An Architectural Approach to Ensuring Consistency in Hierarchical Execution

Hierarchical task decomposition is a method used in many agent systems to organize agent knowledge. This work shows how the combination of a hierarchy and persistent assertions of knowledge can lead to difficulty in maintaining logical consistency in asserted knowledge. We explore the problematic consequences of persistent assumptions in the reasoning process and introduce novel potential solutions. Having implemented one of the possible solutions, Dynamic Hierarchical Justification, its effectiveness is demonstrated with an empirical analysis

Accounting for knowledge embedded in physical objects and environments : the role of artefacts in transferring knowledge

The intention to investigate the role of artefacts (objects and environments) in codifying, embedding and disseminating knowledge was inspired by an awareness that organisations across all sectors are increasingly being asked not only to provide products in the first instance, but also to support them throughout their service life. Thus a move from product-delivery to product-service designs is suggested. This paper considers ways in which knowledge can be embedded into the physical properties of artefacts and how this can consequently aid the dissemination and management of knowledge in and across stages of life cycles. A literature review and fieldwork based on an ethnomethodological approach are used to investigate this topic. Accounts of the situated meaning of artefacts within social processes are obtained using ethnographic armchair research. Unique adequacy is used to achieve an understanding of how people make sense of artefacts. The initial findings of the current research show that knowledge can be embedded or encoded into the physical properties of artefacts and that this can be successfully transferred from artefact to user

Intention Reconsideration like uncertain dichotomous choice model

A key issue in the design of Belief-Desires-Intentions (BDI) agents is that of fnding an appropriate strategy for Intention Reconsider- ation (IR). Traditional approaches to IR defi nes the policy in the agent's design stage, which makes impossible to modify it in execution time. This is clearly not a practical solution for agents operating in dynamic and changing environments. Besides, IR typically involves considering multi- ple criteria. That is why, in this work, we propose a novel approach to IR based on a dichotomous choice model. This approach allows changing commitments to intentions depending on how the environment evolves and involves multi-criteria aggregation for IR.Eje: XV Workshop de Agentes y Sistemas InteligentesRed de Universidades con Carreras de Informática (RedUNCI

Intention Reconsideration like uncertain dichotomous choice model

A key issue in the design of Belief-Desires-Intentions (BDI) agents is that of fnding an appropriate strategy for Intention Reconsider- ation (IR). Traditional approaches to IR defi nes the policy in the agent's design stage, which makes impossible to modify it in execution time. This is clearly not a practical solution for agents operating in dynamic and changing environments. Besides, IR typically involves considering multi- ple criteria. That is why, in this work, we propose a novel approach to IR based on a dichotomous choice model. This approach allows changing commitments to intentions depending on how the environment evolves and involves multi-criteria aggregation for IR.Eje: XV Workshop de Agentes y Sistemas InteligentesRed de Universidades con Carreras de Informática (RedUNCI

Grit

Many of our most important goals require months or even years of effort to achieve, and some never get achieved at all. As social psychologists have lately emphasized, success in pursuing such goals requires the capacity for perseverance, or "grit." Philosophers have had little to say about grit, however, insofar as it differs from more familiar notions of willpower or continence. This leaves us ill-equipped to assess the social and moral implications of promoting grit. We propose that grit has an important epistemic component, in that failures of perseverance are often caused by a significant loss of confidence that one will succeed if one continues to try. Correspondingly, successful exercises of grit often involve a kind of epistemic resilience in the face of failure, injury, rejection, and other setbacks that constitute genuine evidence that success is not forthcoming. Given this, we discuss whether and to what extent displays of grit can be epistemically as well as practically rational. We conclude that they can be (although many are not), and that the rationality of grit will depend partly on features of the context the agent normally finds herself in. In particular, grit-friendly norms of deliberation might be irrational to use in contexts of severe material scarcity or oppression

On the problem of comparing two models for rational decision making in autonomous agents

The main objective of this work is to establish a basis for comparing BDI agents with the optimality of decision theory models such as POMDPs. It is argued that a direct comparison is not possible due to the intractability of the algorithms used for solving POMDPs, and therefore an approximation must be used. We propose the reduction of the state space, and the combination of sub-solutions as the main approaches towards this goal. Throughout this work, the tileworld testbed is used as a frame of reference for the discussion of the various concepts.Eje: Agentes y Sistemas Inteligentes (ASI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

URBAN COMFORT IN BUCHAREST.SOCIAL-ECONOMIC PARAMETERS

The undergoing concerns for local and regional development focus also on the territorial analyses. The local socio-economic analysis is naturally followed by the strategic planning of development during which the local public authorities initiate and organize, locally, the economic development of the respective territorial unit. This article is intended to analyze a concrete case, that of the Capital City of Romania, the Municipality of Bucharest. One of Romania’s objectives is to sensitize and educate the civil society, the private organizations and the public authorities towards understanding and observing the urban landscape. In the spirit of the aspects mentioned above, the authors have presented a case study, at the end of this article, in which the reconsideration of the urban architectural framework matches perfectly with the wish of introducing elements of spatial dynamics and of balance. In this spirit, the over-crowded City of Bucharest, which has a density of 9009 inhabitants/sq.km, will potentially be turned into an oasis of social comfort that will positively influence the urban organism.local economic development, urban comfort, Bucharest

Project:Filter - using applied games to engage secondary schoolchildren with public policy

Applied games present a twenty-first-century method of consuming information for a specific purpose beyond pure entertainment. Objectives such as awareness and engagement are often used as intended outcomes of applied games in alignment with strategic, organizational, or commercial purposes. Applied games were highlighted as an engagement-based outcome to explore noPILLS, a pan-European policy research project which presented policy pointers and suggested methods of interventions for reducing micropollution within the wastewater treatment process. This paper provides an assessment of a video game which was developed for the purpose of public engagement with policy-based research. The video game, Project:Filter, was developed as a means of communicating noPILLS to secondary school children in Scotland as part of a classroom-based activity. Knowledge development and engagement were identified using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to evidence topical awareness, depth of understanding, and suggested methods of intervention. Analysis of observations also provided insights into challenges surrounding logistics, pedagogy, social interactions, learning, and gender as contributing factors to the schoolchildren’s experiences of Project:Filter. The intention of this paper is two-fold: firstly, to provide an example of developing video games from policy-based research; and secondly, to suggest methods of phenomenological assessment for identifying play-based engagement

Tenure reform and presidential power: The single, six-year term proposal"

During the twentieth century, a series of rapid changes transformed the office of the presidency, affecting not only its raw power and influence upon other political institutions but also, crucially for an office defined as much by image as by constitutional authority, its status in the eyes of the American public and news media. From the turn-of-the-century administration of Theodore Roosevelt to the Lyndon Johnson presidency in the 1960s, George Reedy notes, “commitment to the presidential concept” by politicians, voters and the news media became so pronounced that Americans were "virtually incapable of thinking of the United States in other terms."1 Progressives frequently encouraged the trend toward greater presidential influence as a useful means of bypassing entrenched conservatism in national and state legislatures but many on the political right were disturbed by the expansion of executive power, viewing it as both cause and consequence of liberal interventionism and as a threat to the equilibrium of constitutional government

Rational decision making in autonomous agents

Making rational decisions is one of the key elements in the design of autonomous agents with successful behavior. Even though there have been many proposals for the support of decision making, most of them can be described either as descriptive or prescriptive. The main goal of our work is to establish the relationship between two of these models, namely bdi and mdps, in order to gain further understanding of how decisions in one model are viewed from the point of view of the other. This goal is important for the development of agent design strategies that unite the best of both worlds.Eje: Inteligencia artificial distribuida, aspectos teóricos de la inteligencia artificial y teoría de computaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI