Modeling the High‐Frequency FX Market: An Agent‐Based Approach

The development of computational intelligence‐based strategies for electronic markets has been the focus of intense research. To be able to design efficient and effective automated trading strategies, one first needs to understand the workings of the market, the strategies that traders use, and their interactions as well as the patterns emerging as a result of these interactions. In this article, we develop an agent‐based model of the foreign exchange (FX) market, which is the market for the buying and selling of currencies. Our agent‐based model of the FX market comprises heterogeneous trading agents that employ a strategy that identifies and responds to periodic patterns in the price time series. We use the agent‐based model of the FX market to undertake a systematic exploration of its constituent elements and their impact on the stylized facts (statistical patterns) of transactions data. This enables us to identify a set of sufficient conditions that result in the emergence of the stylized facts similarly to the real market data, and formulate a model that closely approximates the stylized facts. We use a unique high‐frequency data set of historical transactions data that enables us to run multiple simulation runs and validate our approach and draw comparisons and conclusions for each market setting.     

Agent‐oriented and ontology‐driven digital libraries: the IndianaMAS experience

This paper describes IndianaMAS, a multiagent system able to automatically classify and manage images, sketches, and multilingual documents in a cultural heritage domain. The latter has been formalized by means of an ontology, which enables the semantic integration of heterogeneous data from different sources, drives the agent communication with the internal and external environment, and provides an abstract and human‐readable interface between the system and the user. IndianaMAS is able to expose to the world the classified data via a digital library. Modularity and reusability are the key engineering principles followed in the system design and implementation. We present the details of the IndianaMAS system and discuss how its architecture can be generalized to create – with the minimal effort – systems addressing similar classification, storage, and management problems, but operating in different domains and driven by different ontologies. The concrete problems we faced and their solutions are described to share our lesson learned and, at the same time, to show the applicability and reusability of our modular approach based on ontologies, agents, and digital libraries. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neuro‐Fuzzy Impact Control (NFIC) for Anti‐Personnel (AP) Mines Detection

An explicit impact control scheme is modified as the main control scheme, while an intelligent control method is designed to deal with uncertainties and varying environment parameters in a mechatronics approach to anti‐personnel (AP) mine detection. The device imitates the manual hand‐prodding technique for mine detection. It inserts a bayonet into the soil and models the dynamics of the manipulator and environment parameters, such as stiffness variation in the soil, to control the impact caused by making contact with a stiff object. An adaptive neuro‐fuzzy plus PID controller is employed to switch from a conventional PID controller to neuro‐fuzzy impact control (NFIC) when an impact is detected. The developed control schemes are validated through experimental work.     

Organizational Adaptation in Multi‐Stakeholder Crisis Response: An Experimental Study

Modern day crises demand organizations to collaborate and adapt to new roles, functions and structures. In such situations, lack of collaborative behaviour and openness between organizations can result in reduced adaptive ability. Therefore, it is important to facilitate collaboration between organizations. We have studied the extent to which crisis managers are prepared to work with personnel and resources from organizations other than their own when responding to crises. An experiment was designed with four different organizations in Sweden, which involved decision making concerning whether the participants systematically favoured their own organization over others. Findings indicate that increasing familiarity and expectation of future cooperation with other organizations increased the likelihood that decision makers would be prepared to work with other organizations in joint crisis management.     

ProactiveCrowd: Modelling Proactive Steering Behaviours for Agent‐Based Crowd Simulation

How to realistically model an agent's steering behaviour is a critical issue in agent‐based crowd simulation. In this work, we investigate some proactive steering strategies for agents to minimize potential collisions. To this end, a behaviour‐based modelling framework is first introduced to model the process of how humans select and execute a proactive steering strategy in crowded situations and execute the corresponding behaviour accordingly. We then propose behaviour models for two inter‐related proactive steering behaviours, namely gap seeking and following. These behaviours can be frequently observed in real‐life scenarios, and they can easily affect overall crowd dynamics. We validate our work by evaluating the simulation results of our model with the real‐world data and comparing the performance of our model with that of two state‐of‐the‐art crowd models. The results show that the performance of our model is better or at least comparable to the compared models in terms of the realism at both individual and crowd levels.     

An Agent‐Based Pythagorean Fuzzy Approach for Demand Analysis with Incomplete Information

Analyzing demand in environments with incomplete information is a challenging task. This paper proposes a novel agent‐based Pythagorean fuzzy approach for analyzing this kind of demand. First, a Bayesian game is described with a large number of finite players, and this is followed by a Pythagorean fuzzy‐based decision mechanism. Unlike the classical methods in the literature, the proposed method in this paper neither assumes nor forecasts the demand in a system. Instead, it tries to analyze the demand when there is limited availability of input data, or processing data are computationally expensive. The study ends with an application of the proposed system to an electricity grid. Electricity prices used as an incentive to construct an agent‐based system that efficiently reduces the peak amounts in a smart grid by analyzing the demand. Test results provide evidence that the proposed approach is promising to design demand response systems.     

Agent‐oriented activity recognition in the event calculus: An application for diabetic patients

We present a knowledge representation framework on the basis of the Event Calculus that allows an agent to recognize complex activities from low‐level observations received by multiple sensors, reason about the life cycle of such activities, and take action to support their successful completion. Activities are multivalue fluents that change according to events that occur in the environment. The parameters of an activity consist of a unique label, a set of participants involved in the performing of the activity, and a unique goal associated with the activity revealing the activity's desired outcome. Our contribution is the identification of an activity life cycle describing how activities can be started, interrupted, suspended, resumed, or completed over time, as well as how these can be represented. The framework also specifies activity goals, their associated life cycle, and their relation with the activity life cycle. We provide the complete implementation of the framework, which includes an activity generator that automatically creates synthetic sensor data in the form of event streams that represent the everyday lifestyle of a type 1 diabetic patient. Moreover, we test the framework by generating very large activity streams that we use to evaluate the performance of the recognition capability and study its relative merits.     

Exploring Crisis Management in UK Small‐ and Medium‐Sized Enterprises

Despite a long‐established crisis management literature that focuses on large enterprises, crisis management planning in the context of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) is less extensively researched. Using data collected from 215 SMEs in the United Kingdom, this paper explores the perceptions and experiences of SMEs' managing directors in relation to crisis management planning. Furthermore, the paper examines differences in perceptions between planning and non‐planning SMEs. Analysis reveals six factors that correspond to resilience through planning, financial impact, operational crisis management, the perfect storm, the aftermath of survival and atrophy. Results indicate how the experience of crisis and the type of crisis of type encountered affect managers' assessment of whether planning can be used to address crisis prevention and lower impact.     

Dual‐plate OLED display (DOD) based on amorphous‐silicon (a‐Si) TFT backplane

Abstract— An improved AMOLED with an a‐Si TFT backplane based on a unique structure is reported. The new structure is refered to as a dual‐plate OLED display (DOD). While a top‐emission OLED array is directly fabricated on a TFT backplane, the DOD consists of an upper OLED substrate and a lower TFT substrate, which are independently fabricated. Because the OLED substrate, which is fabricated through the process flow of bottom emission, is attached to the TFT substrate, the light is emitted in the opposite direction to the TFT backplane. The DOD enables the design of large‐sized TFTs and a complicated pixel circuit. It can also not only achieve higher uniformity in luminance in large‐sized displays due to the low electrical resistance of the common electrode, but also wider viewing angles.     

Red‐phosphorescent OLEDs employing bis(8‐quinolinolato)phenolato‐aluminum(III) complexes as emission‐layer hosts

Abstract— We have used bis(8‐quinolinolato)phenolato‐aluminum complexes as emission‐layer hosts in red‐phosphorescent OLED devices. This enabled high‐efficiency long‐lived OLED devices with a simple device structure that does not require a hole‐blocking layer. Devices with a red‐phosphorescent dopant introduced into a noble bis(8‐quinolinolato)phenolato‐aluminum complex exhibited a high efficiency of 12 cd/A at CIE color coordinates (0.65, 035) and a long operating lifetime of 30,000 hours or more at an initial luminance of 700 cd/m². Moreover, triplet‐triplet annihilation was reduced in the devices because of the wide emission zone enabled by the complex and the short phosphorescent lifetime of the red‐phosphorescent dopant. We have successfully incorporated these red‐phosphorescent devices into commercial OLED displays.     

A field‐emitter‐array cathode‐ray tube (FEA‐CRT)

Abstract— High‐resolution bright CRT monitors with Spindt‐type field‐emitter arrays (FEA‐CRTs) as electron guns have been realized for the first time. The FEA chip consists of 868 electron sources arranged within an emitter circle 50 μm in diameter and a vertical current limiter (VECTL) which protects the FEA chips from damage caused by an arc electric discharge. The FEA‐CRT has a minimum electron beam diameter of 0.84 mm at 18 kV and 100 μA.     

Photoconductor‐based (direct) large‐area x‐ray imagers

Abstract— A brief overview of the present status of active‐matrix flat‐panel direct x‐ray imagers (D‐AMFPI) is given. The spatial resolutions of direct and indirect imagers are compared, and it is pointed out that the lack of light scattering greatly improves resolution. Furthermore, the resolution does not degrade as layers of the x‐ray detector materials become thicker for better x‐ray absorption at higher x‐ray energies, opposite to that of indirect imagers. Different direct x‐ray conversion materials are compared, how the physical properties influence the x‐ray detection efficiency, and imager stability are discussed. Ghosting and image‐lag properties are also weighted. A few x‐ray‐sensitive photoconductor materials produce very‐high x‐ray conversion efficiency, which could be advantageous for low‐dose fluoroscopy to overcome the noise of the readout electronics. Last, but not least, the manufacturing advantage of the direct imagers is emphasized. The direct imagers do not need p‐i‐n photodiodes, so the a‐Si TFT matrices for these arrays can be manufactured at any LCD manufacturing sites and not only at a few, very specialized companies where the p‐layers for the photodiodes can be deposited.     

Efficiency enhancement of solution‐processed single‐layer blue‐phosphorescence organic light‐emitting devices having co‐host materials of polymer (PVK) and small‐molecule (SimCP2)

Abstract— A new type of single‐layer blue‐phosphorescence organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs) containing poly(9‐vinylcarbazole) (PVK) and small‐molecule‐based amorphous ambipolar bis(3,5‐di(^9H‐carbazol‐9‐yl)phenyl) diphenylsilane (SimCP2) as the co‐host material have been demonstrated. All active materials [PVK, SimCP2, Flrpic (blue‐phosphorescence dopant), and OXD‐7 (electron transport)] were mixed in a single layer for solution processing in the fabrication of OLEDs. The SimCP2 small‐molecule host has adequate high electron and hole‐carrier mobiltieis of ～10^?4 cm²/V‐sec and a sufficiently large triplet state energy of ～2.70 eV in confining emission energy on FIrpic. Based on such an architecture for single‐layer devices, a maximum external quantum efficiency of 6.2%, luminous efficiency of 15.8 cd/A, luminous power efficiency of 11 lm/W, and Commision Internale de l'Eclairage (CIE^x,y) coordinates of (0.14,0.32) were achieved. Compared with those having PVK as the single‐host material, the improvement in the device performance is attributed to the balance of hole and electron mobilities of the co‐host material, efficient triplet‐state energy confinement on FIrpic, and the high homogeneity of the thin‐film active layer. Flexible blue‐phosphorescence OLEDs based on solution‐processed SimCP2 host material (withou PVK) have been demonstrated as well.     

LTCC‐based monolithic system‐in‐package (SiP) module for millimeter‐wave applications

A miniature LTCC system‐in‐package (SiP) module has been presented for millimeter‐wave applications. A typical heterodyne 61 GHz transmitter (Tx) has been designed and fabricated in a type of the SiP module as small as 36 × 12 × 0.9 mm³. Five active chips including a mixer, driver amplifier, power amplifier, and two frequency multipliers were mounted on the single LTCC package substrate, in which all passive circuits such as a stripline (SL) BPF, 2 × 2 array patch antenna, surface‐mount technology (SMT) pads, and intermediate frequency (IF) feeding lines have been monolithically embedded by using vertical and planar transitions. The embedded SL BPF shows the center frequency of 60.8 GHz, BW of 4.1%, and insertion loss of 3.74 dB. The gain and 3‐dB beam width of the fabricated 2 × 2 array patch antenna are 7 dBi and 36 degrees, respectively. The assembled LTCC 61 GHz Tx SiP module achieves an output power of 10.2 dBm and an up‐conversion gain of 7.3 dB. Because of the integrated BPF, an isolation level between a local oscillation (LO) and RF signal is below 26.4 dBc and the spurious level is suppressed by lower than 22.4 dBc. By using a 61 GHz receiver (Rx) consisting of off‐the‐shelf modules, wireless communication test was demonstrated by comparing measured IF spectrums at the Tx and Rx part.     

On linear‐parameter‐varying (LPV) slip‐controller design for two‐wheeled vehicles

This paper describes the application of linear‐parameter‐varying (LPV) control design techniques to the problem of slip control for two‐wheeled vehicles. A nonlinear multi‐body motorcycle simulator is employed to derive a control‐oriented dynamic model. It is shown that, in order to devise a robust controller with good performance, it is necessary to take into account the dependence of the model on the velocity and on the wheel slip. This dependence is modeled via an LPV system constructed from Jacobian linearizations at different velocities and slip values. The control problem is formulated as a model‐matching control problem within the LPV framework; a specific modification of the LPV control synthesis algorithm is proposed to alleviate controller interpolation problems. Linear and nonlinear simulations indicate that the synthesized controller achieves the required robustness and performance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A quick‐response liquid‐powder display (QR‐LPD®) with plastic substrate

Abstract— Paper‐like displays as thin as 290 μm have been developed using QR‐LPD technology. We fabricated two types of displays. One is a dot‐matrix type with a 160 × 160 array of pixels and a 3.1‐in.‐diagonal viewable image size. The other is a segmented type for clock use. Each display has a paper‐like appearance and exhibits high contrast. Plastic substrates with a thickness of 120 μm were used, resulting in flexible displays that can be bent up to a radius of curvature of 20 mm.     

Nano‐structured liquid‐crystal alignment layers (Invited Paper)

Abstract— The alignment of liquid crystal by nano‐structured surfaces is investigated. It is shown that reliable pretilt angles of any value between 0° and 90° can be produced with these surfaces. The physics and properties of such alignment layers are studied using a variety of techniques. The anchoring energy and temperature stability of the alignment are also measured. Dependence on various processing conditions is also characterized. It is shown that these nano‐structured alignment layers are useful for the production of high pretilt angles needed for a variety of applications.     

Fault‐tolerant RT‐Mach (FT‐RT‐Mach) and an application to real‐time train control

Even though real‐time systems have the stringent constraint of completing tasks before their deadlines, many existing real‐time operating systems do not implement fault tolerance capabilities. In this paper we summarize fault tolerant real‐time scheduling policy for dynamic tasks with ready times and deadlines. Our focus in this paper is the implementation, which includes fault‐tolerant scheduling, re‐scheduling, and recovery mechanisms in the FT‐RT‐Mach operating system, a fault‐tolerant version of RT‐Mach. A real‐time train control application is then implemented using the FT‐RT‐Mach operating system. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Software‐processed edge‐ and level‐adaptive overdrive (SELAO) method for high‐quality motion pictures

Abstract— In this paper, a software‐processed edge‐ and level‐adaptive overdrive (SELAO) method, which is a novel overdrive technique that utilizes not only a temporal change of gray levels but also a spatial edge intensity of motion pictures, is proposed. The SELAO method is a software video‐processing technology to improve motion‐picture quality rendered on LCDs more than is possible with a conventional SLAO method without edge‐adaptive overdrive, and it works in real time on commonly used personal computers (PCs).