Description: This article discusses agent-based distance vector routing. Abstract: In spite of the ever-increasing availability of computation and communication resources in modern networks, the overhead associated with network management protocols, such as traffic control and routing, continues to be an important aspect in the design of new methodologies. Resource efficiency of such protocols has become even more prominent with the recent developments of wireless and ad-hoc networks, which are marked by much more severe resource constraints in terms of bandwidth, memory, and computational capabilities. This paper presents an Agent-Based approach to Distance Vector Routing that addresses these resources constraints. Agent-Based Distance Vector Routing (ADVR) is a resource efficient implementation of Distance Vector Routing that is fault tolerant and scales well for large networks. ADVR draws upon some basic biologically inspired principles to facilitate coordination among the mobile agents that implement the routing task. Specifically, simulated pheromones are used to control the movement of agents within the network and to dynamically adjust the number of agents in the population. The behavior of ADVR is analyzed and compared to that of traditional Distance Vector Routing.

Description: This article discusses classifying genes to the correct Gene Ontology Slim term in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using neighbouring genes with classification learning. Abstract: Background: There is increasing evidence that gene location and surrounding genes influence the functionality of genes in the eukaryotic genome. Knowing the Gene Ontology Slim terms associated with a gene gives the authors insight into a gene's functionality by informing the authors how its gene product behaves in a cellular context using three different ontologies: molecular function, biological process, and cellular component. In this study, the authors analyzed if they could classify a gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to its correct Gene Ontology Slim term using information about its location in the genome and information from its nearest-neighbouring genes using classification learning. Results: The authors performed experiments to establish that the MultiBoostAB algorithm using the J48 classifier could correctly classify Gene Ontology Slim terms of a gene given information regarding the gene's location and information from its nearest-neighbouring genes for training. Different neighbourhood sizes were examined to determine how many nearest neighbours should be included around each gene to provide better classification rules. The authors' results show that by just incorporating neighbour information from each gene's two-nearest neighbours, the ...

Description: This article discusses networks and natural language processing. Over the last few years, a number of areas of natural language processing have begun applying graph-based techniques. These include, among others, text summarization, syntactic parsing, word-sense disambiguation, ontology construction, sentiment and subjectivity analysis, and text clustering. In this paper, the authors present some of the most successful graph-based representations and algorithms used in language processing and try to explain how and why they work

Description: This article discusses baccalaureate programs for the engineering profession. An educational model for ABET-accredited baccalaureate programs in Engineering (E) and in Engineering Technology (ET) is proposed whereby all students inclined to pursue an engineering career would first complete two years of a 4-year ET program. By the end of the sophomore year, those students interested and skilled enough to follow a more theoretical or conceive-and-design side of an engineering career would go on to complete a degree in perhaps two to four additional years in a department that offered E degrees. The 4-year option would satisfy the Department of Education definition of a 6-year first professional degree. On the other hand, those students interested and skilled enough to follow a more applied or implement-and-operate side of an engineering career would opt to complete a degree in two additional years in a department that offered ET degrees. The model offers clearly defined options to students interested in an industry-based engineering profession two to four years after graduation where conceive-, design-, implement- and operate-tasks are assigned. If adopted, the model will result in several benefits including: (1) improved program marketing; (2) increased enrollment and retention rates; and (3) improved human and facility ...

Description: This article discusses dynamic intimate contact social networks and epidemic interventions. Abstract: Sexually transmitted diseases and infections are, by definition, transferred among intimate social settings. Although the circumstances under which these social settings are established and maintained may vary, the common prerequisite remains an intimate level of social atmosphere. For this reason, the development of sexually transmitted disease mathematical and computational models must utilize dynamic and evolving social network simulation. This paper presents DynSNIC (Dynamic Social Network of Intimate Contacts), a computational simulator created to embody the intimate dynamic and evolving social networks related to the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and infections. DynSNIC's utilization by health professionals will facilitate evaluation of targeted intervention strategies and public health policies.