Smart Sensing for Antibiotic Monitoring in Mineral and Surface Water: Development of an Electronic Tongue Device

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Cátia Magro ◽  
Tiago Moura ◽  
Paulo A. Ribeiro ◽  
Maria Raposo ◽  
Susana Sério
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Electronic Tongue ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Solid Supports ◽  
Water Matrix ◽  
Monitoring Tools ◽  
Ceramic Support ◽  
Glass Support

Sensors are considered the future monitoring tools, since, compared to traditional sampling and analysis techniques, they provide fast response on the output data in a timely, continuous, safe, and cost-effective fashion. Antibiotics are important pharmaceuticals with a large variety of applications. However, the overconsumption of these drugs is under the spotlight, since traces of antibiotics are being found in aquatic ecosystems and may lead to the development of antibiotic resistance. Thus, in this work, sensors consisting of ceramic or glass BK7 solid supports with interdigitated gold electrodes coated with five bilayers of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) thin films were developed and able to distinguish clarithromycin concentrations between 10−15 M and 10−5 M in mineral and surface water matrices. In mineral water, the ceramic support sensors have shown high reproducibility, whereas glass support sensors are not reproducible for this matrix. For the surface water matrix, both types of sensors proved to be reproducible. The surface water’s principal component analysis, obtained for an electronic tongue composed of the aforementioned sensors, demonstrated the concept’s ability to discriminate between different concentrations of the target compound, although no significant pattern of trend was achieved.

Generic monitoring tools for water characteristics assessment

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 351-357
Author(s):  
S. Le Bonté ◽  
M.-N. Pons ◽  
O. Potier ◽  
S. Chanel ◽  
M. Baklouti
Keyword(s):  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Toxic Substances ◽  
Capacity Curves ◽  
Water Characteristics ◽  
Monitoring Tools ◽  
Visible Spectra ◽  
On Line ◽  
Mining Procedure

An adaptive principal component analysis applied to sets of data provided by global analytical methods (UV-visible spectra, buffer capacity curves, respirometric tests) is proposed as a generic procedure for on-line and fast characterization of wastewater. The data-mining procedure is able to deal with a large amount of information, takes into account the normal variations of wastewater composition related to human activity, and enables a rapid detection of abnormal situations such as the presence of toxic substances by comparison of the actual wastewater state with a continuously updated reference. The procedure has been validated on municipal wastewater.

Monitoring effluent quality in hypertrophic wastewater reservoirs using remote sensing

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 23-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Dor ◽  
N. Ben-Yosef
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Operational Parameters ◽  
Effluent Quality ◽  
Optical Images ◽  
Routine Monitoring ◽  
Cost Effective Method ◽  
Wastewater Quality

About one hundred and fifty wastewater reservoirs store effluents for irrigation in Israel. Effluent qualities differ according to the inflowing wastewater quality, the degree of pretreatment and the operational parameters. Certain aspects of water quality like concentration of organic matter, suspended solids and chlorophyll are significantly correlated with the water column transparency and colour. Accordingly optical images of the reservoirs obtained from the SPOT satellite demonstrate pronounced differences correlated with the water quality. The analysis of satellite multispectral images is based on a theoretical model. The model calculates, using the radiation transfer equation, the volume reflectance of the water body. Satellite images of 99 reservoirs were analyzed in the chromacity space in order to classify them according to water quality. Principal Component Analysis backed by the theoretical model increases the method sensitivity. Further elaboration of this approach will lead to the establishment of a time and cost effective method for the routine monitoring of these hypertrophic wastewater reservoirs.

scholarly journals Semi-automated regional classification of the style of activity of slow rock-slope deformations using PS InSAR and SqueeSAR velocity data

Landslides ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Crippa ◽  
Elena Valbuzzi ◽  
Paolo Frattini ◽  
Giovanni B. Crosta ◽  
Margherita C. Spreafico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rock Slope ◽  
Progressive Failure ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Displacement Rate ◽  
Machine Learning Classification ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Alpine Environments

AbstractLarge slow rock-slope deformations, including deep-seated gravitational slope deformations and large landslides, are widespread in alpine environments. They develop over thousands of years by progressive failure, resulting in slow movements that impact infrastructures and can eventually evolve into catastrophic rockslides. A robust characterization of their style of activity is thus required in a risk management perspective. We combine an original inventory of slow rock-slope deformations with different PS-InSAR and SqueeSAR datasets to develop a novel, semi-automated approach to characterize and classify 208 slow rock-slope deformations in Lombardia (Italian Central Alps) based on their displacement rate, kinematics, heterogeneity and morphometric expression. Through a peak analysis of displacement rate distributions, we characterize the segmentation of mapped landslides and highlight the occurrence of nested sectors with differential activity and displacement rates. Combining 2D decomposition of InSAR velocity vectors and machine learning classification, we develop an automatic approach to characterize the kinematics of each landslide. Then, we sequentially combine principal component and K-medoids cluster analyses to identify groups of slow rock-slope deformations with consistent styles of activity. Our methodology is readily applicable to different landslide datasets and provides an objective and cost-effective support to land planning and the prioritization of local-scale studies aimed at granting safety and infrastructure integrity.

scholarly journals Tracking red deer population size using deterministic cohort analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Donini ◽  
Luca Corlatti ◽  
Luca Pedrotti
Keyword(s):  
Population Size ◽  
Cervus Elaphus ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Cohort Analysis ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Natural Mortality ◽  
Relative Index ◽  
Deer Population ◽  
Monitoring Tools ◽  
Over Time

AbstractReliable and cost-effective monitoring tools to track population size over time are of key importance for wildlife management and conservation. Deterministic cohort analysis may be used to this aim, especially in hunted populations, but it requires that all mortality events are recorded and that individual age at death is known exactly. In this study, we investigated the reliability of cohort analysis as a relative index to track over-time variation in red deer (Cervus elaphus) abundance, in the absence of exact information about natural mortality and age. Visual tooth inspection was used to age 18,390 individuals found dead or hunted between 1982 and 2020 within the Trentino sector of the Stelvio National Park and the Val di Sole hunting district (Central Italian Alps). Temporal trend of reconstructed population size was checked using spring spotlight counts as a benchmark, through the Buishand range test and a linear model. Our results showed a significant and positive relationship between reconstructed population size and spring spotlight counts between 1982 and 2013, suggesting that cohort analysis could reliably track red deer population trend up to 7 years in the past. With a relative error of  +  1.1 (SD  =  1.5) years in the estimation of age, and fairly stable hunting pressure, our results support the use of deterministic cohort analysis as a relative index of abundance for monitoring red deer over time, even in the absence of exact information about natural mortality. Under violation of assumptions, however, the performance of deterministic reconstruction should be carefully inspected at the management scale.

scholarly journals Magnetron Sputtering Thin Films as Tool to Detect Triclosan in Infant Formula Powder: Electronic Tongue Approach

Coatings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 336
Author(s):  
Cátia Magro ◽  
Margarida Sardinha ◽  
Paulo A. Ribeiro ◽  
Maria Raposo ◽  
Susana Sério
Keyword(s):  
Thin Films ◽  
Infant Formula ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Milk Powder ◽  
Electronic Tongue ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Formula Milk ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes ◽  
Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Triclosan (TCS) is being detected in breast milk and in infants of puerperal women. The harmful effects caused by this compound on living beings are now critical and thus it is pivotal find new tools to TCS monitoring. In the present study, an electronic tongue (e-tongue) device comprising an array of sputtered thin films based on Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes and titanium dioxide was developed to identify TCS concentrations, from 10−15 to 10−5 M, in both water and milk-based solutions. Impedance spectroscopy was used for device signal transducing and data was analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The e-tongue revealed to be able to distinguish water from milk-based matrices through the two Principal Components (PC1 and PC2), which represented 67.3% of the total variance. The PC1 values of infant formula milk powder prepared with tap water (MT) or mineral water (MMW) follows a similar exponential decay curve when plotted with the logarithm of concentration. Therefore, considering the TCS concentration range between 1015 and 10−9 M, the PC1 values are fitted by a straight line and values of −1.9 ± 0.2 and of 7.6 × 10−16 M were calculated for the sensor sensitivity and sensor resolution, respectively. Additionally, a strong correlation (R = 0.96) between MT and MMW PC1 data was found. These results have shown that the proposed device corresponds to a promisor method for the detection of TCS in milk-based solutions.

scholarly journals How effective is river restoration in re-establishing groundwater–surface water interactions? – A case study

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 2663-2672 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-M. Kurth ◽  
C. Weber ◽  
M. Schirmer
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
River Restoration ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Urban Stream ◽  
Distributed Temperature Sensing ◽  
River Bed ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Restoration Measures

Abstract. In this study, we investigated whether river restoration was successful in re-establishing groundwater–surface water interactions in a degraded urban stream. Restoration measures included morphological changes to the river bed, such as the installation of gravel islands and spur dykes, as well as the planting of site-specific riparian vegetation. Standard distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and novel active and passive DTS approaches were employed to study groundwater–surface water interactions in two reference streams and an experimental reach of an urban stream before and after its restoration. Radon-222 analyses were utilized to validate the losing stream conditions of the urban stream in the experimental reach. Our results indicated that river restoration at the study site was indeed successful in increasing groundwater–surface water interactions. Increased surface water downwelling occurred locally at the tip of a gravel island created during river restoration. Hence, the installation of in-stream structures increased the vertical connectivity and thus groundwater–surface water interactions. With the methods presented in this publication, it would be possible to routinely investigate the success of river restorations in re-establishing vertical connectivity, thereby gaining insight into the effectiveness of specific restoration measures. This, in turn, would enable the optimization of future river restoration projects, rendering them more cost-effective and successful.

Piper nigrum Oil – Determination of Selected Terpenes for Quality Evaluation

Planta Medica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 85 (03) ◽  
pp. 185-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Wang ◽  
Amar Chittiboyina ◽  
Jon Parcher ◽  
Zulfiqar Ali ◽  
Paul Ford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Evaluation ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Chemical Characterization ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Black Pepper ◽  
Piper Nigrum ◽  
Ms Analysis ◽  
Chemical Profiles ◽  
High Concentrations

AbstractThe growing demand and commercial value of black pepper (Piper nigrum) has resulted in considerable interest in developing suitable and cost-effective methods for chemical characterization and quality evaluation purposes. In the current study, an extensive set of oil samples (n = 23) that were extracted by steam distillation from black pepper seeds was investigated to compare the chemical profiles of samples originating from nine major producing countries, as well as to identify potential chemical markers for quality evaluation. The twenty-two most abundant volatile compounds, mainly terpenes, in these oils were determined by conventional GC/MS analysis. Principal component analysis with this set of data revealed distinct clusters for samples that originated from China and Malaysia. Relatively low concentrations of sabinene (< 0.2%) and high concentrations of 3-carene (10.9 – 21.1%) were observed in these samples, respectively, compared to oil samples from other countries. The enantiomeric distributions of key terpene markers, viz., β-pinene, sabinene, limonene, and terpinen-4-ol, were determined by chiral GC/MS analysis. Interestingly, for these four monoterpenes, levo-isomers were found to be predominant, emphasizing the highly conserved enzymatic processes occurring in P. nigrum. Moreover, consistent enantiomeric ratios ((−) isomer/(+) isomer) of 92.2 ± 3.0% for β-pinene, 94.8 ± 2.8% for sabinene, 60.7 ± 1.1% for limonene, and 78.3 ± 1.3% for terpinen-4-ol were observed, independent of geographical location. These results demonstrate the potential of using stereospecific compositions as chiral signatures for establishing the authenticity and quality of black pepper oil.

scholarly journals MWCNT Devices Fabricated by Dielectrophoresis: Study of Their Electrical Behavior Related to Deposited Nanotube Amount for Gas Sensing Applications

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Elisabete Galeazzo ◽  
Marcos C. Moraes ◽  
Henrique E. M. Peres ◽  
Michel O. S. Dantas ◽  
Victor G. C. Lobo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Nanotubes ◽  
Gas Sensing ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Adsorbed Water ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Process Time ◽  
Electrical Behavior ◽  
Glass Substrates ◽  
Sensing Applications

Intensive research has been focused on investigating new sensing materials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNT) because of their promising characteristics. However, there are challenges related to their application in commercial devices such as sensitivity, compatibility, and complexity of miniaturization, among others. We report the study of the electrical behavior of devices composed by multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) deposited between aluminum electrodes on glass substrates by means of dielectrophoresis (DEP), which is a simple and cost-effective method. The devices were fabricated by varying the DEP process time. Remarkable changes in their electric resistance were noticed depending on the MWCNT quantities deposited. Other electrical properties of devices such as high sensitivity, fast response time and stability are also characterized in humid environment. A humidity sensing mechanism is proposed on the basis of charge transfer between adsorbed water molecules and the MWNTC surface or between water and the glass surface.

scholarly journals Characterization of a haplotype- reference panel for genotyping by low-pass sequencing in Swiss Large White pigs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adéla Nosková ◽  
Meenu Bhati ◽  
Naveen Kumar Kadri ◽  
Danang Crysnanto ◽  
Stefan Neuenschwander ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Reference Panel ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Large White ◽  
Breeding Populations ◽  
Low Pass ◽  
Signatures Of Selection ◽  
Genomic Inbreeding

Abstract Background The key-ancestor approach has been frequently applied to prioritize individuals for whole-genome sequencing based on their marginal genetic contribution to current populations. Using this approach, we selected 70 key ancestors from two lines of the Swiss Large White breed that have been selected divergently for fertility and fattening traits and sequenced their genomes with short paired-end reads. Results Using pedigree records, we estimated the effective population size of the dam and sire line to 72 and 44, respectively. In order to assess sequence variation in both lines, we sequenced the genomes of 70 boars at an average coverage of 16.69-fold. The boars explained 87.95 and 95.35% of the genetic diversity of the breeding populations of the dam and sire line, respectively. Reference-guided variant discovery using the GATK revealed 26,862,369 polymorphic sites. Principal component, admixture and FST analyses indicated considerable genetic differentiation between the lines. Genomic inbreeding quantified using runs of homozygosity was higher in the sire than dam line (0.28 vs 0.26). Using two complementary approaches (CLR and iHS), we detected 51 signatures of selection. However, only six signatures of selection overlapped between both lines. We used the sequenced haplotypes of the 70 key ancestors as a reference panel to call 22,618,811 genotypes in 175 pigs that had been sequenced at very low coverage (1.11-fold) using GLIMPSE. The genotype concordance, non-reference sensitivity and non-reference discrepancy between thus inferred and Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip-called genotypes was 97.60, 98.73 and 3.24%, respectively. The low-pass sequencing-derived genomic relationship coefficients were highly correlated (r > 0.99) with those obtained from microarray genotyping. Conclusions We assessed genetic diversity within and between two lines of the Swiss Large White pig breed. Our analyses revealed considerable differentiation, even though the split into two populations occurred only few generations ago. The sequenced haplotypes of the key ancestor animals enabled us to implement genotyping by low-pass sequencing which offers an intriguing cost-effective approach to increase the variant density over current array-based genotyping by more than 350-fold.

scholarly journals Student Attendance Management System using Principal Component Analysis Method

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4S2) ◽  
pp. 9-15
Keyword(s):  
Management System ◽  
Iris Recognition ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Student Attendance ◽  
Eigen Values ◽  
Cost Effective Technique ◽  
Day By Day

Attendance taking and maintaining is a tedious job in the academic institutions where the time of class is restricted. The manual attendance i.e., roll call or paper-based signature systems usually consumes more time and error prone and also possibility of recording proxy attendance is more. Attendance is one of the criteria in considering students’ eligibility for attending the external examinations and also for the promotion to the next semester / year, where these kinds of problems may cause severe effect on the academic institutions. As the strength of students in a class is increasing day by day; monitoring, awarding and maintenance of attendance has becoming a challenge for the academic institutions. As a solution, attendance can be recorded using anyone of the existing biometric techniques like fingerprinting, iris recognition, signature, face recognition etc. Face identification is the best method among all the earlier mentioned methods for implementing in the academic institutions as it does not require human intervention and it is a cost-effective technique. A novel student attendance recording and management system using a MATLAB application, LabVIEW, Camera interface and GSM is proposed in this paper. Students’ faces will be captured with the help of a camera connected to a computer and Eigen values of the captured images will be detected with the help of MATLAB executed by LabVIEW Mathscript node. LabVIEW, a graphical programming environment is adopted for acquiring face, processing and authenticating the student once the match is found. Authenticated student attendance will be updated, and a message will be sent with the help of GSM module interface to myRIO. Proposed system replaces the manual attendance system which improves the performance of existing system.

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