Enhancing Occupant Comfort and Building Sustainability: Lessons from an Internet of Things-Based Study on Centrally Controlled Indoor Shared Spaces in Hot Climatic Conditions.

It is well known that buildings have a sizeable energy and environmental footprint. In particular, in environments like university campuses, the occupants as well as occupancy in shared spaces varies over time. Systems for cooling in such environments that are centrally controlled are typically threshold driven and do not account for occupant feedback and thus are often relying on a reactive approach (fix after identifying problems). Therefore, having a fixed thermal operating set point may not be optimal in such cases-both from an occupant comfort and well-being as well as an energy efficiency perspective. To address this issue, a study was conducted which involved development and deployment of an experimental Internet of Things (IoT) prototype system and an Android application that facilitated people engagement on a university campus located in the UAE which typically exhibits hot climatic conditions. This paper showcases data driven insights obtained from this study, and in particular, how to achieve a balance between the conflicting goals of improving occupant comfort and energy efficiency. Findings from this study underscore the need for regular reassessments and adaptation. The proposed solution is low cost and easy to deploy and has the potential to reap significant savings through a reduction in energy consumption with estimates indicating around 50-100 kWh/day of savings per building and the resulting environmental impact. These findings would appeal to stakeholders who are keen to improve energy efficiency and reduce their operating expenses and environmental footprint in such climatic conditions. Furthermore, collective action from a large number of entities could result in significant impact through this cumulative effect.

Spiking neural networks for predictive and explainable modelling of multimodal streaming data with a case study on financial time series and online news.

In a first study, this paper argues and demonstrates that spiking neural networks (SNN) can be successfully used for predictive and explainable modelling of multimodal streaming data. The paper proposes a new method, where both time series and on-line news are integrated as numerical streaming data in the same time domain and then used to train incrementally a SNN model. The connectivity and the spiking activity of the SNN are then analyzed through clustering and dynamic graph extraction to reveal on-line interaction between all input variables in regard to the predicted one. The paper answers the main research question of how to understand the dynamic interaction of time series and on-line news through their integrative modelling. It offers a new method to evaluate the efficiency of using on-line news on the predictive modelling of time series. Results on financial stock time series and online news are presented. In contrast to traditional machine learning techniques, the method reveals the dynamic interaction between stock variables and news and their dynamic impact on model accuracy when compared to models that do not use news information. Along with the used financial data, the method is applicable to a wide range of other multimodal time series and news data, such as economic, medical, environmental and social. The proposed method, being based on SNN, promotes the use of massively parallel and low energy neuromorphic hardware for multivariate on-line data modelling.

Advancing C-V2X for Level 5 Autonomous Driving from the Perspective of 3GPP Standards.

Cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) is one of the enabling vehicular communication technologies gaining momentum from the standardization bodies, industry, and researchers aiming to realize fully autonomous driving and intelligent transportation systems. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization body has actively been developing the standards evolving from 4G-V2X to 5G-V2X providing ultra-reliable low-latency communications and higher throughput to deliver the solutions for advanced C-V2X services. In this survey, we analyze the 3GPP standard documents relevant to V2X communication to present the complete vision of 3GPP-enabled C-V2X. To better equip the readers with knowledge of the topic, we describe the underlying concepts and an overview of the evolution of 3GPP C-V2X standardization. Furthermore, we provide the details of the enabling concepts for V2X support by 3GPP. In this connection, we carry out an exhaustive study of the 3GPP standard documents and provide a logical taxonomy of C-V2X related 3GPP standard documents divided into three categories: 4G, 4G & 5G, and 5G based V2X services. We provide a detailed analysis of these categories discussing the system architecture, network support, key issues, and potential solution approaches supported by the 3GPP. We also highlight the gap and the need for intelligence in the execution of different operations to enable the use-case scenarios of Level-5 autonomous driving. We believe, the paper will equip readers to comprehend the technological standards for the delivery of different ITS services of the higher level of autonomous driving.

ZnO Nanoparticles-Red Sandalwood Conjugate: A Promising Anti-Diabetic Agent.

With the advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology the interest of researchers has expanded to interdisciplinary domain like bio-medical applications. Among such domains, one of the most important areas explored meticulously is the development of promising solutions in diabetes therapeutics. The disease associated with metabolic disorder, is one of the major challenges, due to its ever-increasing number of patients. The adverse effects of the synthetic enzymes like α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitors have invited many scientists to develop promising contender with minimal side-effects. On the other hand, Zinc has strong role in insulin synthesis, storage and secretion and thus its deficiency can be related to diabetes. In this context we have explored natural extract of Red Sandalwood (RSW) as a potent anti-diabetic agent, in conjugation with ZnO nanoparticles. ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized via soft chemistry routes and duly characterized for their phase formation with the help of X-ray diffraction technique and Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy. These monodispersed nanoparticles, -20 nm in size, were further conjugated to RSW extract. The conjugation chemistry was studied via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy. Extract loading percentage was found from thermo-gravimetric analysis. 65% of the RSW extract was found conjugated to the ZnO nanoparticles. The anti-diabetic activity was assessed with the help of like α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition assay with murine pancreatic and small intestinal extracts. It was observed that the conjugated ZnO-RSW nanoparticles showed excellent activity against the crude murine pancreatic glucosidase as compared to the individual ZnO nanoparticles and the RSW extract. The ZnO-RSW conjugate showed 61.93% of inhibition while the bare ZnO nanoparticles and RSW showed 21.48% and 5.90% respectively.

A novel herbal formulation in the management of diabetes.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Momordica charantia Linn. is traditionally used as a medicine for diabetes. The present investigation was aimed to formulate and evaluate transdermal patchesof Momordica charantia Linn. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The transdermal films containing the herbal drug component fractionated fromethanolicextract of M. charantia fruits were prepared by using hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose as a polymer. The films were evaluated for folding endurance, thickness, weight variation, drug contents and in vitro diffusion studies and in vivo parameterslike acute and sub-acute antihyperglycemic activity in diabetic rats, biochemicalstudies, skin irritation in rats and stability studies. RESULT AND DISCUSSION: The weightof transdermal patches of M. charantia (2 cm(2); 10 mg/patch) and was found to be 0.03 gm.Thickness of patches of M. charantia (2 cm(2); 10 mg/patch) was found to be satisfactory. The percentage release of active constituents from transdermal patches of M.charantia (2 cm(2); 10 mg/patch) was found to be 47.59% in 10% hydroalcoholic phosphate buffer pH 7.4 at the end of 6 h.The transdermal route exhibited negligible skin irritation and in vivo results revealed that the patches successfully decrease the blood glucose level. CONCLUSION: From the results, we concluded that the well-known herbal drug M. charantia Linn. have been found to be effective for diabetes through modern pharmaceutical formulation techniques.