Advanced Techniques for Computational and Information Sciences

New techniques in computational and information sciences have played an important role in keeping advancing the so called knowledge economy. Advanced techniques have been introduced to or emerging in almost every field of the scientific world for hundreds of years, which has been accelerated since the late 1970s when the advancement in computers and digital technologies brought the world into the Information Era. In addition to the rapid development of computational intelligence and new data fusion techniques in the past thirty years [1–4], mobile and cloud computing, grid computing driven numeric computation models, big data intelligence, and other emerging technologies have not only expanded the scope of traditional simulation and modelling in many scientific and engineering disciplines [5–8] but also enabled the fusion of traditional and contemporary methods in almost every field in the world [9–11]

Agreement technologies and their use in cloud computing environments

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13748-012-0031-9[EN] Nowadays, cloud computing is revolutionizing the services provided through the Internet to adapt itself in order to keep the quality of its services. Recent research foresees the advent of a new discipline of agent-based cloud computing systems that can make decisions about adaption in an uncertain environment. This paper discusses the role of argumentation in the next generation of agreement technologies and its use in cloud computing environments.This work is supported by the Spanish government (MICINN), project reference: TIN2012-36586-C03-01.Heras Barberá, SM.; De La Piedra, F.; Julian Inglada, VJ.; Rodríguez, S.; Botti Navarro, VJ.; Bajo, J.; Corchado, JM. (2012). Agreement technologies and their use in cloud computing environments. Progress in Artificial Intelligence. 1(4):277-290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13748-012-0031-9S27729014European Comission: The Future of Cloud Computing. Technical report (2010)Barham, P., Dragovic, B., Fraser, K., Hand, S., Harris, T., Ho, A., Neugebauer, R., Pratt, I., Warfield, A.: Xen and the art of virtualization. In: SOSP03 Proceedings of the Nineteenth ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, pp. 164–177. ACM, New York (2003)Wang, L., et. al.: Scientific cloud computing: early definition and experience. In: 10th IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC-08), pp. 825–830. IEEE Press (2008)Talia, D.: Clouds meet agents: toward intelligent cloud services. Internet Comput. IEEE 16(2), 78–81 (2012). doi: 10.1109/MIC.2012.28Heras, S.: Case-Based Argumentation Framework for Agent Societies. PhD thesis, Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/12497 (2011)Ashton, K.: That ‘internet of things’ thing. RFID J. (2009). http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/4986Klusch, M.: Information agent technology for the Internet: a Survey. Data Knowl. Eng. 36, 337–372 (2001)Schaffer, H.E.: X as a Service. Cloud Computing, and the Need for Good Judgment IT Professional 11(5), 4–5 (2009). doi: 10.1109/MITP.2009.112Richardson, L., Ruby, S.: RESTful Web Services, Web services for the real world O’Reilly, Media, May, p. 454 (2007)GlusterFS Developers. The Gluster web site. http://www.gluster.org (2012)Chodorow, K., Dirolf, M.: The Definitive Guide. O’Reilly Media, MongoDB (2010)Fuentes-Fernandez, R., Hassan, S., Pavon, J., Galan, J.M., Lopez-Paredes, A.: Metamodels for role-driven agent-based modelling. Comput. Math. Organ. Theory 18(1), 91–112 (2012)Jordán, J., et al.: A customer support application using argumentation in multi-agent systems. In: 14th International Conference on, Information Fusion, pp. 772–778 (2011)Heras, S., Jordán, J., Botti, V., Julián, V.: Argue to agree: a case-based argumentation approach. Int. J. Approx. Reasoning (2012, in press)Walton, D., Reed, C., Macagno, F.: Argumentation Schemes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2008)Bench-Capon, T., Sartor, G.: A model of legal reasoning with cases incorporating theories and values. Artif. Intell. 150(1–2), 97–143 (2003)Dignum, F., Weigand, H.: Communication and deontic logic. In: Information Systems Correctness and Reusability, pp. 242–260. World Scientific, Singapore (1995)Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.R.: Intelligent agents: theory and practice. Knowl. Eng. Rev. 10(2), 115–152 (1995)Lopez-Rodriguez, I., Hernandez-Tejera, M.: Software agents as cloud computing services. In: 9th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multiagent Systems. Advances in Intelligent and Soft Computing, vol. 88, pp. 271–276. Springer, Berlin (2011)Sim, K.M.: Towards complex negotiation for cloud economy. In: 5th International Conference on Advances in Grid and Pervasive Computing. LNCS, vol. 6104, pp. 395–406. Springer, Berlin (2010)Aversa, R., et al.: Cloud agency: a mobile agent based cloud system. In: International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems, pp. 132–137. IEEE Computer Society Press, Washington, DC (2010)Cao, B., et al.: A service-oriented qos-assured and multi-agent cloud computing architecture. In: 1st International Conference on Cloud Computing. LNCS, vol. 5931, pp. 644–649. Springer, Berlin (2009)Rahwan, I., Simari, G. (eds.): Argumentation in Artificial Intelligence. Springer, Berlin (2009

The Digital Transformation and Disruptive Technologies: Challenges and Solutions for the Electricity Sector in African Markets

The rise of disruptive technologies is profoundly transforming systems of production and management across sectors and industries, but primarily in wealthy countries. This paper considers how disruptive technologies could help improve power sector reform and development in African markets. In particular, it explores the role that might be played by the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and advanced analytics. After reviewing current trends in disruptive technologies, the paper illustrates the application of key elements with use cases in the areas of power infrastructure planning, power sector operations, and off-grid electrification. Finally, the paper looks at context-specific challenges to the widespread implementation of disruptive technologies. While disruptive technologies offer innovative ways of tackling some of the main challenges of traditional approaches to power sector development, their widespread adoption hinges on a concerted effort across public and private players to lend support to key aspects such as improved broadband connectivity, a vibrant startup scene and surrounding technology ecosystem, or simply the right to Internet access