Agent Based E-Market: Framework, Design, and Implementation

Attempt has been made to design and develop a complete adoptive Multi Agent System pertaining to merchant brokering stage of Customer Buying Behaviour Model with the intent of appropriate framework. Intelligent agents are autonomous entity which observe and act upon an environment. In general, they are software robots and vitally used in variety of e-Business applications. This paper focuses on the discussions on electronic markets and the adoptive role, which agents can play in information transformation for automating e-market transactions. It is proposed to develop a framework for agent-based electronic markets for buyers and sellers totally with the assistance of software agents.Agent Oriented e-Business, Agent Oriented e-Markets, Buyer/Seller Agents, Java, Multi Agent Systems

An Evolutionary Learning Approach for Adaptive Negotiation Agents

Developing effective and efficient negotiation mechanisms for real-world applications such as e-Business is challenging since negotiations in such a context are characterised by combinatorially complex negotiation spaces, tough deadlines, very limited information about the opponents, and volatile negotiator preferences. Accordingly, practical negotiation systems should be empowered by effective learning mechanisms to acquire dynamic domain knowledge from the possibly changing negotiation contexts. This paper illustrates our adaptive negotiation agents which are underpinned by robust evolutionary learning mechanisms to deal with complex and dynamic negotiation contexts. Our experimental results show that GA-based adaptive negotiation agents outperform a theoretically optimal negotiation mechanism which guarantees Pareto optimal. Our research work opens the door to the development of practical negotiation systems for real-world applications

Applying mobile agents to E-business

[[abstract]]E-commerce and M-commerce can extend the marketing of a company or enterprise to unlimited region. Through Internet and WWW, the limitation of distance and region are broken for business behaviors. Agent technique is one of the important technologies developed to support the Internet applications. Especially, the Internet and WWW technologies broken the limitation of space, and the agent techniques solve the problems of temporality. Even if the users are off-line, the agents are still active in the world of computer network and play the roles that their users assigned. In this paper, a mechanism is proposed for E-marketplace based on agents and mobile agents. Some issues of research are discussed. They include the platform of mobile agents, the types and classifications of agents and mobile agents, behaviors of commerce transactions and processing models, negotiation mechanisms, etc. Moreover, they include the techniques of information retrieval, data mining, and knowledge base, etc. Based on the proposed mechanism of E-marketplace, the applications of E-commerce will be more effective, easier to develop, and more creating the marketing of business.[[notice]]補正完

Learning as a rational foundation for macroeconomics and finance

Expectations play a central role in modern macroeconomics. The econometric learning approach, in line with the cognitive consistency principle, models agents as forming expectations by estimating and updating subjective forecasting models in real time. This approach provides a stability test for RE equilibria and a selection criterion in models with multiple equilibria. Further features of learning – such as discounting of older data, use of misspecified models or heterogeneous choice by agents between competing models – generate novel learning dynamics. Empirical applications are reviewed and the roles of the planning horizon and structural knowledge are discussed. We develop several applications of learning with relevance to macroeconomic policy: the scope of Ricardian equivalence, appropriate specification of interest-rate rules, implementation of price-level targeting to achieve learning stability of the optimal RE equilibrium and whether, under learning, price-level targeting can rule out the deflation trap at the zero lower bound.cognitive consistency; E-stability; least-squares; persistent learning dynamics; business cycles; monetary policy; asset prices

A Detailed Procedure for Using Copulas to Classify E-Business Data

Decision support systems are widely implemented to effectively utilize the tremendous amount of data generated by information systems throughout an organization. In one common implementation, the goal is to correctly classify a customer so that appropriate action can take place. This may take the form of a customized purchase incentive given to increase the probability that a transaction is completed, while enhancing profitability. Intelligent agents employing neural network technology that function as Bayesian classifiers are one approach used here. Another approach that has been around for decades, called copulas, to our knowledge has yet to be utilized for classification in e-business applications. Copulas are functions that can describe the dependence among random variables. The very fact that copulas directly address co-dependence among variables may make them especially attractive in e-business applications where large numbers of correlated attributes may be present that could negatively affect the performance of other methods. In this paper, the basics of Bayesian decision making and posterior probabilities are reviewed. A detailed procedure for using copulas as Bayesian classifiers for e-business data is presented. The emphasis in describing the method is placed upon practitioner understanding to facilitate replication in real situations while maintaining technical rigor to ease computerized implementation

Business-to-consumer mobile agent-based internet commerce system (MAGICS)

We present MAGICS, a mobile agent-based system for supporting business-to-consumer electronic commerce (e-commerce) or mobile commerce (m-commerce) applications. To use the system, consumers first provide their buying requirements to a proxy/agent server through a Web browser or a wireless application protocol (WAP) terminal. Having obtained the requirements, mobile agents are generated to carry out tasks for the consumers including getting offers from merchants, evaluating offers, and even completing purchases. In the case of mobile commerce, consumers can generate a mobile agent to conduct a search and evaluation in the digital marketspace before making a purchase in the physical marketplace. To make it possible to choose an offer that best satisfies the consumer's requirement(s), we present a mathematical model for evaluating multiple decision factors. To test the basic functions of the mobile agent-based Internet commerce system (MAGICS), we have built a prototype system. To minimize the average cost of a product (including the cost of sending agents), we have also developed an analytical model that can determine how many agents should be sent to compare prices. Four different price distributions and some real price information are analyzed based on the model. The analysis provides valuable insights into the design of mobile agent-based shopping applications for m-commerce, in particular, and for e-commerce, in general. © 2007 IEEE

Mobile agents over e-business

[[abstract]]Due to the popularization of Internet and World Wide Web (WWW), thelimitation of distance and region are broken for business behaviors.E-Commerce can help a company or enterprise to extend its market placeto unlimited region. Agent technique is one of the importanttechnologies developed to support the Internet applications.Especially, the Internet and WWW technologies broken the limitation ofspace of enterprise marketing, and the agent techniques solve theproblems of temporality. Because of when the users are off-line, theagents are still active in the world of computer network and play therole of their users. In this paper, a mechanism is proposed forelectronic marketplace based on agents and mobile agents. There aresome issues will be researched. They include the platform of mobileagents, the types and classifications of agents and mobile agents,behaviors of commerce transactions and processing models, negotiationmechanisms, authentication and security, ...etc. Moreover, theyinclude the techniques of information retrieval, data mining, andknowledge base, ...etc. Based on this architecture of E-marketplace,the applications of E-commerce will be more effective, easier todevelop, and more creating the marketing of business.[[sponsorship]]淡江大學[[notice]]補正完畢[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencetkucampus]]淡水校園[[conferencedate]]20010926~20010928[[booktype]]紙本[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]臺北縣, 臺

An executable Theory of Multi-Agent Systems Refinement

Complex applications such as incident management, social simulations, manufacturing applications, electronic auctions, e-institutions, and business to business applications are pervasive and important nowadays. Agent-oriented methodology is an advance in abstractionwhich can be used by software developers to naturally model and develop systems for suchapplications. In general, with respect to design methodologies, what it may be important tostress is that control structures should be added at later stages of design, in a natural top-downmanner going from specifications to implementations, by refinement. Too much detail (be itfor the sake of efficiency) in specifications often turns out to be harmful. To paraphrase D.E.Knuth, “Premature optimization is the root of all evil” (quoted in ‘The Unix ProgrammingEnvironment’ by Kernighan and Pine, p. 91).The aim of this thesis is to adapt formal techniques to the agent-oriented methodologyinto an executable theory of refinement. The justification for doing so is to provide correctagent-based software by design. The underlying logical framework of the theory we proposeis based on rewriting logic, thus the theory is executable in the same sense as rewriting logicis. The storyline is as follows. We first motivate and explain constituting elements of agentlanguages chosen to represent both abstract and concrete levels of design. We then proposea definition of refinement between agents written in such languages. This notion of refinement ensures that concrete agents are correct with respect to the abstract ones. The advantageof the definition is that it easily leads to formulating a proof technique for refinement viathe classical notion of simulation. This makes it possible to effectively verify refinement bymodel-checking. Additionally, we propose a weakest precondition calculus as a deductivemethod based on assertions which allow to prove correctness of infinite state agents. Wegeneralise the refinement relation from single agents to multi-agent systems in order to ensure that concrete multi-agent systems refine their abstractions. We see multi-agent systemsas collections of coordinated agents, and we consider coordination artefacts as being basedeither on actions or on normative rules. We integrate these two orthogonal coordinationmechanisms within the same refinement theory extended to a timed framework. Finally, wediscuss implementation aspects.LEI Universiteit LeidenFoundations of Software Technolog

Constraint-Based Personalization For Business Applications

This paper reports on extensions of previous work applying personalization techniques and constraint-based methods within an intelligent agent framework.  The Wise Net Inc. has developed an intelligent agent framework specifically for providing advanced scalable collaborative capabilities for easy integration with existing web-enabled enterprise applications.  Since the summer of 2001, the author, his colleagues, and his research assistants, have been conducting applied research aimed at discovering the desired personalization models and effects to support collaborative e-business systems.  Intelligent agents are being developed to implement these personalization effects through constraint-satisfaction methods and solvers.  This paper documents the approach, progress achieved to date, and future directions.  This work is being supported by The Wise Net Inc., the BC Advanced Systems Institute (BC ASI), and the Canadian National Research Council (NRC) through the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP)