Futures of robotics. Human work in digital transformation

In this article we discuss the futures of work and robotics. We evaluate key future trends in the field of robotics and analyse different scenarios regarding the futures of human beings and work life. Subsequently, we present a roadmap of robotics, which covers key aspects of industrial and service robotics, discuss technology foresight insights and inter-linkages to robotics, and identify three critical technology roadmaps: the technological future of robotics, digitalisation and ICT technologies. Finally, we analyse economic, social, and political key challenges of the digital transformation of work and labour policy in the European Union in general and against the backdrop of the European robotics strategy in particular

Entgrenzung der Arbeit durch „Bring Your Own Device“

Abstrakt Die ehemals klaren Grenzen zwischen den Sozialsphären „Arbeit“ und „Leben“ verschwimmen immer stärker. So kann sich heute kaum noch jemand dem Prozess der Entgrenzung entziehen, da die derzeit vorherrschenden Phänomene wie „Vermarktlichung“ und „Dezentralisierung“ sowohl eine allgemeine Entgrenzung als auch die spezifische Entgrenzung der Arbeit unaufhaltsam befördern. Nach Belwe (2007) eignen sich im Besonderen die modernen Kommunikationstechnologien dafür, „Einbrüche in den bislang durch natürliche und soziale Rhythmen klar strukturierten sozialen Alltag zu provozieren“ (Belwe, 2007, S. 2). Demnach läuft heute jedes menschliche Individuum einer modernen Gesellschaft Gefahr übergeordneten Ansprüchen aus dem Erwerbsbereich zu unterliegen. Mit der hier vorgestellten Arbeit wurde die Zielsetzung verfolgt, bestehende Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Phänomen „Entgrenzung der Arbeit“ und dem kontrovers diskutierten Konzept „Bring Your Own Device“ aufzuzeigen. Die Frage, ob das BYOD-Konzept die Entgrenzung der Arbeit begünstig, stellt den roten Faden der vorliegenden Arbeit dar. Die Arbeit zeigt auf, dass BYOD ein hohes Potenzial in sich birgt zur Entgrenzung der Arbeit beizutragen. Das Entgrenzungspotenzial liegt hier insbesondere in der Art unseres heutigen Nutzungsverhaltens begründet. Bei einer unreflektierten Ausschöpfung aller flexiblen Möglichkeiten, die uns die neuen Kommunikationsmittel bieten, kann nicht ausgeschlossen werden, dass der Mensch zum Spielball eines ökonomisch begründeten Herrschafts- und Ausbeutungsverhältnisses wird bzw. sich selbstverschuldet dazu macht. Denn auch bei BYOD gilt es mündig zu entscheiden und selbst für Abgrenzungen zu sorgen. Denn gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Errungenschaften, die auf moralischen Werten fußen, müssen erhalten werden, auch wenn die Begriffe „Arbeit“ und „Leben“ stets im gesellschaftlichen Kontext erzeugt und immer wieder aufs Neue ausgehandelt werden

Transport properties of highly asymmetric hard-sphere mixtures

The static and dynamic properties of binary mixtures of hard spheres with a diameter ratio of sigma(B)/sigma(A)= 0.1 and a mass ratio of m(B)/m(A)= 0.001 are investigated using event driven molecular dynamics. The contact values of the pair correlation functions are found to compare favorably with recently proposed theoretical expressions. The transport coefficients of the mixture, determined from simulation, are compared to the predictions of the revised Enskog theory using both a third-order Sonine expansion and direct simulation Monte Carlo. Overall, the Enskog theory provides a fairly good description of the simulation data, with the exception of systems at the smallest mole fraction of larger spheres (x(A)=0.01) examined. A "fines effect" was observed at higher packing fractions, where adding smaller spheres to a system of large spheres decreases the viscosity of the mixture; this effect is not captured by the Enskog theory

Ultra-wideband 3D image processing for improving landmine detection with GPR, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2005, nr 2

This paper describes a new landmine detection algorithm starting from high resolution 3D ground penetrating radar (GPR) images. The algorithm consists of two procedures, object detection and object classification; both strongly depend on the properties of 3D GPR images. The algorithm has been tested on data measured with an ultrawideband (UWB) video impulse radar (VIR) system developed by the International Research Centre for Telecommunications and Radar (IRCTR). It was found that the algorithm is able to detect all landmines (including difficult to detect M14 mines) and classifies almost all landmines correctly with a large reduction in the number of false alarms caused by clutter. It turns out that for clutter removal it is most effective to eliminate detected objects with a small height

The CRESST II Dark Matter Search

Direct Dark Matter detection with cryodetectors is briefly discussed, with particular mention of the possibility of the identification of the recoil nucleus. Preliminary results from the CREEST II Dark Matter search, with 730 kg-days of data, are presented. Major backgrounds and methods of identifying and dealing with them are indicated.Comment: Talk at DSU workshop, ITP Beijing, Oct. 2011. 9 figures, 2 table

Multi-species population indices for sets of species including rare, disappearing or newly occurring species

NI is funded by Natural Environment Research Council award NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme delivering National Capability.Multi-species indices (MSI) are widely used as ecological indicators and as instruments to inform environmental policies. Many of these indices combine species-specific estimates of relative population sizes using the geometric mean. Because the geometric mean is not defined when values of zero occur, usually only commoner species are included in MSIs and zero values are replaced by a small non-zero value. The latter can exhibit an arbitrary influence on the geometric mean MSI. Here, we show how the compound Poisson and the negative binomial model can be used in such cases to obtain an MSI that has similar features to the geometric mean, including weighting halving and doubling of a species’ population equally. In contrast to the geometric mean, these two statistical models can handle zero values in population sizes and thus accommodate newly occurring and temporarily or permanently disappearing species in the MSI. We compare the MSIs obtained by the two statistical models with the geometric mean MSI and measure sensitivity to changes in evenness and to population trends in rare and abundant species. Additionally, we outline sources of uncertainty and discuss how to measure them. We found that, in contrast to the geometric mean and the negative binomial MSI, the compound Poisson MSI is less sensitive to changes in evenness when total abundance is constant. Further, we found that the compound Poisson model can be influenced more than the other two methods by trends of species showing a low interannual variance. The negative binomial MSI is less sensitive to trends in rare species compared with the other two methods, and similarly sensitive to trends in abundant species as the geometric mean. While the two new MSIs have the advantage that they are not arbitrarily influenced by rare, newly appearing and disappearing species, both do not weight all species equally. We recommend replacing the geometric mean MSI with either compound Poisson or negative binomial when there are species with a population size of zero in some years having a strong influence on the geometric mean MSI. Further, we recommend providing additional information alongside the MSIs. For example, it is particularly important to give an evenness index in addition to the compound Poisson MSI and to indicate the number of disappearing and newly occurring species alongside the negative binomial MSI.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Global modeling of transcriptional responses in interaction networks

Motivation: Cell-biological processes are regulated through a complex network of interactions between genes and their products. The processes, their activating conditions, and the associated transcriptional responses are often unknown. Organism-wide modeling of network activation can reveal unique and shared mechanisms between physiological conditions, and potentially as yet unknown processes. We introduce a novel approach for organism-wide discovery and analysis of transcriptional responses in interaction networks. The method searches for local, connected regions in a network that exhibit coordinated transcriptional response in a subset of conditions. Known interactions between genes are used to limit the search space and to guide the analysis. Validation on a human pathway network reveals physiologically coherent responses, functional relatedness between physiological conditions, and coordinated, context-specific regulation of the genes. Availability: Implementation is freely available in R and Matlab at http://netpro.r-forge.r-project.orgComment: 19 pages, 13 figure

B‐cell receptors of EBV‐negative Burkitt lymphoma bind modified isoforms of autoantigens

Burkitt lymphoma (BL) represents the most aggressive B‐cell‐lymphoma. Beside the hallmark of IG‐MYC‐translocation, surface B‐cell receptor (BCR) is expressed, and mutations in the BCR pathway are frequent. Coincidental infections in endemic BL, and specific extra‐nodal sites suggest antigenic triggers. To explore this hypothesis, BCRs of BL cell lines and cases were screened for reactivities against a panel of bacterial lysates, lysates of Plasmodium falciparum, a custom‐made virome array and against self‐antigens, including post‐translationally modified antigens. An atypically modified, SUMOylated isoform of Bystin, that is, SUMO1‐BYSL was identified as the antigen of the BCR of cell line CA46. SUMO1‐BYSL was exclusively expressed in CA46 cells with K139 as site of the SUMOylation. Secondly, an atypically acetylated isoform of HSP40 was identified as the antigen of the BCR of cell line BL41. K104 and K179 were the sites of immunogenic acetylation, and the acetylated HSP40 isoform was solely present in BL41 cells. Functionally, addition of SUMO1‐BYSL and acetylated HSP40 induced BCR pathway activation in CA46 and BL41 cells, respectively. Accordingly, SUMO1‐BYSL‐ETA’ immunotoxin, produced by a two‐step intein‐based conjugation, led to the specific killing of CA46 cells. Autoantibodies directed against SUMO1‐BYSL were found in 3 of 14 (21.4%), and autoantibodies against acetylated HSP40 in 1/14(7.1%) patients with sporadic Burkitt‐lymphoma. No reactivities against antigens of the infectious agent spectrum could be observed. These results indicate a pathogenic role of autoreactivity evoked by immunogenic post‐translational modifications in a subgroup of sporadic BL including two EBV‐negative BL cell lines