This paper presents current supply chain configurations for concrete reinforcement steel (rebar) in the Turkish construction industry. The supply chains were assessed by the value stream mapping method and were investigated through visits to firms involved in the supply chain and interviews with practitioners. Five different types of rebar supply chain configurations were identified in the case...

Reinforcement learning is an attractive method of machine learning. However, as the state space of a given problem increases, reinforcement learning becomes increasingly inefficient. Hierarchical reinforcement learning is one method of increasing the efficiency of reinforcement learning. It involves breaking the overall goal of a problem into a hierarchy subgoals, and then attempting to achieve...

Reinforcement schemes represent the basis of the learning process for stochastic learning automata, generating their learning behavior. An automaton using a reinforcement scheme can decide the best action, based on past actions and environment responses. The aim of this paper is to introduce a new reinforcement scheme for stochastic learning automata. We test our schema and compare with other n...

Reinforcement and error-based processes are essential for motor learning, with the cerebellum thought to be required only for the error-based mechanism. Here we examined learning and retention of a reaching skill under both processes. Control subjects learned similarly from reinforcement and error-based feedback, but showed much better retention under reinforcement. To apply reinforcement to ce...

Aortoventricular disruption after aortic valve replacement is extremely rare. A case of aortoventricular disruption following aortic valve replacement is described in detail, and related case reports are reviewed. A 76-year-old male underwent aortic valve replacement with a tissue valve using everting mattress sutures, repair of the ascending aortic aneurysm, and mitral valve repair. After card...

A number of recent advances have been achieved in the study of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Understanding these advances and how they relate to one another requires a deep understanding of the computational models that serve as an explanatory framework and guide ongoing experimental inquiry. This intertwining of theory and experiment now suggests very clearly that the phasic activity of the m...

The past 15 years occasioned an extraordinary blossoming of research into the cognitive and affective mechanisms that support moral judgment and behavior. This growth in our understanding of moral mechanisms overshadowed a crucial and complementary question, however: How are they learned? As this special issue of the journal Cognition attests, a new crop of research into moral learning has now ...

. role of dialectics in cognitive processes and 'human71'earning%four . empirical, studies' were undertaken. In study one,.vto investigate the thalectic.proceSs in affective assessment, subjects. earned opposite. and same word assOciations-thai had been paired for liked and disliked words.. An analysis of the-results showed, that both thesame and opposite grotxpt thowed a positive reinforcement...