In this study, an automatic detection method for mura defects is developed based on an accurate reconstruction of the background and precise evaluation of the mura index level. To achieve this, an ...effective background reconstruction method is first developed to represent the brightness intensity of the display panel. As a result, any nonuniform brightness of the background can be removed effectively. Furthermore, the associated mura level is quantified based on the sensitivity of the human eye in order to alternatively grade the liquid‐crystal display panels. The main focus of this study is on the reconstruction of the background from the display under test image. The proposed method takes full advantage of the following three existing methods: low‐pass filtering, discrete cosine transform, and polynomial surface fitting. By applying the method to several case studies, we have shown that it is more effective compared with other existing methods in detecting various types of mura defects.
We developed an algorithm to adaptively reconstruct the background image with high accuracy and a highly efficient computation process for the entire mura detection. We applied the reconstructed background to the image segmentation process based on the sensitivity of the human eye. We finally validated the proposed method by comparing the results obtained with those of previous studies.
In the field of soft electronics, high-resolution and transparent structures based on various flexible materials constructed via various printing techniques are gaining attention. With the support of ...electrical stress-induced conductive inks, the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jet printing technique enables us to build high-resolution structures compared with conventional inkjet printing techniques. Here, EHD jet printing was used to fabricate a high-resolution, transparent, and flexible strain sensor using a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/xylene elastomer, where repetitive and controllable high-resolution printed mesh structures were obtained. The parametric effects of voltage, flow rate, nozzle distance from the substrate, and speed were experimentally investigated to achieve a high-resolution (5 µm) printed mesh structure. Plasma treatment was performed to enhance the adhesion between the AgNWs and the elastomer structure. The plasma-treated functional structure exhibited stable and long strain-sensing cycles during stretching and bending. This simple printing technique resulted in high-resolution, transparent, flexible, and stable strain sensing. The gauge factor of the strain sensor was significantly increased, owing to the high resolution and sensitivity of the printed mesh structures, demonstrating that EHD technology can be applied to high-resolution microchannels, 3D printing, and electronic devices.
Natural biopesticide development for invasive populations of red palm weevils is mainly responsible for the destruction of date palms and demands an extensive screening program of plant secondary ...metabolites. In the current study, the pesticidal potential of sesquiterpenes (C
H
), an important class of plant secondary metabolites primarily composed of three isoprene units, was evaluated by laboratory toxicity, feeding performance bioassays, and host detoxification gene expression patterns. Dose-mortality response bioassays performed against mid-aged eighth-instar red palm weevil larvae revealed dose-dependent mortality. Only three sesquiterpenes, including Farnesol (LD
= 6559 ppm) and Farnesyl acetate (LD
= 7867 ppm), are considered to have significant toxicity, with Picrotoxin (LD
= 317 ppm) being the most toxic. Furthermore, highly toxic sesquiterpene (Picrotoxin) established in the current study tremendously reduced the feeding performance indices, including the efficacy of conversion of digested food (ECD) (81.74%) and the efficacy of conversion of ingested food (ECI) (73.62%). The least toxic sesquiterpenes, including β-Caryophyllene, (+)-Cedrol, Nerolidol, (+)-Nootkatone, and Parthenolide, observed in the current study failed to impart significant reductions of ECI and ECD indices. Lethality of the least toxic sesquiterpenes was overcome by greatly inducing gene expressions of
and
. These encouraging results enabled us to suggest Picrotoxin as a promising biopesticide for the control of red palm weevil infestations.
Industrial sector is of great significance for the economic growth of every country. The energy crisis in Pakistan has become the prime stumbling block in the economic development of the country. ...There are many industrial processes that need uninterrupted supply; even a trivial outage can cost millions of dollars. The main cause of "load shedding" in Pakistan is that it produces a major portion of its energy from fossil fuels, whose price and demand is constantly increasing. Most of the customers at industrial and commercial level use Diesel Generator (DiG) as a reliable alternative source of electrical power when grid supply is unavailable. The use of DiG during loading shedding hours would increase the Cost of Energy (COE) per kWh and also enhance environmental emissions. Pakistan has a wide range of renewable power sources like bioenergy, wind, solar, hydel, geothermal etc. The distinct emphasis on the implementation of an industrial microgrid in Faisalabad, Pakistan has been specified in this paper. The prospective benefits of the microgrid fall into three major kinds: cost reduction, fuel saving, and improved environmental emissions. The optimized objective of this work is to maximize these benefits. Moreover while designing the hybrid microgrid system it encounters many design challenges like sizing of the components, system feasibility, COE, system reliability etc. This study contributes to the ongoing studies about hybrid microgrid system and draws attention to the optimal design and sizing considering several techno-economic factors including Net Present Cost (NPC), COE, supply reliability, capacity shortage constraint, battery state of charge (SOC), dispatch strategy, PV power generation and PV array tracking systems. Different cases are studied; microgrid sizing, techno-economic exploration, sensitivity analysis and environmental effects are addressed using (Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables) HOMER. The results show that COE and environmental emissions have been significantly reduced for the proposed system.
This study aimed to explore the larvicidal and growth-inhibiting activities, and underlying detoxification mechanism of red palm weevil against phenylpropanoids, an important class of plant secondary ...metabolites. Toxicity of α-asarone, eugenol, isoeugenol, methyl eugenol, methyl isoeugenol, coumarin, coumarin 6, coniferyl aldehyde, diniconazole, ethyl cinnamate, and rosmarinic acid was evaluated by incorporation into the artificial diet. All of the phenylpropanoids exhibited dose- and time-dependent insecticidal activity. Among all the tested phenylpropanoids, coumarin exhibited the highest toxicity by revealing the least LD
value (0.672 g/L). In addition, the most toxic compound (coumarin) observed in the current study, deteriorated the growth resulting tremendous reduction (78.39%) in efficacy of conversion of digested food (ECD), and (ECI) efficacy of conversion of ingested food (70.04%) of tenth-instar red palm weevil larvae. The energy-deficient red palm weevil larvae through their intrinsic abilities showed enhanced response to their digestibility resulting 27.78% increase in approximate digestibility (AD) compared to control larvae. The detoxification response of
larvae determined by the quantitative expression of
,
, and
revealed enhanced expression among moderately toxic and ineffective compounds. These genes especially
and
detoxify the target compounds by enhancing their solubility that leads rapid excretion and degradation resulting low toxicity towards red palm weevil larvae. On the other hand, the most toxic (coumarin) silenced the genes involved in the red palm weevil detoxification mechanism. Based on the toxicity, growth retarding, and masking detoxification activities, coumarin could be a useful future natural red palm weevil-controlling agent.
Insects infected with entomopathogenic fungi, experience physiological changes that influence their growth and immune defence. The potential of nine isolates of entomopathogenic fungi was evaluated ...after determining percent germination and relative conidial hydrophobicity. However, nutritional indices were evaluated after immersing eighth-instar Rhynchophorus ferrugineus larvae into each isolate suspension (1 × 10⁷ conidia/mL). The results showed that isolates B6884 and M9374 had 44.51% and 39.02% higher conidial hydrophobicity compared with isolate I03011 (least virulent). The results of nutritional index assays revealed a significant reduction in growth indices after infection with different isolates. Compared with control, B6884 and M9374 greatly decreased larval growth by reducing the efficacy of conversion of ingested food (36%-47%) and Efficacy of conversion of digested food (50%-63%). Furthermore, only isolate B6884 induced 100% mortality within 12 days. Compared with control, isolate I03011, possessing the lowest conidial hydrophobicity, only reduced 0.29% of the efficacy of conversion of ingested food (ECI) and 0.48% of the efficacy of conversion of digested food (ECD). Similarly, transcriptomic analysis of genes related to the Red palm weevil (RPW) immune response, including pathogen recognition receptors (C-type lectin and endo-beta-1,4-glucanse), signal modulator (Serine protease-like protein), signal transductors (Calmodulin-like protein and EF-hand domain containing protein) and effectors (C-type lysozyme, Cathepsin L., Defensin-like protein, Serine carboxypeptidase, and Thaumatin-like protein), was significantly increased in larval samples infected with B6884 and M9374. These results suggest that for an isolate to be virulent, conidial hydrophobicity and germination should also be considered during pathogen selection, as these factors could significantly impact host growth and immune defence mechanisms.
Load restoration coordinating transmission grid, distribution grid, and microgrids is an effective measure that is taken into consideration while improving the power system resilience in extreme ...weather conditions. An online decision-making method is proposed to deal with the unexpected nature of power supply issues regarding the re-energization of microgrids and transmission grids. In this research work, an online multi-agent interaction technique is used for coordinated load restoration. The main algorithm comprises of two subsections, namely, a resilience index and a multi-agent-based decision-making system which are used to administer the coordination among the transmission grid, distribution grid, and microgrids. A distributionally robust optimization model is used to evaluate the power supply capability of microgrids on the basis of load restoration parameters. Finally, a step-by-step decision-making method, based on a deep Q-network, is proposed for distribution network reconfiguration considering the uncertainty of power supply capabilities of transmission grid and microgrids. Simulation results demonstrated that the proposed method can perform the online decision-making of substation load restoration, which significantly improves the load restoration efficiency.
—Micropumps have attracted considerable interest in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), microfluidic devices, and biomedical engineering to transfer fluids through capillaries. However, ...improving the sluggish capillary-driven flow of highly viscous fluids is critical for commercializing MEMS devices, particularly in underfill applications. This study investigated the behavior of different viscous fluid flows under the influence of capillary and electric potential effects. We observed that upon increasing the electric potential to 500 V, the underfill flow length of viscous fluids increased by 45% compared to their capillary flow length. To explore the dynamics of underfill flow under the influence of an electric potential, the polarity of highly viscous fluids was altered by adding NaCl. The results indicated an increase of 20–41% in the underfill flow length of highly viscous conductive fluids (0.5–4% NaCl additives in glycerol) at 500 V compared to that at 0 V. The underfill viscous fluid flow length improved under the electric potential effect owing to the polarity across the substance and increased permittivity of the fluid. A time-dependent simulation, which included a quasi-electrostatic module, level set module, and laminar two-phase flow, was executed using the COMSOL Multiphysics software to analyze the effect of the external electric field on the capillary-driven flow. The numerical simulation results agreed well with the experimental data, with an average deviation of 4–7% at various time steps for different viscous fluids. Our findings demonstrate the potential of utilizing electric fields to control the capillary-driven flow of highly viscous fluids in underfill applications.
In this work, for the first time a highly conductive ceramic composite was made by incorporating multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in aluminum (Al)/alumina (Al
2
O
3
) matrix by a simple ...mechanical mixing technique. The different weight percentage (wt%) of MWCNT incorporated with Al/Al
2
O
3
and their role on the electrical and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of ceramic composites were investigated. The high electrical conductivity of 280 S/m was achieved for MWCNT@Al/Al
2
O
3
composites with 8 wt% MWCNT content which is 280 times higher than MWCNT@Al/Al
2
O
3
composites (1 S/m) with 1 wt% MWCNT. In addition, MWCNT@Al/Al
2
O
3
sample showed a high EMI SE value of 46 dB for the X-band which is capable to block more than 99.9% of incident electromagnetic radiation. The high electrical conductivity and EMI SE properties of MWCNTs embedded ceramic composite system has originated from the homogenous distribution of conducting carbon nanotubes to form a percolated network at low filler loading. This work presents a strategy to develop a conductive ceramic composites for the excellent EMI shielding and electrical properties by a simple mechanical mixing approach.
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