Two approaches for synthesizing scalable residential energy consumption data

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Many fields require scalable and detailed energy consumption data for different study purposes. However, due to privacy issues, it is often difficult to obtain sufficiently large datasets. This paper proposes two different methods for synthesizing fine-grained energy consumption data for residential households, namely a regression-based method and a probability-based method. They each use a supervised machine learning method, which trains models with a relatively small real-world dataset and then generates large-scale time series based on the models. This paper describes the two methods in details, including data generation process, optimization techniques, and parallel data generation. This paper evaluates the performance of the two methods, which compare the resulting consumption profiles with real-world data, including patterns, statistics, and parallel data generation in the cluster. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods and their efficiency in generating large-scale datasets

Prevalence of Vitamin B12 deficiency in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus on metformin: A case control study from Pakistan

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus is the most common endocrine disorder and metformin is the most commonly prescribed oral hypoglycemicagent. Metformin is well known to cause viamin B12 deficiency due to effect on calcium-dependent membrane action in the terminal ileum leading to malabsorption of vitamin B12. The purpose of this study is to determine prevalence and associations of Vitamin B12 deficiency in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with metformin. Methods: This case control study was carried out in department of medicine, Combined Military Hospital, Kharian from 1st Jan 2012 to 30 december 2012.We enrolled 114 outdoor patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus currently on metformin for atleast 12 months, by consecutive sampling, and 105 age and sex matched patients taken as control. Patients with vitamin B12 levels of less than 150 pg/ml were said to be B12 deficient. The results were analyzed on SPSS version 16.Results: Serum B12 levels were low in 35 patients (31%) on metformin as compared to only 9 patients (8.6%) among controls,(p value 0.002). Mean B12 levels were significantly low in metformin group 311 pg/ml (±194.4), p value 0.03. Dose of metformin had inverse correlation with B12 levels and the difference was statistically significant with pvalue < 0.001.Conclusion: Our study demonstrated significantly high prevalence of  vitamin B12 deficiency in patients treated with metformin with significant effect of dose and duration of metformin use on B12 levels. Physicians must recognize this important fact and screen diabetics on metformin therapy for underlying B12 deficiency

Ab-initio study of the bandgap engineering of Al(1-x)Ga(x)N for optoelectronic applications

A theoretical study of Al(1-x)Ga(x)N, based on full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method, is used to investigate the variations in the bandgap, optical properties and non-linear behavior of the compound with the variation of Ga concentration. It is found that the bandgap decreases with the increase of Ga in Al(1-x)Ga(x)N. A maximum value of 5.5 eV is determined for the bandgap of pure AlN which reaches to minimum value of 3.0 eV when Al is completely replaced by Ga. The static index of refraction and dielectric constant decreases with the increase in bandgap of the material, assigning a high index of refraction to pure GaN when compared to pure AlN. The refractive index drops below 1 for photon energies larger than 14 eV results group velocity of the incident radiation higher than the vacuum velocity of light. This astonishing result shows that at higher energies the optical properties of the material shifts from linear to non-linear. Furthermore, frequency dependent reflectivity and absorption coefficients show that peak value of the absorption coefficient and reflectivity shifts towards lower energy in the UV spectrum with the increase in Ga concentration. This comprehensive theoretical study of the optoelectronic properties of the alloys is presented for the first time which predicts that the material can be effectively used in the optical devices working in the visible and UV spectrum.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

Distal tibial interosseous osteochondroma with impending fracture of fibula – a case report and review of literature

Osteochondromas arising from the interosseous border of the distal tibia and involving distal fibula are uncommon. We present a 16 year old young boy with an impending fracture, erosion and weakness of the distal fibula, secondary to an osteochondroma arising from the distal tibia. Early excision of this deforming distal tibial osteochondroma avoided the future risk of pathological fracture of the distal fibula, ankle deformities and syndesmotic complications

Wide resection and stabilization of ulnar stump by extensor carpi ulnaris for giant cell tumor of distal ulna: two case reports

The distal end of ulna is an extremely uncommon site for primary bone tumors in general and giant cell tumor in particular. Wide resection is usually indicated in such cases and at times it may be necessary to remove of a long segment of the distal ulna. Any ulnar resection proximal to the insertion of pronator quadratus can lead to instability in the form of radio-ulnar convergence and dorsal displacement (winging) of the ulnar stump. This can result in diminution of forearm rotation and weakness with grasp. Stabilization of the ulnar stump after resection for a giant cell tumor was described by Kayias & Drosos. We are adding two more cases to the literature. Both patients had excellent functional outcome and there were no instances of recurrence at three years of follow-up