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Electricity has become prevalent in modern day lives. Almost all the comforts people enjoy today, like home heating and cooling, indoor and outdoor lighting, computers, home and office appliances, depend on electricity. Moreover, the demand for electricity is increasing across the globe. The increasing demand for electricity and the increased awareness about carbon footprints have raised interest in the implementation of energy efficiency measures. A feasible remedy to conserve energy is to provide energy consumption feedback. This approach has suggested the possibility of considerable reduction in the energy consumption, which is in the range of 3.8% to 12%. Currently, research is on-going to monitor energy consumption of individual appliances. However, various approaches studied so far are limited to group-level feedback. The limitation of this approach is that the occupant of a house/building is unaware of his/her energy consumption pattern and has no information regarding how his/her energy-related behavior is affecting the overall energy consumption of a house/building. Energy consumption of a house/building largely depends on the energy-related behavior of individual occupants. Therefore, research in the area of individualized energy-usage feedback is essential. The OSEM (Occupant-Specific Energy Monitoring) system presented in this work is capable of monitoring individualized energy usage. OSEM system uses the electromagnetic field (EMF) radiated by appliances as a signature for appliance identification. An EMF sensor was designed and fabricated to collect the EMF radiated by appliances. OSEM uses proximity sensing to confirm the energy-related activity. Once confirmed, this activity is attributed to the occupant who initiated it. Bluetooth Low Energy technology was used for proximity sensing. This OSEM system would provide a detailed energy consumption report of individual occupants, which would help the occupants understand their energy consumption patterns and in turn encourage them to undertake energy conservation measures.

The multistep paradigm (tethering, rolling and firm adhesion) for leukocyte adhesion in post-capillary venules has been shown to involve adhesion molecules. There has been considerable debate, however, on the relative importance of biochemical stimuli and mechanical deformation in neutrophil adhesion in lung capillaries, a process observed following bacterial infection in the body. In contrast to venules, where the leukocyte diameter (6-9 µm) is smaller than the diameter of the vessel, in lung capillaries the leukocyte diameter is larger than the capillary diameter (2 to 8 µm). In this study a micropipette aspiration assay developed to act as a flow chamber for the capillaries in the lung is described, wherein the effects of adhesion molecules (such as ICAM-1) over control (BSA) can be observed while different micropipette diameters are used to vary the extent of mechanical deformation. The ‘micro-rheology’ technique of tracking thermal (Brownian) motion of endogenous granules within the neutrophils using DIC video microscopy is used to extract the local intracellular viscoelastic (bulk) moduli. The results indicate regional differences in rheology with a significantly stiffer body region over the end caps which do not differ significantly in stiffness from each other. While the inclusion of adhesion molecules with deformation preserved the regional differences, an increase in viscoelastic moduli (stiffness) was seen. With the requirement for neutrophils to stay sequestered during inflammation, the results seem in line with available literature on leukocyte sequestration mechanisms [1] and neutrophil-endothelial cell adhesion effects [2]. The effort provides an insight into the regional rheological effects of deformation and adhesion molecules on neutrophils.

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