Engineering complex systems with multigroup agents

Doctor of PhilosophyComputing and Information SciencesScott A. DeLoachAs sensor prices drop and computing devices continue to become more compact and powerful, computing capabilities are being embedded throughout our physical environment. Connecting these devices in cyber-physical systems (CPS) enables applications with significant societal impact and economic benefit. However, engineering CPS poses modeling, architecture, and engineering challenges and, to fully realize the desired benefits, many outstanding challenges must be addressed. For the cyber parts of CPS, two decades of work in the design of autonomous agents and multiagent systems (MAS) offers design principles for distributed intelligent systems and formalizations for agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE). MAS foundations offer a natural fit for enabling distributed interacting devices. In some cases, complex control structures such as holarchies can be advantageous. These can motivate complex organizational strategies when implementing such systems with a MAS, and some designs may require agents to act in multiple groups simultaneously. Such agents must be able to manage their multiple associations and assignments in a consistent and unambiguous way. This thesis shows how designing agents as systems of intelligent subagents offers a reusable and practical approach to designing complex systems. It presents a set of flexible, reusable components developed for OBAA++, an organization-based architecture for single-group MAS, and shows how these components were used to develop the Adaptive Architecture for Systems of Intelligent Systems (AASIS) to enable multigroup agents suitable for complex, multigroup MAS. This work illustrates the reusability and flexibility of the approach by using AASIS to simulate a CPS for an intelligent power distribution system (IPDS) operating two multigroup MAS concurrently: one providing continuous voltage control and a second conducting discrete power auctions near sources of distributed generation

Becoming

Catálogo de la exposición en el Pabellón Español de la XVI Muestra Internacional de Arquitectura, Venecia, 26 mayo – 25 noviembre 2018. Lema "freespace".La edición de esta publicación ha sido patrocinada por Arquia Banc

Investigating the antibiotic and metal binding properties of obafluorin

Humans have utilised natural products (NPs) throughout history for a variety of different applicationsincludinginas pharmaceuticals; more than seventy percent of the antibiotics we use today are NPs or their derivatives. This project focusses onthe NP,obafluorin,a broad-spectrum antibiotic produced by the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens. Its structure consistsof a -lactone coredecorated with a catecholmoietyand a 4-nitrophenyl group. -lactones, although susceptible to hydrolysis and attack by -lactamase enzymes, are components of various structurally diverse NPs with valuable biological activities. The biosynthesis of obafluorinin P. fluorescenshas been characterised previously and itsmolecular targethas been identified as the threonyl-tRNA synthetase (ThrRS) enzyme. However, its mechanism of action remainselusive. Here, I report progress towards understanding the properties of obafluorin and their role in itsmechanism of action. I used a biochemical approach to unpick the role of chemical constituents of the structure of obafluorin. The catechol was found to be essential for both the bioactivityand ferric iron binding properties of obafluorin. Through characterisation of theobafluorin-iron complex, I have found that iron binding is responsible for protecting the -lactoneofobafluorin from hydrolytic breakdown, and this to be vital for bioactivity. Unfortunately, studieson elucidation of the interaction between obafluorin and ThrRSwere thwarted due to the reactivity of the compoundinvitro. However,this report details significant progress made to understand the propertiesandbioactivity ofthis previously disregarded antibiotic. These studies highlight the importance of further investigations into “old” antibiotics and demonstrate the potential of antibiotic-iron interactions. This could represent an underexplored area of antibiotic research which could hold great value in the fight against antimicrobial resistance

The BG News August 21, 1999

The BGSU campus student newspaper August 21, 1999. Volume 84 - Issue 1https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news/7507/thumbnail.jp

Expanding Opportunities for Single Parents through Housing. Guidelines for New and Existing Housing and Neighborhoods that Meet the Needs of Single-Parent Families.

Supported by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota, and the Minnesota Association of Women in Housing

Queering Ghana: Sexuality, Community, And The Struggle For Cultural Belonging In An African Nation

In this dissertation, I provide an analysis of the social practices of a queer community in southern Ghana known as Saso people. Drawing on in-depth interviews with indigenous religious priests, I focus specifically on practices of leadership and kinship, sexual initiation, and engagement and marriage. I interpret these practices as a set of strategies deployed by Saso people to articulate a sense of cultural belonging in contemporary Ghana. In so doing, I make a contribution to the scant ethnographic literature on queer African communities, while demonstrating the value of priests as research subjects. My ethnographic fieldwork, as well as that of Kathleen O\u27Mara\u27s (2007, 2011) has shown that indigenous religious priests are often central figures in queer Ghanaian communities. My use of priests as primary interlocutors for learning about Saso social practices rests not only in the knowledge of Saso life that their prominence in these communities has afforded them, but also in shifting focus to a queer subject that has often been overlooked in the literature on queer sexuality in African communities. In Chapter 1, I explore public discussion about queer sexuality in Ghana as articulated by both state and non-state actors. I situate the contemporary homophobic rhetoric in Ghana within the context of larger issues of post-colonial anxieties, democratization, and state sovereignty, and suggest that queer bodies becomes sites for engaging in larger debates about these issues not only in Ghana but in other post-colonial African states. In Chapter 2, I discuss practices of leadership and non-biological kinship among Saso people. I demonstrate how Saso kinship networks not only provide a context for enculturation and the affirmation of Saso social values, but they also provide a community of social, emotional, and intellectual support that Saso people draw upon to navigate the complexities of queer existence in contemporary Ghana. In Chapter 3, I discuss a practice of sexual initiation among Saso people referred to as ntetee;. I argue that ntetee; is fundamentally a practice of community formation, since it aims to expand the Saso community and incorporate men socially within its institutions and practices. I also discuss how it challenges the idea of queer sexuality in Africa a Western import, since I demonstrate that ntetee; draws upon local cultural concepts and practices. In Chapter 4, I discuss engagement and wedding ceremonies among Saso people. I focus on the ritual aspects of these practices, and I discuss the relationship between Saso marriage and opposite-sex marriage. In focusing on issues of performance and performativity, I illuminate the various ways in which these practices enable Saso people to articulate a sense of belonging through the appropriation and reconfiguration of indigenous institutions. Drawing on recent theorization about performance, disidentification, and cultural labor to think about these Saso social practices, this dissertation also offers insights to enrich our understanding of postcoloniality, sovereignty, and democratization in Africa

Land governance and gender

This book delivers new conceptual and empirical studies surrounding the design and evaluation of land governance, focusing on land management approaches, land policy issues, advances in pro-poor land tenure and land-based gender concerns. It explores alternative approaches for land management and land tenure through international experiences. Themes include Islamic tenure, reverse migration, matriarchy/matrilineal systems, structural inequality, tenure-responsive planning, land-related instabilities and COVID-19, urban-rural land concerns, women's tenure bargaining, tenure-gender nexus concerns in developing and developed countries

Land governance and gender

This book delivers new conceptual and empirical studies surrounding the design and evaluation of land governance, focusing on land management approaches, land policy issues, advances in pro-poor land tenure and land-based gender concerns. It explores alternative approaches for land management and land tenure through international experiences. Themes include Islamic tenure, reverse migration, matriarchy/matrilineal systems, structural inequality, tenure-responsive planning, land-related instabilities and COVID-19, urban-rural land concerns, women's tenure bargaining, tenure-gender nexus concerns in developing and developed countries