A Smart Grid Information System for Demand Side Participation: Remote Control of Domestic Appliances to Balance Demand

Due to the intermittent nature of renewable generation it is desirable to consider the potential of controlling the demand-side load to smooth overall system demand. The architecture and control methodologies of such a system on a large scale would require careful consideration. Some of these considerations are discussed in this paper; such as communications infrastructure, systems architecture, control methodologies and security. A domestic fridge is used in this paper as an example of a controllable appliance. A layered approach to smart-grid is introduced and it can be observed how each smart-grid component from physical cables, to the end-devices (or smart-applications) can be mapped to these set layers. It is clear how security plays an integral part in each component of the smart-grid so this is also an integral part of each layer. The controllable fridge is described in detail and as one potential smart-grid application which maps to the layered approach. A demonstration system is presented which involves a Raspberry Pi (a low-power, low-cost device representing the appliance controller).

Representations of specific acoustic patterns in the auditory cortex and hippocampus

Previous behavioural studies have shown that repeated presentation of a randomly chosen acoustic pattern leads to the unsupervised learning of some of its specific acoustic features. The objective of our study was to determine the neural substrate for the representation of freshly learnt acoustic patterns. Subjects first performed a behavioural task that resulted in the incidental learning of three different noise-like acoustic patterns. During subsequent high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, subjects were then exposed again to these three learnt patterns and to others that had not been learned. Multi-voxel pattern analysis was used to test if the learnt acoustic patterns could be 'decoded' from the patterns of activity in the auditory cortex and medial temporal lobe. We found that activity in planum temporale and the hippocampus reliably distinguished between the learnt acoustic patterns. Our results demonstrate that these structures are involved in the neural representation of specific acoustic patterns after they have been learnt.

Factors influencing success of clinical genome sequencing across a broad spectrum of disorders

To assess factors influencing the success of whole-genome sequencing for mainstream clinical diagnosis, we sequenced 217 individuals from 156 independent cases or families across a broad spectrum of disorders in whom previous screening had identified no pathogenic variants. We quantified the number of candidate variants identified using different strategies for variant calling, filtering, annotation and prioritization. We found that jointly calling variants across samples, filtering against both local and external databases, deploying multiple annotation tools and using familial transmission above biological plausibility contributed to accuracy. Overall, we identified disease-causing variants in 21% of cases, with the proportion increasing to 34% (23/68) for mendelian disorders and 57% (8/14) in family trios. We also discovered 32 potentially clinically actionable variants in 18 genes unrelated to the referral disorder, although only 4 were ultimately considered reportable. Our results demonstrate the value of genome sequencing for routine clinical diagnosis but also highlight many outstanding challenges.

Virtual Thrower Versus Real Goalkeeper: The Influence of Different Visual Conditions on Performance

In order to use virtual reality as a sport analysis tool, we need to be sure that an immersed athlete reacts realistically in a virtual environment. This has been validated for a real handball goalkeeper facing a virtual thrower. However, we currently ignore which visual variables induce a realistic motor behavior of the immersed handball goalkeeper. In this study, we used virtual reality to dissociate the visual information related to the movements of the player from the visual information related to the trajectory of the ball. Thus, the aim is to evaluate the relative influence of these different visual information sources on the goalkeeper's motor behavior. We tested 10 handball goalkeepers who had to predict the final position of the virtual ball in the goal when facing the following: only the throwing action of the attacking player (TA condition), only the resulting ball trajectory (BA condition), and both the throwing action of the attacking player and the resulting ball trajectory (TB condition). Here we show that performance was better in the BA and TB conditions, but contrary to expectations, performance was substantially worse in the TA condition. A significant effect of ball landing zone does, however, suggest that the relative importance between visual information from the player and the ball depends on the targeted zone in the goal. In some cases, body-based cues embedded in the throwing actions may have a minor influence on the ball trajectory and vice versa. Kinematics analysis was then combined with these results to determine why such differences occur depending on the ball landing zone and consequently how it can clarify the role of different sources of visual information on the motor behavior of an athlete immersed in a virtual environment.

The Anthropology of Borders

6,000 word state of art essay

The prognostic significance of protein tyrosine phosphatase 4A2 in breast cancer

Although PTP4A3 has been shown to be a very important factor in promoting cancer progression, the role of its close family member PTP4A2 is still largely unknown. Recent reports have shown contradicting results on the role of PTP4A2 in breast cancer progression. Considering this, we aimed to investigate the prognostic value of PTP4A2 in five independent breast cancer data sets (minimum 198 patients per cohort, totaling 1,124 patients) in the Gene Expression Omnibus Database. We found that high expression of PTP4A2 was a favorable prognostic marker in all five independent breast cancer data sets, as well as in the combined cohort, with a hazard ratio of 0.68 (95% confidence interval =0.56-0.83; P<0.001). Low PTP4A2 expression was associated with estrogen receptor-negative tumors and tumors with higher histological grading; furthermore, low expression was inversely correlated with the expression of genes involved in proliferation, including MKI67 and the MCM gene family encoding the minichromosome maintenance proteins. These findings suggest that PTP4A2 may play a role in breast cancer progression by dysregulating cell proliferation. PTP4A2 expression was positively correlated with ESR1, the gene encoding estrogen receptor-alpha, and inversely correlated with EGFR expression, suggesting that PTP4A2 may be involved in these two important oncogenic pathways. Together, our results suggest that expression of PTP4A2 is a favorable prognostic marker in breast cancer.