La situation, les problèmes et les nouvelles tendances liés aux réseaux de télécommunications font en sorte qu'il est nécessaire de revoir la façon de développer des systèmes distribués. On peut actuellement constater : qu'il y a une omniprésence des réseaux, que ces réseaux sont de plus en plus intelligents, que ceux-ci ont de la difficulté à suivre l'évolution des standards, qu'il y a une augmentation de la quantité d'information transmise, que les connexions en périphérie d'un réseau comme l'Internet sont limitées, etc. Des recherches récentes relatives au code mobile, sous la forme d'agents mobiles et de réseaux actifs, offrent de nouvelles possibilités intéressantes pour le développement des systèmes distribués. La fusion de ces deux secteurs de recherche est susceptible d'amener de nouveaux mécanismes pour construire des systèmes distribués plus adaptés à la situation actuelle des réseaux de télécommunications. Ce mémoire présente IBC-Go (Itinerary Based Computation and Go), un système d'agents mobiles, basé sur une approche itinéraire, qui intègre les technologies de réseau actif. Ce système permet le développement de systèmes distribués qui tiennent davantage compte de la situation, des problèmes et des nouvelles tendances d'aujourd'hui; comparativement aux systèmes traditionnels. Pour montrer les possibilités du système IBC-Go et pour démontrer les avantages amenés par le système IBC-Go, plus particulièrement de démontrer le fait que le dit système amène une diminution des besoins en communication entre le nœud d'origine et les autres nœuds; 3 scénarios mettant en application le système IBC-Go ont été présentés. La présentation de chacun de ces scénarios a également été accompagnée de résultats numériques qui ont permis de chiffrer les gains amenés par le système IBC-Go. La présentation des scénarios et des résultats numériques a permis de répondre l'objectif qui était de démontrer que le système développé est davantage en mesure de solutionner les problèmes soulevés dans la problématique que les systèmes actuels, et plus particulièrement de diminuer les besoins en communication entre le nœud d'origine et les autres nœuds. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Code mobile, agent mobile, agent itinérant, réseau actif, ANTS, IBC-Go.

In large, open and distributed systems, agents are often used to represent users and act on their behalves. Agents can provide good or bad services or act honestly or dishonestly. Trust and reputation mechanisms are used to distinguish good services from bad ones or honest agents from dishonest ones. My research is focused on trust and reputation management in decentralized systems. Compared with centralized systems, decentralized systems are more difficult and inefficient for agents to find and collect information to build trust and reputation. In this thesis, I propose a Bayesian network-based trust model. It provides a flexible way to present differentiated trust and combine different aspects of trust that can meet agents different needs. As a complementary element, I propose a super-agent based approach that facilitates reputation management in decentralized networks. The idea of allowing super-agents to form interest-based communities further enables flexible reputation management among groups of agents. A reward mechanism creates incentives for super-agents to contribute their resources and to be honest. As a single package, my work is able to promote effective, efficient and flexible trust and reputation management in decentralized systems.

This thesis studies and develops an agent-based on-line monitoring and diagnosis system. With the advent of industry facilities toward high speed and automation, the on-line monitoring and diagnosis mechanism becomes important. The traditional time-based maintenance strategy cannot consider all practical conditions of machines. The accidental breakdowns may occur unexpectedly. In order to make production line automation, yield high production rate, and enhance the ability of market competition, an effective way is to ensure facilities running smoothly and to reduce the manpower monitoring. Meanwhile in order to reduce the cost of development and enhance the feature of reuse, we use a communication interface to integrate and interact information among developed softwares. Through this system, users may easily monitor and diagnose the machines on production lines through user interfaces, such as display of machine status, malfunction alarming, trend chart, waveform, spectrum, cepstrum and envelop spectrum, etc. A model consisting of domain knowledge and behaviors of cooperative multi-agents to integrate various facilities and functions in different production lines is proposed. In addition, via a Web-based environment, it releases the restrictions by of temporal and regional isolation. The system provides a real-time and dynamical operation circumstance and can meet the needs of different levels of users. Consequently, it is of greatly help to lower the cost of personnel and enhance the ability of market competition.

In the recent years¡Athere are many innovations diffused¡CSome of the innovations were accepted by the clients¡Athe others were rejected¡CThere were many factors involved in the process of diffusion of innovation¡CThe significant one is the role of Change Agent¡CThe case selected in the research is a famous educational web site -¡uLOXA¡v¡CThe web site supplies many free internet services¡Asuch as Web Server¡BDNS¡BProxy Server¡BMail Server for elementary school and junior high school in Taiwan¡CThe numbers of member of¡uLOXA¡vgrows rapidly in the past two half years¡Athat is the reason why it was chosen¡CThe purpose of the research is to understand the role of Change Agent in the diffusion of¡uLOXA¡v¡C AT the end of the research¡Athe following conclusions are made¡G(1)The sequence of diffusion is contributive to the diffusion of¡uLOXA¡v¡C(2)The most significant characteristic of innovations is¡uRelative advantage¡v¡C(3)The change agent of¡uLOXA¡vplays his role appropriately in the process of introducing innovation in a client system¡C(4)The behavior of change agent of¡uLOXA¡vis identified with the successful generalizations almost¡C

Building autonomous mobile agents has been a major research effort for a while with cooperative mobile robotics receiving a lot of attention in recent times. Motion planning is a critical problem in deploying autonomous agents. In this research we have developed two novel global motion planning schemes for a group of mobile agents which eliminate some of the disadvantages of the current methods available. The first is the homotopy method in which the planning is done in polynomial space. In this method the position in local frame of each mobile agent is mapped to a complex number and a time varying polynomial contains information regarding the current positions of all mobile agents, the degree of the polynomial being the number of mobile agents and the roots of the polynomial representing the position in local frame of the mobile agents at a given time. This polynomial is constructed by finding a path parameterized in time from the initial to the goal polynomial (represent the initial and goal positions in local frame of the mobile agents) so that the discriminant variety or the set of polynomials with multiple roots is avoided in polynomial space. This is equivalent to saying that there is no collision between any two agents in going from initial position to goal position. The second is the homogeneous deformation method. It is based on continuum theory for motion of deformable bodies. In this method a swarm of vehicles is considered at rest in an initial configuration with no restrictions on the initial shape or the locations of the vehicles within that shape. A motion plan is developed to move this swarm of vehicles from the initial configuration to a new configuration such that there are no collisions between any vehicles at any time instant. It is achieved via a linear map between the initial and desired final configuration such that the map is invertible at all times. Both the methods proposed are computationally attractive. Also they facilitate motion coordination between groups of mobile agents with limited or no sensing and communication.

The process of bioinformatics computing consumes huge computing resources, in situation of difficulty in improvement of algorithm and high cost of mainframe, many scholars choice distributed computing as an approach for reducing computing time. When using distributed computing for bioinformatics, how to find a properly tasks allocation strategy among different computing nodes to keep load-balancing is an important issue. By adopting multi-agent system as a tool, system developer can design tasks allocation strategies through intuitional view and keep load-balancing among computing nodes. The purpose of our research work is using multi-agent system as an underlying tool to develop a distributed computing environment and assist scholars in solving bioinformatics computing problem, In comparison with public computing projects such as BOINC, our research work focuses on utilizing computing nodes deployed inside organization and connected by local area network.

The Swedish commercial real estate market is in the current situation globally affected and is actively interacting with the rental and capital markets through international tenants and investors who are setting new demands on the property owners. The European Union has set new requirements as well in purpose of reducing humanity’s negative effect on the climate and therefore the international real estate market has introduced Green Building-certificates in order to decrease the real estate industry’s environmental impact. Certificated buildings with low energy consumption are a more common sight in Sweden these days. The development, however, could go even faster if there was not certain difficulties between property owners and tenants. Previous research has revealed that tenants do not always have knowledge about, or may have access to the economic benefits that a green building can provide. This results in the tenants lesser approval of higher rents which often is the outcome of the property owners environmental investments in the building. The following effect means that energy improvements in the real estate sector is slowed and the environment suffers. To get a deeper understanding of this phenomenon we have with this study chosen to examine how Swedish property owners and tenants reason about advantages and disadvantages with certified commercial buildings as well as around economic responsibility for investments in these. In order to create favorable conditions to provide clarity in our problem we choose a qualitative method with open individual interviews so that we in depth could examine how our respondents were thinking about the subject. The study is based on theory of how the Swedish commercial rental model looks like today followed by the difficulties it might cause, the principal/agent-problem. Furthermore, theory of how green buildings affect property owners and tenants on different levels is presented. By analyzing the theory with the empirical data obtained through interviews, we have come to the following conclusion: Transparency of incentives reduces the principal/agent-problem. By having a clear dialogue between property owners and tenants regarding the incentives to own and rent a green building the suspicion that is closely associated with the principal/agent-problem is reduced which results in more favorable development with environmental investments in the building. Individually custom made green leases is a first step toward sharing financial responsibilities. When the incentives are clear, a distribution of environmental investment costs can be made between the two parties so that each one gets involved which is the purpose of Green Leases. Now that the tenant have a deeper understanding and knowledge about the benefits of green buildings, certification becomes easier. Funding may influence investment decisions. New possibilities have become available to property owners who want to certificate their property portfolio. Green bonds, which first was issued in Sweden in 2013 by Vasakronan, has increased intensely lately and opens up new ways for corporations in the real estate business to finance environmental investings. / Den svenska kommersiella fastighetsmarknaden påverkas och samspelar idag globalt med hyresmarknaden och kapitalmarknaden genom internationella hyresgäster och investerare som sätter nya krav på fastighetsägarna. Även EU har satt nya krav för att minska den globala klimatpåverkan och därför har den internationella fastighetsmarknaden skapat miljöcertifieringar för att sänka energiförbrukningen och minska byggnadernas miljöpåverkan. Miljöcertifierade byggnader med låg energiförbrukning är en allt vanligare syn i Sverige idag. Utvecklingen skulle emellertid kunna gå ännu snabbare om det inte fanns vissa svårigheter mellan fastighetsägare och hyresgäster. Genom tidigare forskning har det framkommit att hyresgäster inte alltid har kännedom om eller får ta del av de ekonomiska fördelar en miljöcertifierad byggnad kan ge. Det resulterar i att de är mindre benägna att betala högre hyreskostnader vilket ofta är ett resultat av fastighetsägarens miljöinvesteringar i byggnaden. Följden av detta är att energiförbättringarna i fastighetssektorn bromsas och miljön blir lidande. För att få en djupare inblick i detta fenomen har vi med denna studie valt att undersöka hur svenska fastighetsägare respektive hyresgäster resonerar kring för- och nackdelar med miljöcertifierade kommersiella byggnader samt kring ekonomisk ansvarsfördelning för investeringar i dessa. För att skapa goda förutsättningar till att ge klarhet i vår problemställning har vi utgått från en kvalitativ metod med öppna individuella intervjuer så att vi på djupet kunnat undersöka hur våra respondenter tänker kring ämnet. Studien grundas på teori om hur den svenska kommersiella hyresmodellen ser ut idag följt av det så kallade agent-/principalproblemet som den kan ge upphov till. Vidare presenteras teori om hur miljöcertifierade byggnader påverkar fastighetsägare och hyresgäster på olika plan. Genom att analysera teorin med den empiri som erhållits genom intervjuerna har vi kommit fram till följande slutsats. Transparens om incitament minskar agent-/principalproblemet. Genom att en tydlig dialog förs parterna emellan gällande de incitament som finns till att äga och hyra en miljöcertifierad byggnad minskar den misstänksamhet som kännetecknas av agent-/principalproblematiken och energieffektviseringar och miljöarbete underlättas. Individuellt anpassade gröna hyresavtal är ett av grundstegen till ekonomisk ansvarsfördelning. När incitamenten är tydliga gäller det att finna en fördelning av miljöinvesteringskostnaderna som gör att båda parter är delaktiga, Gröna hyresavtal är en väg att gå. Genom att hyresgästen nu har djupare kunskap om fördelarna med miljöcertifierade byggnader förenklas införandet av dessa Gröna hyresavtal. Finansiering kan påverka beslut om investering. En ny dörr har öppnats för fastighetsägare som vill miljöcertifiera sitt fastighetsbestånd. Gröna obligationer som emitterades första gången i Sverige 2013 av Vasakronan har ökat rekordartat den senaste tiden och tillför nya finansieringsmöjligheter för företag som vill miljöinvestera.

The discovery and development of effective chemotherapeutic agents in the past few decades have immensely enhanced the treatment and management of human cancer. However, because these drugs are associated with adverse side effects, high genotoxicity, risk for secondary cancers and devastating effects on the patients’ immune system; the need for developing more effective anticancer agents remains. A priority Research shows that 9-aminoacridine (9AA) derivatives have substantial anticancer properties. The pharmacological properties of this agent are well characterized and this scaffold has been widely used to treat different diseases for decades. Quinacrine is a 9AA derivative, which was first discovered as an antimalarial compound in 1930’s and since then had been widely used in treating a variety of parasitic infections and demonstrated potential for cancer treatment. Importantly, the polypharmacology of Quinacrine makes it an attractive drug to treat a variety of cancers. Quinacrine acts by specifically targeting cellular signaling pathways that play an important role in cell survival. Given the distinctive cancer treating abilities of Quinacrine by specifically targeting cellular signaling pathways, it was the objective of this study to develop a compound that has similar properties as Quinacrine but has better efficacy and selectivity in targeting tumor cells. Therefore, for this project we created derivatives of 9AA compound using hybrid pharmapore approach and examined one of the derivatives of Quinacrine compound named VR118. After performing a series of experiments to test the efficacy and selectivity of the Quinacrine derivative VR118, I came to the conclusion that VR118 is highly effective in treating cancer cells and have the potential to selectively target cancer cells without causing severe harm to normal cells at concentrations applicable for malignant cell lines. This report discusses the efficacy and selectivity of VR118 compound in targeting cellular signaling pathways and the mechanisms through which VR118 kills cancer cells.

The research described in this thesis is an attempt to utilize the Model Driven Architecture for semi-automatically developing a prototype Multi-Agent System to support the management of a real container terminal. Agent technology has been increasingly applied in Transport Logistics and seems to be a viable solution to support the container terminal management. Thus, from the user point of view, the focus of this research is to investigate the applicability of Multi-Agent Systems to assist the container terminal's decision makers in improving the container terminal productivity, which is often measured in terms of the productivity of cranes. A prototype Multi-Agent System has been developed to evaluate and compare a set of proposed vehicle dispatching strategies, which are a collection of rules that a vehicle (e.g. straddle carrier) uses to decide the priority of serving the working cranes. Employing an appropriate dispatching strategy may greatly improve the efficiency of vehicle allocation to the working cranes, so as to increase the utilization of cranes which directly enhance the container terminal productivity. In order to investigate the applicability of the Multi-Agent System for supporting the container terminal management, experiments have been conducted in a variety of real-world scenarios. The experiment results have revealed that Multi-Agent Systems are applicable to assist container terminal decision makers in evaluating operating strategies. On the other hand, from the developer point of view, the author investigates how to apply the Model Driven Architecture to agent technologies, providing a partially automated support for the derivation of Multi-Agent System implementation from the agent-oriented design, independently from the target implementation platforms. The Model Driven Architecture approach studied in this research is a model-driven software development process that explicitly separates models at three different levels of abstraction: platform independent models, platform specific models, and implementation models. In contrast to the conventional code-centric software development, the Model Driven Architecture based software development uses models as the primary engineering artifacts. The adopted development approach is to take a high-level abstraction model of a system and transform it into a set of platform specific models, each of which is in turn transformed into the corresponding implementation. Transformations between models are automatically carried out by a set of transformation tools. The experience of using the Model Driven Architecture for the development of the prototype Multi-Agent System has revealed the following benefits: (a) automated transformations between models increase software productivity; (b) separating the high-level specification of the system from the underlying implementation technology improves the portability of the system's high-level abstraction model; (c) strong separation of concerns, guaranteed consistency between models, and automatic generation of source code minimize future software maintenance effort.

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