A Critical Look at the Abstraction Based on Macro-Operators

Abstraction can be an effective technique for dealing with the complexity of planning tasks. This paper is aimed at assessing and identifying in which cases abstraction can actually speed-up the overall search. In fact, it is well known that the impact of abstraction on the time spent to search for a solution of a planning problem can be positive or negative, depending on several factors -including the number of objects defined in the domain, the branching factor, and the plan length. Experimental results highlight the role of such aspects on the overall performance of an algorithm that performs the search at the ground-level only, and compares them with the ones obtained by enforcing abstraction

The precariousnesses of young knowledge workers. A subject-oriented approach

Over the past decades, a number of EU member states have recorded large rises in the use of temporary employment. Young people are far more likely than other groups to be employed in precarious jobs, independently of their education and skills. In the midst of the global economic-financial crisis, in fact, the assault on the conditions of knowledge workers goes on, according to the different lines of the neoliberalistic logics, which juxtapose with the current precarisation processes like underpayment and misalignment between subjects’ educations and their working activities. How do young precarious knowledge workers recount their experiences? What relation holds between a high education level and the possibility of effectively deploying the competences and skills acquired? How do knowledge workers represent and deal with their precarious conditions? To answer these questions, this article proposes a definition of the concepts of ‘precarity’, ‘precariousness’ and ‘precariat’ and then focuses specifically on the precariousness experienced by young knowledge workers in Italy and the importance of investigating precarisation processes in light of their experiences. Hence, the present article discusses the invisible face of the conditions of young knowledge workers, which collides with the official face. The latter superficially presents them as ‘independent professionals’, although they increasingly experience conditions similar to those of dependent workers and at the same time suffer the effects of the further precarisation brought about by the crisis, but missing trade-unions support or political representation

An Adaptive Approach for Planning in Dynamic Environments

Planning in a dynamic environment is a complex task that requires several issues to be investigated in order to manage the associated search complexity. In this paper, an adaptive behavior that integrates planning with learning is presented. The former is performed adopting a hierarchical approach, interleaved with execution. The latter, devised to identify new abstract operators, adopts a chunking technique on successful plans. Integration between planning and learning is also promoted by an agent architecture explicitly designed for supporting abstraction

Experimenting Abstraction Mechanisms Through an Agent-Based Hierarchical Planner

In this paper, an agent-based architecture devised to perform experiments on hierarchical planning is described. The planning activity results from the interaction of a community of agents, some of them being explicitly devoted to embed one or more existing planners. The proposed architecture allows to exploit the characteristics of any external planner, under the hypothesis that a suitable wrapper –in form of planning agent– is provided. An implementation of the architecture, able to embed one planner of the graphplan family, has been used to directly assess whether or not abstraction mechanisms can help to reduce the time complexity of the search on specific domains. Some preliminary experiments are reported, focusing on problems taken from the AIPS 2002, 2000 and 1998 planning competitions. Comparative results, obtained by assessing the performances of the selected planner (used first in a stand-alone configuration and then embedded into the proposed multi-agent architecture), put into evidence that abstraction may significantly speed up the search

The precariousness of knowledge workers: hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification

In knowledge - based industries, work is circumscribed by the cognitive frames of creativity in the representations of subjects, but simultaneously demands adaptability, in a context in which deregulation and individualisation are now normal. The ethics of self - activation are therefore inextricably intertwined with the demands of intensification, standardisation and self - commodification. The first volume of this Special Issue – which is composed of two different parts – is focused on the phenomena of hybridisation, self - employment and subjectification, at the core of the experiences of precarious workers in the knowledge societies. This article introduces the first of a two - part Special Issue on the precariousness of knowledge workers

Una ricerca qualitativa sui lavoratori della conoscenza a Torino

La soggettivit\ue0 dei lavori della conoscenza \ue8 considerata una delle dimensioni specchio della trasformazione postfordista. A partire da questa assunzione, l\u2019analisi proposta utilizza una prospettiva etnosociologica incentrandosi sulle costruzioni di significato con le quali i lavoratori rappresentano la propria condizione. Nello specifico, lo studio restituisce i risultati della ricerca empirica qualitativa sviluppata tra l\u2019estate 2006 e la primavera 2007 attorno ad alcuni eventi della Torino postfordista con la raccolta di interviste a knowledge workers occupati in diverse filiere produttive, dall\u2019informatica alle produzioni digitali, al web, ai nuovi media, alle arti multimediali, alle attivit\ue0 di formazione e ricerca. Emergono alcuni tratti tipici e insieme ambivalenti del lavoro postfordista; deregolazione e deistituzionalizzazione, alta informalit\ue0, precariet\ue0 e innovazione nelle traiettorie lavorative. E\u2019 una condizione lavorativa che si delinea trasversalmente in un segmento alto del lavoro, quello della conoscenza, analogamente a come il lavoro della grande impresa fordista - long term, con alti salari, procedimentalizzazione, ripetitivit\ue0 delle mansioni e alienazione - ha caratterizzato tutta una fase. Molti tratti del lavoro della conoscenza paiono esondare dagli stretti confini del lavoro \u201catipico\u201d e/o precario giovanile

Personalized Text Categorization Using a MultiAgent Architecture

In this paper, a system able to retrieve contents deemed relevant for the users through a text categorization process, is presented. The system is built exploiting a generic multiagent architecture that supports the implementation of applications aimed at (i) retrieving heterogeneous data spread among different sources (e.g., generic html pages, news, blogs, forums, and databases); (ii) filtering and organizing them according to personal interests explicitly stated by each user; (iii) providing adaptation techniques to improve and refine throughout time the profile of each selected user. In particular, the implemented multiagent system creates personalized press-revies from online newspapers. Preliminary results are encouraging and highlight the effectiveness of the approach