190 research outputs found
Developing Industrial Multi-Agent Systems (Invited Paper)
No full textThe development and deployment of multi-agent systems in real world settings raises a number of important research issues and problems which must be overcome if Distributed AI (DAI) is to become a widespread solution technology. Work undertaken in the context of the ARCHON project has provided a number of important insights into these issues. By providing an in depth analysis of ARCHON’s electricity transportation management application, this paper draws together many of the experiences obtained when building one of the world's first operational DAI systems
Visualizing the Marrow of Science
No full textThis study proposes a new methodology that allows for
the generation of scientograms of major scientific domains,
constructed on the basis of cocitation of Institute
of Scientific Information categories, and pruned using
PathfinderNetwork, with a layout determined by algorithms
of the spring-embedder type (Kamada–Kawai),
then corroborated structurally by factor analysis. We
present the complete scientogram of the world for the
Year 2002. It integrates the natural sciences, the social
sciences, and arts and humanities. Its basic structure
and the essential relationships therein are revealed,
allowing us to simultaneously analyze the macrostructure,
microstructure, and marrow of worldwide scientific
output
GRATE: A General Framework for Cooperative Problem Solving
No full textAs the deployment of expert systems has spread into more complex and sophisticated environments, so inherent technological limitations have been observed. As a technique for overcoming this complexity barrier, researchers have started to build systems composed of multiple, cooperating components. These systems tend to fall into two distinct categories: systems which solve a particular problem, such as speech recognition or vehicle monitoring, and systems which are general to some extent. GRATE is a general framework which enables an application builder to construct multi-agent systems for the domain of industrial process control. Unlike other cooperation frameworks, GRATE embodies a significant amount of inbuilt knowledge related to cooperation and control which can be utilised during system building. This approach offers a paradigm shift for the construction of multi-agent systems in which the role of configuring preexisting knowledge becomes an integral component. Rather than starting from scratch the designer can utilise the inbuilt knowledge and augment it, if necessary, with domain specific information. The GRATE architecture has a clear separation of concerns and has been applied to real-world problems in the domains of electricity transportation management and diagnosis of a particle accelerator beam controller
Inter-institutional scientific collaboration: an approach from social network
No full textThis paper presents a tool that can be used to characterize, analyze and interpret the
patterns of collaboration among institutions by means of the visual display of scientific
information. These graphic representations allow for a combined analysis of a given
institution in the system of relations (network), and of the particular attributes of that
institution (indicators). The tool affords the possibility of regenerating the network to
make any number of aggregates appear or disappear, thus allowing one to focus on
institutional sectors, geographic regions, etc. It also allows for analysis of sectorial
interaction, institutional backing of research, and the influence of geographic proximity,
linguistic affinity, or regional politics. This is indeed a versatile analytical tool, and it is
bound to prove its potential for evaluating patterns of collaborative research, development
and innovation
A new technique for building maps of large scientific domains based on the cocitation of classes and categories
No full textOur objective is the generation of schematic visualizations as interfaces for scientific domain analysis. We propose a new technique that uses thematic classification (classes and categories) as entities of cocitation and units of measure, and demonstrate the viability of this methodology through the representation and analysis of a domain of great dimensions. The main features of the maps obtained are discussed, and proposals are made for future improvements and applications
Using ARCHON to Develop Real-World DAI Applications Part 1
No full textArchon provides a software framework that assists interaction between the subcomponents of a distributed AI application, and a design methodology that helps structure these interactions. The Archon project has been applied to several real world industrial applications. Two of these applications, electricity transportation management and particle accelerator control, have run online in the organizations for which they were developed-Iberdrola, a Spanish electric utility, and the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). Archon's problem solving entities are called agents; they can control their own problem solving and interact with other community members. The interactions typically involve agents cooperating and communicating with one another to enhance their individual problem solving and to better solve the overall application problem. Each agent consists of an Archon layer and an application program (known as an intelligent system
Domain analysis and information retrieval through the construction of heliocentric maps based on ISI-JCR category cocitation
No full textWe propose the use of ISI-JCR categories as units of co-citation and measurement for the construction of heliocentric maps. The use of a spatial metaphor allows us to illustrate, analyze and compare domains in terms of the categories and their interconnections or links. We can also move around within the structure of these domains for further analysis, and access the documents associated to the categories and to the links that co-cite or relate them
Biomedical scientific publication patterns in the Scopus database : a case study of Andalusia, Spain
No full textThis paper characterises scientific output in biomedicine in Andalusia, and Spain as a whole, and conduct a first-time comparison to Europe- and world-wide production. The data were extracted from the Scopus database. Three families of indicators are explored to analyse research quantity, quality and collaboration. The results show an upward trend on biomedical output in Andalusia. Over 50 % was in clinical medicine, whose growth doubled the basic medicine. We found greater than nationwide specialisation in biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, immunology and microbiology, and pharmacology, while psychology proved to be the most prominent emerging area. The publication in most cited journals together with national and international collaboration enhanced research visibility. More citable papers were published on basic than clinical medicine, and the number of citations received by the former was also larger. The higher citation rate in basic medicine may also be explained by the bigger percentage of papers published in international instead domestic journals. Hence, publication patterns would appear to affect research visibility. The methodology proposed may provide guidance for public policy makers to improve, encourage and intensify good biomedical research practice
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