Frame Problems, Fodor's Challenge, and Practical Reason

By bringing the frame problem to bear on psychology, Fodor argues that the interesting activities of mind are not amenable to computational modeling. Following exegesis of the frame problem and Fodor's claims, I argue that underlying Fodor's argument is an unsatisfiable normative principle of rationality that in turn commits him to a particular descriptive claim about the nature of our minds. I argue that the descriptive claim is false and that we should reject the normative principle in favor of one that is at least in principle satisfiable. From this it follows, I argue, that we have no reason for thinking the activities of our minds to be, as a matter of principle, unmodelable. Drawing upon Baars' Global Workspace theory, I next outline an alternative framework that provides a means by which the set of engineering challenges raised by Fodor might be met. Having sketched this alternative, I turn next to consider some of the frame problems arising in practical reason and decision-making. Following discussion of the nature of emotion and its influence on practical reason and decision-making, I argue that consideration of emotion provides one means by which we might contend with some of the frame problem instances that arise in that domain

Intelligent business processes composition based on mas, semantic and cloud integration (IPCASCI)

[EN]Component reuse is one of the techniques that most clearly contributes to the evolution of the software industry by providing efficient mechanisms to create quality software. Reuse increases both software reliability, due to the fact that it uses previously tested software components, and development productivity, and leads to a clear reduction in cost. Web services have become are an standard for application development on cloud computing environments and are essential in business process development. These services facilitate a software construction that is relatively fast and efficient, two aspects which can be improved by defining suitable models of reuse. This research work is intended to define a model which contains the construction requirements of new services from service composition. To this end, the composition is based on tested Web services and artificial intelligent tools at our disposal. It is believed that a multi-agent architecture based on virtual organizations is a suitable tool to facilitate the construction of cloud computing environments for business processes from other existing environments, and with help from ontological models as well as tools providing the standard BPEL (Business Process Execution Language). In the context of this proposal, we must generate a new business process from the available services in the platform, starting with the requirement specifications that the process should meet. These specifications will be composed of a semi-free description of requirements to describe the new service. The virtual organizations based on a multi-agent system will manage the tasks requiring intelligent behaviour. This system will analyse the input (textual description of the proposal) in order to deconstruct it into computable functionalities, which will be subsequently treated. Web services (or business processes) stored to be reused have been created from the perspective of SOA architectures and associated with an ontological component, which allows the multi-agent system (based on virtual organizations) to identify the services to complete the reuse process. The proposed model develops a service composition by applying a standard BPEL once the services that will compose the solution business process have been identified. This standard allows us to compose Web services in an easy way and provides the advantage of a direct mapping from Business Process Management Notation diagrams

A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents

Autonomous agents have long been a prominent research topic in the academic community. Previous research in this field often focuses on training agents with limited knowledge within isolated environments, which diverges significantly from the human learning processes, and thus makes the agents hard to achieve human-like decisions. Recently, through the acquisition of vast amounts of web knowledge, large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable potential in achieving human-level intelligence. This has sparked an upsurge in studies investigating autonomous agents based on LLMs. To harness the full potential of LLMs, researchers have devised diverse agent architectures tailored to different applications. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of these studies, delivering a systematic review of the field of autonomous agents from a holistic perspective. More specifically, our focus lies in the construction of LLM-based agents, for which we propose a unified framework that encompasses a majority of the previous work. Additionally, we provide a summary of the various applications of LLM-based AI agents in the domains of social science, natural science, and engineering. Lastly, we discuss the commonly employed evaluation strategies for LLM-based AI agents. Based on the previous studies, we also present several challenges and future directions in this field. To keep track of this field and continuously update our survey, we maintain a repository for the related references at https://github.com/Paitesanshi/LLM-Agent-Survey.Comment: 32 pages, 3 figure

Towards a New Curriculum: The DEREC Experience

This volume presents the experience of developing a new undergraduate curriculum on "Environmental and Resources Engineering" at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje in FYR Macedonia, in the framework of the TEMPUS CD_JEP_19028_2004 DEREC – Development of Environmental and Resources Engineering Curriculum (2005-2008). This publication describes the methodology, instruments and processes employed in the curriculum development. It is divided into two main parts. The first part describes the European Consortium approach (including papers from all representatives of Consortium Member institutions in the European Union and the external project experts). The second part describes the approach adopted by the various faculty representatives of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje and the South East European University of Tetovo, in FYR Macedonia. This book is designed to serve as an updated, coherent and concrete set of instruments for the achievement of similar project objectives

Dokumentverifikation mit Temporaler Beschreibungslogik

The thesis proposes a new formal framework for checking the content of web documents along individual reading paths. It is vital for the readability of web documents that their content is consistent and coherent along the possible browsing paths through the document. Manually ensuring the coherence of content along the possibly huge number of different browsing paths in a web document is time-consuming and error-prone. Existing methods for document validation and verification are not sufficiently expressive and efficient. The innovative core idea of this thesis is to combine the temporal logic CTL and description logic ALC for the representation of consistency criteria. The resulting new temporal description logics ALCCTL can - in contrast to existing specification formalisms - compactly represent coherence criteria on documents. Verification of web documents is modelled as a model checking problem of ALCCTL. The decidability and polynomial complexity of the ALCCTL model checking problem is proven and a sound, complete, and optimal model checking algorithm is presented. Case studies on real and realistic web documents demonstrate the performance and adequacy of the proposed methods. Existing methods such as symbolic model checking or XML-based document validation are outperformed in both expressiveness and speed.Die Dissertation stellt ein neues formales Framework für die automatische Prüfung inhaltlich-struktureller Konsistenzkriterien an Web-Dokumente vor. Viele Informationen werden heute in Form von Web-Dokumenten zugänglich gemacht. Komplexe Dokumente wie Lerndokumente oder technische Dokumentationen müssen dabei vielfältige Qualitätskriterien erfüllen. Der Informationsgehalt des Dokuments muss aktuell, vollständig und in sich stimmig sein. Die Präsentationsstruktur muss unterschiedlichen Zielgruppen mit unterschiedlichen Informationsbedürfnissen genügen. Die Sicherstellung grundlegender Konsistenzeigenschaften von Dokumenten ist angesichts der Vielzahl der Anforderungen und Nutzungskontexte eines elektronischen Dokuments nicht trivial. In dieser Arbeit werden aus der Hard-/Softwareverifikation bekannte Model-Checking-Verfahren mit Methoden zur Repräsentation von Ontologien kombiniert, um sowohl die Struktur des Dokuments als auch inhaltliche Zusammenhänge bei der Prüfung von Konsistenzkriterien berücksichtigen zu können. Als Spezifikationssprache für Konsistenzkriterien wird die neue temporale Beschreibungslogik ALCCTL vorgeschlagen. Grundlegende Eigenschaften wie Entscheidbarkeit, Ausdruckskraft und Komplexität werden untersucht. Die Adäquatheit und Praxistauglichkeit des Ansatzes werden in Fallstudien mit eLearning-Dokumenten evaluiert. Die Ergebnisse übertreffen bekannte Ansätze wie symbolisches Model-Checking oder Methoden zur Validierung von XML-Dokumenten in Performanz, Ausdruckskraft hinsichtlich der prüfbaren Kriterien und Flexibilität hinsichtlich des Dokumenttyps und -formats

A Content-Aware Interactive Explorer of Digital Music Collections: The Phonos Music Explorer

La tesi si propone di utilizzare le più recenti tecnologie del Music Information Retrieval (MIR) al fine di creare un esploratore interattivo di cataloghi musicali. Il software utilizza tecniche avanzate quali riduzione di dimensionalità  mediante FastMap, generazione e streaming over-the-network di contenuto audio, segmentazione e estrazione di descrittori da segnali audio. Inoltre, il software è in grado di adattare in real-time il proprio output sulla base di interazioni dell'utent

Inside Story: An Arts-Based Exploration of the Creative Process of the Storyteller as Leader

Storytelling is one of humanity\u27s oldest art forms and an enduring educational method. Stories can spark social change. Although storytelling is tacitly recognized in diverse social science domains as a communication medium used to powerfully transmit leadership vision and ideas, little empirical research has been reported about how a teller constructs and tells a story. Through qualitative, arts-based methods, this heuristic study examines and describes the lived experience of a storyteller composing and performing a tale on issues of peace, justice, and social change. It reflects on the teller as leader and identifies a palette of arts-based skills for change leaders. As a professional storyteller, I phenomenologically explored the essence, or nature, of a storyteller’s creative process by creating a storytelling work. The storytelling work I composed as a research vehicle is based on a travel diary written during a time of war in Israel in July, 2006. Utilizing art making as an inquiry method, I mindfully became an embodied research environment during this study. I gathered emic, or insider, information about the imaginal world of a storyteller. Through a literary, autoethnographic writing process, I observed, described, interpreted, and named the steps in my creative process as I designed, rehearsed, and performed an original storytelling work. The work interweaves personal memoir, history, folklore, and current events. Commonalities between the storyteller (composing and performing a complex tale) and a change leader (designing and communicating a change vision) emerged. Storytelling communication skills and creative thinking ability are core competencies in artfully leading change. Arts-based training in storytelling could provide change leaders with experiential knowledge about innovative thinking and an appreciation for the power of story and metaphor to convey ideas. Storytelling can be an illuminating art medium through which to inspire peace, justice, and positive social change. This document contains embedded graphic files (JPG) and is accompanied by audio files (MP3)

Inside Story: An Arts-Based Exploration of the Creative Process of the Storyteller as Leader

Storytelling is one of humanity\u27s oldest art forms and an enduring educational method. Stories can spark social change. Although storytelling is tacitly recognized in diverse social science domains as a communication medium used to powerfully transmit leadership vision and ideas, little empirical research has been reported about how a teller constructs and tells a story. Through qualitative, arts-based methods, this heuristic study examines and describes the lived experience of a storyteller composing and performing a tale on issues of peace, justice, and social change. It reflects on the teller as leader and identifies a palette of arts-based skills for change leaders. As a professional storyteller, I phenomenologically explored the essence, or nature, of a storyteller’s creative process by creating a storytelling work. The storytelling work I composed as a research vehicle is based on a travel diary written during a time of war in Israel in July, 2006. Utilizing art making as an inquiry method, I mindfully became an embodied research environment during this study. I gathered emic, or insider, information about the imaginal world of a storyteller. Through a literary, autoethnographic writing process, I observed, described, interpreted, and named the steps in my creative process as I designed, rehearsed, and performed an original storytelling work. The work interweaves personal memoir, history, folklore, and current events. Commonalities between the storyteller (composing and performing a complex tale) and a change leader (designing and communicating a change vision) emerged. Storytelling communication skills and creative thinking ability are core competencies in artfully leading change. Arts-based training in storytelling could provide change leaders with experiential knowledge about innovative thinking and an appreciation for the power of story and metaphor to convey ideas. Storytelling can be an illuminating art medium through which to inspire peace, justice, and positive social change. This document contains embedded graphic files (JPG) and is accompanied by audio files (MP3)

Co-creation for transdisciplinarity - Adoption of participatory design and agile project management in collaborative research processes

Aquest projecte doctoral explora mètodes de cocreació aplicats a la recerca transdisciplinària. En el context de la societat de la informació, la col·laboració en recerca ha crescut en popularitat entre els equips científics, sota molts enfocaments i formes. Entre aquests, la transdisciplinarietat representa un tipus específic d'activitat científica col·laborativa. La investigació transdisciplinària va més enllà de la col·laboració d'experts de diferents disciplines, ja que també pot involucrar no experts i comunitats no científiques per abordar de manera integral diferents qüestions i problemàtiques, com és el cas de la ciència ciutadana o la recerca acció. La transdisciplinarietat implica processos de recerca complexos i nous desafiaments, com la forma d'abordar la diversitat dels participants, especialment per planificar i gestionar projectes. Aquesta tesi, articulada al voltant d'un compendi de publicacions, explora fins a quin punt i en quina mesura les metodologies de cocreació poden contribuir a abordar aquests desafiaments, en diferents contextos i fases de la recerca transdisciplinària.Este proyecto de doctorado explora métodos de cocreación aplicados a la investigación transdisciplinaria. En el contexto de la sociedad de la información, la colaboración en investigación ha crecido en popularidad entre equipos científicos, bajo muchos enfoques y formas. Entre ellos, la transdisciplinariedad representa un tipo específico de actividad científica colaborativa. La investigación transdisciplinaria va más allá de la colaboración de expertos de diferentes disciplinas, ya que también puede involucrar a no expertos y comunidades no científicas para abordar de manera integral diferentes cuestiones y problemáticas, como en el caso de la ciencia ciudadana o la investigación acción. La transdisciplinariedad implica procesos de investigación complejos y nuevos desafíos, como la forma de abordar la diversidad de los participantes, especialmente para planificar y gestionar proyectos. Esta tesis explora hasta qué punto y en qué medida las metodologías de cocreación pueden contribuir a abordar estos desafíos, en diferentes contextos y fases de la investigación transdisciplinaria.Collaborative research in the network society has taken on a number of approaches and forms and has grown in popularity among scientific teams. One specific example of this is transdisciplinary research, which not only depends on the collaboration of experts from different disciplines, but also turns to non-experts and non-scientific communities of stakeholders in order to holistically address a range of different problems and issues, as is the case with citizen science and action research. Transdisciplinarity encompasses complex research processes and faces new challenges, such as how to deal with participant diversity, especially in terms of project planning and management. This doctoral thesis, founded upon a compendium of previous research, explores if and to what extent co-creation methodologies can aid in overcoming these challenges in different contexts and phases of transdisciplinary research