Billionaire Mukesh Ambani just sealed three deals in as many weeks to raise a combined $8 billion, including from Facebook Inc.

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.

Shilpa Shetty and her son Viaan Raj Kundra tried their hand at baking some delicious peanut butter-choco-oat cookies at home since Viaan is a passionate baker.

This Ramadan, try this incredibly delicious paratha recipe for iftar that will leave you drooling for more.

If you notice, pumpkin has several appetising sweet and savoury dishes in the western countries in form of salad, soup and pies. Keeping this in mind, we bring you a recipe that will make the simple...

A milkman has come up with a unique way to ensure that the milk he delivers is contact-free and also forces customers to maintain the necessary distance.

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.

If you are finding those toasts, butter and half fried eggs a tad too monotonous, you can think of adding this delicious smoothie to the fare.

An Indian-origin psychiatrist in the US has to pay USD 1,45,000 as settlement to resolve allegations that he overprescribed opioids to his patients outside the usual course of his professional...

The US is working to temporarily ban the issuance of some work-based visas like H-1B, popular among highly-skilled Indian IT professionals, as well as students visas and work authorisation that...

Researchers in Hong Kong have found that patients suffering milder illness caused by the new coronavirus recover more quickly if they are treated with a three-drug antiviral cocktail soon after...

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.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said that he will soon make an announcement on the World Health Organisation, which he alleged has become a puppet of China.

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.

China will reform its disease prevention and control system to address weaknesses exposed by the coronavirus outbreak, a senior health official said on Saturday.

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

As the government says India has been able to prevent community transmission of the coronavirus, there are concerns about at least three different clusters of cases in Delhi, in which the primary...

Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi has been admitted to a hospital in Raipurafter he suffered a cardiac arrest at his home this afternoon. His condition is said to be "serious" and is on...

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

Today from 3pm - 6pm: Free, family-oriented career fair to expose middle school students, adults to careers in construction industry

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

Review of: How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions by Centola, Damon, reviewed by Srebrenka Letina

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.

Victorien Barbet, Juliette Rouchier, Noé Guiraud and Vincent Laperrière: We present a model showing the evolution of an organization of agents who discuss democratically about good practices. This model feeds on a field study we did for about twelve years in France where we followed NPOs, called AMAP, and observed their construction through time at the regional and national level. Most of the hypothesis we make are here either based on the literature on opinion diffusion or on the results of our field study. By defining dynamics where agents influence each other, make collective decision at the group level, and decide to stay in or leave their respective groups, we analyse the effect of different forms of vertical communication that is meant to spread good practices within the organization. Our main indicators of the good functioning of the democratic dynamics are stability and representativeness. We show that if communication about norms is well designed, it has a positive impact on both stability and representativeness. Interestingly the effect of communication increases with the number of dimensions discussed in the groups. Communication about norms is thus a valuable tool to use in groups that wish to improve their democratic practices without jeopardizing stability.

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.

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.

Myong-Hun Chang and Joseph Harrington: The dynamics of social stigma are explored in the context of diffusion models. Our focus is on exploring the dynamic process through which the behavior of individuals and the interpersonal relationships among them influence the macro-social attitude towards the stigma. We find that a norm of tolerance is best promoted when the population comprises both those whose conduct is driven by compassion for the stigmatized and those whose focus is on conforming with others in their social networks. A second finding is that less insular social networks encourage de-stigmatization when most people are compassionate, but it is instead more insularity that promotes tolerance when society is dominated by conformity.

Volker Grimm, Steven F. Railsback, Christian E. Vincenot, Uta Berger, Cara Gallagher, Donald L. DeAngelis, Bruce Edmonds, Jiaqi Ge, Jarl Giske, Jürgen Groeneveld, Alice S.A. Johnston, Alexander Milles, Jacob Nabe-Nielsen, J. Gareth Polhill, Viktoriia Radchuk, Marie-Sophie Rohwäder, Richard A. Stillman, Jan C. Thiele and Daniel Ayllón: The Overview, Design concepts and Details (ODD) protocol for describing Individual- and Agent-Based Models (ABMs) is now widely accepted and used to document such models in journal articles. As a standardized document for providing a consistent, logical and readable account of the structure and dynamics of ABMs, some research groups also find it useful as a workflow for model design. Even so, there are still limitations to ODD that obstruct its more widespread adoption. Such limitations are discussed and addressed in this paper: the limited availability of guidance on how to use ODD; the length of ODD documents; limitations of ODD for highly complex models; lack of sufficient details of many ODDs to enable reimplementation without access to the model code; and the lack of provision for sections in the document structure covering model design rationale, the model’s underlying narrative, and the means by which the model’s fitness for purpose is evaluated. We document the steps we have taken to provide better guidance on: structuring complex ODDs and an ODD summary for inclusion in a journal article (with full details in supplementary material; Table 1); using ODD to point readers to relevant sections of the model code; update the document structure to include sections on model rationale and evaluation. We also further advocate the need for standard descriptions of simulation experiments and argue that ODD can in principle be used for any type of simulation model. Thereby ODD would provide a lingua franca for simulation modelling.

Flaminio Squazzoni, J. Gareth Polhill, Bruce Edmonds, Petra Ahrweiler, Patrycja Antosz, Geeske Scholz, Émile Chappin, Melania Borit, Harko Verhagen, Francesca Giardini and Nigel Gilbert: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a dramatic loss of lives worldwide, challenging the sustainability of our health care systems, threatening economic meltdown, and putting pressure on the mental health of individuals (due to social distancing and lock-down measures). The pandemic is also posing severe challenges to the scientific community, with scholars under pressure to respond to policymakers’ demands for advice despite the absence of adequate, trusted data. Understanding the pandemic requires fine-grained data representing specific local conditions and the social reactions of individuals. While experts have built simulation models to estimate disease trajectories that may be enough to guide decision-makers to formulate policy measures to limit the epidemic, they do not cover the full behavioural and social complexity of societies under pandemic crisis. Modelling that has such a large potential impact upon people’s lives is a great responsibility. This paper calls on the scientific community to improve the transparency, access, and rigour of their models. It also calls on stakeholders to improve the rapidity with which data from trusted sources are released to the community (in a fully responsible manner). Responding to the pandemic is a stress test of our collaborative capacity and the social/economic value of research.

The Delaware Office of Management and Budget will be holding three public hearings to gather public comment on regulations under Governor Markell’s Executive Order 36, a statewide review by all agencies to identify and remove regulatory hurdles.

OMB accepting public input on agency regulations through December 1.

In recognition of National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend, Governor Markell has ordered the American and Delaware flags at state buildings and facilities to be lowered to half-staff.

The Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination announces the release of the draft 2015 Strategies for State Policies and Spending Update.

Director Ann Shepard Visalli will conclude her tenure leading Delaware’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) next month following more than seven years leading the Markell Administration’s efforts to balance challenging budgets while making key investments that have strengthened the economy, improved the education system, and enhanced quality of life throughout the state.

Governor Markell today announced that he will nominate Brian Maxwell, Deputy Director at the Office of Management and Budget for more than three years, to lead the agency when Director Ann Visalli departs next month. Visalli will end her more than seven years in the position when she becomes Chief Operating Officer at St. Andrew’s School in May. Markell will submit Maxwell for consideration by the State Senate when the General Assembly returns to session.

The below workshops are being held to provide information regarding the Delaware State Employees’ Pension Plan benefits. There is no cost or pre-registration required to attend these workshops. Participants will learn how to prepare their own estimated benefit using the Pension Office website. You are encouraged to bring your Comprehensive Annual Statement. Please be on […]

Dover – Today, the State of Delaware announced that it appears as No. 56 on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Top 100 list of the largest green power users from the Green Power Partnership. Delaware is using nearly 122 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, which represents 40 percent of its total […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is currently accepting comments and will hold a series of public hearings on three OMB regulations in accordance with the regulatory review provisions of HB 147 of the 148th General Assembly. Comments will be accepted through November 1 for the following regulations: • 4102 Regulations for the Annual […]

Everyday across Delaware, thousands of firefighters serve their communities and protect the public by responding to not only fires but almost any emergency situation. In honor of the men and women who have died while protecting Delawareans, in recognition of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service (to be held on Sunday, October 9) and in […]

Dover, DE – The Office of Management and Budget today released a report commissioned by Governor Jack Markell earlier this year in an ongoing effort to build a welcoming work environment across State government that fully embraces diversity and equal opportunity for all employees. “I have been clear that my administration is committed to ensuring […]

Policy will allow state to consistently address discrimination in the workplace WILMINGTON, Del. – Governor Carney on Monday released a uniform, anti-discrimination policy that will allow state agencies to consistently respond to reports of discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the workplace – and clearly outlines a consistent policy for state employees to report and resolve […]

Tomorrow, December 7, 2017 marks National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Each year on December 7, we honor the over 2,400 men and women who lost their lives for our country on this day in 1941. In recognition of National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Governor Carney has ordered the American and Delaware flags at state buildings […]

Federal tax incentives available for qualifying investments in Opportunity Zones DOVER, Del. – Governor John Carney announced on Thursday that communities and economically-distressed properties across Delaware could see additional private sector investment after 25 census tracts were designated as Opportunity Zones by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Earlier this month, Governor Carney nominated the […]

The Delaware Office of State Planning Coordination (OSPC) is proud to unveil our redesigned website Friday, August 31, 2018. This redesign improves the way information is delivered to citizens, developers and municipal stakeholders. A key objective of the redesigned site is to enable users to access our information from any device (PC, mobile phone, or […]