Context. Resource allocation is an important issue in order to complete a task in the field of agent system. Several protocols are available for task distribution and for efficient resource allocation among agents. Efficient task distribution and resource allocation among agents are often play important roles to obtain high performance. However, the situation becomes more complicated when the resources are dependent on each other where multiple buyers and providers of resources negotiate in parallel. Objectives. In this paper, we proposed an agent based protocol for synchronizing and allocating dependent resources that involves parallel negotiation between multiple buyers and providers of resources. Methods. Literature survey has been conducted in the studied areas in order to position the work and gain more knowledge. Moreover, to validate the proposed protocol, a simulation study was performed. Results. The suggested protocol can handle dependent resources negotiation parallel and the result illustrates that. Moreover, the approach can avoid broadcasting of call for proposals to reduce the communication overhead, which usually occur in many other protocols. Conclusion. In the suggested protocol, we have presented a new idea of re-planning with other techniques like Information board and leveled commitment. In a simulation study, it was identified that this approach is able to deal with the dependent resources according to the simulation results.

No / This paper presents a case study on the use of multi-agents for integrated dynamic scheduling of steel milling and casting. Steel production is an extremely complex problem requiring the consideration of several different constraints and objectives of a range of processes in a dynamic environment. Most research in steel production scheduling considers static scheduling of processes in isolation. In contrast to earlier approaches, the multi-agent architecture proposed consists of a set of heterogeneous agents which integrate and optimize a range of scheduling objectives related to different processes of steel production, and can adapt to changes in the environment while still achieving overall system goals. Each agent embodies its own scheduling model and realizes its local predictive-reactive schedule taking into account local objectives, real-time information and information received from other agents. Agents cooperate in order to find a globally good schedule, which is able to effectively react to real-time disruptions, and to optimize the original production goals whilst minimising disruption carried by unexpected events occurring in real-time. The inter-agent cooperation is based on the Contract Net Protocol with commitment

Economic scheduling needs to be considered for Grid computing environment, because it gives an incentive for resource providers to supply their resources. Moreover, it enforces efficient use of resources, because the users have to pay for their use. Tendering is a suitable model for Grid scheduling because users start the negotiations for finding suitable resources for executing their jobs. Furthermore, the users specify their job requirements with their requests and therefore the resources reply with bids that are based on the cost of taking on the job and the availability of their processors. In this thesis, a framework for economic Grid scheduling using tendering is proposed. The framework entities such as users, brokers and resources employ tender/contract-net model to negotiate the prices and deadlines. The brokers' role is acting on behalf of users. During the negotiations, the entities aim to maximise their performance which is measured by a number of metrics. In order to evaluate the entities' performance under different scenarios, a Java- based simulator, called MICOSim, supporting event-driven simulation of economic Grid scheduling is presented. MICOSim can perform a simulation of more than one hundred entities faster than real time. It is concluded from the evaluation that users who are interested in increasing the job success rate and paying less for executing their jobs have to consider received prices to select the most appropriate bids, while users who are interested in improving the job average satisfaction rate have to consider either received completion time or both price and completion time to select the most suitable bids when the submission of jobs is static. The best broker strategy is the one that doesn't take into account meeting the job deadlines in the bids it sends to job owners. Finally, the resource strategy that considers the price to determine if to reply to a request or not is superior to other resource strategies. The only exception is employing this strategy with price that is too low. However, there is a tiny difference between the performances of different user strategies in dynamic submission. It is also concluded from the evaluation that broker strategies have the best performance when the revenue they target from the users is reasonable. Thus, the broker's aim has to be receiving reasonable revenue (neither too low nor too high) from acting on behalf of users. It is observed from the results that the strategy performance is influenced by the behaviour of other entities such as the submission time of user jobs. Finally, it is observed that the characteristics of entities have an effect on the performance of strategies. For example, the two user strategies that consider the received completion time and both price and completion time to determine if to accept a broker bid have similar performance, because of the existence of resources with various prices from cheap to expensive and existence of resources which don't care about the price paid for the execution. So, the price threshold doesn't have a large effect on the performance.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:23:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrea Sirotsky Gershenson.pdf: 766596 bytes, checksum: 45b208dcc2433702d551d1ded41d470b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-26 / This study analyzes the lease contract of a specific type of business organization: the Shopping Mall. We will analyze the characteristics of this kind of development and other aspects that make it a complex and unique structure and which also make it distinct from other commercial centers. Even after the Lease Law was sanctioned (Law 8.245/91), which defined the relationship between the entrepreneur and the shopkeeper as a location, it is possible to consider the peculiarities of this kind of business and notice that there is still controversy about the legal nature of this kind of contract. Thus, we will study the doctrinal positions on the legal nature of the mall, and later qualify it as a typical or atypical contract. The legal business will be contextualized within the modern view of contract law, analyzing its main principles, in particular social function, equity and good faith. We will analyze the Mall contract and its peculiar clauses under the perspective of those paradigms. We will then approach the subject of how the termination of this kind of contract would work in case of breach of its provisions, and its chances for revision or alteration. Finally, this study will weave considerations about termination or renewal actions as far as the lease contract in shopping malls is concerned / O presente estudo busca analisar o contrato de locação em um tipo específico de organização comercial: o Shopping Center. Serão analisadas as características dessa espécie de empreendimento e demais aspectos que tornam sua estrutura única e complexa, diferenciada dos demais formatos de centros comerciais. Mesmo após sancionada a Lei de Locações (Lei 8.245/91), que definiu a relação existente entre o empreendedor e o lojista como de locação, diante das peculiaridades dessa espécie de negócio, ainda existe controvérsia sobre a natureza jurídica do contrato. Assim, serão investigados os posicionamentos doutrinários acerca da natureza jurídica do shopping center, para posteriormente qualificá-lo como contrato típico ou atípico. O negócio jurídico será contextualizado dentro da visão moderna do direito contratual, analisando-se os seus princípios informadores, em especial o da função social, equidade e da boa-fé. Analisar-se-á sob a ótica dos referidos paradigmas o contrato de shopping center e suas cláusulas peculiares. Será abordado, então, como funciona a resolução dessa espécie de contrato diante do descumprimento de suas cláusulas e suas hipóteses de revisão ou alteração. Por fim, o presente estudo tecerá considerações acerca das ações revisionais e renovatórias do contrato de locação em shopping center