%0 Journal Article
	%A Hiram I. Beltrán and  Arturo Rojo-Domínguez and  Máximo Eduardo Sánchez Gutiérrez and  Pedro Pablo
González Pérez
	%D 2009
	%J International Journal of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
	%B World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
	%I Open Science Index 28, 2009
	%T Exploring Dimensionality, Systematic Mutations and Number of Contacts in Simple HP ab-initio Protein Folding Using a Blackboard-based Agent Platform
	%U https://publications.waset.org/pdf/9974
	%V 28
	%X A computational platform is presented in this
contribution. It has been designed as a virtual laboratory to be used
for exploring optimization algorithms in biological problems. This
platform is built on a blackboard-based agent architecture. As a test
case, the version of the platform presented here is devoted to the
study of protein folding, initially with a bead-like description of the
chain and with the widely used model of hydrophobic and polar
residues (HP model). Some details of the platform design are
presented along with its capabilities and also are revised some
explorations of the protein folding problems with different types of
discrete space. It is also shown the capability of the platform to
incorporate specific tools for the structural analysis of the runs in
order to understand and improve the optimization process.
Accordingly, the results obtained demonstrate that the ensemble of
computational tools into a single platform is worthwhile by itself,
since experiments developed on it can be designed to fulfill different
levels of information in a self-consistent fashion. By now, it is being
explored how an experiment design can be useful to create a
computational agent to be included within the platform. These
inclusions of designed agents –or software pieces– are useful for the
better accomplishment of the tasks to be developed by the platform.
Clearly, while the number of agents increases the new version of the
virtual laboratory thus enhances in robustness and functionality.
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