Die Entwicklung von Softwareagenten bringt neue Technologien für die Lösung von Problemen des Information Retrieval, die Bewältigung komplexer Aufgabenstellungen und ein neues Paradigma für verteilte Systeme. Um dieses breite Anwendungsgebiet systematisch analysieren zu können, wird im einleitenden theoretischen Teil der Arbeit eine Begriffsbestimmung und Klassifikation von Softwareagenten vorgenommen. Anschließend wird ein Überblick über aktuelle Standardisierungsbemühungen gegeben und beispielhafte Entwicklungen aus Forschung und Industrie vorgestellt. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit geht es um die Entwicklung eines konkreten News-Watcher-Agentensystems. Dabei wird die Umsetzung der im theoretischen Teil vorgestellten Eigenschaften von Agenten diskutiert.

L’entreprise Chomarat produit des feuilles en polyoléfine pour les revêtements intérieurs de voitures. Ces feuilles sont grainées afin de leur donner un aspect de surface particulier qui constitue un élément psychosensoriel important pour le consommateur. Les feuilles grainées doivent être thermoformées afin de pouvoir leur imprimer la forme de la structure rigide qui les supportera. L’étape de thermoformage se déroule à haute température et constitue de ce fait une étape critique du processus. En effet, lors de la déformation en température, l’étirement du matériau tend à déformer le grain de façon non homogène, voire à le faire disparaître. Pour obtenir des matériaux avec une bonne tenue du grain, les feuilles grainées sont partiellement réticulées. Ce travail de thèse vise à développer des formulations réticulables répondant à cette problématique. Deux voies de réticulation ont été envisagées : la réticulation par irradiation sous faisceau d’électrons et ou par insolation UV. Cette dernière méthode de réticulation est totalement novatrice dans ce domaine industriel. Les terpolymères éthylène-propylène-diène monomère (EPDM) présentent des caractéristiques favorisant la réticulation. L’effet de l’irradiation (EB ou UV) sur ces élastomères, ainsi que leurs mélanges avec du polypropylène (PP), a été étudiée. Les caractérisations ont principalement été menées par des mesures de rhéologie, des mesures de taux de gel et des calculs de densité de réticulation. Dans un premier temps, seule l’irradiation EB a été testée, sur des EPDM ainsi que sur d’autres types d’élastomères. Ensuite, les effets de l’irradiation UV ont été étudiés à travers la mise en place d’une étude modèle sur des oligomères de faibles masses choisis pour simuler le comportement des doubles liaisons des EPDM. La composition des différentes formulations étudiées comprenait donc un oligomère, un monomère multifonctionnel et un photoamorceur permettant la photoréticulation. Suite à cette étude, les meilleurs couples « photoamorceur / agent de réticulation » ont été transposés à des EPDM, d’abord en utilisant un EPDM de faible masse molaire puis un EPDM de haute masse molaire utilisé couramment dans les formulations au niveau industriel. Enfin, l’ajout du PP et en dernier lieu l’ajout de pigments et d’agents anti-UV ont été étudiés sur l’efficacité de la photoréticulation. / The Chomarat company manufactures polyolefin based sheets for automotive parts. These sheets are grained in order to give them a particular surface pattern which represents an important psycho-sensory aspect for consumers. The grained sheets must be thermoformed to give them the shape of the rigid structure on which they will be set in place. The thermoforming step is proceeded at high temperature and is therefore a critical step of this process. Indeed, while being deformed in temperature, the stretching of the material tends to distort the grained pattern in a non-homogeneous way and even to cancel it. In order to obtain materials that give an acceptable retention of the pattern after being thermoformed, the grained sheet must be partially crosslinked. This thesis work aims to develop crosslinkable formulations that are able to achieve this challenge. Two crosslinking methods have been considered: crosslinking using electron beam (EB) irradiation or UV irradiation. This last method is a pioneering crosslinking pathway in this industrial field. Terpolymers of ethylene-propylene-diene monomers (EPDM) have chemical structures that promote crosslinking. The effect of irradiation (EB or UV) on these elastomers, as well as on their blends with polypropylene (PP) have been studied. The characterisations have been mainly monitored using rheological measurements, gel contents measurements and crosslinking densities calculations. Firstly, only the effects of EB irradiation on EPDM and other types of elastomers have been investigated. Then, the effects of UV irradiation have been studied through a modelling study on low mass oligomers chosen to mimic the behaviour of EPDM double bonds. The different formulations studied were composed of an oligomer, a multifunctional monomer acting as a crosslinker and a photoinitiator allowing the crosslinking. Following this study, the best photoinitiator/crosslinking agent couples were transposed to EPDM, using firstly a low mass EPDM then a high mass one frequently used in formulations in industrial fields. At last, the effects on the photocrosslinking efficiency of adding first PP then pigments and anti-UV agents have been examined.

Orientador: José Geraldo Nery / Resumo: A busca por novos materiais, principalmente materiais que apresentem múltiplas aplicações, continua atraindo pesquisas ao redor do mundo. Dentre os materiais pesquisados com esse intuito, os compósitos ganham destaque. Compósitos são materiais mistos formados pela união de dois ou mais materiais diferentes com a finalidade de produzir um material novo com propriedades distintas, em relação aos seus materiais de origem. Os compósitos podem ser aplicados em diferentes áreas, entre elas encontram-se a remediação ambiental e a hemostasia. A remediação ambiental se faz necessária principalmente pelo fato de que muitas fontes hídricas acabam sendo poluídas por resíduos nocivos a saúde humana e animal, como metais pesados, e o consumo destas águas acaba causando sérias doenças. Devido a isso a busca por agentes capazes de retirar estes poluentes da água torna-se necessária. Outro grande problema de saúde publica são as hemorragias incontroladas que continuam sendo umas das principais causas de mortes no mundo. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho foi sintetizar um compósito que apresente a capacidade de atuar tanto como agente de remediação ambiental como agente hemostático. O compósito foi sintetizado utilizando zeólita e quitosana como suas matrizes. O material foi caracterizado por Difração de Raios-X; Espectroscopia de Infravermelho e Microscopia Eletrônica de Varredura. O potencial de ação ambiental foi testado analisando a absorção de cátions de cádmio e chumbo, presentes... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The search for new materials, especially materials with multiple applications, continues to attract research from around the world. Among the materials researched for this purpose, composites stand out. Composites are mixed materials formed by joining two or more different materials in order to produce a new material with distinct properties relative to their source materials. Composites can be applied in different areas, including environmental remediation and hemostasis. Environmental remediation is necessary mainly due to the fact that many water sources end up being polluted by waste harmful to human and animal health, such as heavy metals, and the consumption of these waters ends up causing serious diseases. Because of this the search for agents capable of removing these pollutants from water becomes necessary. Another major public health problem is uncontrolled bleeding, which remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In this context, the objective of this work was to synthesize a composite that presents the ability to act as both environmental remediation agent and hemostatic agent. The composite was synthesized using zeolite and chitosan as their matrices. The material was characterized by X-ray diffraction; Infrared Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy. The environmental action potential was tested by analyzing the absorption of cadmium and lead cations present in aqueous solution by the material, and the possible hemostatic application of the ma... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The expansion and diffusion of mobile phones globally has resulted in the provision of financial transactional services over the existing mobile phone platforms, generally referred to as mobile money. The supply end of mobile money services is an important factor in the success of the financial transactions offering. This research assessed vulnerabilities in the mobile money supply network that are inherently related to the existence of the principal – agent problem and their implications on availability and access to the services. The research study was conducted using a qualitative approach. Qualitative information was collected through interviews guided by open – ended questionnaires. Thematic analysis approach was followed to systematically analyse the data and generate findings of the study. Agent transactional data was analysed to complement the findings from qualitative analysis The findings suggest that the principal agent problem permeates the mobile money delivery network mainly after businesses joining as agents and manifests as moral hazard. Moral hazard is the dominant feature of the principal – agent problem, with adverse selection very low. Drivers of moral hazard are demonstrated by the influences and demands of agents’ core businesses and challenges in agent monitoring and training. The existence of the principal – agent problem has limited or no implications on access and availability of services. However, overtime the combined vulnerabilities identified related to the principal agent problem are likely to manifest into risks that are likely to affect access and availability of mobile money services. Regulators, Mobile Network Operators and agent enterprises must collectively review monitoring approaches for mobile money service providers to address challenges identified and increase the effectiveness of monitoring. Service provision standards should be reviewed to suit the various business environments the services are provided within. Mobile Network Operators and agent enterprises need to institute stronger partnership arrangements that enhance ownership and obligations for all parties, in particular agent enterprises. Agreements must enable application of different mobile money delivery models suitable to meet the demands and requirements of the agents’ core businesses. Innovations such as Near Field Communication (NFC) can be integrated with Point of sale (POS) applications and mobile money platforms to reduce the administration burden on agents and human error. Such applications must consider the cost implications of adoption from the agents’ business perspective.

The financial markets have been started to get decentralized and even distributed. Consumers can now purchase stocks from their home computers without the use of a traditional broker. The dynamism and unpredictability of this domain which is continuously growing in complexity and also the giant volume of information which can affect this market, makes it one of the best potential domains to take advantage of agents. This thesis considers the main concerns of securities e-trading area in order to highlight advantages and disadvantages of multi-agent negotiating systems for online trading of securities comparing to single-agent systems. And then presents a multi-agent system design named MASTNA which considers both decision making and negotiating. The design seeks to improve the main concerns of securities e-trading such as speed, accuracy and handling complexities. MASTNA works over a distributed market and engages different types of agents in order to perform different tasks. For handling the negotiations MASTNA takes advantage of mobile negotiator agents with the purpose of handling parallel negotiations over an unreliable network (Internet).

Nous étudions dans cette thèse la formation et la dynamique des attitudes sociales à l'aide de la simulation multi agent. L'attitude peut se définir comme une évaluation globale d'un objet social sur la base d'informations cognitives ou affectives. Nos travaux s'inscrivent dans le cadre de la simulation sociale qui tente de reproduire informatiquement des phénomènes sociaux complexes à une échelle macroscopique, sur la base de la représentation des individus et de leurs interactions au niveau microscopique. Tandis que les approches existantes dans cette discipline font généralement abstraction des travaux en sciences humaines sur le sujet de l'attitude, nous proposons de suivre une approche psychomimétique en micro-fondant le modèle cognitif de nos agents sur des théories issues de psychologie sociale et des sciences cognitives. Ainsi, nous proposons un modèle de dynamique d'attitude combinant des théories issues de travaux en sciences humaines et sociales de la perception des individus, la communication inter-personnelle et médiatique, la révision de croyances, la réponse émotionnelle ainsi que le sentiment de surprise. Ce modèle a pour objectif de reproduire au niveau microscopique la dynamique des attitudes vis-à-vis d'acteurs qui effectuent des actions observées par la population. Nous avons procédé à une analyse fonctionnelle des différents composants du modèle sur des scénarii abstraits afin d'étudier les capacités de notre modèle, en particulier les phénomènes descriptibles tels que la diffusion de l'information, la résistance à la désinformation ou le processus de conformité. Le modèle a été appliqué dans le contexte des opérations militaires françaises de stabilisation en Afghanistan. L'objectif de cette expérience consiste à reproduire les sondages d'opinions vis-à-vis des Forces en présence, récoltés durant l'intervention, à partir d'un scénario militaire qui a été reconstitué en partenariat avec les officiers en charge des opérations de 2011 à 2012. Les résultats de simulations qui suivent un processus de calibration du modèle affichent une erreur inférieure à 3 points d'écart par rapport aux données réelles. Enfin, nous proposons une analyse microscopique des résultats en appliquant des techniques de classifications automatiques sur les individus afin d'expliquer les différentes tendances d'attitudes au sein de la population. / We study in this thesis the problem of social attitude formation and dynamics using multi agent simulation. The concept of attitude could be defined as a global evaluation of a social object, based on cognitive or affective information. Our works belongs to the field of social simulation which aims to reproduce in a virtual environment complex social phenomenon at a macroscopic level based on microscopic representations of individuals and their interactions. While existing approaches in this field rarely consider the results of studies in human sciences on the topic of attitude, we propose to follow a psychomimtic approach by micro-founding the cognitive model of our agents on human and social sciences' theories on individual's perception, inter-personal and media communication, belief revision, affective responses and the sentiment of unexpectedness. This model aims to reproduce at a microscopic level attitude dynamics toward actors who perpetuate actions witnessed by the individuals. We have proceeded to a functional analysis of the model's various components based on abstracts scenarios in order to study the capabilities of our model, and more precisely the describable phenomenon such as information diffusion, resistance to disinformation or the conformity process. The model has been applied in the context of French military operations of stabilisation in Afghanistan. The goal of this experience consists in reproducing opinion polls results of the locals toward the present Forces, collected during the intervention, based on a military scenario which has been recreated in partnership with officers who were in charge of operations between 2011 and 2012. Simulation results that follow a model calibration process show an error below 3 points of disparity compared to the real data. Finally, we propose a microscopic analysis of the results by applying automatic classification techniques on the simulated individuals in order to explain the multiple attitudes tendencies in the population.

Les interactions de l’équipe de travail et l’efficacité de celles-ci sont constitutives d’un système hiérarchique préétabli composé notamment de dyades verticales. Afin d’étudier cette dyade, ce travail doctoral s’intéresse aux rôles sociaux associés au statut de chacun des protagonistes de la dyade verticale (i.e., leader pour le chef et suiveur pour le subordonné) et considère le leadership.L’influence du suiveur et de ses comportements sur le leader et le leadership est de plus en plus considérée. Cependant, les comportements du suiveur influençant le leader restent inexplorés. Ce travail doctoral plurisdisciplinaire (i.e., psychologie et informatique affective) vise donc à mettre en évidence les comportements du suiveur influençant le leader ainsi que les mécamises sous-jacents à cette influence.Pour cela, nous nous sommes intéressés aux comportements non verbaux (CNV) du suiveur en tant qu’indices sociaux pouvant influencer le leader et ses comportements. Les principes de la cognition sociale sont appliqués dans cette thèse pour étudier l’évaluation cognitive réalisée par le leader, au travers de l’activation des caractéristiques utilisées pour catégoriser les suiveurs : les théories implicites du followership (IFTs).L’étude de l’évaluation cognitive du leader se confronte à de nombreuses difficultés, notamment méthodologiques. Ainsi, un travail préliminaire essentiel de ce travail doctoral s’est attaché à traduire et valider en français une échelle d’évaluation des IFTs. La première étude exploratoire utilise des images d’agents virtuels pour explorer plusieurs CNV pouvant activer les IFTs du leader de manière explicite. La deuxième étude propose une analyse de vidéos d’entraînements d’équipes médicales pré-hospitalières pour étudier dynamiquement d’autres CNV intervenant dans la perception du followership. En troisième étude, les CNV observés dans les études précédentes ont été implémentés dans un agent virtuel placé en interaction avec des leaders médicaux. Une tâche de Go / No Go a permis par la suite d’étudier l’activation implicite des IFTs. Enfin, une dernière étude quantitative transversale a tenté d’étudier l’influence de l’évaluation cognitive du suiveur par le leader sur les comportements de leadership.Les résultats de ces études suggèrent que certaines caractéristiques affichées dans les CNV (i.e., dominance, support apporté au leader) peuvent activer les IFTs du leader. De plus, l’évaluation cognitive semble avoir une influence sur les comportements de leadership choisi.Nous discuterons les résultats obtenus et présenterons les contributions scientifiques et pédagogiques de cette thèse. Nous ouvrirons notre réflexion au positionnement épistémologique nécessaire à l’étude des IFTs, ainsi qu’à l’utilisation des agents virtuels dans l’étude de la catégorisation. Le but applicatif de ce travail doctoral est l’implémentation de CNV chez des subordonnés virtuels médicaux dans un serious game permettant la formation de leader médicaux. / Interactions in teamwork and their efficiency are based on a hierarchical system including verticale dyads. This research studies leadership through the social roles link to the hierarchical status of the vertical dyad (i.e., leader for the chief and follower for the subordinate).The influence of follower on leader and leadership is increasingly considered. However, the follower’s behaviors are still unexplored. This multidisciplinary doctoral work (i.e., psychology and affective computing) tries to highlight the influence of follower’s behavior on the leader, and the underlying process of this influence.To do so, we used the follower’s nonverbal behaviors (CNV) as the social clues that can influence the leader and his behaviors. The principles of social cognition are applied in this thesis to study the cognitive evaluation made by the leader. We worked on the activation of the caracteristics used to categorize followers, the implicit followership theories (IFTs).The study of the cognitive evaluation made by the leader comes we multiple issues, including methological ones. Thus, a preliminary work of translation and validation of a scale evaluating the IFTs was realized. The first exploratory study used images of virtual agents displaying CNV that could explicitly activate leaders’ IFTs. We complete these result through an analysis of a corpus of videos filming medical teams’ training. This study allowed us to observe dynamic CNV that could influence the perception of followership. In a third study, we implemented the CNV of the two previous studies in a virtual agent. Medical leaders had to interact with it, and implicit activation of IFTs was collected using a Go / No Go protocol. Finally, using a quantitative approach, we studied the influence of cognitive evaluation of the leader on his leadership behaviors.Results suggest that some caracteristics displayed in CNV (i.e., dominance and support) can activate the leaders’ IFTs. Moreover, the cognitive evaluation of the leader seems to influence his leadership behaviors.We will discuss the results and explain the scientifical and pédagogical contributions of this thesis. We will analyse our problematic through multiple angles, including the epistemologycal point of view allowing the study of IFTs, and the use of virtual agents in the research field of categorization process. The practical application of the doctoral work is the implementation of CNV in virtual subordinates for the deployement of a serious game for medical team leader.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第19110号 / 情博第556号 / 新制||情||98(附属図書館) / 32061 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科知能情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 西田 豊明, 教授 乾 敏郎, 教授 河原 達也 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DGAM

Situationen i dagens omvärld har tillsammans med hög inflation och efterdyningar av en pandemi påverkat fastighetsbranschen på många sätt. Ökade elpriser har gjort att drift- och underhållskostnader för fastigheter har ökat markant. För att minska energikostnaderna kan kommersiella fastighetsbolag implementera energieffektiviserande åtgärder. Det kan dock uppstå problematik mellan hyresgästen och fastighetsägaren när det kommer till delade incitament.   Syftet med studien är att undersöka kommersiella fastighetsägares incitament att energieffektivisera befintliga fastigheter med befintliga hyresgäster. Syftet är även att undersöka hur fastighetsägaren arbetar tillsammans med hyresgästen vid energieffektiviserande åtgärder. Energieffektiviserande åtgärder avser i studiens fall investeringar som sänker energikostnaderna. För att uppnå studiens syfte har en kvalitativ metod tillsammans med semistrukturerade intervjuer tillämpats. Intervjustudien genomfördes med sju väl etablerade kommersiella fastighetsbolag. Studiens resultat visar att i de fall där fastighetsägaren upplåter lokaler med kallhyra finns det inga incitament att energieffektivisera. Däremot finns det incitament för fastighetsägare som upplåter lokaler med varmhyra att göra energieffektiviserande åtgärder i befintliga byggnader. Detta incitament stärks med tanke på dagens höga elpriser där fastighetsägare gjort en vinst på investeringen tidigare än vad de skulle ha gjort om elpriserna legat kvar på tidigare nivåer.  Studien visar även att fastighetsägare förhandlar och tillsammans med hyresgästerna kommer fram till lösningar kring energieffektiviserande åtgärder. Ett alternativ kan vara att parterna delar på investeringen. / The situation in today's world, together with high inflation and the aftermath of a pandemic, has affected the property industry in many ways. Increased electricity prices have meant that operating and maintenance costs for properties have increased significantly. In order to overcome energy costs, commercial real estate companies can implement energy efficiency measures. However, problems can arise between the tenant and the property owner when it comes to shared incentives.  The purpose of the study is to investigate the commercial property owner's incentives to make existing properties with existing tenants more energy efficient. The purpose is also to investigate how the property owner works together with the tenant in energy efficiency measures. In the case of the study, energy efficiency measures refer to investments that lower energy costs. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative method together with semi-structured interviews has been applied. The interview study was conducted with seven well-established commercial real estate companies. The results of the study show that in cases where the property owner leases premises with cold rent, there is no incentive to improve energy efficiency. On the other hand, there are incentives for property owners, who leases premises with varm rents to make energy efficiency measures in existing buildings. This incentive is also strengthened in view of today's high electricity prices, where property owners have made a profit on the investment earlier than they could have if electricity prices had remained at previous levels. The study also shows that property owners negotiate and together with the tenants reaches solutions regarding energy efficiency measures. An alternative could be for the parties to share the investment.

Throughout today’s society, increasingly more areas are being automated. Grocery stores however have been the same for years. Only recently, self-checkout counters and online shopping have been utilised in this business area. This thesis aims to take it to the next step by introducing automated grocery stores using a multi-agent system. Orders will be given to the system, and on a small area, multiple agents will pick the products in a time-efficient way and deliver them to the customer. This can both increase the throughput but also decrease the food waste and energy consumption of grocery stores. This thesis investigates already existing solutions for the multi-agent pickup and delivery problem. It extends these to the important case of batched tasks in order to improve the customer experience. Batches of tasks represent shopping carts, where fast completion of whole batches gives greater customer satisfaction. This notion is not mentioned in related work, where completion of single tasks is the main goal. Because of this, the existing solution does not accommodate the need of batches or the importance of completing whole batches fast and in somewhat linear order. For this purpose, a new metric called batch ordering weighted error (BOWE) was created that takes these factors into consideration. Using BOWE, one existing algorithm has been extended into prioritizing completing whole batches and is now called B-PIBT. This new algorithm has significantly improved BOWE and even batch service time for the algorithm in key cases and is now superior in comparison to the other state-of-the-art algorithms.