Kamila Olševičová

Understanding the Iron Age Economy: Sustainability of Agricultural Practices under Stable Population Growth

Some of the most significant settlements of late Iron Age Europe were founded in agriculturally marginal landscapes. The specific locations caused their food production potential to be regarded usually as deficit in terms of sustainability. Such notion, however, can be re-examined with help of new methodological tools. In order to capture the dynamics of the agro-pastoral economy processes in recurrent year-to-year cycles, this chapter exploits the objective advantages and limits of coupled GIS environmental and agent-based social modelling approaches. Three consecutive models are presented—the population dynamics in The Population Model, and the sustainability of the land-use strategies in The Crop Production Model and The Field Allocation Model. Models are firmly based on authentic archaeological and environmental record with the region around long-term investigated oppidum of Stare Hradisko (Czech Republic) used as the case study. Results obtained with the simulation demonstrate limits of the sustainable economy practiced by a constantly growing population under particular environmental settings. The immediate or gradual impact of the success rate in food production and its potential influences on the social processes including the oppida abandonment are also addressed.

Agent-Based Model of Celtic Population Growth: NetLogo and Python

The agent-based model of Celtic population growth was developed using specific domain knowledge and general demographic assumptions about birth-rates and mortality. The model allows archaeologists to simulate the time series of available workforce and actual consumption of the population living in the given settlement agglomeration. Parameters of the NetLogo model were refined experimentally. The implementation in Python was created for validation and reporting. The simulated population is stable, with appropriate age distribution and growth rate. The model is used for further simulations of the settlement population dynamics and for testing hypotheses about the agricultural practices, trade and exchange etc. The final objective of our research project is to better understand the collapse of the Celtic society in Europe in the Late Iron Age.

Reconstruction of Prehistoric Settlement Network Using Agent-Based Model in NetLogo

We provide an overview of agent-based and network-based computational models in archaeology. Then we suggest a sample model of gradual spatial dispersion of late Iron Age settlement network regarding the probable existence of central sites and settlement hierarchies. The model is based on archaeological research hypotheses and fragmented archaeological evidence of sites in Central Europe. The aim of the model is to enable experimenting with relevant combinations of parameters and triggers and to provide the dynamic picture of the emergence of the prehistoric settlement network.

Monitoring Lane Formation of Pedestrians: Emergence and Entropy

This paper deals with self-organization phenomenon in qualitative microscopic pedestrian simulation. The agent-based pedestrian model in NetLogo is presented. Within the model, the lane formation is identified as the emerging pattern growing from counter flows of individuals. Information entropy is applied in analytical component of the model with the aim to measure the level of self-organization. Experimental results are provided.

Decentralized Multi-Agent Algorithm for Translational 2D Image Alignment

We present a novel multi-agent algorithm applied to the problem of image alignment. Our method operates with multiple concurrent solutions held by agents who each attempt to reach the lowest error function score by trying to place a segment from a translated image to an unsegmented fixed image. Agents borrow and return segments of the translated image from a shared repository and iteratively suggest and evaluate their particular solutions. Finally, the global solution is determined by clustering of agents’ individual results. Experiments show that our approach provides results of high reliability and performance compared with traditional intensity based registration methods that rely on global optimization of a single error function given by translation of whole image.

Rebuilding virtual study environments using topic maps

Virtual study environments are web-based applications where e-courses are delivered. In accordance with the shift towards the semantic web, the conception of separated and narrowly focused e-courses seems to be obsolete and certain new solutions should be offered. The Topic Maps technology is a good candidate to become the core integrative element of the next generation of educational portals with the potential to replace current virtual study environments. In the paper we explain why and how to transform virtual study environments using Topic Maps. Also we present a pilot application.

Pedestrian Modelling in NetLogo

The objective of our research is to explore crowd dynamics under different circumstances, especially its optional applications in sustainable tourism. The terminology (crowd phenomena, pedestrian behaviour, local interaction, motion patterns) is explained and a brief overview of three theoretical models (cellular automata model, social force model and network model) is provided. Then our visitor flow model is suggested and the case study, the model of the crowd dynamics of visitors in the ZOO, is specified. NetLogo was used for implementation.

Data-Driven Pedestrian Model: From OpenCV to NetLogo

Our objective was to replicate the movement of real pedestrians in NetLogo agent-based model using the video recording of pedestrians as the source of reliable data. To achieve this, it was necessary to develop the video-processing extension for NetLogo. The paper presents the principles of video data transformation, the implementation of the extension and the experiment with a sample video stream that demonstrates the self-organization of bi-directional flows of walkers. The extension builds on the computer vision library OpenCV.

Prolog programming e-course

The aim of our paper is to describe our experience acquired during the development and subsequent utilisation of our Prolog programming e-course. We will describe our journey from printed textbooks, via isolated web-based materials to the comprehensive and integrated e-course. We have changed not only the method of delivery, but also the content of our course to make it more interesting and attractive for our students. Our new course is based on utilisation of various games that allow us to demonstrate key aspects of logic programming; at the same time the subject as a whole is very appealing. Moreover, using suitable games even difficult topics can be explained rather easily and spontaneously, as we will illustrate in this paper using a chess game. Finally, we will review our existing experience with the e-course utilisation and we will discuss the problems concurrent with it as well.