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

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

Supporting cooperation and coordination in open multi-agent systems

Cooperation and coordination between agents are fundamental processes for increasing aggregate and individual benefit in open Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). The increased ubiquity, size, and complexity of open MAS in the modern world has prompted significant research interest in the mechanisms that underlie cooperative and coordinated behaviour. In open MAS, in which agents join and leave freely, we can assume the following properties: (i) there are no centralised authorities, (ii) agent authority is uniform, (iii) agents may be heterogeneously owned and designed, and may consequently have con icting intentions and inconsistent capabilities, and (iv) agents are constrained in interactions by a complex connecting network topology. Developing mechanisms to support cooperative and coordinated behaviour that remain effective under these assumptions remains an open research problem. Two of the major mechanisms by which cooperative and coordinated behaviour can be achieved are (i) trust and reputation, and (ii) norms and conventions. Trust and reputation, which support cooperative and coordinated behaviour through notions of reciprocity, are effective in protecting agents from malicious or selfish individuals, but their capabilities can be affected by a lack of information about potential partners and the impact of the underlying network structure. Regarding conventions and norms, there are still a wide variety of open research problems, including: (i) manipulating which convention or norm a population adopts, (ii) how to exploit knowledge of the underlying network structure to improve mechanism efficacy, and (iii) how conventions might be manipulated in the middle and latter stages of their lifecycle, when they have become established and stable. In this thesis, we address these issues and propose a number of techniques and theoretical advancements that help ensure the robustness and efficiency of these mechanisms in the context of open MAS, and demonstrate new techniques for manipulating convention emergence in large, distributed populations. Specfically, we (i) show that gossiping of reputation information can mitigate the detrimental effects of incomplete information on trust and reputation and reduce the impact of network structure, (ii) propose a new model of conventions that accounts for limitations in existing theories, (iii) show how to manipulate convention emergence using small groups of agents inserted by interested parties, (iv) demonstrate how to learn which locations in a network have the greatest capacity to in uence which convention a population adopts, and (v) show how conventions can be manipulated in the middle and latter stages of the convention lifecycle

Lubanga, child soldiering and the philosophy of international law

International criminal law lacks a coherent theory suitable for its own context. This lacuna has left the International Criminal Court (ICC) – the most prominent global penal institution - without clear theoretical premise(s) to guide prosecution and punishment. In its current incarnation, international criminal draws on Western liberal modalities founded on dominant domestic penal rationales of retribution and deterrence. However, these principles appear incongruous to the crimes the ICC prosecutes. The theoretical rationales of ICC have barely been interrogated against an extant case. In 2012, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo became the first defendant to be convicted and jailed by the ICC for the conscription, enlistment and use of child soldiers. The use of child combatants for purposes of war is a pernicious global problem outlawed in international criminal law. However, of the crimes designated as ‘egregious,’ it has historically been under-enforced and inadequately articulated as a mass crime, and allocated lesser gravity. The seminal case of Lubanga provides us with a propitious opportunity, not only to locate child soldiering, but also inquire into the theoretical underpinnings of the ICC with regards to mass crime. Mass crimes are distinct from ordinary crimes. International courts charged with adjudicating them face constraints and can only prosecute a few of the suspected perpetrators. The overarching theoretical and analytic framework for this thesis is premised on the notion that international criminal law needs a plausible theory or rationale suitable for its context and crimes it prosecutes. It is important for the ICC to premise its work on a realistic rationale for it to be purposive. A more logical analysis of international penality would draw on the conceptual underpinnings of the whole project of international law and specific features of the ICC. A good starting point is to note that international criminal justice is largely symbolic. A more plausible penal rationale would consider the inhibitions the ICC faces and the role it can still perform with regards to mass crime. The ICC symbolises contemporary standards of an ‘international community.’ It is this concept from which we can extrapolate viable rationales for ICC penology. How do the trial, conviction and punishment of Lubanga for the ‘mass crime’ of child soldiering serve the collectivist ethos of international law and society? The project that follows proposes a penal rationale that accounts for the ICC’s sui generis character, the nature of crimes it adjudicates and what the court can realistically achieve. The ultimate value of international criminal law may rest not in its functions of retribution or deterrence, but in its role in identity construction, in particular in constructing a cosmopolitan community identity. The overall argument for the thesis is that while retribution and deterrence are valid, the most plausible rationale for ICC penality is the expressive function of law (expressivism). The few cases of mass crime the ICC can prosecute can achieve primarily more realistic aims of expression of global or ‘cosmopolitan’ norms, norm internalisation and the reinforcement of collectivism international law and society. Lubanga provides an illustrative exemplar for this argument

Organizacijsko modeliranje višeagentnih sustava velikih razmjera s primjenom na računalne igre

The most popular and frequent methods of conducting a system of agents, of smallor large-scale, are those based on swarm intelligence, and organisational models. Organisational models for multi-agent systems are being developed alongside their role in the modern world. Technological improvements lead to creation of systems comprising thousands, or millions, of agents – large-scale multiagent system (LSMAS). Numerous LSMAS application domains (Internet of Everything (IoE), massively multi-player online games (MMOGs), smart cities, etc.) make LSMAS a genuinely useful concept in the modern era. Recent studies argue higher efficiency of LSMAS with imposed organisation, as opposed to systems with emerging intelligence. This makes organisational modelling of LSMAS a particularly interesting research subject. Organisational model based on ontology comprising LSMAS-related organisational concepts, built conforming to modern organisational perspectives for LSMAS, is a step towards easier LSMAS modelling. The ontology is basis for an organisational metamodel for LSMAS, which, coupled with graph grammars and logic, is suitable for modelling organisational dynamics, especially in the domain of massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs).Najpoznatiji i najučestaliji oblici uređenja sustava agenata, velikog ili malog razmjera, su oni koji se temelje na inteligenciji roja i oni koji svoje osnove vuku iz organizacijskih modela. Organizacijski modeli višeagentnih sustava razvijaju se usporedno s ulogom takvih sustava u modernom svijetu. Razvojem tehnologije stvaraju se sustavi koji broje tisuće ili milijuneagenata–višeagentnisustavivelikihrazmjera(VASVR).Mnogobrojneaplikacijske domene za VASVR (Internet svega, mrežne računalne igre namijenjene većem broju igrača (MMORPG), pametni gradovi i sl.) čine VASVR realno potrebnim konceptom u moderno doba. Recentna istraživanja ukazuju na veću učinkovitost VASVR uređenih temeljem organizacijske teorije, od onih koji prate inteligencija roja, te je stoga organizacijsko modeliranje VASVR iznimno interesantno podučje za istraživanje. Organizacijski model temeljen na ontologiji organizacijskih koncepata i modernim načelima organizacije VASVR korak je prema lakšem oblikovanju VASVR. Ontologija je baza za organizacijski metamodel za VASVR koji, spojen s gramatikama grafova i logikom, dobiva na prikladnosti za modeliranje organizacijske dinamike, naročito u domeni MMORPG

Organizacijsko modeliranje višeagentnih sustava velikih razmjera s primjenom na računalne igre

The most popular and frequent methods of conducting a system of agents, of smallor large-scale, are those based on swarm intelligence, and organisational models. Organisational models for multi-agent systems are being developed alongside their role in the modern world. Technological improvements lead to creation of systems comprising thousands, or millions, of agents – large-scale multiagent system (LSMAS). Numerous LSMAS application domains (Internet of Everything (IoE), massively multi-player online games (MMOGs), smart cities, etc.) make LSMAS a genuinely useful concept in the modern era. Recent studies argue higher efficiency of LSMAS with imposed organisation, as opposed to systems with emerging intelligence. This makes organisational modelling of LSMAS a particularly interesting research subject. Organisational model based on ontology comprising LSMAS-related organisational concepts, built conforming to modern organisational perspectives for LSMAS, is a step towards easier LSMAS modelling. The ontology is basis for an organisational metamodel for LSMAS, which, coupled with graph grammars and logic, is suitable for modelling organisational dynamics, especially in the domain of massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs).Najpoznatiji i najučestaliji oblici uređenja sustava agenata, velikog ili malog razmjera, su oni koji se temelje na inteligenciji roja i oni koji svoje osnove vuku iz organizacijskih modela. Organizacijski modeli višeagentnih sustava razvijaju se usporedno s ulogom takvih sustava u modernom svijetu. Razvojem tehnologije stvaraju se sustavi koji broje tisuće ili milijuneagenata–višeagentnisustavivelikihrazmjera(VASVR).Mnogobrojneaplikacijske domene za VASVR (Internet svega, mrežne računalne igre namijenjene većem broju igrača (MMORPG), pametni gradovi i sl.) čine VASVR realno potrebnim konceptom u moderno doba. Recentna istraživanja ukazuju na veću učinkovitost VASVR uređenih temeljem organizacijske teorije, od onih koji prate inteligencija roja, te je stoga organizacijsko modeliranje VASVR iznimno interesantno podučje za istraživanje. Organizacijski model temeljen na ontologiji organizacijskih koncepata i modernim načelima organizacije VASVR korak je prema lakšem oblikovanju VASVR. Ontologija je baza za organizacijski metamodel za VASVR koji, spojen s gramatikama grafova i logikom, dobiva na prikladnosti za modeliranje organizacijske dinamike, naročito u domeni MMORPG