What does the spike of a sensory neuron mean? This is a fundamental question in computational neuroscience. Conventional approaches provide an answer based on correlation between spike pattern and the stimulus that caused it. However, these approaches do not satisfactorily explain how the brain, which does not have direct knowledge of the world or the stimuli, can achieve this task. This thesis frames the problem in terms of a task for a simulated agent and provides a solution based on an approach which regards action as necessary for acquiring the meaning of neural spikes. This approach differs from some others in that it proposes a new criterion called the sensory invariance criterion, which can be used to associate meaning to spike patterns in terms of action sequences the agent generates. This criterion forms the basis of the Sensory Invariance Driven Action (SIDA) framework presented in this thesis. This framework is implemented in a reinforcement learning agent and the results indicate that the agent can successfully learn to associate meaning to the sensor activity in terms of specific actions which reflect the properties of the stimulus. Further behavioral experiments on the agent show that this framework allows the agent to learn the meaning of complex (spatiotemporal) spike patterns. The successful learning exhibited by the agent raises hopes that SIDA can be used to build agents with natural semantics.

<p>This study has been executed at the Public Employment Office, an institution that has been</p><p>subject for much debate during the last couple of years. The government has instructed the</p><p>Labour Market Board to change the Public Employment Office toward a more effective</p><p>organization. This study examines one of the Public Employment Offices that are included in a</p><p>pilot project that aims to improve and develop work methods with the objective to become a</p><p>more service minded organization. From this starting point we have investigated which effect this</p><p>organizational change has had on the employee within this organization and within the pilot</p><p>project. In addition we investigate whether attitudes of the unemployed has an effect on the</p><p>staff´s work situation. In connection to this we seek to produce proposals of how to improve the</p><p>work situation for the staff. The purpose of the study is thus to map out the staff´s experience of</p><p>the work situation within the pilot project. Our intention has been to comprehend the complex</p><p>reality of an agent at the Public Employment Office. To create a basis for our analysis and to be</p><p>able to answer the questions at issue, we apply theories regarding organizational change, learning</p><p>and health. The main results of this study indicate that learning has increased at the workplace.</p><p>The results also indicate that the new, more service minded work methods increase the demands</p><p>on the agents to be able to handle social relations with unemployed and with colleagues. Finally</p><p>we find that though agents have a high workload they find their work to be stimulating.</p>

The company Kiviks Musteri AB produces a pear base wine that forms stable foam, which is problematic from a production perspective. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the factors underlying foam stability in the pear base wine and to find means for its reduction. This was done by foam testing wines and varying several variables, such as the fining agents normally used in the wine production (bentonite, gelatin, siliceous earth and activated carbon), enzyme treatment, and by changing the fermenting yeast species. Results: The wine started to form stable foam during fermentation, and foam stability could be reduced by using more bentonite and carbon during the fining process. The other fining agents appeared to have only limited impact on foaming characteristics. No pectin was present according to the pectin test, but protein bands were evident from SDS PAGE analysis, though absent in samples treated with increased doses of bentonite. In conclusion, pectin is not a major foaming agent in the wine, the yeast is most likely the producer of the foaming agents, carbon and bentonite have a reducing effect on foam stability, bentonite also reduces protein content. Proteins are likely to be involved in the foam stabilization but are not the sole contributors to stable foam.

This study has been executed at the Public Employment Office, an institution that has been subject for much debate during the last couple of years. The government has instructed the Labour Market Board to change the Public Employment Office toward a more effective organization. This study examines one of the Public Employment Offices that are included in a pilot project that aims to improve and develop work methods with the objective to become a more service minded organization. From this starting point we have investigated which effect this organizational change has had on the employee within this organization and within the pilot project. In addition we investigate whether attitudes of the unemployed has an effect on the staff´s work situation. In connection to this we seek to produce proposals of how to improve the work situation for the staff. The purpose of the study is thus to map out the staff´s experience of the work situation within the pilot project. Our intention has been to comprehend the complex reality of an agent at the Public Employment Office. To create a basis for our analysis and to be able to answer the questions at issue, we apply theories regarding organizational change, learning and health. The main results of this study indicate that learning has increased at the workplace. The results also indicate that the new, more service minded work methods increase the demands on the agents to be able to handle social relations with unemployed and with colleagues. Finally we find that though agents have a high workload they find their work to be stimulating.

Studien utgår från en artikel i Svenskt näringsliv som handlar om regelförenkling för företagen. Artikeln anger att 30 procent av företagen ser myndighetskraven, i form av svåra regler, som ett hinder för deras företag att växa. För att minska de administrativa kostnaderna för företagen har regeringen satt upp ett mål att kostnaderna ska minskas med 25 procent fram till år 2010. Regeringen har därför gett myndigheterna i uppdrag att ta fram handlingsplaner för regelförenkling, detta för att förenkla rapporteringen för företagen. I studien har undersökts hur hanteringen hos myndigheterna ser ut, då det gäller rapportering av lagstadgade uppgifter som företagen är skyldiga att rapportera. Hur ser användningen av rapporterna ut och är all rapportering nödvändig. Vi valde att genomföra undersökningen genom att studera ett utvalt företag och de lagstadgade rapporter som företaget skickar in till myndigheter. Öppna intervjuer har genomförts med företaget och de berörda myndigheterna. Teorierna om transparens, intressentmodellen/resursberoendeteorin och agentteorin är utgångspunkt för genomförandet av studien. Transparens för att undersöka om företagen har förståelse för användningen av de uppgifter som rapporteras in till myndigheterna. För att undersöka om det finns behov av rapporteringen från företagets intressenter, används intressentmodellen. Agentteorin valdes för att undersöka hur samarbetet mellan myndigheterna och företagen fungerar Resultatet av undersökningen visar att rapporteringen som företagen gör till myndigheterna används framförallt till att kontrollera att företagen följer den för verksamheten gällande lagstiftningen. Rapporterna används även till att göra branschspecifika sammanställningar som intressenter kan ta del av. Undersökningen visar att det finns brister i myndigheternas kontroll. Då redovisningen är allt för omfattande för att myndigheterna ska kontrollera alla uppgifter i rapporterna. Det visade sig i undersökningen att företaget inte hade några problem att förstå tillvägagångssättet vid rapporteringen eller användningen av den.

This paper reports the findings of using multi-agent based simulation model to evaluate the sawmill yard operations within a large privately owned sawmill in Sweden, Bergkvist Insjön AB in the current case. Conventional working routines within sawmill yard threaten the overall efficiency and thereby limit the profit margin of sawmill. Deploying dynamic work routines within the sawmill yard is not readily feasible in real time, so discrete event simulation model has been investigated to be able to report optimal work order depending on the situations. Preliminary investigations indicate that the results achieved by simulation model are promising. It is expected that the results achieved in the current case will support Bergkvist-Insjön AB in making optimal decisions by deploying efficient work order in sawmill yard.

ABSTRACT Title: The town's largest employers, is there a need to exchange? Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Emmelie Eriksson, Malin Ström Supervisor: Lars Ekstrand Date: 2012 – June Aim:  Gain a deeper understanding of the topic corporate culture  Get an understanding as to how corporate culture influences the daily operations  Possibly be able to help with any concrete to help the investigated company to improve its corporate culture Method: Data collected through both quantitative and qualitative surveys in the form of a questionnaire answered by 71 people, three interviews with the employees with leading roles at the investigated company and an observation. The material is analyzed with a hermeneutics approach, which means that we have assumed facts and then built our work on trying to find an understanding and to draw our own conclusions based on the perspective that we found. Result &amp; Conclusions: The results of this study show that the company needs to work on its corporate culture. We have found a few points we would like to improve in the company we examined. We believe that it is the company's reputation and it begins already in the company's own recruitment process it is the main finding from our study. Suggestions for future research: Interesting would be to seek employment with the company you want to investigate to see how the whole recruitment process goes on to perform deeper analysis, another idea would be to ask the employees that enjoy to work there against those who does not enjoy to work at the company to find the basic building blocks of corporate culture to this particular company. Our restraint in order to not go even deeper in this study is time. Contribution of the thesis: Because our company is anonymously does not work immediately no new knowledge to specific stakeholders, but the paper can, however, be of assistance to stakeholders within the same sector. Our completed work is primarily to provide our own knowledge and will hopefully lead to some help for the company in the future. Key words: Corporate culture, team leader, agent, groups, culture, economics / ABSTRACT Titel: Ortens största arbetsgivare, behövs det en förändring? Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Emmelie Eriksson, Malin Ström Handledare: Lars Ekstrand Datum: 2012 – juni Syfte:  Få en djupare förståelse av ämnet företagskultur  Få en förståelse av hur företagskulturen påverkar den dagliga verksamheten  Att kunna bidra med någon konkret som hjälper det undersökta företaget att förändra sin företagskultur Metod: Data har samlats in via både kvantitativa och kvalitativa undersökningar i form av en enkät besvarade av 71 personer, tre intervjuer med anställda på företaget med ledande roller och en observation. Materialet har analyserats med ett hermeneutiskt synsätt vilket innebär att vi har utgått ifrån fakta och sedan byggt vårt arbete på att försöka hitta en förståelse och att dra egna slutsatser utifrån det perspektiv som vi funnit. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Vårt resultat med denna studie visar att företaget behöver förbättra sin företagskultur. Vi har hittat några punkter vi skulle vilja förbättra hos företaget vi undersökt. Vi anser att det är företagets rykte och som har sin verkliga början redan i företagets egen rekryteringsprocess som är den främsta slutsatsen från vår studie. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Förslag till vidare studier med detta arbete är att söka en tjänst hos företaget detta för att få en inblick i rekryteringsprocessen, för att se hur den verkligen går tillväga. Det vore även intressant att jämföra de som trivs mot de som trivs mindre bra för att verkligen hitta grundstenarna i företagskulturen. Vår begränsning för att inte gå in ännu djupare i detta är tiden. Uppsatsens bidrag: Eftersom vårt företag är anonymt så ger inte arbetet direkt någon ny kunskap till specifika intressenter, men uppsatsen kan däremot vara till hjälp för intressenter inom samma bransch. Vårt slutförda arbete är i första hand till för vår egen kunskap och ska förhoppningsvis leda till något som företaget kan använda sig av i framtiden. Nyckelord: Företagskultur, teamledare, agent, grupper, kultur, ekonomi

Current research in multi-agent systems (MAS) has advanced to the development of open MAS, which are characterized by the heterogeneity of agents, free exit/entry and decentralized control. Conflicts of interest among agents are inevitable, and hence automated negotiation to resolve them is one of the promising solutions. This thesis studies three modifications on alternating-offer bargaining protocols for automated negotiation in open MAS. The long-term goal of this research is to design negotiation protocols which can be easily used by intelligent agents in accommodating their need in resolving their conflicts. In particular, we propose three modifications: allowing non-monotonic offers during the bargaining (non-monotonic-offers bargaining protocol), allowing strategic delay (delay-based bargaining protocol), and allowing strategic ignorance to augment argumentation when the bargaining comprises argumentation (ignorance-based argumentation-based negotiation protocol). <p>Utility theory and decision-theoretic approaches are used in the theoretical analysis part, with an aim to prove the benefit of these three modifications in negotiation among myopic agents under uncertainty. Empirical studies by means of computer simulation are conducted in analyzing the cost and benefit of these modifications. Social agents, who use common human bargaining strategies, are the subjects of the simulation. <p>In general, we assume that agents are bounded rational with various degrees of belief and trust toward their opponents. In particular in the study of the non-monotonic-offers bargaining protocol, we assume that our agents have diminishing surplus. We further assume that our agents have increasing surplus in the study of delay-based bargaining protocol. And in the study of ignorance-based argumentation-based negotiation protocol, we assume that agents may have different knowledge and use different ontologies and reasoning engines. <p>Through theoretical analysis under various settings, we show the benefit of allowing these modifications in terms of agents expected surplus. And through simulation, we show the benefit of allowing these modifications in terms of social welfare (total surplus). Several implementation issues are then discussed, and their potential solutions in terms of some additional policies are proposed. Finally, we also suggest some future work which can potentially improve the reliability of these modifications.

Like many North American agricultural regions, Saskatchewan has experienced significant fundamental structural changes in farming. Structural change encompasses evolution in distribution of farm sizes, land tenure and financial characteristics, as well as variations in demographic and production characteristics. These issues are often a source of discontent among farm populations as it implies these populations are forced to adapt in a number of potentially unpleasant ways. These changes have profound and sometimes poorly understood effects on the rural economy for example, structural change affects rural population and therefore demand for rural infrastructure. <p>Traditional agricultural farm level analysis is often conducted using a representative farm or group, but this framework cannot capture the growing heterogeneity of modern farm operators or the current operating environment in agricultural regions. Farm profiles vary by demographic characteristics, such as age and education, and resource endowments. Agent-based simulation captures this heterogeneity through a farm by farm analysis, where after initialization, the regional economy evolves over time.<p>A synthetic population is created based on survey data and the land characteristics based on the actual land data in CAR 7B of Saskatchewan. A number of different price and yield time paths were created using a bootstrap procedure on historical data and the model evolved to potential agriculture structures that may occur in the model region, 30 years in the future.<p>Structural change occurs endogenously as farms interact in land markets, and make decisions on land use. Agents compete for available land in a purchase and lease market with land selling to the highest bidder. The dynamic nature of agent-based models allows individual farms to adjust land use in response to changing economic conditions and individual preferences. How individuals organize their resources will be critical to farm survival and growth.<p>The results indicate that many of the trends are the same under the different price and yield time paths, however the rate of change is significantly impacted by the price and yield time path that occurs. The model predicted the trend to fewer and larger farms will continue into the future. The forecasted distribution of smaller farms will decline and proportion of large farms will increase, while mid sized farms will remain relatively unchanged. The proportion of mixed farms, land use, and total livestock numbers depend significantly on the price and yield time path. The actual structure that will occur will be the result of the actual individual price and yield time path that occurs.

Unsolicited e-mail has brought much annoyance to users, thus, making e-mail less reliable as a communication tool. This has happened because current email architecture has key limitations. For instance, while it allows senders to send as many messages as they want, it does not provide adequate capability to recipients to prevent unrestricted access to their mailbox. This research develops a new approach to equip recipients with ability to control access to their mailbox.<p>This thesis builds an ownership-based approach to control mailbox usage employing the CyberOrgs model. CyberOrgs is a model that provides facilities to control resources in multi-agent systems. We consider a mailbox to be a precious resource of its owner. Any access to the resource requires its owner's permission. Thus, we give recipients a capability to manage their valuable resource - mailbox. In our approach, message senders obtain a permission to send messages through negotiation. In this negotiation, a sender makes a proposal and the intended recipient evaluates the proposal according to their own policies. A sender's desired outcome of a negotiation is a contract, which conducts the subsequent communication between the sender and the recipient. Contracts help senders and recipients construct a long-term relationship.<p>Besides allowing individuals to control their mailbox, we consider groups, which represent organizations in human society, in order to allow organizations to manage their resources including mailboxes, message sending allowances, and contracts.<p>A prototype based on our approach is implemented. In the prototype, policies are separated from the mechanisms. Examples of policies are presented and a public policy interface is exposed to allow programmers to develop custom policies. Experimental results demonstrate that the system performance is policy-dependent. In other words, as long as policies are carefully designed, communication involving negotiation has minimal overhead compared to communication in which senders deliver messages to recipients directly.