Poster Abstract: Bits and Watts: Improving energy disaggregation performance using power line communication modems

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) or energy disaggregation, aims to disaggregate a household's electricity consumption into constituent appliances. More than three decades of work in NILM has resulted in the development of several novel algorithmic approaches. However, despite these advancements, two core challenges still exist: i) disaggregating low power consumption appliances and ii) distinguishing between multiple instances of similar appliances. These challenges are becoming increasingly important due to an increasing number of appliances and increased usage of electronics in homes. Previous approaches have attempted to solve these problems using expensive hardware involving high sampling rates better suited to laboratory settings, or using additional number of sensors, limiting the ease of deployment. In this work, we explore using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) power line communication (PLC) modems as an inexpensive and easy to deploy alternative solution to these problems. We use the reduction in bandwidth between two PLC modems, caused due to the change in PLC modulation scheme when different appliances are operated as a signature for an appliance. Since the noise generated in the powerline is dependent both on type and location of an appliance, we believe that our technique based on PLC modems can be a promising addition for solving NILM

Comparative study of anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptides, and rheumatoid factor predictability in the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by synovial joint inflammation, which often leads to progressive joint destruction and disability. Several other auto-antibodies specific to RA have been found .Among them, antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptides (CCP) are useful for diagnosing RA. Antibodies to mutated citrullinated vimentin (MCV) were described recently in RA. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic values of ACCP compared to anti-MCV and Rheumatoid Factor in rheumatoid arthritis patients.Methods: This study included 92 patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 35 matching healthy controls. Blood samples were obtained from patients and controls for Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), C Reactive Protein (CRP), Rheumatoid factor (RF). Anti-CCP2 and anti-MCV were determined using ELISA technique.Results: RA group was significantly higher than control group as regard ESR, CRP, RF, Anti-CCP, and Anti- MCV.Conclusion: It was concluded, compared to ACCP, anti-MCV has approximately the same accuracy for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis but higher than Rheumatoid Factor.Level of Evidence: Level II, prospective study, as per guidelines for authors.

Study to determine the distribution pattern of agglutinating antibodies to Salmonella enterica serotype: typhi, paratyphi A and paratyphi B antigens in normal healthy individuals and individuals with afebrile illness in pediatric population

Background: Enteric fever continues to be a major health problem in developing countries including India. The serological test, Widal test, is a well known test, used as an indirect test to detect the serological evidences of presence of Salmonella groups. The following study was undertaken to determine the baseline Widal titre (the titre of the antibodies to the O and the H antigens of S. typhi and to the H antigens of S. paratyphi A and B) in normal healthy individuals and individuals with afebrile illness in paediatric population coming to our hospital (both IPD and OPD). Materials & Methods: The Widal test was performed with serial serum dilutions: 1:20, 1:40, 1:80, 1:160 and 1:320 by using isotonic normal saline. 0.5ml of each of the antigen suspension was added to corresponding tubes, mixed well and incubated at 37C for 24 hours. The tubes were then examined visually for agglutination. A 50% agglutination is considered and recorded as the titre of antibodies present in the individual against Salmonella. Results: Positive agglutination in Widal test was observed to be lowest among under-fives as compared to older children (46% vs 62%), but the results were not significant (p=0.06). No significant association was observed between Positive agglutination in Widal test and gender (p=0.31). Conclusion: It is clear that Salmonella agglutinins are common among apparently healthy people and as endemicity of typhoid in an area may change over time, more studies should be carried out to determine Salmonella agglutinin titre in apparently healthy populations, so that a better judgment which is based on the prevailing agglutinin titres can be made. Keywords: Agglutination, Salmonellosis, Typhoid fever, Salmonella typhi, Paratyphi A,  Paratyphi

Persistence in q-state Potts model: A Mean-Field approach

We study the Persistence properties of the T=0 coarsening dynamics of one dimensional $q$-state Potts model using a modified mean-field approximation (MMFA). In this approximation, the spatial correlations between the interfaces separating spins with different Potts states is ignored, but the correct time dependence of the mean density $P(t)$ of persistent spins is imposed. For this model, it is known that $P(t)$ follows a power-law decay with time, $P(t)\sim t^{-\theta(q)}$ where $\theta(q)$ is the $q$-dependent persistence exponent. We study the spatial structure of the persistent region within the MMFA. We show that the persistent site pair correlation function $P_{2}(r,t)$ has the scaling form $P_{2}(r,t)=P(t)^{2}f(r/t^{{1/2}})$ for all values of the persistence exponent $\theta(q)$. The scaling function has the limiting behaviour $f(x)\sim x^{-2\theta}$ ($x\ll 1$) and $f(x)\to 1$ ($x\gg 1$). We then show within the Independent Interval Approximation (IIA) that the distribution $n(k,t)$ of separation $k$ between two consecutive persistent spins at time $t$ has the asymptotic scaling form $n(k,t)=t^{-2\phi}g(t,\frac{k}{t^{\phi}})$ where the dynamical exponent has the form $\phi$=max(${1/2},\theta$). The behaviour of the scaling function for large and small values of the arguments is found analytically. We find that for small separations $k\ll t^{\phi}, n(k,t)\sim P(t)k^{-\tau}$ where $\tau$=max($2(1-\theta),2\theta$), while for large separations $k\gg t^{\phi}$, $g(t,x)$ decays exponentially with $x$. The unusual dynamical scaling form and the behaviour of the scaling function is supported by numerical simulations.Comment: 11 pages in RevTeX, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.