Aerosol-Assisted CVD-Grown PdO Nanoparticle-Decorated Tungsten Oxide Nanoneedles Extremely Sensitive and Selective to Hydrogen

We report for the first time the successful synthesis of palladium (Pd) nanoparticle (NP)-decorated tungsten trioxide (WO3) nanoneedles (NNs) via a two-step aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition approach. Morphological, structural, and elemental composition analysis revealed that a Pd(acac)2 precursor was very suitable to decorate WO3 NNs with uniform and well-dispersed PdO NPs. Gas-sensing results revealed that decoration with PdO NPs led to an ultrasensitive and selective hydrogen (H2) gas sensor (sensor response peaks at 1670 at 500 ppm of H2) with low operating temperature (150 °C). The response of decorated NNs is 755 times higher than that of bare WO3 NNs. Additionally, at a temperature near that of the ambient temperature (50 °C), the response of this sensor toward the same concentration of H2 was 23, which is higher than that of some promising sensors reported in the literature. Finally, humidity measurements showed that PdO/WO3 sensors displayed low-cross-sensitivity toward water vapor, compared to bare WO3 sensors. The addition of PdO NPs helps to minimize the effect of ambient humidity on the sensor response

Invariants of Lie algebras extended over commutative algebras without unit

We establish results about the second cohomology with coefficients in the trivial module, symmetric invariant bilinear forms and derivations of a Lie algebra extended over a commutative associative algebra without unit. These results provide a simple unified approach to a number of questions treated earlier in completely separated ways: periodization of semisimple Lie algebras (Anna Larsson), derivation algebras, with prescribed semisimple part, of nilpotent Lie algebras (Benoist), and presentations of affine Kac-Moody algebras.Comment: v3: added a footnote on p.10 about a wrong derivation of the correct statemen

Identification of mutations associated with pyrethroid resistance in the voltage-gated sodium channel of the tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta)

The tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera) is a significant pest of tomatoes that has undergone a rapid expansion in its range during the past six years and is now present across Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia. One of the main means of controlling this pest is through the use of chemical insecticides. In the current study insecticide bioassays were used to determine the susceptibility of five T. absoluta strains established from field collections from Europe and Brazil to pyrethroids. High levels of resistance to λ cyhalothrin and tau fluvalinate were observed in all five strains tested. To investigate whether pyrethroid resistance was mediated by mutation of the para-type sodium channel in T. absoluta the IIS4–IIS6 region of the para gene, which contains many of the mutation sites previously shown to confer knock down (kdr)-type resistance to pyrethroids across a range of different arthropod species, was cloned and sequenced. This revealed that three kdr/super-kdr-type mutations (M918T, T929I and L1014F), were present at high frequencies within all five resistant strains at known resistance ‘hot-spots’. This is the first description of these mutations together in any insect population. High-throughput DNA-based diagnostic assays were developed and used to assess the prevalence of these mutations in 27 field strains from 12 countries. Overall mutant allele frequencies were high (L1014F 0.98, M918T 0.35, T929I 0.60) and remarkably no individual was observed that did not carry kdr in combination with either M918T or T929I. The presence of these mutations at high frequency in T. absoluta populations across much of its range suggests pyrethroids are likely to be ineffective for control and supports the idea that the rapid expansion of this species over the last six years may be in part mediated by the resistance of this pest to chemical insecticides

Monovarietal extra-virgin olive oil classification: a fusion of human sensory attributes and an electronic tongue

Olive oil quality grading is traditionally assessed by human sensory evaluation of positive and negative attributes (olfactory, gustatory, and final olfactorygustatory sensations). However, it is not guaranteed that trained panelist can correctly classify monovarietal extra-virgin olive oils according to olive cultivar. In this work, the potential application of human (sensory panelists) and artificial (electronic tongue) sensory evaluation of olive oils was studied aiming to discriminate eight single-cultivar extra-virgin olive oils. Linear discriminant, partial least square discriminant, and sparse partial least square discriminant analyses were evaluated. The best predictive classification was obtained using linear discriminant analysis with simulated annealing selection algorithm. A low-level data fusion approach (18 electronic tongue signals and nine sensory attributes) enabled 100 % leave-one-out cross-validation correct classification, improving the discrimination capability of the individual use of sensor profiles or sensory attributes (70 and 57 % leave-one-out correct classifications, respectively). So, human sensory evaluation and electronic tongue analysis may be used as complementary tools allowing successful monovarietal olive oil discrimination.This work was co-financed by FCT/MEC and FEDER under Program PT2020 (Project UID/EQU/50020/2013); by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia under the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit; and by Project POCTEP through Project RED/AGROTEC-Experimentation network and transfer for development of agricultural and agro industrial sectors between Spain and Portugal

Evaluation of extra-virgin olive oils shelf life using an electronic tongue-chemometric approach

Physicochemical quality parameters, olfactory and gustatoryretronasal positive sensations of extra-virgin olive oils vary during storage leading to a decrease in the overall quality. Olive oil quality decline may prevent the compliance of olive oil quality with labeling and significantly reduce shelf life, resulting in important economic losses and negatively condition the consumer confidence. The feasibility of applying an electronic tongue to assess olive oils usual commercial light storage conditions and storage time was evaluated and compared with the discrimination potential of physicochemical or positive olfactory/gustatory sensorial parameters. Linear discriminant models, based on subsets of 58 electronic tongue sensor signals, selected by the meta-heuristic simulated annealing variable selection algorithm, allowed the correct classification of olive oils according to the light exposition conditions and/or storage time (sensitivities and specificities for leave-one-out cross-validation: 8296 %). The predictive performance of the E-tongue approach was further evaluated using an external independent dataset selected using the KennardStone algorithm and, in general, better classification rates (sensitivities and specificities for external dataset: 67100 %) were obtained compared to those achieved using physicochemical or sensorial data. So, the work carried out is a proof-of-principle that the proposed electrochemical device could be a practical and versatile tool for, in a single and fast electrochemical assay, successfully discriminate olive oils with different storage times and/or exposed to different light conditions.The authors acknowledge the financial support from the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, from Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984—Associate Laboratory LSRELCM funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020—Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI)—and by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and under the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit. Nuno Rodrigues thanks FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for the Ph.D. Grant (SFRH/BD/104038/2014).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Forecasting Cryptocurrency Value by Sentiment Analysis: An HPC-Oriented Survey of the State-of-the-Art in the Cloud Era

This chapter surveys the state-of-the-art in forecasting cryptocurrency value by Sentiment Analysis. Key compounding perspectives of current challenges are addressed, including blockchains, data collection, annotation, and filtering, and sentiment analysis metrics using data streams and cloud platforms. We have explored the domain based on this problem-solving metric perspective, i.e., as technical analysis, forecasting, and estimation using a standardized ledger-based technology. The envisioned tools based on forecasting are then suggested, i.e., ranking Initial Coin Offering (ICO) values for incoming cryptocurrencies, trading strategies employing the new Sentiment Analysis metrics, and risk aversion in cryptocurrencies trading through a multi-objective portfolio selection. Our perspective is rationalized on the perspective on elastic demand of computational resources for cloud infrastructures

Intelligent Monitoring and Controlling of Public Policies Using Social Media and Cloud Computing

Part 3: Government and InfrastructureInternational audienceLack of public participation in various policy making decision has always been a major cause of concern for government all around the world while formulating as well as evaluating such policies. With availability of latest IT infrastructure and the migration of government think-tank towards realizing more efficient cloud based e-government, this problem has been partially answered, but this predicament still persists. However, the exponential rise in usage of social media platforms by general public has given the government a wider insight to overcome this long pending dilemma. This paper presents a pragmatic approach that combines the capabilities of cloud computing and social media analytics towards efficient monitoring and controlling of public policies. The proposed arrangement has provided us some encouraging results, when tested for the policy of the century i.e. GST implementation by Indian government and established that proposed system can be successfully implemented for efficient policy making and implementation

An update of the Worldwide Integrated Assessment (WIA) on systemic insecticides. Part 2: impacts on organisms and ecosystems

New information on the lethal and sublethal effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on organisms is presented in this review, complementing the previous WIA in 2015. The high toxicity of these systemic insecticides to invertebrates has been confirmed and expanded to include more species and compounds. Most of the recent research has focused on bees and the sublethal and ecological impacts these insecticides have on pollinators. Toxic effects on other invertebrate taxa also covered predatory and parasitoid natural enemies and aquatic arthropods. Little, while not much new information has been gathered on soil organisms. The impact on marine coastal ecosystems is still largely uncharted. The chronic lethality of neonicotinoids to insects and crustaceans, and the strengthened evidence that these chemicals also impair the immune system and reproduction, highlights the dangers of this particular insecticidal classneonicotinoids and fipronil. , withContinued large scale – mostly prophylactic – use of these persistent organochlorine pesticides has the potential to greatly decreasecompletely eliminate populations of arthropods in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. Sublethal effects on fish, reptiles, frogs, birds and mammals are also reported, showing a better understanding of the mechanisms of toxicity of these insecticides in vertebrates, and their deleterious impacts on growth, reproduction and neurobehaviour of most of the species tested. This review concludes with a summary of impacts on the ecosystem services and functioning, particularly on pollination, soil biota and aquatic invertebrate communities, thus reinforcing the previous WIA conclusions (van der Sluijs et al. 2015)

Application of an electronic tongue for Tunisian olive oils' classification according to olive cultivar or physicochemical parameters

Olive oil commercialization has a great impact on the economy of several countries, namely Tunisia, being prone to frauds. Therefore, it is important to establish analytical techniques to ensure labeling correctness concerning olive oil quality and olive cultivar. Traditional analytical techniques are quite expensive, time consuming and hardly applied in situ, considering the harsh environments of the olive industry. In this work, the feasibility of applying a potentiometric electronic tongue with cross-sensitivity lipid membranes to discriminate Tunisian olive oils according to their quality level (i.e., extra virgin, virgin or lampante olive oils) or autochthonous olive cultivar (i.e., cv Chétoui and cv Shali) was evaluated for the first time. Linear discrimination analysis coupled with the simulated annealing variable selection algorithm showed that the signal profiles of olive oils hydroethanolic extracts allowed olive oils discrimination according to physicochemical quality level (classification model based on 25 signals enabling 84 ± 9% correct classifications for repeated K-fold cross-validation), and olive cultivar (classification model based on 20 signals with an average sensitivity of 94 ± 6% for repeated K-fold cross-validation), regardless of the geographical origin and olive variety or the olive quality, respectively. The results confirmed, for the first time, the potential discrimination of the electronic tongue, attributed to the observed quantitative response (sensitivities ranging from 66.6 to +57.7 mV/decade) of the E-tongue multi-sensors towards standard solutions of polar compounds (aldehydes, esters and alcohols) usually found in olive oils and that are related to their sensory positive attributes like green and fruity.This work was financially supported by Project POCI-01–0145-FEDER-006984–Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM and by Project UID/QUI/00616/2013–CQ-VR both funded by FEDER—Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020-Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI)—and by national funds through FCTFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal. Strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit is also acknowledged. Nuno Rodrigues thanks FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for the Ph.D. Grant (SFRH/ BD/104038/2014).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Integrated pest management of Tuta absoluta: practical implementations across different world regions

The South American tomato pinworm, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), has invaded most Afro-Eurasian countries and is threatening worldwide tomato production. Various strategies have been developed and implemented to manage this pest. Here, we present a timely review on the up-to-date development and practical implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) programs for tomato crops across different world regions infested by T. absoluta. While insecticide resistance is a growing concern, biological control via releasing or conserving arthropod natural enemies and sex pheromone-based biotechnical control are the most successful management practices. Agronomic control-related research is an emerging area where the soil fertilization and/or irrigation, as well as breeding of resistant cultivars, has the potential to enhance IPM effectiveness. Grower survey responses in the native areas (i.e., South America), early-invaded areas (i.e., first report between 2006 and 2012) and newly invaded areas (i.e., first report after 2012) showed that the control programs evolved along with the areas and time since invasion. Growers in the early-invaded areas shifted more rapidly from chemical control to biological control compared to those from the native area. In all concerned regions, the pest control failure risk following chemical insecticide applications and the high cost associated with either biological or biotechnical control methods have been the greatest concerns for growers. The information gathered from the native and/or early-invaded areas may help achieve a more effective management in newly invaded areas. Lastly, researchers are expected to break the bottlenecks of some key issues that would enable lowering application cost of novel biorational alternative management options