My agents love to conform: Norms and emotion in the micro-macro link

This contribution investigates the function of emotion in relation to norms, both in natural and artificial societies. We illustrate that unintentional behavior can be normative and socially functional at the same time, thereby highlighting the role of emotion. Conceiving of norms as mental objects we then examine the role of emotion in maintaining and enforcing such propositional attitudes. The findings are subsequently related to social structural dynamics and questions concerning micro-macro linkage, in natural societies as well as in artificial systems. Finally, we outline the possibilities of an application to the socionic multi-agent architecture SONAR. Christian von Scheve graduated in Sociology with minors in Psychology, Economics, and Political Science at the University of Hamburg, where he also worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Sociology. Currently, he is a 3rd year PhD student at the University of Hamburg. He was a Fellow of the Research Group “Emotions as Bio-Cultural Processes” at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University. In his doctoral thesis he develops an interdisciplinary approach to emotion and social structural dynamics, integrating emotion theories from the neurosciences, psychology, and the social sciences. He has published on the role of emotion in large-scale social systems, human-computer interaction, and multi-agent systems. He is co-editor of a forthcoming volume on emotion regulation. Daniel Moldt received his BSc in Computer Science/Software Engineering from the University of Birmingham (England) in 1984, graduated in Informatics at the University of Hamburg, with a minor in Economics in 1990. He received his PhD in Informatics from the University of Hamburg in 1996, where he has been a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Informatics since 1990. Daniel Moldt is also the head of the Laboratory for Agent-Oriented Systems (LAOS) of the theoretical foundations group at the Department of Informatics. His research interests focus on theoretical foundations, software engineering and distributed systems with an emphasis on agent technology, Petri nets, specification languages, intra- and inter-organizational application development, Socionics and emotion in informatics. Julia Fix is currently a PhD student at the Theoretical Foundations of Computer Science Group, Department for Informatics at the University of Hamburg. She studied Informatics and Psychology at the University of Hamburg, with an emphasis on theoretical foundations of multi-agent systems and wrote her diploma theses about emotional agent systems. Her current research interests focus on conceptual challenges and theoretical foundations of modelling emotions in multi-agent systems, emotion-based norm enforcement and maintenance, and Socionics. A further research focus are Petri nets, in particular the use of Petri-net modelling formalisms for representing different aspects of emotion in agent systems. Rolf von Lüde is a professor of Sociology at the University of Hamburg with a focus in teaching and research in Sociology of Organizations, Work and Industry since 1996. He graduated in Economics, Sociology, and Psychology, and received his doctorate in Economics and the venia legendi in Sociology from the University of Dortmund. His current research focuses on labor conditions, the organization of production, social change and the educational system, the organizational structures of university, Socionics as a new approach to distributed artificial intelligence in cooperation with computer scientists, new public management, and emotions and social structures. Rolf von Lüde is currently Head of Department of Social Sciences and Vice Dean of the School of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, University of Hamburg.     

Discussion of Different Model Approaches for the Flow Behavior of Ice

Ice of Antarctic ice shelves is assumed to behave on long-term as an incompressible viscous fluid, which is dominated on short time scales by the elastic response. Hence, a viscoelastic material model is required. The thermodynamic pressure is treated differently in elastic and viscous models. For small deformations, the elastic isometric stress for ν → 0.5 gives similar results to those solving for pressure in an incompressible laminar flow model. A viscous model, in which the thermodynamic pressure is approximated by an elastic isometric stress, can be easily extended to viscoelasticity. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Recursive Structures and Ershov's Hierarchy

Ash and Nerode [2] gave natural definability conditions under which a relation is intrinsically r. e. Here we generalize this to arbitrary levels in Ershov's hierarchy of Δ sets, giving conditions under which a relation is intrinsically α-r. e. Mathematics Subject Classification: 03C57, 03D55.     

Ferrocenyl compounds possessing protected phenol and thiophenol groups: Synthesis,X-ray structure,and in vitro biological effects against breast cancer

We have previously shown that conjugated ferrocenyl p-phenols show strong cytotoxic effects against both the hormone-dependent MCF-7 and hormone-independent MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines, possibly via metabolic quinone methide (QM) formation. To further evaluate this proposed mechanism, we have created a series of ferrocenyl prodrugs containing methyl and acetyl-protected thio- and oxo-phenols: 2-ferrocenyl-1,1-bis(4-acetoxyphenyl)-but-1-ene (5), 2-ferrocenyl-1,1-bis(4-thioacetylphenyl)-but-1-ene (6), 2-ferrocenyl-1,1-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-but-1-ene (7), and 2-ferrocenyl-1,1-bis(4-thiomethylphenyl)-but-1-ene (8), which might be activated by hydrolysis enzymes in situ. Only the acetoxy 5 displayed antiproliferative effects (IC₅₀ on MDA-MB-231 of 0.5 μM) while 6–8 act as pure estrogens (proliferative on MCF-7 and little to no effect on MDA-MB-231). The behaviour of 5 is similar to that previously found for the free phenol 2-ferrocenyl-1,1-di(4-hydroxyphenyl)-but-1-ene (2), indicating that 5 is metabolized in situ to 2, which could then undergo oxidative QM formation. The observation that the thioacetyl 6 is not cytotoxic suggests that the in situ oxidative chemistry of the putative ferrocenyl thiophenol is different from that of 2. Because p-thioquinone methides are practically unknown, the negative results for 6 further implicate the bioformation of the QM in the case of 2 and related compounds. The lack of cytotoxicity of 7 and 8 can be attributed to lack of efficient hydrolysis in situ. Estrogen receptor binding affinity studies for the compounds and the X-ray structure of 8 are also reported.     

Copulas with maximum entropy

We shall find a multi-dimensional checkerboard copula of maximum entropy that matches an observed set of grade correlation coefficients. This problem is formulated as the maximization of a concave function on a convex polytope. Under mild constraint qualifications we show that a unique solution exists in the core of the feasible region. The theory of Fenchel duality is used to reformulate the problem as an unconstrained minimization which is well solved numerically using a Newton iteration. Finally, we discuss the numerical calculations for some hypothetical examples and describe how this work can be applied to the modelling and simulation of monthly rainfall.     

Integration of Categorical Frameworks: Rule-Based Refinement and Hierarchical Composition for Components

The integration of two important categorical frameworks – namely adhesive High-Level Replacement (HLR) systems and the generic component concept– yields a categorical approach to component transformation and refinement. The generic component concept is shown to be an adhesive HLR category, so rules and transformations as well as the corresponding results are available. Moreover, the compatibility with the hierarchical component composition is provided. The extension to rule-based refinement requires additional property-preserving morphisms and yields property-preserving rules and transformations, i.e. refinements where compatibility with the hierarchical component composition again is achieved. The categorical framework is instantiated to typed algebraic high-level (AHL) nets and illustrated with an example of AHL net components.      

Local indicability and relative presentations of groups

A relative presentation is a triple where A is a group, X is a set, and R is a set of words in the free product A∗F(X) where F(X) is the free group with basis X. Under certain hypotheses on the relative presentation , we show that (1) the group presented by is locally indicable; (2) the pre-aspherical model for is aspherical; (3) the Freiheitssatz holds for . The result has applications in the computation of cohomology of groups and the field of equations over groups.     

On optimal control of capital injections by reinsurance and investments

This is a review paper on the optimal control of capital injections by reinsurance and investments. We will focus on the two most popular models for the surplus process of an insurer: a classical risk model and its diffusion approximation. Both models are modified by the possibility of reinsurance and investments into a risky or riskless asset. The insurer is allowed to change the amount to be invested and the retention level of the reinsurance continuously, i.e. we consider dynamic reinsurance and investment strategies. In addition, the cedent has to inject capital in order to keep the surplus positive. As a risk measure we choose the value of the expected discounted capital injections. The problem is to minimize the expected discounted capital injections over all admissible reinsurance and investments strategies and to find the optimal strategy if it exists. A detailed discussion of the topic can be found in my doctoral thesis “Optimal Control of Capital Injections by Reinsurance and Investments” (Eisenberg in Optimal control of capital injections by reinsurance and investments. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln, 2010), which is the Gauss prize winning paper of 2009.     

A dual approach to primal degeneracy

The Revised Primal Simplex algorithm, in its simplest form, has no defence against degeneracy. Various forms of the perturbation method are usually effective, but most offer no guarantee of avoiding all degeneracy, and can lead to numerical difficulties. This paper presents a method that avoids cycling and circling by taking a dual approach.The degenerate subproblem consists of all the original variables, but only the degenerate transformed constraints. The current primal objective, which may be mixed, is used. This subproblem may be solved using the dual simplex algorithm, starting from the current dual infeasible solution, and with a zero dual objective. If the dual algorithm terminates optimally then the whole problem is optimal (subject to primal feasibility). Otherwise the final solution provides a non-basic direction which improves the value of the mixed primal objective and moves away from the degenerate vertex. A purification algorithm then renders the solution basic and further improves the mixed objective.