Ontologies in a Multi-Agent System for Automated Scheduling

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) have been successfully used in a wide range of applications such as robotics and e-commerce, and in particular in planning and scheduling. The aim of this paper is to present the interesting features that the use of ontologies in MAS offers. As an example, the development of a MAS for automated planning and scheduling in a University Research Group Scenario is shown in this paper. In this scenario, researchers are frequently proposed to attend internal meetings about several subjects such as lessons planning or research evaluations. Scheduling and negotiating meeting details such as time and location becomes highly complicated as the number of intended attendees increases. Moreover, there are usually conflicts about the use of some common resources such as portable computers or projectors. As can be seen, the scheduling problem that the MAS solves is very easy. So having solved it is not what is important about this paper. In contrast, what is important is the potential which a scheduler can schedule for the items whose description, for example, is on the web, and can read on it (without knowing a~priori) the logic of how the scheduling can be done

Users acting in mixed reality interactive storytelling

“Do you expect me to talk? Oh no, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!” Bond and Auric Goldfinger – from “Goldfinger” Abstract. Entertainment systems promise to be a significant application for Mixed Reality. Recently, a growing number of Mixed Reality applications have included interaction with synthetic characters and storytelling. However, AIbased Interactive Storytelling techniques have not yet been explored in the context of Mixed Reality. In this paper, we describe a first experiment in the adaptation of an Interactive Storytelling technique to a Mixed Reality system. After a description of the real time image processing techniques that support the creation of a hybrid environment, we introduce the storytelling technique and the specificities of user interaction in the Mixed Reality context. We illustrate these experiments by discussing examples obtained from the system.

Subset sum phase transitions and data compression

We propose a rigorous analysis approach for the subset sum problem in the context of lossless data compression, where the phase transition of the subset sum problem is directly related to the passage between ambiguous and non-ambiguous decompression, for a compression scheme that is based on specifying the sequence composition. The proposed analysis lends itself to straightforward extensions in several directions of interest, including non-binary alphabets, incorporation of side information at the decoder (Slepian-Wolf coding), and coding schemes based on multiple subset sums. It is also demonstrated that the proposed technique can be used to analyze the critical behavior in a more involved situation where the sequence composition is not specified by the encoder.Comment: 14 pages, submitted to the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experimen

Influenza A virus-derived defective interfering particles for antiviral treatment

Here, we report on genetically engineered, propagation-incompetent influenza A virus (IAV) particles, so-called defective interfering particles (DIPs) that have been suggested as a promising novel antiviral agent. Typically, IAV DIPs harbor a large internal deletion in one of their eight genomic viral RNA (vRNA) segments. Further, DIPs are capable of hijacking cellular and viral resources upon co-infection with fully infectious standard virus (STV), resulting in an antiviral effect. Besides this replication interference, DIP infection also stimulates innate immunity, adding to the antiviral efficacy. So far, DIPs were produced in embryonated chicken eggs. To improve scalability and flexibility of processes as well as to increase product quality, we established a cell culture-based DIP production system [1,2]. This includes the development of a genetically engineered virus-cell propagation system that allows production of DIPs without the need to add infectious STV to complement missing gene functions of DIPs. Specifically, the MDCK suspension cell line generated expresses the PB2 protein [2], encoded by segment 1 (S1) of IAV, which is not expressed by “DI244” - a prototypic, well-characterized DIP harboring a deletion in S1. Using this cell culture-based production process in batch [2,3] and perfusion mode [4] at laboratory scale, we show that we can achieve very high DI244 titers of up to 2.6E+11 DIPs/mL. Infections of mice demonstrated that intranasal administration of the produced DI244 material resulted in no apparent toxic effects and in a full rescue of mice co-treated with an otherwise lethal dose of IAV [2]. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

The dead shall be raised : Multidisciplinary analysis of human skeletons reveals complexity in 19th century immigrant socioeconomic history and identity in New Haven, Connecticut

In July 2011, renovations to Yale-New Haven Hospital inadvertently exposed the cemetery of Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut’s first Catholic cemetery. While this cemetery was active between 1833 and 1851, both the church and its cemetery disappeared from public records, making the discovery serendipitous. Four relatively well-preserved adult skeletons were recovered with few artifacts. All four individuals show indicators of manual labor, health and disease stressors, and dental health issues. Two show indicators of trauma, with the possibility of judicial hanging in one individual. Musculoskeletal markings are consistent with physical stress, and two individuals have arthritic indicators of repetitive movement/specialized activities. Radiographic analyses show osteopenia, healed trauma, and other pathologies in several individuals. Dental calculus analysis did not identify any tuberculosis indicators, despite osteological markers. Isotopic analyses of teeth indicate that all four were likely recent immigrants to the Northeastern United States. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA were recovered from three individuals, and these analyses identified ancestry, hair/eye color, and relatedness. Genetic and isotopic results upended our initial ancestry assessment based on burial context alone. These individuals provide biocultural evidence of New Haven’s Industrial Revolution and the plasticity of ethnic and religious identity in the immigrant experience. Their recovery and the multifaceted analyses described here illuminate a previously undescribed part of the city’s rich history. The collective expertise of biological, geochemical, archaeological, and historical researchers interprets socioeconomic and cultural identity better than any one could alone. Our combined efforts changed our initial assumptions of a poor urban Catholic cemetery’s membership, and provide a template for future discoveries and analyses