<strong>New Delhi:</strong> Delhi Government's Odd-Even scheme has come into effect from today and will continue till November 15. In a bid to control the deteriorating air quality in the national capital, this is the third Odd-Even car rationing scheme that has kicked off from Monday. A flagship scheme of the

New Delhi: Two days after lawyers and police engaged in a violent clash at the Tis Hazari Court complex, an on-duty policeman was seen assaulted by advocates purportedly outside Saket Court on Monday. A video that’s gone viral on social media showed lawyers stopping a policeman travelling on a

SD Mishra, DCP (Rohini): Bullets fired in air outside BJP MP Hans Raj Hans' Rohini office. The person has been identified. Further investigation underway. Hans Raj Hans is an Indian singer turned politician. He is a member of Bharatiya Janata Party and a recipient of the civilian honour of Padma

<b>New Delhi:</b> NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday today met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence here amidst an impasse between the BJP and its ally the Shiv Sena on the government formation in Maharashtra. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Pawar reiterated that the "mandate to NCP given

The BCCI has already stopped DDCA's annual grant and there has been a discussion to put an ad-hoc body in place during a teleconference between Apex Council members a couple of days back.

Umar Akmal was banned from all forms of cricket for three years by the PCB after pleading guilty to failing to report corrupt approaches.

India will tour Australia later this year for a Test series.

David Warner thinks that the T20 World Cup might not take place this year due to the coronavirus threat.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries on Friday announced a Rs 11,367-crore stake sale in its digital unit Jio Platforms, a third deal in little over two weeks that will inject a combined...

The May 5-7 poll median of more than 40 economists predicted India's annual consumer price inflation fell to 5.68% in April from March's 5.91%.

Surge in Reliance Industries shares led to the company's market capitalization surpassing Rs 10 lakh crore mark for the second time.

The new recharge plans launched by Reliance Jio offer 33 per cent more value over competition's annual Rs 2,399 plan, Reliance Jio said.

Consumption of diesel was down about 55.6 per cent year-over-year at 3.25 million tonnes. Sales of petrol dropped by 60.6 per cent from a year earlier to 0.97 million tonnes.

On Friday, Reliance Industries announced a $1.5 billion stake sale in Jio to Vista Equity Partners, the third deal in just over two weeks.

About 95 percent of watermelon is just water, which helps nourish your skin and make it radiant from within

The Bisi Bele Bath is one dish that deserves this spotlight. 'Bele' refers to lentil and this flavourful dish combines rice, lentils and a medley of fragrant spices that is usually drenched in ghee.

Tangy and pulpy tomatoes make for an incredible addition to a heart-healthy diet. Here's how drinking home-made, fresh tomato juice may help.

"Thank you, parents, for being the best kind of role models. We are because of you," posted Sonam

Ira and Hazel have worked together in the former's directorial debut Medea

Kajol and Ajay Devgn met on the sets of Hulchul and later got married in the year 1999

"This was a learning experience for me," said Salman Khan

"She is a new mom and a very fine one too," wrote Arjun Rampal

The Indian Embassy here has started to contact the Indian nationals who wish to return home once the international travel lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic is lifted.

NASA's first Mars helicopter has a name now and the credit goes to 17-year-old Indian-origin girl Vaneeza Rupani.

Venezuela has charged two former US soldiers with "terrorism" and "conspiracy" for allegedly taking part in a failed invasion bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro, the attorney general said on...

Queen Elizabeth II on Friday invoked the wartime spirit to "never despair" as Britain marked 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe under the shadow of coronavirus.

Canadian singer Grimes and Tesla founder Elon Musk seem to disagree on how to pronounce the name of their newborn son, X AE A-12.

Bihar Water Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha hitout at the Delhi government after it claimed reimbursement over train fares paid for return of migrants stranded in the national capital amid the coronavirus...

Mi 10 5G has been officially launched in India. The new Mi smartphone by Xiaomi is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC and is available with up to 256GB of onboard storage.

Amid a spurt in coronavirus cases in the national capital, the Delhi government has roped in three more private hospitals with a total of 150 beds to treat COVID-19 patients.

The Delhi High Court has asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to ensure that dispensation of medicines from its pharmacy, which was functioning in limited capacity due to the...

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today welcomed the Centre's decision to borrow additional 4.2 lakh crore and said it should be used to provide relief to the poor and re-start the economy.

The Congress on Saturday said there was "confusion" within the central government in its fight against the novel coronavirus and wondered how the country will tackle the pandemic if officials...

The Telangana Police will soon rollout an Artificial Intelligence (AI)- based system through CCTVs to check face mask norm violations.

An Air India flight carrying 129 Indian nationals from Dhaka, Bangladesh, landed at Delhi airport today as part of Vande Bharat Mission to bring back stranded Indians from different countries.

With India exiting its lockdown, where does it stand in its efforts to check coronavirus? In a global townhall with some of the world's biggest experts, NDTV's Dr Prannoy Roy talks to Economist...

Tamil Nadu has announced major relaxations in coronavirus lockdown guidelines starting Monday, including re-opening of standalone and neighbourhood shops and private companies.

Home Minister Amit Shah today tweeted to say he is healthy and not suffering from any disease, dismissing recent speculations on social media about his health.

The Delaware Division of Libraries and Delaware Department of Labor (DOL) rolled out the partnership in February 2019 to be able to reach out to more residents who may be in need of services but can’t travel to Department of Labor locations. With the many computers available at libraries, a staff member can offer residents […]

WILMINGTON – Gov. John Carney signed a bill Tuesday that will clarify and enforce workplace fraud rules and create a new registry to oversee contractor activity in the First State. Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 95 passed the Delaware General Assembly earlier this year with nearly unanimous support and incorporates recommendations from a 2018 […]

Delaware One Stop is a convenient, centralized transactional platform created to help business owners work through the necessary steps to begin operation in Delaware.

WILMINGTON, DE – The Delaware Department of Labor will be celebrating the Fifth Annual National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) with three open house events, one in each county throughout the state from 6 – 7 pm to showcase the value of apprenticeship in the community. Secretary Cerron Cade from The Delaware Department of Labor will be […]

Review of: Modelling Transitions: Virtues, Vices, Visions of the Future by Moallemi, Enayat A. and de Haan, Fjalar J. (Eds.), reviewed by Cesar Garcia-Diaz

Review of: Multi-Agent-Based Simulation XIX. 19th International Workshop, MABS 2018, Stockholm, Sweden, July 14, 2018, Revised Selected Papers by Davidsson, Paul, Verhagen, Harko (Eds.), reviewed by Patrycja Antosz

J Jumadi, Nick Malleson, Steve Carver and Duncan Quincey: Managing disasters caused by natural events, especially volcanic crises, requires a range of approaches, including risk modelling and analysis. Risk modelling is commonly conducted at the community/regional scale using GIS. However, people and objects move in response to a crisis, so static approaches cannot capture the dynamics of the risk properly, as they do not accommodate objects’ movements within time and space. The emergence of Agent-Based Modelling makes it possible to model the risk at an individual level as it evolves over space and time. We propose a new approach of Spatio-Temporal Dynamics Model of Risk (STDMR) by integrating multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) within a georeferenced agent-based model, using Mt. Merapi, Indonesia, as a case study. The model makes it possible to simulate the spatio-temporal dynamics of those at risk during a volcanic crisis. Importantly, individual vulnerability is heterogeneous and depends on the characteristics of the individuals concerned. The risk for the individuals is dynamic and changes along with the hazard and their location. The model is able to highlight a small number of high-risk spatio-temporal positions where, due to the behaviour of individuals who are evacuating the volcano and the dynamics of the hazard itself, the overall risk in those times and places is extremely high. These outcomes are extremely relevant for the stakeholders, and the work of coupling an ABM, MCE, and dynamic volcanic hazard is both novel and contextually relevant.

Qing Xu, Sylvie Huet, Eric Perret and Guillaume Deffuant: The drivers of conversion to organic farming, which is still a residual choice in agriculture, are poorly understood. Many scholars argue that farm characteristics can determine this choice but do not exclude the role of social dynamics. To study this issue, we developed an agent-based model in which agents' decisions to shift to organic farming are based on a comparison between satisfaction with the current situation and potential satisfaction with an alternative farming strategy. A farmer agent’s satisfaction is modelled using the Theory of Reasoned Action. This makes it necessary to compare an agent's productions over time with those of other agents to whom the former attributes considerable credibility (“important others”). Moreover, farmers make technical changes that affect their productions by imitating other credible farmers. While we first used this model to examine simple and abstract farm populations, here we also adapted it for use with data from an Agricultural Census concerning the farm characteristics of dairy farming in 27 French “cantons”. Based on domain expertise, data and previous research, we propose certain laws for modelling the impact of conversion on the farm production of milk and the environment. The simulations with “real” populations of farms confirm the important impact of farm characteristics. However, our results also suggest a complex impact of social dynamics that can favour or impede the diffusion of organic farming through dynamic implicit networks of similarity and credibility. We confirm the great importance of demographic changes in farm characteristics.

Alireza Mansouri and Fattaneh Taghiyareh: Human interactions and opinion exchanges lead to social opinion dynamics, which is well described by opinion formation models. In these models, a random parameter is usually considered as the system noise, indicating the individual's inexplicable opinion changes. This noise could be an indicator of any other influential factors, such as public media, affects, and emotions. We study phase transitions, changes from one social phase to another, for various noise levels in a discrete opinion formation model based on the social impact theory with a scale-free random network as its interaction network topology. We also generate another similar model using the concept of social power based on the agents' node degrees in the interaction network as an estimation for their persuasiveness and supportiveness strengths and compare both models from phase transition viewpoint. We show by agent-based simulation and analytical considerations how opinion phases, including majority and non-majority, are formed in terms of the initial population of agents in opinion groups and noise levels. Two factors affect the system phase in equilibrium when the noise level increases: breaking up more segregated groups and dominance of stochastic behavior of the agents on their deterministic behavior. In the high enough noise levels, the system reaches a non-majority phase in equilibrium, regardless of the initial combination of opinion groups. In relatively low noise levels, the original model and the model whose agents' strengths are proportional to their centrality have different behaviors. The presence of a few high-connected influential leaders in the latter model consequences a different behavior in reaching equilibrium phase and different thresholds of noise levels for phase transitions.

Bruno Pietzsch, Sebastian Fiedler, Kai G. Mertens, Markus Richter, Cédric Scherer, Kirana Widyastuti, Marie-Christin Wimmler, Liubov Zakharova and Uta Berger: The recent advancement of agent-based modeling is characterized by higher demands on the parameterization, evaluation and documentation of these computationally expensive models. Accordingly, there is also a growing request for "easy to go" applications just mimicking the input-output behavior of such models. Metamodels are being increasingly used for these tasks. In this paper, we provide an overview of common metamodel types and the purposes of their usage in an agent-based modeling context. To guide modelers in the selection and application of metamodels for their own needs, we further assessed their implementation effort and performance. We performed a literature research in January 2019 using four different databases. Five different terms paraphrasing metamodels (approximation, emulator, meta-model, metamodel and surrogate) were used to capture the whole range of relevant literature in all disciplines. All metamodel applications found were then categorized into specific metamodel types and rated by different junior and senior researches from varying disciplines (including forest sciences, landscape ecology, or economics) regarding the implementation effort and performance. Specifically, we captured the metamodel performance according to (i) the consideration of uncertainties, (ii) the suitability assessment provided by the authors for the particular purpose, and (iii) the number of valuation criteria provided for suitability assessment. We selected 40 distinct metamodel applications from studies published in peer-reviewed journals from 2005 to 2019. These were used for the sensitivity analysis, calibration and upscaling of agent-based models, as well to mimic their prediction for different scenarios. This review provides information about the most applicable metamodel types for each purpose and forms a first guidance for the implementation and validation of metamodels for agent-based models.

Katarzyna Growiec, Jakub Growiec and Bogumił Kamiński: We study the impact of endogenous creation and destruction of social ties in an artificial society on aggregate outcomes such as generalized trust, willingness to cooperate, social utility and economic performance. To this end we put forward a computational multi-agent model where agents of overlapping generations interact in a dynamically evolving social network. In the model, four distinct dimensions of individuals’ social capital: degree, centrality, heterophilous and homophilous interactions, determine their generalized trust and willingness to cooperate, altogether helping them achieve certain levels of social utility (i.e., utility from social contacts) and economic performance. We find that the stationary state of the simulated social network exhibits realistic small-world topology. We also observe that societies whose social networks are relatively frequently reconfigured, display relatively higher generalized trust, willingness to cooperate, and economic performance – at the cost of lower social utility. Similar outcomes are found for societies where social tie dissolution is relatively weakly linked to family closeness.

Szymon Talaga and Andrzej Nowak: Real-world social networks often exhibit high levels of clustering, positive degree assortativity, short average path lengths (small-world property) and right-skewed but rarely power law degree distributions. On the other hand homophily, defined as the propensity of similar agents to connect to each other, is one of the most fundamental social processes observed in many human and animal societies. In this paper we examine the extent to which homophily is sufficient to produce the typical structural properties of social networks. To do so, we conduct a simulation study based on the Social Distance Attachment (SDA) model, a particular kind of Random Geometric Graph (RGG), in which nodes are embedded in a social space and connection probabilities depend functionally on distances between nodes. We derive the form of the model from first principles based on existing analytical results and argue that the mathematical construction of RGGs corresponds directly to the homophily principle, so they provide a good model for it. We find that homophily, especially when combined with a random edge rewiring, is sufficient to reproduce many of the characteristic features of social networks. Additionally, we devise a hybrid model combining SDA with the configuration model that allows generating homophilic networks with arbitrary degree sequences and we use it to study interactions of homophily with processes imposing constraints on degree distributions. We show that the effects of homophily on clustering are robust with respect to distribution constraints, while degree assortativity can be highly dependent on the particular kind of enforced degree sequence.