Manufacturing of biological therapeutic agents such as growth hormone, tissue plasminogen activator, alpha interferon, and PEGylated proteins requires new analytical methodologies for characterization and quality control of the products. A new methodology based on the technique of partitioning in aqueous polymer two-phase systems is recommended for quality control testing. The advantages of the methodology are that it provides unique information that is related to the biological potency, and it is rugged and simple. Here we describe the basics of the technique and the quantitative information it provides and give examples of how the technique can be applied for characterization and quality control of biological and recombinant products.

Abstract-One of the grand challenges in agent technology research is quasi-automatic development of heterogeneous and dynamic multiagent systems using Agent Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) tools. This paper presents an innovative approach to developing and supporting multiagent systems at run-time. Multiagent systems (MASs) can and should be generated dynamically based on high-level user specifications which are transformed into a mission. Dynamically generating agents could also be offered as a pervasive service. Heterogeneity of MASs refers to diverse functionality and constituency of the system which include mobile as well as host associated software agents. This paper proposes and demonstrates on-demand and just-in-time agent generation approach which is combined with run-time support for MASs. Run-time support is based on mission cost-efficiency and objectives which enable termination, generation, injection and replacement of software agents as the mission evolves. We present the formal underpinning of our approach and describe the prototype tool -called eHermes, which has been implemented using specific agent platforms. Lessons and results of testing eHermes are reported and analyzed.

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