scholarly journals Low-cost Fiberoptic Probe for Ammonia Early Detection in Fish Farms

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1439
Author(s):  
Arnaldo G. Leal-Junior ◽  
Anselmo Frizera ◽  
Carlos Marques
Keyword(s):  
Early Detection ◽  
Chemical Interaction ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Fish Mortality ◽  
Pdms Layer ◽  
Polymer Optical Fiber ◽  
High Salinity Water ◽  
Recirculating Aquaculture Systems ◽  
Fiberoptic Probe

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are complex systems in which there is an interaction between the fish biomass and water chemistry, where small variations in the environment can lead to major effects in the production. Ammonia is one of the key limiting factors in RAS and its early detection in small concentrations prevents fish mortality and improves the production quality. Aiming at this background, this paper presents a low-cost fiberoptic probe for the early detection of ammonia. The sensor was based on the chemical interaction between the Oxazine 170 perchlorate layer, deposited in an uncladed polymer optical fiber (POF), and the ammonia dissolved in water. In addition, a thin metallic layer (composed by gold and palladium) was deposited in the fiber end facet and acted as a reflector for the optical signals, enabling the use of the proposed sensor in reflection mode. Different configurations of the sensor were tested, where the effects of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) protective layer, thermal treatments, and the use on reflection or transmission modes were compared in the assessment of ammonia concentrations in the range of 100 ppb to 900 ppb. Results showed a better performance (as a function of the sensor sensitivity and linearity) of the sensor with the annealing thermal treatment and without the PDMS layer. Then, the proposed fiberoptic probe was applied on the ammonia detection in high-salinity water, where ammonia concentrations as low as 100 ppb were detected.

Programmable Integrated Photonics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Capmany ◽  
Daniel Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Circuit ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
External Control ◽  
Integrated Photonics ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Photonic Integrated Circuit ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Application Fields

Programmable Integrated Photonics (PIP) is a new paradigm that aims at designing common integrated optical hardware configurations, which by suitable programming can implement a variety of functionalities that, in turn, can be exploited as basic operations in many application fields. Programmability enables by means of external control signals both chip reconfiguration for multifunction operation as well as chip stabilization against non-ideal operation due to fluctuations in environmental conditions and fabrication errors. Programming also allows activating parts of the chip, which are not essential for the implementation of a given functionality but can be of help in reducing noise levels through the diversion of undesired reflections. After some years where the Application Specific Photonic Integrated Circuit (ASPIC) paradigm has completely dominated the field of integrated optics, there is an increasing interest in PIP justified by the surge of a number of emerging applications that are and will be calling for true flexibility, reconfigurability as well as low-cost, compact and low-power consuming devices. This book aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to this emergent field covering aspects that range from the basic aspects of technologies and building photonic component blocks to the design alternatives and principles of complex programmable photonics circuits, their limiting factors, techniques for characterization and performance monitoring/control and their salient applications both in the classical as well as in the quantum information fields. The book concentrates and focuses mainly on the distinctive features of programmable photonics as compared to more traditional ASPIC approaches.

scholarly journals A 40 Mb/s VLC System Reusing an Existing Large LED Panel in an Indoor Office Environment

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1697
Author(s):  
Xicong Li ◽  
Zabih Ghassemlooy ◽  
Stanislav Zvánovec ◽  
Paul Anthony Haigh
Keyword(s):  
Modulation Depth ◽  
Light Emitting Diode ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Data Communication ◽  
Experimental System ◽  
Digital Signal ◽  
Visible Light Communication ◽  
Cost Driver ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Light Sources

With advances in solid-state lighting, visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a promising technology to enhance existing light-emitting diode (LED)-based lighting infrastructure by adding data communication capabilities to the illumination functionality. The last decade has witnessed the evolution of the VLC concept through global standardisation and product launches. Deploying VLC systems typically requires replacing existing light sources with new luminaires that are equipped with data communication functionality. To save the investment, it is clearly desirable to make the most of the existing illumination systems. This paper investigates the feasibility of adding data communication functionality to the existing lighting infrastructure. We do this by designing an experimental system in an indoor environment based on an off-the-shelf LED panel typically used in office environments, with the dimensions of 60 × 60 cm2. With minor modifications, the VLC function is implemented, and all of the modules of the LED panel are fully reused. A data rate of 40 Mb/s is supported at a distance of up to 2 m while using the multi-band carrierless amplitude and phase (CAP) modulation. Two main limiting factors for achieving higher data rates are observed. The first factor is the limited bandwidth of the LED string inside the panel. The second is the flicker due to the residual ripple of the bias current that is generated by the panel’s driver. Flicker is introduced by the low-cost driver, which provides bias currents that fluctuate in the low frequency range (less than several kilohertz). This significantly reduces the transmitter’s modulation depth. Concurrently, the driver can also introduce an effect that is similar to baseline wander at the receiver if the flicker is not completely filtered out. We also proposed a solution based on digital signal processing (DSP) to mitigate the flicker issue at the receiver side and its effectiveness has been confirmed.

scholarly journals Anaerobic Mineralization of Recirculating Aquaculture Drum Screen Effluent for Use as a Naturally-Derived Nutrient Solution in Hydroponic Cropping Systems

Conservation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-167
Author(s):  
Joseph Tetreault ◽  
Rachel Fogle ◽  
Todd Guerdat
Keyword(s):  
Nutrient Solution ◽  
Agricultural Waste ◽  
The United States ◽  
Anaerobic Treatment ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Effluent Treatment ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Fertilizer Treatment ◽  
Recirculating Aquaculture ◽  
Recirculating Aquaculture Systems

Operation and effluent treatment costs are limiting factors for the success of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) in meeting seafood demand in the United States. Adopting a capture-and-reuse waste management model similar to terrestrial agriculture farmers would allow RAS farmers to monetize effluent and offset production costs. The moisture content and nutrient profile of RAS effluent makes it a potential option for use as a hydroponic fertilizer. Treatment of RAS waste is needed to mineralize particulate-bound nutrients before becoming a viable hydroponic nutrient solution. Anaerobic treatment (AT), a method used by municipal and agricultural waste treatment facilities to reduce total solids, has been shown to successfully mineralize particulate-bound nutrients from RAS effluent. Continuously mixed anaerobic batch bioreactors were used to evaluate the degree to which AT may mineralize particulate-bound nutrients in solid RAS waste. Concentrations of twelve different macro- and micro-nutrients were analyzed in the waste before and after treatment. Effluent samples were analyzed to determine the fraction of each nutrient in the solid and aqueous forms. This study showed that AT is an effective method to mineralize particulate-bound nutrients in RAS effluent and the mineralization rate data may be used to design a pilot-scaled flow-through RAS effluent treatment system.

Use of RNA isolated from feces as a promising tool for the early detection of colorectal cancer

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliano Bernal
Keyword(s):  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Early Detection ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Occult Blood ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Fecal Occult Blood ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Altered Expression ◽  
Fecal Occult

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer worldwide. Early detection would allow patients to be treated surgically and halt the progression of the disease; however, the current methods of early detection are invasive (colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy) or have low sensitivity (fecal occult blood test). The altered expression of genes in stool samples of patients with colorectal cancer can be determined by RT-PCR. This is a noninvasive and highly sensitive technique for colorectal cancer screening. According to information gathered in this review and our own experience, the use of fecal RNA to determine early alterations in gene expression due to malignancy appears to be a promising alternative to the current detection methods and owing to its low cost could be implemented in public health services.

scholarly journals Cloud based mobile solution for early detection of Skin Cancer using Artificial Intelligence

2021 ◽  
pp. 312-324
Author(s):  
Pawan Sonawane ◽  
Sahel Shardhul ◽  
Raju Mendhe
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Skin Cancer ◽  
Early Detection ◽  
Transfer Learning ◽  
Network Model ◽  
Neural Network Model ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Skin Tumors

The vast majority of skin cancer deaths are from melanoma, with about 1.04 million cases annually. Early detection of the same can be immensely helpful in order to try to cure it. But most of the diagnosis procedures are either extremely expensive or not available to a vast majority, as these centers are concentrated in urban regions only. Thus, there is a need for an application that can perform a quick, efficient, and low-cost diagnosis. Our solution proposes to build a server less mobile application on the AWS cloud that takes the images of potential skin tumors and classifies it as either Malignant or Benign. The classification would be carried out using a trained Convolution Neural Network model and Transfer learning (Inception v3). Several experiments will be performed based on Morphology and Color of the tumor to identify ideal parameters.

An Active Low Cost Mesh Networking Indoor Tracking System

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Carlin ◽  
Kevin Curran
Keyword(s):  
Tracking System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Limiting Factors ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Scalable Vector Graphics ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Working Environments ◽  
System A ◽  
The Cost

Indoor radio frequency tracking systems are generally quite expensive and can vary in accuracy due to interference, equipment quality or other environmental factors. Due to these limiting factors of the technology, many businesses today find it hard to justify investing in RFID tracking technologies to improve the safety, efficiency and security of their working environments. The aim of this project was to provide a budget RFID tracking system that was capable of tracking a person or object through an indoor environment. To minimize the cost of the RFID tracking system, the components of the system were built from existing electronic equipment and hardware. The software was also written to minimize licensing and support fees allowing a cost effective budget RFID tracking system to be developed. The tracking system consists of a tag, reader nodes and a PC reader which utilize synapse RF 100 engines with python scripts embedded on to the chips. The tracking system software operates through a web portal utilizing web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript and PHP to allow the tags location to be represented on a two dimensional map using scalable vector graphics. During development of the system a new trilateration algorithm was developed and used convert the signals received from the tag to a virtual position on the map correlating to the actual physical position of the tag. A unique contribution of this system is the low cost of building which we estimate as less than £200 UK sterling for a five node system.

scholarly journals Surface Engineering of Ceramic Nanomaterials for Separation of Oil/Water Mixtures

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Usama Zulfiqar ◽  
Andrew G. Thomas ◽  
Allan Matthews ◽  
David J. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Surface Engineering ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Chemical Interaction ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Water Mixture ◽  
Water Separation ◽  
Manufacturing Operations ◽  
Industrial Oil ◽  
Oil Water Separation ◽  
Oil Water

Oil/water mixtures are a potentially major source of environmental pollution if efficient separation technology is not employed during processing. A large volume of oil/water mixtures is produced via many manufacturing operations in food, petrochemical, mining, and metal industries and can be exposed to water sources on a regular basis. To date, several techniques are used in practice to deal with industrial oil/water mixtures and oil spills such as in situ burning of oil, bioremediation, and solidifiers, which change the physical shape of oil as a result of chemical interaction. Physical separation of oil/water mixtures is in industrial practice; however, the existing technologies to do so often require either dissipation of large amounts of energy (such as in cyclones and hydrocyclones) or large residence times or inventories of fluids (such as in decanters). Recently, materials with selective wettability have gained attention for application in separation of oil/water mixtures and surfactant stabilized emulsions. For example, a superhydrophobic material is selectively wettable toward oil while having a poor affinity for the aqueous phase; therefore, a superhydrophobic porous material can easily adsorb the oil while completely rejecting the water from an oil/water mixture, thus physically separating the two components. The ease of separation, low cost, and low-energy requirements are some of the other advantages offered by these materials over existing practices of oil/water separation. The present review aims to focus on the surface engineering aspects to achieve selectively wettability in materials and its their relationship with the separation of oil/water mixtures with particular focus on emulsions, on factors contributing to their stability, and on how wettability can be helpful in their separation. Finally, the challenges in application of superwettable materials will be highlighted, and potential solutions to improve the application of these materials will be put forward.

scholarly journals Polymer Optical Fiber-Based Respiratory Sensors: Various Designs and Implementations

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
A. Arifin ◽  
Nelly Agustina ◽  
Syamsir Dewang ◽  
Irfan Idris ◽  
Dahlang Tahir
Keyword(s):  
Optical Fiber ◽  
Measurement System ◽  
Output Voltage ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Optical Fiber Sensor ◽  
Digital Signal ◽  
Analog Signal ◽  
Fiber Sensor ◽  
Polymer Optical Fiber ◽  
Arduino Uno

This research discusses the polymer optical fiber sensor for respiratory measurements. The infrared LED that produces light will propagate along the polymer optical fiber which will be received by the phototransistor and the differential amplifier. The output voltage in the form of an analog signal will be converted to a digital signal by the Arduino Uno microcontroller and displayed on the computer. The polymer optical fiber sensor is installed on the corset using a variety of configuration (straight, sinusoidal, and spiral), placed in the abdomen, and a variety of positions (abdomen, chest, and back) using only a spiral configuration. While doing the inspiration, the stomach will be enlarged so that the optical fiber sensor will have strain. The strain will cause loss of power, the resulting light intensities received by the phototransistor are reduced, and the output voltage on the computer decreases. The result shows that the highest voltage amplitudes were in the spiral configuration placed in the abdominal position for slow respiration measurements with the highest range, sensitivity, and resolution which are 0.119 V, 0.238 V/s, and 0.004 s, respectively. The advantages of our work are emphasized on measurement system simplicity, low cost, easy fabrication, and handy operation and can be connected with the Arduino Uno microcontroller and computer.

scholarly journals Vortex Polymer Optical Fiber with 64 Stable OAM States

Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2776
Author(s):  
José A. Borda-Hernández ◽  
Claudia M. Serpa-Imbett ◽  
Hugo E. Hernandez Figueroa
Keyword(s):  
Optical Fiber ◽  
Optical Fibers ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Coupling Coefficients ◽  
Polymer Optical Fiber ◽  
Optical Polymer ◽  
Polymer Optical Fibers ◽  
Low Dispersion

This research introduces a numerical design of an air-core vortex polymer optical fiber in cyclic transparent optical polymer (CYTOP) that propagates 32 orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes, i.e., it may support up to 64 stable OAM-states considering left- and right-handed circular polarizations. This fiber seeks to be an alternative to increase the capacity of short-range optical communication systems multiplexed by modes, in agreement with the high demand of low-cost, insensitive-to-bending and easy-to-handle fibers similar to others optical fibers fabricated in polymers. This novel fiber possesses unique characteristics: a diameter of 50 µm that would allow a high mechanical compatibility with commercially available polymer optical fibers, a difference of effective index between neighbor OAM modes of around 10−4 over a bandwidth from 1 to 1.6 µm, propagation losses of approximately 15 × 10−3 dB/m for all OAM modes, and a very low dispersion for OAM higher order modes (±l = 16) of up to +2.5 ps/km-nm compared with OAM lower order modes at a telecom wavelength of 1.3 µm, in which the CYTOP exhibits a minimal attenuation. The spectra of mutual coupling coefficients between modes are computed considering small bends of up to 3 cm of radius and slight ellipticity in the ring of up to 5%. Results show lower-charge weights for higher order OAM modes.

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