Identification and Lossy Reconstruction in Noisy Databases

A high-dimensional database system is studied where the noisy versions of the underlying feature vectors are observed in both the enrollment and query phases. The noisy observations are compressed before being stored in the database, and the user wishes to both identify the correct entry corresponding to the noisy query vector and reconstruct the original feature vector within a desired distortion level. A fundamental capacity-storage-distortion tradeoff is identified for this system in the form of single-letter information theoretic expressions. The relation of this problem to the classical Wyner-Ziv rate-distortion problem is shown, where the noisy query vector acts as the correlated side information available only in the lossy reconstruction of the feature vector. \ua9 1963-2012 IEEE

A general framework for the optimization of energy harvesting communication systems with battery imperfections

Energy harvesting has emerged as a powerful technology for complementing current battery-powered communication systems in order to extend their lifetime. In this paper a general framework is introduced for the optimization of communication systems in which the transmitter is able to harvest energy from its environment. Assuming that the energy arrival process is known non-causally at the transmitter, the structure of the optimal transmission scheme, which maximizes the amount of transmitted data by a given deadline, is identified. Our framework includes models with continuous energy arrival as well as battery constraints. A battery that suffers from energy leakage is studied further, and the optimal transmission scheme is characterized for a constant leakage rate

Crescentic glomerulonephritis associated with nail-patella syndrome in a 13-year-old girl

Nail-patella syndrome (NPS), also known as hereditary osteoonychodysplasia, is a rare autosomal dominant pleiotropic disorder, defined by the association of nail dysplasia, skeletal abnormalities and renal lesions.(1) Skeletal features include absent or hypoplastic patella, patella dislocation, elbow abnormalities (like knee abnormalities), and iliac horns on X-ray. Renal involvement is considered the most serious component and the cause of lethality of this syndrome. Renal involvement may lead to renal failure.(2) The main pathology involves a defect in the glomerular basement membrane (GBM), which has irregular thickening containing electron-lucent areas. The first sign of renal involvement is usually proteinuria, with or without haematuria.(3) Previous studies have estimated that renal involvement occurred in 12-55% of patients with NPS,(4) and renal failure in 5-14% of NPS patients.(5

Crescentic glomerulonephritis associated with nail-patella syndrome in a 13-year-old girl

Nail-patella syndrome (NPS), also known as hereditary osteoonychodysplasia, is a rare autosomal dominant pleiotropic disorder, defined by the association of nail dysplasia, skeletal abnormalities and renal lesions.(1) Skeletal features include absent or hypoplastic patella, patella dislocation, elbow abnormalities (like knee abnormalities), and iliac horns on X-ray. Renal involvement is considered the most serious component and the cause of lethality of this syndrome. Renal involvement may lead to renal failure.(2) The main pathology involves a defect in the glomerular basement membrane (GBM), which has irregular thickening containing electron-lucent areas. The first sign of renal involvement is usually proteinuria, with or without haematuria.(3) Previous studies have estimated that renal involvement occurred in 12-55% of patients with NPS,(4) and renal failure in 5-14% of NPS patients.(5

Citizen Participation in Smart Government: A Conceptual Model and Two IoT Case Studies

In its simplest form, smart government can be understood as the combination of new technologies and organizational innovation strategies to further modernize the public sector. Within this development, the Internet of Things (IoT) often forms a key technological foundation, offering government authorities new possibilities for inter-action with citizens and local communities. On one hand, citizens can indirectly partic-ipate in governmental services’ value creation by using public infrastructure or (un)knowingly sharing their data with the community. On the other hand, smart gov-ernment initiatives may rely more intensively on citizens’ active participation to im-prove public service delivery, increase trust in government actions, and strengthen community sentiment. In this chapter, we discuss active and passive participation sce-narios of smart government initiatives and explain how sensor-based systems may en-hance citizens’ opportunities to participate in local governance. We present two prac-tical cases from Switzerland demonstrating these two citizen involvement modes. We argue that active and passive participation of citizens and other stakeholders play key role in generating necessary data for algorithmic decision-making to enable personal-ized interaction and real-time control of infrastructure in the future. We close with a discussion of the possibilities and boundaries of the IoT in the public sector and their possible influences on citizens’ private lives and policy-making

Follow-up of astrophysical transients in real time with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

In multi-messenger astronomy, rapid investigation of interesting transients is imperative. As an observatory with a 4 pi steradian field of view, and similar to 99% uptime, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a unique facility to follow up transients, as well as to provide valuable insights for other observatories and inform their observational decisions. Since 2016, IceCube has been using low-latency data to rapidly respond to interesting astrophysical events reported by the multi-messenger observational community. Here, we describe the pipeline used to perform these followup analyses, and provide a summary of the 58 analyses performed as of July 2020. We find no significant signal in the first 58 analyses performed. The pipeline has helped inform various electromagnetic observation strategies, and has constrained neutrino emission from potential hadronic cosmic accelerators