The evaluation of radiation treatment plans involves making trade-offs among doses delivered to the tumor volumes and nearby normal tissues. Evaluating state-of-the-art three-dimensional (3D) plans is a difficult task because of the huge amount of planning data that needs to be deciphered. Multiattribute utility theory provides a methodology for specifying trade-offs and selecting the optimal p...

The development of progress plans for each identified technical performance parameter (TPP) is a critical element of technical performance measurement. The measured values of TPPs are referred to as technical performance measures (TPMs). These terms are used interchangeably; however, TPMs more directly reflect how technical progress and technical risk are measured and evaluated. Progress plans,...

Recent studies have shown that care plans with comprehensive home interventions can be effective in the management of chronic patients. Evidence also exists about the importance of tailoring these care plans to patients, by integrating comorbidities. In this context, the development, implementation, outcome analysis, and reengineering of care plans adapted to particular patient groups earn rele...

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the discovery of gas and oil in Central Asia and Caucasia, it faced complex interests in the international political economy. These problems were mainly rooted in developing plans of the countries for increasing their influence in the area and also in Russia's connections with the Iranian and Turkish governments in the region. This paper investigat...

Software architecture allows us to make many decisions about a software system and analyze it even before it has been implemented, so as to make planned development possible. Similarly, architecture-based software evolution planning makes planned evolution possible by allowing us to make many decisions about the evolution of a software system and to analyze its evolution at the level of archite...

there has been extensive debates about the similarities and differences between urban planning educations in developed versus developing counties. some believe that increasing interdependence among nations, an ever greater need for cross – cultural cooperation,  is required to close the gap in skill and knowledge between developed and developing countries and shrinking international borders mak...

Developing countries are starting the process of planning for climate change adaptation at the national level. One of the options available is ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), which recognizes the value of ecosystem services and biodiversity for reducing people's vulnerability to climate change. The effectiveness of EbA is increasingly recognized and EbA options have been used by least-develop...

in iran, new centralization characteristic, especially during pahlavi dynasty, has been convergence and its vast use in bureaucracy. historical sociological studies have consensus on the issues of centralization, power centralization, and political sovereignty in iran; however, these issues have some divisional interruptions and different levels of strength in some parts of the history. this es...

Executing complex plans for coordinating the behaviors of multiple heterogeneous agents often requires setting several parameters. For example, we are developing a decision aid for deploying a set of autonomous vehicles to perform situation assessment in a disaster relief operation. Our system, the Situated Decision Process (SDP), uses parameterized plans to coordinate these vehicles. However, ...

In 1997, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched the four year Addressing Tobacco in Managed Care (ATMC) initiative designed to promote the implementation of evidence based tobacco interventions in managed care settings. As part of this initiative, a baseline survey of managed health care plans was conducted in 1997-98 for the primary purpose of assessing the extent to which health plans we...