Energy Information Systems: From the Basement to the Boardroom

A significant buildings energy reduction opportunity exists in the office sector, given that this market segment typically is an early adopter of new technology. There is a rising trend towards smart and connected offices through the internet of things (IoT) that provides new opportunities for operational efficiency and environmental sustainability practices. Leading commercial real estate companies have begun to shift from individual building automation systems (BAS) to partially integrated and automated systems such as energy information systems (EIS). In both the United States and India, organizations are seeking operational excellence, enhanced tenant relationships, and topline growth. Hence it is imperative to engage the executives with decision-making power, by tapping into their interest in sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and innovation. This expansion of interest can enable data-driven decisions, strong energy investments, and deeper energy benefits, and would drive innovation in this field. However, none of this would be possible without robust, consistent building energy information to provide visibility across all the levels of decision making, i.e. from the basement where the facilities staff take operational action to the boardroom where the executives make investment decisions. Price, security, and ease of use remain barriers to the adoption and pervasive use of promising EIS technologies in commercial office buildings. We believe that these barriers can be addressed through the development of ready, simplified, consistent, commercially available, low-cost EIS-in-a-box packages, that have a pre-defined set of hardware components and software features and functionality that are pertinent to a particular building sector. These simplified, sector-specific EIS packages can help to obviate the need for customization, and enhance ease of use, thereby enabling scale-up, in order to facilitate building energy savings. The EIS-in-a-box are adaptable in both U.S. and Indian office buildings, and potentially beyond these two countries

Delineating agritourism: insights from Gujarat India / Yash Padhiyar… [et.al]

The present research identifies and proposes a delineation that defines agritourism by rectifying the key characteristics presently used to define agritourism in the literature. Efforts are put towards organizing them into a visible and constructed framework. The study highlights a proper understanding of agritourism as an economic tool which can help to support and satisfy both tourists, and farming fraternity. The cadre-1 officers of a renowned agricultural university from Gujarat were interviewed and data was evaluated to consolidate validity. Local culture and traditional ways of learning are drawn upon to explain knowledge sharing and practical learning which can be derived through empirical research to know the viability of the proposed delineation about agritourism. The key finding in the paper is the classification pertaining to delineation of agritourism through different labels and interview processes in the Gujarat context. The unique feature of the concept implication of agritourism is in its ability to fulfill the space between the practice and theory. It also helps to support framework to underpin academic research of the phenomenon and has the capacity to harness more practical study on the difference between agritourism kinds. The research serves as an illustration of viable development that could be replicated through agritourism in rural settings as an economic empowerment tool

Treatment of Psoriasis with the Help of Curcumin Hydrogel

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. Current treatments for psoriasis include topical corticosteroids, immunomodulators, and phototherapy, but these treatments may have limited efficacy or cause side effects. Curcumin, a natural compound with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, has been shown to have potential as an alternative treatment for psoriasis. However, the low solubility and bioavailability of curcumin limit its effectiveness when administered orally or topically. Curcumin hydrogel, a topical formulation of curcumin, has been developed to address these limitations. In this review, we summarize the current research on the use of curcumin hydrogel in the treatment of psoriasis. We discuss the pharmacological properties of curcumin, the formulation of curcumin hydrogel, and the preclinical and clinical studies investigating the efficacy and safety of curcumin hydrogel in psoriasis. Overall, the available evidence suggests that curcumin hydrogel may be a promising alternative treatment for psoriasis, with potential benefits in reducing inflammation, promoting wound healing, and improving overall quality of life for psoriasis patients. Further research is needed to fully elucidate the mechanism of action of curcumin hydrogel and to optimize its formulation and delivery for maximum efficacy

Assessment of the Role of Pharmacists in Preventing Medication Errors in Hospital Settings

Medication errors can have serious consequences for patients in hospital settings. As medication experts, pharmacists play a critical role in preventing medication errors. This literature review examines the roles of pharmacists in preventing medication errors in hospital settings. The review identified several roles of pharmacists in preventing medication errors, including medication order review, medication reconciliation, providing drug information and education, and participation in interdisciplinary teams. The review also identified barriers to pharmacist involvement in preventing medication errors, such as limited access to patient information and limited communication with other healthcare professionals. Overall, the literature suggests that pharmacists can play a crucial role in preventing medication errors in hospital settings and that efforts should be made to overcome the barriers to their involvement

A Framework for Few-Shot Policy Transfer through Observation Mapping and Behavior Cloning

Despite recent progress in Reinforcement Learning for robotics applications, many tasks remain prohibitively difficult to solve because of the expensive interaction cost. Transfer learning helps reduce the training time in the target domain by transferring knowledge learned in a source domain. Sim2Real transfer helps transfer knowledge from a simulated robotic domain to a physical target domain. Knowledge transfer reduces the time required to train a task in the physical world, where the cost of interactions is high. However, most existing approaches assume exact correspondence in the task structure and the physical properties of the two domains. This work proposes a framework for Few-Shot Policy Transfer between two domains through Observation Mapping and Behavior Cloning. We use Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) along with a cycle-consistency loss to map the observations between the source and target domains and later use this learned mapping to clone the successful source task behavior policy to the target domain. We observe successful behavior policy transfer with limited target task interactions and in cases where the source and target task are semantically dissimilar.Comment: Paper accepted to the IROS 2023 Conferenc

Automaton-Guided Curriculum Generation for Reinforcement Learning Agents

Despite advances in Reinforcement Learning, many sequential decision making tasks remain prohibitively expensive and impractical to learn. Recently, approaches that automatically generate reward functions from logical task specifications have been proposed to mitigate this issue; however, they scale poorly on long-horizon tasks (i.e., tasks where the agent needs to perform a series of correct actions to reach the goal state, considering future transitions while choosing an action). Employing a curriculum (a sequence of increasingly complex tasks) further improves the learning speed of the agent by sequencing intermediate tasks suited to the learning capacity of the agent. However, generating curricula from the logical specification still remains an unsolved problem. To this end, we propose AGCL, Automaton-guided Curriculum Learning, a novel method for automatically generating curricula for the target task in the form of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). AGCL encodes the specification in the form of a deterministic finite automaton (DFA), and then uses the DFA along with the Object-Oriented MDP (OOMDP) representation to generate a curriculum as a DAG, where the vertices correspond to tasks, and edges correspond to the direction of knowledge transfer. Experiments in gridworld and physics-based simulated robotics domains show that the curricula produced by AGCL achieve improved time-to-threshold performance on a complex sequential decision-making problem relative to state-of-the-art curriculum learning (e.g, teacher-student, self-play) and automaton-guided reinforcement learning baselines (e.g, Q-Learning for Reward Machines). Further, we demonstrate that AGCL performs well even in the presence of noise in the task's OOMDP description, and also when distractor objects are present that are not modeled in the logical specification of the tasks' objectives.Comment: To be presented at The International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS) 202

Energy saving potential of different setpoint control algorithms in mixed-mode buildings

Mixed-mode buildings can combine the use of natural and mechanical systems to achieve the desirable internal conditions. However, it is essential to effectively control a mixed-mode building to minimize the energy consumption without compromising the thermal comfort of the occupants. The aim of this research is to develop different setpoint control algorithms for mixed-mode buildings, by using a variety of adaptive methodologies such as ASHRAE Standard 55, IMAC model and EN15251, and evaluate their energy saving potential for Bangalore and Mumbai, India and Gatwick, UK. Cosimulations were used for this research. EnergyPlus was used to develop the building geometry and coupled with Modelica, where the control algorithms were developed. This is a novel simulation approach to assess control algorithms in buildings and provides great flexibility for future use of the control algorithms. The results showed that the effective control of mixed-mode building can result approximately in 40% energy saving in Indian cities compared to fully mechanical conditioned buildings whilst maintaining comfortable internal conditions for 90% of the year

Thermally Comfortable Affordable Housing: A Study on Residential Building Code In India

On an average, India has more than 3000 Cooling Degree Days (CDD). The multifamily public housing being constructed under India’s Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) is aimed at providing formal housing to the society’s Economic Weaker Section (EWS). It is essential that this housing delivers thermally comfortable in-doors to the occupants. This study mapped the design and construction practices followed under PMAY Urban (PMAY-U) against India’s Residential Energy Building Code, Eco Niwas Samhita (ENS). The metric prescribed in ENS is Residential Envelope Transmittance Value (RETV). For 80 PMAY-U projects, information related to spatial design, and walling assemblies was collated. 30 projects were short-listed for detailed analysis. The RETV for selected projects was calculated. The analysis demonstrated that walling assemblies and technologies having a lower thermal transmittance value (U-value) resulted in meeting the ENS prescribed RETV numbers, hence, code compliance. The study further extended to assess the energy performance of the housing unit by exploring the change in walling assemblies. The change in thermally comfortable hours were reported in the range of 4145 and 6034, and Energy Performance Index (EPI) of the dwelling units were reported between 64 and 68 kWh/m2/year for the various walling assemblies

Caffeine Levels and Dietary Intake in Smokers with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

This study investigates the relationship between caffeine levels and dietary intake among individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who are smokers. The research aims to understand the patterns of caffeine consumption and dietary habits in this specific population. A sample of participants diagnosed with either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and who smoke will be analyzed to assess their caffeine intake through self-reported measures and biological markers. Additionally, their dietary patterns, including the consumption of caffeine-containing products and nutritional choices, will be evaluated. The findings of this study aim to contribute to a better understanding of the dietary behaviors of individuals with mental health disorders, specifically focusing on caffeine intake among smokers with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Targeted Therapies in Cancer Treatment: Unveiling the Latest Breakthroughs and Promising Approaches

This review article delves into the realm of cancer treatment, specifically focusing on targeted therapies. It aims to present the most recent breakthroughs and promising approaches in this rapidly evolving field. Targeted therapies have emerged as a revolutionary approach in cancer treatment, aiming to selectively and precisely attack cancer cells while sparing normal tissues. This article explores various targeted therapy strategies, including monoclonal antibodies, small molecule inhibitors, immunotherapies, and gene therapies. In recent years, there have been significant advancements in understanding the molecular and genetic basis of cancer, which has led to the identification of novel therapeutic targets. The article sheds light on these newly discovered targets and highlights their potential in designing more effective and personalized treatment regimens for cancer patients. Furthermore, the review addresses the challenges and limitations associated with targeted therapies, such as resistance mechanisms and the heterogeneity of tumors. Strategies to overcome these obstacles are discussed, including combination therapies and the development of next-generation targeted agents. The role of precision medicine in cancer treatment is also explored, emphasizing the importance of biomarker-guided therapy selection to optimize treatment outcomes. Additionally, the review touches upon the integration of targeted therapies with conventional treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, to enhance overall treatment efficacy. Finally, the article examines ongoing clinical trials and preclinical studies that are investigating cutting-edge targeted therapies, showcasing the potential impact of these approaches in transforming cancer care. In conclusion, targeted therapies in cancer treatment represent a rapidly expanding field with remarkable breakthroughs and promising avenues. Understanding the latest advancements and challenges in this domain is essential to harness the full potential of targeted therapies and ultimately improve patient outcomes in the battle against cancer