Agent-based simulation of a financial market

This paper introduces an agent-based artificial financial market in which heterogeneous agents trade one single asset through a realistic trading mechanism for price formation. Agents are initially endowed with a finite amount of cash and a given finite portfolio of assets. There is no money-creation process; the total available cash is conserved in time. In each period, agents make random buy and sell decisions that are constrained by available resources, subject to clustering, and dependent on the volatility of previous periods. The model herein proposed is able to reproduce the leptokurtic shape of the probability density of log price returns and the clustering of volatility. Implemented using extreme programming and object-oriented technology, the simulator is a flexible computational experimental facility that can find applications in both academic and industrial research projects.Comment: 11 pages, 3 EPS figures, LaTEX. To be published in Physica A (Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Application of Physics in Economic Modelling, Prague 8-10 February 2001

Glimpses of an urbanism to come

First exhaustive research paper to provide a comprehensive spatial analysis of the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy. The paper argues that the 2001 G8 Summit saw the emergence of spatial techniques to control public spaces that would become paradigmatic of the urbanism of the XXIst century. Through maps and diagrams the events that took place during the summit are analysed and then compared to planning techniques utilised in other political rallies (2007 APEC, Sydney) or new cities (Dubai). By highlighting what tools and concepts underpin this emergent urbanism, the paper calls for a kind of architect that understands his role beyond the mere invention of new forms

Marine aerobic biofilm as biocathode catalyst

Stainless steel electrodes were immersed in open seawater and polarized for some days at − 200 mV vs. Ag/AgCl. The current increase indicated the formation of biofilms that catalysed the electrochemical reduction of oxygen. These wild, electrochemically active (EA) biofilms were scraped, resuspended in seawater and used as the inoculum in closed 0.5 L electrochemical reactors. This procedure allowed marine biofilms that are able to catalyse oxygen reduction to be formed in small, closed small vessels for the first time. Potential polarisation during biofilm formation was required to obtain EA biofilms and the roughness of the surface favoured high current values. The low availability of nutrients was shown to be a main limitation. Using an open reactor continuously fed with filtered seawater multiplied the current density by a factor of around 20, up to 60 µA/cm2, which was higher than the current density provided in open seawater by the initial wild biofilm. These high values were attributed to continuous feeding with the nutrients contained in seawater and to suppression of the indigenous microbial species that compete with EA strains in natural open environments. Pure isolates were extracted from the wild biofilms and checked for EA properties. Of more than thirty different species tested, only Winogradskyella poriferorum and Acinetobacter johsonii gave current densities of respectively 7% and 3% of the current obtained with the wild biofilm used as inoculum. Current densities obtained with pure cultures were lower than those obtained with wild biofilms. It is suspected that synergetic effects occur in whole biofilms or/and that wild strains may be more efficient than the cultured isolates

Distributed simulation and industry: Potentials and pitfalls

We present the views of five researchers and practitioners of distributed simulation. Collectively we attempt to address what the implications of distributed simulation are for industry. It is hoped that the views contained herein, and the presentations made by the panelists at the 2002 Winter Simulation Conference will raise awareness and stimulate further discussion on the application of distributed simulation methods and technology in an area that is yet to benefit from the arguable economic benefits that this technique promises

Integration of Action and Language Knowledge: A Roadmap for Developmental Robotics

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.”This position paper proposes that the study of embodied cognitive agents, such as humanoid robots, can advance our understanding of the cognitive development of complex sensorimotor, linguistic, and social learning skills. This in turn will benefit the design of cognitive robots capable of learning to handle and manipulate objects and tools autonomously, to cooperate and communicate with other robots and humans, and to adapt their abilities to changing internal, environmental, and social conditions. Four key areas of research challenges are discussed, specifically for the issues related to the understanding of: 1) how agents learn and represent compositional actions; 2) how agents learn and represent compositional lexica; 3) the dynamics of social interaction and learning; and 4) how compositional action and language representations are integrated to bootstrap the cognitive system. The review of specific issues and progress in these areas is then translated into a practical roadmap based on a series of milestones. These milestones provide a possible set of cognitive robotics goals and test scenarios, thus acting as a research roadmap for future work on cognitive developmental robotics.Peer reviewe

Checking graphite and stainless anodes with an experimental model of marine microbial fuel cell

A procedure was proposed to mimic marine microbial fuel cell (MFC) in liquid phase. A graphite anode and a stainless steel cathode which have been proven, separately, to be efficient in MFC were investigated. A closed anodic compartment was inoculated with sediments, filled with deoxygenated seawater and fed with milk to recover the sediment’s sulphide concentration. A stainless steel cathode, immersed in aerated seawater, used the marine biofilm formed on its surface to catalyze oxygen reduction. The cell implemented with a 0.02 m2-graphite anode supplied around 0.10 W/m2 for 45 days. A power of 0.02 W/m2 was obtained after the anode replacement by a 0.06 m2-stainless steel electrode. The cell lost its capacity to make a motor turn after one day of operation, but recovered its full efficiency after a few days in open circuit. The evolution of the kinetic properties of stainless steel was identified as responsible for the power limitation

Port Resilience Practices. The Ecosystem Vision and the Cluster Concept within the RUMBLE and The Dunes Urban Park projects in Genoa

As is emerging in several contemporary studies, there are city-port contexts in which it is increasingly possible to identify new port resilience practices, namely those capable of overcoming past design situations and providing new perspectives on the city-port relationship; these practices are intervening in a prioritized way on the common border. Within these contexts, the capacity of port systems to engage with the city and, while still maintaining their operational aspect, to mitigate the effects of the demarcation generated by property borders can be seen. What further emerges is that ports are extensively fostering practices capable to go beyond the traditional port perimeter; this is contributing to turn the port into a driver of strategic projects. New urgencies, e.g. the harmful acoustic impacts generated by the port noise, are even enhancing the relevance of common borders, becoming new design challenges. These factors are all decisive in the case presented by this article which concerns a portion of the city-port interface in the port of Genoa-Prà. Thanks to the cross-border INTERREG project RUMBLE and its translation into The Dunes Urban Park, this case represents an effective port resilience practice that, by contributing to the redesign of the city-port ecosystem through a multi- dimensional approach, it is opening an unprecedented perspective of multi-scale territorial clustering between several ports, cities and institutions

Getting Conspiratorial: Review of: Conspiracy Culture: From Kennedy to the X-files by Peter Knight

Peter Knight begins his foray into the conspiratorial corners of popular culture with the following provocation: conspiracy theories are no longer the “delusional rantings” of the fringe elements in society, but rather constitute “many people’s normal way of thinking about who they are and how the world works.” Conspiracy theories, in his view, reflect a general skepticism of governmental authority, covert actions, “official” versions of history, and, more broadly, express a philosophical anxiety about agency and causality in these postmodern, poststructural times—and he argues that this skepticism is largely justified

A digital twin approach to develop a new autonomous system able to operate in high temperature environments within industrial plants

open5The study aims to develop an innovative system solution by creating a digital twin that combines virtual prototypes, mathematical models and simulation environments. The paper focuses on the case of a new UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) devoted to operate within hot metal industries. The digital twin supports both the UGV engineering as well as the redesign of the industrial procedures and plant components. The authors address the development of the heating/cooling system able to guarantee UGV reliability within a wide spectrum of operative modes in the complex environment of industrial plant. The digital twin allows to evaluate how the vehicle configuration, boundary conditions and interactions with other plant components affect the UGV systems and subsystems performance. The complexity of interactions and factors requires extensive use of simulation.openAgostino G. Bruzzone,Roberto Cianci,Anna Sciomachen,Kirill Sinelshchikov,Matteo AgrestaBruzzone, Agostino G.; Cianci, Roberto; Sciomachen, ANNA FRANCA; Sinelshchikov, Kirill; Agresta, Matte

Expectations from EMET and OESEE ground listening of possible EM events generated by the TSS 1R

On 22nd February '96, the space mission STS 75 started ,from the NASA facilities at Cape Canaveral. Such a mission consists in the launch of the shuttle Columbia in order to carry out two experiments in the space: the TSS 1R (Tethered Satellite Sistem 1 Refliight) and the USMP (United States Microgravity Payload). The TSS 1R is a replica of a similar mission TSS 1 '92. The TSS space programme is a bilateral scientific cooperation between the USA space agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Agency) and the ASI (Italian Space Agency. The TSS 1R system consists on the shuttle Columbia which deploys, up-ward, by means a conducting tether 20 km long, a spherical satellite (1.5 mt diameter) containing scientific instrumentation. This system, orbiting at about 300 km from the Earth's surface, represents, presently, the largest experimental space structure, Due to its dimensions, flexibility and conducting properties of the tether, the system interacts, in a quite complex manner, wih the earth magnetic field and the ionospheric plasma, in a way that the total system behaves as an electromagnetic radiating antenna as well as an electric power generator. Twelve scientific experiments have been assessed by US and Italian scientists in order to study the electro dynamic behaviour of the structure orbiting in the ionos phere. Two experiments have been prepared in the attempt to receive on the Earth's surface possible electromagnetic events radiated by the TSS 1R. The project EMET (Electro Magnetic Emissions from Tether),USA and the project OESEE (Observations on the Earth Surface of Electromagnetic Emissions) Italy, consist in a coordinated programme of passive detection of such possible EM emissions. This detection will supply the verification of some thoretical hypotheses on the electrodynamic interactions between the orbiting system, the Earth's magnetic field and the ionospheric plasma with two principal aims as the technological assesment of the system concept as well as a deeper knowledge of the ionosphere properties for future space applications. A theoretical model that keeps the peculiarities of tether emissionsis being developed for signal prediction at constant tether current. As a step previous to the calculation of the expected ground signal , the Alfven-wave signature left by the tether far back in the ionosphere has been determined. The scientific expectations from the combined effort to measure the entity of those perturbations will be outlined taking in to account the used ground track sensor systems