A multi-agent decision support system for stock trading

A distributed problem solving system can be characterized as a group of individual cooperating agents running to solve common problems. As dynamic application domains continue to grow in scale and complexity, it becomes more difficult to control the purposeful behavior of agents, especially when unexpected events may occur. This article presents an information and knowledge exchange framework to support distributed problem solving. From the application viewpoint the article concentrates on the stock trading domain; however, many presented solutions can be extended to other dynamic domains. It addresses two important issues: how individual agents should be interconnected so that their resources are efficiently used and their goals accomplished effectively; and how information and knowledge transfer should take place among the agents to allow them to respond successfully to user requests and unexpected external situations. The article introduces an architecture, the MASST system architecture, which supports dynamic information and knowledge exchange among the cooperating agents. The architecture uses a dynamic blackboard as an interagent communication paradigm to facilitate factual data, business rule, and command exchange between cooperating MASST agents. The critical components of the MASST architecture have been implemented and tested in the stock trading domain, and have proven to be a viable solution for distributed problem solving based on cooperating agents     

Variable reluctance rotor structures-their influence on torqueproduction

Switched reluctance (SR) motors with differing structures are compared in terms of their torque prediction capabilities. The first structure is doubly salient with conventional laminations, also referred to as the CRS motor. The second has semiclosed stator slots and a cylindrical rotor with anisotropic magnetic properties arising from axial laminations interleaved with nonmagnetic material, also referred to as the CRR motor. The second structure has been claimed, on theoretical grounds, to be the superior structure in terms of torque per stator volume. The present comparison, based on RMS currents, concludes that the torque produced by the conventionally laminated motor is approximately 2.5 times that of the anisotropic design when the two copper losses are equalized. However, when the CRR motor has been optimized in terms of magnetic and electric loading, the CRS motor is still twice as torque productive. These results reverse the benefits previously claimed for the anisotropic motor design     

Individual differences in extended practice functions and solution strategies for basic addition facts.

Practice on addition basic facts and changes in solution strategies were examined in 3rd- and 4th-grade students, practicing over 3 months. Response latencies decreased, indicating positive practice effects. Each of 3 student groups demonstrated different solution–strategy mixtures. Different mixtures led to different practice effects, indexed by shifts to more efficient counting strategies and more direct retrieval. Expectations about effects of practice and instructional strategies for optimizing practice must be sensitive to a child's actual strategy pattern. Most students had decreasing latency practice functions. However, quantitative functions fit to the practice session data indicated a high proportion of cases where the latency pattern over sessions was nonmonotonic. Trends over a small number of practice sessions may be inadequate for decisions about the utility of further practice, because such data may poorly represent long-term, cumulative effects on modifying strategy usage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The NC-REN meets the North Carolina Information Highway

The North Carolina Research and Education Network (NC-REN), formerly known as CONCERT, is an existing video and data network, owned and operated by MCNC. NC-REN's purpose has been to provide network-based support for collaboration in the research community within the state since 1985. The first major application planned for the North Carolina Information Highway (NCIH) is an interactive video distance learning system. A secondary application proposed is the use of Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) as a means of providing data communications services over NCIH. The user community currently supported by NC-REN has come to expect high levels of service, reliability, interoperability and performance for data and video communications. MCNC is committed to see that NC-REN users receive service that is equal to or better than what is currently provided by the existing network. The prospect of migrating NC-REN-provided services to NCIH-provided transport has raised challenging technical and unique service issues     

Perils of Using Hurricane Katrina to Teach Engineering Ethics

Katrina is a case the complexity of which makes it hard to use. It is also a case unlikely to repay the trouble of using it. According to IPET's current understanding of what happened, probably the final word, the engineering decision-making was probably too diffuse to make an interesting ethics case.