Networks, Communication, and Computing Vol. 2

Networks, communications, and computing have become ubiquitous and inseparable parts of everyday life. This book is based on a Special Issue of the Algorithms journal, and it is devoted to the exploration of the many-faceted relationship of networks, communications, and computing. The included papers explore the current state-of-the-art research in these areas, with a particular interest in the interactions among the fields

VIDA : a simulation model of domestic violence in times of social distancing

Violence against women occurs predominantly in the family and domestic context. The COVID-19 pandemic has led Brazil to recommend and at times, impose social distancing, with the partial closure of economic activities, schools, and restrictions on events and public services. Preliminary evidence shows that intense coexistence increases domestic violence, while social distancing measures may have prevented access to public services and networks, information, and help. We propose an agent-based model (ABM), called VIDA, to formalize and illustrate a multitude of factors that influence events which could trigger violence. A central part of the model is the construction of a stress indicator, created as a probability trigger of domestic violence occurring within the family environment. Having a formal model that replicates observed patterns of violence based on internal familial characteristics enables us to experiment with altering dynamics. We first tested the (a) absence or presence of the deterrence system of domestic violence against women and then (b) the existence of measures to increase social distancing. VIDA presents comparative results for metropolitan regions and neighborhoods considered in the experiments. Results suggest that social distancing measures, particularly those encouraging staying at home, may have increased domestic violence against women by about 10%. VIDA suggests further that more populated areas have comparatively fewer cases per hundred thousand women than less populous capitals or rural areas of urban concentrations. This paper contributes to the literature by formalizing, to the best of our knowledge, the first model of domestic violence through agent-based modeling, using empirical detailed socioeconomic, demographic, educational, gender, and race data at the intraurban (census sectors) and household level

Fear or Greed? Duty or Solidarity? Motivations and Stages of Moral Reasoning: Experimental Evidences from Public-Goods Provision Dilemmas

As economists increasingly recognize the limits of the canonical self-interest assumption, the lack of a theory of human valuation that clearly specifies what determines an individual’s utility judgments renders the prediction of behavior in social dilemmas virtually impossible.  In this study, we examined the explanatory power of a structuralist-constructivist theory of adult development and this theory’s analytical significance to the understanding of behavioral diversity in situations where individual and collective interests collide. Experimental results suggest that the theoretical constructs built into the selected theory provide a reliable basis for predicting participants’ behavior when presented with two different collective-action dilemmas under diverse institutional conditions.social dilemmas, experimental economics, sociocognitive and moral reasoning, adult development, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, C72, C92, D74,

BEHAVIORAL AND CULTURAL ACCOUNTS OF CORRUPTION IN THE INTERFACE BETWEEN PUBLIC OFFICER AND CLIENT

O presente artigo aplica uma perspectiva analítico comportamental para examinar comportamento corrupto. Com esse artigo, pretende-se atender a um chamado feito há algumas décadas aos analistas do comportamento para estender os interesses e estratégias de sua disciplina a domínios tradicionalmente atribuídos às ciências sociais. Este artigo tem três objetivos: primeiro, examinar a corrupção como fenômeno comportamental e cultural; segundo, alertar a comunidade das ciências sociais para a utilidade das ferramentas conceituais analítico-comportamentais para a investigação da corrupção; terceiro, chamar a atenção de analistas do comportamento para algumas pesquisas sobre corrupção, que é uma das questões mais críticas do século XXI.Palavras-chave: Corrupção, Contingências, Metacontingências, Práticas culturais, Cultura.This paper applies a behavior analytic framework to examine corrupt behavior. With this article, we heed to the call made some decades ago to behavior analysts to extend the interests and strategies of their discipline into domains traditionally assigned to the social sciences. This article has three objectives: First, to examine corruption as behavioral and cultural phenomena; Second is to draw the attention of the social sciences community to the potentials of behavior analytic tools to investigate corrupt behavior; Third, to appeal to behavior analysts to direct some research attention to corruption, which is one of the most critical issues of the twenty-first century.Keywords: corruption, Contingencies, Metacontingencies, Cultural practices, Culture

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

Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Production Systems and Logistics (CPSL 2021)

Proceedings of the CPSL 202

Data security and trading framework for smart grids in neighborhood area networks

Due to the drastic increase of electricity prosumers, i.e., energy consumers that are also producers, smart grids have become a key solution for electricity infrastructure. In smart grids, one of the most crucial requirements is the privacy of the final users. The vast majority of the literature addresses the privacy issue by providing ways of hiding user’s electricity consumption. However, open issues in the literature related to the privacy of the electricity producers still remain. In this paper, we propose a framework that preserves the secrecy of prosumers’ identities and provides protection against the traffic analysis attack in a competitive market for energy trade in a Neighborhood Area Network (NAN). In addition, the amount of bidders and of successful bids are hidden from malicious attackers by our framework. Due to the need for small data throughput for the bidders, the communication links of our framework are based on a proprietary communication system. Still, in terms of data security, we adopt the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128bit with Exclusive-OR (XOR) keys due to their reduced computational complexity, allowing fast processing. Our framework outperforms the state-of-the-art solutions in terms of privacy protection and trading flexibility in a prosumer-to-prosumer design

Engineered Wood Products for Construction

Wood is a gift from nature. It is a sustainable and renewable bio-composite material that possesses a natural ability to mitigate carbon dioxide. However, due to deforestation and climate change, it has become necessary to develop alternative building and construction materials. Engineered wood products (EWPs) such as parallel strand lumber, laminated veneer lumber, and cross-laminated timber are promising substitutions for conventional lumber products. This book presents a comprehensive overview of EWPs, including information on their classification, design, synthesis, properties, and more. It is divided into two sections: “General Overviews and Applications of EWPs” and “Recent Research and Development of EWPs”. The book is a valuable reference for manufacturers, engineers, architects, builders, researchers, and students in the field of construction

Recent Advances in Social Data and Artificial Intelligence 2019

The importance and usefulness of subjects and topics involving social data and artificial intelligence are becoming widely recognized. This book contains invited review, expository, and original research articles dealing with, and presenting state-of-the-art accounts pf, the recent advances in the subjects of social data and artificial intelligence, and potentially their links to Cyberspace