Convergence and Knowledge Processing in Multi-Agent Systems

1. Introduction
1.1 Background to the research
1.2 Approach
1.3 Contributions
1.4 Reader's guide to the book 2. Research Issues
2.1 Multi-Agent Systems
2.2 Agent-Based Modelling
2.3 An Ecosystem Perspective of Multi-Agent Systems
2.4 Convergence Issues
2.5 Interaction and Knowledge Exchange 3. Stability of Multi-Agent Systems
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Background
3.3 Stability in Games
3.4 Experiments
3.5 Conclusion 4. The Emergence of Knowledge Exchange
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Digital Business Ecosystems
4.3 Background
4.4 An agent-based model of the DBE
4.5 Analysis of the model
4.6 Concluding remarks 5. Collaborative Query Expansion
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Term Value
5.3 Implementation
5.4 Evaluation
5.5 Introducing User Collaboration for Query Expansion
5.6 Limitations and Future Work
5.7 Conclusion 6. Micro-economic Control of Distributed Intelligent Personal Assistants
6.1 Stable Strategies
6.2 Network of Intelligent Personal Assistants
6.3 Finding a Stable Strategy
6.4 Conclusion 7. Conclusions and Future Work
7.1 Contributions
7.2 Future Directions
7.3 Concluding Remarks Appendices
A. The EEII project
B. Statistical Analysis
C. Methodology: Evolutionary Algorithms References