Prismalla: Mist water collector
The lack of drinking water in human settlements triggers a series of problems that are linked and affect the development of humanity: health problems, lack of water security for companies, lack of jobs, insecurity, among others. We observe this problem in the communities of the municipality of Las Vigas de Ramírez, Veracruz, where there is a great problem with the water supply, although there is a high presence of mist. Faced with this situation, we undertook the task of investigating a water harvesting method that is easy to implement, operate and maintain. We investigated and analyzed the methods of mist condensation through physical barriers, finding that the polyethylene shadow mesh was the means to achieve this, because it allows the passage of the wind, it is very light, easy to manipulate and above all that it presents the phenomenon of percolation that allows water droplets of various diameters to be accommodated therein. We designed a device that allows to present a mist catchment area through a prismatic structure enabled with meshes and condensed water receivers, portable, easy to use and maintenance and very economical with a performance of 20 liters per day. To achieve our project, factors such as air humidity, dew point, wind speed and direction, height, temperatures and available spaces must be considered.
Limited Query Black-box Adversarial Attacks in the Real World
We study the creation of physical adversarial examples, which are robust to real-world transformations, using a limited number of queries to the target black-box neural networks. We observe that robust models tend to be especially susceptible to foreground manipulations, which motivates our novel Foreground attack. We demonstrate that gradient priors are a useful signal for black-box attacks and therefore introduce an improved version of the popular SimBA. We also propose an algorithm for transferable attacks that selects the most similar surrogates to the target model. Our black-box attacks outperform state-of-the-art approaches they are based on and support our belief that the concept of model similarity could be leveraged to build strong attacks in a limited-information setting.
The Use of Brine Shrimp to Test for Water Pollutants
The use of brine shrimp nauplii to test for the overall toxicity of sediment samples is proposed. Brine shrimp nauplii were cultured with different concentrations of heavy metals, including chromium (III), copper (II), nickel, lead and zinc, and organic pollutants, including triclosan, oxybenzone, octinoxate and bisphenol A. The brine shrimp nauplii were observed under a dissection microscope to determine the death rate. Results showed that brine shrimp nauplii are more sensitive to copper, cadmium, bisphenol A and oxybenzone. The LC50 (24h) are 55.5, 24.9, 5.6 and 2.7 ppm respectively. Zinc is likely to have synergistic toxic effect with nickel or lead. The synergistic toxic effects of other heavy metals and organic pollutants should be confirmed with further investigations. Brine shrimp nauplii were treated with extracts from sediment samples collected from the oyster culture zone of the Deep Bay, namely Pak Nei, Sha Kiu Tsuen and Hang Hau Tsuen. The sediment samples were extracted with neutral sodium acetate to dissolve the exchangeable heavy metal ions and some organic pollutants. The death rate of brine shrimp nauplii treated with the sediment extract of Hang Hau Tsuen was similar to 1 ppm PBA. It was also about 10 to 20% higher than that of the other two sites (Pak Nei and Sha Kiu Tsuen). Since Hang Hau Tsuen is closer to the residential area and Lau Fau Shan Seafood Market than the other two sites, its sediment sample is likely to have a higher level of environmental pollutants. The results suggest that brine shrimp nauplii may be used as a biomarker to monitor the environmental changes in the overall level of pollutants in sediment samples.
Locus of the Points on Circumference of the n-th Circle that Formed by Moving the Center of any Radius Circles on the Outermost Circumference of Preceding set of Circles
This project aimed to study the motion which occurred from the end point on the circumference of the outermost circle by moving the center on the circumference of a preceding circle and the center of an innermost circle at origin. According to the study, when angular velocity was changed, it caused the different of loci. Based on the above information, finding the locus of the point on circumference of n-th circle that formed by moving the center of any radius circles on circumference of preceding set of circles was studied to get general equation. A set of circle and locus were created with GSP program. First, set the same radius circles on the X-axis with the first circle at origin, then found the relationship that occurred from the characteristics of locus. The result showed that if the ratios of angular velocity are 1:1:1, 2:2:2, 3:3:3, ..., …, n:n:n or 1:2:3, 2:4:6, 3:6:9, …,nw1:nw2:nw3, the characteristics of locus will be the same, while the others will be different. Finally, the equation of locus was found as follow: (x,y) = { ..........see in abstract...........} when .........see in abstract........... Where ri is the radius of i-th circle, zeta i is an angle between the radius of i-th circle and X-axis, wi is the angular velocity, t is elapsed time and alpha i is a starting angle between the radius of i-th circle and X-axis.
Properties of possible counterexamples to the Seymour's Second Neighborhood Conjecture
The project is devoted to the study of the Seymour’s Second Neighborhood conjecture by determining the properties of possible counterexamples to it. This problem has remained unsolved for more than 30 years, although there is some progress in its solution. The vector of the research is aimed at the analysis of possible counterexamples to the conjecture with the subsequent finding of some of their characteristic values. In addition, attention is focused on the generalized Seymour’s conjecture for vertex-weighted graphs. Combinatorial research methods and graph theory methods were used in the project. The author determines the values of densities and diameters of possible counterexamples, considers separately directed graphs of diameter 3. The conditions under which specific graphs cannot be counterexamples to the Seymour’s conjecture with the minimum number or vertices are defined. The relationship between the Seymour’s conjecture and vertex-weighted Seymour’s conjecture is explained. It is proved that if there exists at least one counterexample, then there exist counterexamples with an arbitrary diameter not less than 3. Under the same condition, the existence of counterexamples with a density both close to 0 and close to 1 is also proved. The equivalence of the above two conjectures is substantiated in detail. It can be concluded that if the Seymour’s Second Neighborhood Conjecture is true for a directed graph of diameter 3, then it is true for any digraph, so that problem will be solved. Moreover, if the conjecture is true, then vertex-weighted version of this conjecture is true too. That is why a digraph of diameter 3 needs further research.
Preparation of a Specific Detector for Aspergillus Niger in Swimming Pools
Swimming pools are one of the transmission routes of superficial and cutaneous fungal infections. Maintenance of environmental hygiene in different parts of swimming pools is of great importance, especially the hygiene of water (1). The conventional fungal detection methods include direct smear preparation, culture, and pathological examinations. However, these methods are not fast enough or do not have sufficient sensitivity (2). Therefore, the present research introduces a novel method for detecting Aspergillus niger in pool water through creating optimal conditions for this fungus, which leads to the citric acid production by the fungus and pH changes of the related culture medium. Four experiments in 10 steps were performed to find the optimal conditions for fungal growth. According to our results, adding each of the variables sucrose, soy, and ferrous sulfate can lead to favorable results. Moreover, the shaker speed increase and fungal aeration are important. Also, we showed that soybean led to the best results compared to other variables. Considering the obtained results, including the shortened detection duration and cost-effectiveness, this method can be presented to the swimming pool owners and pathobiology laboratories as the method of choice for Aspergillus niger detection.
Method of prosthetic vision
This work is devoted to solving the problem of orientation in the space of visually impaired people. Working on the project, a new way of transmitting visual information through an acoustic channel was invented. In addition, was developed the device, which uses distance sensors to analyze the situation around a user. Thanks to the invented algorithm of transformation of the information about the position of the obstacle into the sound of a certain tone and intensity, this device allows the user to transmit subject-spatial information in real time. Currently, the device should use a facette locator made of 36 ultrasonic locators grouped in 12 sectors by the azimuth and 3 spatial cones by the angle. Data obtained in such a way is converted into its own note according to the following pattern : the angle of the place corresponds to octave, the azimuth corresponds to the note and the distance corresponds to the volume. The choice of the notes is not unambiguous. However, we used them for the reason that over the centuries, notes have had a felicitous way of layout on the frequency range and on the logarithmic scale. Therefore, the appearance of a new note in the total signal will not be muffled by a combination of other notes. Consequently, a blind person, moving around the room with the help of the tone and volume of the sound signals, will be able to assess the presence and location of all dangerous obstacles. After theoretical substantiation of the hypothesis and analysis of the available information, we started the production of prototypes of the devices that would implement the idea of transmitting information via the acoustic channel.