Sequential Plan Research Articles

Mutation‐Guided Metamorphic Testing of Optimality in AI Planning

ABSTRACTAutonomous systems such as space‐ or underwater‐exploration robots or elderly people assistance robots often include an artificial intelligence (AI) planner as a component. Starting from the initial state of a system, an AI planner automatically generates sequential plans to reach final states that satisfy user‐specified goals. Generating plans having a minimum number of intermediate steps or taking the least time to execute is usually strongly desired, as these plans exhibit minimal costs. Unfortunately, testing if an AI planner generates optimal plans is almost impossible because the expected cost of these plans is usually unknown. Based on mutation adequacy test suite selection, this article proposes a novel metamorphic testing framework for detecting the lack of optimality in AI planners. The general idea is to perform a systematic but non‐exhaustive state space exploration from the initial state and to select mutant‐adequate states to instantiate new planning tasks as follow‐up test cases. We then check a metamorphic relation between the automatically generated solutions of the AI planner for these new test cases and the cost of the initial plan. We implemented this metamorphic testing framework in a tool called MorphinPlan. Our experimental evaluation shows that MorphinPlan can detect non‐optimal behaviour in both mutated AI planners and off‐the‐shelf, configurable planners. It also shows that our proposed mutation adequacy test selection strategy outperforms three alternative test generation and selection strategies, including both random state selection and random walks through the state space in terms of mutation scores.

Systematic narrative review of modalities in physiotherapy for managing pain in hip and knee osteoarthritis: A review.

Osteoarthritis (OA) affects 528 million individuals globally, predominantly in knee and hip joints, with a notable impact on females aged over 55, resulting in a substantial economic burden. However, the efficacy of modalities used in physiotherapy to manage OA pain for reducing the need for joint replacement remains an open question, and guidelines differ. Our systematic narrative review, drawing from reputable databases (e.g., PubMed, Cochrane, and CINAHL) with specific Mesh terms investigated evidence from 23 Randomized Controlled Trials (that included a control or a sham group in 30 different protocols) using therapeutic modalities like ultrasound, diathermy, and electrical stimulation for knee and hip OA pain, involving a total of 1055 subjects. We investigated the attainment of minimal clinically important differences in pain reduction, operationalized through a 20% decrement in the Western Ontario and McMaster University Arthritis Index or Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score. Our results indicated that 15 protocols out of 30 reach that level, but there were no statistical differences among modalities. Half of the protocol presented in the literature reached clinical efficiency but studies on hip remains scarce. We recommend a comprehensive, sequential, and multimodal intervention plan for individuals with joint OA with initial transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and progressing to a 2-week protocol of continuous ultrasound, potentially combined with deep microwave diathermy. Long-term intervention involves the use of pulsed electrical stimulation. For hip OA, a cautious approach and discussions with healthcare providers about potential benefits of spinal cord nerve stimulation.

Strategic design to ensure the sustainable productivity of military division government organization

This study aims to analyze the impact of the balanced scorecard and good corporate governance on the productivity of military government organizations and develop strategies to ensure their sustainability. This research implements a mixed-methods strategy utilizing a sequential explanatory research plan. This process is followed by a Mapping strategy, culminating in the presentation of conclusions. One hundred individuals who worked in military government agencies were surveyed as part of this study. This analysis comprises quantitative and qualitative data collected from 100 personnel of the government agency within the military division. This study determined that the environment is the primary factor in guaranteeing the long-term productivity sustainability of government organizations within military divisions. The implication is that leaders need to conduct in-depth research and be aware of environmental changes, both internal and external, that occur in military departmental government organizations.

Benchmarking in data envelopment analysis: balanced efforts to achieve realistic targets

AbstractThe minimum distance models have undoubtedly represented a significant advance for the establishment of targets in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). These models may help in defining improvement plans that require the least overall effort from the inefficient Decision Making Units (DMUs). Despite the advantages that come with Closest Targets, in some cases unsatisfactory results may be given, since improvement plans, even in that context, differ considerably from the actual performances. This generally occurs because all the effort employed to reach the efficient DEA frontier is channeled into just a few variables. In certain contexts these exorbitant efforts in some inputs/outputs become unapproachable. In fact, proposals for sequential improvement plans can be found in the literature. It could happen that the sequential improvement plans continue to be so demanding in some variable that it would be difficult to achieve such targets. We propose an alternative approach where the improvement plans require similar efforts in the different variables that participate in the analysis. In the absence of information about the limitations of improvement in the different inputs/outputs, we consider that a plausible and conservative solution would be the one where an equitable redistribution of efforts would be possible. In this paper, we propose different approaches with the aim of reaching an impartial distribution of efforts to achieve optimal operating levels without neglecting the overall effort required. Therefore, we offer different alternatives for planning improvements directed towards DEA efficient targets, where the decision-maker can choose the one that best suits their circumstances. Moreover, and as something new in the benchmarking DEA context, we will study which properties satisfy the targets generated by the different models proposed. Finally, an empirical example used in the literature serves to illustrate the methodology proposed.

Quality improvement initiative to reduce Medical Adhesive Related Skin injury (MARSI) in very preterm babies admitted to neonatal intensive care unit

IntroductionSick preterm neonates are most vulnerable to developing skin injuries. Despite sound knowledge and application of evidence-based practices for preventing medical adhesive-related skin injury (MARSI), the incidence of MARSI was...

Spatiotemporal heterogeneity reveals urban-rural differences in post-disaster recovery

A post-disaster recovery process necessitates significant financial and time investment. Previous studies have found the importance of post-disaster spatial recovery heterogeneity, but the recovery heterogeneity has not been extended to the directed recovery relationships despite the significance of sequential recovery plans. Identifying a causal structure between county-level time series data can reveal spatial relationships in the post-disaster recovery process. This study uses a causal discovery method to reveal the spatiotemporal relationships between counties before, during, and after Hurricane Irma in 2017. This study proposes node aggregation methods at different time scales to obtain internally validated causal links. This paper utilizes points of interest data with daily location information from mobile phones and county-level daily nighttime light data. We find intra-regional homogeneity, inter-regional heterogeneity, and a hierarchical structure among urban, suburban, and rural counties based on a network motif analysis. Subsequently, this article suggests county-level post-disaster sequential recovery plans using the causal graph methods. These results help policymakers develop recovery scenarios and estimate the corresponding spatial recovery impacts.

ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ ВПЛИВУ СПОСОБУ ОБРОБКИ НА АДГЕЗІЙНУ ЗДАТНІСТЬ МОНТАЖНИХ ПОВЕРХОНЬ ВИРОБІВ З ПРИРОДНОГО КАМЕНЮ

Purpose. The purpose of the research is to establish the degree of influence of the structural-textural features and the method of processing the facing surface of natural stone products on their ability to adhere. Methodology. To achieve the goal of the research, the following steps were taken: justification and formulation of the hypothesis regarding the dependence of adhesion on the parameters of micro-relief of stone products and the structural-textural features of rock formations; determination and description of the requirements for the samples under investigation; review and brief characterization of the typology of fixing mixtures; selection and description of the main parameters of the mounting surface (base) for fixing the samples under investigation; development of a sequential plan for conducting the research part of the work; actual execution of the research; analysis of the obtained results. Results. Based on the results of the research, the influence of the method of processing the mounting surfaces of stone products on the magnitude of the provided adhesive interaction and the influence of the structural-textural features of natural stone on the adhesion magnitude of adhesive interaction have been established. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty lies in establishing the relationship between the ability of the surface of natural stone to adhere and the method of its processing; for the first time, the value of adhesion magnitude for the sawn texture of granite from the Didkovytske deposit and gabbro from the Kamyanobridsky deposit has been determined. Practical significance. The practical significance of the obtained results lies in the possibility of using the obtained dependencies for the early prediction of the adhesion magnitude of the surface of facing products made of natural stone to the surface to which they are attached, based on the physical-mechanical properties of the stone and the method of processing its surface. Keywords: adhesion, natural stone, diamond wire sawing, disk sawing, stone product installation.

Predicting sequenced dental treatment plans from electronic dental records using deep learning

BackgroundDesigning appropriate clinical dental treatment plans is an urgent need because a growing number of dental patients are suffering from partial edentulism with the population getting older. ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to predict sequential treatment plans from electronic dental records. MethodsWe construct a clinical decision support model, MultiTP, explores the unique topology of teeth information and the variation of complicated treatments, integrates deep learning models (convolutional neural network and recurrent neural network) adaptively, and embeds the attention mechanism to produce optimal treatment plans. ResultsMultiTP shows its promising performance with an AUC of 0.9079 and an F score of 0.8472 over five treatment plans. The interpretability analysis also indicates its capability in mining clinical knowledge from the textual data. ConclusionsMultiTP's novel problem formulation, neural network framework, and interpretability analysis techniques allow for broad applications of deep learning in dental healthcare, providing valuable support for predicting dental treatment plans in the clinic and benefiting dental patients. Clinical implicationsThe MultiTP is an efficient tool that can be implemented in clinical practice and integrated into the existing EDR system. By predicting treatment plans for partial edentulism, the model will help dentists improve their clinical decisions.

Dosimetric comparison of five different radiotherapy treatment planning approaches for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer with sequential plan changes.

The purpose of this study was to compare the dosimetric characteristics of five different treatment planning techniques for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) with sequential plan changes. A total of 13 stage III NSCLC patients were enrolled in this study. These patients had both computed tomography (CT) images for initial and boost treatment plans. The latter CT images were taken if tumor shrinkage was observed after 2 weeks of treatment. The prescription dose was 60 Gy/30 Fr (initial: 40 Gy/20 Fr, and boost: 20 Gy/10 Fr). Five techniques (forward-planed 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy [F-3DCRT] on both CT images, inverse-planned 3DCRT [I-3DCRT] on both CT images, volumetric modulated arc therapy [VMAT] on both CT images, F-3DCRT on initial CT plus VMAT on boost CT [bVMAT], and hybrid of fixed intensity-modulated radiotherapy [IMRT] beams and VMAT beams on both CT images [hybrid]) were recalculated for all patients. The accumulated doses between initial and boost plans were compared among all treatment techniques. The conformity indexes (CI) of the planning target volume (PTV) of the five planning techniques were 0.34 ± 0.10, 0.57 ± 0.10, 0.86 ± 0.08, 0.61 ± 0.12, and 0.83 ± 0.11 for F-3DCRT, I-3DCRT, VMAT, bVMAT, and hybrid, respectively. In the same manner, lung volumes receiving >20 Gy (V20Gy ) were 21.05 ± 10.56%, 20.86 ± 6.45, 19.50 ± 7.38%, 19.98 ± 10.04%, and 17.74 ± 7.86%. There was significant improvement about CI and V20Gy for hybrid compared with F-3DCRT (p < 0.05). The IMRT/VMAT hybrid technique for LA-NSCLC patients improved target CI and reduced lung doses. Furthermore, if IMRT was not available initially, starting with 3DCRT might be beneficial as demonstrated in the bVMAT procedure of this study.

Traitement standard des stades III non résécables: Standard therapy for unresectable Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Approximately 25% of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) present with a locally advanced disease. Stage III NSCLC includes heterogeneous diseases in term of initial clinical presentation and therapeutic strategy. An optimal initial staging integrating a PET/CT, EBUS mediastinal nodes exploration and an injected brain imaging is necessary. Pulmonary function test is to be systematically realized. The therapeutic strategy is decided in a multidisciplinary tumor board by an experimented team. Most of the stage IIIB and IIIC NSCLC receive a radio-chemotherapy. A concurrent plan is to be favored to a sequential plan. Platinum doublets comprise most standard chemotherapy regimens and must be started as early as possible. For fail or elderly patients who could not benefit from a concurrent chemotherapy, a sequential normo-fractionnated radiotherapy, or even a single chemotherapy are possible alternatives. After radio-chemotherapy, a consolidation systemic treatment by durvalumab, a checkpoint inhibitor, is currently a standard of care, in patients with a PD-L1 expressing tumor, based on the PACIFIC trial overall survival results.1877-1203/© 2023 SPLF. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Multidisciplinary sequential treatment for obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome and malocclusion in children

With the high incidence of chronic rhinitis, mouth breathing is becoming the hot topic in orthodontics. The incidence of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) with malocclusion in children is also increasing. Dentofacial deformities such as maxillary constriction and mandibular retrognathia may be the primary cause of OSAHS, or they may be complications caused by chronic mouth breathing. Orthodontic treatment is of great significance in relieving obstructive sleep apnea and hypopnea. More attention should be paid by orthodontists to sleep disordered breathing. Orthodontists should routinely consider the condition of patients' upper airway in treatment designs. For children with malocclusion and OSAHS, the point of diagnosis and treatment is to carefully identify the complex pathogenesis and formulate a multidisciplinary sequential treatment plan.

Long-course chemoradiation plus concurrent/sequential PD-1 blockade as neoadjuvant treatment for MMR-status-unscreened locally advanced rectal cancer: protocol of a multicentre, phase 2, randomised controlled trial (the POLAR-STAR trial)

IntroductionRecent preclinical studies have discovered unique synergism between radiotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors, which has already brought significant survival benefit in lung cancer. In locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC), neoadjuvant...

Upaya Peningkatan Kualitas dengan Menggunakan Analisis Siklus PDCA pada Perusahaan Otomotif

In this era of globalization, the competition in the automotive industry is getting more challenging, and consumer demands are also continually increasing. This is what encourages the automotive industry to make products as perfect as possible, one of which is minimizing the level of defects in their production lines. By reducing defects, the process will flow faster without going through the repair process. But in actuality, there are still defects found in the poses of its production. This research was conducted in the welding process in the automotive industry. This paper aims to identify defects in the welding production process in the automotive industry. Then analyze the most dominant defect, find the root cause, and improve. This study uses the PDCA cycle method. The PDCA cycle is a continuous improvement model consisting of four sequential components, Plan, Do, Check, and Action. The results of this study identified five major defects in the welding process: hole nut not centered, dents, NG stud bolts, NG parts, and non-stick spots. The average defect per month is 110 defects, and the dominant defect is the non-centered nut hole of 63.8 defects (58%). The root cause is when the part setting stopper position is unstable. The improvement made is adding a locator pin cylinder hole nut to stabilize the position. The results of this improvement can reduce welding defects to 58.5 defects per month, and the average defect hole nut is not centered by 3.5 defects (6%). So the PDCA cycle is very effective in efforts to improve product quality.

Generalizing Action Justification and Causal Links to Policies

We revisit two concepts popularly used within the context of classical planning, namely action justification and causal links. While these concepts have come to underpin some of the most popular notions of explanations in classical planning, these notions are restricted to sequential plans. To address this shortcoming, we propose a generalization of these concepts that is applicable to state-action policies. We introduce algorithms that can identify justified actions and causal links contributed by such actions for policies generated for Fully Observable Non-Deterministic (FOND) planning problems. We also present an empirical evaluation that demonstrates the computational characteristics of these algorithms on standard FOND benchmarks.

What’s so hard about hierarchical control? Pinpointing processing constraints within cue-based and serial-order control structures

Most task spaces require a hierarchical structure, where decisions on one level are contingent on previous decisions made on one or more higher levels. While it is a truism that increasing the number of hierarchical levels makes it harder to solve a given task, the exact nature of this “number-of-levels” effect is not clear. On the one hand, processing costs might be strictly “local,” incurred only when higher-level settings need to be updated, while otherwise lower-level decisions are insulated from the presence of higher-level settings (local updating costs with ballistic control). On the other hand, maintaining and integrating more complex hierarchical structures could require overall greater representational resources, negatively affecting each individual decision within the represented task space (global integration/maintenance costs). Further, navigation through hierarchical structures can be guided either through prompts in the environment (cue-based), or through sequential plans (serial-order based), with potentially distinct maintenance and updating demands. In two experiments, we assessed performance as a function of hierarchical level and format (serial-order vs. cue-based). Model comparisons showed that the pattern of costs in the serial-order format was consistent with a global maintenance/integration account. In contrast, in the cue-based format, costs arose at updating points and when one additional relevant level beyond the current decision was relevant, while additional levels produced no further costs. This overall constellation of costs can be explained by assuming that each decision requires checking the immediately relevant higher-level context for that decision. For cue-based control, this context involves the “next-level-up” rule, whereas in the serial-order format, each trial requires updating of the current position within the sequence, which in turn requires integration across all relevant hierarchical levels.

A parametric optimization approach for radial shaft seal production processes for rubber waste reduction

While engineered rubber products (ERP) offer excellent mechanical and thermal properties suited for demanding industrial applications, the diversity of materials, equipment and processes involved in their processing poses challenges to their cleaner production. Existing literature canvasses recycling and reusing of products at the end-of-life (EOL) stage of the ERP life cycle to control their environmental impact. This research is focused on modes of reducing waste generated in the ERP production processes to minimize the environmental impact at the production stage of the life cycle. A novel experimental procedure grounded on the Shainin System (SS) principles is developed for parametric optimization in complex batch process settings. Unlike the established design of experiment (DoE) approaches based on statistical models, the proposed experimental procedure is based on sequential observational plans to reduce the search space while identifying the dominant family(ies) of causes (called Red X) of niggling defects. The application of the proposed experimental procedure is illustrated at an auto-ancillary cluster in India for reducing the rejection of radial shaft seals (RSS) due to rubber moulding defects. The case study's findings showed a reduction in the cluster's carbon footprint (i.e. 11,715 kg CO2-eq across the cluster), and overall production cost (saving of USD 1.20 million/annum) due to process improvements in the RSS moulding and assembly process.

“Ending the first cycle of teaching Georgian as a foreign language - with the first stage students”

The first cycle of teaching and meeting with the students is of great importance. Learning materials should be provided purposefully and completely. The methods of providing the material should be carefully selected, planned and organized, which is essential to achieve the goal. Practical experience gives us right to offer the third methodical frame of the first cycle with its strategical and sequential plan, which our Language Center “Semita” utilizes with the great success. We consider it preferable to provide new material in a spiral manner. We choose active communication method for the lessons. The last part of the first cycle covers the following: question words: Who? What? Where?; Personal Pronouns: We, You, They; Possessive Pronouns: My, your, his, her, our, their; Adverbs of place: here, there; Plural form of the verb “to be”: are; Vocabulary: a boy, a girl, a school, A bag, friends (plural form); Phrases: may I..?; I would like..; Here you are...; Yes, of course; Hold on…

Jerusalem urban landscape fragmentation: from a city of peace into a city of pieces

During the past century, the city of Jerusalem expanded from 1 km2 (the walled city) to reach more than 126 km2 in 2005 and 164 km2 recently. The city presents an open book in urban planning practice, starting with the Ottoman time through the British Mandate (i.e. British rule in Palestine from 1917 to 1948, starting after the defeat of Ottoman rule in the area) and ending with the Israeli occupation. Planners during different regimes added several layers to the original fabric in attempts to transform the city into a ‘modern’ mosaic/collage. In this study, historical plans were analysed and sequential plans were gathered and stratified in order to show how the urban context was deformed and fragmented through unilateral planning.

Uncertainty Quantification and Experimental Design for Large-Scale Linear Inverse Problems under Gaussian Process Priors

We consider the use of Gaussian process (GP) priors for solving inverse problems in a Bayesian framework. As is well known, the computational complexity of GPs scales cubically in the number of datapoints. Here we show that in the context of inverse problems involving integral operators, one faces additional difficulties that hinder inversion on large grids. Furthermore, in that context, covariance matrices can become too large to be stored. By leveraging recent results about sequential disintegrations of Gaussian measures, we are able to introduce an implicit representation of posterior covariance matrices that reduces the memory footprint by only storing low rank intermediate matrices, while allowing individual elements to be accessed on-the-fly without needing to build full posterior covariance matrices. Moreover, it allows for fast sequential inclusion of new observations. These features are crucial when considering sequential experimental design tasks. We demonstrate our approach by computing sequential data collection plans for excursion set recovery for a gravimetric inverse problem, where the goal is to provide fine resolution estimates of high density regions inside the Stromboli volcano, Italy. Sequential data collection plans are computed by extending the weighted integrated variance reduction (wIVR) criterion to inverse problems. Our results show that this criterion is able to significantly reduce the uncertainty on the excursion volume, reaching close to minimal levels of residual uncertainty. Overall, our techniques allow the advantages of probabilistic models to be brought to bear on large-scale inverse problems arising in the natural sciences. Particularly, applying the latest developments in Bayesian sequential experimental design on realistic large-scale problems opens new venues of research at a crossroads between mathematical modelling of natural phenomena, statistical data science, and active learning.

Sequential Sampling Plans for Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in Soybean Crops With Insecticide Applications Using Tractor or Airplane.

Sampling plans are an essential part of integrated pest management programs. Sequential sampling plans enable rapid and low-cost assessment of pest densities. Thrips are emerging pests in soybean crops, and the main method used in pest control is chemical. In soybean crops, insecticides are applied mainly using tractors or airplanes. Thus, this work aimed to determine sequential sampling plans for thrips in soybean crops with insecticide applications using a tractor or airplane. Data were collected in 56 soybean fields, and each field was 20 ha. Sampling plans were determined and validated. The lower (m0) and upper (m1) limits of the sequential sampling plans were: m0 = 1.72 and m1 = 3.43 (by tractor applications) and, m0 = 2.27 and m1 = 4.53 thrips. sample-1 (by airplane applications). The slope (S) and the lower (h0) and upper (h1) intercepts of the sequential sampling plans were: S = 2.42, h0 = -5.79, and h1 = 5.79 (by tractor applications) and, S = 3.19, h0 = -6.83, and h1 = 6.83 (by airplane applications). Sequential sampling plans allowed for correct decisions to be made in all situations using a maximum of 10 samples. The sequential plan reduced the sampling effort by over 87% compared to conventional sampling plans. Therefore, these control decision-making systems have proven feasible and advantageous for implementing integrated pest management programs for controlling thrips species in soybean crops.