This book is devoted to the leading research in applying learning automaton (LA) and heuristics for solving benchmark and real-world optimization problems. The ever-increasing application of the LA as a promising reinforcement learning technique in artificial intelligence makes it necessary to provide scholars, scientists, and engineers with a practical discussion on LA solutions for optimization. The book starts with a brief introduction to LA models for optimization. Afterward, the research areas related to LA and optimization are addressed as bibliometric network analysis. Then, LA's application in behavior control in evolutionary computation, and memetic models of object migration automata and cellular learning automata for solving NP hard problems are considered. Next, an overview of multi-population methods for DOPs, LA's application in dynamic optimization problems (DOPs), and the function evaluation management in evolutionary multi-population for DOPs are discussed. Highlighted benefits * Presents the latest advances in learning automata-based optimization approaches. * Addresses the memetic models of learning automata for solving NP-hard problems. * Discusses the application of learning automata for behavior control in evolutionary computation in detail. * Gives the fundamental principles and analyses of the different concepts associated with multi-population methods for dynamic optimization problems.

Mohammad Reza Shams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at University of kashan, Iran. He received his Ph.D. in 2005 from the University of Isfahan, Iran. His research areas include media discourse, discourse analysis, and pragmatics

This contributed volume explores and reveals the new developments, dynamics and recommendations for entrepreneurship education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Presenting papers by respected experts in the field, it shares essential insights on the status quo of entrepreneurial education and training programs, the characteristics and motivations of early stage entrepreneurs, and the regional framework conditions in MENA. The book closes with a bibliometric perspective on the trends in the entrepreneurship research and education being developed in MENA.

Based on the 4th Seminar on Algebra and its Applications organized by the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, this volume highlights recent developments and trends in algebra and its applications. Selected and peer reviewed, the contributions in this volume cover areas that have flourished in the last few decades, including homological algebra, combinatorial algebra, module theory and linear algebra over rings, multiplicative ideal theory, and integer-valued polynomials. Held biennially since 2010, SAA introduces Iranian faculty and graduate students to important ideas in the mainstream of algebra and opens channels of communication between Iranian mathematicians and algebraists from around the globe to facilitate collaborative research. Ideal for graduate students and researchers in the field, these proceedings present the best of the seminar's research achievements and new contributions to the field.

This book begins by briefly explaining learning automata (LA) models and a recently developed cellular learning automaton (CLA) named wavefront CLA. Analyzing social networks is increasingly important, so as to identify behavioral patterns in interactions among individuals and in the networks' evolution, and to develop the algorithms required for meaningful analysis. As an emerging artificial intelligence research area, learning automata (LA) has already had a significant impact in many areas of social networks. Here, the research areas related to learning and social networks are addressed from bibliometric and network analysis perspectives. In turn, the second part of the book highlights a range of LA-based applications addressing social network problems, from network sampling, community detection, link prediction, and trust management, to recommender systems and finally influence maximization. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable guide for all researchers whose work involves reinforcement learning, social networks and/or artificial intelligence.

This book highlights both theoretical and applied advances in cellular learning automata (CLA), a type of hybrid computational model that has been successfully employed in various areas to solve complex problems and to model, learn, or simulate complicated patterns of behavior. Owing to CLA's parallel and learning abilities, it has proven to be quite effective in uncertain, time-varying, decentralized, and distributed environments. The book begins with a brief introduction to various CLA models, before focusing on recently developed CLA variants. In turn, the research areas related to CLA are addressed as bibliometric network analysis perspectives. The next part of the book presents CLA-based solutions to several computer science problems in e.g. static optimization, dynamic optimization, wireless networks, mesh networks, and cloud computing. Given its scope, the book is well suited for all researchers in the fields of artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning.

This book collects recent theoretical advances and concrete applications of learning automata (LAs) in various areas of computer science, presenting a broad treatment of the computer science field in a survey style. Learning automata (LAs) have proven to be effective decision-making agents, especially within unknown stochastic environments. The book starts with a brief explanation of LAs and their baseline variations. It subsequently introduces readers to a number of recently developed, complex structures used to supplement LAs, and describes their steady-state behaviors. These complex structures have been developed because, by design, LAs are simple units used to perform simple tasks; their full potential can only be tapped when several interconnected LAs cooperate to produce a group synergy. In turn, the next part of the book highlights a range of LA-based applications in diverse computer science domains, from wireless sensor networks, to peer-to-peer networks, to complex social networks, and finally to Petri nets. The book accompanies the reader on a comprehensive journey, starting from basic concepts, continuing to recent theoretical findings, and ending in the applications of LAs in problems from numerous research domains. As such, the book offers a valuable resource for all computer engineers, scientists, and students, especially those whose work involves the reinforcement learning and artificial intelligence domains.

This book examines economic inequality and social disparity in Iran, together with their drivers, over the past four decades. During this period, income distribution and economic welfare were affected by the 1979 Revolution, the eight-year war with Iraq, post-war privatization and economic liberalization initiatives carried out under the Rafsanjani and Khatami administrations, the ascendance of a populist economic platform under the Ahmadinejad administration, and the lifting of energy and financial sanctions under the Rouhani administration. Featuring a mix of scholars, including Iranian academics who experienced these changes and are publishing in English for the first time, this collection offers quantitative and descriptive studies of the country's post-revolutionary economic development and disparities. In most chapters, a hypothesis is developed from existing theories or observations, which is then tested using available data. This unique combination of new voices, academic as well as personal experiences, and scientific methods will be a valuable addition to the library of the scholars of modern Iran's economy and society.

This contributed volume explores and reveals the dynamics, strengths and weaknesses, trends and implications of entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Presenting papers by respected experts in the field, it shares essential insights on the status quo of entrepreneurship and the opportunities and threats it faces in the MENA region. Topics range from development of entrepreneurial universities to international entrepreneurship, as well as emergent topics such as green entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship and youth entrepreneurship.

This book explores the different aspects of energy in human life especially expressing the advanced technologies in renewable energy resources. Due to the environmental pollution caused by fossil fuels and the non-permanent nature of these resources, the move towards the use of renewable energy has accelerated. In recent years, many attempts have been made to improve energy systems' performance by using multi-generation units, and these set-ups have been analyzed from the perspective of energy, exergy, economics, and environmental indicators. The book's primary goal is the effort to introduce new methods for assessing and upgrading the synergy. Therefore it examines sustainable practices such as water-energy-food nexus in poly-generation units, novel desalination systems, and smart greenhouses. One of the significant issues in these energy systems is the storage methods; for instance, carbon capture to reduce environmental pollution and the hydrogen store for the utilization in supplementary fuel. Also, robust optimization, uncertainty and risk-aware probabilistic analysis, energy management, and power supply of sensitive places such as oil rig platforms by renewables are examined.

This book provides a systematic overview of transmission network investment in liberalized power markets. Recent government policies to increase the share of intermittent renewable power generation and other technological innovations present new theoretical as well as practical challenges for transmission investments. Written by experts with a background in both economics and engineering, the book examines the economic and technical fundamentals of regulated and merchant transmission investment, and includes case studies of transmission investment in a number of countries. The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 introduces the basic economics and engineering of transmission network investment, while Part 2 discusses merchant investment in the transmission network. Part 3 then examines transmission investment coordination and smart grids, and lastly, Part 4 describes practical experiences of transmission network investment in power market in various countries.

Since its independence in 1991 Tajikistan has suffered a painful series of political crises followed by a civil war, still continuing, whose repercussions extend far beyond its borders. This work examines the causes of the turmoil, and analyses, through the case of Tajikistan, social and political dynamics at work throughout Central Asia. The book is the work of eleven Central Asian experts from different disciplinary backgrounds, and provides new insight into questions as varied as clan and local identity, the political construction of ethnicity and the role of peacekeeping forces.

Since its independence in 1991, Tajikstan has suffered a series of political crises followed by a civil war, whose repercussions extend far beyond its borders. This work examines the causes of the turmoil, and analyzes, through the case of Tajikstan, social and political dynamics at work through Central Asia. It offers insight into questions as varied as clan and local identity, the political construction of ethnicity and the role of peacekeeping forces. The first part deals with the difficulty of building a national identity. It traces the slow and incomplete creation of Tajikstan during the Soviet period, assesses "perestroika's" unsettling effect on local power balances, and discusses the struggle between the old oligarchy and the new elites which have tried to emerge since independence. The second part deals with foreign influences on the conflict, with studies of the roles of Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Uzbekistan, as well as the potential impact of the conflict on the stability of the rest of Central Asia. The third part examines the traumatic humanitarian and human rights consequences of Tajikstan's fall from the tightrope of post-Soviet transition.

Precision farming, site infrastructure assessment, hydrologic monitoring, and environmental investigations a " these are just a few current and potential uses of near-surface geophysical methods in agriculture. Responding to the growing demand for this technology, the Handbook of Agricultural Geophysics supplies a clear, concise overview of near-surface geophysical methods that can be used in agriculture and provides detailed descriptions of situations in which these techniques have been employed.

This book is devoted to the leading research in applying learning automaton (LA) and heuristics for solving benchmark and real-world optimization problems. The ever-increasing application of the LA as a promising reinforcement learning technique in artificial intelligence makes it necessary to provide scholars, scientists, and engineers with a practical discussion on LA solutions for optimization. The book starts with a brief introduction to LA models for optimization. Afterward, the research areas related to LA and optimization are addressed as bibliometric network analysis. Then, LA's application in behavior control in evolutionary computation, and memetic models of object migration automata and cellular learning automata for solving NP hard problems are considered. Next, an overview of multi-population methods for DOPs, LA's application in dynamic optimization problems (DOPs), and the function evaluation management in evolutionary multi-population for DOPs are discussed. Highlighted benefits * Presents the latest advances in learning automata-based optimization approaches. * Addresses the memetic models of learning automata for solving NP-hard problems. * Discusses the application of learning automata for behavior control in evolutionary computation in detail. * Gives the fundamental principles and analyses of the different concepts associated with multi-population methods for dynamic optimization problems.

Electromagnetics is too important in too many fields for knowledge to be gathered on the fly. Knowing how to apply theoretical principles to the solutions of real engineering problems and the development of new technologies and solutions is critical. Engineering Electromagnetics: Applications provides such an understanding, demonstrating how to apply the underlying physical concepts within the particular context of the problem at hand. Comprising chapters drawn from the critically acclaimed Handbook of Engineering Electromagnetics, this book supplies a focused treatment covering radar, wireless, satellite, and optical communication technologies. It also introduces various numerical techniques for computer-aided solutions to complex problems, emerging problems in biomedical applications, and techniques for measuring the biological properties of materials. Here is what the critics have to say about the original work, Concerned with a number of important electromagnetic applications, the bio-electromagnetics chapters are particularly well equipped with references. currently have a need to address, have certainly been valuable to me. This book will therefore provide a useful resource for many engineers working in applied electromagnetics, particularly those in the early stages of their careers. - Alastair R. Ruddle, The IEE Online. The book] is a tour of practical electromagnetics written by industry experts, it fills a niche covering many industrial electromagnetic applications. Overall Dr. Bansal's handbook is a very useful and well-written compendium. - Alfy Riddle, IEEE Microwave Magazine. Engineering Electromagnetics: Applications shares the broad experiences of leading experts regarding modern problems in electromagnetics.

This book highlights both theoretical and applied advances in cellular learning automata (CLA), a type of hybrid computational model that has been successfully employed in various areas to solve complex problems and to model, learn, or simulate complicated patterns of behavior. Owing to CLA's parallel and learning abilities, it has proven to be quite effective in uncertain, time-varying, decentralized, and distributed environments. The book begins with a brief introduction to various CLA models, before focusing on recently developed CLA variants. In turn, the research areas related to CLA are addressed as bibliometric network analysis perspectives. The next part of the book presents CLA-based solutions to several computer science problems in e.g. static optimization, dynamic optimization, wireless networks, mesh networks, and cloud computing. Given its scope, the book is well suited for all researchers in the fields of artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning.

As control systems become more complex and are expected to perform tasks in unknown and extreme environments, they may be subject to various types of faults in their sensors, actuators or other components. It is crucial to be able to diagnose the occurrence of faults and to repair them in order to maintain, guarantee, and improve the overall safety, reliability, and performance of the systems. This book addresses the design challenges of developing and implementing novel integrated fault diagnosis and control technologies for complex linear systems. Integrated Fault Diagnosis and Control Design of Linear Complex Systems considers linear time-invariant (LTI) systems under both time- and event-triggered frameworks. The book initially develops novel methodologies for the problem of integrated fault diagnosis and control of LTI systems to address current design challenges. The results obtained are then extended to a number of complex linear systems, specifically to Markovian jump systems as well as to cooperative multi-agent systems.

This contributed volume explores and reveals the dynamics, strengths and weaknesses, trends and implications of entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Presenting papers by respected experts in the field, it shares essential insights on the status quo of entrepreneurship and the opportunities and threats it faces in the MENA region. Topics range from development of entrepreneurial universities to international entrepreneurship, as well as emergent topics such as green entrepreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship and youth entrepreneurship.