209 research outputs found
Unsupervised energy disaggregation via convolutional sparse coding
In this work, a method for unsupervised energy disaggregation in private
households equipped with smart meters is proposed. This method aims to classify
power consumption as active or passive, granting the ability to report on the
residents' activity and presence without direct interaction. This lays the
foundation for applications like non-intrusive health monitoring of private
homes.
The proposed method is based on minimizing a suitable energy functional, for
which the iPALM (inertial proximal alternating linearized minimization)
algorithm is employed, demonstrating that various conditions guaranteeing
convergence are satisfied.
In order to confirm feasibility of the proposed method, experiments on
semi-synthetic test data sets and a comparison to existing, supervised methods
are provided.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 3 table
FairFuzz: Targeting Rare Branches to Rapidly Increase Greybox Fuzz Testing Coverage
In recent years, fuzz testing has proven itself to be one of the most
effective techniques for finding correctness bugs and security vulnerabilities
in practice. One particular fuzz testing tool, American Fuzzy Lop or AFL, has
become popular thanks to its ease-of-use and bug-finding power. However, AFL
remains limited in the depth of program coverage it achieves, in particular
because it does not consider which parts of program inputs should not be
mutated in order to maintain deep program coverage. We propose an approach,
FairFuzz, that helps alleviate this limitation in two key steps. First,
FairFuzz automatically prioritizes inputs exercising rare parts of the program
under test. Second, it automatically adjusts the mutation of inputs so that the
mutated inputs are more likely to exercise these same rare parts of the
program. We conduct evaluation on real-world programs against state-of-the-art
versions of AFL, thoroughly repeating experiments to get good measures of
variability. We find that on certain benchmarks FairFuzz shows significant
coverage increases after 24 hours compared to state-of-the-art versions of AFL,
while on others it achieves high program coverage at a significantly faster
rate
Therapy of endocrine disease: Medical treatment of primary aldosteronism
In patients with primary aldosteronism, specific treatment provides prognostic benefit over optimal antihypertensive therapy and is therefore crucial to reduce mortality and morbidity in this subgroup of patients with hypertension. Prognostic relevance has been shown for adrenalectomy in unilateral disease and for medical treatment with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists in bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. Collectively, evidence points to the superiority of surgical treatment compared to medical treatment. The causal approach of removing the mineralocorticoid excess, as well as the often-accompanying glucocorticoid excess, might provide one biologically plausible explanation for the observation of slightly better outcomes with surgical therapy. However, in patients living with primary aldosteronism, medical treatment is often insufficient for three major reasons. First and foremost, no marker of sufficient aldosterone blockade has yet been established and therefore adequate treatment of the aldosterone excess is often dismissed as a treatment goal. Second, side effects often limit patient compliance. Third, as recommendations differ from other indications like heart failure, drug dosing is often inadequate. The aim of this review is first to provide an overview over medical treatment options and second to review potential markers for treatment surveillance in patients with primary aldosteronism
Differences Between Omnivores and Vegetarians in Personality Profiles, Values, and Empathy: A Systematic Review
Numerous medical studies have documented vegetarian diets as having various health benefits. Studies have also compared vegetarians with other dietary groups from a socio-psychological perspective. The objective of this review is to investigate the differences between vegetarians and omnivores in terms of their personality profiles, values, and empathy skills. A search was conducted across three electronic databases. Non-randomized, observational, cross-sectional, and cohort studies were eligible. Outcomes provided information about the differences between the above-mentioned dietary groups regarding their personality profiles, values, and empathy skills. A shortened version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the risk of bias for the included studies. Of the 2,513 different studies found, 25 (total number of participants n = 23,589) were ultimately included. These studies indicate that vegetarians significantly differ from omnivores in their personalities, values, and ability to be empathetic. Omnivorism is associated with an increased orientation toward social dominance, greater right-wing authoritarianism, and, in line with this, a stronger tendency to be prejudiced. Vegetarianism is associated with greater openness and empathy. The values of vegetarians are based more on universalism, hedonism, stimulation, and self-direction, whereas the values of omnivores are based more on the idea of power. To answer a narrowly defined and clear question, issues such as animal ethics, animal rights, and environmental protection are not considered in this review. The findings of this review, showing marked differences in personality correlating to the choice of diet and the increasing influence of plant-based diets on a global level, indicate that further studies about vegetarianism are warranted
Smart Dust und Micro Robots im industriellen Sektor : Chancen, offene Punkte und Handlungsempfehlungen
Neben der massiven Erhöhung der LeistungsfĂ€higkeit ist die radikale Miniaturisierung von Technologien ein zentraler Aspekt des digitalen Zeitalters â auch im Bereich der Robotik. In diesem Kontext stellen Smart Dust und Micro Robots mikro-elektro-mechanische Systeme im Sub-Millimeter-Bereich dar, je nach AusprĂ€gung mit Sensorik-, Verarbeitungs-, Kommunikations- und AktuatorikfĂ€higkeiten ausgestattet. Dieser praxisorientierte Beitrag beschĂ€ftigt sich mit der Rolle von Smart Dust und Micro Robots im industriellen Sektor auf der Evidenzgrundlage von Fokusgruppen mit Industrievertretern. Interessierten Fach- und FĂŒhrungskrĂ€ften wird aufgezeigt, welche Potentiale resultieren, welche HĂŒrden gemeistert werden mĂŒssen und welche strategische AktivitĂ€ten es zur wertschöpfenden Nutzung in die Wege zu leiten gilt. Auch wenn heute in der Praxis noch schwierig umzusetzen, erkennt die Industrie diese Technologien und den damit verbundenen Mehrwert durchaus an
Ab initio nonrigid X-ray nanotomography
Abstract: Reaching the full potential of X-ray nanotomography, in particular for biological samples, is limited by many factors, of which one of the most serious is radiation damage. Although sample deformation caused by radiation damage can be partly mitigated by cryogenic protection, it is still present in these conditions and, as we exemplify here using a specimen extracted from scales of the Cyphochilus beetle, it will pose a limit to the achievable imaging resolution. We demonstrate a generalized tomographic model, which optimally follows the sample morphological changes and attempts to recover the original sample structure close to the ideal, damage-free reconstruction. Whereas our demonstration was performed using ptychographic X-ray tomography, the method can be adopted for any tomographic imaging modality. Our application demonstrates improved reconstruction quality of radiation-sensitive samples, which will be of increasing relevance with the higher brightness of 4th generation synchrotron sources
Evolutionary Minority Games: the benefits of imitation
In the original Evolutionary Minority Game, a segregation into two
populations with opposing preferences is observed under many circumstances. We
show that this segregation becomes more pronounced and more robust if the
dynamics are changed slightly, such that strategies with above-average fitness
become more frequent. Similar effects occur also for a generalization of the
EMG to more than two choices, and for evolutionary dynamics of a different
stochastic strategy for the Minority Game.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
The C-Band All-Sky Survey: Instrument design, status, and first-look data
The C-Band All-Sky Survey (C-BASS) aims to produce sensitive, all-sky maps of
diffuse Galactic emission at 5 GHz in total intensity and linear polarization.
These maps will be used (with other surveys) to separate the several
astrophysical components contributing to microwave emission, and in particular
will allow an accurate map of synchrotron emission to be produced for the
subtraction of foregrounds from measurements of the polarized Cosmic Microwave
Background. We describe the design of the analog instrument, the optics of our
6.1 m dish at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, the status of observations,
and first-look data.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, published in Proceedings of SPIE MIllimeter,
Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V
(2010), Vol. 7741, 77411I-1 - 77411I-1
Digitale Plattformen in der Praxis: Einsatz- und Entwicklungsmodelle
Zusammenfassung Viele der wertvollsten Unternehmen der Welt betreiben ihr GeschĂ€ft auf Basis einer digitalen Plattform samt umgebendem Ăkosystem. WĂ€hrend es in der Theorie zahlreiche ErklĂ€rungs-und GestaltungsansĂ€tze fĂŒr die erfolgreiche Umsetzung gibt, gelten diese wirtschaftlich attraktiven GeschĂ€ftsmodelle in der Praxis nach wie vor als herausfordernd. Auf der empirischen Grundlage von sieben Plattform-Innovationsprojekten und mit Methoden der Fallstudienforschung untersucht der vorliegende Artikel, welche Rolle digitale Plattformen in der Praxis spielen und wie diese Artefakte entwickelt werden können. Mit den Ergebnissen in Form von vier Einsatz- (Platform-as-a-Core, Platform-as-an-Evolution, Platform-as-an-Enabler, Platform-as-an-Add-On) und vier Entwicklungsmodellen (Methodic Problem Solvers, Methodic Strategists, Methodic Leaders, Ad-Hoc Developers) kann gefolgert werden: Digitale Plattformen können in der Praxis vielfĂ€ltige Rollen einnehmen und deren Entwicklung kann mit unterschiedlicher MethodikintensitĂ€t erfolgen. FĂŒr die Praxis profitieren Fach- und FĂŒhrungskrĂ€fte von industrienahen Einblicken und abgeleiteten Handlungsempfehlungen. FĂŒr die Forschung wird der Wissensfundus im Bereich des Designs und der Entwicklung digitaler Plattformen erweitert
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