Design Considerations for Incorporating Flexible Workflow and Multi-AgentInteractions in Agent Societies

In this paper, we present our conception of a Flexible Agent Society (FAS), an extension of the Contractual Agent Society (CAS) idea. Essentially, a FAS is a distributed information system modeling an agent society, providing agents with the ability to collaborate in order to meet certain common goals. In a FAS, unlike the CAS, the agents themselves have control over the workflow processesand multi-agent conversations that they need to execute in order to meet their common goals

Metastable states of a ferromagnet on random thin graphs

We calculate the mean number of metastable states of an Ising ferromagnet on random thin graphs of fixed connectivity c. We find, as for mean field spin glasses that this mean increases exponentially with the number of sites, and is the same as that calculated for the +/- J spin glass on the same graphs. An annealed calculation of the number <N_{MS}(E)> of metastable states of energy E is carried out. For small c, an analytic result is obtained. The result is compared with the one obtained for spin glasses in order to discuss the role played by loops on thin graphs and hence the effect of real frustration on the distribution of metastable states.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Ontologies for specifying and reconciling contexts of web services

This paper presents an ontology-based approach for the specification (using OWL-C as a definition language) and reconciliation (using ConWeS as a mediation tool) of contexts of Web services. Web services are independent components that can be triggered and composed for the satisfaction of user needs (e.g., hotel booking). Because Web services originate from different providers, their composition faces the obstacle of the context heterogeneity featuring these Web services. An unawareness of this context heterogeneity during Web services composition and execution results in a lack of the quality and relevancy of information that permits tracking the composition, monitoring the execution, and handling exceptions. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Application of surgical periodontics for accelerated orthodontic correction of class ll division l malocclusion with skeletal discrepancy

Background: There is a constant pursuit for substituting orthognathic surgical options by minimally invasive pre-orthodontic surgical procedures. Application of osseous resective surgery for alveolar reshaping is referred to here as "surgical periodontics for accelerated orthodontics". A parallel randomized clinical trial was designed to evaluate the clinical outcome of class 2 division 1 malocclusion with skeletal discrepancy using pre-orthodontic surgical procedures, comparing periodontally accelerated osteogenic orthodontics with surgical periodontics for accelerated orthodontics.Methods: Twenty-four adult orthodontics patients selected for this study were randomly divided into 2 equal groups. One group was treated with periodontally accelerated osteogenic orthodontics with augmentation grafting and the other was with surgical periodontics for accelerated orthodontics. These procedures were followed by fixed orthodontics treatment. Comparative evaluation of alveolar bone thickness was done by cone beam computed tomogram for both the groups.Results: The cephalometric parameters, A point nasion B point (ANB) angle and over jet of these subjects before and after the surgical interventions at three, six and twelve month’s intervals were compared to the base values, showing changes within 3 months when treated with surgical periodontics for accelerated orthodontics and within 6 months when treated with periodontally accelerated osteogenic orthodontics, without significant change in periodontal supporting alveolar bone thickness.Conclusions: Surgical periodontics for accelerated orthodontics and periodontally accelerated osteogenic orthodontics are effective pre-orthodontics surgical procedures for accelerating orthodontic treatment, without bringing any change in periodontal alveolar bone thickness

One-pot synthesis of orthogonally protected dipeptide selenazoles employing Nα-amino selenocarboxamides and α-bromomethyl ketones

A simple and efficient protocol for the synthesis of selenazole containing dipeptidomimetics using Nα-amino selenocarboxamides and α-bromomethyl ketones is described. All the compounds made were isolated in good yields and fully characterized. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Goal-based and Risk-based Creation of Adaptive Workflow

Abstract Adaptive Workflow Management is being increasingly looked upon as one of the cures for the problems plaguing business organizations, which are being forced to continually restructure their business processes in response to changing market conditions. In such a situation, techniques for designing adaptive workflow processes from business goals become essential. In this paper, we present a knowledge-based technique, incorporating goals and risks, to derive portions of workflow process schemas from user-defined goals and scenarios. We also present a technique for composing these portions to create a complete workflow schema. We also show that our technique can create adaptive workflow processes. Another contribution of this paper, is that it also provides a way to model risks into the workflow process

Towards aspect-based modeling of self-healing Web Services

In this paper, we overviewed self-healing issues of Web services using AOP. This type of programming supports separation of self-healing concerns from Web services code and promotes maintenance and reusability. Similar to any computing application, Web services are subject to failure and unavailability due to multiple reasons, such as Web service faulty-code and unreliable communication-infrastructure. © 2006 IEEE

Context-driven policy enforcement and reconciliation for Web services

Security of Web services is a major factor to their successful integration into critical IT applications. An extensive research in this direction concentrates on low level aspects of security such as message secrecy, data integrity, and authentication. Thus, proposed solutions are mainly built upon the assumption that security mechanisms are static and predefined. However, the dynamic nature of the Internet and the continuously changing environments where Web services operate require innovative and adaptive security solutions. This paper presents our solution for securing Web services based on adaptive policies, where adaptability is satisfied using the contextual information of the Web services. The proposed solution includes a negotiation and reconciliation protocol for security policies

Low current Cd4+T cell count: prediction, for persistent herpetic gingivostomatitis in HIV-positive patients under antiretroviral therapy

Background: Oral viral lesions associated with HIV infection are important since they affect the quality of life of the patient and are useful markers of disease progression and immunosuppression. The purpose of this study was to correlate the persistence of herpetic gingivostomatitis lesions with the current CD4+ T cell count for adherence of HIV-infected individuals to anti retroviral therapy (ART) and antiviral therapy.Methods: 302 HIV +ve patients developing oral ulcers were included in this study. The herpes simplex viral infections associated with the oral manifestations were detected through Immuno histochemical staining. The quantitative analysis of oral ulceration was done by using mucositis index.CD4T cell count was correlated with clinical manifestations of extensiveness of oral ulcers, acute febrile condition and other constitutional symptoms during follow up of cases for the treatment with anti viral therapies.Results: Association of herpes simplex viral infections was found in 72 out of 302 HIV+ ve cases. All the HSV +ve patients developed extensive oral mucsal lesions during the 1st week. Extensive lesions developed within 7 days in patients with CD4 count 500, manifestation of mucosal ulcers due to acute herpetic gingivostomatitis was limited to a period of 1 to 2 weeks. Patients with CD4 count >200 <500 did not follow a definite pattern.Conclusions: Persistent oropharyngeal mucosal ulcers along with acute febrile condition due to herpes simplex virus infection are associated with low CD4 T cell count in HIV + patients under antiretroviral therapy

Decoupling security concerns in web services using aspects

This paper discusses the Aspect-oriented Framework for Web services (AoF4WS) that supports on-demand context-sensitive security in Web services. Flexible security schemes are needed in many Web services applications where authentication, authorization, etc., can no longer be used in their current form. Security mechanisms are to be customized to the continuously changing requirements of Web services. Examples of this customization concern cryptographic protocol for a specific situation and timeout for user credentials. The AoF4WS uses aspect-oriented programming and frames. Aspects provide flexibility to the framework, and frames adjust aspects to specific requirements. © 2006 IEEE