Exploring the resource recovery potentials of municipal solid waste: a review of solid wastes composting in developing countries

Population explosion, high urbanization and improved living standards have induced rapid changes in quantities and materiacompositions of solid waste generation globally. Until recently solid waste disposal in landfills and open dump sites waconsidered more economical and it is the most widely used methods in developing countries. Hence the potentials in the othealternative methods such as the resource recovery and recycling and their integration into waste management have been scarcelassessed. However, the ever growing challenges posed by the rapidly increasing quantities and compositions of solid wastes ideveloping countries led to the searching for alternative waste disposal methods. In this regard the paper presented an assessmenof the resource potentials of municipal solid waste materials arising from cities in developing countries as a strategy fosustainable solid waste management. Using published data on solid waste composition the paper has identified that there is higpotentials of composting in the solid waste stream from cities in developing countries. In conclusion, it recommended the recoverof organic waste material and papers for composting and the recycling of plastic, metals, textiles and others to explore their resource recovery potentials. This will largely reduce the ultimate quantities of solid waste for disposal and lower the operatincosts. This strategy will achieve sustainable waste management in developing countries. It is hoped that the paper has provided useful guide for wastes management policy decisions in developing countries

マルチエージェントプランニングにおける動的協調形態変更メカニズムに関する研究

近年，一般家庭やオフィス等の日常生活環境に対するアンビエントシステムの構築に関する研究が注目されている．一般的に日常生活拠点では複数人が生活しており，その各個人の行動を円滑にサポートするインタラクションを自律的に実行することがアンビエントシステムの目的である．そのためには，生活拠点に設置された有限のインタラクティブデバイスを適切に操作できる能力が要求される．このアンビエントシステムを制御する方法として，各人ごとにインタラクティブデバイス制御のためのプランニングを行うエージェントがお互いに協調競合することが研究されている．本研究では，実世界でのデバイス運用のような環境が動的に変化する状況下においたマルチエージェントの協調形態を利用したプランニングの検討を行った．実環境では環境の変化に対応するプラン修正能力と実際にプランが行われている中でプランの競合を解消させる即応力を求められる．更に協調形態が複数共存させるモデルを考えた場合，直接協調型がプラン修正能力と即応性に長けた状況も生じると考えられる．具体的には，既存研究に対して，これらの共存モデルへの拡張及び，直接協調型の導入も含めた，中央制御型と直接協調型，間接協調型の3 つの協調形態が共存するといったモデルを提案した．提案したモデルのうち，中央制御型と間接協調型の共存型に対して，マルチエージェントシミュレーションプラットフォームであるartisoc にて仮想プランニング空間を構築して実験を行った．実験では，プランニング精度とプランニング実行時間の検証を行い，大規模空間になった際の中央制御型の統率を司るエージェントが複数存在する状況では，中央制御型と間接協調型の共存型を導入することでプランニング精度が向上する可能性を示した．電気通信大学201

Agent programming in the cognitive era

It is claimed that, in the nascent ‘Cognitive Era’, intelligent systems will be trained using machine learning techniques rather than programmed by software developers. A contrary point of view argues that machine learning has limitations, and, taken in isolation, cannot form the basis of autonomous systems capable of intelligent behaviour in complex environments. In this paper, we explore the contributions that agent-oriented programming can make to the development of future intelligent systems. We briefly review the state of the art in agent programming, focussing particularly on BDI-based agent programming languages, and discuss previous work on integrating AI techniques (including machine learning) in agent-oriented programming. We argue that the unique strengths of BDI agent languages provide an ideal framework for integrating the wide range of AI capabilities necessary for progress towards the next-generation of intelligent systems. We identify a range of possible approaches to integrating AI into a BDI agent architecture. Some of these approaches, e.g., ‘AI as a service’, exploit immediate synergies between rapidly maturing AI techniques and agent programming, while others, e.g., ‘AI embedded into agents’ raise more fundamental research questions, and we sketch a programme of research directed towards identifying the most appropriate ways of integrating AI capabilities into agent programs

On the integration of trust with negotiation, argumentation and semantics

Agreement Technologies are needed for autonomous agents to come to mutually acceptable agreements, typically on behalf of humans. These technologies include trust computing, negotiation, argumentation and semantic alignment. In this paper, we identify a number of open questions regarding the integration of computational models and tools for trust computing with negotiation, argumentation and semantic alignment. We consider these questions in general and in the context of applications in open, distributed settings such as the grid and cloud computing. © 2013 Cambridge University Press.This work was partially supported by the Agreement Technology COST action (IC0801). The authors would like to thank for helpful discussions and comments all participants in the panel on >Trust, Argumentation and Semantics> on 16 December 2009, Agia Napa, CyprusPeer Reviewe

A Review of Norms and Normative Multiagent Systems

Norms and normative multiagent systems have become the subjects of interest for many researchers. Such interest is caused by the need for agents to exploit the norms in enhancing their performance in a community. The term norm is used to characterize the behaviours of community members. The concept of normative multiagent systems is used to facilitate collaboration and coordination among social groups of agents. Many researches have been conducted on norms that investigate the fundamental concepts, definitions, classification, and types of norms and normative multiagent systems including normative architectures and normative processes. However, very few researches have been found to comprehensively study and analyze the literature in advancing the current state of norms and normative multiagent systems. Consequently, this paper attempts to present the current state of research on norms and normative multiagent systems and propose a norm’s life cycle model based on the review of the literature. Subsequently, this paper highlights the significant areas for future work

Game Artificial Intelligence: Challenges for the Scientific Community

This paper discusses some of the most interesting challenges to which the games research community members may face in the área of the application of arti cial or computational intelligence techniques to the design and creation of video games. The paper focuses on three lines that certainly will in uence signi cantly the industry of game development in the near future, speci cally on the automatic generation of content, the a ective computing applied to video games and the generation of behaviors that manage the decisions of entities not controlled by the human player.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Artificial Collective Intelligence Engineering: a Survey of Concepts and Perspectives

Collectiveness is an important property of many systems--both natural and artificial. By exploiting a large number of individuals, it is often possible to produce effects that go far beyond the capabilities of the smartest individuals, or even to produce intelligent collective behaviour out of not-so-intelligent individuals. Indeed, collective intelligence, namely the capability of a group to act collectively in a seemingly intelligent way, is increasingly often a design goal of engineered computational systems--motivated by recent techno-scientific trends like the Internet of Things, swarm robotics, and crowd computing, just to name a few. For several years, the collective intelligence observed in natural and artificial systems has served as a source of inspiration for engineering ideas, models, and mechanisms. Today, artificial and computational collective intelligence are recognised research topics, spanning various techniques, kinds of target systems, and application domains. However, there is still a lot of fragmentation in the research panorama of the topic within computer science, and the verticality of most communities and contributions makes it difficult to extract the core underlying ideas and frames of reference. The challenge is to identify, place in a common structure, and ultimately connect the different areas and methods addressing intelligent collectives. To address this gap, this paper considers a set of broad scoping questions providing a map of collective intelligence research, mostly by the point of view of computer scientists and engineers. Accordingly, it covers preliminary notions, fundamental concepts, and the main research perspectives, identifying opportunities and challenges for researchers on artificial and computational collective intelligence engineering.Comment: This is the author's final version of the article, accepted for publication in the Artificial Life journal. Data: 34 pages, 2 figure

Optimización en videojuegos: retos para la comunidad cientí­fica

Este artículo analiza algunos de los desafíos más interesantes a los cuales los miembros de la comunidad MAEB pueden enfrentarse en el área de la aplicación de técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial/Computacional al diseño y creación de videojuegos. El artículo se centra en tres líneas, que en un futuro cercano, seguramente van a influenciar de forma significativa la industria del desarrollo de videojuegos, en concreto se enfoca en la Generación Automática de Contenido, en la Computación Afectiva aplicada a los videojuegos y en la Generación de Comportamientos que gestionen la toma de decisiones de las entidades no controladas por el jugador humano.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Este trabajo está parcialmente financiado por la Junta de Andalucía dentro del proyecto P10-TIC-6083 (DNEMESIS), por el MICINN dentro del proyecto TIN2011-28627-C04-01 (ANYSELF