Creating agent platforms to host agent-mediated services that share resources

After a period where the Internet was exclusively filled with content, the present efforts are moving towards services, which handle the raw information to create value from it. Therefore labors to create a wide collection of agent-based services are being perfomed in several projects, such as Agentcities does. In this work we present an architecture for agent platforms named a-Buildings. The aim of the proposed architecture is to ease the creation, installation, search and management of agent-mediated services and the share of resources among services. To do so the a-Buildings architecture creates a new level of abstraction on top of the standard FIPA agent platform specification. Basically, an a-Building is a service-oriented platform which offers a set of low level services to the agents it hosts. We define low level services as those required services that are neccesary to create more complex high level composed services.Postprint (published version

La sodomia i el cos malat de les dones

El present article té com a objectiu analizar els discursos literaris, religiosos i mèdics que convergeixen en una de les obres cabdals en llengua catalana medieval: l’Espill (1460), de Jaume Roig. Primerament, cal no oblidar que el seu autor va ser un dels metges més prestigiosos a la València quatrecentista, de manera que haurà de valorar-se el context científic que el nodreix; tampoc no pot oblidar-se, en segon lloc, la tradició misògina que forneix el seu extens poema narratiu. D’altra banda, voldria incidir en una cruïlla cultural encara poc analitzada —força insòlita al seu temps— que és la vinculada a la sodomia com a “creació” femenina; hom valorarà les significacions de la seva construcció, comparada a la lepra al mateix text

Sodomy and the Sick Body of Women

The aim of this article is to analyse the literary, religious and medical discourses that converge in one of the leading works in medieval Catalan: the Espill (Mirror) (1460), by Jaume Roig. Firstly, it should be remembered that the author was one of the most prestigious doctors in 15th century Valencia, so it should be judged in the scientific context that nurtured it. Nor should we forget, in second place, the misogynist tradition behind this long narrative poem. On the other hand, I would like to emphasise a cultural crossroads that was quite unusual in its time, and is as yet little studied, which is linked to sodomy as a female “creation”; I will assess the significance of this construction, compared with leprosy in the same text

An infrared study of galactic OH/IR stars. I. An optical/near-IR atlas of the Arecibo sample

In this paper we present optical and near-infrared finding charts, accurate astrometry (~1") and single-epoch near-infrared photometry for 371 IRAS sources, 96% of those included in the so-called Arecibo sample of OH/IR stars (Eder et al. 1988; Lewis et al. 1990a; Chengalur et al. 1993). The main photometric properties of the stars in the sample are presented and discussed as well as the problems found during the process of identification of the optical/near-infrared counterparts. In addition, we also identify suitable reference stars in each field to be used for differential photometry purposes in the future. We find that 39% of the sources (144 in number) have no optical counterpart, 8 of them being invisible even at near infrared wavelengths. The relative distribution of sources with and without optical counterpart in the IRAS two-colour diagram and their characteristic near infrared colours are interpreted as the consequence of the increasing thickness of their circumstellar shells. Among the objects not detected at near infrared wavelengths four non-variable sources are proposed to be heavily obscured post-AGB stars which have just very recently left the AGB. Eight additional objects with unusually bright and/or blue near-infrared colours are identified as candidate post-AGB stars and/or proto-planetary nebulae.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures, for associated finding charts see: http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/aa/full/2005/08/aa1709/FINDING_CHARTS/are cibo_index.htm