Integrating social power into the decision-making of cognitive agents

AbstractSocial power is a pervasive feature with acknowledged impact in a multitude of social processes. However, despite its importance, common approaches to social power interactions in multi-agent systems are rather simplistic and lack a full comprehensive view of the processes involved. In this work, we integrated a comprehensive model of social power dynamics into a cognitive agent architecture based on an operationalization of different bases of social power inspired by theoretical background research in social psychology. The model was implemented in an agent framework that was subsequently used to generate the behavior of virtual characters in an interactive virtual environment. We performed a user study to assess users' perceptions of the agents and found evidence supporting both the social power capabilities provided by the model and their value for the creation of believable and interesting scenarios. We expect that these advances and the collected evidence can be used to support the development of agent systems with an enriched capacity for social agent simulation

Mediterranean mesocarnivores in spatially structured managed landscapes : community organisation in time and space

During the final stage of the study GCS was funded by a doctoral grant from FCT (PD/BD/114037/2015). TAM thanks support by CEAUL (funded by FCT project – UID/MAT/00006/2013).In the multi-functional and biodiverse cork oak landscapes of Iberia (Montado), agro-silvo-pastoral practices promote landscape heterogeneity and create intricate habitat and resource availability patterns. We used camera-traps to investigate the temporal and spatial organisation of a mesocarnivore community in a Montado landscape in central Portugal. The target carnivore assemblage was largely dominated by three generalist species – the red fox Vulpes vulpes, the European badger Meles meles and the Egyptian mongoose Herpestes ichneumon – while remaining community members – the common genet Genetta genetta and the feral cat Felis silvestris spp. – exhibited restricted distributions. Interspecific differences in activity rhythms and habitat use were particularly marked among widespread species. Low temporal overlap was reported between the diurnal mongoose and predominantly nocturnal red fox and badger. For the latter two species, contrasting differences in habitat use were associated with anthropogenic-induced environmental heterogeneity. Whereas the red fox used more intensively Montado areas preserving dense shrubby understory and avoided semi-disturbed mosaics of sparse shrubs, the badgers displayed the opposite pattern. Our findings add to previous evidence suggesting that the spatial structure created in highly managed landscapes, particularly the diversity of resulting understory structures, promotes the abundance and spread of generalist mesocarnivore species. These may benefit from the surplus of resource amount (e.g. prey) and the creation of different human-made habitats conditions that provide particular combinations of ecological resources favourable to each species requirements. We concur the common view that maintaining understory heterogeneity in Montado landscapes, menaced by current intensification and extensification trends, is important where carnivore persistence is a relevant conservation goal, but alert for potential effects on carnivore assemblages structuring and impacts for specialist species less tolerant to disturbance.PostprintPeer reviewe

Predictable phenotypic, but not karyotypic, evolution of populations with contrasting initial history

This study was financed by Portuguese National Funds through FCT - ‘Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia’ within the projects PTDC/BIA-BEC/098213/2008, PTDC/BIA-BIC/2165/2012 and cE3c Unit FCT funding UID/BIA/00329/2013. I.F. had a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/60734/2009), P.S. has a Post Doc grant (SFRH/BPD/86186/2012) and S.G.S. has a Post Doc grant (SFRH/BPD/108413/2015) from FCT. M.S. is funded by grant CGL2013-42432-P from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) and grant 2014 SGR 1346 from Generalitat de Catalunya. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the figshare repository, at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4797550.The relative impact of selection, chance and history will determine the predictability of evolution. There is a lack of empirical research on this subject, particularly in sexual organisms. Here we use experimental evolution to test the predictability of evolution. We analyse the real-time evolution of Drosophila subobscura populations derived from contrasting European latitudes placed in a novel laboratory environment. Each natural population was sampled twice within a three-year interval. We study evolutionary responses at both phenotypic (life-history, morphological and physiological traits) and karyotypic levels for around 30 generations of laboratory culture. Our results show (1) repeatable historical effects between years in the initial state, at both phenotypic and karyotypic levels; (2) predictable phenotypic evolution with general convergence except for body size; and (3) unpredictable karyotypic evolution. We conclude that the predictability of evolution is contingent on the trait and level of organization, highlighting the importance of studying multiple biological levels with respect to evolutionary patterns.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Patterns and drivers of rodent abundance across a South African multi-use landscape

Funding: This research was funded by FCT/MCTES, through national funds, and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020 (cE3c: UIDB/00329/2020), and by the South African National Research Foundation, South Africa (UID 107099&115040). TAM thanks partial support by CEAUL (funded by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the project UIDB/00006/2020).South Africa’s decentralized approach to conservation entails that wildlife outside formally protected areas inhabit complex multi-use landscapes, where private wildlife business (ecotourism and/or hunting) co-exist in a human-dominated landscape matrix. Under decentralized conservation, wildlife is perceived to benefit from increased amount of available habitat, however it is crucial to understand how distinct management priorities and associated landscape modifications impact noncharismatic taxa, such as small mammals. We conducted extensive ink-tracking-tunnel surveys to estimate heterogeneity in rodent distribution and investigate the effect of different environmental factors on abundance patterns of two size-based rodent groups (small-and medium-sized species), across three adjacent management contexts in NE KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a private ecotourism game reserve, mixed farms and traditional communal areas (consisting of small clusters of houses interspersed with grazing areas and seminatural vegetation). Our hypotheses were formulated regarding the (1) area typology, (2) vegetation structure, (3) ungulate pressure and (4) human disturbance. Using a boosted-regression-tree approach, we found considerable differences between rodent groups’ abundance and distribution, and the underlying environmental factors. The mean relative abundance of medium-sized species did not differ across the three management contexts, but small species mean relative abundance was higher in the game reserves, confirming an influence of the area typology on their abundance. Variation in rodent relative abundance was negatively correlated with human disturbance and ungulate presence. Rodent abundance seems to be influenced by environmental gradients that are directly linked to varying management priorities across land uses, meaning that these communities might not benefit uniformly by the increased amount of habitat promoted by the commercial wildlife industry.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Development of Cyanine 813@Imidazole-Based Doped Supported Devices for Divalent Metal Ions Detection

PM003/2016 IF/00007/2015 CEECIND/00648/2017A NIR cyanine@imidazole derivative Cy1 was synthesized and evaluated as a metal ion sensor in solution. Cy1 was shown to be very sensitive to all metal ions tested, presenting a blue shift in the absorption from 668 nm to 633 nm, followed by a change in colour from pale green to blue with Zn2+, Cd2+, Co2+, Ni2+ and Hg2+ ions. Despite the blue shift in the absorption, a decrease at 633 nm (with a colour change from pale green to colourless), as well as a quenching in the emission intensity at 785 nm were observed for Cu2+ ions. The results show the formation of sandwich complexes of two ligands per metal ion with the highest association constant observed for Cu2+ (Log Kass.abs = 14.76 ± 0.09; Log Kass.emis. = 14.79 ± 0.06). The minimal detectable amounts were found to be 31 nM and 37 nM, with a naked eye detection of 2.9 ppm and 2.1 ppm for Hg2+ and Cu2+ ions, respectively. These results prompted us to explore the applicability of Cy1 by its combination with nanomaterials. Thus, Cy1@ doped MNs and Cy1@ doped PMMA nanoparticles were synthesized. Both nanosystems were shown to be very sensitive to Cu2+ ions in water, allowing a naked-eye detection of at least 1 ppm for Cy1@ doped MNs and 7 ppm for Cy1@ doped PMMA. This colourimetric response is an easy and inexpensive way to assess the presence of metals in aqueous media with no need for further instrumentation.publishersversionpublishe

Probing the CP nature of the Higgs coupling in tt¯h events at the LHC

The determination of the CP nature of the Higgs coupling to top quarks is addressed in this paper, using t¯th events produced in √s=13  TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC. Dileptonic final states are employed, with two oppositely charged leptons and four jets, corresponding to the decays t→bW+→bℓ+νℓ, ¯t→¯bW−→¯bℓ−¯νℓ, and h→b¯b. Pure scalar (h=H), pure pseudoscalar (h=A), and CP-violating Higgs boson signal events, generated with MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, are fully reconstructed through a kinematic fit. We furthermore generate samples that have both a CP-even and a CP-odd component in the t¯th coupling in order to probe the ratio of the two components. New angular distributions of the decay products, as well as CP angular asymmetries, are explored in order to separate the scalar from the pseudoscalar components of the Higgs boson and reduce the contribution from the dominant irreducible background, t¯tb¯b. Significant differences between the angular distributions and asymmetries are observed, even after the full kinematic fit reconstruction of the events, allowing to define the best observables for a global fit of the Higgs couplings parameters.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Different genomic changes underlie adaptive evolution in populations of contrasting history

Funding Information: This work was supported by Portuguese National Funds through “Fundac¸ão para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (projects PTDC/ BIA-BEC/098213/2008, PTDC/BIA-BIC/2165/2012 and cE3c Unit FCT funding UID/BIA/00329/2013, grants SFRH/BD/ 60734/2009 to I.F. and SFRH/BPD/86186/2012 to P.S.). We thank Miguel Lopes-Cunha for help in the laboratory, Francisco Pina-Martins for help with computing, Josiane Santos and Ana Sofia Quina for discussions, and Mauro Santos and Anthony Long for advice on the study and comments on the manuscript. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions.Experimental evolution is a powerful tool to understand the adaptive potential of populations under environmental change. Here, we study the importance of the historical genetic background in the outcome of evolution at the genomewide level. Using the natural clinal variation of Drosophila subobscura, we sampled populations from two contrasting latitudes (Adraga, Portugal and Groningen, Netherlands) and introduced them in a new common environment in the laboratory. We characterized the genome-wide temporal changes underlying the evolutionary dynamics of these populations, which had previously shown fast convergence at the phenotypic level, but not at chromosomal inversion frequencies. We found that initially differentiated populations did not converge either at genome-wide level or at candidate SNPs with signs of selection. In contrast, populations from Portugal showed convergence to the control population that derived from the same geographical origin and had been long-established in the laboratory. Candidate SNPs showed a variety of different allele frequency change patterns across generations, indicative of an underlying polygenic basis. We did not detect strong linkage around candidate SNPs, but rather a small but long-ranging effect. In conclusion, we found that history played a major role in genomic variation and evolution, with initially differentiated populations reaching the same adaptive outcome through different genetic routes.publishersversionpublishe

Urban traffic simulation using mobility patterns synthesized from real sensors

Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are openly available in Zenodo at 10.5281/zenodo.7997433 and were produced using the code available at https://github.com/fabio-r-goncalves/norte (accessed on 1 November 2023).Smart cities are an ongoing research topic with multiple sub-research areas, from traffic control to optimization and even safety. However, testing the new methodologies or technologies directly in the real world is an almost impossible feat that, inclusively, can result in disaster. Thus, there is the importance of simulation. Simulation enables testing new and complex methodologies and gauging their impact in a realistic context without adding any safety issues. Additionally, these can accurately map real-world conditions depending on the simulation configuration. One key aspect of the simulation is the traffic flows in the simulated region. These may be hard to find and, if ill-set, may introduce bias in the results. This work is on the characterization of the traffic in the city center of Guimarães, Portugal. An urban simulation scenario was established, using SUMO as the mobility traffic simulator, with traffic patterns derived from real-world data provided by Guimarães City Hall and using Eclipse MOSAIC for extended vehicular simulation. Apart from mobility patterns analysis, this work also provides publicly accessible datasets, simulations, and applications made available to future research works.Funding: This work has been supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020 by FEDER funds, through the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), Portugal 2020, within the Project Scope NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000086