in today's design, system complexity and increasing demand for safer, more efficient and less costly systems have created new challenges in science and engineering. locomotives are products which are designed according to market order and technical needs of customers. accordingly, targets of companies, especially designers and manufacturers of locomotives, have always been on the path of progre...

ecological destruction in human-dominated landscapes has significant impacts on environment sustainability internationally. landscape planning can play a role in mitigating the effects of human-related activities. one element of landscape planning involves the analysis of the biological, spatial and social arrangement of areas in an urban environment and identifying characteristics that are und...

renewable natural resources are national capital and are of paramount importance in each country. preservation and developing these resources is incumbent upon relevant institutions and all people especially the beneficiaries. in this regard, various approaches have been recommended for optimum use and sustainable preservation of natural resources especially rangelands among which co-management...

An efficient methodology is proposed to find optimal shape of arch dams on the basis of constrained natural frequencies. The optimization is carried out by virtual sub population (VSP) evolutionary algorithm employing real values of design variables. In order to reduce the computational cost of the optimization process, the arch dam natural frequencies are predicted by properly trained back pro...

Machine-learning algorithms aid predictions for complex systems with multiple influencing variables. However, many neural-network related algorithms behave as black boxes in terms of revealing how the prediction of each data record is performed. This drawback limits their ability to provide detailed insights concerning the workings of the underlying system, or to relate predictions to specific ...

This study deals with predicting nonlinear time history deflection of scallop domes subject to earthquake loading employing neural network technique. Scallop domes have alternate ridged and grooves that radiate from the centre. There are two main types of scallop domes, lattice and continuous, which the latticed type of scallop domes is considered in the present paper. Due to the large number o...

Researchers studying on adaptation and resilience of systems mainly seek to reduce the vulnerability of extremely complex social-ecological systems against potential changes. Since major portion of natural resources of Iran is interrelated with various users and social groups. Present study focused upon the necessity of studying structural characteristics of social capital of rangeland users in...

introduction the urban population experienced rapid growth in the recent decades, particularly between 1975 and 2000 when it has reached from 1.5 to more than 2 billion people. by turn of the century; half of the world's populations are concentrated in cities. this would severely affect the quality of life in urban areas. accordingly, cities will be faced with significant challenges in inf...