qYaditionally, constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) are characterized using a finite set of constraints expressed within a common, shared constraint language. When reasoning across time, however, it is possible to express both temporal and state-based constraints represented within multiple constraint languages. Qualitative simulation provides an instance of this class of CSP in which, tradi...

Symmetry in a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) can cause wasted search, which can be avoided by adding constraints to the CSP to exclude symmetric assignments or by modifying the search algorithm so that search never visits assignments symmetric to those already considered. Two such approaches are SBDS (Symmetry Breaking During Search) and SBDD (Symmetry Breaking by Dominance Detection); m...

In this paper, we reveal a relation between joint winner property (JWP) in the field of valued constraint satisfaction problems (VCSPs) and M-convexity in the field of discrete convex analysis (DCA). We introduce the M-convex completion problem, and show that a function f satisfying the JWP is Z-free if and only if a certain function f associated with f is M-convex completable. This means that ...

background and objectives: job satisfaction is a critical factor in attracting and retaining nurses. although many studies have dealt with nurses’ job satisfaction, rapid transformation of the community and health systems can alter the factors influencing this issue, hence calling for continuous monitoring of job satisfaction as perceived by nurses. built on this necessity, the present study wa...

evaluation of parental satisfaction of nursing care in thalassemic children tavasoli sh1, alhani f2 received: 16 july, 2010 accepted: 25 oct, 2010 abstract background & aims: hospitalization for parents and children causes anxiety. therefore, evaluation of parents' satisfaction concerning their child's nursing care is necessary. observing parental satisfaction is important in determin...

background: attention to organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction is effective in improving employees’ performance and quality of services in health care organizations. due to higher job pressure and dissatisfaction among nurses, it seems like evaluating the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction among nurses is important.   methods: in thi...

Most of the working solvers for numerical constraint satisfaction problems (NCSPs) are designed to delivering point-wise solutions with an arbitrary accuracy. When there is a continuum of feasible points this might lead to prohibitively verbose representations of the output. In many practical applications, such large sets of solutions express equally relevant alternatives which need to be ident...

Factor analysis is a statistical technique for reducing the number of factors responsible for a matrix of correlations to a smaller number of factors that may reflect underlying variables. Experiments with constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) using factor analysis suggest that for some (perhaps many) classes of problems, there are only a few distinct principles of heuristic action. In this p...

We study the performances of stochastic heuristic search algorithms on Uniquely Extendible Constraint Satisfaction Problems with random inputs. We show that, for any heuristic preserving the Poissonian nature of the underlying instance, the (heuristic-dependent) largest ratio αa of constraints per variables for which a search algorithm is likely to find solutions is smaller than the critical ra...

To date, several types of structure for finite Constraint Satisfaction Problems have been investigated with the goal of either improving the performance of problem solvers or allowing efficient problem solvers to be identified. Our aim is to extend the work in this area by performing a structural analysis in terms of variable connectivity for 3-SAT problems. Initially structure is defined in te...