Collection Schedule Research Articles

Multi-agent System for Management of Data from Electrical Smart Meters

The smart meter can process sensor data in a residential grid. These sensors transmit different parameters or measurement data (index, power, temperature, fluctuation of voltage and electricity, etc.) to the smart meter. All of these measurement data can come in different ways at the smart meter. The sensors transmit each measurement data to the smart meter. In addition, the collection of this data to a central system is a significant concern to ensure data integrity and protect the privacy of residents. The complexity of these data management also lies in their volume, frequency, and scheduling. This work presents a scheduling and a collection mechanism in private power consumption data between both sensors and smart meters on one hand and between smart meters and the central data collection system on other hand. We have found several approaches to intelligent meter data management in scientific researches. We propose another approach in response to this concern for the scheduling and collection of measurement data to a central system from residential areas of sensors’ network connected to smart meters. This work is also an example of a link between data collection and data scheduling in intelligent information management,ransmission, and protection. We also propose a modeling of the measurement objects of smart grid and highlight the changes made to these objects throughout the process of data processing. It should be noted that this smart grid system consists of three main active systems namely sensors, smart meters and central system. In addition to these three systems, there are other systems that communicate with the smart meters and the central system. We have identified three implementation models for the smart metering system. We also present an intelligent architecture based on multi-agent systems for the smart grid. Most current electricity management systems are not adapted to the new challenges imposed by social and economic development in Africa. The objectives of this study are to initiate the design of a smart grid system for the management of electricity data.

Fast Node Clustering Based on an Improved Birch Algorithm for Data Collection Towards Software-Defined Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

In this paper, we take an in-depth study on the data collection scheduling issue in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). To address this issue, we propose the use of software-defined networking (SDN) technique, based on which the paradigm of software-defined underwater acoustic sensor networks (SD-UASNs) is proposed. With SD-UASNs, we propose an efficient data collection scheme on account of node clustering. We take the data scale into account, propose a fast node clustering approach based on an improved Birch algorithm including node pre-clustering and node re-clustering. In particular, for the node pre-clustering procedure, we improve the cluster feature tree of the Birch algorithm and limit the nodes in each cluster to be within an optimal distance. Based on the proposed pre-clustering approach, we propose a greedy data collection scheme that can heuristically seek optimal solutions when the compressed sampling is taken into account. Evaluation results demonstrate that our scheme performs better in network efficiency than some popular schemes.

Effect of Heat Stress on Sperm Production, Oxidative Markers and their Association in Native Breeding Bulls

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of climatic conditions on fortnightly semen quality and its oxidative markers, and to evaluate the correlation between them in zebu cattle and buffalo breeding bulls under weekly twice semen collection schedule. The macro- (observatory; daily; n=330) and micro- (bull shed; hourly; n=8540) climatic parameters, viz., ambient temperature (AT °C) and relative humidity (RH %) were measured during Jan to Dec 2018 and temperature humidity index (THI) was generated. There were high associations between micro and macro AT (r=0.982), RH (r=0.897) and THI (r=0.985). Overall, micro-AT was 1.20°C higher, micro-RH was 5.42% lower and the micro-THI was 0.50 higher than the corresponding macro-climatic parameters. Therefore effect of micro-climatic AT, RH and THI was evaluated on biweekly collected 26 ejaculates of three bulls each of Surti, Murrah buffalo and Gir cattle breeds. The macro and microscopic parameters of semen and oxidative markers in seminal plasma, viz., catalase, lipid peroxidation (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) were determined. During the day 72.6% of hours, bulls experienced stress (THI > 72). No impact of season was observed on seminal attributes and oxidative markers of cattle and buffalo bulls, however correlation coefficients were achieved. The results of our study warrants further investigation on more number of bulls including their semen freezability and fertility.

Evaluation of innovative solutions for e-mobility

This paper presents a methodology for the evaluation of innovative solutions designed by the GreenCharge project to advance electric mobility. The methodology is based on the CIVITAS evaluation framework and it is specialised according to the GreenCharge requirements. In particular, this paper provides an extensive list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and which of them will be evaluated in three pilots to provide a quantitative estimation of impact of technology innovation. Evaluation will use automatic computation of data collected in pilots, simulation techniques and analysis of surveys and interviews. The paper describes how to deliver and how to present evaluation results. The detailed schedule of data collection and evaluation activities has been planned in collaboration with implementation activities. Finally, a preliminary requirement analysis of simulation and a dashboard design for KPIs presentation are discussed.

Maternal health and child rearing practices: An anthropological study of bharia tribe of Patalkot Valley of Madhya Prades

In the present scenario health of individual as well as that ofa society has always been a matter of concern for social scientists and those who are dealing with social behavior related to health. Good health is a basic requisite for every individual apart from their social status and in the same sequel; women's health also gets highly crucial in the healthcare system of a society. Tribal are the most vulnerable sections of society and when we consider the health of any tribe listed in the segment of a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) then the situation seems more alarming. In this backdrop, present paper is an attempt to analyze the status of maternal health and child rearing practices among the Bharias (a PVTG) residing in Patalkot valley of Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. The objective of present study is to investigate and understand the status of maternal health and child rearing practices among the Bharia tribe of Patalkot valley of Madhya Pradesh. The study applies both primary and secondary sources of data. To accomplish various objectives of the study qualitative methods of data collection have been applied. During fieldwork of the study an interview schedule for data collection was administered in order to cater requirements of the study. Secondary sources of data are also resorted to during analysis of data.

Redesign Solid Waste Collection and Transference System for Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Based on the Comparison with Shanghai, China

Solid waste, that is produced as a result of human activity on a daily basis, must be properly managed. Like other cities in developing nations, Addis Ababa is facing problems linked to poorly managing solid waste gathering operations. This study analyzed the existing public solid waste gathering system in the city and undertook a comparative analysis with Shanghai’s solid waste collection system. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected th- rough surveys as well as secondary sources and then comparative analysis with Shanghai has been undertaken. According to the investigation of this research, solid waste collection coverage of Addis Ababa is 70% and only 28.6% of households have separate solid waste at source. Besides, according to respondents, 75.3% of residents were using a sack to collect the waste and only 14.5% were using the waste bin. The study found that lack of access of infrastructures, a lack of an adequately built collection route system and schedule, inadequate and faulty facilities for operations, and corner littering around skips that resulted in improper disposal are among the causes of poor efficiency of solid waste handling in the metropolitan. Lack of understanding, improper disposal, the poor status of waste collectors, the absence of the private sector, and public engagement are some of the social issues that have been experienced. The main problem with the incompetence of this sector in the city was the lack of trained labor and inadequate service delivery. In conclusion, based on Shanghai City’s best practices, the research applied about useful suggestions for strengthening the system and re-designing it.

Fund Size and Performance of Unit Trust Funds in Kenya

When investors take part in any investment, the main objective is to increase their wealth. This is achieved when share prices increase. The performance of unit trusts in Kenya has however been poor compared to the counterparts in the rest of the world. The poor performance is a discouragement to individual and corporate investors in addition to affecting the realisation of financial stability according to the Kenya vision 2030. Empirical literature from developed and emerging markets posits that fund size explain the performance of unit trust funds. This study therefore investigated the effects of fund size on the performance of unit trust funds in Kenya. The study adopted an explanatory research design and positivism philosophy. The target population was 16 unit trust firms in Kenya as at the end of the year 2017. The study used a census approach. Secondary data was collected from the audited financial statement of respective unit trusts for the period 2005 to 2017 using a data collection schedule. The study established that fund size has significant positive effect on performance in all funds. The study concluded that increase in fund size increases performance. The study recommends that capital market authority should monitor performance of unit trusts constantly and in addition develop merger policies to encourage small unit trust to merge in order to take advantage of economies of scale.

Актуальные аспекты управления кассовой ликвидностью банка в условиях минимизации налично-денежного обращения

The article is devoted to the problem of the banks’ participation in improving the efficiency of the organization of cash circulation, which does not lose its relevance in the modern economy. In the current situation, despite the growth in the volume and share of non-cash payments, the demand for cash is characterized by stability. The article focuses on the features, advantages and disadvantages of the reducing cash circulation process. It is noted that the primary impact on cash circulation is made by settlements made by individuals. In this regard, the study focuses on the fundamental changes in this direction that are taking place in the banking sector. This is, first of all, the reduction of cash withdrawals from plastic cards and the growth of non-cash payments with their use, the lack of growth of the card market; increase in electronic terminals and reduce the number of ATMs installed. At the same time, it is emphasized that one of the main areas that determine both the liquidity and profitability of the bank is the regulation of cash balances. With the number of banks operating in the economy shrinking, the struggle for customers is becoming more acute. The satisfaction of the latter with the quality of the bank’s services, including in terms of settlement liquidity, should be considered as one of the primary factors that ensure the effectiveness of a significant number of banking operations. In this context, special attention is paid to the specifics of the bank’s actions to optimize cash flows, which requires the use of specialized automatic systems that allow processing data on cash balances and turnover to form forecasts that optimize the collection schedule and reduce ATM downtime due to lack of funds

AoI Minimization Data Collection Scheduling for Battery-Free Wireless Sensor Networks

Age of Information (AoI) is a new metric for measuring the freshness of sensory data in wireless sensor networks. The Battery-Free Wireless Sensor Network (BF-WSN) is proposed to break through the lifetime limitation of battery-powered wireless sensor networks. However, the emerging BF-WSN also brings challenges to the minimization of AoI, on account of its energy characteristics. In this paper, we investigate the AoI minimization data collection scheduling problem for BF-WSNs. The off-the-shelf works for the AoI minimization data collection scheduling problem either focus on simple networks with no more than three nodes or assume that battery-free sensor nodes have specific energy harvesting process, such as Bernoulli process and Poisson process. Different from these works, we first consider the AoI minimization data collection scheduling for one-hop BF-WSNs with multiple battery-free sensor nodes transmitting their sensory data to the sink node, where the energy harvesting processes of battery-free sensor nodes are non-specific. We propose the optimal offline algorithm and the online algorithm for the problem, respectively. The optimality of the offline algorithm and the competitive ratio of the online algorithm are theoretical proved and analyzed. Numerical results are provided to verify the performances of the proposed algorithms.

Business to Business Marketing in Bhutan: A Case Study from Balam Gewog under Mongar Dzongkhag

The Commercial Agriculture and Resilient Livelihoods Enhancement Programme (CARLEP) and the Regional Agricultural and Marketing Cooperative (RAMCO) piloted the business to business (B2B) marketing model in 2018 to address smallholder farmers’ marketing issues in Eastern Bhutan. As the B2B pilot model is currently not functional, it is vital to understand the B2B model’s challenges to successfully replicate the interventions in other communities. The lack of follow-up studies on the B2B marketing model motivated the authors to investigate the model’s challenges for implementation in the country. This case study was based on six vegetable groups in Balam Gewog, Mongar, Bhutan. Primary data were collected through focus group discussions with six vegetable groups and in-depth interviews with key informants. Secondary data were collected from Gewog, CARLEP, and RAMCO. The results showed that the B2B marketing model adopted in Balam Gewog was a primary B2B marketing model – a linkage only for selling produce. Four critical issues with the B2B marketing model adopted in Balam Gewog were noted: (1) mismatch between vegetable production and collection schedule, (2) lack of quantity and quality specification of vegetables in the contract between vegetable farmers’ groups and the buyer, (3) inadequate support services, and (4) lack of monitoring by facilitating organisations after contract signing between vegetable farmers’ groups and the buyer. Accordingly, we recommend adjusting the collection schedule as per the production season, specifying contract clauses like quantity and quality of produce, improving support services, and monitoring business by relevant authorities.

Dryland Farmers on Climate Resilient Practices – An Adoption Study at an Industrialized Taluk of Tamil Nadu

Aims: To study the adoption of climate resilient practices by the farmers in the dryland region.
 Study Design: Cross-sectional survey design was used for the present descriptive study.
 Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad (Prayagraj) during the year of 2018 and for the period of 6 months.
 Methodology: The study used direct interview method with the subjects using a structured and pre-tested interview schedule for primary data collection in the sampled area which is an industrialized taluk of Tamil Nadu. The selection of area was purposeful, whereas, selection of villages was random and 15 respondents form each village was convenient. The collected data was tabulated and interpreted using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis.
 Results: The results of the study suggest that there is a poor adoption level of climate resilient practices existing among the dryland farmers. While, some of the practices like incorporation of residues in to soil instead of burning, brown and green manuring, conservation tillage, temperature tolerant varieties, farm machinery custom hiring centre, location specific intercropping systems, crop rotation, usage of better planting materials, prophylaxis, custom hiring centre and weather based insurance were adopted to some extent. Though there was no specific intervention to sensitize on these practices, adoption of above mentioned practices were found which could be due to the passive adaptation by the farmers of the locality over years. And the results of correlation analysis revealed that there is a significant relationship between adoption of climate resilient practices and variables like the respondents’ education, exposure to mass media exposure, contacts with extension agents, innovativeness level, risk orientation and scientific orientation at 0.01% level of significance.
 Conclusion: The results of the study will definitely help in evaluating government projects (as baseline) like National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture, and strengthening programme planning and implementation in climate change.

The Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Innovative Strategies to Reduce Food Insecurity among Children in the United States

The Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Innovative Strategies to Reduce Food Insecurity among Children in the United States

To assess the prevalence of malnutrition among the children of age group of 0 - 5 years in the rural area of Vidarbha region

The problems of malnutrition among under-five children can be used to determine the need for nutritional surveillance, nutritional care, or appropriate nutritional intervention programmes in a community. The present study was planned to assess prevalence of malnutrition in children of the age group of 0 to 5 years. A village based study was carried out to assess prevalence of malnutrition among under-five children at the rural area of Katol. Data was collected by interview schedule for collection of socio-demographic and physical examination format for assessing malnutrition status from January 2016 to April 2016. A child’s detailed history, sex and weight were recorded and length/height were measured using standard technique. The height and weight were plotted on WHO centiles curves. The malnutrition was graded according to WHO classification. Data analysis was done by using WHO Anthro and SPSS software. Total study subjects age group 0-5yrs. 310 study subjects were in study group and 320 study subjects in control group. As per WHO classification of protein energy malnutrition, 75/320(23.43%) from control group and 59/310 (19, 03%) from study group study subjects were in normal range Significantly higher number no children from study group 80.96% (251/310) showed malnutrition by applying any of the anthropometric parameter than that in control group 76.56% (245/320) (χ2- value=13.43, p-value=0.0038). In conclusion, high percentage of malnutrition was found in under five children in male children. Keywords: Malnutrition, Children, WHO, Rural.

A dynamic decision support model for the seasonal transportation of raw milk

This paper presents a seasonal transportation of raw milk (SToRM) model. Irish raw milk collection is estimated to annually cost in excess of €80 million. Employing a capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) methodology and incorporating geographic information system (GIS) data, SToRM simulates a two‐day collection schedule using the Irish road network. Differences of over 60% in total route distance required between January (trough) and May (peak) were observed. However, varied seasonal patterns did not dramatically affect overall transport needs. Results highlight the need for dynamic scheduling. SToRM provides practitioners access to a powerful model for use in milk collection scheduling.

Effectiveness and Safety of Ixazomib-Based Therapy in Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma (RRMM) Patients (Pts) Treated Outside the Clinical Trial Setting Via an Early Access Program (EAP) in Europe: Second Interim Analysis of the ‘Use Via Early Access to Ixazomib’ (UVEA-IXA) Study

Effectiveness and Safety of Ixazomib-Based Therapy in Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma (RRMM) Patients (Pts) Treated Outside the Clinical Trial Setting Via an Early Access Program (EAP) in Europe: Second Interim Analysis of the ‘Use Via Early Access to Ixazomib’ (UVEA-IXA) Study

Bayesian Information-Theoretic Calibration of Radiotherapy Sensitivity Parameters for Informing Effective Scanning Protocols in Cancer

With new advancements in technology, it is now possible to collect data for a variety of different metrics describing tumor growth, including tumor volume, composition, and vascularity, among others. For any proposed model of tumor growth and treatment, we observe large variability among individual patients’ parameter values, particularly those relating to treatment response; thus, exploiting the use of these various metrics for model calibration can be helpful to infer such patient-specific parameters both accurately and early, so that treatment protocols can be adjusted mid-course for maximum efficacy. However, taking measurements can be costly and invasive, limiting clinicians to a sparse collection schedule. As such, the determination of optimal times and metrics for which to collect data in order to best inform proper treatment protocols could be of great assistance to clinicians. In this investigation, we employ a Bayesian information-theoretic calibration protocol for experimental design in order to identify the optimal times at which to collect data for informing treatment parameters. Within this procedure, data collection times are chosen sequentially to maximize the reduction in parameter uncertainty with each added measurement, ensuring that a budget of n high-fidelity experimental measurements results in maximum information gain about the low-fidelity model parameter values. In addition to investigating the optimal temporal pattern for data collection, we also develop a framework for deciding which metrics should be utilized at each data collection point. We illustrate this framework with a variety of toy examples, each utilizing a radiotherapy treatment regimen. For each scenario, we analyze the dependence of the predictive power of the low-fidelity model upon the measurement budget.

Disposal of Personal Protective Equipment during the COVID-19 Pandemic Is a Challenge for Waste Collection Companies and Society: A Case Study in Poland

One of the social measures applied during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the use of personal protective equipment (PPE)—face masks and gloves. As a result, this waste category has expanded enormously. This study investigates waste management issues from multiple perspectives, including local governments, waste collection companies, and individual citizens in Poland using a telephone survey for institutions and an online questionnaire for individuals. The results of this study show that approximately 80% of local governments in the Silesian region have applied special measures for handling and collection of waste PPE. Only 13% of waste collection companies have applied special collection schedules for the waste generated at quarantine collection points due to the high costs of changing collection schedules, providing additional vehicles, and paying for more labor. The information campaigns focusing on new methods of PPE waste collection have been difficult to introduce on a large scale, and citizens need better information regarding how to handle and dispose of waste PPE. Results indicated the most helpful method in supporting waste PPE collection would be automatic PPE dispensers with waste PPE collection options and waste bags of a designated color. The respondents identified waste PPE pollution of the environment as an issue and the necessity for proper recovery of this waste stream.

Joint Flight Cruise Control and Data Collection in UAV-Aided Internet of Things: An Onboard Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach

Employing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as aerial data collectors in Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks is a promising technology for large-scale environment sensing. A key challenge in UAV-aided data collection is that UAV maneuvering gives rise to buffer overflow at the IoT node and unsuccessful transmission due to lossy airborne channels. This article formulates a joint optimization of flight cruise control and data collection schedule to minimize network data loss as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), where the states of individual IoT nodes can be obscure to the UAV. The problem can be optimally solvable by reinforcement learning, but suffers from the curse of dimensionality and becomes rapidly intractable with the growth in the number of IoT nodes. In practice, a UAV-aided IoT network contains a large number of network states and actions in POMDP while the up-to-date knowledge is not available at the UAV. We propose an onboard deep Q-network-based flight resource allocation scheme (DQN-FRAS) to optimize the online flight cruise control of the UAV and data scheduling given outdated knowledge on the network states. Numerical results demonstrate that DQN-FRAS reduces the packet loss by over 51%, as compared to existing nonlearning heuristics.

Pharmacokinetics of Cefquinome on Single Intravenous Administration in Marathwadi Buffalo Calves by Microbiological Assay Technique

Experiment was performed on six healthy Marathwadi buffalo calves of either sex of age above 6 months and weighing between 80 to 120 kg to study the different pharmacokinetic parameters after single intravenous administration @ 2 mg/kg body weight by microbiological assay technique. After intravenous administration of the drug, blood samples (4 ml each) of buffalo calves were collected from external jugular vein using disposable needles in clot activator tubes at different time intervals. The schedule of blood collection for pharmacokinetic studies after intravenous administration was at 0, 5, 10, 15, 30 min and 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 24 hrs. The serum levels of cefquinome were estimated by microbiological assay technique using large glass plate. Different Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated as described by different scientists. The peak serum concentration, elimination half life, volume of distribution, total body clearance, absorption half life and area under curve values found were 1.74 ± 0.151 mcg/ml at 2.5 min of sampling time, 1.97±0.14 h, 3.97 ± 0.83 L/kg (Vd(B)) and 2.86 ± 0.34L/kg (Vdss), 1.11 ± 0.13 L/kg.h−1, 0.10 ± 0.02 h, and 1.93 ± 0.23 μg/ml/hr respectively. The bioavailability of cefquinome in buffalo calves was found to be 100 %. It may be concluded that the elimination half life of cefquinome was 2.54 h in Marathwadi buffalo calves indicating the repeating of doses at 12 to 15 h intervals in Marathwadi buffalo calves and the loading dose would be double than the maintenance dose of cefquinome after intravenous administration.

Study on Reverse Logistics Focused on Developing the Collection Signal Algorithm Based on the Sensor Data and the Concept of Industry 4.0

Reverse logistics include all operations related to the reuse of products and materials. In this study, we focus on collection, which is the first operation of reverse logistics, and on the strength of using the sensor data and the concept of Industry 4.0. Previously, the collection activities of electronic wastes (e-wastes) was conducted by a fixed schedule without consideration of the fulfillment level of the collection boxes. However, due to the progress of IoT(internet of things) technology and sensor technology, it is possible to consider the fulfillment level of the collection boxes in order to make the collection schedule. To utilize the sensor data and IoT technology in reverse logistics, a collection signal algorithm is required to treat the rate of fulfilment of collection boxes. However, the collection signal algorithm for the disposal of small and medium (S&M)-sized e-wastes have not yet been developed in South Korea. This study uses a collection box to develop the collection algorithm based on an experimental design method with multiple sensors. The proposed algorithm can be utilized to solve the current collection problems and to save logistics costs. Furthermore, proper collection of e-wastes will lead to more recycling activities, which can further create and sustain a safer environment on Earth.