Group Norms for Multi-Agent Organisations

W. W. Vasconcelos acknowledges the support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC-UK) within the research project “Scrutable Autonomous Systems” (Grant No. EP/J012084/1). The authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for their comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms. Thanks are due to Dr. Nir Oren, for comments on earlier versions of the article, and Mr. Seumas Simpson, for proofreading the manuscript. Any remaining mistakes are the sole responsibility of the authors.Peer reviewedPostprin

Effects of Working Memory and Presentation Condition on Narrative Production and Inferencing Skills in Children with Language-Learning Impairment

Ten children with language-learning impairment (LLI, M = 11;2 years) were compared to chronological age- (CA, M = 11;2 years) and language age- (LA, M = 8;4 years) matched peers to examine presentation condition effects on level of syntactic complexity and number of story grammar components recalled for stories that were at or below the children’s reading level. Children were also compared on their ability to correctly answer information, value, and logical inferencing questions based on the stories. In addition, verbal and non-verbal working memory skills were assessed for group differences, and to determine the degree to which verbal and/or non-verbal working memory skills correlated with narrative recall measures and inferencing scores. No presentation effect was found for any of the measures. Children in the LLI group recalled fewer story grammar components than their CA and LA peers, although the pattern of story grammar responses was similar for all groups. Recalled narratives of children with LLI yielded lower DSS scores than the LA and CA peers, and the LA peers earned significantly lower DSS scores than the CA peers. Children with LLI answered fewer inferencing questions correctly compared to LA and CA peers, but a similar hierarchy of inferencing skills emerged for all of the groups: more children answered information inferencing questions correctly, followed by value and logic inferencing questions. Finally, children in the LLI group earned lower verbal working memory scores than their CA peers, but all groups earned similar non-verbal working memory scores. Verbal working memory scores significantly correlated with ten of the twelve language variables, but no correlation was found for the non-verbal working memory measure and the language variables. For story grammar, syntactic complexity and inferencing skills, children in the LLI group produced a delayed, and not a developmentally unique, pattern of responses compared to CA and LA peers. Possible contributors to the difficulties children with LLI face during story recall and comprehension are discussed, including reading comprehension disorders, incomplete situational models, and inefficient working memory. Treatment techniques that target story grammar organization, cohesive devices, and activation of previously learned and experienced knowledge are suggested

People Fever, On the Popular Passions of Peter Watkins' La Commune (Paris 1871)

In this essay I argue that the term ‘people’ has aroused inventive passions in the militant image. I focus my analysis on La Commune (Paris, 1871) by Peter Watkins, a television film that has laid claim to a popular pedigree of sorts. This is a copious film that allows the analysis to approach and interrogate the popular passion of the image and some of its variants. I investigate two main aspects of this case. Firstly, I analyze Watkins’s conception of television as a public service, a conception close to the idea of third television, and its troubled practice in the making of La Commune (Paris, 1871) . Secondly, I focus on what I consider to be the most generative element of the film itself, its attempt to present a collective voice, a ‘voice of the people’. I argue, with the help of Félix Guattari’s critique and proposals for a democratic communication system, that the voices of the film are best listened to as part of a media struggle for collective enunciation

On the Development and Management of Adaptive Business Collaborations.

Today’s business climate demands a high rate of change with which Information Technology (IT)-minded organizations are required to cope. Organizations face rapidly changing market conditions, new competitive pressures, new regulatory fiats that demand compliance, and new competitive threats. All of these situations and more drive the need for the IT infrastructure of an organization to respond quickly in support of new business models and requirements. This dissertation studies the adaptive development and management of such dynamic business models and requirements. A rule based environment is developed in which the people who develop and manage business collaborations in organizations can do so in a way that is as independent of specific implementation technologies as possible; and where they can take business requirements into consideration, and in which they can respond to changes as effectively as possible.

Checking Compliance of Java Implementation with TBP Specification

Verifikace je postup umožnující zlepšit spolehlivost aplikací složených z komponent. Jedním z aktuálních témat je kompozice komponent a ověřování, zdali je tato kompozice korektní z pohledu komunikace mezi nimi. Pro popis této komunikace (chování) slouží behavior protokoly (BP). V současné době jsou již vyvinuty nástroje ověřující kompozici komponent. Tyto nástroje ovšem fungují na bázi porovnávání BP a tedy implicitně předpokládají, že implementace komponenty odpovídá danému BP. Odtud vyplývá důležitost nástroje na ověření, zda chování dané implementace odpovídá připojenému BP. Pravidla pro komunikaci komponent společně s BP se obvykle vytvářejí v raných fázích vývojového cyklu. Během implementace typicky dochází k různým ať již úmyslným či neúmyslným, odchylkám od původního návrhu. Tento přístup k vývoji software ještě zvyšuje důležitost ověření, zda aktuální implementace vyhovuje původnímu návrhu BP. Výsledkem práce je nástroj, který ověřuje, zda chování implementace jedné komponenty v jazyce Java odpovídá chování definovanému v připojeném threaded behavior protokolu. Dále práce obsahuje vyhodnocení nástroje na větších příkladech pro nastínění aplikovatelnosti přístupu v praxi.Verification is a method of increasing reliability of component based applications. Component composition and its verification from the communication point of view, is one of the current research topics. Behavior protocols (BPs) are an abstraction used to describe communication among components. Tools, that are able to verify component composition, have already been developed. These tools concern only the BP level and they implicitly presume that implementation of the components conforms to given BP. The importance of verification of implementation compliance with BP is obvious. The BP and rules for communication among components are created during the early steps of the development cycle. Various deviations from the original BP (intentional or unintentional) arise during the implementation phase. This approach reflects the importance of a checker tool. Checker tool, which will ensure conformance of a single component implementation written in Java with given threaded behavior protocol, is the final result of our work. The work also contains an evaluation of the tool in bigger real life examples.Department of Software EngineeringKatedra softwarového inženýrstvíFaculty of Mathematics and PhysicsMatematicko-fyzikální fakult