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252
Wrapper Induction for Information Extraction
, 1997
"... The Internet presents numerous sources of useful information---telephone directories, product catalogs, stock quotes, weather forecasts, etc. Recently, many systems have been built that automatically gather and manipulate such information on a user's behalf. However, these resources are usually ..."
Abstract
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Cited by 624 (30 self)
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The Internet presents numerous sources of useful information---telephone directories, product catalogs, stock quotes, weather forecasts, etc. Recently, many systems have been built that automatically gather and manipulate such information on a user's behalf. However, these resources are usually formatted for use by people (e.g., the relevant content is embedded in HTML pages), so extracting their content is difficult. Wrappers are often used for this purpose. A wrapper is a procedure for extracting a particular resource's content. Unfortunately, hand-coding wrappers is tedious. We introduce wrapper induction, a technique for automatically constructing wrappers. Our techniques can be described in terms of three main contributions. First, we pose the problem of wrapper construction as one of inductive learn...
A Roadmap of Agent Research and Development
- INT JOURNAL OF AUTONOMOUS AGENTS AND MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS
, 1998
"... This paper provides an overview of research and development activities in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. It aims to identify key concepts and applications, and to indicate how they relate to one-another. Some historical context to the field of agent-based computing is give ..."
Abstract
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Cited by 511 (8 self)
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This paper provides an overview of research and development activities in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. It aims to identify key concepts and applications, and to indicate how they relate to one-another. Some historical context to the field of agent-based computing is given, and contemporary research directions are presented. Finally, a range of open issues and future challenges are highlighted.
Methods for Task Allocation Via Agent Coalition Formation
, 1998
"... Task execution in multi-agent environments may require cooperation among agents. Given a set of agents and a set of tasks which they have to satisfy, we consider situations where each task should be attached to a group of agents that will perform the task. Task allocation to groups of agents is nece ..."
Abstract
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Cited by 364 (21 self)
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Task execution in multi-agent environments may require cooperation among agents. Given a set of agents and a set of tasks which they have to satisfy, we consider situations where each task should be attached to a group of agents that will perform the task. Task allocation to groups of agents is necessary when tasks cannot be performed by a single agent. However it may also be beneficial when groups perform more efficiently with respect to the single agents' performance. In this paper we present several solutions to the problem of task allocation among autonomous agents, and suggest that the agents form coalitions in order to perform tasks or improve the efficiency of their performance. We present efficient distributed algorithms with low ratio bounds and with low computational complexities. These properties are proven theoretically and supported by simulations and an implementation in an agent system. Our methods are based on both the algorithmic aspects of combinatorics and approximat...
Dynamic Service Matchmaking Among Agents in Open Information Environments
- SIGMOD Record
, 1999
"... The amount of services and deployed software agents in the most famous offspring of the Internet, the World Wide Web, is exponentially increasing. In addition, the Internet is an open environment, where information sources, communication links and agents themselves may appear and disappear unpredict ..."
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Cited by 164 (21 self)
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The amount of services and deployed software agents in the most famous offspring of the Internet, the World Wide Web, is exponentially increasing. In addition, the Internet is an open environment, where information sources, communication links and agents themselves may appear and disappear unpredictably.Thus, an effective, automated search and selection of relevant services or agents is essential for human users and agents as well. We distinguish three general agent categories in the Cyberspace, serviceproviders, servicerequester, and middle agents. Service providers provide some type of service, such as finding information, or performing some particular domain specific problem solving. Requester agents need provider agents to perform some service for them. Agents that help locate others are called middle agents [2]. Matchmaking is the process of finding an appropriate provider for a requester through a middl...
LARKS: Dynamic Matchmaking Among Heterogeneous Software Agents in Cyberspace
- IN CYBERSPACE. AUTONOMOUS AGENTS AND MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS
, 2002
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DAML-S: Web Service Description for the Semantic Web
, 2002
"... In this paper we present DAML-S, a DAML+OIL ontology for describing the properties and capabilities of Web Services. Web Services -- Web-accessible programs and devices -- are garnering a great deal of interest from industry, and standards are emerging for low-level descriptions of Web Services. ..."
Abstract
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Cited by 122 (7 self)
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In this paper we present DAML-S, a DAML+OIL ontology for describing the properties and capabilities of Web Services. Web Services -- Web-accessible programs and devices -- are garnering a great deal of interest from industry, and standards are emerging for low-level descriptions of Web Services. DAML-S complements this effort by providing Web Service descriptions at the application layer, describing what a service can do, and not just how it does it. In this paper we describe three aspects of our ontology: the service profile, the process model, and the service grounding. The paper focuses on the grounding, which connects our ontology with low-level XML-based descriptions of Web Services.
Dialogue frames in agent communication
- In Proc. of the 3rd Int. Conf. on MAS
, 1998
"... Sophisticated models of inter-agent communication are making increasing use of intuitive notions of persuasion and negotiation. In this paper, a formal characterisation is provided which not only clearly distinguishes persuasion from negotiation, but also introduces three other dialogue types, and s ..."
Abstract
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Cited by 112 (14 self)
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Sophisticated models of inter-agent communication are making increasing use of intuitive notions of persuasion and negotiation. In this paper, a formal characterisation is provided which not only clearly distinguishes persuasion from negotiation, but also introduces three other dialogue types, and sets all five in a coherent framework. The notion of a dialogue frame is introduced, and is used to explore the dialogue typology and one of its important features, the concept of functional embedding. The approach offers a number of substantial benefits, including (i) the provision of definitions for classes of communicative encounters, (ii) improvements in expressive capability, (iii) facilitating comparison between diverse multi-agent research, and in some cases, (iv) reducing computational cost.
Toward Autonomic Web Services Trust and Selection
, 2004
"... Emerging Web services standards enable the development of large-scale applications in open environments. In particular, they enable services to be dynamically bound. However, current techniques fail to address the critical problem of selecting the right service instances. Service selection should be ..."
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Cited by 107 (3 self)
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Emerging Web services standards enable the development of large-scale applications in open environments. In particular, they enable services to be dynamically bound. However, current techniques fail to address the critical problem of selecting the right service instances. Service selection should be determined based on user preferences and business policies, and consider the trustworthiness of service instances. We propose a multiagent approach that naturally provides a solution to the selection problem. This approach is based on an architecture and programming model in which agents represent applications and services. The agents support considerations of semantics and quality of service (QoS). They interact and share information, in essence creating an ecosystem of collaborative service providers and consumers. Consequently, our approach enables applications to be dynamically configured at runtime in a manner that continually adapts to the preferences of the participants. Our agents are designed using decision theory and use ontologies. We evaluate our approach through simulation experiments.
Intelligent adaptive information agents
- J. Intell. Inf. Syst
, 1997
"... Adaptation in open, multi-agent information gathering systems is important for several reasons. These reasons include the inability to accurately predict future problem-solving workloads, future changes in existing information requests, future failures and additions of agents and data supply resourc ..."
Abstract
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Cited by 104 (22 self)
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Adaptation in open, multi-agent information gathering systems is important for several reasons. These reasons include the inability to accurately predict future problem-solving workloads, future changes in existing information requests, future failures and additions of agents and data supply resources, and other future task environment characteristic changes that require system reorganization. We are developing a multi-agent financial portfolio management system that must deal with all of these problems. This paper will briefly describe our approaches and solutions at several different levels within the agents: adaptation at the organizational, planning, scheduling, and execution levels. We discuss our solution for execution-level adaptation in detail, and present empirical evidence backing up the theory behind the solution. 1
A Survey of Multi-Agent Organizational Paradigms
- The Knowledge Engineering Review
, 2005
"... Many researchers have demonstrated that the organizational design employed by a system can have a significant, quantitative effect on its performance characteristics. A range of organizational strategies have emerged from this line of research, each with different strengths and weaknesses. In this a ..."
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Cited by 103 (2 self)
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Many researchers have demonstrated that the organizational design employed by a system can have a significant, quantitative effect on its performance characteristics. A range of organizational strategies have emerged from this line of research, each with different strengths and weaknesses. In this article we present a survey of the major organizational paradigms used in multi-agent systems. These include hierarchies, holarchies, coalitions, teams, congregations, societies, federations, and matrix organizations. We will provide a description of each, discuss their costs and benefits, and provide examples of how they may be instantiated and maintained. 1
