The methods of differential geometry are used with the assumption that rays of light follow geodesic trajectories in a space whose metric is determined by the refraction index. Keeping this in mind, we show that these hypotheses are equivalent to…

The Workshop of Physical Agents intends to be a forum for information and experience exchange in different areas regarding the concept of agent on physical environments, especially applied to the control and coordination of autonomous systems: robots, mobile robots, industrial…

This article presents a case study in which the THOMAS architecture is applied in order to obtain a multi-agent system (MAS) that can provide recommendations and guidance in a shopping mall. THOMAS is made up of a group of related…

This paper presents a brief summary of the post-proceedings of the special session on practical applications held in the framework of IWANN 2009. The special session was supported by the THOMAS (TIN2006-14630-C03-03) project and aims at presenting the results obtained…

This paper introduces the development of an infrastructure to study highly complex systems of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) which involve a large number of users. The key ideas about the development of a multi-agent based simulation (MABS) for such purposes, Ubik,…

We argue that ethical leadership must be in line with corporate governance in general and of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who must be the starting point for the rest of the organisational members to have an ethical guideline to…

Quality management (QM) and environmental management (EM) are two business practices that may affect firm performance. These practices are being increasingly introduced into firms, which often use them jointly owing to their similarities. As a result of these similarities, their…

A new aqueous photopolymer containing the monomers acrylamide, N,N'-methylenbisacrylamide and zinc acrylate, the initiators 4,5-diiodosuccinylfluorescein (2ISF) and methylene blue (MB), and the coinitiator sodium p-toluenesulphinate is described. This formulation exhibits a clear enhancement of the high-energy sensitivity upon irradiation with…

The visual and optical anisotropies of metallic and pearlescent samples have been evaluated using a multi-gonio-spectrophotometer and by adapting a gonio-template over the instrument aperture for measuring the relative spectral reflectance factor when the sample is rotated around an axis…

Study objectives: (1) To describe the union and life cycle of family rituals, such as specific habits of sharing daily meals, special events or other family activities, and (2) to analyse the relation between the practice of family rituals and…