Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) are a classical framework for stochastic sequential decision problems, based on an enumerated state space representation. More compact and structured representations have been proposed: factorization techniques use state variables representations, while decomposition techniques are based on a partition of the state space into sub-regions and take advantage of th...

In this paper, the closed form analytical expressions for the displacement field due to a cylindrical inclusion in a thermoelastic half-space are obtained. These expressions are derived in the context of steady-state uncoupled thermoelasticity using thermoelastic displacement potential functions. The thermal displacement field is generated due to differences in the coefficients of linear therma...

directional simulation, among techniques for reliability analysis of engineering structures, is well known. in this context, directional simulation in load space, because of the considerable advantages of lower dimension of working space, is of considerable interest. as is expected due to structural resistance variability, the location of the relevant limit state(s) is no longer constant and mu...

In this paper, particle filters for dynamic state-space models handling unknown static parameters are discussed. The approach is based on marginalizing the static parameters out of the posterior distribution such that only the state vector needs to be considered. Such a marginalization can always be applied. However, real-time applications are only possible when the distribution of the unknown ...

A population-level model of bacterial chemotaxis is derived from a simple bacteriallevel model of behavior. This model, to be contrasted with the Keller-Segel equations, exhibits behavior we refer to as the “volcano effect”: steady-state bacterial aggregation forming a ring of higher density some distance away from an optimal environment. The model is derived, as in Erban and Othmer [7], from a...

We study how to unambiguously identify a given quantum pure state with one of the two reference pure states when no classical knowledge on the reference states is given but a certain number of copies of each reference quantum state are presented. By unambiguous identification, we mean that we are not allowed to make a mistake but our measurement can produce an inconclusive result. Assuming the ...