PROXIMITY MANAGEMENT IN CRISIS CONDITIONS

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of assimilation for the terms "Proximity Management" and "Proximity Manager", both in the specialized literature and in practice. The study has two parts: the theoretical research of the two terms, and an evaluation of the use of Proximity management in 32 companies in Gorj, Romania. The object of the evaluation resides in 27 companies with less than 50 employees and 5 companies with more than 50 employees.proximity management, proximity manager, leadership, leader

PROXIMITY MANAGEMENT IN CRISIS CONDITIONS

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of assimilation for the terms "Proximity Management" and "Proximity Manager", both in the specialized literature and in practice. The study has two parts: the theoretical research of the two terms, and an evaluation of the use of Proximity management in 32 companies in Gorj, Romania. The object of the evaluation resides in 27 companies with less than 50 employees and 5 companies with more than 50 employees

Efficient Matchmaking and Directory Services

It has been widely recognised that matchmaking is an important component of heterogeneous multiagent systems. Several researchers have developed powerful techniques for the matchmaking problem in general. There are also specific representation of agent capabilities such as DAML-S which provide a more specific framework for matchmaking. Most approaches to matchmaking have assumed a sequential search for an agent with matching capabilities. This may become intractable when the number of available agents gets large. In this paper, we consider how matchmaking can be developed into agent directories that can be searched and maintained efficiently. Our main contribution is to show how matchmaking with DAML-S specifications can be integrated with efficient methods for searching and maintaining balanced directory trees. We also report on experimental results using an implementation based on generalised search trees

A Multiagent System for the Reliable Execution of Automatically Composed Ad-hoc Processes

This article presents an architecture to automatically create ad-hoc processes for complex value-added services and to execute them in a reliable way. The uniqueness of ad-hoc processes is to support users not only in standardized situations like traditional workflows do, but also in unique non-recurring situations. Based on user requirements, a service composition engine generates such ad-hoc processes, which integrate individual services in order to provide the desired functionality. Our infrastructure executes ad-hoc processes by transactional agents in a peer-to-peer style. The process execution is thereby performed under transactional guarantees. Moreover, the service composition engine is used to re-plan in the case of execution failure

Enterprise Java Beans, Distributed Artificial Intelligence and Group Communication

Today's Middleware is facing increasing pressures to operate in more open, loosely coupled and complex environments. E-business systems require seamless transactions between multiple enterprises and software components are becoming more opaque in an effort to hide their complexity. In parallel, interactions between components are becoming increasingly sophisticated. This paper describes: - The integration of a well known standards compliant agent platform with a transactional J2EE application server to create a hybrid middleware able to make use of high level agent communication and other features. - An solution for Group Communication (GC) (a known Distributed Systems problem) using the hybrid middleware. - The extension of GC to illustrate how new challenges in distributed applications might be dealt with by a convergence of Distributed Systems theory, Distributed Artificial Intelligence and Middleware solutions. The purpose of the paper is not to eulogise any particular technology but to highlight the relevance of research in the areas of Distributed systems, Distributed Artificial Intelligence and Middleware and illustrate how they might co-evolve

Using the Right Content on Social Media to Enhance Consumer Engagement

Online marketing covers a significant portion of what a brand's promotion strategy means today. Whether the focus is on the organic side of online marketing or the paid one, promotional efforts must be viewed with the same level of importance in building an effective campaign that generates controllable results. The choice of online promotion channels, where a company's potential customers spend their time, as well as the differentiation in types of content that can be uploaded play a significant role in determining consumers to actively engage with the respective brand. Authors from the specialized literature have conflicting opinions regarding the effectiveness of the various types of content uploaded by brands on their social media pages. Thus, there is the need of evaluating the effectiveness of the main existing content categories (informational, remunerative, entertainment and relational), as well as identifying that content that determines certain behaviors among online users, respectively changes in their level of interaction with a brand. To solve such a decision-making problem, we have conducted two direct researches. The first was a marketing experiment, on the Facebook and Instagram pages of a coffee shop, in order to determine the level of engagement users have based on the content type. We have made 12 social media posts, based on content type, length of the description text, the day of the week and the period of the day in which they were made public. The second research was a survey among the social media users following the coffee shop accounts, in order to evaluate the consumer’s opinion about the above-mentioned types of content. Comparing the results of the 2 researches, we have identified both correlations and certain existing contradictions between consumers’ actual behavior in the online environment and the preferences they state regarding the posts with which they are most likely to interact

Extending Peer-to-Peer Networks for Approximate Search

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks are used worldwide for many applications such as file sharing or news servers. There are many different implementations available, each with its pros and cons. In this paper, we propose a way to enable approximate queries in a P2P network by using a special encoding function and error correcting codes. The encoding function maintains neighborhood relationships so that two similar inputs will result in two similar outputs. The error correcting code is then used to group the similar encoded values around special codewords. In this manner, similar content is located as close as possible in the network. The algorithm is tested in a simulated environment on a HyperCube type network overlay in order to see if it can be a viable solution in a real network

Marketing Campaign for Sports Clubs. Case study: Archery Club Saga

Over the years, along with the technological development and the migration of numerous activities from the offline to the online, we have come to live in a world where sedentarism prevails. In this context, now more than ever, sport has an essential role in the harmonious development of the young generations, as well as in maintaining the physical health of each individual. In Romania, since our first participation at the Olympic Games in 1900, sport has occupied a place of honor and athletes have been continuously supported to reach performance, while aiming to popularize and normalize an active lifestyle among the general population. However, coming out of the communist era (early 90’s) meant also the end of coherent strategies for sport and, thus, no more results in European and international competitions. When looking at a local level, this responsibility falls in the hands of local sports clubs so that every citizen can be given the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of doing sports, while sport passionate shall have, through appropriate coaching and guidance, the chance to reach performance. As such, this paper aims to emphasize the key role that marketing has in the sport industry and the importance of the promotional activities for the growth of local sports clubs. More specific, this paper comprises a description of the sports market, and at a local level, the situation of archery in Bacau city through an analysis of SAGA, the only archery club in town. The paper presents the results of a quantitative research aiming to uncover the attitudes, perceptions and behavior of Bacau citizens regarding sports in general, and in particular, archery. Based on these results, and on the current situation of SAGA sports club, in the last part of the paper we propose a promotional campaign for this club

The Agentcities Network Architecture

Agentcities is a worldwide initiative designed to help realize the commercial and research potential of agent-based applications by constructing an open distributed network of platforms hosting diverse agents and services. The ultimate aim of the Agentcities initiative is to enable the dynamic, intelligent and autonomous composition of services to achieve user and business goals, thereby creating compound services to address changing needs. In this paper, we present the progress and current status of the Agentcities Network, six months after the launch of the project. The architecture of the Network, consisting of agents, services and platforms, is described. Finally, the plans and challenges for enhancing the Agentcities Network in the next phase of development are also discussed

The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra–West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe