While it has been realized for quite some time within AI that abduction is a general model of explanation for a variety of tasks, there have been no empirical investigations into the practical feasibility of a general, logic-based abductive approach to explanation. In this paper we present extensive empirical results on applying a general abductive system, Accel, to moderately complex problems ...

Comprehensive plan, as a participatory plan-making process, would involve a genuine and efficient communication between planners, citizens, decision makers and other professionals. In this system, many new technologies have been employed. This paper, introduces Virtual Geographical Environment (VGE) into this field tentatively. VGE, set up to simulate and then resolve the geometrical and physic...

Ecological processes play a critical role in shaping the world in which we live and guiding our interactions with it. As humans we are consistently attempting to predict, understand and sometimes control the behaviour of the natural world. Whether we are trying to forecast the upcoming seasonal rains, recreating a forest fire to understand why it burned in a particular manner, or making land ma...

This report provides a comprehensive Test and Evaluation (T &E) plan for evaluating the impact of future command decision aid technologies (COMDAT ) on human and operational performance in the Halifax class operations room. The plan provides details of an incremental approach to T &E that will generate reliable and valid performance data for a range of critical tasks performed by the Ops Room t...

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. coastal counties have grown by more than 45 percent between 1970 and 2010, amounting to 50 million new coastal residents and billions of dollars in additional assets (homes and businesses) in these areas.1 Coastal residents are vulnerable to many potential risks, including damage to human life and property that result from storm flooding. And the increa...

This article seeks to provide a practical, everyday clinical guide for managing dental caries based upon risk group assessment. It is based upon the best evidence at this time and can be used in planning effective caries management for any patient. In addition to a comprehensive restorative treatment plan, each patient should have a comprehensive caries management treatment plan. Some sample tr...

It is increasingly recognized that the land-use change, especially urbanization has influenced hydrological attributes intensely. But in most urban designs, flood prediction is considered through type of land use (residential, industrial, and so on) and density. However, experiences show that this method has not been very successful. As a result, the present study aims to investigate and explor...

Chronic non-communicable diseases cause substantial morbidity and mortality in both developed and developing countries. Current studies indicate an increasing burden of chronic diseases in the near future, especially in developing countries. Chronic diseases have received much less attention than infectious diseases in Iran’s health care system, which is a major cause for concern. Data on the d...