3,903 research outputs found
Automatic ontology mapping for agent communication
Agent communication languages such as ACL and KQML provide a standard for agent communication. These languages enable an agent to specify the intention and the content of a message as well as the protocol, the language, and the ontology that are used. For the protocol and the language some standards are available and should be known by the communicating agents. The ontology used in a communication depends on the subject of the communication. Since the number of subjects is almost infinite and since the concepts used for a subject can be described by different ontologies, the development of generally accepted standards will take a long time. This lack of standardization, which hampers communication and collaboration between agents, is known as the interoperability problem. To overcome the interoperability problem, agents must be able to establish a mapping between their ontologies. This paper investigates a new approach to the interoperability problem. The proposed approach requires neither a correspondence between concepts used in the ontologies nor a correspondence between the structure of the ontologies. It only requires that some instances of the subject about which the agents try to communicate are known by both agents.economics of technology ;
Optimization of Cricket-inspired, Biomimetic Artificial Hair Sensors for Flow Sensing
High density arrays of artificial hair sensors, biomimicking the extremely
sensitive mechanoreceptive filiform hairs found on cerci of crickets have been
fabricated successfully. We assess the sensitivity of these artificial sensors
and present a scheme for further optimization addressing the deteriorating
effects of stress in the structures. We show that, by removing a portion of
chromium electrodes close to the torsional beams, the upward lift at the edges
of the membrane due to the stress, will decrease hence increase the
sensitivity.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association
(http://irevues.inist.fr/EDA-Publishing
Detailed and large-scale cost/benefit analyses of landslide prevention vs. post-event actions
The main aim of this paper is to
test economic benefits of landslide prevention measures vs. post-event
emergency actions. To this end, detailed- and large-scale analyses were
performed in a training area located in the northeastern Italian pre-Alps
that was hit by an exceptional rainfall event occurred in November 2010. On
the detailed scale, a landslide reactivated after 2010 event was
investigated. Numerical modeling demonstrated that remedial works carried out
after the landslide â water-removal intervention such as a drainage trench
â could have improved slope stability if applied before its occurrence.
Then, a cost/benefit analysis was employed. It defined that prevention would
have been economically convenient compared to a non-preventive and passive
attitude, allowing a 30 % saving relative to total costs. On the large
scale, one of the most affected areas after 2010 event was considered. A
susceptibility analysis was performed using a simple probabilistic model,
which allowed to highlight the main landslide conditioning factors and the
most hazardous and vulnerable sectors. In particular, such low-cost analysis
demonstrated that almost 50 % of landslides occurred after 2010 event
could be foreseen and allowed to roughly quantify benefits from regional
landslide prevention. However, a large-scale approach is insufficient to carry
out a quantitative cost/benefit analysis, for which a detailed case-by-case
risk assessment is needed. The here proposed approaches could be used as a
means of preventive soil protection in not only the investigated case
study but also all those hazardous areas where preventive measures are
needed
A systematic review of school-based alcohol and other drug prevention programs
Background: Alcohol use in adolescents constitutes a major public health concern. Europe is the heaviest drinking
region of the world. Several school-based alcohol prevention programs have been developed but it is not clear whether
they are really effective. The present study was aimed at identifying the typology with the best evidence of effectiveness
in European studies. Methods: A systematic search of meta-analyses and/or randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on interventions
school-based prevention programs aimed at preventing alcohol consumption or changing the attitudes to consume
alcohol. Results: A meta-analysis published in 2011 and 12 RCTs more recently published were identified. The
meta-analysis evaluated 53 RCTs but only 11.3% of them were conducted in Europe. Globally, 23 RCTs (43.4%) showed
some evidence of effectiveness, and 30 RCTs (56.6%) did not find significant difference between the groups. According
to the conclusions of the meta-analysis, the Unplugged program should be considered as a practice option in Europe.
Among the other 12 RCTs, 42% were conducted in Europe. Globally, 7 studies (58.3%) achieved positive results, and 5
studies (41.7%) did not find significant differences or produced a mixed pattern of results. Three of the 5 European trials
(60%) used the Unplugged program with positive results. Conclusion: Even if further studies should be conducted to confirm
these results, Unplugged appears to be the prevention project with the best evidence of effectiveness in European
studies
Fast Long-Distance Control of Spin Qubits by Photon Assisted Cotunneling
We investigate theoretically the long-distance coupling and spin exchange in
an array of quantum dot spin qubits in the presence of microwaves. We find that
photon assisted cotunneling is boosted at resonances between photon and
energies of virtually occupied excited states and show how to make it spin
selective. We identify configurations that enable fast switching and spin echo
sequences for efficient and non-local manipulation of spin qubits. We devise
configurations in which the near-resonantly boosted cotunneling provides
non-local coupling which, up to certain limit, does not diminish with distance
between the manipulated dots before it decays weakly with inverse distance.Comment: 17 pages (including 8 pages of Appendices), 2 figure
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