Negotiating Socially Optimal Allocations of Resources

A multiagent system may be thought of as an artificial society of autonomous software agents and we can apply concepts borrowed from welfare economics and social choice theory to assess the social welfare of such an agent society. In this paper, we study an abstract negotiation framework where agents can agree on multilateral deals to exchange bundles of indivisible resources. We then analyse how these deals affect social welfare for different instances of the basic framework and different interpretations of the concept of social welfare itself. In particular, we show how certain classes of deals are both sufficient and necessary to guarantee that a socially optimal allocation of resources will be reached eventually

Intelligent Cutter Suction Dredging Using the Logic Based Framework LPS

LPS (Logic-based Production System) is a framework that combines logic programs with reactive rules and a destructivelyupdated database. The logic programs provide proactive behavior and allow definitions of processes, and the reactive rules provide reactive behavior. This paper describes a first attempt in using LPS to model the operations of cutter suction dredging (CSD). It is the result of a year-long consultation with experts from the Dredging Engineering Research Centre at Hohai University. LPS was chosen for this application because its combination of proactivity and reactivity was thought to be a good match for CSD operations. These require processes for normal operations, as well as constant monitoring to identify any operational problems that may be arising and taking reactive correction steps

The CIFF Proof Procedure for Abductive Logic Programming with Constraints: Theory, Implementation and Experiments

We present the CIFF proof procedure for abductive logic programming with constraints, and we prove its correctness. CIFF is an extension of the IFF proof procedure for abductive logic programming, relaxing the original restrictions over variable quantification (allowedness conditions) and incorporating a constraint solver to deal with numerical constraints as in constraint logic programming. Finally, we describe the CIFF system, comparing it with state of the art abductive systems and answer set solvers and showing how to use it to program some applications. (To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming - TPLP)

On a complete set of generators for dot-depth two

AbstractA complete set of generators for Straubing's dot-depth-two monoids has been characterized as a set of quotients of the form A∗/∼(n,m), where n and m denote positive integers, A∗ denotes the free monoid generated by a finite alphabet A, and ∼(n,m) denote congruences related to a version of the Ehrenfeucht—Fraïssé game. This paper studies combinatorial properties of the ∼(n,m)'s and in particular the inclusion relations between them. Several decidability and inclusion consequences are discussed

Efficient Enumeration of Non-Equivalent Squares in Partial Words with Few Holes

International audienceA partial word is a word with holes (also called don't cares: special symbols which match any symbol). A p-square is a partial word matching at least one standard square without holes (called a full square). Two p-squares are called equivalent if they match the same sets of full squares. Denote by psquares(T) the number of non-equivalent p-squares which are subwords of a partial word T. Let PSQUARES k (n) be the maximum value of psquares(T) over all partial words of length n with k holes. We show asympthotically tight bounds: c1 · min(nk 2 , n 2) ≤ PSQUARES k (n) ≤ c2 · min(nk 2 , n 2) for some constants c1, c2 > 0. We also present an algorithm that computes psquares(T) in O(nk 3) time for a partial word T of length n with k holes. In particular, our algorithm runs in linear time for k = O(1) and its time complexity near-matches the maximum number of non-equivalent p-squares

Trees, congruences and varieties of finite semigroups

AbstractA classification scheme for regular languages or finite semigroups was proposed by Pin through tree hierarchies, a scheme related to the concatenation product, an operation on languages, and to the Schützenberger product, an operation on semigroups. Starting with a variety of finite semigroups (or pseudovariety of semigroups) V, a pseudovariety of semigroups ♦u(V) is associated to each tree u. In this paper, starting with the congruence γA generating a locally finite pseudovariety of semigroups V for the finite alphabet A, we construct a congruence u (γA) in such a way to generate ♦u(V) for A. We give partial results on the problem of comparing the congruences u (γA) or the pseudovarieties ♦u(V). We also propose case studies of associating trees to semidirect or two-sided semidirect products of locally finite pseudovarieties

Pacifying the Fermi-liquid: battling the devious fermion signs

The fermion sign problem is studied in the path integral formalism. The standard picture of Fermi liquids is first critically analyzed, pointing out some of its rather peculiar properties. The insightful work of Ceperley in constructing fermionic path integrals in terms of constrained world-lines is then reviewed. In this representation, the minus signs associated with Fermi-Dirac statistics are self consistently translated into a geometrical constraint structure (the {\em nodal hypersurface}) acting on an effective bosonic dynamics. As an illustrative example we use this formalism to study 1+1-dimensional systems, where statistics are irrelevant, and hence the sign problem can be circumvented. In this low-dimensional example, the structure of the nodal constraints leads to a lucid picture of the entropic interaction essential to one-dimensional physics. Working with the path integral in momentum space, we then show that the Fermi gas can be understood by analogy to a Mott insulator in a harmonic trap. Going back to real space, we discuss the topological properties of the nodal cells, and suggest a new holographic conjecture relating Fermi liquids in higher dimensions to soft-core bosons in one dimension. We also discuss some possible connections between mixed Bose/Fermi systems and supersymmetry.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figure