Cooperative Epistemic Multi-Agent Planning for Implicit Coordination

Epistemic planning can be used for decision making in multi-agent situations with distributed knowledge and capabilities. Recently, Dynamic Epistemic Logic (DEL) has been shown to provide a very natural and expressive framework for epistemic planning. We extend the DEL-based epistemic planning framework to include perspective shifts, allowing us to define new notions of sequential and conditional planning with implicit coordination. With these, it is possible to solve planning tasks with joint goals in a decentralized manner without the agents having to negotiate about and commit to a joint policy at plan time. First we define the central planning notions and sketch the implementation of a planning system built on those notions. Afterwards we provide some case studies in order to evaluate the planner empirically and to show that the concept is useful for multi-agent systems in practice.Comment: In Proceedings M4M9 2017, arXiv:1703.0173

Monotonic, Creep-Rupture, and Fatigue Behavior of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Silicon Carbide (C/SiC) at an Elevated Temperature

The main objective of this research effort was to examine the impact that cyclic loading frequency has on the life of a C/SiC composite at an elevated temperature of 550°C. Cyclic loading of C/SiC was investigated at frequencies of 375 Hz, 10 Hz, 1 Hz, and 0.1 Hz. Creep-Rupture tests and tests that were combinations of creep-rupture and fatigue were also accomplished. A monotonic tensile test was performed at 550°C and compared to a room temperature monotonic test. This study showed that an elevated temperature of 550°C has very little effect on the Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) of C/SiC. The UTS of C/SiC at 550°C was 487 MPa, while the room temperature UTS is 493 MPa. The three creep-rupture tests in this study performed at 350 MPa, 175 MPa and 105 MPa had lives of less than 11 hours despite the fact that the UTS of C/SiC is 487 MPa at 550°C. The short life of the specimens is due to the oxidation of the carbon fibers within the C/SiC composite. S-N curves developed from the fatigue tests indicate that there is an increase in cycles to failure as the frequency is increased. Another important discovery in this study was the fact that oxidation of the carbon fibers within C/SiC is reduced when frequency of fatigue is increased. At high frequency fatigue (10Hz to 375 Hz), C/SiC composites have longer cycle lives and time lives than at low cycle fatigue. Microscopic and SEM analysis verified that oxidation of carbon within C/SiC is slowed as frequency of fatigue is increased

Partnership Refuges: The Future of the National Wildlife Refuge System? A Case Study of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge, Massachusetts

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with partners to carryout management activities and events on national wildlife refuges. Partnerships provide financial and conservation management assistance for refuges and allow the Service to expand its breadth of influence to different agencies and organizations nationwide. As partnerships become a more valuable tool utilized by refuges, the Service should consider establishing partnership-based refuges, in which the refuge is owned by multiple organizations and not solely by the Service. This Master of Regional Planning Project evaluates one of the first partnership refuges, Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge, located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Through the Service\u27s partnership with eight state, local, and private entities, Mashpee NWR is the only known wildlife refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System whose land is co-owned and managed by nine different organizations. This project follows the Mashpee Partnership through the beginning stages of the refuge\u27[s comprehensive conservation planning process and during revisions made to the refuge\u27s original establishing document, a Memorandum of Understanding, which will be agreed to and signed by all nine organizations. The Mashpee Partnership represents an important step towards the acceptance of partnership-based refuges within the Service. This project highlights the partners and the development of the Mashpee Partnership, and how they have collaboratively planned for the refuge\u27s future. Through case studies, interviews, and an examination of partners\u27 land uses, this project examines the Mashpee Partnership and the influence it has had on the Service and partners. A collaboration toolkit and other recommendations are provided, with the goal that the Service will use Mashpee NWR as a model for establishing new wildlife refuges through partnerships

Voice-Based Agents as Personified Things: Assimilation and Accommodation as Equilibration of Doubt

We aim to investigate the nature of doubt regarding voice-based agents by referring to Piaget’s ontological object–subject classification “thing” and “person,” its associated equilibration processes, and influential factors of the situation, the user, and the agent. In two online surveys, we asked 853 and 435 participants, ranging from 17 to 65 years of age, to assess Alexa and the Google Assistant. We discovered that only some people viewed voice-based agents as mere things, whereas the majority classified them into personified things. However, their classification is fragile and depends basically on the imputation of subject-like attributes of agency and mind to the voice-based agents, increased by a dyadic using situation, previous regular interactions, a younger age, and an introverted personality of the user. We discuss these results in a broader context