PresenceSense: Zero-training Algorithm for Individual Presence Detection based on Power Monitoring

Non-intrusive presence detection of individuals in commercial buildings is much easier to implement than intrusive methods such as passive infrared, acoustic sensors, and camera. Individual power consumption, while providing useful feedback and motivation for energy saving, can be used as a valuable source for presence detection. We conduct pilot experiments in an office setting to collect individual presence data by ultrasonic sensors, acceleration sensors, and WiFi access points, in addition to the individual power monitoring data. PresenceSense (PS), a semi-supervised learning algorithm based on power measurement that trains itself with only unlabeled data, is proposed, analyzed and evaluated in the study. Without any labeling efforts, which are usually tedious and time consuming, PresenceSense outperforms popular models whose parameters are optimized over a large training set. The results are interpreted and potential applications of PresenceSense on other data sources are discussed. The significance of this study attaches to space security, occupancy behavior modeling, and energy saving of plug loads.Comment: BuildSys 201

Social Game for Building Energy Efficiency: Utility Learning, Simulation, and Analysis

We describe a social game that we designed for encouraging energy efficient behavior amongst building occupants with the aim of reducing overall energy consumption in the building. Occupants vote for their desired lighting level and win points which are used in a lottery based on how far their vote is from the maximum setting. We assume that the occupants are utility maximizers and that their utility functions capture the tradeoff between winning points and their comfort level. We model the occupants as non-cooperative agents in a continuous game and we characterize their play using the Nash equilibrium concept. Using occupant voting data, we parameterize their utility functions and use a convex optimization problem to estimate the parameters. We simulate the game defined by the estimated utility functions and show that the estimated model for occupant behavior is a good predictor of their actual behavior. In addition, we show that due to the social game, there is a significant reduction in energy consumption

Energy Scalability of On-Chip Interconnection Networks in Multicore Architectures

On-chip interconnection networks (OCNs) such as point-to-point networks and buses form the communication backbone in systems-on-a-chip, multicore processors, and tiled processors. OCNs can consume significant portions of a chip's energy budget, so analyzing their energy consumption early in the design cycle becomes important for architectural design decisions. Although numerous studies have examined OCN implementation and performance, few have examined energy. This paper develops an analytical framework for energy estimation in OCNs and presents results based on both analytical models of communication patterns and real network traces from applications running on a tiled multicore processor. Our analytical framework supports arbitrary OCN topologies under arbitrary communication patterns while accounting for wire length, switch energy, and network contention. It is the first to incorporate the effects of communication locality and network contention, and use real traces extensively. This paper compares the energy of point-to-point networks against buses under varying degrees of communication locality. The results indicate that, for 16 or more processors, a one-dimensional and a two-dimensional point-to-point network provide 66% and 82% energy savings, respectively, over a bus assuming that processors communicate with equal likelihood. The energy savings increase for patterns which exhibit locality. For the two-dimensional point-to-point OCN of the Raw tiled microprocessor, contention contributes a maximum of just 23% of the OCN energy, using estimated values for channel, switch control logic, and switch queue buffer energy of 34.5pJ, 17pJ, and 12pJ, respectively. Our results show that the energy-delay product per message decreases with increasing processor message injection rate

Presence of presynaptic neurotoxin complexes in the venoms of Australo-Papuan death adders (Acanthophis spp.)

Australo-papuan death adders (Acanthophis spp.) are a cause of serious envenomations in Papua New Guinea and northern Australia often resulting in neurotoxic paralysis. Furthermore, victims occasionally present with delayed-onset neurotoxicity that sometimes responds poorly to antivenom or anticholinesterase treatment. This clinical outcome could be explained by the presence of potent snake presynaptic phospholipase A2 neurotoxin (SPAN) complexes and monomers, in addition to long- and short-chain postsynaptic α-neurotoxins, that bind irreversibly, block neurotransmitter release and result in degeneration of the nerve terminal. The present study therefore aimed to determine within-genus variations in expression of high molecular mass SPAN complexes in the venoms of six major species of Acanthophis, four geographic variants of Acanthophis antarcticus. Venoms were separated by size-exclusion liquid chromatography under non-denaturing conditions and fractions corresponding to proteins in the range of 22 to >60 kDa were subjected to pharmacological characterization using the isolated chick biventer cervicis nerve-muscle (CBCNM) preparation. All venoms, except Acanthophis wellsi and Acanthophis pyrrhus, contained high mass fractions with phospholipase A2 activity that inhibited twitch contractions of the CBCNM preparation. This inhibition was of slow onset, and responses to exogenous nicotinic agonists were not blocked, consistent with the presence of SPAN complexes. The results of the present study indicate that clinicians may need to be aware of possible prejunctional neurotoxicity following envenomations from A. antarcticus (all geographic variants except perhaps South Australia), Acanthophis praelongus, Acanthophis rugosus and Acanthophis. laevis species, and that early antivenom intervention is important in preventing further development of toxicity. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Energy scalability of OCN

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Page 198 blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-197).On-chip interconnection networks (OCN) such as point-to-point networks and buses form the communication backbone in multiprocessor systems-on-a-chip, multicore processors, and tiled processors. OCNs consume significant portions of a chip's energy budget, so their energy analysis early in the design cycle becomes important for architectural design decisions. Although innumerable studies have examined OCN implementation and performance, there have been few energy analysis studies. This thesis develops an analytical framework for energy estimation in OCNs, for any given topology and arbitrary communication patterns, and presents OCN energy results based on both analytical communication models and real network traces from applications running on a tiled multicore processor. This thesis is the first work to address communication locality in analyzing multicore interconnect energy and to use real multicore interconnect traces extensively. The thesis compares the energy performance of point-to-point networks with buses for varying degrees of communication locality. The model accounts for wire length, switch energy, and network contention. This work is the first to examine network contention from the energy standpoint.(cont.) The thesis presents a detailed analysis of the energy costs of a switch and shows that the estimated values for channel energy, switch control logic energy, and switch queue buffer energy are 34.5pJ, 17pJ, and 12pJ, respectively. The results suggest that a one-dimensional point-to-point network results in approximately 66% energy savings over a bus for 16 or more processors, while a two-dimensional network saves over 82%, when the processors communicate with each other with equal likelihood. The savings increase with locality. Analysis of the effect of contention on OCNs for the Raw tiled microprocessor reports a maximum energy overhead of 23% due to resource contention in the interconnection network.by Theodoros K. Konstantakopoulos.Ph.D

Sencity: Τροποποίηση της εφαρμογής SenseCity του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών με στόχο την αξιοποίηση και διαχείριση αισθητήρων και μετρήσεων στα πλαίσια ΙτΠ (κομμάτι διαχει-ριστή)

Σκοπός της παρούσας πτυχιακής είναι μία μερική επέκταση του site από το Πανεπιστή-μιο Πατρών, Sensecity, στην Αθήνα, με δημιουργία ενός server και επεξεργαστή δεδο-μένων από αισθητήρες. Για την υλοποίησή της χρησιμοποιήθηκε το πρότυπο MQTT για την επικοινωνία server-αισθητήρων σε σύνδεση τύπου IoT (Internet of Things), node js και express για τη δημιουργία του server, mongodb για τη βάση με τα δεδομένα των αι-σθητήρων και charts.js για την απεικόνισή τους. Αρχικά στήθηκε, με τη βοήθεια ψευδο-αισθητήρων (dummy sensors) των οποίων το αρ-χείο συμπεριλαμβάνεται στον τελικό φάκελο, η δυνατότητα αποστολής δεδομένων από τους αισθητήρες, η δυνατότητα λήψης από τον server, η δυνατότητα αποστολής μηνυμά-των με τα οποία οι αισθητήρες ενεργοποιούνται/απενεργοποιούνται, ελέγχονται και κα-ταμετρώνται. Στο δεύτερο βήμα στήθηκε η βάση δεδομένων με χρήση της πιο ελαφριάς τεχνολογίας mongodb. Η λειτουργίες της είναι η αποθήκευση, ανάκληση και εξαγωγή μέσων όρων για διαφορετικά χρονικά διαστήματα. Τρίτο βήμα ήταν η δημιουργία μίας βασικής σελίδας αναζήτησης, η οποία στηρίζεται στον τύπο αισθητήρα, σε γεωργαφικά και χρονικά στοιχεία για να επιστρέψει τις αντίστοιχες τιμές από τις διαφορετικές κατηγο-ρίες αισθητήρων που έχουν στείλει δεδομένα στον server. Σαν επιπλέον χαρακτηριστικό, δίνεται η δυνατότητα επιστροφής στατιστικών αρχείων με τις ακραίες τιμές στο επιλεχθέν χρονικό διάστημα. Τέταρτο βήμα ήταν η προσθήκη χάρτη για την απεικόνιση των αισθη-τήρων και λοιπές βελτιστοποιήσεις. Εν τέλει, υλοποιήθηκε μία σελίδα διαχειριστή (Admin Page) από όπου ο διαχειριστής, με βοήθεια χάρτη διαχειρίζεται τους αισθητήρες και τα δεδομένα τους, βλέπει αντίστοιχα γραφήματα και μπορεί να κατεβάσει αρχεία με στατιστικά. ΘΕΜΑΤΙΚΗ ΠΕΡΙΟΧΗ: Web Development/ Web Design/ Internet of Things ΛΕΞΕΙΣ ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ: αισθητήρες, δίκτυο, sensecity, γράφημα, πόλη, βάση δεδομένωνThe aim of this thesis is to make a web application similar to Sensecity, an application developed by the University of Patras, by creating a server and handler of data from sensors. For the purposes of such an application, MQTT was used to establish com-munication between server and sensors in the model of IoT (internet of Things), Node JS and Express for creating the server, MongoDB for the database holding the sensor data and Chart JS for their graphic display. First, with the help of dummy sensors, their file included in the folder submitted, the presence and transfer of sensor data, the server’s ability to receive messages, the abil-ity to send messages to enable/disable, check and count sensors were established. In the second phase, the database was set up using lighter and more flexible database technology MongoDB. Its functions are storing, reading and exporting server data and averages of its entries. Third step as to create a search page, based on the type of sen-sor, geographical and time givens to return the corresponding values taken from the different categories of sensors sending data to the server. Additionally, the option to download statistical files with outlying values in each time interval. Fourth and final step was the addition of a map to display the sensors and some optimisations. Finally, all that led to an Admin Page, where the administrator, with the help of a map, can manage sensors and their data, see charts of that data and download statistical files. SUBJECT AREA: Web Development/ Web Design/ Internet of Things KEYWORDS: sensors, network, sensecity, graph, chart, city, databas