A Multiagent System for the Reliable Execution of Automatically Composed Ad-hoc Processes

This article presents an architecture to automatically create ad-hoc processes for complex value-added services and to execute them in a reliable way. The uniqueness of ad-hoc processes is to support users not only in standardized situations like traditional workflows do, but also in unique non-recurring situations. Based on user requirements, a service composition engine generates such ad-hoc processes, which integrate individual services in order to provide the desired functionality. Our infrastructure executes ad-hoc processes by transactional agents in a peer-to-peer style. The process execution is thereby performed under transactional guarantees. Moreover, the service composition engine is used to re-plan in the case of execution failures. The work presented in this article was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation as part of the project MAGIC (FNRS-68155), as well as by the Swiss National Funding Agency OFES as part of the European projects KnowledgeWeb (FP6-507482) and DIP (FP6-507483). Authors in alphabetic order     

What can we learn from the Monte Carlo simulation of the glass transition of polymer melts?

The use of coarse-grained lattice models for the modelling of the glassy freezing in of polymer melts is discussed. The bond-fluctuation model is shown to be a reasonable compromise between simulation efficiency and realistic chemical detail. The potential energy, favoring large values of the length of effective bonds, is at low temperatures in conflict with the tendency for dense packing of the effective monomers and this “geometrical frustration” is responsible for the glass transition of this model. It is shown that many physical properties of the model are in surprisingly close agreement with experiments. Open problems and directions for future research are briefly discussed.     

A C-terminal region of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae transcription factor ADR1 plays an important role in the regulation of peroxisome proliferation by fatty acids

We examined the hypoxic tolerance phenomenon in vitro. Brief exposure to hypoxia induced the production of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) mRNA and protein in rat cortical neurons and protected them from hypoxic injury. Cortical neurons were cultured from 18th-day rat embryos in a serum-free medium and subjected to brief (4 h) and/or prolonged (24 h) hypoxia. Neuronal damage was assessed by quantifying lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in the medium. After brief hypoxia, LDH release was identical to that of the controls, whereas prolonged hypoxia caused a significant increase in LDH release, indicating neuronal death. However, if brief hypoxia was applied 2 days prior to the prolonged hypoxia, no increase in LDH release was observed. The bFGF mRNA expression was assessed with Northern blot and protein immunoreactivity with Western blot analysis. The brief period of hypoxia caused a 2.5-fold increase in bFGF mRNA and considerable bFGF protein expression 1 day later, but prolonged hypoxia caused increase in the expression of bFGF mRNA at 2 days and no protein expression until 3 days after the start of the hypoxia. When cells were subjected to prolonged hypoxia 2 days after brief hypoxia, however, no increase in bFGF mRNA was observed, while bFGF protein was expressed continuously. We also observed that exogenously applied bFGF reduced neuronal injury produced by prolonged hypoxia. The results obtained with this model suggest that brief hypoxia induces bFGF protein and thus tolerance to subsequent lethal hypoxia. Basic FGF might play a role as a tolerance-associated factor in this process. Thus, an in vitro model is useful for assessing the response of cortical neurons to hypoxic stress and for researching new factors related to ischemic tolerance.     

Use of gas plasmas to increase breakdown strengths in polycarbonatefilm/foil capacitors

It is shown that the electrical breakdown voltages of polycarbonate film/metal foil capacitors can be increased. This can be achieved by briefly exposing the metal foil in these spirally wound film foil sections to a low-pressure, low-temperature gas plasma. Exposure of tin/lead foil to a 96% CF₄/4% O₂ gas plasma for four min, for example, produced >500% increase in breakdown voltage of sealed polycarbonate capacitors     

Observations on the training of therapists in time-limited dynamic psychotherapy.

Suggests that "manualized training" is most effective at increasing adherence to the technical procedures characterizing the treatment under scrutiny. There is minimal evidence that other skills associated with therapeutic competence are acquired or enhanced to the extent found with technical adherence. Drawing on findings from a study of manual-guided training of therapists in the techniques of brief therapy (H. H. Strupp and J. L. Binder, 1984), the author offers recommendations for improving therapy training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)