Semantic Distributed Messaging Middleware

Messaging middleware provides asynchronous communication between services in distributed environments. However, security, reliability and performance issues compel such middleware to be distributed, and distribution throws up its own problems such as identifying messaging channels which could then be subscribed to. In particular, interested parties need to identify channels defined in remote locations while not knowing details of how they are defined. A common vocabulary using semantic descriptions offers a solution to this problem. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of federated messaging middleware using semantic description of channels.

Agent-Oriented Data Curation in Bioinformatics

The practitioners of bioinformatics require increasing sophistication from their software tools to take into account the particular characteristics that make their domain complex. For example, there is a great variation of experience of researchers, from novices who would like guidance from experts in the best resources to use to experts that wish to take greater management control of the tools used in their experiments. Also, the range of available, and conflicting, data formats is growing and there is a desire to automate the many trivial manual stages of in-silico experiments. Agent-oriented software development is one approach to tackling the design of complex applications. In this paper, we argue that, in fact, agent-oriented development is a particularly well-suited approach to developing bioinformatics tools that take into account the wider domain characteristics. To illustrate this, we design a data curation tool, which manages the format of experimental data, extend it to better account for the extra requirements placed by the domain characteristics, and show how the characteristics lead to a system well suited to an agent-oriented view.

Agent-Oriented Data Curation in Bioinformatics

The practitioners of bioinformatics require increasing sophistication from their software tools to take into account the particular characteristics that make their domain complex. For example, there is a great variation of experience of researchers, from novices who would like guidance from experts in the best resources to use to experts that wish to take greater management control of the tools used in their experiments. Also, the range of available, and conflicting, data formats is growing and there is a desire to automate the many trivial manual stages of in-silico experiments. Agent-oriented software development is one approach to tackling the design of complex applications. In this paper, we argue that, in fact, agent-oriented development is a particularly well-suited approach to developing bioinformatics tools that take into account the wider domain characteristics. To illustrate this, we design a data curation tool, which manages the format of experimental data, extend it to better account for the extra requirements placed by the domain characteristics, and show how the characteristics lead to a system well suited to an agent-oriented view.

Chained Negotiation for Distributed Notification Services

Distributed notification services allow consumers and publishers of notifications to interact with different notification services. However, such a distributed infrastructure makes it difficult to share notifications between consumers when consumers are allowed to specify Quality of Service levels. In this paper, we present a chained negotiation engine, enabling distributed notification services to support negotiation and to reuse existing subscriptions. We demonstrate the benefit to the system as a whole by reducing load on service providers and enabling content to be shared.