Cryopreservation of Anopheles stephensi embryos

The ability to cryopreserve mosquitoes would revolutionize work on these vectors of major human infectious diseases by conserving stocks, new isolates, lab-bred strains, and transgenic lines that currently require continuous life cycle maintenance. Efforts over several decades to develop a method for cryopreservation have, until now, been fruitless: we describe here a method for the cryopreservation of Anopheles stephensi embryos yielding hatch rates of ~ 25%, stable for > 5 years. Hatched larvae developed into fertile, fecund adults and blood-fed females, produced fully viable second generation eggs, that could be infected with Plasmodium falciparum at high intensities. The key components of the cryopreservation method are: embryos at 15–30 min post oviposition, two incubation steps in 100% deuterated methanol at − 7 °C and − 14.5 °C, and rapid cooling. Eggs are recovered by rapid warming with concomitant dilution of cryoprotectant. Eggs of genetically modified A. stephensi and of A. gambiae were also successfully cryopreserved. This enabling methodology will allow long-term conservation of mosquitoes as well as acceleration of genetic studies and facilitation of mass storage of anopheline mosquitoes for release programs.

From Business Intelligence to Data Science

The use of information technology and decision support concepts at the operational business level were slow to take hold in the 20th century. In 2010, the authors documented the evolution and current state of the field of business intelligence and analytics (BIA). In the last decade, however, through the resurgence and mainstream use of artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms, the development of inexpensive cloud-based mass storage, and the internet-of-things, business intelligence has evolved into data science. In this chapter, the authors trace this evolution across the diverse areas of data science and identify extremely useful advancements and best practices in the field.

SBTMS: Scalable Blockchain Trust Management System for VANET

With many advances in sensor technology and the Internet of Things, Vehicle Ad Hoc Network (VANET) is becoming a new generation. VANET’s current technical challenges are deploying decentralized architecture and protecting privacy. Because Blockchain features are decentralized, distributed, mass storage, and non-manipulation features, this paper designs a new decentralized architecture using Blockchain technology called Blockchain-based VANET. Blockchain-based VANET can effectively resolve centralized problems and mutual distrust between VANET units. To achieve this, it is needed to provide scalability on the blockchain to run for VANET. In this system, our focus is on the reliability of incoming messages on the network. Vehicles check the validity of the received messages using the proposed Bayesian formula for trust management system and some information saved in the Blockchain. Then, based on the validation result, the vehicle computes a rate for each message type and message source vehicle. Vehicles upload the computed rates to Roadside Units (RSUs) in order to calculate the net reliability value. Finally, RSUs using a sharding consensus mechanism generate blocks, including the net reliability value as a transaction. In this system, all RSUs collaboratively maintain the latest updated Blockchain. Our experimental results show that the proposed system is effective, scalable and dependable in data gathering, computing, organization, and retrieval of trust values in VANET.

A Scalable Bidimensional Randomization Scheme for TLC 3D NAND Flash Memories

Data randomization has been a widely adopted Flash Signal Processing technique for reducing or suppressing errors since the inception of mass storage platforms based on planar NAND Flash technology. However, the paradigm change represented by the 3D memory integration concept has complicated the randomization task due to the increased dimensions of the memory array, especially along the bitlines. In this work, we propose an easy to implement, cost effective, and fully scalable with memory dimensions, randomization scheme that guarantees optimal randomization along the wordline and the bitline dimensions. At the same time, we guarantee an upper bound on the maximum length of consecutive ones and zeros along the bitline to improve the memory reliability. Our method has been validated on commercial off-the-shelf TLC 3D NAND Flash memory with respect to the Raw Bit Error Rate metric extracted in different memory working conditions.

Assessing the Role of Program Suspend Operation in 3D NAND Flash Based Solid State Drives

3D NAND Flash is the preferred storage medium for dense mass storage applications, including Solid State Drives and multimedia cards. Improving the latency of these systems is a mandatory task to narrow the gap between computing elements, such as CPUs and GPUs, and the storage environment. To this extent, relatively time-consuming operations in the storage media, such as data programming and data erasing, need to be prioritized and be potentially suspendable by shorter operations, like data reading, in order to improve the overall system quality of service. However, such benefits are strongly dependent on the storage characteristics and on the timing of the single operations. In this work, we investigate, through an extensive characterization, the impacts of suspending the data programming operation in a 3D NAND Flash device. System-level simulations proved that such operations must be carefully characterized before exercising them on Solid State Drives to eventually understand the performance benefits introduced and to disclose all the potential shortcomings.

IoT Based Automated Hydroponics Greenhouse Monitoring

Hydroponics refers to the art of growing plants in water without soil (land). Nutrients for the plants are supplied to the roots in the form of solution that can be either in the form of static or flowing. Hydroponics can be cultivated both in green house and glass house environment. The limitation in green house environment is to maintain the temperature, pressure, humidity value at a particular level. In addition to that, monitoring on PH value and electrical conductivity in hydroponics is another challenge that has to be monitored and maintained. Manual monitoring is in practice which is a very trivial task else the plants may die out. This project, focuses on two tasks, the first one is to automate the greenhouse environment monitoring. The subsequent is automation of PH level, temperature, turbidity and electrical conductivity maintenance. IOT is used to transfer the retrieved data to the internet (mass storage) and mobile app is used to communicate the current status to the user through the use of internet to their mobile phones, so that monitoring & maintenance will be easier. This Hydroponics system requires less manual intervention, water and space than traditional agricultural systems.

Successful Indoor Mass Storage of Honeybee Queens (Apis mellifera) during Winter

The production of young, mated honeybee queens (Apis mellifera) is essential to replace dead queens or to start new colonies after wintering. Mass storage of mated honeybee queens during winter and their use the following spring is an interesting strategy that could help fulfill this need. In this study, we investigated the survival, fertility, and fecundity of young, mated queens stored massively in queenless colonies from September to April (eight months). The queens were kept in environmentally controlled rooms at temperatures above and below cluster formation. The results show that indoor mass storage of mated queens can be achieved with success when queen banks are stored above cluster temperature. Significantly higher survival of queens was measured when wintering queen banks at 16 °C. Surviving queens wintered at different temperatures above or below cluster formation had similar fertility (sperm viability) and fecundity (egg laying and viable worker population). This study shows the potential of indoor overwintering of honeybee queen banks. The technique we describe could be applied on a commercial scale by beekeepers and queen breeders.

Processes of Heat and Mass Transfer During Grain Mass Storage in Metal Silos of Large Capacity

This study showed that there were some changes in the temperature and humidity parameters of wheat grains during the storage year. The grain moisture content in both the near-wall and central parts of the metal silo largely did not change, remaining at a level of 10-11%. Moisture values were recorded monthly, and grain temperature was recorded in accordance with seasonal changes, thus, the range of temperature changes was from 20 to 32°С at a minimum outdoor temperature of 5°С. The moisture content of the grain in the surface layer increased by 0.4-1.2% and the final moisture content of the grain was 11.6%. Experiments on grain temperature and humidity changes with active ventilation in large-capacity metal silos have shown that the rate of change (decrease) in temperature depends on the specific air flow rate, and the difference in air and grain temperature. Experimental storage showed that a grain with the moisture content up to 13.6% can be stored for up to nine months without deterioration in quality. A longer shelf life is possible for wheat grains with a moisture content of up to 12%. This article pays special attention to the processes occurring in the under-roof space of large-capacity metal silos and suggests methods for solving this problem. Keywords: long-term storage, active ventilation, metal silos, heat and mass transfer processes

Rapid extreme meteorological events detected by daily regional GRACE solutions

<p>We investigate the possibility to use the Low-Earth Orbiter mission well known as GRACE to detect sudden regional variations of water mass storage caused by heavy precipitation and flooding episodes caused by the passage of tropical hurricanes of categories 4-5 (from day to a week). For this purpose, daily water mass solutions are produced from along-track GRACE geopotential anomalies to catch the signatures of these intense meteorological events. These geopotential variations are derived from accurate inter-satellite K-Band Range Rate (KBRR) measurements made along the 5-second orbits by imposing the total energy conservation to the twin GRACE vehicles. The determination of these surface sources is made over a regional network of juxtaposed triangular tiles of quasi-constant areas, and they are refreshed by a Kalman filtering for integrating progressively daily geopotential observations. These latter data have been previously reduced from known gravitational effects of atmosphere and oceanic masses (including periodic tides) for isolating the continental hydrology contribution. Our estimates of regional hydrological impacts are also compared to the ones obtained by synthesis of daily degree-40 Stokes coefficients provided by ITSG, Graz.</p>

Fruit Quality Monitoring with Smart Packaging

Smart packaging of fresh produce is an emerging technology toward reduction of waste and preservation of consumer health and safety. Smart packaging systems also help to prolong the shelf life of perishable foods during transport and mass storage, which are difficult to regulate otherwise. The use of these ever-progressing technologies in the packaging of fruits has the potential to result in many positive consequences, including improved fruit quality, reduced waste, and associated improved public health. In this review, we examine the role of smart packaging in fruit packaging, current-state-of-the-art, challenges, and prospects. First, we discuss the motivation behind fruit quality monitoring and maintenance, followed by the background on the development process of fruits, factors used in determining fruit quality, and the classification of smart packaging technologies. Then, we discuss conventional freshness sensors for packaged fruits including direct and indirect freshness indicators. After that, we provide examples of possible smart packaging systems and sensors that can be used in monitoring fruits quality, followed by several strategies to mitigate premature fruit decay, and active packaging technologies. Finally, we discuss the prospects of smart packaging application for fruit quality monitoring along with the associated challenges and prospects.