Separating Agent-Functioning and Inter-Agent Coordination by Activated Modules: The DECOMAS Architecture

The embedding of self-organizing inter-agent processes in distributed software applications enables the decentralized coordination system elements, solely based on concerted, localized interactions. The separation and encapsulation of the activities that are conceptually related to the coordination, is a crucial concern for systematic development practices in order to prepare the reuse and systematic integration of coordination processes in software systems. Here, we discuss a programming model that is based on the externalization of processes prescriptions and their embedding in Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). One fundamental design concern for a corresponding execution middleware is the minimal-invasive augmentation of the activities that affect coordination. This design challenge is approached by the activation of agent modules. Modules are converted to software elements that reason about and modify their host agent. We discuss and formalize this extension within the context of a generic coordination architecture and exemplify the proposed programming model with the decentralized management of (web) service infrastructures

Teaching Social Justice: Intergenerational Service-Learning in Digital Media Course

Digital media play an increasingly dominant role in reinforcing and challenging power inequality in social and institutional relationships. This paper describes how a service-learning component engaged students in community-based interactions that not only deepened their understanding of course content but also increased their commitment to diversity, community issues, and personal development. A close look at three case studies shows that integrating service learning into a first year seminar on digital media and social justice had positive outcomes for students when intentionally paired with community partners offering course-related projects

Automating the Evolution of Object-Oriented Systems

. A formal framework is presented for maintaining behavior and consistency of object-oriented systems during software evolution. The framework effectively couples a change avoidance approach based on Adaptive Object-Oriented Software with a change management mechanism to fully automate evolution. Schema transformations may render existing objects and programs inconsistent. The framework identifies the introduced inconsistencies and provides the necessary object and program transformations to reinstate consistency while maintaining the behavior of the system. A formal definition of behavioral equivalence is given. To prove behavioral equivalence of adaptive programs, the paper includes a formal semantics for adaptive software. Finally, the feasibility of the framework is demonstrated for a representative set of primitive schema transformations. Keywords: object-oriented system evolution; management of change; schema evolution. 1 Introduction Code management is important because poor co..

Dynamic Component Gluing

. We present the dynamic composite adapter design pattern to achieve modular, dynamic, non-invasive component adaptation. The pattern allows a clean separation between an abstract framework component and a concrete application component, while supporting the dynamic "gluing" of the two. This allows the different system concerns to be carved into separate components, which may then be dynamically composed. We also present a scoping construct for succinctly defining the dynamic gluing of Java components. A collaboration can be implemented as a white-box framework, i.e. a set of abstract classes, a set of abstract primitive operations, and a set of concrete template methods that define the collaboration skeleton. The abstract framework model is easily customized by an application through static subclassing. However, this solution is invasive in that it requires modification of the application classes. It is also not modular, as the framework deployment is scattered among the appli..

In any CASE: Demeter

this article. The Demeter research was supported in part by grants from Mettler-Toledo AG, IBM Corporation and by the National Science Foundation (CCR-9102578)