Removal of Interferences from Partial Discharge Pulses using Wavelet Transform

 It is essential to detect partial discharge (PD) as a symptom of insulation breakdown in high voltage (HV) applications. However accuracy of such measurement is often degraded due to the existence of noise in the signal. Wavelet Transform (WT) seems to be more suitable than traditional Fourier Transform in analyzing signals with interesting transient information such as partial discharge (PD) signals. In this paper a WT method with soft thresholding is used for signal denoising. PD signals and corona obtained from actual measurements with different voltage magnitudes are processed. Processed signals show the better result.

Functional analysis of bovine interleukin-10 receptor alpha in response to Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis lysate using CRISPR/Cas9

peer-reviewedBackground The interleukin-10 receptor alpha (IL10RA) gene codes for the alpha chain of the IL-10 receptor which binds the cytokine IL-10. IL-10 is an anti-inflammatory cytokine with immunoregulatory function during the pathogenesis of many inflammatory disorders in livestock, including Johne’s disease (JD). JD is a chronic enteritis in cattle caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) and is responsible for significant economic losses to the dairy industry. Several candidate genes including IL10RA have been found to be associated with JD. The aim of this study was to better understand the functional significance of IL10RA in the context of immune stimulation with MAP cell wall lysate. Results An IL10RA knock out (KO) bovine mammary epithelial cell (MAC-T) line was generated using the CRISPR/cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9) gene editing system. These IL10RA KO cells were stimulated with the immune stimulant MAP lysate +/− IL-10, or with LPS as a positive control. In comparison to unedited cells, relative quantification of immune-related genes after stimulation revealed that knocking out IL10RA resulted in upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression (TNFA, IL1A, IL1B and IL6) and downregulation of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3), a negative regulator of pro-inflammatory cytokine signaling. At the protein level knocking out IL10RA also resulted in upregulation of inflammatory cytokines - TNF-α and IL-6 and chemokines - IL-8, CCL2 and CCL4, relative to unedited cells. Conclusions The findings of this study illustrate the broad and significant effects of knocking out the IL10RA gene in enhancing pro-inflammatory cytokine expression and further support the immunoregulatory role of IL10RA in eliciting an anti-inflammatory response as well as its potential functional involvement during the immune response associated with JD

A race from the bottom? Lessons from a workers’ struggle at a Bangalore warehouse

This paper analyses the emergence of the ‘full package’ firm in India and its implications for workers’ strategies. A ‘full package’ firm expands outward, from low-value assembly-only products to high-value specialized garment production; consolidating under one roof. Historically, geographic and political barriers separated centres of value-creation (producers) and value-capture (brands and retailers) in the global garment sector. However, enhanced value-capture at the point of production has led to considerable consolidation organizationally, giving an increasingly symbiotic character to relationships within ‘buyer driven’ supply chains. Though this change aggregates the bargaining power of workers, it also introduces new obstacles to workers’ organization. The concomitant rise of supplier-end value capture allows garment trade unions to nonetheless demand greater shares. Thus, previously unviable modes and methods have become available to workers engaged in struggles with their employers in the globalized garment sector. This paper examines a protracted workers’ struggle in light of this process. In doing so, the paper demonstrates that codes of conduct and auditing alone cannot significantly impact labour standards because the needs of capital accumulation are greater than the threat posed by any auditing program or code. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that labour rights within the garment GVC will not arrive through a rights-based approach -- though strong codes of conduct and independent auditing can assist -- but rather through a combination of an increased power of suppliers vis-à-vis buyers, greater workers' bargaining power with their direct employers, and -- critically -- workers' self organization

AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON STRENGTH PROPERTIES OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT WEIGHT AGGREGATE CONCRETE MADE FROM AGRICULTURAL BY PRODUCT SUCH AS WOOD ASH INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (IJCIET)

ABSTRACT Structural lightweight aggregate concrete is an important and versatile material, which offers a range of technical, economic and environmental-enhancing and preserving advantages and is designed to become a dominant material in the new millennium. By the development of economy and increasing production of consumer goods the amount of waste materials is increasing. There exists a serious need for recovery and reuse of industrial and agricultural wastes. Annually different types of wastes are being generated in large quantities from the industries. One of them is wood ash. In this investigation an attempt to convert wood ash into aggregates which can be used as replacements for natural aggregates has been done. The reason for this approach is due to the demand for artificial light weight aggregates while the natural aggregate resource is depleting. Pelletization process is used to manufacture artificial lightweight aggregate using wood ash. A review indicates that studies have not been much reported on the pelletization of wood ash aggregates. In this study, the engineering performance of water cured wood ash pellets including the effect of lime and cement additions for concrete production purposes are investigated and the results obtained are quite satisfactory for the related design requirements. In this present experimental investigation an attempt is made to study the strength properties of light weight aggregate concrete, such as wood ash aggregate concrete. By varying the percentage of wood ash aggregate in concrete replacing the conventional granite aggregate in percentages of 0, 25, 50, 75, 100 by volume/weight of concrete, the properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity etc., are thought to be studied by casting and testing around 120 samples consisting of 30 plain cube specimens of size (150mm*150mm*150mm)

CRISPR-Cas9–mediated knockout of TLR4 modulates Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis cell lysate–induced inflammation in bovine mammary epithelial cells

peer-reviewedToll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is a pattern-recognition receptor involved in the recognition of microbial pathogens and host alarmins. Ligation to TLR4 initiates a signaling cascade that leads to inflammation. Polymorphisms in bovine TLR4 have been associated with Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) susceptibility and resistance, the cause of Johne's disease, and milk somatic cell score, a biomarker of mastitis. Although the contribution of TLR4 to recognition of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has been well characterized, its role in MAP recognition is less certain. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats–Cas9 mediated gene editing was performed to generate TLR4 knockout (KO) mammary epithelial cells to determine if TLR4 expression is involved in the initiation of the host inflammatory response to MAP cell lysate (5 and 10 µg/mL) and Escherichia coli LPS (5 µg/mL). The absence of TLR4 in KO cells resulted in enhanced expression of key inflammatory genes (TNFA and IL6), anti-inflammatory genes (IL10 and SOCS3), and supernatant cytokine and chemokine levels (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, CCL3) in response to the MAP cell lysate (10 µg/mL). However, in response to LPS, the KO cells showed reduced expression of key inflammatory genes (TNFA, IL1A, IL1B, and IL6) and supernatant cytokine levels (TNF-α, IL-6, CCL2, IL-8) as compared with unedited cells. Overall, these results confirm that TLR4 is essential for eliciting inflammation in response to LPS; however, exacerbated gene and protein expression in TLR4 KO cells in response to MAP cell lysate suggests a different mechanism of infection and host response for MAP, at least in terms of how it interacts with TLR4. These novel findings show potential divergent roles for TLR4 in mycobacterial infections, and this may have important consequences for the therapeutic control of inflammation in cattle