Effect of Inclusion of Fresh or dried black soldier fly larvae in Diets on Snakehead Fish's Growth Performance and Chemical Composition (<em>Channa sp.</em>)

In snakehead fish farming, feeding represents the largest portion (accounting for 50-60%) of production cost. Thus, finding an alternative natural feed that can be replaced as full or partial inclusion in snakehead fish commercial diets is urgently needed. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of including fresh or dried black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) in diets on the growth performance and chemical composition of snakehead fish cultured in small-scale farms. Fingerlings of snakehead (5.15 ± 0.12 g) were distributed randomly into fifteen net cages (6 m^3^) at a density of 120 fish.net cage^-1^. Including five dietary treatments named: NT1 (100% commercial feed served as a control); NT2 (100% fresh BSFL); NT3 (100% dried BSFL); NT4 (50% fresh BSFL + 50% commercial feed); and NT5 (50% dried BSFL + 50% commercial feed). Each treatment was performed in triplicate. The results showed that the inclusion of fresh BSFL in diets for the snakehead fish did not affect the survival rate (82.22 - 85.56 %), improved feed conversion ratio, increased live weight (70.9 – 103.3 g) and daily weight gain (1.09 – 1.64 g.day^-1^), and fish’s yield (1.16 – 1.73 kg.m^-2^); and did not affect the chemical composition of the fish. These findings suggest that farmers should feed snakehead fish with commercial feed plus fresh black soldier fly larvae to maintain good condition factor and enhance fish growth performance and production

An open-source framework for synthetic post-dive Doppler ultrasound audio generation

Doppler ultrasound (DU) measurements are used to detect and evaluate venous gas emboli (VGE) formed after decompression. Automated methodologies for assessing VGE presence using signal processing have been developed on varying real-world datasets of limited size and without ground truth values preventing objective evaluation. We develop and report a method to generate synthetic post-dive data using DU signals collected in both precordium and subclavian vein with varying degrees of bubbling matching field-standard grading metrics. This method is adaptable, modifiable, and reproducible, allowing for researchers to tune the produced dataset for their desired purpose. We provide the baseline Doppler recordings and code required to generate synthetic data for researchers to reproduce our work and improve upon it. We also provide a set of pre-made synthetic post-dive DU data spanning six scenarios representing the Spencer and Kisman-Masurel (KM) grading scales as well as precordial and subclavian DU recordings. By providing a method for synthetic post-dive DU data generation, we aim to improve and accelerate the development of signal processing techniques for VGE analysis in Doppler ultrasound

Optimization of exposure parameters for lift-off process of sub-100 features using a negative tone electron beam resist

A thorough study of exposure parameters for electron beam lithography using AR7520 negative tone electron beam resist is here presented. We optimized the beam voltage, apertures diameter and resist thickness in order to achieve the smaller dimensions possible for each resist thicknesses. Monte Carlo simulations of the electrons scattering process correlated the experimental results indicating a less efficient energy deposition into the resist layer for larger beam energies and resist thicknesses, thus resulting in larger doses required to expose a selected dot size. Furthermore, for the particular exposure conditions used we determined a forward scattered electrons range between 50 nm and 170 nm, depending on the dot nominal size. On the other hand, a reduced backscattering electrons range was observed showing a constant value of ~ 560 nm, being therefore more significant when larger dimensions are exposed in a point-by-point exposure, and thus supporting the smaller doses observed for larger sizes. Finally, a baking step is used to further improve the etch resistance of the resist, which allied to the optimized exposure parameters, opens a pathway to achieve sub-100nm critical dimensions for the reproducible fabrication of nanometric devices using a simple lift-off method