Application of k-means method to pattern recognition in on-line cable partial discharge monitoring

On-line Partial Discharge (PD) monitoring is being increasingly adopted in an effort to improve asset management of the vast network of MV and HV power cables. This paper presents a novel method for autonomous recognition of PD patterns recorded under conditions in which a phase-reference voltage waveform from the HV conductors is not available, as is often the case in on-line PD based insulation condition monitoring. The paper begins with an analysis of two significant challenges for automatic PD pattern recognition. A methodology is then proposed for applying the K-Means method to the task of recognizing PD patterns without phase reference information. Results are presented to show that the proposed methodology is capable of recognising patterns of PD activity in on-line monitoring applications for both single-phase and three-phase cables and is also effective technique for rejecting interference signals

Long-term trends in human body size track regional variation in subsistence transitions and growth acceleration linked to dairying

Evidence for a reduction in stature between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers has been interpreted as reflective of declines in health, however, our current understanding of this trend fails to account for the complexity of cultural and dietary transitions or the possible causes of phenotypic change. The agricultural transition was extended in primary centers of domestication and abrupt in regions characterized by demic diffusion. In regions such as Northern Europe where foreign domesticates were difficult to establish, there is strong evidence for natural selection for lactase persistence in relation to dairying. We employ broad-scale analyses of diachronic variation in stature and body mass in the Levant, Europe, the Nile Valley, South Asia, and China, to test three hypotheses about the timing of subsistence shifts and human body size, that: 1) the adoption of agriculture led to a decrease in stature, 2) there were different trajectories in regions of in situ domestication or cultural diffusion of agriculture; and 3) increases in stature and body mass are observed in regions with evidence for selection for lactase persistence. Our results demonstrate that 1) decreases in stature preceded the origins of agriculture in some regions; 2) the Levant and China, regions of in situ domestication of species and an extended period of mixed foraging and agricultural subsistence, had stable stature and body mass over time; and 3) stature and body mass increases in Central and Northern Europe coincide with the timing of selective sweeps for lactase persistence, providing support for the "Lactase Growth Hypothesis.

Harnessing the Potential of CRISPR/Cas in Atherosclerosis: Disease Modeling and Therapeutic Applications

Atherosclerosis represents one of the major causes of death globally. The high mortality rates and limitations of current therapeutic modalities have urged researchers to explore potential alternative therapies. The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system is commonly deployed for investigating the genetic aspects of Atherosclerosis. Besides, advances in CRISPR/Cas system has led to extensive options for researchers to study the pathogenesis of this disease. The recent discovery of Cas9 variants, such as dCas9, Cas9n, and xCas9 have been established for various applications, including single base editing, regulation of gene expression, live-cell imaging, epigenetic modification, and genome landscaping. Meanwhile, other Cas proteins, such as Cas12 and Cas13, are gaining popularity for their applications in nucleic acid detection and single-base DNA/RNA modifications. To date, many studies have utilized the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate disease models of atherosclerosis and identify potential molecular targets that are associated with atherosclerosis. These studies provided proof-of-concept evidence which have established the feasibility of implementing the CRISPR/Cas system in correcting disease-causing alleles. The CRISPR/Cas system holds great potential to be developed as a targeted treatment for patients who are suffering from atherosclerosis. This review highlights the advances in CRISPR/Cas systems and their applications in establishing pathogenetic and therapeutic role of specific genes in atherosclerosis.</jats:p

Molecular Characterization of Branchial aquaporin 1aa and Effects of Seawater Acclimation, Emersion or Ammonia Exposure on Its mRNA Expression in the Gills, Gut, Kidney and Skin of the Freshwater Climbing Perch, Anabas testudineus

10.1371/journal.pone.0061163PLoS ONE84

Kencing Manis dan Diet: Beberapa Fakta Penting untuk Direnungi Bersama

Kencing manis (DM) adalah penyakit metabolik yang bercirikan hiperglisemia, di mana adanya gangguan dalam pengeluaran atau tindakan insulin atau gabungan kedua-duanya. Biasanya, terdapat beberapa faktor seperti faktor genetik, obesiti, gaya hidup tidak sihat, aterosklerosis dan juga tabiat pemakanan yang salah yang menyebabkan atau memburukkan DM. Biasanya, individu yang terlibat tidak mengambil berat tentang kesihatannya dan kesan daripada komplikasi DM ini boleh mendatangkan maut. Komplikasi DM melibatkan sistem kardiovaskular, otot, endokrin, buah pinggang dan sistem saraf di dalam badan. Rawatan komplikasi DM bukan sahaja mahal tetapi ia juga menjadi beban kepada keluarga yang terjejas. Kajian ini membincangkan cabaran yang dihadapi dalam menangani DM dengan mengambilkira diet dan tabiat pemakanan. Pengetahuan daripada pengambilan makanan yang betul juga boleh membantu memerangi komplikasi DM dan ini dapat menangani kadar kematian dan morbidit

Active resource allocation for active reliable multicast

Local loss recovery for reliable multicast can provide significant performance improvement in terms of loss recovery latency, bandwidth consumption and network throughput. Active reliable multicast (ARM) is a novel loss recovery scheme for large-scale reliable multicast. When sufficient active resources of active routers (ARs) and associated cache are available, ARM gives good loss recovery latency performance. The authors build an analytical model for studying the optimal active resource allocation for ARM. They propose a top-down layering analysis (TDLA) approach to derive the expected loss recovery latency (ELRL). For a given multicast tree, the ELRL is derived as a function of the active resource allocation pattern. Simulation experiments reveal that high performance gains can be attained with limited active resources, which are properly allocated. It is also shown that simulation results have a good match with the analytical results. The analytical framework developed can be used for further investigation of various active resource allocation schemes and caching policies

Caching policy and cache placement for active reliable multicast

Active Reliable Multicast (ARM) is a novel loss recovery scheme for large-scale reliable multicast that employs active routers to protect the sender and network bandwidth from unnecessary feedback and repair traffic. Active routers perform NACKs suppression, cache multicast data for local loss recovery, and use scoped retransmission to avoid exposure. Limited active resources at routers need to be optimized to achieve low loss recovery latency and/or high network throughput. In this paper, we study the cache placement strategies and caching policies for ARM. Several heuristics, namely uniform allocation, proportional allocation, max-min fair share and weighted allocation for cache allocation methods are proposed. To further improve the loss recovery performance, caching policies can be employed in conjunction with the cache allocation strategies. Several caching policies, namely complete caching, random caching and deterministic caching, are proposed. Extensive simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate and compare the performance of the proposed strategies and policies. Numerical results reveal that significant performance gains can be achieved when a proper cache placement strategy and a caching policy are used for a given available cache resource. Another interesting finding is that the contributions of the cache placement scheme and caching policy to the recovery latency performance are roughly independent. The obtained insights in this study will provide some design guidelines for optimal active resource allocation and caching polices for reliable multicast communications.link_to_subscribed_fulltex