bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary Auction Design for Agent-based Marketplaces
Authors: Qin Zengchang
Published: April 2011

Market mechanism or auction design research is playing an important role in computational economics for resolving multi-agent allocation problems. In this chapter, we review relevant background of trading agents, and market designs by evolutionary computing methods. In particular, a GA can be used to design auction mechanisms in order to automatically generate a desired market mechanism for electronic markets populated with trading agents. In previous research, an auction space model was studied, in which the probability that buyers and sellers are able to quote on a given time step is optimized by a simple GA in order to maximize the market efficiency in terms of Smith’s coefficient of convergence. In this chapter, we also show some new results based on experiments with homogeneous and heterogeneous agents in a more realistic auction space model. This research provides a way of designing efficient auctions by evolutionary computing approaches.
Application of Agent-base Technology as Coordination and Cooperation in the Supply Chain based e-business
Authors: Begum Huq Golenur , Lawson Robyn
Published: April 2011

This chapter explores the utilisation of a multi-agent system in the field of supply chain management for electronic business. It investigates the coordination and cooperation processes, and proposes and discusses a newly developed model for an enhanced and effective cooperation process for e-business. The contribution made by this research provides a theoretical solution and model for agents that adopt the enhanced strategy for e-business. Both large organizations and SMEs will benefit by increasing and expanding their businesses globally, and by participating and sharing with business partners to achieve common goals. As a consequence, the organizations involved will each earn more profit.
A Study of Malicious Agents in Open Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Winoto Pinata , Tang Tiffany Y.
Published: April 2011

This chapter focuses on the issue of malicious agents in open multi-agent systems (MAS) with discussions in relation to the existing crime study, i.e. supply-demand analysis and deterrence theory. Our work highlights the importance of mechanisms to make intervention into the MAS, in an attempt to deter malicious agents from maximizing their utilities through the illegal actions. Indeed, in market-oriented MAS, human interventions sometimes would be necessary, given the condition that these interventions would not destroy the ecological stability of the agent society. However, an automatic intervention mechanism seems to be the winning card in the end, among them, the reputation mechanism, agent coalition formation etc. It is our hope that our work can shed light on these issues as well as their deployment in MAS.
Features for Killer Apps from a Semantic Web Perspective
Authors: O’Hara Kieron , Alani Harith , Kalfoglou Yannis , Shadbolt Nigel
Published: April 2011

There are certain features that distinguish killer apps from other ordinary applications. This chapter examines those features in the context of the Semantic Web, in the hope that a better understanding of the characteristics of killer apps might encourage their consideration when developing Semantic Web applications. Killer apps are highly transformative technologies that create new e-Commerce venues and widespread patterns of behaviour. Information Technology generally, and the Web in particular, has benefited from killer apps to create new networks of users and increase its value. The Semantic Web community on the other hand is still awaiting a killer app that proves the superiority of its technologies. The authors hope that this chapter will help to highlight some of the common ingredients of killer app in e-Commerce, and discuss how such applications might emerge in the Semantic Web.
Semantic Location Modeling for Mobile Enterprises
Authors: Yuan Soe-Tsyr , Hsieh Pei-Hung
Published: April 2011

A location model represents the inclusive objects and their relationships in a space, and helps engender the values of location based services (LBS). Nevertheless, LBS for enterprise decision support are rare due to the common use of static location models. This chapter presents for enterprises a framework of dynamic semantic location modeling that is novel at three-fold: (1) Profoundly bring into the enterprise business models the location models. (2) With a novel method of dynamic semantic location modeling, enterprises effectively recognize the needs of the clients and the partners scattering in different locations, advancing existing business relationships by exerting appropriate service strategies through their mobile workforces. (3) Through the Location Model Platform of information sharing, enterprises are empowered to discover the potential business partners and predict the values of their cooperation, gaining competitive advantages when appropriate partnership deals are made by enterprise mobile workforces. This proposed framework has been implemented with the J2EE technology and attained the positive evidences of its claimed values.
Service Composition Approaches for Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing
Authors: Bakhouya Mohamed , Gaber Jaafar
Published: April 2011

This chapter describes and classifies service composition approaches according to ubiquitous and pervasive computing requirements. More precisely, because of the tremendous amount of research in this area, we present the state of the art in service composition and identify key issues related to the efficient implementation of service composition platforms in ubiquitous and pervasive computing environments.
Software Agent Technology
Authors: Georgakarakou Chrysanthi E. , Economides Anastasios A.
Published: April 2011

This chapter provides an overview of the rapidly evolving area of software agents and presents the basic aspects of applying the agent technology to virtual enterprises (VE). As the field of software agents can appear chaotic, this chapter briefly introduces the key issues rather than present an in-depth analysis and critique of the field. In addition to, this chapter investigates the application of agent technology to virtual enterprises and presents current research activity that focuses on this field serving as an introductory step. Furthermore, this chapter makes a list of the most important themes concerning software agents and the application of agent technology to virtual enterprises apposing some order and consistency and serve as a reference point to a large body of literature.
Virtual Enterprise Formation Supported by Agents and Web Services
Authors: Petersen Sobah Abbas , Rao Jinghai , Matskin Mihhail
Published: April 2011

This chapter describes the use of software agents and Web Services to support the formation of Virtual Enterprises. The partners of a Virtual Enterprise are represented as software agents. The AGORA multi-agent architecture is used. The focus of this chapter is on the description of the services provided by each partner and the partner selection process. The concept of Agent Interaction Protocols is used to manage the interactions during the formation of the Virtual Enterprise. An implementation of the ideas and examples from industrial case studies are used for the validation of the approach and discussions. The use of Semantic Web technology and Web Services with multi-agent systems is discussed as the future directions for this work.
Technologies to Support the Market of Resources as an Infrastructure for Agile/Virtual Enterprise Integration
Authors: Cunha Maria Manuela , Putnik Goran D. , da Silva Joaquim Pereira , Oliveira Santos José Paulo
Published: April 2011

The Agile/Virtual Enterprise (A/V E) model is considered a highly dynamic version of the Virtual Enterprise (VE) model, and its implementation presents several requirements in order to keep the VE partnership aligned with the market, i.e., with business. Such requirements include (1) the reduction of reconfiguration costs and effort, and (2) the capability to preserve the firms’ private knowledge on products or processes. These must be assured by a specific environment, or, in other words, by organizational infrastructures as a meta-organizational structure for VE design (or integration) and operation, such as the Market of Resources – an environment developed by the authors to cope with the highlighted requirements, and assuring a better performance than the traditional environments such as the Internet search engines or the electronic marketplaces. The Chapter describes the functionalities of the Market of Resources and explains how does it supports A/V E integration, and addresses some technologies that could support A/V E integration within the Market of Resources, namely XML/ebXML and Webservices. The Chapter proposes an architecture to support the operation of the Market of Resources, representing a fusion of the peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture with the client-server architecture, as a variant of P2P architecture. Also, a laboratory implementation of the web services for manufacturing is presented too.
A Recommender Agent to Support Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Enterprises
Authors: Guizzardi Renata S.S. , Ludermir Pablo Gomes , Sona Diego
Published: April 2011

To remain competitive, virtual enterprises depend on effective Knowledge Management (KM). On the other hand, KM is deeply affected by the virtualization of modern organizations. As a result, KM systems need to be reshaped to adapt to these new conditions. This chapter presents KARe, a multi-agent recommender system that supports users sharing knowledge in a peer-to-peer environment. In this way, KARe reflects the intrinsically distributed nature of virtual enterprises. Supporting social interaction, the system allows users to share knowledge through questions and answers. This chapter focuses on KARe’s recommendation algorithm, presenting its description and evaluation.
Framework of Agent-Based Intelligent System for Distributed Virtual Enterprise Project Control
Authors: Chen Yee Ming , Wang Shih-Chang
Published: April 2011

Virtual enterprise oriented projects need the support of distributed project management system which concerns the collaboration of different departments and enterprises. In this chapter, we propose a multiagent system with negotiation strategies for project schedule control - a collaborative system framework wherein a distributed project can be scheduled dynamically by agents in the virtual enterprise environment. A prototype of the multiagent systems with the negotiation strategies is implemented by Java, JADE, FIPA-ACL, and the negotiation strategies are experimentally validated. It successfully demonstrates on the online coordination and resolution of scheduling dynamically while encountering unexpected events to meet each project participant’s requirements.
Sharing Views, Information, and Cross-Enterprise Culture in the Corporate Situation Room
Authors: Roberts Bob , Koumpis Adamantios
Published: April 2011

A major challenge for virtual organisations in that respect is the integration of their various corporate organisational and information assets, as well as their communication infrastructures and personnel. There also remains a need for greater understanding of how such virtual enterprises will operate in a ‘shared data / information / knowledge environment’, through distributed working approaches and based on the paradigm of using the Situation Room metaphor as the core paradigm for carrying out joint operations. In this Chapter, we present a methodology for modelling corporate interactions using the concept of the Situation Room (SR) as a supporting paradigm. Such an approach enables a way to model interactions of a virtual enterprise nature by means of a information and knowledge auction market that is concerned with the communications and interactions within a virtual enterprise (VE). This forms part of a wider research in defining a methodological framework for Situation Room Analysis (SRA), and its deployment for complex corporate intelligence systems study.
Multi-Agent Systems Integration in Enterprise Environments Using Web Services
Authors: Ramírez Eduardo H. , Brena Ramón F.
Published: April 2011

In this paper we present a decoupled architectural approach that allows software agents to interoperate with enterprise systems using Web services. The solution leverages existing technologies and standards in order to reduce the time-to-market and increase the adoption of agent-based applications. We present case studies of applications that have been enhanced by our proposal.
Agents and Multi-Agent Systems in Supply Chain Management
Authors: Mitkas Pericles A. , Nikolaidou Paraskevi
Published: April 2011

This chapter discusses the current state-of-the-art of agents and multi-agent systems (MAS) in supply chain management (SCM). Following a general description of SCM and the challenges it is currently ed with we present MAS as a possible solution to these challenge. We argue that an application involving multiple autonomous actors, such as SCM, can best be served by a software paradigm that relies on multiple independent software entities, like agents. The most significant current trends in this area and focusing on potential areas of further research. Furthermore, the authors believe that a clearer view on the current state-of-the-art and future extension will help researchers improve existing standards and solve remaining issues, eventually helping MAS-based SCM systems to replace legacy ERP software, but also give a boost on both areas of research separately.
Using VO Concept for Managing Dynamic Security Associations
Authors: Demchenko Yuri
Published: April 2011

This chapter discusses how the Virtual Organisation (VO) concept can be used for managing dynamic security associations in collaborative applications and for complex resource provisioning as possible components of the Agent based Virtual Enterprises. The chapter provides an overview of the current practice in VO management at the organisational level and its support at the security middleware level. It identifies open issues and basic requirements to the VO security functionality and services and suggests possible directions of further research and development, in particular, VO management concept, VO security services operation, and basic VO operational models. The author hopes that understanding the VO concept and current practice in Grid of using VO for managing security associations will help developers effectively use Gird technologies and middleware for building distributed security infrastructure for Virtual Enterprises.
Interoperability Middleware for Federated Business Services in Web-Pilarcos
Authors: Kutvonen Lea , Ruokolainen Toni , Metso Janne
Published: April 2011

Participation in electronic business networks has become necessary for the success of enterprises. The strategic business needs for participating multiple networks simultaneously and for managing changes in these networks are reflected as new requirements for the supporting computing facilities. The web-Pilarcos architecture addresses the needs of managed collaboration and interoperability of autonomous business services in an inter-organisational context. The web-Pilarcos B2B middleware is designed for lowering the cost of collaboration establishment and to facilitate management and maintenance of electronic business networks. The approach is a federated one: All business services are developed independently, and the B2B middleware services are used to ensure that technical, semantic, and pragmatic interoperability is maintained in the business network. In the architecture and middleware functionality design, attention has been given to the dynamic aspects and evolution of the network. This paper discusses the concepts provided for application and business network creators, and the supporting middleware-level knowledge repositories for interoperability support.
Web-Based Template-Driven Communication Support Systems
Authors: Remidez Jr. Herbert , Stam Antonie , Laffey James M.
Published: April 2011

Teams whose interactions might be mediated entirely via Internet-based communication, virtual teams, are emerging as commonplace in business settings. Researchers have identified trust as a key ingredient for virtual teams to work effectively (Aubrey & Kelsey, 2003; Beranek, 2000; David & McDaniel, 2004; Iacono & Weisband, 1997; Jarvenpaa, Knoll & Leidner, 1998). However, researchers have not identified scalable methods that consistently promote trust within virtual teams. Improved interface design for communication support systems used by virtual teams may contribute to solving this problem. Interface cannot solve the problem of members trusting each other, but it can support the type of activities that do. This paper describes the development and some initial experiences with a web-based, template driven, asynchronous communication support tool and how this system can be used to support trust development in virtual teams and performance goals of virtual teams. This article presents the capabilities and features of the communication support system. More detailed findings from an experimental study of this system’s use can be found in another publication (Remidez, 2003).
Overview of Agent Modelling
Authors: Coelho Helder
Published: April 2011

The field of agents is presented, taking in mind what means to be a rational entity, how it operates, can be specified, and formally described. After giving a glimpse of the current state of the field, we use the BDI model, supported by folk psychology, to discuss new challenges concerning the mentality and the behaviour of an agent. This is done with the help of our own research around new mental states and properties of the agency. Defining the character and personality of an entity can be rather interesting to attack real applications where complexity is a stong ingredient.
Building Intelligent Learning Environments Using Intelligent Learning Objects
Authors: Silveira Ricardo Azambuja , Carvalho da Silva Júlia Marques
Published: April 2011

The reusability of learning material is a very important feature to design learning environments for real-life learning. The reusability of learning material is based on three main features: modularity, discoverability, and interoperability. The object learning approach aims to provide these features. At the same time, several researchers on intelligent learning environments have proposed the use of artificial intelligence through architectures based on agent societies. Teaching systems based on multiagent architectures make it possible to support the development of more interactive and adaptable systems. We proposed an approach where learning objects are built based on agent architectures: the intelligent learning object (ILO). This chapter addresses the improvement of interoperability among learning objects in agent-based learning environments by integrating learning objects technology and the multiagent systems approach. It presents the ILO agent’s basic architecture and a case study.
Design and Evaluation of Animated Pedagogical Agents
Authors: Moraes Márcia Cristina , Silveira Milene
Published: April 2011

The area of animated pedagogical agents is related to the development of applications that aim to improve the human-computer interaction process using software agents represented by characters or human figures. Several projects are being developed in this area, and one of their concerns is the “illusion of life” effect. In order to reach the believability needed for promoting the “illusion of life,” it is important that researches be concerned with two main aspects during projects of animated pedagogical agents: the design aspect and the evaluation aspect. In this chapter, we will discuss basic guidelines for animated pedagogical agents design, and an evaluation method based on concepts provided by computer in education (CE), artificial intelligence (AI), and human-computer interaction (HCI), in order to help CE and AI researchers (to project and to develop pedagogical agents that can enhance human-agent usability) and HCI researchers and teachers (to evaluate these agents).
Using Bayesian Networks for Student Modeling
Authors: Liu Chao-Lin
Published: April 2011

This chapter purveys an account of Bayesian networks-related technologies for modeling students in intelligent tutoring systems. Uncertainty exists ubiquitously when we infer students’ internal status, for example, learning needs and emotion, from their external behavior, for example, responses to test items and explorative actions. Bayesian networks offer a mathematically sound mechanism for representing and reasoning about students under uncertainty. This chapter consists of five sections, and commences with a brief overview of intelligent tutoring systems, emphasizing the needs for uncertain reasoning. A succinct survey of Bayesian networks for student modeling is provided in Bayesian Networks, and we go through an example of applying Bayesian networks and mutual information to item selection in computerized adaptive testing in Applications to Student Models. We then touch upon influence diagrams and dynamic Bayesian networks for educational applications in More Graphical Models, and wrap up the chapter with an outlook and discussion for this research direction.
Cognitive Models Applied to Built Intelligent Educational Applications
Authors: Martins Giraffa Lucia Maria , Raabe André Luís Alice
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents the results of a 10 years research focused on building intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) that aims to represent student’s knowledge without classifying it with predefined stereotypes. We adopted the mental states approach as an alternative to achieve this goal. By modeling students using a multiagent BDI (belief desire intention) architecture, the student knowledge is considered the way it is. The results of the experiment, conducted with a multiagent learning environment to teach ecology for children, reinforced our beliefs about this type of modeling students; however, it points out the need of better mediation actions to guide students interaction. Searching to improve mediation, we decided to experiment with a novel approach in ITS research: to include the teacher as an end user. The results of this ongoing work are also presented in this chapter.
Infering Emotions and Applying Affective Tactics for a Better Learning
Authors: Jaques Patricia Augustin , Viccari Rosa M.
Published: April 2011

This chapter aims to present an animated pedagogical agent, called Pat, that has the role of providing emotional support to the student: motivating and encouraging him/her, making him/her believe in his/her self-ability, and promoting a positive mood in him/her, which fosters learning. This careful support of the agent, its affective tactics, is expressed through emotional behavior and encouragement messages of the life-like character. In order to respond appropriately to the student, the agent infers the student’s emotions: joy/distress, satisfaction/disappointment, anger/gratitude, and shame, from the students’ observable behavior, that is, their actions in the interface of the educational system. It adopted a mental states approach, more specifically, the BDI model, to implement the affective user model, the affective diagnosis, and the selection of the affective tactics, because it allows simple revisions and frequent modifications on the information concerning the student, which is convenient since emotions are very dynamic.
InteliWeb
Authors: Bica Francine , Verdin Regina
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents the InteliWeb environment that combines agents, fuzzy logic, and student model to recognize aspects of student’ self-efficacy beliefs to improve the effectiveness of e-learning systems. The self-efficacy construct means the student’s belief on his/her own capacity of performing a task. This belief affects his/her behavior, motivation, affectivity, and the choices he/she makes. We use fuzzy theory for dealing with uncertainty in the assessment of the students and the incomplete knowledge about his/her self-efficacy. The InteliWeb offers instruction material on biological sciences.
Towards a Model that Considers the Student's Affective Dimensions in Intelligent Learning Environments
Authors: Bercht Magda
Published: April 2011

This chapter introduces the affectivity as decision support to the action of tutor agent. It argues that computational teaching system should take into account affective factors to do the interaction more flexibly; and that a computational architecture interacting with humans must explicitly preview beliefs and affective reasoning. It is defined as an architecture to support an agent in a way of recognizing some affective factors that represent action of humans in interaction with artificial agents. The agent is modelled through mental states and is responsible for high-level reasoning. It is presented that the cognitive evaluation of emotional situations allows more flexible actions of a system due to its adaptability to human agents. Furthermore, the author hopes that these studies will also bring contributions about which and how emotions are really involved in teaching and learning situations where one of the partners is an artificial agent.
Social and Affective Agents to Motivate Collaboration on Agent-Based Intelligent Tutoring Systems
Authors: Boff Elisa , Dias Flores Cecília
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents a social and affective agent, named social agent, that has been modeled using probabilistic networks in order to support and motivate collaboration in an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). The social agent suggests to students a workgroup to join in. Our testbed ITS is called AMPLIA, a probabilistic multiagent environment to support the diagnostic reasoning development and the diagnostic hypotheses modeling of domains with complex and uncertain knowledge, as the medical area. The AMPLIA environment is one of the educational systems, integrated in Portedu, which is a Web portal that provides access to educational contents and systems. The social agent belongs to Portedu platform and it is used by AMPLIA. The social agent reasoning is based on individual aspects, such as learning style, performance, affective state, personality traits, and group aspects, as acceptance and social skills. The chapter also presents some experiments using AMPLIA, and results obtained by the social agent.
Pedagogical Negotiation and Solidarity Assimilation Groups in Action
Authors: Gluz João Carlos , Cabral Tânia , Baggio Paulo , Livi Paulo , Mallmann Rafael
Published: April 2011

This chapter shows how new concepts, derived from recent studies in pedagogy and intelligent tutoring systems research areas, can be applied to the calculus learning domain. These concepts were incorporated in two computational tools: the E-M@T Web-based learning environment and the Leibniz pedagogical agent. Leibniz was integrated to E-M@T, serving as an educational assistant for calculus introductory classes. Pedagogical and didactical strategies used in these tools were built under the perspective of Solidarity Assimilation Group ideas, and the interaction processes between students and teachers in the classroom were analyzed under the perspective of pedagogical negotiation concepts. The chapter presents the theoretical foundations of Leibniz and E-M@T, showing the architecture of these tools, the structure of their knowledge base, and the organization of the prototype. Initial results obtained from the application of the prototype to real classrooms and future perspectives of this work are presented at the end of the chapter.
Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Distributed Learning
Authors: Ally Mohamed
Published: April 2011

This chapter provides information on how to design intelligent tutoring systems for distributed learning to cater to individual learner needs and styles. It argues that intelligent tutoring systems must use the expertise that tutors use in a one-to-one teaching situation to build intelligent tutoring systems for distributed learning. Also, the appropriate psychological and educational theories must be used to build the domain module, student model, and pedagogical module. The components of intelligent tutoring systems are described, and the author makes the case that to build effective intelligent tutoring systems, a multidisciplinary team should be involved. Finally, the author identifies trends that are influencing the development of intelligent tutoring systems and suggests areas for future research and development.
Context-Aware Mobile Learning on the Semantic Web
Authors: Benlamri Rachid , Berri Jawad , Atif Yacine
Published: April 2011

This chapter focuses on the theoretical and technological aspects of designing mobile learning (m-learning) services that deliver context-aware learning resources from various locations and devices. Context-aware learning is an important requirement for next generation intelligent m-learning systems. The use of context in mobile devices is receiving increasing attention in mobile and ubiquitous computing research. In this research work, context reflects timeliness and mobility to nurture pervasive instruction throughout the learning ecosystem. In this context of ubiquity that is supported by a new generation of mobile wireless networks and smart mobile devices, it is clear that the notion of context plays a fundamental role since it influences the computational capabilities of the used technology. In particular, three types of context awareness are being considered in this work —platform-awareness, learner-awareness, and task-awareness. In this research work, these contextual elements are defined at the semantic level in order to facilitate discoverability of context-compliant learning resources, adaptability of content and services to devices of various capabilities, and adaptability of services to task at hand and interaction history. The work presented in this chapter contributes towards this direction, making use of the progress in Semantic Web theory and mobile computing to enable context-aware learning that satisfies learning timeliness and mobility requirements.
Model-Driven Development for Pervasive Information Systems
Authors: Fernandes Jose Eduardo , Machado Ricardo J. , Carvalho Joao Alvaro
Published: April 2011

This chapter focuses on design methodologies for pervasive information systems (PIS). It aims to contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of software development of ubiquitous services/applications supported on pervasive information systems. Pervasive information systems are comprised of conveniently orchestrated embedded or mobile computing devices that offer innovative ways to support existing and new business models. Those systems are characterized as having a potentially large number of interactive heterogeneous embedded/mobile computing devices that collect, process, and communicate information. Also, they are the target of technological innovations. Therefore, changes in requirements or in technology require frequent modifications of software at device and system levels. Software design and evolution for those require suitable approaches that consider such demands and characteristics of pervasive information systems. Model-driven development approaches (which essentially centre the focus of development on models, and involve concepts such as Platform-Independent Models, Platform-Specific Models, model transformations, and use of established standards) currently in research at academic and industrial arenas in the design of large systems, offer potential benefits that can be applied to the design and evolution of these pervasive information systems. In this chapter, we raise issues and propose strategies related to the software development of PIS using a model-driven development perspective.
Designing for Tasks in Ubiquitous Computing
Authors: Kimani Stephen , Gabrielli Silvia , Catarci Tiziana , Dix Alan
Published: April 2011

The traditional desktop computing paradigm has had major successes. It also should be noted that we are in a day and age where many good computer and device users are increasingly finding themselves being required to perform their activities not in offices/desktops but in real-world settings. Ubiquitous computing can make possible in the real-world setting what would have otherwise been impossible through desktop computing. However, there is a world of difference between the real-world and the desktop settings. The move from the desktop to the real-world settings raises various issues when we consider the nature of tasks that the ubiquitous devices/applications would be expected to support and the real-world context in which they will be used. A careful study of the nature of tasks in ubiquitous computing can make some design requirements in the development of ubiquitous applications more evident. This chapter proposes ubiquitous application design and evaluation considerations emerging from a deeper understanding of the nature of tasks in ubiquitous computing.
Kinetic User Interfaces
Authors: Pallotta Vincenzo , Bruegger Pascal , Hirsbrunner Béat
Published: April 2011

This chapter presents a conceptual framework for an emerging type of user interfaces for mobile ubiquitous computing systems, and focuses in particular on the interaction through motion of people and objects in physical space. We introduce the notion of Kinetic User Interface as a unifying framework and a middleware for the design of pervasive interfaces, in which motion is considered as the primary input modality.
Corticofugal Modulation of Tactile Responses of Neurons in the Spinal Trigeminal Nucleus
Authors: Malmierca Eduardo , Castellanos Nazareth P. , Makarov Valeri A. , Nuñez Angel
Published: April 2011

It is well know the temporal structure of spike discharges is crucial to elicit different types of neuronal plasticity. Also, precise and reproducible spike timing is one of the alternatives of the sensory stimulus encoding. This chapter studies a new mathematical analysis of the temporal structure of neuronal responses during tactile stimulation of the spinal trigeminal nucleus. We have applied the coherence analysis and the wavelet based approach for quantification of the functional stimulus - neural response coupling. We apply this mathematical tool to analyze the decrease of tactile responses of trigeminal neurons during the simultaneous application of a novel tactile stimulation outside of the neuronal receptive field (sensory-interference). These data suggest the existence of an attentional filter at this early stage of sensory processing.
Neural Mechanisms of Leg Motor Control in Crayfish
Authors: Le Ray Didier , Le Bon-Jego Morgane , Cattaert Daniel
Published: April 2011

Computational neuroscience has a lot to gain from invertebrate research. In this chapter focusing on the sensory-motor network that controls leg movement and position in crayfish, we describe how simple neural circuitry can integrate variable information to produce an adapted output function. We describe how a specific sensor encodes the dynamic and static parameters of leg movements, and how the central motor network assimilates and reacts to this information. We then present an overview of the regulatory mechanisms thus far described that operate at the various levels of this sensory-motor network to organize and maintain the system into a dynamic range. On the basis of this simple animal model, some basic neurobiological concepts are presented which may provide new insights for engineering artificial autonomous systems.
Spiking Neural P Systems
Authors: Paun Gheorghe , Perez-Jimenez Mario J.
Published: April 2011

This chapter is a quick survey of spiking neural P systems, a branch of membrane computing which was recently introduced with motivation from neural computing based on spiking. Basic ideas, examples, some results (especially concerning the computing power and the computational complexity/efficiency), and several research topics are discussed. The presentation is succinct and informal, meant mainly to let the reader having a flavour of this research area. The additional references are an important source of information in this respect.
Simulation of the Action Potential in the Neuron's Membrane in Artificial Neural Networks
Authors: Rabuñal Dopico Juan Ramón , Pereira Loureiro Javier , Miguélez Rico Mónica
Published: April 2011

In this chapter, we state an evolution of the Recurrent ANN (RANN) to enforce the persistence of activations within the neurons to create activation contexts that generate correct outputs through time. In this new focus we want to file more information in the neuron’s connections. To do this, the connection’s representation goes from the unique values up to a function that generates the neuron’s output. The training process to this type of ANN has to calculate the gradient that identifies the function. To train this RANN we developed a GA based system that finds the best gradient set to solve each problem.
A Biologically Inspired Autonomous Robot Control Based on Behavioural Coordination in Evolutionary Robotics
Authors: Fernández-León José A. , Acosta Gerardo G. , Mayosky Miguel A. , Ibáñez Oscar C.
Published: April 2011

This work is intended to give an overview of technologies, developed from an artificial intelligence standpoint, devised to face the different planning and control problems involved in trajectory generation for mobile robots. The purpose of this analysis is to give a current context to present the Evolutionary Robotics approach to the problem, which is now being considered as a feasible methodology to develop mobile robots for solving real life problems. This chapter also show the authors’ experiences on related case studies, which are briefly described (a fuzzy logic based path planner for a terrestrial mobile robot, and a knowledge-based system for desired trajectory generation in the Geosub underwater autonomous vehicle). The development of different behaviours within a path generator, built with Evolutionary Robotics concepts, is tested in a Khepera© robot and analyzed in detail. Finally, behaviour coordination based on the artificial immune system metaphor is evaluated for the same application.
Artificial Cell Systems Based in Gene Expression Protein Effects
Authors: Fernández-Blanco Enrique , Dorado Julian , Pedreira Nieves
Published: April 2011

The artificial embryogeny term overlaps all the models that try to adapt cellular properties into artificial models. This chapter presents a new model for artificial embryogeny that mimics the behaviour of biological cells, whose characteristics can be applied to solution of computational problems. The paper contains the theoretical development of the model and some test executed in an implementation of that model. The presented tests apply the model to simple structure generation and provide promising results with regard to its behaviour and applicability to more complex problems. The objective of the chapters is to be an introduction of the artificial embryogeny and shows an example of a model of these techniques.
A General Rhythmic Pattern Generation Architecture for Legged Locomotion
Authors: Yang Zhijun , França Felipe M.G.
Published: April 2011

As an engine of almost all life phenomena, the motor information generated by the central nervous system (CNS) plays a critical role in the activities of all animals. After a brief review of some recent research results on locomotor central pattern generators (CPG), which is a concrete branch of studies on the CNS generating rhythmic patterns, this chapter presents a novel, macroscopic and model-independent approach to the retrieval of different patterns of coupled neural oscillations observed in biological CPGs during the control of legged locomotion. Based on scheduling by multiple edge reversal (SMER), a simple and discrete distributed synchroniser, various types of oscillatory building blocks (OBB) can be reconfigured for the production of complicated rhythmic patterns and a methodology is provided for the construction of a target artificial CPG architecture behaving as a SMER-like asymmetric Hopfield neural networks.
Genetic Algorithms and Multimodal Search
Authors: Gestal Marcos , Vázquez Naya José Manuel , Ezquerra Norberto
Published: April 2011

Traditionally, the Evolutionary Computation (EC) techniques, and more specifically the Genetic Algorithms (GAs), have proved to be efficient when solving various problems; however, as a possible lack, the GAs tend to provide a unique solution for the problem on which they are applied. Some non global solutions discarded during the search of the best one could be acceptable under certain circumstances. Most of the problems at the real world involve a search space with one or more global solutions and multiple local solutions; this means that they are multimodal problems and therefore, if it is desired to obtain multiple solutions by using GAs, it would be necessary to modify their classic functioning outline for adapting them correctly to the multimodality of such problems. The present chapter tries to establish, firstly, the characterisation of the multimodal problems will be attempted. A global view of some of the several approaches proposed for adapting the classic functioning of the GAs to the search of mu ltiple solutions will be also offered. Lastly, the contributions of the authors and a brief description of several practical cases of their performance at the real world will be also showed.
Guiding Self-Organization in Systems of Cooperative Mobile Agents
Authors: Rodríguez Alejandro , Grushin Alexander , Reggia James A.
Published: April 2011

Drawing inspiration from social interactions in nature, swarm intelligence has presented a promising approach to the design of complex systems consisting of numerous, simple parts, to solve a wide variety of problems. Swarm intelligence systems involve highly parallel computations across space, based heavily on the emergence of global behavior through local interactions of components. This has a disadvantage as the desired behavior of a system becomes hard to predict or design. Here we describe how to provide greater control over swarm intelligence systems, and potentially more useful goal-oriented behavior, by introducing hierarchical controllers in the components. This allows each particle-like controller to extend its reactive behavior in a more goal-oriented style, while keeping the locality of the interactions. We present three systems designed using this approach: a competitive foraging system, a system for the collective transport and distribution of goods, and a self-assembly system capable of creating complex 3D structures. Our results show that it is possible to guide the self-organization process at different levels of the designated task, suggesting that self-organizing behavior may be extensible to support problem solving in various contexts.
Dynamics of Neural Networks as Nonlinear Systems with Several Equilibria
Authors: Danciu Daniela
Published: April 2011

Neural networks—both natural and artificial, are characterized by two kinds of dynamics. The first one is concerned with what we would call “learning dynamics”. The second one is the intrinsic dynamics of the neural network viewed as a dynamical system after the weights have been established via learning. The chapter deals with the second kind of dynamics. More precisely, since the emergent computational capabilities of a recurrent neural network can be achieved provided it has suitable dynamical properties when viewed as a system with several equilibria, the chapter deals with those qualitative properties connected to the achievement of such dynamical properties as global asymptotics and gradient-like behavior. In the case of the neural networks with delays, these aspects are reformulated in accordance with the state of the art of the theory of time delay dynamical systems.
A Service-Oriented Reference Architecture for E-Government
Authors: Lankhorst Marc M. , Bayens Guido I.H.M.
Published: April 2011

This chapter describes the development and future directions of a service-oriented reference architecture for the Dutch government. For several years now, the Dutch government has put a focus on improving the service level of public agencies. Electronic services play an important part in this, which requires a concerted effort across many organizations. A reference architecture has been created in order to guide the many different programmes and projects. In this chapter, we will describe the role of service orientation in e-government, and the creation, structure, and first results of this reference architecture for e-government. Furthermore, we will look ahead at future developments in integrated, demand-driven service provisioning in e-government.
Role of Beacon Architecture in Mitigating Enterprise Architecture Challenges of the Public Sector
Authors: Bhagwat Amit
Published: April 2011

This chapter introduces the concept of Beacon Architecture as a formalized and ordered grouping of architectural elements, describing the constituents, their order, correlation and likely evolution of the grouping; and illustrating its specific value to the public sector. The first half of the chapter builds up to the concept, the reasons behind its specific nature, and its value to enterprises, especially in the public sector. For this, the chapter is split into a number of sections that may be studied separately and that also build up to introduce Beacon Architecture. The sections may be broadly divided as concepts, historical overview, illustrative case studies in public sector transformations along with a summary of peculiar architectural challenges they face, and a cyclical pattern to Architecture Development. After introducing and elucidating on concept and constituents of Beacon Architecture, the chapter delves into its correlation with architecture concepts in currency and its role in mitigating enterprise architecture challenges illustrated earlier in the chapter, before concluding on an assessment of future trends.
Maturity Model Based on Quality Concept of Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA)
Authors: Kim Hong Sik , Moon Sungwook
Published: April 2011

Quite a good amount of time has been spent seeking appropriate solutions to handle the giant information technology expenditure not only in government sectors but also in private sectors all over the world. Beginning with OMB, which substantially leads the U.S. governmental efforts in ITA/EA area, seems to be on the right path using process improvement concept in its ITA/EA maturity model (OMB, 2007_2). EA community still finds it difficult to introduce quality management concept into its business and practices. Therefore in this chapter, we would like to suggest a more practical ITA/EA maturity model based on the quality concept of enterprise information architecture (EIA), which is ROI–driven, practical and based on four-phased process improvement approach for the EA community. We hope that this approach could bring a substantial reduction in the costs and efforts in the entire ITA/EA area and provide sustainable development environment for the ITA/EA like the argument of the environmentalists.