We show how the SWAN system has been implemented using a multi-agent system. SWAN is peer-to-peer look-up system that functions by letting the participating nodes self-organise in a virtual Small World Network. The multi-agent system we are using is DIET, a lightweight ecologically inspired agent platform. We describe how the test application can be implemented, and present experiments in which...

Immortalization of primary cells with telomerase is thought to maintain normal phenotypic properties and avoid chromosomal abnormalities and other cancer-associated changes that occur following simian virus 40 tumor antigen (SV40 Tag) induced immortalization. However, we report that the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT)-immortalized SWAN-71 trophoblast cell line has a near pentaplo...

The Black Swan, a metaphor for highly improbable, high impact events, warns us to understand the limits of our predictions and expect the “unknown unknowns” everywhere, from war to science and industry. From the earliest stages of discovery to post-marketing events, we argue that fundamentally the structure of pharmaceutical industry is driven by and impacted by both positive and negative Black...

Pulmonary artery (PA) rupture caused by a PA Swan-Ganz catheter is a rare complication but remains fatal in almost 50% of cases. False aneurysm of the PA is a rare presentation of PA rupture and should be considered as a possible diagnosis in a patient with a new lung mass after PA catheterization. We present a case of sudden-onset pulmonary alveolar hemorrhage during cardiovascular surgery due...

We examined whooper swans naturally infected with avian influenza virus (H5N1) to evaluate the possible zoonotic risk of swan feathers. Viruses were isolated from feather calami. Immunohistochemical testing revealed that virus antigens were present in the feather epidermis and feather follicle wall epidermis of some feathers. RT-PCR and genetic sequencing using paraffin sections of swan feather...

A number of results for reactions involving subdiffusive species, all with the same anomalous exponent , have recently appeared in the literature and can often be understood in terms of a subordination principle whereby time in ordinary diffusion is replaced by tgamma. However, very few results are known for reactions involving different species characterized by different anomalous diffusion ex...

We show that if G is any p-group of class at most two and exponent p, then there exist groups G1 and G2 of class two and exponent p that contain G, neither of which can be expressed as a central product, and with G1 capable and G2 not capable. We provide upper bounds for rank(Gi ) in terms of rank(G) in each case.

We obtained the global persistence exponent for a continuous spin model on the simple cubic lattice with double-exchange interaction by using two different methods. First, we estimated the exponent theta(g) by following the time evolution of probability P(t) that the order parameter of the model does not change its sign up to time t[P(t) approximately t(-theta(g)]. Afterwards, that exponent was...

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) neuraminidase (NA) inhibition with elution-inhibition (EI) antibodies was estimated with the EI reaction using strain 575 isolated from a mute swan (Cygnus olor). The NA inhibition was assessed by persistent red blood cell (RBC) agglutination patterns, rather than by the standard test involving the reduction in the cleavage of added artificial substrates. The more ...

Article history: Received 29 June 2010 Received in final revised form 9 September 2010 Available online 30 October 2010