Internet of things dataset for home renewable energy management.

Smart cities, as well as smart homes research, are becoming of concern, especially in the field of energy consumption and production. However, there is a lack in the dataset that can be used to simulate smart city energy consumption and prediction or even smart homes. Therefore, this paper provides a carefully generated dataset for smart home energy management simulation. Five datasets are generated and analysed to ensure suitability, including 20, 50, 100, and 200 homes across 365 days. For more accurate data, energy consumption and production for 50 homes are generated based on real input taken from a dataset for homes in Saudi Arabia. Due to the unavailability of a comprehensive dataset related to the complex scenario of smart home sensors, energy consumption, and peer-to-peer data exchange, synthetic data was generated to support the simulation of smart home energy generation and consumption. This synthetic data plays a crucial role in situations where simulating uncommon events, ensuring data availability, facilitating extensive experimentation and model validation, and enabling scalability are paramount. It offers a valuable opportunity to incorporate these rare yet significant occurrences into the simulation, particularly in the context of infrequent events, such as abnormal energy consumption patterns observed in smart homes. The generated data is analysed and validated in this article, ready to be used for many smart home and city research.

Emerging Sensor Communication Network-Based AI/ML Driven Intelligent IoT.

At present, the field of the Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the fastest-growing areas in terms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques [...].

COVID-19's Psychological Impact on Chronic Disease Patients Seeking Medical Care.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak has harmed patients with multiple comorbidities and chronic conditions. The pandemic's psychological impact is thought to change their routine of seeking medical care. Research Question or Hypothesis: During COVID-19, patients with chronic conditions may experience anxiety, depression, and stress, and their pattern of seeking medical care may change. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In May 2021, a cross-sectional, web-based study of patients with chronic diseases was conducted. Eligible patients (1036) were assessed for psychological disorders, primarily depression, stress, and anxiety, using the DASS-21 scale, and their pattern of receiving medical care during COVID-19. RESULTS: During the pandemic, 52.5% of the patients with chronic diseases were depressed, 57.9% were anxious, and 35.6% were stressed. Patients with chronic diseases who had moderate to severe depression (34.9% versus 45.1%, p = 0.001), moderate to severe anxiety (43.6% versus 53.8%, p = 0.001), or moderate to severe stress (14.9% versus 34.8%, p = 0.001) were significantly more likely to have no follow-up for their chronic conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with chronic conditions experienced significant anxiety, depression, and stress during COVID-19, which changed their pattern of seeking medical care, and the majority of them did not receive follow-up for their chronic conditions.

Thermo-sensitive composite microspheres incorporating cellulose nanocrystals for regulated drug release kinetics.

Thermo-sensitive composite microspheres (TPCP) were developed to achieve the on-demand release of drugs. The TPCP microspheres were synthesized using Oil-in-Water (O/W) emulsion evaporation technique and then impregnated with thermo-sensitive polyethylene glycol (PEG). The addition of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) significantly enhance thermal stability, crystallization ability, and surface hydrophilicity of TPCP microspheres due to heterogeneous nucleation effect and hydrogen bonding interaction, resulting in stable microsphere structure. The thermal degradation temperature (Tmax) increased by 13.8 °C, and the crystallinity improved by 20.9 % for 10 % TPCP. The thermo-sensitive composite microspheres showed the regulated cumulative release according to in vitro human physiological temperature changes. Besides, four release kinetics and possible release mechanism of TPCP microspheres were provided. Such thermo-responsive composite microspheres with control microsphere sizes and high encapsulation rate may have the potential to the development of on-demand and advanced controlled-release delivery systems.

Energy and Environment-Aware Path Planning in Wireless Sensor Networks with Mobile Sink.

With the advances in sensing technologies, sensor networks became the core of several different networks, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and drone networks. This led to the use of sensor networks in many critical applications including military, health care, and commercial applications. In addition, sensors might be mobile or stationary. Stationary sensors, once deployed, will not move; however, mobile nodes can move from one place to another. In most current applications, mobile sensors are used to collect data from stationary sensors. This raises many energy consumption challenges, including sensor networks' energy consumption, urgent messages transfer for real-time analysis, and path planning. Moreover, sensors in sensor networks are usually exposed to environmental parameters and left unattended. These issues, up to our knowledge, are not deeply covered in the current research. This paper develops a complete framework to solve these challenges. It introduces novel path planning techniques considering areas' priority, environmental parameters, and urgent messages. Consequently, a novel energy-efficient and reliable clustering algorithm is proposed considering the residual energy of the sensor nodes, the quality of wireless links, and the distance parameter representing the average intra-cluster distance. Moreover, it proposes a real-time, energy-efficient, reliable and environment-aware routing, taking into account the environmental data, link quality, delay, hop count, nodes' residual energy, and load balancing. Furthermore, for the benefit of the sensor networks research community, all proposed algorithms are formed in integer linear programming (ILP) for optimal solutions. All proposed techniques are evaluated and compared to six recent algorithms. The results showed that the proposed framework outperforms the recent algorithms.

Promising Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Derivatives; A Case Study for Preparations, Fabrication Mechanisms, and Applications in Perovskite Solar Cells.

Graphene (G) has been a game-changer for conductive optical devices and has shown promising aspects for its implementation in the power industry due to its diverse structures. Graphene has played an essential role as electrodes, hole transport layers (HTLs), electron transport layers (ETLs), and a chemical modulator for perovskite layers in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) over the past decade. Nitrogen-doped graphene (N-DG) derivatives are frequently evaluated among the existing derivatives of graphene because of their versatility of design, easy synthesis process, and high throughput. This review presents a state-of-the-art overview of N-DG preparation methods, including wet chemical process, bombardment, and high thermal treatment methods. Furthermore, it focuses on different structures of N-DG derivatives and their various applications in PSC applications. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for N-DG derivatives for the continuous performance improvement of PSCs have been highlighted.

ERCP: Energy-Efficient and Reliable-Aware Clustering Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been around for over a decade and have been used in many important applications. Energy and reliability are two of the major problems with these kinds of applications. Reliable data delivery is an important issue in WSNs because it is a key part of how well data are sent. At the same time, energy consumption in battery-based sensors is another challenge. Therefore, efficient clustering and routing are techniques that can be used to save sensors energy and guarantee reliable message delivery. With this in mind, this paper develops an energy-efficient and reliable clustering protocol (ERCP) for WSNs. First, an efficient clustering technique is proposed for sensor nodes' energy savings considering different clustering parameters, including the link quality metric, the energy, the distance to neighbors, the distance to the sink node, and the cluster load metric. The proposed routing protocol works based on the concept of a reliable inter-cluster routing technique that saves energy. The routing decisions are made based on different parameters, such as the energy balance metric, the distance to the sink node, and the wireless link quality. Many experiments and analyses are examined to determine how well the ERCP performs. The experiment results showed that the ECRP protocol performs much better than some of the recent algorithms in both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks.

Expected Bayesian estimation for exponential model based on simple step stress with Type-I hybrid censored data.

The procedure of selecting the values of hyper-parameters for prior distributions in Bayesian estimate has produced many problems and has drawn the attention of many authors, therefore the expected Bayesian (E-Bayesian) estimation method to overcome these problems. These approaches are used based on the step-stress acceleration model under the Exponential Type-I hybrid censored data in this study. The values of the distribution parameters are derived. To compare the E-Bayesian estimates to the other estimates, a comparative study was conducted using the simulation research. Four different loss functions are used to generate the Bayesian and E-Bayesian estimators. In addition, three alternative hyper-parameter distributions were used in E-Bayesian estimation. Finally, a real-world data example is examined for demonstration and comparative purposes.

Magnetic cellulose nanocrystals hybrids reinforced phase change fiber composites with highly thermal energy storage efficiencies.

The intrinsic intermittence of solar energy raises the necessity for thermal energy storage (TES) systems to balance the contradiction between energy supply and demand energy. This work experimentally provides solid-liquid phase change materials (PCMs) with sufficient storage capacity and discharging rate to offer heating for agriculture products by enhancing heat transfer in phase change fiber composites (PCF). To achieve this, we prepared dipole responsive magnetic/solar-driven PCF composites reinforced with magnetic cellulose nanocrystals hybrids (MCNC). The obtained PCF/MCNC-5% showed excellent magnetic property with a saturation magnetization (MS) value of 1.3 emu/g and effective latent heat phase change enthalpies of 69.2 ± 3.5 J/g - 83.1 ± 4.2 J/g. More importantly, PCF/MCNC-5% showed robust high magnetic to thermal energy storage efficiency of 32.5 % and solar light accelerated energy storage efficiency of 58.5 %. These advantages make the PCF composites promising and more desirable for drying and preservation of the fruits and other agriculture products.

Recent transmission of dengue virus and associated risk Facors among residents of Kassala state, eastern Sudan.

BACKGROUND: Acute arboviral infections are distributed worldwide including Sudan, and dengue fever (DENV) is not an exception. The virus activity has recently been frequently reported in Kassala State, eastern Sudan. However, an appropriate epidemiological study would be necessary to provide accurate and precise estimates of the magnitude of recent DENV transmission in this area of endemicity. METHODS: In the present investigation, a cross sectional study was conducted to advance beyond the current knowledge of the epidemiology of the disease in Kassala State. The prevalence of the disease was estimated and associated risk factors were determined. Sampled sera were collected and screened for recent dengue transmissionas as determined by DENV-IgM enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The collection of data for risk assessment was supported by a well designed structured questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence of recent DENV infection was estimated to be (11.42%). Potential risk factors to DENV seropsitivity include, age (OR = 3.24, CI = 1.81-5.77,p-value = 0.001); low income (OR = 3.75, CI = 1.57-8.93, p-value = 0.027); mosquito control (OR = 4.18, CI = 2.33-7.51, p-value = 0.004); and localities. CONCLUSION: The present study showed a high rate of circulating DENV IgM antibodies among the participants of the study (11.42%), suggesting recent transmission of DENV in Kassala State, eastern Sudan. The frequent occurrence of DENV infections necessitates the need for improved surveillance programs and prevention measures to combat this important arboviral disease in Sudan.

Temperature Influence on Pseudothecia Development Stages of Venturia inaequalis in the Western Cape of South Africa.

Pseudothecia development stages of Venturia inaequalis (apple scab) were investigated in two climatically different regions in the Western Cape of South Africa. The aim was to determine the pseudothecial density (PD; pseudothecia per fertile lesion [p/f]) and ascal density (AD; asci per pseudothecium [a/p]) that contributes to defining the potential ascospore dose in a common prediction model of the apple scab infection risk. The PD and AD were compared between Elgin (EL), now considered a warm winter apple-growing region because of climate warming, and Koue Bokkeveld (KB), a cold winter region. In 2012 and 2013, scabbed apple leaves were collected during leaf-drop in KB and EL and overwintered either in their region of origin or in the other region. PD was significantly higher in scabbed leaves collected and overwintered in KB (mean, 24.11 p/f) than in leaves collected in KB and overwintered in EL (mean, 17.11 p/f; P < 0.001). PD of scabbed leaves collected and overwintered in EL (mean, 15.27 p/f) or collected in EL and overwintered in KB (mean, 16.07 p/f) did not differ significantly. Ascal density did not differ significantly in any treatment or season. We concluded that the significantly higher PD of scabbed leaves collected from the cooler region of KB and overwintered in KB compared with scabbed leaves collected in EL or KB and overwintered in EL could be caused by adaptations of V. inaequalis populations to the respective climates. This implied long-term effects of climate warming on apple scab epidemiology and management.

Date palm waste biochars alter a soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon, and heavy metal mobility in contaminated mined soil.

A 30-day incubation experiment was conducted using a heavy metal-contaminated mined soil amended with date palm feedstock (FS) and its derivative biochars (BCs) at three pyrolysis temperatures of 300 (BC-300), 500 (BC-500), and 700 °C (BC-700) with different application rates (0.0, 5, 15, and 30 g kg-1) to investigate their short-term effects on soil respiration (CO2-C efflux), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), soil organic carbon (SOC), mobile fraction of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Mn, and Fe), pH, and electrical conductivity (EC). The results showed that FS and BC-300 with increasing addition rate significantly reduced soil pH, whereas SOC, CO2-C efflux, and soil MBC were increased compared to the control. On the contrary, BC-500 and BC-700 increased soil pH at early stage of incubation and have small or no effects on SOC, CO2-C efflux, and MBC. Based on the results, the date palm biochars exhibited much lower cumulative CO2-C efflux than feedstock, even with low-temperature biochar, indicating that BCs have C sequestration potential. Applying BC-700 at 15 and 30 g kg-1 significantly reduced cumulative CO2-C efflux by 21.8 and 45.4% compared to the control, respectively. The incorporation of FS into contaminated soil significantly increased the mobile content of Cd and Mn, but decreased the mobile content of Cu. However, BC-300 significantly reduced the mobile content of Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn. It could be concluded that low-temperature biochar could be used as a soil amendment for reducing heavy metal mobility in mining contaminated soil in addition to minimize soil CO2-C efflux.

Correction to: Date palm waste biochars alter a soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon, and heavy metal mobility in contaminated mined soil.

Unfortunately, in the original publication of the article, Prof. Yang Sik Ok's affiliation was incorrectly published. The author's affiliation is as follows.

The mechanism of action of Lipiburn on fat metabolism.

Paeoniflorin (PF) is the active ingredient in Lipiburn, a fat loss supplement. PF is a component in Paeonia Lactiflora with multiple medicinal uses. Here, we studied the effect of Lipiburn on fat metabolism in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Adipocytes exposed to Lipiburn exhibited significant increase in expression of beta-adrenergic receptors, HSL levels, and cAMP and exhibited increase in glycerol release. The data show that Lipiburn affects fat metabolism through the cAMP route by activating HSL which in turn breaks down triglycerides into glycerol and fatty acids.

How do pig farms maintain low Salmonella prevalence: a case-control study.

Salmonella prevalence in UK pigs is amongst the highest in Europe, highlighting the need to investigate pig farms which have managed to maintain a low Salmonella seroprevalence. A total of 19 pig farms that had a consistently low (<10%) seroprevalence over 4 years (named Platinum farms) were compared against 38 randomly selected Control farms, chosen to match the same distribution of production types and geographical distribution of the Platinum farms. Each farm was visited and floor faeces and environmental samples were collected. It was shown that Control farms had a significantly higher median percentage of pooled faecal samples positive for Salmonella compared with the Platinum farms (12.1% and 0.4% for pooled faecal samples, respectively) and were more likely to have serovars of public health importance detected (S. Typhimurium/ monophasic variants or S. Enteritidis). Considering the comprehensive on-farm sampling, the identification of farms negative for Salmonella, along with the identification of those that had maintained low prevalence over a long period is important. The risk factor analyses identified pelleted feed, feed deliveries crossing farm perimeter and regular antibiotic use as associated with being a Control farm. Performance data indicated that Platinum farms were performing better for slaughter live weight than Controls. Limited assessments of available pig movement records suggested that the source of pigs was not key to Platinum status, but further study would be needed to confirm this finding. These results emphasise that maintaining very low prevalence on UK farms is achievable.

Prevalence of dengue fever virus antibodies and associated risk factors among residents of El-Gadarif state, Sudan.

BACKGROUND: Dengue fever, caused by dengue virus (DENV), has become one of the most important mosquito-borne viral diseases with a steady rise in global incidence, including the Sudan. Sporadic cases and frequent acute febrile illness outbreaks, compatible with Dengue fever, have been reported in El-Gadarif State, Sudan. However, diagnosis was based almost exclusively on clinical signs without confirmatory laboratory investigations. Despite the magnitude of the problem in El-Gadarif State, no information is currently available with regard to the epidemiology of the disease in this State. El-Gadarif State is one of the largest commercial centers in the Sudan. The objective of the present investigation is to estimate the prevalence of DENV antibodies, and determine the potential risk factors associated with seropositivity among residents of El-Gadarif State. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted in a total of 701residents randomly selected from all 10 localities in El-Gadarif State. The sera from the 701 residents were tested for the presence of DENV-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies using a commercially available Anti-dengue IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Among the 701 residents, 334 residents (47.6%) were seropositive for DENV. Mosquito control (OR = 2.73, CI = 1.37-5.87, p-value = 0.001); low income (OR = 2.31, CI: 1.71-6.36, p value = 0.032); sleeping out-doors (OR = 3.73, CI = 2.63-6.23, p-value = 0.013), and localities were determined as potential risk factors for contracting DENV infection. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence rate of DENV antibodies among residents of El-Gadarif State is significantly high (47.6%). Further epidemiologic studies including, distribution of mosquito vectors and implementation of improved surveillance are urgently warranted for better prediction and prevention of a possible DENV outbreak in El-Gadarif State, Sudan.

Highly selective BTX from catalytic fast pyrolysis of lignin over supported mesoporous silica.

The post synthesis of Al(3+) or Zr(4+) substituted MCM-48 framework with controlled acidity is challenging because the functional groups exhibiting acidity often jeopardize the framework integrity. Herein, we report the post-synthesis of two hierarchically porous MCM-48 composed of either aluminum (Al(3+)) or zirconium (Zr(4+)) clusters with high throughput. All prepared catalysts have been characterized by HR-TEM, XRD, IR, N2-adsorption, NH3-TPD, TGA and MAS NMR. They exhibit BET surface areas of 597 and 1112m(2)g(-1) for 8.4% Al/MCM-48 and 2.9% Zr/MCM-48, respectively. XRD analysis reveals that the hierarchical porosity of parental MCM-48 is reserved even after incorporation of Al(3+)or Zr(4+). Zr/MCM-48 catalysts are demonstrate a superior performance versus that of Al/MCM-48 and MCM-48 because of the mild (ZrO2) or nil (SiO2) Lewis acidity contributed from Zr-µ2-O group as well as smaller pore sizes suitable for the restriction of unwanted side reactions. The reaction conditions which were affecting the catalytic pyrolysis and final products were gas flow rate, pyrolysis temperature, and catalyst to lignin ratio. A total of 49% of BTX product were obtained over 2.9% Zr/MCM-48 at 600°C. The Lewis acid character was the governing factor which helps in pyrolysis and directly affects the BTX formation.

Preparation and characterization of chitosan-clay nanocomposites for the removal of Cu(II) from aqueous solution.

In the present study, chitosan assembled on gold and silver nanoparticles were prepared and characterized by UV-vis, TEM, EDX and DLS techniques. The nanocomposites chitosan (Ch)/clay, chitosan (Ch)/AgNPs/clay and chitosan (Ch)/AuNPs/clay were prepared by solution mixing method and characterized by FTIR, XRD, and SEM techniques. The adsorption of copper(II) ions onto the prepared hybrid composites from an aqueous solution using batch adsorption was examined. The results showed that benefiting from the surface property of clay, the abundant amino and hydroxyl functional groups of chitosan, the adsorbent provides adequate and versatile adsorption for the Cu(II) ions under investigation. The batch adsorption experiments showed that the adsorption of the Cu(II) is considerably dependent on pH of milieu, the amount of adsorbent, and contact time. Batch adsorption studies revealed that the adsorption capacity of Cu(II) increased with increase in initial concentration and contact time with optimum pH in the range around neutral. The maximum uptake of Cu(II) ions by (Ch)/AgNPs/clay composite was found to be 181.5mg/g. The adsorption efficiency of Cu(II) ions by prepared (Ch)/AgNPs/clay and (Ch)/AuNPs/clay is bigger than that the individual chitosan (Ch)/clay composite which clarifies the role of metal nanoparticles in enhancement the adsorption characters. The study suggests that the (Ch)/AgNPs/clay hybrid composite is a promising nano-adsorbent for the removal of Cu(II) ions from aqueous solution.