Instrumental Properties of Social Testbeds

The evaluation of an ability or skill happens in some kind of testbed, and so does with social intelligence. Of course, not all testbeds are suitable for this matter. But, how can we be sure of their appropriateness? In this paper we identify the components that should be considered in order to measure social intelligence, and provide some instrumental properties in order to assess the suitability of a testbed.Insa Cabrera, J.; Hernández Orallo, J. (2015). Instrumental Properties of Social Testbeds. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. 9205:101-110. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-21365-1_11S1011109205Horling, B., Lesser, V.: A Survey of Multi-Agent Organizational Paradigms. The Knowledge Engineering Review 19, 281–316 (2004)Simao, J., Demazeau, Y.: On Social Reasoning in Multi-Agent Systems. Inteligencia Artificial 5(13), 68–84 (2001)Roth, A.E.: The Shapley Value: Essays in Honor of Lloyd S. Shapley. Cambridge University Press (1988)Insa-Cabrera, J., Hernández-Orallo, J.: Definition and properties to assess multi-agent environments as social intelligence tests. Technical report, CoRR (2014)Legg, S., Hutter, M.: Universal Intelligence: A Definition of Machine Intelligence. Minds and Machines 17(4), 391–444 (2007)Hernández-Orallo, J., Dowe, D.L.: Measuring universal intelligence: Towards an anytime intelligence test. Artificial Intelligence 174(18), 1508–1539 (2010)Hernández-Orallo, J.: A (hopefully) unbiased universal environment class for measuring intelligence of biological and artificial systems. In: 3rd Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, pp. 182–183 (2010)Hernández-Orallo, J., Dowe, D.L., Hernández-Lloreda, M.V.: Universal psychometrics: Measuring cognitive abilities in the machine kingdom. Cognitive Systems Research 27, 50–74 (2014

A Generic Agent Organisation Framework For Autonomic Systems

Autonomic computing is being advocated as a tool for managing large, complex computing systems. Specifically, self-organisation provides a suitable approach for developing such autonomic systems by incorporating self-management and adaptation properties into large-scale distributed systems. To aid in this development, this paper details a generic problem-solving agent organisation framework that can act as a modelling and simulation platform for autonomic systems. Our framework describes a set of service-providing agents accomplishing tasks through social interactions in dynamically changing organisations. We particularly focus on the organisational structure as it can be used as the basis for the design, development and evaluation of generic algorithms for self-organisation and other approaches towards autonomic systems

Hexameric oligomerization of mitochondrial peroxiredoxin PrxIIF and formation of an ultrahigh affinity complex with its electron donor thioredoxin Trx-o

Mitochondria from plants, yeast, and animals each contain at least one peroxiredoxin (Prx) that is involved in peroxide detoxification and redox signalling. The supramolecular dynamics of atypical type II Prx targeted to the mitochondrion was addressed in pea. Microcalorimetric (ITC) titrations identified an extremely high-affinity binding between the mitochondrial PsPrxIIF and Trx-o with a KD of 126±14 pM. Binding was driven by a favourable enthalpy change (ΔH= –60.6 kcal mol−1) which was counterbalanced by unfavourable entropy changes (TΔS= –47.1 kcal mol−1). This is consistent with the occurrence of large conformational changes during binding which was abolished upon site-directed mutaganesis of the catalytic C59S and C84S. The redox-dependent interaction was confirmed by gel filtration of mitochondrial extracts and co-immunoprecipitation from extracts. The heterocomplex of PsPrxIIF and Trx-o reduced peroxide substrates more efficiently than free PsPrxIIF suggesting that Trx-o serves as an efficient and specific electron donor to PsPrxIIF in vivo. Other Trx-s tested by ITC analysis failed to interact with PsPrxIIF indicating a specific recognition of PsPrxIIF by Trx-o. PsPrxIIF exists primarily as a dimer or a hexamer depending on the redox state. In addition to the well-characterized oligomerization of classical 2-Cys Prx the results also show that atypical Prx undergo large structural reorganization with implications for protein–protein interaction and function

Addressing robustness in time-critical, distributed, task allocation algorithms.

The aim of this work is to produce and test a robustness module (ROB-M) that can be generally applied to distributed, multi-agent task allocation algorithms, as robust versions of these are scarce and not well-documented in the literature. ROB-M is developed using the Performance Impact (PI) algorithm, as this has previously shown good results in deterministic trials. Different candidate versions of the module are thus bolted on to the PI algorithm and tested using two different task allocation problems under simulated uncertain conditions, and results are compared with baseline PI. It is shown that the baseline does not handle uncertainty well; the task-allocation success rate tends to decrease linearly as degree of uncertainty increases. However, when PI is run with one of the candidate robustness modules, the failure rate becomes very low for both problems, even under high simulated uncertainty, and so its architecture is adopted for ROB-M and also applied to MIT’s baseline Consensus Based Bundle Algorithm (CBBA) to demonstrate its flexibility. Strong evidence is provided to show that ROB-M can work effectively with CBBA to improve performance under simulated uncertain conditions, as long as the deterministic versions of the problems can be solved with baseline CBBA. Furthermore, the use of ROB-M does not appear to increase mean task completion time in either algorithm, and only 100 Monte Carlo samples are required compared to 10,000 in MIT’s robust version of the CBBA algorithm. PI with ROB-M is also tested directly against MIT’s robust algorithm and demonstrates clear superiority in terms of mean numbers of solved tasks.N/

Whole-genome SNP association analysis of reproduction traits in the Finnish Landrace pig breed

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Good genetic progress for pig reproduction traits has been achieved using a quantitative genetics-based multi-trait BLUP evaluation system. At present, whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) panels provide a new tool for pig selection. The purpose of this study was to identify SNP associated with reproduction traits in the Finnish Landrace pig breed using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Association of each SNP with different traits was tested with a weighted linear model, using SNP genotype as a covariate and animal as a random variable. Deregressed estimated breeding values of the progeny tested boars were used as the dependent variable and weights were based on their reliabilities. Statistical significance of the associations was based on Bonferroni-corrected <it>P</it>-values.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Deregressed estimated breeding values were available for 328 genotyped boars. Of the 62 163 SNP in the chip, 57 868 SNP had a call rate > 0.9 and 7 632 SNP were monomorphic. Statistically significant results (<it>P</it>-value < 2.0E-06) were obtained for total number of piglets born in first and later parities and piglet mortality between birth and weaning in later parity, and suggestive associations (<it>P</it>-value < 4.0E-06) for piglet mortality between birth and weaning in first parity, number of stillborn piglets in later parity, first farrowing interval and second farrowing interval. Two of the statistically significant regions for total number of piglets born in first and later parities are located on chromosome 9 around 95 and 79 Mb. The estimated SNP effect in these regions was approximately one piglet between the two homozygote classes. By combining the two most significant SNP in these regions, favourable double homozygote animals are expected to have 1.3 piglets (<it>P</it>-value = 1.69E-08) more than unfavourable double homozygote animals. A region on chromosome 9 (66 Mb) was statistically significant for piglet mortality between birth and weaning in later parity (0.44 piglets between homozygotes, <it>P</it>-value = 6.94E-08).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Three separate regions on chromosome 9 gave significant results for litter size and pig mortality. The frequencies of favourable alleles of the significant SNP are moderate in the Finnish Landrace population and these SNP are thus valuable candidates for possible marker-assisted selection.</p

Ascorbate-mediated regulation of growth, photoprotection, and photoinhibition in Arabidopsis thaliana.

The requirements for ascorbate for growth and photosynthesis were assessed under low (LL; 250 µmol m-2 s-1) or high (HL; 1600 µmol m-2 s-1) irradiance in wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana and two ascorbate synthesis mutants (vtc2-1 and vtc2-4) that have 30% wild-type ascorbate levels. The low ascorbate mutants had the same numbers of leaves but lower rosette area and biomass than the wild type under LL. Wild-type plants experiencing HL had higher leaf ascorbate, anthocyanin, and xanthophyll pigments than under LL. In contrast, leaf ascorbate levels were not increased under HL in the mutant lines. While the degree of oxidation measured using an in vivo redox reporter in the nuclei and cytosol of the leaf epidermal and stomatal cells was similar under both irradiances in all lines, anthocyanin levels were significantly lower in the low ascorbate mutants than in the wild type under HL. Differences in the photosynthetic responses of vtc2-1 and vtc2-4 mutants were observed. Unlike vtc2-1, the vtc2-4 mutants had wild-type zeaxanthin contents. While both low ascorbate mutants had lower levels of non-photochemical quenching of chlorophyll a fluorescence (NPQ) than the wild type under HL, qPd values were greater only in vtc2-1 leaves. Ascorbate is therefore essential for growth but not for photoprotection

Adaptive coordination in distributed and dynamic agent organizations

We elaborate the rationale and design of OJAzzIC (OrganizationsJoining Adaptively with Improvised Coordination), a model foragents in (Jazzy) Organizations that need to engage in dynamic adaptationto respond to a dynamic situation. OJAzzIC provides an adaptivedata structure and framework for creation of multiple instances of organizationswithin a distributed system, with knowledge sharing acrossorganizational boundaries achieved through overlapping instances. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Regulation of Bestrophins by Ca2+: A Theoretical and Experimental Study

Bestrophins are a recently discovered family of Cl− channels, for which no structural information is available. Some family members are activated by increased intracellular Ca2+ concentration. Bestrophins feature a well conserved Asp-rich tract in their COOH terminus (Asp-rich domain), which is homologous to Ca2+-binding motifs in human thrombospondins and in human big-conductance Ca2+- and voltage-gated K+ channels (BKCa). Consequently, the Asp-rich domain is also a candidate for Ca2+ binding in bestrophins. Based on these considerations, we constructed homology models of human bestrophin-1 (Best1) Asp-rich domain using human thrombospondin-1 X-ray structure as a template. Molecular dynamics simulations were used to identify Asp and Glu residues binding Ca2+ and to predict the effects of their mutations to alanine. We then proceeded to test selected mutations in the Asp-rich domain of the highly homologous mouse bestrophin-2. The mutants expressed in HEK-293 cells were investigated by electrophysiological experiments using the whole-cell voltage-clamp technique. Based on our molecular modeling results, we predicted that Asp-rich domain has two defined binding sites and that D301A and D304A mutations may impact the binding of the metal ions. The experiments confirmed that these mutations do actually affect the function of the protein causing a large decrease in the Ca2+-activated Cl− current, fully consistent with our predictions. In addition, other studied mutations (E306A, D312A) did not decrease Ca2+-activated Cl− current in agreement with modeling results