Three Pillar Information Management System for Modeling the Environment of Autonomous Systems

This contribution is about an information management and storage system for modeling the environment of autonomous systems. The three pillars of the system consist of prior knowledge, environment model and sensory information. The main pillar is the environment model, which supplies the autonomous system with relevant information about its current environment. For this purpose, an abstract representation of the real world is created, where instances with attributes and relations serve as virtual substitutes of entities (persons and objects) of the real world. The environment model is created based on sensory information about the real world. The gathered sensory information is typically uncertain in a stochastic sense and is represented in the environment model by means of Degree-of-Belief (DoB) distributions. The prior knowledge contains all relevant background knowledge (e.g., concepts organized in ontologies) for creating and maintaining the environment model. The concept of the three pillar information system has previously been published. Therefore this contribution focuses on further central properties of the system. Furthermore, the development status and possible applications as well as evaluation scenarios are discussed

TrackSort: Predictive Tracking for Sorting Uncooperative Bulk Materials

Optical belt sorters are a versatile, state-of-the-art technology to sort bulk materials that are hard to sort based on only nonvisual properties. In this paper, we propose an extension to current optical belt sorters that involves replacing the line camera with an area camera to observe a wider field of view, allowing us to observe each particle over multiple time steps. By performing multitarget tracking, we are able to improve the prediction of each particle‘s movement and thus enhance the performance of the utilized separation mechanism. We show that our approach will allow belt sorters to handle new classes of bulk materials while improving cost efficiency. Furthermore, we lay out additional extensions that are made possible by our new paradig

Einfluss von Vegetationszusammensetzung und P-Düngung auf Mykorrhizierung und P-Mobilisierung unter Grünland

Die Vegetationszusammensetzung und die Düngung können die Besiedlungsdichte von Mykorrhizapilzen signifikant beeinflussen. Die Mykorrhizierung leistet einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur P-Versorgung von Grünlandpflanzen. In zwei Gras- bzw. Klee-Gras-Beständen wurde die Wirkung des Düngers Physalg 25 auf die Mykorrhizapilzsporendichte, die mikrobielle P-Speicherung und die Aktivität von sauren und alkalischen Phosphatasen im Boden geprüft. Nach einer Vegetationsperiode reduzierte Klee im Gemenge die Sporendichte der Mykorrhizapilze und führte in Abwesenheit von P-Düngung zu einer erhöhten mikrobiellen P-Speicherung. Die Ergebnisse belegen signifikante Interaktionen von Phytodiversität und Düngung auf die mikrobielle Biomasse des Bodens als labilen Nährstoffpool

Data Association in a World Model for Autonomous Systems

This contribution introduces a three pillar information storage and management system for modeling the environment of autonomous systems. The main characteristics is the separation of prior knowledge, environment model and sensor information. In the center of the system is the environment model, which provides the autonomous system with information about the current state of the environment. It consists of instances with attributes and relations as virtual substitutes of entities (persons and objects) of the real world. Important features are the representation of uncertain information by means of Degree-of-Belief (DoB) distributions, the information exchange between the three pillars as well as creation, deletion and update of instances, attributes and relations in the environment model. In this work, a Bayesian method for fusing new observations to the environment model is introduced. For this purpose, a Bayesian data association method is derived. The main question answered here is the observation-to-instance mapping and the decision mechanisms for creating a new instance or updating already existing instances in the environment model

Z_2-Bi-Gradings, Majorana Modules and the Standard Model Action

The action functional of the Standard Model of particle physics is intimately related to a specific class of first order differential operators called Dirac operators of Pauli type ("Pauli-Dirac operators"). The aim of this article is to carefully analyze the geometrical structure of this class of Dirac operators on the basis of real Dirac operators of simple type. On the basis of simple type Dirac operators, it is shown how the Standard Model action (STM action) may be viewed as generalizing the Einstein-Hilbert action in a similar way the Einstein-Hilbert action is generalized by a cosmological constant. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the geometrical scheme presented allows to naturally incorporate also Majorana mass terms within the Standard Model. For reasons of consistency these Majorana mass terms are shown to dynamically contribute to the Einstein-Hilbert action by a "true" cosmological constant. Due to its specific form, this cosmological constant can be very small. Nonetheless, this cosmological constant may provide a significant contribution to dark matter/energy. In the geometrical description presented this possibility arises from a subtle interplay between Dirac and Majorana masses

Betriebswirtschaftliche Optimierung in der kommunalen Abfallwirtschaft - Abschlußbericht: Identische parallele Veröffentlichung der Druckausgabe aus dem Jahr 1999 als wissenschaftliches elektronisches Dokument auf dem Hochschulschriftenserver der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB) unter: http://hsss.slub-dresden.de/hsss/servlet/hsss.urlmapping.MappingServlet?id=1055765134421-8556

Ziel des Projekts war es, die besondere Problemlage der kommunalen Abfallwirtschaft im Freistaat Sachsen wissenschaftlich fundiert zu beleuchten. So sollten unter anderem bei den sächsischen Abfallverbänden zum einen Unwirtschaftlichkeiten aufgedeckt und Erklärungsansätze für offenkundige Diskrepanzen gefunden werden. Zum anderen ging es aber auch darum, empirisch fundierte Entlastungsargumente bei ungerechtfertigten Vorwürfen Dritter wegen angeblicher Ineffizienz der sächsischen Abfallverbände zu liefern. Dabei kam ein umfassender qualitativer und quantitativer Betriebsvergleich als Analyseinstrument zum Einsatz, in den alle Abfallverbände im Freistaat Sachsen einbezogen wurden. - (Identische parallele Veröffentlichung der Druckausgabe aus dem Jahr 1999

Cherenkov Light Imaging - Fundamentals and recent Developments

We review in a historical way the fundamentals of Cherenkov light imaging applied to Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counters. We also point out some of the newer developments in this very active field.Comment: Submitted to special edition of NIMA, Proceedings of RICH201

Psychological risk and protective factors for disability in chronic low back pain - a longitudinal analysis in primary care

Background: Utilizing psychological resources when dealing with chronic low back pain might aid the prevention of disability. The observational study at hand examined the longitudinal impact of resilience and coping resources on disability in addition to established risk factors. Methods: Four hundred eighty four patients with chronic low back pain (>3 months) were recruited in primary care practices and followed up for one year. Resilience, coping, depression, somatization, pain and demographic variables were measured at baseline. At follow-up (participation rate 89%), data on disability was collected. We first calculated bivariate correlations of all the predictors with each other and with follow-up disability. We then used a multiple regression to evaluate the impact of all the predictors on disability together. Results: More than half of the followed up sample showed a high degree of disability at baseline (53.7%) and had suffered for more than 10 years from pain (50.4%). Besides gender all of the predictors were bivariately associated with follow-up disability. However in the main analysis (multiple regression), disability at follow up was only predicted by baseline disability, age and somatization. There was no relationship between resilience and disability, nor between coping resources and disability. Conclusions: Although it is known that there are cross-sectional relationships between resilience/coping resources and disability we were not able to replicate it in the multiple regression. This can have several reasons: a) the majority of patients in our sample were much more disabled and suffered for a longer time than in other studies. Therefore our results might be limited to this specific population and resilience and coping resources might still have a protective influence in acute or subacute populations. b) We used a rather broad operationalization of resilience. There is emerging evidence that focusing on more concrete sub facets like (pain) self-efficacy and acceptance might be more beneficial

Hypertension and hand-foot skin reactions related to VEGFR2 genotype and improved clinical outcome following bevacizumab and sorafenib

BACKGROUND: Hypertension (HT) and hand-foot skin reactions (HFSR) may be related to the activity of bevacizumab and sorafenib. We hypothesized that these toxicities would correspond to favorable outcome in these drugs, that HT and HFSR would coincide, and that VEGFR2 genotypic variation would be related to toxicity and clinical outcomes. METHODS: Toxicities (≥ grade 2 HT or HFSR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) following treatment initiation were evaluated. Toxicity incidence and VEGFR2 H472Q and V297I status were compared to clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Individuals experiencing HT had longer PFS following bevacizumab therapy than those without this toxicity in trials utilizing bevacizumab in patients with prostate cancer (31.5 vs 14.9 months, n = 60, P = 0.0009), and bevacizumab and sorafenib in patients with solid tumors (11.9 vs. 3.7 months, n = 27, P = 0.052). HT was also linked to a > 5-fold OS benefit after sorafenib and bevacizumab cotherapy (5.7 versus 29.0 months, P = 0.0068). HFSR was a marker for prolonged PFS during sorafenib therapy (6.1 versus 3.7 months respectively, n = 113, P = 0.0003). HT was a risk factor for HFSR in patients treated with bevacizumab and/or sorafenib (OR(95%CI) = 3.2(1.5-6.8), P = 0.0024). Carriers of variant alleles at VEGFR2 H472Q experienced greater risk of developing HT (OR(95%CI) = 2.3(1.2 - 4.6), n = 170, P = 0.0154) and HFSR (OR(95%CI) = 2.7(1.3 - 5.6), n = 170, P = 0.0136). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that HT and HFSR may be markers for favorable clinical outcome, HT development may be a marker for HFSR, and VEGFR2 alleles may be related to the development of toxicities during therapy with bevacizumab and/or sorafenib