Agent Programming Research Articles

Blending BDI Agents with Object-Oriented and Functional Programming with JaKtA

The popularity of multi-paradigm languages is on the rise, enabling developers to select the most appropriate paradigm for each task. While object-oriented and functional programming are commonly combined, other paradigms can also be hybridized. This paper introduces JaKtA, an internal Domain-Specific Language designed to support the definition of Belief-Desire-Intention agents in Kotlin. Our work represents an initial exploration into blending Agent-Oriented Programming with other prevalent paradigms, emphasizing the potential benefits of using internal Domain-Specific Languages. We demonstrate, through JaKtA, how this approach facilitates the creation of compact and expressive Belief-Desire-Intention agents that seamlessly integrate with the host language, its libraries, and tooling.

Analysis of Local Innovation Productivity Agents Within Micro and Small Businesses in The Trade, Industry and Services Segments of The Federal District

Objective: To analyze the effects of the Local Innovation Agent – ​​Productivity program on the adoption of innovative practices and its impacts on the productivity of small businesses monitored in the Federal District in 2023. Theoretical Framework: Innovation is a central element for economic development, a strategy to make companies efficient and competitive in the markets in which they operate, through various types of changes in management and production processes, with results that impact productivity and commercial performance. Method: This research adopted a quantitative-exploratory approach based on the ALI Management System database, which uses the Innovation Radar tool to measure the impact on SMEs and bibliographic research focused on the culture of innovation in organizations. Results and Discussion: The results obtained revealed that the companies monitored during the program generally improved their scores in the dimensions analyzed. The results demonstrate that the commerce, industry and services sectors have different impacts and that innovation is still a topic that requires support and access for small businesses. Research Implications: The data collected in this study show the effectiveness of the Local Innovation Agent Program - Productivity in inducing the adoption of innovative practices by small businesses. It is a fact that by adopting measures to monitor entrepreneurs, it is possible to encourage reflection on the part of managers of these businesses so that they prioritize innovative measures that assist and result in business management capable of facing the adversities of market competition. Originality/Value: This study is valuable for analyzing the effectiveness of public innovation policies, with a focus on small businesses. It is clear that other studies are needed to compare results from different territories to better understand the needs of small businesses.

Evaluating enrollment processes and eligibility criteria of manufacturer free-drug patient assistance programs for oral anticancer agents used in hematologic malignancies.

117 Background: Increasing costs of oral anticancer agents (OAAs) pose a major barrier to patient adherence and consequently treatment effectiveness. While patient assistance programs (PAPs) may help cover costs, eligibility requirements for these programs are anecdotally reported to be non-transparent and enrollment processes burdensome, limiting their accessibility to patients. Thus, we evaluated the eligibility criteria and enrollment processes of manufacturer free-drug PAPs. Methods: A prospective review of manufacturer free-drug PAPs available for OAAs used in hematologic malignancies was conducted between October 2023 and February 2024. Available PAPs were identified using three online databases: RxAssist, NeedyMeds, and Association of Community Cancer Centers . Financial support program websites were assessed to gather information on eligibility requirements, enrollment processes, and other PAP characteristics. Results: For the 45 OAAs evaluated, 23 manufacturer free-drug PAPs were identified. All PAPs had insurance and income eligibility requirements which varied between programs. Uninsured patients were eligible for all programs, with 4% of programs restricting eligibility to only uninsured patients. The most common income eligibility threshold was 500% federal poverty limit, and requirement details were unavailable for 43.5% of programs. Enrollment could be initiated online, via downloadable form, and by phone-call, with 61% of programs having all three methods of enrollment initiation available to providers (17% to patients), 35% having two to providers (22% to patients), and 4% having only one to providers (52% to patients). Of note, 9% of programs offered no way for patients to independently initiate enrollment. Enrollment for all programs required both patient and provider inputs, and submission methods for some or all enrollment documentation included fax, online portal, email, and mail, with 4% of programs having four methods of submission available, 26% having three, 52% having two, and 17% having only one. Conclusions: The pathways for patients or providers to enroll in Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs) are complex and inconsistent across different programs, often requiring more action from providers than patients. Additionally, there is frequently a lack of transparency in the eligibility requirements for manufacturer free-drug PAPs.

Phylogenetic analyses show the Select Agent Coniothyrium glycines represents a single species that has significant morphological and genetic variation

ABSTRACT Soybean red leaf blotch (RLB), caused by the fungus Coniothyrium glycines, represents a foliar disease of soybean that is thus far restricted to Africa. The fungus is listed as a Select Agent by the Federal Select Agent Program because it could pose a severe threat to plant health were it to establish in the United States. Previous work uncovered tremendous molecular diversity at the internal transcribed spacer region, suggesting that there may be multiple species causing RLB. To determine whether multiple species cause RLB, we reconstructed the phylogeny of C. glycines and taxonomic allies using sequence data from four genes. We included 33 C. glycines isolates collected from six African countries and determined that all isolates form a well-supported, monophyletic lineage. Within this lineage there are at least six well-supported clades that largely correspond to geography, with one clade exclusively composed of isolates from Ethiopia, another exclusively composed of isolates from Uganda, and four composed of isolates from southern Africa. However, we did not detect any concordance for these clades between the four genes, indicating that all isolates included in this analysis are representative of a single species. Isolates in the Ethiopia clade are morphologically distinct from isolates in the other clades, as they produce larger sclerotia and smaller pycnida and more sclerotia in planta. Additionally, ancestral range estimations suggest that the C. glycines lineage emerged in southern Africa. These results show that there is significantly more genetic and morphological diversity than was initially suspected with this high-consequence fungal plant pathogen.

Implementasi Moderasi Beragama sebagai Langkah Preventif Terbentuknya Radikalisme di Kalangan Siswa

This research aims to examine the implementation of religious moderation as a preventive measure for the formation of radicalism among students. The students' heterogeneous religious backgrounds and school programs that are oriented towards high tolerance practices make researchers interested in studying the implementation of religious moderation-based learning programs at SMA Negeri 4 Probolinggo City. This research is Field Research, namely qualitative research with analytical descriptive characteristics. The presentation of data in this research is formatted in narrative form with data collection using observation, interview, documentation and analysis of natural documents for each discussion. The research informants consisted of the Principal, Deputy Head of Curriculum, Deputy Head of Student Affairs, Teachers and Students. The research results show that SMAN 4 Probolinggo has implemented the practice of tolerance values ​​which are manifested in the learning process and extracurricular activities. The School Bullying Agent Program (APS) is an important alternative in preventing and resolving problems regarding bullying and religious violence. SMA Negeri 4 Probolinggo City plays an active role in the activities of the Religious Harmony Forum (FKUB) which is designed to strengthen tolerance and harmony between religious communities in the school environment. The school curriculum is designed to achieve the target of graduates who have a more inclusive and open understanding in preventing the formation of radicalism and strengthening moderate attitudes among students.

40‐1: Development of the Auto Monitoring Method of Laser Beam Shape and Size by Employing the AI and Computer Vision Algorithm

The beam shape of the laser cut process to change the display shape is very important in the laser cutting quality, and the laser beam shape was measured by using the beam profiler as a measuring instrument. Since the beam profiler cannot be used due to damage caused by the high laser processing power used in mass production, the beam shape be managed that the sample was created by laser beam cross shot drawing on the material and it was manually measured by using a microscope. However, this method had problems with a long management period (measured once a month), a machine down for the measurement, the measurement deviation between engineers, and inability to manage history, so it was necessary to develop AI‐based shape automatic management technology. To solve this problem, an AI agent program with the AI technology to determine OK, NG of laser beam and the beam size measurement technology based on the image processing was developed and applied to the production line. Through this program, automatic management and history management of beam shape and size that was not possible with previous method have become possible. It was confirmed that the AI and image processing technologies developed through this study can be important technologies that can have a ripple effect on the development of other technologies.

Remarkably High Internal Transcribed Spacer Haplotype Diversity of the Fungal Select Agent Coniothyrium glycines Discovered Throughout Its Range in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Red leaf blotch of soybean, caused by the fungus Coniothyrium glycines, is a foliar disease characterized by blotching, necrosis, and defoliation that has only been reported from Africa. The species is listed as a Select Agent by the Federal Select Agent Program due to its potentially devastating impacts to soybean production should it spread to the United States. Despite its potential import, very few isolates are available for study. Herein, we obtained 96 new C. glycines isolates from six soybean-producing countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Along with 12 previously collected ones, we sequenced each at the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Between all isolates, we identified a total of 28 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 23 haplotypes. One hypothesis to explain the tremendous diversity uncovered at the ITS-which is generally conserved within a species-is that our current species concept of C. glycines is too broad and that there may be multiple species that cause red leaf blotch. Zambia contained the highest haplotype diversity, a significant fraction of which remains unsampled. Most haplotypes were specific to a single country, except for two, which were found in Zambia and either neighboring Mozambique or Zimbabwe. This geographic specificity indicates that the ITS region may be useful for identifying source populations or routes of transmission should this pathogen spread beyond Africa. The observed geographic partitioning of this pathogen is likely the result of millions of years of replication on little-studied native hosts, given that soybean has only been cultivated in Africa since the early 1900s.

Transformative synergy: SSEHCET—bridging mobile edge computing and AI for enhanced eHealth security and efficiency

Blockchain technologies (BCT) are utilized in healthcare to facilitate a smart and secure transmission of patient data. BCT solutions, however, are unable to store data produced by IoT devices in smart healthcare applications because these applications need a quick consensus process, meticulous key management, and enhanced eprivacy standards. In this work, a smart and secure eHealth framework SSEHCET (Smart and Secure EHealth Framework using Cutting-edge Technologies) is proposed that leverages the potentials of modern cutting-edge technologies (IoT, 5G, mobile edge computing, and BCT), which comprises six layers: 1) The sensing layer-WBAN consists of medical sensors that normally are on or within the bodies of patients and communicate data to smartphones. 2) The edge layer consists of elements that are near IoT devices to collect data. 3) The Communication layer leverages the potential of 5G technology to transmit patients' data between multiple layers efficiently. 4) The storage layer consists of cloud servers or other powerful computers. 5) Security layer, which uses BCT to transmit and store patients' data securely. 6) The healthcare community layer includes healthcare professionals and institutions. For the processing of medical data and to guarantee dependable, safe, and private communication, a Smart Agent (SA) program was duplicated on all layers. The SA leverages the potential of BCT to protect patients' privacy when outsourcing data. The contribution is substantiated through a meticulous evaluation, encompassing security, ease of use, user satisfaction, and SSEHCET structure. Results from an in-depth case study with a prominent healthcare provider underscore SSEHCET's exceptional performance, showcasing its pivotal role in advancing the security, usability, and user satisfaction paradigm in modern eHealth landscapes.

An analysis of the Local Innovation Agents Program in the production processes of animal husbandry in the Brazilian Northeast

Resumo O Programa de Agentes Locais de Inovação (ALI) é uma iniciativa do Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas (SEBRAE) que oferece acompanhamento especializado para promover o aumento da produtividade por meio da inovação. O ALI tem um papel fundamental em promover a melhoria da competitividade das micro e pequenas empresas brasileiras. O sucesso do Programa em micro e pequenas empresas dos setores de comércio e serviço foi responsável pela expansão da metodologia para os negócios rurais. Diante deste contexto, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar o impacto da metodologia do Programa ALI nos processos produtivos da criação de animais (bovinos, caprinos e ovinos) no Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil. Para isto, foram analisadas duas sub dimensões do Radar de inovação, antes e após o acompanhamento das propriedades agropecuárias, visando identificar as operações e procedimentos adotados para melhoria do processo produtivo e avaliar as soluções escolhidas para a resolução de problemas da propriedade. Os resultados demonstraram que as propriedades acompanhadas apresentaram uma melhoria de 19,74% nos seus processos produtivos após o acompanhamento e mostraram que a metodologia do Programa ALI Rural impactou positivamente na melhoria dos processos produtivos da criação de animais no RN.

Establishing a national biosafety and biosecurity agency for the United States.

The rapid advancement of biological research and biotechnology requires a novel and robust regulatory agency to ensure uniform biosafety and biosecurity governance in the United States. The current fragmented regulatory landscape needs to be refocused to address the complexities of modern biological research, including risks associated with accidental, inadvertent, and deliberate biological incidents. An independent government agency, which we call the National Biosafety and Biosecurity Agency (NBBA), that is devoted to biosafety and biosecurity could effectively address these challenges. The NBBA would consolidate various regulatory functions, streamline processes, and enhance oversight. This oversight would encompass life sciences research in the United States, regardless of the source of funding or level of classification. The agency could also contribute to the bioeconomy by streamlining requirements to safeguard public health and the environment while fostering scientific and commercial progress. The proposed agency would govern high-risk biological pathogens, manage the Federal Select Agent Program, enforce policies related to dual use research of concern, pathogens with enhanced pandemic potential, and nucleic acid synthesis screening, administer regulations on the use and care of laboratory animals, as well as regulate other relevant biosafety and biosecurity activities. The goal would be to provide one-stop shopping for the biomedical research and biotechnology sectors subject to oversight by the Federal government. To ensure leadership in global biosafety and biosecurity, the agency's mission would include international collaboration, applied research, education, workforce development, and coordination with national security initiatives. Creating an agency like the NBBA will be politically challenging but presenting a comprehensive vision and engaging stakeholders early and frequently, and being transparent in the process, will be essential for garnering support. Creating a unified biosafety and biosecurity governance system in the United States will ensure the safe and secure advancement of biological research while sustaining innovation and maintaining international competitiveness.

Uma análise do programa Agentes Locais de Inovação nos processos produtivos da criação de animais no Nordeste brasileiro

Abstract The Local Innovation Agents Program (ALI) is an initiative of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) that offers specialized support to promote increased productivity through innovation. The LIA plays a fundamental role in promoting the competitiveness improvement of Brazilian micro and small companies. The success of the Program in micro and small companies in the commerce and service sectors was responsible for the expansion of the methodology to rural businesses. Given this context, the purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of the ALI Program methodology on the production processes of animal husbandry (cattle, goats, and sheep) in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. To this end, two sub-dimensions of the Innovation Radar were analyzed, before and after monitoring agricultural properties, aiming to identify the operations and procedures adopted to improve the production process and evaluate the solutions chosen to solve property problems. The results demonstrated that the monitored properties showed an improvement of 19.74% in their production processes after monitoring and that the ALI Rural Program methodology had a positive impact on improving the production processes of animal husbandry in RN.

Impact of the Rural Agent Program on the performance of family farmers in the state of Ceará

Impact of the Rural Agent Program on the performance of family farmers in the state of Ceará

Select Agent Regulatory Challenges in a Patient Care Setting: Review and Recommendations.

The Federal Select Agent Program ensures the safe and secure possession, use, and transfer of biological select agents and toxins through the select agent regulations (42 CFR §73, 7 CFR §331, and 9 CFR §121). These regulations are primarily written for interpretation by diagnostic and research laboratories, with limited text pertaining to the care of individuals infected with a select agent. The regulations applicable to patient care settings are ambiguous, resulting in challenges with regulatory compliance. The COVID-19 pandemic called attention to these shortcomings and the need to clarify and modify the select agent regulations. In this article, we discuss 3 select agent regulation phrases regarding patient care that need clarification-specifically, the window of time to transfer, patient care setting, and conclusion of patient care-and provide recommendations for improvement. These recommendations include implementing minimum security standards to safeguard patient specimens against theft, loss, or release prior to the appropriate transfer or destruction of the material and increasing the time allowed for the transfer or destruction of specimens before entities are subject to the select agent regulations. We encourage the Federal Select Agent Program to release a policy statement clarifying the select agent regulations regarding patient care discussed herein and to lengthen the designated time to destroy or transfer agents to a registered entity. Addressing these challenges will aid in compliance with the select agent regulations in patient care settings.

Practical Considerations for Navigating Withdrawal from the Federal Select Agent Program.

Clear guidance is provided by the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) to assist registered entities in nearly all facets of compliance with the Federal select agent regulations (7 CFR Part 331; 9 CFR Part 121; 42 CFR Part 73). If a registered entity chooses to discontinue its registration, detailed instructions for registration withdrawal are deeply embedded within a document entitled "eFSAP Form 1 Amendment Instructions," which is found on the FSAP website within the electronic Federal Select Agent Program (eFSAP) Resource Center. Using the information found within the eFSAP Form 1 Amendment Instructions, as well as extensive written and verbal guidance provided by the lead assigned entity point of contact at the FSAP, we completed the FSAP withdrawal process during a 12-month period between 2022 and 2023. This commentary shares our recent professional experiences navigating the FSAP withdrawal process at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston). Successes, challenges, and lessons learned are shared so that others planning or considering withdrawing may benefit from our experience. The resources provided for withdrawal within the eFSAP Form 1 Amendment Instructions are relatively basic, and additional details are not currently found in other FSAP guidance documents. Therefore, direct communication and support from the FSAP to the entity Responsible Officials are imperative to ensure a safe, secure, and compliant withdrawal.

An Analysis of Multi Agent Systems Agent Based Programming

The effectiveness of agent-based modeling as a simulation modeling methodology has resulted in its application in diverse settings, including the resolution of pragmatic business challenges, in recent times. The domain of symbolic artificial intelligence, which investigates intelligent and self-governing entities, is preoccupied with the mechanisms by which these entities arrive at determinations regarding their conduct in reaction to, or in expectation of, stimuli from the external environment. The scope of the methods employed encompasses a diverse array of techniques, spanning from negotiations to agent simulations, as well as multi-agent argumentation and planning. The present article scrutinizes the utilization of agent-based computing in multi-agent systems and provides an all-encompassing analysis of the relevant literature. This study delves into the examination of both traditional and contemporary agent programming languages, including their respective extensions, comparative analyses, and instances of their application in published literature.

Logic + probabilistic programming + causal laws.

Probabilistic planning attempts to incorporate stochastic models directly into the planning process, which is the problem of synthesizing a sequence of actions that achieves some objective for a putative agent. Probabilistic programming has rapidly emerged as a key paradigm to integrate probabilistic concepts with programming languages, which allows one to specify complex probabilistic models using programming primitives like recursion and loops. Probabilistic logic programming aims to further ease the specification of structured probability distributions using first-order logical artefacts. In this article, we briefly discuss the modelling of probabilistic planning through the lens of probabilistic (logic) programming. Although many flavours for such an integration are possible, we focus on two representative examples. The first is an extension to the popular probabilistic logic programming language PROBLOG, which permits the decoration of probabilities on Horn clauses-that is, prolog programs. The second is an extension to the popular agent programming language GOLOG, which permits the logical specification of dynamical systems via actions, effects and observations. The probabilistic extensions thereof emphasize different strengths of probabilistic programming that are particularly useful for non-trivial modelling issues raised in probabilistic planning. Among other things, one can instantiate planning problems with growing and shrinking state spaces, discrete and continuous probability distributions, and non-unique prior distributions in a first-order setting.

Strategi Pelayanan Kepada Konsumen Di Agen Pos Gunung Sari Indah-Surabaya

AgenPos is a network development concept through partnership cooperation between PT Pos Indonesia and individuals or business entities in order to provide wider postal services to the community. The practice of conducting Field Work Lecture activities lasts for one month, starting from May 1, 2023 to June 1, 2023. The package delivery input system and payment input system, along with the realization review that has been carried out by the Gunung Sari Indah Post agent is very good and contributes greatly to the target at the Gunung Sari Indah Postal Agent, but there are obstacles that occur as well as balance changes in the postal agent program, both for payments and for shipments so that the company has to lose customers. The advice that the author can give is to retain customers, improve optimal service so as to create customer satisfaction and establish good relationships with customers as a form of customer retention strategy.

On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent System

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) aims at achieving the interconnectivity of multiple industrial assets from different hierarchical layers within a manufacturing environment. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a pilar component of I4.0 for the digital representation of assets and can be applied in both physical and digital assets, such as enterprise software, artificial intelligence (AI) agents, and databases. Multi-agent systems (MASs), in particular, are useful in the decentralized optimization of complex problems and applicable in various planning or scheduling scenarios that require the system’s ability to adapt to any given problem by using different optimization methods. In order to achieve this, a universal model for the agent’s information, communication, and behaviors should be provided in a way that is interoperable with the rest of the I4.0 assets and agents. To address these challenges, this work proposes an AAS-based information model for the description of scheduling agents. It allows multiple AI methods for scheduling, such as heuristics, mathematical programming, and deep reinforcement learning, to be encapsulated within a single agent, making it adjustable to different production scenarios. The software implementation of the proposed architecture aims to provide granularity in the deployment of scheduling agents which utilize the underlying AAS metamodel. The agent was implemented using the SARL agent-oriented programming (AOP) language and deployed in an open-source MAS platform. The system evaluation in a real-life bicycle production scenario indicated the agent’s ability to adapt and provide fast and accurate scheduling results.

Combining theory of mind and abductive reasoning in agent-oriented programming

This paper presents a novel model, called TomAbd, that endows autonomous agents with Theory of Mind capabilities. TomAbd agents are able to simulate the perspective of the world that their peers have and reason from their perspective. Furthermore, TomAbd agents can reason from the perspective of others down to an arbitrary level of recursion, using Theory of Mind of nth\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$n^{\ ext {th}}$$\\end{document} order. By combining the previous capability with abductive reasoning, TomAbd agents can infer the beliefs that others were relying upon to select their actions, hence putting them in a more informed position when it comes to their own decision-making. We have tested the TomAbd model in the challenging domain of Hanabi, a game characterised by cooperation and imperfect information. Our results show that the abilities granted by the TomAbd model boost the performance of the team along a variety of metrics, including final score, efficiency of communication, and uncertainty reduction.

Effective handling of exceptional situations in robust software agents

Software agents are normally expected to operate in open and dynamic environments, and therefore they are often supposed to face situations that significantly deviate from the nominal course of events. The effective management of exceptional situations is of paramount importance to provide agents with the needed means to operate in their environments, mostly because these situations should be considered as the norm in open and dynamic environments. This paper presents some recent additions to the Jadescript agent-oriented programming language that were specifically designed to provide agents with the needed capabilities to effectively detect and manage exceptional situations. The first part of this paper motivates the need of sophisticated exception handling capabilities, also by relating the proposed language features with the state of the art documented in the literature. Then, the second part of this paper discusses the proposed language features, also considering the conceptual similarities and differences with the related features normally available in mainstream programming languages. In particular, the proposed language features are presented in terms of three language improvements: the general-purpose support to handle exceptions, the specific support to handle behaviour failures, and the specific support to handle stale messages. Finally, before concluding with some indications on future research activities, the third part of this paper describes a concrete example intended to practically present the actual use of the new language features.