WorldWideScience

Sample records for hybrid agent-based architecture

  1. A Hybrid Three Layer Architecture for Fire Agent Management in Rescue Simulation Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alborz Geramifard

    2005-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a new architecture called FAIS for implementing intelligent agents cooperating in a special Multi Agent environment, namely the RoboCup Rescue Simulation System. This is a layered architecture which is customized for solving fire extinguishing problem. Structural decision making algorithms are combined with heuristic ones in this model, so it's a hybrid architecture.

  2. A Hybrid Three Layer Architecture for Fire Agent Management in Rescue Simulation Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alborz Geramifard

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a new architecture called FAIS for imple- menting intelligent agents cooperating in a special Multi Agent environ- ment, namely the RoboCup Rescue Simulation System. This is a layered architecture which is customized for solving fire extinguishing problem. Structural decision making algorithms are combined with heuristic ones in this model, so it's a hybrid architecture.

  3. A CSP-Based Agent Modeling Framework for the Cougaar Agent-Based Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gracanin, Denis; Singh, H. Lally; Eltoweissy, Mohamed; Hinchey, Michael G.; Bohner, Shawn A.

    2005-01-01

    Cognitive Agent Architecture (Cougaar) is a Java-based architecture for large-scale distributed agent-based applications. A Cougaar agent is an autonomous software entity with behaviors that represent a real-world entity (e.g., a business process). A Cougaar-based Model Driven Architecture approach, currently under development, uses a description of system's functionality (requirements) to automatically implement the system in Cougaar. The Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) formalism is used for the formal validation of the generated system. Two main agent components, a blackboard and a plugin, are modeled as CSP processes. A set of channels represents communications between the blackboard and individual plugins. The blackboard is represented as a CSP process that communicates with every agent in the collection. The developed CSP-based Cougaar modeling framework provides a starting point for a more complete formal verification of the automatically generated Cougaar code. Currently it is used to verify the behavior of an individual agent in terms of CSP properties and to analyze the corresponding Cougaar society.

  4. A Hybrid Architecture for Vision-Based Obstacle Avoidance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehmet Serdar Güzel

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a new obstacle avoidance method using a single monocular vision camera as the only sensor which is called as Hybrid Architecture. This architecture integrates a high performance appearance-based obstacle detection method into an optical flow-based navigation system. The hybrid architecture was designed and implemented to run both methods simultaneously and is able to combine the results of each method using a novel arbitration mechanism. The proposed strategy successfully fused two different vision-based obstacle avoidance methods using this arbitration mechanism in order to permit a safer obstacle avoidance system. Accordingly, to establish the adequacy of the design of the obstacle avoidance system, a series of experiments were conducted. The results demonstrate the characteristics of the proposed architecture, and the results prove that its performance is somewhat better than the conventional optical flow-based architecture. Especially, the robot employing Hybrid Architecture avoids lateral obstacles in a more smooth and robust manner than when using the conventional optical flow-based technique.

  5. An Intelligent Agent based Architecture for Visual Data Mining

    OpenAIRE

    Hamdi Ellouzi; Hela Ltifi; Mounir Ben Ayed

    2016-01-01

    the aim of this paper is to present an intelligent architecture of Decision Support System (DSS) based on visual data mining. This architecture applies the multi-agent technology to facilitate the design and development of DSS in complex and dynamic environment. Multi-Agent Systems add a high level of abstraction. To validate the proposed architecture, it is implemented to develop a distributed visual data mining based DSS to predict nosocomial infectionsoccurrence in intensive care units. Th...

  6. Synthetic Ni3S2/Ni hybrid architectures as potential contrast agents in MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ma, J; Chen, K

    2016-01-01

    Traditional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents mainly include superparamagnetic (SPM) iron oxide nanoparticle as T 2 contrast agent for liver and paramagnetic Gd (III)-chelate as T 1 contrast agent for all organs. In this work, weak ferromagnetic kale-like and SPM cabbage-like Ni 3 S 2 @Ni hybrid architectures were synthesized and evaluated as potential T 1 MRI contrast agents. Their relatively small r 2 /r 1 ratios of 2.59 and 2.38, and high r 1 values of 11.27 and 4.89 mmol −1 L s −1 (for the kale-like and cabbage-like Ni 3 S 2 @Ni, respectively) will shed some light on the development of new-type MRI contrast agents. (paper)

  7. Agent Architectures for Compliance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgemeestre, Brigitte; Hulstijn, Joris; Tan, Yao-Hua

    A Normative Multi-Agent System consists of autonomous agents who must comply with social norms. Different kinds of norms make different assumptions about the cognitive architecture of the agents. For example, a principle-based norm assumes that agents can reflect upon the consequences of their actions; a rule-based formulation only assumes that agents can avoid violations. In this paper we present several cognitive agent architectures for self-monitoring and compliance. We show how different assumptions about the cognitive architecture lead to different information needs when assessing compliance. The approach is validated with a case study of horizontal monitoring, an approach to corporate tax auditing recently introduced by the Dutch Customs and Tax Authority.

  8. A Coupled Simulation Architecture for Agent-Based/Geohydrological Modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaxa-Rozen, M.

    2016-12-01

    The quantitative modelling of social-ecological systems can provide useful insights into the interplay between social and environmental processes, and their impact on emergent system dynamics. However, such models should acknowledge the complexity and uncertainty of both of the underlying subsystems. For instance, the agent-based models which are increasingly popular for groundwater management studies can be made more useful by directly accounting for the hydrological processes which drive environmental outcomes. Conversely, conventional environmental models can benefit from an agent-based depiction of the feedbacks and heuristics which influence the decisions of groundwater users. From this perspective, this work describes a Python-based software architecture which couples the popular NetLogo agent-based platform with the MODFLOW/SEAWAT geohydrological modelling environment. This approach enables users to implement agent-based models in NetLogo's user-friendly platform, while benefiting from the full capabilities of MODFLOW/SEAWAT packages or reusing existing geohydrological models. The software architecture is based on the pyNetLogo connector, which provides an interface between the NetLogo agent-based modelling software and the Python programming language. This functionality is then extended and combined with Python's object-oriented features, to design a simulation architecture which couples NetLogo with MODFLOW/SEAWAT through the FloPy library (Bakker et al., 2016). The Python programming language also provides access to a range of external packages which can be used for testing and analysing the coupled models, which is illustrated for an application of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES).

  9. Towards Sustainable Smart Homes by a Hierarchical Hybrid Architecture of an Intelligent Agent

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Yang

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available A smart home can be realized by the provision of services, such as building control, automation and security implemented in accordance with a user’s request. One of the important issues is how to respond quickly and appropriately to a user’s request in a “dynamic environment”. An intelligent agent infers the user’s intention and provides the intact service. This paper proposes a smart home agent system based on a hierarchical hybrid architecture of a user intention model, which models the user intention as a hierarchical structure and implements it in a dynamic environment. The conventional rule-based approach needs to obtain all information before it is executed, which requires a large number of rules and is hardly scalable as the control objects are increasing. On the other hand, the proposed system consists of several modules that construct a hierarchical user intention model. The smart home system needs to take account of the information, such as time, state of device and state of the home, in addition to users’ intention. We evaluate the performance of the proposed system in a dynamic environment and conduct a blind test with seven subjects to measure the satisfaction of service, resulting in the average score of 81.46.

  10. A hybrid agent-based approach for modeling microbiological systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Zaiyi; Sloot, Peter M A; Tay, Joc Cing

    2008-11-21

    Models for systems biology commonly adopt Differential Equations or Agent-Based modeling approaches for simulating the processes as a whole. Models based on differential equations presuppose phenomenological intracellular behavioral mechanisms, while models based on Multi-Agent approach often use directly translated, and quantitatively less precise if-then logical rule constructs. We propose an extendible systems model based on a hybrid agent-based approach where biological cells are modeled as individuals (agents) while molecules are represented by quantities. This hybridization in entity representation entails a combined modeling strategy with agent-based behavioral rules and differential equations, thereby balancing the requirements of extendible model granularity with computational tractability. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach with models of chemotaxis involving an assay of 10(3) cells and 1.2x10(6) molecules. The model produces cell migration patterns that are comparable to laboratory observations.

  11. An agent-based architecture for multimodal interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.; Wijngaards, W.C.A.

    In this paper, an executable generic process model is proposed for combined verbal and non-verbal communication processes and their interaction. The agent-based architecture can be used to create multimodal interaction. The generic process model has been designed, implemented and used to simulate

  12. An agent-based architecture for multimodal interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jonker, C.M.; Treur, J.; Wijngaards, W.C.A.

    2001-01-01

    In this paper, an executable generic process model is proposed for combined verbal and non-verbal communication processes and their interaction. The agent-based architecture can be used to create multimodal interaction. The generic process model has been designed, implemented and used to simulate

  13. Agent-based Personal Network (PN) service architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jiang, Bo; Olesen, Henning

    2004-01-01

    In this paper we proposte a new concept for a centralized agent system as the solution for the PN service architecture, which aims to efficiently control and manage the PN resources and enable the PN based services to run seamlessly over different networks and devices. The working principle...

  14. Agent-based power sharing scheme for active hybrid power sources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Zhenhua

    The active hybridization technique provides an effective approach to combining the best properties of a heterogeneous set of power sources to achieve higher energy density, power density and fuel efficiency. Active hybrid power sources can be used to power hybrid electric vehicles with selected combinations of internal combustion engines, fuel cells, batteries, and/or supercapacitors. They can be deployed in all-electric ships to build a distributed electric power system. They can also be used in a bulk power system to construct an autonomous distributed energy system. An important aspect in designing an active hybrid power source is to find a suitable control strategy that can manage the active power sharing and take advantage of the inherent scalability and robustness benefits of the hybrid system. This paper presents an agent-based power sharing scheme for active hybrid power sources. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed agent-based power sharing scheme, simulation studies are performed for a hybrid power source that can be used in a solar car as the main propulsion power module. Simulation results clearly indicate that the agent-based control framework is effective to coordinate the various energy sources and manage the power/voltage profiles.

  15. Event-triggered hybrid control based on multi-Agent systems for Microgrids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dou, Chun-xia; Liu, Bin; Guerrero, Josep M.

    2014-01-01

    This paper is focused on a multi-agent system based event-triggered hybrid control for intelligently restructuring the operating mode of an microgrid (MG) to ensure the energy supply with high security, stability and cost effectiveness. Due to the microgrid is composed of different types...... of distributed energy resources, thus it is typical hybrid dynamic network. Considering the complex hybrid behaviors, a hierarchical decentralized coordinated control scheme is firstly constructed based on multi-agent sys-tem, then, the hybrid model of the microgrid is built by using differential hybrid Petri...

  16. Multi-agent based distributed control architecture for microgrid energy management and optimization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Basir Khan, M. Reyasudin; Jidin, Razali; Pasupuleti, Jagadeesh

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • A new multi-agent based distributed control architecture for energy management. • Multi-agent coordination based on non-cooperative game theory. • A microgrid model comprised of renewable energy generation systems. • Performance comparison of distributed with conventional centralized control. - Abstract: Most energy management systems are based on a centralized controller that is difficult to satisfy criteria such as fault tolerance and adaptability. Therefore, a new multi-agent based distributed energy management system architecture is proposed in this paper. The distributed generation system is composed of several distributed energy resources and a group of loads. A multi-agent system based decentralized control architecture was developed in order to provide control for the complex energy management of the distributed generation system. Then, non-cooperative game theory was used for the multi-agent coordination in the system. The distributed generation system was assessed by simulation under renewable resource fluctuations, seasonal load demand and grid disturbances. The simulation results show that the implementation of the new energy management system proved to provide more robust and high performance controls than conventional centralized energy management systems.

  17. Multi-Agent System based Event-Triggered Hybrid Controls for High-Security Hybrid Energy Generation Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dou, Chun-Xia; Yue, Dong; Guerrero, Josep M.

    2017-01-01

    This paper proposes multi-agent system based event- triggered hybrid controls for guaranteeing energy supply of a hybrid energy generation system with high security. First, a mul-ti-agent system is constituted by an upper-level central coordi-nated control agent combined with several lower......-level unit agents. Each lower-level unit agent is responsible for dealing with internal switching control and distributed dynamic regula-tion for its unit system. The upper-level agent implements coor-dinated switching control to guarantee the power supply of over-all system with high security. The internal...

  18. A hybrid POMDP-BDI agent architecture with online stochastic planning and plan caching

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Moodley, D

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This article presents an agent architecture for controlling an autonomous agent in stochastic, noisy environments. The architecture combines the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) model with the belief-desire-intention (BDI...

  19. An agent architecture with on-line learning of both procedural and declarative knowledge

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sun, R.; Peterson, T.; Merrill, E. [Univ. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL (United States)

    1996-12-31

    In order to develop versatile cognitive agents that learn in situated contexts and generalize resulting knowledge to different environments, we explore the possibility of learning both declarative and procedural knowledge in a hybrid connectionist architecture. The architecture is based on the two-level idea proposed earlier by the author. Declarative knowledge is represented symbolically, while procedural knowledge is represented subsymbolically. The architecture integrates reactive procedures, rules, learning, and decision-making in a unified framework, and structures different learning components (including Q-learning and rule induction) in a synergistic way to perform on-line and integrated learning.

  20. Agent-oriented Architecture for Task-based Information Search System

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aroyo, Lora; de Bra, Paul M.E.; De Bra, P.; Hardman, L.

    1999-01-01

    The topic of the reported research discusses an agent-oriented architecture of an educational information search system AIMS - a task-based learner support system. It is implemented within the context of 'Courseware Engineering' on-line course at the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology,

  1. A knowledge base architecture for distributed knowledge agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riedesel, Joel; Walls, Bryan

    1990-01-01

    A tuple space based object oriented model for knowledge base representation and interpretation is presented. An architecture for managing distributed knowledge agents is then implemented within the model. The general model is based upon a database implementation of a tuple space. Objects are then defined as an additional layer upon the database. The tuple space may or may not be distributed depending upon the database implementation. A language for representing knowledge and inference strategy is defined whose implementation takes advantage of the tuple space. The general model may then be instantiated in many different forms, each of which may be a distinct knowledge agent. Knowledge agents may communicate using tuple space mechanisms as in the LINDA model as well as using more well known message passing mechanisms. An implementation of the model is presented describing strategies used to keep inference tractable without giving up expressivity. An example applied to a power management and distribution network for Space Station Freedom is given.

  2. SiC: An Agent Based Architecture for Preventing and Detecting Attacks to Ubiquitous Databases

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinzón, Cristian; de Paz, Yanira; Bajo, Javier; Abraham, Ajith; Corchado, Juan M.

    One of the main attacks to ubiquitous databases is the structure query language (SQL) injection attack, which causes severe damages both in the commercial aspect and in the user’s confidence. This chapter proposes the SiC architecture as a solution to the SQL injection attack problem. This is a hierarchical distributed multiagent architecture, which involves an entirely new approach with respect to existing architectures for the prevention and detection of SQL injections. SiC incorporates a kind of intelligent agent, which integrates a case-based reasoning system. This agent, which is the core of the architecture, allows the application of detection techniques based on anomalies as well as those based on patterns, providing a great degree of autonomy, flexibility, robustness and dynamic scalability. The characteristics of the multiagent system allow an architecture to detect attacks from different types of devices, regardless of the physical location. The architecture has been tested on a medical database, guaranteeing safe access from various devices such as PDAs and notebook computers.

  3. Hybrid POMDP-BDI Agent Architecture with Online Stochastic Planning and Desires with Changing Intensity Levels

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Rens, GB

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The authors propose an agent architecture which combines Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) and the belief-desire-intention (BDI) framework have several complementary strengths. The authors propose an agent architecture, which...

  4. A Multi-Agent Architecture for an Intelligent Website in Insurance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jonker, C.M.; Lam, R.A.; Treur, J.

    1999-01-01

    In this paper a multi-agent architecture for intelligent Websites is presented and applied in insurance. The architecture has been designed and implemented using the compositional development method for multi-agent systems DESIRE. The agents within this architecture are based on a generic broker

  5. Hybrid Power Management-Based Vehicle Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eichenberg, Dennis J.

    2011-01-01

    Hybrid Power Management (HPM) is the integration of diverse, state-of-the-art power devices in an optimal configuration for space and terrestrial applications (s ee figure). The appropriate application and control of the various power devices significantly improves overall system performance and efficiency. The basic vehicle architecture consists of a primary power source, and possibly other power sources, that provides all power to a common energy storage system that is used to power the drive motors and vehicle accessory systems. This architecture also provides power as an emergency power system. Each component is independent, permitting it to be optimized for its intended purpose. The key element of HPM is the energy storage system. All generated power is sent to the energy storage system, and all loads derive their power from that system. This can significantly reduce the power requirement of the primary power source, while increasing the vehicle reliability. Ultracapacitors are ideal for an HPM-based energy storage system due to their exceptionally long cycle life, high reliability, high efficiency, high power density, and excellent low-temperature performance. Multiple power sources and multiple loads are easily incorporated into an HPM-based vehicle. A gas turbine is a good primary power source because of its high efficiency, high power density, long life, high reliability, and ability to operate on a wide range of fuels. An HPM controller maintains optimal control over each vehicle component. This flexible operating system can be applied to all vehicles to considerably improve vehicle efficiency, reliability, safety, security, and performance. The HPM-based vehicle architecture has many advantages over conventional vehicle architectures. Ultracapacitors have a much longer cycle life than batteries, which greatly improves system reliability, reduces life-of-system costs, and reduces environmental impact as ultracapacitors will probably never need to be

  6. A Hybrid Power Management (HPM) Based Vehicle Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eichenberg, Dennis J.

    2011-01-01

    Society desires vehicles with reduced fuel consumption and reduced emissions. This presents a challenge and an opportunity for industry and the government. The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center (GRC) has developed a Hybrid Power Management (HPM) based vehicle architecture for space and terrestrial vehicles. GRC's Electrical and Electromagnetics Branch of the Avionics and Electrical Systems Division initiated the HPM Program for the GRC Technology Transfer and Partnership Office. HPM is the innovative integration of diverse, state-of-the-art power devices in an optimal configuration for space and terrestrial applications. The appropriate application and control of the various power devices significantly improves overall system performance and efficiency. The basic vehicle architecture consists of a primary power source, and possibly other power sources, providing all power to a common energy storage system, which is used to power the drive motors and vehicle accessory systems, as well as provide power as an emergency power system. Each component is independent, permitting it to be optimized for its intended purpose. This flexible vehicle architecture can be applied to all vehicles to considerably improve system efficiency, reliability, safety, security, and performance. This unique vehicle architecture has the potential to alleviate global energy concerns, improve the environment, stimulate the economy, and enable new missions.

  7. Agent-Based Model of Information Security System: Architecture and Formal Framework for Coordinated Intelligent Agents Behavior Specification

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Gorodetski, Vladimir

    2001-01-01

    The contractor will research and further develop the technology supporting an agent-based architecture for an information security system and a formal framework to specify a model of distributed knowledge...

  8. Readout Architecture for Hybrid Pixel Readout Chips

    CERN Document Server

    AUTHOR|(SzGeCERN)694170; Westerlund, Tomi; Wyllie, Ken

    The original contribution of this thesis to knowledge are novel digital readout architectures for hybrid pixel readout chips. The thesis presents asynchronous bus-based architecture, a data-node based column architecture and a network-based pixel matrix architecture for data transportation. It is shown that the data-node architecture achieves readout efficiency 99 % with half the output rate as a bus-based system. The network-based solution avoids ``broken'' columns due to some manufacturing errors, and it distributes internal data traffic more evenly across the pixel matrix than column-based architectures. An improvement of $>$ 10 % to the efficiency is achieved with uniform and non-uniform hit occupancies. Architectural design has been done using transaction level modeling ($TLM$) and sequential high-level design techniques for reducing the design and simulation time. It has been possible to simulate tens of column and full chip architectures using the high-level techniques. A decrease of $>$ 10 in run-time...

  9. Agent Based Framework Architecture for Supporting Content Adaptation for Mobile Government

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hasan Omar Al-Sakran

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Rapid spread of smart mobile technology that supports internet access is transforming the way governments provide services to their citizens. Mobile devices have different capabilities based on the manufacturers and models. This paper proposes a new framework for adapting the content of M-government services using mobile agent technology. The framework is based on a mediation architecture that uses multiple mobile agents and XML as semi-structure mediation language. The flexibility of the mediation and XML provide an adaptive environment to stream data based on the capabilities of the device sending the query to the system.

  10. Cloud-based multi-agent architecture for effective planning and scheduling of distributed manufacturing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mishra, Nishikant; Singh, Akshit; Kumari, Sushma

    2016-01-01

    at distinct locations are being assembled in a plant to develop the final product. In this complex scenario, manufacturing firms have to be responsive enough to cope with the fluctuating demand of customers. To accomplish it, there is a need to develop an integrated, dynamic and autonomous system....... In this article, a self-reactive cloud-based multi-agent architecture for distributed manufacturing system is developed. The proposed architecture will assist manufacturing industry to establish real-time information exchange between the autonomous agents, clients, suppliers and manufacturing unit. The mechanism...

  11. SETH: A Hierarchical, Agent-based Architecture for Smart Spaces

    OpenAIRE

    Marsá Maestre, Iván

    2008-01-01

    The ultimate goal of any smart environment is to release users from the tasks they usually perform to achieve comfort, efficiency, and service personalization. To achieve this goal, we propose to use multiagent systems. In this report we describe the SETH architectur: a hierarchical, agent-based solution intended to be applicable to different smart space scenarios, ranging from small environments, like smart homes or smart offices, to large smart spaces like cities.

  12. Multi-agent system-based event-triggered hybrid control scheme for energy internet

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dou, Chunxia; Yue, Dong; Han, Qing Long

    2017-01-01

    This paper is concerned with an event-triggered hybrid control for the energy Internet based on a multi-agent system approach with which renewable energy resources can be fully utilized to meet load demand with high security and well dynamical quality. In the design of control, a multi-agent system...

  13. A real-time architecture for time-aware agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prouskas, Konstantinos-Vassileios; Pitt, Jeremy V

    2004-06-01

    This paper describes the specification and implementation of a new three-layer time-aware agent architecture. This architecture is designed for applications and environments where societies of humans and agents play equally active roles, but interact and operate in completely different time frames. The architecture consists of three layers: the April real-time run-time (ART) layer, the time aware layer (TAL), and the application agents layer (AAL). The ART layer forms the underlying real-time agent platform. An original online, real-time, dynamic priority-based scheduling algorithm is described for scheduling the computation time of agent processes, and it is shown that the algorithm's O(n) complexity and scalable performance are sufficient for application in real-time domains. The TAL layer forms an abstraction layer through which human and agent interactions are temporally unified, that is, handled in a common way irrespective of their temporal representation and scale. A novel O(n2) interaction scheduling algorithm is described for predicting and guaranteeing interactions' initiation and completion times. The time-aware predicting component of a workflow management system is also presented as an instance of the AAL layer. The described time-aware architecture addresses two key challenges in enabling agents to be effectively configured and applied in environments where humans and agents play equally active roles. It provides flexibility and adaptability in its real-time mechanisms while placing them under direct agent control, and it temporally unifies human and agent interactions.

  14. Agent-Oriented Privacy-Based Information Brokering Architecture for Healthcare Environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdulmutalib Masaud-Wahaishi

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Healthcare industry is facing a major reform at all levels—locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Healthcare services and systems become very complex and comprise of a vast number of components (software systems, doctors, patients, etc. that are characterized by shared, distributed and heterogeneous information sources with varieties of clinical and other settings. The challenge now faced with decision making, and management of care is to operate effectively in order to meet the information needs of healthcare personnel. Currently, researchers, developers, and systems engineers are working toward achieving better efficiency and quality of service in various sectors of healthcare, such as hospital management, patient care, and treatment. This paper presents a novel information brokering architecture that supports privacy-based information gathering in healthcare. Architecturally, the brokering is viewed as a layer of services where a brokering service is modeled as an agent with a specific architecture and interaction protocol that are appropriate to serve various requests. Within the context of brokering, we model privacy in terms of the entities ability to hide or reveal information related to its identities, requests, and/or capabilities. A prototype of the proposed architecture has been implemented to support information-gathering capabilities in healthcare environments using FIPA-complaint platform JADE.

  15. Agent-oriented privacy-based information brokering architecture for healthcare environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masaud-Wahaishi, Abdulmutalib; Ghenniwa, Hamada

    2009-01-01

    Healthcare industry is facing a major reform at all levels-locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Healthcare services and systems become very complex and comprise of a vast number of components (software systems, doctors, patients, etc.) that are characterized by shared, distributed and heterogeneous information sources with varieties of clinical and other settings. The challenge now faced with decision making, and management of care is to operate effectively in order to meet the information needs of healthcare personnel. Currently, researchers, developers, and systems engineers are working toward achieving better efficiency and quality of service in various sectors of healthcare, such as hospital management, patient care, and treatment. This paper presents a novel information brokering architecture that supports privacy-based information gathering in healthcare. Architecturally, the brokering is viewed as a layer of services where a brokering service is modeled as an agent with a specific architecture and interaction protocol that are appropriate to serve various requests. Within the context of brokering, we model privacy in terms of the entities ability to hide or reveal information related to its identities, requests, and/or capabilities. A prototype of the proposed architecture has been implemented to support information-gathering capabilities in healthcare environments using FIPA-complaint platform JADE.

  16. Architecture evaluation of an agent-based music gathering application

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Breemen, van A.J.N.; Feijs, L.M.G.

    2003-01-01

    The software architecture determines for a critical part the success of an industrial application. In this context success should be understood in terms of so called ‘ilities’, such as interoperability, integrability and responsiveness. Now that agent research is most actual we notice that industry

  17. Toward a Needs-Based Architecture for ‘Intelligent’ Communicative Agents: Speaking with Intention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roger K. Moore

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The past few years have seen considerable progress in the deployment of voice-enabled personal assistants, first on smartphones (such as Apple’s Siri and most recently as standalone devices in people’s homes (such as Amazon’s Alexa. Such ‘intelligent’ communicative agents are distinguished from the previous generation of speech-based systems in that they claim to offer access to services and information via conversational interaction (rather than simple voice commands. In reality, conversations with such agents have limited depth and, after initial enthusiasm, users typically revert to more traditional ways of getting things done. It is argued here that one source of the problem is that the standard architecture for a contemporary spoken language interface fails to capture the fundamental teleological properties of human spoken language. As a consequence, users have difficulty engaging with such systems, primarily due to a gross mismatch in intentional priors. This paper presents an alternative needs-driven cognitive architecture which models speech-based interaction as an emergent property of coupled hierarchical feedback-control processes in which a speaker has in mind the needs of a listener and a listener has in mind the intentions of a speaker. The implications of this architecture for future spoken language systems are illustrated using results from a new type of ‘intentional speech synthesiser’ that is capable of optimising its pronunciation in unpredictable acoustic environments as a function of its perceived communicative success. It is concluded that such purposeful behavior is essential to the facilitation of meaningful and productive spoken language interaction between human beings and autonomous social agents (such as robots. However, it is also noted that persistent mismatched priors may ultimately impose a fundamental limit on the effectiveness of speech-based human–robot interaction.

  18. SASAgent: an agent based architecture for search, retrieval and composition of scientific models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Felipe Mendes, Luiz; Silva, Laryssa; Matos, Ely; Braga, Regina; Campos, Fernanda

    2011-07-01

    Scientific computing is a multidisciplinary field that goes beyond the use of computer as machine where researchers write simple texts, presentations or store analysis and results of their experiments. Because of the huge hardware/software resources invested in experiments and simulations, this new approach to scientific computing currently adopted by research groups is well represented by e-Science. This work aims to propose a new architecture based on intelligent agents to search, recover and compose simulation models, generated in the context of research projects related to biological domain. The SASAgent architecture is described as a multi-tier, comprising three main modules, where CelO ontology satisfies requirements put by e-science projects mainly represented by the semantic knowledge base. Preliminary results suggest that the proposed architecture is promising to achieve requirements found in e-Science projects, considering mainly the biological domain. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. An Autonomous Mobile Agent-Based Distributed Learning Architecture-A Proposal and Analytical Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. Ahmed M. J. SADIIG

    2005-10-01

    Full Text Available An Autonomous Mobile Agent-Based Distributed Learning Architecture-A Proposal and Analytical Analysis Dr. I. Ahmed M. J. SADIIG Department of Electrical & Computer EngineeringInternational Islamic University GombakKuala Lumpur-MALAYSIA ABSTRACT The traditional learning paradigm invoving face-to-face interaction with students is shifting to highly data-intensive electronic learning with the advances in Information and Communication Technology. An important component of the e-learning process is the delivery of the learning contents to their intended audience over a network. A distributed learning system is dependent on the network for the efficient delivery of its contents to the user. However, as the demand of information provision and utilization increases on the Internet, the current information service provision and utilization methods are becoming increasingly inefficient. Although new technologies have been employed for efficient learning methodologies within the context of an e-learning environment, the overall efficiency of the learning system is dependent on the mode of distribution and utilization of its learning contents. It is therefore imperative to employ new techniques to meet the service demands of current and future e-learning systems. In this paper, an architecture based on autonomous mobile agents creating a Faded Information Field is proposed. Unlike the centralized information distribution in a conventional e-learning system, the information is decentralized in the proposed architecture resulting in increased efficiency of the overall system for distribution and utilization of system learning contents efficiently and fairly. This architecture holds the potential to address the heterogeneous user requirements as well as the changing conditions of the underlying network.

  20. A reusable multi-agent architecture for active intelligent websites

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jonker, C.M.; Lam, R.A.; Treur, J.

    In this paper a reusable multi-agent architecture for intelligent Websites is presented and illustrated for an electronic department store. The architecture has been designed and implemented using the compositional design method for multi-agent systems DESIRE. The agents within this architecture are

  1. Multi-step wind speed forecasting based on a hybrid forecasting architecture and an improved bat algorithm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xiao, Liye; Qian, Feng; Shao, Wei

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • Propose a hybrid architecture based on a modified bat algorithm for multi-step wind speed forecasting. • Improve the accuracy of multi-step wind speed forecasting. • Modify bat algorithm with CG to improve optimized performance. - Abstract: As one of the most promising sustainable energy sources, wind energy plays an important role in energy development because of its cleanliness without causing pollution. Generally, wind speed forecasting, which has an essential influence on wind power systems, is regarded as a challenging task. Analyses based on single-step wind speed forecasting have been widely used, but their results are insufficient in ensuring the reliability and controllability of wind power systems. In this paper, a new forecasting architecture based on decomposing algorithms and modified neural networks is successfully developed for multi-step wind speed forecasting. Four different hybrid models are contained in this architecture, and to further improve the forecasting performance, a modified bat algorithm (BA) with the conjugate gradient (CG) method is developed to optimize the initial weights between layers and thresholds of the hidden layer of neural networks. To investigate the forecasting abilities of the four models, the wind speed data collected from four different wind power stations in Penglai, China, were used as a case study. The numerical experiments showed that the hybrid model including the singular spectrum analysis and general regression neural network with CG-BA (SSA-CG-BA-GRNN) achieved the most accurate forecasting results in one-step to three-step wind speed forecasting.

  2. An Integrated Hybrid Transportation Architecture for Human Mars Expeditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merrill, Raymond G.; Chai, Patrick R.; Qu, Min

    2015-01-01

    NASA's Human Spaceflight Architecture Team is developing a reusable hybrid transportation architecture that uses both chemical and electric propulsion systems on the same vehicle to send crew and cargo to Mars destinations such as Phobos, Deimos, the surface of Mars, and other orbits around Mars. By applying chemical and electrical propulsion where each is most effective, the hybrid architecture enables a series of Mars trajectories that are more fuel-efficient than an all chemical architecture without significant increases in flight times. This paper presents an integrated Hybrid in-space transportation architecture for piloted missions and delivery of cargo. A concept for a Mars campaign including orbital and Mars surface missions is described in detail including a system concept of operations and conceptual design. Specific constraints, margin, and pinch points are identified for the architecture and opportunities for critical path commercial and international collaboration are discussed.

  3. A Composite Agent Architecture for Multi-Agent Simulations

    OpenAIRE

    VanPutte, Michael; Osborn, Brian; Hiles, John

    2002-01-01

    CGF Computer Generated Forces and Behavioral Representation The MOVES Institute’s Computer-Generated Autonomy Group has focused on a research goal of modeling complex and adaptive behavior while at the same time making the behavior easier to create and control. This research has led to several techniques for agent construction, that includes a social and organization relationship management engine, a composite agent architecture, an agent goal apparatus, a structure for capturi...

  4. Hybrid Architecture for Coordination of AGVs in FMS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eduardo G. Hernandez-Martinez

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a hybrid control architecture that coordinates the motion of groups of automated guided vehicles in flexible manufacturing systems. The high-level control is based on a Petri net model, using the industrial standard ISA-95, obtaining a task-based coordination of equipment and storage considering process restrictions, logical precedences, shared resources and the assignment of robots to move workpieces individually or in subgroups. On the other hand, in the low-level control, three basic control laws are designed for unicycle-type robots in order to achieve desired formation patterns and marching behaviours, avoiding inter-robot collisions. The control scheme combines the task assignment for the robots obtained from the discrete-event model and the implementation of formation and marching continuous control laws applied to the motion of the mobile robots. The hybrid architecture is implemented and validated for the case of a flexible manufacturing system and four mobile robots using a virtual reality platform.

  5. Ring-Opening Polymerization of N-Carboxyanhydrides for Preparation of Polypeptides and Polypeptide-Based Hybrid Materials with Various Molecular Architectures

    KAUST Repository

    Pahovnik, David; Hadjichristidis, Nikolaos

    2015-01-01

    Different synthetic approaches utilizing ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides for preparation of polypeptide and polypeptide-based hybrid materials with various molecular architectures are described. An overview of polymerization

  6. An agent-based peer-to-peer architecture for semantic discovery of manufacturing services across virtual enterprises

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wenyu; Zhang, Shuai; Cai, Ming; Jian, Wu

    2015-04-01

    With the development of virtual enterprise (VE) paradigm, the usage of serviceoriented architecture (SOA) is increasingly being considered for facilitating the integration and utilisation of distributed manufacturing resources. However, due to the heterogeneous nature among VEs, the dynamic nature of a VE and the autonomous nature of each VE member, the lack of both sophisticated coordination mechanism in the popular centralised infrastructure and semantic expressivity in the existing SOA standards make the current centralised, syntactic service discovery method undesirable. This motivates the proposed agent-based peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture for semantic discovery of manufacturing services across VEs. Multi-agent technology provides autonomous and flexible problemsolving capabilities in dynamic and adaptive VE environments. Peer-to-peer overlay provides highly scalable coupling across decentralised VEs, each of which exhibiting as a peer composed of multiple agents dealing with manufacturing services. The proposed architecture utilises a novel, efficient, two-stage search strategy - semantic peer discovery and semantic service discovery - to handle the complex searches of manufacturing services across VEs through fast peer filtering. The operation and experimental evaluation of the prototype system are presented to validate the implementation of the proposed approach.

  7. Agent-based modeling of the energy network for hybrid cars

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gonzalez de Durana, José María; Barambones, Oscar; Kremers, Enrique; Varga, Liz

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • An approach to represent and calculate multicarrier energy networks has been developed. • It provides a modeling method based on agents, for multicarrier energy networks. • It allows the system representation on a single sheet. • Energy flows circulating in the system can be observed dynamically during simulation. • The method is technology independent. - Abstract: Studies in complex energy networks devoted to the modeling of electrical power grids, were extended in previous work, where a computational multi-layered ontology, implemented using agent-based methods, was adopted. This structure is compatible with recently introduced Multiplex Networks which using Multi-linear Algebra generalize some of classical results for single-layer networks, to multilayer networks in steady state. Static results do not assist overly in understanding dynamic networks in which the values of the variables in the nodes and edges can change suddenly, driven by events, and even where new nodes or edges may appear or disappear, also because of other events. To address this gap, a computational agent-based model is developed to extend the multi-layer and multiplex approaches. In order to demonstrate the benefits of a dynamical extension, a model of the energy network in a hybrid car is presented as a case study

  8. Perspectives in the development of hybrid bifunctional antitumour agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musso, Loana; Dallavalle, Sabrina; Zunino, Franco

    2015-08-15

    In spite of the development of a large number of novel target-specific antitumour agents, the single-agent therapy is in general not able to provide an effective durable control of the malignant process. The limited efficacy of the available agents (both conventional cytotoxic and novel target-specific) reflects not only the expression of defence mechanisms, but also the complexity of tumour cell alterations and the redundancy of survival pathways, thus resulting in tumour cell ability to survive under stress conditions. A well-established strategy to improve the efficacy of antitumour therapy is the rational design of drug combinations aimed at achieving synergistic effects and overcoming drug resistance. An alternative strategy could be the use of agents designed to inhibit simultaneously multiple cellular targets relevant to tumour growth/survival. Among these novel agents are hybrid bifunctional drugs, i.e. compounds resulting by conjugation of different drugs or containing the pharmocophores of different drugs. This strategy has been pursued using various conventional or target-specific agents (with DNA damaging agents and histone deacetylase inhibitors as the most exploited compounds). A critical overview of the most representative compounds is provided with emphasis on the HDAC inhibitor-based hybrid agents. In spite of some promising results, the actual pharmacological advantages of the hybrid agents remain to be defined. This commentary summarizes the recent advances in this field and highlights the pharmacological basis for a rational design of hybrid bifunctional agents. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  9. Sulfonated macro-RAFT agents for the surfactant-free synthesis of cerium oxide-based hybrid latexes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garnier, Jérôme; Warnant, Jérôme; Lacroix-Desmazes, Patrick; Dufils, Pierre-Emmanuel; Vinas, Jérôme; van Herk, Alex

    2013-10-01

    Three types of amphiphatic macro-RAFT agents were employed as compatibilizers to promote the polymerization reaction at the surface of nanoceria for the synthesis of CeO2-based hybrid latexes. Macro-RAFT copolymers and terpolymers were first synthesized employing various combinations of butyl acrylate as a hydrophobic monomer and acrylic acid (AA) and/or 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS) as hydrophilic monomers. After characterizing the adsorption of these macro-RAFT agents at the cerium oxide surface by UV-visible spectrometry, emulsion copolymerization reactions of styrene and methyl acrylate were then carried out in the presence of the surface-modified nanoceria. Dynamic Light Scattering and cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy were employed to confirm the hybrid structure of the final CeO2/polymer latexes, and proved that the presence of acrylic acid units in amphiphatic macro-RAFT agents enabled an efficient formation of hybrid structures, while the presence of AMPS units, when combined with AA units, resulted in a better distribution of cerium oxide nanoclusters between latex particles. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Hybrid Experiential-Heuristic Cognitive Radio Engine Architecture and Implementation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ashwin Amanna

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The concept of cognitive radio (CR focuses on devices that can sense their environment, adapt configuration parameters, and learn from past behaviors. Architectures tend towards simplified decision-making algorithms inspired by human cognition. Initial works defined cognitive engines (CEs founded on heuristics, such as genetic algorithms (GAs, and case-based reasoning (CBR experiential learning algorithms. This hybrid architecture enables both long-term learning, faster decisions based on past experience, and capability to still adapt to new environments. This paper details an autonomous implementation of a hybrid CBR-GA CE architecture on a universal serial radio peripheral (USRP software-defined radio focused on link adaptation. Details include overall process flow, case base structure/retrieval method, estimation approach within the GA, and hardware-software lessons learned. Unique solutions to realizing the concept include mechanisms for combining vector distance and past fitness into an aggregate quantification of similarity. Over-the-air performance under several interference conditions is measured using signal-to-noise ratio, packet error rate, spectral efficiency, and throughput as observable metrics. Results indicate that the CE is successfully able to autonomously change transmit power, modulation/coding, and packet size to maintain the link while a non-cognitive approach loses connectivity. Solutions to existing shortcomings are proposed for improving case-base searching and performance estimation methods.

  11. A New Architecture for Making Moral Agents Based on C4.5 Decision Tree Algorithm

    OpenAIRE

    Meisam Azad-Manjiri

    2014-01-01

    Regarding to the influence of robots in the various fields of life, the issue of trusting to them is important, especially when a robot deals with people directly. One of the possible ways to get this confidence is adding a moral dimension to the robots. Therefore, we present a new architecture in order to build moral agents that learn from demonstrations. This agent is based on Beauchamp and Childress’s principles of biomedical ethics (a type of deontological theory) and uses decision tree a...

  12. Ring-Opening Polymerization of N-Carboxyanhydrides for Preparation of Polypeptides and Polypeptide-Based Hybrid Materials with Various Molecular Architectures

    KAUST Repository

    Pahovnik, David

    2015-09-01

    Different synthetic approaches utilizing ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides for preparation of polypeptide and polypeptide-based hybrid materials with various molecular architectures are described. An overview of polymerization mechanisms using conventional (various amines) as well as some recently developed initiators (hexamethyldisilazane, N-heterocyclic persistent carbenes, etc.) is presented, and their benefits and drawbacks for preparation of polypeptides with well-defined chain lengths and chain-end functionality are discussed. Recent examples from literature are used to illustrate different possibilities for synthesis of pure polypeptide materials with different molecular architectures bearing various functional groups, which are introduced either by modification of amino acids, before they are transformed into corresponding Ncarboxyanhydrides, or by post-polymerization modifications using protective groups and/or orthogonal functional groups. Different approaches for preparation of polypeptide-based hybrid materials are discussed as well using examples from recent literature. Syntheses of simple block copolymers or copolymers with more complex molecular architectures (graft and star copolymers) as well as modifications of nanoparticles and other surfaces with polypeptides are described.

  13. Agent-based autonomous systems and abstraction engines: Theory meets practice

    OpenAIRE

    Dennis, L.A.; Aitken, J.M.; Collenette, J.; Cucco, E.; Kamali, M.; McAree, O.; Shaukat, A.; Atkinson, K.; Gao, Y.; Veres, S.M.; Fisher, M.

    2016-01-01

    We report on experiences in the development of hybrid autonomous systems where high-level decisions are made by a rational agent. This rational agent interacts with other sub-systems via an abstraction engine. We describe three systems we have developed using the EASS BDI agent programming language and framework which supports this architecture. As a result of these experiences we recommend changes to the theoretical operational semantics that underpins the EASS framework and present a fourth...

  14. A multi-agent system architecture for sensor networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuentes-Fernández, Rubén; Guijarro, María; Pajares, Gonzalo

    2009-01-01

    The design of the control systems for sensor networks presents important challenges. Besides the traditional problems about how to process the sensor data to obtain the target information, engineers need to consider additional aspects such as the heterogeneity and high number of sensors, and the flexibility of these networks regarding topologies and the sensors in them. Although there are partial approaches for resolving these issues, their integration relies on ad hoc solutions requiring important development efforts. In order to provide an effective approach for this integration, this paper proposes an architecture based on the multi-agent system paradigm with a clear separation of concerns. The architecture considers sensors as devices used by an upper layer of manager agents. These agents are able to communicate and negotiate services to achieve the required functionality. Activities are organized according to roles related with the different aspects to integrate, mainly sensor management, data processing, communication and adaptation to changes in the available devices and their capabilities. This organization largely isolates and decouples the data management from the changing network, while encouraging reuse of solutions. The use of the architecture is facilitated by a specific modelling language developed through metamodelling. A case study concerning a generic distributed system for fire fighting illustrates the approach and the comparison with related work.

  15. Unibot, a Universal Agent Architecture for Robots

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saša Mladenović

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Today there are numerous robots in different applications domains despite the fact that they still have limitations in perception, actuation and decision process. Consequently, robots usually have limited autonomy, they are domain specific or have difficulty to adapt on new environments. Learning is the property that makes an agent intelligent and the crucial property that a robot should have to proliferate into the human society. Embedding the learning ability into the robot may simplify the development of the robot control mechanism. The motivation for this research is to develop the agent architecture of the universal robot – Unibot. In our approach the agent is the robot i.e. Unibot that acts in the physical world and is capable of learning. The Unibot conducts several simultaneous simulations of a problem of interest like path-finding. The novelty in our approach is the Multi-Agent Decision Support System which is developed and integrated into the Unibot agent architecture in order to execute simultaneous simulations. Furthermore, the Unibot calculates and evaluates between multiple solutions, decides which action should be performed and performs the action. The prototype of the Unibot agent architecture is described and evaluated in the experiment supported by the Lego Mindstorms robot and the NetLogo.

  16. Software architecture for hybrid electrical/optical data center network

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mehmeri, Victor; Vegas Olmos, Juan José; Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents hardware and software architecture based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm and OpenFlow/NETCONF protocols for enabling topology management of hybrid electrical/optical switching data center networks. In particular, a development on top of SDN open-source controller...... OpenDaylight is presented to control an optical switching matrix based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) technology....

  17. Internet-enabled collaborative agent-based supply chains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Weiming; Kremer, Rob; Norrie, Douglas H.

    2000-12-01

    This paper presents some results of our recent research work related to the development of a new Collaborative Agent System Architecture (CASA) and an Infrastructure for Collaborative Agent Systems (ICAS). Initially being proposed as a general architecture for Internet based collaborative agent systems (particularly complex industrial collaborative agent systems), the proposed architecture is very suitable for managing the Internet enabled complex supply chain for a large manufacturing enterprise. The general collaborative agent system architecture with the basic communication and cooperation services, domain independent components, prototypes and mechanisms are described. Benefits of implementing Internet enabled supply chains with the proposed infrastructure are discussed. A case study on Internet enabled supply chain management is presented.

  18. A distributed agent architecture for real-time knowledge-based systems: Real-time expert systems project, phase 1

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, S. Daniel

    1990-01-01

    We propose a distributed agent architecture (DAA) that can support a variety of paradigms based on both traditional real-time computing and artificial intelligence. DAA consists of distributed agents that are classified into two categories: reactive and cognitive. Reactive agents can be implemented directly in Ada to meet hard real-time requirements and be deployed on on-board embedded processors. A traditional real-time computing methodology under consideration is the rate monotonic theory that can guarantee schedulability based on analytical methods. AI techniques under consideration for reactive agents are approximate or anytime reasoning that can be implemented using Bayesian belief networks as in Guardian. Cognitive agents are traditional expert systems that can be implemented in ART-Ada to meet soft real-time requirements. During the initial design of cognitive agents, it is critical to consider the migration path that would allow initial deployment on ground-based workstations with eventual deployment on on-board processors. ART-Ada technology enables this migration while Lisp-based technologies make it difficult if not impossible. In addition to reactive and cognitive agents, a meta-level agent would be needed to coordinate multiple agents and to provide meta-level control.

  19. An agent based architecture for high-risk neonate management at neonatal intensive care unit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malak, Jaleh Shoshtarian; Safdari, Reza; Zeraati, Hojjat; Nayeri, Fatemeh Sadat; Mohammadzadeh, Niloofar; Farajollah, Seide Sedighe Seied

    2018-01-01

    In recent years, the use of new tools and technologies has decreased the neonatal mortality rate. Despite the positive effect of using these technologies, the decisions are complex and uncertain in critical conditions when the neonate is preterm or has a low birth weight or malformations. There is a need to automate the high-risk neonate management process by creating real-time and more precise decision support tools. To create a collaborative and real-time environment to manage neonates with critical conditions at the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and to overcome high-risk neonate management weaknesses by applying a multi agent based analysis and design methodology as a new solution for NICU management. This study was a basic research for medical informatics method development that was carried out in 2017. The requirement analysis was done by reviewing articles on NICU Decision Support Systems. PubMed, Science Direct, and IEEE databases were searched. Only English articles published after 1990 were included; also, a needs assessment was done by reviewing the extracted features and current processes at the NICU environment where the research was conducted. We analyzed the requirements and identified the main system roles (agents) and interactions by a comparative study of existing NICU decision support systems. The Universal Multi Agent Platform (UMAP) was applied to implement a prototype of our multi agent based high-risk neonate management architecture. Local environment agents interacted inside a container and each container interacted with external resources, including other NICU systems and consultation centers. In the NICU container, the main identified agents were reception, monitoring, NICU registry, and outcome prediction, which interacted with human agents including nurses and physicians. Managing patients at the NICU units requires online data collection, real-time collaboration, and management of many components. Multi agent systems are applied as

  20. Peptoid-Peptide hybrid backbone architectures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olsen, Christian Adam

    2010-01-01

    Peptidomimetic oligomers and foldamers have received considerable attention for over a decade, with beta-peptides and the so-called peptoids (N-alkylglycine oligomers) representing prominent examples of such architectures. Lately, hybrid or mixed backbones consisting of both alpha- and beta......-amino acids (alpha/beta-peptides) have been investigated in some detail as well. The present Minireview is a survey of the literature concerning hybrid structures of alpha-amino acids and peptoids, including beta-peptoids (N-alkyl-beta-alanine oligomers), and is intended to give an overview of this area...

  1. An Information Theoretic Framework and Self-organizing Agent- based Sensor Network Architecture for Power Plant Condition Monitoring

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Loparo, Kenneth [Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States); Kolacinski, Richard [Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States); Threeanaew, Wanchat [Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States); Agharazi, Hanieh [Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States)

    2017-01-30

    A central goal of the work was to enable both the extraction of all relevant information from sensor data, and the application of information gained from appropriate processing and fusion at the system level to operational control and decision-making at various levels of the control hierarchy through: 1. Exploiting the deep connection between information theory and the thermodynamic formalism, 2. Deployment using distributed intelligent agents with testing and validation in a hardware-in-the loop simulation environment. Enterprise architectures are the organizing logic for key business processes and IT infrastructure and, while the generality of current definitions provides sufficient flexibility, the current architecture frameworks do not inherently provide the appropriate structure. Of particular concern is that existing architecture frameworks often do not make a distinction between ``data'' and ``information.'' This work defines an enterprise architecture for health and condition monitoring of power plant equipment and further provides the appropriate foundation for addressing shortcomings in current architecture definition frameworks through the discovery of the information connectivity between the elements of a power generation plant. That is, to identify the correlative structure between available observations streams using informational measures. The principle focus here is on the implementation and testing of an emergent, agent-based, algorithm based on the foraging behavior of ants for eliciting this structure and on measures for characterizing differences between communication topologies. The elicitation algorithms are applied to data streams produced by a detailed numerical simulation of Alstom’s 1000 MW ultra-super-critical boiler and steam plant. The elicitation algorithm and topology characterization can be based on different informational metrics for detecting connectivity, e.g. mutual information and linear correlation.

  2. A Multi-Agent System Architecture for Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Guijarro

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available The design of the control systems for sensor networks presents important challenges. Besides the traditional problems about how to process the sensor data to obtain the target information, engineers need to consider additional aspects such as the heterogeneity and high number of sensors, and the flexibility of these networks regarding topologies and the sensors in them. Although there are partial approaches for resolving these issues, their integration relies on ad hoc solutions requiring important development efforts. In order to provide an effective approach for this integration, this paper proposes an architecture based on the multi-agent system paradigm with a clear separation of concerns. The architecture considers sensors as devices used by an upper layer of manager agents. These agents are able to communicate and negotiate services to achieve the required functionality. Activities are organized according to roles related with the different aspects to integrate, mainly sensor management, data processing, communication and adaptation to changes in the available devices and their capabilities. This organization largely isolates and decouples the data management from the changing network, while encouraging reuse of solutions. The use of the architecture is facilitated by a specific modelling language developed through metamodelling. A case study concerning a generic distributed system for fire fighting illustrates the approach and the comparison with related work.

  3. Sulfonated macro-RAFT agents for the surfactant-free synthesis of cerium oxide-based hybrid latexes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Garnier, J.; Warnant, J.; Lacroix-Desmazes, P.; Dufils, P.E.; Vinas, J.; Herk, van A.M.

    2013-01-01

    Three types of amphiphatic macro-RAFT agents were employed as compatibilizers to promote the polymerization reaction at the surface of nanoceria for the synthesis of CeO2-based hybrid latexes. Macro-RAFT copolymers and terpolymers were first synthesized employing various combinations of butyl

  4. Iterative Multiuser Equalization for Subconnected Hybrid mmWave Massive MIMO Architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Magueta

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Millimeter waves and massive MIMO are a promising combination to achieve the multi-Gb/s required by future 5G wireless systems. However, fully digital architectures are not feasible due to hardware limitations, which means that there is a need to design signal processing techniques for hybrid analog-digital architectures. In this manuscript, we propose a hybrid iterative block multiuser equalizer for subconnected millimeter wave massive MIMO systems. The low complexity user-terminals employ pure-analog random precoders, each with a single RF chain. For the base station, a subconnected hybrid analog-digital equalizer is designed to remove multiuser interference. The hybrid equalizer is optimized using the average bit-error-rate as a metric. Due to the coupling between the RF chains in the optimization problem, the computation of the optimal solutions is too complex. To address this problem, we compute the analog part of the equalizer sequentially over the RF chains using a dictionary built from the array response vectors. The proposed subconnected hybrid iterative multiuser equalizer is compared with a recently proposed fully connected approach. The results show that the performance of the proposed scheme is close to the fully connected hybrid approach counterpart after just a few iterations.

  5. Agent control of cooperating satellites

    OpenAIRE

    Lincoln, N.K.; Veres, S.M.; Dennis, Louise; Fisher, Michael; Lisitsa, Alexei

    2011-01-01

    A novel, hybrid, agent architecture for (small)swarms of satellites has been developed. The software architecture for each satellite comprises ahigh-level rational agent linked to a low-level control system. The rational agent forms dynamicgoals, decides how to tackle them and passes theactual implementation of these plans to the control layer. The rational agent also has access to aMatLabmodel of the satellite dynamics, thus allowing it to carry out selective hypothetical reasoningabout pote...

  6. M3BA: A Mobile, Modular, Multimodal Biosignal Acquisition Architecture for Miniaturized EEG-NIRS-Based Hybrid BCI and Monitoring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Luhmann, Alexander; Wabnitz, Heidrun; Sander, Tilmann; Muller, Klaus-Robert

    2017-06-01

    For the further development of the fields of telemedicine, neurotechnology, and brain-computer interfaces, advances in hybrid multimodal signal acquisition and processing technology are invaluable. Currently, there are no commonly available hybrid devices combining bioelectrical and biooptical neurophysiological measurements [here electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)]. Our objective was to design such an instrument in a miniaturized, customizable, and wireless form. We present here the design and evaluation of a mobile, modular, multimodal biosignal acquisition architecture (M3BA) based on a high-performance analog front-end optimized for biopotential acquisition, a microcontroller, and our openNIRS technology. The designed M3BA modules are very small configurable high-precision and low-noise modules (EEG input referred noise @ 500 SPS 1.39 μV pp , NIRS noise equivalent power NEP 750 nm = 5.92 pW pp , and NEP 850 nm = 4.77 pW pp ) with full input linearity, Bluetooth, 3-D accelerometer, and low power consumption. They support flexible user-specified biopotential reference setups and wireless body area/sensor network scenarios. Performance characterization and in-vivo experiments confirmed functionality and quality of the designed architecture. Telemedicine and assistive neurotechnology scenarios will increasingly include wearable multimodal sensors in the future. The M3BA architecture can significantly facilitate future designs for research in these and other fields that rely on customized mobile hybrid biosignal modal biosignal acquisition architecture (M3BA), multimodal, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), wireless body area network (WBAN), wireless body sensor network (WBSN).

  7. A Novel Architecture for Real-time Operation of Multi-Agent Based Coordination of Demand and Supply

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hommelberg, M.P.F.; Warmer, C.J.; Kamphuis, I.G.; Kok, J.K.; Van der Velde, B.J.

    2009-01-01

    The ECN-developed PowerMatcher concept has proven its value in the coordination of demand and supply of electricity in different settings with respect to distributed generation and accommodation of renewable energy resources. The concept has been applied in several field tests and simulations at various levels in the power system. The agent based technology on which the PowerMatcher is built has a number of advantages above other approaches such as the flexibility of the concept to accommodate a large variety of business scenarios, the autonomy of the agents, the standardization of communication through bids and allocation, the hiding of process information, etc. Yet the field tests also have identified a number of enhancements that may lead to improved behavior of the PowerMatcher in real life circumstances. Also discussions within the power system agent community as laid down in two White Papers from the IEEE Multi-Agent Systems Working Group have convinced us to focus on an architecture that enables close cooperation with other research groups in order to gain momentum for real applications. This paper will introduce a number of requirements for the next phase of development that enable the PowerMatcher to cope with new, future scenarios. The requirements lead to a number of architectural decisions that will support a more open software development trajectory

  8. The Hybrid Ethical Reasoning Agent IMMANUEL

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bentzen, Martin Mose; Linder, Felix

    We introduce a novel software library that supportsthe implementation of hybrid ethical reasoning agents (HERA).The objective is to make moral principles available to robotprogramming. At its current stage, HERA can assess the moralpermissibility of actions using the principle of double effect......, andit can make utilitarian judgments.We present the prototype robotIMMANUEL based on HERA. The robot will be used to conductresearch on joint moral reasoning in human-robot interaction....

  9. Architecture and evaluation of software-defined optical switching matrix for hybrid data centers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mehmeri, Victor; Vegas Olmos, Juan José; Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso

    2016-01-01

    A software architecture is proposed for hybrid packet/optical data centers employing programmable NETCONF-enabled optical switching matrix, and a performance evaluation is presented comparing hybrid and electrical-only architectures for elephant flows under different traffic patterns. Network...

  10. Automation of column-based radiochemical separations. A comparison of fluidic, robotic, and hybrid architectures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grate, J.W.; O' Hara, M.J.; Farawila, A.F.; Ozanich, R.M.; Owsley, S.L. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA (United States)

    2011-07-01

    Two automated systems have been developed to perform column-based radiochemical separation procedures. These new systems are compared with past fluidic column separation architectures, with emphasis on using disposable components so that no sample contacts any surface that any other sample has contacted, and setting up samples and columns in parallel for subsequent automated processing. In the first new approach, a general purpose liquid handling robot has been modified and programmed to perform anion exchange separations using 2 mL bed columns in 6 mL plastic disposable column bodies. In the second new approach, a fluidic system has been developed to deliver clean reagents through disposable manual valves to six disposable columns, with a mechanized fraction collector that positions one of four rows of six vials below the columns. The samples are delivered to each column via a manual 3-port disposable valve from disposable syringes. This second approach, a hybrid of fluidic and mechanized components, is a simpler more efficient approach for performing anion exchange procedures for the recovery and purification of plutonium from samples. The automation architectures described can also be adapted to column-based extraction chromatography separations. (orig.)

  11. Implementation of an Agent-Based Parallel Tissue Modelling Framework for the Intel MIC Architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maciej Cytowski

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Timothy is a novel large scale modelling framework that allows simulating of biological processes involving different cellular colonies growing and interacting with variable environment. Timothy was designed for execution on massively parallel High Performance Computing (HPC systems. The high parallel scalability of the implementation allows for simulations of up to 109 individual cells (i.e., simulations at tissue spatial scales of up to 1 cm3 in size. With the recent advancements of the Timothy model, it has become critical to ensure appropriate performance level on emerging HPC architectures. For instance, the introduction of blood vessels supplying nutrients to the tissue is a very important step towards realistic simulations of complex biological processes, but it greatly increased the computational complexity of the model. In this paper, we describe the process of modernization of the application in order to achieve high computational performance on HPC hybrid systems based on modern Intel® MIC architecture. Experimental results on the Intel Xeon Phi™ coprocessor x100 and the Intel Xeon Phi processor x200 are presented.

  12. HoCaMA: Home Care Hybrid Multiagent Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fraile, Juan A.; Bajo, Javier; Abraham, Ajith; Corchado, Juan M.

    Home Care is one of the main objectives of Ambient Intelligence. Nowadays, the disabled and elderly population, which represents a significant part of our society, requires novel solutions for providing home care in an effective way. In this chapter, we present HoCaMA, a hybrid multiagent architecture that facilitates remote monitoring and care services for disabled patients at their homes. HoCaMA combines multiagent systems and Web services to facilitate the communication and integration with multiple health care systems. In addition, HoCaMA focuses on the design of reactive agents capable of interacting with different sensors present in the environment, and incorporates a system of alerts through SMS and MMS mobile technologies. Finally, it uses Radio Frequency IDentification and JavaCard technologies to provide advanced location and identification systems, as well as automatic access control facilities. HoCaMA has been implemented in a real environment and the results obtained are presented within this chapter.

  13. Designing an architectural style for dynamic medical Cross-Organizational Workflow management system: an approach based on agents and web services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouzguenda, Lotfi; Turki, Manel

    2014-04-01

    This paper shows how the combined use of agent and web services technologies can help to design an architectural style for dynamic medical Cross-Organizational Workflow (COW) management system. Medical COW aims at supporting the collaboration between several autonomous and possibly heterogeneous medical processes, distributed over different organizations (Hospitals, Clinic or laboratories). Dynamic medical COW refers to occasional cooperation between these health organizations, free of structural constraints, where the medical partners involved and their number are not pre-defined. More precisely, this paper proposes a new architecture style based on agents and web services technologies to deal with two key coordination issues of dynamic COW: medical partners finding and negotiation between them. It also proposes how the proposed architecture for dynamic medical COW management system can connect to a multi-agent system coupling the Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) with Computerized Prescriber Order Entry (CPOE). The idea is to assist the health professionals such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists with decision making tasks, as determining diagnosis or patient data analysis without stopping their clinical processes in order to act in a coherent way and to give care to the patient.

  14. An Agent Architecture for Multi-Attribute Negotiation Using Incomplete Preference Information

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jonker, C.M.; Robu, V.; Treur, J.

    2007-01-01

    A component-based generic agent architecture for multi-attribute (integrative) negotiation is introduced and its application is described in a prototype system for negotiation about cars, developed in cooperation with, among others, Dutch Telecom KPN. The approach can be characterized as cooperative

  15. One-Pot Synthesis of Three-Dimensional Graphene/Carbon Nanotube/SnO2 Hybrid Architectures with Enhanced Lithium Storage Properties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zheye; Wang, Lu; Xiao, Jian; Xiao, Fei; Wang, Shuai

    2015-08-19

    Three-dimensional (3D) graphene/carbon nanotube (CNT)/SnO2 (GCS) hybrid architectures were constructed by a facile and cost-effective self-assembly method through hydrothermal treatment of a mixture of Sn(2+), CNTs, and graphene oxide (GO). The resultant GCS displayed a 3D hierarchically porous structure with large surface area and excellent electrical conductivity, which could effectively prevent the aggregation and volume variation of SnO2 and accelerate the transport of ions and electrons through 3D pathways. Benefiting from the unique structure and the synergistic effect of different components in the hybrid architectures, the GCS exhibited a remarkably improved reversible capacity of 842 mAh g(-1) after 100 cycles at 0.2 A g(-1) and excellent rate performance for lithium storage compared with that of graphene/SnO2 (GS) hybrid architectures. Hence, the impressive results presented here could provide a universal platform for fabricating graphene/CNT-based hybrid architectures with promising applications in various fields.

  16. Study on the E-commerce platform based on the agent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Ruixue; Qin, Lishuan; Gao, Yinmin

    2011-10-01

    To solve problem of dynamic integration in e-commerce, the Multi-Agent architecture of electronic commerce platform system based on Agent and Ontology has been introduced, which includes three major types of agent, Ontology and rule collection. In this architecture, service agent and rule are used to realize the business process reengineering, the reuse of software component, and agility of the electronic commerce platform. To illustrate the architecture, a simulation work has been done and the results imply that the architecture provides a very efficient method to design and implement the flexible, distributed, open and intelligent electronic commerce platform system to solve problem of dynamic integration in ecommerce. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the architecture of electronic commerce platform system, and the approach how Agent and Ontology support the electronic commerce platform system.

  17. Dialogue management in a home machine environment : linguistic components over an agent architecture

    OpenAIRE

    Quesada Moreno, José Francisco; García, Federico; Sena Pichardo, María Esther; Bernal Bermejo, José Ángel; Amores Carredano, José Gabriel de

    2001-01-01

    This paper presents the main characteristics of an Agent-based Architecture for the design and implementation of a Spoken Dialogue System. From a theoretical point of view, the system is based on the Information State Update approach, in particular, the system aims at the management of Natural Command Language Dialogue Moves in a Home Machine Environment. Specifically, the paper is focused on the Natural Language Understanding and Dialogue Management Agents...

  18. Emotion based Agent Architectures for Tutoring Systems : The INES Architecture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poel, Mannes; op den Akker, Rieks; Heylen, Dirk; Nijholt, Anton; Trappl, Robert

    2004-01-01

    In this paper we discuss our approach to integrate emotions in the agent based tutoring system INES (Intelligent Nursing Education System). First we discuss the INES system where we emphasize the emotional component of the system. Afterwards we show how a more advanced emotion generation

  19. Emotion based Agent Architectures for Tutoring Systems: The INES Architecture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poel, Mannes; op den Akker, Hendrikus J.A.; Heylen, Dirk K.J.; Nijholt, Antinus; Trappl, R.

    2004-01-01

    In this paper we discuss our approach to integrate emotions in the agent based tutoring system INES (Intelligent Nursing Education System). First we discuss the INES system where we emphasize the emotional component of the system. Afterwards we show how a more advanced emotion generation

  20. Mars Conjunction Crewed Missions With a Reusable Hybrid Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merrill, Raymond G.; Strange, Nathan J.; Qu, Min; Hatten, Noble

    2015-01-01

    A new crew Mars architecture has been developed that provides many potential benefits for NASA-led human Mars moons and surface missions beginning in the 2030s or 2040s. By using both chemical and electric propulsion systems where they are most beneficial and maintaining as much orbital energy as possible, the Hybrid spaceship that carries crew round trip to Mars is pre-integrated before launch and can be delivered to orbit by a single launch. After check-out on the way to cis-lunar space, it is refueled and can travel round trip to Mars in less than 1100 days, with a minimum of 300 days in Mars vicinity (opportunity dependent). The entire spaceship is recaptured into cis-lunar space and can be reused. The spaceship consists of a habitat for 4 crew attached to the Hybrid propulsion stage which uses long duration electric and chemical in-space propulsion technologies that are in use today. The hybrid architecture's con-ops has no in-space assembly of the crew transfer vehicle and requires only rendezvous of crew in a highly elliptical Earth orbit for arrival at and departure from the spaceship. The crew transfer vehicle does not travel to Mars so it only needs be able to last in space for weeks and re-enter at lunar velocities. The spaceship can be refueled and resupplied for multiple trips to Mars (every other opportunity). The hybrid propulsion stage for crewed transits can also be utilized for cargo delivery to Mars every other opportunity in a reusable manner to pre-deploy infrastructure required for Mars vicinity operations. Finally, the Hybrid architecture provides evolution options for mitigating key long-duration space exploration risks, including crew microgravity and radiation exposure.

  1. Real-Time 3D Face Acquisition Using Reconfigurable Hybrid Architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mitéran Johel

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Acquiring 3D data of human face is a general problem which can be applied in face recognition, virtual reality, and many other applications. It can be solved using stereovision. This technique consists in acquiring data in three dimensions from two cameras. The aim is to implement an algorithmic chain which makes it possible to obtain a three-dimensional space from two two-dimensional spaces: two images coming from the two cameras. Several implementations have already been considered. We propose a new simple real-time implementation based on a hybrid architecture (FPGA-DSP, allowing to consider an embedded and reconfigurable processing. Then we show our method which provides depth map of face, dense and reliable, and which can be implemented on an embedded architecture. A various architecture study led us to a judicious choice allowing to obtain the desired result. The real-time data processing is implemented in an embedded architecture. We obtain a dense face disparity map, precise enough for considered applications (multimedia, virtual worlds, biometrics and using a reliable method.

  2. Integrating deep and shallow natural language processing components : representations and hybrid architectures

    OpenAIRE

    Schäfer, Ulrich

    2006-01-01

    We describe basic concepts and software architectures for the integration of shallow and deep (linguistics-based, semantics-oriented) natural language processing (NLP) components. The main goal of this novel, hybrid integration paradigm is improving robustness of deep processing. After an introduction to constraint-based natural language parsing, we give an overview of typical shallow processing tasks. We introduce XML standoff markup as an additional abstraction layer that eases integration ...

  3. Java-based mobile agent platforms for wireless sensor networks

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aiello, F.; Carbone, A.; Fortino, G.; Galzarano, S.; Ganzha, M.; Paprzycki, M.

    2010-01-01

    This paper proposes an overview and comparison of mobile agent platforms for the development of wireless sensor network applications. In particular, the architecture, programming model and basic performance of two Java-based agent platforms, Mobile Agent Platform for Sun SPOT (MAPS) and Agent

  4. Biomorphic Multi-Agent Architecture for Persistent Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lodding, Kenneth N.; Brewster, Paul

    2009-01-01

    A multi-agent software/hardware architecture, inspired by the multicellular nature of living organisms, has been proposed as the basis of design of a robust, reliable, persistent computing system. Just as a multicellular organism can adapt to changing environmental conditions and can survive despite the failure of individual cells, a multi-agent computing system, as envisioned, could adapt to changing hardware, software, and environmental conditions. In particular, the computing system could continue to function (perhaps at a reduced but still reasonable level of performance) if one or more component( s) of the system were to fail. One of the defining characteristics of a multicellular organism is unity of purpose. In biology, the purpose is survival of the organism. The purpose of the proposed multi-agent architecture is to provide a persistent computing environment in harsh conditions in which repair is difficult or impossible. A multi-agent, organism-like computing system would be a single entity built from agents or cells. Each agent or cell would be a discrete hardware processing unit that would include a data processor with local memory, an internal clock, and a suite of communication equipment capable of both local line-of-sight communications and global broadcast communications. Some cells, denoted specialist cells, could contain such additional hardware as sensors and emitters. Each cell would be independent in the sense that there would be no global clock, no global (shared) memory, no pre-assigned cell identifiers, no pre-defined network topology, and no centralized brain or control structure. Like each cell in a living organism, each agent or cell of the computing system would contain a full description of the system encoded as genes, but in this case, the genes would be components of a software genome.

  5. Genetic Architecture of Male Sterility and Segregation Distortion in Drosophila pseudoobscura Bogota–USA Hybrids

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phadnis, Nitin

    2011-01-01

    Understanding the genetic basis of reproductive isolation between recently diverged species is a central problem in evolutionary genetics. Here, I present analyses of the genetic architecture underlying hybrid male sterility and segregation distortion between the Bogota and USA subspecies of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Previously, a single gene, Overdrive (Ovd), was shown to be necessary but not sufficient for both male sterility and segregation distortion in F1 hybrids between these subspecies, requiring several interacting partner loci for full manifestation of hybrid phenomena. I map these partner loci separately on the Bogota X chromosome and USA autosomes using a combination of different mapping strategies. I find that hybrid sterility involves a single hybrid incompatibility of at least seven interacting partner genes that includes three large-effect loci. Segregation distortion involves three loci on the Bogota X chromosome and one locus on the autosomes. The genetic bases of hybrid sterility and segregation distortion are at least partially—but not completely—overlapping. My results lay the foundation for fine-mapping experiments to identify the complete set of genes that interact with Overdrive. While individual genes that cause hybrid sterility or inviability have been identified in a few cases, my analysis provides a comprehensive look at the genetic architecture of all components of a hybrid incompatibility underlying F1 hybrid sterility. Such an analysis would likely be unfeasible for most species pairs due to their divergence time and emphasizes the importance of young species pairs such as the D. pseudoobscura subspecies studied here. PMID:21900263

  6. Genetic architecture of male sterility and segregation distortion in Drosophila pseudoobscura Bogota-USA hybrids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phadnis, Nitin

    2011-11-01

    Understanding the genetic basis of reproductive isolation between recently diverged species is a central problem in evolutionary genetics. Here, I present analyses of the genetic architecture underlying hybrid male sterility and segregation distortion between the Bogota and USA subspecies of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Previously, a single gene, Overdrive (Ovd), was shown to be necessary but not sufficient for both male sterility and segregation distortion in F(1) hybrids between these subspecies, requiring several interacting partner loci for full manifestation of hybrid phenomena. I map these partner loci separately on the Bogota X chromosome and USA autosomes using a combination of different mapping strategies. I find that hybrid sterility involves a single hybrid incompatibility of at least seven interacting partner genes that includes three large-effect loci. Segregation distortion involves three loci on the Bogota X chromosome and one locus on the autosomes. The genetic bases of hybrid sterility and segregation distortion are at least partially--but not completely--overlapping. My results lay the foundation for fine-mapping experiments to identify the complete set of genes that interact with Overdrive. While individual genes that cause hybrid sterility or inviability have been identified in a few cases, my analysis provides a comprehensive look at the genetic architecture of all components of a hybrid incompatibility underlying F(1) hybrid sterility. Such an analysis would likely be unfeasible for most species pairs due to their divergence time and emphasizes the importance of young species pairs such as the D. pseudoobscura subspecies studied here.

  7. A computational architecture for social agents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bond, A.H. [California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States)

    1996-12-31

    This article describes a new class of information-processing models for social agents. They axe derived from primate brain architecture, the processing in brain regions, the interactions among brain regions, and the social behavior of primates. In another paper, we have reviewed the neuroanatomical connections and functional involvements of cortical regions. We reviewed the evidence for a hierarchical architecture in the primate brain. By examining neuroanatomical evidence for connections among neural areas, we were able to establish anatomical regions and connections. We then examined evidence for specific functional involvements of the different neural axeas and found some support for hierarchical functioning, not only for the perception hierarchies but also for the planning and action hierarchy in the frontal lobes.

  8. Knowledge Management in Role Based Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kır, Hüseyin; Ekinci, Erdem Eser; Dikenelli, Oguz

    In multi-agent system literature, the role concept is getting increasingly researched to provide an abstraction to scope beliefs, norms, goals of agents and to shape relationships of the agents in the organization. In this research, we propose a knowledgebase architecture to increase applicability of roles in MAS domain by drawing inspiration from the self concept in the role theory of sociology. The proposed knowledgebase architecture has granulated structure that is dynamically organized according to the agent's identification in a social environment. Thanks to this dynamic structure, agents are enabled to work on consistent knowledge in spite of inevitable conflicts between roles and the agent. The knowledgebase architecture is also implemented and incorporated into the SEAGENT multi-agent system development framework.

  9. Novel WRM-based architecture of hybrid PON featuring online access and full-fiber-fault protection for smart grid

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xingfeng; Gan, Chaoqin; Liu, Zongkang; Yan, Yuqi; Qiao, HuBao

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, a novel architecture of hybrid PON for smart grid is proposed by introducing a wavelength-routing module (WRM). By using conventional optical passive components, a WRM with M ports is designed. The symmetry and passivity of the WRM makes it be easily integrated and very cheap in practice. Via the WRM, two types of network based on different ONU-interconnected manner can realize online access. Depending on optical switches and interconnecting fibers, full-fiber-fault protection and dynamic bandwidth allocation are realized in these networks. With the help of amplitude modulation, DPSK modulation and RSOA technology, wavelength triple-reuse is achieved. By means of injecting signals into left and right branches in access ring simultaneously, the transmission delay is decreased. Finally, the performance analysis and simulation of the network verifies the feasibility of the proposed architecture.

  10. Towards a Hybrid Agent-based Model for Mosquito Borne Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mniszewski, S M; Manore, C A; Bryan, C; Del Valle, S Y; Roberts, D

    2014-07-01

    Agent-based models (ABM) are used to simulate the spread of infectious disease through a population. Detailed human movement, demography, realistic business location networks, and in-host disease progression are available in existing ABMs, such as the Epidemic Simulation System (EpiSimS). These capabilities make possible the exploration of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical mitigation strategies used to inform the public health community. There is a similar need for the spread of mosquito borne pathogens due to the re-emergence of diseases such as chikungunya and dengue fever. A network-patch model for mosquito dynamics has been coupled with EpiSimS. Mosquitoes are represented as a "patch" or "cloud" associated with a location. Each patch has an ordinary differential equation (ODE) mosquito dynamics model and mosquito related parameters relevant to the location characteristics. Activities at each location can have different levels of potential exposure to mosquitoes based on whether they are inside, outside, or somewhere in-between. As a proof of concept, the hybrid network-patch model is used to simulate the spread of chikungunya through Washington, DC. Results are shown for a base case, followed by varying the probability of transmission, mosquito count, and activity exposure. We use visualization to understand the pattern of disease spread.

  11. Hybrid Multi-Agent Control in Microgrids: Framework, Models and Implementations Based on IEC 61850

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaobo Dou

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Operation control is a vital and complex issue for microgrids. The objective of this paper is to explore the practical means of applying decentralized control by using a multi agent system in actual microgrids and devices. This paper presents a hierarchical control framework (HCF consisting of local reaction control (LRC level, local decision control (LDC level, horizontal cooperation control (HCC level and vertical cooperation control (VCC level to meet different control requirements of a microgrid. Then, a hybrid multi-agent control model (HAM is proposed to implement HCF, and the properties, functionalities and operating rules of HAM are described. Furthermore, the paper elaborates on the implementation of HAM based on the IEC 61850 Standard, and proposes some new implementation methods, such as extended information models of IEC 61850 with agent communication language and bidirectional interaction mechanism of generic object oriented substation event (GOOSE communication. A hardware design and software system are proposed and the results of simulation and laboratory tests verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategies, models and implementations.

  12. Agent-based enterprise integration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    N. M. Berry; C. M. Pancerella

    1998-12-01

    The authors are developing and deploying software agents in an enterprise information architecture such that the agents manage enterprise resources and facilitate user interaction with these resources. The enterprise agents are built on top of a robust software architecture for data exchange and tool integration across heterogeneous hardware and software. The resulting distributed multi-agent system serves as a method of enhancing enterprises in the following ways: providing users with knowledge about enterprise resources and applications; accessing the dynamically changing enterprise; locating enterprise applications and services; and improving search capabilities for applications and data. Furthermore, agents can access non-agents (i.e., databases and tools) through the enterprise framework. The ultimate target of the effort is the user; they are attempting to increase user productivity in the enterprise. This paper describes their design and early implementation and discusses the planned future work.

  13. Hybrid parallel computing architecture for multiview phase shifting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhong, Kai; Li, Zhongwei; Zhou, Xiaohui; Shi, Yusheng; Wang, Congjun

    2014-11-01

    The multiview phase-shifting method shows its powerful capability in achieving high resolution three-dimensional (3-D) shape measurement. Unfortunately, this ability results in very high computation costs and 3-D computations have to be processed offline. To realize real-time 3-D shape measurement, a hybrid parallel computing architecture is proposed for multiview phase shifting. In this architecture, the central processing unit can co-operate with the graphic processing unit (GPU) to achieve hybrid parallel computing. The high computation cost procedures, including lens distortion rectification, phase computation, correspondence, and 3-D reconstruction, are implemented in GPU, and a three-layer kernel function model is designed to simultaneously realize coarse-grained and fine-grained paralleling computing. Experimental results verify that the developed system can perform 50 fps (frame per second) real-time 3-D measurement with 260 K 3-D points per frame. A speedup of up to 180 times is obtained for the performance of the proposed technique using a NVIDIA GT560Ti graphics card rather than a sequential C in a 3.4 GHZ Inter Core i7 3770.

  14. SpaceCubeX: A Framework for Evaluating Hybrid Multi-Core CPU FPGA DSP Architectures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmidt, Andrew G.; Weisz, Gabriel; French, Matthew; Flatley, Thomas; Villalpando, Carlos Y.

    2017-01-01

    The SpaceCubeX project is motivated by the need for high performance, modular, and scalable on-board processing to help scientists answer critical 21st century questions about global climate change, air quality, ocean health, and ecosystem dynamics, while adding new capabilities such as low-latency data products for extreme event warnings. These goals translate into on-board processing throughput requirements that are on the order of 100-1,000 more than those of previous Earth Science missions for standard processing, compression, storage, and downlink operations. To study possible future architectures to achieve these performance requirements, the SpaceCubeX project provides an evolvable testbed and framework that enables a focused design space exploration of candidate hybrid CPU/FPGA/DSP processing architectures. The framework includes ArchGen, an architecture generator tool populated with candidate architecture components, performance models, and IP cores, that allows an end user to specify the type, number, and connectivity of a hybrid architecture. The framework requires minimal extensions to integrate new processors, such as the anticipated High Performance Spaceflight Computer (HPSC), reducing time to initiate benchmarking by months. To evaluate the framework, we leverage a wide suite of high performance embedded computing benchmarks and Earth science scenarios to ensure robust architecture characterization. We report on our projects Year 1 efforts and demonstrate the capabilities across four simulation testbed models, a baseline SpaceCube 2.0 system, a dual ARM A9 processor system, a hybrid quad ARM A53 and FPGA system, and a hybrid quad ARM A53 and DSP system.

  15. A framework using cluster-based hybrid network architecture for collaborative virtual surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qin, Jing; Choi, Kup-Sze; Poon, Wai-Sang; Heng, Pheng-Ann

    2009-12-01

    Research on collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) opens the opportunity for simulating the cooperative work in surgical operations. It is however a challenging task to implement a high performance collaborative surgical simulation system because of the difficulty in maintaining state consistency with minimum network latencies, especially when sophisticated deformable models and haptics are involved. In this paper, an integrated framework using cluster-based hybrid network architecture is proposed to support collaborative virtual surgery. Multicast transmission is employed to transmit updated information among participants in order to reduce network latencies, while system consistency is maintained by an administrative server. Reliable multicast is implemented using distributed message acknowledgment based on cluster cooperation and sliding window technique. The robustness of the framework is guaranteed by the failure detection chain which enables smooth transition when participants join and leave the collaboration, including normal and involuntary leaving. Communication overhead is further reduced by implementing a number of management approaches such as computational policies and collaborative mechanisms. The feasibility of the proposed framework is demonstrated by successfully extending an existing standalone orthopedic surgery trainer into a collaborative simulation system. A series of experiments have been conducted to evaluate the system performance. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is capable of supporting collaborative surgical simulation.

  16. A task-based support architecture for developing point-of-care clinical decision support systems for the emergency department.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilk, S; Michalowski, W; O'Sullivan, D; Farion, K; Sayyad-Shirabad, J; Kuziemsky, C; Kukawka, B

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to create a task-based support architecture for developing clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) that assist physicians in making decisions at the point-of-care in the emergency department (ED). The backbone of the proposed architecture was established by a task-based emergency workflow model for a patient-physician encounter. The architecture was designed according to an agent-oriented paradigm. Specifically, we used the O-MaSE (Organization-based Multi-agent System Engineering) method that allows for iterative translation of functional requirements into architectural components (e.g., agents). The agent-oriented paradigm was extended with ontology-driven design to implement ontological models representing knowledge required by specific agents to operate. The task-based architecture allows for the creation of a CDSS that is aligned with the task-based emergency workflow model. It facilitates decoupling of executable components (agents) from embedded domain knowledge (ontological models), thus supporting their interoperability, sharing, and reuse. The generic architecture was implemented as a pilot system, MET3-AE--a CDSS to help with the management of pediatric asthma exacerbation in the ED. The system was evaluated in a hospital ED. The architecture allows for the creation of a CDSS that integrates support for all tasks from the task-based emergency workflow model, and interacts with hospital information systems. Proposed architecture also allows for reusing and sharing system components and knowledge across disease-specific CDSSs.

  17. A hybrid optical switch architecture to integrate IP into optical networks to provide flexible and intelligent bandwidth on demand for cloud computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Wei; Hall, Trevor J.

    2013-12-01

    The Internet is entering an era of cloud computing to provide more cost effective, eco-friendly and reliable services to consumer and business users. As a consequence, the nature of the Internet traffic has been fundamentally transformed from a pure packet-based pattern to today's predominantly flow-based pattern. Cloud computing has also brought about an unprecedented growth in the Internet traffic. In this paper, a hybrid optical switch architecture is presented to deal with the flow-based Internet traffic, aiming to offer flexible and intelligent bandwidth on demand to improve fiber capacity utilization. The hybrid optical switch is capable of integrating IP into optical networks for cloud-based traffic with predictable performance, for which the delay performance of the electronic module in the hybrid optical switch architecture is evaluated through simulation.

  18. Assembling high activity phosphotriesterase composites using hybrid nanoparticle peptide-DNA scaffolded architectures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breger, Joyce C.; Buckhout-White, Susan; Walper, Scott A.; Oh, Eunkeu; Susumu, Kimihiro; Ancona, Mario G.; Medintz, Igor L.

    2017-06-01

    Nanoparticle (NP) display potentially offers a new way to both stabilize and, in many cases, enhance enzyme activity over that seen for native protein in solution. However, the large, globular and sometimes multimeric nature of many enzymes limits their ability to attach directly to the surface of NPs, especially when the latter are colloidally stabilized with bulky PEGylated ligands. Engineering extended protein linkers into the enzymes to achieve direct attachment through the PEG surface often detrimentally alters the enzymes catalytic ability. Here, we demonstrate an alternate, hybrid biomaterials-based approach to achieving directed enzyme assembly on PEGylated NPs. We self-assemble a unique architecture consisting of a central semiconductor quantum dot (QD) scaffold displaying controlled ratios of extended peptide-DNA linkers which penetrate through the PEG surface to directly couple enzymes to the QD surface. As a test case, we utilize phosphotriesterase (PTE), an enzyme of bio-defense interest due to its ability to hydrolyze organophosphate nerve agents. Moreover, this unique approach still allows PTE to maintain enhanced activity while also suggesting the ability of DNA to enhance enzyme activity in and of itself.

  19. Capturing multi-stage fuzzy uncertainties in hybrid system dynamics and agent-based models for enhancing policy implementation in health systems research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Shiyong; Triantis, Konstantinos P; Zhao, Li; Wang, Youfa

    2018-01-01

    In practical research, it was found that most people made health-related decisions not based on numerical data but on perceptions. Examples include the perceptions and their corresponding linguistic values of health risks such as, smoking, syringe sharing, eating energy-dense food, drinking sugar-sweetened beverages etc. For the sake of understanding the mechanisms that affect the implementations of health-related interventions, we employ fuzzy variables to quantify linguistic variable in healthcare modeling where we employ an integrated system dynamics and agent-based model. In a nonlinear causal-driven simulation environment driven by feedback loops, we mathematically demonstrate how interventions at an aggregate level affect the dynamics of linguistic variables that are captured by fuzzy agents and how interactions among fuzzy agents, at the same time, affect the formation of different clusters(groups) that are targeted by specific interventions. In this paper, we provide an innovative framework to capture multi-stage fuzzy uncertainties manifested among interacting heterogeneous agents (individuals) and intervention decisions that affect homogeneous agents (groups of individuals) in a hybrid model that combines an agent-based simulation model (ABM) and a system dynamics models (SDM). Having built the platform to incorporate high-dimension data in a hybrid ABM/SDM model, this paper demonstrates how one can obtain the state variable behaviors in the SDM and the corresponding values of linguistic variables in the ABM. This research provides a way to incorporate high-dimension data in a hybrid ABM/SDM model. This research not only enriches the application of fuzzy set theory by capturing the dynamics of variables associated with interacting fuzzy agents that lead to aggregate behaviors but also informs implementation research by enabling the incorporation of linguistic variables at both individual and institutional levels, which makes unstructured linguistic data

  20. A hybrid agent-based computational economics and optimization approach for supplier selection problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zahra Pourabdollahi

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Supplier evaluation and selection problem is among the most important of logistics decisions that have been addressed extensively in supply chain management. The same logistics decision is also important in freight transportation since it identifies trade relationships between business establishments and determines commodity flows between production and consumption points. The commodity flows are then used as input to freight transportation models to determine cargo movements and their characteristics including mode choice and shipment size. Various approaches have been proposed to explore this latter problem in previous studies. Traditionally, potential suppliers are evaluated and selected using only price/cost as the influential criteria and the state-of-practice methods. This paper introduces a hybrid agent-based computational economics and optimization approach for supplier selection. The proposed model combines an agent-based multi-criteria supplier evaluation approach with a multi-objective optimization model to capture both behavioral and economical aspects of the supplier selection process. The model uses a system of ordered response models to determine importance weights of the different criteria in supplier evaluation from a buyers’ point of view. The estimated weights are then used to calculate a utility for each potential supplier in the market and rank them. The calculated utilities are then entered into a mathematical programming model in which best suppliers are selected by maximizing the total accrued utility for all buyers and minimizing total shipping costs while balancing the capacity of potential suppliers to ensure market clearing mechanisms. The proposed model, herein, was implemented under an operational agent-based supply chain and freight transportation framework for the Chicago Metropolitan Area.

  1. Multi-Agent-Based Controller for Voltage Enhancement in AC/DC Hybrid Microgrid Using Energy Storages

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmadali Khatibzadeh

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Development of renewable energies and DC loads have led microgrids toward the creation of DC networks. The predictions show that the hybrid microgrids will be used widely in the future. This article has studied the voltage stability in the presence of sources of energy storage in AC/DC hybrid networks. However, because the different dynamics of hybrid networks applying centralized and distributed controllers will be faced with different problems, in this study, a multi-agent control for the microgrid has been used. A new structure referred to here as an event-driven microgrid control management (EDMCM has been developed to control the microgrid. This method increases response speed and accuracy of decision making. Hybrid Network Simulation results confirm the validity of the developed model.

  2. Proposing Hybrid Architecture to Implement Cloud Computing in Higher Education Institutions Using a Meta-synthesis Appro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    hamid reza bazi

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Cloud computing is a new technology that considerably helps Higher Education Institutions (HEIs to develop and create competitive advantage with inherent characteristics such as flexibility, scalability, accessibility, reliability, fault tolerant and economic efficiency. Due to the numerous advantages of cloud computing, and in order to take advantage of cloud computing infrastructure, services of universities and HEIs need to migrate to the cloud. However, this transition involves many challenges, one of which is lack or shortage of appropriate architecture for migration to the technology. Using a reliable architecture for migration ensures managers to mitigate risks in the cloud computing technology. Therefore, organizations always search for suitable cloud computing architecture. In previous studies, these important features have received less attention and have not been achieved in a comprehensive way. The aim of this study is to use a meta-synthesis method for the first time to analyze the previously published studies and to suggest appropriate hybrid cloud migration architecture (IUHEC. We reviewed many papers from relevant journals and conference proceedings. The concepts extracted from these papers are classified to related categories and sub-categories. Then, we developed our proposed hybrid architecture based on these concepts and categories. The proposed architecture was validated by a panel of experts and Lawshe’s model was used to determine the content validity. Due to its innovative yet user-friendly nature, comprehensiveness, and high security, this architecture can help HEIs have an effective migration to cloud computing environment.

  3. Hybrid architecture for building secure sensor networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Owens, Ken R., Jr.; Watkins, Steve E.

    2012-04-01

    Sensor networks have various communication and security architectural concerns. Three approaches are defined to address these concerns for sensor networks. The first area is the utilization of new computing architectures that leverage embedded virtualization software on the sensor. Deploying a small, embedded virtualization operating system on the sensor nodes that is designed to communicate to low-cost cloud computing infrastructure in the network is the foundation to delivering low-cost, secure sensor networks. The second area focuses on securing the sensor. Sensor security components include developing an identification scheme, and leveraging authentication algorithms and protocols that address security assurance within the physical, communication network, and application layers. This function will primarily be accomplished through encrypting the communication channel and integrating sensor network firewall and intrusion detection/prevention components to the sensor network architecture. Hence, sensor networks will be able to maintain high levels of security. The third area addresses the real-time and high priority nature of the data that sensor networks collect. This function requires that a quality-of-service (QoS) definition and algorithm be developed for delivering the right data at the right time. A hybrid architecture is proposed that combines software and hardware features to handle network traffic with diverse QoS requirements.

  4. An agent-based method for simulating porous fluid-saturated structures with indistinguishable components

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kashani, Jamal; Pettet, Graeme John; Gu, YuanTong; Zhang, Lihai; Oloyede, Adekunle

    2017-10-01

    Single-phase porous materials contain multiple components that intermingle up to the ultramicroscopic level. Although the structures of the porous materials have been simulated with agent-based methods, the results of the available methods continue to provide patterns of distinguishable solid and fluid agents which do not represent materials with indistinguishable phases. This paper introduces a new agent (hybrid agent) and category of rules (intra-agent rule) that can be used to create emergent structures that would more accurately represent single-phase structures and materials. The novel hybrid agent carries the characteristics of system's elements and it is capable of changing within itself, while also responding to its neighbours as they also change. As an example, the hybrid agent under one-dimensional cellular automata formalism in a two-dimensional domain is used to generate patterns that demonstrate the striking morphological and characteristic similarities with the porous saturated single-phase structures where each agent of the ;structure; carries semi-permeability property and consists of both fluid and solid in space and at all times. We conclude that the ability of the hybrid agent to change locally provides an enhanced protocol to simulate complex porous structures such as biological tissues which could facilitate models for agent-based techniques and numerical methods.

  5. Prom week meets Skyrim: Developing a social agent architecture in a commercial game

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Guimarães, Manuel; Santos, Pedro A.; Jhala, Arnav

    2018-01-01

    We present and describe CIF-CK — a social agent architecture that models reasoning about persistent social interactions to improve narrative engagement and play experience for human interactors. The architecture is inspired by McCoy et al’s Comme il-Faut (CiF) architecture that represents rich

  6. Current hybrid-electric powertrain architectures: Applying empirical design data to life cycle assessment and whole-life cost analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hutchinson, Tim; Burgess, Stuart; Herrmann, Guido

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Design data for 44 hybrid cars available in the US has been gathered and analysed. • An empirical life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions is performed. • Empirical whole-life cost modelling is used to evaluate powertrain architectures. • The value to be seen in each architecture is highly dependent on its application. • Mild, HSD and Plug-in HSD powertrains are the most likely architectures to dominate. - Abstract: The recent introduction of hybrid-electric powertrain technology has disrupted the automotive industry, causing significant powertrain design divergence. As this radical powertrain innovation matures, will hybrid vehicles dominate the future automotive market and does this represent a positive shift in the environmental impact of the industry? The answer to this question is sought within this paper. It seeks to take advantage of the position that the industry has reached, replacing previous theoretical studies with the first extensive empirical models of life cycle emissions and whole-life costing. A comprehensive snapshot of today’s hybrid market is presented, with detailed descriptions of the various hybrid powertrain architectures. Design data has been gathered for 44 hybrid passenger cars currently available in the US. The empirical data is used to explore the relative life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and whole-life costing of different hybrid powertrain architectures. Potential dominant designs are identified and their emissions are shown to be reduced. However, both the emissions and economic competitiveness of different hybrid powertrains are shown to vary significantly depending on how the vehicle is used

  7. A hybrid method for evaluating enterprise architecture implementation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nikpay, Fatemeh; Ahmad, Rodina; Yin Kia, Chiam

    2017-02-01

    Enterprise Architecture (EA) implementation evaluation provides a set of methods and practices for evaluating the EA implementation artefacts within an EA implementation project. There are insufficient practices in existing EA evaluation models in terms of considering all EA functions and processes, using structured methods in developing EA implementation, employing matured practices, and using appropriate metrics to achieve proper evaluation. The aim of this research is to develop a hybrid evaluation method that supports achieving the objectives of EA implementation. To attain this aim, the first step is to identify EA implementation evaluation practices. To this end, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted. Second, the proposed hybrid method was developed based on the foundation and information extracted from the SLR, semi-structured interviews with EA practitioners, program theory evaluation and Information Systems (ISs) evaluation. Finally, the proposed method was validated by means of a case study and expert reviews. This research provides a suitable foundation for researchers who wish to extend and continue this research topic with further analysis and exploration, and for practitioners who would like to employ an effective and lightweight evaluation method for EA projects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Technology System Architecture for Web–Based Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Canales–Cruz

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available In this paper a new architecture for development of Web–Based Education systems is presented. The se systems are centered in the learner and adapted to their personals needs in intelligent form. The architecture is based on the IEEE 1484 LTSA (Learning Technology System Architecture specification and it assembles to software development and instructional design patterns. On the one hand, the software development pattern is supported under a Multi–Agents System, it employs the methods and technical of the Domain Engineering for development of IRLCOO (Intelligent Reusable Learning Components Object Oriented. IRLCOO are a special type of Sharable Content Object according to SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reusable Model. On the other hand, the instructional design pattern incorporates a mental model as the Conceptual Maps to transmit, build and generate appropriate knowledge to this educational environment type.

  9. Enhanced risk management by an emerging multi-agent architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Sin-Jin; Hsu, Ming-Fu

    2014-07-01

    Classification in imbalanced datasets has attracted much attention from researchers in the field of machine learning. Most existing techniques tend not to perform well on minority class instances when the dataset is highly skewed because they focus on minimising the forecasting error without considering the relative distribution of each class. This investigation proposes an emerging multi-agent architecture, grounded on cooperative learning, to solve the class-imbalanced classification problem. Additionally, this study deals further with the obscure nature of the multi-agent architecture and expresses comprehensive rules for auditors. The results from this study indicate that the presented model performs satisfactorily in risk management and is able to tackle a highly class-imbalanced dataset comparatively well. Furthermore, the knowledge visualised process, supported by real examples, can assist both internal and external auditors who must allocate limited detecting resources; they can take the rules as roadmaps to modify the auditing programme.

  10. Agent-Based Data Integration Framework

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Łukasz Faber

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Combining data from diverse, heterogeneous sources while facilitating a unified access to it is an important (albeit difficult task. There are various possibilities of performing it. In this publication, we propose and describe an agent-based framework dedicated to acquiring and processing distributed, heterogeneous data collected from diverse sources (e.g., the Internet, external software, relational, and document databases. Using this multi-agent-based approach in the aspects of the general architecture (the organization and management of the framework, we create a proof-of-concept implementation. The approach is presented using a sample scenario in which the system is used to search for personal and professional profiles of scientists.

  11. THE ARCHITECTURE OF MULTI-COMPONENT DISTRIBUTED HYBRID EXPERT TRAINING SYSTEM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Оleh Shevchuk

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper reports on the design of a multi-component architecture of distributed hybrid expert training system that can be used for the study of knowledge base of both internal and external expert systems and artificial intelligence systems that are distributed on Internet servers and other computer networks. Expert training system is based on three groups of basic principles: cybernetic, reflecting experience of previous research of systems of artificial intelligence, expert training systems; pedagogical, determining the principles, on which pedagogical design and use of expert training systems are based; psychological, determining preconditious and understanding of pupils psychics, on which the processes of design and use of expert training systems in professional training of future specialists are based.It accounts for the efficient training through the distributed knowledge via the Internet, which greatly increases the didactic capabilities of the system.

  12. Carbon Nano-Allotrope/Magnetic Nanoparticle Hybrid Nanomaterials as T2 Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunxiang Gao

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI is the most powerful tool for deep penetration and high-quality 3D imaging of tissues with anatomical details. However, the sensitivity of the MRI technique is not as good as that of the radioactive or optical imaging methods. Carbon-based nanomaterials have attracted significant attention in biomaterial research in recent decades due to their unique physical properties, versatile functionalization chemistry, as well as excellent biological compatibility. Researchers have employed various carbon nano-allotropes to develop hybrid MRI contrast agents for improved sensitivity. This review summarizes the new research progresses in carbon-based hybrid MRI contrast agents, especially those reported in the past five years. The review will only focus on T2-weighted MRI agents and will be categorized by the different carbon allotrope types and magnetic components. Considering the strong trend in recent bio-nanotechnology research towards multifunctional diagnosis and therapy, carbon-based MRI contrast agents integrated with other imaging modalities or therapeutic functions are also covered.

  13. Combining Performance and Flexibility for RMS with a Hybrid Architecture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dennis Koole; Arjan Groenewegen; Daniël Telgen; Patrick Wit; Leo van Moergestel; Arjan van Zanten; John-Jules Meyer; Ing. Erik Puik; Dick van der Steen; Pascal Muller

    2013-01-01

    Author supplied Combining Performance and Flexibility for RMS with a Hybrid Architecture Dani¨el Telgen 12? , Leo van Moergestel 1 , Erik Puik 1 , Pascal Muller 1 , Arjan Groenewegen 1 , Dick van der Steen 1 , Dennis Koole 1 , Patrick de Wit 1 , Arjen van Zanten 1 , and John-Jules

  14. Agent-Based Architectures and Algorithms for Energy Management in Smart Grids. Application to Smart Power Generation and Residential Demand Response

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roche, Robin

    2012-01-01

    Due to the convergence of several profound trends in the energy sector, smart grids are emerging as the main paradigm for the modernization of the electric grid. Smart grids hold many promises, including the ability to integrate large shares of distributed and intermittent renewable energy sources, energy storage and electric vehicles, as well as the promise to give consumers more control on their energy consumption. Such goals are expected to be achieved through the use of multiple technologies, and especially of information and communication technologies, supported by intelligent algorithms. These changes are transforming power grids into even more complex systems, that require suitable tools to model, simulate and control their behaviors. In this dissertation, properties of multi-agent systems are used to enable a new systemic approach to energy management, and allow for agent-based architectures and algorithms to be defined. This new approach helps tackle the complexity of a cyber-physical system such as the smart grid by enabling the simultaneous consideration of multiple aspects such as power systems, the communication infrastructure, energy markets, and consumer behaviors. The approach is tested in two applications: a 'smart' energy management system for a gas turbine power plant, and a residential demand response system. An energy management system for gas turbine power plants is designed with the objective to minimize operational costs and emissions, in the smart power generation paradigm. A gas turbine model based on actual data is proposed, and used to run simulations with a simulator specifically developed for this problem. A meta-heuristic achieves dynamic dispatch among gas turbines according to their individual characteristics. Results show that the system is capable of operating the system properly while reducing costs and emissions. The computing and communication requirements of the system, resulting from the selected architecture, are

  15. A Multi-Agent Control Architecture for a Robotic Wheelchair

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Galindo

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Assistant robots like robotic wheelchairs can perform an effective and valuable work in our daily lives. However, they eventually may need external help from humans in the robot environment (particularly, the driver in the case of a wheelchair to accomplish safely and efficiently some tricky tasks for the current technology, i.e. opening a locked door, traversing a crowded area, etc. This article proposes a control architecture for assistant robots designed under a multi-agent perspective that facilitates the participation of humans into the robotic system and improves the overall performance of the robot as well as its dependability. Within our design, agents have their own intentions and beliefs, have different abilities (that include algorithmic behaviours and human skills and also learn autonomously the most convenient method to carry out their actions through reinforcement learning. The proposed architecture is illustrated with a real assistant robot: a robotic wheelchair that provides mobility to impaired or elderly people.

  16. Multiwalled carbon nanotube hybrids as MRI contrast agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikodem Kuźnik

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI is one of the most commonly used tomography techniques in medical diagnosis due to the non-invasive character, the high spatial resolution and the possibility of soft tissue imaging. Contrast agents, such as gadolinium complexes and superparamagnetic iron oxides, are administered to spotlight certain organs and their pathologies. Many new models have been proposed that reduce side effects and required doses of these already clinically approved contrast agents. These new candidates often possess additional functionalities, e.g., the possibility of bioactivation upon action of particular stimuli, thus serving as smart molecular probes, or the coupling with therapeutic agents and therefore combining both a diagnostic and therapeutic role. Nanomaterials have been found to be an excellent scaffold for contrast agents, among which carbon nanotubes offer vast possibilities. The morphology of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs, their magnetic and electronic properties, the possibility of different functionalization and the potential to penetrate cell membranes result in a unique and very attractive candidate for a new MRI contrast agent. In this review we describe the different issues connected with MWCNT hybrids designed for MRI contrast agents, i.e., their synthesis and magnetic and dispersion properties, as well as both in vitro and in vivo behavior, which is important for diagnostic purposes. An introduction to MRI contrast agent theory is elaborated here in order to point to the specific expectations regarding nanomaterials. Finally, we propose a promising, general model of MWCNTs as MRI contrast agent candidates based on the studies presented here and supported by appropriate theories.

  17. Agent-Based Decision Control—How to Appreciate Multivariate Optimisation in Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Negendahl, Kristoffer; Perkov, Thomas Holmer; Kolarik, Jakub

    2015-01-01

    , the method is applied to a multivariate optimisation problem. The aim is specifically to demonstrate optimisation for entire building energy consumption, daylight distribution and capital cost. Based on the demonstrations Moth’s ability to find local minima is discussed. It is concluded that agent-based...... in the early design stage. The main focus is to demonstrate the optimisation method, which is done in two ways. Firstly, the newly developed agent-based optimisation algorithm named Moth is tested on three different single objective search spaces. Here Moth is compared to two evolutionary algorithms. Secondly...... optimisation algorithms like Moth open up for new uses of optimisation in the early design stage. With Moth the final outcome is less dependent on pre- and post-processing, and Moth allows user intervention during optimisation. Therefore, agent-based models for optimisation such as Moth can be a powerful...

  18. Towards an agent-oriented programming language based on Scala

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitrović, Dejan; Ivanović, Mirjana; Budimac, Zoran

    2012-09-01

    Scala and its multi-threaded model based on actors represent an excellent framework for developing purely reactive agents. This paper presents an early research on extending Scala with declarative programming constructs, which would result in a new agent-oriented programming language suitable for developing more advanced, BDI agent architectures. The main advantage the new language over many other existing solutions for programming BDI agents is a natural and straightforward integration of imperative and declarative programming constructs, fitted under a single development framework.

  19. Applicability of Agent-Based Technology for Acquisition, Monitoring and Process Control Systems at Real Time for Distributed Architectures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dorao, Carlos; Fontanini, H; Fernandez, R

    2000-01-01

    Modern industrial plants are characterized by their large size and higher complexity of the processes involved in their operations.The real time monitoring systems of theses plants must be used a distributed architecture.Due to the pressure of competitive markets, an efficient adaptability to changes must be present in the plants.Modifications in the plants due to changes in the lay-out, the introduction of newer supervision, control and monitoring technologies must not affect the integrity of the systems.The aim of this work is give an introduction to the agent-based technology and analyze it advantage for the development of a modern monitoring system

  20. Distributed behavior-based control architecture for a wall climbing robot

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nadir Ould Khessal; Shamsudin H.M. Amin . nadir.ok@ieee.org

    1999-01-01

    In the past two decades, Behavior-based AI (Artificial Intelligence) has emerged as a new approach in designing mobile robot control architecture. It stresses on the issues of reactivity, concurrency and real-time control. In this paper we propose a new approach in designing robust intelligent controllers for mobile robot platforms. The Behaviour-based paradigm implemented in a multiprocessing firmware architecture will further enhance parallelism present in the subsumption paradigm itself and increased real-timeness. The paper summarises research done to design a four-legged wall climbing robot. The emphasis will be on the control architecture of the robot based on the Behavior -based paradigm. The robot control architecture is made up of two layers, the locomotion layer and the gait controller layer. The two layers are implemented on a Vesta 68332 processor board running the Behaviour-based kernel, The software is developed using the L programming language, introduced by IS Robotics. The Behaviour-based paradigm is outlined and contrasted with the classical Knowledge-based approach. A description of the distributed architecture is presented followed by a presentation of the Behaviour-based agents for the two layers. (author)

  1. A Hybrid Hardware and Software Component Architecture for Embedded System Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marcondes, Hugo; Fröhlich, Antônio Augusto

    Embedded systems are increasing in complexity, while several metrics such as time-to-market, reliability, safety and performance should be considered during the design of such systems. A component-based design which enables the migration of its components between hardware and software can cope to achieve such metrics. To enable that, we define hybrid hardware and software components as a development artifact that can be deployed by different combinations of hardware and software elements. In this paper, we present an architecture for developing such components in order to construct a repository of components that can migrate between the hardware and software domains to meet the design system requirements.

  2. Architectural optimization of an epoxy-based hybrid sol–gel coating for the corrosion protection of a cast Elektron21 magnesium alloy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Murillo-Gutiérrez, N.V., E-mail: murillo@chimie.ups-tlse.fr [Université de Toulouse UPS-INP-CNRS, Institut Carnot CIRIMAT, Toulouse (France); Ansart, F.; Bonino, J-P. [Université de Toulouse UPS-INP-CNRS, Institut Carnot CIRIMAT, Toulouse (France); Kunst, S.R.; Malfatti, C.F. [Universidade Federal do Rio grande do Sul, Laboratory of Corrosion Research (LAPEC), Porto Alegre (Brazil)

    2014-08-01

    An epoxy-based hybrid sol–gel coating was prepared in various architectural configurations has been studied for the corrosion protection of a cast Elektron21 magnesium alloy. The creation of a single layer of this coating presents defects consisting of macro-pores and protuberances, which opens access for corrosive species to reach the metallic substrate. These defects are suspected to result from the high reactivity of the substrate, as well as to the irregular topography of the substrate disrupted by the microstructure of the own magnesium alloy. Hence, a sol–gel coating in bilayer architecture is proposed, where the first layer would “inert” the surface of the magnesium substrate, and the second layer would cover the defects of the first layer and also thickening the coating. The morphological characteristics of the sol–gel coatings were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and their corrosion behavior was evaluated by OCP (open circuit potential) monitoring and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in chloride media. It is shown that both the architectural arrangement and the individual thickness of the first and second layers have an important influence on the anticorrosion performances of the protective system, just as much as its global thickness.

  3. Architectural optimization of an epoxy-based hybrid sol-gel coating for the corrosion protection of a cast Elektron21 magnesium alloy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murillo-Gutiérrez, N. V.; Ansart, F.; Bonino, J.-P.; Kunst, S. R.; Malfatti, C. F.

    2014-08-01

    An epoxy-based hybrid sol-gel coating was prepared in various architectural configurations has been studied for the corrosion protection of a cast Elektron21 magnesium alloy. The creation of a single layer of this coating presents defects consisting of macro-pores and protuberances, which opens access for corrosive species to reach the metallic substrate. These defects are suspected to result from the high reactivity of the substrate, as well as to the irregular topography of the substrate disrupted by the microstructure of the own magnesium alloy. Hence, a sol-gel coating in bilayer architecture is proposed, where the first layer would “inert” the surface of the magnesium substrate, and the second layer would cover the defects of the first layer and also thickening the coating. The morphological characteristics of the sol-gel coatings were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and their corrosion behavior was evaluated by OCP (open circuit potential) monitoring and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in chloride media. It is shown that both the architectural arrangement and the individual thickness of the first and second layers have an important influence on the anticorrosion performances of the protective system, just as much as its global thickness.

  4. Architectural optimization of an epoxy-based hybrid sol–gel coating for the corrosion protection of a cast Elektron21 magnesium alloy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murillo-Gutiérrez, N.V.; Ansart, F.; Bonino, J-P.; Kunst, S.R.; Malfatti, C.F.

    2014-01-01

    An epoxy-based hybrid sol–gel coating was prepared in various architectural configurations has been studied for the corrosion protection of a cast Elektron21 magnesium alloy. The creation of a single layer of this coating presents defects consisting of macro-pores and protuberances, which opens access for corrosive species to reach the metallic substrate. These defects are suspected to result from the high reactivity of the substrate, as well as to the irregular topography of the substrate disrupted by the microstructure of the own magnesium alloy. Hence, a sol–gel coating in bilayer architecture is proposed, where the first layer would “inert” the surface of the magnesium substrate, and the second layer would cover the defects of the first layer and also thickening the coating. The morphological characteristics of the sol–gel coatings were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and their corrosion behavior was evaluated by OCP (open circuit potential) monitoring and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in chloride media. It is shown that both the architectural arrangement and the individual thickness of the first and second layers have an important influence on the anticorrosion performances of the protective system, just as much as its global thickness.

  5. Agent-based Simulation of the Maritime Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. Vaněk

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, a multi-agent based simulation platform is introduced that focuses on legitimate and illegitimate aspects of maritime traffic, mainly on intercontinental transport through piracy afflicted areas. The extensible architecture presented here comprises several modules controlling the simulation and the life-cycle of the agents, analyzing the simulation output and visualizing the entire simulated domain. The simulation control module is initialized by various configuration scenarios to simulate various real-world situations, such as a pirate ambush, coordinated transit through a transport corridor, or coastal fishing and local traffic. The environmental model provides a rich set of inputs for agents that use the geo-spatial data and the vessel operational characteristics for their reasoning. The agent behavior model based on finite state machines together with planning algorithms allows complex expression of agent behavior, so the resulting simulation output can serve as a substitution for real world data from the maritime domain.

  6. Introduction of an agent-based multi-scale modular architecture for dynamic knowledge representation of acute inflammation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    An, Gary

    2008-05-27

    One of the greatest challenges facing biomedical research is the integration and sharing of vast amounts of information, not only for individual researchers, but also for the community at large. Agent Based Modeling (ABM) can provide a means of addressing this challenge via a unifying translational architecture for dynamic knowledge representation. This paper presents a series of linked ABMs representing multiple levels of biological organization. They are intended to translate the knowledge derived from in vitro models of acute inflammation to clinically relevant phenomenon such as multiple organ failure. ABM development followed a sequence starting with relatively direct translation from in-vitro derived rules into a cell-as-agent level ABM, leading on to concatenated ABMs into multi-tissue models, eventually resulting in topologically linked aggregate multi-tissue ABMs modeling organ-organ crosstalk. As an underlying design principle organs were considered to be functionally composed of an epithelial surface, which determined organ integrity, and an endothelial/blood interface, representing the reaction surface for the initiation and propagation of inflammation. The development of the epithelial ABM derived from an in-vitro model of gut epithelial permeability is described. Next, the epithelial ABM was concatenated with the endothelial/inflammatory cell ABM to produce an organ model of the gut. This model was validated against in-vivo models of the inflammatory response of the gut to ischemia. Finally, the gut ABM was linked to a similarly constructed pulmonary ABM to simulate the gut-pulmonary axis in the pathogenesis of multiple organ failure. The behavior of this model was validated against in-vivo and clinical observations on the cross-talk between these two organ systems. A series of ABMs are presented extending from the level of intracellular mechanism to clinically observed behavior in the intensive care setting. The ABMs all utilize cell-level agents

  7. Agent Communications using Distributed Metaobjects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goldsmith, Steven Y.; Spires, Shannon V.

    1999-06-10

    There are currently two proposed standards for agent communication languages, namely, KQML (Finin, Lobrou, and Mayfield 1994) and the FIPA ACL. Neither standard has yet achieved primacy, and neither has been evaluated extensively in an open environment such as the Internet. It seems prudent therefore to design a general-purpose agent communications facility for new agent architectures that is flexible yet provides an architecture that accepts many different specializations. In this paper we exhibit the salient features of an agent communications architecture based on distributed metaobjects. This architecture captures design commitments at a metaobject level, leaving the base-level design and implementation up to the agent developer. The scope of the metamodel is broad enough to accommodate many different communication protocols, interaction protocols, and knowledge sharing regimes through extensions to the metaobject framework. We conclude that with a powerful distributed object substrate that supports metaobject communications, a general framework can be developed that will effectively enable different approaches to agent communications in the same agent system. We have implemented a KQML-based communications protocol and have several special-purpose interaction protocols under development.

  8. Synthesis, characterization and frictional wear behavior of ceria hybrid architectures with {111} exposure planes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hu, Pengfei [School of Mechanical Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang 421001 (China); Chen, Yong, E-mail: chenyongjsnt@163.com [School of Mechanical Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang 421001 (China); Sun, Rong [Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai (Japan); Chen, Yue; Yin, Yaru [School of Mechanical Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang 421001 (China); Wang, Zhongchang, E-mail: zcwang@wpi-aimr.tohoku.ac.jp [Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai (Japan)

    2017-04-15

    Highlights: • A hybrid architecture comprising three types of cerium nanoparticles (nano-octahedron and its’ ramifications) is synthesized. • The exposure planes of the prepared ceria nanoparticles are {111} crystal planes. • The nanoparticles show markedly material remove capacity and inferior polishing quality. - Abstract: A hybrid architecture comprising three types of cerium nanoparticles, nano-octahedron and its ramifications, is synthesized via a facile yet efficient hydrothermal process. Comprehensive transmission electron microscopy analysis identifies the exposure planes of the cube-shaped ceria nanoparticles as {111} crystal planes. As a result of this unique morphology, the nanoparticles are found to show markedly enhanced material removal capacity and inferior polishing quality compared to the sphere-shaped ceria nanoparticles.

  9. A Case Study of a Hybrid Parallel 3D Surface Rendering Graphics Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holten-Lund, Hans Erik; Madsen, Jan; Pedersen, Steen

    1997-01-01

    This paper presents a case study in the design strategy used inbuilding a graphics computer, for drawing very complex 3Dgeometric surfaces. The goal is to build a PC based computer systemcapable of handling surfaces built from about 2 million triangles, andto be able to render a perspective view...... of these on a computer displayat interactive frame rates, i.e. processing around 50 milliontriangles per second. The paper presents a hardware/softwarearchitecture called HPGA (Hybrid Parallel Graphics Architecture) whichis likely to be able to carry out this task. The case study focuses ontechniques to increase...

  10. Innovative architecture design for high performance organic and hybrid multi-junction solar cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ning; Spyropoulos, George D.; Brabec, Christoph J.

    2017-08-01

    The multi-junction concept is especially attractive for the photovoltaic (PV) research community owing to its potential to overcome the Schockley-Queisser limit of single-junction solar cells. Tremendous research interests are now focused on the development of high-performance absorbers and novel device architectures for emerging PV technologies, such as organic and perovskite PVs. It has been predicted that the multi-junction concept is able to boost the organic and perovskite PV technologies approaching the 20% and 30% benchmarks, respectively, showing a bright future of commercialization of the emerging PV technologies. In this contribution, we will demonstrate innovative architecture design for solution-processed, highly functional organic and hybrid multi-junction solar cells. A simple but elegant approach to fabricating organic and hybrid multi-junction solar cells will be introduced. By laminating single organic/hybrid solar cells together through an intermediate layer, the manufacturing cost and complexity of large-scale multi-junction solar cells can be significantly reduced. This smart approach to balancing the photocurrents as well as open circuit voltages in multi-junction solar cells will be demonstrated and discussed in detail.

  11. An agent-based model to study market penetration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eppstein, Margaret J.; Grover, David K.; Marshall, Jeffrey S.; Rizzo, Donna M.

    2011-01-01

    A spatially explicit agent-based vehicle consumer choice model is developed to explore sensitivities and nonlinear interactions between various potential influences on plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) market penetration. The model accounts for spatial and social effects (including threshold effects, homophily, and conformity) and media influences. Preliminary simulations demonstrate how such a model could be used to identify nonlinear interactions among potential leverage points, inform policies affecting PHEV market penetration, and help identify future data collection necessary to more accurately model the system. We examine sensitivity of the model to gasoline prices, to accuracy in estimation of fuel costs, to agent willingness to adopt the PHEV technology, to PHEV purchase price and rebates, to PHEV battery range, and to heuristic values related to gasoline usage. Our simulations indicate that PHEV market penetration could be enhanced significantly by providing consumers with ready estimates of expected lifetime fuel costs associated with different vehicles (e.g., on vehicle stickers), and that increases in gasoline prices could nonlinearly magnify the impact on fleet efficiency. We also infer that a potential synergy from a gasoline tax with proceeds is used to fund research into longer-range lower-cost PHEV batteries. - Highlights: → We model consumer agents to study potential market penetration of PHEVs. → The model accounts for spatial, social, and media effects. → We identify interactions among potential leverage points that could inform policy. → Consumer access to expected lifetime fuel costs may enhance PHEV market penetration. → Increasing PHEV battery range has synergistic effects on fleet efficiency.

  12. Framework Architecture Enabling an Agent-Based Inter-Company Integration with XML

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klement Fellner

    2000-11-01

    Full Text Available More and more cooperating companies utilize the World Wide Web (WWW to federate and further integrate their heterogeneous business application systems. At the same time, innovative business strategies, like virtual organizations, supply chain management or one-to-one marketing as well as trendsetting competitive strategies, like mass customisation are realisable. Both, the necessary integration and the innovative concepts are demanding software supporting automation of communication as well as coordination across system boundaries. In this paper, we describe a framework architecture for intercompany integration of business processes based on commonly accepted and (partially standardized concepts and techniques. Further on, it is shown how the framework architecture helps to automate procurement processes and how a cost-saving black-box re-use is achieved following a component oriented implementation paradigm.

  13. A Multi Agent Based Approach for Prehospital Emergency Management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Safdari, Reza; Shoshtarian Malak, Jaleh; Mohammadzadeh, Niloofar; Danesh Shahraki, Azimeh

    2017-07-01

    To demonstrate an architecture to automate the prehospital emergency process to categorize the specialized care according to the situation at the right time for reducing the patient mortality and morbidity. Prehospital emergency process were analyzed using existing prehospital management systems, frameworks and the extracted process were modeled using sequence diagram in Rational Rose software. System main agents were identified and modeled via component diagram, considering the main system actors and by logically dividing business functionalities, finally the conceptual architecture for prehospital emergency management was proposed. The proposed architecture was simulated using Anylogic simulation software. Anylogic Agent Model, State Chart and Process Model were used to model the system. Multi agent systems (MAS) had a great success in distributed, complex and dynamic problem solving environments, and utilizing autonomous agents provides intelligent decision making capabilities.  The proposed architecture presents prehospital management operations. The main identified agents are: EMS Center, Ambulance, Traffic Station, Healthcare Provider, Patient, Consultation Center, National Medical Record System and quality of service monitoring agent. In a critical condition like prehospital emergency we are coping with sophisticated processes like ambulance navigation health care provider and service assignment, consultation, recalling patients past medical history through a centralized EHR system and monitoring healthcare quality in a real-time manner. The main advantage of our work has been the multi agent system utilization. Our Future work will include proposed architecture implementation and evaluation of its impact on patient quality care improvement.

  14. Design of Hybrid Mobile Communication Networks for Planetary Exploration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alena, Richard L.; Ossenfort, John; Lee, Charles; Walker, Edward; Stone, Thom

    2004-01-01

    The Mobile Exploration System Project (MEX) at NASA Ames Research Center has been conducting studies into hybrid communication networks for future planetary missions. These networks consist of space-based communication assets connected to ground-based Internets and planetary surface-based mobile wireless networks. These hybrid mobile networks have been deployed in rugged field locations in the American desert and the Canadian arctic for support of science and simulation activities on at least six occasions. This work has been conducted over the past five years resulting in evolving architectural complexity, improved component characteristics and better analysis and test methods. A rich set of data and techniques have resulted from the development and field testing of the communication network during field expeditions such as the Haughton Mars Project and NASA Mobile Agents Project.

  15. Architecture for novel energy infrastructures. Multi-agent based coordination patterns

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamphuis, I.G.; Kok, J.K.; Warmer, C.J.; Hommelberg, M.P.F.

    2009-01-01

    Due to the increased proportion of small renewable energy sources in a distributed setting (DG-RES), active control of small distributed energy producing and consuming systems will play an important role in future electricity grids. These distributed energy resources have production patterns, which are either partially stochastic (e.g. wind, solar cells) or are coupled to the primary user process (e.g. co-generation of heat and electricity). Furthermore, on the demand-side, and increasingly on the electricity storage side, opportunities exist for actively serving stability applications in the grid by real-time supply/demand coordination. In the future, an information and communication layer for grid coordination could serve a portfolio of ICT-applications on timescales running from seconds to hours. To get a grip on these (r)evolutionary developments, possibly toppling the electricity grid, in this paper, architecture requirements for future high proportion DG-RES electricity grids are collected from a Power Electronics System point of view as well as from an ICT point of view using an inventory of business models in the power grid that focus on coordination of multiple small-scale DG-RES resources. Modeled from an ICT point-of-view, these give rise to architectures for applications that can successively be implemented in hardware and software as active components in the distribution grid. A number of possible grid control strategy coordination patterns (GCPs), which are defined in a generic, reusable manner, can be seen to emerge. GCPs, connected and intertwined to one another on several layers (physical, commercial) of the grid, together, can provide the framework for coordination in the overall intelligent grid. Bottom-up approaches of implementing coordination in future active grids appear to be the method of choice to use in implementing the GCPs. Software agents coordinating primary processes using market algorithms, as implemented in the Power

  16. Benefits of a parallel hybrid electric architecture on medium commercial vehicles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boot, Marco Aimo; Consano, Ludovico [Iveco S.p.A, Turin (Italy)

    2009-07-01

    Hybrid electric technology is becoming an increasingly interesting solution for medium and heavy trucks involved in urban and suburban missions. The increasing demand for gas and oil, consequent price rises and environmental concerns are driving a market that is in need of alternative solutions. For these reasons, the growth in the global hybrid market significantly exceeded all the hybrid sales forecasts. The parallel hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) employs an additional power source (electric motogenerator) in combination with the conventional diesel engine. This architecture exploits the benefits of both power sources in order to reduce the fuel consumption, increase the overall power, and above all, decrease CO2 emissions. Moreover, the emissions reduction target is lead by EU Regulations and local initiatives for traffic limitations, but the real drivers for the growth in the market are demonstrable fuel economy improvements and productivity costs optimization (global efficiency). This paper presents the results achieved by Iveco in the development and testing of parallel hybrid systems applied to medium range commercial vehicles, with the intent to evaluate the functionality, driveability performance and leading the best reduction in terms of fuel consumption and emissions in different real-world missions. The system architecture foresees one electric motor/generator and a single clutch unit. An external electrical power source for the battery recharging it is not necessary. The chosen configuration allows to implement the following functional modes: Stop and Start with Electric Launch, Hybrid Mode, Regenerative Braking Mode, Inertial Start and Creeping Mode. The software contained in the supervisor control unit has been tuned to the customer specific missions, taking in account on road data acquisition in order to demonstrate the reliability, driveability and the overall efficiency of the hybrid system. The field tests carried out in collaboration with

  17. Hybrid power system intelligent operation and protection involving distributed architectures and pulsed loads

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohamed, Ahmed

    Efficient and reliable techniques for power delivery and utilization are needed to account for the increased penetration of renewable energy sources in electric power systems. Such methods are also required for current and future demands of plug-in electric vehicles and high-power electronic loads. Distributed control and optimal power network architectures will lead to viable solutions to the energy management issue with high level of reliability and security. This dissertation is aimed at developing and verifying new techniques for distributed control by deploying DC microgrids, involving distributed renewable generation and energy storage, through the operating AC power system. To achieve the findings of this dissertation, an energy system architecture was developed involving AC and DC networks, both with distributed generations and demands. The various components of the DC microgrid were designed and built including DC-DC converters, voltage source inverters (VSI) and AC-DC rectifiers featuring novel designs developed by the candidate. New control techniques were developed and implemented to maximize the operating range of the power conditioning units used for integrating renewable energy into the DC bus. The control and operation of the DC microgrids in the hybrid AC/DC system involve intelligent energy management. Real-time energy management algorithms were developed and experimentally verified. These algorithms are based on intelligent decision-making elements along with an optimization process. This was aimed at enhancing the overall performance of the power system and mitigating the effect of heavy non-linear loads with variable intensity and duration. The developed algorithms were also used for managing the charging/discharging process of plug-in electric vehicle emulators. The protection of the proposed hybrid AC/DC power system was studied. Fault analysis and protection scheme and coordination, in addition to ideas on how to retrofit currently available

  18. Lightning talk slide for "SLACKHA: Software Library for Accelerating Chemical Kinetics on Hybrid Architectures"

    OpenAIRE

    Niemeyer, Kyle; Sung, Chih-Jen

    2018-01-01

    Lightning talk slide describing the "SLACKHA: Software Library for Accelerating Chemical Kinetics on Hybrid Architectures" project at the 2018 NSF SI2 PI meeting: https://si2-pi-community.github.io/2018-meeting/

  19. An agent-based QoS provisioning mechanism for WDM optical networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ouyang, Yong; Zeng, Qingji; Yue, Ling

    2004-04-01

    This paper addresses QoS provisioning mechanisms in the WDM optical networks. With the appearance of metropolitan optical network, a hierarchical metro and wide area optical network will be envisioned in the near future. This hierarchical optical transport network is often divided into optical domains by geography, administration and technology, which usually employ different QoS routing algorithms and policies. To provide end-to-end optical QoS is becoming a new challenge for the optical network design. In this paper, we first give an overview of issues on the QoS provisioning in data, control and management planes of the WDM optical network. And then three provisioning approaches are analyzed and compared. Finally, we propose an agent-based hybrid centralized/distributed QoS provisioning mechanism based on the concept of domain agent. This agent-based hybrid mechanism employs centralized approach in the domain and distributed approach between domains. It offers scalability and intra-domain optimal QoS routing. It also keeps independence and interoperability between domains.

  20. Introduction of an agent-based multi-scale modular architecture for dynamic knowledge representation of acute inflammation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    An Gary

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background One of the greatest challenges facing biomedical research is the integration and sharing of vast amounts of information, not only for individual researchers, but also for the community at large. Agent Based Modeling (ABM can provide a means of addressing this challenge via a unifying translational architecture for dynamic knowledge representation. This paper presents a series of linked ABMs representing multiple levels of biological organization. They are intended to translate the knowledge derived from in vitro models of acute inflammation to clinically relevant phenomenon such as multiple organ failure. Results and Discussion ABM development followed a sequence starting with relatively direct translation from in-vitro derived rules into a cell-as-agent level ABM, leading on to concatenated ABMs into multi-tissue models, eventually resulting in topologically linked aggregate multi-tissue ABMs modeling organ-organ crosstalk. As an underlying design principle organs were considered to be functionally composed of an epithelial surface, which determined organ integrity, and an endothelial/blood interface, representing the reaction surface for the initiation and propagation of inflammation. The development of the epithelial ABM derived from an in-vitro model of gut epithelial permeability is described. Next, the epithelial ABM was concatenated with the endothelial/inflammatory cell ABM to produce an organ model of the gut. This model was validated against in-vivo models of the inflammatory response of the gut to ischemia. Finally, the gut ABM was linked to a similarly constructed pulmonary ABM to simulate the gut-pulmonary axis in the pathogenesis of multiple organ failure. The behavior of this model was validated against in-vivo and clinical observations on the cross-talk between these two organ systems Conclusion A series of ABMs are presented extending from the level of intracellular mechanism to clinically observed behavior

  1. RoboSmith: Wireless Networked Architecture for Multiagent Robotic System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florin Moldoveanu

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available In this paper is presented an architecture for a flexible mini robot for a multiagent robotic system. In a multiagent system the value of an individual agent is negligible since the goal of the system is essential. Thus, the agents (robots need to be small, low cost and cooperative. RoboSmith are designed based on these conditions. The proposed architecture divide a robot into functional modules such as locomotion, control, sensors, communication, and actuation. Any mobile robot can be constructed by combining these functional modules for a specific application. An embedded software with dynamic task uploading and multi-tasking abilities is developed in order to create better interface between robots and the command center and among the robots. The dynamic task uploading allows the robots change their behaviors in runtime. The flexibility of the robots is given by facts that the robots can work in multiagent system, as master-slave, or hybrid mode, can be equipped with different modules and possibly be used in other applications such as mobile sensor networks remote sensing, and plant monitoring.

  2. Architecture design of resistor/FET-logic demultiplexer for hybrid CMOS/nanodevice circuit interconnect

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Li Shu; Zhang Tong [Department of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 (United States)], E-mail: lis4@rpi.edu, E-mail: tzhang@ecse.rpi.edu

    2008-05-07

    Hybrid nanoelectronics consisting of nanodevice crossbars on top of CMOS backplane circuits is emerging as one viable option to sustain Moore's law after the CMOS scaling limit is reached. One main design challenge in such hybrid nanoelectronics is the interface between the highly dense nanowires in nanodevice crossbars and relatively coarse microwires in the CMOS domain. Such an interface can be realized through a logic circuit called a demultiplexer (demux). In this context, all the prior work on demux design uses a single type of device, such as resistor, diode or field effect transistor (FET), to realize the demultiplexing function. However, different types of devices have their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of functionality, manufacturability, speed and power consumption. This makes none of them provide a satisfactory solution. To tackle this challenge, this work proposes to combine resistor with FET to implement the demux, leading to the hybrid resistor/FET-logic demux. Such hybrid demux architecture can make these two types of devices complement each other well to improve the overall demux design effectiveness. Furthermore, due to the inevitable fabrication process variations at the nanoscale, the effects of resistor conductance and FET threshold voltage variability are analyzed and evaluated based on computer simulations. The simulation results provide the requirement on the fabrication process to ensure a high demux reliability, and promise the hybrid resistor/FET-logic demux an improved addressability and process variance tolerance.

  3. Architecture design of resistor/FET-logic demultiplexer for hybrid CMOS/nanodevice circuit interconnect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shu; Zhang, Tong

    2008-05-07

    Hybrid nanoelectronics consisting of nanodevice crossbars on top of CMOS backplane circuits is emerging as one viable option to sustain Moore's law after the CMOS scaling limit is reached. One main design challenge in such hybrid nanoelectronics is the interface between the highly dense nanowires in nanodevice crossbars and relatively coarse microwires in the CMOS domain. Such an interface can be realized through a logic circuit called a demultiplexer (demux). In this context, all the prior work on demux design uses a single type of device, such as resistor, diode or field effect transistor (FET), to realize the demultiplexing function. However, different types of devices have their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of functionality, manufacturability, speed and power consumption. This makes none of them provide a satisfactory solution. To tackle this challenge, this work proposes to combine resistor with FET to implement the demux, leading to the hybrid resistor/FET-logic demux. Such hybrid demux architecture can make these two types of devices complement each other well to improve the overall demux design effectiveness. Furthermore, due to the inevitable fabrication process variations at the nanoscale, the effects of resistor conductance and FET threshold voltage variability are analyzed and evaluated based on computer simulations. The simulation results provide the requirement on the fabrication process to ensure a high demux reliability, and promise the hybrid resistor/FET-logic demux an improved addressability and process variance tolerance.

  4. Architecture design of resistor/FET-logic demultiplexer for hybrid CMOS/nanodevice circuit interconnect

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Shu; Zhang Tong

    2008-01-01

    Hybrid nanoelectronics consisting of nanodevice crossbars on top of CMOS backplane circuits is emerging as one viable option to sustain Moore's law after the CMOS scaling limit is reached. One main design challenge in such hybrid nanoelectronics is the interface between the highly dense nanowires in nanodevice crossbars and relatively coarse microwires in the CMOS domain. Such an interface can be realized through a logic circuit called a demultiplexer (demux). In this context, all the prior work on demux design uses a single type of device, such as resistor, diode or field effect transistor (FET), to realize the demultiplexing function. However, different types of devices have their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of functionality, manufacturability, speed and power consumption. This makes none of them provide a satisfactory solution. To tackle this challenge, this work proposes to combine resistor with FET to implement the demux, leading to the hybrid resistor/FET-logic demux. Such hybrid demux architecture can make these two types of devices complement each other well to improve the overall demux design effectiveness. Furthermore, due to the inevitable fabrication process variations at the nanoscale, the effects of resistor conductance and FET threshold voltage variability are analyzed and evaluated based on computer simulations. The simulation results provide the requirement on the fabrication process to ensure a high demux reliability, and promise the hybrid resistor/FET-logic demux an improved addressability and process variance tolerance

  5. A Hybrid FPGA/Coarse Parallel Processing Architecture for Multi-modal Visual Feature Descriptors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Lars Baunegaard With; Kjær-Nielsen, Anders; Alonso, Javier Díaz

    2008-01-01

    This paper describes the hybrid architecture developed for speeding up the processing of so-called multi-modal visual primitives which are sparse image descriptors extracted along contours. In the system, the first stages of visual processing are implemented on FPGAs due to their highly parallel...

  6. One-dimension-based spatially ordered architectures for solar energy conversion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Siqi; Tang, Zi-Rong; Sun, Yugang; Colmenares, Juan Carlos; Xu, Yi-Jun

    2015-08-07

    The severe consequences of fossil fuel consumption have resulted in a need for alternative sustainable sources of energy. Conversion and storage of solar energy via a renewable method, such as photocatalysis, holds great promise as such an alternative. One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures have gained attention in solar energy conversion because they have a long axis to absorb incident sunlight yet a short radial distance for separation of photogenerated charge carriers. In particular, well-ordered spatially high dimensional architectures based on 1D nanostructures with well-defined facets or anisotropic shapes offer an exciting opportunity for bridging the gap between 1D nanostructures and the micro and macro world, providing a platform for integration of nanostructures on a larger and more manageable scale into high-performance solar energy conversion applications. In this review, we focus on the progress of photocatalytic solar energy conversion over controlled one-dimension-based spatially ordered architecture hybrids. Assembly and classification of these novel architectures are summarized, and we discuss the opportunity and future direction of integration of 1D materials into high-dimensional, spatially organized architectures, with a perspective toward improved collective performance in various artificial photoredox applications.

  7. An intelligent service-based layered architecture for e learning and assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Javaid, Q.; Arif, F.

    2017-01-01

    The rapid advancement in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is causing a paradigm shift in eLearning domain. Traditional eLearning systems suffer from certain shortcomings like tight coupling of system components, lack of personalization, flexibility, and scalability and performance issues. This study aims at addressing these challenges through an MAS (Multi Agent System) based multi-layer architecture supported by web services. The foremost objective of this study is to enhance learning process efficiency by provision of flexibility features for learning and assessment processes. Proposed architecture consists of two sub-system namely eLearning and eAssesssment. This architecture comprises of five distinct layers for each sub-system, with active agents responsible for miscellaneous tasks including content handling, updating, resource optimization, load handling and provision of customized environments for learners and instructors. Our proposed architecture aims at establishment of a facilitation level to learners as well as instructors for convenient acquisition and dissemination of knowledge. Personalization features like customized environments, personalized content retrieval and recommendations, adaptive assessment and reduced response time, are believed to significantly enhance learning and tutoring experience. In essence characteristics like intelligence, personalization, interactivity, usability, laidback accessibility and security, signify aptness of proposed architecture for improving conventional learning and assessment processes. Finally we have evaluated our proposed architecture by means of analytical comparison and survey considering certain quality attributes. (author)

  8. Hybrid Energy Cell with Hierarchical Nano/Micro-Architectured Polymer Film to Harvest Mechanical, Solar, and Wind Energies Individually/Simultaneously.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudem, Bhaskar; Ko, Yeong Hwan; Leem, Jung Woo; Lim, Joo Ho; Yu, Jae Su

    2016-11-09

    We report the creation of hybrid energy cells based on hierarchical nano/micro-architectured polydimethylsiloxane (HNMA-PDMS) films with multifunctionality to simultaneously harvest mechanical, solar, and wind energies. These films consist of nano/micro dual-scale architectures (i.e., nanonipples on inverted micropyramidal arrays) on the PDMS surface. The HNMA-PDMS is replicable by facile and cost-effective soft imprint lithography using a nanoporous anodic alumina oxide film formed on the micropyramidal-structured silicon substrate. The HNMA-PDMS film plays multifunctional roles as a triboelectric layer in nanogenerators and an antireflection layer for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), as well as a self-cleaning surface. This film is employed in triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) devices, fabricated by laminating it on indium-tin oxide-coated polyethylene terephthalate (ITO/PET) as a bottom electrode. The large effective contact area that emerged from the densely packed hierarchical nano/micro-architectures of the PDMS film leads to the enhancement of TENG device performance. Moreover, the HNMA-PDMS/ITO/PET, with a high transmittance of >90%, also results in highly transparent TENG devices. By placing the HNMA-PDMS/ITO/PET, where the ITO/PET is coated with zinc oxide nanowires, as the top glass substrate of DSSCs, the device is able to add the functionality of TENG devices, thus creating a hybrid energy cell. The hybrid energy cell can successfully convert mechanical, solar, and wind energies into electricity, simultaneously or independently. To specify the device performance, the effects of external pushing frequency and load resistance on the output of TENG devices are also analyzed, including the photovoltaic performance of the hybrid energy cells.

  9. QoS Negotiation and Renegotiation Based on Mobile Agents

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    ZHANG Shi-bing; ZHANG Deng-yin

    2006-01-01

    The Quality of Service (QoS) has received more and more attention since QoS becomes increasingly important in the Internet development. Mobile software agents represent a valid alternative to the implementation of strategies for the negotiation. In this paper, a QoS negotiation and renegotiation system architecture based on mobile agents is proposed. The agents perform the task in the whole process. Therefore, such a system can reduce the network load, overcome latency, and avoid frequent exchange information between clients and server. The simulation results show that the proposed system could improve the network resource utility about 10%.

  10. Dimensions of Usability: Cougaar, Aglets and Adaptive Agent Architecture (AAA)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Haack, Jereme N.; Cowell, Andrew J.; Gorton, Ian

    2004-06-20

    Research and development organizations are constantly evaluating new technologies in order to implement the next generation of advanced applications. At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, agent technologies are perceived as an approach that can provide a competitive advantage in the construction of highly sophisticated software systems in a range of application areas. An important factor in selecting a successful agent architecture is the level of support it provides the developer in respect to developer support, examples of use, integration into current workflow and community support. Without such assistance, the developer must invest more effort into learning instead of applying the technology. Like many other applied research organizations, our staff are not dedicated to a single project and must acquire new skills as required, underlining the importance of being able to quickly become proficient. A project was instigated to evaluate three candidate agent toolkits across the dimensions of support they provide. This paper reports on the outcomes of this evaluation and provides insights into the agent technologies evaluated.

  11. Design and Analysis of Self-Healing Tree-Based Hybrid Spectral Amplitude Coding OCDMA System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Waqas A. Imtiaz

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an efficient tree-based hybrid spectral amplitude coding optical code division multiple access (SAC-OCDMA system that is able to provide high capacity transmission along with fault detection and restoration throughout the passive optical network (PON. Enhanced multidiagonal (EMD code is adapted to elevate system’s performance, which negates multiple access interference and associated phase induced intensity noise through efficient two-matrix structure. Moreover, system connection availability is enhanced through an efficient protection architecture with tree and star-ring topology at the feeder and distribution level, respectively. The proposed hybrid architecture aims to provide seamless transmission of information at minimum cost. Mathematical model based on Gaussian approximation is developed to analyze performance of the proposed setup, followed by simulation analysis for validation. It is observed that the proposed system supports 64 subscribers, operating at the data rates of 2.5 Gbps and above. Moreover, survivability and cost analysis in comparison with existing schemes show that the proposed tree-based hybrid SAC-OCDMA system provides the required redundancy at minimum cost of infrastructure and operation.

  12. Information Integration Architecture Development

    OpenAIRE

    Faulkner, Stéphane; Kolp, Manuel; Nguyen, Duy Thai; Coyette, Adrien; Do, Thanh Tung; 16th International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering

    2004-01-01

    Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) architectures are gaining popularity for building open, distributed, and evolving software required by systems such as information integration applications. Unfortunately, despite considerable work in software architecture during the last decade, few research efforts have aimed at truly defining patterns and languages for designing such multiagent architectures. We propose a modern approach based on organizational structures and architectural description lan...

  13. A flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems with connectivity preservation under hybrid metric-topological interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Chenlong; Feng, Zuren; Ren, Zhigang

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, we propose a connectivity-preserving flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems in which the neighbor set of each agent is determined by the hybrid metric-topological distance so that the interaction topology can be represented as the range-limited Delaunay graph, which combines the properties of the commonly used disk graph and Delaunay graph. As a result, the proposed flocking algorithm has the following advantages over the existing ones. First, range-limited Delaunay graph is sparser than the disk graph so that the information exchange among agents is reduced significantly. Second, some links irrelevant to the connectivity can be dynamically deleted during the evolution of the system. Thus, the proposed flocking algorithm is more flexible than existing algorithms, where links are not allowed to be disconnected once they are created. Finally, the multi-agent system spontaneously generates a regular quasi-lattice formation without imposing the constraint on the ratio of the sensing range of the agent to the desired distance between two adjacent agents. With the interaction topology induced by the hybrid distance, the proposed flocking algorithm can still be implemented in a distributed manner. We prove that the proposed flocking algorithm can steer the multi-agent system to a stable flocking motion, provided the initial interaction topology of multi-agent systems is connected and the hysteresis in link addition is smaller than a derived upper bound. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are verified by extensive numerical simulations, where the flocking algorithms based on the disk and Delaunay graph are compared.

  14. A flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems with connectivity preservation under hybrid metric-topological interactions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chenlong He

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a connectivity-preserving flocking algorithm for multi-agent systems in which the neighbor set of each agent is determined by the hybrid metric-topological distance so that the interaction topology can be represented as the range-limited Delaunay graph, which combines the properties of the commonly used disk graph and Delaunay graph. As a result, the proposed flocking algorithm has the following advantages over the existing ones. First, range-limited Delaunay graph is sparser than the disk graph so that the information exchange among agents is reduced significantly. Second, some links irrelevant to the connectivity can be dynamically deleted during the evolution of the system. Thus, the proposed flocking algorithm is more flexible than existing algorithms, where links are not allowed to be disconnected once they are created. Finally, the multi-agent system spontaneously generates a regular quasi-lattice formation without imposing the constraint on the ratio of the sensing range of the agent to the desired distance between two adjacent agents. With the interaction topology induced by the hybrid distance, the proposed flocking algorithm can still be implemented in a distributed manner. We prove that the proposed flocking algorithm can steer the multi-agent system to a stable flocking motion, provided the initial interaction topology of multi-agent systems is connected and the hysteresis in link addition is smaller than a derived upper bound. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are verified by extensive numerical simulations, where the flocking algorithms based on the disk and Delaunay graph are compared.

  15. An implementation of norm-based agent negotiation.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dijkstra, Pieter; Prakken, H.; Vey Mestdagh, C.N.J. de

    2007-01-01

    In this paper, we develop our previous outline of a multi-agent architecture for regulated information exchange in crime investigations. Interactions about information exchange between agents (representing police officers) are further analysed as negotiation dialogues with embedded persuasion

  16. A practical approach for active camera coordination based on a fusion-driven multi-agent system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bustamante, Alvaro Luis; Molina, José M.; Patricio, Miguel A.

    2014-04-01

    In this paper, we propose a multi-agent system architecture to manage spatially distributed active (or pan-tilt-zoom) cameras. Traditional video surveillance algorithms are of no use for active cameras, and we have to look at different approaches. Such multi-sensor surveillance systems have to be designed to solve two related problems: data fusion and coordinated sensor-task management. Generally, architectures proposed for the coordinated operation of multiple cameras are based on the centralisation of management decisions at the fusion centre. However, the existence of intelligent sensors capable of decision making brings with it the possibility of conceiving alternative decentralised architectures. This problem is approached by means of a MAS, integrating data fusion as an integral part of the architecture for distributed coordination purposes. This paper presents the MAS architecture and system agents.

  17. FPSoC-Based Architecture for a Fast Motion Estimation Algorithm in H.264/AVC

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Obianuju Ndili

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available There is an increasing need for high quality video on low power, portable devices. Possible target applications range from entertainment and personal communications to security and health care. While H.264/AVC answers the need for high quality video at lower bit rates, it is significantly more complex than previous coding standards and thus results in greater power consumption in practical implementations. In particular, motion estimation (ME, in H.264/AVC consumes the largest power in an H.264/AVC encoder. It is therefore critical to speed-up integer ME in H.264/AVC via fast motion estimation (FME algorithms and hardware acceleration. In this paper, we present our hardware oriented modifications to a hybrid FME algorithm, our architecture based on the modified algorithm, and our implementation and prototype on a PowerPC-based Field Programmable System on Chip (FPSoC. Our results show that the modified hybrid FME algorithm on average, outperforms previous state-of-the-art FME algorithms, while its losses when compared with FSME, in terms of PSNR performance and computation time, are insignificant. We show that although our implementation platform is FPGA-based, our implementation results compare favourably with previous architectures implemented on ASICs. Finally we also show an improvement over some existing architectures implemented on FPGAs.

  18. DyHAP: Dynamic Hybrid ANFIS-PSO Approach for Predicting Mobile Malware.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afifi, Firdaus; Anuar, Nor Badrul; Shamshirband, Shahaboddin; Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond

    2016-01-01

    To deal with the large number of malicious mobile applications (e.g. mobile malware), a number of malware detection systems have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we propose a hybrid method to find the optimum parameters that can be used to facilitate mobile malware identification. We also present a multi agent system architecture comprising three system agents (i.e. sniffer, extraction and selection agent) to capture and manage the pcap file for data preparation phase. In our hybrid approach, we combine an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Evaluations using data captured on a real-world Android device and the MalGenome dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, in comparison to two hybrid optimization methods which are differential evolution (ANFIS-DE) and ant colony optimization (ANFIS-ACO).

  19. DyHAP: Dynamic Hybrid ANFIS-PSO Approach for Predicting Mobile Malware.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Firdaus Afifi

    Full Text Available To deal with the large number of malicious mobile applications (e.g. mobile malware, a number of malware detection systems have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we propose a hybrid method to find the optimum parameters that can be used to facilitate mobile malware identification. We also present a multi agent system architecture comprising three system agents (i.e. sniffer, extraction and selection agent to capture and manage the pcap file for data preparation phase. In our hybrid approach, we combine an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS and particle swarm optimization (PSO. Evaluations using data captured on a real-world Android device and the MalGenome dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, in comparison to two hybrid optimization methods which are differential evolution (ANFIS-DE and ant colony optimization (ANFIS-ACO.

  20. DyHAP: Dynamic Hybrid ANFIS-PSO Approach for Predicting Mobile Malware

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afifi, Firdaus; Anuar, Nor Badrul; Shamshirband, Shahaboddin

    2016-01-01

    To deal with the large number of malicious mobile applications (e.g. mobile malware), a number of malware detection systems have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we propose a hybrid method to find the optimum parameters that can be used to facilitate mobile malware identification. We also present a multi agent system architecture comprising three system agents (i.e. sniffer, extraction and selection agent) to capture and manage the pcap file for data preparation phase. In our hybrid approach, we combine an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Evaluations using data captured on a real-world Android device and the MalGenome dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, in comparison to two hybrid optimization methods which are differential evolution (ANFIS-DE) and ant colony optimization (ANFIS-ACO). PMID:27611312

  1. Testing a Cloud Provider Network for Hybrid P2P and Cloud Streaming Architectures

    OpenAIRE

    Cerviño Arriba, Javier; Rodríguez, Pedro; Trajkovska, Irena; Mozo Velasco, Alberto; Salvachúa Rodríguez, Joaquín

    2011-01-01

    The number of online real-time streaming services deployed over network topologies like P2P or centralized ones has remarkably increased in the recent years. This has revealed the lack of networks that are well prepared to respond to this kind of traffic. A hybrid distribution network can be an efficient solution for real-time streaming services. This paper contains the experimental results of streaming distribution in a hybrid architecture that consist of mixed connections among P2P and Clou...

  2. Architectural design of experience based factory model for software ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    architectural design. Automation features are incorporated in the design in which workflow system and intelligent agents are integrated, and the facilitation of cloud environment is empowered to further support the automation. Keywords: architectural design; knowledge management; experience factory; workflow;

  3. Effects of hybridization and evolutionary constraints on secondary metabolites: the genetic architecture of phenylpropanoids in European populus species.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caseys, Celine; Stritt, Christoph; Glauser, Gaetan; Blanchard, Thierry; Lexer, Christian

    2015-01-01

    The mechanisms responsible for the origin, maintenance and evolution of plant secondary metabolite diversity remain largely unknown. Decades of phenotypic studies suggest hybridization as a key player in generating chemical diversity in plants. Knowledge of the genetic architecture and selective constraints of phytochemical traits is key to understanding the effects of hybridization on plant chemical diversity and ecological interactions. Using the European Populus species P. alba (White poplar) and P. tremula (European aspen) and their hybrids as a model, we examined levels of inter- and intraspecific variation, heritabilities, phenotypic correlations, and the genetic architecture of 38 compounds of the phenylpropanoid pathway measured by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS). We detected 41 quantitative trait loci (QTL) for chlorogenic acids, salicinoids and flavonoids by genetic mapping in natural hybrid crosses. We show that these three branches of the phenylpropanoid pathway exhibit different geographic patterns of variation, heritabilities, and genetic architectures, and that they are affected differently by hybridization and evolutionary constraints. Flavonoid abundances present high species specificity, clear geographic structure, and strong genetic determination, contrary to salicinoids and chlorogenic acids. Salicinoids, which represent important defence compounds in Salicaceae, exhibited pronounced genetic correlations on the QTL map. Our results suggest that interspecific phytochemical differentiation is concentrated in downstream sections of the phenylpropanoid pathway. In particular, our data point to glycosyltransferase enzymes as likely targets of rapid evolution and interspecific differentiation in the 'model forest tree' Populus.

  4. Effects of hybridization and evolutionary constraints on secondary metabolites: the genetic architecture of phenylpropanoids in European populus species.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Celine Caseys

    Full Text Available The mechanisms responsible for the origin, maintenance and evolution of plant secondary metabolite diversity remain largely unknown. Decades of phenotypic studies suggest hybridization as a key player in generating chemical diversity in plants. Knowledge of the genetic architecture and selective constraints of phytochemical traits is key to understanding the effects of hybridization on plant chemical diversity and ecological interactions. Using the European Populus species P. alba (White poplar and P. tremula (European aspen and their hybrids as a model, we examined levels of inter- and intraspecific variation, heritabilities, phenotypic correlations, and the genetic architecture of 38 compounds of the phenylpropanoid pathway measured by liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS. We detected 41 quantitative trait loci (QTL for chlorogenic acids, salicinoids and flavonoids by genetic mapping in natural hybrid crosses. We show that these three branches of the phenylpropanoid pathway exhibit different geographic patterns of variation, heritabilities, and genetic architectures, and that they are affected differently by hybridization and evolutionary constraints. Flavonoid abundances present high species specificity, clear geographic structure, and strong genetic determination, contrary to salicinoids and chlorogenic acids. Salicinoids, which represent important defence compounds in Salicaceae, exhibited pronounced genetic correlations on the QTL map. Our results suggest that interspecific phytochemical differentiation is concentrated in downstream sections of the phenylpropanoid pathway. In particular, our data point to glycosyltransferase enzymes as likely targets of rapid evolution and interspecific differentiation in the 'model forest tree' Populus.

  5. Emerging medical informatics with case-based reasoning for aiding clinical decision in multi-agent system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Ying; Colloc, Joël; Jacquet-Andrieu, Armelle; Lei, Kai

    2015-08-01

    This research aims to depict the methodological steps and tools about the combined operation of case-based reasoning (CBR) and multi-agent system (MAS) to expose the ontological application in the field of clinical decision support. The multi-agent architecture works for the consideration of the whole cycle of clinical decision-making adaptable to many medical aspects such as the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, therapeutic monitoring of gastric cancer. In the multi-agent architecture, the ontological agent type employs the domain knowledge to ease the extraction of similar clinical cases and provide treatment suggestions to patients and physicians. Ontological agent is used for the extension of domain hierarchy and the interpretation of input requests. Case-based reasoning memorizes and restores experience data for solving similar problems, with the help of matching approach and defined interfaces of ontologies. A typical case is developed to illustrate the implementation of the knowledge acquisition and restitution of medical experts. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Dissecting the genetic architecture of F1 hybrid sterility in house mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dzur-Gejdosova, Maria; Simecek, Petr; Gregorova, Sona; Bhattacharyya, Tanmoy; Forejt, Jiri

    2012-11-01

    Hybrid sterility as a postzygotic reproductive isolation mechanism has been studied for over 80 years, yet the first identifications of hybrid sterility genes in Drosophila and mouse are quite recent. To study the genetic architecture of F(1) hybrid sterility between young subspecies of house mouse Mus m. domesticus and M. m. musculus, we conducted QTL analysis of a backcross between inbred strains representing these two subspecies and probed the role of individual chromosomes in hybrid sterility using the intersubspecific chromosome substitution strains. We provide direct evidence that the asymmetry in male infertility between reciprocal crosses is conferred by the middle region of M. m. musculus Chr X, thus excluding other potential candidates such as Y, imprinted genes, and mitochondrial DNA. QTL analysis identified strong hybrid sterility loci on Chr 17 and Chr X and predicted a set of interchangeable autosomal loci, a subset of which is sufficient to activate the Dobzhansky-Muller incompatibility of the strong loci. Overall, our results indicate the oligogenic nature of F(1) hybrid sterility, which should be amenable to reconstruction by proper combination of chromosome substitution strains. Such a prefabricated model system should help to uncover the gene networks and molecular mechanisms underlying hybrid sterility. © 2012 The Author(s). Evolution© 2012 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

  7. An Automated Negotiation-based Framework via Multi-Agent System for the Construction Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moamin Mahmoud

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose an automated multi-agent negotiation framework for decision making in the construction domain. It enables software agents to conduct negotiations and autonomously make decisions. The proposed framework consists of two types of components, internal and external. Internal components are integrated into the agent architecture while the external components are blended within the environment to facilitate the negotiation process. The internal components are negotiation algorithm, negotiation style, negotiation protocol, and solution generators. The external components are the negotiation base and the conflict resolution algorithm. We also discuss the decision making process flow in such system. There are three main processes in decision making for specific projects, which are propose solutions, negotiate solutions and handling conflict outcomes (conflict resolution. We finally present the proposed architecture that enables software agents to conduct automated negotiation in the construction domain.

  8. A high performance 90 nm CMOS SAR ADC with hybrid architecture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tong Xingyuan; Zhu Zhangming; Yang Yintang; Chen Jianming

    2010-01-01

    A 10-bit 2.5 MS/s SAR A/D converter is presented. In the circuit design, an R-C hybrid architecture D/A converter, pseudo-differential comparison architecture and low power voltage level shifters are utilized. Design challenges and considerations are also discussed. In the layout design, each unit resistor is sided by dummies for good matching performance, and the capacitors are routed with a common-central symmetry method to reduce the nonlin-earity error. This proposed converter is implemented based on 90 nm CMOS logic process. With a 3.3 V analog supply and a 1.0 V digital supply, the differential and integral nonlinearity are measured to be less than 0.36 LSB and 0.69 LSB respectively. With an input frequency of 1.2 MHz at 2.5 MS/s sampling rate, the SFDR and ENOB are measured to be 72.86 dB and 9.43 bits respectively, and the power dissipation is measured to be 6.62 mW including the output drivers. This SAR A/D converter occupies an area of 238 x 214 μm 2 . The design results of this converter show that it is suitable for multi-supply embedded SoC applications. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

  9. CONCEPTION OF BI-FOLD AUTHENTICATED AGENT – MONITORED TRANSACTION ARCHITECTURE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Srivatsan Sridharan

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction towards the architectural design of a bi-fold authenticated agent-monitored transaction model. The focus is primarily on implementation in ATM systems which provide the following facilities of withdrawing currency at any remote terminal, verification of the end users identity using Personal Identification Number and an authentic One-Time-Session-Dependent Key generation and validation through the mobile. This system requires building up of an third party agent which would establish a secure session to the bank application with the terminal only after a series of authentication mechanism without compromising the privacy of any individual. The customers, without any insider privileges, can withdraw currency without being detected by any mechanisms of theft of card and eaves dropping of the Password from the card holders within the terminal software are also a major threat yet to be addressed. A basic solution is the terminals having bi-fold authentication mechanisms where mobile dependent one time session dependent key is being generated with authenticity being ensured and the confidentiality being maintained. In such a system, the correctness burden on the terminal’s code is significantly less as the customers have been given the chance to authorize themselves from their hand-held devices and are allowed to withdraw currency in terminal only after their identity is proved by a series of authentication procedures. In this paper along with the bi-fold authentication implementation, architectural design of the agent which is being introduced is also briefed.

  10. Combining a Multi-Agent System and Communication Middleware for Smart Home Control: A Universal Control Platform Architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Song; Zhang, Qi; Zheng, Rong; Huang, Bi-Qin; Song, Yi-Lin; Chen, Xin-Chu

    2017-09-16

    In recent years, the smart home field has gained wide attention for its broad application prospects. However, families using smart home systems must usually adopt various heterogeneous smart devices, including sensors and devices, which makes it more difficult to manage and control their home system. How to design a unified control platform to deal with the collaborative control problem of heterogeneous smart devices is one of the greatest challenges in the current smart home field. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a universal smart home control platform architecture (IAPhome) based on a multi-agent system and communication middleware, which shows significant adaptability and advantages in many aspects, including heterogeneous devices connectivity, collaborative control, human-computer interaction and user self-management. The communication middleware is an important foundation to design and implement this architecture which makes it possible to integrate heterogeneous smart devices in a flexible way. A concrete method of applying the multi-agent software technique to solve the integrated control problem of the smart home system is also presented. The proposed platform architecture has been tested in a real smart home environment, and the results indicate that the effectiveness of our approach for solving the collaborative control problem of different smart devices.

  11. Combining a Multi-Agent System and Communication Middleware for Smart Home Control: A Universal Control Platform Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Song; Zhang, Qi; Zheng, Rong; Huang, Bi-Qin; Song, Yi-Lin; Chen, Xin-Chu

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, the smart home field has gained wide attention for its broad application prospects. However, families using smart home systems must usually adopt various heterogeneous smart devices, including sensors and devices, which makes it more difficult to manage and control their home system. How to design a unified control platform to deal with the collaborative control problem of heterogeneous smart devices is one of the greatest challenges in the current smart home field. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a universal smart home control platform architecture (IAPhome) based on a multi-agent system and communication middleware, which shows significant adaptability and advantages in many aspects, including heterogeneous devices connectivity, collaborative control, human-computer interaction and user self-management. The communication middleware is an important foundation to design and implement this architecture which makes it possible to integrate heterogeneous smart devices in a flexible way. A concrete method of applying the multi-agent software technique to solve the integrated control problem of the smart home system is also presented. The proposed platform architecture has been tested in a real smart home environment, and the results indicate that the effectiveness of our approach for solving the collaborative control problem of different smart devices. PMID:28926957

  12. Combining a Multi-Agent System and Communication Middleware for Smart Home Control: A Universal Control Platform Architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Song Zheng

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, the smart home field has gained wide attention for its broad application prospects. However, families using smart home systems must usually adopt various heterogeneous smart devices, including sensors and devices, which makes it more difficult to manage and control their home system. How to design a unified control platform to deal with the collaborative control problem of heterogeneous smart devices is one of the greatest challenges in the current smart home field. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a universal smart home control platform architecture (IAPhome based on a multi-agent system and communication middleware, which shows significant adaptability and advantages in many aspects, including heterogeneous devices connectivity, collaborative control, human-computer interaction and user self-management. The communication middleware is an important foundation to design and implement this architecture which makes it possible to integrate heterogeneous smart devices in a flexible way. A concrete method of applying the multi-agent software technique to solve the integrated control problem of the smart home system is also presented. The proposed platform architecture has been tested in a real smart home environment, and the results indicate that the effectiveness of our approach for solving the collaborative control problem of different smart devices.

  13. Fiber-wireless integrated mobile backhaul network based on a hybrid millimeter-wave and free-space-optics architecture with an adaptive diversity combining technique.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Junwen; Wang, Jing; Xu, Yuming; Xu, Mu; Lu, Feng; Cheng, Lin; Yu, Jianjun; Chang, Gee-Kung

    2016-05-01

    We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel fiber-wireless integrated mobile backhaul network based on a hybrid millimeter-wave (MMW) and free-space-optics (FSO) architecture using an adaptive combining technique. Both 60 GHz MMW and FSO links are demonstrated and fully integrated with optical fibers in a scalable and cost-effective backhaul system setup. Joint signal processing with an adaptive diversity combining technique (ADCT) is utilized at the receiver side based on a maximum ratio combining algorithm. Mobile backhaul transportation of 4-Gb/s 16 quadrature amplitude modulation frequency-division multiplexing (QAM-OFDM) data is experimentally demonstrated and tested under various weather conditions synthesized in the lab. Performance improvement in terms of reduced error vector magnitude (EVM) and enhanced link reliability are validated under fog, rain, and turbulence conditions.

  14. A multi-agent architecture for sharing knowledge and experimental data about waste water treatment plants through the Internet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abu Yaman, I. R.; Kerckhoffs, J. E.

    1998-01-01

    In this paper, we present a first prototype of a local multi-agent architecture for the sharing of knowledge and experimental data about waste water treatment plants through the Internet, or more specifically the WWW. Applying a net browser such as nets cape, a user can have access to a CLIPS expert system (advising on waste water cleaning technologies) and experimental data files. The discussed local prototype is part of proposed global agent architecture. (authors)

  15. Vivid agents : theory, architecture, and applications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schroeder, M.; Wagner, G.R.

    2000-01-01

    Vivid agents (Wagner, 1996) are software-controlled systems whose state comprises the mental components of knowledge, perceptions, tasks, and intentions, and whose behavior is represented by means of action and reaction rules. An execution model for vivid agents is presented, which is based on an

  16. MAS Based Event-Triggered Hybrid Control for Smart Microgrids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dou, Chunxia; Liu, Bin; Guerrero, Josep M.

    2013-01-01

    This paper is focused on an advanced control for autonomous microgrids. In order to improve the performance regarding security and stability, a hierarchical decentralized coordinated control scheme is proposed based on multi-agents structure. Moreover, corresponding to the multi-mode and the hybrid...... haracteristics of microgrids, an event-triggered hybrid control, including three kinds of switching controls, is designed to intelligently reconstruct operation mode when the security stability assessment indexes or the constraint conditions are violated. The validity of proposed control scheme is demonstrated...

  17. Hybrid network defense model based on fuzzy evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Ying-Chiang; Pan, Jen-Yi

    2014-01-01

    With sustained and rapid developments in the field of information technology, the issue of network security has become increasingly prominent. The theme of this study is network data security, with the test subject being a classified and sensitive network laboratory that belongs to the academic network. The analysis is based on the deficiencies and potential risks of the network's existing defense technology, characteristics of cyber attacks, and network security technologies. Subsequently, a distributed network security architecture using the technology of an intrusion prevention system is designed and implemented. In this paper, first, the overall design approach is presented. This design is used as the basis to establish a network defense model, an improvement over the traditional single-technology model that addresses the latter's inadequacies. Next, a distributed network security architecture is implemented, comprising a hybrid firewall, intrusion detection, virtual honeynet projects, and connectivity and interactivity between these three components. Finally, the proposed security system is tested. A statistical analysis of the test results verifies the feasibility and reliability of the proposed architecture. The findings of this study will potentially provide new ideas and stimuli for future designs of network security architecture.

  18. Distributed and decentralized control architectures for converter-interfaced microgrids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dragicevic, Tomislav; Wu, Dan; Shafiee, Qobad

    2017-01-01

    This paper gives a summary on recently available technologies for decentralized and distributed control of microgrids. They can be classified into two general categories: 1) power line communication based architectures and 2) multi-agent based architectures. The essential control methods and info......This paper gives a summary on recently available technologies for decentralized and distributed control of microgrids. They can be classified into two general categories: 1) power line communication based architectures and 2) multi-agent based architectures. The essential control methods...... and information sharing algorithms applied in these architectures are reviewed and examined in a hierarchical manner, in order to point out benefits they will bring to future microgrid applications. The paper is concluded with a summary on existing methods and a discussion on future development trends....

  19. A Lookahead Behavior Model for Multi-Agent Hybrid Simulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mei Yang

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available In the military field, multi-agent simulation (MAS plays an important role in studying wars statistically. For a military simulation system, which involves large-scale entities and generates a very large number of interactions during the runtime, the issue of how to improve the running efficiency is of great concern for researchers. Current solutions mainly use hybrid simulation to gain fewer updates and synchronizations, where some important continuous models are maintained implicitly to keep the system dynamics, and partial resynchronization (PR is chosen as the preferable state update mechanism. However, problems, such as resynchronization interval selection and cyclic dependency, remain unsolved in PR, which easily lead to low update efficiency and infinite looping of the state update process. To address these problems, this paper proposes a lookahead behavior model (LBM to implement a PR-based hybrid simulation. In LBM, a minimal safe time window is used to predict the interactions between implicit models, upon which the resynchronization interval can be efficiently determined. Moreover, the LBM gives an estimated state value in the lookahead process so as to break the state-dependent cycle. The simulation results show that, compared with traditional mechanisms, LBM requires fewer updates and synchronizations.

  20. Hybrid calcium carbonate/polymer microparticles containing silver nanoparticles as antibacterial agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Długosz, Maciej; Bulwan, Maria; Kania, Gabriela; Nowakowska, Maria; Zapotoczny, Szczepan

    2012-12-01

    We report here on synthesis and characterization of novel hybrid material consisting of silver nanoparticles (nAgs) embedded in calcium carbonate microparticles (μ-CaCO3) serving as carriers for sustained release. nAgs are commonly used as antimicrobial agents in many commercial products (textiles, cosmetics, and drugs). Although they are considered to be safe, their interactions with human organisms are still not fully understood; therefore it is important to apply them with caution and limit their presence in the environment. The synthesis of the new material was based on the co-precipitation of CaCO3 and nAg in the presence of poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate). Such designed system enables sustained release of nAg to the environment. This hybrid colloidal material (nAg/μ-CaCO3) was characterized by microscopic and spectroscopic methods. The release of nAg from μ-CaCO3 microparticles was followed in water at various pH values. Microbiological tests confirmed the effectiveness of these microparticles as an antibacterial agent. Importantly, the material can be stored as a dry powder and subsequently re-suspended in water without the risk of losing its antimicrobial activity. nAg/μ-CaCO3 was applied here to insure bacteriostatic properties of down feathers that may significantly prolong their lifetime in typical applications. Such microparticles may be also used as, e.g., components of coatings and paints protecting various surfaces against microorganism colonization.

  1. Hybrid calcium carbonate/polymer microparticles containing silver nanoparticles as antibacterial agents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dlugosz, Maciej; Bulwan, Maria; Kania, Gabriela; Nowakowska, Maria; Zapotoczny, Szczepan, E-mail: zapotocz@chemia.uj.edu.pl [Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Chemistry (Poland)

    2012-12-15

    We report here on synthesis and characterization of novel hybrid material consisting of silver nanoparticles (nAgs) embedded in calcium carbonate microparticles ({mu}-CaCO{sub 3}) serving as carriers for sustained release. nAgs are commonly used as antimicrobial agents in many commercial products (textiles, cosmetics, and drugs). Although they are considered to be safe, their interactions with human organisms are still not fully understood; therefore it is important to apply them with caution and limit their presence in the environment. The synthesis of the new material was based on the co-precipitation of CaCO{sub 3} and nAg in the presence of poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate). Such designed system enables sustained release of nAg to the environment. This hybrid colloidal material (nAg/{mu}-CaCO{sub 3}) was characterized by microscopic and spectroscopic methods. The release of nAg from {mu}-CaCO{sub 3} microparticles was followed in water at various pH values. Microbiological tests confirmed the effectiveness of these microparticles as an antibacterial agent. Importantly, the material can be stored as a dry powder and subsequently re-suspended in water without the risk of losing its antimicrobial activity. nAg/{mu}-CaCO{sub 3} was applied here to insure bacteriostatic properties of down feathers that may significantly prolong their lifetime in typical applications. Such microparticles may be also used as, e.g., components of coatings and paints protecting various surfaces against microorganism colonization.

  2. Hybrid calcium carbonate/polymer microparticles containing silver nanoparticles as antibacterial agents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Długosz, Maciej; Bulwan, Maria; Kania, Gabriela; Nowakowska, Maria; Zapotoczny, Szczepan

    2012-01-01

    We report here on synthesis and characterization of novel hybrid material consisting of silver nanoparticles (nAgs) embedded in calcium carbonate microparticles (μ-CaCO 3 ) serving as carriers for sustained release. nAgs are commonly used as antimicrobial agents in many commercial products (textiles, cosmetics, and drugs). Although they are considered to be safe, their interactions with human organisms are still not fully understood; therefore it is important to apply them with caution and limit their presence in the environment. The synthesis of the new material was based on the co-precipitation of CaCO 3 and nAg in the presence of poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate). Such designed system enables sustained release of nAg to the environment. This hybrid colloidal material (nAg/μ-CaCO 3 ) was characterized by microscopic and spectroscopic methods. The release of nAg from μ-CaCO 3 microparticles was followed in water at various pH values. Microbiological tests confirmed the effectiveness of these microparticles as an antibacterial agent. Importantly, the material can be stored as a dry powder and subsequently re-suspended in water without the risk of losing its antimicrobial activity. nAg/μ-CaCO 3 was applied here to insure bacteriostatic properties of down feathers that may significantly prolong their lifetime in typical applications. Such microparticles may be also used as, e.g., components of coatings and paints protecting various surfaces against microorganism colonization.

  3. Facile Preparation of TiO2 Nanobranch/Nanoparticle Hybrid Architecture with Enhanced Light Harvesting Properties for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ju Seong Kim

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available We report TiO2 nanobranches/nanoparticles (NBN hybrid architectures that can be synthesized by a facile solution phase method. The hybrid architecture simultaneously improves light harvesting and charge collection performances for a dye-sensitized solar cell. First, TiO2 nanorods with a trunk length of 2 μm were grown on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO/glass substrate, and then nanobranches and nanoparticles were deposited on the nanorods’ trunks through a solution method using an aqueous TiCl3 solution at 80°C. The relative amount of nanobranches and nanoparticles can be controlled by multiplying the number of TiCl3 treatments to maximize the amount of surface area. We found that the resultant TiO2 NBN hybrid architecture greatly improves the amount of dye adsorption (five times compared to bare nanorods due to the enhanced surface area, while maintaining a fast charge collection, leading to a three times higher current density and thus tripling the maximum power conversion efficiency for a dye-sensitized solar cell.

  4. Hybrid layer difference between sixth and seventh generation bonding agent

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Grace Syavira Suryabrata

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available Since etching is completed at the same stage as priming and bonding, when applying the sixth and seventh generation bonding, the exposed smear layers are constantly surrounded by primer and bonding and cannot collapse. The smear layer and the depth of penetration of resin bonding in dentinal tubules are completely integrated into hybrid layer. The purpose of this laboratory research was to study the penetration depth of two self etching adhesive. Fourteen samples of human extracted teeth were divided into two groups. Each groups consisted of seven samples, each of them was treated with sixth generation bonding agent and the other was treated with seventh generation bonding agent. The results disclosed that the penetration into dentinal tubules of seventh generation bonding agent was deeper than sixth generation bonding agent. Conclusion: bond strength will improve due to the increasing of penetration depth of resin bonding in dentinal tubules.

  5. Design and simulation of material-integrated distributed sensor processing with a code-based agent platform and mobile multi-agent systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bosse, Stefan

    2015-02-16

    Multi-agent systems (MAS) can be used for decentralized and self-organizing data processing in a distributed system, like a resource-constrained sensor network, enabling distributed information extraction, for example, based on pattern recognition and self-organization, by decomposing complex tasks in simpler cooperative agents. Reliable MAS-based data processing approaches can aid the material-integration of structural-monitoring applications, with agent processing platforms scaled to the microchip level. The agent behavior, based on a dynamic activity-transition graph (ATG) model, is implemented with program code storing the control and the data state of an agent, which is novel. The program code can be modified by the agent itself using code morphing techniques and is capable of migrating in the network between nodes. The program code is a self-contained unit (a container) and embeds the agent data, the initialization instructions and the ATG behavior implementation. The microchip agent processing platform used for the execution of the agent code is a standalone multi-core stack machine with a zero-operand instruction format, leading to a small-sized agent program code, low system complexity and high system performance. The agent processing is token-queue-based, similar to Petri-nets. The agent platform can be implemented in software, too, offering compatibility at the operational and code level, supporting agent processing in strong heterogeneous networks. In this work, the agent platform embedded in a large-scale distributed sensor network is simulated at the architectural level by using agent-based simulation techniques.

  6. Design and Simulation of Material-Integrated Distributed Sensor Processing with a Code-Based Agent Platform and Mobile Multi-Agent Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefan Bosse

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Multi-agent systems (MAS can be used for decentralized and self-organizing data processing in a distributed system, like a resource-constrained sensor network, enabling distributed information extraction, for example, based on pattern recognition and self-organization, by decomposing complex tasks in simpler cooperative agents. Reliable MAS-based data processing approaches can aid the material-integration of structural-monitoring applications, with agent processing platforms scaled to the microchip level. The agent behavior, based on a dynamic activity-transition graph (ATG model, is implemented with program code storing the control and the data state of an agent, which is novel. The program code can be modified by the agent itself using code morphing techniques and is capable of migrating in the network between nodes. The program code is a self-contained unit (a container and embeds the agent data, the initialization instructions and the ATG behavior implementation. The microchip agent processing platform used for the execution of the agent code is a standalone multi-core stack machine with a zero-operand instruction format, leading to a small-sized agent program code, low system complexity and high system performance. The agent processing is token-queue-based, similar to Petri-nets. The agent platform can be implemented in software, too, offering compatibility at the operational and code level, supporting agent processing in strong heterogeneous networks. In this work, the agent platform embedded in a large-scale distributed sensor network is simulated at the architectural level by using agent-based simulation techniques.

  7. Hybrid Exploration Agent Platform and Sensor Web System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stoffel, A. William; VanSteenberg, Michael E.

    2004-01-01

    A sensor web to collect the scientific data needed to further exploration is a major and efficient asset to any exploration effort. This is true not only for lunar and planetary environments, but also for interplanetary and liquid environments. Such a system would also have myriad direct commercial spin-off applications. The Hybrid Exploration Agent Platform and Sensor Web or HEAP-SW like the ANTS concept is a Sensor Web concept. The HEAP-SW is conceptually and practically a very different system. HEAP-SW is applicable to any environment and a huge range of exploration tasks. It is a very robust, low cost, high return, solution to a complex problem. All of the technology for initial development and implementation is currently available. The HEAP Sensor Web or HEAP-SW consists of three major parts, The Hybrid Exploration Agent Platforms or HEAP, the Sensor Web or SW and the immobile Data collection and Uplink units or DU. The HEAP-SW as a whole will refer to any group of mobile agents or robots where each robot is a mobile data collection unit that spends most of its time acting in concert with all other robots, DUs in the web, and the HEAP-SWs overall Command and Control (CC) system. Each DU and robot is, however, capable of acting independently. The three parts of the HEAP-SW system are discussed in this paper. The Goals of the HEAP-SW system are: 1) To maximize the amount of exploration enhancing science data collected; 2) To minimize data loss due to system malfunctions; 3) To minimize or, possibly, eliminate the risk of total system failure; 4) To minimize the size, weight, and power requirements of each HEAP robot; 5) To minimize HEAP-SW system costs. The rest of this paper discusses how these goals are attained.

  8. Optimum Performance-Based Seismic Design Using a Hybrid Optimization Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Talatahari

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available A hybrid optimization method is presented to optimum seismic design of steel frames considering four performance levels. These performance levels are considered to determine the optimum design of structures to reduce the structural cost. A pushover analysis of steel building frameworks subject to equivalent-static earthquake loading is utilized. The algorithm is based on the concepts of the charged system search in which each agent is affected by local and global best positions stored in the charged memory considering the governing laws of electrical physics. Comparison of the results of the hybrid algorithm with those of other metaheuristic algorithms shows the efficiency of the hybrid algorithm.

  9. High performance 3D neutron transport on peta scale and hybrid architectures within APOLLO3 code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jamelot, E.; Dubois, J.; Lautard, J-J.; Calvin, C.; Baudron, A-M.

    2011-01-01

    APOLLO3 code is a common project of CEA, AREVA and EDF for the development of a new generation system for core physics analysis. We present here the parallelization of two deterministic transport solvers of APOLLO3: MINOS, a simplified 3D transport solver on structured Cartesian and hexagonal grids, and MINARET, a transport solver based on triangular meshes on 2D and prismatic ones in 3D. We used two different techniques to accelerate MINOS: a domain decomposition method, combined with an accelerated algorithm using GPU. The domain decomposition is based on the Schwarz iterative algorithm, with Robin boundary conditions to exchange information. The Robin parameters influence the convergence and we detail how we optimized the choice of these parameters. MINARET parallelization is based on angular directions calculation using explicit message passing. Fine grain parallelization is also available for each angular direction using shared memory multithreaded acceleration. Many performance results are presented on massively parallel architectures using more than 103 cores and on hybrid architectures using some tens of GPUs. This work contributes to the HPC development in reactor physics at the CEA Nuclear Energy Division. (author)

  10. FPGA-Based Channel Coding Architectures for 5G Wireless Using High-Level Synthesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Swapnil Mhaske

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available We propose strategies to achieve a high-throughput FPGA architecture for quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check codes based on circulant-1 identity matrix construction. By splitting the node processing operation in the min-sum approximation algorithm, we achieve pipelining in the layered decoding schedule without utilizing additional hardware resources. High-level synthesis compilation is used to design and develop the architecture on the FPGA hardware platform. To validate this architecture, an IEEE 802.11n compliant 608 Mb/s decoder is implemented on the Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA using the LabVIEW FPGA Compiler in the LabVIEW Communication System Design Suite. Architecture scalability was leveraged to accomplish a 2.48 Gb/s decoder on a single Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA. Further, we present rapidly prototyped experimentation of an IEEE 802.16 compliant hybrid automatic repeat request system based on the efficient decoder architecture developed. In spite of the mixed nature of data processing—digital signal processing and finite-state machines—LabVIEW FPGA Compiler significantly reduced time to explore the system parameter space and to optimize in terms of error performance and resource utilization. A 4x improvement in the system throughput, relative to a CPU-based implementation, was achieved to measure the error-rate performance of the system over large, realistic data sets using accelerated, in-hardware simulation.

  11. An SOA-based architecture framework

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aalst, van der W.M.P.; Beisiegel, M.; Hee, van K.M.; König, D.; Stahl, C.

    2007-01-01

    We present an Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)– based architecture framework. The architecture framework is designed to be close to industry standards, especially to the Service Component Architecture (SCA). The framework is language independent and the building blocks of each system, activities

  12. A Framework for Agent-based Human Interaction Support

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Axel Bürkle

    2008-10-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we describe an agent-based infrastructure for multimodal perceptual systems which aims at developing and realizing computer services that are delivered to humans in an implicit and unobtrusive way. The framework presented here supports the implementation of human-centric context-aware applications providing non-obtrusive assistance to participants in events such as meetings, lectures, conferences and presentations taking place in indoor "smart spaces". We emphasize on the design and implementation of an agent-based framework that supports "pluggable" service logic in the sense that the service developer can concentrate on coding the service logic independently of the underlying middleware. Furthermore, we give an example of the architecture's ability to support the cooperation of multiple services in a meeting scenario using an intelligent connector service and a semantic web oriented travel service.

  13. Energy storage technologies and hybrid architectures for specific diesel-driven rail duty cycles: Design and system integration aspects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meinert, M.; Prenleloup, P.; Schmid, S.; Palacin, R.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • We assessed integration of energy storage systems into hybrid system architectures. • We considered mechanical and electrical energy storage systems. • Potential of different combinations has been analyzed by standardized duty cycles. • Most promising are diesel-driven suburban, regional and shunting operations. • Double-layer capacitors and Lithium-ion batteries have the highest potential. - Abstract: The use of diesel-driven traction is an intrinsic part of the functioning of railway systems and it is expected to continue being so for the foreseeable future. The recent introduction of more restrictive greenhouse gas emission levels and other legislation aiming at the improvement of the environmental performance of railway systems has led to the need of exploring alternatives for cleaner diesel rolling stock. This paper focuses on assessing energy storage systems and the design of hybrid system architectures to determine their potential use in specific diesel-driven rail duty cycles. Hydrostatic accumulators, flywheels, Lithium-ion batteries and double-layer capacitors have been assessed and used to design hybrid system architectures. The potential of the different technology combinations has been analyzed using standardized duty cycles enhanced with gradient profiles related to suburban, regional and shunting operations. The results show that double-layer capacitors and Lithium-ion batteries have the highest potential to be successfully integrated into the system architecture of diesel-driven rail vehicles. Furthermore, the results also suggest that combining these two energy storage technologies into a single hybridisation package is a highly promising design that draws on their strengthens without any significant drawbacks.

  14. An Agent Based Approach for Project Management in Construction

    OpenAIRE

    Sencer, Safiye; Turgay, Tahsin

    2013-01-01

    Project management has an important role in terms of time, cost and flexibility. An agentbased architecture provides additional robustness, scalability, flexibility that is particularly appropriate for problems with a dynamic and distributed nature. Integrated agent based project management covers design and construction planning. It is combined with plan execution, tolerating both the design and plan, which may be changed as necessary. In this reason, the decision making process requires tha...

  15. Genome-wide dissection of hybrid sterility in Drosophila confirms a polygenic threshold architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morán, Tomás; Fontdevila, Antonio

    2014-01-01

    To date, different studies about the genetic basis of hybrid male sterility (HMS), a postzygotic reproductive barrier thoroughly investigated using Drosophila species, have demonstrated that no single major gene can produce hybrid sterility without the cooperation of several genetic factors. Early work using hybrids between Drosophila koepferae (Dk) and Drosophila buzzatii (Db) was consistent with the idea that HMS requires the cooperation of several genetic factors, supporting a polygenic threshold (PT) model. Here we present a genome-wide mapping strategy to test the PT model, analyzing serially backcrossed fertile and sterile males in which the Dk genome was introgressed into the Db background. We identified 32 Dk-specific markers significantly associated with hybrid sterility. Our results demonstrate 1) a strong correlation between the number of segregated sterility markers and males' degree of sterility, 2) the exchangeability among markers, 3) their tendency to cluster into low-recombining chromosomal regions, and 4) the requirement for a minimum number (threshold) of markers to elicit sterility. Although our findings do not contradict a role for occasional major hybrid-sterility genes, they conform more to the view that HMS primarily evolves by the cumulative action of many interacting genes of minor effect in a complex PT architecture.

  16. An Automated End-To Multi-Agent Qos Based Architecture for Selection of Geospatial Web Services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shah, M.; Verma, Y.; Nandakumar, R.

    2012-07-01

    Over the past decade, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web services have gained wide popularity and acceptance from researchers and industries all over the world. SOA makes it easy to build business applications with common services, and it provides like: reduced integration expense, better asset reuse, higher business agility, and reduction of business risk. Building of framework for acquiring useful geospatial information for potential users is a crucial problem faced by the GIS domain. Geospatial Web services solve this problem. With the help of web service technology, geospatial web services can provide useful geospatial information to potential users in a better way than traditional geographic information system (GIS). A geospatial Web service is a modular application designed to enable the discovery, access, and chaining of geospatial information and services across the web that are often both computation and data-intensive that involve diverse sources of data and complex processing functions. With the proliferation of web services published over the internet, multiple web services may provide similar functionality, but with different non-functional properties. Thus, Quality of Service (QoS) offers a metric to differentiate the services and their service providers. In a quality-driven selection of web services, it is important to consider non-functional properties of the web service so as to satisfy the constraints or requirements of the end users. The main intent of this paper is to build an automated end-to-end multi-agent based solution to provide the best-fit web service to service requester based on QoS.

  17. Different micromanipulation applications based on common modular control architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sipola, Risto; Vallius, Tero; Pudas, Marko; Röning, Juha

    2010-01-01

    This paper validates a previously introduced scalable modular control architecture and shows how it can be used to implement research equipment. The validation is conducted by presenting different kinds of micromanipulation applications that use the architecture. Conditions of the micro-world are very different from those of the macro-world. Adhesive forces are significant compared to gravitational forces when micro-scale objects are manipulated. Manipulation is mainly conducted by automatic control relying on haptic feedback provided by force sensors. The validated architecture is a hierarchical layered hybrid architecture, including a reactive layer and a planner layer. The implementation of the architecture is modular, and the architecture has a lot in common with open architectures. Further, the architecture is extensible, scalable, portable and it enables reuse of modules. These are the qualities that we validate in this paper. To demonstrate the claimed features, we present different applications that require special control in micrometer, millimeter and centimeter scales. These applications include a device that measures cell adhesion, a device that examines properties of thin films, a device that measures adhesion of micro fibers and a device that examines properties of submerged gel produced by bacteria. Finally, we analyze how the architecture is used in these applications.

  18. Biaxially stretchable supercapacitors based on the buckled hybrid fiber electrode array

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Nan; Zhou, Weiya; Zhang, Qiang; Luan, Pingshan; Cai, Le; Yang, Feng; Zhang, Xiao; Fan, Qingxia; Zhou, Wenbin; Xiao, Zhuojian; Gu, Xiaogang; Chen, Huiliang; Li, Kewei; Xiao, Shiqi; Wang, Yanchun; Liu, Huaping; Xie, Sishen

    2015-07-01

    In order to meet the growing need for smart bionic devices and epidermal electronic systems, biaxial stretchability is essential for energy storage units. Based on porous single-walled carbon nanotube/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (SWCNT/PEDOT) hybrid fiber, we designed and fabricated a biaxially stretchable supercapacitor, which possesses a unique configuration of the parallel buckled hybrid fiber array. Owing to the reticulate SWCNT film and the improved fabrication technique, the hybrid fiber retained its porous architecture both outwardly and inwardly, manifesting a superior capacity of 215 F g-1. H3PO4-polyvinyl alcohol gel with an optimized component ratio was introduced as both binder and stretchable electrolyte, which contributed to the regularity and stability of the buckled fiber array. The buckled structure and the quasi one-dimensional character of the fibers endow the supercapacitor with 100% stretchability along all directions. In addition, the supercapacitor exhibited good transparency, as well as excellent electrochemical properties and stability after being stretched 5000 times.In order to meet the growing need for smart bionic devices and epidermal electronic systems, biaxial stretchability is essential for energy storage units. Based on porous single-walled carbon nanotube/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (SWCNT/PEDOT) hybrid fiber, we designed and fabricated a biaxially stretchable supercapacitor, which possesses a unique configuration of the parallel buckled hybrid fiber array. Owing to the reticulate SWCNT film and the improved fabrication technique, the hybrid fiber retained its porous architecture both outwardly and inwardly, manifesting a superior capacity of 215 F g-1. H3PO4-polyvinyl alcohol gel with an optimized component ratio was introduced as both binder and stretchable electrolyte, which contributed to the regularity and stability of the buckled fiber array. The buckled structure and the quasi one-dimensional character of the

  19. Optical linear algebra processors - Architectures and algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casasent, David

    1986-01-01

    Attention is given to the component design and optical configuration features of a generic optical linear algebra processor (OLAP) architecture, as well as the large number of OLAP architectures, number representations, algorithms and applications encountered in current literature. Number-representation issues associated with bipolar and complex-valued data representations, high-accuracy (including floating point) performance, and the base or radix to be employed, are discussed, together with case studies on a space-integrating frequency-multiplexed architecture and a hybrid space-integrating and time-integrating multichannel architecture.

  20. A cognitive decision agent architecture for optimal energy management of microgrids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Velik, Rosemarie; Nicolay, Pascal

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • We propose an optimization approach for energy management in microgrids. • The optimizer emulates processes involved in human decision making. • Optimization objectives are energy self-consumption and financial gain maximization. • We gain improved optimization results in significantly reduced computation time. - Abstract: Via the integration of renewable energy and storage technologies, buildings have started to change from passive (electricity) consumers to active prosumer microgrids. Along with this development come a shift from centralized to distributed production and consumption models as well as discussions about the introduction of variable demand–supply-driven grid electricity prices. Together with upcoming ICT and automation technologies, these developments open space to a wide range of novel energy management and energy trading possibilities to optimally use available energy resources. However, what is considered as an optimal energy management and trading strategy heavily depends on the individual objectives and needs of a microgrid operator. Accordingly, elaborating the most suitable strategy for each particular system configuration and operator need can become quite a complex and time-consuming task, which can massively benefit from computational support. In this article, we introduce a bio-inspired cognitive decision agent architecture for optimized, goal-specific energy management in (interconnected) microgrids, which are additionally connected to the main electricity grid. For evaluating the performance of the architecture, a number of test cases are specified targeting objectives like local photovoltaic energy consumption maximization and financial gain maximization. Obtained outcomes are compared against a modified simulating annealing optimization approach in terms of objective achievement and computational effort. Results demonstrate that the cognitive decision agent architecture yields improved optimization results in

  1. Architecture and characterization of the P4DI CMOS hybrid pixel sensor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chatzistratis, D.; Theodoratos, G.; Kazas, I.; Loukas, D.; Zervakis, E.; Lambropoulos, C.P.

    2017-01-01

    Gamma ray imaging can be used for the extraction either of the activity map of a source or of the attenuation map of an object or both, as well as for the identification of the material composition of the emitting source or the object. All these imaging modalities can benefit from instruments giving the information of the energy of the converted photons and also the spatial and time coordinates of the conversion. The P4DI CMOS and hybrid provides the core technology for this task being a 2-D array based on Cd(Zn)Te material for the sensing layer. It consists of 1250 pixels with 400 μ m pitch. The energy resolution of the 241 Am photopeak is 3.5 keV, time resolution is less than 12 μ s and power consumption is less than 100 mW. Architecture and characterization are described.

  2. Policy based Agents in Wireless Body Sensor Mesh Networks for Patient Health Monitoring

    OpenAIRE

    Kevin Miller; Suresh Sankaranarayanan

    2009-01-01

    There is presently considerable research interest in using wireless and mobile technologies in patient health monitoring particularly in hospitals and nursing homes. For health monitoring,, an intelligent agent based hierarchical architecture has already been published by one of the authors of this paper. Also, the technique of monitoring and notifying the health of patients using an intelligent agent, to the concerned hospital personnel, has also been proposed. We now present the details of ...

  3. Multi-agent: a technique to implement geo-visualization of networked virtual reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Zhiyong; Li, Wenjing; Meng, Lingkui

    2007-06-01

    Networked Virtual Reality (NVR) is a system based on net connected and spatial information shared, whose demands cannot be fully meet by the existing architectures and application patterns of VR to some extent. In this paper, we propose a new architecture of NVR based on Multi-Agent framework. which includes the detailed definition of various agents and their functions and full description of the collaboration mechanism, Through the prototype system test with DEM Data and 3D Models Data, the advantages of Multi-Agent based Networked Virtual Reality System in terms of the data loading time, user response time and scene construction time etc. are verified. First, we introduce the characters of Networked Virtual Realty and the characters of Multi-Agent technique in Section 1. Then we give the architecture design of Networked Virtual Realty based on Multi-Agent in Section 2.The Section 2 content includes the rule of task division, the multi-agent architecture design to implement Networked Virtual Realty and the function of agents. Section 3 shows the prototype implementation according to the design. Finally, Section 4 discusses the benefits of using Multi-Agent to implement geovisualization of Networked Virtual Realty.

  4. Low Cost Design of a Hybrid Architecture of Integer Inverse DCT for H.264, VC-1, AVS, and HEVC

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Martuza

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents a unified hybrid architecture to compute the 8×8 integer inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT of multiple modern video codecs—AVS, H.264/AVC, VC-1, and HEVC (under development. Based on the symmetric structure of the matrices and the similarity in matrix operation, we develop a generalized “decompose and share” algorithm to compute the 8×8 IDCT. The algorithm is later applied to four video standards. The hardware-share approach ensures the maximum circuit reuse during the computation. The architecture is designed with only adders and shifters to reduce the hardware cost significantly. The design is implemented on FPGA and later synthesized in CMOS 0.18 um technology. The results meet the requirements of advanced video coding applications.

  5. FPGA hardware acceleration for high performance neutron transport computation based on agent methodology - 318

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shanjie, Xiao; Tatjana, Jevremovic

    2010-01-01

    The accurate, detailed and 3D neutron transport analysis for Gen-IV reactors is still time-consuming regardless of advanced computational hardware available in developed countries. This paper introduces a new concept in addressing the computational time while persevering the detailed and accurate modeling; a specifically designed FPGA co-processor accelerates robust AGENT methodology for complex reactor geometries. For the first time this approach is applied to accelerate the neutronics analysis. The AGENT methodology solves neutron transport equation using the method of characteristics. The AGENT methodology performance was carefully analyzed before the hardware design based on the FPGA co-processor was adopted. The most time-consuming kernel part is then transplanted into the FPGA co-processor. The FPGA co-processor is designed with data flow-driven non von-Neumann architecture and has much higher efficiency than the conventional computer architecture. Details of the FPGA co-processor design are introduced and the design is benchmarked using two different examples. The advanced chip architecture helps the FPGA co-processor obtaining more than 20 times speed up with its working frequency much lower than the CPU frequency. (authors)

  6. Architecture oriented modeling and simulation method for combat mission profile

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CHEN Xia

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available In order to effectively analyze the system behavior and system performance of combat mission profile, an architecture-oriented modeling and simulation method is proposed. Starting from the architecture modeling,this paper describes the mission profile based on the definition from National Military Standard of China and the US Department of Defense Architecture Framework(DoDAFmodel, and constructs the architecture model of the mission profile. Then the transformation relationship between the architecture model and the agent simulation model is proposed to form the mission profile executable model. At last,taking the air-defense mission profile as an example,the agent simulation model is established based on the architecture model,and the input and output relations of the simulation model are analyzed. It provides method guidance for the combat mission profile design.

  7. An enhanced performance through agent-based secure approach for mobile ad hoc networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisen, Dhananjay; Sharma, Sanjeev

    2018-01-01

    This paper proposes an agent-based secure enhanced performance approach (AB-SEP) for mobile ad hoc network. In this approach, agent nodes are selected through optimal node reliability as a factor. This factor is calculated on the basis of node performance features such as degree difference, normalised distance value, energy level, mobility and optimal hello interval of node. After selection of agent nodes, a procedure of malicious behaviour detection is performed using fuzzy-based secure architecture (FBSA). To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, comparative analysis is done with conventional schemes using performance parameters such as packet delivery ratio, throughput, total packet forwarding, network overhead, end-to-end delay and percentage of malicious detection.

  8. Multiagent Based Information Dissemination in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S.S. Manvi

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs are a compelling application of ad hoc networks, because of the potential to access specific context information (e.g. traffic conditions, service updates, route planning and deliver multimedia services (Voice over IP, in-car entertainment, instant messaging, etc.. This paper proposes an agent based information dissemination model for VANETs. A two-tier agent architecture is employed comprising of the following: 1 'lightweight', network-facing, mobile agents; 2 'heavyweight', application-facing, norm-aware agents. The limitations of VANETs lead us to consider a hybrid wireless network architecture that includes Wireless LAN/Cellular and ad hoc networking for analyzing the proposed model. The proposed model provides flexibility, adaptability and maintainability for traffic information dissemination in VANETs as well as supports robust and agile network management. The proposed model has been simulated in various network scenarios to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach.

  9. Automatic Generation of Agents using Reusable Soft Computing Code Libraries to develop Multi Agent System for Healthcare

    OpenAIRE

    Priti Srinivas Sajja

    2015-01-01

    This paper illustrates architecture for a multi agent system in healthcare domain. The architecture is generic and designed in form of multiple layers. One of the layers of the architecture contains many proactive, co-operative and intelligent agents such as resource management agent, query agent, pattern detection agent and patient management agent. Another layer of the architecture is a collection of libraries to auto-generate code for agents using soft computing techni...

  10. Thermal modeling of a hydraulic hybrid vehicle transmission based on thermodynamic analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwon, Hyukjoon; Sprengel, Michael; Ivantysynova, Monika

    2016-01-01

    Hybrid vehicles have become a popular alternative to conventional powertrain architectures by offering improved fuel efficiency along with a range of environmental benefits. Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicles (HHV) offer one approach to hybridization with many benefits over competing technologies. Among these benefits are lower component costs, more environmentally friendly construction materials, and the ability to recover a greater quantity of energy during regenerative braking which make HHVs partially well suited to urban environments. In order to further the knowledge base regarding HHVs, this paper explores the thermodynamic characteristics of such a system. A system model is detailed for both the hydraulic and thermal components of a closed circuit hydraulic hybrid transmission following the FTP-72 driving cycle. Among the new techniques proposed in this paper is a novel method for capturing rapid thermal transients. This paper concludes by comparing the results of this model with experimental data gathered on a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) transmission dynamometer possessing the same architecture, components, and driving cycle used within the simulation model. This approach can be used for several applications such as thermal stability analysis of HHVs, optimal thermal management, and analysis of the system's thermodynamic efficiency. - Highlights: • Thermal modeling for HHVs is introduced. • A model for the hydraulic and thermal system is developed for HHVs. • A novel method for capturing rapid thermal transients is proposed. • The thermodynamic system diagram of a series HHV is predicted.

  11. Modeling Multi-Mobile Agents System Based on Coalition Signature Mechanism Using UML

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    SUNZhixin; HUANGHaiping; WANGRuchuan

    2004-01-01

    With the development of electronic commerce and agent techniques, multi-mobile agents cooperation can not only improve the efficiency of electronic business trade, but more importantly, it has a comprehensive applicative value in solving the security issues of mobile agent system. This paper firstly describes the mechanism of multi-mobile agents coalition signature aiming at the system security. Subsequently it brings forward a basic architecture of Multi-mobile agents system (MMAS) based on the design pattern of multi-mobile agents. The paper uses the diagrs_rn of UML, such as use case diagram, class diagram and sequence diagram to build the detailed model of the coalition signature and multi-mobile agents cooperation results. Through security analysis, we find that multimobile agents cooperation and interaction can solve some security problems of mobile agents in transfer, and also it can improve the efficiency of business trade. These results indicate that MMAS has a high security performance and can be widely used in E-commerce trade.

  12. The ABC Adaptive Fusion Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bunde-Pedersen, Jonathan; Mogensen, Martin; Bardram, Jakob Eyvind

    2006-01-01

    and early implementation of a systemcapable of adapting to its operating environment, choosingthe best fit combination of the client-server and peerto-peer architectures. The architecture creates a seamlessintegration between a centralized hybrid architecture and adecentralized architecture, relying on what...

  13. ARCHITECTURE OF WEB BASED COMPUTER-AIDED MANUFACTURING SYSTEM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. E. Filyukov

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with design of a web-based system for Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM. Remote applications and databases located in the "private cloud" are proposed to be the basis of such system. The suggested approach contains: service - oriented architecture, using web applications and web services as modules, multi-agent technologies for implementation of information exchange functions between the components of the system and the usage of PDM - system for managing technology projects within the CAM. The proposed architecture involves CAM conversion into the corporate information system that will provide coordinated functioning of subsystems based on a common information space, as well as parallelize collective work on technology projects and be able to provide effective control of production planning. A system has been developed within this architecture which gives the possibility for a rather simple technological subsystems connect to the system and implementation of their interaction. The system makes it possible to produce CAM configuration for a particular company on the set of developed subsystems and databases specifying appropriate access rights for employees of the company. The proposed approach simplifies maintenance of software and information support for CAM subsystems due to their central location in the data center. The results can be used as a basis for CAM design and testing within the learning process for development and modernization of the system algorithms, and then can be tested in the extended enterprise.

  14. Mobile Agent Data Integrity Using Multi-Agent Architecture

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    McDonald, Jeffrey

    2004-01-01

    .... Security issues for mobile agents continue to produce research interest, particularly in developing mechanisms that guarantee protection of agent data and agent computations in the presence of malicious hosts...

  15. Synthesis of NiO-TiO2 hybrids/mSiO2 yolk-shell architectures embedded with ultrasmall gold nanoparticles for enhanced reactivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Jiasheng; Zhang, Yiwei; Zhou, Yuming; Zhao, Shuo; Zhang, Chao; Huang, Mengqiu; Gao, Yan

    2017-08-01

    Novel NiO-TiO2 hybrids/mSiO2 yolk-shell architectures loaded with ultrasmall Au nanoparticles (STNVS-Au) were developed via the rational synthetic strategy. The hierarchical yolk-shell nanostructures (STNVS) with high surface areas were constructed by a facile "bottom-up" assembly process using SiO2 materials and polymer resins as cores/shells and sacrificial templates, accompanied by a simple hydrothermal incorporation of NiO into uniform amorphous TiO2 layers that were converted to NiO-anatase TiO2 p-n heterojunction hybrids. Then, numerous sub-3 nm Au nanoparticles were post encapsulated within STNVS nanostructures through the low-temperature hydrogen reduction based on the unique deposition-precipitation method with Au(en)2Cl3 compounds as gold precursors. The NiO-TiO2 hybrids alloying with Au nanoparticles were effectively protected and entrapped within STNVS architectures, and interacted with outer mSiO2-Au shells, which comprised the powerful STNVS-Au yolk-shell nanoreactors and produced stronger configural synergies in enhancing the heterogeneous catalysis. Into catalyzing the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol, the STNVS-Au was shown with outstanding activity and reusability, and its pristine morphology was well retained during the recycling process.

  16. Uncoupling File System Components for Bridging Legacy and Modern Storage Architectures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Golpayegani, N.; Halem, M.; Tilmes, C.; Prathapan, S.; Earp, D. N.; Ashkar, J. S.

    2016-12-01

    Long running Earth Science projects can span decades of architectural changes in both processing and storage environments. As storage architecture designs change over decades such projects need to adjust their tools, systems, and expertise to properly integrate such new technologies with their legacy systems. Traditional file systems lack the necessary support to accommodate such hybrid storage infrastructure resulting in more complex tool development to encompass all possible storage architectures used for the project. The MODIS Adaptive Processing System (MODAPS) and the Level 1 and Atmospheres Archive and Distribution System (LAADS) is an example of a project spanning several decades which has evolved into a hybrid storage architecture. MODAPS/LAADS has developed the Lightweight Virtual File System (LVFS) which ensures a seamless integration of all the different storage architectures, including standard block based POSIX compliant storage disks, to object based architectures such as the S3 compliant HGST Active Archive System, and the Seagate Kinetic disks utilizing the Kinetic Protocol. With LVFS, all analysis and processing tools used for the project continue to function unmodified regardless of the underlying storage architecture enabling MODAPS/LAADS to easily integrate any new storage architecture without the costly need to modify existing tools to utilize such new systems. Most file systems are designed as a single application responsible for using metadata to organizing the data into a tree, determine the location for data storage, and a method of data retrieval. We will show how LVFS' unique approach of treating these components in a loosely coupled fashion enables it to merge different storage architectures into a single uniform storage system which bridges the underlying hybrid architecture.

  17. iCrowd: agent-based behavior modeling and crowd simulator

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kountouriotis, Vassilios I.; Paterakis, Manolis; Thomopoulos, Stelios C. A.

    2016-05-01

    Initially designed in the context of the TASS (Total Airport Security System) FP-7 project, the Crowd Simulation platform developed by the Integrated Systems Lab of the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications at N.C.S.R. Demokritos, has evolved into a complete domain-independent agent-based behavior simulator with an emphasis on crowd behavior and building evacuation simulation. Under continuous development, it reflects an effort to implement a modern, multithreaded, data-oriented simulation engine employing latest state-of-the-art programming technologies and paradigms. It is based on an extensible architecture that separates core services from the individual layers of agent behavior, offering a concrete simulation kernel designed for high-performance and stability. Its primary goal is to deliver an abstract platform to facilitate implementation of several Agent-Based Simulation solutions with applicability in several domains of knowledge, such as: (i) Crowd behavior simulation during [in/out] door evacuation. (ii) Non-Player Character AI for Game-oriented applications and Gamification activities. (iii) Vessel traffic modeling and simulation for Maritime Security and Surveillance applications. (iv) Urban and Highway Traffic and Transportation Simulations. (v) Social Behavior Simulation and Modeling.

  18. Predicting the impact of combined therapies on myeloma cell growth using a hybrid multi-scale agent-based model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ji, Zhiwei; Su, Jing; Wu, Dan; Peng, Huiming; Zhao, Weiling; Nlong Zhao, Brian; Zhou, Xiaobo

    2017-01-31

    Multiple myeloma is a malignant still incurable plasma cell disorder. This is due to refractory disease relapse, immune impairment, and development of multi-drug resistance. The growth of malignant plasma cells is dependent on the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment and evasion of the host's anti-tumor immune response. Hence, we hypothesized that targeting tumor-stromal cell interaction and endogenous immune system in BM will potentially improve the response of multiple myeloma (MM). Therefore, we proposed a computational simulation of the myeloma development in the complicated microenvironment which includes immune cell components and bone marrow stromal cells and predicted the effects of combined treatment with multi-drugs on myeloma cell growth. We constructed a hybrid multi-scale agent-based model (HABM) that combines an ODE system and Agent-based model (ABM). The ODEs was used for modeling the dynamic changes of intracellular signal transductions and ABM for modeling the cell-cell interactions between stromal cells, tumor, and immune components in the BM. This model simulated myeloma growth in the bone marrow microenvironment and revealed the important role of immune system in this process. The predicted outcomes were consistent with the experimental observations from previous studies. Moreover, we applied this model to predict the treatment effects of three key therapeutic drugs used for MM, and found that the combination of these three drugs potentially suppress the growth of myeloma cells and reactivate the immune response. In summary, the proposed model may serve as a novel computational platform for simulating the formation of MM and evaluating the treatment response of MM to multiple drugs.

  19. Architectural Drawing - an Animate Field

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hougaard, Anna Katrine

    2015-01-01

    Architectural drawing is changing because architects today draw with computers. Due to this change digital diagrams employed by computational architectural practices are often emphasized as powerful structures of control and organisation in the design process. But there are also diagrams, which do...... ways of directing behaviour of artefacts and living things without controlling this behaviour completely. I analyse a musical composition by John Cage as an example of a sketch diagram, and then hypothesize that orthogonal, architectural drawing can work in similar ways. Thereby I hope to point out...... important affordance of architectural drawing as a ¬hybrid between the openness of hand-sketching and the rule-based-ness of diagramming, an affordance which might be useful in the migrational zone of current architectural drawing where traditional hand drawing techniques and computer drawing techniques...

  20. Capacity Analysis for Parallel Runway through Agent-Based Simulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yang Peng

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Parallel runway is the mainstream structure of China hub airport, runway is often the bottleneck of an airport, and the evaluation of its capacity is of great importance to airport management. This study outlines a model, multiagent architecture, implementation approach, and software prototype of a simulation system for evaluating runway capacity. Agent Unified Modeling Language (AUML is applied to illustrate the inbound and departing procedure of planes and design the agent-based model. The model is evaluated experimentally, and the quality is studied in comparison with models, created by SIMMOD and Arena. The results seem to be highly efficient, so the method can be applied to parallel runway capacity evaluation and the model propose favorable flexibility and extensibility.

  1. Chemical hybridizing agent SQ-1-induced male sterility in Triticum aestivum L.: a comparative analysis of the anther proteome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Hongzhan; Zhang, Gaisheng; Wang, Junsheng; Li, Jingjing; Song, Yulong; Qiao, Lin; Niu, Na; Wang, Junwei; Ma, Shoucai; Li, Lili

    2018-01-05

    Heterosis is widely used to increase the yield of many crops. However, as wheat is a self-pollinating crop, hybrid breeding is not so successful in this organism. Even though male sterility induced by chemical hybridizing agents is an important aspect of crossbreeding, the mechanisms by which these agents induce male sterility in wheat is not well understood. We performed proteomic analyses using the wheat Triticum aestivum L.to identify those proteins involved in physiological male sterility (PHYMS) induced by the chemical hybridizing agent CHA SQ-1. A total of 103 differentially expressed proteins were found by 2D-PAGE and subsequently identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF MS/MS. In general, these proteins had obvious functional tendencies implicated in carbohydrate metabolism, oxidative stress and resistance, protein metabolism, photosynthesis, and cytoskeleton and cell structure. In combination with phenotypic, tissue section, and bioinformatics analyses, the identified differentially expressed proteins revealed a complex network behind the regulation of PHYMS and pollen development. Accordingly, we constructed a protein network of male sterility in wheat, drawing relationships between the 103 differentially expressed proteins and their annotated biological pathways. To further validate our proposed protein network, we determined relevant physiological values and performed real-time PCR assays. Our proteomics based approach has enabled us to identify certain tendencies in PHYMS anthers. Anomalies in carbohydrate metabolism and oxidative stress, together with premature tapetum degradation, may be the cause behind carbohydrate starvation and male sterility in CHA SQ-1 treated plants. Here, we provide important insight into the mechanisms underlying CHA SQ-1-induced male sterility. Our findings have practical implications for the application of hybrid breeding in wheat.

  2. SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS: A high performance 90 nm CMOS SAR ADC with hybrid architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xingyuan, Tong; Jianming, Chen; Zhangming, Zhu; Yintang, Yang

    2010-01-01

    A 10-bit 2.5 MS/s SAR A/D converter is presented. In the circuit design, an R-C hybrid architecture D/A converter, pseudo-differential comparison architecture and low power voltage level shifters are utilized. Design challenges and considerations are also discussed. In the layout design, each unit resistor is sided by dummies for good matching performance, and the capacitors are routed with a common-central symmetry method to reduce the nonlin-earity error. This proposed converter is implemented based on 90 nm CMOS logic process. With a 3.3 V analog supply and a 1.0 V digital supply, the differential and integral nonlinearity are measured to be less than 0.36 LSB and 0.69 LSB respectively. With an input frequency of 1.2 MHz at 2.5 MS/s sampling rate, the SFDR and ENOB are measured to be 72.86 dB and 9.43 bits respectively, and the power dissipation is measured to be 6.62 mW including the output drivers. This SAR A/D converter occupies an area of 238 × 214 μm2. The design results of this converter show that it is suitable for multi-supply embedded SoC applications.

  3. Model-based design of RNA hybridization networks implemented in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodrigo, Guillermo; Prakash, Satya; Shen, Shensi; Majer, Eszter; Daròs, José-Antonio; Jaramillo, Alfonso

    2017-09-19

    Synthetic gene circuits allow the behavior of living cells to be reprogrammed, and non-coding small RNAs (sRNAs) are increasingly being used as programmable regulators of gene expression. However, sRNAs (natural or synthetic) are generally used to regulate single target genes, while complex dynamic behaviors would require networks of sRNAs regulating each other. Here, we report a strategy for implementing such networks that exploits hybridization reactions carried out exclusively by multifaceted sRNAs that are both targets of and triggers for other sRNAs. These networks are ultimately coupled to the control of gene expression. We relied on a thermodynamic model of the different stable conformational states underlying this system at the nucleotide level. To test our model, we designed five different RNA hybridization networks with a linear architecture, and we implemented them in Escherichia coli. We validated the network architecture at the molecular level by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, as well as the network function at the bacterial population and single-cell levels with a fluorescent reporter. Our results suggest that it is possible to engineer complex cellular programs based on RNA from first principles. Because these networks are mainly based on physical interactions, our designs could be expanded to other organisms as portable regulatory resources or to implement biological computations. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

  4. Novel hybrid materials based on the vanadium oxide nanobelts

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zabrodina, G.S., E-mail: kudgs@mail.ru [G.A. Razuvaev Institute of Organometallic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod 603950 (Russian Federation); Lobachevsky State University, Nizhny Novgorod 603950 (Russian Federation); Makarov, S.G.; Kremlev, K.V. [G.A. Razuvaev Institute of Organometallic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod 603950 (Russian Federation); Lobachevsky State University, Nizhny Novgorod 603950 (Russian Federation); Yunin, P.A.; Gusev, S.A. [Institute for Physics of Microstructures Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod 603087 (Russian Federation); Kaverin, B.S.; Kaverina, L.B. [G.A. Razuvaev Institute of Organometallic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod 603950 (Russian Federation); Ketkov, S.Yu. [G.A. Razuvaev Institute of Organometallic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod 603950 (Russian Federation); Lobachevsky State University, Nizhny Novgorod 603950 (Russian Federation)

    2016-04-15

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Flat and curved vanadium oxide nanobelts have been synthesized. • Hybrid material was prepared via decoration of flexible nanobelts with zinc phthalocyanine. • Investigations of the thermal stability, morphologies and structures were carried out. - Abstract: Novel hybrid materials based on zinc phthalocyanine and nanostructured vanadium oxides have attracted extensive attention for the development of academic research and innovative industrial applications such as flexible electronics, optical sensors and heterogeneous catalysts. Vanadium oxides nanobelts were synthesized via a hydrothermal treatment V{sub 2}O{sub 5}·nH{sub 2}O gel with surfactants (TBAB, CTAB) used as structure-directing agents, where CTAB – cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, TBAB – tetrabutylammonium bromide. Hybrid materials were prepared decoration of (CTA){sub 0.33}V{sub 2}O{sub 5} flexible nanobelts with cationic zinc phthalocyanine by the ion-exchange route. Investigations of the thermal stability, morphologies and structures of the (CTA){sub 0.33}V{sub 2}O{sub 5}, (TBA){sub 0.16}V{sub 2}O{sub 5} nanobelts and zinc phthalocyanine exchange product were carried out. The hybrid materials based on the nanostructured vanadium oxide and zinc phthalocyanine were tested as photocatalysts for oxidation of citronellol and 2-mercaptoethanol by dioxygen.

  5. Programmable architecture for quantum computing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Chen, J.; Wang, L.; Charbon, E.; Wang, B.

    2013-01-01

    A programmable architecture called “quantum FPGA (field-programmable gate array)” (QFPGA) is presented for quantum computing, which is a hybrid model combining the advantages of the qubus system and the measurement-based quantum computation. There are two kinds of buses in QFPGA, the local bus and

  6. Advanced Electrical Machines and Machine-Based Systems for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

    OpenAIRE

    Ming Cheng; Le Sun; Giuseppe Buja; Lihua Song

    2015-01-01

    The paper presents a number of advanced solutions on electric machines and machine-based systems for the powertrain of electric vehicles (EVs). Two types of systems are considered, namely the drive systems designated to the EV propulsion and the power split devices utilized in the popular series-parallel hybrid electric vehicle architecture. After reviewing the main requirements for the electric drive systems, the paper illustrates advanced electric machine topologies, including a stator perm...

  7. Base Camp Architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Warebi Gabriel Brisibe

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Longitudinal or time line studies of change in the architecture of a particular culture are common, but an area still open to further research is change across space or place. In particular, there is need for studies on architectural change of cultures stemming from the same ethnic source split between their homeland and other Diasporas. This change may range from minor deviations to drastic shifts away from an architectural norm and the accumulation of these shifts within a time frame constitutes variations. This article focuses on identifying variations in the architecture of the Ijo fishing group that migrates along the coastline of West Africa. It examines the causes of cross-cultural variation between base camp dwellings of Ijo migrant fishermen in the Bakassi Peninsula in Cameroon and Bayelsa State in Nigeria. The study draws on the idea of the inevitability of cultural and social change over time as proposed in the theories of cultural dynamism and evolution. It tests aspects of cultural transmission theory using the principal coordinates analysis to ascertain the possible causes of variation. From the findings, this research argues that migration has enhanced the forces of cultural dynamism, which have resulted in significant variations in the architecture of this fishing group.

  8. SiC: An Agent Based Architecture for Preventing and Detecting Attacks to Ubiquitous Databases

    OpenAIRE

    Pinzón, Cristian; de Paz Santana, Yanira; Bajo Pérez, Javier; Abraham, Ajith P.; Corchado Rodríguez, Juan M.

    2009-01-01

    One of the main attacks to ubiquitous databases is the structure query language (SQL) injection attack, which causes severe damages both in the commercial aspect and in the user’s confidence. This chapter proposes the SiC architecture as a solution to the SQL injection attack problem. This is a hierarchical distributed multiagent architecture, which involves an entirely new approach with respect to existing architectures for the prevention and detection of SQL injections. SiC incorporates a k...

  9. A MultiAgent Architecture for Collaborative Serious Game applied to Crisis Management Training: Improving Adaptability of Non Player Characters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M’hammed Ali Oulhaci

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Serious Games (SG are more and more used for training, as in the crisis management domain, where several hundred stakeholders can be involved, causing various organizational difficulties on field exercises. SGs specific benefits include player immersion and detailed players’ actions tracking during a virtual exercise. Moreover, Non Player Characters (NPC can adapt the crisis management exercise perimeter to the available stakeholders or to specific training objectives. In this paper we present a Multi-Agent System architecture supporting behavioural simulation as well as monitoring and assessment of human players. A NPC is enacted by a Game Agent which reproduces the behaviour of a human actor, based on a deliberative model (Belief Desire Intention. To facilitate the scenario design, an Agent editor allows a designer to configure agents’behaviours. The behaviour simulation was implemented within the pre-existing SIMFOR project, a serious game for training in crisis management.

  10. Multifunctional Graphene-based Hybrid Nanomaterials for Electrochemical Energy Storage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gupta, Sanju

    Intense research in renewable energy is stimulated by global demand of electric energy. Electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems namely, supercapacitors and batteries, represent the most efficient and environmentally benign technologies. Moreover, controlled nanoscaled architectures and surface chemistry of electrochemical electrodes is enabling emergent next-generation efficient devices approaching theoretical limit of energy and power densities. This talk will present our recent activities to advance design, development and deployment of composition, morphology and microstructure controlled two- and three-dimensional graphene-based hybrids architectures. They are chemically and molecularly bridged with carbon nanotubes, conducting polymers, transition metal oxides and mesoproprous silicon wrapped with graphene nanosheets as engineered electrodes for supercapacitor cathodes and battery anodes. They showed significant enhancement in terms of gravimetric specific capacitance, interfacial capacitance, charging-discharging rate and cyclability. We will also present fundamental physical-chemical interfacial processes (ion transfer kinetics and diffusion), imaging electroactive sites, and topography at electrode/electrolyte interface governing underlying electrochemical mechanisms via scanning electrochemical microscopy. KY NSF EPSCoR.

  11. Improved Hybrid Opponent System for Professional Military Training

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Pelosi

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Described herein is a general-purpose software engineering architecture for autonomous, computer controlled opponent implementation in modern maneuver warfare simulation and training. The implementation has been developed, refined, and tested in the user crucible for several years. The approach represents a hybrid application of various well-known AI techniques, including domain modeling, agent modeling, and object-oriented programming. Inspired by computer chess approaches, the methodology combines this theoretical foundation with a hybrid and scalable portfolio of additional techniques. The result remains simple enough to be maintainable, comprehensible for the code writers as well as the end-users, and robust enough to handle a wide spectrum of possible mission scenarios and circumstances without modification.

  12. Building 3D Layer-by-Layer Graphene-Gold Nanoparticle Hybrid Architecture with Tunable Interlayer Distance

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-06-26

    saturated 0.1 M KOH electrolyte aqueous solution. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and LSV curves were measured on a computer-controlled potentiostat (CHI 760C...analyzed by Raman spectroscopy, molecular simulation using Gaussian 09, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and electron diffraction (ED). The typical... Raman features of GO are Figure 1. Synthesis of GO-Cys-GNR. Figure 2. Scheme of the representative layer-by-layer graphene−GNR hybrid architecture. The

  13. A novel survivable architecture for hybrid WDM/TDM passive optical networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Yang; Chan, Chun-Kit

    2014-02-01

    A novel tree-ring survivable architecture, which consists of an organization of a wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) tree from optical line terminal (OLT) to remote nodes (RNs) and a time division multiplexing (TDM) ring in each RN, is proposed for hybrid WDM/TDM passive optical networks. By utilizing the cyclic property of arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) and the single-ring topology among a group of optical network units (ONUs) in the remote node, not only the feeder and distribution fibers, but also any fiber failures in the RN rings are protected simultaneously. Five-Gbit/s transmissions under both normal working and protection modes were experimentally demonstrated and a traffic restoration time was successfully measured.

  14. A Participatory Agent-Based Simulation for Indoor Evacuation Supported by Google Glass

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jesús M. Sánchez

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Indoor evacuation systems are needed for rescue and safety management. One of the challenges is to provide users with personalized evacuation routes in real time. To this end, this project aims at exploring the possibilities of Google Glass technology for participatory multiagent indoor evacuation simulations. Participatory multiagent simulation combines scenario-guided agents and humans equipped with Google Glass that coexist in a shared virtual space and jointly perform simulations. The paper proposes an architecture for participatory multiagent simulation in order to combine devices (Google Glass and/or smartphones with an agent-based social simulator and indoor tracking services.

  15. A hybrid approach to decision making and information fusion: Combining humans and artificial agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Groen, Frans C.A.; Pavlin, Gregor; Winterboer, Andi; Evers, Vanessa

    This paper argues that hybrid human–agent systems can support powerful solutions to relevant problems such as Environmental Crisis management. However, it shows that such solutions require comprehensive approaches covering different aspects of data processing, model construction and the usage. In

  16. An Embedded Multi-Agent Systems Based Industrial Wireless Sensor Network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taboun, Mohammed S; Brennan, Robert W

    2017-09-14

    With the emergence of cyber-physical systems, there has been a growing interest in network-connected devices. One of the key requirements of a cyber-physical device is the ability to sense its environment. Wireless sensor networks are a widely-accepted solution for this requirement. In this study, an embedded multi-agent systems-managed wireless sensor network is presented. A novel architecture is proposed, along with a novel wireless sensor network architecture. Active and passive wireless sensor node types are defined, along with their communication protocols, and two application-specific examples are presented. A series of three experiments is conducted to evaluate the performance of the agent-embedded wireless sensor network.

  17. PLASMA SPRAYED Al₂O₃-13 WT.%TiO₂ COATING SEALED WITH ORGANIC-INORGANIC HYBRID AGENT AND ITS CORROSION RESISTANCE IN ACID ENVIRONMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zehua Zhou

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available A novel organic-inorganic hybrid material of γ-methacryloxypropyltrime-thoxysilane (KH570 -SiO₂ was fabricated by Sol-Gel method. The hybrid material was used as the sealing agent for the plasma sprayed Al₂O₃-13 wt.% TiO₂ coating. Infrared spectrum and grafted mechanism of the hybrid agent (HA were studied. Moreover, morphology and porosity, as well as characteristics of immersion plus electrochemical corrosion in acid environment of the coating with and without sealing treatment were evaluated, compared with those of the coating sealed with the conventional silicone resin agent (SRA. The results reveal that KH570 was successfully grafted onto the surface of SiO₂. The HA film sealed on the surface of the coating presents a little better quality than the SRA film. The porosities of the coatings after the sealing treatment decreased. Furthermore, the sealing treatment can improve efficiently the corrosion resistance of the coating in 5 vol.% HCl solution. The hybrid sealing agent can become a candidate for the plasma sprayed Al₂O₃-13 wt.% TiO₂ coating used in acid environment to overcome some disadvantages of organic agents such as severely environmental pollution.

  18. The architectural foundations for agent-based shop floor control

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Langer, Gilad; Bilberg, Arne

    1998-01-01

    simulation and cell controlenabling technologies. In order to continuethis research effortnew concepts and theories for shop floor control are investigated.This paper reviews the multi-agent concept aimed at investigatingits potential use in shop floor control systems. The paper willalso include a survey...

  19. Advanced Electrical Machines and Machine-Based Systems for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ming Cheng

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents a number of advanced solutions on electric machines and machine-based systems for the powertrain of electric vehicles (EVs. Two types of systems are considered, namely the drive systems designated to the EV propulsion and the power split devices utilized in the popular series-parallel hybrid electric vehicle architecture. After reviewing the main requirements for the electric drive systems, the paper illustrates advanced electric machine topologies, including a stator permanent magnet (stator-PM motor, a hybrid-excitation motor, a flux memory motor and a redundant motor structure. Then, it illustrates advanced electric drive systems, such as the magnetic-geared in-wheel drive and the integrated starter generator (ISG. Finally, three machine-based implementations of the power split devices are expounded, built up around the dual-rotor PM machine, the dual-stator PM brushless machine and the magnetic-geared dual-rotor machine. As a conclusion, the development trends in the field of electric machines and machine-based systems for EVs are summarized.

  20. Optical Flow in a Smart Sensor Based on Hybrid Analog-Digital Architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pablo Guzmán

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to develop a motion sensor (delivering optical flow estimations using a platform that includes the sensor itself, focal plane processing resources, and co-processing resources on a general purpose embedded processor. All this is implemented on a single device as a SoC (System-on-a-Chip. Optical flow is the 2-D projection into the camera plane of the 3-D motion information presented at the world scenario. This motion representation is widespread well-known and applied in the science community to solve a wide variety of problems. Most applications based on motion estimation require work in real-time; hence, this restriction must be taken into account. In this paper, we show an efficient approach to estimate the motion velocity vectors with an architecture based on a focal plane processor combined on-chip with a 32 bits NIOS II processor. Our approach relies on the simplification of the original optical flow model and its efficient implementation in a platform that combines an analog (focal-plane and digital (NIOS II processor. The system is fully functional and is organized in different stages where the early processing (focal plane stage is mainly focus to pre-process the input image stream to reduce the computational cost in the post-processing (NIOS II stage. We present the employed co-design techniques and analyze this novel architecture. We evaluate the system’s performance and accuracy with respect to the different proposed approaches described in the literature. We also discuss the advantages of the proposed approach as well as the degree of efficiency which can be obtained from the focal plane processing capabilities of the system. The final outcome is a low cost smart sensor for optical flow computation with real-time performance and reduced power consumption that can be used for very diverse application domains.

  1. Optical Flow in a Smart Sensor Based on Hybrid Analog-Digital Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guzmán, Pablo; Díaz, Javier; Agís, Rodrigo; Ros, Eduardo

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to develop a motion sensor (delivering optical flow estimations) using a platform that includes the sensor itself, focal plane processing resources, and co-processing resources on a general purpose embedded processor. All this is implemented on a single device as a SoC (System-on-a-Chip). Optical flow is the 2-D projection into the camera plane of the 3-D motion information presented at the world scenario. This motion representation is widespread well-known and applied in the science community to solve a wide variety of problems. Most applications based on motion estimation require work in real-time; hence, this restriction must be taken into account. In this paper, we show an efficient approach to estimate the motion velocity vectors with an architecture based on a focal plane processor combined on-chip with a 32 bits NIOS II processor. Our approach relies on the simplification of the original optical flow model and its efficient implementation in a platform that combines an analog (focal-plane) and digital (NIOS II) processor. The system is fully functional and is organized in different stages where the early processing (focal plane) stage is mainly focus to pre-process the input image stream to reduce the computational cost in the post-processing (NIOS II) stage. We present the employed co-design techniques and analyze this novel architecture. We evaluate the system’s performance and accuracy with respect to the different proposed approaches described in the literature. We also discuss the advantages of the proposed approach as well as the degree of efficiency which can be obtained from the focal plane processing capabilities of the system. The final outcome is a low cost smart sensor for optical flow computation with real-time performance and reduced power consumption that can be used for very diverse application domains. PMID:22319283

  2. Adaptive architectures for resilient control of networked multiagent systems in the presence of misbehaving agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torre, Gerardo De La; Yucelen, Tansel

    2018-03-01

    Control algorithms of networked multiagent systems are generally computed distributively without having a centralised entity monitoring the activity of agents; and therefore, unforeseen adverse conditions such as uncertainties or attacks to the communication network and/or failure of agent-wise components can easily result in system instability and prohibit the accomplishment of system-level objectives. In this paper, we study resilient coordination of networked multiagent systems in the presence of misbehaving agents, i.e. agents that are subject to exogenous disturbances that represent a class of adverse conditions. In particular, a distributed adaptive control architecture is presented for directed and time-varying graph topologies to retrieve a desired networked multiagent system behaviour. Apart from the existing relevant literature that make specific assumptions on the graph topology and/or the fraction of misbehaving agents, we show that the considered class of adverse conditions can be mitigated by the proposed adaptive control approach that utilises a local state emulator - even if all agents are misbehaving. Illustrative numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the theoretical findings.

  3. A hybrid joint based controller for an upper extremity exoskeleton

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohd Khairuddin, Ismail; Taha, Zahari; Majeed, Anwar P. P. Abdul; Hakeem Deboucha, Abdel; Azraai Mohd Razman, Mohd; Aziz Jaafar, Abdul; Mohamed, Zulkifli

    2016-02-01

    This paper presents the modelling and control of a two degree of freedom upper extremity exoskeleton. The Euler-Lagrange formulation was used in deriving the dynamic modelling of both the human upper limb as well as the exoskeleton that consists of the upper arm and the forearm. The human model is based on anthropometrical measurements of the upper limb. The proportional-derivative (PD) computed torque control (CTC) architecture is employed in this study to investigate its efficacy performing joint-space control objectives specifically in rehabilitating the elbow and shoulder joints along the sagittal plane. An active force control (AFC) algorithm is also incorporated into the PD-CTC to investigate the effectiveness of this hybrid system in compensating disturbances. It was found that the AFC- PD-CTC performs well against the disturbances introduced into the system whilst achieving acceptable trajectory tracking as compared to the conventional PD-CTC control architecture.

  4. A hybrid joint based controller for an upper extremity exoskeleton

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khairuddin, Ismail Mohd; Taha, Zahari; Majeed, Anwar P.P. Abdul; Deboucha, Abdel Hakeem; Razman, Mohd Azraai Mohd; Jaafar, Abdul Aziz; Mohamed, Zulkifli

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents the modelling and control of a two degree of freedom upper extremity exoskeleton. The Euler-Lagrange formulation was used in deriving the dynamic modelling of both the human upper limb as well as the exoskeleton that consists of the upper arm and the forearm. The human model is based on anthropometrical measurements of the upper limb. The proportional-derivative (PD) computed torque control (CTC) architecture is employed in this study to investigate its efficacy performing joint-space control objectives specifically in rehabilitating the elbow and shoulder joints along the sagittal plane. An active force control (AFC) algorithm is also incorporated into the PD-CTC to investigate the effectiveness of this hybrid system in compensating disturbances. It was found that the AFC- PD-CTC performs well against the disturbances introduced into the system whilst achieving acceptable trajectory tracking as compared to the conventional PD-CTC control architecture. (paper)

  5. Hybrid breeding in wheat: technologies to improve hybrid wheat seed production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitford, Ryan; Fleury, Delphine; Reif, Jochen C; Garcia, Melissa; Okada, Takashi; Korzun, Viktor; Langridge, Peter

    2013-12-01

    Global food security demands the development and delivery of new technologies to increase and secure cereal production on finite arable land without increasing water and fertilizer use. There are several options for boosting wheat yields, but most offer only small yield increases. Wheat is an inbred plant, and hybrids hold the potential to deliver a major lift in yield and will open a wide range of new breeding opportunities. A series of technological advances are needed as a base for hybrid wheat programmes. These start with major changes in floral development and architecture to separate the sexes and force outcrossing. Male sterility provides the best method to block self-fertilization, and modifying the flower structure will enhance pollen access. The recent explosion in genomic resources and technologies provides new opportunities to overcome these limitations. This review outlines the problems with existing hybrid wheat breeding systems and explores molecular-based technologies that could improve the hybrid production system to reduce hybrid seed production costs, a prerequisite for a commercial hybrid wheat system.

  6. Agent Collaborative Target Localization and Classification in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sheng Wang

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Wireless sensor networks (WSNs are autonomous networks that have beenfrequently deployed to collaboratively perform target localization and classification tasks.Their autonomous and collaborative features resemble the characteristics of agents. Suchsimilarities inspire the development of heterogeneous agent architecture for WSN in thispaper. The proposed agent architecture views WSN as multi-agent systems and mobileagents are employed to reduce in-network communication. According to the architecture,an energy based acoustic localization algorithm is proposed. In localization, estimate oftarget location is obtained by steepest descent search. The search algorithm adapts tomeasurement environments by dynamically adjusting its termination condition. With theagent architecture, target classification is accomplished by distributed support vectormachine (SVM. Mobile agents are employed for feature extraction and distributed SVMlearning to reduce communication load. Desirable learning performance is guaranteed bycombining support vectors and convex hull vectors. Fusion algorithms are designed tomerge SVM classification decisions made from various modalities. Real world experimentswith MICAz sensor nodes are conducted for vehicle localization and classification.Experimental results show the proposed agent architecture remarkably facilitates WSNdesigns and algorithm implementation. The localization and classification algorithms alsoprove to be accurate and energy efficient.

  7. An extensible agent architecture for a competitive market-based allocation of consumer attention space

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    P.J. 't Hoen (Pieter Jan); S.M. Bohte (Sander); E.H. Gerding (Enrico); J.A. La Poutré (Han)

    2002-01-01

    textabstractA competitive distributed recommendation mechanism is introduced based on adaptive software agents for efficiently allocating the ``customer attention space'', or banners. In the example of an electronic shopping mall, the task of correctly profiling and analyzing the customers is

  8. An Advanced Computational Approach to System of Systems Analysis & Architecting Using Agent-Based Behavioral Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-29

    Assessor that is in the SoS agent. Figure 31. Fuzzy Assessor for the SoS Agent for Assessment of SoS Architecture «subsystem» Fuzzy Rules « datatype ...Affordability « datatype » Flexibility « datatype » Performance « datatype » Robustness Input Input Input Input « datatype » Architecture QualityOutput Fuzzy

  9. Architectural elements of hybrid navigation systems for future space transportation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trigo, Guilherme F.; Theil, Stephan

    2017-12-01

    The fundamental limitations of inertial navigation, currently employed by most launchers, have raised interest for GNSS-aided solutions. Combination of inertial measurements and GNSS outputs allows inertial calibration online, solving the issue of inertial drift. However, many challenges and design options unfold. In this work we analyse several architectural elements and design aspects of a hybrid GNSS/INS navigation system conceived for space transportation. The most fundamental architectural features such as coupling depth, modularity between filter and inertial propagation, and open-/closed-loop nature of the configuration, are discussed in the light of the envisaged application. Importance of the inertial propagation algorithm and sensor class in the overall system are investigated, being the handling of sensor errors and uncertainties that arise with lower grade sensory also considered. In terms of GNSS outputs we consider receiver solutions (position and velocity) and raw measurements (pseudorange, pseudorange-rate and time-difference carrier phase). Receiver clock error handling options and atmospheric error correction schemes for these measurements are analysed under flight conditions. System performance with different GNSS measurements is estimated through covariance analysis, being the differences between loose and tight coupling emphasized through partial outage simulation. Finally, we discuss options for filter algorithm robustness against non-linearities and system/measurement errors. A possible scheme for fault detection, isolation and recovery is also proposed.

  10. Architectural elements of hybrid navigation systems for future space transportation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trigo, Guilherme F.; Theil, Stephan

    2018-06-01

    The fundamental limitations of inertial navigation, currently employed by most launchers, have raised interest for GNSS-aided solutions. Combination of inertial measurements and GNSS outputs allows inertial calibration online, solving the issue of inertial drift. However, many challenges and design options unfold. In this work we analyse several architectural elements and design aspects of a hybrid GNSS/INS navigation system conceived for space transportation. The most fundamental architectural features such as coupling depth, modularity between filter and inertial propagation, and open-/closed-loop nature of the configuration, are discussed in the light of the envisaged application. Importance of the inertial propagation algorithm and sensor class in the overall system are investigated, being the handling of sensor errors and uncertainties that arise with lower grade sensory also considered. In terms of GNSS outputs we consider receiver solutions (position and velocity) and raw measurements (pseudorange, pseudorange-rate and time-difference carrier phase). Receiver clock error handling options and atmospheric error correction schemes for these measurements are analysed under flight conditions. System performance with different GNSS measurements is estimated through covariance analysis, being the differences between loose and tight coupling emphasized through partial outage simulation. Finally, we discuss options for filter algorithm robustness against non-linearities and system/measurement errors. A possible scheme for fault detection, isolation and recovery is also proposed.

  11. An Embedded Multi-Agent Systems Based Industrial Wireless Sensor Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brennan, Robert W.

    2017-01-01

    With the emergence of cyber-physical systems, there has been a growing interest in network-connected devices. One of the key requirements of a cyber-physical device is the ability to sense its environment. Wireless sensor networks are a widely-accepted solution for this requirement. In this study, an embedded multi-agent systems-managed wireless sensor network is presented. A novel architecture is proposed, along with a novel wireless sensor network architecture. Active and passive wireless sensor node types are defined, along with their communication protocols, and two application-specific examples are presented. A series of three experiments is conducted to evaluate the performance of the agent-embedded wireless sensor network. PMID:28906452

  12. Systemic Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poletto, Marco; Pasquero, Claudia

    -up or tactical design, behavioural space and the boundary of the natural and the artificial realms within the city and architecture. A new kind of "real-time world-city" is illustrated in the form of an operational design manual for the assemblage of proto-architectures, the incubation of proto-gardens...... and the coding of proto-interfaces. These prototypes of machinic architecture materialize as synthetic hybrids embedded with biological life (proto-gardens), computational power, behavioural responsiveness (cyber-gardens), spatial articulation (coMachines and fibrous structures), remote sensing (FUNclouds...

  13. Agent Programming Languages and Logics in Agent-Based Simulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, John

    2018-01-01

    and social behavior, and work on verification. Agent-based simulation is an approach for simulation that also uses the notion of agents. Although agent programming languages and logics are much less used in agent-based simulation, there are successful examples with agents designed according to the BDI...

  14. GPAW optimized for Blue Gene/P using hybrid programming

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristensen, Mads Ruben Burgdorff; Happe, Hans Henrik; Vinter, Brian

    2009-01-01

    In this work we present optimizations of a Grid-based projector-augmented wave method software, GPAW for the Blue Gene/P architecture. The improvements are achieved by exploring the advantage of shared and distributed memory programming also known as hybrid programming. The work focuses on optimi......In this work we present optimizations of a Grid-based projector-augmented wave method software, GPAW for the Blue Gene/P architecture. The improvements are achieved by exploring the advantage of shared and distributed memory programming also known as hybrid programming. The work focuses...... on optimizing a very time consuming operation in GPAW, the finite-different stencil operation, and different hybrid programming approaches are evaluated. The work succeeds in demonstrating a hybrid programming model which is clearly beneficial compared to the original flat programming model. In total...... an improvement of 1.94 compared to the original implementation is obtained. The results we demonstrate here are reasonably general and may be applied to other finite difference codes....

  15. The enhancement of photoresponse of an ordered inorganic-organic hybrid architecture by increasing interfacial contacts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Bin; Chen Xudong; Ma Shaohua; Yang Jin; Zhang Mingqiu; Chen Yujie

    2010-01-01

    A modified ZnO quantum dot/polythiophene (ZnO/PTh) inorganic-organic hybrid architecture was fabricated by using ordered mesoporous silica (SBA-15) as the retaining template. First, a two-step strategy was developed to synthesize an ordered organic conducting polymer composite (PTh/SBA-15). Then, ZnO quantum dots were in situ formed on the pore walls of the ordered PTh/SBA-15 composite. Photoresponse of the inorganic-organic hybrid was studied with respect to its incident photon to collected electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) and morphology. The presence of SBA-15 proved to be critical for controlling the interfacial morphology and hence enlarging the interfacial area of the inorganic-organic heterojunction. The proposed approach may act as a key method to open up potential applications in photovoltaic devices.

  16. The enhancement of photoresponse of an ordered inorganic-organic hybrid architecture by increasing interfacial contacts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Bin; Chen, Xudong; Ma, Shaohua; Chen, Yujie; Yang, Jin; Zhang, Mingqiu

    2010-02-10

    A modified ZnO quantum dot/polythiophene (ZnO/PTh) inorganic-organic hybrid architecture was fabricated by using ordered mesoporous silica (SBA-15) as the retaining template. First, a two-step strategy was developed to synthesize an ordered organic conducting polymer composite (PTh/SBA-15). Then, ZnO quantum dots were in situ formed on the pore walls of the ordered PTh/SBA-15 composite. Photoresponse of the inorganic-organic hybrid was studied with respect to its incident photon to collected electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) and morphology. The presence of SBA-15 proved to be critical for controlling the interfacial morphology and hence enlarging the interfacial area of the inorganic-organic heterojunction. The proposed approach may act as a key method to open up potential applications in photovoltaic devices.

  17. A Real-Time Early Cognitive Vision System based on a Hybrid coarse and fine grained Parallel Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Lars Baunegaard With

    . The current top model GPUs from NVIDIA possess up to 240 homogeneous cores. In the past, GPUs have beenhard to program, forcing the programmer to map the algorithm to the graphics processing pipeline and think in terms of vertex and fragment shaders, imposing a limiting factor in the implementation of non......-graphics applications. This, however, has changed with the introduction of the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) framework from NVIDIA. The EV and ECV stages have different parallel properties. The regular, pixel-based processing of EV fit the GPU architecture very well, and parts of ECV, on the other hand...

  18. Implementation of a cell-wise block-Gauss-Seidel iterative method for SN transport on a hybrid parallel computer architecture

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosa, Massimiliano; Warsa, James S.; Perks, Michael

    2011-01-01

    We have implemented a cell-wise, block-Gauss-Seidel (bGS) iterative algorithm, for the solution of the S_n transport equations on the Roadrunner hybrid, parallel computer architecture. A compute node of this massively parallel machine comprises AMD Opteron cores that are linked to a Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell/B.E.)"1. LAPACK routines have been ported to the Cell/B.E. in order to make use of its parallel Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). The bGS algorithm is based on the LU factorization and solution of a linear system that couples the fluxes for all S_n angles and energy groups on a mesh cell. For every cell of a mesh that has been parallel decomposed on the higher-level Opteron processors, a linear system is transferred to the Cell/B.E. and the parallel LAPACK routines are used to compute a solution, which is then transferred back to the Opteron, where the rest of the computations for the S_n transport problem take place. Compared to standard parallel machines, a hundred-fold speedup of the bGS was observed on the hybrid Roadrunner architecture. Numerical experiments with strong and weak parallel scaling demonstrate the bGS method is viable and compares favorably to full parallel sweeps (FPS) on two-dimensional, unstructured meshes when it is applied to optically thick, multi-material problems. As expected, however, it is not as efficient as FPS in optically thin problems. (author)

  19. Architecture and Stages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kiib, Hans

    2009-01-01

    as "experiencescape" - a space between tourism, culture, learning and economy. Strategies related to these challenges involve new architectural concepts and art as ‘engines' for a change. New expressive architecture and old industrial buildings are often combined into hybrid narratives, linking the past...... with the future. But this is not enough. The agenda is to develop architectural spaces, where social interaction and learning are enhanced by art and fun. How can we develop new architectural designs in our inner cities and waterfronts where eventscapes, learning labs and temporal use are merged with everyday...

  20. QoS Supported IPTV Service Architecture over Hybrid-Tree-Based Explicit Routed Multicast Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chih-Chao Wen

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available With the rapid advance in multimedia streaming and multicast transport technology, current IP multicast protocols, especially PIM-SM, become the major channel delivery mechanism for IPTV system over Internet. The goals for IPTV service are to provide two-way interactive services for viewers to select popular program channel with high quality for watching during fast channel surfing period. However, existing IP multicast protocol cannot meet above QoS requirements for IPTV applications between media server and subscribers. Therefore, we propose a cooperative scheme of hybrid-tree based on explicit routed multicast, called as HT-ERM to combine the advantages of shared tree and source tree for QoS-supported IPTV service. To increase network utilization, the constrained shortest path first (CSPF routing algorithm is designed for construction of hybrid tree to deliver the high-quality video stream over watching channel and standard quality over surfing channel. Furthermore, the Resource Reservation Protocol- Traffic Engineering (RSVP-TE is used as signaling mechanism to set up QoS path for multicast channel admission control. Our simulation results demonstrated that the proposed HT-ERM scheme outperforms other multicast QoS-based delivery scheme in terms of channel switching delay, resource utilization, and blocking ratio for IPTV service.

  1. Genetic architecture of hybrid male sterility in Drosophila: analysis of intraspecies variation for interspecies isolation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reed, Laura K; LaFlamme, Brooke A; Markow, Therese A

    2008-08-27

    The genetic basis of postzygotic isolation is a central puzzle in evolutionary biology. Evolutionary forces causing hybrid sterility or inviability act on the responsible genes while they still are polymorphic, thus we have to study these traits as they arise, before isolation is complete. Isofemale strains of D. mojavensis vary significantly in their production of sterile F(1) sons when females are crossed to D. arizonae males. We took advantage of the intraspecific polymorphism, in a novel design, to perform quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping analyses directly on F(1) hybrid male sterility itself. We found that the genetic architecture of the polymorphism for hybrid male sterility (HMS) in the F(1) is complex, involving multiple QTL, epistasis, and cytoplasmic effects. The role of extensive intraspecific polymorphism, multiple QTL, and epistatic interactions in HMS in this young species pair shows that HMS is arising as a complex trait in this system. Directional selection alone would be unlikely to maintain polymorphism at multiple loci, thus we hypothesize that directional selection is unlikely to be the only evolutionary force influencing postzygotic isolation.

  2. Space Situational Awareness using Market Based Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, C.; Pier, E.; Gregory, S.; Bush, M.

    2012-09-01

    Space surveillance for the DoD is not limited to the Space Surveillance Network (SSN). Other DoD-owned assets have some existing capabilities for tasking but have no systematic way to work collaboratively with the SSN. These are run by diverse organizations including the Services, other defense and intelligence agencies and national laboratories. Beyond these organizations, academic and commercial entities have systems that possess SSA capability. Most all of these assets have some level of connectivity, security, and potential autonomy. Exploiting them in a mutually beneficial structure could provide a more comprehensive, efficient and cost effective solution for SSA. The collection of all potential assets, providers and consumers of SSA data comprises a market which is functionally illiquid. The development of a dynamic marketplace for SSA data could enable would-be providers the opportunity to sell data to SSA consumers for monetary or incentive based compensation. A well-conceived market architecture could drive down SSA data costs through increased supply and improve efficiency through increased competition. Oceanit will investigate market and market agent architectures, protocols, standards, and incentives toward producing high-volume/low-cost SSA.

  3. Modelling Implicit Communication in Multi-Agent Systems with Hybrid Input/Output Automata

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta Capiluppi

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available We propose an extension of Hybrid I/O Automata (HIOAs to model agent systems and their implicit communication through perturbation of the environment, like localization of objects or radio signals diffusion and detection. To this end we decided to specialize some variables of the HIOAs whose values are functions both of time and space. We call them world variables. Basically they are treated similarly to the other variables of HIOAs, but they have the function of representing the interaction of each automaton with the surrounding environment, hence they can be output, input or internal variables. Since these special variables have the role of simulating implicit communication, their dynamics are specified both in time and space, because they model the perturbations induced by the agent to the environment, and the perturbations of the environment as perceived by the agent. Parallel composition of world variables is slightly different from parallel composition of the other variables, since their signals are summed. The theory is illustrated through a simple example of agents systems.

  4. Travelling Waves in Hybrid Chemotaxis Models

    KAUST Repository

    Franz, Benjamin

    2013-12-18

    Hybrid models of chemotaxis combine agent-based models of cells with partial differential equation models of extracellular chemical signals. In this paper, travelling wave properties of hybrid models of bacterial chemotaxis are investigated. Bacteria are modelled using an agent-based (individual-based) approach with internal dynamics describing signal transduction. In addition to the chemotactic behaviour of the bacteria, the individual-based model also includes cell proliferation and death. Cells consume the extracellular nutrient field (chemoattractant), which is modelled using a partial differential equation. Mesoscopic and macroscopic equations representing the behaviour of the hybrid model are derived and the existence of travelling wave solutions for these models is established. It is shown that cell proliferation is necessary for the existence of non-transient (stationary) travelling waves in hybrid models. Additionally, a numerical comparison between the wave speeds of the continuum models and the hybrid models shows good agreement in the case of weak chemotaxis and qualitative agreement for the strong chemotaxis case. In the case of slow cell adaptation, we detect oscillating behaviour of the wave, which cannot be explained by mean-field approximations. © 2013 Society for Mathematical Biology.

  5. Toward a systems- and control-oriented agent framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fregene, Kingsley; Kennedy, Diane C; Wang, David W L

    2005-10-01

    This paper develops a systems- and control-oriented intelligent agent framework called the hybrid intelligent control agent (HICA), as well as its composition into specific kinds of multiagent systems. HICA is essentially developed around a hybrid control system core so that knowledge-based planning and coordination can be integrated with verified hybrid control primitives to achieve the coordinated control of multiple multimode dynamical systems. The scheme is applied to the control of teams of unmanned air and ground vehicles engaged in a pursuit-evasion war game. Results are demonstrated in simulation.

  6. Model-based design approaches for plug-in hybrid vehicle design

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mendes, C.J. [CrossChasm Technologies, Cambridge, ON (Canada); Stevens, M.B.; Fowler, M.W. [Waterloo Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Chemical Engineering; Fraser, R.A. [Waterloo Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; Wilhelm, E.J. [Paul Scherrer Inst., Villigen (Switzerland). Energy Systems Analysis

    2007-07-01

    A model-based design process for plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) was presented. The paper discussed steps between the initial design concept and a working vehicle prototype, and focused on an investigation of the software-in-the-loop (SIL), hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), and component-in-the-loop (CIL) design phases. The role and benefits of using simulation were also reviewed. A method for mapping and identifying components was provided along with a hybrid control strategy and component-level control optimization process. The role of simulation in component evaluation, architecture design, and de-bugging procedures was discussed, as well as the role simulation networks can play in speeding deployment times. The simulations focused on work performed on a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox converted to a fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle (FCHEV). Components were aggregated to create a complete virtual vehicle. A simplified vehicle model was implemented onto the on-board vehicle control hardware. Optimization metrics were estimated at 10 alpha values during each control loop iteration. The simulation was then used to tune the control system under a variety of drive cycles and conditions. A CIL technique was used to place a physical hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) component under the control of a real time HEV/PHEV simulation. It was concluded that controllers should have a standardized component description that supports integration into advanced testing procedures. 4 refs., 9 figs.

  7. Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Furozan-Based Nitric Oxide-Releasing Derivatives of Oridonin as Potential Anti-Tumor Agents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao Cai

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available To search for novel nitric oxide (NO releasing anti-tumor agents, a series of novel furoxan/oridonin hybrids were designed and synthesized. Firstly, the nitrate/nitrite levels in the cell lysates were tested by a Griess assay and the results showed that these furoxan-based NO-releasing derivatives could produce high levels of NO in vitro. Then the anti-proliferative activity of these hybrids against four human cancer cell lines was also determined, among which, 9h exhibited the most potential anti-tumor activity with IC50 values of 1.82 µM against K562, 1.81 µM against MGC-803 and 0.86 µM against Bel-7402, respectively. Preliminary structure-activity relationship was concluded based on the experimental data obtained. These results suggested that NO-donor/natural product hybrids may provide a promising approach for the discovery of novel anti-tumor agents.

  8. Silicon based quantum dot hybrid qubits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Dohun

    2015-03-01

    The charge and spin degrees of freedom of an electron constitute natural bases for constructing quantum two level systems, or qubits, in semiconductor quantum dots. The quantum dot charge qubit offers a simple architecture and high-speed operation, but generally suffers from fast dephasing due to strong coupling of the environment to the electron's charge. On the other hand, quantum dot spin qubits have demonstrated long coherence times, but their manipulation is often slower than desired for important future applications. This talk will present experimental progress of a `hybrid' qubit, formed by three electrons in a Si/SiGe double quantum dot, which combines desirable characteristics (speed and coherence) in the past found separately in qubits based on either charge or spin degrees of freedom. Using resonant microwaves, we first discuss qubit operations near the `sweet spot' for charge qubit operation. Along with fast (>GHz) manipulation rates for any rotation axis on the Bloch sphere, we implement two independent tomographic characterization schemes in the charge qubit regime: traditional quantum process tomography (QPT) and gate set tomography (GST). We also present resonant qubit operations of the hybrid qubit performed on the same device, DC pulsed gate operations of which were recently demonstrated. We demonstrate three-axis control and the implementation of dynamic decoupling pulse sequences. Performing QPT on the hybrid qubit, we show that AC gating yields π rotation process fidelities higher than 93% for X-axis and 96% for Z-axis rotations, which demonstrates efficient quantum control of semiconductor qubits using resonant microwaves. We discuss a path forward for achieving fidelities better than the threshold for quantum error correction using surface codes. This work was supported in part by ARO (W911NF-12-0607), NSF (PHY-1104660), DOE (DE-FG02-03ER46028), and by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Sandia National Laboratories

  9. Architectural Narratives

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kiib, Hans

    2010-01-01

    a functional framework for these concepts, but tries increasingly to endow the main idea of the cultural project with a spatially aesthetic expression - a shift towards “experience architecture.” A great number of these projects typically recycle and reinterpret narratives related to historical buildings......In this essay, I focus on the combination of programs and the architecture of cultural projects that have emerged within the last few years. These projects are characterized as “hybrid cultural projects,” because they intend to combine experience with entertainment, play, and learning. This essay...... and architectural heritage; another group tries to embed new performative technologies in expressive architectural representation. Finally, this essay provides a theoretical framework for the analysis of the political rationales of these projects and for the architectural representation bridges the gap between...

  10. Hybrid programming model for implicit PDE simulations on multicore architectures

    KAUST Repository

    Kaushik, Dinesh; Keyes, David E.; Balay, Satish; Smith, Barry F.

    2011-01-01

    The complexity of programming modern multicore processor based clusters is rapidly rising, with GPUs adding further demand for fine-grained parallelism. This paper analyzes the performance of the hybrid (MPI+OpenMP) programming model in the context of an implicit unstructured mesh CFD code. At the implementation level, the effects of cache locality, update management, work division, and synchronization frequency are studied. The hybrid model presents interesting algorithmic opportunities as well: the convergence of linear system solver is quicker than the pure MPI case since the parallel preconditioner stays stronger when hybrid model is used. This implies significant savings in the cost of communication and synchronization (explicit and implicit). Even though OpenMP based parallelism is easier to implement (with in a subdomain assigned to one MPI process for simplicity), getting good performance needs attention to data partitioning issues similar to those in the message-passing case. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

  11. Graphene-polymer-enzyme hybrid nanomaterials for biosensors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2016-01-01

    The invention relates to a general chemical method for the synthesis of biocompatible hybrid nanomaterials which can be used in the development of new- type enzyme based biosensors. A one-step facile method is presented, in which polyethylenimine (PEI) serves as both a reducing agent for the redu......The invention relates to a general chemical method for the synthesis of biocompatible hybrid nanomaterials which can be used in the development of new- type enzyme based biosensors. A one-step facile method is presented, in which polyethylenimine (PEI) serves as both a reducing agent...

  12. Optimizing Vector-Quantization Processor Architecture for Intelligent Query-Search Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Huaiyu; Mita, Yoshio; Shibata, Tadashi

    2002-04-01

    The architecture of a very large scale integration (VLSI) vector-quantization processor (VQP) has been optimized to develop a general-purpose intelligent query-search agent. The agent performs a similarity-based search in a large-volume database. Although similarity-based search processing is computationally very expensive, latency-free searches have become possible due to the highly parallel maximum-likelihood search architecture of the VQP chip. Three architectures of the VQP chip have been studied and their performances are compared. In order to give reasonable searching results according to the different policies, the concept of penalty function has been introduced into the VQP. An E-commerce real-estate agency system has been developed using the VQP chip implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and the effectiveness of such an agency system has been demonstrated.

  13. Genetic architecture of hybrid male sterility in Drosophila: analysis of intraspecies variation for interspecies isolation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura K Reed

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The genetic basis of postzygotic isolation is a central puzzle in evolutionary biology. Evolutionary forces causing hybrid sterility or inviability act on the responsible genes while they still are polymorphic, thus we have to study these traits as they arise, before isolation is complete. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Isofemale strains of D. mojavensis vary significantly in their production of sterile F(1 sons when females are crossed to D. arizonae males. We took advantage of the intraspecific polymorphism, in a novel design, to perform quantitative trait locus (QTL mapping analyses directly on F(1 hybrid male sterility itself. We found that the genetic architecture of the polymorphism for hybrid male sterility (HMS in the F(1 is complex, involving multiple QTL, epistasis, and cytoplasmic effects. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The role of extensive intraspecific polymorphism, multiple QTL, and epistatic interactions in HMS in this young species pair shows that HMS is arising as a complex trait in this system. Directional selection alone would be unlikely to maintain polymorphism at multiple loci, thus we hypothesize that directional selection is unlikely to be the only evolutionary force influencing postzygotic isolation.

  14. A Hybrid Multilevel Storage Architecture for Electric Power Dispatching Big Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Hu; Huang, Bibin; Hong, Bowen; Hu, Jing

    2017-10-01

    Electric power dispatching is the center of the whole power system. In the long run time, the power dispatching center has accumulated a large amount of data. These data are now stored in different power professional systems and form lots of information isolated islands. Integrating these data and do comprehensive analysis can greatly improve the intelligent level of power dispatching. In this paper, a hybrid multilevel storage architecture for electrical power dispatching big data is proposed. It introduces relational database and NoSQL database to establish a power grid panoramic data center, effectively meet power dispatching big data storage needs, including the unified storage of structured and unstructured data fast access of massive real-time data, data version management and so on. It can be solid foundation for follow-up depth analysis of power dispatching big data.

  15. Hybrid Three-Phase/Single-Phase Microgrid Architecture with Power Management Capabilities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sun, Qiuye; Zhou, Jianguo; Guerrero, Josep M.

    2015-01-01

    With the fast proliferation of single-phase distributed generation (DG) units and loads integrated into residential microgrids, independent power sharing per phase and full use of the energy generated by DGs have become crucial. To address these issues, this paper proposes a hybrid microgrid...... architecture and its power management strategy. In this microgrid structure, a power sharing unit (PSU), composed of three single-phase back-to-back (SPBTB) converters, is proposed to be installed at the point of common coupling (PCC). The aim of the PSU is mainly to realize the power exchange and coordinated...... control of load power sharing among phases, as well as to allow fully utilization of the energy generated by DGs. Meanwhile, the method combining the modified adaptive backstepping-sliding mode control approach and droop control is also proposed to design the SPBTB system controllers. With the application...

  16. High performance cellular level agent-based simulation with FLAME for the GPU.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richmond, Paul; Walker, Dawn; Coakley, Simon; Romano, Daniela

    2010-05-01

    Driven by the availability of experimental data and ability to simulate a biological scale which is of immediate interest, the cellular scale is fast emerging as an ideal candidate for middle-out modelling. As with 'bottom-up' simulation approaches, cellular level simulations demand a high degree of computational power, which in large-scale simulations can only be achieved through parallel computing. The flexible large-scale agent modelling environment (FLAME) is a template driven framework for agent-based modelling (ABM) on parallel architectures ideally suited to the simulation of cellular systems. It is available for both high performance computing clusters (www.flame.ac.uk) and GPU hardware (www.flamegpu.com) and uses a formal specification technique that acts as a universal modelling format. This not only creates an abstraction from the underlying hardware architectures, but avoids the steep learning curve associated with programming them. In benchmarking tests and simulations of advanced cellular systems, FLAME GPU has reported massive improvement in performance over more traditional ABM frameworks. This allows the time spent in the development and testing stages of modelling to be drastically reduced and creates the possibility of real-time visualisation for simple visual face-validation.

  17. System design in an evolving system-of-systems architecture and concept of operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rovekamp, Roger N., Jr.

    Proposals for space exploration architectures have increased in complexity and scope. Constituent systems (e.g., rovers, habitats, in-situ resource utilization facilities, transfer vehicles, etc) must meet the needs of these architectures by performing in multiple operational environments and across multiple phases of the architecture's evolution. This thesis proposes an approach for using system-of-systems engineering principles in conjunction with system design methods (e.g., Multi-objective optimization, genetic algorithms, etc) to create system design options that perform effectively at both the system and system-of-systems levels, across multiple concepts of operations, and over multiple architectural phases. The framework is presented by way of an application problem that investigates the design of power systems within a power sharing architecture for use in a human Lunar Surface Exploration Campaign. A computer model has been developed that uses candidate power grid distribution solutions for a notional lunar base. The agent-based model utilizes virtual control agents to manage the interactions of various exploration and infrastructure agents. The philosophy behind the model is based both on lunar power supply strategies proposed in literature, as well as on the author's own approaches for power distribution strategies of future lunar bases. In addition to proposing a framework for system design, further implications of system-of-systems engineering principles are briefly explored, specifically as they relate to producing more robust cross-cultural system-of-systems architecture solutions.

  18. Graphite and Hybrid Nanomaterials as Lubricant Additives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhenyu J. Zhang

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available Lubricant additives, based on inorganic nanoparticles coated with organic outer layer, can reduce wear and increase load-carrying capacity of base oil remarkably, indicating the great potential of hybrid nanoparticles as anti-wear and extreme-pressure additives with excellent levels of performance. The organic part in the hybrid materials improves their flexibility and stability, while the inorganic part is responsible for hardness. The relationship between the design parameters of the organic coatings, such as molecular architecture and the lubrication performance, however, remains to be fully elucidated. A survey of current understanding of hybrid nanoparticles as lubricant additives is presented in this review.

  19. Simulation of Distance Relay for Load Encroachment Alleviation with Agent Based Supervision of Zone3

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamed Badr

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Cascaded tripping of power lines due to mal-operation of zone-3 distance relays has been one of the main causes of many previous blackouts worldwide. Encroachment of load into zone-3 characteristics during stressed system operation conditions is a basic factor for such mal-operation of the relays. By improving the operation of zone-3, it is possible to prevent mal-operations so that cascaded line tripping can be avoided. For proper study of the behavior of distance relay during faults and load encroachment phenomenon, we must build a model of distance relay, so in this paper a modeling study of distance relay is implemented using MATLAB/Simulink program. However, this model is distinguished from previous models that, examines in detail the third zone of distance relay. Many cases are simulated with changing line loading and fault location to ensure the capability of the relay to detect the fault and thus the maximum load ability limit of distance relay is obtained. In order to prevent cascading events caused by hidden failures in zone-3 relays, agent based relay architectures have been suggested in the recent past. In such architectures each zone-3 relay contains agents that require communication with other agents at various relevant relays in order to distinguish a real zone-3 event from a temporary overload. In this paper, a local master agent is consulted by all zone-3 agents before a tripping decision is made. The master agent maintains a rule base which is updated based on the local topology of the network and real time monitoring of the status of other relays and circuit breakers. Cisco Packet Tracer program is used for running communication network simulations. The result of the simulation indicate that the time estimated to send and receive a packet data unit (PDU message between one relay to anther can satisfy the communication requirement for the proposed scheme with fiber media.

  20. Open Source Service Agent (OSSA) in the intelligence community's Open Source Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fiene, Bruce F.

    1994-01-01

    The Community Open Source Program Office (COSPO) has developed an architecture for the intelligence community's new Open Source Information System (OSIS). The architecture is a multi-phased program featuring connectivity, interoperability, and functionality. OSIS is based on a distributed architecture concept. The system is designed to function as a virtual entity. OSIS will be a restricted (non-public), user configured network employing Internet communications. Privacy and authentication will be provided through firewall protection. Connection to OSIS can be made through any server on the Internet or through dial-up modems provided the appropriate firewall authentication system is installed on the client.

  1. Hybrid Spectral Micro-CT: System Design, Implementation, and Preliminary Results

    CERN Document Server

    Bennett, James R; Xu, Qiong; Yu, Hengyong; Walsh, Michael; Butler, Anthony; Butler, Phillip; Cao, Guohua; Mohs, Aaron; Wang, Ge

    2014-01-01

    Spectral CT has proven an important development in biomedical imaging, and there have been several publications in the past years demonstrating its merits in pre-clinical and clinical applications. In 2012, Xu et al. reported that near-term implementation of spectral micro-CT could be enhanced by a hybrid architecture: a narrow-beam spectral "interior" imaging chain integrated with a traditional wide-beam "global" imaging chain. This hybrid integration coupled with compressive sensing (CS)-based interior tomography demonstrated promising results for improved contrast resolution, and decreased system cost and radiation dose. The motivation for the current study is implementation and evaluation of the hybrid architecture with a first-of-its-kind hybrid spectral micro-CT system. Preliminary results confirm improvements in both contrast and spatial resolution. This technology is shown to merit further investigation and potential application in future spectral CT scanner design.

  2. PLM support to architecture based development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bruun, Hans Peter Lomholt

    , organisation, processes, etc. To identify, evaluate, and align aspects of these domains are necessary for developing the optimal layout of product architectures. It is stated in this thesis that architectures describe building principles for products, product families, and product programs, where this project...... and developing architectures can be difficult to manage, update, and maintain during development. The concept of representing product architectures in computer-based product information tools has though been central in this research, and in the creation of results. A standard PLM tool (Windchill PDMLink...... architectures in computer systems. Presented results build on research literature and experiences from industrial partners. Verification of the theory contributions, approaches, models, and tools, have been carried out in industrial projects, with promising results. This thesis describes the means for: (1...

  3. System-Awareness for Agent-based Power System Control

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Heussen, Kai; Saleem, Arshad; Lind, Morten

    2010-01-01

    transition. This paper presents a concept for the representation and organization of control- and resource-allocation, enabling computational reasoning and system awareness. The principles are discussed with respect to a recently proposed Subgrid operation concept.......Operational intelligence in electric power systems is focused in a small number of control rooms that coordinate their actions. A clear division of responsibility and a command hierarchy organize system operation. With multi-agent based control systems, this control paradigm may be shifted...... to a more decentralized openaccess collaboration control paradigm. This shift cannot happen at once, but must fit also with current operation principles. In order to establish a scalable and transparent system control architecture, organizing principles have to be identified that allow for a smooth...

  4. Hybrid Neural Network Approach Based Tool for the Modelling of Photovoltaic Panels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonino Laudani

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A hybrid neural network approach based tool for identifying the photovoltaic one-diode model is presented. The generalization capabilities of neural networks are used together with the robustness of the reduced form of one-diode model. Indeed, from the studies performed by the authors and the works present in the literature, it was found that a direct computation of the five parameters via multiple inputs and multiple outputs neural network is a very difficult task. The reduced form consists in a series of explicit formulae for the support to the neural network that, in our case, is aimed at predicting just two parameters among the five ones identifying the model: the other three parameters are computed by reduced form. The present hybrid approach is efficient from the computational cost point of view and accurate in the estimation of the five parameters. It constitutes a complete and extremely easy tool suitable to be implemented in a microcontroller based architecture. Validations are made on about 10000 PV panels belonging to the California Energy Commission database.

  5. Real-time collaboration in activity-based architectures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bardram, Jakob Eyvind; Christensen, Henrik Bærbak

    2004-01-01

    With the growing research into mobile and ubiquitous computing, there is a need for addressing how such infrastructures can support collaboration between nomadic users. We present the activity based computing paradigm and outline a proposal for handling collaboration in an activity......-based architecture. We argue that activity-based computing establishes a natural and sound conceptual and architectural basis for session management in real-time, synchronous collaboration....

  6. Energy Management Strategy for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yue Hu

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available An energy management strategy (EMS is important for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs since it plays a decisive role on the performance of the vehicle. However, the variation of future driving conditions deeply influences the effectiveness of the EMS. Most existing EMS methods simply follow predefined rules that are not adaptive to different driving conditions online. Therefore, it is useful that the EMS can learn from the environment or driving cycle. In this paper, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL-based EMS is designed such that it can learn to select actions directly from the states without any prediction or predefined rules. Furthermore, a DRL-based online learning architecture is presented. It is significant for applying the DRL algorithm in HEV energy management under different driving conditions. Simulation experiments have been conducted using MATLAB and Advanced Vehicle Simulator (ADVISOR co-simulation. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the DRL-based EMS compared with the rule-based EMS in terms of fuel economy. The online learning architecture is also proved to be effective. The proposed method ensures the optimality, as well as real-time applicability, in HEVs.

  7. Evolution of IT Architecture: based on Taxonomy perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Suh, Hanjun; van Hillegersberg, Jos

    2013-01-01

    This research aims to explore how latest IT architecture is evolving in real world. We reviewed historical IT structure and classified five IT architecture typology based on various dimensions of IT architectures such as processing decentralization, network connectivity, data and program

  8. Discrete optimization in architecture architectural & urban layout

    CERN Document Server

    Zawidzki, Machi

    2016-01-01

    This book presents three projects that demonstrate the fundamental problems of architectural design and urban composition – the layout design, evaluation and optimization. Part I describes the functional layout design of a residential building, and an evaluation of the quality of a town square (plaza). The algorithm for the functional layout design is based on backtracking using a constraint satisfaction approach combined with coarse grid discretization. The algorithm for the town square evaluation is based on geometrical properties derived directly from its plan. Part II introduces a crowd-simulation application for the analysis of escape routes on floor plans, and optimization of a floor plan for smooth crowd flow. The algorithms presented employ agent-based modeling and cellular automata.

  9. The behavior after intravenous injection in mice of multiwalled carbon nanotube / Fe3O4 hybrid MRI contrast agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Huixia; Liu, Gang; Zhuang, Yeming; Wu, Dongmei; Zhang, Haoqiang; Yang, Hong; Hu, He; Yang, Shiping

    2011-07-01

    Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles were in situ loaded on the surface of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by a solvothermal method using diethylene glycol and diethanolamine as solvents and complexing agents. The as-prepared MWCNT/Fe(3)O(4) hybrids exhibited excellent hydrophilicity, superparamagnetic property at room temperature, and a high T(2) relaxivity of 175.5 mM(-1) s(-1) in aqueous solutions. In vitro experiments revealed that MWCNT/Fe(3)O(4) had an excellent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enhancement effect on cancer cells, and importantly, they displayed low cytotoxicity and neglectable hemolytic activity. After intravenous administration, the T(2)-weighted MRI signal in the liver and spleen of mice decreased significantly, suggesting the potential application of the hybrids as MRI contrast agents. The organ biodistribution studies, histological analyses and elimination investigations showed that the hybrids were uptaken by the liver, lung and spleen after intravenous injection, and could be excreted from the liver and kidney. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Agent-Based Personalisation and User Modeling for Personalised Educational Games

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Peeters, M.M.; Bosch, K. van den; Meyer, J.J.C.; Neerincx, M.A

    2016-01-01

    Personalisation can increase the learning efficacy of educational games by tailoring their content to the needs of the individual learner. This paper presents the Personalised Educational Game Architecture (PEGA). It uses a multi-agent organisation and an ontology to offer learners personalised

  11. Cost-Effective Location Management for Mobile Agents on the Internet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chien-Sheng Chen

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Many mobile agent system-related services and applications require interacting with a mobile agent by passing messages. However, an agent’s mobility raises several challenges in delivering messages to a mobile agent accurately. Consisting of tracking and message delivery phases, most mobile agent location management schemes create or receive many update messages and interaction messages to ensure the effectiveness of the schemes. In addition to downgrading the overall performance of a mobile agent location management scheme, excessive transmission of messages increases the network load. The migration locality of a mobile agent and the interaction rate between mobile agents significantly affect the performance of a mobile agent location management scheme with respect to location management cost. This work presents a novel Dual Home based Scheme (DHS that can lower the location management costs in terms of migration locality and interaction rate. While the DHS scheme uniquely adopts dual home location management architecture, a selective update strategy based on that architecture is also designed for cost-effective location management of mobile agents. Moreover, DHS is compared with available schemes based on formulations and simulation experiments from the perspective of location management costs. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DHS scheme performs satisfactorily in terms of migration locality and interaction rate.

  12. Larger spontaneous polarization ferroelectric inorganic-organic hybrids: [PbI3](infinity) chains directed organic cations aggregation to Kagomé-shaped tubular architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Hai-Rong; Li, Dong-Ping; Ren, Xiao-Ming; Song, You; Jin, Wan-Qin

    2010-01-13

    Four isostructural inorganic-organic hybrid ferroelectric compounds, assembled from achiral 3-R-benzylidene-1-aminopyridiniums (R = NO(2), Br, Cl, or F for 1-4, respectively) and [PbI(3)](-) anions with the chiral Kagomé-shaped tubular aggregating architecture, show larger spontaneous polarizations.

  13. Agent Based Distributed Control of Islanded Microgrid - Real-Time Cyber-Physical Implementation

    OpenAIRE

    Nguyen, Tung Lam; Tran, Quoc-Tuan; Caire, Raphael; Gavriluta, Catalin; Nguyen, Van Hoa

    2017-01-01

    In the hierarchical control of an islanded microgrid, secondary control could be centralized or distributed. The former control strategy has several disadvantages, such as single point of failure at the level of the central controller as well as high investment of communication infrastructure. In this paper a three-layer architecture of distributed control is given, including the device layer, the control layer as well as the agent layer. The agent layer is a multi-agent system in which each ...

  14. Design of time interval generator based on hybrid counting method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yao, Yuan; Wang, Zhaoqi; Lu, Houbing; Chen, Lian; Jin, Ge

    2016-01-01

    Time Interval Generators (TIGs) are frequently used for the characterizations or timing operations of instruments in particle physics experiments. Though some “off-the-shelf” TIGs can be employed, the necessity of a custom test system or control system makes the TIGs, being implemented in a programmable device desirable. Nowadays, the feasibility of using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to implement particle physics instrumentation has been validated in the design of Time-to-Digital Converters (TDCs) for precise time measurement. The FPGA-TDC technique is based on the architectures of Tapped Delay Line (TDL), whose delay cells are down to few tens of picosecond. In this case, FPGA-based TIGs with high delay step are preferable allowing the implementation of customized particle physics instrumentations and other utilities on the same FPGA device. A hybrid counting method for designing TIGs with both high resolution and wide range is presented in this paper. The combination of two different counting methods realizing an integratable TIG is described in detail. A specially designed multiplexer for tap selection is emphatically introduced. The special structure of the multiplexer is devised for minimizing the different additional delays caused by the unpredictable routings from different taps to the output. A Kintex-7 FPGA is used for the hybrid counting-based implementation of a TIG, providing a resolution up to 11 ps and an interval range up to 8 s.

  15. Design of time interval generator based on hybrid counting method

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yao, Yuan [State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031 (China); Wang, Zhaoqi [State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Lu, Houbing [State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Hefei Electronic Engineering Institute, Hefei 230037 (China); Chen, Lian [State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China); Jin, Ge, E-mail: goldjin@ustc.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Particle Detection and Electronics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China)

    2016-10-01

    Time Interval Generators (TIGs) are frequently used for the characterizations or timing operations of instruments in particle physics experiments. Though some “off-the-shelf” TIGs can be employed, the necessity of a custom test system or control system makes the TIGs, being implemented in a programmable device desirable. Nowadays, the feasibility of using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to implement particle physics instrumentation has been validated in the design of Time-to-Digital Converters (TDCs) for precise time measurement. The FPGA-TDC technique is based on the architectures of Tapped Delay Line (TDL), whose delay cells are down to few tens of picosecond. In this case, FPGA-based TIGs with high delay step are preferable allowing the implementation of customized particle physics instrumentations and other utilities on the same FPGA device. A hybrid counting method for designing TIGs with both high resolution and wide range is presented in this paper. The combination of two different counting methods realizing an integratable TIG is described in detail. A specially designed multiplexer for tap selection is emphatically introduced. The special structure of the multiplexer is devised for minimizing the different additional delays caused by the unpredictable routings from different taps to the output. A Kintex-7 FPGA is used for the hybrid counting-based implementation of a TIG, providing a resolution up to 11 ps and an interval range up to 8 s.

  16. Architecture for multi-technology real-time location systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodas, Javier; Barral, Valentín; Escudero, Carlos J

    2013-02-07

    The rising popularity of location-based services has prompted considerable research in the field of indoor location systems. Since there is no single technology to support these systems, it is necessary to consider the fusion of the information coming from heterogeneous sensors. This paper presents a software architecture designed for a hybrid location system where we can merge information from multiple sensor technologies. The architecture was designed to be used by different kinds of actors independently and with mutual transparency: hardware administrators, algorithm developers and user applications. The paper presents the architecture design, work-flow, case study examples and some results to show how different technologies can be exploited to obtain a good estimation of a target position.

  17. An ontology-based approach for modelling architectural styles

    OpenAIRE

    Pahl, Claus; Giesecke, Simon; Hasselbring, Wilhelm

    2007-01-01

    peer-reviewed The conceptual modelling of software architectures is of central importance for the quality of a software system. A rich modelling language is required to integrate the different aspects of architecture modelling, such as architectural styles, structural and behavioural modelling, into a coherent framework.We propose an ontological approach for architectural style modelling based on description logic as an abstract, meta-level modelling instrument. Architect...

  18. ReMindMe : Agent-Based Support for Self-Disclosure of Personal Memories in People with Alzheimer’s Disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Peeters, M.M.M.

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents work on the design rationale and architecture of ReMindMe. ReMindMe aims to provide agent-based support for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their social environment by playing music with a strong personal meaning to the patient so as to activate personal memory recall.

  19. Modelling the Interaction Levels in HCI Using an Intelligent Hybrid System with Interactive Agents: A Case Study of an Interactive Museum Exhibition Module in Mexico

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ricardo Rosales

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Technology has become a necessity in our everyday lives and essential for completing activities we typically take for granted; technologies can assist us by completing set tasks or achieving desired goals with optimal affect and in the most efficient way, thereby improving our interactive experiences. This paper presents research that explores the representation of user interaction levels using an intelligent hybrid system approach with agents. We evaluate interaction levels of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI with the aim of enhancing user experiences. We consider the description of interaction levels using an intelligent hybrid system to provide a decision-making system to an agent that evaluates interaction levels when using interactive modules of a museum exhibition. The agents represent a high-level abstraction of the system, where communication takes place between the user, the exhibition and the environment. In this paper, we provide a means to measure the interaction levels and natural behaviour of users, based on museum user-exhibition interaction. We consider that, by analysing user interaction in a museum, we can help to design better ways to interact with exhibition modules according to the properties and behaviour of the users. An interaction-evaluator agent is proposed to achieve the most suitable representation of the interaction levels with the aim of improving user interactions to offer the most appropriate directions, services, content and information, thereby improving the quality of interaction experienced between the user-agent and exhibition-agent.

  20. Graphene-based hybrid plasmonic modulator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shin, Jin-Soo; Kim, Jin-Soo; Tae Kim, Jin

    2015-01-01

    A graphene-based hybrid plasmonic modulator is designed based on an asymmetric double-electrode plasmonic waveguide structure. The photonic device consists of a monolayer graphene, a thin metal strip, and a thin dielectric layer that is inserted between the grapheme and the metal strip. By electrically tuning the graphene’s refractive index, the propagation loss of the hybrid long-range surface plasmon polariton strip mode in the proposed graphene-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide is switchable, and hence the intensity of the guided modes is modulated. The highest modulation depth is observed at the graphene’s epsilon-near-zero region. The device characteristics are characterized over the entire C-band (1.530–1.565 μm). (paper)

  1. Hybrid Wavelength Routed and Optical Packet Switched Ring Networks for the Metropolitan Area Network

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nord, Martin

    2005-01-01

    Increased data traffic in the metropolitan area network calls for new network architectures. This paper evaluates optical ring architectures based on optical packet switching, wavelength routing, and hybrid combinations of the two concepts. The evaluation includes overall throughput and fairness...... attractive when traffic is unbalanced....

  2. Low-Cost Transceiver Architectures for 60 GHz Ultra Wideband WLANs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. O. Tatu

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Millimeter-wave multiport transceiver architectures dedicated to 60 GHz UWB short-range communications are proposed in this paper. Multi-port circuits based on 90° hybrid couplers are intensively used for phased antenna array, millimeter-wave modulation and down-conversion, as a low-cost alternative to the conventional architecture. This allows complete integration of circuits including antennas, in planar technology, on the same substrate, improving the overall transceiver performances.

  3. Drawing-Based Procedural Modeling of Chinese Architectures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fei Hou; Yue Qi; Hong Qin

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a novel modeling framework to build 3D models of Chinese architectures from elevation drawing. Our algorithm integrates the capability of automatic drawing recognition with powerful procedural modeling to extract production rules from elevation drawing. First, different from the previous symbol-based floor plan recognition, based on the novel concept of repetitive pattern trees, small horizontal repetitive regions of the elevation drawing are clustered in a bottom-up manner to form architectural components with maximum repetition, which collectively serve as building blocks for 3D model generation. Second, to discover the global architectural structure and its components' interdependencies, the components are structured into a shape tree in a top-down subdivision manner and recognized hierarchically at each level of the shape tree based on Markov Random Fields (MRFs). Third, shape grammar rules can be derived to construct 3D semantic model and its possible variations with the help of a 3D component repository. The salient contribution lies in the novel integration of procedural modeling with elevation drawing, with a unique application to Chinese architectures.

  4. A method for valuing architecture-based business transformation and measuring the value of solutions architecture

    OpenAIRE

    Slot, R.G.

    2010-01-01

    Enterprise and Solution Architecture are key in today’s business environment. It is surprising that the foundation and business case for these activities are nonexistent; the financial value for the business of these activities is largely undetermined. To determine business value of enterprise and solution architecture, this thesis shows how to measure and quantify, in business terms, the value of enterprise architecture-based on business transformation and the value of solution architecture.

  5. Theories about architecture and performance of multi-agent systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gazendam, Henk W.M.; Jorna, René J.

    1998-01-01

    Multi-agent systems are promising as models of organization because they are based on the idea that most work in human organizations is done based on intelligence, communication, cooperation, and massive parallel processing. They offer an alternative for system theories of organization, which are

  6. Dispensing-based bioprinting of mechanically-functional hybrid scaffolds with vessel-like channels for tissue engineering applications - A brief review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naghieh, Saman; Sarker, Md; Izadifar, Mohammad; Chen, Xiongbiao

    2018-02-01

    Over the past decades, significant progress has been achieved in the field of tissue engineering (TE) to restore/repair damaged tissues or organs and, in this regard, scaffolds made from biomaterials have played a critical role. Notably, recent advances in biomaterials and three-dimensional (3D) printing have enabled the manipulation of two or more biomaterials of distinct, yet complementary, mechanical and/or biological properties to form so-called hybrid scaffolds mimicking native tissues. Among various biomaterials, hydrogels synthesized to incorporate living cells and/or biological molecules have dominated due to their hydrated tissue-like environment. Moreover, dispensing-based bioprinting has evolved to the point that it can now be used to create hybrid scaffolds with complex structures. However, the complexities associated with multi-material bioprinting and synthesis of hydrogels used for hybrid scaffolds pose many challenges for their fabrication. This paper presents a brief review of dispensing-based bioprinting of hybrid scaffolds for TE applications. The focus is on the design and fabrication of hybrid scaffolds, including imaging techniques, potential biomaterials, physical architecture, mechanical properties, cell viability, and the importance of vessel-like channels. The key issues and challenges for dispensing-based bioprinting of hybrid scaffolds are also identified and discussed along with recommendations for future research directions. Addressing these issues will significantly enhance the design and fabrication of hybrid scaffolds to and pave the way for translating them into clinical applications. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical and docking study of the novel analogues based on hybridization of common pharmacophores as potential anti-breast cancer agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asadi, Parvin; Khodarahmi, Ghadamali; Farrokhpour, Hossein; Hassanzadeh, Farshid; Saghaei, Lotfollah

    2017-06-01

    In an attempt to identify some new potential leads as anti-breast cancer agents, novel hybrid compounds were designed by molecular hybridization approach. These derivatives were structurally derived from hybrid benzofuran-imidazole and quinazolinone derivatives, which had shown good cytotoxicity against the breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Since aromatase enzyme (CYP19) is highly expressed in the MCF-7 cell line, the binding of these novel hybrid compounds to aromatase was investigated using the docking method. In this study, due to the positive charge on the imidazole ring of the designed ligands and also, the presence of heme iron in the active site of the enzyme, it was decided to optimize the ligand inside the protein to obtain more realistic atomic charges for it. Quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) method was used to obtain more accurate atomic charges of ligand for docking calculations by considering the polarization effects of CYP19 on ligands. It was observed that the refitted charge improved the binding energy of the docked compounds. Also, the results showed that these novel hybrid compounds were adopted properly within the aromatase binding site, thereby suggesting that they could be potential inhibitors of aromatase. The main binding modes in these complexes were through hydrophobic and H bond interactions showing agreement with the basic physicochemical features of known anti aromatase compounds. Finally, the complex structures obtained from the docking study were used for single point QM/MM calculations to obtain more accurate electronic interaction energy, considering the electronic polarization of the ligand by its protein environment.

  8. Mars Hybrid Propulsion System Trajectory Analysis. Part I; Crew Missions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chai, Patrick R.; Merrill, Raymond G.; Qu, Min

    2015-01-01

    NASAs Human spaceflight Architecture team is developing a reusable hybrid transportation architecture in which both chemical and electric propulsion systems are used to send crew and cargo to Mars destinations such as Phobos, Deimos, the surface of Mars, and other orbits around Mars. By combining chemical and electrical propulsion into a single space- ship and applying each where it is more effective, the hybrid architecture enables a series of Mars trajectories that are more fuel-efficient than an all chemical architecture without significant increases in flight times. This paper provides the analysis of the interplanetary segments of the three Evolvable Mars Campaign crew missions to Mars using the hybrid transportation architecture. The trajectory analysis provides departure and arrival dates and propellant needs for the three crew missions that are used by the campaign analysis team for campaign build-up and logistics aggregation analysis. Sensitivity analyses were performed to investigate the impact of mass growth, departure window, and propulsion system performance on the hybrid transportation architecture. The results and system analysis from this paper contribute to analyses of the other human spaceflight architecture team tasks and feed into the definition of the Evolvable Mars Campaign.

  9. Passive hybridization of a photovoltaic module with lithium-ion battery cells: A model-based analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joos, Stella; Weißhar, Björn; Bessler, Wolfgang G.

    2017-04-01

    Standard photovoltaic battery systems based on AC or DC architectures require power electronics and controllers, including inverters, MPP tracker, and battery charger. Here we investigate an alternative system design based on the parallel connection of a photovoltaic module with battery cells without any intermediate voltage conversion. This approach, for which we use the term passive hybridization, is based on matching the solar cell's and battery cell's respective current/voltage behavior. A battery with flat discharge characteristics can allow to pin the solar cell to its maximum power point (MPP) independently of the external power consumption. At the same time, upon battery full charge, voltage increase will drive the solar cell towards zero current and therefore self-prevent battery overcharge. We present a modeling and simulation analysis of passively hybridizing a 5 kWp PV system with a 5 kWh LFP/graphite lithium-ion battery. Dynamic simulations with 1-min time resolution are carried out for three exemplary summer and winter days using historic weather data and a synthetic single-family household consumer profile. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the system. The passive hybrid allows for high self-sufficiencies of 84.6% in summer and 25.3% in winter, which are only slightly lower than those of a standard system.

  10. Agent review phase one report.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zubelewicz, Alex Tadeusz; Davis, Christopher Edward; Bauer, Travis LaDell

    2009-12-01

    This report summarizes the findings for phase one of the agent review and discusses the review methods and results. The phase one review identified a short list of agent systems that would prove most useful in the service architecture of an information management, analysis, and retrieval system. Reviewers evaluated open-source and commercial multi-agent systems and scored them based upon viability, uniqueness, ease of development, ease of deployment, and ease of integration with other products. Based on these criteria, reviewers identified the ten most appropriate systems. The report also mentions several systems that reviewers deemed noteworthy for the ideas they implement, even if those systems are not the best choices for information management purposes.

  11. Mars Hybrid Propulsion System Trajectory Analysis. Part II; Cargo Missions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chai, Patrick R.; Merrill, Raymond G.; Qu, Min

    2015-01-01

    NASA's Human Spaceflight Architecture Team is developing a reusable hybrid transportation architecture in which both chemical and electric propulsion systems are used to send crew and cargo to Mars destinations such as Phobos, Deimos, the surface of Mars, and other orbits around Mars. By combining chemical and electrical propulsion into a single spaceship and applying each where it is more effective, the hybrid architecture enables a series of Mars trajectories that are more fuel-efficient than an all chemical architecture without significant increases in flight times. This paper shows the feasibility of the hybrid transportation architecture to pre-deploy cargo to Mars and Phobos in support of the Evolvable Mars Campaign crew missions. The analysis shows that the hybrid propulsion stage is able to deliver all of the current manifested payload to Phobos and Mars through the first three crew missions. The conjunction class trajectory also allows the hybrid propulsion stage to return to Earth in a timely fashion so it can be reused for additional cargo deployment. The 1,100 days total trip time allows the hybrid propulsion stage to deliver cargo to Mars every other Earth-Mars transit opportunity. For the first two Mars surface mission in the Evolvable Mars Campaign, the short trip time allows the hybrid propulsion stage to be reused for three round-trip journeys to Mars, which matches the hybrid propulsion stage's designed lifetime for three round-trip crew missions to the Martian sphere of influence.

  12. Architecture of 'Ecoview' software for prediction of impurities migration in soil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kundas, S.P.; Kovalenko, V.I.

    2008-01-01

    Architecture of developing software 'EcoView' for prediction of impurity migration in soil is based on hybrid expert system and includes several fuzzy instruments. Besides it modules of physic-mathematical modeling, geographic information system, data base for storing necessary information (maps, various experimental data, calculating results etc.) are incorporated in software. (authors)

  13. Intelligent autonomy for unmanned marine vehicles robotic control architecture based on service-oriented agents

    CERN Document Server

    Insaurralde, Carlos C

    2015-01-01

    This book presents an Intelligent Control Architecture (ICA) to enable multiple collaborating marine vehicles to autonomously carry out underwater intervention missions. The presented ICA is generic in nature but aimed at a case study where a marine surface craft and an underwater vehicle are required to work cooperatively. It is shown that they are capable of cooperating autonomously towards the execution of complex activities since they have different but complementary capabilities. The ICA implementation is verified in simulation, and validated in trials by means of a team of autonomous marine robots. This book also presents architectural details and evaluation scenarios of the ICA, results of simulations and trials from different maritime operations, and future research directions.

  14. Quality-Attribute-Based Economic Valuation of Architectural Patterns

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Ozkaya, Ipek; Kazman, Rick; Klein, Mark

    2007-01-01

    .... Architectural patterns can be used to achieve quality attribute requirements. Consequently, architectural patterns generate value based on the present and future utility of the quality attributes they achieve...

  15. A novel scalable and low latency hybrid data center network architecture based on flow controlled fast optical switches

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yan, Fulong; Guelbenzu, Gonzalo; Calabretta, Nicola

    2018-01-01

    We present a novel hybrid DCN based on flow-controlled fast optical switches. Results show packet loss < 1.4E-5 and latency < 2.4μs for 100,000 servers (0.3 load). Costs and power consumptions are also compared with current technologies.

  16. A MCIN-based architecture of smart agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiang Gu

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Purpose – Material conscious and information network (MCIN is a kind of cyber physics social system. This paper aims to study the MCIN modeling method and design the MCIN-based architecture of smart agriculture (MCIN-ASA which is different from current vertical architecture and involves production, management and commerce. Architecture is composed of three MCIN-ASA participants which are MCIN-ASA enterprises, individuals and commodity. Design/methodology/approach – Architecture uses enterprises and individuals personalized portals as the carriers which are linked precisely with each other through a peer-to-peer network called six-degrees-of-separation block-chain. The authors want to establish a self-organization, open and ecological operational system which includes active, personalized consumption, direct, centralized distribution, distributed and smart production. Findings – The paper models three main MCIN-ASA participants, namely, design the smart supply, demand and management functions, which show the feasibility innovation and high efficiency of implementing MCIN on agriculture. At the same time, the paper presents a prototype system based on the architecture. Originality/value – The authors think that MCIN-ASA improves current agriculture greatly and inspires a lot in production-marketing-combined electronic commerce.

  17. Emotion in reinforcement learning agents and robots: A survey

    OpenAIRE

    Moerland, T.M.; Broekens, D.J.; Jonker, C.M.

    2018-01-01

    This article provides the first survey of computational models of emotion in reinforcement learning (RL) agents. The survey focuses on agent/robot emotions, and mostly ignores human user emotions. Emotions are recognized as functional in decision-making by influencing motivation and action selection. Therefore, computational emotion models are usually grounded in the agent's decision making architecture, of which RL is an important subclass. Studying emotions in RL-based agents is useful for ...

  18. INVESTIGATION OF FLIP-FLOP PERFORMANCE ON DIFFERENT TYPE AND ARCHITECTURE IN SHIFT REGISTER WITH PARALLEL LOAD APPLICATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dwi Purnomo

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Register is one of the computer components that have a key role in computer organisation. Every computer contains millions of registers that are manifested by flip-flop. This research focuses on the investigation of flip-flop performance based on its type (D, T, S-R, and J-K and architecture (structural, behavioural, and hybrid. Each type of flip-flop on each architecture would be tested in different bit of shift register with parallel load applications. The experiment criteria that will be assessed are power consumption, resources required, memory required, latency, and efficiency. Based on the experiment, it could be shown that D flip-flop and hybrid architecture showed the best performance in required memory, latency, power consumption, and efficiency. In addition, the experiment results showed that the greater the register number, the less efficient the system would be.

  19. Architecture for Multi-Technology Real-Time Location Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodas, Javier; Barral, Valentín; Escudero, Carlos J.

    2013-01-01

    The rising popularity of location-based services has prompted considerable research in the field of indoor location systems. Since there is no single technology to support these systems, it is necessary to consider the fusion of the information coming from heterogeneous sensors. This paper presents a software architecture designed for a hybrid location system where we can merge information from multiple sensor technologies. The architecture was designed to be used by different kinds of actors independently and with mutual transparency: hardware administrators, algorithm developers and user applications. The paper presents the architecture design, work-flow, case study examples and some results to show how different technologies can be exploited to obtain a good estimation of a target position. PMID:23435050

  20. Modeling protective anti-tumor immunity via preventative cancer vaccines using a hybrid agent-based and delay differential equation approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Peter S; Lee, Peter P

    2012-01-01

    A next generation approach to cancer envisions developing preventative vaccinations to stimulate a person's immune cells, particularly cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), to eliminate incipient tumors before clinical detection. The purpose of our study is to quantitatively assess whether such an approach would be feasible, and if so, how many anti-cancer CTLs would have to be primed against tumor antigen to provide significant protection. To understand the relevant dynamics, we develop a two-compartment model of tumor-immune interactions at the tumor site and the draining lymph node. We model interactions at the tumor site using an agent-based model (ABM) and dynamics in the lymph node using a system of delay differential equations (DDEs). We combine the models into a hybrid ABM-DDE system and investigate dynamics over a wide range of parameters, including cell proliferation rates, tumor antigenicity, CTL recruitment times, and initial memory CTL populations. Our results indicate that an anti-cancer memory CTL pool of 3% or less can successfully eradicate a tumor population over a wide range of model parameters, implying that a vaccination approach is feasible. In addition, sensitivity analysis of our model reveals conditions that will result in rapid tumor destruction, oscillation, and polynomial rather than exponential decline in the tumor population due to tumor geometry.

  1. NET-COMPUTER: Internet Computer Architecture and its Application in E-Commerce

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. O. Umenne

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Research in Intelligent Agents has yielded interesting results, some of which have been translated into commer­cial ventures. Intelligent Agents are executable software components that represent the user, perform tasks on behalf of the user and when the task terminates, the Agents send the result to the user. Intelligent Agents are best suited for the Internet: a collection of computers connected together in a world-wide computer network. Swarm and HYDRA computer architectures for Agents’ execution were developed at the University of Surrey, UK in the 90s. The objective of the research was to develop a software-based computer architecture on which Agents execution could be explored. The combination of Intelligent Agents and HYDRA computer architecture gave rise to a new computer concept: the NET-Computer in which the comput­ing resources reside on the Internet. The Internet computers form the hardware and software resources, and the user is provided with a simple interface to access the Internet and run user tasks. The Agents autonomously roam the Internet (NET-Computer executing the tasks. A growing segment of the Internet is E-Commerce for online shopping for products and services. The Internet computing resources provide a marketplace for product suppliers and consumers alike. Consumers are looking for suppliers selling products and services, while suppliers are looking for buyers. Searching the vast amount of information available on the Internet causes a great deal of problems for both consumers and suppliers. Intelligent Agents executing on the NET-Computer can surf through the Internet and select specific information of interest to the user. The simulation results show that Intelligent Agents executing HYDRA computer architecture could be applied in E-Commerce.

  2. Microemulsion based hybrid biofuels using glycerol monooleate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bora, Plaban; Konwar, Lakhya Jyoti; Deka, Dhanapati

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Fuel quality of GMO based MHBFs. • Effect of externally added monoglyceride surfactant (GMO) on fuel characteristics of MHBF. • Structural and dynamic behaviors of GMO based MHBFs. • Can offer strong candidature for future biofuel industry. - Abstract: The present investigation aims to highlighten the effect of monoglyceride surfactant (GMO) on structure and dynamic behavior and other fuel characteristics of microemulsion based hybrid biofuels (MHBFs). Fuel quality of MHBFs formulated using purified GMO (>90%), which was prepared by esterification of glycerol, was investigated in the study. Phase behaviors, droplet size distribution, number of droplets present in the system, average droplet size and average length of surface active agents were studied as a part of structural investigations of the GMO based MHBFs. Diffusion coefficient, energy barrier to droplet coalescence and rate of coalescence of droplets were also investigated for the formulated MHBFs. The number of droplets, length of surface active agent and the diffusion co-efficient were in the ranges of 1.87 × 10"2"1–5.66 × 10"2"1/m"3, 0.92–1.07 nm and 1.00 × 10"−"1"1–1.79 × 10"−"1"1 m"2/s, respectively. The rate of droplet coalescence was obtained in the range 2.77 × 10"−"4–8.78 × 10"−"4 times the collision factor. MHBFs incorporating the glycerol derived bio-based nonionic surfactant GMO exhibited viscosity of 4.12 mm"2/s (at 40 °C), gross calorific value (GCV) of 39.17 MJ/kg and pour point of −7 °C.

  3. High-performance solid-state supercapacitors based on graphene-ZnO hybrid nanocomposites

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Zijiong; Zhou, Zhihua; Yun, Gaoqian; Shi, Kai; Lv, Xiaowei; Yang, Baocheng

    2013-11-01

    In this paper, we report a facile low-cost synthesis of the graphene-ZnO hybrid nanocomposites for solid-state supercapacitors. Structural analysis revealed a homogeneous distribution of ZnO nanorods that are inserted in graphene nanosheets, forming a sandwiched architecture. The material exhibited a high specific capacitance of 156 F g-1 at a scan rate of 5 mV.s-1. The fabricated solid-state supercapacitor device using these graphene-ZnO hybrid nanocomposites exhibits good supercapacitive performance and long-term cycle stability. The improved supercapacitance property of these materials could be ascribed to the increased conductivity of ZnO and better utilization of graphene. These results demonstrate the potential of the graphene-ZnO hybrid nanocomposites as an electrode in high-performance supercapacitors.

  4. Three-Dimensional Printing Based Hybrid Manufacturing of Microfluidic Devices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alapan, Yunus; Hasan, Muhammad Noman; Shen, Richang; Gurkan, Umut A

    2015-05-01

    Microfluidic platforms offer revolutionary and practical solutions to challenging problems in biology and medicine. Even though traditional micro/nanofabrication technologies expedited the emergence of the microfluidics field, recent advances in advanced additive manufacturing hold significant potential for single-step, stand-alone microfluidic device fabrication. One such technology, which holds a significant promise for next generation microsystem fabrication is three-dimensional (3D) printing. Presently, building 3D printed stand-alone microfluidic devices with fully embedded microchannels for applications in biology and medicine has the following challenges: (i) limitations in achievable design complexity, (ii) need for a wider variety of transparent materials, (iii) limited z-resolution, (iv) absence of extremely smooth surface finish, and (v) limitations in precision fabrication of hollow and void sections with extremely high surface area to volume ratio. We developed a new way to fabricate stand-alone microfluidic devices with integrated manifolds and embedded microchannels by utilizing a 3D printing and laser micromachined lamination based hybrid manufacturing approach. In this new fabrication method, we exploit the minimized fabrication steps enabled by 3D printing, and reduced assembly complexities facilitated by laser micromachined lamination method. The new hybrid fabrication method enables key features for advanced microfluidic system architecture: (i) increased design complexity in 3D, (ii) improved control over microflow behavior in all three directions and in multiple layers, (iii) transverse multilayer flow and precisely integrated flow distribution, and (iv) enhanced transparency for high resolution imaging and analysis. Hybrid manufacturing approaches hold great potential in advancing microfluidic device fabrication in terms of standardization, fast production, and user-independent manufacturing.

  5. Agent-based modeling and network dynamics

    CERN Document Server

    Namatame, Akira

    2016-01-01

    The book integrates agent-based modeling and network science. It is divided into three parts, namely, foundations, primary dynamics on and of social networks, and applications. The book begins with the network origin of agent-based models, known as cellular automata, and introduce a number of classic models, such as Schelling’s segregation model and Axelrod’s spatial game. The essence of the foundation part is the network-based agent-based models in which agents follow network-based decision rules. Under the influence of the substantial progress in network science in late 1990s, these models have been extended from using lattices into using small-world networks, scale-free networks, etc. The book also shows that the modern network science mainly driven by game-theorists and sociophysicists has inspired agent-based social scientists to develop alternative formation algorithms, known as agent-based social networks. The book reviews a number of pioneering and representative models in this family. Upon the gi...

  6. Hybrid heterojunction solar cell based on organic-inorganic silicon nanowire array architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Xiaojuan; Sun, Baoquan; Liu, Dong; Lee, Shuit-Tong

    2011-12-07

    Silicon nanowire arrays (SiNWs) on a planar silicon wafer can be fabricated by a simple metal-assisted wet chemical etching method. They can offer an excellent light harvesting capability through light scattering and trapping. In this work, we demonstrated that the organic-inorganic solar cell based on hybrid composites of conjugated molecules and SiNWs on a planar substrate yielded an excellent power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.70%. The high efficiency was ascribed to two aspects: one was the improvement of the light absorption by SiNWs structure on the planar components; the other was the enhancement of charge extraction efficiency, resulting from the novel top contact by forming a thin organic layer shell around the individual silicon nanowire. On the contrary, the sole planar junction solar cell only exhibited a PCE of 6.01%, due to the lower light trapping capability and the less hole extraction efficiency. It indicated that both the SiNWs structure and the thin organic layer top contact were critical to achieve a high performance organic/silicon solar cell. © 2011 American Chemical Society

  7. Language-based support for service oriented architectures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Giambiagi, Pablo; Owe, Olaf; Ravn, Anders Peter

    2006-01-01

    The fast evolution of the Internet has popularized service-oriented architectures (SOA) with their promise of dynamic IT-supported inter-business collaborations. Yet this popularity does not reflect on the number of actual applications using the architecture. Programming models in use today make...... a poor match for the distributed, loosely-coupled, document-based nature of SOA. The gap is actually increasing. For example, interoperability between different organizations, requires contracts to reduce risks. Thus, high-level models of contracts are making their way into service-oriented architectures......, but application developers are still left to their own devices when it comes to writing code that will comply with a contract. This paper surveys existing and future directions regarding language-based solutions to the above problem....

  8. Hybrid Ceramic Matrix Fibrous Composites: an Overview

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naslain, R

    2011-01-01

    Ceramic-Matrix Composites (CMCs) consist of a ceramic fiber architecture in a ceramic matrix, bonded together through a thin interphase. The present contribution is limited to non-oxide CMCs. Their constituents being oxidation-prone, they are protected by external coatings. We state here that CMCs display a hybrid feature, when at least one of their components is not homogeneous from a chemical or microstructural standpoint. Hybrid fiber architectures are used to tailor the mechanical or thermal CMC-properties whereas hybrid interphases, matrices and coatings to improve CMC resistance to aggressive environments.

  9. Hybrid Ceramic Matrix Fibrous Composites: an Overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Naslain, R.

    2011-10-01

    Ceramic-Matrix Composites (CMCs) consist of a ceramic fiber architecture in a ceramic matrix, bonded together through a thin interphase. The present contribution is limited to non-oxide CMCs. Their constituents being oxidation-prone, they are protected by external coatings. We state here that CMCs display a hybrid feature, when at least one of their components is not homogeneous from a chemical or microstructural standpoint. Hybrid fiber architectures are used to tailor the mechanical or thermal CMC-properties whereas hybrid interphases, matrices and coatings to improve CMC resistance to aggressive environments.

  10. Strategic directions for agent-based modeling: avoiding the YAAWN syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Sullivan, David; Evans, Tom; Manson, Steven; Metcalf, Sara; Ligmann-Zielinska, Arika; Bone, Chris

    In this short communication, we examine how agent-based modeling has become common in land change science and is increasingly used to develop case studies for particular times and places. There is a danger that the research community is missing a prime opportunity to learn broader lessons from the use of agent-based modeling (ABM), or at the very least not sharing these lessons more widely. How do we find an appropriate balance between empirically rich, realistic models and simpler theoretically grounded models? What are appropriate and effective approaches to model evaluation in light of uncertainties not only in model parameters but also in model structure? How can we best explore hybrid model structures that enable us to better understand the dynamics of the systems under study, recognizing that no single approach is best suited to this task? Under what circumstances - in terms of model complexity, model evaluation, and model structure - can ABMs be used most effectively to lead to new insight for stakeholders? We explore these questions in the hope of helping the growing community of land change scientists using models in their research to move from 'yet another model' to doing better science with models.

  11. Organic Gelators as Growth Control Agents for Stable and Reproducible Hybrid Perovskite-Based Solar Cells

    KAUST Repository

    Masi, Sofia

    2017-03-03

    Low-molecular-weight organic gelators are widely used to influence the solidification of polymers, with applications ranging from packaging items, food containers to organic electronic devices, including organic photovoltaics. Here, this concept is extended to hybrid halide perovskite-based materials. In situ time-resolved grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements performed during spin coating reveal that organic gelators beneficially influence the nucleation and growth of the perovskite precursor phase. This can be exploited for the fabrication of planar n-i-p heterojunction devices with MAPbI3 (MA = CH3NH3+) that display a performance that not only is enhanced by ≈25% compared to solar cells where the active layer is produced without the use of a gelator but that also features a higher stability to moisture and a reduced hysteresis. Most importantly, the presented approach is straightforward and simple, and it provides a general method to render the film formation of hybrid perovskites more reliable and robust, analogous to the control that is afforded by these additives in the processing of commodity “plastics.”

  12. Multitarget Molecular Hybrids of Cinnamic Acids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aikaterini Peperidou

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available In an attempt to synthesize potential new multitarget agents, 11 novel hybrids incorporating cinnamic acids and paracetamol, 4-/7-hydroxycoumarin, benzocaine, p-aminophenol and m-aminophenol were synthesized. Three hybrids—2e, 2a, 2g—and 3b were found to be multifunctional agents. The hybrid 2e derived from the phenoxyphenyl cinnamic acid and m-acetamidophenol showed the highest lipoxygenase (LOX inhibition and analgesic activity (IC50 = 0.34 μΜ and 98.1%, whereas the hybrid 3b of bromobenzyloxycinnamic acid and hymechromone exhibited simultaneously good LOX inhibitory activity (IC50 = 50 μΜ and the highest anti-proteolytic activity (IC50= 5 μΜ. The hybrid 2a of phenyloxyphenyl acid with paracetamol showed a high analgesic activity (91% and appears to be a promising agent for treating peripheral nerve injuries. Hybrid 2g which has an ester and an amide bond presents an interesting combination of anti-LOX and anti-proteolytic activity. The esters were found very potent and especially those derived from paracetamol and m-acetamidophenol. The amides follow. Based on 2D-structure–activity relationships it was observed that both steric and electronic parameters play major roles in the activity of these compounds. Molecular docking studies point to the fact that allosteric interactions might govern the LOX-inhibitor binding.

  13. Deliberate normative agents : principles and architecture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dignum, F.P.M.; Castelfranchi, C.; Jonker, C.; Treur, J.; Jennings, N.R.; Lespérance, Y.

    2000-01-01

    In this paper norms are assumed to be useful in agent societies. It is claimed that not only following norms, but also the possibility of ‘intelligent’ norm violation can be useful. Principles for agents that are able to behave deliberatively on the basis of explicitly represented norms are

  14. Nanofibrous nonwovens based on dendritic-linear-dendritic poly(ethylene glycol) hybrids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kikionis, Stefanos; Ioannou, Efstathia; Andren, Oliver C.J.

    2017-01-01

    unsuccessful. Nevertheless, when these DLD hybrids were blended with an array of different biodegradable polymers as entanglement enhancers, nanofibrous nonwovens were successfully prepared by electrospinning. The pseudogeneration degree of the DLDs, the nature of the co-electrospun polymer and the solvent...... nanofibers. Such dendritic nanofibrous scaffolds can be promising materials for biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, multifunctionality, and advanced structural architecture....

  15. Portable implementation model for CFD simulations. Application to hybrid CPU/GPU supercomputers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oyarzun, Guillermo; Borrell, Ricard; Gorobets, Andrey; Oliva, Assensi

    2017-10-01

    Nowadays, high performance computing (HPC) systems experience a disruptive moment with a variety of novel architectures and frameworks, without any clarity of which one is going to prevail. In this context, the portability of codes across different architectures is of major importance. This paper presents a portable implementation model based on an algebraic operational approach for direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large eddy simulation (LES) of incompressible turbulent flows using unstructured hybrid meshes. The strategy proposed consists in representing the whole time-integration algorithm using only three basic algebraic operations: sparse matrix-vector product, a linear combination of vectors and dot product. The main idea is based on decomposing the nonlinear operators into a concatenation of two SpMV operations. This provides high modularity and portability. An exhaustive analysis of the proposed implementation for hybrid CPU/GPU supercomputers has been conducted with tests using up to 128 GPUs. The main objective consists in understanding the challenges of implementing CFD codes on new architectures.

  16. A multi-agent approach to intelligent monitoring in smart grids

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vallejo, D.; Albusac, J.; Glez-Morcillo, C.; Castro-Schez, J. J.; Jiménez, L.

    2014-04-01

    In this paper, we propose a scalable multi-agent architecture to give support to smart grids, paying special attention to the intelligent monitoring of distribution substations. The data gathered by multiple sensors are used by software agents that are responsible for monitoring different aspects or events of interest, such as normal voltage values or unbalanced intensity values that can end up blowing fuses and decreasing the quality of service of end consumers. The knowledge bases of these agents have been built by means of a formal model for normality analysis that has been successfully used in other surveillance domains. The architecture facilitates the integration of new agents and can be easily configured and deployed to monitor different environments. The experiments have been conducted over a power distribution network.

  17. Architectural Synthesis of Flow-Based Microfluidic Large-Scale Integration Biochips

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Minhass, Wajid Hassan; Pop, Paul; Madsen, Jan

    2012-01-01

    ,we propose a top-down architectural synthesis methodology for the flow-based biochips. Starting from a given biochemical application and a microfluidic component library, we are interested in synthesizing a biochip architecture, i.e., performing component allocation from the library based on the biochemical....... By combining several microvalves, more complex units, such as micropumps, switches, mixers, and multiplexers, can be built. The manufacturing technology, soft lithography, used for the flow-based biochips is advancing faster than Moore's law, resulting in increased architectural complexity. However...... by synthesizing architectures for real-life applications as well as synthetic benchmarks....

  18. A supportive architecture for CFD-based design optimisation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ni; Su, Zeya; Bi, Zhuming; Tian, Chao; Ren, Zhiming; Gong, Guanghong

    2014-03-01

    Multi-disciplinary design optimisation (MDO) is one of critical methodologies to the implementation of enterprise systems (ES). MDO requiring the analysis of fluid dynamics raises a special challenge due to its extremely intensive computation. The rapid development of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) technique has caused a rise of its applications in various fields. Especially for the exterior designs of vehicles, CFD has become one of the three main design tools comparable to analytical approaches and wind tunnel experiments. CFD-based design optimisation is an effective way to achieve the desired performance under the given constraints. However, due to the complexity of CFD, integrating with CFD analysis in an intelligent optimisation algorithm is not straightforward. It is a challenge to solve a CFD-based design problem, which is usually with high dimensions, and multiple objectives and constraints. It is desirable to have an integrated architecture for CFD-based design optimisation. However, our review on existing works has found that very few researchers have studied on the assistive tools to facilitate CFD-based design optimisation. In the paper, a multi-layer architecture and a general procedure are proposed to integrate different CFD toolsets with intelligent optimisation algorithms, parallel computing technique and other techniques for efficient computation. In the proposed architecture, the integration is performed either at the code level or data level to fully utilise the capabilities of different assistive tools. Two intelligent algorithms are developed and embedded with parallel computing. These algorithms, together with the supportive architecture, lay a solid foundation for various applications of CFD-based design optimisation. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed architecture and algorithms, the case studies on aerodynamic shape design of a hypersonic cruising vehicle are provided, and the result has shown that the proposed architecture

  19. Managing the Evolution of an Enterprise Architecture using a MAS-Product-Line Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pena, Joaquin; Hinchey, Michael G.; Resinas, manuel; Sterritt, Roy; Rash, James L.

    2006-01-01

    We view an evolutionary system ns being n software product line. The core architecture is the unchanging part of the system, and each version of the system may be viewed as a product from the product line. Each "product" may be described as the core architecture with sonre agent-based additions. The result is a multiagent system software product line. We describe an approach to such n Software Product Line-based approach using the MaCMAS Agent-Oriented nzethoclology. The approach scales to enterprise nrchitectures as a multiagent system is an approprinre means of representing a changing enterprise nrchitectclre nnd the inferaction between components in it.

  20. Autonomous Formations of Multi-Agent Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhali, Sanjana; Joshi, Suresh M.

    2013-01-01

    Autonomous formation control of multi-agent dynamic systems has a number of applications that include ground-based and aerial robots and satellite formations. For air vehicles, formation flight ("flocking") has the potential to significantly increase airspace utilization as well as fuel efficiency. This presentation addresses two main problems in multi-agent formations: optimal role assignment to minimize the total cost (e.g., combined distance traveled by all agents); and maintaining formation geometry during flock motion. The Kuhn-Munkres ("Hungarian") algorithm is used for optimal assignment, and consensus-based leader-follower type control architecture is used to maintain formation shape despite the leader s independent movements. The methods are demonstrated by animated simulations.

  1. Nanotubule and Tour Molecule Based Molecular Electronics: Suggestion for a Hybrid Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srivastava, Deepak; Saini, Subhash (Technical Monitor)

    1998-01-01

    Recent experimental and theoretical attempts and results indicate two distinct broad pathways towards future molecular electronic devices and architectures. The first is the approach via Tour type ladder molecules and their junctions which can be fabricated with solution phase chemical approaches. Second are fullerenes or nanotubules and their junctions which may have better conductance, switching and amplifying characteristics but can not be made through well controlled and defined chemical means. A hybrid approach combining the two pathways to take advantage of the characteristics of both is suggested. Dimension and scale of such devices would be somewhere in between isolated molecule and nanotubule based devices but it maybe possible to use self-assembly towards larger functional and logicalunits.

  2. High-performance solid-state supercapacitors based on graphene-ZnO hybrid nanocomposites

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, we report a facile low-cost synthesis of the graphene-ZnO hybrid nanocomposites for solid-state supercapacitors. Structural analysis revealed a homogeneous distribution of ZnO nanorods that are inserted in graphene nanosheets, forming a sandwiched architecture. The material exhibited a high specific capacitance of 156 F g−1 at a scan rate of 5 mV.s−1. The fabricated solid-state supercapacitor device using these graphene-ZnO hybrid nanocomposites exhibits good supercapacitive performance and long-term cycle stability. The improved supercapacitance property of these materials could be ascribed to the increased conductivity of ZnO and better utilization of graphene. These results demonstrate the potential of the graphene-ZnO hybrid nanocomposites as an electrode in high-performance supercapacitors. PMID:24215772

  3. Agent Based Modeling on Organizational Dynamics of Terrorist Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bo Li

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Modeling organizational dynamics of terrorist network is a critical issue in computational analysis of terrorism research. The first step for effective counterterrorism and strategic intervention is to investigate how the terrorists operate with the relational network and what affects the performance. In this paper, we investigate the organizational dynamics by employing a computational experimentation methodology. The hierarchical cellular network model and the organizational dynamics model are developed for modeling the hybrid relational structure and complex operational processes, respectively. To intuitively elucidate this method, the agent based modeling is used to simulate the terrorist network and test the performance in diverse scenarios. Based on the experimental results, we show how the changes of operational environments affect the development of terrorist organization in terms of its recovery and capacity to perform future tasks. The potential strategies are also discussed, which can be used to restrain the activities of terrorists.

  4. Numerical linear algebra on emerging architectures: The PLASMA and MAGMA projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Agullo, Emmanuel; Demmel, Jim; Dongarra, Jack; Hadri, Bilel; Kurzak, Jakub; Langou, Julien; Ltaief, Hatem; Luszczek, Piotr; Tomov, Stanimire

    2009-01-01

    The emergence and continuing use of multi-core architectures and graphics processing units require changes in the existing software and sometimes even a redesign of the established algorithms in order to take advantage of now prevailing parallelism. Parallel Linear Algebra for Scalable Multi-core Architectures (PLASMA) and Matrix Algebra on GPU and Multics Architectures (MAGMA) are two projects that aims to achieve high performance and portability across a wide range of multi-core architectures and hybrid systems respectively. We present in this document a comparative study of PLASMA's performance against established linear algebra packages and some preliminary results of MAGMA on hybrid multi-core and GPU systems.

  5. Characterization of mature maize (Zea mays L.) root system architecture and complexity in a diverse set of Ex-PVP inbreds and hybrids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauck, Andrew L; Novais, Joana; Grift, Tony E; Bohn, Martin O

    2015-01-01

    The mature root system is a vital plant organ, which is critical to plant performance. Commercial maize (Zea mays L.) breeding has resulted in a steady increase in plant performance over time, along with noticeable changes in above ground vegetative traits, but the corresponding changes in the root system are not presently known. In this study, roughly 2500 core root systems from field trials of a set of 10 diverse elite inbreds formerly protected by Plant Variety Protection plus B73 and Mo17 and the 66 diallel intercrosses among them were evaluated for root traits using high throughput image-based phenotyping. Overall root architecture was modeled by root angle (RA) and stem diameter (SD), while root complexity, the amount of root branching, was quantified using fractal analysis to obtain values for fractal dimension (FD) and fractal abundance (FA). For each trait, per se line effects were highly significant and the most important contributor to trait performance. Mid-parent heterosis and specific combining ability was also highly significant for FD, FA, and RA, while none of the traits showed significant general combining ability. The interaction between the environment and the additive line effect was also significant for all traits. Within the inbred and hybrid generations, FD and FA were highly correlated (rp ≥ 0.74), SD was moderately correlated to FD and FA (0.69 ≥ rp ≥ 0.48), while the correlation between RA and other traits was low (0.13 ≥ rp ≥ -0.40). Inbreds with contrasting effects on complexity and architecture traits were observed, suggesting that root complexity and architecture traits are inherited independently. A more comprehensive understanding of the maize root system and the way it interacts with the environment will be useful for defining adaptation to nutrient acquisition and tolerance to stress from drought and high plant densities, critical factors in the yield gains of modern hybrids.

  6. An impedimetric study of DNA hybridization on paper-supported inkjet-printed gold electrodes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ihalainen, Petri; Määttänen, Anni; Peltonen, Jouko; Pettersson, Fredrik; Pesonen, Markus; Österbacka, Ronald; Viitala, Tapani

    2014-01-01

    In this study, two different supramolecular recognition architectures for impedimetric detection of DNA hybridization have been formed on disposable paper-supported inkjet-printed gold electrodes. The gold electrodes were fabricated using a gold nanoparticle based ink. The first recognition architecture consists of subsequent layers of biotinylated self-assembly monolayer (SAM), streptavidin and biotinylated DNA probe. The other recognition architecture is constructed by immobilization of thiol-functionalized DNA probe (HS-DNA) and subsequent backfill with 11-mercapto-1-undecanol (MUOH) SAM. The binding capacity and selectivity of the recognition architectures were examined by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) measurements. SPR results showed that the HS-DNA/MUOH system had a higher binding capacity for the complementary DNA target. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements showed that the hybridization can be detected with impedimetric spectroscopy in picomol range for both systems. EIS signal indicated a good selectivity for both recognition architectures, whereas SPR showed very high unspecific binding for the HS-DNA/MUOH system. The factors affecting the impedance signal were interpreted in terms of the complexity of the supramolecular architecture. The more complex architecture acts as a less ideal capacitive sensor and the impedance signal is dominated by the resistive elements. (paper)

  7. Formalizing Knowledge in Multi-Scale Agent-Based Simulations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somogyi, Endre; Sluka, James P; Glazier, James A

    2016-10-01

    Multi-scale, agent-based simulations of cellular and tissue biology are increasingly common. These simulations combine and integrate a range of components from different domains. Simulations continuously create, destroy and reorganize constituent elements causing their interactions to dynamically change. For example, the multi-cellular tissue development process coordinates molecular, cellular and tissue scale objects with biochemical, biomechanical, spatial and behavioral processes to form a dynamic network. Different domain specific languages can describe these components in isolation, but cannot describe their interactions. No current programming language is designed to represent in human readable and reusable form the domain specific knowledge contained in these components and interactions. We present a new hybrid programming language paradigm that naturally expresses the complex multi-scale objects and dynamic interactions in a unified way and allows domain knowledge to be captured, searched, formalized, extracted and reused.

  8. Assurance in Agent-Based Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gilliom, Laura R.; Goldsmith, Steven Y.

    1999-05-10

    Our vision of the future of information systems is one that includes engineered collectives of software agents which are situated in an environment over years and which increasingly improve the performance of the overall system of which they are a part. At a minimum, the movement of agent and multi-agent technology into National Security applications, including their use in information assurance, is apparent today. The use of deliberative, autonomous agents in high-consequence/high-security applications will require a commensurate level of protection and confidence in the predictability of system-level behavior. At Sandia National Laboratories, we have defined and are addressing a research agenda that integrates the surety (safety, security, and reliability) into agent-based systems at a deep level. Surety is addressed at multiple levels: The integrity of individual agents must be protected by addressing potential failure modes and vulnerabilities to malevolent threats. Providing for the surety of the collective requires attention to communications surety issues and mechanisms for identifying and working with trusted collaborators. At the highest level, using agent-based collectives within a large-scale distributed system requires the development of principled design methods to deliver the desired emergent performance or surety characteristics. This position paper will outline the research directions underway at Sandia, will discuss relevant work being performed elsewhere, and will report progress to date toward assurance in agent-based systems.

  9. Assurance in Agent-Based Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gilliom, Laura R.; Goldsmith, Steven Y.

    1999-01-01

    Our vision of the future of information systems is one that includes engineered collectives of software agents which are situated in an environment over years and which increasingly improve the performance of the overall system of which they are a part. At a minimum, the movement of agent and multi-agent technology into National Security applications, including their use in information assurance, is apparent today. The use of deliberative, autonomous agents in high-consequence/high-security applications will require a commensurate level of protection and confidence in the predictability of system-level behavior. At Sandia National Laboratories, we have defined and are addressing a research agenda that integrates the surety (safety, security, and reliability) into agent-based systems at a deep level. Surety is addressed at multiple levels: The integrity of individual agents must be protected by addressing potential failure modes and vulnerabilities to malevolent threats. Providing for the surety of the collective requires attention to communications surety issues and mechanisms for identifying and working with trusted collaborators. At the highest level, using agent-based collectives within a large-scale distributed system requires the development of principled design methods to deliver the desired emergent performance or surety characteristics. This position paper will outline the research directions underway at Sandia, will discuss relevant work being performed elsewhere, and will report progress to date toward assurance in agent-based systems

  10. Hybrid Electric Vehicle Control Strategy Based on Power Loss Calculations

    OpenAIRE

    Boyd, Steven J

    2006-01-01

    Defining an operation strategy for a Split Parallel Architecture (SPA) Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) is accomplished through calculating powertrain component losses. The results of these calculations define how the vehicle can decrease fuel consumption while maintaining low vehicle emissions. For a HEV, simply operating the vehicle's engine in its regions of high efficiency does not guarantee the most efficient vehicle operation. The results presented are meant only to define a literal str...

  11. Agent-based modeling of sustainable behaviors

    CERN Document Server

    Sánchez-Maroño, Noelia; Fontenla-Romero, Oscar; Polhill, J; Craig, Tony; Bajo, Javier; Corchado, Juan

    2017-01-01

    Using the O.D.D. (Overview, Design concepts, Detail) protocol, this title explores the role of agent-based modeling in predicting the feasibility of various approaches to sustainability. The chapters incorporated in this volume consist of real case studies to illustrate the utility of agent-based modeling and complexity theory in discovering a path to more efficient and sustainable lifestyles. The topics covered within include: households' attitudes toward recycling, designing decision trees for representing sustainable behaviors, negotiation-based parking allocation, auction-based traffic signal control, and others. This selection of papers will be of interest to social scientists who wish to learn more about agent-based modeling as well as experts in the field of agent-based modeling.

  12. Agent-Based Optimization

    CERN Document Server

    Jędrzejowicz, Piotr; Kacprzyk, Janusz

    2013-01-01

    This volume presents a collection of original research works by leading specialists focusing on novel and promising approaches in which the multi-agent system paradigm is used to support, enhance or replace traditional approaches to solving difficult optimization problems. The editors have invited several well-known specialists to present their solutions, tools, and models falling under the common denominator of the agent-based optimization. The book consists of eight chapters covering examples of application of the multi-agent paradigm and respective customized tools to solve  difficult optimization problems arising in different areas such as machine learning, scheduling, transportation and, more generally, distributed and cooperative problem solving.

  13. Agent-oriented software engineering reflections on architectures, methodologies, languages, and frameworks

    CERN Document Server

    Shehory, Onn

    2014-01-01

    With this book, Onn Shehory and Arnon Sturm, together with further contributors, introduce the reader to various facets of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE). They provide a selected collection of state-of-the-art findings, which combines research from information systems, artificial intelligence, distributed systems and software engineering and covers essential development aspects of agent-based systems. The book chapters are organized into five parts. The first part introduces the AOSE domain in general, including introduction to agents and the peculiarities of software engineerin

  14. Multifunctional hybrids for electromagnetic absorption

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huynen, I.; Quievy, N.; Bailly, C.; Bollen, P.; Detrembleur, C.; Eggermont, S.; Molenberg, I.; Thomassin, J.M.; Urbanczyk, L.

    2011-01-01

    Highlights: → EM absorption requires low dielectric constant and ∼1 S/m electrical conductivity. → New hybrids were processed with CNT-filled polymer foam inserted in Al honeycomb. → The EM absorption in the GHz range is superior to any known material. → A closed form model is used to guide the design of the hybrid. → The architectured material is light with potential for thermal management. - Abstract: Electromagnetic (EM) interferences are ubiquitous in modern technologies and impact on the reliability of electronic devices and on living cells. Shielding by EM absorption, which is preferable over reflection in certain instances, requires combining a low dielectric constant with high electrical conductivity, which are antagonist properties in the world of materials. A novel class of hybrid materials for EM absorption in the gigahertz range has been developed based on a hierarchical architecture involving a metallic honeycomb filled with a carbon nanotube-reinforced polymer foam. The waveguide characteristics of the honeycomb combined with the performance of the foam lead to unexpectedly large EM power absorption over a wide frequency range, superior to any known material. The peak absorption frequency can be tuned by varying the shape of the honeycomb unit cell. A closed form model of the EM reflection and absorption provides a tool for the optimization of the hybrid. This designed material sets the stage for a new class of sandwich panels combining high EM absorption with mass efficiency, stiffness and thermal management.

  15. Face recognition: database acquisition, hybrid algorithms, and human studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gutta, Srinivas; Huang, Jeffrey R.; Singh, Dig; Wechsler, Harry

    1997-02-01

    One of the most important technologies absent in traditional and emerging frontiers of computing is the management of visual information. Faces are accessible `windows' into the mechanisms that govern our emotional and social lives. The corresponding face recognition tasks considered herein include: (1) Surveillance, (2) CBIR, and (3) CBIR subject to correct ID (`match') displaying specific facial landmarks such as wearing glasses. We developed robust matching (`classification') and retrieval schemes based on hybrid classifiers and showed their feasibility using the FERET database. The hybrid classifier architecture consist of an ensemble of connectionist networks--radial basis functions-- and decision trees. The specific characteristics of our hybrid architecture include (a) query by consensus as provided by ensembles of networks for coping with the inherent variability of the image formation and data acquisition process, and (b) flexible and adaptive thresholds as opposed to ad hoc and hard thresholds. Experimental results, proving the feasibility of our approach, yield (i) 96% accuracy, using cross validation (CV), for surveillance on a data base consisting of 904 images (ii) 97% accuracy for CBIR tasks, on a database of 1084 images, and (iii) 93% accuracy, using CV, for CBIR subject to correct ID match tasks on a data base of 200 images.

  16. A Tokenization-Based Communication Architecture for HCE-Enabled NFC Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Busra Ozdenizci

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Following the announcement of Host Card Emulation (HCE technology, card emulation mode based Near Field Communication (NFC services have gained further appreciation as an enabler of the Cloud-based Secure Element (SE concept. A comprehensive and complete architecture with a centralized and feasible business model for diverse HCE-based NFC services will be highly appreciated, particularly by Service Providers and users. To satisfy the need in this new emerging research area, a Tokenization-based communication architecture for HCE-based NFC services is presented in this paper. Our architecture proposes Two-Phased Tokenization to enable the identity management of both user and Service Provider. NFC Smartphone users can store, manage, and make use of their sensitive data on the Cloud for NFC services; Service Providers can also provide diverse card emulation NFC services easily through the proposed architecture. In this paper, we initially present the Two-Phased Tokenization model and then validate the proposed architecture by providing a case study on access control. We further evaluate the usability aspect in terms of an authentication scheme. We then discuss the ecosystem and business model comprised of the proposed architecture and emphasize the contributions to ecosystem actors. Finally, suggestions are provided for data protection in transit and at rest.

  17. The hybrid thermography approach applied to architectural structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sfarra, S.; Ambrosini, D.; Paoletti, D.; Nardi, I.; Pasqualoni, G.

    2017-07-01

    This work contains an overview of infrared thermography (IRT) method and its applications relating to the investigation of architectural structures. In this method, the passive approach is usually used in civil engineering, since it provides a panoramic view of the thermal anomalies to be interpreted also thanks to the use of photographs focused on the region of interest (ROI). The active approach, is more suitable for laboratory or indoor inspections, as well as for objects having a small size. The external stress to be applied is thermal, coming from non-natural apparatus such as lamps or hot / cold air jets. In addition, the latter permits to obtain quantitative information related to defects not detectable to the naked eyes. Very recently, the hybrid thermography (HIRT) approach has been introduced to the attention of the scientific panorama. It can be applied when the radiation coming from the sun, directly arrives (i.e., possibly without the shadow cast effect) on a surface exposed to the air. A large number of thermograms must be collected and a post-processing analysis is subsequently applied via advanced algorithms. Therefore, an appraisal of the defect depth can be obtained passing through the calculation of the combined thermal diffusivity of the materials above the defect. The approach is validated herein by working, in a first stage, on a mosaic sample having known defects while, in a second stage, on a Church built in L'Aquila (Italy) and covered with a particular masonry structure called apparecchio aquilano. The results obtained appear promising.

  18. Modeling the Internet of Things, Self-Organizing and Other Complex Adaptive Communication Networks: A Cognitive Agent-Based Computing Approach.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samreen Laghari

    Full Text Available Computer Networks have a tendency to grow at an unprecedented scale. Modern networks involve not only computers but also a wide variety of other interconnected devices ranging from mobile phones to other household items fitted with sensors. This vision of the "Internet of Things" (IoT implies an inherent difficulty in modeling problems.It is practically impossible to implement and test all scenarios for large-scale and complex adaptive communication networks as part of Complex Adaptive Communication Networks and Environments (CACOONS. The goal of this study is to explore the use of Agent-based Modeling as part of the Cognitive Agent-based Computing (CABC framework to model a Complex communication network problem.We use Exploratory Agent-based Modeling (EABM, as part of the CABC framework, to develop an autonomous multi-agent architecture for managing carbon footprint in a corporate network. To evaluate the application of complexity in practical scenarios, we have also introduced a company-defined computer usage policy.The conducted experiments demonstrated two important results: Primarily CABC-based modeling approach such as using Agent-based Modeling can be an effective approach to modeling complex problems in the domain of IoT. Secondly, the specific problem of managing the Carbon footprint can be solved using a multiagent system approach.

  19. Modeling the Internet of Things, Self-Organizing and Other Complex Adaptive Communication Networks: A Cognitive Agent-Based Computing Approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laghari, Samreen; Niazi, Muaz A

    2016-01-01

    Computer Networks have a tendency to grow at an unprecedented scale. Modern networks involve not only computers but also a wide variety of other interconnected devices ranging from mobile phones to other household items fitted with sensors. This vision of the "Internet of Things" (IoT) implies an inherent difficulty in modeling problems. It is practically impossible to implement and test all scenarios for large-scale and complex adaptive communication networks as part of Complex Adaptive Communication Networks and Environments (CACOONS). The goal of this study is to explore the use of Agent-based Modeling as part of the Cognitive Agent-based Computing (CABC) framework to model a Complex communication network problem. We use Exploratory Agent-based Modeling (EABM), as part of the CABC framework, to develop an autonomous multi-agent architecture for managing carbon footprint in a corporate network. To evaluate the application of complexity in practical scenarios, we have also introduced a company-defined computer usage policy. The conducted experiments demonstrated two important results: Primarily CABC-based modeling approach such as using Agent-based Modeling can be an effective approach to modeling complex problems in the domain of IoT. Secondly, the specific problem of managing the Carbon footprint can be solved using a multiagent system approach.

  20. Digital column readout architectures for hybrid pixel detector readout chips

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poikela, T; Plosila, J; Westerlund, T; Buytaert, J; Campbell, M; Gaspari, M De; Llopart, X; Wyllie, K; Gromov, V; Kluit, R; Beuzekom, M van; Zappon, F; Zivkovic, V; Brezina, C; Desch, K; Fu, Y; Kruth, A

    2014-01-01

    In this paper, two digital column architectures suitable for sparse readout of data from a pixel matrix in trigger-less applications are presented. Each architecture reads out a pixel matrix of 256 x 256 pixels with a pixel pitch of 55 μm. The first architecture has been implemented in the Timepix3 chip, and this is presented together with initial measurements. Simulation results and measured data are compared. The second architecture has been designed for Velopix, a readout chip planned for the LHCb VELO upgrade. Unlike Timepix3, this has to be tolerant to radiation-induced single-event effects. Results from post-layout simulations are shown with the circuit architectures

  1. A Reusable Software Architecture for Small Satellite AOCS Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alminde, Lars; Bendtsen, Jan Dimon; Laursen, Karl Kaas

    2006-01-01

    This paper concerns the software architecture called Sophy, which is an abbreviation for Simulation, Observation, and Planning in HYbrid systems. We present a framework that allows execution of hybrid dynamical systems in an on-line distributed computing environment, which includes interaction...... with both hardware and on-board software. Some of the key issues addressed by the framework are automatic translation of mathematical specifications of hybrid systems into executable software entities, management of execution of coupled models in a parallel distributed environment, as well as interaction...... with external components, hardware and/or software, through generic interfaces. Sophy is primarily intended as a tool for development of model based reusable software for the control and autonomous functions of satellites and/or satellite clusters....

  2. Motivation, students' needs and learning outcomes: a hybrid game-based app for enhanced language learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berns, Anke; Isla-Montes, José-Luis; Palomo-Duarte, Manuel; Dodero, Juan-Manuel

    2016-01-01

    In the context of European Higher Education students face an increasing focus on independent, individual learning-at the expense of face-to-face interaction. Hence learners are, all too often, not provided with enough opportunities to negotiate in the target language. The current case study aims to address this reality by going beyond conventional approaches to provide students with a hybrid game-based app, combining individual and collaborative learning opportunities. The 4-week study was carried out with 104 German language students (A1.2 CEFR) who had previously been enrolled in a first-semester A1.1 level course at a Spanish university. The VocabTrainerA1 app-designed specifically for this study-harnesses the synergy of combining individual learning tasks and a collaborative murder mystery game in a hybrid level-based architecture. By doing so, the app provides learners with opportunities to apply their language skills to real-life-like communication. The purpose of the study was twofold: on one hand we aimed to measure learner motivation, perceived usefulness and added value of hybrid game-based apps; on the other, we sought to determine their impact on language learning. To this end, we conducted focus group interviews and an anonymous Technology Acceptance Model survey (TAM). In addition, students took a pre-test and a post-test. Scores from both tests were compared with the results obtained in first-semester conventional writing tasks, with a view to measure learning outcomes. The study provides qualitative and quantitative data supporting our initial hypotheses. Our findings suggest that hybrid game-based apps like VocabTrainerA1-which seamlessly combine individual and collaborative learning tasks-motivate learners, stimulate perceived usefulness and added value, and better meet the language learning needs of today's digital natives. In terms of acceptance, outcomes and sustainability, the data indicate that hybrid game-based apps significantly improve

  3. Model-based safety architecture framework for complex systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schuitemaker, Katja; Rajabali Nejad, Mohammadreza; Braakhuis, J.G.; Podofillini, Luca; Sudret, Bruno; Stojadinovic, Bozidar; Zio, Enrico; Kröger, Wolfgang

    2015-01-01

    The shift to transparency and rising need of the general public for safety, together with the increasing complexity and interdisciplinarity of modern safety-critical Systems of Systems (SoS) have resulted in a Model-Based Safety Architecture Framework (MBSAF) for capturing and sharing architectural

  4. A hybrid society model for simulating residential electricity consumption

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xu, Minjie; Hu, Zhaoguang; Wu, Junyong; Zhou, Yuhui

    2008-01-01

    In this paper, a hybrid social model of econometric model and social influence model is proposed for evaluating the influence of pricing policy and public education policy on residential habit of electricity using in power resources management. And, a hybrid society simulation platform based on the proposed model, called residential electricity consumption multi-agent systems (RECMAS), is designed for simulating residential electricity consumption by multi-agent system. RECMAS is composed of consumer agent, power supplier agent, and policy maker agent. It provides the policy makers with a useful tool to evaluate power price policies and public education campaigns in different scenarios. According to an influenced diffusion mechanism, RECMAS can simulate the residential electricity demand-supply chain and analyze impacts of the factors on residential electricity consumption. Finally, the proposed method is used to simulate urban residential electricity consumption in China. (author)

  5. A hybrid society model for simulating residential electricity consumption

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xu, Minjie [School of Electrical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing (China); State Power Economic Research Institute, Beijing (China); Hu, Zhaoguang [State Power Economic Research Institute, Beijing (China); Wu, Junyong; Zhou, Yuhui [School of Electrical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing (China)

    2008-12-15

    In this paper, a hybrid social model of econometric model and social influence model is proposed for evaluating the influence of pricing policy and public education policy on residential habit of electricity using in power resources management. And, a hybrid society simulation platform based on the proposed model, called residential electricity consumption multi-agent systems (RECMAS), is designed for simulating residential electricity consumption by multi-agent system. RECMAS is composed of consumer agent, power supplier agent, and policy maker agent. It provides the policy makers with a useful tool to evaluate power price policies and public education campaigns in different scenarios. According to an influenced diffusion mechanism, RECMAS can simulate the residential electricity demand-supply chain and analyze impacts of the factors on residential electricity consumption. Finally, the proposed method is used to simulate urban residential electricity consumption in China. (author)

  6. Memristor-Based Synapse Design and Training Scheme for Neuromorphic Computing Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-06-01

    system level built upon the conventional Von Neumann computer architecture [2][3]. Developing the neuromorphic architecture at chip level by...SCHEME FOR NEUROMORPHIC COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER FA8750-11-2-0046 5b. GRANT NUMBER N/A 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 62788F 6...creation of memristor-based neuromorphic computing architecture. Rather than the existing crossbar-based neuron network designs, we focus on memristor

  7. An Architectural Decision Tool Based on Scenarios and Non-functional Requirements

    OpenAIRE

    Mr. Mahesh Parmar; Prof. W.U. Khan; Dr. Binod Kumar

    2011-01-01

    Software architecture design is often based on architects intuition and previous experience. Little methodological support is available, but there are still no effective solutions to guide the architectural design. The most difficult activity is the transformation from non-functional requirement specification into software architecture. To achieve above things proposed “An Architectural Decision Tool Based on Scenarios and Nonfunctional Requirementsâ€. In this proposed tool scenarios are fi...

  8. Axelrod Model of Social Influence with Cultural Hybridization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radillo-Díaz, Alejandro; Pérez, Luis A.; Del Castillo-Mussot, Marcelo

    2012-10-01

    Since cultural interactions between a pair of social agents involve changes in both individuals, we present simulations of a new model based on Axelrod's homogenization mechanism that includes hybridization or mixture of the agents' features. In this new hybridization model, once a cultural feature of a pair of agents has been chosen for the interaction, the average of the values for this feature is reassigned as the new value for both agents after interaction. Moreover, a parameter representing social tolerance is implemented in order to quantify whether agents are similar enough to engage in interaction, as well as to determine whether they belong to the same cluster of similar agents after the system has reached the frozen state. The transitions from a homogeneous state to a fragmented one decrease in abruptness as tolerance is increased. Additionally, the entropy associated to the system presents a maximum within the transition, the width of which increases as tolerance does. Moreover, a plateau was found inside the transition for a low-tolerance system of agents with only two cultural features.

  9. Intelligent agents in data-intensive computing

    CERN Document Server

    Correia, Luís; Molina, José

    2016-01-01

    This book presents new approaches that advance research in all aspects of agent-based models, technologies, simulations and implementations for data intensive applications. The nine chapters contain a review of recent cross-disciplinary approaches in cloud environments and multi-agent systems, and important formulations of data intensive problems in distributed computational environments together with the presentation of new agent-based tools to handle those problems and Big Data in general. This volume can serve as a reference for students, researchers and industry practitioners working in or interested in joining interdisciplinary work in the areas of data intensive computing and Big Data systems using emergent large-scale distributed computing paradigms. It will also allow newcomers to grasp key concepts and potential solutions on advanced topics of theory, models, technologies, system architectures and implementation of applications in Multi-Agent systems and data intensive computing. .

  10. IMPLEMENTATION OF TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER ARCHITECTURE FOR PHYSICAL HYBRID INDICATOR CHANNEL OF LTE-ADVANCED USING PARTIAL RECONFIGURATION IN ML605 VIRTEX-6 DEVICE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Syed Ameer Abbas

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced is the fourth generation technology to increase the speed of wireless data network. The LTE-A Physical layer provides both data and control information between an enhanced base station and mobile user equipment which is quite complex and consists of a mixture of technologies. Since there is requirement for more resources to accommodate all the channels in a single FPGA, Partial Reconfiguration (PR technique is introduced to configure the total hardware into sub modules that configure and operate in different instants of time. PR enables a part of FPGA to be reconfigured, while the rest continues to function without any interruptions and reduces the hardware resource power and fabric area. This work proposes the realization of transmitter and receiver architecture of Physical Hybrid Indicator Channel (PHICH channel for LTE-A using partial reconfiguration on xc6vlx240tff1156-1 FPGA. The receiver architecture for PHICH is to report the correct reception of uplink user data to the User Equipment (UE in the form of Acknowledgment (ACK, or Negative ACK (NACK in a 1 millisecond duration sub-frame of Long Term Evolution (LTE System. The modules for the different diversities are reconfigured based on the control signals from the transmitter.

  11. Covalent immobilization of lipase onto chitosan-mesoporous silica hybrid nanomaterials by carboxyl functionalized ionic liquids as the coupling agent.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiang, Xinran; Suo, Hongbo; Xu, Chao; Hu, Yi

    2018-05-01

    Chitosan-mesoporous silica SBA-15 hybrid nanomaterials (CTS-SBA-15) were synthesized by means of carboxyl functionalized ionic liquids as the coupling agent. The as-prepared CTS-SBA-15 support was characterized by TEM, FTIR, TG and nitrogen adsorption-desorption techniques. Porcine pancreas lipase (PPL) was then bound to the hybrid nanomaterials by using the cross-linking reagent glutaraldehyde (GA). Further, the parameters like cross-linking concentration, time and ratio of supports to enzyme were optimized. The property of immobilized lipase were tested in detail by enzyme activity assays. The results indicated that the hybrid nanomaterials could form three-dimensional (3D) structure with homogeneous mesoporous structures and immobilized PPL revealed excellent enzymatic performance. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Security Framework for Agent-Based Cloud Computing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K Venkateshwaran

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Agent can play a key role in bringing suitable cloud services to the customer based on their requirements. In agent based cloud computing, agent does negotiation, coordination, cooperation and collaboration on behalf of the customer to make the decisions in efficient manner. However the agent based cloud computing have some security issues like (a. addition of malicious agent in the cloud environment which could demolish the process by attacking other agents, (b. denial of service by creating flooding attacks on other involved agents. (c. Some of the exceptions in the agent interaction protocol such as Not-Understood and Cancel_Meta protocol can be misused and may lead to terminating the connection of all the other agents participating in the negotiating services. Also, this paper proposes algorithms to solve these issues to ensure that there will be no intervention of any malicious activities during the agent interaction.

  13. 3D integration for NoC-based SoC architectures

    CERN Document Server

    Sheibanyrad, Abbas; Pétrot, Frédéric

    2011-01-01

    3D-Integration for NoC-based SoC Architectures gathers the recent advances in the whole domain by renowned experts in the field to build a comprehensive and consistent book around the hot topics of three-dimensional architectures and micro-architectures.

  14. Hydroxyapatite-based porous aggregates: physico-chemical nature, structure, texture and architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fabbri, M; Celotti, G C; Ravaglioli, A

    1995-02-01

    At the request of medical teams from the maxillofacial sector, a highly porous ceramic support based on hydroxyapatite of around 70-80% porosity was produced with a pore size distribution similar to bone texture ( 150 microns, approximately 86 vol%). The ceramic substrates were conceived not only as a fillers for bone cavities, but also for use as drug dispensers and as supports to host cells to produce particular therapeutic agents. A method is suggested to obtain a substrate of high porosity, exploiting the impregnation of spongy substrate with hydroxyapatite ceramic particles. X-ray and scanning electron microscopy analyses were carried out to evaluate the nature of the new ceramic support in comparison with the most common commercial product; pore size distribution and porosity were controlled to known hydroxyapatite ceramic architecture for the different possible uses.

  15. Flexible solid-state supercapacitors based on carbon nanoparticles/MnO2 nanorods hybrid structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, Longyan; Lu, Xi-Hong; Xiao, Xu; Zhai, Teng; Dai, Junjie; Zhang, Fengchao; Hu, Bin; Wang, Xue; Gong, Li; Chen, Jian; Hu, Chenguo; Tong, Yexiang; Zhou, Jun; Wang, Zhong Lin

    2012-01-24

    A highly flexible solid-state supercapacitor was fabricated through a simple flame synthesis method and electrochemical deposition process based on a carbon nanoparticles/MnO(2) nanorods hybrid structure using polyvinyl alcohol/H(3)PO(4) electrolyte. Carbon fabric is used as a current collector and electrode (mechanical support), leading to a simplified, highly flexible, and lightweight architecture. The device exhibited good electrochemical performance with an energy density of 4.8 Wh/kg at a power density of 14 kW/kg, and a demonstration of a practical device is also presented, highlighting the path for its enormous potential in energy management. © 2011 American Chemical Society

  16. A hybrid modelling approach to simulating foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in Australian livestock

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Richard A Bradhurst

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD is a highly contagious and economically important viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals. Australia's freedom from FMD underpins a valuable trade in live animals and animal products. An outbreak of FMD would result in the loss of export markets and cause severe disruption to domestic markets. The prevention of, and contingency planning for, FMD are of key importance to government, industry, producers and the community. The spread and control of FMD is complex and dynamic due to a highly contagious multi-host pathogen operating in a heterogeneous environment across multiple jurisdictions. Epidemiological modelling is increasingly being recognized as a valuable tool for investigating the spread of disease under different conditions and the effectiveness of control strategies. Models of infectious disease can be broadly classified as: population-based models that are formulated from the top-down and employ population-level relationships to describe individual-level behaviour, individual-based models that are formulated from the bottom-up and aggregate individual-level behaviour to reveal population-level relationships, or hybrid models which combine the two approaches into a single model.The Australian Animal Disease Spread (AADIS hybrid model employs a deterministic equation-based model (EBM to model within-herd spread of FMD, and a stochastic, spatially-explicit agent-based model (ABM to model between-herd spread and control. The EBM provides concise and computationally efficient predictions of herd prevalence and clinical signs over time. The ABM captures the complex, stochastic and heterogeneous environment in which an FMD epidemic operates. The AADIS event-driven hybrid EBM/ABM architecture is a flexible, efficient and extensible framework for modelling the spread and control of disease in livestock on a national scale. We present an overview of the AADIS hybrid approach and a description of the model

  17. Cloud Based Big Data Infrastructure: Architectural Components and Automated Provisioning

    OpenAIRE

    Demchenko, Yuri; Turkmen, Fatih; Blanchet, Christophe; Loomis, Charles; Laat, Caees de

    2016-01-01

    This paper describes the general architecture and functional components of the cloud based Big Data Infrastructure (BDI). The proposed BDI architecture is based on the analysis of the emerging Big Data and data intensive technologies and supported by the definition of the Big Data Architecture Framework (BDAF) that defines the following components of the Big Data technologies: Big Data definition, Data Management including data lifecycle and data structures, Big Data Infrastructure (generical...

  18. Global Optimization Based on the Hybridization of Harmony Search and Particle Swarm Optimization Methods

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. P. Karpenko

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We consider a class of stochastic search algorithms of global optimization which in various publications are called behavioural, intellectual, metaheuristic, inspired by the nature, swarm, multi-agent, population, etc. We use the last term.Experience in using the population algorithms to solve challenges of global optimization shows that application of one such algorithm may not always effective. Therefore now great attention is paid to hybridization of population algorithms of global optimization. Hybrid algorithms unite various algorithms or identical algorithms, but with various values of free parameters. Thus efficiency of one algorithm can compensate weakness of another.The purposes of the work are development of hybrid algorithm of global optimization based on known algorithms of harmony search (HS and swarm of particles (PSO, software implementation of algorithm, study of its efficiency using a number of known benchmark problems, and a problem of dimensional optimization of truss structure.We set a problem of global optimization, consider basic algorithms of HS and PSO, give a flow chart of the offered hybrid algorithm called PSO HS , present results of computing experiments with developed algorithm and software, formulate main results of work and prospects of its development.

  19. Cognitive architectures: choreographing the dance of mental operations with the task environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Wayne D

    2008-06-01

    In this article, I present the ideas and trends that have given rise to the use of cognitive architectures in human factors and provide a cognitive engineering-oriented taxonomy of these architectures and a snapshot of their use for cognitive engineering. Architectures of cognition have had a long history in human factors but a brief past. The long history entails a 50-year preamble, whereas the explosion of work in the current decade reflects the brief past. Understanding this history is key to understanding the current and future prospects for applying cognitive science theory to human factors practice. The review defines three formative eras in cognitive engineering research: the 1950s, 1980s, and now. In the first era, the fledging fields of cognitive science and human factors emphasized characteristics of the dancer the limited capacity or bounded rationality view of the mind, and the ballroom, the task environment. The second era emphasized the dance (i.e., the dynamic interaction between mental operations and task environment). The third era has seen the rise of cognitive architectures as tools for choreographing the dance of mental operations within the complex environments posed by human factors practice. Hybrid architectures present the best vector for introducing cognitive science theories into a renewed engineering-based human factors. The taxonomy provided in this article may provide guidance on when and whether to apply a cognitive science or a hybrid architecture to a human factors issue.

  20. A High-Level Functional Architecture for GNSS-Based Road Charging Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zabic, Martina

    2011-01-01

    , a short introduction is provided followed by a presentation of the system engineering methodology to illustrate how and why system architectures can be beneficial for GNSS-based road charging systems. Hereafter, a basic set of system functions is determined based on functional system requirements, which...... charging systems, it is important to highlight the overall system architecture which is the framework that defines the basic functions and important concepts of the system. This paper presents a functional architecture for GNSS-based road charging systems based on the concepts of system engineering. First...... defines the necessary tasks that these systems must accomplish. Finally, this paper defines the system functionalities; and provides a generic high-level functional architecture for GNSS-based road charging systems....

  1. Econophysics of agent-based models

    CERN Document Server

    Aoyama, Hideaki; Chakrabarti, Bikas; Chakraborti, Anirban; Ghosh, Asim

    2014-01-01

    The primary goal of this book is to present the research findings and conclusions of physicists, economists, mathematicians and financial engineers working in the field of "Econophysics" who have undertaken agent-based modelling, comparison with empirical studies and related investigations. Most standard economic models assume the existence of the representative agent, who is “perfectly rational” and applies the utility maximization principle when taking action. One reason for this is the desire to keep models mathematically tractable: no tools are available to economists for solving non-linear models of heterogeneous adaptive agents without explicit optimization. In contrast, multi-agent models, which originated from statistical physics considerations, allow us to go beyond the prototype theories of traditional economics involving the representative agent. This book is based on the Econophys-Kolkata VII Workshop, at which many such modelling efforts were presented. In the book, leading researchers in the...

  2. Spherical Nucleic Acids as Intracellular Agents for Nucleic Acid Based Therapeutics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Liangliang

    Recent functional discoveries on the noncoding sequences of human genome and transcriptome could lead to revolutionary treatment modalities because the noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) can be applied as therapeutic agents to manipulate disease-causing genes. To date few nucleic acid-based therapeutics have been translated into the clinic due to challenges in the delivery of the oligonucleotide agents in an effective, cell specific, and non-toxic fashion. Unmodified oligonucleotide agents are destroyed rapidly in biological fluids by enzymatic degradation and have difficulty crossing the plasma membrane without the aid of transfection reagents, which often cause inflammatory, cytotoxic, or immunogenic side effects. Spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), nanoparticles consisting of densely organized and highly oriented oligonucleotides, pose one possible solution to circumventing these problems in both the antisense and RNA interference (RNAi) pathways. The unique three dimensional architecture of SNAs protects the bioactive oligonucleotides from unspecific degradation during delivery and supports their targeting of class A scavenger receptors and endocytosis via a lipid-raft-dependent, caveolae-mediated pathway. Owing to their unique structure, SNAs are able to cross cell membranes and regulate target genes expression as a single entity, without triggering the cellular innate immune response. Herein, my thesis has focused on understanding the interactions between SNAs and cellular components and developing SNA-based nanostructures to improve therapeutic capabilities. Specifically, I developed a novel SNA-based, nanoscale agent for delivery of therapeutic oligonucleotides to manipulate microRNAs (miRNAs), the endogenous post-transcriptional gene regulators. I investigated the role of SNAs involving miRNAs in anti-cancer or anti-inflammation responses in cells and in in vivo murine disease models via systemic injection. Furthermore, I explored using different strategies to construct

  3. Intelligent web agents for a 3D virtual community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dave, T. M.; Zhang, Yanqing; Owen, G. S. S.; Sunderraman, Rajshekhar

    2003-08-01

    In this paper, we propose an Avatar-based intelligent agent technique for 3D Web based Virtual Communities based on distributed artificial intelligence, intelligent agent techniques, and databases and knowledge bases in a digital library. One of the goals of this joint NSF (IIS-9980130) and ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee (ASEC) project is to create a virtual community of educators and students who have a common interest in comptuer graphics, visualization, and interactive techniqeus. In this virtual community (ASEC World) Avatars will represent the educators, students, and other visitors to the world. Intelligent agents represented as specially dressed Avatars will be available to assist the visitors to ASEC World. The basic Web client-server architecture of the intelligent knowledge-based avatars is given. Importantly, the intelligent Web agent software system for the 3D virtual community is implemented successfully.

  4. Irrigation System through Intelligent Agents Implemented with Arduino Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodolfo SALAZAR

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The water has become in recent years a valuable and increasingly scarce. Its proper use in agriculture has demanded incorporate new technologies, mainly in the area of ICT. In this paper we present a smart irrigation system based on multi-agent architecture using fuzzy logic. The architecture incorporates different types of intelligent agents that an autonomous way monitor and are responsible for deciding if required enable / disable the irrigation system. This project proposes a real and innovative solution to the problem of inadequate water use with current irrigation systems employed in agricultural projects. This article presents the different technologies used, their adaptation to the solution of the problem and briefly discusses the first results obtained.

  5. Universal discrete Fourier optics RF photonic integrated circuit architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Trevor J; Hasan, Mehedi

    2016-04-04

    This paper describes a coherent electro-optic circuit architecture that generates a frequency comb consisting of N spatially separated orders using a generalised Mach-Zenhder interferometer (MZI) with its N × 1 combiner replaced by an optical N × N Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). Advantage may be taken of the tight optical path-length control, component and circuit symmetries and emerging trimming algorithms offered by photonic integration in any platform that offers linear electro-optic phase modulation such as LiNbO3, silicon, III-V or hybrid technology. The circuit architecture subsumes all MZI-based RF photonic circuit architectures in the prior art given an appropriate choice of output port(s) and dimension N although the principal application envisaged is phase correlated subcarrier generation for all optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. A transfer matrix approach is used to model the operation of the architecture. The predictions of the model are validated by simulations performed using an industry standard software tool. Implementation is found to be practical.

  6. Agent-Based Modeling of China's Rural-Urban Migration and Social Network Structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Zhaohao; Hao, Lingxin

    2018-01-15

    We analyze China's rural-urban migration and endogenous social network structures using agent-based modeling. The agents from census micro data are located in their rural origin with an empirical-estimated prior propensity to move. The population-scale social network is a hybrid one, combining observed family ties and locations of the origin with a parameter space calibrated from census, survey and aggregate data and sampled using a stepwise Latin Hypercube Sampling method. At monthly intervals, some agents migrate and these migratory acts change the social network by turning within-nonmigrant connections to between-migrant-nonmigrant connections, turning local connections to nonlocal connections, and adding among-migrant connections. In turn, the changing social network structure updates migratory propensities of those well-connected nonmigrants who become more likely to move. These two processes iterate over time. Using a core-periphery method developed from the k -core decomposition method, we identify and quantify the network structural changes and map these changes with the migration acceleration patterns. We conclude that network structural changes are essential for explaining migration acceleration observed in China during the 1995-2000 period.

  7. Agent-based modeling of China's rural-urban migration and social network structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Zhaohao; Hao, Lingxin

    2018-01-01

    We analyze China's rural-urban migration and endogenous social network structures using agent-based modeling. The agents from census micro data are located in their rural origin with an empirical-estimated prior propensity to move. The population-scale social network is a hybrid one, combining observed family ties and locations of the origin with a parameter space calibrated from census, survey and aggregate data and sampled using a stepwise Latin Hypercube Sampling method. At monthly intervals, some agents migrate and these migratory acts change the social network by turning within-nonmigrant connections to between-migrant-nonmigrant connections, turning local connections to nonlocal connections, and adding among-migrant connections. In turn, the changing social network structure updates migratory propensities of those well-connected nonmigrants who become more likely to move. These two processes iterate over time. Using a core-periphery method developed from the k-core decomposition method, we identify and quantify the network structural changes and map these changes with the migration acceleration patterns. We conclude that network structural changes are essential for explaining migration acceleration observed in China during the 1995-2000 period.

  8. Bespoke Materials For Bespoke Textile Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tamke, Martin; Baranovskaya, Yuliya; Holden Deleuran, Anders

    2016-01-01

    Membrane architecture uses currently off the shelf materials and produces the shapes and details through cutting and laborsome joining of textile patterns. This paper discusses investigations into an alternative material practice - knit - which engages bespoke membrane materials. A practice which...... allows for customised and graded material properties, the direct fabrication of shaped patterns and the integration of detailing directly into the membrane material. Based on two demonstrators built as hybrids of bespoke CNC knit and bending active GFRP rods this paper discusses the affordances...

  9. Control Demonstration of Multiple Doubly-Fed Induction Motors for Hybrid Electric Propulsion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadey, David J.; Bodson, Marc; Csank, Jeffrey T.; Hunker, Keith R.; Theman, Casey J.; Taylor, Linda M.

    2017-01-01

    The Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) High Voltage-Hybrid Electric Propulsion (HVHEP) task was formulated to support the move into future hybrid-electric aircraft. The goal of this project is to develop a new AC power architecture to support the needs of higher efficiency and lower emissions. This proposed architecture will adopt the use of the doubly-fed induction machine (DFIM) for propulsor drive motor application.The Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) High Voltage-Hybrid Electric Propulsion (HVHEP) task was formulated to support the move into future hybrid-electric aircraft. The goal of this project is to develop a new AC power architecture to support the needs of higher efficiency and lower emissions. This proposed architecture will adopt the use of the doubly-fed induction machine (DFIM) for propulsor drive motor application. DFIMs are attractive for several reasons, including but not limited to the ability to self-start, ability to operate sub- and super-synchronously, and requiring only fractionally rated power converters on a per-unit basis depending on the required range of operation. The focus of this paper is based specifically on the presentation and analysis of a novel strategy which allows for independent operation of each of the aforementioned doubly-fed induction motors. This strategy includes synchronization, soft-start, and closed loop speed control of each motor as a means of controlling output thrust; be it concurrently or differentially. The demonstration of this strategy has recently been proven out on a low power test bed using fractional horsepower machines. Simulation and hardware test results are presented in the paper.

  10. AN AUTOMATED END-TO-END MULTI-AGENT QOS BASED ARCHITECTURE FOR SELECTION OF GEOSPATIAL WEB SERVICES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Shah

    2012-07-01

    With the proliferation of web services published over the internet, multiple web services may provide similar functionality, but with different non-functional properties. Thus, Quality of Service (QoS offers a metric to differentiate the services and their service providers. In a quality-driven selection of web services, it is important to consider non-functional properties of the web service so as to satisfy the constraints or requirements of the end users. The main intent of this paper is to build an automated end-to-end multi-agent based solution to provide the best-fit web service to service requester based on QoS.

  11. Design for scalability in 3D computer graphics architectures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Holten-Lund, Hans Erik

    2002-01-01

    This thesis describes useful methods and techniques for designing scalable hybrid parallel rendering architectures for 3D computer graphics. Various techniques for utilizing parallelism in a pipelines system are analyzed. During the Ph.D study a prototype 3D graphics architecture named Hybris has...

  12. Hybrid VLSI/QCA Architecture for Computing FFTs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fijany, Amir; Toomarian, Nikzad; Modarres, Katayoon; Spotnitz, Matthew

    2003-01-01

    A data-processor architecture that would incorporate elements of both conventional very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuitry and quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) has been proposed to enable the highly parallel and systolic computation of fast Fourier transforms (FFTs). The proposed circuit would complement the QCA-based circuits described in several prior NASA Tech Briefs articles, namely Implementing Permutation Matrices by Use of Quantum Dots (NPO-20801), Vol. 25, No. 10 (October 2001), page 42; Compact Interconnection Networks Based on Quantum Dots (NPO-20855) Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 2003), page 32; and Bit-Serial Adder Based on Quantum Dots (NPO-20869), Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 2003), page 35. The cited prior articles described the limitations of very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuitry and the major potential advantage afforded by QCA. To recapitulate: In a VLSI circuit, signal paths that are required not to interact with each other must not cross in the same plane. In contrast, for reasons too complex to describe in the limited space available for this article, suitably designed and operated QCAbased signal paths that are required not to interact with each other can nevertheless be allowed to cross each other in the same plane without adverse effect. In principle, this characteristic could be exploited to design compact, coplanar, simple (relative to VLSI) QCA-based networks to implement complex, advanced interconnection schemes.

  13. Network Management using Multi-Agents System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nestor DUQUE

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to present a multiagent system for network management. The models developed for the proposed system defines certain intelligent agents interact to achieve the objectives and requirements of the multiagent organization.These agents have the property of being adaptive, acquire knowledge and skills to make decisions according to the actual state of the network that is represented in the information base, MIB, SNMP devices. The ideal state of the network policy is defined by the end user entered, which contain the value that should have performance variables and other parameters such as the frequency with which these variables should be monitored.. An agent based architecture increase the integration, adaptability, cooperation, autonomy and the efficient operation in heterogeneous environment in the network supervision. 

  14. Network Management using Multi-Agents System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo ISAZA

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to present a multiagent system for network management. The models developed for the proposed system defines certain intelligent agents interact to achieve the objectives and requirements of the multiagent organization.These agents have the property of being adaptive, acquire knowledge and skills to make decisions according to the actual state of the network that is represented in the information base, MIB, SNMP devices. The ideal state of the network policy is defined by the end user entered, which contain the value that should have performance variables and other parameters such as the frequency with which these variables should be monitored.. An agent based architecture increase the integration, adaptability, cooperation, autonomy and the efficient operation in heterogeneous environment in the network supervision. 

  15. A hybrid Multi Agent System architecture for distributed supervision of chronic patients in the eHealth setting

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Blanson Henkemans, O.A.; Bonacina, S.; Cappiello, N.; Mast, C.A.P.G. van der; Neerincx, M.A.; Pinciroli, F.

    2007-01-01

    eHealth, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the health sector, enhances today's health care environment. In particular, the use of Multi Agent System (MAS) technology, an aspect of ICT, can further contribute to the improvement of health care. Exceptional integration of

  16. Study on Optimization of I and C Architecture for Research Reactors Using Bayesian Networks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rahman, Khaili Ur; Shin, Jinsoo; Heo, Gyunyoung [Kyung Hee Univ., Yongin (Korea, Republic of)

    2013-07-01

    The optimization in terms of redundancy of modules and components in Instrumentation and Control (I and C) architecture is based on cost and availability assuming regulatory requirements are satisfied. The motive of this study is to find an optimized I and C architecture, either in hybrid formation, fully digital or analog, with respect to system availability and relative cost of architecture. The cost of research reactors I and C systems is prone to have effect on marketing competitiveness. As a demonstrative example, the reactor protection system of research reactors is selected. The four cases with different architecture formation were developed with single and double redundancy of bi-stable modules, coincidence processor module, and safety or protection circuit actuation logic. The architecture configurations are transformed to reliability block diagram (RBD) based on logical operation and function of modules. A Bayesian Network (BN) model is constructed from RBD to assess availability. The cost estimation was proposed and reliability cost index RI was suggested.

  17. Study on Optimization of I and C Architecture for Research Reactors Using Bayesian Networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rahman, Khaili Ur; Shin, Jinsoo; Heo, Gyunyoung

    2013-01-01

    The optimization in terms of redundancy of modules and components in Instrumentation and Control (I and C) architecture is based on cost and availability assuming regulatory requirements are satisfied. The motive of this study is to find an optimized I and C architecture, either in hybrid formation, fully digital or analog, with respect to system availability and relative cost of architecture. The cost of research reactors I and C systems is prone to have effect on marketing competitiveness. As a demonstrative example, the reactor protection system of research reactors is selected. The four cases with different architecture formation were developed with single and double redundancy of bi-stable modules, coincidence processor module, and safety or protection circuit actuation logic. The architecture configurations are transformed to reliability block diagram (RBD) based on logical operation and function of modules. A Bayesian Network (BN) model is constructed from RBD to assess availability. The cost estimation was proposed and reliability cost index RI was suggested

  18. Three essays in agent-based macroeconomics

    OpenAIRE

    Canzian, Giulia

    2009-01-01

    The dissertation is aimed at offering an insight into the agent-based methodology and its possible application to the macroeconomic analysis. Relying on this methodology, I deal with three different issues concerning heterogeneity of economic agents, bounded rationality and interaction. Specifically, the first chapter is devoted to describe the distinctive characteristics of agent-based economics and its advantages-disadvantages. In the second chapter I propose a credit market framework c...

  19. A modular function architecture for adaptive and predictive energy management in hybrid electric vehicles; Eine modulare Funktionsarchitektur fuer adaptives und vorausschauendes Energiemanagement in Hybridfahrzeugen

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wilde, Andreas

    2009-10-27

    Due to the relatively low energy density of electrical energy storage devices, the control strategy of hybrid electric vehicles has to fulfil a variety of requirements in order to provide both, the availability of hybrid functions, and their efficient execution. Energy consuming functions such as electric drive or electric boost need a high amount of energy stored in the battery. On the other hand for the optimum use of the energy regeneration function a lower state of charge is preferable in order to enable storage of the kinetic energy of the vehicle in all situations, including upon deceleration from high speeds or downhill driving. These diverging requirements yield a conflict of objectives for the charging strategy of hybrid electric vehicles. This work proposes a way to overcome the restrictions on efficiency in hybrid electric vehicles without deteriorating overall driving performance by charging or discharging the traction battery, and by setting the energy management parametres according to the current and forthcoming driving situation. Specific charging and electric drive strategies are presented for various driving situations which are identified by sensors such as navigation systems, cameras or radar. Necessary sensor data fusion methods for driving situation identification are described and a modular function architecture for predictive energy management is derived that is plug-and-play compatible with a broad fleet of vehicles. In order to evaluate its potential, this work also focuses on the simulation of the energy functions and their implementation into an experimental vehicle. This allows measurements under real traffic conditions and a sensivity analysis of the main module interactions within the architecture. (orig.)

  20. An architecture for message exchange in pervasive healthcare based on the use of intelligent agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cavalini, L.T.; Cardoso de Moraes, J.L.; Lopes de Souza, Wanderley; Ferreira Pires, Luis; Cavalini, Luciana Tricai; do Prado, Antonio Francisco

    2013-01-01

    Aims: This paper proposes an architecture for the exchange of context-aware messages in Pervasive Healthcare environments. Materials and methods: In Pervasive Healthcare, novel information and communication technologies are applied to support the provision of health services anywhere, at anytime,

  1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTELLECTUAL AGENT-ORIENTED SYSTEM FOR DECISION SUPPORT AT ENTERPRISE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Chornous

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Actual status of management confirms usefulness and necessity for development of scientific modeling tools for decision-making processes based on distributed artificial intelligence. The paper presents opportunities of the agent – oriented approach to support operative and strategic management decisions at the pharmaceutical enterprise. It is argued that the combination of intelligent agents technology and Data Mining (DM produces a powerful synergistic effect. The basis of the intellectual agent – oriented DSS (AODSS is proposed to put a hybrid approach to the use of DM. Hybrid intelligent AODSS is represented numerous network of small agents, it provides concurrent operation execution, solutions distribution, knowledge management. Agents can be divided into groups: data agents, monitoring agents, agents for solutions search, modeling agents, impact agents and presentations agents. The result of research is development of AODSS created as a multi-level system wherein the project, process and environment levels are intercommunicated. The combination of intelligent technologies in AODSS allows involve rules, cases, a wide range of DM methods and models. The paper proposes a variant of AODSS implementation within the real enterprise IT-infrastructure based on SAP NetWeaver. The analysis results of the semi-commercial operation of the system assures that it can improve managerial decisions inasmuch as accuracy, consistency, flexibility, speed together form the basis of actual efficient solutions.

  2. An Integrated System for Disabled People Developed with the Agent Platform PANGEA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carolina ZATO

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available New trends in multi-agent systems call for self-adaptation and high dynamics, hence the new model of open MAS or virtual organization of agents. However, as existing agent platforms are not yet equipped to support this behavior, it is necessary to create new systems and mechanisms to facilitate the development of these new architectures. This article presents PANGEA, an agent platform to develop open multi-agent systems, specifically those including organizational aspects such as virtual agent organizations. The platform allows the integral management of organizations and offers tools to the end user. Additionally, it includes a communication protocol based on the IRC standard, which facilitates implementation and remains robust even with a large number of connections. The introduction of a CommunicationAgent and a Sniffer make it possible to offer Web Services for the distributed control of interaction. In order to test PANGEA, an integral system was developed to help the disabled, gathering a set of easily deployable and integrated services under a single architecture.

  3. Hybrid attacks on model-based social recommender systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Junliang; Gao, Min; Rong, Wenge; Li, Wentao; Xiong, Qingyu; Wen, Junhao

    2017-10-01

    With the growing popularity of the online social platform, the social network based approaches to recommendation emerged. However, because of the open nature of rating systems and social networks, the social recommender systems are susceptible to malicious attacks. In this paper, we present a certain novel attack, which inherits characteristics of the rating attack and the relation attack, and term it hybrid attack. Furtherly, we explore the impact of the hybrid attack on model-based social recommender systems in multiple aspects. The experimental results show that, the hybrid attack is more destructive than the rating attack in most cases. In addition, users and items with fewer ratings will be influenced more when attacked. Last but not the least, the findings suggest that spammers do not depend on the feedback links from normal users to become more powerful, the unilateral links can make the hybrid attack effective enough. Since unilateral links are much cheaper, the hybrid attack will be a great threat to model-based social recommender systems.

  4. Rule-based energy management strategies for hybrid vehicles

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hofman, T.; Druten, van R.M.; Serrarens, A.F.A.; Steinbuch, M.

    2007-01-01

    Int. J. of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles (IJEHV), The highest control layer of a (hybrid) vehicular drive train is termed the Energy Management Strategy (EMS). In this paper an overview of different control methods is given and a new rule-based EMS is introduced based on the combination of Rule-Based

  5. Synthesis-Based Software Architecture Design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tekinerdogan, B.; Aksit, Mehmet; Aksit, Mehmet

    2001-01-01

    During the last decade several architecture design approaches have been introduced. These approaches however have to cope with several obstacles and software architecture design remains a difficult problem. To cope with these obstacles this chapter introduces a novel architecture design approach.

  6. PSG: Peer-to-Peer semantic grid framework architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amira Soliman

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available The grid vision, of sharing diverse resources in a flexible, coordinated and secure manner, strongly depends on metadata. Currently, grid metadata is generated and used in an ad-hoc fashion, much of it buried in the grid middleware code libraries and database schemas. This ad-hoc expression and use of metadata causes chronic dependency on human intervention during the operation of grid machinery. Therefore, the Semantic Grid is emerged as an extension of the grid in which rich resource metadata is exposed and handled explicitly, and shared and managed via grid protocols. The layering of an explicit semantic infrastructure over the grid infrastructure potentially leads to increase interoperability and flexibility. In this paper, we present PSG framework architecture that offers semantic-based grid services. PSG architecture allows the explicit use of semantics and defining the associated grid services. PSG architecture is originated from the integration of Peer-to-Peer (P2P computing with semantics and agents. Ontologies are used in annotating each grid component, developing users/nodes profiles and organizing framework agents. While, P2P is responsible for organizing and coordinating the grid nodes and resources.

  7. Metal complex-based templates and nanostructures for magnetic resonance/optical multimodal imaging agents

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Galindo Millan, Jealemy

    2012-01-01

    In this thesis, new approaches directed towards simple and functional imaging agents (IAs) for magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorescence multimodal imaging are proposed. In Chapter 3, hybrid silver nanostructures (hAgNSs), grown using a polyamino carboxylic acid scaffold, namely

  8. [Supramolecular Agents for Theranostics].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deyev, S M; Lebedenko, E N

    2015-01-01

    This mini-review summarizes recent data obtained in the process of creation of a versatile module platform suitable for construction of supramolecular theranostic agents. As an example, we consider multifunctional hybrid agents for imaging and elimination of cancer cells. The use of an adapter protein system barnase:barstar for producing targeted multifunctional hybrid structures on the basis of highly specific peptides and mini-antibodies as addressing modules and recombinant proteins and/or nanoparticles of different nature (quantum dots, nanogold, magnetic nanoparticles, nanodiamonds, upconverting nanophosphores, polymer nanoparticles) as agents visualizing and damaging cancer cells is described. New perspectives for creation of selective and highly effective compounds for theranostics and personified medicine are contemplated.

  9. Data distribution architecture based on standard real time protocol

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Castro, R.; Vega, J.; Pereira, A.; Portas, A.

    2009-01-01

    Data distribution architecture (DDAR) has been designed conforming to new requirements, taking into account the type of data that is going to be generated from experiments in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The main goal of this architecture is to implement a system that is able to manage on line all data that is being generated by an experiment, supporting its distribution for: processing, storing, analysing or visualizing. The first objective is to have a distribution architecture that supports long pulse experiments (even hours). The described system is able to distribute, using real time protocol (RTP), stored data or live data generated while the experiment is running. It enables researchers to access data on line instead of waiting for the end of the experiment. Other important objective is scalability, so the presented architecture can easily grow based on actual necessities, simplifying estimation and design tasks. A third important objective is security. In this sense, the architecture is based on standards, so complete security mechanisms can be applied, from secure transmission solutions until elaborated access control policies, and it is full compatible with multi-organization federation systems as PAPI or Shibboleth.

  10. Data distribution architecture based on standard real time protocol

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Castro, R. [Asociacion EURATOM/CIEMAT para Fusion, Avda. Complutense No. 22, 28040 Madrid (Spain)], E-mail: rodrigo.castro@ciemat.es; Vega, J.; Pereira, A.; Portas, A. [Asociacion EURATOM/CIEMAT para Fusion, Avda. Complutense No. 22, 28040 Madrid (Spain)

    2009-06-15

    Data distribution architecture (DDAR) has been designed conforming to new requirements, taking into account the type of data that is going to be generated from experiments in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The main goal of this architecture is to implement a system that is able to manage on line all data that is being generated by an experiment, supporting its distribution for: processing, storing, analysing or visualizing. The first objective is to have a distribution architecture that supports long pulse experiments (even hours). The described system is able to distribute, using real time protocol (RTP), stored data or live data generated while the experiment is running. It enables researchers to access data on line instead of waiting for the end of the experiment. Other important objective is scalability, so the presented architecture can easily grow based on actual necessities, simplifying estimation and design tasks. A third important objective is security. In this sense, the architecture is based on standards, so complete security mechanisms can be applied, from secure transmission solutions until elaborated access control policies, and it is full compatible with multi-organization federation systems as PAPI or Shibboleth.

  11. Web based system architecture for long pulse remote experimentation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heras, E. de las; Lastra, D.; Vega, J.; Castro, R.; Ruiz, M.; Barrera, E.

    2010-01-01

    Remote experimentation (RE) methods will be essential in next generation fusion devices. Requirements for long pulse RE will be: on-line data visualization, on-line data acquisition processes monitoring and on-line data acquisition systems interactions (start, stop or set-up modifications). Note that these methods are not oriented to real-time control of fusion plant devices. INDRA Sistemas S.A., CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Tecnologicas) and UPM (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid) have designed a specific software architecture for these purposes. The architecture can be supported on the BeansNet platform, whose integration with an application server provides an adequate solution to the requirements. BeansNet is a JINI based framework developed by INDRA, which makes easy the implementation of a remote experimentation model based on a Service Oriented Architecture. The new software architecture has been designed on the basis of the experience acquired in the development of an upgrade of the TJ-II remote experimentation system.

  12. Position Analysis of a Hybrid Serial-Parallel Manipulator in Immersion Lithography

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jie-jie Shao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a novel hybrid serial-parallel mechanism with 6 degrees of freedom. The new mechanism combines two different parallel modules in a serial form. 3-P̲(PH parallel module is architecture of 3 degrees of freedom based on higher joints and specializes in describing two planes’ relative pose. 3-P̲SP parallel module is typical architecture which has been widely investigated in recent researches. In this paper, the direct-inverse position problems of the 3-P̲SP parallel module in the couple mixed-type mode are analyzed in detail, and the solutions are obtained in an analytical form. Furthermore, the solutions for the direct and inverse position problems of the novel hybrid serial-parallel mechanism are also derived and obtained in the analytical form. The proposed hybrid serial-parallel mechanism is applied to regulate the immersion hood’s pose in an immersion lithography system. Through measuring and regulating the pose of the immersion hood with respect to the wafer surface simultaneously, the immersion hood can track the wafer surface’s pose in real-time and the gap status is stabilized. This is another exploration to hybrid serial-parallel mechanism’s application.

  13. The ABC Adaptive Fusion Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bunde-Pedersen, Jonathan; Mogensen, Martin; Bardram, Jakob Eyvind

    2006-01-01

    Contemporary distributed collaborative systems tend to utilizeeither a client-server or a pure peer-to-peer paradigm. Aclient-server solution may potentially spawn direct connectionsbetween the clients to offload the server thereby creatinga hybrid architecture. A pure peer-to-peer paradigmmay on...

  14. A reconfigurable hybrid supervisory system for process control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcia, H.E.; Ray, A.; Edwards, R.M.

    1994-01-01

    This paper presents a reconfigurable approach to decision and control systems for complex dynamic processes. The proposed supervisory control system is a reconfigurable hybrid architecture structured into three functional levels of hierarchy, namely, execution, supervision, and coordination. While the bottom execution level is constituted by either reconfigurable continuously varying or discrete event systems, the top two levels are necessarily governed by reconfigurable sets of discrete event decision and control systems. Based on the process status, the set of active control and supervisory algorithm is chosen. The reconfigurable hybrid system is briefly described along with a discussion on its implementation at the Experimental Breeder Reactor II of Argonne National Laboratory. A process control application of this hybrid system is presented and evaluated in an in-plant experiment

  15. A reconfigurable hybrid supervisory system for process control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garcia, H.E.; Ray, A.; Edwards, R.M.

    1994-01-01

    This paper presents a reconfigurable approach to decision and control systems for complex dynamic processes. The proposed supervisory control system is a reconfigurable hybrid architecture structured into three functional levels of hierarchy, namely, execution, supervision, and coordination. While, the bottom execution level is constituted by either reconfigurable continuously varying or discrete event systems, the top two levels are necessarily governed by reconfigurable sets of discrete event decision and control systems. Based on the process status, the set of active control and supervisory algorithm is chosen. The reconfigurable hybrid system is briefly described along with a discussion on its implementation at the Experimental Breeder Reactor 2 of Argonne National Laboratory. A process control application of this hybrid system is presented and evaluated in an in-plant experiment

  16. Space and place concepts analysis based on semiology approach in residential architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mojtaba Parsaee

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Space and place are among the fundamental concepts in architecture about which many discussions have been held and the complexity and importance of these concepts were focused on. This research has introduced an approach to better cognition of the architectural concepts based on theory and method of semiology in linguistics. Hence, at first the research investigates the concepts of space and place and explains their characteristics in architecture. Then, it reviews the semiology theory and explores its concepts and ideas. After obtaining the principles of theory and also the method of semiology, they are redefined in an architectural system based on an adaptive method. Finally, the research offers a conceptual model which is called the semiology approach by considering the architectural system as a system of signs. The approach can be used to decode the content of meanings and forms and analyses of the architectural mechanism in order to obtain its meanings and concepts. In this way and based on this approach, the residential architecture of the traditional city of Bushehr – Iran was analyzed as a case of study and its concepts were extracted. The results of this research demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach in structure detection and identification of an architectural system. Besides, this approach has the capability to be used in processes of sustainable development and also be a basis for deconstruction of architectural texts. The research methods of this study are qualitative based on comparative and descriptive analyses.

  17. SOA based Data Architecture for HTML5 Web Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catalin STRIMBEI

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Web Services based architectures have already been established as the preferred way to integrate SOA specific components, from the front-end to the back-end business services. One of the key elements of such architecture are data-based or entity services. In this context, SDO standard and SDO related technologies have been confirmed as a possible approach to aggregate such enterprise-wide federation of data services, mainly backed by database servers, but not limited to them. In the followings, we will discuss an architectural purpose based on SDO approach to seamlessly integrate presentation and data services within an enterprise SOA context. This way we will outline the benefits of a common end-to-end data integration strategy. Also, we will try to argue that using HTML5 based clients as front end services in conjunction with SDO data services could be an effective strategy to adopt the mobile computing in the enterprise context.

  18. Computational social dynamic modeling of group recruitment.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berry, Nina M.; Lee, Marinna; Pickett, Marc; Turnley, Jessica Glicken (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Smrcka, Julianne D. (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Ko, Teresa H.; Moy, Timothy David (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM); Wu, Benjamin C.

    2004-01-01

    The Seldon software toolkit combines concepts from agent-based modeling and social science to create a computationally social dynamic model for group recruitment. The underlying recruitment model is based on a unique three-level hybrid agent-based architecture that contains simple agents (level one), abstract agents (level two), and cognitive agents (level three). This uniqueness of this architecture begins with abstract agents that permit the model to include social concepts (gang) or institutional concepts (school) into a typical software simulation environment. The future addition of cognitive agents to the recruitment model will provide a unique entity that does not exist in any agent-based modeling toolkits to date. We use social networks to provide an integrated mesh within and between the different levels. This Java based toolkit is used to analyze different social concepts based on initialization input from the user. The input alters a set of parameters used to influence the values associated with the simple agents, abstract agents, and the interactions (simple agent-simple agent or simple agent-abstract agent) between these entities. The results of phase-1 Seldon toolkit provide insight into how certain social concepts apply to different scenario development for inner city gang recruitment.

  19. Synthesis and molecular modelling studies of phenyl linked oxadiazole-phenylhydrazone hybrids as potent antileishmanial agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taha, Muhammad; Ismail, Nor Hadiani; Imran, Syahrul; Anouar, El Hassane; Selvaraj, Manikandan; Jamil, Waqas; Ali, Muhammad; Kashif, Syed Muhammad; Rahim, Fazal; Khan, Khalid Mohammed; Adenan, Mohd Ilham

    2017-01-27

    Molecular hybridization yielded phenyl linked oxadiazole-benzohydrazones hybrids 6-35 and were evaluated for their antileishmanial potentials. Compound 10, a 3,4-dihydroxy analog with IC 50 value of 0.95 ± 0.01 μM, was found to be the most potent antileishmanial agent (7 times more active) than the standard drug pentamidine (IC 50  = 7.02 ± 0.09 μM). The current series 6-35 conceded in the identification of thirteen (13) potent antileishmanial compounds with the IC 50 values ranging between 0.95 ± 0.01-78.6 ± 1.78 μM. Molecular docking analysis against pteridine reductase (PTR1) were also performed to probe the mode of action. Selectivity index showed that compounds with higher number of hydroxyl groups have low selectivity index. Theoretical stereochemical assignment was also done for certain derivatives by using density functional calculations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  20. Hybrid Modelling of Individual Movement and Collective Behaviour

    KAUST Repository

    Franz, Benjamin

    2013-01-01

    Mathematical models of dispersal in biological systems are often written in terms of partial differential equations (PDEs) which describe the time evolution of population-level variables (concentrations, densities). A more detailed modelling approach is given by individual-based (agent-based) models which describe the behaviour of each organism. In recent years, an intermediate modelling methodology - hybrid modelling - has been applied to a number of biological systems. These hybrid models couple an individual-based description of cells/animals with a PDE-model of their environment. In this chapter, we overview hybrid models in the literature with the focus on the mathematical challenges of this modelling approach. The detailed analysis is presented using the example of chemotaxis, where cells move according to extracellular chemicals that can be altered by the cells themselves. In this case, individual-based models of cells are coupled with PDEs for extracellular chemical signals. Travelling waves in these hybrid models are investigated. In particular, we show that in contrary to the PDEs, hybrid chemotaxis models only develop a transient travelling wave. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

  1. The AORTA Architecture: Integrating Organizational Reasoning in Jason

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Andreas Schmidt; Dignum, Virginia; Villadsen, Jørgen

    2014-01-01

    the expected behavior of the agents. Agents need to be able to reason about the regulations, so that they can act within the expected boundaries and work towards the objectives of the organization. In this paper, we describe the AORTA (Adding Organizational Reasoning to Agents) architecture for making agents...

  2. TOWARDS A MULTI-SCALE AGENT-BASED PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE METHODOLOGY.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somogyi, Endre; Hagar, Amit; Glazier, James A

    2016-12-01

    Living tissues are dynamic, heterogeneous compositions of objects , including molecules, cells and extra-cellular materials, which interact via chemical, mechanical and electrical process and reorganize via transformation, birth, death and migration processes . Current programming language have difficulty describing the dynamics of tissues because: 1: Dynamic sets of objects participate simultaneously in multiple processes, 2: Processes may be either continuous or discrete, and their activity may be conditional, 3: Objects and processes form complex, heterogeneous relationships and structures, 4: Objects and processes may be hierarchically composed, 5: Processes may create, destroy and transform objects and processes. Some modeling languages support these concepts, but most cannot translate models into executable simulations. We present a new hybrid executable modeling language paradigm, the Continuous Concurrent Object Process Methodology ( CCOPM ) which naturally expresses tissue models, enabling users to visually create agent-based models of tissues, and also allows computer simulation of these models.

  3. Yield performance and stability of CMS-based triticale hybrids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mühleisen, Jonathan; Piepho, Hans-Peter; Maurer, Hans Peter; Reif, Jochen Christoph

    2015-02-01

    CMS-based triticale hybrids showed only marginal midparent heterosis for grain yield and lower dynamic yield stability compared to inbred lines. Hybrids of triticale (×Triticosecale Wittmack) are expected to possess outstanding yield performance and increased dynamic yield stability. The objectives of the present study were to (1) examine the optimum choice of the biometrical model to compare yield stability of hybrids versus lines, (2) investigate whether hybrids exhibit a more pronounced grain yield performance and yield stability, and (3) study optimal strategies to predict yield stability of hybrids. Thirteen female and seven male parental lines and their 91 factorial hybrids as well as 30 commercial lines were evaluated for grain yield in up to 20 environments. Hybrids were produced using a cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS)-inducing cytoplasm that originated from Triticumtimopheevii Zhuk. We found that the choice of the biometrical model can cause contrasting results and concluded that a group-by-environment interaction term should be added to the model when estimating stability variance of hybrids and lines. midparent heterosis for grain yield was on average 3 % with a range from -15.0 to 11.5 %. No hybrid outperformed the best inbred line. Hybrids had, on average, lower dynamic yield stability compared to the inbred lines. Grain yield performance of hybrids could be predicted based on midparent values and general combining ability (GCA)-predicted values. In contrast, stability variance of hybrids could be predicted only based on GCA-predicted values. We speculated that negative effects of the used CMS cytoplasm might be the reason for the low performance and yield stability of the hybrids. For this purpose a detailed study on the reasons for the drawback of the currently existing CMS system in triticale is urgently required comprising also the search of potentially alternative hybridization systems.

  4. Hybridization of an invasive shrub affects tolerance and resistance to defoliation by a biological control agent

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Wyatt I.; Friedman, Jonathan M.; Gaskin, John F.; Norton, Andrew P.

    2014-01-01

    Evolution has contributed to the successful invasion of exotic plant species in their introduced ranges, but how evolution affects particular control strategies is still under evaluation. For instance, classical biological control, a common strategy involving the utilization of highly specific natural enemies to control exotic pests, may be negatively affected by host hybridization because of shifts in plant traits, such as root allocation or chemical constituents. We investigated introgression between two parent species of the invasive shrub tamarisk (Tamarix spp.) in the western United States, and how differences in plant traits affect interactions with a biological control agent. Introgression varied strongly with latitude of origin and was highly correlated with plant performance. Increased levels of T. ramosissima introgression resulted in both higher investment in roots and tolerance to defoliation and less resistance to insect attack. Because tamarisk hybridization occurs predictably on the western U.S. landscape, managers may be able to exploit this information to maximize control efforts. Genetic differentiation in plant traits in this system underpins the importance of plant hybridization and may explain why some biological control releases are more successful than others.

  5. Hybrid Materials Based on Magnetic Layered Double Hydroxides: A Molecular Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abellán, Gonzalo; Martí-Gastaldo, Carlos; Ribera, Antonio; Coronado, Eugenio

    2015-06-16

    Design of functional hybrids lies at the very core of synthetic chemistry as it has enabled the development of an unlimited number of solids displaying unprecedented or even improved properties built upon the association at the molecular level of quite disparate components by chemical design. Multifunctional hybrids are a particularly appealing case among hybrid organic/inorganic materials. Here, chemical knowledge is used to deploy molecular components bearing different functionalities within a single solid so that these properties can coexist or event interact leading to unprecedented phenomena. From a molecular perspective, this can be done either by controlled assembly of organic/inorganic molecular tectons into an extended architecture of hybrid nature or by intercalation of organic moieties within the empty channels or interlamellar space offered by inorganic solids with three-dimensional (MOFs, zeolites, and mesoporous hosts) or layered structures (phosphates, silicates, metal dichalcogenides, or anionic clays). This Account specifically illustrates the use of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) in the preparation of magnetic hybrids, in line with the development of soft inorganic chemistry processes (also called "Chimie Douce"), which has significantly contributed to boost the preparation hybrid materials based on solid-state hosts and subsequent development of applications. Several features sustain the importance of LDHs in this context. Their magnetism can be manipulated at a molecular level by adequate choice of constituting metals and interlayer separation for tuning the nature and extent of magnetic interactions across and between planes. They display unparalleled versatility in accommodating a broad range of anionic species in their interlamellar space that encompasses not only simple anions but chemical systems of increasing dimensionality and functionalities. Their swelling characteristics allow for their exfoliation in organic solvents with high

  6. Plug-In Tutor Agents: Still Pluggin'

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ritter, Steven

    2016-01-01

    "An Architecture for Plug-in Tutor Agents" (Ritter and Koedinger 1996) proposed a software architecture designed around the idea that tutors could be built as plug-ins for existing software applications. Looking back on the paper now, we can see that certain assumptions about the future of software architecture did not come to be, making…

  7. A Behaviour-Based Architecture for Mapless Navigation Using Vision

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mehmet Serdar Guzel

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Autonomous robots operating in an unknown and uncertain environment must be able to cope with dynamic changes to that environment. For a mobile robot in a cluttered environment to navigate successfully to a goal while avoiding obstacles is a challenging problem. This paper presents a new behaviour-based architecture design for mapless navigation. The architecture is composed of several modules and each module generates behaviours. A novel method, inspired from a visual homing strategy, is adapted to a monocular vision-based system to overcome goal-based navigation problems. A neural network-based obstacle avoidance strategy is designed using a 2-D scanning laser. To evaluate the performance of the proposed architecture, the system has been tested using Microsoft Robotics Studio (MRS, which is a very powerful 3D simulation environment. In addition, real experiments to guide a Pioneer 3-DX mobile robot, equipped with a pan-tilt-zoom camera in a cluttered environment are presented. The analysis of the results allows us to validate the proposed behaviour-based navigation strategy.

  8. Homeostatic Agent for General Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoshida, Naoto

    2018-03-01

    One of the essential aspect in biological agents is dynamic stability. This aspect, called homeostasis, is widely discussed in ethology, neuroscience and during the early stages of artificial intelligence. Ashby's homeostats are general-purpose learning machines for stabilizing essential variables of the agent in the face of general environments. However, despite their generality, the original homeostats couldn't be scaled because they searched their parameters randomly. In this paper, first we re-define the objective of homeostats as the maximization of a multi-step survival probability from the view point of sequential decision theory and probabilistic theory. Then we show that this optimization problem can be treated by using reinforcement learning algorithms with special agent architectures and theoretically-derived intrinsic reward functions. Finally we empirically demonstrate that agents with our architecture automatically learn to survive in a given environment, including environments with visual stimuli. Our survival agents can learn to eat food, avoid poison and stabilize essential variables through theoretically-derived single intrinsic reward formulations.

  9. Hybrid Drug Delivery Patches Based on Spherical Cellulose Nanocrystals and Colloid Titania—Synthesis and Antibacterial Properties

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olga L. Evdokimova

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Spherical cellulose nanocrystal-based hybrids grafted with titania nanoparticles were successfully produced for topical drug delivery. The conventional analytical filter paper was used as a precursor material for cellulose nanocrystals (CNC production. Cellulose nanocrystals were extracted via a simple and quick two-step process based on first the complexation with Cu(II solution in aqueous ammonia followed by acid hydrolysis with diluted H2SO4. Triclosan was selected as a model drug for complexation with titania and further introduction into the nanocellulose based composite. Obtained materials were characterized by a broad variety of microscopic, spectroscopic, and thermal analysis methods. The drug release studies showed long-term release profiles of triclosan from the titania based nanocomposite that agreed with Higuchi model. The bacterial susceptibility tests demonstrated that released triclosan retained its antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. It was found that a small amount of titania significantly improved the antibacterial activity of obtained nanocomposites, even without immobilization of model drug. Thus, the developed hybrid patches are highly promising candidates for potential application as antibacterial agents.

  10. Assessing the impact of policy interventions on the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles: An agent-based model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Silvia, Chris; Krause, Rachel M.

    2016-01-01

    Heightened concern regarding climate change and energy independence has increased interest in plug-in electric vehicles as one means to address these challenges and governments at all levels have considered policy interventions to encourage their adoption. This paper develops an agent-based model that simulates the introduction of four policy scenarios aimed at promoting electric vehicle adoption in an urban community and compares them against a baseline. These scenarios include reducing vehicle purchase price via subsidies, expanding the local public charging network, increasing the number and visibility of fully battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on the roadway through government fleet purchases, and a hybrid mix of these three approaches. The results point to the effectiveness of policy options that increased awareness of BEV technology. Specifically, the hybrid policy alternative was the most successful in encouraging BEV adoption. This policy increases the visibility and familiarity of BEV technology in the community and may help counter the idea that BEVs are not a viable alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles. - Highlights: •Various policy interventions to encourage electric vehicle adoption are examined. •An agent based model is used to simulate individual adoption decisions. •Policies that increase the familiarity of electric vehicles are most effective.

  11. Genetic basis to hybrid inviability is more complex than hybrid male sterility in Caenorhabditis nematodes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bundus, Joanna D; Wang, Donglin; Cutter, Asher D

    2018-04-07

    Hybrid male sterility often evolves before female sterility or inviability of hybrids, implying that the accumulation of divergence between separated lineages should lead hybrid male sterility to have a more polygenic basis. However, experimental evidence is mixed. Here, we use the nematodes Caenorhabditis remanei and C. latens to characterize the underlying genetic basis of asymmetric hybrid male sterility and hybrid inviability. We demonstrate that hybrid male sterility is consistent with a simple genetic basis, involving a single X-autosome incompatibility. We also show that hybrid inviability involves more genomic compartments, involving diverse nuclear-nuclear incompatibilities, a mito-nuclear incompatibility, and maternal effects. These findings demonstrate that male sensitivity to genetic perturbation may be genetically simple compared to hybrid inviability in Caenorhabditis and motivates tests of generality for the genetic architecture of hybrid incompatibility across the breadth of phylogeny.

  12. Walk This Way: Improving Pedestrian Agent-Based Models through Scene Activity Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Crooks

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Pedestrian movement is woven into the fabric of urban regions. With more people living in cities than ever before, there is an increased need to understand and model how pedestrians utilize and move through space for a variety of applications, ranging from urban planning and architecture to security. Pedestrian modeling has been traditionally faced with the challenge of collecting data to calibrate and validate such models of pedestrian movement. With the increased availability of mobility datasets from video surveillance and enhanced geolocation capabilities in consumer mobile devices we are now presented with the opportunity to change the way we build pedestrian models. Within this paper we explore the potential that such information offers for the improvement of agent-based pedestrian models. We introduce a Scene- and Activity-Aware Agent-Based Model (SA2-ABM, a method for harvesting scene activity information in the form of spatiotemporal trajectories, and incorporate this information into our models. In order to assess and evaluate the improvement offered by such information, we carry out a range of experiments using real-world datasets. We demonstrate that the use of real scene information allows us to better inform our model and enhance its predictive capabilities.

  13. An Emotional Agent Model Based on Granular Computing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Hu

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Affective computing has a very important significance for fulfilling intelligent information processing and harmonious communication between human being and computers. A new model for emotional agent is proposed in this paper to make agent have the ability of handling emotions, based on the granular computing theory and the traditional BDI agent model. Firstly, a new emotion knowledge base based on granular computing for emotion expression is presented in the model. Secondly, a new emotional reasoning algorithm based on granular computing is proposed. Thirdly, a new emotional agent model based on granular computing is presented. Finally, based on the model, an emotional agent for patient assistant in hospital is realized, experiment results show that it is efficient to handle simple emotions.

  14. Solution-based colloidal synthesis of hybrid P3HT: Ternary CuInSe2 nanocomposites using a novel combination of capping agents for low-cost photovoltaics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Shailesh Narain; Chawla, Parul; Akanksha; Srivastava, A. K.

    2016-06-01

    In this work, ternary CuInSe2 (CISe) chalcopyrite nanocrystallites efficiently passivated by a novel combination of capping agents viz: aniline and 1-octadecene during chemical route synthesis were dispersed in conducting polymer matrix poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). By varying the composition and concentration of the ligands, the properties of the resulting CISe nanocrystallites and its corresponding polymer nanocomposites thus could be tailored. The structural, morphological and optical studies accomplished by various complimentary techniques viz. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Contact angle, Photoluminescence (PL) and Raman have enabled us to compare the different hybrid organic (polymer)-inorganic nanocomposites. On the basis of aniline-octadecene equilibrium phase diagram, the polydispersity of the CISe nanocrystals could be tuned by using controlled variations in the reaction conditions of nucleation and growth such as composition of the solvent and temperature. To the best of author's knowledge, the beneficial effects of both the capping agents; aniline and octadecene contributing well in tandem in the development of large-sized (100-125 nm) high quality, sterically- and photo-oxidative stable polycrystalline CISe and its corresponding polymer (P3HT):CISe composites with enhanced charge transfer efficiency has been reported for the first time. The low-cost synthesis and ease of preparation renders this method of great potential for its possible application in low-cost hybrid organic-inorganic photovoltaics. The figure shows the Temperature vs Mole fraction graph of two different phases (aniline and 1-octadecene) in equilibrium.

  15. Tough hybrid ceramic-based material with high strength

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guo, Shuqi; Kagawa, Yutaka; Nishimura, Toshiyuki

    2012-01-01

    This study describes a tough and strong hybrid ceramic material consisting of platelet-like zirconium compounds and metal. A mixture of boron carbide and excess zirconium powder was heated to 1900 °C using a liquid-phase reaction sintering technique to produce a platelet-like ZrB 2 -based hybrid ceramic bonded by a thin zirconium layer. The platelet-like ZrB 2 grains were randomly present in the as-sintered hybrid ceramic. Relative to non-hybrid ceramics, the fracture toughness and flexural strength of the hybrid ceramic increased by approximately 2-fold.

  16. Architecture in the Experience City

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kiib, Hans

    2009-01-01

    . The article identifies new rationales related to this development, and it argues that ‘cultural planning' has increasingly shifted its focus from a cultural institutional approach to a more market-oriented strategy that combines art and business in a close relationship. The role of architecture has changed......This article focuses on the combination of programs and the architecture of cultural projects that have emerged within the last few years. These projects are characterized in the article as ‘hybrid cultural projects', because they intend to combine experience with entertainment, play and learning...... too. Architecture not only provides a functional framework for these concepts, but it increasingly tries to give the main idea of the cultural project a spatially aesthetic expression - a shift towards ‘experience architecture'. A great number of these projects typically recycles and reinterprets...

  17. Electrical-Loss Analysis of Power-Split Hybrid Electric Vehicles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Bonfiglio

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The growing development of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs has seen the spread of architectures with transmission based on planetary gear train, realized thanks to two electric machines. This architecture, by continuously regulating the transmission ratio, allows the internal combustion engine (ICE to work in optimal conditions. On the one hand, the average ICE efficiency is increased thanks to better loading situations, while, on the other hand, electrical losses are introduced due to the power circulation between the two electrical machines mentioned above. The aim of this study is then to accurately evaluate electrical losses and the average ICE efficiency in various operating conditions and over different road missions. The models used in this study are presented for both the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT architecture and the Discontinuously Variable Transmission (DVT architecture. In addition, efficiency maps of the main components are shown. Finally, the simulation results are presented to point out strengths and weaknesses of the CVT architecture.

  18. A Diversified Investment Strategy Using Autonomous Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbosa, Rui Pedro; Belo, Orlando

    In a previously published article, we presented an architecture for implementing agents with the ability to trade autonomously in the Forex market. At the core of this architecture is an ensemble of classification and regression models that is used to predict the direction of the price of a currency pair. In this paper, we will describe a diversified investment strategy consisting of five agents which were implemented using that architecture. By simulating trades with 18 months of out-of-sample data, we will demonstrate that data mining models can produce profitable predictions, and that the trading risk can be diminished through investment diversification.

  19. Collaborative Working Architecture for IoT-Based Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mora, Higinio; Signes-Pont, María Teresa; Gil, David; Johnsson, Magnus

    2018-05-23

    The new sensing applications need enhanced computing capabilities to handle the requirements of complex and huge data processing. The Internet of Things (IoT) concept brings processing and communication features to devices. In addition, the Cloud Computing paradigm provides resources and infrastructures for performing the computations and outsourcing the work from the IoT devices. This scenario opens new opportunities for designing advanced IoT-based applications, however, there is still much research to be done to properly gear all the systems for working together. This work proposes a collaborative model and an architecture to take advantage of the available computing resources. The resulting architecture involves a novel network design with different levels which combines sensing and processing capabilities based on the Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) paradigm. An experiment is included to demonstrate that this approach can be used in diverse real applications. The results show the flexibility of the architecture to perform complex computational tasks of advanced applications.

  20. A Hybrid OFDM-TDM Architecture with Decentralized Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for PONs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taner Cevik

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the major challenges of passive optical networks is to achieve a fair arbitration mechanism that will prevent possible collisions from occurring at the upstream channel when multiple users attempt to access the common fiber at the same time. Therefore, in this study we mainly focus on fair bandwidth allocation among users, and present a hybrid Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed/Time Division Multiplexed architecture with a dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme that provides satisfying service qualities to the users depending on their varying bandwidth requirements. Unnecessary delays in centralized schemes occurring during bandwidth assignment stage are eliminated by utilizing a decentralized approach. Instead of sending bandwidth demands to the optical line terminal (OLT which is the only competent authority, each optical network unit (ONU runs the same bandwidth demand determination algorithm. ONUs inform each other via signaling channel about the status of their queues. This information is fed to the bandwidth determination algorithm which is run by each ONU in a distributed manner. Furthermore, Light Load Penalty, which is a phenomenon in optical communications, is mitigated by limiting the amount of bandwidth that an ONU can demand.

  1. A Hybrid OFDM-TDM Architecture with Decentralized Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for PONs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cevik, Taner

    2013-01-01

    One of the major challenges of passive optical networks is to achieve a fair arbitration mechanism that will prevent possible collisions from occurring at the upstream channel when multiple users attempt to access the common fiber at the same time. Therefore, in this study we mainly focus on fair bandwidth allocation among users, and present a hybrid Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed/Time Division Multiplexed architecture with a dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme that provides satisfying service qualities to the users depending on their varying bandwidth requirements. Unnecessary delays in centralized schemes occurring during bandwidth assignment stage are eliminated by utilizing a decentralized approach. Instead of sending bandwidth demands to the optical line terminal (OLT) which is the only competent authority, each optical network unit (ONU) runs the same bandwidth demand determination algorithm. ONUs inform each other via signaling channel about the status of their queues. This information is fed to the bandwidth determination algorithm which is run by each ONU in a distributed manner. Furthermore, Light Load Penalty, which is a phenomenon in optical communications, is mitigated by limiting the amount of bandwidth that an ONU can demand. PMID:24194684

  2. Trust information-based privacy architecture for ubiquitous health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruotsalainen, Pekka Sakari; Blobel, Bernd; Seppälä, Antto; Nykänen, Pirkko

    2013-10-08

    Ubiquitous health is defined as a dynamic network of interconnected systems that offers health services independent of time and location to a data subject (DS). The network takes place in open and unsecure information space. It is created and managed by the DS who sets rules that regulate the way personal health information is collected and used. Compared to health care, it is impossible in ubiquitous health to assume the existence of a priori trust between the DS and service providers and to produce privacy using static security services. In ubiquitous health features, business goals and regulations systems followed often remain unknown. Furthermore, health care-specific regulations do not rule the ways health data is processed and shared. To be successful, ubiquitous health requires novel privacy architecture. The goal of this study was to develop a privacy management architecture that helps the DS to create and dynamically manage the network and to maintain information privacy. The architecture should enable the DS to dynamically define service and system-specific rules that regulate the way subject data is processed. The architecture should provide to the DS reliable trust information about systems and assist in the formulation of privacy policies. Furthermore, the architecture should give feedback upon how systems follow the policies of DS and offer protection against privacy and trust threats existing in ubiquitous environments. A sequential method that combines methodologies used in system theory, systems engineering, requirement analysis, and system design was used in the study. In the first phase, principles, trust and privacy models, and viewpoints were selected. Thereafter, functional requirements and services were developed on the basis of a careful analysis of existing research published in journals and conference proceedings. Based on principles, models, and requirements, architectural components and their interconnections were developed using system

  3. A Survey on Smart Agent-Based Microgrids for Resilient/Self-Healing Grids

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaveh Dehghanpour

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an overview of our body of work on the application of smart control techniques for the control and management of microgrids (MGs. The main focus here is on the application of distributed multi-agent system (MAS theory in multi-objective (MO power management of MGs to find the Pareto-front of the MO power management problem. In addition, the paper presents the application of Nash bargaining solution (NBS and the MAS theory to directly obtain the NBS on the Pareto-front. The paper also discusses the progress reported on the above issues from the literature. We also present a MG-based power system architecture for enhancing the resilience and self-healing of the system.

  4. Hybrid gold nanoparticles in molecular imaging and radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Katti, K.V.; Kannan, R.; Katti, K.; Kattumuri, V.; Pandrapragada, R.; Rahing, V.; Cutler, C.; Boote, E.; Casteel, S.W.; Smith, C.J.; Robertson, J.D.; Jurrison, S.

    2006-01-01

    Metallic nanoparticles, because of their size, chemical and physical properties, are particularly attractive as therapeutic probes in treating cancer. Central to any clinical advances in nanoparticulate based therapy will be to produce hybrid nanoparticles that can be targeted to vascular, extracellular or cell surface receptors. Development of hybrid nanoparticles that specifically target cancer vasculature has received considerable attention. Most cancers have leaky vasculature and the defective vascular architecture, created due to the rapid vascularisation necessary to serve fast growing cancers, in combination with poor lymphatic drainage allows increased permeation and retention effects. The leaky vasculature, because of higher porosity and permeability, serve as natural high affinity targets to metallic nanoparticles. Another attractive approach toward the application of nanotechnology to nanomedicine is the utility of nanoparticles that display inherent therapeutic properties. For example radioactive gold nanoparticles present attractive prospects in therapy of cancer. The radioactive properties of Au-198 (β(max) = 0.96 MeV; t(1/2) = 2.7 d) and Au-199 (β(max) 0.46 MeV; t(1/2) = 3.14 d) make them ideal candidates for use in radiotherapeutic applications. In addition, they both have imageable gamma emissions for dosimetry and pharmacokinetic studies and Au-199 can be made carrier-free by indirect methods. Gold nanoparticles are of interest for treatment of disease as they can deliver agents directly into cells and cellular components with a higher concentration of radioactivity, e.g. higher dose of radioactivity, to cancerous tumor cells

  5. Development of bio-hybrid material based on Salmonella ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The immobilization of a whole microbial cell is an important process used in nanotechnology of biosensors and other related fields, especially the development of bio-hybrid materials based on live organisms and inorganic compounds. Here, we described an essay to develop a bio-hybrid material based on Salmonella ...

  6. The Application of Intentional Subjective Properties and Mediated Communication Tools to Software Agents in Online Disputes Resolution Environments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renzo Gobbin

    2004-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines the use of subjective properties in modeling an architecture for cooperative agents using Agent Communication Language (ACL that is used as a mediating tool for cooperative communication activities between and within software agents. The role that subjective and objective properties have in explaining and modeling agent internalization and externalization of ACL messages is investigated and related to Vygotsky’s developmental learning theories such as Mediated Activity Theory. A novel agent architecture ALMA (Agent Language Mediated Activity based on the integration of agents’ subjective and objective properties within an agent communication activity framework will be presented. The relevance of software agents subjective properties in modeling applications such as e-Law Online Dispute Resolution for e-business contractual arrangements using natural language subject/object relation in their communication patterns will be discussed.

  7. Trust-based information system architecture for personal wellness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruotsalainen, Pekka; Nykänen, Pirkko; Seppälä, Antto; Blobel, Bernd

    2014-01-01

    Modern eHealth, ubiquitous health and personal wellness systems take place in an unsecure and ubiquitous information space where no predefined trust occurs. This paper presents novel information model and an architecture for trust based privacy management of personal health and wellness information in ubiquitous environment. The architecture enables a person to calculate a dynamic and context-aware trust value for each service provider, and using it to design personal privacy policies for trustworthy use of health and wellness services. For trust calculation a novel set of measurable context-aware and health information-sensitive attributes is developed. The architecture enables a person to manage his or her privacy in ubiquitous environment by formulating context-aware and service provider specific policies. Focus groups and information modelling was used for developing a wellness information model. System analysis method based on sequential steps that enable to combine results of analysis of privacy and trust concerns and the selection of trust and privacy services was used for development of the information system architecture. Its services (e.g. trust calculation, decision support, policy management and policy binding services) and developed attributes enable a person to define situation-aware policies that regulate the way his or her wellness and health information is processed.

  8. Hybrid composite based on poly(vinyl alcohol) and fillers from renewable resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hybrid composite laminates consisting of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as continuous phase (33% by weight) and lignocellulosic fillers, derived from sugarcane bagasse, apple and orange waste (22% by weight) were molded in a carver press in the presence of water and glycerol such as platicizers agents. Cor...

  9. Quality of service agents in the internet

    OpenAIRE

    Schelén, Olov

    1998-01-01

    The Internet is a multi-purpose communication network supporting users and applications with different service demands. To meet these demands, mechanisms for service differentiation in the network are proposed. This thesis presents an admission control architecture where clients can make resource reservations through agents. For each domain in the network there is an agent responsible for admission control. The architecture provides scalable resource reservations for virtual leased lines. Res...

  10. Developing Dynamic Field Theory Architectures for Embodied Cognitive Systems with cedar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lomp, Oliver; Richter, Mathis; Zibner, Stephan K U; Schöner, Gregor

    2016-01-01

    Embodied artificial cognitive systems, such as autonomous robots or intelligent observers, connect cognitive processes to sensory and effector systems in real time. Prime candidates for such embodied intelligence are neurally inspired architectures. While components such as forward neural networks are well established, designing pervasively autonomous neural architectures remains a challenge. This includes the problem of tuning the parameters of such architectures so that they deliver specified functionality under variable environmental conditions and retain these functions as the architectures are expanded. The scaling and autonomy problems are solved, in part, by dynamic field theory (DFT), a theoretical framework for the neural grounding of sensorimotor and cognitive processes. In this paper, we address how to efficiently build DFT architectures that control embodied agents and how to tune their parameters so that the desired cognitive functions emerge while such agents are situated in real environments. In DFT architectures, dynamic neural fields or nodes are assigned dynamic regimes, that is, attractor states and their instabilities, from which cognitive function emerges. Tuning thus amounts to determining values of the dynamic parameters for which the components of a DFT architecture are in the specified dynamic regime under the appropriate environmental conditions. The process of tuning is facilitated by the software framework cedar , which provides a graphical interface to build and execute DFT architectures. It enables to change dynamic parameters online and visualize the activation states of any component while the agent is receiving sensory inputs in real time. Using a simple example, we take the reader through the workflow of conceiving of DFT architectures, implementing them on embodied agents, tuning their parameters, and assessing performance while the system is coupled to real sensory inputs.

  11. Methods for Model-Based Reasoning within Agent-Based Ambient Intelligence Applications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bosse, T.; Both, F.; Gerritsen, C.; Hoogendoorn, M.; Treur, J.

    2012-01-01

    Within agent-based Ambient Intelligence applications agents react to humans based on information obtained by sensoring and their knowledge about human functioning. Appropriate types of reactions depend on the extent to which an agent understands the human and is able to interpret the available

  12. Researching on knowledge architecture of design by analysis based on ASME code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bao Shiyi; Zhou Yu; He Shuyan

    2003-01-01

    The quality of knowledge-based system's knowledge architecture is one of decisive factors of knowledge-based system's validity and rationality. For designing the ASME code knowledge based system, this paper presents a knowledge acquisition method which is extracting knowledge through document analysis consulted domain experts' knowledge. Then the paper describes knowledge architecture of design by analysis based on the related rules in ASME code. The knowledge of the knowledge architecture is divided into two categories: one is empirical knowledge, and another is ASME code knowledge. Applied as the basement of the knowledge architecture, a general procedural process of design by analysis that is met the engineering design requirements and designers' conventional mode is generalized and explained detailed in the paper. For the sake of improving inference efficiency and concurrent computation of KBS, a kind of knowledge Petri net (KPN) model is proposed and adopted in expressing the knowledge architecture. Furthermore, for validating and verifying of the empirical rules, five knowledge validation and verification theorems are given in the paper. Moreover the research production is applicable to design the knowledge architecture of ASME codes or other engineering standards. (author)

  13. HYDRA: A Middleware-Oriented Integrated Architecture for e-Procurement in Supply Chains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alor-Hernandez, Giner; Aguilar-Lasserre, Alberto; Juarez-Martinez, Ulises; Posada-Gomez, Ruben; Cortes-Robles, Guillermo; Garcia-Martinez, Mario Alberto; Gomez-Berbis, Juan Miguel; Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Alejandro

    The Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) development paradigm has emerged to improve the critical issues of creating, modifying and extending solutions for business processes integration, incorporating process automation and automated exchange of information between organizations. Web services technology follows the SOA's principles for developing and deploying applications. Besides, Web services are considered as the platform for SOA, for both intra- and inter-enterprise communication. However, an SOA does not incorporate information about occurring events into business processes, which are the main features of supply chain management. These events and information delivery are addressed in an Event-Driven Architecture (EDA). Taking this into account, we propose a middleware-oriented integrated architecture that offers a brokering service for the procurement of products in a Supply Chain Management (SCM) scenario. As salient contributions, our system provides a hybrid architecture combining features of both SOA and EDA and a set of mechanisms for business processes pattern management, monitoring based on UML sequence diagrams, Web services-based management, event publish/subscription and reliable messaging service.

  14. An Architectural Modelfor Intelligent Network Management

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    罗军舟; 顾冠群; 费翔

    2000-01-01

    Traditional network management approach involves the management of each vendor's equipment and network segment in isolation through its own proprietary element management system. It is necessary to set up a new network management architecture that calls for operation consolidation across vendor and technology boundaries. In this paper, an architectural model for Intelligent Network Management (INM) is presented. The INM system includes a manager system, which controls all subsystems and coordinates different management tasks; an expert system, which is responsible for handling particularly difficult problems, and intelligent agents, which bring the management closer to applications and user requirements by spreading intelligent agents through network segments or domain. In the expert system model proposed, especially an intelligent fault management system is given.The architectural model is to build the INM system to meet the need of managing modern network systems.

  15. An Agent-Based Monetary Production Simulation Model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bruun, Charlotte

    2006-01-01

    An Agent-Based Simulation Model Programmed in Objective Borland Pascal. Program and source code is downloadable......An Agent-Based Simulation Model Programmed in Objective Borland Pascal. Program and source code is downloadable...

  16. Story telling engine based on agent interaction

    OpenAIRE

    Porcel, Juan Carlos

    2008-01-01

    Comics have been used as a programming tool for agents, giving them instructions on how to act. In this thesis I do this in reverse, I use comics to describe the actions of agents already interacting with each other to create a storytelling engine that dynamically generate stories, based on the interaction of said agents. The model for the agent behaviours is based on the improvisational puppets model of Barbara Hayes-Roth. This model is chosen due to the nature of comics themselves. Comics ...

  17. Hybrid Off-Grid SPV/WTG Power System for Remote Cellular Base Stations Towards Green and Sustainable Cellular Networks in South Korea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed H. Alsharif

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to address the sustainability of power resources and environmental conditions for telecommunication base stations (BSs at off-grid sites. Accordingly, this study examined the feasibility of using a hybrid solar photovoltaic (SPV/wind turbine generator (WTG system to feed the remote Long Term Evolution-macro base stations at off-grid sites of South Korea the energy necessary to minimise both the operational expenditure and greenhouse gas emissions. Three key aspects have been discussed: (i optimal system architecture; (ii energy yield analysis; and (iii economic analysis. In addition, this study compares the feasibility of using a hybrid SPV/WTG system vs. a diesel generator. The simulation results show that by applying the proposed SPV/WTG system scheme to the cellular system, the total operational expenditure can be up to 48.52% more efficient and sustainability can be ensured with better planning by providing cleaner energy.

  18. Architecture-based Model for Preventive and Operative Crisis Management

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Jungert, Erland; Derefeldt, Gunilla; Hallberg, Jonas; Hallberg, Niklas; Hunstad, Amund; Thuren, Ronny

    2004-01-01

    .... A system that should support activities of this type must not only have a high capacity, with respect to the dataflow, but also have suitable tools for decision support. To overcome these problems, an architecture for preventive and operative crisis management is proposed. The architecture is based on models for command and control, but also for risk analysis.

  19. Metareasoning and Social Evaluations in Cognitive Agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pinyol, Isaac; Sabater-Mir, Jordi

    Reputation mechanisms have been recognized one of the key technologies when designing multi-agent systems. They are specially relevant in complex open environments, becoming a non-centralized mechanism to control interactions among agents. Cognitive agents tackling such complex societies must use reputation information not only for selecting partners to interact with, but also in metareasoning processes to change reasoning rules. This is the focus of this paper. We argue about the necessity to allow, as a cognitive systems designers, certain degree of freedom in the reasoning rules of the agents. We also describes cognitive approaches of agency that support this idea. Furthermore, taking as a base the computational reputation model Repage, and its integration in a BDI architecture, we use the previous ideas to specify metarules and processes to modify at run-time the reasoning paths of the agent. In concrete we propose a metarule to update the link between Repage and the belief base, and a metarule and a process to update an axiom incorporated in the belief logic of the agent. Regarding this last issue we also provide empirical results that show the evolution of agents that use it.

  20. Layered Learning in Multi-Agent Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    1998-12-15

    project almost from the beginning has tirelessly experimented with different robot architectures, always managing to pull things together and create...TEAM MEMBER AGENT ARCHITECTURE I " ! Midfielder, Left : • i ) ( ^ J Goalie , Center Home Coordinates Home Range Max Range Figure

  1. A Secure Protocol Based on a Sedentary Agent for Mobile Agent Environments

    OpenAIRE

    Abdelmorhit E. Rhazi; Samuel Pierre; Hanifa Boucheneb

    2007-01-01

    The main challenge when deploying mobile agent environments pertains to security issues concerning mobile agents and their executive platform. This paper proposes a secure protocol which protects mobile agents against attacks from malicious hosts in these environments. Protection is based on the perfect cooperation of a sedentary agent running inside a trusted third host. Results show that the protocol detects several attacks, such as denial of service, incorrect execution and re-execution of...

  2. Techniques for Modeling Human Performance in Synthetic Environments: A Supplementary Review

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Ritter, Frank E; Shadbolt, Nigel R; Elliman, David; Young, Richard M; Gobet, Fernand; Baxter, Gordon D

    2003-01-01

    ... architectures including hybrid architectures, and agent and Belief, Desires and Intentions (BDI) architectures. A list of projects with high payoff for modeling human performance in synthetic environments is provided as a conclusion.

  3. Application-specific mesh-based heterogeneous FPGA architectures

    CERN Document Server

    Parvez, Husain

    2011-01-01

    This volume presents a new exploration environment for mesh-based, heterogeneous FPGA architectures. Readers will find a description of state-of-the-art techniques for reducing area requirements, which both increase performance and enable power reduction.

  4. Evolutionary game theory using agent-based methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adami, Christoph; Schossau, Jory; Hintze, Arend

    2016-12-01

    Evolutionary game theory is a successful mathematical framework geared towards understanding the selective pressures that affect the evolution of the strategies of agents engaged in interactions with potential conflicts. While a mathematical treatment of the costs and benefits of decisions can predict the optimal strategy in simple settings, more realistic settings such as finite populations, non-vanishing mutations rates, stochastic decisions, communication between agents, and spatial interactions, require agent-based methods where each agent is modeled as an individual, carries its own genes that determine its decisions, and where the evolutionary outcome can only be ascertained by evolving the population of agents forward in time. While highlighting standard mathematical results, we compare those to agent-based methods that can go beyond the limitations of equations and simulate the complexity of heterogeneous populations and an ever-changing set of interactors. We conclude that agent-based methods can predict evolutionary outcomes where purely mathematical treatments cannot tread (for example in the weak selection-strong mutation limit), but that mathematics is crucial to validate the computational simulations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Fuzzy Constraint-Based Agent Negotiation

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Menq-Wen Lin; K. Robert Lai; Ting-Jung Yu

    2005-01-01

    Conflicts between two or more parties arise for various reasons and perspectives. Thus, resolution of conflicts frequently relies on some form of negotiation. This paper presents a general problem-solving framework for modeling multi-issue multilateral negotiation using fuzzy constraints. Agent negotiation is formulated as a distributed fuzzy constraint satisfaction problem (DFCSP). Fuzzy constrains are thus used to naturally represent each agent's desires involving imprecision and human conceptualization, particularly when lexical imprecision and subjective matters are concerned. On the other hand, based on fuzzy constraint-based problem-solving, our approach enables an agent not only to systematically relax fuzzy constraints to generate a proposal, but also to employ fuzzy similarity to select the alternative that is subject to its acceptability by the opponents. This task of problem-solving is to reach an agreement that benefits all agents with a high satisfaction degree of fuzzy constraints, and move towards the deal more quickly since their search focuses only on the feasible solution space. An application to multilateral negotiation of a travel planning is provided to demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our framework.

  6. Agent-based land markets: Heterogeneous agents, land proces and urban land use change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Filatova, Tatiana; Parker, Dawn C.; van der Veen, A.; Amblard, F.

    2007-01-01

    We construct a spatially explicit agent-based model of a bilateral land market. Heterogeneous agents form their bid and ask prices for land based on the utility that they obtain from a certain location (houte/land) and base on the state of the market (an excess of demand or supply). We underline the

  7. Quinoline-Based Hybrid Compounds with Antimalarial Activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xhamla Nqoro

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The application of quinoline-based compounds for the treatment of malaria infections is hampered by drug resistance. Drug resistance has led to the combination of quinolines with other classes of antimalarials resulting in enhanced therapeutic outcomes. However, the combination of antimalarials is limited by drug-drug interactions. In order to overcome the aforementioned factors, several researchers have reported hybrid compounds prepared by reacting quinoline-based compounds with other compounds via selected functionalities. This review will focus on the currently reported quinoline-based hybrid compounds and their preclinical studies.

  8. Hybrid spacecraft attitude control system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renuganth Varatharajoo

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The hybrid subsystem design could be an attractive approach for futurespacecraft to cope with their demands. The idea of combining theconventional Attitude Control System and the Electrical Power System ispresented in this article. The Combined Energy and Attitude ControlSystem (CEACS consisting of a double counter rotating flywheel assemblyis investigated for small satellites in this article. Another hybrid systemincorporating the conventional Attitude Control System into the ThermalControl System forming the Combined Attitude and Thermal ControlSystem (CATCS consisting of a "fluid wheel" and permanent magnets isalso investigated for small satellites herein. The governing equationsdescribing both these novel hybrid subsystems are presented and theironboard architectures are numerically tested. Both the investigated novelhybrid spacecraft subsystems comply with the reference missionrequirements.The hybrid subsystem design could be an attractive approach for futurespacecraft to cope with their demands. The idea of combining theconventional Attitude Control System and the Electrical Power System ispresented in this article. The Combined Energy and Attitude ControlSystem (CEACS consisting of a double counter rotating flywheel assemblyis investigated for small satellites in this article. Another hybrid systemincorporating the conventional Attitude Control System into the ThermalControl System forming the Combined Attitude and Thermal ControlSystem (CATCS consisting of a "fluid wheel" and permanent magnets isalso investigated for small satellites herein. The governing equationsdescribing both these novel hybrid subsystems are presented and theironboard architectures are numerically tested. Both the investigated novelhybrid spacecraft subsystems comply with the reference missionrequirements.

  9. End-to-End Trajectory for Conjunction Class Mars Missions Using Hybrid Solar-Electric/Chemical Transportation System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chai, Patrick R.; Merrill, Raymond G.; Qu, Min

    2016-01-01

    NASA's Human Spaceflight Architecture Team is developing a reusable hybrid transportation architecture in which both chemical and solar-electric propulsion systems are used to deliver crew and cargo to exploration destinations. By combining chemical and solar-electric propulsion into a single spacecraft and applying each where it is most effective, the hybrid architecture enables a series of Mars trajectories that are more fuel efficient than an all chemical propulsion architecture without significant increases to trip time. The architecture calls for the aggregation of exploration assets in cislunar space prior to departure for Mars and utilizes high energy lunar-distant high Earth orbits for the final staging prior to departure. This paper presents the detailed analysis of various cislunar operations for the EMC Hybrid architecture as well as the result of the higher fidelity end-to-end trajectory analysis to understand the implications of the design choices on the Mars exploration campaign.

  10. Recent advances in agent-based complex automated negotiation

    CERN Document Server

    Ito, Takayuki; Zhang, Minjie; Fujita, Katsuhide; Robu, Valentin

    2016-01-01

    This book covers recent advances in Complex Automated Negotiations as a widely studied emerging area in the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. The book includes selected revised and extended papers from the 7th International Workshop on Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiation (ACAN2014), which was held in Paris, France, in May 2014. The book also includes brief introductions about Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation which are based on tutorials provided in the workshop, and brief summaries and descriptions about the ANAC'14 (Automated Negotiating Agents Competition) competition, where authors of selected finalist agents explain the strategies and the ideas used by them. The book is targeted to academic and industrial researchers in various communities of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems, such as agreement technology, mechanism design, electronic commerce, related areas, as well as graduate, undergraduate, and PhD students working in those areas or having interest in them.

  11. Agent Based Reasoning in Multilevel Flow Modeling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lind, Morten; Zhang, Xinxin

    2012-01-01

    to launch the MFM Workbench into an agent based environment, which can complement disadvantages of the original software. The agent-based MFM Workbench is centered on a concept called “Blackboard System” and use an event based mechanism to arrange the reasoning tasks. This design will support the new...

  12. VLSI Architectures for Sliding-Window-Based Space-Time Turbo Trellis Code Decoders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Georgios Passas

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The VLSI implementation of SISO-MAP decoders used for traditional iterative turbo coding has been investigated in the literature. In this paper, a complete architectural model of a space-time turbo code receiver that includes elementary decoders is presented. These architectures are based on newly proposed building blocks such as a recursive add-compare-select-offset (ACSO unit, A-, B-, Γ-, and LLR output calculation modules. Measurements of complexity and decoding delay of several sliding-window-technique-based MAP decoder architectures and a proposed parameter set lead to defining equations and comparison between those architectures.

  13. Agent Based Modeling Applications for Geosciences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, J. S.

    2004-12-01

    Agent-based modeling techniques have successfully been applied to systems in which complex behaviors or outcomes arise from varied interactions between individuals in the system. Each individual interacts with its environment, as well as with other individuals, by following a set of relatively simple rules. Traditionally this "bottom-up" modeling approach has been applied to problems in the fields of economics and sociology, but more recently has been introduced to various disciplines in the geosciences. This technique can help explain the origin of complex processes from a relatively simple set of rules, incorporate large and detailed datasets when they exist, and simulate the effects of extreme events on system-wide behavior. Some of the challenges associated with this modeling method include: significant computational requirements in order to keep track of thousands to millions of agents, methods and strategies of model validation are lacking, as is a formal methodology for evaluating model uncertainty. Challenges specific to the geosciences, include how to define agents that control water, contaminant fluxes, climate forcing and other physical processes and how to link these "geo-agents" into larger agent-based simulations that include social systems such as demographics economics and regulations. Effective management of limited natural resources (such as water, hydrocarbons, or land) requires an understanding of what factors influence the demand for these resources on a regional and temporal scale. Agent-based models can be used to simulate this demand across a variety of sectors under a range of conditions and determine effective and robust management policies and monitoring strategies. The recent focus on the role of biological processes in the geosciences is another example of an area that could benefit from agent-based applications. A typical approach to modeling the effect of biological processes in geologic media has been to represent these processes in

  14. Smart caching based on mobile agent of power WebGIS platform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiaohui; Wu, Kehe; Chen, Fei

    2013-01-01

    Power information construction is developing towards intensive, platform, distributed direction with the expansion of power grid and improvement of information technology. In order to meet the trend, power WebGIS was designed and developed. In this paper, we first discuss the architecture and functionality of power WebGIS, and then we study caching technology in detail, which contains dynamic display cache model, caching structure based on mobile agent, and cache data model. We have designed experiments of different data capacity to contrast performance between WebGIS with the proposed caching model and traditional WebGIS. The experimental results showed that, with the same hardware environment, the response time of WebGIS with and without caching model increased as data capacity growing, while the larger the data was, the higher the performance of WebGIS with proposed caching model improved.

  15. From SMART to agent systems development

    OpenAIRE

    Ashri, R; Luck, M; d'Inverno, M

    2005-01-01

    In order for agent-oriented software engineering to prove effective it must use principled notions of agents and enabling specification and reasoning, while still considering routes to practical implementation. This paper deals with the issue of individual agent specification and construction, departing from the conceptual basis provided by the smart agent framework. smart offers a descriptive specification of an agent architecture but omits consideration of issues relating to\\ud construction...

  16. A Methodology For Developing an Agent Systems Reference Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-05-01

    agent framworks , we create an abstraction noting similarities and differences. The differences are documented as points of variation. The result...situated in the physical en- vironment. Addressing how conceptual components of an agent system is beneficial to agent system architects, developers, and

  17. Developing dynamic field theory architectures for embodied cognitive systems with cedar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oliver Lomp

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Embodied artificial cognitive systems such as autonomous robots or intelligent observers connect cognitive processes to sensory and effector systems in real time. Prime candidates for such embodied intelligence are neurally inspired architectures. While components such as forward neural networks are well established, designing pervasively autonomous neural architectures remains a challenge. This includes the problem of tuning the parameters of such architectures so that they deliver specified functionality under variable environmental conditions and retain these functions as the architectures are expanded. The scaling and autonomy problems are solved, in part, by dynamic field theory (DFT, a theoretical framework for the neural grounding of sensorimotor and cognitive processes. In this paper, we address how to efficiently build DFT architectures that control embodied agents and how to tune their parameters so that the desired cognitive functions emerge while such agents are situated in real environments. In DFT architectures, dynamic neural fields or nodes are assigned dynamic regimes, that is, attractor states and their instabilities, from which cognitive function emerges. Tuning thus amounts to determining values of the dynamic parameters for which the components of a DFT architecture are in the specified dynamic regime under the appropriate environmental conditions. The process of tuning is facilitated by the software framework cedar, which provides a graphical interface to build and execute DFT architectures. It enables to change dynamic parameters online and visualize the activation states of any component while the agent is receiving sensory inputs in real-time. Using a simple example, we take the reader through the workflow of conceiving of DFT architectures, implementing them on embodied agents, tuning their parameters, and assessing performance while the system is coupled to real sensory inputs.

  18. Micromechanics of Amorphous Metal/Polymer Hybrid Structures with 3D Cellular Architectures: Size Effects, Buckling Behavior, and Energy Absorption Capability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mieszala, Maxime; Hasegawa, Madoka; Guillonneau, Gaylord; Bauer, Jens; Raghavan, Rejin; Frantz, Cédric; Kraft, Oliver; Mischler, Stefano; Michler, Johann; Philippe, Laetitia

    2017-02-01

    By designing advantageous cellular geometries and combining the material size effects at the nanometer scale, lightweight hybrid microarchitectured materials with tailored structural properties are achieved. Prior studies reported the mechanical properties of high strength cellular ceramic composites, obtained by atomic layer deposition. However, few studies have examined the properties of similar structures with metal coatings. To determine the mechanical performance of polymer cellular structures reinforced with a metal coating, 3D laser lithography and electroless deposition of an amorphous layer of nickel-boron (NiB) is used for the first time to produce metal/polymer hybrid structures. In this work, the mechanical response of microarchitectured structures is investigated with an emphasis on the effects of the architecture and the amorphous NiB thickness on their deformation mechanisms and energy absorption capability. Microcompression experiments show an enhancement of the mechanical properties with the NiB thickness, suggesting that the deformation mechanism and the buckling behavior are controlled by the brittle-to-ductile transition in the NiB layer. In addition, the energy absorption properties demonstrate the possibility of tuning the energy absorption efficiency with adequate designs. These findings suggest that microarchitectured metal/polymer hybrid structures are effective in producing materials with unique property combinations. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  19. Believable Social and Emotional Agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1996-05-01

    While building tools to support the creation of believable emotional agents, I had to make a number of important design decisions . Before describing...processing systems, it is difficult to give an artist direct control over the emotion - al aspects of the character. By making these decisions explicit, I hope...Woody on “Cheers”). Believable Agents BELIEVABLE SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL AGENTS 11 Lesson: We don’t want agent architectures that enforce rationality and

  20. Hybrid equation/agent-based model of ischemia-induced hyperemia and pressure ulcer formation predicts greater propensity to ulcerate in subjects with spinal cord injury.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexey Solovyev

    Full Text Available Pressure ulcers are costly and life-threatening complications for people with spinal cord injury (SCI. People with SCI also exhibit differential blood flow properties in non-ulcerated skin. We hypothesized that a computer simulation of the pressure ulcer formation process, informed by data regarding skin blood flow and reactive hyperemia in response to pressure, could provide insights into the pathogenesis and effective treatment of post-SCI pressure ulcers. Agent-Based Models (ABM are useful in settings such as pressure ulcers, in which spatial realism is important. Ordinary Differential Equation-based (ODE models are useful when modeling physiological phenomena such as reactive hyperemia. Accordingly, we constructed a hybrid model that combines ODEs related to blood flow along with an ABM of skin injury, inflammation, and ulcer formation. The relationship between pressure and the course of ulcer formation, as well as several other important characteristic patterns of pressure ulcer formation, was demonstrated in this model. The ODE portion of this model was calibrated to data related to blood flow following experimental pressure responses in non-injured human subjects or to data from people with SCI. This model predicted a higher propensity to form ulcers in response to pressure in people with SCI vs. non-injured control subjects, and thus may serve as novel diagnostic platform for post-SCI ulcer formation.

  1. Fuzzy Based Advanced Hybrid Intrusion Detection System to Detect Malicious Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rupinder Singh

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, an Advanced Hybrid Intrusion Detection System (AHIDS that automatically detects the WSNs attacks is proposed. AHIDS makes use of cluster-based architecture with enhanced LEACH protocol that intends to reduce the level of energy consumption by the sensor nodes. AHIDS uses anomaly detection and misuse detection based on fuzzy rule sets along with the Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network. The Feed Forward Neural Network along with the Backpropagation Neural Network are utilized to integrate the detection results and indicate the different types of attackers (i.e., Sybil attack, wormhole attack, and hello flood attack. For detection of Sybil attack, Advanced Sybil Attack Detection Algorithm is developed while the detection of wormhole attack is done by Wormhole Resistant Hybrid Technique. The detection of hello flood attack is done by using signal strength and distance. An experimental analysis is carried out in a set of nodes; 13.33% of the nodes are determined as misbehaving nodes, which classified attackers along with a detection rate of the true positive rate and false positive rate. Sybil attack is detected at a rate of 99,40%; hello flood attack has a detection rate of 98, 20%; and wormhole attack has a detection rate of 99, 20%.

  2. High Dynamic Range adaptive ΔΣ-based Focal Plane Array architecture

    KAUST Repository

    Yao, Shun

    2012-10-16

    In this paper, an Adaptive Delta-Sigma based architecture for High Dynamic Range (HDR) Focal Plane Arrays is presented. The noise shaping effect of the Delta-Sigma modulation in the low end, and the distortion noise induced in the high end of Photo-diode current were analyzed in detail. The proposed architecture can extend the DR for about 20N log2 dB at the high end of Photo-diode current with an N bit Up-Down counter. At the low end, it can compensate for the larger readout noise by employing Extended Counting. The Adaptive Delta-Sigma architecture employing a 4-bit Up-Down counter achieved about 160dB in the DR, with a Peak SNR (PSNR) of 80dB at the high end. Compared to the other HDR architectures, the Adaptive Delta-Sigma based architecture provides the widest DR with the best SNR performance in the extended range.

  3. Multi-issue Agent Negotiation Based on Fairness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zuo, Baohe; Zheng, Sue; Wu, Hong

    Agent-based e-commerce service has become a hotspot now. How to make the agent negotiation process quickly and high-efficiently is the main research direction of this area. In the multi-issue model, MAUT(Multi-attribute Utility Theory) or its derived theory usually consider little about the fairness of both negotiators. This work presents a general model of agent negotiation which considered the satisfaction of both negotiators via autonomous learning. The model can evaluate offers from the opponent agent based on the satisfaction degree, learn online to get the opponent's knowledge from interactive instances of history and negotiation of this time, make concessions dynamically based on fair object. Through building the optimal negotiation model, the bilateral negotiation achieved a higher efficiency and fairer deal.

  4. A Reference Architecture for a Cloud-Based Tools as a Service Workspace

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chauhan, Aufeef; Babar, Muhammad Ali; Sheng, Quan Z.

    2015-01-01

    Software Architecture (SA) plays a critical role in developing and evolving cloud-based applications. We present a Reference Architecture (RA) for designing Cloud-based Tools as a service work SPACE (TSPACE) - a platform for provisioning chain of tools following the Software as a Service (SaaS...... evaluate the RA in terms of completeness and feasibility. Our proposed RA can provide valuable guidance and insights for designing and implementing concrete software architectures of TSPACE....

  5. Efficient Numeric and Geometric Computations using Heterogeneous Shared Memory Architectures

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-10-04

    to the memory architectures of CPUs and GPUs to obtain good performance and result in good memory performance using cache management. These methods ...Accomplishments: The PI and students has developed new methods for path and ray tracing and their Report Date: 14-Oct-2017 INVESTIGATOR(S): Phone...The efficiency of our method makes it a good candidate for forming hybrid schemes with wave-based models. One possibility is to couple the ray curve

  6. Switch/router architectures shared-bus and shared-memory based systems

    CERN Document Server

    Aweya, James

    2018-01-01

    A practicing engineer's inclusive review of communication systems based on shared-bus and shared-memory switch/router architectures. This book delves into the inner workings of router and switch design in a comprehensive manner that is accessible to a broad audience. It begins by describing the role of switch/routers in a network, then moves on to the functional composition of a switch/router. A comparison of centralized versus distributed design of the architecture is also presented. The author discusses use of bus versus shared-memory for communication within a design, and also covers Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms and configuration tools. Written in a simple style and language to allow readers to easily understand and appreciate the material presented, Switch/Router Architectures: Shared-Bus and Shared-Memory Based Systems discusses the design of multilayer switches—starting with the basic concepts and on to the basic architectures. It describes the evolution of multilayer switch designs and highli...

  7. Computing architecture for autonomous microgrids

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldsmith, Steven Y.

    2015-09-29

    A computing architecture that facilitates autonomously controlling operations of a microgrid is described herein. A microgrid network includes numerous computing devices that execute intelligent agents, each of which is assigned to a particular entity (load, source, storage device, or switch) in the microgrid. The intelligent agents can execute in accordance with predefined protocols to collectively perform computations that facilitate uninterrupted control of the .

  8. Regulated open multi-agent systems (ROMAS) a multi-agent approach for designing normative open systems

    CERN Document Server

    Garcia, Emilia; Botti, Vicente

    2015-01-01

    Addressing the open problem of engineering normative open systems using the multi-agent paradigm, normative open systems are explained as systems in which heterogeneous and autonomous entities and institutions coexist in a complex social and legal framework that can evolve to address the different and often conflicting objectives of the many stakeholders involved. Presenting  a software engineering approach which covers both the analysis and design of these kinds of systems, and which deals with the open issues in the area, ROMAS (Regulated Open Multi-Agent Systems) defines a specific multi-agent architecture, meta-model, methodology and CASE tool. This CASE tool is based on Model-Driven technology and integrates the graphical design with the formal verification of some properties of these systems by means of model checking techniques. Utilizing tables to enhance reader insights into the most important requirements for designing normative open multi-agent systems, the book also provides a detailed and easy t...

  9. Architecture of security management unit for safe hosting of multiple agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilmont, Tanguy; Legat, Jean-Didier; Quisquater, Jean-Jacques

    1999-04-01

    In such growing areas as remote applications in large public networks, electronic commerce, digital signature, intellectual property and copyright protection, and even operating system extensibility, the hardware security level offered by existing processors is insufficient. They lack protection mechanisms that prevent the user from tampering critical data owned by those applications. Some devices make exception, but have not enough processing power nor enough memory to stand up to such applications (e.g. smart cards). This paper proposes an architecture of secure processor, in which the classical memory management unit is extended into a new security management unit. It allows ciphered code execution and ciphered data processing. An internal permanent memory can store cipher keys and critical data for several client agents simultaneously. The ordinary supervisor privilege scheme is replaced by a privilege inheritance mechanism that is more suited to operating system extensibility. The result is a secure processor that has hardware support for extensible multitask operating systems, and can be used for both general applications and critical applications needing strong protection. The security management unit and the internal permanent memory can be added to an existing CPU core without loss of performance, and do not require it to be modified.

  10. Cloud-based Architecture Capabilities Summary Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vang, Leng [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Prescott, Steven R [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Smith, Curtis [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2014-09-01

    In collaborating scientific research arena it is important to have an environment where analysts have access to a shared of information documents, software tools and be able to accurately maintain and track historical changes in models. A new cloud-based environment would be accessible remotely from anywhere regardless of computing platforms given that the platform has available of Internet access and proper browser capabilities. Information stored at this environment would be restricted based on user assigned credentials. This report reviews development of a Cloud-based Architecture Capabilities (CAC) as a web portal for PRA tools.

  11. A security architecture for interconnecting health information systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gritzalis, Dimitris; Lambrinoudakis, Costas

    2004-03-31

    Several hereditary and other chronic diseases necessitate continuous and complicated health care procedures, typically offered in different, often distant, health care units. Inevitably, the medical records of patients suffering from such diseases become complex, grow in size very fast and are scattered all over the units involved in the care process, hindering communication of information between health care professionals. Web-based electronic medical records have been recently proposed as the solution to the above problem, facilitating the interconnection of the health care units in the sense that health care professionals can now access the complete medical record of the patient, even if it is distributed in several remote units. However, by allowing users to access information from virtually anywhere, the universe of ineligible people who may attempt to harm the system is dramatically expanded, thus severely complicating the design and implementation of a secure environment. This paper presents a security architecture that has been mainly designed for providing authentication and authorization services in web-based distributed systems. The architecture has been based on a role-based access scheme and on the implementation of an intelligent security agent per site (i.e. health care unit). This intelligent security agent: (a). authenticates the users, local or remote, that can access the local resources; (b). assigns, through temporary certificates, access privileges to the authenticated users in accordance to their role; and (c). communicates to other sites (through the respective security agents) information about the local users that may need to access information stored in other sites, as well as about local resources that can be accessed remotely.

  12. Bio-inspired adaptive feedback error learning architecture for motor control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tolu, Silvia; Vanegas, Mauricio; Luque, Niceto R; Garrido, Jesús A; Ros, Eduardo

    2012-10-01

    This study proposes an adaptive control architecture based on an accurate regression method called Locally Weighted Projection Regression (LWPR) and on a bio-inspired module, such as a cerebellar-like engine. This hybrid architecture takes full advantage of the machine learning module (LWPR kernel) to abstract an optimized representation of the sensorimotor space while the cerebellar component integrates this to generate corrective terms in the framework of a control task. Furthermore, we illustrate how the use of a simple adaptive error feedback term allows to use the proposed architecture even in the absence of an accurate analytic reference model. The presented approach achieves an accurate control with low gain corrective terms (for compliant control schemes). We evaluate the contribution of the different components of the proposed scheme comparing the obtained performance with alternative approaches. Then, we show that the presented architecture can be used for accurate manipulation of different objects when their physical properties are not directly known by the controller. We evaluate how the scheme scales for simulated plants of high Degrees of Freedom (7-DOFs).

  13. Design and Implementation of a Set-Top Box-Based Homecare System Using Hybrid Cloud.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Bor-Shing; Hsiao, Pei-Chi; Cheng, Po-Hsun; Lee, I-Jung; Jan, Gene Eu

    2015-11-01

    Telemedicine has become a prevalent topic in recent years, and several telemedicine systems have been proposed; however, such systems are an unsuitable fit for the daily requirements of users. The system proposed in this study was developed as a set-top box integrated with the Android™ (Google, Mountain View, CA) operating system to provide a convenient and user-friendly interface. The proposed system can assist with family healthcare management, telemedicine service delivery, and information exchange among hospitals. To manage the system, a novel type of hybrid cloud architecture was also developed. Updated information is stored on a public cloud, enabling medical staff members to rapidly access information when diagnosing patients. In the long term, the stored data can be reduced to improve the efficiency of the database. The proposed design offers a robust architecture for storing data in a homecare system and can thus resolve network overload and congestion resulting from accumulating data, which are inherent problems in centralized architectures, thereby improving system efficiency.

  14. Synchronization of multi-agent systems with metric-topological interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Lin; Chen, Guanrong

    2016-09-01

    A hybrid multi-agent systems model integrating the advantages of both metric interaction and topological interaction rules, called the metric-topological model, is developed. This model describes planar motions of mobile agents, where each agent can interact with all the agents within a circle of a constant radius, and can furthermore interact with some distant agents to reach a pre-assigned number of neighbors, if needed. Some sufficient conditions imposed only on system parameters and agent initial states are presented, which ensure achieving synchronization of the whole group of agents. It reveals the intrinsic relationships among the interaction range, the speed, the initial heading, and the density of the group. Moreover, robustness against variations of interaction range, density, and speed are investigated by comparing the motion patterns and performances of the hybrid metric-topological interaction model with the conventional metric-only and topological-only interaction models. Practically in all cases, the hybrid metric-topological interaction model has the best performance in the sense of achieving highest frequency of synchronization, fastest convergent rate, and smallest heading difference.

  15. Agent-based models in economics a toolkit

    CERN Document Server

    Fagiolo, Giorgio; Gallegati, Mauro; Richiardi, Matteo; Russo, Alberto

    2018-01-01

    In contrast to mainstream economics, complexity theory conceives the economy as a complex system of heterogeneous interacting agents characterised by limited information and bounded rationality. Agent Based Models (ABMs) are the analytical and computational tools developed by the proponents of this emerging methodology. Aimed at students and scholars of contemporary economics, this book includes a comprehensive toolkit for agent-based computational economics, now quickly becoming the new way to study evolving economic systems. Leading scholars in the field explain how ABMs can be applied fruitfully to many real-world economic examples and represent a great advancement over mainstream approaches. The essays discuss the methodological bases of agent-based approaches and demonstrate step-by-step how to build, simulate and analyse ABMs and how to validate their outputs empirically using the data. They also present a wide set of applications of these models to key economic topics, including the business cycle, lab...

  16. Experiencing a Problem-Based Learning Approach for Teaching Reconfigurable Architecture Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erwan Fabiani

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the “reconfigurable computing” teaching part of a computer science master course (first year on parallel architectures. The practical work sessions of this course rely on active pedagogy using problem-based learning, focused on designing a reconfigurable architecture for the implementation of an application class of image processing algorithms. We show how the successive steps of this project permit the student to experiment with several fundamental concepts of reconfigurable computing at different levels. Specific experiments include exploitation of architectural parallelism, dataflow and communicating component-based design, and configurability-specificity tradeoffs.

  17. Without Pictorial Detour: Benjamin, Mies and the Architectural Image

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lutz Robbers

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available It can be argued that architectural knowledge was of crucial importance to Walter Benjamin for elaborating his version of an anthropological historical materialism. Between 1929 and 1931 he encounters two publications on architectural history which had a decisive impact on his ensuing works: Sigfried Giedion’s Bauen in Frankreich, Bauen in Eisen, Bauen in Eisenbeton (1928 and Carl Linfert’s Die Grundlagen der Architekturzeichnung (1931. It can be argued that both works played a role in affirming, if not developing his historical method of awakening the dreaming collective into a ‘now of recognisability,’ a method which one can argue is based on a specific image-based epistemology. Especially the architectural image, whether in the form of a printed drawing, photographic illustration, or an actual built object, appears to have been crucial for placing the history of media technologies (architecture being one of these media in a constellation with the ‘archaic symbol-worlds of mythologies.’ If architecture is, as Benjamin claims in his initial notes for The Arcades Project, ‘the most important testimony to latent “mythology,”’ the architectural image might very well be the agent that causes the moment of awakening, the instance when a constellation between technology and ancient symbol worlds is formed. In the second part of this essay, I will attempt to elaborate such a designation for the specificity of the architectural image by analysing a number of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s drawings and collages from the 1920s as architectural images in the Benjaminian sense.

  18. Optimal energy management for a flywheel-based hybrid vehicle

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Berkel, van K.; Hofman, T.; Vroemen, B.G.; Steinbuch, M.

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents the modeling and design of an optimal Energy Management Strategy (EMS) for a flywheel-based hybrid vehicle, that does not use any electrical motor/generator, or a battery, for its hybrid functionalities. The hybrid drive train consists of only low-cost components, such as a

  19. Hybrid Imaging Labels: Providing the Link Between Mass Spectrometry-Based Molecular Pathology and Theranostics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buckle, Tessa; van der Wal, Steffen; van Malderen, Stijn J.M.; Müller, Larissa; Kuil, Joeri; van Unen, Vincent; Peters, Ruud J.B.; van Bemmel, Margaretha E.M.; McDonnell, Liam A.; Velders, Aldrik H.; Koning, Frits; Vanhaeke, Frank; van Leeuwen, Fijs W. B.

    2017-01-01

    intracellular distribution. In vivo biodistribution patterns obtained with ICP-MS (165Ho) and radiodetection (111In) of the hybrid peptide were shown to be similar. Assessment of tracer distribution in excised tissues revealed the location of tracer uptake with both LA-ICP-MS-imaging and fluorescence imaging. Conclusion: Lanthanide-isotope chelation expands the scope of fluorescent/radioactive hybrid tracers to include MS-based analytical tools such as mass-cytometry, ICP-MS and LA-ICP-MS imaging in molecular pathology. In contradiction to common expectations, MS detection using a single chelate imaging agent was shown to be feasible, enabling a direct link between nuclear medicine-based imaging and theranostic methods. PMID:28255355

  20. Architectural Implications for Spatial Object Association Algorithms*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Vijay S.; Kurc, Tahsin; Saltz, Joel; Abdulla, Ghaleb; Kohn, Scott R.; Matarazzo, Celeste

    2013-01-01

    Spatial object association, also referred to as crossmatch of spatial datasets, is the problem of identifying and comparing objects in two or more datasets based on their positions in a common spatial coordinate system. In this work, we evaluate two crossmatch algorithms that are used for astronomical sky surveys, on the following database system architecture configurations: (1) Netezza Performance Server®, a parallel database system with active disk style processing capabilities, (2) MySQL Cluster, a high-throughput network database system, and (3) a hybrid configuration consisting of a collection of independent database system instances with data replication support. Our evaluation provides insights about how architectural characteristics of these systems affect the performance of the spatial crossmatch algorithms. We conducted our study using real use-case scenarios borrowed from a large-scale astronomy application known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). PMID:25692244