TeamWorker: An agent-based support system for mobile task execution

Traditional workflow management systems are considered insufficiently flexible to support autonomous job management via close team working. This paper proposes a multi-agent system approach to enhancing existing workflow management systems to enable team-based job management in the field of telecommunications service provision and maintenance. This paper adopts a component-based approach and explains how applications can be developed by customising the generic components provided by a multi-agent systems framework

Realising Team-Working in the Field: An Agent-based Approach

Multi-agent systems technology is applied to enable co-operation between mobile workers in the field, minimising user intervention and increasing reachability. A component-based approach is taken to simplify the management of deployed co-operation services. A Personal Assistant running on a mobile device is introduced to show how an intelligent and autonomous agent can increase the utility of users during workforce co-operation processes. Finally, a real world trial of the technology by network installation and maintenance engineers in the UK is described. Some technical issues revealed during the trial are discussed, as is the impact of the technology on the business process

mPower: A component-based development framework for multi-agent systems to support business processes

One of the obstacles preventing the widespread adoption of multi-agent systems in industry is the difficulty of implementing heterogeneous interactions among participating agents via asynchronous messages. This difficulty arises from the need to understand how to combine elements of various content languages, ontologies, and interaction protocols in order to construct meaningful and appropriate messages. In this paper mPower, a component-based layered framework for easing the development of multi-agent systems, is described, and the facility for customising the components for reuse in similar domains is explained. The framework builds on the JADE-LEAP platform, which provides a homogeneous layer over diverse operating systems and hardware devices, and allows ubiquitous deployment of applications built on multi-agent systems both in wired and wireless environments. The use of the framework to develop mPowermobile , a multi-agent system to support mobile workforces, is reported

Large N WZW Field Theory Of N=2 Strings

We explore the quantum properties of self-dual gravity formulated as a large $N$ two-dimensional WZW sigma model. Using a non-trivial classical background, we show that a $(2,2)$ space-time is generated. The theory contains an infinite series of higher point vertices. At tree level we show that, in spite of the presence of higher than cubic vertices, the on-shell 4 and higher point functions vanish, indicating that this model is related with the field theory of closed N=2 strings. We examine the one-loop on-shell 3-point amplitude and show that it is ultra-violet finite.Comment: This is the final version. By editorial mistake at Phys.Lett.B an older version was published in prin

MAS platforms as an enabler of enterprise mobilisation: The state of the art

One of the main application areas for multi-agent systems technology is enterprise mobilization, wherein the main business process actors are nomadic workers. An agent's autonomy, sociality and intelligence are highly prized features when it comes to supporting those mobile workers who are geographically isolated from the main knowledge source (i.e. the corporate Intranet) and are frequently moving from one location to another. Based on experience gained from two field trials of applications (built using for multi-agent systems technology and running on lightweight handheld devices) that support mobile business processes for telecommunications service provisioning and maintenance, this paper proposes desirable metrics for any multi-agent systems platform intended for enterprise mobilisation use. These metrics are then used to compare a number of existing multi-agent systems platforms, and based on the results, this paper identifies some areas for improvement

Status of Underground Radioactivity Measurements in HADES

The IRMM (Institute for Reference materials and Measurements) performs ultra low-level gamma-ray spectrometry at a depth of 225 m in the underground laboratory HADES. The facility currently houses 7 HPGe-detectors that are built and shielded using specially selected radiopure materials. The sandclay overburden of about 500 m water equivalent assures a muon flux reduction factor of about 5000, with subsequent reduction of the background of the detectors, which makes it possible to obtain detection limits close to 100 µBq for certain radionuclides. This paper describes the aim of the IRMM activities in the HADES laboratory, the equipment and the measurement program and gives examples of radiopurity measurements carried out in order to develop better low-level measurements.JRC.DG.D.5-Nuclear physic

Coded Aperture and Compton Imaging for the Development of 225^{225}Ac-based Radiopharmaceuticals

Targeted alpha-particle therapy (TAT) has great promise as a cancer treatment. Arguably the most promising TAT radionuclide that has been proposed is $^{225}$Ac. The development of $^{225}$Ac-based radiopharmaceuticals has been hampered due to the lack of effective means to study the daughter redistribution of these agents in small animals at the preclinical stage. The ability to directly image the daughters, namely $^{221}$Fr and $^{213}$Bi, via their gamma-ray emissions would be a boon for preclinical studies. That said, conventional medical imaging modalities, including single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) based on pinhole collimation, cannot be employed due to sensitivity limitations. As an alternative, we propose the use of both coded aperture and Compton imaging with the former modality suited to the 218-keV gamma-ray emission of $^{221}$Fr and the latter suited to the 440-keV gamma-ray emission of $^{213}$Bi. This work includes coded aperture images of $^{221}$Fr and Compton images of $^{213}$Bi in tumor-bearing mice injected with $^{225}$Ac-based radiopharmaceuticals. These results are the first demonstration of visualizing and quantifying the $^{225}$Ac daughters in small animals via coded aperture and Compton imaging and serve as a stepping stone for future radiopharmaceutical studies

Evaluation Of Glueball Masses From Supergravity

In the framework of the conjectured duality relation between large $N$ gauge theory and supergravity the spectra of masses in large $N$ gauge theory can be determined by solving certain eigenvalue problems in supergravity. In this paper we study the eigenmass problem given by Witten as a possible approximation for masses in QCD without supersymmetry. We place a particular emphasis on the treatment of the horizon and related boundary conditions. We construct exact expressions for the analytic expansions of the wave functions both at the horizon and at infinity and show that requiring smoothness at the horizon and normalizability gives a well defined eigenvalue problem. We show for example that there are no smooth solutions with vanishing derivative at the horizon. The mass eigenvalues up to $m^{2}=1000$ corresponding to smooth normalizable wave functions are presented. We comment on the relation of our work with the results found in a recent paper by Cs\'aki et al., hep-th/9806021, which addresses the same problem.Comment: 20 pages,Latex,3 figs,psfig.tex, added refs., minor change

Evolution of Plasma Composition in an Eruptive Flux Rope

Magnetic flux ropes are bundles of twisted magnetic field enveloping a central axis. They harbor free magnetic energy and can be progenitors of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). However, identifying flux ropes on the Sun can be challenging. One of the key coronal observables that has been shown to indicate the presence of a flux rope is a peculiar bright coronal structure called a sigmoid. In this work, we show Hinode EUV Imaging Spectrometer observations of sigmoidal active region (AR) 10977. We analyze the coronal plasma composition in the AR and its evolution as a sigmoid (flux rope) forms and erupts as a CME. Plasma with photospheric composition was observed in coronal loops close to the main polarity inversion line during episodes of significant flux cancellation, suggestive of the injection of photospheric plasma into these loops driven by photospheric flux cancellation. Concurrently, the increasingly sheared core field contained plasma with coronal composition. As flux cancellation decreased and a sigmoid/flux rope formed, the plasma evolved to an intermediate composition in between photospheric and typical AR coronal compositions. Finally, the flux rope contained predominantly photospheric plasma during and after a failed eruption preceding the CME. Hence, plasma composition observations of AR 10977 strongly support models of flux rope formation by photospheric flux cancellation forcing magnetic reconnection first at the photospheric level then at the coronal level

Large N Field Theory of N=2 Strings and Self-Dual Gravity

We review some aspects of the construction of self-dual gravity and the associated field theory of ${\cal N}=2$ strings in terms of two-dimensional sigma models at large $N$. The theory is defined through a large $N$ Wess-Zumino-Witten model in a nontrivial background and in a particular double scaling limit. We examine the canonical structure of the theory and describe an infinite-dimensional Poisson algebra of currents.Comment: To appear in the special issue of the Journ. of Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, 24 page