We present a dynamical model incorporating both physiological and psychological factors that predicts changes in body mass and composition during the course of a behavioral intervention for weight loss. The model consists of a three-compartment energy balance integrated with a mechanistic psychological model inspired by the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The latter describes how important variables in a behavioural intervention can influence healthy eating habits and increased physical activity over time. The novelty of the approach lies in representing the behavioural intervention as a dynamical system, and the integration of the psychological and energy balance models. Two simulation scenarios are presented that illustrate how the model can improve the understanding of how changes in intervention components and participant differences affect outcomes. Consequently, the model can be used to inform behavioural scientists in the design of optimised interventions for weight loss and body composition change.
Our energy-balance model provides plausible predictions of GWG that results from changes in energy intakes. Because the model was implemented as a Web-based applet, it can be widely used by pregnant women and their health care providers.
Abstract-This work presents a multi-agent-based computational model of an artificial fractional reserve banking system. The model is implemented in NetLogo. The computational experiments and simulations we performed to analyse the proposed model show that different scenarios can lead to bank insolvency. We show that both the minimum reserve rate and the loss of confidence have large contributions to the insolvency of a bank, suggesting them as likely destabilizing economic forces driving the dynamics of the model.Index Terms-agent-based model, agent-based simulation, BDI agents, fractional reserve banking, NetLogo.
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