Development and Analysis of Dynamic Time Based Pricing Scheme, RTFPP for Residential Demand Response Program

Paper proposes fair and dynamic pricing strategy, Real Time Fair Peak Pricing (RTFPP), for residential demand response program which takes into account the intensity of increased load above baseline (must run load) of each user and charge accordingly. Proposed methodology has the potential to increase user confidence, by the induction of fairness and baseline flexibility, hence increasing participation in residential demand response programs for economic operation of system. An algorithm is developed to impose RTFPP scheme on given user, in peak periods, for billing. To show the benefits, diverse realistic user load profiles are imposed with developed algorithm in MATLAB and results are evaluated and analysed.Keywords: Load Management, Residential demand response Dynamic time based pricing Demand side managemen

Enhanced conductivity behavior of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) hybrid composites containing exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets and carbon nanotubes

The authors would like to thank the British Council for sponsoring this project via the Prime Minister’s Initiative Grant (PMI-2), Grant No. 6050180. We also thank Queen Mary, University of London (UK) for supporting this project. Additionally, K.T.S. Kong would like to acknowledge Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for providing financial assistance via the USM Fellowship Scheme and Research University Postgraduate Research Grant Scheme (USM-RU-PRGS), Grant No. 8032017

Prolific plant regeneration through organogenesis from scalps of Musa sp cv. Tanduk

A prolific plant regeneration system using scalps derived from shoot tips of Musa spp. cv. Tanduk was developed. Highly proliferating scalps, produced after four monthly subcultures of shoot tip explant on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 100 mM BAP and 1.0 mM IAA, were placed on MS basal medium supplemented with 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mM BAP. Rooting of shoots was assessed on hormone-free half strength and full strength MS media and on MS medium supplemented with 1.0, 5.0and 10 mM IBA. Four types of potting media comprising of sand, peat, sand + top soil + goat dung (3:2:1 v/v) and top soil + sand (1:1 v/v) were evaluated during acclimatization of the plantlets. Prolific shootregeneration from scalps was obtained on MS medium containing 2.5 mM BAP, at 9.61 and 40.6 shoots per explant after 4 and 8 weeks of culture, respectively. Meanwhile, the highest mean shoot height of 2.19 cm was attained on MS medium with 1.0 mM BAP after 8 weeks of culture. Full-strength MS medium supplemented with 5.0 mM IBA produced the highest mean number of roots per explant at 15.08, while the highest mean root length of 11.07 cm was obtained on hormone-free half strength MS medium at week 4 of culture. The highest plant survivability of 77.5% was achieved in potting medium consisting of top soil + sand + goat dung after 6 weeks of acclimatization. The plants were morphologically normalwith vigorous stems and broad green leaves

Previously clinically “silent” adrenal phaeochromocytoma presenting as hypovolemic shock with paradoxical hypertension

No Abstract Keywords: Phaeochromocytoma; Acute abdomen; Rupture; Hypovolemic shoc

In vitro adventitious shoot regeneration and acclimatisation of Brassica oleracea subsp. italica cv. Green Marvel

Cotyledonary explants of Brassica oleracea subsp. italica (broccoli) cv. Green Marvel were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing different combinations of the growth regulators 6- benzylaminopurine (BAP) and α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) for shoot regeneration. The optimal medium for inducing shoots contained 3 mgl-1 BAP and 1 mgl-1 NAA, which produced a shoot induction percentage of 53.33% and a mean number of 0.43 shoot per explant. The shoots were subsequently rooted in MS medium that contained 0.2 mgl-1 of indol-3-butyric acid (IBA). Different potting media were assessed during plantlet acclimatization. The highest percentage of plant survival (83.33%) was on the medium that contained sand and soil (1:1), while maximum root length (4.37 cm) and plant height (7.87 cm) were attained in potting medium that consisted peat moss, perlite and vermiculite (3:1:1).Key words: Brassica oleracea, broccoli, 6-benzylaminopurine, α-naphthalene acetic acid, indole-3- butyric acid

RADAR-base: A Novel Open Source m-Health Platform

Smartphones with embedded and connected sensors are playing vital role in healthcare through various apps and mHealth platforms. RADAR-base is a modern mHealth data collection platform built around Confluent and Apache Kafka. RADAR-base enables study design and set up, active and passive remote data collection. It provides secure data transmission, and scalable solutions for data storage, management and access. The application is used presently in RADAR-CNS study to collect data from patients suffering from Multiples Sclerosis, Depression and Epilepsy. Beyond RADAR-CNS, RADAR-base is being deployed across a number of other funded research programmes

RADAR-base: Epilepsy Case Study

The traditional hospital set-up is not appropriate for long-term epilepsy seizure detection in naturalistic ambulatory settings. To explore the feasibility of seizure detection in such a setting, an in-hospital study was conducted to evaluate three wearable devices and a data collection platform for ambulatory seizure detection. The platform collects and processes data for study administrators, clinicians and data scientists, who use it to create models to detect seizures. For that purpose, all data collected from the wearable devices is additionally synchronized with the hospital EEG and video, with gold-standard seizure labels provided by trained clinicians. Data collected by wearable devices shows potential for seizure detection in out-of-hospital based and ambulatory settings

Challenges & solutions in a hybrid mHealth mobile app

The paper describes the various problems and challenges encountered during the development and remote data collection in a cross-platform hybrid application developed for remote monitoring of participants and what solutions were implemented to mitigate them. These problems and challenges are universal for hybrid applications and this paper digs deep into these in the domain of large-scale, long-duration mHealth research studies. From technical issues to issues with user compliance, this paper discusses the core problems inherent to these types of studies and technologies, and how to mitigate them

Effect of lead acetate administered orally at different dosage levels in broiler chicks

The project was conducted to evaluate the effect of lead administered as lead acetate at different dosage levels via drinking water in broiler chicks. Thirty-five healthy chicks were divided into seven groups (five chicks each) and one group was kept as un-medicated control. Groups A, B, C, D, E and F were medicated with lead acetate in a single dose at a rate of 80, 120, 160, 200, 240 and 280 mg/kg of body weight respectively for twenty five days consecutively. Various biochemical parameters, that is, glutamate pyruvate transaminase, creatinine and uric acid were determined by using spectrophotometer. A significant (P<0.05) increase was recorded in GPT, creatinine and uric acid levels in all medicated groups. The GPT, creatinine and uric acid levels were significantly (P<0.05) higher in groups medicated with high doses of 240 and 280 mg/kg b.wt of lead acetate. Analysis of variance showed that the DATA were significant not only from the single factor (dose/days) point of view, but also from their combined effect (dose rate × different days of analysis), which gave significant results with a P value less than 0.05. The mortality rate of 20% was observed for the groups medicated with 120, 160 and 200 mg/kg b.wt, while 60% was observed for the groups medicated with 240 and 280 mg/kg b.wt. Postmortem revealed gross lesions on liver, lungs, kidney and brain at high doses of lead acetate. The lead was also accumulated in different organs, such as, the bone (14.83 ± 0.18 μg/g), brain (2.63 ± 0.16 μg/g) and liver (1.05 ± 0.16 μg/g). These results showed that lead possessed significant capability of bioaccumulation. However, it also revealed that lead toxicity increased as the dose increased and high dose of lead caused both hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in broiler chickens.Keywords: Lead acetate, hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, broiler chicken

Genomic diversity among Basmati rice (Oryza sativa L) mutants obtained through 60Co gamma radiations using AFLP markers

Mutation breeding can be considered successful in obtaining new cultivars and broadening the genetic base of rice crop. In order to obtain new varieties of rice with improved agronomic and grain characteristics, gamma radiation (60Co) has been used to generate novel mutants of the Basmati rice. In this study rice cultivars; Basmati-370 and Basmati-Pak, were exposed to different doses of gamma radiations and stable mutants along with parents were studied for genomic diversity on the basis of molecular marker (AFLP). Morphological data showed that mutants of Basmati-370 performed well for yield and yield components and grain physical parameters whereas, the mutant EL-30-2-1 has extra long rain trait as compared to the parent (Basmati-Pak). The genetic variations determined through AFLP revealed a total of 282 scorable bands, out of which 108 (37.81%) were polymorphic. The number of fragments produced by various primers combinations ranged from 11 - 26 with an average of 17.63fragments per primer combination. Maximum 26 bands were amplified with P-AAG/M-CAG primer combination and minimum one band was amplified with P-ATG/M-CTA primer combination. Two groups of genotypes were detected; group-A had DM-1-30-3-99, DM-1-30-34-99 and EF-1-20-52-04 mutants along with parent Basmati-370, whereas the group-B contained EL-30-2-1 and parent Basmati-Pak. The results of AFLP analysis indicated that the rate of polymorphism was 4.43% (DM-1-30-3-99), 4.25% (DM-1-30-34-99) and 6.38% (EF-1-20-52-04) among the genomes of mutants and parent Basmati-370, respectively, whereas polymorphism rate was 5.32% between genome of EL-30-2-1 and Basmati-Pak. The study further confirmed that the use of gamma radiations is an effective approach for creating new rice germplasm