Non-invasive study of the electrical activity of the brain of various chordate animals
In clinical practice, EEG is used to diagnose a number of neurological diseases and to diagnose epilepsy. But at present, the question of the nature of EEG has not been completely resolved and is of great scientific interest. There have been no studies at all on the non-invasive study of the electrical activity of the brain of the shark superorder, which belongs to the class of cartilaginous fish. By studying the electrical activity of the brain of various gnathostomes, it is possible to obtain an answer to the question of the emergence of rhythms from the point of view of phylogenesis and evolution, and by comparing their EEG with the human EEG, one can identify similar patterns that help in the study of reactions to various influences. During the work, for the first time, EEG indicators of spotted cat sharks, ECG, heart rate and respiratory rate of cat sharks and toads were obtained. In the future, it is planned to assemble a smaller neuroheadset for non-invasive studies of the electrical activity of the brain of small animals (sharks, toads, monitor lizards). This data can be used for evolutionary and medical research. *No animals were harmed during or after the experiments.
Upcycling of Abandoned Beehives!!
Upcycling abandoned beehives to make new products can reuse the useful materials in old beehives and produce less trash. As known that bees leave their beehive in these following situations like insufficient replenishment, frequent unboxing and environmental issues. Then the beehive will be abandoned and will have no use left. In this project, a piece of honeycomb was collected from abandoned beehive and melted in order to extract beeswax. The potential of the extracted beeswax for replacing plastic to produce fillers of 3D pens was studied. Natural materials like seashell, rosin, soy bean and coffee ground were tested as ingredients of 3D printing materials. Finally, the potential of using extracted beeswax in 3D printing was confirmed. Beeswax has a low melting point at around 64°C and solidify quickly at room temperature. The high plasticity of this natural wax fulfills the criteria of 3D printing materials. Biodegradable wastes, like coffee grounds and soy bean grounds were tested as additives for reducing the beeswax content. Sea shell grounds were eliminated from the tested list as its filaments broke into small pieces of brittle fragments during the production process. 5% and 10% of these additives were the optimal formula for making long filaments. Yet, the thin filaments made by pure beeswax were not strong enough, filaments of selected beeswax-soy bean grounds were further strengthened by mixing with 5% or 10% rosin. Among the four different ratios of Beeswax: Soy bean grounds: Rosin (9:1:0.5 / 9:1:1 / 9.5:0.5:0.5 / 9.5:0.5:1), filaments in the ratio 9.5:0.5:0.5 demonstrated better flexibility, higher tensile strength and compressive strength, thus B9.5:S0.5:R0.5 was the final formula of biodegradable beeswax 3D filament.
Quantitative environmental DNA metabarcoding for the enumeration of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.)
Understanding species abundance is critical to managing and conserving planetary biodiversity. Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are keystone species of cultural, economic, and ecological importance in Alaska and especially Southwest Alaska. Traditional methods of enumerating salmon such as weirs and visual surveys are often costly, time-intensive, and reliant on taxonomic expertise. Environmental DNA (eDNA), which identifies and quantifies species based on DNA they shed in their habitats, is a potential cost- and time- saving alternative. The relative ease of collecting eDNA samples also enables citizen scientist involvement, expanding research coverage. Currently, more research is required to define eDNA’s potential and limits. This project investigates whether quantitative eDNA metabarcoding can accurately quantify the abundances of six fish species: the five Pacific salmon species plus rainbow trout. Water samples were collected from eight creeks in the Wood River watershed of Southwest Alaska. eDNA metabarcoding and subsequent bioinformatics processing produced a read count for each species. These were compared to visual survey counts, taken to be the true counts for the purposes of this study. Data analyses showed a positive, linear relationship between visual survey count and eDNA count for sockeye salmon. The regressions were significant for both the early (p = 0.089) and late (p = 0.030) sampling dates when 𝛼 = 0.10. eDNA detections of non-sockeye species generally corresponded to visual survey observations of species presence or absence. Overall, the results of this study support eDNA’s potential to be an alternative or supplement to standard methods for the enumeration of fish species.
Deciphering The Illusion: A Multi Faceted Algorithm in Deepfake Detection
AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology has developed very rapidly in recent years, to the point where it can make fake videos or photos called "deepfake''. According to Sumsub Identity Fraud Report 2023 just in the past year, in the APAC region the number of deepfakes has grown 1530%, in the philippines an astounding 4500% and in 馬來西亞 a 1000% increase, these numbers will continue to rise without a proper defense against them, With this rapidly developing technology, there are several threats from misuse deepfake, namely making fraud via video calls, fake videos to blame innocent people, and so on. Therefore, in this research project, an algorithm architecture will be created, namely a system and method used to detect "deepfake" images. The architecture of this algorithm involves convolution functions, neural networks, convolutional neural networks, data normalization functions, namely ReLu and SoftMax, and pooling. This architecture will then be trained over and over with 140,000 scrambled images, which then will make the architecture ready to be used. By researching and combining this algorithm architecture, a system is produced without a cost and with a final result of up to 90% accuracy and detection of 32 images faster than a human can blink.
On the Application of Inequalities Containing Sums of Minimum/Maximum of Numbers
Retail inventory management is a crucial part of many businesses due to the high profit associated with it as well as the uncertainty around it, especially for industries with short production cycles and a complex supply chain.Proper management ofretail inventories can lead to decreased inventory costs, prevent spoilage and obsoles- cence, and improve customer satisfaction, all of which lead to increased profits for the company.Inthispaper,wefirstproposeextendingawell-knowninequalityandtry to generalize it to other conditions and similar inequalities.The inequality involves multiple variables and how the maximum/minimum values of a subset of the numbers compare to the maximum/minimum values of the whole set of numbers.Our main contribution is applying such inequality in inventory management to help estimate the total cost of inventory management, which would allow us to determine the shutdown pointforaspecificcompanyusingthegeneralizationsoftheinequality.Lastly,weshow thatourestimatesarereasonableandproposesomefutureareaswheremoreworkcan be done.
Resolving the Phosphate Fertilizer Dilemma through Progressive Wastewater Treatment
The study aimed to resolve global phosphate scarcity by developing a cost-effective method for phosphorus recovery from industrial wastewater. In existing wastewater treatment, oxidizing phosphite ions (PHO32-) posed a significant challenge. However, our research aimed to develop an effective method for this oxidation process, crucial for phosphorus recovery in industrial wastewater treatment. By utilizing low-cost iron compounds and innovative catalysts, such as iodine obtained from seawater and copper, we achieved remarkable success. Our method demonstrated the ability to oxidize over 80% of PHO32- into phosphate ions (PO43-) within 120 minutes, overcoming the limitations of existing costly methods involving palladium catalysts or high-voltage conditioned ozone (O3). Moreover, the process exhibited profitability, with a gross profit of $1.84 per kilogram of phosphorus, presenting a drastic reduction in cost compared to conventional methods using palladium catalysts. This breakthrough not only offers sustainable wastewater purification but also promises a pathway for resource recovery. Additionally, our future prospects involve refining this method into a device capable of purifying industrial wastewater and recovering phosphorus, emphasizing sustainability and reduced power consumption through innovative techniques like using iron and carbon plates forming a battery. This novel technology represents a sustainable solution utilizing abundant resources such as iodine from seawater, iron, and calcium, paving the way for sustainable phosphorus resource recovery.