Microplastics in Different Tissues of a Commonly Consumed Fish, Scomberomorus guttatus, from a Large Subtropical Estuary: Accumulation, Characterization, and Contamination Assessment.

Microplastics (MPs) ingestion by fish signifies a worldwide threat to human health but limited research has examined their existence within the consumable portions (muscle) of fish. Thus, this study was undertaken to unveil the prevalence, characterization, and contamination extent of MPs across various body tissues, including the muscle of the king mackerel (S. guttatus) from the lower Meghna estuary in Bangladesh-a pioneering investigation in this region. In our analysis, we identified a total of 487 MPs, with an average abundance of 48.7 ± 20.3 MPs/individual. These MPs were distributed across different tissues, with respective concentrations of 0.84 ± 0.45 items/g in the digestive tract, 2.56 ± 0.73 items/g in the gills, and 0.3 ± 1.72 items/g in the muscle tissue. The observed variations among these tissue types were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Moreover, a significant positive correlation indicated that fish with higher weight had higher MPs in their gills and DT (digestive tract). The majority were <0.5 mm in size (97.74%) and exhibited a fiber-like shape (97.74%), with a notable prevalence of transparent (25.87%) and a pink coloration (27.92%). Remarkably, the majority of MPs were discovered within the size range of <0.5-1 mm (100%), particularly in the muscle tissue, signifying a substantial transfer of MPs into the human diet. Besides, we discovered only three polymer types of microplastics which could be attributed to the extensive use of food packaging, plastic containers, wrapping plastics, residential garbage, and plastic pipes that end up in the aquatic environment via river discharges. The contamination factor (CF) values of fish muscle (5.75) and the digestive tract (5.50) indicated that these fish organs were considerably contaminated (3 < CF < 6) with MPs. The pollution index of MPs (PLI > 1) indicated a high contamination level for MPs pollution of S. guttatus in the lower Meghna River estuary.

Improved EEG-based emotion recognition through information enhancement in connectivity feature map.

Electroencephalography (EEG), despite its inherited complexity, is a preferable brain signal for automatic human emotion recognition (ER), which is a challenging machine learning task with emerging applications. In any automatic ER, machine learning (ML) models classify emotions using the extracted features from the EEG signals, and therefore, such feature extraction is a crucial part of ER process. Recently, EEG channel connectivity features have been widely used in ER, where Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), mutual information (MI), phase-locking value (PLV), and transfer entropy (TE) are well-known methods for connectivity feature map (CFM) construction. CFMs are typically formed in a two-dimensional configuration using the signals from two EEG channels, and such two-dimensional CFMs are usually symmetric and hold redundant information. This study proposes the construction of a more informative CFM that can lead to better ER. Specifically, the proposed innovative technique intelligently combines CFMs' measures of two different individual methods, and its outcomes are more informative as a fused CFM. Such CFM fusion does not incur additional computational costs in training the ML model. In this study, fused CFMs are constructed by combining every pair of methods from PCC, PLV, MI, and TE; and the resulting fused CFMs PCC + PLV, PCC + MI, PCC + TE, PLV + MI, PLV + TE, and MI + TE are used to classify emotion by convolutional neural network. Rigorous experiments on the DEAP benchmark EEG dataset show that the proposed CFMs deliver better ER performances than CFM with a single connectivity method (e.g., PCC). At a glance, PLV + MI-based ER is shown to be the most promising one as it outperforms the other methods.

Multiple vehicle cooperation and collision avoidance in automated vehicles: survey and an AI-enabled conceptual framework.

Prospective customers are becoming more concerned about safety and comfort as the automobile industry swings toward automated vehicles (AVs). A comprehensive evaluation of recent AVs collision data indicates that modern automated driving systems are prone to rear-end collisions, usually leading to multiple-vehicle collisions. Moreover, most investigations into severe traffic conditions are confined to single-vehicle collisions. This work reviewed diverse techniques of existing literature to provide planning procedures for multiple vehicle cooperation and collision avoidance (MVCCA) strategies in AVs while also considering their performance and social impact viewpoints. Firstly, we investigate and tabulate the existing MVCCA techniques associated with single-vehicle collision avoidance perspectives. Then, current achievements are extensively evaluated, challenges and flows are identified, and remedies are intelligently formed to exploit a taxonomy. This paper also aims to give readers an AI-enabled conceptual framework and a decision-making model with a concrete structure of the training network settings to bridge the gaps between current investigations. These findings are intended to shed insight into the benefits of the greater efficiency of AVs set-up for academics and policymakers. Lastly, the open research issues discussed in this survey will pave the way for the actual implementation of driverless automated traffic systems.

A Cyber-Physical Framework for Optimal Coordination of Connected and Automated Vehicles on Multi-Lane Freeways.

Uncoordinated driving behavior is one of the main reasons for bottlenecks on freeways. This paper presents a novel cyber-physical framework for optimal coordination of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) on multi-lane freeways. We consider that all vehicles are connected to a cloud-based computing framework, where a traffic coordination system optimizes the target trajectories of individual vehicles for smooth and safe lane changing or merging. In the proposed framework, the vehicles are coordinated into groups or platoons, and their trajectories are successively optimized in a receding horizon control (RHC) approach. Optimization of the traffic coordination system aims to provide sufficient gaps when a lane change is necessary while minimizing the speed deviation and acceleration of all vehicles. The coordination information is then provided to individual vehicles equipped with local controllers, and each vehicle decides its control acceleration to follow the target trajectories while ensuring a safe distance. Our proposed method guarantees fast optimization and can be used in real-time. The proposed coordination system was evaluated using microscopic traffic simulations and benchmarked with the traditional driving (human-based) system. The results show significant improvement in fuel economy, average velocity, and travel time for various traffic volumes.

Effect of Step Gate Work Function on InGaAs p-TFET for Low Power Switching Applications.

In this study, we theoretically investigated the effect of step gate work function on the InGaAs p-TFET device, which is formed by dual material gate (DMG). We analyzed the performance parameters of the device for low power digital and analog applications based on the gate work function difference (∆ϕS-D) of the source (ϕS) and drain (ϕD) side gate electrodes. In particular, the work function of the drain (ϕD) side gate electrodes was varied with respect to the high work function of the source side gate electrode (Pt, ϕS = 5.65 eV) to produce the step gate work function. It was found that the device performance varies with the variation of gate work function difference (∆ϕS-D) due to a change in the electric field distribution, which also changes the carrier (hole) distribution of the device. We achieved low subthreshold slope (SS) and off-state current (Ioff) of 30.89 mV/dec and 0.39 pA/µm, respectively, as well as low power dissipation, when the gate work function difference (∆ϕS-D = 1.02 eV) was high. Therefore, the device can be a potential candidate for the future low power digital applications. On the other hand, high transconductance (gm), high cut-off frequency (fT), and low output conductance (gd) of the device at low gate work function difference (∆ϕS-D = 0.61 eV) make it a viable candidate for the future low power analog applications.

Bi-Level Coordinated Merging of Connected and Automated Vehicles at Roundabouts.

Traditional uncoordinated traffic flows in a roundabout can lead to severe traffic congestion, travel delay, and the increased fuel consumption of vehicles. An interesting way to mitigate this would be through cooperative control of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). In this paper, we propose a novel solution, which is a roundabout control system (RCS), for CAVs to attain smooth and safe traffic flows. The RCS is essentially a bi-level framework, consisting of higher and lower levels of control, where in the higher level, vehicles in the entry lane approaching the roundabout will be made to form clusters based on traffic flow volume, and in the lower level, the vehicles' optimal sequences and roundabout merging times are calculated by solving a combinatorial optimization problem using a receding horizon control (RHC) approach. The proposed RCS aims to minimize the total time taken for all approaching vehicles to enter the roundabout, whilst minimally affecting the movement of circulating vehicles. Our developed strategy ensures fast optimization, and can be implemented in real-time. Using microscopic simulations, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the RCS, and compare it to the current traditional roundabout system (TRS) for various traffic flow scenarios. From the results, we can conclude that the proposed RCS produces significant improvement in traffic flow performance, in particular for the average velocity, average fuel consumption, and average travel time in the roundabout.

Potential bioactive phytochemicals, antioxidant properties and anticancer pathways of Nymphaea nouchali

Objective: To investigate bioactive phytochemicals and antioxidant activities of Nymphaea nouchali and to explore its anticancer pathways by a network pharmacology approach. Methods: Using a spectrophotometer and high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), we quantified bioactive phytochemicals in methanolic extract of Nymphaea nouchali tuber. The extracts were investigated for in vitro antioxidant properties. Targets of these bioactive phytochemicals were predicted and anticancer-associated pathways were analyzed by a network pharmacology approach. Moreover, we identified the predicted genes associated with cancer pathways and the hub genes in the protein-protein interaction network of predicted genes. Results: Quantitative results indicated the total phenolics, total flavonoids, and total proanthocyanidins in the methanolic extract of Nymphaea nouchali tuber. HPLC-DAD analysis showed rutin (39.44 mg), catechin (39.20 mg), myricetin (30.77 mg), ellagic acid (11.05 mg), gallic acid (3.67 mg), vanillic acid (0.75 mg), rosmarinic acid (4.81 mg), p-coumaric acid (3.35 mg), and quercetin (0.90 mg) in 1 g of dry extract. The extract showed the radical scavenging activities of 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, 2,2'-azino- bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and N,N-dimethyl-p phenylenediamine. By using network pharmacology, we predicted 130 target genes associated with cancer pathways. The top hub genes (IL6, AKT1, EGFR, JUN, PTGS2, MAPK3, CASP3, and CXCL8) were also identified, which were associated with cancer pathways and interacted with bioactive phytochemicals of the methanolic extract of Nymphaea nouchali tuber. Conclusions: Our study provides insights into the mechanism of anticancer activities of the methanolic extract of Nymphaea nouchali tuber.