Our approach for automating the negotiation of business
contracts proceeds in three broad steps. First, determine
the structure of the negotiation process by applying general
knowledge about auctions and domain-specific knowledge
about the contract subject along with preferences from po-

In this article we present a generalized dynamic argumentation framework that handles arguments expressed in an abstract language assumed to be some first order logic fragment. Once the formalism is presented, we propose a reification to the description logic ALC…

This article overviews the concepts of distributed intelligence, outlining the motivations for studying this field of research. First, common systems of distributed intelligence are classified based upon the types of interactions exhibited, since the type of interaction has relevance to…

Artificial Intelligence has long dealt with the issue of finding a suitable formalization for reasoning with incomplete and potentially inconsistent information. Defeasible argumentation [SL92,CML00,PraVre99] has proven to be a successful approach in many respects, since it naturally resembles many aspects…

In order to understand and create human-level intelligence I have developed the Polyscheme cognitive architecture to build systems that combine several representation and inference schemes when they think. Polyscheme is based on three principles. First, different (aspects of) situations that…

I propose a common framework that combines three different paradigms in machine learning: generative, discriminative and imitative learning. A generative probabilistic distribution is a principled way to model many machine learning and machine perception problems. Therein, one provides domain specific…

Chapter one is titled "Social Capital and Group Banking." Lending to the poor is costly due to high screening, monitoring, and enforcement costs. Group lending advocates believe individuals are able to select creditworthy peers, monitor the use of loan proceeds,…

Creating common ground in a community of people who do not all know each other is a chicken-and-egg problem: members do not share enough common ground to support the kinds of conversations that help build it. "Folk Computing" technology is…

The objective of the experiments described in this thesis is to perform a detailed spectroscopic study of the dynamics on the A and X state surfaces of 13C2H2 in order to further understand the acetylene - vinylidene isomerization process in…

Cartilage functions as a load bearing and friction reducing material in synovial joints and it is constantly exposed to in vivo loading which is coupled to electromechanical and physicochemical forces. The swelling pressure of cartilage originates from proteoglycans containing negatively…