A Schema for Specifying Computational Autonomy

A key property associated with computational agency is autonomy, and it is broadly agreed that agents as autonomous entities (or autonomous software in general) have the capacity to become an enabling technology for a variety of complex applications in fields such as telecommunications, e/m-commerce, and pervasive computing. This raises the strong need for techniques that support developers of agentoriented applications in specifying the kind and level of autonomy they want to ascribe to the individual agents. This paper describes a specification schema called RNS ("Roles, Norms, Sanctions") that has been developed in response to this need. The basic view underlying RNS is that agents act as owners of roles in order to attain their individual and joint goals. As a role owner an agent is exposed to certain norms (permissions, obligations and interdictions), and through behaving in conformity with or in deviation from norms an agent becomes exposed to certain sanctions (reward and punishment). RNS has several desirable features which together make it unique and distinct from other approaches to autonomy specification. In particular, unlike other approaches RNS is strongly expressive and makes it possible to specify autonomy at a very precise level

Synthesis and characterization of some 1,2,4-triazole-3(4h)-thiones obtained from intramolecular cyclization of new 1-(4-(4-x-phenylsulfonyl)benzoyl)-4-(4-iodophenyl)- thiosemicarbazides

This paper presents new heterocyclic compounds from the class of 1,2,4-triazole-3(4H)-thione which were obtained by intramolecular cyclization, in basic media of the some acylthiosemicarbazides containing diphenylsulfone moieties. The new 1-(4-(4-X-phenylsulfonyl)benzoyl)-4- (4-iodophenyl)-thiosemicarbazides (7a-c) were obtained by the reaction of 4-(4-X-phenylsulfonyl)-benzoic acid hydrazides (6a-c) (X=H, Cl or Br) with 4-iodophenylisothiocyanate. The cyclization of the acylthiosemicarbazides 7a-c in the presence of an 8 % NaOH solution resulted in the formation of the new 5-(4-(4-X-phenylsulfonyl)phenyl)-4-(4-iodophenyl)-2H-1,2,4-triazole-3(4H)-thiones (8a-c). The structures of the newly synthesized compounds were elucidated by spectral methods (IR, UV-Vis, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and MS spectroscopy) and elemental analysis