The Internet and Technology Revolution has created a new business environment, one in which traditional business rules are being challenged, and even repudiated. Information Communication Technology (ICT) has made a major impact to many business sectors, ranging from retail, stock…

We study the effects of proximity in the interconnections between Internet providers participating at the three main Italian Internet Exchange Points. We find that geographical proximity plays a role in driving Internet Providers’ interconnection, positively affecting the likelihood of an…

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are merely blind search algorithms, which only make use of the relative fitness of solutions, but completely ignore the nature of the problem. Their performance can be improved by using new multirecombinative approaches, which provide a good…

Knowledge representation models are very important in the design of intelligent agents because they provide with mechanisms to manage beliefs and their dynamics. In this paper, we propose the use of AnsProlog* as a knowledge representation language, and develop a…

Following the deaths of Victoria Climbié and of Peter Connelly (Baby P) the media has raged about social work competence, the public have expressed dismay and the government has responded with proposals designed to alter practice procedures. Altering procedures gives…

Policies to avert the threat of dangerous climate change focus on stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations by drastically reducing anthropogenic emissions of carbon. Such reductions require limiting the use of fossil fuels-which supply the bulk of energy to economic activity,…

Signature schemes are fundamental cryptographic primitives, useful as a stand-alone application, and as a building block in the design of secure protocols and other cryptographic objects. In this thesis, we study both the uses that signature schemes find in protocols,…

In this work we present an approach to model an action-oriented system controlled by BDI agents using a defeasible argumentation formalism to represent its knowledge. Here, our main concern will be modelling the software agents that drive the physical robots.

The first two chapters of this thesis investigate a possibly fundamental aspect of technological progress. If knowledge accumulates as technology progresses, then successive generations of innovators may face an increasing educational burden, forcing them to spend longer periods in education…

This study presents a theoretical model for predictions of near-shore hydrodynamic characteristics and the local sediment transport rate along long, straight beaches. The wave may be periodic or random, the beach may be plane or barred, and the bed may…