Automatic ontology mapping for agent communication

Agent communication languages such as ACL and KQML provide a standard for agent communication. These languages enable an agent to specify the intention and the content of a message as well as the protocol, the language, and the ontology that are used. For the protocol and the language some standards are available and should be known by the communicating agents. The ontology used in a communication depends on the subject of the communication. Since the number of subjects is almost infinite and since the concepts used for a subject can be described by different ontologies, the development of generally accepted standards will take a long time. This lack of standardization, which hampers communication and collaboration between agents, is known as the interoperability problem. To overcome the interoperability problem, agents must be able to establish a mapping between their ontologies. This paper investigates a new approach to the interoperability problem. The proposed approach requires neither a correspondence between concepts used in the ontologies nor a correspondence between the structure of the ontologies. It only requires that some instances of the subject about which the agents try to communicate are known by both agents.economics of technology ;

Multi Agent Diagnosis: an analysis

The paper analyzes the use of a Multi Agent System for Model Based Diagnosis. In a large dynamical system, it is often infeasible or even impossible to maintain a model of the whole system. Instead, several incomplete models of the system have to be used to detect possible faults. These models may also be physically be distributed. A Multi Agent System of diagnostic agents may offer solutions for establishing a global diagnosis. If we use a separate agent for each incomplete model of the system, establishing a global diagnosis becomes a problem cooperation and negotiation between the diagnostic agents. This raises the question whether `a set of diagnostic agents, each having an incomplete model of the system, can (efficiently) determine the same global diagnosis as an ideal single diagnostic agent having the combined knowledge of the diagnostic agents?''economics of technology ;

A pragmatic approach to semantic repositories benchmarking

The aim of this paper is to benchmark various semantic repositories in order to evaluate their deployment in a commercial image retrieval and browsing application. We adopt a two-phase approach for evaluating the target semantic repositories: analytical parameters such as query language and reasoning support are used to select the pool of the target repositories, and practical parameters such as load and query response times are used to select the best match to application requirements. In addition to utilising a widely accepted benchmark for OWL repositories (UOBM), we also use a real-life dataset from the target application, which provides us with the opportunity of consolidating our findings. A distinctive advantage of this benchmarking study is that the essential requirements for the target system such as the semantic expressivity and data scalability are clearly defined, which allows us to claim contribution to the benchmarking methodology for this class of applications

An Endogenous Growth Model à la Romer with Embodied Energy-Saving Technological Change

In this paper, we extend the Romer (1990) model in two ways. First, we include energy consumption of intermediates. Secondly, intermediates become heterogeneous due to endogenous energy saving technical change. However, aggregate effective capital is still subject to endogenous technical change of the ‘love of variety’ type, as in the original Romer model. We show that the resulting system can still generate steady state growth, but the growth rate depends negatively on the growth of real energy prices. The reason is that real energy price rises will lower the profitability of using new intermediate goods and hence the profitability of doing research, ceteris paribus. Hence, in this set-up rising real energy prices are not countered by stepping up research, but provide a negative stimulus to R&D instead. We also show that in these circumstances the introduction of an energy tax that is recycled in the form of an R&D subsidy may actually increase growth, while increasing the capital intensity of production at the same time.economics of technology ;

Contract Prolongation In Innovation Production As A Principal-Agent Problem With Moral Hazard

We consider the problem between an employer and a research employee who has not finished a research project in time because of a lack of an innovative idea. The research project yields money in case of finishing it. The decision to be made is whether or not the researcher gets a contract prolongation. Giving him or her a prolongation is associated with a positive expected return for the employer, which may or may not exceed the expected costs of the prolongation. A principal-agent problem is formulated, in which the probability of success is determined by the research time allotted and the effort of the agent. The agent decides upon his effort given the salary (reduction), the share of research time, and the length of the prolongation. The employer takes a decision on these variables, knowing the agent’s first-order condition with respect to effort. For the decision on the length of the contract prolongation it is of crucial importance what impact the research-time share (or the teaching load) has on the probability density of success and on the effort chosen by the agent. All theoretically possible outcomes are discussed. In particular the decision of the faculty of economics at Maastricht University, not to give any prolongation, is discussed in terms of the model.economics of technology ;

How Innovative are Canadian Firms Compared to Some European Firms? A Comparative Look at Innovation Surveys

This paper investigates the comparability of the 1999 Canadian Survey of Innovation with the European Community Innovation Surveys for 1997/1998 (CIS2). Four European countries are compared to Canada: France, Germany, Ireland, and Spain. Differences in terms of design and implementation of the survey and formulation of the questionnaire are pointed out. Proposals are made to harmonize the two datatsets and make them comparable as much as possible. Different innovation indicators -- percentage of innovators, sale of innovative products – show different results across countries. Canada leads the pack by far if we consider the percentage of innovating firms in the respective country samples, however it ranks last if we consider the share in sales of innovative products. Canada, Germany and Ireland seem to be relatively similar regarding the percentage of first-innovators (a narrower definition of innovation). France and Spain lag behind in this regard but seem to have a high intensity of first-innovators among the innovators. Results also show some common trends for all countries studied. Firms in high-tech sectors are more frequently innovative and reach a greater share of revenue from innovation than firms in other sectors. Large firms are more often innovative but size is not always a good predictor for the percentage of revenue from innovation.economics of technology ;

To Be Or Not To Be Innovative: An Exercise In Measurement

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A Simple Endogenous Growth Model With Asymmetric Employment Opportunities by Skill

In this paper we present the outlines of an endogenous growth model that focuses on the labour market- and skill-aspects of economic policy measures that may have an impact on technological change, and hence on the long term effectiveness of the policy measures concerned. The link between skills and technology is two-fold. On the one hand, new technology is high-skilled intensive, while on the other hand, process R&D may actively change the skill-mix of existing production technologies in the direction of a more intensive use of least-cost production factors/skills. Hence, we endogenise both product R&D and process R&D decisions. The product R&D generates new varieties of goods with a higher quality than older varieties. New and older varieties are assumed to be imperfect substitutes, so that new varieties only gradually replace older varieties. Process R&D in turn is geared towards downscaling the skill-requirements of the jobs associated with producing the different varieties of output. Because high-skilled labour has different uses (it is an input to final output production, but also into product and process R&D activities), whereas low-skilled labour is used only in final output generation, we can show how various alternative policy measures may affect R&D decisions, hence growth performance, but also the distribution of income between skills. We also show that the promotion of process R&D in particular has beneficial effects both for the employment perspectives of low-skilled workers and for growth in general. In simulation experiments with the model we show that the model, even in its present state, is able to mimic the stylised facts reported by Acemoglu (1997), who observed for the US that an increase in the supply of high-skilled labour does not necessarily imply a fall in the relative wage rate of high-skilled workers in the long run. We show that the ensuing increase in R&D activity creates its own demand for high-skilled workers when new products arrive on the market that are high-skilled intensive during the first phase of their life-cycle, as we assume it to be the case. This in turn invokes endogenous process R&D reactions that change the long term composition of the demand for labour by skill and by sector. In various experiments we found that the model generates an interesting interplay between both types of R&D that may have important consequences for the distribution of income between skills, for growth and more generally for the design of economic policy.economics of technology ;

ICT-Investment, Knowledge Accumulation and Endogenous Growth

In this paper we present an endogenous growth model based on Lucas (1988). We have extended the Lucas model by incorporating ICT-capital next to human capital. We take account of spillovers from ICT use in human capital formation to final output production. The effects on growth of these spillovers depend very much on whether they are external or completely internalised. We find that welfare is positively affected, the stronger these spillovers are, but also the more these spillovers are internalised. In addition, we find that in the case of limited internalised knowledge spillovers, we may face a multiple equilibria steady state growth situation, that has an inherent tendency to select the non-optimum (high growth) equilibrium in which all types of capital are ‘over accumulated’, including ICT-capital. This suggests that there is room for policy intervention here, because there exists an ‘optimum’ value of the knowledge-spillover parameter where both equilibria coincide and over accumulation does not happen.economics of technology ;