35,280 research outputs found
Multi-level agent-based modeling - A literature survey
During last decade, multi-level agent-based modeling has received significant
and dramatically increasing interest. In this article we present a
comprehensive and structured review of literature on the subject. We present
the main theoretical contributions and application domains of this concept,
with an emphasis on social, flow, biological and biomedical models.Comment: v2. Ref 102 added. v3-4 Many refs and text added v5-6 bibliographic
statistics updated. v7 Change of the name of the paper to reflect what it
became, many refs and text added, bibliographic statistics update
Parallel implementation of the TRANSIMS micro-simulation
This paper describes the parallel implementation of the TRANSIMS traffic
micro-simulation. The parallelization method is domain decomposition, which
means that each CPU of the parallel computer is responsible for a different
geographical area of the simulated region. We describe how information between
domains is exchanged, and how the transportation network graph is partitioned.
An adaptive scheme is used to optimize load balancing. We then demonstrate how
computing speeds of our parallel micro-simulations can be systematically
predicted once the scenario and the computer architecture are known. This makes
it possible, for example, to decide if a certain study is feasible with a
certain computing budget, and how to invest that budget. The main ingredients
of the prediction are knowledge about the parallel implementation of the
micro-simulation, knowledge about the characteristics of the partitioning of
the transportation network graph, and knowledge about the interaction of these
quantities with the computer system. In particular, we investigate the
differences between switched and non-switched topologies, and the effects of 10
Mbit, 100 Mbit, and Gbit Ethernet. keywords: Traffic simulation, parallel
computing, transportation planning, TRANSIM
From Social Simulation to Integrative System Design
As the recent financial crisis showed, today there is a strong need to gain
"ecological perspective" of all relevant interactions in
socio-economic-techno-environmental systems. For this, we suggested to set-up a
network of Centers for integrative systems design, which shall be able to run
all potentially relevant scenarios, identify causality chains, explore feedback
and cascading effects for a number of model variants, and determine the
reliability of their implications (given the validity of the underlying
models). They will be able to detect possible negative side effect of policy
decisions, before they occur. The Centers belonging to this network of
Integrative Systems Design Centers would be focused on a particular field, but
they would be part of an attempt to eventually cover all relevant areas of
society and economy and integrate them within a "Living Earth Simulator". The
results of all research activities of such Centers would be turned into
informative input for political Decision Arenas. For example, Crisis
Observatories (for financial instabilities, shortages of resources,
environmental change, conflict, spreading of diseases, etc.) would be connected
with such Decision Arenas for the purpose of visualization, in order to make
complex interdependencies understandable to scientists, decision-makers, and
the general public.Comment: 34 pages, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c
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