Towards a General Argumentation System based on Answer-Set Programming

Within the last years, especially since the work proposed by Dung in 1995, argumentation has emerged as a central issue in Artificial Intelligence. With the so called argumentation frameworks (AFs) it is possible to represent statements (arguments) together with a binary attack relation between them. The conflicts between the statements are solved on a semantical level by selecting acceptable sets of arguments. An increasing amount of data requires an automated computation of such solutions. Logic Programming in particular Answer-Set Programming (ASP) turned out to be adequate to solve problems associated to such AFs. In this work we use ASP to design a sophisticated system for the evaluation of several types of argumentation frameworks

A Short-Run View of What Computers Do: Evidence from a UK Tax Incentive

We study the short-run, causal effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption on the employment and wage distribution, providing direct insight into how ICT alters the demand for work within the firm. We exploit a unique natural experiment generated by a generous tax allowance on ICT investments for small UK firms and find that the primary short-run effect of ICT is to complement non-routine congnitive-intensive work. At the same time, we find less extensive substitution for routine cognitive work, a result at odds with existing long-run extimates. We find no effect of ICT on manual work in the short run. Overall, ICT raises average labor productivity within the firm

Improved Answer-Set Programming Encodings for Abstract Argumentation

The design of efficient solutions for abstract argumentation problems is a crucial step towards advanced argumentation systems. One of the most prominent approaches in the literature is to use Answer-Set Programming (ASP) for this endeavor. In this paper, we present new encodings for three prominent argumentation semantics using the concept of conditional literals in disjunctions as provided by the ASP-system clingo. Our new encodings are not only more succinct than previous versions, but also outperform them on standard benchmarks.Comment: To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP), Proceedings of ICLP 201

Praktische Anleitung - das Verständnis von Praxisanleiter und Praxisanleiterinnen in der Gesundheits- und Krankenpflege

Anliegen der Untersuchung ist es, das Selbstverstehen von PraxisanleiterInnen in der allgemeinen Gesundheits- und Krankenpflege darzustellen. PraxisanleiterInnen sind Angehörige der Berufsgruppe des gehobenen Dienstes, gehören nicht der Schule für Gesundheits- und Krankenpflege an und haben eine Weiterbildung zur Praxisanleitung absolviert. Für die Untersuchung wurden Leitfadeninterviews mit PraxisanleiterInnen durchgeführt. Die Interviews wurden wortgetreu transkribiert und orientieren sich in der Analyse an der zusammenfassenden Inhaltsanalyse nach Mayring. Aus anfänglich 96 Kategorien bildeten sich sieben Hauptthemenbereiche mit sechzehn Subkategorien. PraxisanleiterInnen planen und koordinieren den Praxiseinsatz von SchülerInnen der Gesundheits- und Krankenpflege. Sie unterstützen Lernende in konkreten Lernsituationen und beurteilen den Lernerfolg. Als wesentlichen Aspekt ihrer Tätigkeit definieren PraxisanleiterInnen, dass sie als AnsprechpartnerIn zur Verfügung stehen. Das methodisch didaktische Vorgehen im Anleitungsprozess, richtet sich nach dem in der Gesundheits- und Krankenpflege bekannten Modell des Pflegeprozesses. Die Untersuchung zeigt zudem auf, dass PraxisanleiterInnen keine Stellenbeschreibung mit entsprechenden Rechten und Pflichten haben, sodass ihr Tätigkeitsbereich einen großen Interpretationsspielraum zulässt. Die pädagogische Aufgabe „Praxisanleitung“ erfolgt für PraxisanleiterInnen unter den Bedingungen und Möglichkeiten des täglichen Arbeitsaufwandes der Institution bzw. der Station

IASCAR: Incremental Answer Set Counting by Anytime Refinement

Answer set programming (ASP) is a popular declarative programming paradigm with various applications. Programs can easily have many answer sets that cannot be enumerated in practice, but counting still allows quantifying solution spaces. If one counts under assumptions on literals, one obtains a tool to comprehend parts of the solution space, so-called answer set navigation. However, navigating through parts of the solution space requires counting many times, which is expensive in theory. Knowledge compilation compiles instances into representations on which counting works in polynomial time. However, these techniques exist only for CNF formulas, and compiling ASP programs into CNF formulas can introduce an exponential overhead. This paper introduces a technique to iteratively count answer sets under assumptions on knowledge compilations of CNFs that encode supported models. Our anytime technique uses the inclusion-exclusion principle to improve bounds by over- and undercounting systematically. In a preliminary empirical analysis, we demonstrate promising results. After compiling the input (offline phase), our approach quickly (re)counts.Comment: Under consideration in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP

Construction of two whole genome radiation hybrid panels for dromedary (Camelus dromedarius): 5000RAD and 15000RAD

The availability of genomic resources including linkage information for camelids has been very limited. Here, we describe the construction of a set of two radiation hybrid (RH) panels (5000RAD and 15000RAD) for the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) as a permanent genetic resource for camel genome researchers worldwide. For the 5000RAD panel, a total of 245 female camel-hamster radiation hybrid clones were collected, of which 186 were screened with 44 custom designed marker loci distributed throughout camel genome. The overall mean retention frequency (RF) of the final set of 93 hybrids was 47.7%. For the 15000RAD panel, 238 male dromedary-hamster radiation hybrid clones were collected, of which 93 were tested using 44 PCR markers. The final set of 90 clones had a mean RF of 39.9%. This 15000RAD panel is an important high-resolution complement to the main 5000RAD panel and an indispensable tool for resolving complex genomic regions. This valuable genetic resource of dromedary RH panels is expected to be instrumental for constructing a high resolution camel genome map. Construction of the set of RH panels is essential step toward chromosome level reference quality genome assembly that is critical for advancing camelid genomics and the development of custom genomic tools

A Capacitance-To-Digital Converter for MEMS Sensors for Smart Applications

The use of MEMS sensors has been increasing in recent years. To cover all the applications, many different readout circuits are needed. To reduce the cost and time to market, a generic capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) seems to be the logical next step. This work presents a configurable CDC designed for capacitive MEMS sensors. The sensor is built with a bridge of MEMS, where some of them function with pressure. Then, the capacitive to digital conversion is realized using two steps. First, a switched-capacitor (SC) preamplifier is used to make the capacitive to voltage (C-V) conversion. Second, a self-oscillated noise-shaping integrating dual-slope (DS) converter is used to digitize this magnitude. The proposed converter uses time instead of amplitude resolution to generate a multibit digital output stream. In addition it performs noise shaping of the quantization error to reduce measurement time. This article shows the effectiveness of this method by measurements performed on a prototype, designed and fabricated using standard 0.13 mu m CMOS technology. Experimental measurements show that the CDC achieves a resolution of 17 bits, with an effective area of 0.317 mm(2), which means a pressure resolution of 1 Pa, while consuming 146 mu A from a 1.5 V power supply.This work has been funded by Marie Curie project SIMIC, Grant Agreement No. 610484, funded by grants from the European Union (Research Executive Agency) and TEC2014-56879-R of CICYT, Spain.Publicad

SiC Based Beam Monitoring System for Particle Rates from kHz to GHz

The extremely low dark current of silicon carbide (SiC) detectors, even after high-fluence irradiation, was utilized to develop a beam monitoring system for a wide range of particle rates, i.e., from the kHz to the GHz regime. The system is completely built from off-the-shelve components and is focused on compactness and simple deployment. Beam tests using a 50 um thick SiC detector reveal, that for low fluences, single particles can be detected and counted. For higher fluences, beam properties were extracted from beam cross sections using a silicon strip detector. Overall accurate results were achieved up to a particle rate of 109 particles per second