http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411 fr http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4641 A class of stochastic antagonistic positional games for Markov decision processes with average and expected total discounted costs optimization criteria are formu lated and studied. Saddle point conditions in the considered class of games that extend saddle point conditions for deterministic parity games are derived. Further more algorithms for determining the optimal stationary strategies of the players are proposed and grounded Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4641 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4665 Science attempts to understand life systems. While physical systems are signified by status, life systems are evidenced by function and organ. As anticipatory systems their behaviour relies on embodied memories of their past and probable future. Complexity and semiosis act as drivers of evolution; anticipation as constituting principle of life systems. Complexity implies unfolding and re-enfolding guiding differentiation and growth. Semiosis generates intent and meaning ensuring viable simplicity. Interacting, they open potentiality and fields of probability for development. The dynamic entailment of complexity and meaning structures all life systems up to mental constructs. - An overarching concept embraces the pattems of life. It sheds light on the fundamental changes concerning life conditions in society and ecology. Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4665 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4442 Attractive quality is an emergent and increasingly important property of all the technical products, devices, and services we are using in our daily lives. Timely and relevant technical information disseminated through an effective technical communication system is a crucial important component in building such quality. Parallel to that development, so called social media have lately become an integrated part of many peoples' e-lives. A relatively new phenomenon is that social media are also applied for technical communication. It is concluded that business firms that are successful in mastering social media for technical communication may gain considerable competitive advantages. An anticipatory approach will help in reaching that goal. Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4442 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4707 In this paper we will discuss security in functional regions that are divided between two or more nations. Awareness and preparation requires some sort of warning mechanism making it possible for the people in the region to become aware and to prepare themselves for upcoming emergency situations. As both the disaster indicators and the crisis to come are both fuzzy and unknown, we will speak about Soft Early Waming Systems (SEWS). In SEWS each individual living in a region will act as a networked human anticipatory emergency sensor and actor. Our conception of such a regional security SEWS is given in the form of an idealised design called the netAgora portal. After discussing the broad lines of the netAgora design this paper will be focusing on the key role anticipatory modelling and simulation may play in a tool for developing a SEWS capacity for handling transnational complex emergencies and disasters. Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4707 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4455 Verhulst logistic curve either grows OR decays, depending on the growth rate param eter sign. A similar situation is found in the Gompertz law about human mortality. It is aimed to encompass into ONE simple differential equation the growth AND decay features of, e.g., population sizes, or numbers. Previous generalizations of Verhulst or Gompertz functions are recalled. It is shown that drastic growth or decay jumps or turnovers can be readily described through drastic changes in values of the growth or decay rate. However smoother descriptions can be found if the growth or decay rate is modified in order to take into account some time or size dependence. Similar arguments can be carried through, but not so easily, for the so called carrying capacity, indeed leading to more elaborate algebraic work. Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4455 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4609 In this paper, I will argue with Ernst Cassirer that anticipation plays an essential part in the constitution of time, as seen from a transcendental perspective. Time is, as any transcendental concept, regarded as basically relational and subjective and only in a derivative way objective and indifferent to us. This entails that memory is prior to history, and that anticipation is prior to prediction. In this paper, I will give some examples in order to argue for this point. Furthernore, I will also argue, again with Cassirer and contra Henri Bergson, that time should be seen as a functional unity, and not as a collection of three different things-in-themselves (past, present and future). Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4609 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4612 The paper addresses an important part of enterprise activity, which is the warranty claims control and prediction. Warranty claims have a significant impact on the financial aspect of the company, because of the funds that need to be reserved for repair of the defected products within the warranty period. The failure process is considered as a combination of market absorption and failure process. Prediction and determination of terminal call rate (TCR) is important for monitoring of the production system efficiency. Several models to predict TCR have been analyzed, such as Weibull model and the Markov Modulated Fluid model (MMFM). The models were validated against two types of data: a) from sales to failure, and b) from production to failure. The results show that MMFM model provides promising prediction results. Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4612 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4618 This paper attempts to follow the thread formed by anticipation in Kant's general philosophy, and in particular in his theoretical philosophy, in order to tease out the precise meaning of the notion. Particular attention is given to the finiteness of the subject, the notion of teleology, Kant's peculiar account of pure interest and the way in which these notions are interwoven. This serves to clarify the peculiar status of anticipation as a primarily subjective activity, based on finiteness and subjective engagement. Furthermore, an attempt is made to gain insight in the way a subject capable of anticipation is structured and the way it is related to its own structure. Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4618 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4619 Biologists appeal to "functional explanation" as an ubiquitous explanatory strategy for understanding anticipation to environmental demands. However, functional explanation remains one of the most controversial issues in philosophy of biology : two main philosophical approaches address biological functions from disparate views. In this paper, I sketch out how neither etiological approaches nor systemic approaches pay enough attention to functional explanation as used in biological practice. I suggest that a detailed comparison of mechanisms in both accounts may be fruitful in identifying common problems and suitable solutions. Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4619 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4622 To route the rescue service, the police and the ambulance during an emergency event, the command and control units need information about accessibility. When two countries are involved in the rescue work there is also a possibility to send rescue help from either country, which complicates the situation but of course gives a great opportunity. Good predictions for when rescue service are to appear at the scene of the emergency and from where to send them are of great importance. Different actions are to be taken due to the waiting time. Accessibility is a complex term which is further elaborated and conceptualized in the paper. The paper also presents tentative results for how to conceptualize and simulate accessibility in this crisis management setting. The results are based on empirical data from the region involved in the GSS project. Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/1373-5411/index.php?id=4622