This paper explores the linkages between gender, local knowledge systems and agrobiodiversity for food security by using the case study of LinKS, a regional FAO project in Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Tanzania over a period of eight years and now concluded. The project aimed to raise awareness on how rural men and women use and manage agrobiodiversity, and to promote the importance of lo...

Although various location-sensing techniques and services have been developed, most of the conventional location-based services provide only static service. They do not consider user’s preference but only a current location. Considering the trajectory might help to understand the user’s intention and to provide a proper service. We propose a novel method that predicts user’s mobility to provide...

How do collective processes in decentralized, self-organizing systems respond to environmental change? What are the contrasting roles of collective structures and innovative components (variation, diversity, entropy), and how do these roles change with different rates of environmental change? To answer these questions, a simple self-organizing system is examined – a simulation of foraging for f...

In this paper, a framework for integrating environmental factors into the supplier selection process is presented. Traditionally, companies consider factors like quality, flexibility, etc. when evaluating supplier performance. However, environmental pressure is increasing, resulting in many companies (mainly large companies) beginning to consider environmental issues and the measurement of thei...

Flocks of brown-headed cowbirds, Molothrus ater, selforganize social environments, which have strong impacts on social learning and behavior. To understand the rules underlying self-organization of the social environment, I develop an agent-based model of cowbird social association and evolve it to match observed patterns of association measured from real birds. The behavioral rules evolved in ...

Public-private service networks (PPSN) consist of social and technology components. Development of PPSN is ill-understood as these are dependent on a complex mix of interactions among stakeholders and their technologies and is influenced by contemporary developments. The aim of this paper is to advance our understanding of PPSN by modeling its evolution. Agent-based modeling (ABM) is used to un...

The adoption of GPS and other location defining technologies has dramatically increased the importance of what are commonly referred to as location-based services. Many companies have sought to exploit these technologies to generate revenue, with varying degrees of success. This paper explores a range of current location-based services in an attempt to determine some of the key factors through ...

Since Cohen and Levinthal (1989) emphasized the role of absorptive capacity in assimilating and applying new knowledge, a lot of research on the determinants of this capacity has been done. Among others, it was confirmed that proximity among cooperation partners (in terms of organizational and cognitive distance) has an inverted ‘U’–shaped relation with the value of learning the partners obtain...

A key challenge in Grid Computing is the ability to create reliable and scalable virtual organisations (VOs) which operate in an open, dynamic and competitive environment. In response, in the CONOISE-G project, we are developing an infrastructure to support robust and resilient virtual organisation formation and operation. Specifically, CONOISE-G provides mechanisms to assure effective operatio...

To be reliable in an uncertain and changing environments, several companies are stressing flexibility and agility in order to respond effectively, to the unique needs of customers and market. We propose a multiagent framework, which represents trade-offs between the different possible values of the negotiation issues with a corresponding coordination mechanism dedicated to dynamic supply chain ...