Independent Agents Research Articles

Asynchronous decentralized traffic signal coordinated control in urban road network

AbstractThis study introduces an asynchronous decentralized coordinated signal control (ADCSC) framework for multi‐agent traffic signal control in the urban road network. The controller at each intersection in the network optimizes its signal control decisions based on a prediction of the future traffic demand as an independent agent. The asynchronous framework decouples the entangled interdependence between decision‐making and state prediction among different agents in decentralized coordinated decision‐making problems, enabling agents to proceed with collaborative decision‐making without waiting for other agents’ decisions. Within the proposed ADCSC framework, each controller dynamically optimizes its signal timing strategy with a unique rolling horizon scheme. The scheme's individualized parameters for each controller are determined based on the vehicle travel time between the adjacent intersections, ensuring that controllers can make informed control decisions with accurate arrival flow information from upstream intersections. The signal optimization problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear program model, which adopts a flexible signal scheme without a fixed phase structure and sequence. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed ADCSC strategy significantly outperforms the benchmark signal coordination methods in terms of average delay, travel speed, stop numbers, and energy consumption. Experimental analysis on computation time validates the applicability of the proposed optimization model for real‐time implementation. Sensitivity analysis on key parameters in the framework is conducted, offering insights for parameter selection in practice. Furthermore, the ADCSC framework is extended to a road network in Qinzhou City, China, with 45 signalized intersections, demonstrating its effectiveness and scalability in the real‐world road network.

The municipal government channel of monetary policy

Abstract Monetary policy in the USA affects borrowing costs for state and local governments, incentivizing municipal borrowing and spending, which in turn affects economic outcomes. Using municipal bond indices and transaction-level data, I find that responses to monetary policy are dampened relative to treasuries and heterogeneous across location and bond characteristics. In my baseline estimate, muni yields move 26 bp after a 100 bp monetary shock. To study implications for local fiscal policy, I model US localities as small open economies in a monetary union with independent fiscal agents. In a calibrated model, monetary transmission is significantly affected by municipal borrowing costs.

Independence role in the generalized Sznajd model

The Sznajd model is one of sociophysics’s well-known opinion dynamics models. Based on social validation, it has found application in diverse social systems and remains an intriguing subject of study, particularly in scenarios where interacting agents deviate from prevailing norms. This paper investigates the generalized Sznajd model, featuring independent agents on a complete graph and a two-dimensional square lattice. Agents in the network act independently with a probability p, signifying a change in their opinion or state without external influence. This model defines a paired agent size r, influencing a neighboring agent size n to adopt their opinion. This study incorporates analytical and numerical approaches, especially on the complete graph. Our results show that the macroscopic state of the system remains unaffected by the neighbor size n but is contingent solely on the number of paired agents r. Additionally, the time required to reach a stationary state is inversely proportional to the number of neighboring agents n. For the two-dimensional square lattice, two critical points p=pc emerge based on the configuration of agents. The results indicate that the universality class of the model on the complete graph aligns with the mean-field Ising universality class. Furthermore, the universality class of the model on the two-dimensional square lattice, featuring two distinct configurations, is identical and falls within the two-dimensional Ising universality class.

A Third Birth: Rousseau’s Education to Moral Judgment in Julie, or the New Heloise

Rousseau is well-known for his work on education, entitled Emile, or On Education, and equally vilified for the gendered education presented in its concluding chapter. This is not his only educational offering, however. He proposes an alternative moral education in his preceding novel, Julie, or the New Heloise, and this education avoids the problems inherent in Emile’s and Sophie’s educations, as well as offering us contemporary readers something more palatable. In Emile, the characters receive gendered educations that make them dependent moral halves, necessitated by the “second birth” of humans as sexual beings, whereas in Julie, the characters receive an education that cultivates both masculine and feminine judgment in each to make them independent moral agents, constituting a possible “third birth” for humans. While this education is perhaps only suitable in certain contexts, it reveals a complexity to Rousseau’s thought on women and education that has not been previously acknowledged.

Development Trends of Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers in Georgia

Insurance is a very common and effective tool for managing financial risks. It also assumes the transfer of the risk in full or in part, but in this case the risk is transferred to the insurance company. Let's remember that insurance is one of the financial instruments of risk management, and not the only one. At the same time, it should be noted that insurance is a non-permanent instrument, and it cannot be used for all risks and in all risky situations. There are quite frequent cases when insurance is used together with other risk management tools, that is, it is part of the risk management program. Чачастую рашовые компании themselves require the client to reduce the existing primary risks with the help of physical instruments before signing the insurance contract. For example, in agriculture, it is completely unacceptable to manage risks there only by means of insurance. the first Keywords: insurance broker, insurance mediator, insurance product, sales channel, independent agent.

Navigating the AI Frontier

The rapid digital transformation driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping innovation and operational efficiency across industries. As autonomous AI systems are becoming prevalent, they significantly influence traditional business models, societal norms, and legal frameworks. AI technologies are evolving beyond mere tools to become independent economic agents capable of generating assets, making decisions, commercializing products and services, and being accountable for their actions. This evolution requires a reassessment of traditional concepts of corporate and moral personhood, particularly as AI-driven businesses need to operate inside conventional legal frameworks. This paper explores the rise of entirely AI-driven entities with fully autonomous decision-making processes, advocating for the legal status of artificial personhood. It underscores the need for an ethical and regulatory framework to ensure these entities will proliferate and operate for human progress with integrity and responsibility.

Self-organization of social hierarchies studied with Monte-Carlo simulations; self-destroying join-believe-fight system as an inevitable outcome

Monte-Carlo simulations were used to describe the interactions between cellular automata, socio-economic ‘agents’, in society. In a first simulation we repeat work in literature of a system of independent agents. We repeat the finding that the strongest agent will confiscate all wealth. In a second simulation we show how agents can prevent against such theft, or steal better, by joining forces. So-called join-believe-fight (joining, believing unquestionably in the narrative of the faction, and fighting other factions). We now take cooperations between factions of joined agents into account. The final outcome is that society obliterates libertarians (those that are reluctant to join forces) and winds up in a situation in which all surviving agents are joined in a single faction. However, it is reasoned that then fights within this single faction will start, since this end situation resembles the starting point of entire society; the single faction has become entire society and the game recommences. It is a snake that bites its own tail and goes around forever attacking.

A resilience‐oriented restoration framework for multi‐area active distribution network following a disaster

AbstractA disaster disrupts energy trading between the distribution network (DN) and autonomous areas in the multi‐area active distribution network (MA‐ADN). Since these areas are self‐interested agents, the energy transaction cost between them should be considered when determining the grid restoration scheme. In this regard, a new three‐level resilience‐oriented restoration (TLROR) framework is proposed to optimally schedule available tie‐lines, and distributed energy resources (DERs) in the MA‐ADN, considering the autonomy and privacy of their ownership. In the first level of the proposed TLROR, an electrical price vector (EPV) is created with the contribution of different areas. In the second level, each area should calculate the amount of imported active and reactive power from the DN through its tie branches and save it in the transactive power list (TPL). Finally, at the third level, the transactive energy market is cleared by the DN operator considering economic issues and operating limits. The proposed method provides energy transactions between independent agents to enhance MA‐ADN resiliency, with the least information sharing, and privacy preserving. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using the modified IEEE 33‐bus MA‐ADN and a part of the DN in the Pol‐e Dokhtar in the Lorestan province of Iran.

Multi-Agent DRL for task offloading with delay reliability assurances in ris-aided MEC in UDN

Abstract This paper focuses on the scenario where Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) are introduced in ultra-dense networks (UDN) to guarantee the transmission performance of task offloading of users in Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). Considering users’ task arrival and wireless channel stochasticity, we analyze the delay violation probability bound for each user’s two-hop tandem queueing system with the Martingale theory, i.e., the task offloading and edge computing queues. By taking the delay violation probability bounds as the service reliability constraint, we further propose a MADRL-based algorithm, which co-trains each user and BS as independent and heterogeneous agents and maximizes the total energy efficiency of the system by jointly optimizing the users’ offloading ratio, the RISs’ phase-shift, and the BSs’ resource allocation policy. Experimental results show that our algorithm can improve the EE by about 17.9% compared to other alternative methods under different reliability requirements.

Noninvasive assessment of human microvascular function in health and disease using incident dark-field microscopy.

Reduced peripheral microvascular reactivity is associated with an increased risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACEs). Tools for noninvasive assessment of peripheral microvascular function are limited, and existing technology is poorly validated in both healthy populations and patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here, we used a handheld incident dark-field imaging tool (CytoCam) to test the hypothesis that, compared with healthy individuals (no risk factors for CVD), subjects formally diagnosed with coronary artery disease (CAD) or those with ≥2 risk factors for CAD (at risk) would exhibit impaired peripheral microvascular reactivity. A total of 17 participants (11 healthy, 6 at risk) were included in this pilot study. CytoCam was used to measure sublingual microvascular total vessel density (TVD), perfused vessel density (PVD), and microvascular flow index (MFI) in response to the topical application of acetylcholine (ACh) and sublingual administration of nitroglycerin (NTG). Baseline MFI and PVD were significantly reduced in the at-risk cohort compared with healthy individuals. Surprisingly, following the application of acetylcholine and nitroglycerin, both groups showed a significant improvement in all three microvascular perfusion parameters. These results suggest that, despite baseline reductions in both microvascular density and perfusion, human in vivo peripheral microvascular reactivity to both endothelial-dependent and -independent vasoactive agents remains intact in individuals with CAD or multiple risk factors for disease.NEW & NOTEWORTHY To our knowledge, this is the first study to comprehensively characterize in vivo sublingual microvascular structure and function (endothelium-dependent and -independent) in healthy patients and those with CVD. Importantly, we used an easy-to-use handheld device that can be easily translated to clinical settings. Our results indicate that baseline microvascular impairments in structure and function can be detected using the CytoCam technology, although reactivity to acetylcholine may be maintained even during disease in the peripheral microcirculation.

ALGORITHMIC MANAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

The paper addresses algorithmic management within mechanistic and organic organizational paradigms, and discusses problems associated with algorithmic management from the socio-technical perspective. Based on the empirical data collected during the experimental implementation of algorithmic monitoring and evaluation of sales representatives in a FMCG company, the study aims to answer two research questions framed from the perspectives of technical and social sub-system: first, what is the effect of algorithmic management on job performance of sales representatives, and, second, how do they perceive algorithmic management. Methods of data collection and analysis included in-depth interviews and thematic analysis. Concerning the first research question, findings indicate that job performance of experimental groups of algorithmically managed sales representatives has improved as compared to the past period and the control group, primarily in terms of standards compliance. As for the second research question, two main themes were identified: trust in the algorithm and perception of man-algorithm interaction. Our findings indicate that trust in algorithmic assessment depends on whether the algorithm is perceived as an instrument rather than an independent agent; on the ability to appeal algorithmic evaluation; and on the algorithmic transparency. Key conclusion of the study is that algorithmic management creates a potential mismatch between technical and social subsystems of an organization, and its implementation requires that decision-makers keep their focus not just on the tools and anticipated goals, but on the in-depth understanding of the assumptions behind these goals.

Mindful Explanations: Prevalence and Impact of Mind Attribution in XAI Research

When users perceive AI systems as mindful, independent agents, they hold them responsible instead of the AI experts who created and designed these systems. So far, it has not been studied whether explanations support this shift in responsibility through the use of mind-attributing verbs like "to think". To better understand the prevalence of mind-attributing explanations we analyse AI explanations in 3,533 explainable AI (XAI) research articles from the Semantic Scholar Open Research Corpus (S2ORC). Using methods from semantic shift detection, we identify three dominant types of mind attribution: (1) metaphorical (e.g. "to learn" or "to predict"), (2) awareness (e.g. "to consider"), and (3) agency (e.g. "to make decisions"). We then analyse the impact of mind-attributing explanations on awareness and responsibility in a vignette-based experiment with 199 participants. We find that participants who were given a mind-attributing explanation were more likely to rate the AI system as aware of the harm it caused. Moreover, the mind-attributing explanation had a responsibility-concealing effect: Considering the AI experts' involvement lead to reduced ratings of AI responsibility for participants who were given a non-mind-attributing or no explanation. In contrast, participants who read the mind-attributing explanation still held the AI system responsible despite considering the AI experts' involvement. Taken together, our work underlines the need to carefully phrase explanations about AI systems in scientific writing to reduce mind attribution and clearly communicate human responsibility.

Experimental Assessment of Oil Displacement Efficiency by Flue Gases for a Developed Reservoir in Carbonnate Formation of Urals-Volga Region

The paper presents the results of experimental evaluation of oil displacement efficiency by flue gas of a thermal power plant, compared to water, for a carbonate reservoir in the Ural-Volga region. The experiments were performed under two different injection schemes using an original laboratory complex for coreflood studies, with recombined reservoir oil, model of formation water, reservoir core material, and under reservoir thermobaric conditions. It has been confirmed that due to the prevailing nitrogen content and low values of reservoir pressure and temperature, flue gas is ineffective as an independent displacement agent either for injection from the beginning of reservoir development or as a tertiary method after waterflooding. Taking into account the relevance of synergy between increasing oil recovery and sequestration of industrial emissions, evaluation of flue gas injection as part of water-gas mixtures (SWAG) is recommended.

Political Revenge? Downgrading Indonesia’s KPK From Hero to Villain

The importance of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi [KPK]), has once again been brought into focus during the 2024 presidential election campaign period when politics and corruption collide. This article suggests that legislative and political actions since 2019 to the KPK’s purpose and structure severely limit its capacity and independence making it susceptible to greater political interference and coercion. The KPK was established by Law 30/2002, as a response to and recognition of rampant corruption throughout the governmental, political and public sectors, business communities, and society in general, which became common practice during President Suharto’s New Order Regime. The KPK’s commission encompasses conducting investigations, indictments, and prosecutions. However, in late 2019, the People’s Representative Council enacted amending legislation to weaken its authority and ability to operate independently. Crucial legislative changes included creating a government-appointed supervisory body overseeing the KPK’s internal operations and changing KPK employee status from independent agents to public servants. These two provisions alone seriously weaken the KPK’s autonomy and create the risk of turning it into a politically controlled auxiliary state agency. In some respects, KPK has become a victim of its own successes, having achieved convictions of senior ministers, politicians, government officials, and business leaders, which in turn has produced enemies. Without political protection, the KPK faces the prospect of not only becoming, in essence, a nonentity but also facing further deterioration of its credibility and authority.

An agent-based resilience model of oil tank farms exposed to earthquakes

Frequent unpredictable earthquake disasters such as the Turkey Earthquake in 2023 pose an increasing threat to oil tank farms since they may trigger major accidents and domino effects, resulting in casualties, economic losses, and environmental pollution. Unpredictable earthquakes are definitely difficult to prevent and thus resilience strategies such as emergency response should be applied to reduce losses. However, little attention has been paid to the quantitative resilience modeling of oil tank farms, resulting in difficulties in decision-making on resilience assessment and management. Therefore, this study proposes a quantitative seismic resilience model of oil storage tanks by using a dynamic agent-based modeling approach. This approach models the storage tank, active fault, and the environment as three independent agents with their attributes and behaviors. The interaction between agents can also be modeled through disaster evolution rules, and the consequences of interactions can be adjusted through adaptation and recovery strategies. The dynamic propagation of earthquake accidents and the evolution of potential domino effects can be quantified from a bottom-up perspective, thereby quantifying the seismic resilience of oil tank farms. A case study is carried out to illustrate the application of the developed model in oil tank farms and to analyze the sensitivity of different model parameters. The results show that the developed model can dynamically characterize the evolution of earthquake-induced domino effects as well as the emergency and restoration processes, supporting the decision-making on the allocation of resilience measures.

Multiple Exploitation of a Renewable Resource — Optimal Solution of a Deterministic Singular Control Model

In this paper, we consider a singular control optimization problem which generalizes the Gordon–Schaefer model. A population of individuals with endogenous growth is harvested by two independent agents, and their joint profit is maximized. We show that adding a second control to the standard model greatly complicates the standard solution, which is a Most Rapid Approach. We prove that no solution where both controls are singular can exist. Using numerical experiments, we exhibit situations where the optimal steady state corresponds to one of the controls singular, and the other one is equal to one of its specific bounds. In some cases, the optimal path resembles the one-control solution, but with an additional threshold on the population beyond which both controls must be used. However, in other cases, the optimal control has more switching points and is not monotonous. We even exhibit cases where the optimal policy admits two steady states.

Culture, Social Class and the Dynamics of the Self

In an ongoing cycle of mutual constitution, culture, the self, and associated psychological tendencies dynamically interact. Prior studies show that people from Western individualist cultures construe the self in independent terms (stressing their uniqueness and separation from others), promoting analytic, context-independent ways of thinking. In contrast, people from Eastern collectivist cultures emphasize their interdependence and connectedness with others, promoting more holistic, context-sensitive ways of thinking. Recently, this literature has been extended to study within-culture variations by socio-economic status (SES). This work has suggested that higher SES contexts foster the view of the self as an independent agent and analytic cognitive tendencies. By contrast, individuals from lower SES tend to emphasize interdependence with others while displaying more holistic cognitive tendencies. Of importance, these SES differences are embedded in larger socio-cultural contexts differing in individualism and collectivism. Hence, the relationship among SES, self-construal, and cognitive tendencies can sometimes vary dramatically between cultures.

Gender negotiation of space in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans and Susan Muaddi Darraj’s The Inheritance of Exile

ABSTRACT This article examines the gendering of space and the entailed dismantlement of the passivity associated with Arab women in Lalami’s The Other Americans (2019) and Darraj’s The Inheritance of Exile (2007). Drawing on transnational feminism, this article critically examines the agency of the second generation of Arab American females in the space of the diaspora in their claiming of and entitlement to the public space. They are different from their mothers who seek to perpetuate the discursive division and the dual dichotomy of the public space which is that of men, and the private domestic which is that of women, even after their migratory journeys. The submissiveness and passivity that are linked to Arab women are revisited and brought to question as Arab female migrants in the novels negotiate space as independent agents in total oblivion to the biased and ideological division. Their heterogeneous and dissimilar subjectivities, negotiations, and experiences answer back the othering rhetoric which represents them as being isomorphic.

Health, Religion, and Politics: Re-assessing the Role of Christian Missionaries in Colonial Assam

Abstract Most studies of Christian missionaries in British Assam have focused on their role in promoting Christianity or education, not to mention their contributions to the development and standardization of local languages. There has been a singular lack of studies concerning the immense contributions made by the missionaries in setting up a healthcare infrastructure in the region. This absence has further distorted the debate on whether the missionaries operated as independent agents or as auxiliaries of the state. This paper dwells on the medical work carried out by the missionaries in British Assam and contends that the missionaries fulfilled multiple roles and functions in the province. We argue that the significance of the work of the missionaries is enhanced by the utter neglect of healthcare by the colonial state in the frontier region.

Multiagent Reinforcement Learning for Active Guidance Control of Railway Vehicles with Independently Rotating Wheels

This paper presents a novel data-driven multiagent reinforcement learning (MARL) controller for enhancing the running stability of independently rotating wheels (IRW) and reducing wheel–rail wear. We base our active guidance controller on the multiagent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) algorithm. In this framework, each IRW controller is treated as an independent agent, facilitating localized control of individual wheelsets and reducing the complexity of the required observations. Furthermore, we enhance the MADDPG algorithm with prioritized experience replay (PER), resulting in the PER-MADDPG algorithm, which optimizes training convergence and stability by prioritizing informative experience samples. In this paper, we compare the PER-MADDPG algorithm against existing controllers, demonstrating the superior simulation performance of the proposed algorithm, particularly in terms of self-centering capability and curve-negotiation behavior, effectively reducing the wear number. We also develop a scaled IRW vehicle for active guidance experiments. The experimental results validate the enhanced running performance of IRW vehicles using our proposed controller.