Protocol assessment issues in low duty cycle sensor networks: The switching energy

Energy assessment of MAC protocols for wireless sensor networks is generally based on the times of transmit, receive and sleep modes. The switching energy between two consecutive states is generally considered negligible with respect to them. Although such an assumption is valid for traditional wireless ad hoc networks, is this assumption valid also for low duty cycle wireless sensor networks? The primary objective of this work is to shed some light on relationships between node switching energy and node duty cycle over the total energy consumption. In order to achieve the target, initially, we revisit the energy spent in each state and transitions of three widespread hardware platforms for wireless sensor networks by direct measurements on the EYES node. Successively, we apply the values obtained to the SMAC protocol by using the OmNet++ simulator

Monitoring and validating the transport of waste

The illegal disposal of waste is a growing problem in many countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. A weakness with the conventional waste- management cycle concerns the validation and integrity of the transportation process, from collection at industrial premises to delivery at a licenced waste-disposal facility. The on-going Waste Augmentation and Integrated Shipment Tracking (Waist) project, at CLARITY: Centre for Sensor Web Technologies, focuses on this very problem. Waist integrates a triptych of sensing technologies in addressing this problem

Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

An agent for effective negotiation dialogues

Dialogue Systems: Interaction Adaptation and styles of Management workshop at the 10th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association of Computational Linguistics (EACL03), Budapest, Hungary, April 12-17, 2003A design is presented for a negotiating agent that can construct coherent joint plans with human or artificial agents. In negotiation there is always a trade-off between plan quality and dialogue length. In dynamic conditions and with human partners, length becomes critical. The approach to efficient negotiation is to use an acquaintance model that predicts which plans will be acceptable. The negotiation dialogue then consists of exchanges to construct the acquaintance model and exchanges of plan proposals.kpw12/7/1

A planner for plan construction plans for multi-agent plans

The 15th Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (AICS'04), September 8th - 10th 2004, Castlebar, IrelandA natural language dialogue planner is described that chooses dialogue moves to revise the beliefs of an agent. In particular those beliefs that refer to the mental state of another agent are revised. In a planning problem of repeated decisions, the future decision of the other agent is better predicted, and therefore the immediate plan decision of the first agent is a better one1/8/1

Efficient Dialogue Using a Probabilistic Nested User Model

The 4th IJACI Workshop on Knowledge and Reasoning in Practical Dialogue Systems, Edinburgh, Scotland, August 1, 2005We describe a set of dialogue simulation experiments, in which a probabilistic nested user model is employed in deciding between speech acts for a collaborative planning task, finding that a gain in utility can be obtained by using a probabilistic rather than a logical model. Given a set of ordinary dialogue plan rules, our system generates a gametree representation of the dialogue, using chance nodes to represent uncertain preconditions in the plan. Then, the game-tree is evaluated with respect to a given user model state.SB. 30.7.201

Machine Learning for Adaptive Spoken Control in PDA Applications

Artificial Intelligence in Mobile Systems 2003 Workshop (AIMS 2003), 12th October, 2003, Seattle, USA, in conjunction with 5th International Conference on Ubiquitous ComputingA machine learning approach to interpreting utterances in spoken interfaces is described, where evidence from the utterance and from the dialogue context is combined to estimate a probability distribution over interpretations. The algorithm for the utterance evidence uses nearest-neighbour classification on a set of training examples, while the contextual evidence is provided by dialogue act n-grams derived from dialogue corpora. Each algorithm can adapt by recording data from the user at hand. Experimental results for the utterance interpreter show that adaptation to a particular user’s training utterances significantly improves recognition accuracy over training on utterances from the general population.8.7.2013 S

Ad-Me: A Context-Sensitive Advertising System

Third International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications and Services (iiWAS 2001), Linz, Austria, 10-12 September, 2001The mobile commerce sector and in particular the context sensitive advertising will represent a high yield revenue stream. This paper introduces the Ad-me (Advertising for the Mobile E-commerce user) system. The Ad-me is a mobile tourist guide that proactively delivers advertisements to users based upon perceived individual user needs together with their location. A Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) design philosophy is adopted. In order to achieve maximum content diffusion a range of presentation formats are accommodated including HTML, WML, HDML and iMode.09/07/13 RBCannot find any publisher information - R

Intelligent user interfaces for mobile computing

In this chapter, the practical issue of realizing a necessary intelligence quotient for realizing Intelligent User Interfaces (IUIs) on mobile devices is considered. Mobile computing scenarios differ radically from the normal fixed workstation environment that most people are familiar with; and it is in this dynamicity and complexity that the key motivations for realizing IUIs on mobile devices may be found. Thus the chapter initially motivates the need for the deployment of IUIs in mobile contexts by reflecting on the archetypical elements that comprise the average mobile user's situation or context. A number of broad issues pertaining to the deployment of AI techniques on mobile devices are considered before a practical realisation of this objective through the intelligent agent paradigm is presented. It is the authors hope that a mature understanding of the mobile computing usage scenario, augmented with key insights into the practical deployment of AI in mobile scenarios, will aid software engineers and HCI professionals alike in the successful utilisation of intelligent techniques for a new generation of mobile services.Science Foundation Irelan

DGPS for mobile users: a mobile agent approach

The 2nd European Space Agency (ESA) Workshop on Satellite Navigation User Equipment Technologies (NAVITEC '2004), 8th-10th December 2004, Noordwijk, The NetherlandsScience Foundation IrelandIrish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technologykpw1/8/1