Simulation of automated negotiation

Durch die Automatisierung von Verhandlungen sollen bessere Verhandlungsergebnisse erzielt werden können als bei Verhandlungen zwischen Menschen und neue Koordinationsformen für autonome Agentensysteme ermöglicht werden. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Simulation solcher Systeme für automatisierte Verhandlungen, da operative Systeme zur Zeit noch nicht verfügbar sind. Die Arbeit basiert auf einer Erhebung und Diskussion der aktuellen Literatur im Bereich der Simulation automatisierter Verhandlungen. Existierende Ansätze weisen einige Unzulänglichkeiten bezüglich deren praktischer Umsetzbarkeit in einer offenen Umgebung wie dem Internet auf, wo automatisierte Verhandlungen nicht nur sehr schnell durchgeführt werden sondern sich auch Software-Agenten und Verhandlungsprobleme ändern können. Diese Defizite thematisierend werden Verhandlungssysteme für automatisierte Verhandlungen vorgeschlagen. Diese bestehen zum einen aus Software-Agenten, die generische Angebots- und Konzessionsstratgien verfolgen, zum anderen aus Interaktionsprotokollen, die es Agenten erlauben ihre Strategien vorübergehend oder permanent auszusetzen. Ergebnisse der Simulation dieser Systeme, mit Verhandlungsproblemen aus Verhandlungsexperimenten mit menschlichen Probanden als Input, werden für unterschiedliche Ergebnisdimensionen -- Übereinkunftshäufigkeit, Fairness, individuelle und kollektive Effizienz -- zwischen Systemen und auch mit den Ergebnissen der Experimente verglichen. Trotz fundamentaler Zielkonflikte zwischen den einzelnen Ergebnisdimensionen erzielen einige Systeme konsistent bessere Ergebnisse sowohl im Systemvergleich als auch verglichen mit den Ergebnissen der Experimente. Diese Systeme bestehen aus Software-Agenten die systematisch Angebote mit monoton abnehmendem Nutzen unterbreiten und erste Konzessionensschritte tätigen solange der Opponent bisherige Konzessionen erwidert hat. Das verwendete Interaktionsprotokoll zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass es den Agenten erlaubt ungünstige Angebote zurückzuweisen und damit neue Angebote des Opponenten einzufordern, durch diese Unterbrechung der eigenen Angebotsstrategie können ungünstige Verhandlungsergebnisse vermieden werden.Automated negotiation is argued to improve negotiation outcomes by replacing humans and to enable coordination in autonomous systems. As operative systems do not yet exist scholars rely on simulations to evaluate potential systems for automated negotiation. This dissertation reviews the state of the art literature on simulation of automated negotiation along its main components - negotiation problem, interaction protocol, and software agents. Deficiencies of existing approaches concerning the practical application in an open environment as the Internet - where automated negotiation proceeds fast, with changing opponents, and for various negotiation problems - are identified. To address these deficiencies we develop and simulate automated negotiation systems, consisting of software agents that follow generic offer generation and concession strategies and protocols that allow these agents to interrupt their strategy to avoid exploitation and unfavorable agreements. Outcomes of simulation runs are compared across systems and to human negotiation along various outcome dimensions - proportion of agreements, dyadic and individual performance, and fairness - for various negotiation problems derived from negotiation experiments with human subjects. Though there exist trade-offs between the different outcome dimensions, systems consisting of software agents, that systematically propose offers of monotonically decreasing utility and make first concession steps if the opponent reciprocated previous concessions, and an interaction protocol that enables to reject unfavorable offers - without immediately aborting negotiations - in order to elicit new offers from the opponent, performed best. These systems performed very well in all outcome dimensions when compared with other systems and were the only that outperformed negotiation between humans in all dimensions

Research Project Cost Benefits of Integrated Planning: First experiment-results

Beyond the classical planning goals, design processes for sustainable buildings feature a high number of integrated planning objectives that link economical, ecological and socio-cultural aspects. With increasing demands on building performance, the number of tools for evaluation, prediction and simulation of the energy, cost and emissions efficiency is rising, as is the number of experts and the relevant professional languages applied in their planning processes. Therefore we argue that the design and planning processes for sustainable buildings represent dynamic social systems characterised by a high level of complexity. The communication and decision making mechanisms as well as the organisational structures used in the planning processes deserve particular interest as they directly influence the achievement of the desired building performance. This paper presents the interdisciplinary research project:”Cost-Benefits of Integrated Planning,” (Co_Be) and the experimental study conducted within this framework. This experiment was organised as a student-competition role-play for the design of a temporary smoothie-bar in order to compare the integrated with the traditionally sequential planning practice. Preliminary qualitative and quantitative results of this experiment are provided

Assessment of BIM Potentials in interdisciplinary Planning through Student Experiment and Practical Case Study

It is argued that Building Information Modelling technology bears significant potentials for enhancement of more integrated design and planning process, and further more for life cylce managament of built environmet. Through creation of a joint model, serving as common knowledge base for parttaking disciplines, the knowledge from the design pahse can easily be transferred into the operational phase. BIM offers a powerfull tool for monitoring, optimization and simulation of building operation, building as such a platform for data transfer and management necessary for the management and governance of the smart city. This paper will presens the results of the empirical research – a multidisciplinary student experiment carried out at the Vienna University of Technology, with the students of architecture, civil engineering and master of building science. In the course of the empirical research a multidisciplinary design for energy efficient building structure is simulated, using various BIM tools (for architectural and structural modelling and simulation, thermal and light simulation) and testing the interoperability as well as the process integration. The special focus lies on the test of interfaces, as crucial factor for process integration, satisfaction and efficiency, which was demonstrated in the pilot experiment. Two BIM models “one-platform-BIM” using proprietary interfaces and “open-BIM” using IFC interface will be evaluated and compared in terms of efficiency of data-exchange and transferability, as well as in terms of satisfaction with process and collaboration. Finally, the results obtained from the experiment will be compared to the experiences gained from the practical case study – BIM use in two planning firms – in order to identify optimization potentials for the planning practice as well as key performance indicators for integrated design supported by BIM tools

BIM teaching as support to integrated design practice

Povećanje opsega projekta, ambicioznih projektnih ciljeva i broja sudionika u procesu planiranja zahtijeva učinkovito integrirano planiranje i prikladnu računalnu podršku, poput BIM alata (eng. Building Information Modelling - BIM). Vještine rada u BIM-u, a koje se traže u praksi, nisu zastupljene u nastavnim planovima i programima tehničkih sveučilišta. U ovom se radu prikazuje provedba interdisciplinarne BIM projektne izobrazbe na Tehničkom sveučilištu u Beču. Povratne informacije studenata pridonijele su stvaranju smjernica za daljnju izobrazbu o BIM-u.An increase in the size of projects, ambitious design objectives, and a greater number of participants in the planning process, call for an effective integrated planning practice, and an adequate software support, such as the BIM (Building Information Modelling) tools. However, the BIM skills as demanded by practice are not represented in lecturing plans and programs at technical universities. This paper presents the interdisciplinary BIM design course conducted at the Vienna University of Technology. The feedback received from students has proven to be beneficial for creating guidelines for further BIM teaching activities

How sick is Austria? – A decision support framework for different evaluations of the burden of disease within the Austrian population based on different data sources

ABSTRACT Objectives In healthcare it is crucial to have a fundamental knowledge of the burden of diseases within the population. Therefore we aimed to develop an Atlas of Epidemiology to gain better insight on the epidemiological situation. Based on primary and secondary health care data, we aimed to present results in interactive charts and maps, comprehensible to experts and the general public. The atlas builds a framework for rapid deployment of new data and results in a reproducible and efficient way. As a first use case three methods based on two different databases for the estimation of diabetes prevalence in Austria are compared. Approach Datasources: (i) reimbursement data 2006/2007 (GAP-DRG); (ii) national routine health survey (ATHIS) for 2006/2007. Methods for diabetes prevalence estimation: 1) ATC-ICD statistically relates pseudonymized data on medications to data on diagnoses from hospitalizations and sick leaves. 2) With the method Experts, medical experts assign specific medications to diabetes diagnoses. Patients with these medications are identified together with hospitalized diabetes diagnosed patients in GAP-DRG. 3) In ATHIS a sample of 15.000 persons was questioned if they a) ever had diabetes and b) were treated against diabetes in the last 12 months. Results are projected onto the Austrian population. Patients are divided by 10-year age-classes, gender and state. For the publicly online framework, implemented in html and javascript, pre-processed data in different granularity is required and used. Results Maps of Austria represent the prevalence of diabetes for each method and granularity level. The difference of the methods can be seen by clicking on the next map. For different age-classes (resp. different gender) the three methods can be compared directly within a bar chart. The technology for a rapid deployment of new data is now developed. For the use case first results have already been presented to decision makers, and feedback has been incorporated. Conclusion Besides depicting disease prevalence, the atlas of epidemiology also allows to visualize health care service data and results of simulation models in a fast and efficient way, which is important for decision makers. Soon the results of the ATC-ICD project on the prevalence of different diseases based on ICD9 diagnoses and medication data will be published in an aggregated form. This project is part of the K-Project dexhelpp in COMET – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies that is funded by BMVIT, BMWGJ and transacted by FFG

Resolving impasses in e-Negotiation : does e-mediation work?

In this article we evaluate the performance of an e-mediation system, referred to as VienNA, in an e-negotiation environment. A set of hypotheses drawn from the mediation and e-mediation literatures are explored. Bargaining processes, outcomes, and perceptions are compared for bargainers that have access to the VienNA system with those that do not have access during negotiation. Supporting several of the hypotheses, bargainers with access to the system were more flexible during the process, showed more concession reciprocation, sent more messages dealing with relationships and related sources of conflict, and were more satisfied with both the process and outcome. Early use of the system produced more flexible bargaining and better outcomes than later use, a finding that supports research on mediation in international conflicts. More balanced agreements occurred when bargainers consulted a form of advice known as fairness norms. Implications of these results for theory and practice are discussed along with suggestions for further research.18 page(s

THE IMPACT OF ANALYTICAL SUPPORT AND PREFERENCE DETERMINATION ON CONSISTENCY IN E-NEGOTIATIONS — A NEW METHOD AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS

This paper explores whether the decisions made by a negotiator during negotiations are consistent with her preferences. By considering the entire set of offers exchanged during a negotiation, the measures of consistency developed in this paper provide a compact representation of important behavioral characteristics throughout the negotiation process.The consistency measures developed in this paper are validated with data from an experimental study in which the impact of two factors on negotiation processes is studied: the availability of analytical support and imposed vs. elicited preferences. We find that negotiators behave more consistently when preferences are assigned to them by the experimenters than when their preferences are elicited. On the other hand, an impact of analytical support is only found when preferences are elicited. These results shed light on both the design of negotiation experiments and the development of negotiation support systems.Negotiation, utility, consistency, preference determination, analytical support

The Application of the Multi-Layered Chert Sourcing Approach (MLA) for the Characterisation and Differentiation of ‘Chocolate Silicites’ from the Holy Cross Mountains, South-Central Poland. Archaeologia Austriaca|Archaeologia Austriaca Band 100/2016|

Chocolate silicites from the Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains in south-central Poland were widely used for stone tool production from Middle Palaeolithic times to the Early Iron Age. Their presence extends beyond Poland into lithic assemblages from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and eastern Austria. Outcrops of this material are situated within a narrow strip of Mesozoic (Upper Jurassic) sediments at the northeastern footslopes of the Holy Cross Mountains. Attempts of a raw material characterisation were repeatedly undertaken, however, a clear differentiation of the visually defined subvarieties was never achieved. For the present study, we applied the Multi-Layered Chert Sourcing Approach (MLA) by combining macroscopic, microscopic and geochemical analyses using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to samples from five chocolate silicite deposits in order to characterise the materials and to assess the potential of a source differentiation. Secondly, we included chert samples from Sąspów near Kraków for differentiation on a larger scale. Our results illustrate that a source separation of Holy Cross Mountains chocolate silicites is possible to a certain extent – there are limitations due to their geographic proximity and the resulting similar geologic genesis environments. However, our study showed clear possibilities to differentiate chocolate silicites from Jurassic-Kraków silicites based on characteristic microfossil inclusions and trace element contents