A normative approach to multi-agent systems for intelligent buildings

Building Management Systems (BMS) are widely adopted in modern buildings around the world in order to provide high-quality building services, and reduce the running cost of the building. However, most BMS are functionality-oriented and do not consider user personalization. The aim of this research is to capture and represent building management rules using organizational semiotics methods. We implement Semantic Analysis, which determines semantic units in building management and their relationship patterns of behaviour, and Norm Analysis, which extracts and specifies the norms that establish how and when these management actions occur. Finally, we propose a multi-agent framework for norm based building management. This framework contributes to the design domain of intelligent building management system by defining a set of behaviour patterns, and the norms that govern the real-time behaviour in a building

Sustainable Edge Computing: Challenges and Future Directions

An increasing amount of data is being injected into the network from IoT (Internet of Things) applications. Many of these applications, developed to improve society's quality of life, are latency-critical and inject large amounts of data into the network. These requirements of IoT applications trigger the emergence of Edge computing paradigm. Currently, data centers are responsible for a global energy use between 2% and 3%. However, this trend is difficult to maintain, as bringing computing infrastructures closer to the edge of the network comes with its own set of challenges for energy efficiency. In this paper, we propose our approach for the sustainability of future computing infrastructures to provide (i) an energy-efficient and economically viable deployment, (ii) a fault-tolerant automated operation, and (iii) a collaborative resource management to improve resource efficiency. We identify the main limitations of applying Cloud-based approaches close to the data sources and present the research challenges to Edge sustainability arising from these constraints. We propose two-phase immersion cooling, formal modeling, machine learning, and energy-centric federated management as Edge-enabling technologies. We present our early results towards the sustainability of an Edge infrastructure to demonstrate the benefits of our approach for future computing environments and deployments.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figure

Marshall Space Flight Center Research and Technology Report 2019

Today, our calling to explore is greater than ever before, and here at Marshall Space Flight Centerwe make human deep space exploration possible. A key goal for Artemis is demonstrating and perfecting capabilities on the Moon for technologies needed for humans to get to Mars. This years report features 10 of the Agencys 16 Technology Areas, and I am proud of Marshalls role in creating solutions for so many of these daunting technical challenges. Many of these projects will lead to sustainable in-space architecture for human space exploration that will allow us to travel to the Moon, on to Mars, and beyond. Others are developing new scientific instruments capable of providing an unprecedented glimpse into our universe. NASA has led the charge in space exploration for more than six decades, and through the Artemis program we will help build on our work in low Earth orbit and pave the way to the Moon and Mars. At Marshall, we leverage the skills and interest of the international community to conduct scientific research, develop and demonstrate technology, and train international crews to operate further from Earth for longer periods of time than ever before first at the lunar surface, then on to our next giant leap, human exploration of Mars. While each project in this report seeks to advance new technology and challenge conventions, it is important to recognize the diversity of activities and people supporting our mission. This report not only showcases the Centers capabilities and our partnerships, it also highlights the progress our people have achieved in the past year. These scientists, researchers and innovators are why Marshall and NASA will continue to be a leader in innovation, exploration, and discovery for years to come

Perceptions and determinants of partnership trust in the context of Community-Based Participatory Research

Trust is difficult to conceptualize and define because of its diverse applications in different disciplines. Historic mistrust between vulnerable communities and researchers based on past adverse experiences can negatively affect the ability to collaborate and conduct effective research with such populations. Community Based-Participatory Research (CBPR) is a collaborative approach to research that can reduce historic mistrust and health disparities among minority populations. Although how trust development occurs in CBPR partnerships has been explored, there is a need to determine how to move from one stage to the next in fostering and maintaining that trust. The present study contributes to this discussion by addressing the lack of a shared operational definition of partnership trust and of how to measure it in the CBPR literature. We modified Dietz and Den Hartog’s (2006) Multi-dimensional Measure of Trust Model to investigate contextual factors that influence perceptions and development of trust in collaborative partnerships pursuing the reduction of health disparities. We conducted focus groups and key informant interviews with English and Spanish speaking stakeholders of a culturally relevant health promotion organization in the southeastern United States. Stakeholders reported experiencing different types of partnership trust depending on their role, and the length and nature of involvement with the organization. We identified determinants of partnership trust among stakeholders, including organizational, socio-economic, and cultural determinants. Most study participants agreed that trust with Hispanic communities is built slowly, with personal face-to-face contact and follow-up, and that engaging stakeholders throughout the process of working together in an intentional way is vital to building and maintaining trust. Findings of this study will inform the development of a culturally and linguistically relevant quantitative instrument to measure partnership trust in the context of CBPR

Giving While Living: The Beldon Fund Spend-Out Story

Provides insight into the challenges, advantages, and practical implications of a limited-life foundation. Offers strategies, advice, and lessons learned on how spending out affects program strategy, staffing, asset management, and grantee relations

Hard Lessons about Philanthropy & Community Change from the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative

Between 1996 and 2006, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation invested over $20 million in the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative (NII), an ambitious effort to help three neighborhoods in the Bay Area reduce poverty and develop new leaders, better services, more capable organizations, and stronger connections to resources. On some counts NII succeeded, and on others it struggled mightily. In the end, despite some important accomplishments, NII did not fulfill its participants' hopes and expectations for broad, deep, and sustainable community change. In those accomplishments and shortcomings, and in the strategies that produced them, however, lies a story whose relevance exceeds the boundaries of a single initiative. Our goal is to examine this story in the context of other foundation sponsored initiatives to see if it can help philanthropy support community change and other types of long-term, community-based initiatives more effectively.As we began to review materials and conduct interviews, we learned of NII's accomplishments in each neighborhood, including new organizations incubated, new services stimulated, and new leaders helped to emerge. We also quickly discovered multiple, and often conflicting, perspectives on NII's design, implementation, and outcomes that were hard to reconcile. Some of this Rashomon effect is to be expected in a complex, long-term community change initiative that evolves over time with changing players. Some can also be attributed to the different dynamics and trajectories in each of the three sites.We have tried to describe all points of view as accurately as possible without favoring any one perspective. Moreover, we have tried to look beyond the lessons drawn exclusively from NII and to position all of these varied opinions within a broader field-wide perspective, wherever possible.The frustrations of NII's participants and sponsors are mirrored in many other foundations' major initiatives. Indeed, our reviewers -- who have been involved in many such initiatives as funders, evaluators, technical assistance providers, and intermediaries -- all underscored how familiar they were with the challenges and pitfalls described here, both those related specifically to community change efforts and those pertinent to other initiatives. Because the opportunity to discuss the frustrations candidly has been limited, however, they often are relegated to concerns expressed sotto voce. So it was particularly important throughout the review to solicit from our interviewees ideas or suggestions for improving their work together. We offer these along with our own observations as a way to stimulate further reflection and debate, because we believe that philanthropy has an important role to play in improving outcomes for poor communities and their residents. Few foundations have been willing to contribute to this level of honest and sometimes painful public dialogue. But by commissioning this retrospective analysis, the Hewlett Foundation demonstrates a desire to help the field learn and move forward, and we applaud that

Conditions Supporting the Development of Scientific Argumentation in High School Chemistry Classrooms: The Role of Question Prompts and an Interactive Simulation

The purpose of this case study was to provide benefit to preservice and inservice science teachers, who have an interest in applying scientific argumentation in their high school chemistry instructions, by investigating role of question prompts and an interactive simulation supporting the development of scientific argumentation. In particular, the study examined the quality of students’ arguments changing over time in scientific argumentation when they constructed and defended their arguments using the “Gas Properties” computer simulation. For this purpose, forty-seven11th grade students from four classes first worked in pairs and then, all the pairs returned the classroom for discussion. One pair was selected as a focal group by their chemistry teachers within each class resulting in a total of four focal groups. The chemistry teachers posed the driving question of Part I to familiarize students with scientific argumentation while exploring the effect of gravity on the behavior of air molecules in space. Then, the teachers challenged the students with the driving question of Part II to help students construct and defend more elaborate scientific arguments while comparing the behaviors of air and Helium molecules in space. I examined what type of arguments participants found convincing and also searched which conditions (i.e. challenged by the driving question, counter-arguments, peer question or self-questions, or prompted by representation of investigation, teacher questions, or similar arguments) helped students to improve their arguments in scientific argumentation. The results depicted that in pair discussions, argumentation was a way of participants’ collectively supporting a scientific claim based on evidence from the interactive simulation and trying to agree on conclusions drawn from this evidence. Though, only two focal groups generated the highest quality of arguments with the waxing and waning amount of consensus over time from Part I to Part II. On the other hand, in classroom discussions focal groups tried to win their opponents over to their points of view and to weaken opposing views with making their evidence visible on the interactive simulation, which led four focal groups to produce the highest quality of arguments from Part I to Part II

The rise and fall of the fast breeder reactor technology in the UK: between engineering “dreams” and economic “realities”?

This report explores the evolution of the fast breeder nuclear reactor programmes in the UK, from the period of great promises and expectations in the 1950s and 1960s towards their progressive abandonment in the 1980s and 1990s. The project, of which this report is an element, aims thereby to draw lessons relevant for the current “nuclear renaissance” and medium-term planning on the future of nuclear power. Given that the fast breeder programmes were closely interlinked with the general evolution of nuclear power in the UK, this report includes a fairly detailed historical description of this more general ‘nuclear context’. This primarily chronological description of the evolution of the UK fast breeder programmes provides a basis for a comparison between the evolution of the British and French fast breeder reactor programmes. A central question in such a comparison concerns the lateness of the abandonment of the fast breeder programme in France, as compared to most other countries developing this technology. The cross-country comparison will explore the relative influence of the contextual and historical conditions within which the nuclear technologies have evolved in France and the UK on the one hand, and the ‘universal’ factors common to the evolution of socio-technical systems in general on the other. This exploratory research was based on documentary analysis and eleven interviews of experts involved in, or with knowledge of, the UK fast breeder reactor (FBR) programmes