Microfluidic mixer with automated electrode switching for sensing applications

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQAn electronic tongue (e-tongue) is a multisensory system usually applied to complex liquid media that uses computational/statistical tools to group information generated by sensing units into recognition patterns, which allow the identification/distinctio81110FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQ2014/50869-62015/14836-92017/06985-0Sem informaçãoSem informaçãoWe would like to thank all the staff from Additive Manufacturing Laboratory (AddLab), especially to Peter Bruno and Peter Szczesniak (MEAM/SEAS/UPenn) for all the help and support during the year that Maria L. Braunger spent as a visiting scholar at UPen

On the occurrence of Mesophyllum expansum (Philippi) Cabioch et Mendoza (Melobesioideae, Corallinales, Rhodophyta) in the Mediterranean, the Canary Isles and the Azores.

Copyright © 2010 by Walter de Gruyter.We reviewed literature records, examined herbarium specimens and studied new collections referred to as Mesophyllum lichenoides from the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic, and report for the first time the presence of Mesophyllum expansum in the Canaries and the Azores. Both gametophytes and tetrasporophytes of M. expansum occur in the Canaries, while we found only tetrasporophytes (and sterile thalli) of the species in all other regions. We further consider the presence of M. lichenoides further south than Atlantic France in need of confirmation. A comparative study between these two species points to the number of rosette cells as the most reliable and easily diagnosed character, M. expansum most often having 911 and M. lichenoides 68 cells

3D printed e-tongue

FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICONowadays, one of the biggest issues addressed to electronic sensor fabrication is the build-up of efficient electrodes as an alternative way to the expensive, complex and multistage processes required by traditional techniques. Printed electronics arises as an interesting alternative to fulfill this task due to the simplicity and speed to stamp electrodes on various surfaces. Within this context, the Fused Deposition Modeling 3D printing is an emerging, cost-effective and alternative technology to fabricate complex structures that potentiates several fields with more creative ideas and new materials for a rapid prototyping of devices. We show here the fabrication of interdigitated electrodes using a standard home-made CoreXY 3D printer using transparent and graphene-based PLA filaments. Macro 3D printed electrodes were easily assembled within 6 min with outstanding reproducibility. The electrodes were also functionalized with different nanostructured thin films via dip-coating Layer-by-Layer technique to develop a 3D printed e-tongue setup. As a proof of concept, the printed e-tongue was applied to soil analysis. A control soil sample was enriched with several macro-nutrients to the plants (N, P, K, S, Mg, and Ca) and the discrimination was done by electrical impedance spectroscopy of water solution of the soil samples. The data was analyzed by Principal Component Analysis and the 3D printed sensor distinguished clearly all enriched samples despite the complexity of the soil chemical composition. The 3D printed e-tongue successfully used in soil analysis encourages further investments in developing new sensory tools for precision agriculture and other fields exploiting the simplicity and flexibility offered by the 3D printing techniques.618FAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOFAPESP - FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULOCAPES - COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL E NÍVEL SUPERIORCNPQ - CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO2014/03691-72015/14836-92015/21616-52017/06985-0sem informaçãosem informaçãoSem informaçã

A investigação enquanto prática de deliberação curricular: o caso do projecto ICR

Este artigo refere-se a um projecto de investigação curricular colaborativa que nasceu da conjugação entre, por um lado, a preocupação de alguns professores do ensino básico com o desinteresse manifestado por determinados alunos em relação à escola e ao currículo e, por outro, o interesse de alguns professores universitários em estudar questões de relevância curricular. Dessa conjugação resultou a assunção de uma dimensão investigativa na prática profissional dos referidos professores do ensino básico, concretizada num projecto de investigação-acção colaborativa conduzido por uma equipa de quatro docentes universitários e dez docentes do ensino básico (todos os ciclos), que têm estudado a problemática do reconhecimento (ou não), por parte dos alunos, da relevância das aprendizagens escolares. A recolha de dados tem sido feita em sucessivos ciclos de investigação-acção, com a duração de um ano escolar cada, principalmente através do registo sistemático de manifestações de desinteresse (por parte dos alunos em relação ao currículo) observadas nas aulas e de entrevistas aos alunos, conduzidas pelos seus professores. Os dados têm sido analisados pelos próprios professores do ensino básico, com o apoio dos docentes universitários, e sujeitos a interpretações individuais e de equipa, sendo essas interpretações inspiradoras de novas estratégias de ensino, que são continuamente monitorizadas e revistas. Os processos já amadurecidos e os resultados já gerados sugerem que, apesar da existência de algumas dificuldades, é possível desenvolver nas escolas do ensino básico práticas de gestão curricular que integrem uma componente de investigação.ABSTRACT: This article describes a project of collaborative research on curriculum, which was created by a team that includes (1) elementary school teachers worried about the lack of interest shown by some of their students with regard to the school and the curriculum, and (2) university professors interested in studying issues of curriculum relevance. This partnership has contributed to an increased use of research in classrooms by those elementary school teachers, through an action research project focused on students’ acknowledgment of the relevance of what they learn in school. Data has been collected in successive cycles of action research, mainly through classroom field notes that provide evidence of given students’ lack of interest with regard to the curriculum, and through interviews conducted by the teachers. Each action research cycle is one school year long. Data have been analyzed by the elementary school teachers, sometimes with support from the university professors, and interpreted both individually and collectively. Such interpretation of data inspires teachers in designing new teaching strategies, which are continuously monitored and reviewed. The processes that have already been consolidated and the results that have already been generated by this project suggest that, despite some difficulties, it is possible to develop curricula in elementary schools in ways that entail research

Convolutional Neural Networks for Olive Oil Classification

The analysis of the quality of olive oil is a task that is hav-ing a lot of impact nowadays due to the large frauds that have been observed in the olive oil market. To solve this problem we have trained a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to classify 701 images obtained using GC-IMS methodology (gas chromatography coupled to ion mobil-ity spectrometry). The aim of this study is to show that Deep Learn-ing techniques can be a great alternative to traditional oil classification methods based on the subjectivity of the standardized sensory analy-sis according to the panel test method, and also to novel techniques provided by the chemical field, such as chemometric markers. This tech-nique is quite expensive since the markers are manually extracted by an expert. The analyzed data includes instances belonging to two different crops, the first covers the years 2014–2015 and the second 2015–2016. Both har-vests have instances classified in the three categories of existing oil, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), virgin olive oil (VOO) and lampante olive oil (LOO). The aim of this study is to demonstrate that Deep Learning techniques in combination with chemical techniques are a good alterna-tive to the panel test method, implying even better accuracy than results obtained in previous wor

Analysis of Macronutrients in Soil Using Impedimetric Multisensor Arrays.

ABSTRACT: The need to increase food production to address the world population growth can only be fulfilled with precision agriculture strategies to increase crop yield with minimal expansion of the cultivated area. One example is site-specific fertilization based on accurate monitoring of soil nutrient levels, which can be made more cost-effective using sensors. This study developed an impedimetric multisensor array using ion-selective membranes to analyze soil samples enriched with macronutrients (N, P, and K), which is compared with another array based on layer-by-layer films. The results obtained from both devices are analyzed with multidimensional projection techniques and machine learning methods, where a decision tree model algorithm chooses the calibrations (best frequencies and sensors). The multicalibration space method indicates that both devices effectively distinguished all soil samples tested, with the ion-selective membrane setup presenting a higher sensitivity to K content. These findings pave the way for more environmentally friendly and efficient agricultural practices, facilitating the mapping of cropping areas for precise fertilizer application and optimized crop yield

Potentiometric Electronic Tongue to Resolve Mixtures of Sulfide and Perchlorate Anions

This work describes the use of an array of potentiometric sensors and an artificial neural network response model to determine perchlorate and sulfide ions in polluted waters, by what is known as an electronic tongue. Sensors used have been all-solid-state PVC membrane selective electrodes, where their ionophores were different metal-phtalocyanine complexes with specific and anion generic responses. The study case illustrates the potential use of electronic tongues in the quantification of mixtures when interfering effects need to be counterbalanced: relative errors in determination of individual ions can be decreased typically from 25% to less than 5%, if compared to the use of a single proposed ion-selective electrode