Abstract. In this work the problem of selecting and composing learning resources in the Semantic Web is considered. The starting point is the SCORM framework, used for the representation of learning objects. A proposal is done for describing a learning resource at the knowledge level, in terms of prerequisites and knowledge supplied, in order to enable the use of automated reasoning techniques (like planning) thus achieving forms of adaptation taken from the field of adaptive educational hypermedia. The description of learning strategies at the knowledge level opens the way to Semantic Web scenarios where learning resources are distributed over the network and reasoning systems can automatically select and compose them on-the-fly according to the user’s needs. The advantages are an increase of reuse of the resources and a greater openness. 1

Abstract. In open multi-agent systems agent interaction is usually ruled by public protocols defining the rules the agents should respect in message exchanging. The respect of such rules guarantees interoperability. Given two agents that agree on using a certain protocol for their interaction, a crucial issue (known as “a priori conformance test”) is verifying if their interaction policies, i.e. the programs that encode their communicative behavior, will actually produce interactions which are conformant to the agreed protocol. An issue that is not always made clear in the existing proposals for conformance tests is whether the test preserves agents’ capability of interacting, besides certifying the legality of their possible conversations. This work proposes an approach to the verification of a priori conformance, of an agent’s conversation policy to a protocol, which is based on the theory of formal languages. The conformance test is based on the acceptance of both the policy and the protocol by a special finite state automaton and it guarantees the interoperability of agents that are individually proved conformant. Many protocols used in multi-agent systems can be expressed as finite state automata, so this approach can be applied to a wide variety of cases with the proviso that both the protocol specification and the protocol implementation can be translated into finite state automata. In this sense the approach is general. Easy applicability to the case when a logic-based language is used to implement the policies is shown by means of a concrete example, in which the language DyLOG, based on computational logic, is used. 1

Abstract. Communication plays a fundamental role in multi-agents systems. One of the main issues in the design of agent interaction protocols is the verification that a given protocol implementation is “conformant” w.r.t. the abstract specification of it. In this work we tackle those aspects of the conformance verification issue, that regard the dependence/independence of conformance from the agent private state. More specifically we introduce three notions of conformance with different levels of abstraction from the agent knowledge and the relations between each other, and apply them to the case of logic, individual agents, set in a multi-agent framework. We do this by working on a specific agent programming language, DyLOG, and by focussing on interaction protocol specifications described by AUML sequence diagrams. By showing how AUML sequence diagrams can be translated into regular grammars and, then, by interpreting the problem of conformance as a problem of language inclusion, we describe a method for automatically verifying a form of “structural ” conformance; such a process is shown to be decidable and an upper bound to its complexity is given. 1

2 Syntax, semantics, and reasoning problems of modal logics........................... 3 3 Translation-based methods........................................... 6 3.1 Local satisfiability in multi modal Kn................................... 6 3.2 Global satisfiability, non-logical axioms, transitive modalities, and K4n................. 20

Abstract. This paper discusses the integration of a Prolog implementation, tuProlog, into the DCaseLP environment for building prototypes of multi-agent systems (MASs). DCaseLP aims at providing the MAS developer with a plethora of specification and implementation languages in order to allow him/her to adopt the best language for each view of the system under specification/implementation. The integration of tuProlog into DCaseLP represents a step forward in this direction and allows the re-use of tools and mechanisms previously developed for the DCaseLP predecessor, CaseLP. 1

Abstract. The greater and greater quantity of services that are available over the web causes a growing attention to techniques that facilitate their reuse. A web service specification can be quite complex, including various operations and message exchange patterns. In this work, we focus on the problem of retrieving a web service, which can play a given choreography role, preserving at the same time a condition of interest (the goal for which the service is sought). We show that current semantic matchmaking techniques do not guarantee goal preservation. We also show an approach for overcoming these limits, which exploits the choreography definition. This work is based on an action-based representation of the operations of a service: each operation is described in terms of its preconditions and effects, without taking into account the ontology layer which is not functional to the aims of the work.

In this work, we face the problem of web service composition, arguing the importance of the inclusion, in a web service description, of the high-level communication protocol used by a service to interact with a client. The work is set in the same multi-agent research area from which DAML-S is derived: reasoning about actions and about the change produced by actions on the world. In this perspective web services are viewed as actions, either simple or complex, characterized by preconditions and effects. In our proposal, interaction is interpreted as the effect of communicative action execution, so that it can be reasoned about. Keywords: Web-service composition, reasoning about actions, conversation protocols, modal logic languages.

The Semantic Web vision of a next generation Web, in which machines are enabled to understand the meaning of information in order to better interoperate and better support humans in carrying out their tasks, is very appealing and fosters the imagination of smarter applications that can retrieve, process and present information in enhanced ways. In this vision, a particular attention should be devoted to personalization: By bringing the user's needs into the center of interaction processes, personalized Web systems overcome the one-size-fits-all paradigm and provide individually optimized access to Web data and information. In this paper, we provide an overview of recent trends for establishing personalization on the Semantic Web: Based on a discussion on reasoning with rule- and query languages for the Semantic Web, we outline an architecture for service-based personalization, and show results in personalizing Web applications.

Abstract. Engineering systems of heterogeneous agents is a difficult task; one of the ways for achieving the successful industrial deployment of agent technology is the development of engineering tools that support the developer in all the steps of design and implementation. In this work we focus on the problem of supporting the design of agent interaction protocols by carrying out a methodological integration of the MAS prototyping environment DCaseLP with the agent programming language DyLOG for reasoning about action and change. 1

Abstract—The greater and greater quantity of services that are available over the web causes a growing attention to techniques that facilitate their reuse. A web service specification can be quite complex, including various operations and message exchange patterns. In this work, we give a declarative representation of services, and in particular of WSDL operations, that enables the application of techniques for reasoning about actions and change. By means of these techniques it becomes possible to reason on the specification of choreography roles and on possible role players, as a basis for selecting services which match in a flexible way with the specifications. Flexible match is, indeed, fundamental in order to enable web service reuse but it does not guarantee the preservation of the goals, that can be proved over the role specification itself. We show how to enrich various kinds of match proposed in the literature so to produce substitutions that preserve goals. I.