On environment difficulty and discriminating power

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10458-014-9257-1This paper presents a way to estimate the difficulty and discriminating power of any task instance. We focus on a very general setting for tasks: interactive (possibly multiagent) environments where an agent acts upon observations and rewards. Instead of analysing the complexity of the environment, the state space or the actions that are performed by the agent, we analyse the performance of a population of agent policies against the task, leading to a distribution that is examined in terms of policy complexity. This distribution is then sliced by the algorithmic complexity of the policy and analysed through several diagrams and indicators. The notion of environment response curve is also introduced, by inverting the performance results into an ability scale. We apply all these concepts, diagrams and indicators to two illustrative problems: a class of agent-populated elementary cellular automata, showing how the difficulty and discriminating power may vary for several environments, and a multiagent system, where agents can become predators or preys, and may need to coordinate. Finally, we discuss how these tools can be applied to characterise (interactive) tasks and (multi-agent) environments. These characterisations can then be used to get more insight about agent performance and to facilitate the development of adaptive tests for the evaluation of agent abilities.I thank the reviewers for their comments, especially those aiming at a clearer connection with the field of multi-agent systems and the suggestion of better approximations for the calculation of the response curves. The implementation of the elementary cellular automata used in the environments is based on the library 'CellularAutomaton' by John Hughes for R [58]. I am grateful to Fernando Soler-Toscano for letting me know about their work [65] on the complexity of 2D objects generated by elementary cellular automata. I would also like to thank David L. Dowe for his comments on a previous version of this paper. This work was supported by the MEC/MINECO projects CONSOLIDER-INGENIO CSD2007-00022 and TIN 2010-21062-C02-02, GVA project PROMETEO/2008/051, the COST - European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research IC0801 AT, and the REFRAME project, granted by the European Coordinated Research on Long-term Challenges in Information and Communication Sciences & Technologies ERA-Net (CHIST-ERA), and funded by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad in Spain (PCIN-2013-037).José Hernández-Orallo (2015). On environment difficulty and discriminating power. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. 29(3):402-454. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-014-9257-1S402454293Anderson, J., Baltes, J., & Cheng, C. T. (2011). 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Improving Distributed Decision Making in Inventory Management: A Combined ABC-AHP Approach Supported by Teamwork

[EN] The need of organizations to ensure service levels that impact on customer satisfaction has required the design of collaborative processes among stakeholders involved in inventory decision making. The increase of quantity and variety of items, on the one hand, and demand and customer expectations, on the other hand, are transformed into a greater complexity in inventory management, requiring effective communication and agreements between the leaders of the logistics processes. Traditionally, decision making in inventory management was based on approaches conditioned only by cost or sales volume. These approaches must be overcome by others that consider multiple criteria, involving several areas of the companies and taking into account the opinions of the stakeholders involved in these decisions. Inventory management becomes part of a complex system that involves stakeholders from different areas of the company, where each agent has limited information and where the cooperation between such agents is key for the system's performance. In this paper, a distributed inventory control approach was used with the decisions allowing communication between the stakeholders and with a multicriteria group decision-making perspective. This work proposes a methodology that combines the analysis of the value chain and the AHP technique, in order to improve communication and the performance of the areas related to inventory management decision making. This methodology uses the areas of the value chain as a theoretical framework to identify the criteria necessary for the application of the AHP multicriteria group decision-making technique. These criteria were defined as indicators that measure the performance of the areas of the value chain related to inventory management and were used to classify ABC inventory of the products according to these selected criteria. Therefore, the methodology allows us to solve inventory management DDM based on multicriteria ABC classification and was validated in a Colombian company belonging to the graphic arts sector.Pérez Vergara, IG.; Arias Sánchez, JA.; Poveda Bautista, R.; Diego-Mas, JA. (2020). Improving Distributed Decision Making in Inventory Management: A Combined ABC-AHP Approach Supported by Teamwork. Complexity. 2020:1-13. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6758108S1132020Poveda-Bautista, R., Baptista, D. C., & García-Melón, M. (2012). Setting competitiveness indicators using BSC and ANP. International Journal of Production Research, 50(17), 4738-4752. doi:10.1080/00207543.2012.657964Castro Zuluaga, C. A., Velez Gallego, M. C., & Catro Urrego, J. A. (2011). Clasificación ABC Multicriterio: Tipos de Criterios y efectos en la asignación de pesos. ITECKNE, 8(2). doi:10.15332/iteckne.v8i2.35Morash, E. A., & Clinton, S. R. (1998). Supply Chain Integration: Customer Value through Collaborative Closeness versus Operational Excellence. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 6(4), 104-120. doi:10.1080/10696679.1998.11501814Fabbe-Costes, N. (2015). Évaluer la création de valeurdu Supply Chain Management. Logistique & Management, 23(4), 41-50. doi:10.1080/12507970.2015.11758621Flores, B. E., & Clay Whybark, D. (1986). Multiple Criteria ABC Analysis. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 6(3), 38-46. doi:10.1108/eb054765Partovi, F. Y., & Burton, J. (1993). Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process for ABC Analysis. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 13(9), 29-44. doi:10.1108/01443579310043619Balaji, K., & Kumar, V. S. S. (2014). Multicriteria Inventory ABC Classification in an Automobile Rubber Components Manufacturing Industry. Procedia CIRP, 17, 463-468. doi:10.1016/j.procir.2014.02.044Ramanathan, R. (2006). ABC inventory classification with multiple-criteria using weighted linear optimization. Computers & Operations Research, 33(3), 695-700. doi:10.1016/j.cor.2004.07.014Van Kampen, T. J., Akkerman, R., & Pieter van Donk, D. (2012). SKU classification: a literature review and conceptual framework. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 32(7), 850-876. doi:10.1108/01443571211250112Flores, B. E., Olson, D. L., & Dorai, V. K. (1992). Management of multicriteria inventory classification. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 16(12), 71-82. doi:10.1016/0895-7177(92)90021-cGajpal, P. P., Ganesh, L. S., & Rajendran, C. (1994). Criticality analysis of spare parts using the analytic hierarchy process. International Journal of Production Economics, 35(1-3), 293-297. doi:10.1016/0925-5273(94)90095-7Scala, N. M., Rajgopal, J., & Needy, K. L. (2014). Managing Nuclear Spare Parts Inventories: A Data Driven Methodology. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 61(1), 28-37. doi:10.1109/tem.2013.2283170Hadad, Y., & Keren, B. (2013). ABC inventory classification via linear discriminant analysis and ranking methods. International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 14(4), 387. doi:10.1504/ijlsm.2013.052744Altay Guvenir, H., & Erel, E. (1998). Multicriteria inventory classification using a genetic algorithm. European Journal of Operational Research, 105(1), 29-37. doi:10.1016/s0377-2217(97)00039-8Rezaei, J., & Dowlatshahi, S. (2010). A rule-based multi-criteria approach to inventory classification. International Journal of Production Research, 48(23), 7107-7126. doi:10.1080/00207540903348361Hatefi, S. M., Torabi, S. A., & Bagheri, P. (2013). Multi-criteria ABC inventory classification with mixed quantitative and qualitative criteria. International Journal of Production Research, 52(3), 776-786. doi:10.1080/00207543.2013.838328Ishizaka, A., Pearman, C., & Nemery, P. (2012). AHPSort: an AHP-based method for sorting problems. International Journal of Production Research, 50(17), 4767-4784. doi:10.1080/00207543.2012.657966Yu, M.-C. (2011). Multi-criteria ABC analysis using artificial-intelligence-based classification techniques. Expert Systems with Applications, 38(4), 3416-3421. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2010.08.127Tsai, C.-Y., & Yeh, S.-W. (2008). A multiple objective particle swarm optimization approach for inventory classification. International Journal of Production Economics, 114(2), 656-666. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2008.02.017Aydin Keskin, G., & Ozkan, C. (2013). Multiple Criteria ABC Analysis with FCM Clustering. Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2013, 1-7. doi:10.1155/2013/827274Lolli, F., Ishizaka, A., & Gamberini, R. (2014). New AHP-based approaches for multi-criteria inventory classification. International Journal of Production Economics, 156, 62-74. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.05.015Raja, A. M. L., Ai, T. J., & Astanti, R. D. (2016). A Clustering Classification of Spare Parts for Improving Inventory Policies. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 114, 012075. doi:10.1088/1757-899x/114/1/012075Zowid, F. M., Babai, M. Z., Douissa, M. R., & Ducq, Y. (2019). Multi-criteria inventory ABC classification using Gaussian Mixture Model. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 52(13), 1925-1930. doi:10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.11.484Babai, M. Z., Ladhari, T., & Lajili, I. (2014). On the inventory performance of multi-criteria classification methods: empirical investigation. International Journal of Production Research, 53(1), 279-290. doi:10.1080/00207543.2014.952791Schneeweiss, C. (2003). Distributed decision making––a unified approach. 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Machine learning for multi-criteria inventory classification applied to intermittent demand. Production Planning & Control, 30(1), 76-89. doi:10.1080/09537287.2018.1525506Kartal, H., Oztekin, A., Gunasekaran, A., & Cebi, F. (2016). An integrated decision analytic framework of machine learning with multi-criteria decision making for multi-attribute inventory classification. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 101, 599-613. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2016.06.004López-Soto, D., Angel-Bello, F., Yacout, S., & Alvarez, A. (2017). A multi-start algorithm to design a multi-class classifier for a multi-criteria ABC inventory classification problem. Expert Systems with Applications, 81, 12-21. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2017.02.048Dweiri, F., Kumar, S., Khan, S. A., & Jain, V. (2016). Designing an integrated AHP based decision support system for supplier selection in automotive industry. 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Journal of Cleaner Production, 96, 209-219. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.05.040Ishizaka, A., & Labib, A. (2011). Selection of new production facilities with the Group Analytic Hierarchy Process Ordering method. Expert Systems with Applications, 38(6), 7317-7325. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2010.12.004Partovi, F. Y., & Anandarajan, M. (2002). Classifying inventory using an artificial neural network approach. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 41(4), 389-404. doi:10.1016/s0360-8352(01)00064-xAlonso-Manzanedo, M., De-la -Fuente-Aragon, M. V., & Ros-McDonnell, L. (2013). A Proposed Collaborative Network Enterprise Model in the Fruit-and-Vegetable Sector Using Maturity Models. Annals of Industrial Engineering 2012, 359-366. doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-5349-8_42Augusto, M., Lisboa, J., Yasin, M., & Figueira, J. R. (2008). Benchmarking in a multiple criteria performance context: An application and a conceptual framework. European Journal of Operational Research, 184(1), 244-254. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2006.10.05

A Survey on Continuous Time Computations

We provide an overview of theories of continuous time computation. These theories allow us to understand both the hardness of questions related to continuous time dynamical systems and the computational power of continuous time analog models. We survey the existing models, summarizing results, and point to relevant references in the literature

Different Approaches to Proof Systems

The classical approach to proof complexity perceives proof systems as deterministic, uniform, surjective, polynomial-time computable functions that map strings to (propositional) tautologies. This approach has been intensively studied since the late 70’s and a lot of progress has been made. During the last years research was started investigating alternative notions of proof systems. There are interesting results stemming from dropping the uniformity requirement, allowing oracle access, using quantum computations, or employing probabilism. These lead to different notions of proof systems for which we survey recent results in this paper

Research Agenda for Studying Open Source II: View Through the Lens of Referent Discipline Theories

In a companion paper [Niederman et al., 2006] we presented a multi-level research agenda for studying information systems using open source software. This paper examines open source in terms of MIS and referent discipline theories that are the base needed for rigorous study of the research agenda

Solution Approaches for the Management of the Water Resources in Irrigation Water Systems with Fuzzy Costs

[EN] Currently, the management of water networks is key to increase their sustainability. This fact implies that water managers have to develop tools that ease the decision-making process in order to improve the efficiency of irrigation networks, as well as their exploitation costs. The present research proposes a mathematical programming model to optimize the selection of the water sources and the volume over time in water networks, minimizing the operation costs as a function of the water demand and the reservoir capacity. The model, which is based on fuzzy methods, improves the evaluation performed by water managers when they have to decide about the acquisition of the water resources under uncertain costs. Different fuzzy solution approaches have been applied and assessed in terms of model complexity and computational efficiency, showing the solution accomplished for each one. A comparison between different methods was applied in a real water network, reaching a 20% total cost reduction for the best solution.Sanchis, R.; Díaz-Madroñero Boluda, FM.; López Jiménez, PA.; Pérez-Sánchez, M. (2019). Solution Approaches for the Management of the Water Resources in Irrigation Water Systems with Fuzzy Costs. Water. 11(12):1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11122432S1221112Biswas, A. K. (2004). Integrated Water Resources Management: A Reassessment. Water International, 29(2), 248-256. doi:10.1080/02508060408691775Pahl-Wostl, C. (2006). Transitions towards adaptive management of water facing climate and global change. Water Resources Management, 21(1), 49-62. doi:10.1007/s11269-006-9040-4Wu, K., & Zhang, L. (2014). Progress in the Development of Environmental Risk Assessment as a Tool for the Decision-Making Process. Journal of Service Science and Management, 07(02), 131-143. doi:10.4236/jssm.2014.72011Hernández-Bedolla, J., Solera, A., Paredes-Arquiola, J., Pedro-Monzonís, M., Andreu, J., & Sánchez-Quispe, S. (2017). The Assessment of Sustainability Indexes and Climate Change Impacts on Integrated Water Resource Management. Water, 9(3), 213. doi:10.3390/w9030213Hunink, J., Simons, G., Suárez-Almiñana, S., Solera, A., Andreu, J., Giuliani, M., … Bastiaanssen, W. (2019). A Simplified Water Accounting Procedure to Assess Climate Change Impact on Water Resources for Agriculture across Different European River Basins. Water, 11(10), 1976. doi:10.3390/w11101976Pérez-Sánchez, M., Sánchez-Romero, F., Ramos, H., & López-Jiménez, P. (2016). Modeling Irrigation Networks for the Quantification of Potential Energy Recovering: A Case Study. Water, 8(6), 234. doi:10.3390/w8060234Corominas, J. (2010). Agua y energía en el riego, en la época de la sostenibilidad. 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Parameterized Algorithmics for Computational Social Choice: Nine Research Challenges

Computational Social Choice is an interdisciplinary research area involving Economics, Political Science, and Social Science on the one side, and Mathematics and Computer Science (including Artificial Intelligence and Multiagent Systems) on the other side. Typical computational problems studied in this field include the vulnerability of voting procedures against attacks, or preference aggregation in multi-agent systems. Parameterized Algorithmics is a subfield of Theoretical Computer Science seeking to exploit meaningful problem-specific parameters in order to identify tractable special cases of in general computationally hard problems. In this paper, we propose nine of our favorite research challenges concerning the parameterized complexity of problems appearing in this context

On the Complexity of Solving Quadratic Boolean Systems

A fundamental problem in computer science is to find all the common zeroes of $m$ quadratic polynomials in $n$ unknowns over $\mathbb{F}_2$. The cryptanalysis of several modern ciphers reduces to this problem. Up to now, the best complexity bound was reached by an exhaustive search in $4\log_2 n\,2^n$ operations. We give an algorithm that reduces the problem to a combination of exhaustive search and sparse linear algebra. This algorithm has several variants depending on the method used for the linear algebra step. Under precise algebraic assumptions on the input system, we show that the deterministic variant of our algorithm has complexity bounded by $O(2^{0.841n})$ when $m=n$, while a probabilistic variant of the Las Vegas type has expected complexity $O(2^{0.792n})$. Experiments on random systems show that the algebraic assumptions are satisfied with probability very close to~1. We also give a rough estimate for the actual threshold between our method and exhaustive search, which is as low as~200, and thus very relevant for cryptographic applications.Comment: 25 page