Smart Microgrids: Overview and Outlook

The idea of changing our energy system from a hierarchical design into a set of nearly independent microgrids becomes feasible with the availability of small renewable energy generators. The smart microgrid concept comes with several challenges in research and engineering targeting load balancing, pricing, consumer integration and home automation. In this paper we first provide an overview on these challenges and present approaches that target the problems identified. While there exist promising algorithms for the particular field, we see a missing integration which specifically targets smart microgrids. Therefore, we propose an architecture that integrates the presented approaches and defines interfaces between the identified components such as generators, storage, smart and \dq{dumb} devices.Comment: presented at the GI Informatik 2012, Braunschweig Germany, Smart Grid Worksho

Token Economy – Towards Building a Sustainable Blockchain Token Ecosystem Framework

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementIn the context of the internet’s historical trajectory, blockchain technology represents a significant paradigm shift from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. Web 2.0, the current world of the interactive and social web, is an internet siloed by centralized organizations that provide services in exchange for personal data. Web 3.0, on the other hand, is based on cryptographic blockchain technology and enables an economic institutional infrastructure that is natively available on the web, hands ownership back to the creators and users and operates without an intermediary. Blockchain tokens enable digital scarcity and a novel internet-native value transfer mechanism. Tokens can have a magnitude of different use cases ranging from serving as unit of account (currency), promoting usage incentive, as tool for governance, representation of ownership or as a funding instrument. The research field of token creation is still in its very infant stage and a lot of blockchain project launches still happen without proper structure and long term strategy – leading to suboptimal and short lasting results. Based on the Design Science Research methodology, this dissertation attempts to design a holistic conceptual framework that can serve as a base for a decision aid for organizations when creating a blockchain token ecosystem. This artifact will finally be evaluated by domain experts to ensure proper correctness

Feiras mundiais do século XIX como sistemas de responsabilidade educacional: sistemas Scopicos, práticas de auditoria e dados educacionais

Late-19th century World’s Fairs constitute an important chapter in the history of educational accountability. International expositions allowed for educational systems and practices to be “audited” by lay and expert audiences. In this article we examine how World’s Fair exhibitors sought to make visible educational practices and institutions for external validation. Focusing especially on the American education exhibits mounted at Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876), Chicago (1893), and Paris (1900), we use historical documents connected with the preparation of exhibits as well as reports written during and after the Fairs to bring to light the curatorial principles and exhibitionary practices governing education exhibits. This examination helps us to understand educational accountability mechanisms and procedures not simply as technical undertakings, but as social systems with an important set of effects. The scopic systems at play and in contestation for accurately and fairly presenting education systems for outside scrutiny did much to shape the national/international contexts within which school systems operate as well as in what directions educators and policymakers sought to direct/redirect schooling.Las exposiciones mundiales de finales del siglo XIX fueron un capítulo importante en la historia de los modelos de responsabilidad educativa. Las exposiciones mundiales han permitido que los sistemas y las prácticas educativas fueran "auditadas" por legos y expertos. En este artículo, examinamos cómo los expositores comerciales trataron de hacer visibles las prácticas educativas e instituciones para la validación externa. Con especial referencia a las exhibiciones educativas estadounidenses en Viena (1873), Filadelfia (1876), Chicago (1893) y París (1900), utilizamos documentos históricos relacionados con la preparación de exposiciones, así como informes escritos durante y después de las exposiciones para examinar los principios de las prácticas curatoriales y expositivas que rigen exhibiciones educativas. Esta prueba nos ayuda a entender los mecanismos y procedimientos de rendición de cuentas educativa no sólo como empresas técnicas, sino como sistemas sociales con un importante conjunto de efectos. Sistemas escópicos se pusieron en juego y desafiaron los modelos de presentación de los sistemas educativos para ser sometidos a un escrutinio externo, y contribuyeron mucho para dar forma a los contextos nacionales/internacionales en los que operan los sistemas educativos, así como las direcciones en las que los educadores y los políticos trataron de dirigir y redirigir la educación. Feiras mundiais do fim do século XIX constituíram um importante capítulo na história dos modelos de responsabilidade educacional. Exposições internacionais permitiram que os sistemas e práticas educativas fossem “auditadas” por leigos e especialistas. Neste artigo, vamos examinar como expositores de feiras do mundo procuraram fazer visíveis práticas educativas e instituições para validação externa. Com especial destaque para as exposições de ensino americanas montadas em Viena (1873), Filadélfia (1876), Chicago (1893) e Paris (1900), utilizamos documentos históricos relacionados com a preparação de exposições, assim como relatórios escritos durante e depois das Feiras trazer à luz os princípios de curadorias e práticas de exibição que regem exposições educativas. Este exame nos ajuda a entender os mecanismos e procedimentos de responsabilização educacional não apenas como empresas técnicas, mas como sistemas sociais com um importante conjunto de efeitos. Os sistemas escópicos em jogo e em contestação pela apresentação precisa e justa dos sistemas de ensino para escrutínio externo fez muito para moldar os contextos nacionais / internacionais dentro do qual operam os sistemas de ensino, bem como em que direções educadores e formuladores de políticas procuraram direcionar / redirecionar a escolarização.

Extensive Flouting of Maxim Quantity in Media RRI of Jayapura

Language is framed in many forms and functions. Flouting is one way to convey idea by deviating rule of communication named maxims that have been proposed by theorists before. The purpose of this study is to investigate the richness of language features used by the people of Papua in interacting ideas throughout TOB-CER program in RRI. The method used in this study was descriptive qualitative method. The procedures used to collect data were recording and selecting. Data was recorded for total seven nights and then selected the familiar topics by considering the distribution of woman and man broadcasters. The data then was transcribed into written forms. The reduction is needed to pick the needed text and then indexed the deviation of maxim quantity into the table. The collections of maxim quantity were analyze by using flouting as its benchmark. The results of this study showed that flouting of maxim quantity is usually used in telling joke and text of intertextuality. The features of telling joke/humor are to release tensions, holding friendship relations as aspect of humanity. Meanwhile, the intertextuality text is featured with measuring understanding and general status such as identity and power. The reasons to express all this flouting are to establish friendship, harmony and to grow the sense of belonging toward the existence of RRI as historical media communication in Papua

Convergence and monotonicity of the hormone levels in a hormone-based content delivery system

The practical significance of bio-inspired, self-organising methods is rapidly increasing due to their robustness, adaptability and capability of handling complex tasks in a dynamically changing environment. Our aim is to examine an artificial hormone system that was introduced in order to deliver multimedia content in dynamic networks. The artificial hormone algorithm proved to be an efficient approach to solve the problem during the experimental evaluations. In this paper we focus on the theoretical foundation of its goodness. We show that the hormone levels converge to a limit at each node in the typical cases. We form a series of theorems on convergence with different conditions which are built on each other by starting with a specific base case and then we consider more general, practically relevant cases. The theorems are proved by exploiting the analogy between the Markov chains and the artificial hormone system. We examine spatial and temporal monotonicity of the hormone levels as well and give sufficient conditions on monotonic increase

Characterization of the NspS-MbaA signaling system controlling biofilm formation from polyamine input to phenotypic output

Biofilm formation plays a critical role in the infectious cycle of the bacterial pathogen, Vibrio cholerae. The polyamine, norspermidine, has a positive influence on biofilm formation while spermidine has the opposite effect. These influences occur through a signaling system comprised of the periplasmic polyamine binding protein, NspS, and the transmembrane phosphodiesterase, MbaA. In the absence of NspS, MbaA acts as a phosphodiesterase cleaving the pro-biofilm second messenger, cyclic di-GMP, indicating that NspS may interact with and inhibit phosphodiesterase activity and biofilm repression by MbaA. In this study, I have shown that several nspS ligand-binding pocket mutants have altered sensitivity to norspermidine and spermidine as indicated by vps transcription and biofilm assays. I have also shown using thermal shift assays that these mutants are capable of binding both polyamines. LC-MS/MS analyses indicate that the NspS-MbaA signaling pathway is a high specificity c-di-GMP signaling system. Additionally, a system for reproducible demonstration of the NspS-MbaA interaction was developed which may subsequently be used in future experiments to study the NspS and MbaA interaction. Altogether, this study provides a thorough investigation of the steps involved in polyamine signal input to phenotypic output for a novel polyamine responsive signaling system controlling V. cholerae biofilm formation