Identifying Appliances using NIALM with Minimum Features

Government of India has decided to install smart meters in fourteen states. Smart meters are required to identify home appliances to fulfill various tasks in the smart grid environment. Both intrusive and non-intrusive methods have been suggested for identification. However, intrusive method is not suitable for cost and privacy reasons. On the other hand, techniques using non-intrusive appliance load monitoring (NIALM) are yet to result in meaningful practical implementation. Two major challenges in NIALM research are the choice of features (load signatures of appliances), and the appropriate algorithm. Both have a direct impact on the cost of the smart meter. In this paper, we address the two issues and propose a procedure with only four features and a simple algorithm to identify appliances. Our experimental setup, on the recommended specifications of the internal electrical wiring in Indian residences, used common household appliances’ load signatures of active and reactive powers, harmonic components and their magnitudes. We show that these four features are essential and sufficient for implementation of NIALM with a simple algorithm. We have introduced a new approach of ‘multi point sensing’ and ‘group control’ rather than the ‘single point sensing’ and ‘individual control’, used so far in NIALM techniques.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v4i6.671

Mushroom: Nature’s Treasure in Ethiopia

Mushroom is a form of fungus having distinct fruit body produced either above ground or below ground. It can be easily noticed in moist habitat in and around forest, grassland, on tree trunks due to their peculiar appearance. Present communication discusses important habit and habitats, medicinal and culinary uses, status of mushrooms in Ethiopia, and sustainable use for sustenance and food security.Keywords: Mushroom, Fungus, Status, Tigray, Ethiopia

Diode-pumped Nd:YAG eye-safe laser

181-183Nd:YAG laser is pumped with two-dimensional side pumping diode-laser array. The wavelength from the Nd:YAG is 1064 nm, which is not safe for the eye. Here this eye hazardous laser is converted into the eye safe region using a singly resonant extra cavity KTP OPO. The output energy is an eye safe radiation at 1525 nm, with 8 mJ, corresponding to an energy conversion efficiency of 21 % at phase matching angle 210, in a type-II, NCPM x-cut KTP crystal (15 × 10 × 10 mm) placed in a plane-parallel resonator

High Energy Foods: Review with Food Technological Perspective

Energy foods have gained a special interest all around the globe due to enhanced consumer awareness about activity-based calorie requirements. Energy-specific foods can be prepared in the form of bars/ fluids by using a combination of various types of ingredients such as cereals, pulses, nuts, and seeds. Energy foods provide concentrated calories specifically required for athletes and military personnel, those involved in high-endurance physical activities. The latter group was deployed in challenging terrains associated with harsh climatic conditions (high altitudes, hot and cold environments). In addition to the harsh climate, the situation worsens with limited accessibility and availability of regular food. Therefore, food and fluid intake will be considerably less, which ultimately disturbs the energy metabolism and health of an individual. The research poses challenges in the development of energy foods for specialised requirements and incorporating the highest energy in the lowest volume of foods. This is because of raw material selections, economics, product palatability and stability (shelf life) in adverse conditions. The high energy content, volume, and stability are suitable factors for using certain products as survival or emergency rations. Indeed, there was a necessity to understand the fate of energy metabolism and its medical implications in different harsh climatic conditions. The present review is a brief discussion about the influence of a challenging environment on nutritional and energy requirements and the significance of different energy foods

Evaluation of the response rate of chemo-radiation and brachytherapy in patients with locally advanced carcinoma cervix in a tertiary care center

Background: Incidence and mortality estimates are used to measure the burden of cancer in a population and survival estimates are ideal for evaluating the outcome of cancer control activities. Survival studies evaluate the quality and quantity of life of a group of patients after diagnosing the disease. The patient survival after the diagnosis of cervical cancer is indirectly influenced by socio-economic factors. The present study was carried out with an aim to evaluate the success rate of chemo-radiation followed by brachytherapy to the patients of locally advanced carcinoma (Ca.) cervix in a tertiary care center.Methods: All cases were staged according to the International Federation of Gynaecologists and Oncologists (FIGO) staging system. To illustrate the observed survival of cancer patients Kaplan-Meier curve was plotted. All the patients, except one, completed chemo-radiation and were retrospectively analyzed for the presence of local residual disease, local recurrence, distant metastases, radiation reactions, disease-free survival, and overall survival.Results: There were 22 patients of Carcinoma cervix reported in the radiation oncology department in the year 2018 and 2019. The overall treatment time ranged from 30 days to 178 days, with a median of 63 days. All the patients had a complete response after the treatment. The median follow-up time for all the patients was 15 months. Three patients had a metastatic recurrence and one patient developed distant metastases as well as local recurrence. Overall survival rate was 100% while the disease-free survival rate was 81.82%.Conclusions: The response to chemo-radiation in the treatment of locally advanced Carcinoma cervix is comparable to historic data and is well tolerated

Epigenetic dosage identifies two major and functionally distinct β cell subtypes

The mechanisms that specify and stabilize cell subtypes remain poorly understood. Here, we identify two major subtypes of pancreatic β cells based on histone mark heterogeneity (βHI and βLO). βHI cells exhibit ∼4-fold higher levels of H3K27me3, distinct chromatin organization and compaction, and a specific transcriptional pattern. βHI and βLO cells also differ in size, morphology, cytosolic and nuclear ultrastructure, epigenomes, cell surface marker expression, and function, and can be FACS separated into CD24+ and CD24- fractions. Functionally, βHI cells have increased mitochondrial mass, activity, and insulin secretion in vivo and ex vivo. Partial loss of function indicates that H3K27me3 dosage regulates βHI/βLO ratio in vivo, suggesting that control of β cell subtype identity and ratio is at least partially uncoupled. Both subtypes are conserved in humans, with βHI cells enriched in humans with type 2 diabetes. Thus, epigenetic dosage is a novel regulator of cell subtype specification and identifies two functionally distinct β cell subtypes

Paracrine FGF21 dynamically modulates mTOR signaling to regulate thymus function across the lifespan

Consequences of age-associated thymic atrophy include declining T-cell responsiveness to pathogens and vaccines and diminished T-cell self-tolerance. Cortical thymic epithelial cells (cTECs) are primary targets of thymic aging, and recent studies suggested that their maintenance requires mTOR signaling downstream of medullary TEC (mTEC)-derived growth factors. Here, to test this hypothesis, we generated a knock-in mouse model in which FGF21 and mCherry are expressed by most mTECs. We find that mTEC-derived FGF21 promotes temporally distinct patterns of mTORC1 and mTORC2 signaling in cTECs, promotes thymus and individual cTEC growth and maintenance, increases T-cell responsiveness to viral infection, and diminishes indicators of peripheral autoimmunity in older mice. The effects of FGF21 overexpression on thymus size and mTOR signaling were abrogated by treatment with the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin. These results reveal a mechanism by which paracrine FGF21 signaling regulates thymus size and function throughout the lifespan, as well as potential therapeutic targets for improving T-cell function and tolerance in aging