Multi-Agent Systems

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

Essays on the Demand-Side Management in Electricity Markets

This Ph.D. thesis focuses on the demand-side management in electricity markets and a new player in the market { an aggregator of exible demand. The thesis consists of three independent chapters investigating the entrance of this new player in the power markets from di erent angles: focusing on the aggregator, a large power consumer and a producer. The rst chapter, \Aggregation of demand-side exibility in electricity markets: the e ects of portfolio choice", analyses the performance of the aggregator depending on its portfolio choice. I have investigated several portfolios of di erent exibility sources: electrical vehi- cles, heat pumps and/or home appliances like washing machines, dryers and dish washers. I have used Nord Pool power market data for Denmark's bidding area DK2 to identify the e ects of the portfolio choice on the imbalance payments and compensations to consumers that provide exibility. The results show that di erent compositions of exibility sources lead to di erent imbalance payments and compensations to consumers. However, there is no signi cant additional value of having an access to all types of exibility sources unless there is a xed contract cost. This suggests that the aggregator would choose to specialise in cer- tain types of exibility sources. Also, I nd that the incentives for consumers to participate in demand-side management programs might be not su cient, since the compensation for the provided exibility is very low

An Investigation on Benefit-Cost Analysis of Greenhouse Structures in Antalya

Significant population increase across the world, loss of cultivable land and increasing demand for food put pressure on agriculture. To meet the demand, greenhouses are built, which are, light structures with transparent cladding material in order to provide controlled microclimatic environment proper for plant production. Conceptually, greenhouses are similar with manufacturing buildings where a controlled environment for manufacturing and production have been provided and proper spaces for standardized production processes have been enabled. Parallel with the trends in the world, particularly in southern regions, greenhouse structures have been increasingly constructed and operated in Turkey. A significant number of greenhouses are located at Antalya. The satellite images demonstrated that for over last three decades, there has been a continuous invasion of greenhouses on all cultivable land. There are various researches and attempts for the improvement of greenhouse design and for increasing food production by decreasing required energy consumption. However, the majority of greenhouses in Turkey are very rudimentary structures where capital required for investment is low, but maintenance requirements are high when compared with new generation greenhouse structures. In this research paper, life-long capital requirements for construction and operation of greenhouse buildings in Antalya has been investigated by using benefit-cost analysis study

Knowledge Capturing in Design Briefing Process for Requirement Elicitation and Validation

Knowledge capturing and reusing are major processes of knowledge management that deal with the elicitation of valuable knowledge via some techniques and methods for use in actual and further studies, projects, services, or products. The construction industry, as well, adopts and uses some of these concepts to improve various construction processes and stages. From pre-design to building delivery knowledge management principles and briefing frameworks have been implemented across project stakeholders: client, design teams, construction teams, consultants, and facility management teams. At pre-design and design stages, understanding the client’s needs and users’ knowledge are crucial for identifying and articulating the expected requirements and objectives. Due to underperforming results and missed goals and objectives, many projects finish with highly dissatisfied clients and loss of contracts for some organizations. Knowledge capturing has beneficial effects via its principles and methods on requirement elicitation and validation at the briefing stage between user, client and designer. This paper presents the importance and usage of knowledge capturing and reusing in briefing process at pre-design and design stages especially the involvement of client and user, and explores the techniques and technologies that are usable in briefing process for requirement elicitation

Festival as process : art, territory, assemblage and mobility in North East England 2003-2012

PhD ThesisThis thesis examines the geographies of a new festival of contemporary art, film and music in North East England between 2003 and 2012. As a hybrid process of cultural production, renewal and consumption, the arts festival offers an important site to examine how cultural encounters are produced and performed through a set of entwined place based imaginaries. Using the curatorial practice of AV Festival as a case study, the thesis assembles histories of art, curating, cultural policy and regional geography to evaluate how the organisation sought to advocate a progressive sense of place. The thesis addresses how AV Festival was situated within its locality in three ways. Firstly, analysing the ecology of relations that created AV Festival demonstrates how the artistic ethos of a new cultural organisation was shaped to mediate the perceived demands of the regional cultural economy of North East England. In doing so, the thesis makes an important contribution to regional cultural history with a particular emphasis on how festival was deployed as a strategy towards economic and social regeneration, a subject that is underrepresented in scholarly work. Secondly, two significant artwork commissions are examined in order to show how AV Festival developed a particular practice of situated artistic commissioning. Drawing on the concepts of territorialisation and mediation, analysis of the YoHa project, Coal Fired Computers (2010) shows how curatorial and artistic practice can intervene in ideas of locational identity. Building on this, the discussion of the recreation of John Cage’s 1966 performance, Variations VII in 2008 in Gateshead demonstrates how the hybridity of AV Festival was performed as an assemblage of proximate and distant social, material and cultural relationships, the scale of which did not necessarily converge neatly around territories or temporalities. Finally, the thesis emphasises mobility as a critical concept for understanding the arts festival. Examining AV Festival as a mobility system shows how festivals privilege corporeal and material co-presence. Through tracing the movements of people and objects in AV Festival, the thesis explores the concepts of slowness and friction and demonstrates how the process of festival can intervene and disrupt normative spatial rhythms. Set against the pluralisation of arts festivals, including visual art biennials, in Europe and beyond, over recent decades and a broader festivalisation of cultural institutions, this thesis makes a significant contribution to the field in offering a reconceptualisation of festival. The thesis reimagines festival as a relational process, showing how festival necessitates a continual assembly and dispersal within the production, renewal and consumption of public culture. The study provides theoretical support to those interested in the intersections between art, festival and place in the twenty-first century.Collaborative Doctoral Award funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and a partnership between AV Festival and Fine Art, Newcastle University

Air Traffic Management Abbreviation Compendium

As in all fields of work, an unmanageable number of abbreviations are used today in aviation for terms, definitions, commands, standards and technical descriptions. This applies in general to the areas of aeronautical communication, navigation and surveillance, cockpit and air traffic control working positions, passenger and cargo transport, and all other areas of flight planning, organization and guidance. In addition, many abbreviations are used more than once or have different meanings in different languages. In order to obtain an overview of the most common abbreviations used in air traffic management, organizations like EUROCONTROL, FAA, DWD and DLR have published lists of abbreviations in the past, which have also been enclosed in this document. In addition, abbreviations from some larger international projects related to aviation have been included to provide users with a directory as complete as possible. This means that the second edition of the Air Traffic Management Abbreviation Compendium includes now around 16,500 abbreviations and acronyms from the field of aviation

Pilot study for subgroup classification for autism spectrum disorder based on dysmorphology and physical measurements in Chinese children

Poster Sessions: 157 - Comorbid Medical Conditions: abstract 157.058 58BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder affecting individuals along a continuum of severity in communication, social interaction and behaviour. The impact of ASD significantly varies amongst individuals, and the cause of ASD can originate broadly between genetic and environmental factors. Objectives: Previous ASD researches indicate that early identification combined with a targeted treatment plan involving behavioural interventions and multidisciplinary therapies can provide substantial improvement for ASD patients. Currently there is no cure for ASD, and the clinical variability and uncertainty of the disorder still remains. Hence, the search to unravel heterogeneity within ASD by subgroup classification may provide clinicians with a better understanding of ASD and to work towards a more definitive course of action. METHODS: In this study, a norm of physical measurements including height, weight, head circumference, ear length, outer and inner canthi, interpupillary distance, philtrum, hand and foot length was collected from 658 Typical Developing (TD) Chinese children aged 1 to 7 years (mean age of 4.19 years). The norm collected was compared against 80 ASD Chinese children aged 1 to 12 years (mean age of 4.36 years). We then further attempted to find subgroups within ASD based on identifying physical abnormalities; individuals were classified as (non) dysmorphic with the Autism Dysmorphology Measure (ADM) from physical examinations of 12 body regions. RESULTS: Our results show that there were significant differences between ASD and TD children for measurements in: head circumference (p=0.009), outer (p=0.021) and inner (p=0.021) canthus, philtrum length (p=0.003), right (p=0.023) and left (p=0.20) foot length. Within the 80 ASD patients, 37(46%) were classified as dysmorphic (p=0.00). CONCLUSIONS: This study attempts to identify subgroups within ASD based on physical measurements and dysmorphology examinations. The information from this study seeks to benefit ASD community by identifying possible subtypes of ASD in Chinese population; in seek for a more definitive diagnosis, referral and treatment plan.published_or_final_versio

Social work with airports passengers

Social work at the airport is in to offer to passengers social services. The main methodological position is that people are under stress, which characterized by a particular set of characteristics in appearance and behavior. In such circumstances passenger attracts in his actions some attention. Only person whom he trusts can help him with the documents or psychologically

Prospects for Electric Mobility: Systemic, Economic and Environmental Issues

The transport sector, which is currently almost completely based on fossil fuels, is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Heading towards a more sustainable development of mobility could be possible with more energy efficient automotive technologies such as battery electric vehicles. The number of electric vehicles has been increasing over the last decade, but there are still many challenges that have to be solved in the future. This Special Issue “Prospects for Electric Mobility: Systemic, Economic and Environmental Issues” contributes to the better understanding of the current situation as well as the future prospects and impediments for electro mobility. The published papers range from historical development of electricity use in different transport modes and the recent challenges up to future perspectives

Advancing the Payments for Ecosystem Service Discourse through Institutional Theory

My research interest centers on payments for ecosystem services (PES), a prominent strategy to address economic externalities of resource extraction and commodity processing, improving both social and ecological outcomes. Given the novelty of these kinds of institutions, my research uses them as a set of compelling cases for studying institutional creation, and my driving research question is “How are institutions in support of PES created?” Importantly, my research spans environmental economics and business studies to study how PES schemes might more fully incorporate the private sector, an outcome that will be essential to their success. In the face of widespread enthusiasm, PES still has faced considerable legitimate critique. My research agenda is focused on a critical analysis of the development of PES from the perspective of organizational institutionalism. I principally use the literature on institutional work, which serves as a lens for understanding the reorganisation of existing practices and norms (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006). The research seeks to offer a unique contribution by interpreting PES through a neo-institutional perspective. Through both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the work identifies a key flaw in many current studies of PES: a thin conception of institutions as rules that ignores more subtle ways in which institutions and power are involved in the creation of PES systems. This dissertation is comprised of four papers each contributing to the debate on PES by drawing insights from the institutional theory literature. Comprised of a meta-analysis literature review, two case studies and a contextual theory-driven paper, the findings are applicable for both PES scholars and practitioners. By engaging in this new perspective, PES scholars and practitioners will better understand how less frequently or easily observed institutions and forms of power can affect the development and effectiveness of PES initiatives. Collectively, the findings indicate that in order for PES to become a successful tool for sustainability, it must break from singularly using rational action and transaction cost theory as governing theories. The research offers recommendations to conceptually reframe PES as a tool for enabling sustainable relationships with nature, conserving and restoring ecosystems and their benefits for people