Using High-Order Prior Belief Predictions in Hierarchical Temporal Memory for Streaming Anomaly Detection

Autonomous streaming anomaly detection can have a significant impact in any domain where continuous, real-time data is common. Often in these domains, datasets are too large or complex to hand label. Algorithms that require expensive global training procedures and large training datasets impose strict demands on data and are accordingly not fit to scale to real-time applications that are noisy and dynamic. Unsupervised algorithms that learn continuously like humans therefore boast increased applicability to these real-world scenarios. Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) is a biologically constrained theory of machine intelligence inspired by the structure, activity, organization and interaction of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex of the primate brain. At the core of HTM are spatio-temporal learning algorithms that store, learn, recall and predict temporal sequences in an unsupervised and continuous fashion to meet the demands of real-time tasks. Unlike traditional machine learning and deep learning encompassed by the act of complex functional approximation, HTM with the surrounding proposed framework does not require any offline training procedures, any massive stores of training data, any data labels, it does not catastrophically forget previously learned information and it need only make one pass through the temporal data. Proposed in this thesis is an algorithmic framework built upon HTM for intelligent streaming anomaly detection. Unseen in earlier streaming anomaly detection work, the proposed framework uses high-order prior belief predictions in time in the effort to increase the fault tolerance and complex temporal anomaly detection capabilities of the underlying time-series model. Experimental results suggest that the framework when built upon HTM redefines state-of-the-art performance in a popular streaming anomaly benchmark. Comparative results with and without the framework on several third-party datasets collected from real-world scenarios also show a clear performance benefit. In principle, the proposed framework can be applied to any time-series modeling algorithm capable of producing high-order predictions

The death penalty across borders: analysis of regional approaches and international human rights perspectives

The focus of the thesis is the global practice of the death penalty, in particular the regional approaches and its contradiction with the international human rights law. One of the goals is to determine the reasons behind the European human rights system’s success in nearly completely abolishing the death penalty, thus consequently addressing the persisting challenges in the Inter-American and African systems regarding the matter. It was found that the main reason is the mandatory ratification of Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which requires a country to abolish the death penalty to become a member to the Council of Europe. Another aim is to identify the legal obligations of an abolitionist state upon an extradition request from a retentionist state. Accordingly, the main obligation is to abstain from assisting in the implementation of the death penalty, including not extraditing a person to a country where they might face the punishment

Tożsamość oparta na podmiotowości. Przydatność tez Feliksa Konecznego do badań nad współczesnym zderzeniem cywilizacji

In Latin civilization, subjectivity and the associated identity are integral com­ponents of the human being. In this area, one person can fully update their potentialities – as Koneczny says. Other civilizations perceive the individual being differently; rather as an object than as a subject. These differences are particularly important in the face of the growing number of migrants coming to Europe from the Middle East and Africa.W obrębie cywilizacji łacińskiej podmiotowość oraz związana z nią tożsamość są integralnymi składowymi osoby ludzkiej. Dzięki temu, zdaniem Feliksa Konecznego, człowiek może w pełni aktualizować swoje potencjalności. Pozostałym analizowanym cywilizacjom autor historiozoficznej teorii przy­pisuje przedmiotowe traktowanie jednostki. Rozróżnienia te dają dodatkowe narzędzia interpretacji zjawisk kulturowych i nabierają szczególnego znacze­nia w obliczu rosnącej liczby migrantów przybywających do Europy z państw Bliskiego Wschodu i Afryki

Arteriography during ex vivo renal perfusion A complication

A case of bilateral renal-cell carcinoma unsuccessfully treated with bench surgery is reported. The reason for failure was apparently the toxicity of the contrast media used during the ex vivo arteriographic studies. © 1973

Loki : the semantic wiki for collaborative knowledge engineering

We present Loki, a semantic wiki designed to support the collaborative knowledge engineering process with the use of software engineering methods. Designed as a set of DokuWiki plug-ins, it provides a variety of knowledge representation methods, including semantic annotations, Prolog clauses, and business processes and rules oriented to specific tasks. Knowledge stored in Loki can be retrieved via SPARQL queries, in-line Semantic MediaWiki-like queries, or Prolog goals. Loki includes a number of useful features for a group of experts and knowledge engineers developing the wiki, such as knowledge visualization, ontology storage, or code hint and completion mechanism. Reasoning unit tests are also introduced to validate knowledge quality. The paper is complemented by the formulation of the collaborative knowledge engineering process and the description of experiments performed during Loki development to evaluate its functionality. Loki is available as free software at https://loki.re

Personality-based affective adaptation methods for intelligent systems

In this article, we propose using personality assessment as a way to adapt affective intelligent systems. This psychologically-grounded mechanism will divide users into groups that differ in their reactions to affective stimuli for which the behaviour of the system can be adjusted. In order to verify the hypotheses, we conducted an experiment on 206 people, which consisted of two proof-of-concept demonstrations: a “classical” stimuli presentation part, and affective games that provide a rich and controllable environment for complex emotional stimuli. Several significant links between personality traits and the psychophysiological signals (electrocardiogram (ECG), galvanic skin response (GSR)), which were gathered while using the BITalino (r)evolution kit platform, as well as between personality traits and reactions to complex stimulus environment, are promising results that indicate the potential of the proposed adaptation mechanism

Pajdokracja w ujęciu Feliksa Konecznego w kontekście współczesnych form zjawiska

The article attempts to analyze Feliks Koneczny’s beliefs about paedocracy in the context of presently observed forms of youth political activity. For this purpose, the paper offers a discussion of selected texts on paedocracy published by Koneczny in the Słowo daily between September 16 and October 22, 1912. At that time, Koneczny wrote: “O pajdokracji” [On Paedocracy], “Partenogeneza pajdokracji” [Partenogenesis of Paedocracy], “Pajdokracja z prowokacji” [Provoked Paedocracy], “Młodzież jako środek reklamy” [Youth as a Means of Advertising], “Młodzież jako rzekoma rękojmia przyszłości” [Youth as the Supposed Guarantor of the Future], “Pajdokracja i apatia” [Paedocracy and Apathy], “Stronnictwa a pajdokracja” [Parties and Paedocracy], “Brak pajdokracji w Wielkopolsce” [No Paedocracy in Greater Poland], “Patryjotyzm bez zajęcia” [Jobless Patriotism] and “Szacunku dla młodzieży” [Respect Youth]. Based on the analysis of source texts, the definition of paedocracy is presented on to of its causes and effects. This information is juxtaposed with other takes on paedocracy (e.g., in education) and its contemporary faces. Koneczny’s assessment of paedocracy was unequivocally negative. He believed it was socially harmful and resulted from a number of misconceptions. “Youth rule”, in the scholar’s view, is inspired solely by mature politicians who manipulate the young to achieve their own agendas. Such behavior stems from the lack of respect for youth that Koneczny clearly sought. The researcher saw many advantages of young Poles, but at the same time he was aware that some features of youth are not desirable in politics (such as lack of competence, naivety, susceptibility to influence or emotionality). He concluded that the only way to combat paedocracy might be to remove the young from politics altogether. At the same time, he realized that such a radical solution was not possible. In his argument, Koneczny not only described the flaws of paedocracy, but also showed how it can be combatted.W artykule podjęto próbę analizy przekonań Feliksa Konecznego na temat pajdokracji w kontekście współcześnie obserwowanych form aktywności politycznej młodzieży. W tym celu zostały omówione wybrane teksty na temat pajdokracji opublikowane przez Konecznego na łamach dziennika „Słowo” w okresie od 16 września do 22 października 1912 r. W tym czasie krakowski uczony napisał: „O pajdokracji”, „Partenogeneza pajdokracji”, „Pajdokracja z prowokacji”, „Młodzież jako środek reklamy”, „Młodzież jako rzekoma rękojmia przyszłości”, „Pajdokracja i apatia”, „Stronnictwa a pajdokracja”, „Brak pajdokracji w Wielkopolsce”, „Patryjotyzm bez zajęcia” oraz „Szacunku dla młodzieży”. Na podstawie analizy tekstów źródłowych przedstawiono definicję pajdokracji, jej przyczyny oraz skutki. Te informacje zostały zestawione z innymi ujęciami pajdokracji (np. pedagogicznym) oraz z jej współczesnymi obliczami. Koneczny oceniał pajdokrację jednoznacznie negatywnie. Uważał, że jest ona szkodliwa społecznie i wynika z błędnych przekonań. „Rządy młodzieży”, w opinii historiozofa, są inspirowane tylko i wyłącznie przez dojrzałych polityków, którzy manipulują młodymi w celu realizacji własnych zamierzeń. Takie postępowanie wynika z braku szacunku dla młodzieży, o który Koneczny wyraźnie zabiega. Badacz dostrzega wiele zalet młodych Polaków, ale równocześnie ma świadomość, że pewne cechy młodości nie są pożądane w polityce (jak brak kompetencji, naiwność, podatność na wpływ czy emocjonalność). Dochodzi do wniosku, że jedynym sposobem zwalczenia pajdokracji mogłoby być całkowite odsunięcie młodych od polityki. Równocześnie zdaje sobie sprawę, że tak radykalne rozwiązanie nie jest możliwe. W swoim wywodzie Koneczny nie tylko opisuje wady pajdokracji, ale również wskazuje, jak można z nią walczyć

Electro-magnetic Sensors for Online Condition Monitoring of Medium Voltage Cables

Increased use of medium voltage (MV) cables demands for efficient condition monitoring in order to carry out timely predictive maintenance especially during incipient fault conditions emerging due to insulation degradation. This paper presents a comparison of the design and performance parameters of the Rogowski coil and high frequency current transformer sensors for measurement of partial discharge (PD) signals emitted from the PD defects. This work is performed in the laboratory environment that provides a practical approach for developing electromagnetic sensor for PD measurements.©2020 the Authors. Published by AMA Association for Sensors & Measurement.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Training and continuing education for vocational trainers: assessment and prospects

Anhand des vorliegenden empirischen Datenmaterials wird versucht, die Entwicklung der Situation und Qualifikation des betrieblichen Ausbildungspersonals in der gegenwärtigen Wirtschaft als Folge der Ausbilder-Eignungsverordnung von 1972 darzustellen. Dabei werden im wesentlichen Statistiken der Industrie- und Handelskammern sowie eine Untersuchung des Bundesinstituts für Berufsbildung zugrunde gelegt. Zum einen werden daraus die quantitativen und qualitativen Auswirkungen der Ausbilder-Ausbildung, zum anderen aber auch die Bedingungen und Chancen der Aus- und Weiterbildung abgeleitet. Die pädagogische Ausbildung wird zudem in den Kontext der beruflichen Werdegänge von Ausbildern gestellt und damit die Frage nach einem geregelten Ausbildungsgang für Ausbilder aufgeworfen. Schließlich werden Ansätze zu einer Weiterbildung aufgezeigt, die über die formale Eignungsqualifikation für Ausbilder hinausgehen. (DIPF/Orig.