Combinatorial optimization problems arise in many areas of science and engineering. Unfortunately, due to the NP (non-polynomial) nature of these problems, the computations increase with the size of the problem (Bahreininejad & Topping, 1996; Topping & Bahreininejad, 1997). Finite Elements (FE) mesh decomposition (partitioning) is a well known NP-hard optimization problem and is used to split a...

A general problem in qualitative physics is determining the consequences of assumptions about the behavior of a system. If the space of behaviors is represented by an envisionment, many such consequences can be represented by pruning states from the envisionment. This paper provides a formal logic of occurrence which justi es the algorithms involved and provides a language for relating speci c ...

This study investigated the impact of an infusion intervention on the cognitive, emotional and social development of Year 4 and Year 5 children across 10 schools in a large county. A two year intervention period was utilised to ascertain effects over time and contexts to monitor transfer and maintenance (Blagg, 1991; McGuinness, 1993; McKinstery & Topping, 2003). The project provided a unique c...

Solar Thermal Power Plants with concentrating technologies are important for providing a major share of the clean and renewable energy needed in the future. Dish based system is a promising option for power generation since it has high concentration ratio and it does not require a large space. This paper presents a proposed solar dish based combined cycle: air based Brayton cycle as the topping...

In this paper we present our approach of improving the traditional alpha-beta search process for strategic board games by modifying the method in two ways: 1) forgoing the evaluation of leaf nodes that are not terminal states and 2) employing a utility table that stores the utility for subsets of board configurations. In this paper we concentrate our efforts on the game of Connect Four. Our res...

pruning of the plant canopy and paclobutrazol application to the root zone are agronomic practices that improve harvest yield in mango (mangifera indica l.) orchards. to assess the effect of pruning and paclobutrazol treatment on the vegetative and reproductive development of ‘ataulfo’ mango, three pruning dates (20 april, 20 may, and 20 june) and three concentrations of paclobutrazol (pbz) (7....