Arbeit ist es, herauszufinden, ob die Tendenz zum Bruch, d.h. die zugehörige Spannungsverteilung zu untersuchen. Um die beiden Fälle (Faserumlenkung versus gerader Faser) zu vergleichen und einen tieferen Einblick in den Prozess durch Simulationen zu erhalten, wird ein konstitutives Modell der transversalen Isotropie für den Fall kleiner Verzerrungen hergleitet. Das Modell ist in das in-house Finite-Elemente Programm TASAFEM implementiert worden. Eine große Herausforderung stellt die Beschreibung der räumlich verteilten Faserorientierungen für den Fall, dass die Fasern um das Loch herumgelegt werden. Zunächst wird die Verteilung der Fasern mit Hilfe der Stromlinienfunktion modelliert, um die inhomogenen Faserorientierungen für die FE-Simulationen zu erhalten. Um die Genauigkeit der Simulationen zu erhöhen, werden B-Splines verwendet, um die Faserrichtungen entsprechend den experimentellen Beobachtungen zu modellieren. Im sehr breiten Bereich der geometrischen Modellierung insbesondere bei CAD-Anwendungen (Computer-Aided Design) werden B-Splines häufig zur Beschreibung von Kurven und Flächen verwendet, vor allem aufgrund ihrer mathematischen Eigenschaften und ihrer hohen Flexibilität. Hierbei werden die Eigenschaften von Tangentenvektoren an Koordinatenflächen ausgenutzt, um die Richtungen zu bestimmen. Eine weitere Herausforderung bei den durchgeführten Simulationen ist die Identifikation der erforderlichen Materialparameter für das verwendete Materialmodell. Zu diesem Zweck werden verschiedene Experimente durchgeführt, um die Parameter eindeutig zu bestimmen. Zum Schluss wird der gesamte Prozess der Modellierung, Simulation und Identifizierung der Materialparameter durch spezielle Tests validiert. Orthotrope Laminate gehören zu den am häufigsten verwendeten Laminaten in industriellen Anwendungen. Die Untersuchungen werden daher auf orthotrope Laminate ausgeweitet. Das Ziel ist es, das Verhalten auch auf orthotrope Laminate auf der Grundlage identifizierter Parameter zu übertragen. Es wird ein konstitutives Modell der Orthotropie für den Fall kleiner Dehnungen angewandt und in den in-house-Code TASAFEM implementiert. Auch hier besteht die Herausforderung, der Materialparameter von orthotropen Laminaten bereitzustellen, die für die erforderlichen FE-Simulationen notwendig sind. Die Materialparameter werden im Rahmen eines Least-Square-Ansatzes mit Hilfe von Messdaten eines digitalen Bildkorrelationssystems identifiziert. Zu diesem Zweck sind verschiedene Versuche wie Zug-, Scher-, Druck- und Zugschertests durchgeführt worden. Diese sind zur Identifikation der neun Materialparameter der linearen, orthotropen Elastizität herangezogen worden. Im nächsten Schritt ist es notwendig, den numerischen Ansatz mit experimentellen Messungen zu validieren. Zur Validierung werden Proben verwendet, bei denen die Proben mit zwei senkrechten Faserrichtungen ausgestattet sind. Hierbei wird das Loch nach dem Herstellungsprozess der Proben gebohrt. Zum Schluss wird ein Vergleich zwischen den Ergebnissen der Finite-Elemente-Simulationen und den experimentellen Ergebnissen vorgestellt.In today’s engineering industry, constitutive modeling and numerical analysis of the behavior of composite materials, particularly transversely isotropic and orthotropic materials, have gained a lot of attention. This is mainly due to the usage of composites for a wide range of applications in different industries. Moreover, the advantages of composites such as high strength and flexibility in design make these materials attractive. Due to many factors in the design of composites, holes in laminates are unavoidable. Fibers are usually cut by drilling a hole into laminates. Alternatively, fiber can be bypassed around holes in order to reduce the fracture tendency around a hole, or to achieve different stress distributions. One of the goals of this work is to compare these cases: In one case, fibers were bypassed around the hole while fibers were cut in the other case by drilling a hole. In order to compare these cases and to get a deeper insight into the process using simulations, a constitutive model of transverse isotropic for the small strain case is applied based on large strain theory. The model is implemented in the in-house finite element program TASAFEM. One major challenge of this simulation is to determine the fiber orientations. To begin with, the circumplacement of fibers is modeled using the streamline function to obtain the inhomogeneous fiber direction for finite element simulations. In order to increase the precision of simulations, the B-spline method is used to model the fiber directions according to the experimental observations. In the broad field of geometric modeling and computer-aided design (CAD), it is common to use B-splines to describe curves and surfaces which is mainly due to their mathematical properties and their flexibility. Another challenge regarding the simulations is to identify the required parameters for the presented material model. Several different experiments are carried out in this regard. Finally, the whole process of modeling, simulation, and material parameter identification is validated by means of validation tests. Orthotropic laminates belong to the most commonly used laminates in industrial applications. The investigation is extended to orthotropy laminates, where we have fibers in two directions, and our aim is to predict the behavior of orthotropy laminates based on the calculated parameters. A constitutive model of orthotropy for the small strain case is applied and implemented in the inhouse code TASAFEM. Another challenge in this work is to calculate the material parameters of orthotropy laminates as a basis for finite element simulations. The material parameters are identified within a least-square approach with the help of optical results of a digital image correlation system. For this purpose, different experiments such as tensile, three rail shear, lap shear and compression tests are carried out. Nine material parameters of linear elastic for orthotropy case are identified. In the next step, it is necessary to validate the numerical approach with experimental observations. The validation examples are performed as theses samples have fibers in two perpendicular directions, where the hole is drilled after the production process. Finally, a comparison between the finite element simulations and the experimental results is provided

Markov Chain Selection Hyper-heuristic for the Optimisation of Constrained Magic Squares

UKCI 2015: UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence, University of Exeter, UK, 7-9 September 2015A square matrix of size n × n, containing each of the numbers (1, . . . , n2) in which every row, column and both diagonals has the same total is referred to as a magic square. The problem can be formulated as an optimisation problem where the task is to minimise the deviation from the magic square constraints and is tackled here by using hyper-heuristics. Hyper-heuristics have recently attracted the attention of the artificial intelligence, operations research, engineering and computer science communities where the aim is to design and develop high level strategies as general solvers which are applicable to a range of different problem domains. There are two main types of hyper-heuristics in the literature: methodologies to select and to generate heuristics and both types of approaches search the space of heuristics rather than solutions. In this study, we describe a Markov chain selection hyper-heuristic as an effective solution methodology for optimising constrained magic squares. The empirical results show that the proposed hyper-heuristic is able to outperform the current state-of-the-art method