Previous research in a water-reinforced instrumental training situation with toads (Bufo arenarum) has shown that performance in both acquisition and extinction is poorer after partial, rather than continuous reinforcement training. In Experiment 1, the performance of a group receiving 24 trials on a 50% partial reinforcement schedule was poorer in acquisition and extinction than that of contin...

60 A practical approach to the optimal design of precast, prestressed concrete highway bridge girder systems is presented. The approach aims at standardizing the optimal design of bridge systems, as opposed to standardizing girder sections. Structural system optimization is shown to be more relevant than conventional girder optimization for an arbitrarily chosen structural system. Bridge system...

We study the influence of heterogeneities located near a planar surface on the elastic response of a three-dimensional elastic medium. These heterogeneities can be either reinforcements, like steel reinforcements in concrete, or defects, like micro-cracks periodically distributed. We prove that their influence is of the second order from an energetic viewpoint. Then, we propose an “up to second...

This paper discusses how social network theory can provide optimization algorithms with social heuristics. The foundations of this approach were used in the SAnt-Q (Social Ant-Q) algorithm, which combines theory from different fields to build social structures for state-space search, in terms of the ways that interactions between states occur and reinforcements are generated. Social measures ar...

Reinforcements and punishments facilitate adaptive behavior in diverse domains ranging from perception to social interactions. A conventional approach to understanding the corresponding neural substrates focuses on the basal ganglia and its dopaminergic projections. Here, we show that reinforcement and punishment signals are surprisingly ubiquitous in the gray matter of nearly every subdivision...

A combination of reinforcements at different levels can have a synergetic effect on the final properties of a composite. The aim of this work was to produce, evaluate, and compare the wet/dry cycling durability of the exposure of cement composites reinforced with conventional pulps at the micro-scale level, with nanofibrillated cellulose fibers at the nano-scale level, and with combinations of ...

Al7075 alloy reinforced with h-Boron Nitrate (BN) composites were processed by stir casting technique. The produced composite was subjected to microstructural studies using OLYMPUS -BX51M, tensile, hardness, density and wear tests. Tensile strength and hardness were found to increase by 12.8% and 20% respectively due to increased dislocation density with the addition of reinforcement. Microstru...

Pigeons were trained on a three-component multiple schedule in which the rates of reinforcement in the various components were systematically varied. Response rates were described by an equation that posits that the response-strengthening effects of reinforcement are inversely related to the context of reinforcement in which it occurs, and that the context is calculated as the weighted average ...

In the present study, using the powder metallurgy route, varying amount of nano-sized Y2O3 particulates and Nicoated carbon nanotubes (Ni-CNTs) were intentionally incorporated into the Sn-3.5Ag-0.7Cu solder to develop two nanocomposite solder systems. The samples were extruded and characterized in terms of their wettability, thermal, microstructural and tensile properties. Characterization resu...