Novel Semi-Automatic Method to Optimize Multi-Lamp High Flux Solar Simulators

For multi-lamp high flux solar simulators (HFSS), it is often difficult to obtain a required flux distribution by manipulating the lamp position of multiple lamps at once. Each lamp has three degree of freedom. Thus manual optimization can be tedious for human operators. Thus, this project aims to create a semi-automatic method to determine the optimal location of the lamps to give the required flux distribution. A convolutional neural network is used to develop a mathematical model that performs the above function. At the same time, an automated method to collect data from the HFSS was devised. Furthermore, an in-house algorithm to characterize the irradiance was developed. Since large amount of data was required, an optical simulator called TracePro was used to generate the data for training as well as validation. This project serves as proof of concept of using machine learning to optimize HFSS. In the long term, the proposed methodology is expected to facilitate initial deployment of the HFSS. It will also assist on the dynamic control of reactor conditions i.e. emulating variable overcast or daily sunlight variability

Microalbuminuria in Non-Diabetic Acute Ischaemic Stroke: Prevalence and Prognostic Significance

Microalbuminuria was long known to be a marker of early nephropathy. Its importance in other disease processes revealed itself in further studies. Its association with cerebrovascular diseases has been in focus in the last decade or so. This study may still be relevant since studies have been far and few between regarding this aspect in this part of the country. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of microalbuminuria in acute ischemic stroke and to evaluate its prognostic significance. This study found a 47% prevalence of microalbuminuria in acute ischemic stroke after other factors which may confound it were excluded as far as possible. There was a significant association and correlation of microalbuminuria with the severity of the neurologic deficit so that it may be useful as a prognostic marker. Microalbuminurics were significantly older than normalbuminurics but the strongest correlation was with the severity of neurologic deficit. Further studies are needed regarding this and other aspects of microalbuminuria with its emerging role as predictor of vascular incidents of heart, brain, kidney as well as in any disease process where blood vessels have a significant role

Paying for Hemodialysis in Kerala, India: A Description of Household Financial Hardship in the Context of Medical Subsidy.

INTRODUCTION: Many low- and middle-income countries are implementing strategies to increase dialysis availability as growing numbers of people reach end-stage renal disease. Despite efforts to subsidize care, the economic sustainability of chronic dialysis in these settings remains uncertain. We evaluated the association of medical subsidy with household financial hardship related to hemodialysis in Kerala, India, a state with high penetrance of procedure-based subsidies for patients on dialysis. METHODS: Patients on maintenance hemodialysis at 15 facilities in Kerala were administered a questionnaire that ascertained demographics, dialysis details, and household finances. We estimated direct and indirect costs of hemodialysis, and described the use of medical subsidy. We evaluated whether presence of subsidy (private, charity, or government-sponsored) was associated with lower catastrophic health expenditure (defined as ≥40% of nonsubsistence expenditure spent on dialysis) or distress financing. RESULTS: Of the 835 patients surveyed, 759 (91%) reported their households experienced catastrophic health expenditure, and 644 (77%) engaged in distress financing. Median dialysis-related expenditure was 80% (25th-75th percentile: 60%-90%) of household nonsubsistence expenditure. Government subsidies were used by 238 (29%) of households, 139 (58%) of which were in the lowest income category. Catastrophic health expenditure was present in 215 (90%) of households receiving government subsidy and 332 (93%) without subsidy. CONCLUSIONS: Provision of medical subsidy in Kerala, India was not associated with lower rates of household financial hardship related to long-term hemodialysis therapy. Transparent counseling on impending costs and innovative strategies to mitigate household financial distress are necessary for persons with end-stage renal disease in resource-limited settings

Bile cast nephropathy causing acute kidney injury in a patient with nonfulminant acute hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is usually a benign self-limiting disease with few or no extrahepatic manifestations. Acute hepatitis A causing severe renal dysfunction is not very common, although described. Patients developing renal dysfunction post hepatitis A infection usually have prerenal acute kidney injury (AKI) or acute tubular necrosis due to vomiting, diarrhea, and poor fluid replacement. However, if renal dysfunction persists, other causes need to be evaluated. The term cholemic nephrosis or more specifically bile cast nephropathy has been described in the setting of cholestatic jaundice and decompensated liver failure where bilirubin levels reach above 20 mg/dL. Herein, we describe the clinical course of a patient who developed acute hepatitis A with severe liver dysfunction and subsequently AKI which persisted for six weeks. Renal biopsy showed the evidence of bile cast nephropathy. After six weeks of hemodialysis, urine output improved. He slowly recovered both hepatic and renal functions

An optimal power flow solution for a power system integrated with renewable generation

Integrating Green Renewable Energy Sources (GRES) as substitutes for fossil fuel-based energy sources is essential for reducing harmful emissions. The GRES are intermittent and their integration into the conventional IEEE 30 bus configuration increases the complexity and nonlinearity of the system. The Grey Wolf optimizer (GWO) has excellent exploration capability but needs exploitation capability to enhance its convergence speed. Adding particle swarm optimization (PSO) with excellent convergence capability to GWO leads to the development of a novel algorithm, namely a Grey Wolf particle swarm optimization (GWPSO) algorithm with excellent exploration and exploitation capabilities. This study utilizes the advantages of the GWPSO algorithm to solve the optimal power flow (OPF) problem for adaptive IEEE 30 bus systems, including thermal, solar photovoltaic (SP), wind turbine (WT), and small hydropower (SHP) sources. Weibull, Lognormal, and Gumbel probability density functions (PDFs) are employed to forecast the output power of WT, SP, and SHP power sources after evaluating 8000 Monte Carlo possibilities, respectively. The multi-objective green economic optimal solution consisted of 11 control variables to reduce the cost, power losses, and harmful emissions. The proposed method to address the OPF problem is validated using an adaptive IEEE bus system. The proposed GWPSO algorithm is evaluated by comparing it with PSO and GWO optimization algorithms in terms of achieving an optimal green economic solution for the adaptive IEEE 30 bus system. This evaluation is conducted within the confines of the same test system using identical system constraints and control variables. The integration of a small SHP with WT and SP sources, along with the proposed GWPSO algorithm, led to a yearly cost reduction ranging from $\$$19,368 to $\$$30,081. Simulation findings endorsed that the proposed GWPSO algorithm executes fruitfully compared to alternative algorithms regarding a consistent convergence curve and robustness, proving its potential as a viable choice for achieving cost-effective solutions in power systems incorporating GRES

Study of the electrical properties of nanomatellite polymers (for low-density polyethylene LDPE ZnO)

تضمن هذا البحث دراسة بعض الخصائص الكهربائية المستمرة (D.C) والمتناوبة ((A.C للمتراكبات النانويه البوليمرية المتكونة من إضافة نسب وزنية مئوية مختلفة (50,45,40,30,20,10,0) من (ZnO) النانوية الى البولي اثيلين واطئ الكثافة ((LDPE. قياسات الاشعة تحت الحمراء أشارت إلى تغير طفيف في التراكيب الكيميائية, وحيود الأشعة السينية للأغشية البوليمرية ليس لا تظهر فيها قمم (تركيب غير متبلور) وتظهر القمم بعد إضافة المادة النانوية. حيث وجدنا ان التوصيلية المستمرة تزداد بزيادة درجات الحرارة لكل التراكيز المضافة كلها, وطاقة التنشيط تتناقص مع زيادة التراكيز المضافة من (ZnO) النانويه, بينما أشارت الخواص الكهربائية المتناوبة الى أن ثابت العزل الكهربائي والفقدان العزلي الكهربائي كلاهما يتناقصان بزيادة تردد المجال المسلط ولمختلف التراكيز المضافة ويزدادان بزيادة تراكيز الماده المضافة.Some electrical properties have been studied of polymer nanocomposites films prepared by pressure technique. This study includes some ( D.C & A.C) electrical test for (LDPE-ZnO) polymer  nanocomposities  with different concentration as (0,10,20,30,40,45 and 50) wt.% of  (ZnO) .The FT-IR measurements refer to that no change on chemical structures except some minor variations. XRD of polymers films without additive have no peaks (amorphous structure) but after adding nanomaterial the peaks are appearing. D.C. conductivity of the nanocomposites have been increased  with increasing temperature at different concentrations of (ZnO) nanoparticles. The activation energy decreases with increasing the concentrations of the nanoparticles additives. The A.C electrical properties show that the dielectric constant and dielectric loss decrease with increasing the frequency of applied electrical field and they increase with increasing of the concentration of nanoparticles

A comparative study on hematological parameters among the social and problem drinkers admitted in a tertiary care rehabilitation centre

Background: Alcoholism is a broad form for problems with alcohol and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the determinant of drinker’s health, personal relationships and social standing. It is medically considered a disease, specifically an addictive illness. Alcohol has numerous adverse effects on the various types of blood cells and their functions. This study aimed to evaluate the hematological changes in alcoholic patients admitted in tertiary care hospital.Methods: The blood samples were collected from alcoholics admitted in a psychiatric and rehabilitation centre and the samples were processed in hematology laboratory in a tertiary care hospital. The hematological parameters (CBC) except ESR, were performed by using fully automated blood cell counters. The change in alcoholics was studied under two categories-social drinkers and problem drinkers. The results of these parameters were compared with age and sex matched normal population.Results: Total 200 cases included in which 110 were abstainers and 90 were alcoholics. Among alcoholics 67% were problem drinkers and 33% were social drinkers. The mean values of Hb, RBC and MCV in social drinkers were 11.1 g/dl, 3.1 million cells /μl and 100.5 fl, in problem drinkers were 9.8 g/dl, 2.89 million cells /μl and 105.5 fl, and in control population were 14.8 g/dl, 4.8 million cells / μl and 93 fl respectively.Conclusions: The study shown that parameters were changed in both social drinkers and problem drinkers. But predominant changes were observed in problem drinkers. The presence of elevated MCV and decreased RBC and Hb are suggestive of megaloblastic changes

In Silico Analysis Identified Putative Pathogenic Missense nsSNPs in Human <i>SLITRK1</i> Gene

Human DNA contains several variations, which can affect the structure and normal functioning of a protein. These variations could be single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or insertion-deletions (InDels). SNPs, as opposed to InDels, are more commonly present in DNA and may cause genetic disorders. In the current study, several bioinformatic tools were used to prioritize the pathogenic variants in the SLITRK1 gene. Out of all of the variants, 16 were commonly predicted to be pathogenic by these tools. All the variants had very low frequency, i.e., SLITRK1 are involved in Tourette syndrome. The present study may assist a molecular geneticist in interpreting the variant pathogenicity in research as well as diagnostic setup