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Nowadays, heat, ventilation and air conditioning system are an essential part in a building. In order to achieve energy saving, the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system have to enhance the designs of their various types of integrated electrical and mechanical components so that to control and operate plant optimally. This paper presented the development of smart sensor controller for heat, ventilation and air conditioning system by using Arduino. Smart sensor controller can be regarded a device that can control the speed of the motor based on the number of person detected by the infrared sensor. The motor used in this project will represent the fan motor of the normal air conditioner. The objective of the smart sensor controller is to prove the energy saving concept and to reduce the electrical consumption for the HVAC system. The experiment conducted show that the implementation of the smart sensor controller provides an average energy saving efficiency of 45.13 % compare to HVAC system without smart sensor controller.

With the rapid development of electronic technology and information technology, personal computer has gradually become the public's office or entertainment tools, which also makes the computer mouse a widely used tool. However, most computer mouse on the market today come with batteries. In this context, it is necessary to design a batteryless mouse that without using power supply such as battery. In view of such demand, on the basic of theoretical analysis, this paper summarizes and designs a classical wireless transmission structure – magnetic resonant coupling and antenna that used to transmit and received power for communication devices. In order to understand the operation of wireless power transmission technology, the paper analysed antenna construction and wireless power transmission technology. The basic design parameters of the axial mode helical antenna structure are also explained. Finally, by using CST STUDIO software, axial mode helical antenna with gain of 6.45 dBi was obtained. The system's output voltage is successfully simulated at 1.516 V that can powered up the computer mouse.

ABSTRACT Assembling a functional consortium and identifying novel degraders from contaminated environments are still challenging due to the large diversity of microorganisms and the difficulty in isolating pure cultures. Here, we constructed a relatively simple functional consortium by enriching 1,4-dioxane-degrading-consortia using a culture-dependent dilution-to-extinction (DTE) method and reported a new key dioxane-degrader Shinella sp. Our results showed that serial dilution and reculture led to a divergence in the degradation ability of each consortium. Next-generation sequencing data revealed that the divergence in degradation performance was due to the reassembly of microbiota in the DTE process, which occurred most notably in 10−8 and 10−9 dilutions. The shift in community structure at 10−9 prevented the recovery of 1,4-dioxane degradation capacity, and the newly dominant taxa, Xanthobacter and Acinetobacter, struggled to replace the original dominant genus Shinella for 1,4-dioxane biodegradation. Combining differential analysis of community structure and metabolic function, we confirmed that Shinella species have a stronger 1,4-dioxane degradation ability than Xanthobacter species in the enriched consortium. In addition, we verified our findings using our isolated dioxane-degrading bacteria, Shinella yambaruensis, resulting in the rapid recovery of degradation performance of a 10−9 dilution consortium with Xanthobacter and Acinetobacter as the dominant microbiota. Taken together, this study provides a strategy for self-assembling functional consortiums and identifying the key degraders to explore the underlying biological mechanisms of enriched contaminant-degrading consortia. IMPORTANCE Assembling a functional microbial consortium and identifying key degraders involved in the degradation of 1,4-dioxane are crucial for the design of synergistic consortia used in enhancing the bioremediation of 1,4-dioxane-contaminated sites. However, due to the vast diversity of microbes, assembling a functional consortium and identifying novel degraders through a simple method remain a challenge. In this study, we reassembled 1,4-dioxane-degrading microbial consortia using a simple and easy-to-operate method by combining dilution-to-extinction and reculture techniques. We combined differential analysis of community structure and metabolic function and confirmed that Shinella species have a stronger 1,4-dioxane degradation ability than Xanthobacter species in the enriched consortium. In addition, a new dioxane-degrading bacterium was isolated, Shinella yambaruensis, which verified our findings. These results demonstrate that DTE and reculture techniques can be used beyond diversity reduction to assemble functional microbial communities, particularly to identify key degraders in contaminant-degrading consortia.

Cordycepin is considered a major bioactive component in Cordyceps militaris extract. This study was performed to evaluate the ameliorative effect of Cordyceps militaris extract (CME) and cordycepin (CPN) supplementation on intestinal damage in LPS-challenged piglets. The results showed that CPN or CME supplementation significantly increased the villus height (p < 0.01) and villus height/crypt depth ratio (p < 0.05) in the jejunum and ileum of piglets with LPS-induced intestinal inflammation. Meanwhile, CPN or CME supplementation alleviated oxidative stress and inflammatory responses by reducing the levels of MDA (p < 0.05) and pro-inflammatory cytokines in the serum. Additionally, supplementation with CPN or CME modulated the structure of the intestinal microbiota by enriching short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria, and increased the level of butyrate (p < 0.05). The RNA-seq results demonstrated that CME or CPN altered the complement and coagulation-cascade-related genes (p < 0.05), including upregulating gene KLKB1 while downregulating the genes CFD, F2RL2, CFB, C4BPA, F7, C4BPB, CFH, C3 and PROS1, which regulate the complement activation involved in inflammatory and immune responses. Correlation analysis further demonstrated the potential relation between the gut microbiota and intestinal inflammation, oxidative stress, and butyrate in piglets. In conclusion, CPN or CME supplementation might inhibit LPS-induced inflammation and oxidative stress by modulating the intestinal microbiota and its metabolite butyrate in piglets.

Due to the increasing difficulty of finding vacant parking slots in urban cities, Smart Parking System has been developed to solve the problem. It is a system that can show the status of all parking slots in an area which allows drivers to find parking easily. The objective of this paper is to design a Smart Parking System by using Internet of things (IoT) sensors and evaluate the system’s performance. In this paper, ultrasonic sensors will be used as the IoT sensors while the microcontroller of the system is the NodeMCU ESP8266. The ultrasonic sensors will be placed in each parking slot to detect the presence of a vehicle. When the sensor detects a car, it will send this information to the microcontroller and the microcontroller will update the parking data stored in the cloud server via an internet connection. The users can then access the parking information in the cloud with their mobile devices by scanning the Quick Response (QR) code provided or directly visiting the cloud online. In addition, unique designs are proposed to solve some common problems faced by the parking systems such as the ultrasonic sensor might be malfunctioning and the sensor is unable to differentiate between a vehicle and a pedestrian. The performance of the system will then be evaluated based on its accuracy. From the results obtained, the system prototype achieved an accuracy of 100 %. Comparing this system with other Smart Parking Systems proposed, it proves that this method has higher cost-efficiency and reliability. This shows the significance of this research since higher system reliability and cost-efficiency can increase the confidence of the parking area owners to implement this Smart Parking System which can save the driver’s time and reduce air pollution.

The past decade has witnessed rapid research and developments in wind energy conversion systems and related enabling technologies. The incorporation of wind turbines in the integral design of buildings has become a promising approach to promote on-site renewable energy conversion in urban areas. However, information pertaining the efficiency of the wind turbines, wind speeds and the integration of generated wind power to the grid in urban environments is scarce. This review paper aims to capture the fact that recent advancements in wind energy systems are able to deliver tangible benefits to the renewable energy technology (RET) industry as a whole. A comprehensive review has been carried out on the applied techniques of radial wind turbine (RWTs), contra-rotating wind turbines (CRWTs), hybrid Savonius–Darrieus rotor, piezoelectric generators, flag-type triboelectric nanogenerator and stretching-enhanced triboelectric nanogenerator. This paper provides a knowledge platform for readers to explore possible methods in exploiting the advantages of urban wind profiles with minimal vibration, noise and installation space. Unique approaches pertaining the developments of wind energy system in urban environments are reviewed and reported in this paper. Several research gaps are also identified to guide future study in urban wind energy conversion systems.

Electrowetting Display (EWD) is a new reflective display with an outstanding performance of color video playback. However, some problems still exist and affect its performance. For instance, oil backflow, oil splitting, and charge trapping phenomena may occur during the driving process of EWDs, which would decrease its stability of multi-level grayscales. Therefore, an efficient driving waveform was proposed to solve these disadvantages. It consisted of a driving stage and a stabilizing stage. First, an exponential function waveform was used in the driving stage for driving the EWDs quickly. Then, an alternating current (AC) pulse signal waveform was used in the stabilizing stage to release the trapped positive charges of the insulating layer to improve display stability. A set of four level grayscale driving waveforms were designed by using the proposed method, and it was used in comparative experiments. The experiments showed that the proposed driving waveform could mitigate oil backflow and splitting effects. Compared to a traditional driving waveform, the luminance stability was increased by 8.9%, 5.9%, 10.9%, and 11.6% for the four level grayscales after 12 s, respectively.

The dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) has been recognized as a key cortical area for nociceptive modulation. However, the underlying neural pathway and the function of specific cell types remain largely unclear. Here, we show that lesions in the dmPFC induced an algesic and anxious state. Using multiple tracing methods including a rabies-based transsynaptic tracing method, we outlined an excitatory descending neural pathway from the dmPFC to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG). Specific activation of the dmPFC/vlPAG neural pathway by optogenetic manipulation produced analgesic and antianxiety effects in a mouse model of chronic pain. Inhibitory neurons in the dmPFC were specifically activated using a chemogenetic approach, which logically produced an algesic and anxious state under both normal and chronic pain conditions. Antagonists of the [GABA.sub.A] receptor ([GABA.sub.A]R) or mGluR1 were applied to the dmPFC, which produced analgesic and antianxiety effects. In summary, the results of our study suggest that the dmPFC/vlPAG neural pathway might participate in the maintenance of pain thresholds and antianxiety behaviors under normal conditions, while silencing or suppressing the dmPFC/vlPAG pathway might be involved in the initial stages and maintenance of chronic pain and the emergence of anxiety-like behaviors., Introduction Patients with chronic pain usually experience not only severe pain perception but also negative emotions and decreased cognitive abilities (1, 2). Intractable and permanent pain conditions easily develop into [...]

Abstract Introduction Keloids are a prevalent chronic skin disorder with significant psychosocial morbidity. Intralesional corticosteroid injections are the first-line treatment but are painful and require repeated injections by medical professionals. Dissolving microneedles are a novel method of cutaneous drug delivery that induces minimal/no pain and can be self-administered. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of triamcinolone-embedded dissolving microneedles in treatment of keloids. Methods This was a single-blind, intra-individual controlled two-phase clinical trial of 8-week duration each. Two keloids per subject were selected for (1) once-daily 2-min application with microneedles for 4 weeks, followed by no treatment for the next 4 weeks, or (2) non-intervention as control. Primary outcome was change in keloid volume as assessed by a high-resolution 3D scanner. Results There was significant reduction in keloid volume compared with controls after 4 weeks of treatment. This reduction was greater with a higher dosage of triamcinolone used. Conclusions Once-daily application of dissolving triamcinolone-embedded microneedles significantly reduced the volume of keloids. The treatment was safe, can be self-administered and can serve as an alternative for patients unsuitable for conventional treatments. Trial Registration Trial Registry: Health Science Authority (Singapore) Clinical Trials Register Registration number: 2015/00440.