Search results for "Deadlock"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Cross inhibition improves activity selection when switching incurs time costs
2015
Abstract We consider a behavioural model of an animal choosing between two activities, based on positive feedback, and examine the effect of introducing cross inhibition between the motivations for the two activities. While cross-inhibition has previously been included in models of decision making, the question of what benefit it may provide to an animal’s activity selection behaviour has not previously been studied. In neuroscience and in collective behaviour cross-inhibition, and other equivalent means of coupling evidence-accumulating pathways, have been shown to approximate statistically-optimal decision-making and to adaptively break deadlock, thereby improving decision performance. Sw…
Bio-inspired evolutionary dynamics on complex networks under uncertain cross-inhibitory signals
2019
Given a large population of agents, each agent has three possiblechoices between option 1 or 2 or no option. The two options are equally favorable and the population has to reach consensus on one of the two options quickly and in a distributed way. The more popular an option is, the more likely it is to be chosen by uncommitted agents. Agents committed to one option can be attracted by those committed to the other option through a cross-inhibitory signal. This model originates in the context of honeybee swarms, and we generalize it to duopolistic competition and opinion dynamics. The contributions of this work include (i) the formulation of a model to explain the behavioral traits of the ho…
Progress Checking for Dummies
2018
Verification of progress properties is both conceptually and technically significantly more difficult than verification of safety and deadlock properties. In this study we focus on the conceptual side. We make a simple modification to a well-known model to demonstrate that it passes progress verification although the resulting model is intuitively badly incorrect. Then we point out that the error can be caught easily by adding a termination branch to the system. We compare the use of termination branches to the established method of addressing the same need, that is, weak fairness. Then we discuss another problem that may cause failure of catching progress errors even with weak fairness. Fi…
Distributed Multi-level Motion Planning for Autonomous Vehicles in Large Scale Industrial Environments
2013
In this paper we propose a distributed coordination algorithm for safe and efficient traffic management of heterogeneous robotic agents, moving within dynamic large scale industrial environments. The algorithm consists of a distributed resource--sharing protocol involving a re--planning strategy. Once every agent is assigned with a desired motion path, the algorithm ensures ordered traffic flows of agents, that avoid inter--robot collision and system deadlock (stalls). The algorithm allows multi--level representation of the environment, i.e. large or complex rooms may be seen as a unique resource with given capacity at convenience, which makes the approach appealing for complex industrial e…
Private–Public Partnerships as Strategic Alliances
2008
A new approach to the design of concession contracts of port infrastructures that adapts some of the methods used in the design and start-up of strategic alliances is presented. From a cost–benefit analysis of the project, based on the industry benchmarks, a revenue-sharing model dependent on the investment interest and the risk undertaken or transferred by each partner was formulated. This model aids in the calculation of the amount of the canons (lease and royalty charges) that should be stated in the contract. Also, to avoid complicated renegotiations and undesired deadlock situations, methods are presented for the dynamic actualization of such canons according to changes that might occ…
Circumventing deadlock through venue-shopping: Why there is more than just talk in US immigration politics in times of economic crisis
2016
This article addresses the question of how the financial and economic crisis that hit the US in the late 2000s impacted immigration policies. We find that the crisis has not significantly changed dynamics. Instead, it has highlighted and aggravated persisting trends. Drawing on Kingdon’s multiple streams model and combining it with the notion of two-level games, we find that while the policy stream and the problem stream would call for both restrictive and liberalising changes, the political stream impedes change: The fact that Congress has been divided for a long time over Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) impedes any restrictive or liberalising changes. With problems resulting from c…
Deadlock in corporate governance: Finding a common strategy for private telephone companies, 1978–1998
2017
This paper looks at how a group of small, incumbent private telephone companies complied with the international convergence of market structures. The existing research has mainly focused on large national incumbents, assuming a transition to multinational enterprise. This development process is often associated with privatisation policies and various institutional factors. The article tests these assumptions using a case study of the network of Finnish local telephone companies. It looks at the development of an interfirm network, its perspectives on the different phases of the deregulation process, and how the network tried to regenerate itself but failed to form a unified corporate struct…
Rural Population in Romania. Development and Tendencies (2000 – 2010)
2013
Abstract Demography is among the top factors which exert an undeniable influence upon the economic environment. Therefore, the populace - through its dynamics and characteristics - leaves an imprint upon the social and economic landscape, being a keen barometer and contributing to economic progress. The relationship demography-economy is extremely tight, since the populace is perceived as being a true representation of what characterizes our economy. Romania originated as a country with an agriculture-based economy – a fact which translated in its major rural population; nowadays, due to a sum of various developments, the rural populace is undergoing a decreasing trend. The situation is all…