DeepSolarEye: Power Loss Prediction and Weakly Supervised Soiling Localization via Fully Convolutional Networks for Solar Panels

The impact of soiling on solar panels is an important and well-studied problem in renewable energy sector. In this paper, we present the first convolutional neural network (CNN) based approach for solar panel soiling and defect analysis. Our approach takes an RGB image of solar panel and environmental factors as inputs to predict power loss, soiling localization, and soiling type. In computer vision, localization is a complex task which typically requires manually labeled training data such as bounding boxes or segmentation masks. Our proposed approach consists of specialized four stages which completely avoids localization ground truth and only needs panel images with power loss labels for training. The region of impact area obtained from the predicted localization masks are classified into soiling types using the webly supervised learning. For improving localization capabilities of CNNs, we introduce a novel bi-directional input-aware fusion (BiDIAF) block that reinforces the input at different levels of CNN to learn input-specific feature maps. Our empirical study shows that BiDIAF improves the power loss prediction accuracy by about 3% and localization accuracy by about 4%. Our end-to-end model yields further improvement of about 24% on localization when learned in a weakly supervised manner. Our approach is generalizable and showed promising results on web crawled solar panel images. Our system has a frame rate of 22 fps (including all steps) on a NVIDIA TitanX GPU. Additionally, we collected first of it's kind dataset for solar panel image analysis consisting 45,000+ images.Comment: Accepted for publication at WACV 201

SEQUENCE ANALYSIS AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF TISSUE TRANSGLUTAMINASE 2(TG2) BY IN SILICO APPROACH

Objective: TG2 is multifunctional protein. The up regulation leads into different pathological disorders. The objective of the present study was the prediction of a structural feature of TG2 (Tissue transglutaminase) protein with in silico approach.Methods: In this study, we have investigated the structural feature of TG2 by using various biological databases (uniprot, NCBI, Pfam) and online tools such as BLAST, PDBsum, protoparam tools.Results: The predicted structure of TG2 protein has shown that amino acid residues conserved throughout the sequence in selected mammals. During the course of evolution, mammalian TG2 protein is orthologus; human TG2 shares its characters with chimpanzee while mice and rat were closely related to each other. This protein was mainly cytosolic but also present in other cell organalles. It has four catalytic domains and three active sites with multiple metal binding domain specifically for calcium. The pI value was 5.11, GRAVY-0.283. The phosphorylation sites were present at serine and threonine. The structure was a monomer with 14 alpha helices and 9 sheets. Ramachandran plot showed about 98% residues in the favoured region.Conclusion: Collectively, these data suggest that the predicted TG2 protein may act as a good therapeutic target. Targeting phosphorylation sites may help in down regulation of TG2. The modelled protein can be used for further work

Antidiarrhoeal Activity of Leaf Extract of Moringa Oleifera In Experimentally Induced Diarrhoea In Rats

To evalauate the antidiarrhoeal activity of the hydroalcoholic extract of moringa oleifera leaves. The hydroalchoholic extract was evaluated using rodent animal models of diarrhoea like the castor oil and magnesium sulfate induced gastrointestinal motility, in a model of enteropooling induced by the administration of castor oil and PGE2, Charcoal meal test. Acute toxicity and phytochemical constituents were also been evaluated using standardized methods. The results of the present study indicates that the hydroalcoholic extract of moringa oleifera leaves was effective in inducing a significant protection against experimentally induced diarrhoea by castor oil and magnesium sulfate, as evidenced by a decrease in the number of frequency, weight of stools after 4 hours with respect to control. The extract also prevented the enteropooling induced by castor oil and PGE2 at all the doses tested. Acute toxicity studies indicated that the extract is safe till 2500 mg/kg. The antidiarrhoeal activity though, not ascribed to any particular phytochemical present, general tests performed indicated the presence of flavonoids, tannis which were reported to produce antidiarrhoeal activity. These results showed that Moringa oleifera leaves possess anti-diarrheal properties mediated through inhibition of hyper secretion and gastrointestinal motility that substantiate its use in the treatment of diarrhea in traditional medicines or folklore use. Keywords: enteropooling, hyper secretion, Moringa oleifer

A case of Dystocia due to Fetal Ascites in Murrah Buffalo

Dystocia in buffalo due to fetal causes is not common. However there are reports suggesting dystocia due to dropsical condition of fetus. Present case reports one of the fetal dropsical conditions in buffalo. In this case we report a successful management of dystocia due to fetal ascites in Murrah buffalo by incising the fetal abdomen to take out the fluid from peritoneum

The HSV-1 Latency-Associated Transcript Functions to Repress Latent Phase Lytic Gene Expression and Suppress Virus Reactivation from Latently Infected Neurons

open access articleHerpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) establishes life-long latent infection within sensory neurons, during which viral lytic gene expression is silenced. The only highly expressed viral gene product during latent infection is the latency-associated transcript (LAT), a non-protein coding RNA that has been strongly implicated in the epigenetic regulation of HSV-1 gene expression. We have investigated LAT-mediated control of latent gene expression using chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses and LAT-negative viruses engineered to express firefly luciferase or β-galactosidase from a heterologous lytic promoter. Whilst we were unable to determine a significant effect of LAT expression upon heterochromatin enrichment on latent HSV-1 genomes, we show that reporter gene expression from latent HSV-1 genomes occurs at a greater frequency in the absence of LAT. Furthermore, using luciferase reporter viruses we have observed that HSV-1 gene expression decreases during long-term latent infection, with a most marked effect during LAT-negative virus infection. Finally, using a fluorescent mouse model of infection to isolate and culture single latently infected neurons, we also show that reactivation occurs at a greater frequency from cultures harbouring LAT-negative HSV-1. Together, our data suggest that the HSV-1 LAT RNA represses HSV-1 gene expression in small populations of neurons within the mouse TG, a phenomenon that directly impacts upon the frequency of reactivation and the maintenance of the transcriptionally active latent reservoir

The PROMISES study: A mixed methods approach to explore the acceptability of salivary progesterone testing for preterm birth risk among pregnant women and trained frontline healthcare workers in rural India

Introduction India has an overall neonatal mortality rate of 28/1000 live births, with higher rates in rural India. Approximately 3.5 million pregnancies in India are affected by preterm birth (PTB) annually and contribute to approximately a quarter of PTBs globally. Embedded within the PROMISES study (which aims to validate a low-cost salivary progesterone test for early detection of PTB risk), we present a mixed methods explanatory sequential feasibility substudy of the salivary progesterone test. Methods A pretraining and post-training questionnaire to assess Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) (n=201) knowledge and experience of PTB and salivary progesterone sampling was analysed using the McNemar test. Descriptive statistics for a cross-sectional survey of pregnant women (n=400) are presented in which the acceptability of this test for pregnant women is assessed. Structured interviews were undertaken with ASHAs (n=10) and pregnant women (n=9), and were analysed using thematic framework analysis to explore the barriers and facilitators influencing the use of this test in rural India. Results Before training, ASHAs' knowledge of PTB (including risk factors, causes, postnatal support and testing) was very limited. After the training programme, there was a significant improvement in the ASHAs' knowledge of PTB. All 400 women reported the salivary test was acceptable with the majority finding it easy but not quick or better than drawing blood. For the qualitative aspects of the study, analysis of interview data with ASHAs and women, our thematic framework comprised of three main areas: implementation of intervention; networks of influence and access to healthcare. Qualitative data were stratified and presented as barriers and facilitators. Conclusion This study suggests support for ongoing investigations validating PTB testing using salivary progesterone in rural settings

HIV-1 Vpr drives a tissue residency-like phenotype during selective infection of resting memory T cells

HIV-1 replicates in CD4+ T cells, leading to AIDS. Determining how HIV-1 shapes its niche to create a permissive environment is central to informing efforts to limit pathogenesis, disturb reservoirs, and achieve a cure. A key roadblock in understanding HIV-T cell interactions is the requirement to activate T cells in vitro to make them permissive to infection. This dramatically alters T cell biology and virus-host interactions. Here we show that HIV-1 cell-to-cell spread permits efficient, productive infection of resting memory T cells without prior activation. Strikingly, we find that HIV-1 infection primes resting T cells to gain characteristics of tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM), including upregulating key surface markers and the transcription factor Blimp-1 and inducing a transcriptional program overlapping the core TRM transcriptional signature. This reprogramming is driven by Vpr and requires Vpr packaging into virions and manipulation of STAT5. Thus, HIV-1 reprograms resting T cells, with implications for viral replication and persistence

Time for global scale-up, not randomized trials, of uterine balloon tamponade for postpartum hemorrhage.

Maternal death is the greatest health disparity globally, with postpartum hemorrhage the most common cause. As senior leaders in obstetrics and maternal health from Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nepal, Niger, Norway, Peru, Tanzania, the UK, the USA, and Zambia, we are deeply disturbed by recent calls for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of uterine balloon tamponade (UBT) in women with uncontrolled postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). Our collective experience, in combination with mounting evidence, unequivocally supports the effectiveness of commercial and condom UBTs in averting death and disability from PPH associated with atonic uterus. We believe it would be highly unethical to embark on an RCT of UBT, now or in the future, unless compared with a proven equivalent intervention. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved