الصفحة 197
الصفحة 197
Agile Development with the ICONIX Process : People, Process, and Pragmatism
Describes how to apply ICONIX Process (a minimal, use case-driven modeling process) in an agile software project. It's full of practical advice for avoiding common agile pitfalls. Further, the book defines a core agile subset so those of you who want to get agile need not spend years learning to do it. Instead, you can simply read this book and apply the core subset of techniques. The book follows a real-life .NET/C# project from inception and UML modeling, to working code through several iterations. You can then go on-line to compare the finished product with the initial set of use cases. The book also introduces several extensions to the core ICONIX Process, including combining test-driven development (TDD) with up-front design to maximize both approaches (with examples using Java and JUnit). And the book incorporates persona analysis to drive the projects goals and reduce requirements churn.
Aggregation functions : A guide for practitioners
Aggregation of information is of primary importance in the construction of knowledge based systems in various domains, ranging from medicine, economics, and engineering to decision-making processes, artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning. This book gives a broad introduction into the topic of aggregation functions, and provides a concise account of the properties and the main classes of such functions, including classical means, medians, ordered weighted averaging functions, Choquet and Sugeno integrals, triangular norms, conorms and copulas, uninorms, nullnorms, and symmetric sums. It also presents some state-of-the-art techniques, many graphical illustrations and new interpolatory aggregation functions. A particular attention is paid to identification and construction of aggregation functions from application specific requirements and empirical data. This book provides scientists, IT specialists and system architects with a self-contained easy-to-use guide, as well as examples of computer code and a software package. It will facilitate construction of decision support, expert, recommender, control and many other intelligent systems.
Ages, generations and the social contract : The demographic challenges facing the welfare state
Our societies are ageing. The Family is changing. Labour force behaviour is evolving. How is the organisation of family and collective solidarity adapting in this context of longer life spans, low fertility, and work that is simultaneously scarce and abundant? The welfare states are currently facing three main challenges: ensure satisfactory living conditions for the elderly without increasing the cost burden on the active population, reduce social inequality, and maintain equity between successive generations. In this book, researchers from different countries compare their experiences and offer contrasting views on the future of social protection. They consider the theoretical aspects of the intergenerational debate, relations between generations within the family, the living standards of elderly people, and the question of social time.
Agents and peer-to-peer computing ; 2nd International workshop, AP2PC 2003, Melbourne, Australia, July 14, 2003, revised and invited papers
This book brings together an introduction, three invited articles, and revised versions of the papers presented at the Second International Workshop on Agents and Peer-to-Peer Computing, AP2PC 2003, held in Melbourne, Australia, July 2003."" "Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing is currently attracting enormous public attention, a very large number of autonomous computing nodes, the peers, rely on each other for services. P2P networks are emerging as a new distributed computing paradigm because of their potential to harness the computing power and the storage capacity of the hosts composing the network, and because they realize a completely open decentralized environment where everybody can join in autonomously.
Agent-oriented software engineering VIII ; 8th International Workshop, AOSE 2007, Honolulu, HI, USA, May 14, 2007, Revised Selected Papers
This volume constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, AOSE 2007, held in Honolulu, Hawaii in May 2007 as part of AAMAS 2007.
Agent-oriented software engineering VI ; 6th International Workshop, AOSE 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 25, 2005. Revised and Invited Papers
This book represents the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, AOSE 2005, held in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in July 2005 as part of AAMAS 2005. The 18 revised full papers were carefully selected from 35 submissions during two rounds of reviewing and improvement. The papers are organized in topical sections on modeling tools, analysis and validation tools, multiagent systems design, implementation tools, and experiences and comparative evaluations.
Agent-oriented software engineering V ; 5th International workshop, AOSE 2004, New York, NY, USA, July 2004, revised selected papers
The explosive growth of application areas such as electronic commerce, ent- prise resource planning and mobile computing has profoundly and irreversibly changed our views on software systems. Nowadays, software is to be based on open architectures that continuously change and evolve to accommodate new components and meet new requirements. Software must also operate on di?- ent platforms, without recompilation, and with minimal assumptions about its operating environment and its users. Furthermore, software must be robust and ¨ autonomous, capable of serving a naive user with a minimum of overhead and interference. Agent concepts hold great promise for responding to the new realities of software systems. They o?er higher-level abstractions and mechanisms which address issues such as knowledge representation and reasoning, communication, coordination, cooperation among heterogeneous and autonomous parties, p- ception, commitments, goals, beliefs, and intentions, all of which need conceptual modelling. On the one hand, the concrete implementation of these concepts can lead to advanced functionalities.
Agent-oriented information systems II ; 6th International bi-conference workshop, AOIS 2004, Riga, Latvia, June 8, 2004 and New York, NY, USA, July 20, 2004, revised selected papers
Information systems have become the backbone of all kinds of organizations - day. In almost every sector – manufacturing, education, health care, government and businesses large and small – information systems are relied upon for - eryday work, communication, information gathering and decision-making. Yet, the in?exibilities in current technologies and methods have also resulted in poor performance, incompatibilities and obstacles to change. As many organizations are reinventing themselves to meet the challenges of global competition and e-commerce, there is increasing pressure to develop and deploy new technologies that are ?exible, robust and responsive to rapid and unexpected change. Agent concepts hold great promise for responding to the new realities of - formation systems. They o?er higher-level abstractions and mechanisms which address issues such as knowledge representation and reasoning, communication, coordination, cooperation among heterogeneous and autonomous parties, p- ception, commitments, goals, beliefs, intentions, etc., all of which need conc- tual modelling. On the one hand, the concrete implementation of these concepts can lead to advanced functionalities.
Agent-mediated electronic commerce : Designing trading agents and mechanisms ; AAMAS 2005 Workshop, AMEC 2005, Utrecht, Netherlands, July 25, 2005, and IJCAI 2005 Workshop, TADA 2005, Edinburgh, UK, August 1, 2005, Selected and Revised Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce, AMEC VII 2005, held in Utrecht, Netherlands in July 2005, as part of AAMAS 2005, and the third Workshop on Trading Agent Design and Analysis, TADA 2005, held in Edinburgh, UK in August 2005, in the course of the IJCAI 2005 conference meetings. The seven revised full AMEC 2005 papers presented were carefully selected.
Agent-Based Models of Energy Investment Decisions
This book demonstrates how bounded rational decision models can be standardized and parameterized by socio-economic data. Focusing on private energy technology investment decisions, the author shows how different representative agents can be constructed using search rules, analysis tools and decision strategies. Diffusion curves for energy technologies such as solar collectors, boilers and efficiency upgrades for buildings are calculated. Further, the model is extended to study the impact of firms’ competition on technology diffusion. The modeling approach presented in this book may serve as a template for applications in other domain.
Agent-based modeling : The Santa Fe Institute artificial stock market model revisited
An excellent reference to both the learning, and empirical literature in finance." (Krzysztof Piasecki, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1141, 2008) "Norman Ehrentreich was one of the daring few to take on the model, and he has summarized his work and findings in this excellent book. … It is useful primer for anyone interested in getting started in the area of agent-based finance. … It is essential reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of the SFI market in particular, but I also recommend it for others as a useful resource on agent-based financial market design as well." (Blake LeBaron, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Vol. 12 (2), March, 2009)
Agent Computing and Multi-Agent Systems ; 9th Pacific Rim International Workshop on Multi-Agents, PRIMA 2006, Guilin, China, August 7-8, 2006, Proceedings
PRIMA is a series of workshops on agent computing and multi-agent systems, integrating the activities in Asia and Pacific Rim countries. Agent computing and multi-agent systems are computational systems in which several autonomous or se- autonomous agents interact with each other or work together to perform some set of tasks or satisfy some set of goals. These systems may involve computational agents that are homogeneous or heterogeneous, they may involve activities on the part of agents having common or distinct goals, and they may involve participation on the part of humans and intelligent agents. The aim of PRIMA 2006 was to bring together Asian and Pacific Rim researchers and developers from academia and industry to report on the latest technical advances or domain applications and to discuss and explore scientific and practical problems as raised by the participants. PRIMA 2006 received 203 submitted papers.
Agent Communication II ; International Workshops on Agent Communication, AC 2005 and AC 2006, Utrecht, Netherlands, July 25, 2005, and Hakodate, Japan, May 9, 2006, Selected and Revised Papers
Although everyone recognizes communication as a central concept in mul- agents, many no longer see agent communication as a research topic. Unf- tunately there seems to be a tendency to regard communication as a kind of information exchange that can easily be covered using the standard FIPA ACL. However, the papers in this volume show that research in agent communication is far from ?nished. If we want to develop the full potential of multi-agent s- tems, agent communication should also develop to a level beyond parameter or value passing as is done in OO approaches! In this book we present the latest collection of papers around the topic of agentcommunication.Thecollectioncomprisesofthebestpapersfromtheagent communication workshops of 2005 and 2006, enriched with a few revised agent communication papers from the AAMAS conference.
Agent communication ; International workshop on agent communication, AC 2004, New York, NY, July 19, 2004
In this book, we present a collection of papers around the topic of agent com- nication. The communication between agents has been one of the major topics of research in multiagent systems. The current work can therefore build on a number of previous Workshops of which the proceedings have been published in earlier volumes in this series. The basis of this collection is formed by the accepted submissions of the Workshop on Agent Communication held in c- junction with the AAMAS Conference in July 2004 in New York. the current collection comprises a very good and quite complete overview of the state of the art in this area of research and gives a good indication of the topics that are of major interest at the moment. The papers can roughly be divided over the following ?ve themes: – social commitments – multiparty communication – content languages – dialogues and conversations – speech acts Although these themes are of course not mutually exclusive they indicate some main directions of research. We therefore have arranged the papers in the book according to the topics indicated above.
Agency and causal explanation in economics
This book provides an exploration of the consequences of the ontological differences between natural and social objects (sometimes described as objects of nature and objects of thought) in the workings of causal and agency relationships.
Ageing and the Glass Transition
Understanding cooperative phenomena far from equilibrium is one of fascinating challenges of present-day many-body physics. Glassy behaviour and the physical ageing process of such materials are paradigmatic examples. The present volume, primarily intended as introduction and reference for postgraduate students and nonspecialist researchers from related fields, collects six extensive lectures addressing selected experimental and theoretical issues in the field of glassy systems.
Ageing : The Paradox of Life : Why We Age
For centuries people have been puzzled by the inevitability of human aging. For most of the second half of the twentieth century aging remained a mystery, or an unsolved biological problem. At the end of the 20th century a remarkable scientific discovery emerged. It was not a single discovery in the usual sense, because it was based on a series of important interconnected insights over quite a long period of time. These insights made it possible for the very first time to understand the biological reasons for aging in animals and man. It can already be said, however, that the many observations and insights that explain aging will not be accepted as established knowledge for a long time.
After Taste : Expanded Practice in Interior Design
Comprising texts, interviews and portfolios that collectively document new theories and emerging critical practices in the field of interior design. The material is informed by, but not limited to, the annual AfterTaste symposia hosted by Parsons The New School of Design. The book s central argument is that the field of interior design is inadequately served by its historical reliance on taste-making and taste-makers, and, more recently from a set of theoretical concerns derived from architecture; the volume seeks to set an expanded frame by advancing new voices and perspectives in both the theory and practice of interior design, considered as an independent discipline. In 2007, the Department of Architecture, Interior Design and Lighting at Parsons The New School for Design inaugurated an annual international symposium series dedicated to the critical study of the interior.
African Land Reform Under Economic Liberalisation: States, Chiefs, and Rural Communities
This book offers unique in-depth, comprehensive, and comparative analyses of the motivations, context, and outcomes of recent land reforms in Africa. Whereas a considerable number of land reforms have been carried out by African governments since the 1990s, no systematic analysis on their meaning has so far been conducted. In the age of land reform, Africa has seen drastic rural changes. Analysing the relationship between those reforms and change, the chapters in this book reveal not only their socio-economic outcomes, such as accelerated marketisation of land, but also their political outcomes, which have often been contrasting.
Africa-Europe Research and Innovation Cooperation : Global Challenges, Bi-regional Responses
Concerned with the evolution and achievements of cooperation in research and innovation between Africa and Europe, and points to the need for more diversified funding and finance mechanisms, and for novel models of collaboration to attract new actors and innovative ideas. It reflects on the political, economic, diplomatic and scientific rationale for cooperation, while also examining practical developments, illustrated with examples, in the fields of food security, health, and climate change. The need to mobilise scientific knowledge and to ensure equality and fairness in the cooperation are recurrent themes. Africa-Europe Cooperation in Research and Innovation is essential reading for policy makers and researchers in international relations and science diplomacy.
