Sunday, January 26, 2020

Making Renewable Energy SMART using Internet of Things (IOT)

Making Renewable Energy SMART using Internet of Things (IOT) Manuj Darbar, Kripa Shankar Pathak, Rajesh Goel Abstract: The paper highlights the cooperative behaviour of Multi agent systems by combining various renewal energy sources and then feeding the power to the grid. The process uses 6LoWPAN protocol to communicate with each other and C-ARTAGOs interface control with Guarde properties to intelligently manage the demand and supply. Keywords: SMART Grids, Renewal Energy sources, IoT. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Renewal energy is inspired by natural resources for energy conversion. Till date natural resources which are exploited for conversion of energy are: Wind, Biomass and Solar Power with the upsurge in energy demand countries are switching to alternative energy sources. These alternative sources could be Wind, Biomass or Solar Energy. Denmark tops the list with a very high penetration of renewal energy producing nearly 20% of total electricity demand. There is a paradigm shift from traditional method of generating power to renewal energy systems. There are two broad areas of research in renewal energy: Energy Transition, Energy Storage. Energy transition deals with conversion of natural energy into some form (Generally Electrical, Energy storage refers to store the energy generated by Natural resource generally solar cells uphill now manufacturers are using Conventional method of installing these energy sources, with the development of Internet of things the objects are made SMART. They can adjust output according to environment making them adaptive[2,3]. Unlike conventional internet, IOT supportive device usage with a very low bandwidth moreover the transmission is also inter sensor the novelty in this research area is to derive maximum efficiency from the entire setup. Each of the device will have an embedded chip sensor grid and communication link of all the connectivity nodes which are finally converted to cloud (P-cloud) for processing. For instance let up take the case of wind turbine, is case of any dynamic change in the operation of one turbine it is to be communicated to the cloud and all the turbines in li ne with turbine automatically adjust themselves, a self healing Immunization is injected which tunes the particular turbine in line with the other turbines. To manage the coherency between generation and storage battery signals and other parameters are sent to cloud for processing accordingly an adjustment/find turn of signal is generated to maintain the rhythm. Nowadays a new operating system like Windows and Linux has been developed specially catering to the needs of Internet of Things (IOT) named Contiki. Similarly we can apply for solar cell where a cell submits its health report on P-cloud on regular intervals. Some of the embedded systems supporting IOT are XBee, Rasberey pie and Cognitive Radio[8,9] Supporting Extended Environmental Markup Language, a type of XML document used in PACHUBED (suitable for public upload, download and display of data for Internet connected Networks. 2.0 MODEL DEVELOPMENT The paper highlights the development of a Toolkit for efficient management of Wind Energy and Solar Energy and feeding into the grid. In order to achieve synchronization between Wind grid, Solar Grid and existing grid we use the concept of Multi-agent system. These intelligent agents are integrated to a form self organizing net using swarming technique. Each of the wind mill and solar grid is connected by 6 LOWPAN Sensor devices. 6 LOWPAN is made up of Low-power wireless are networks. Which are IPV6 stub network. An Ad LOWPAN is not connected to the internet that operates without infrastructure. Figure 1 : Layer Architecture 6 LOWPAN In our framework we will be using Extended LOWPAN consisting of multiple edge routers. LOWPAN works on the principle of neighbor discovery (ND) LOWPAN needs participate in more than one LOWPAN at the same time also known as multi-homing. The protocol stack of 6 LOWPAN Protocol stack consists of Application, Transport, Network, Data Link and Physical. The Architecture of 6 LOWPAN consists of 1 Pv6 Internet connected to Remote sensor and an Edge Router which is connected with P2P link. This Edge Router consists of various Nodes of 6 LOWPAN (Figure 2) Figure 2: 6 LOWPAN Connection (Adopted from 6 LOWPAN – The wireless embedded Internet) Neighbor Discovery in LOWPAN includes a built in feature for dealing with Micro mobility. All the messages generated are being monitored and tracked by the Central Control Unit which feeds the power to the grid. Consider a scenario where grid of Wind Mills is installed, a grid of solar cells (figure 3). Figure 3: Multi-Agent System for Autonomic Control The above figure highlights the 6 LOWPAN sensor networks which is connected to each Wind Mill and Solar Panels. It is connected to the Control Centre by the help of an interface using 1Pv6 server and P2P connection by the Edge Router. The real time protocol for streaming the signals uses UDP which is an widely used for sensor data streams. The use Web services by the Control Centre helps in linking the current weather conditions (Sunny) or (windy) to Grid synchronizer which informs the Grid about the necessary invariability and power delivery in the Grid. In order to simulate the entire set-up we use the concept of C-ArtAgo developed by Alassendro Ricei et al. [1]. It is a platform for providing a general-purpose programming model. It works on two different aspects Agents and Artifacts. It is modeled in terms of set of artifacts programmed by MAS. Secondly the artifact collaborate each other using the combination of 6 LOWPAN communication[3,5,7] defined in FIPA standard protocols. The FIPA protocol[10,11] uses some of the concept of high-level interaction. It is categorised into three sections: (1) Basic Protocols (2) Network Protocol Contractual FIPA (3) Protocols FIPA Auctions. Since the Network protocol and Protocols FIPA Auctions are used when a electronic commerce has to be established. We will be using Basic Protocols of FIPA. The FIPA Basic Protocol allows an agent to request to another agent to perform certain action. It is combined with 6 LOWPAN Protocol to generate a standard set of communication link given in figure 4. Figure 4: AUML Representation of 6 LOWPAN FIPA Protocol quarry. This protocol allows an agent to request to another agent to perform certain action. The agent on receiving the request indicates whether it accepts or rejects the request. The FIPA protocol is further supported by conditional quarry protocol FIPA which allows an agent to request agent to perform an action when a certain condition is satisfied. The request protocol allows an agent to make an inquiry. The Agent on accepting the request can than acceptor refuse to provide information. (C-ArtAgo has a layerical structure with MAS acting as an middle layer. (figure 5) Figure 5 : Layerical Representation of MAS with CARTAGO Consider a scenario where we have to integrate Solar grid, Wind Grid and Normal Supply side grid by using guidance from the Web Service agent. The Web service agent we have used here are: The Weather services and Load Demand services provided by distribution agencies. In order to collaborate all the above entities we treat them as intelligent agents. In order to collaborate all the above agents we use (C-ARTAGOs usage interface control with Guarde properties. The operation control is either enabled or disabled. The Agent side side Use is used to trigger the Action, if USE + ENABLED then Action is Triggered otherwise the Action is stopped / Suspended. The sample program using Guard is described as: import alice.catrago.*; import java.until.*; public class Intelligent Agent extends Artifact { private Linked List sensor; void init (int max){ Sensors = new LinkedList define ( ) bsproperty (max-sensors, nmax); define Obs property (n_sensors,0); } @OPERATION (guard = n_sensors = active) void sense (device Id) {sensors.add (sensor); updatedObsProperty (n_IPv6, services, sensor.udp); } @GUARD boolean Grid Demand Not Full (set sensors) {intmax Agents = getobsProperty (max_agents). int value ( ) ; return agent size ( ) } } The above code deals with the problem of concurrent systems which requires effective coordination between produces agent (Solar Agent Windmill Agent) and SupplyAgent (The Supply grid). The use of Guard operation in Boolean option provides a necessary control giving the exact amount of Windmills / Solar panels currently active and based on Web service agent communication and the grid requirement the Boolean values change accordingly. 4.0 Conclusion: The paper introduces a framework for specifying the interaction between various types of intelligent agents. The coordination between the solar agent and Wind Mill agent is achieved by 6LOWPAN devices connected on IPv6 environment. The communication is achieved by Web Senor connected with Web services which guides about the environmental conditions and Peak Demand variations which is going to come in next couple of days. System uses FIPA protocol architecture for multi agent coordination. References: Book Section: [1] Alessandro Piunti, Michele A Viroli, Mirko A Omicini, Andrea Amal, Environment Programming in CArtAgO†, pp: 259-2188, Multi Agen Programming, 2009, Springer US. Research Papers: [2] Lehtoranta, O., Seppà ¤là ¤, J., Koivisto, H., and Koivo, H., â€Å"Adaptive District Heat Load Forecasting using Neural Networks†, in Proceedings of Third International Symposium on Soft Computing for Industry, Maui, USA, 2000. [3] M Darbari, VK Singh, R Asthana, â€Å"N-Dimensional Self Organizing Petrinets for Urban Traffic Modeling†, International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI) 7 (4), 37-40, 2010. [4] N Dhanda, M Darbari, NJ Ahuja, â€Å"Development of Multi Agent Activity Theory e-Learning (MATeL) Framework Focusing on Indian Scenario† , International Review on Computers Software 7 (4), 1624-1628, 2012. [5] M Darbari, VK Singh, R Asthana, S Prakash, â€Å"N-Dimensional Self Organizing Petrinets for Urban Traffic Modeling†, International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI) 7 (4), 37-40, 2010. [6] M Darbari, P Sahai, â€Å"Adaptive e-learning using Granulerised Agent Framework†, International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research 5 (3), 167-171,2014. [7] Mà ¼ller, J.P., â€Å"A Cooperation Model for Autonomous Agents†, Intelligent Agents III, Springer, 1997. [8] Malone, T., and Crowston, K., â€Å"The interdisciplinary study of coordination†,  ACM Computing Surveys,V ol. 26(1), 1994. [9] Nwana, H.S., Lee, L., Jennings, N.R., â€Å"Co-ordination in software agents systems†, BT Technology Journal. Vol 14(4), 1996. [10] Shoham, Y., and Tennenholtz, M., â€Å"On the synthesis of useful social laws for artificial agent societies†, in Proceedings of the 10th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 276-281, 1992. [11] Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.J., and Kinny, D., â€Å"The Gaia Methodology for Agent-Oriented Analysis and Design†, Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Vol. 3(3) pp.285-312, 2000.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Community Health Nursing Essay

As a registered nurse of only three years, I am often referred to by my peers as a â€Å"baby† nurse. However, in those short three years of practice I have learned and continue to learn many things whether medical, personal, or humanitarian. My personal nursing experience has been in surgical care services. The vast majority of the patients I have cared for are those undergoing elective procedures. They have chosen to have joint arthroplasty or some other type of procedure. I have also had the great fortune to care for those who have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses such as cancer and leukemia. Many times I see these patients in the infancy of their disease process, but I also see them on a continue basis during treatments such as blood or platelet transfusions. The difficulties faced by patient s such as these are varied and bring with each a different set of needs to be assessed and addressed. You become not just a nurse but a caregiver, advocate, therapist, and more often than not a friend. It is when working with these patients that the dynamics of quality versus quantity of life become central to care. In many cases family concerns, whether well meaning or not, may overshadow the patient’s wishes. Our selfish need to keep loved ones with us can blur the line as to the patient’s own wants and needs. In dealing with this you must also assess your own beliefs as to end of life decisions. My role as a nurse must be to advocate for my patient, to develop trust in the relationship, and to follow through with their wishes. All the while promoting compassion in our interactions,  In this case scenario, there are three strategies in which I would implement to address Mrs. Thomas as a patient. After assessing the patient and her situation referrals should be made for therapy modalities both physical and occupational, home health, and psychological/mental health for both Mrs. Thomas and her spouse/caregiver. Physical and occupational therapy could evaluate Mrs. Thomas and initiate a plan of treatment to increase stamina and range of motion to keep the patient at an optimum level of functioning. Physical improvement even in small increments can have a positive effect on the patient’s outlook. Home health could evaluate Mrs. Thomas and her need for pain control as well as her fear of dependency. Education at this juncture is imperative to patient outlook as well as outcome of treatments. With pain management in place, physical therapy could progress, thus increasing the level of patient participation. Also a mental health/psychological referral could be invaluable to both Mr. and Mrs. Thomas. Mrs. Thomas could be assisted in working through and understanding the stages of her illness, as well as her depression and sadness concerning her family relationships. It could also help Mr. Thomas with his depression and allow them both to connect with support groups or individuals within the community with whom they can share experiences. One of the best resources for breast cancer patients is the Susan B. Komen Foundation. As a certified breast cancer educator, I have had the pleasure of working with both survivors and their families. Education is very important to all concerned in a medical diagnosis of breast cancer. Understanding of the disease process and its effects are also essential to a healthy outlook. The Komen Foundation offers support to patients, survivors, caregivers, and family members. It would be an excellent resource in which both Mr. and Mrs. Thomas could receive individualized treatment and support. The team approach is also necessary for working with patients, families, and caregivers. As a nurse you must accept that an individual cannot meet all patient needs so you draw upon other health care professional s to accomplish the highest levels of care. A wide variety of team members can be utilized in the care of the Thomas’. Physicians who offer direct clinical care and disease pathologies, social workers/clinical case managers who can assist in community resources as well as their knowledge of insurances, spiritual leaders to aide in dealing with final decisions and spiritual needs of the patient and family, pharmacists  who assist with a wide array of pharmacological treatments for pain and symptom control, dieticians can be helpful in counseling with meals, nutrition, supplements, and hydration. Other team members may include physical and occupational therapy, psychologists, and perhaps even volunteers to assist in the home and with errands. The needs of Mrs. Thomas and her family will continue to fluctuate as her disease progresses. It is important for the team to stay abreast of these needs and adjust plans of care accordingly. At some point hospice services may be called upon and continued through death. This can be provided at home or on an inpatient basis. Initiating a plan of action can alleviate stress from both the Thomas’. Mr. Thomas may feel that some of the caregiver burden has been lifted and this could aid in the treatment of his depression. This in combination with medication could be the keys to initiating successful treatment. If a psychological evaluation is needed due to the possibility of suicidal ideations, then immediate intervention is warranted with a crisis facility. Especially if there is deemed eminent danger of self harm. With pieces of the clinical puzzle in place, the Thomas’ can be assisted with as much compassion, dignity, and support as possible to meet their needs in both the short and long term.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Peter Kolchin’s “American Slavery: Origins and Consolidation” Essay

Peter Kolchin’s book entitled, â€Å"American Slavery: Origins and Consolidation† discusses the problems and the evolution of slavery in the United States of America. The opening sentence of his first chapter is indeed quite interesting. According to him, Americans have this wrong perception that the U.S. is â€Å"conceived with liberty† because the reality is that, the so-called â€Å"New world† tolerates slavery. Kolchin believes that African slaves, more importantly, should not be treated by the Americans as inferior individuals but rather be grateful to them. One of the greatest sources of income actually came from the continuous importation of African slaves to the U.S. Because of the increasing number of slaves in the country during the early 16th-17th century, coercion in their labor actually provided for the country’s foundation of agriculture. He further believes that, slavery became widely accepted in the U.S. because of two factors namely, religious and economic. The concept of slavery as a labor system in the U.S. was patterned after the imperialistic attempts of European countries. The emergence of this kind of system is brought by the shortage in workers, especially in the agricultural aspects. A big number of workers are needed by the rich landowners during the harvest season in order for them to meet the existing demands of the market. Because of this, Africans were being imported to become farm workers. The more laborers that they have, the greater is the production, and therefore the greater is the possibility of an economic growth since there has been demands made in both international and local market, which is very apparent today in the U.S. (Kolchin, p.5) The second factor deals with religion. Since slaves are considered as subordinates to their masters, everything that the master will tell them, the slave will follow, including their master’s religion (which is mostly Christianity as Kolchim discussed). Unlike their masters who have religious backgrounds in the form of doctrines and teachings, the slaves do not have. Because of this, the slaves settled in potion-makings, superstitious beliefs, and the like. However, by being introduced to Christianity, they became more civilized and at least, knowledgeable because they already follow â€Å"legal rituals.† Surprisingly, the Christian bible tolerates the presentation of stories depicting slavery. For instance, the bible suggests that God blessed and protected the Christians while the non-Christians were punished and viewed as slaves, serving their Christian masters in building religious temples or religious images. In general, slavery in the United States of America has evolved throughout the years. In fact, two historical periods sought to explain this evolution. One is the colonial era wherein slaves were still powerless and submissive individuals, and the other is during the period of antebellum. During this period, there were calls and proposals to the slave-owners to treat their subordinates as humans, providing them with their basic needs (Kolchin, p. 28) I do agree that Kolchin has a basis in saying that economy and religion are the factors why slavery was accepted in U.S. because his arguments are very apparent. If we are to trace back history, the rich American landowners, there are a number of them who became the country’s chief executives, hired African slaves to attend to their agricultural business. In fact, he was quoted in his book saying â€Å"[slavery] helped propel the economic transformation of the leading colonial powers.† (Kolchin, p.5) Meanwhile, in terms of religion, many of the country’s leaders are Christians. As such, they follow the bible. A passage from the Book of Genesis 9:25 which states that, â€Å"Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers,† Christian believers are quick to say that this passage is the cornerstone of the belief that God made the blacks suffer from slavery (Kolchin, p.145). The most important new information that I discovered about America’s history is the irony of former President Thomas Jefferson. While he announced that â€Å"all men are created equal† during his declaration of Independence, he was a large-scale slave owner himself. Apart from that, his all men are created equal contradicts his racist remark when he said that black’s â€Å"depravity† is caused by their slave status, and more offensively, the distinct nature of their innate characteristic (Kolchin, p.88). The reason why I considered it also as an important learning for me is because the African slaves suffered too much pain, physically and emotionally, under the Americans’ hands. Even former Presidents have their own share of taking advantage of these â€Å"blacks† despite their call of equality. African slavery will always be a part of American history. As such, this article further strengthens Kolchin’s arguments that slavery was caused by both economic and religious factors. The Americans, thinking that they are superior individuals, took advantage of the Africans. They used their power in order to force these Africans to work doubly hard and in case the slave masters were not satisfied, they will maltreat them. Meanwhile, the Americans use their influence in religion to further manipulate not only the actions of the slaves but more importantly, their way of thinking also. However, despite the influence of the Americans, it is not still safe to conclude that African slaves were â€Å"Americanized.† In fact, even if Americans do influence their thinking, they are still â€Å"Africans† themselves. It’s just that, Africans were exposed to two different cultures. Reference: Kolchin,P. Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom. Harvard University Press, April 1987.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Abortion in the Premodern World

While modern technology is quite new in historical terms, the practice of abortion and menstrual regulation is ancient. Traditional methods have been handed down for hundreds of generations and herbal and other methods have roots in the distant past. It should be noted that many ancient and medieval methods and preparations are extremely risky and many are not at all effective, so experimentation is quite unwise. We know abortion was practiced in biblical times from the passage in Numbers where alleged infidelity is tested by giving an abortifacient potion to an accused pregnant woman. The bitter water used to bring on the curse may have been quinine or several of other herbal and natural concoctions that are considered emmenagogues, or drugs that bring on menstruation. Such herbs and other concoctions are in reality often implantation inhibitors or abortifacients. According to the biblical tale, if the woman had not been unfaithful, the drug would not work and the pregnancy was assumed to be the husband’s child. If she miscarried, she was considered guilty of adultery and no questionable parentage ensued. Abortion was recorded in 1550 B.C.E. in Egypt, recorded in what is called the Ebers Papyrus and in ancient China about 500 B.C.E. as well. In China, folklore dates the use of mercury to induce abortions to about 5,000 years ago. Of course, mercury is extremely toxic. Hippocrates also offered abortion to his patients despite being opposed to pessaries and potions which he considered too dangerous. He is recorded as having instructed a prostitute to induce abortion by jumping up and down. This is certainly safer than some other methods, but rather ineffective. It is also believed that he used dilation and curettage to induce abortions as well. Abortion opponents often use the Hippocratic Oath of physicians as an argument against abortion per se, but the opposition had only to do with patient safety. Herbal methods were likely more common and many of the traditional herbs and mixtures are in use even today. Pennyroyal dates at least to the 1200s when manuscripts show herbalists preparing it, but the oil is extremely dangerous and modern herbalists avoid it. Deaths from its use were recorded in the US in the 1990s. A medieval herbal reference called De Viribus Herbarum referred to herbs to induce abortions even earlier in the 11th century. Pennyroyal was among the herbs mentioned but so were catnip, rue. Sage, savory, cypress, and hellebore. Some of the drugs are listed as emmenagogues rather than explicitly as abortifacients, but since the most common cause of a late menstrual period is pregnancy, there is little doubt why they were prescribed and used. Hildegard of Bingen mentions the use of tansy to bring on menstruation. Some herbs have been mentioned for centuries. One is a plant called the worm fern whose root is used to cause an abortion. It is telling that it was also known as prostitute’s root historically. Also used in the same area of Europe were thyme, parsley, lavender, and savin juniper. Even concoctions of camel saliva and deer hair were used. The right of women to seek abortions was not restricted in many places until fairly recently, with most restrictions being related to the time of quickening or fetal movement. Even Plato proclaimed the right of women to seek early terminations of pregnancies in Theaetetus, but specifically he spoke of the right of midwives to offer the procedure. In early times, most pregnancies were not managed by doctors so it was logical that abortion be provided by midwives and herbalists. Other measures to induce abortions have included iron sulfates and chlorides, hyssop, dittany, opium, madder in beer, watercress seeds and even crushed ants. Probably the herbs most commonly mentioned were tansy and pennyroyal. We know that tansy was used from at least the Middle Ages. One of the most brutal methods was practiced in the Orient in ancient times by violently kneading or beating the abdomen to cause abortion, a procedure with great peril to the woman who used it. Even in the 20th century, women were still trying Hippocrates’ jumping up and down method, likely with as little success as their ancient sisters. Wise women have found and used herbs and other preparations to manage their fertility for generations. Some concoctions were contraceptive in nature and others were abortifacients or designated emmenagogues. The latter are now believed to have worked to prevent implantation, a sort of ancient morning after pill. What we know for sure is that in the past as well as now women have found ways to manage unwanted pregnancies. It should be noted that many ancient and medieval methods and preparations are extremely risky and many are not at all effective, so experimentation is quite unwise. There are modern practitioners who do know the folk remedies that are both effective and safe and should be relied upon before even considering such methods. Modern women also have more familiar medical procedures to choose instead of ancient remedies. Sources Konstaninos Kapparis, Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Florida. Abortion in the Ancient World (Duckworth Classical Essays). Duckworth Publishers (May 2003).John M. Riddle (Chair of the History Department and Alumni Distinguished Professor, North Carolina State University. Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Harvard University Press (April 1994).