Search results for: specific energy

Authors: Shaohua Li, Aihua Zhang, Kelly Zatopek, Saba Parvez, Andrew F. Gardner, Ivan R. Corrêa Jr., Christopher J. Noren, Ming-Qun Xu

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Covalent immobilization of enzymes on solid supports is an alternative approach to biocatalysis with the added benefits of simple enzyme removal, improved stability, and adaptability to automation and high-throughput applications. Nevertheless, immobilized enzymes generally suffer from reduced activities compared to their soluble counterparts. One major factor leading to activity loss is the intrinsic hydrophobic property of the supporting material surface, which could result in the conformational change/confinement of enzymes. We report a strategy of utilizing flexible poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) moieties as to improve the surface hydrophilicity of solid supports used for enzyme immobilization. DNA modifying enzymes were covalently conjugated to PEO-coated magnetic-beads. Kinetics studies proved that the activities of the covalently-immobilized DNA modifying enzymes were greatly enhanced by the PEO modification on the bead surface.

Keywords: immobilized enzymes, biocatalysis, poly(ethylene oxide), surface modification

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Authors: Abdolreza Esmaeilzadeh, Mehri Mirzaei

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Objective: Rheumatic disease is a chronic disease that causes pain, stiffness, swelling and limited motion and function of many joints. RA is the most common form of autoimmune arthritis, affecting more than 1.3 million Americans. Of these, about 75% are women. Materials and Methods: This study was formed due to the misconception about ANA test, which is frequently performed with methods based upon solid phase as ELISA. This experiment was conducted on 430 patients, with clinical symptoms that are likely affected with rheumatic diseases, simultaneously by means of ANA and FANA. Results: 36 cases (8.37%) of patients, despite positive ANA, have demonstrated negative results via Indirect Immunofluorescence Assay (IIFA), (false positive). 116 cases (27%) have demonstrated negative ANA results, by means of the ELISA technique, although they had positive IIFA results. Conclusion: Other advantages of IIFA are antibody titration and specific pattern detection that have the capability of distinguishing positive dsDNA results. According to the restrictions and false negative cases, in patients, IIFA test is highly recommended for these disease's diagnosis.

Keywords: autoimmune disease, IIFA, EIA, rheumatic disease

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Authors: Carolina A. Santos, Alexandra B. Ribeiro

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Climate change and environmental degradation are threats to humanity. Europe has been addressing these problems, namely through the Green Deal, with the use of batteries in mobility and energy fields. However, these require the use of critical raw materials, like lithium, which demand is estimated to grow 60 times in the next 30 years. Thus, it is fundamental to promote a circular economy with lithium recovery from secondary resources. These are nowadays key topics, which will be even more relevant in the future, so a new way to approach them is needed and must be encouraged. Therefore, one of our main goals is to analyse two methods of lithium retrieval from secondary sources, bioleaching, and electrodialysis, and assess them regarding their sustainability. The latest results show good efficiency of removal with both methods, even though there are some matrix interferences. Hence, further investment and research are needed in order to make this process sustainable and our society more circular.

Keywords: lithium, sustainable mining, social license to operate, bioleaching, electrodialysis

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Authors: Le Ngoc Hung, Abriak Nor Edine, Binetruy Christophe, Benzerzour Mahfoud, Shahrour Isam, Patrice Rivard

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Bottom ash from Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) can be viewed as a typical granular material because these industrial by-products result from the incineration of various domestic wastes. MSWI bottom ashes are mainly used in road engineering in substitution of the traditional natural aggregates. As the characterization of their mechanical behavior is essential in order to use them, specific studies have been led over the past few years. In the first part of this paper, the mechanical behavior of MSWI bottom ash is studied with triaxial tests. After analysis of the experiment results, the simulation of triaxial tests is carried out by using the software package CESAR-LCPC. As the first approach in modeling of this new class material, the Mohr-Coulomb model was chosen to describe the evolution of material under the influence of external mechanical actions.

Keywords: bottom ash, granular material, triaxial test, mechanical behavior, simulation, Mohr-Coulomb model, CESAR-LCPC

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Authors: Michael Koblischka, Anjela Koblischka-Veneva, XianLin Zeng, Essia Hannachi, Yassine Slimani

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Superconducting foams of YBa2Cu3O7 (abbreviated Y-123) were produced using the infiltration growth (IG) technique from Y2BaCuO5 (Y-211) foams. The samples were investigated by SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and electrical resistivity measurements. SEM observations indicated the specific microstructure of the foam struts with numerous tiny Y-211 particles (50-100 nm diameter) embedded in channel-like structures between the Y-123 grains. The investigation of the excess conductivity of different prepared composites was analyzed using Aslamazov-Larkin (AL) model. The investigated samples comprised of five distinct fluctuation regimes, namely short-wave (SWF), one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D), three-dimensional (3D), and critical (CR) fluctuations regimes. The coherence length along the c-axis at zero-temperature (ξc(0)), lower and upper critical magnetic fields (Bc1 and Bc2), critical current density (Jc) and numerous other superconducting parameters were estimated from the data. The analysis reveals that the presence of the tiny Y-211 particles alters the excess conductivity and the fluctuation behavior observed in standard YBCO samples.

Keywords: Excess conductivity, Foam, Microstructure, Superconductor YBa2Cu3Oy

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Authors: Musa Bala Zakari, Mark Button

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This paper explores the extent, nature, and characteristics of public sector corruption in Nigeria and the enhancement of the major anti-corruption initiatives (reforms), thereby providing insight into the types, forms and causes of corruption in Nigeria. This paper argues that attempts to devise and suggest effective anti-corruption reforms to control systemic corruption in Nigeria require identifying the most prevalent types of corruption targeted and tackling the fundamental country specific causes. It analyses two types of public sector corruption as it relates to Nigeria and the workings of its inefficient governance system. This paper concludes with the imperative of a collective action against corruption supported by considerable amount of domestic political will existing in a favourable policy context. In undertaking this, the paper draws upon publicly available documents, case laws review and semi-structured interviews conducted with various personnel working in the field of corruption in the dedicated anticorruption agencies, academics, and practitioners from other relevant institutions of accountability.

Keywords: corruption, development, good governance, public sector

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Authors: Terry Lucas

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Calculations are performed to quantify the potential contribution of each greenhouse gas emission reduction strategy. This approach facilitates the visualisation of the relative benefits of each, and it provides a potential baseline for the development of a plan of action that is rooted in quantitative evaluation. Emissions reductions are converted to potential de-escalation of global average temperature. A comprehensive plan is then presented which shows the potential benefits all the way out to year 2100. A target temperature de-escalation of 2oC was selected, but the plan shows a benefit of only 1.225oC. This latter disappointing result is in spite of new and powerful technologies introduced into the equation. These include nuclear fusion and alternative nuclear fission processes. Current technologies such as wind, solar and electric vehicles show surprisingly small constributions to the whole.

Keywords: climate change, emissions, drawdown, energy

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Authors: Noha El Toukhy

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The ‘beauty is good” stereotype suggests that people perceive attractive people as having several positive characteristics. Likewise, an “anomalous-is-bad” stereotype is hypothesized to facilitate biases against people with anomalous or less attractive faces. Researchers integrated both into a stereotype content model, which is one of the frameworks used in this study to assess how facial anomalies influence people’s social attitudes and, specifically, people’s ratings of warmth and competence. The mind perception theory, as well as the assessment of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization against facially anomalous people, are two further frameworks that we are using in this study. This study will test the hypothesis that people have negative attitudes towards people with facial anomalies. We also hypothesize that people have negative biases toward faces with visible differences compared to faces without such differences regardless of the specific type of anomaly, as well as that individual differences in psychological dispositions bear on the expression of the anomalous-is-bad stereotype. Using highly controlled and some never-before-used face stimuli, this pre-registered study examines whether moral character influences perceptions of attractiveness, warmth, and competence for facial anomalies.

Keywords: adolescents, attractiveness, competence, social attitudes, warmth

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Authors: Maria Christofi, George Plastiras, Rafaella Elia, Vaggelis Tsiourtis, Theocharis Theocharides, Miltiadis Katsaros

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The rapidly expanding urban areas of the world constitute a challenge of how we need to make the transition to "the next urbanization", which will be defined by new analytical tools and new sources of data. This paper is about the production of a spatial application, the ‘FUMapp’, where space and its initiative will be available literally, in meters, but also abstractly, at a sensed level. While existing spatial applications typically focus on illustrations of the urban infrastructure, the suggested application goes beyond the existing: It investigates how our environment's perception adapts to the alterations of the built environment through a dataset construction of biophysical measurements (eye-tracking, heart beating), and physical metrics (spatial characteristics, size of stimuli, rhythm of mobility). It explores the intersections between architecture, cognition, and computing where future design can be improved and identifies the flexibility and livability of the ‘available space’ of specific examined urban paths.

Keywords: biophysical data, flexibility of urban, livability, next urbanization, spatial application

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Authors: Miranda Enesi, Helena Grillo Mukli

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The English word-stock is extremely rich in synonyms which can be largely accounted for by the abundant borrowing. Translation problems encountered by translators in general are usually ‘transfer problems’. They face more difficulties in the interpretation of meaning from the source language text than lexical differences between languages. The aim of the study is to inspect the various strategies used in translating from English into Albanian specific words in the ‘A Farwell to arms’ novel. For this purpose, examples translated from English into Albanian were examined. The Albanian equivalents have shown that various strategies were used in order to overcome the problem of rendering words and expressions into the target language. Employed strategies were synonymy, modulation, transposition, calque and word for word translation. In addition, this paper shows that the strategy of translating using synonymy is mostly used. In this paper, an attempt is made to examine the nature of contextual synonymy in order to investigate its problematic nature regarding translation. Types of synonymy are analyzed and then examples from English and Albanian versions are provided to examine the overlap between them.

Keywords: equivalence, literal translation, paraphrasing, transfer problems, synonymy

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Authors: Raj Kumar Rajak, Bharat Mishra

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Bio-battery represents an entirely new long term, reasonable, reachable and ecofriendly approach to production of sustainable energy. Types of batteries have been developed using MnO₂ in various ways. MnO₂ is suitable with physical, chemical, electrochemical, and catalytic properties, serving as an effective cathodic depolarizer and may be considered as being the life blood of the battery systems. In the present experimental work, we have studied the effect of generation of power by bio-battery using different concentrations of MnO₂. The tests show that it is possible to generate electricity using cow’s urine as an electrolyte. After ascertaining the optimum concentration of MnO₂, various battery parameters and performance indicates that cow urine solely produces power of 695 mW, while a combination with MnO₂ (40%) enhances power of bio-battery, i.e. 1377 mW. On adding more and more MnO₂ to the electrolyte, the power suppressed because inflation of internal resistance. The analysis of the data produced from experiment shows that MnO₂ is quite suitable to energize the bio-battery.

Keywords: bio-batteries, cow’s urine, manganese dioxide, non-conventional

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Authors: Aleksandra Czubak

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The need to present evidence in civil proceedings is essential for getting the right result. It is for this reason that it is particularly important for the parties to present the most relevant and convincing evidence to the Court. Therefore, parties often try to gain evidence, even when the acquisition of such evidence is in breach of the law. Firstly, there will be discussed how evidence is applied in the Polish civil process and the Polish regulations of the evidence proceedings; with specific reference to evidence of major importance in the developing world. Further, it will be discussed the controversies connected with the admission of illegally gained evidence in civil proceedings. The credibility of the various measures is circumstantial and can only be determined by factors related to the recognized problem. For that reason, it is not the amount of evidence, but the value and relevance of this evidence that should be considered in determining the right result. This paper will also consider whether the end justifies the means? How far should parties go in order to achieve a favorable sentence or to create stronger evidence? Methods of persuasion of the court, as well as the acquisition of evidence, are not always fair and moral. It is on this area of controversy that this essay will focus. This paper concludes by considering the value of evidence and the possibility of using it to achieve a just sentence. Examples are based on Polish law; nevertheless, they encompass ideas common to most civil jurisdictions.

Keywords: civil proceedings, Europe (Poland), evidence, law

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Authors: Jinan Fiaidhi, Sabah Mohammed

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Cross-domain learning in the medical field is a research challenge as many conditions, like in oncology imaging, use different imaging modalities. Moreover, in most of the medical learning applications, the sample training size is relatively small. Although few-shot learning (FSL) through the use of a Siamese neural network was able to be trained on a small sample with remarkable accuracy, FSL fails to be effective for use in multiple domains as their convolution weights are set for task-specific applications. In this paper, we are addressing this problem by enabling FSL to possess the ability to shift across domains by designing a two-layer FSL network that can learn individually from each domain and produce a shared features map with extra modulation to be used at the second layer that can recognize important targets from mix domains. Our initial experimentations based on mixed medical datasets like the Medical-MNIST reveal promising results. We aim to continue this research to perform full-scale analytics for testing our cross-domain FSL learning.

Keywords: Siamese neural network, few-shot learning, meta-learning, metric-based learning, thick data transformation and analytics

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Authors: Ritika Jain, Rajnish Kumar

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The Department of Public Enterprises had made submissions of Self Evaluation Reports, for the purpose of corporate governance, mandatory for all central government owned enterprises. Despite this, an alarming 40% of the enterprises did not do so. This study examines the impact of external policy tools and internal firm-specific factors on corporate governance of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs). We use a dataset of all manufacturing and non-financial services owned by the central government of India for the year 2010-11. Using probit, ordered logit and Heckman’s sample selection models, the study finds that the probability and quality of corporate governance is positively influenced by the CPSE getting into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the central government of India, and hence, enjoying more autonomy in terms of day to day operations. Besides these, internal factors, including bigger size and lower debt size contribute significantly to better corporate governance.

Keywords: corporate governance, central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), sample selection, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), ordered logit, disinvestment

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Authors: Juan P. Novoa, Mario A. Rios

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This paper presents a transmission planning methodology that considers the conversion of HVAC transmission lines to HVDC as an alternative of expansion of power systems, as a consequence of restrictions for the construction of new lines. The transmission expansion planning problem formulates an optimization problem that minimizes the total cost that includes the investment cost to convert lines from HVAC to HVDC and possible required reinforcements of the power system prior to the conversion. The costs analysis assesses the impact of the conversion on the reliability because transmission lines are out of service during the conversion work. The presented methodology is applied to a test system considering a planning a horizon of 10 years.

Keywords: transmission expansion planning, HVDC, cost optimization, energy non-supplied

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Authors: Atef Aladwan

Abstract:

This research will focus on stimulating greater freedom and facilitating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Jordan to create jobs, as it is emerging as a key development issue. It will highlight the importance of integrating SMEs into development strategies. Jordan has potentially a large market for its products as a result of proximity to developed country markets, signing of various free trades agreements with European countries, cheap energy sources and vast sovereign funds willing to invest in the development of local enterprises. It is beginning to be accepted by governments that SMEs rather than government need to be the main player in domestic economic activity, especially as providers of employment opportunities, and hence generators of sources of income for many households. To foster SME development, it is generally recognised that reforms are needed in Jordan in order to bring about a more globally competitive and business-friendly environment.

Keywords: SMEs, competitiveness, entrepreneurship, jordan, development

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Authors: Hasibe Berfu Demi̇r, Şakir Esnaf

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In the past decade, extensive improvements have been done in electrical grid infrastructures. It is very important to make plans on supply, demand, transmission, distribution and pricing for the development of the electricity energy sector. Based on this perspective, in this study, Stackelberg game approach is proposed for demand participation management (DRM), which has become an important component in the smart grid to effectively reduce power generation costs and user bills. The purpose of this study is to examine electricity consumption from a dynamic pricing perspective. The results obtained were compared with the current situation and the results were interpreted.

Keywords: lectricity, stackelberg, smart grid, demand response managment, dynamic pricing

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Authors: Jerome Blackman, Pamela Franklin, Volha Roshchanka

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The US coal mining sector accounts for 6% of total US Methane emissions (2021). 60% of US coal mining methane emissions come from active underground mine ventilation systems. Abandoned mines contribute about 13% of methane emissions from coal mining. While there are thousands of abandoned underground coal mines in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that fewer than 100 have sufficient methane resources for viable methane recovery and use projects. Many abandoned mines are in remote areas far from potential energy customers and may be flooded, further complicating methane recovery. Because these mines are no longer active, recovery projects can be simpler to implement.

Keywords: abandoned mines, coal mine methane, coal mining, methane emissions, methane mitigation, recovery and use

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Authors: Yunusa Aliyu Hadejia

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Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease caused by a bacterium called Vibrio Cholerae which spread as a result of eating food or drinking water contaminated with feaces from an infected person. In this work we proposed and analyzed the impact of isolating infected people and give them therapeutic treatment, the specific objectives of the research was to formulate a mathematical model of cholera transmission incorporating treatment class, to make analysis on stability of equilibrium points of the model, positivity and boundedness was shown to ensure that the model has a biological meaning, the basic reproduction number was derived by next generation matrix approach. The result of stability analysis show that the Disease free equilibrium was both locally and globally asymptotically stable when R_0< 1 while endemic equilibrium has locally asymptotically stable when R_0> 1. Sensitivity analysis was perform to determine the contribution of each parameter to the basic reproduction number. Numerical simulation was carried out to show the impact of the model parameters using MAT Lab Software.

Keywords: mathematical model, treatment, stability, sensitivity

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Authors: Aleena Rena Onozuka, Patompong Satapornpong

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Introduction: In a Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)’s immune response, HLA alleles (HLA class I and class II) play a crucial role in fighting against pathogens. HLA-B*15:01 allele had a significant association with asymptomatic COVID-19 infection (p-value = 5.67 x 10-5 ; OR = 2.40 and 95% CI = 1.54 - 3.64). There was also a notable linkage between HLA-B*51:01 allele and critically ill patients with COVID-19 (p-value = 0.007 and OR = 3.38). This study has described the distribution of HLA marker alleles in Thais and sub-groups. Objective: We want to investigate the prevalence of HLA-B*15:01 and HLA-B*51:01 alleles in the Thai population. Materials and Methods: 200 healthy Thai population were included in this study from the College of Pharmacy, Rangsit University. HLA-B alleles were genotyped using the sequence-specific oligonucleotides process (PCR-SSOs). Results: We found out that HLA-B*46:01 (12.00%), HLA-B*15:02 (9.25%), HLA-B*40:01 (6.50%), HLA-B*13:01 (6.25%), and HLA-B* 38:02 (5.50%) alleles were more common than other alleles in Thai population. HLA-B*46:01 and HLA-B*15:02 were the most common allele found across four regions. Moreover, the frequency of HLA-B*15:01 and HLA-B*51:01 alleles were similarly distributed in Thai population (0.50, 5.25 %) and (p-value > 0.05), respectively. The frequencies of HLA-B*15:01 and HLA-B*51:01 alleles were not significantly different from other populations compared to the Thai population. Conclusions: We can screen for HLA-B*15:01 and HLA-B*51:01 alleles to determine the symptoms of COVID-19 since they are universal HLA-B markers. Importantly, the database of HLA markers indicates the association between HLA frequency and populations. However, we need further research on larger numbers of COVID-19 patients and in different populations.

Keywords: HLA-B*15:01, HLA-B*51:01, COVID-19, HLA-B alleles

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Authors: Bin Liu

Abstract:

As one of the most important tasks in protein sequence analysis, protein remote homology detection has been studied for decades. Currently, the profile-based methods show state-of-the-art performance. Position-Specific Frequency Matrix (PSFM) is widely used profile. However, there exists noise information in the profiles introduced by the amino acids with low frequencies. In this study, we propose a method to remove the noise information in the PSFM by removing the amino acids with low frequencies called Top frequency profile (TFP). Three new matrix transformation methods, including Autocross covariance (ACC) transformation, Tri-gram, and K-separated bigram (KSB), are performed on these profiles to convert them into fixed length feature vectors. Combined with Support Vector Machines (SVMs), the predictors are constructed. Evaluated on two benchmark datasets, and experimental results show that these proposed methods outperform other state-of-the-art predictors.

Keywords: protein remote homology detection, protein fold recognition, top frequency profile, support vector machines

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Authors: Zhan Chen, Wenquan Bi

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This paper focuses on examining the strength of Midori against impossible differential attack. The Midori family of light weight block cipher orienting to energy-efficiency is proposed in ASIACRYPT2015. Using a 6-round property, the authors implement an 11-round impossible differential attack on Midori64 by extending two rounds on the top and three rounds on the bottom. There is enough key space to consider pre-whitening keys in this attack. An impossible differential path that minimises the key bits involved is used to reduce computational complexity. Several additional observations such as partial abort technique are used to further reduce data and time complexities. This attack has data complexity of 2 ⁶⁹·² chosen plaintexts, requires 2 ¹⁴·⁵⁸ blocks of memory and 2 ⁹⁴·⁷ 11- round Midori64 encryptions.

Keywords: cryptanalysis, impossible differential, light weight block cipher, Midori

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Authors: Akhtar Rasool, Tasneem Zahra Rizvi

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In this study, a series of the cadmium sulphide quantum dots/polyaniline nanocomposites with varying compositions were prepared by in-situ polymerization technique and were characterized using X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The surface morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. UV-Visible spectroscopy was used to find out the energy band gap of the nanoparticles and the nanocomposites. Temperature dependence of DC electrical conductivity and temperature and frequency dependence of AC conductivity were investigated to study the charge transport mechanism in the nanocomposites. DC conductivity was found to be a typical for a semiconducting behavior following Mott’s 1D variable range hoping model. The frequency dependent AC conductivity followed the universal power law.

Keywords: conducting polymers, nanocomposites, polyaniline composites, quantum dots

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Authors: Victor Rocha Carvalho

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The Bonner Sphere Spectrometry was used to obtain the average energy, the fluence rate, and radioprotection quantities such as the personal and ambient dose equivalent of the ²⁴¹AmLi and ²⁴¹AmF isotopic neutron sources used in the Neutron Metrology Laboratory - LN. The counts of the sources were performed with six different spherical moderators around the detector. Through this, the neutron spectrum was obtained by means of the software named NeuraLN, developed by the LN, that uses the neural networks technique. The 241AmLi achieved a result close to the literature, and 241AmF, which contains few published references, acquired a result with a slight variation from the literature. Therefore, besides fulfilling its objective, the work raises questions about a possible standard of the ²⁴¹AmLi and about the lack of work with the ²⁴¹AmF.

Keywords: nuclear physics, neutron metrology, neutron spectrometry, bonner sphere spectrometers

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Authors: Alex B. Cusick

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The objective of this study is to improve upon the current ²³⁸PuO₂ fuel technology for space and defense applications. Modern RTGs (radioisotope thermoelectric generators) utilize the heat generated from the radioactive decay of ²³⁸Pu to create heat and electricity for long term and remote missions. Application of RTG technology is limited by the scarcity and expense of producing the isotope, as well as the power output which is limited to only a few hundred watts. The scarcity and expense make the efficient use of ²³⁸Pu absolutely necessary. By utilizing the decay of ²³⁸Pu, not only to produce heat directly but to also indirectly induce fission in ²³⁹Pu (which is already present within currently used fuel), it is possible to see large increases in temperature which allows for a more efficient conversion to electricity and a higher power-to-weight ratio. This concept can reduce the quantity of ²³⁸Pu necessary for these missions, potentially saving millions on investment, while yielding higher power output. Current work investigating radioisotope power systems have focused on improving efficiency of the thermoelectric components and replacing systems which produce heat by virtue of natural decay with fission reactors. The technical feasibility of utilizing (α,n) reactions to induce fission within current radioisotopic fuels has not been investigated in any appreciable detail, and our study aims to thoroughly investigate the performance of many such designs, develop those with highest capabilities, and facilitate experimental testing of these designs. In order to determine the specific design parameters that maximize power output and the efficient use of ²³⁸Pu for future RTG units, MCNP6 simulations have been used to characterize the effects of modifying fuel composition, geometry, and porosity, as well as introducing neutron moderating, reflecting, and shielding materials to the system. Although this project is currently in the preliminary stages, the final deliverables will include sophisticated designs and simulation models that define all characteristics of multiple novel RTG fuels, detailed enough to allow immediate fabrication and testing. Preliminary work has consisted of developing a benchmark model to accurately represent the ²³⁸PuO₂ pellets currently in use by NASA; this model utilizes the alpha transport capabilities of MCNP6 and agrees well with experimental data. In addition, several models have been developed by varying specific parameters to investigate their effect on (α,n) and (n,fi ssion) reaction rates. Current practices in fuel processing are to exchange out the small portion of naturally occurring ¹⁸O and ¹⁷O to limit (α,n) reactions and avoid unnecessary neutron production. However, we have shown that enriching the oxide in ¹⁸O introduces a sufficient (α,n) reaction rate to support significant fission rates. For example, subcritical fission rates above 10⁸ f/cm³-s are easily achievable in cylindrical ²³⁸PuO₂ fuel pellets with a ¹⁸O enrichment of 100%, given an increase in size and a ⁹Be clad. Many viable designs exist and our intent is to discuss current results and future endeavors on this project.

Keywords: radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG), Pu-238, subcritical reactors, (alpha, n) reactions

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Authors: Josselyn Mata Calidonio, Arianna I. Maddox, Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli

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Rapid diagnostics are critical infectious disease tools that are designed to detect a known biomarker using antibodies specific to that biomarker. However, a way to detect unknown viruses has not yet been achieved in a paper test format. We describe here a route to make an adaptable paper immunoassay that can detect an unknown biomarker, demonstrating it on SARS-CoV-2 variants. The immunoassay repurposes cross-reactive antibodies raised against the alpha variant. Gold nanoparticles of two different colors conjugated to two different antibodies create a colorimetric signal, and machine learning of the resulting colorimetric pattern is used to train the assay to discriminate between variants of alpha and Omicron BA.5. By using principal component analysis, the colorimetric test patterns can pick up and discriminate an unknown that it has not encountered before, Omicron BA.1. The test has an accuracy of 100% and a potential calculated discriminatory power of 900. We show that it can be used adaptively and that it can be used to pick up emerging variants without the need to raise new antibodies.

Keywords: adaptive immunoassay, detecting unknown viruses, gold nanoparticles, paper immunoassay, repurposing antibodies

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Authors: Saad Howladar, Mike Dennett

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At first harvest, results showed that salinity (tap water, 100 and 200 mM NaCl) induced a significant decrease in all growth parameters in both Yecora Rojo and Paragon cultivars. The greatest effect of salinity was a decrease in leaf area. The same tendency was observed with specific leaf area, and total fresh and dry weights and their components. Green leaf and tiller numbers were reduced by the same extent in both cultivars. The corresponding final harvest, all growth parameters also reduced with increased salinity. Yield and yield components were also reduced by salinity with similar effects in both cultivars. Chlorophyll fluorescence, expressed as Fv/Fm, and gas exchange parameters were decreased significantly with increase in salinity in both cultivars. In contrast, seed protein content was increased significantly with increase in salinity. Salicylic acid (SA) application induced no significant improvements in growth parameters and yield components.

Keywords: salinity, salicylic acid, growth, chlorophyll fluorescence, gas exchange, yield

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Authors: Abhishek Kumar, Mohamed Awadein, Georg Gramse, Luyang Song, He Sun, Wolfgang Schofberger, Stefan Müllegger

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Electron transfer is a crucial part of chemical reactions which drive everyday processes. With the help of an electro-chemical radio frequency scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-RF-STM) setup, we are observing single electron mediated oxidation-reduction processes in molecules like ferrocene and transition metal corroles. Combining the techniques of scanning microwave microscopy and cyclic voltammetry allows us to monitor such processes with attoampere sensitivity. A systematic study of such phenomena would be critical to understanding the nano-scale behavior of catalysts, molecular sensors, and batteries relevant to the development of novel material and energy applications.

Keywords: radiofrequency, STM, cyclic voltammetry, ferrocene

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Authors: Nadjat Zerf Boudjettou, Fahima Nader, Rachid Chalal

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Knowledge management is to acquire and represent knowledge relevant to a domain, a task or a specific organization in order to facilitate access, reuse and evolution. This usually means building, maintaining and evolving an explicit representation of knowledge. The next step is to provide access to that knowledge, that is to say, the spread in order to enable effective use. Knowledge management in the medical field aims to improve the performance of the medical organization by allowing individuals in the care facility (doctors, nurses, paramedics, etc.) to capture, share and apply collective knowledge in order to make optimal decisions in real time. In this paper, we propose a knowledge management approach based on integration technique of heterogeneous data in the medical field by creating a data warehouse, a technique of extracting knowledge from medical data by choosing a technique of data mining, and finally an exploitation technique of that knowledge in a case-based reasoning system.

Keywords: data warehouse, data mining, knowledge discovery in database, KDD, medical knowledge management, Bayesian networks

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Authors: Abdelsabour G. A. Khaled, Ahmed W. A. Abdalla And Sabry Y. M. Mahmoud

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Banana plants showing typical mosaic and yellow stripes on leaves as symptoms were collected from Assiut Governorate in Egypt. The causal agent was identified as Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) on the basis of symptoms, transmission, serology, transmission electron microscopy and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Coat protein (CP) gene was amplified using gene specific primers for coat protein (CP), followed by cloning into desired cloning vector for sequencing. In this study the CMV was transmitted into propagation host either by aphid or mechanically. The transmission was confirmed through Direct Antigen Coating Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (DAC-ELISA). Analysis of the 120 deduced amino acid sequence of the coat protein gene revealed that the EG-A strain of CMV shared from 97.50 to 98.33% with those strains belonging to subgroup IA. The cluster analysis grouped the Egyptian isolate with strains Fny and Ri8 belonging sub-group IA. It appears that there occurs a high incidence of CMV infecting banana belonging to IA subgroup in most parts of Egypt.

Keywords: banana, CMV, transmission, CP gene, RT-PCR

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