Mikko Laukkanen

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Agents on Mobile Devices

• Mikko Laukkanen
• Mikko.Laukkanen_at_teliasonera.com

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General introduction

• The agents are on their way to mobile devices
• Points to be considered
• Limitations of the mobile device (both hardware
  and software)
• The (nomadic) environment (wireless networks, new
  parameters, such as context awareness)
• Application areas
• Nomadic environments stimulate application areas
  for agents residing on the mobile device

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About this presentation

• Five main parts or perspectives
• Nomadic environments
• Characteristics, challenges
• Mobile devices
• Characteristics, operating systems, programming
  environments
• Agents and agent platforms in nomadic
  environments
• Challenges, use cases
• Examples of agent platforms and agent systems
• MicroFIPA-OS, JADE-LEAP, CASCOM platform
• Standardization work on the area

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• Nomadic Environments

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From stationary environments...
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... To nomadic environments...
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... And peer-to-peer (ad-hoc) environments
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Where are we today...

• Mobile devices used in nomadic environments are
  still quite limited
• Only a few access networks available
• Only a few services available (especially aimed
  to be used in nomadic environments)
• Many things are done by hand...

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...And what will (or should?) the future be like?

• Many different mobile devices
• Varying capabilities in terms of resolution,
  screen size, input methods, processing power,
  connectivity (this is already happening)
• Smart phones, PDAs, tablet computers, laptops,
  desktops,
• Multiple (overlapping) access networks
• GSM, HSCSD, GPRS, EDGE, UTMS, Bluetooth, WLAN,
  ... (this is also already happening)
• High number of services available for nomadic
  users
• Services and the availability of services will
  depend on the state of the environment
• More parameters affecting the availability of the
  just-on-time services than in the stationary
  environments
• QoS of the data communication, positioning, time,
  user interests,

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Challenges in the nomadic environments

• Nomadic environments enable new ways to access
  services ? anywhere, at any time, and using any
  device
• Challenges that need to be addressed
• Varying QoS of the wireless networks
• Limitations of mobile devices
• Contextual variability (location, time, user
  preferences, ...)
• Adaptivity in the nomadic environment is the key
  issue!

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• Mobile Devices

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What are actually mobile devices?

• Pocket-sized, network connectivity, and API for
  programming
• Current battle in mobile device market
• Microsoft (Windows Mobile) against others
  (Symbian OS, Linux)...
• PDA devices will include mobile phone
  capabilities...
• Mobile phones will include PDA-like
  capabilities...
• ? PDAPhone?
• Mobile devices for agents?
• Personal devices
• Wearable devices
• Embedded and consumer devices

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Limitations of the mobile devices

• Essential limitations
• Computing power
• Amount of memory and storage space
• Connectivity
• Battery life
• Other limitations
• Screen size and resolution
• Input/output
• The fact is that although the capabilities of the
  mobile devices increase, the resource gap
  between mobile and stationary devices will always
  be there

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Mobile device categorization
ProgrammingLanguage
ProgrammingEnvironment
Operating System
C
J
PocketPC
MS .NET
Java
Palm OS
J2ME
C/C
J2SE
Symbian OS
Native
Linux
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Java 2 standard and micro edition
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Microsoft .NET compact framework
Visual Studio.NET
.NET Framework
code
web pages
ASP.NET
.NET CompactFramework
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Symbian OS

• J2ME Midlets and C native applications
• Examples

Nokia
Ericsson Series 40
Series 60 Series 80 UIQ
6290 6680
9500 P990i
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Palm OS

• J2ME Midlets
• Examples

Palm m515 Handspring Treo
Kyocera
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Linux

• J2SE, J2ME, native applications
• Examples

HP iPAQ Sharp Zaurus
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PocketPC (Windows Mobile)

• Microsoft Windows-powered devices
• .NET Compact Framework available on PocketPC and
  PocketPC Phone Edition

PocketPC PocketPC Phone Edition
Smartphone
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• Agents and Agent Platforms in Nomadic
  Environments and Mobile Devices

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Why agents in mobile devices and nomadic
environments?

• Agents offer several features that could help
  solving the problems faced in the nomadic
  environments
• Reactivity
• Proactivity
• Coordination
• Autonomy
• Service discovery, service composition, and
  (automatic) service execution
• Semantic service descriptions for agents to
  consume
• Directory services for agents to discover
  services
• Planning agents for composing services from the
  available ones
• Executor agents to run the composed services

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Possible application areas

• Traditional agent application may not be wise to
  port on to handheld devices
• Agents in nomadic environments
• Agents could be used in making both end-users
  and applications life easier?
• Controlling network connections, enabling
  adaptation, ?
• Agents in ad-hoc networking and service access
• In ad-hoc environment handheld devices may have
  to cope on their own!

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Example 1 personal user agent

• Runs on users mobile device and helps user for
  instance by
• Monitoring the environment and informing about
  interesting things
• Filtering out irrelevant information from the
  environment
• Organizing information, such as email messages
  and calendar appointments
• Collaborating with other users User Agents
• Proactively preparing things for the user while
  the device is connected to the network

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Example 2 peer-to-peer (ad-hoc) environments

• In ad-hoc environment we cannot rely on static
  information about services!
• Agents in ad-hoc environment have to dynamically
  find each other and the (currently) available
  services
• Example scenario finding the quickest way to the
  destination in a foreign place
• The street network is not known
• No Internet access available
• Only ad-hoc networking possible
• Fortunately there are other agents available
  providing help...

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Example 3 multiagent system as an adaptive
middleware?

• Agents on the mobile device (or in the wireless
  network elements) and in the fixed network
  collaborate to be able to know the network
  quality of service of the wireless network
• Software agent methodology provides attractive
  features
• Reactivity sense changes in wireless network
  parameters
• Autonomous decide what needs to be done and how
• Pro-activeness act (in advance) if needed
• Co-operation ask for help from other agents or
  help other agents, if needed
• Based on the QoS information the agents control
  the content adaptation process

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Reality check....

• Using software agents is one way of doing this,
  not necessarely the best in terms of
  performance...
• ...But the issue is if the software agents as a
  methodology provides better tools for the
  development of this kind of middleware!

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• Example Agent Platforms

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MicroFIPA-OS agent platform

• Scaled-down version of FIPA-OS agent platform
• Lightweight
• Complies with the API of FIPA-OS
• Targeted at medium to high-end mobile devices
  capable of running PersonalJava or J2SE
• FIPA-compliant HTTP and proprietary socket based
  communication
• Can be built as self-contained platform or as a
  part of another platform
• Developed by University of Helsinki within
  CRUMPET project
• Open-source

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Supported devices

• Target device is Compaq iPAQ H3630, but
• it runs on Java-enabled devices such as
• Cassiopeia E115
• Psion Series 5
• and many other devices
• MicroFIPA-OS is PersonalJava compatible
• PersonalJava is supported in the J2ME with the
  Personal profile

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MicroFIPA-OS partial mode

• Agent platform on the mobile device may be either
  complete or a part of another platform

Fixed network
Wireless network
Mobile device
Server-side
Terminal Agents
Service Agents
MicroFIPA-OS Agent Platform
FIPA-OS Agent Platform
FIPA-compliant transport
FIPA-compliant transport
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MicroFIPA-OS partial mode

• Agent platform on the mobile device may be either
  complete or a part of another platform

Fixed network
Wireless network
Mobile device
Server-side
Terminal Agents
Service Agents
MicroFIPA-OS Agent Platform
FIPA-OS Agent Platform
FIPA-compliant transport
FIPA-compliant Transport
Mobile device
Terminal Agents
Server-side
Service Agents
Fixed network part
FIPA-OS Agent Platform
MicroFIPA-OS Agent Platform
FIPA-OS Agent Platform
Internal transport
FIPA-compliant transport
Internal transport
FIPA-compliant transport
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JADE-LEAP agent platform

• Extension to JADE (special container within JADE)
• Target devices
• Java MIDP-capable phones
• PDA devices
• Smallest available platform in terms of footprint
  size
• Proprietary device-initiated and socket based
  communication channel with main container
• Developed within LEAP project
• Open-source

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CASCOM agent platform

• Based on JADE/LEAP, but modified to meet the
  requirements of peer-to-peer environments
• Split containers replaced by full standalone
  agent platforms suitable for mobile devices -gt
  MIDP Stand-alone version of JADE/LEAP

JADE/LEAP split container model
CASCOM model
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CASCOM agent platform

• HTTP as transport protocol
• Based on JADEs HTTP implementation
• Changes needed for MIDP implementation
• Bit-efficient message envelope
• Based on existing implementation
• Bit-efficient ACL
• Based on existing implementation

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Which one to choose then...?

• Experience with JADE ? choose JADE-LEAP
• Experience with FIPA-OS ? choose MicroFIPA-OS
• No experience with either ? choose JADE-LEAP
  (IMHO)
• Depends on the target device and target
  environment
• If Java-phones are to be supported, JADE-LEAP is
  the only option
• If peer-to-peer environments are to be supported,
  CASCOM platform is the only option
• JADE-LEAP has largest community behind it and is
  perhaps most actively developed
• CASCOM platform is currently being developed,
  first prototypes are ready (yet not in public)

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• Example Agent Systems and Projects

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The CRUMPET project

• Creation of User-friendly Mobile services
  Personalised for Tourism
• EU IST 5th framework project
• Partners QMUL, Emorphia, Nortel Networks, EML,
  Fraunhofer FIT, PTIN, Sonera, University of
  Helsinki
• Two main objectives
• To implement, validate and trial context-aware
  tourism-related value-added services for nomadic
  users
• To evaluate agent technology in terms of
  user-acceptability, performance and best-practice
  as a suitable approach for fast creation of
  robust, scalable, seamlessly accessible nomadic
  services

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The CRUMPET architecture
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Nomadic application support
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The Control and Monitor agents

• Provides information about QoS by monitoring
  network connections
• QoS can be acquired in two ways by requesting it
  or subscribing to changes
• Throughput, RTT,
• Enables roaming between different network
  technologies
• Manages connections both by request or
  autonomously
• Provides means for efficient agent messaging in
  nomadic environments
• Bit-efficient encoding of the agent messages
• Wireless message transport protocol

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User agent and content adaptation - Example
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The Content Adaptation Agent

• Device adaptation formats the content based on
  the device capabilities
• QoS adaptation is based on the network QoS and
  user preferences
• Adaptation process is separated in two phases,
  because
• Sometimes only device adaptation is possible
• It may not be possible to get the QoS for the
  wireless link
• Normal transcoding (web) proxy can be used in QoS
  adaptation
• Services should be allowed to format the content
  by themselves, if they prefer doing so doing
  device adaptation twice does not make sense

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CRUMPET services
User modeling, localized services
Sights, hotels, restaurants, ...
Location-based services
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The LEAP project

• Lightweight Extensible Agent Platform
• EU IST 5th framework project
• Partners Motorola, ADAC, Broadcom, BT, Telecom
  Italia Lab, University of Parma, Siemens.
• Addresses the need for open infrastructures and
  services which support dynamic, mobile
  enterprises
• Knowledge management, decentralised work
  co-ordination, and travel management

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The CASCOM project
Main objective
To develop, implement, validate, and trial of
agent-based service coordination infrastructure
for innovative Semantic Web service discovery,
composition, execution across mobile and fixed
P2P service networks.
Driving vision
Ubiquitous business application services are
flexibly coordinated and pervasively provided to
the mobile worker/user by intelligent agents in
dynamically changing contexts of open,
large-scale, and pervasive environments.
At the end of the project there will be a fully
functional proof-of-concept system showing how
business application services for mobile users
and workers can be developed using secure
agent-based intelligent P2P approach
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The CASCOM project general approach
Seamless mobility
Semantics Agents
P2P Technologies
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• Standardization Work

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FIPA IEEE Standards Committee

• FIPA is an IEEE Computer Society standards
  organization that promotes agent-based technology
  and the interoperability of its standards with
  other technologies
• Currently four working groups (all quite relevant
  for agents in mobile devices)
• Agents and Web Services Interoperability Working
  Group (AWSI WG)
• Human-Agent Communications Working Group (HAC WG)
• Mobile Agents Working Group (MA WG)
• P2P Nomadic Agents Working Group (P2PNA WG)
• One study group
• Review of FIPA Specification Study Group (ROFS SG)

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P2P Nomadic Agents Working Group (P2PNA WG)

• Defines a specification for agents capable of
  running on small or embedded devices, and to
  support distributed implementation of
  applications over a pure P2P network
• Heavily influenced by the CASCOM project
• First draft specs should come out in these days
• Reference implementation of an agent platform
  will come out in June 2006
• Whole working group will complete by the end of
  2006

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Eearlier relevant FIPA specifications

• Standard specifications
• FIPA Nomadic Application Support Specification
• FIPA ACL Message Representation in Bit-Efficient
  Specification
• FIPA Agent Message Transport Envelope
  Representation in Bit Efficient Specification
• FIPA Device Ontology Specification
• FIPA Quality of Service Specification
• Experimental specifications
• FIPA Personal Assistant Specification
• FIPA Message Buffering Service Specification
• FIPA Agent Message Transport Protocol for WAP
  Specification

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• Discussion and Future Visions

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Discussion

• Agent(s) or agent platform on a mobile device?
• Running platform requires resources, but should
  not consume most of them
• Agent execution brings in overhead
• Should we really run agents or just services?
• Why do we need agents on the mobile device?
• Depends on the application area
• Would an interface to an agent be enough?
• On really low-end device this may be the only
  option!

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Discussion, contd

• The killer-application for agents in mobile
  devices?
• Agents and Web Services
• Agents and Semantic Web
• In the scope of CASCOM project
• Will be the topic of next lecture

Agents and Semantic Web Services?
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Future visions

• Mobile devices
• More powerful devices
• Mobile phones and PDA devices will converge
• Service environment and content
• Context-aware ambient computing
• Wireless networks
• More bandwidth
• Agents
• Mobile devices will run software, and
• Agents will be there, at least at a conceptual
  level, maybe even as a integrated service...?

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Conclusions

• The move towards nomadic environments
• Implies a move from stationary to dynamic
  environment, where the QoS of the wireless
  network may change rapidly
• New parameters to take into consideration
  location, move, just-on-time-typed services, ...
• Software agents or agent-like software will play
  a role in managing and controlling mobile devices
  in nomadic environments
• Mobile devices are already now capable of hosting
  agents and agent platforms, and in the future the
  devices will get even more powerful
• Tools and languages are maturing
• MicroFIPA-OS, JADE-LEAP, and CASCOM platforms
• To date, a few projects about agents on mobile
  devices (but not too many...)
• CRUMPET, LEAP, CASCOM

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References

• Heikki Helin, Heimo Laamanen, and Mikko
  Laukkanen. Software Agent Framework for Nomadic
  Computing. In Proceedings of the First Asian
  International Mobile Computing Conference
  (AMOC2000), pages 83-92, Penang, Malaysia,
  November 2000.
• Heikki Helin and Mikko Laukkanen. Towards
  Efficient and Reliable Agent Communication in
  Wireless Environments. In Matthias Klush and
  Franco Zambonelli, editors, Cooperative
  Information Agents V, Proceedings of the 5th
  International Workshop (CIA-2001), number 2182 in
  Lecture Notes in Artifical Intelligence, pages
  258-263. Springer-Verlag Heidelberg, Germany,
  September 2001.  
• Mikko Laukkanen, Sasu Tarkoma, and Jani Leinonen.
  FIPA-OS Agent Platform for Small-Footprint
  Devices. In John-Jules Meyer and Milind Tambe,
  editors, Intelligent Agents VIII, Proceedings of
  the Eighth International Workshop on Agent
  Theories, Architectures, and Languages
  (ATAL-2001), number 2333 in Lecture Notes in
  Artificial Intelligence, pages 447-460.
  Springer-Verlag Berlin, Germany, August 2001. 
• Mikko Laukkanen, Heikki Helin, and Heimo
  Laamanen. Supporting Nomadic Agent-Based
  Applications in the FIPA Agent Architecture. In
  C. Castelfranchi and W. L. Johnson, editors,
  Proceedings of the First International Joint
  Conference on Autonomous Agents Multi-Agent
  Systems (AAMAS 2002), Bologna, Italy. pages
  1348-1355. ACM Press, New York, NY, USA, Jul.
  2002. 
• Sasu Tarkoma and Mikko Laukkanen. Supporting
  Software Agents on Small Devices. In C.
  Castelfranchi and W. L. Johnson, editors,
  Proceedings of the First International Joint
  Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent
  Systems (AAMAS-2002), Bologna, Italy. pp.
  565-566. ACM Press, New York, NY, USA, Jul. 2002.
  Presented as Poster.

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References, contd

• Heikki Helin and Mikko Laukkanen. Efficient Agent
  Communication in Slow Wireless Networks. In A.
  Zemliak and N. E. Mastorakis, editors, Advances
  in Information Science and Soft Computing,
  Proceedings of the 2nd WSEAS International
  Conference on Information Science and
  Applications (ISA02), pages 99104, Cancun,
  Mexico, May 2002. 
• Mikko Laukkanen, Heikki Helin and Heimo Laamanen.
  Tourists on the Move. In Matthias Klusch and
  Sascha Ossowski and Onn Shehory , editors,
  Cooperative Information Agents VI, Proceedings of
  the 6th International Workshop (CIA-2002), number
  2446 in Lecture Notes in Artifical Intelligence,
  pages 36-50, September 2002, Madrid, Spain.
  Springer-Verlag Heidelberg, Germany.
• Heikki Helin and Mikko Laukkanen. Performance
  Analysis of Software Agent Communication in Slow
  Wireless Networks. In Proceedings of the 11th
  International Conference on Computer
  Communications and Networks. Miami, Florida, USA,
  Oct. 2002.
• Federico Bergenti and Agostino Poggi. LEAP A
  FIPA Platform for Handheld and Mobile Devices. In
  John-Jules Meyer and Milind Tambe, editors,
  Intelligent Agents VIII, Proceedings of the
  Eighth International Workshop on Agent Theories,
  Architectures, and Languages (ATAL-2001), number
  2333 in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence,
  pages 436-446. Springer-Verlag Berlin, Germany,
  August 2001.
• Giovanni Adorni, Federico Bergenti, Agostino
  Poggi, and Giovanni Rimassa Enabling FIPA Agents
  on Small Devices. In Matthias Klush and Franco
  Zambonelli, editors, Cooperative Information
  Agents V, Proceedings of the 5th International
  Workshop (CIA-2001), number 2182 in Lecture Notes
  in Artifical Intelligence, pages 248-257.
  Springer-Verlag Heidelberg, Germany, September
  2001.
• Federico Bergenti, Agostino Poggi, Bernard Burg,
  and Giovanni Caire. Deploying FIPA-Compliant
  Systems on Handheld Devices. IEEE Internet
  Computing 5(4) 20-25 (2001)

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URLs for Further Information

• FIPA-OS and MicroFIPA-OS - http//fipa-os.sourcefo
  rge.net/index.htm
• CRUMPET project - http//www.elec.qmul.ac.uk/crump
  et/
• JADE - http//jade.tilab.com/
• JADE-LEAP and LEAP project - http//leap.crm-paris
  .com/
• CASCOM project http//www.ist-cascom.org/
• FIPA - http//www.fipa.org
• My related publications http//www.cs.helsinki.fi
  /u/mtlaukka/publications

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• Thank You!
• Questions / Comments ?