Agens Faber: Toward a Theory of Artefacts for MAS

Human intelligence has evolved along with the use of more and more sophisticated tools, allowing Homo Faber (from Homo Habilis to Homo Sapiens Sapiens) to cope with environment changes, as well as to adapt the environment to his needs. Analogously, in this seminal paper we introduce the notion of Agens Faber, conveying the idea that agent intelligence should not be considered as separated by the agent ability to perceive and affect the environment—and so, that agent intelligence is strictly related to the artefacts that enable, mediate and govern any agent (intelligent) activity.

Along this line, we first discuss the notion of artefact for MAS in general, then we try to devise out the admissible / required / desirable features of an artefact for MAS. We elaborate on the many sorts of possible relations between agents and artefacts, focusing in particular on the issue of the rational exploitation of artefacts, and also rough out a possible taxonomy of artefacts for MAS.     

Velocity Profile in Fixed Beds: A Study on the Representativeness of the Experimental Measurement of Downstream Flow Characteristics

Although considerable progress has been made in the development of experimental techniques for investigating velocity distribution inside a fixed bed, these techniques were limited to special cases. Consequently, the velocity distribution is normally measured at downstream of the fixed bed and then this measurement is considered to be representative for the flow inside the bed. To evaluate the representativeness of this technique, this work presents a study of the change in the flow characteristics, starting from the boundary of the fixed bed within the pipe to a downstream position where the experimental measurement is taken, by using simulations based on computational fluid dynamics methods.     

TRANSFER FUNCTION MODEL ORDER AND PARAMETER ESTIMATION

Abstract. A distributed lag model with a rational transfer function is considered. We have demonstrated that the C -table can be used to determine the orders of the rational transfer function and the Padé table can be used to estimate the parameters of an identifiable transfer function. In case the model is not uniquely identified, the C -table reduces possible competing models to only a few for further examination. Padé approximant gives consistent initial values for possibly more efficient iterative procedures to estimate the coefficients of the identified model. Some asymptotic results on the estimation of the C -table and the Padé table are given. A few examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.     

编辑出版自动化技术在医药专业期刊编辑部的初步应用探讨

本文首先概述了编辑出版自动化技术的概念及最新进展,然后就其在医药专业期刊编辑部的初步应用进行了探讨,论述了计算机、网络、数据库技术在稿件的选题、组稿、编辑、审校、排版、印刷、出版中的具体应用,强调了构建基于网络的编辑出版自动化系统对期刊现代化建设的重要作用。     

Tree-shaped flow structures designed by minimizing path lengths

This paper outlines a direct route to the construction of effective tree-shaped flow structures. Dendritic flow structures dominate the design of natural and engineered flow systems, especially in thermal and fluid systems. The starting point is the optimization of the shape of each elemental area or volume, such that the length of the flow path housed by the element is minimized. Proceeding toward larger and more complex structures - from elements, to first constructs, second constructs, etc. - the paper develops tree-shaped flow structures between one point and a straight line, one point and a plane, a circle and its center, and a point and many points distributed uniformly over an area. In the latter, the construction method is applied to a fluid flow configuration with laminar fully developed flow. The constructions reveal several features that are supported by empirical observations of natural tree-shaped flows: asymmetry, flow rate imbalance, pairing or bifurcation, angles between branches, and Y-shaped constructs that lie in a plane. It is shown that these basic features are necessary because of “packing”, i.e., assembling optimized elements into a fixed space, and filling the space completely. For the flow between an area and one point, the best elemental shape is the regular hexagon. It is shown that the emergence of string-shaped links that connect two or more elements are necessary features, which are also required by packing. Strings cover some of the inner zones of the tree network, particularly the inner zones of large and complex trees. Dichotomous Y-shaped constructs dominate the tree structure, especially the peripheral zones of the tree canopy. The practical importance of the simplified design method is discussed.     

基于Agent的分布式查询优化研究

Internet上异构的软硬件环境以及多种并行机制对分布式查询优化技术提出了新的挑战，文章将分布式人工智能与数据库管理系统两个研究领域相结合，给出了基于Agent的分布式查询优化系统模型，在该系统中，Agent采用了典型的慎思型体系结构，即BDI模.Agent具有信念库，目标库并在此基础上进行学习和推理，多个Agent之间通过协调，协作以及协商以支持分布式数据库系统的动态查询优化和规划的执行，提高系统的查询效率。     

分布式制造动态调度资源集成系统建模

本文分析了分布式制造动态调度的本质，提出了对分布式制造资源集成系统的要求，并利用多A-gent理论对分布式制造资源集成系统进行建模，给出了系统集成的拓扑图和说明系统的信息流动过程，解决了构造分布式制造动态调度资源集成系统的理论基础。     

Learning and Revising User Profiles: The Identification of Interesting Web Sites

We discuss algorithms for learning and revising user profiles that can determine which World Wide Web sites on a given topic would be interesting to a user. We describe the use of a naive Bayesian classifier for this task, and demonstrate that it can incrementally learn profiles from user feedback on the interestingness of Web sites. Furthermore, the Bayesian classifier may easily be extended to revise user provided profiles. In an experimental evaluation we compare the Bayesian classifier to computationally more intensive alternatives, and show that it performs at least as well as these approaches throughout a range of different domains. In addition, we empirically analyze the effects of providing the classifier with background knowledge in form of user defined profiles and examine the use of lexical knowledge for feature selection. We find that both approaches can substantially increase the prediction accuracy.