Principles of Modelling

1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Beck

The scope for modelling the behaviour of pollutants in the aquatic environment is now immense. In many practical applications there are effectively no computational constraints on what is possible. There is accordingly an increasing need for a set of principles of modelling that in some respects may well be different from those applicable when conceptualisation, the accuracy of the numerical solution scheme, and the inadequacies of an overly simplified model structure, were the issues of the day. Given the availability of increasingly comprehensive software, the user of a model is increasingly likely to be accelerated into a position where the issue of model calibration (identification) is an immediate problem. From the practical point of view of needing to make a decision on the control of a pollutant, the problem of identification may, or may not, be avoided. It is argued that a consistent approach to establishing whether such identification is necessary depends on establishing the significance, or otherwise, of model uncertainty. Identifying the model against field data does not have merely the goal of yielding “best” estimates of the unknown coefficients (parameters) appearing in the given model structure. It may also serve the purpose of identifying and modifying the uncertainty attaching to the model as a description of observed behaviour, which uncertainty will then be propagated forward in any predictions made with the model.

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 753-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
FLORIN MANEA ◽  
CARLOS MARTIN-VIDE ◽  
VICTOR MITRANA

In this paper we discuss the following interesting question about accepting hybrid networks of evolutionary processors (AHNEP), which are a recently introduced bio-inspired computing model. The question is: how many processors are required in such a network to recognise a given language L? Two answers are proposed for the most general case, when L is a recursively enumerable language, and both answers improve on the previously known bounds. In the first case the network has a number of processors that is linearly bounded by the cardinality of the tape alphabet of a Turing machine recognising the given language L. In the second case we show that an AHNEP with a fixed underlying structure can accept any recursively enumerable language. The second construction has another useful property from a practical point of view as it includes a universal AHNEP as a subnetwork, and hence only a limited number of its parameters depend on the given language.


Risks ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Gribkova ◽  
Ričardas Zitikis

Background, or systematic, risks are integral parts of many systems and models in insurance and finance. These risks can, for example, be economic in nature, or they can carry more technical connotations, such as errors or intrusions, which could be intentional or unintentional. A most natural question arises from the practical point of view: is the given system really affected by these risks? In this paper we offer an algorithm for answering this question, given input-output data and appropriately constructed statistics, which rely on the order statistics of inputs and the concomitants of outputs. Even though the idea is rooted in complex statistical and probabilistic considerations, the algorithm is easy to implement and use in practice, as illustrated using simulated data.


Author(s):  
Ирина Викторовна Евстафьева

В статье исследуются вопросы попечительства в отношении несовершеннолетних, отбывающих наказание в виде лишения свободы. Проблема, поднимаемая автором настоящей статьи, многогранна, касается различных аспектов отбывания наказания несовершеннолетними в воспитательных колониях и требует комплексного исследования, способного ответить на определенно значимый вопрос: является ли колония законным представителем находящихся в ней несовершеннолетних со всеми вытекающими из статуса законных представителей последствиями. При этом необходимо обращать внимание на специфику правового статуса лиц, отбывающих наказание в воспитательных колониях, которые, во-первых, являются несовершеннолетними, то есть не обладают дееспособностью в полном объеме и нуждаются в особой заботе, защите и представительстве, а во-вторых, осуждены за совершение тяжкого или особо тяжкого преступления, влекущего изоляцию от общества и определенные ограничения и лишения. Отечественное законодательство достаточно детально регламентирует особенности режима отбывания наказания в виде лишения свободы несовершеннолетними, не определяя при этом статуса воспитательных колоний, кем они являются: воспитателями, попечителями или исключительно учреждениями исполнения наказаний. Между тем правильное понимание значения и роли воспитательной колонии в жизни находящихся в ней несовершеннолетних преступников, по мнению автора, поможет избежать ряда проблем, объективно складывающихся в учреждениях подобного рода. С этой точки зрения предлагаемая тема представляет интерес не только для ученых-теоретиков, но и для практиков - сотрудников соответствующих учреждений. Особо следует подчеркнуть, что исследований по данной тематике в специальной литературе нет. Отдельные исследования, встречающиеся в современной литературе, касаются исключительно общего гражданско-правового статуса несовершеннолетних осужденных. Однако это обстоятельство может свидетельствовать только о новизне данной темы, но никак не об отсутствии самой проблемы. The article analyzes the issues of the status of educational colonies as guardians of minors serving a sentence of imprisonment. In fact, the problem raised by the author of this article is multifaceted, concerns various aspects of the serving of punishment by minors in educational colonies and requires a comprehensive study that can answer, it seems, a definitely significant question: whether the colony is the legal representative of the minors in it with all the consequences arising from the status of legal representatives in the form of duties and responsibilities. At the same time, it seems, it is necessary to pay attention to the specifics of the legal status of citizens serving sentences in educational colonies, who, firstly, are minors, i.e. do not have full legal capacity and need special care, protection and representation, and, secondly, are convicted of committing a serious or particularly serious crime, entailing isolation from society and certain restrictions and deprivation. Domestic legislation regulates in sufficient detail the peculiarities of the regime of serving sentences in the form of deprivation of liberty by minors, without determining the status of educational colonies. Who are they: educators, Trustees or only institutions of execution of punishments. Meanwhile, the correct understanding of the importance and role of the educational colony in the life of juvenile offenders in it, according to the author, will help to avoid a number of problems that objectively develop in institutions of this kind. From this point of view, the proposed topic is of interest not only for theoretical scientists, but for practitioners-employees of relevant institutions. It should be emphasized that there are no studies on this subject in the special literature. However, this circumstance can testify only about novelty of the given subject, but in any way about absence of the problem. It seems that the relevance and importance of a problem is not always measured by the number of studies devoted to it. Sometimes these its traits are manifest only under particularly careful consideration.


1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 347-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Paffoni ◽  
B. Védry ◽  
M. Gousailles

The Paris Metropolitan area, which contains over eight million inhabitants, has a daily output of about 3 M cu.meters of wastewater, the purification of which is achieved by SIAAP (Paris Metropolitan Area Sewage Service) in both Achères and Valenton plants. The carbon pollution is eliminated from over 2 M cu.m/day at Achères. In order to improve the quality of output water, its tertiary nitrification in fixed-bed reactors has been contemplated. The BIOFOR (Degremont) and BIOCARBONE (OTV) processes could be tested in semi-industrial pilot reactors at the CRITER research center of SIAAP. At a reference temperature of 13°C, the removed load is approximately 0.5 kg N NH4/m3.day. From a practical point of view, it may be asserted that in such operating conditions as should be at the Achères plant, one cubic meter of filter can handle the tertiary nitification of one cubic meter of purified water per hour at an effluent temperature of 13°C.


IEEE Access ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Lucas Vago Santana ◽  
Alexandre Santos Brandao ◽  
Mario Sarcinelli-Filho

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arushi Jain ◽  
Khimya Khetarpal ◽  
Doina Precup

Abstract Designing hierarchical reinforcement learning algorithms that exhibit safe behaviour is not only vital for practical applications but also facilitates a better understanding of an agent’s decisions. We tackle this problem in the options framework (Sutton, Precup & Singh, 1999), a particular way to specify temporally abstract actions which allow an agent to use sub-policies with start and end conditions. We consider a behaviour as safe that avoids regions of state space with high uncertainty in the outcomes of actions. We propose an optimization objective that learns safe options by encouraging the agent to visit states with higher behavioural consistency. The proposed objective results in a trade-off between maximizing the standard expected return and minimizing the effect of model uncertainty in the return. We propose a policy gradient algorithm to optimize the constrained objective function. We examine the quantitative and qualitative behaviours of the proposed approach in a tabular grid world, continuous-state puddle world, and three games from the Arcade Learning Environment: Ms. Pacman, Amidar, and Q*Bert. Our approach achieves a reduction in the variance of return, boosts performance in environments with intrinsic variability in the reward structure, and compares favourably both with primitive actions and with risk-neutral options.


2009 ◽  
Vol 624 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Marc Chaix

Microstructure is the key scale to understand and describe sintering mechanisms and their consequences at the macroscopic level. As modeling techniques are continuously developing, the need for input data and comparison with more and more accurate descriptions of the evolution is expected to create a growing demand for quantitative microstructure data. Image analysis is the classic way to get these data. This paper reviews the practical use and progresses of this old technique in the sintering literature during the past and recent years. The place of basic tools and more recent ones, such as 3D imaging, are discussed from a practical point of view accounting from sintering models needs: mean size and size distributions in pores and grains, homogeneity, sintering trajectories…


2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Phillips

This paper explores the evolution of the techno-management imagination (TMI). This is the process by which, in times of crisis, managers think not just out of the box, but out of the very reality in which the box resides. Tacit social consensus, also known as corporate culture, can lead to a shared, implicit, and incorrect view that certain actions are impossible. TMI transcends local culture, accessing technological solutions that are unknown and/or unimagined. Members of the organization tend to call such solutions “magic”. The paper looks at social, perceptual, and managerial aspects of magic from a practical point of view that is grounded in research. It examines the risks of TMI, and concludes with suggested perspectives and research questions for management scientists and cognitive scientists.


Author(s):  
Helder J. D. Correia ◽  
Anto´nio C. Mendes ◽  
Carlos A. F. S. Oliveira

In the present work the action of earthquakes upon offshore jacket structures is analysed by means of ADINA software. Our case-study refers to an existing model structure, previously constructed at the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics of UBI, which has been analysed from the hydrodynamic point of view — Mendes et al. [1, 2]. The seismic excitation will be imposed at the base of this model structure, with frequencies and amplitudes corresponding to actual earthquake conditions transposed to the model scale of 1:45. The FEM software is utilised to calculate the natural frequencies of the model and to obtain stresses at selected members, as well as their nodal displacements. Our purpose is to quantify maximum stresses occurring in critical structural members and to verify the survivability criterion. The predictions of the numerical model, in terms of the reaction forces at the base and acceleration at the top of the structure, are then correlated with the experimental measurements performed when the model structure is excited in an especially designed shaking table (Correia [3]), revealing a good agreement between both results.


Exchange ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri Gooren

AbstractThe central question of this article — why people may change their religious affiliation or become disaffiliated — is relevant from both an academic and a practical point of view. The article makes first an inventory of existing literature on religious conversion. Next I sketch the contours of the new conversion careers approach I am currently working on. I make some comparisons with a region that is not usually mentioned in the literature on conversion: Latin America. These comparisons are based on my earlier fieldwork on Roman Catholicism, Pentecostalism, and Mormonism in Costa Rica and Guatemala (H. Gooren, Rich among the Poor: Church, Firm, and Household among Small-scale Entrepreneurs in Guatemala City, Amsterdam: Thela Thesis 1999).


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