Abduction for (non-ominiscient) agents

Among the non-monotonic reasoning processes, abduction is one of the most important. Usually described as the process of looking florexplantions, it has been recognized as one of the most commonly used in our daily activities. Still, the traditional definitions of an abductive problem and an abductive solution mention only theories and formulas, leaving agency out of the picture. Our work proposes a study of abductive reasoning from an epistemic and dynamic perspective, making special emphasis on non-ideal agents. We begin by exploring what an abductive problema is in terms of an agent’s information, and what an abductive solution is in terms of the actions that modify it. Then we explore the different kinds of abductive problems and abductive solutions that arise when we consider agents whose information is not closed under logical consequence, and agents whose reasoning abilities are not complete

Argument-based Belief in Topological Structures

This paper combines two studies: a topological semantics for epistemic notions and abstract argumentation theory. In our combined setting, we use a topological semantics to represent the structure of an agent's collection of evidence, and we use argumentation theory to single out the relevant sets of evidence through which a notion of beliefs grounded on arguments is defined. We discuss the formal properties of this newly defined notion, providing also a formal language with a matching modality together with a sound and complete axiom system for it. Despite the fact that our agent can combine her evidence in a 'rational' way (captured via the topological structure), argument-based beliefs are not closed under conjunction. This illustrates the difference between an agent's reasoning abilities (i.e. the way she is able to combine her available evidence) and the closure properties of her beliefs. We use this point to argue for why the failure of closure under conjunction of belief should not bear the burden of the failure of rationality.Comment: In Proceedings TARK 2017, arXiv:1707.0825

Reliability-based preference dynamics: lexicographic upgrade

This article models collective decision making scenarios by using a priority-based aggregation procedure, the so-called lexicographic method, to represent a form of reliability-based ‘deliberation’. More precisely, it considers agents with a preference ordering over a set of objects and a reliability ordering over the agents themselves, providing a logical framework describing the way in which the public and simultaneous announcement of the individual preferences leads to individual preference upgrade. The main results are the definitions of this lexicographic upgrade for diverse types of reliability relations (in particular, the preorder and total preorder cases), a sound and complete axiom system for a language describing the effects of such upgrades, and the definitions for non-public variations

Communication between agents in dynamic epistemic logic

This manuscript studies actions of communication between epistemic logic agents. It starts by looking into actions through which all/some agents share all their information, defining the model operation that transforms the model, discussing its properties, introducing a modality for describing it and providing an axiom system for the latter. The main part of the manuscript focuses on an action through which some agents share part of their information: they share all that they know about a topic defined by a given formula. Once again, the manuscript defines the model operation that transforms the model, discusses its properties, introduces a modality for describing it and provides an axiom system for the latter

A note on the application of wazewski’s topological method to an integro: differential equation of volterra type

The purpose of this note is to generalize the Wazewski’s Topological Method 11, originally stated for ordinary differential equations, to the integro – differential equation of Volterra type (1), under suitable conditions on the functions involved.Fil: Napoles Valdes, Juan Eduardo. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura. Departamento de Matemática; ArgentinaFil: Velázquez, José R.. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste; ArgentinaFil: Lugo, Luciano Miguel. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura. Departamento de Matemática; ArgentinaFil: Guzmán, Paulo Matias. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales y Agrimensura. Departamento de Matemática; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

A study of randomness, correlations and collectivity in the nuclear shell model

A variable combination of realistic and random two-body interactions allows the study of collective properties, such as the energy spectra and B(E2) transition strengths in 44Ti, 48Cr and 24Mg. It is found that the average energies of the yrast band states maintain the ordering for any degree of randomness, but the B(E2) values lose their quadrupole collectivity when randomness dominates the Hamiltonian. The high probability of the yrast band to be ordered in the presence of pure random forces exhibits the strong correlations between the different members of the band.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, 8 tables, submitted to Physical Review

Some aspects of the energy cost linked to the IAQ. Impact of free-cooling and heat recovery in office buildings.

CLIMA 2000 (.1997.BRUSELAS)Increasing air exchange rate to improve IAQ may increase energy consumption, but this increase may be compensated for by strategies such as free cooling and heat recovery. The frame of the proposed paper is the examination of the potential at a regional level (the Iberian peninsula) of the different strategies mentioned above in typical office buildings. Based on a set of reference building morphologies, studies are conducted to evaluate the impact of increasing air ventilation rates for different orientations, quality of the envelope (opaque walls and glazing), operating schedules and indoor set-point temperatures. Then, the impact of the increased air ventilation rates is corrected by introducing the effect of free-cooling, air-to-air heat recovery devices of different types and finally, the combined effect of both energy savings strategies. The research provides Maps allowing: 1. To identify zones when heating or cooling regimes are dominant, in terms of both, peak load conditions and energy requirements. 2. To compare the expected performance of the two energy saving strategies at a certain locality. 3. To compare the potential benefit of applying a given strategy at different localities. 4. To indicate regions of recommendable application of the strategies and the expected energy savings achievable