Acoustic classification of Australian anurans based on hybrid spectral-entropy approach

A new hybrid method for automated frog sound identification, using spectral centroid, Shannon entropy and Rényi entropy is proposed. The advantage of using entropy based information theoretic approach for analyzing complexity of bioacoustics signals in animal vocalization is discussed. Sound samples from nine species of Microhylidae frogs are first segmented into syllables. Fourier spectral centroid, Shannon entropy and Rényi entropy of the syllables are then determined. Finally, nonparametric k-th nearest neighbour (k-NN) classifier is used to recognize the frog species based on these three extracted features. Result shows that the k-NN classifier based on these selected features is capable to identify the species of the frogs with an average accuracy of 98%. It is found that the accuracy reduces significantly only when the noise levels higher than −20 dB.     

Anisotropic transport of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris in microfluidic channel

In this work, we study the regional dependence of transport behavior of microalgae Chlorella vulgaris inside microfluidic channel on applied fluid flow rate. The microalgae are treated as spherical naturally buoyant particles. Deviation from the normal diffusion or Brownian transport is characterized based on the scaling behavior of the mean square displacement(MSD) of the particle trajectories by resolving the displacements in the streamwise(flow) and perpendicular directions.The channel is divided into three different flow regions, namely center region of the channel and two near-wall boundaries and the particle motions are analyzed at different flow rates. We use the scaled Brownian motion to model the transitional characteristics in the scaling behavior of the MSDs. We find that there exist anisotropic anomalous transports in all the three flow regions with mixed sub-diffusive, normal and super-diffusive behavior in both longitudinal and transverse directions.     

Bis(N,N‐di­methyl­thio­carbamoyl­thio)­acetic acid

Bis(N,N‐di­methyl­thio­carbamoyl­thio)­acetic acid, [(CH₃)₂NC(=S)S]₂CHC(=O)OH or C₈H₁₄N₂O₂S₄, exists as a centrosymmetric hydrogen‐bonded dimer [O?O 2.661 (3) Å].     

Use of unmodified silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as colorimetric Hg(II) sensor: A new approach to sensitive and high sample throughput determination of Hg(II) under high influence of ionic suppression

Facile unmodified silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as colorimetric sensor for determination of Hg(II) ions in aqueous samples were developed using UV-Vis spectrophotometry. Abrupt change in absorbance of the AgNPs was observed, which progressively decreased and slightly shifted to the blue wavelength as the concentration of Hg(II) increased. It appears that the AgNPs were oxidized by Hg(II), resulting in disintegration of the AgNPs and Hg(0). Deposition of Hg(0) on the surface of AgNPs also occurred, resulting in amalgam particles of mercury (Hg-Ag). Interestingly, the developed approach showed a significant enhancement in the Hg(II) analytical sensitivity when formic acid was doped onto the AgNPs, with the linearity range of 0.01–10 mg L^?1 (r² = 0.999) providing the quantitative detection limit of 0.007 mg L^?1 (3SD blank/slope of the calibration curve). Greater selectivity toward Hg(II) over other ions and colour dyes was also observed, likely a result of stabilization by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), which kept the AgNPs well-stabilized and dispersed in the bulk aqueous environment making them resistant to ionic suppression. Under using a 96-well microplate and a smartphone equipped with homemade application as a colorimetric analyzer under controlled lighting, high sample throughput (128 sample h^?1, n = 4) was achieved, establishing its potential for practical analysis. The percentage recoveries of spiked aqueous samples obtained from the microplate-based system were in acceptable range, in agreement with the values obtained from the UV-Vis spectrophotometry-based system. The proposed colorimetric sensor has been shown to provide a rapid, simple, sensitive and selective detection of Hg(II) ions in various aqueous samples.     

Critical Dynamics of Transverse-field Quantum Ising Model using Finite-Size Scaling and Matrix Product States

The study of phase transition is usually done by numerical simulation of finite system. Conventional methods such as Monte Carlo simulations and phenomenological renormalization group methods obtain the critical exponents without obtaining the quantum wavefunction of the system. The Matrix Product States formalism allows one to obtain accurate numerical wavefunctions of short ranged interacting quantum many-body systems. In this study we combine the Finite Size Scaling theory and Matrix Product States formalism to study the critical dynamics of one-dimensional quantum Ising model. Finite size simulations of 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 spins are done using the Density Matrix Renormalization Group to obtain the ground state wavefunction of the system. The thermodynamic quantities such as the magnetization, susceptibility and correlation function are calculated. The critical exponents independently calculated are respectively β/ν = 0.1235(1), γ/ν = 1.7351(2), and η = 0.249(1). They conform with the theoretical values from analytical solution and fulfil the hyperscaling relation. We showed that both methods combined can reliably study the critical dynamics of one-dimensional Ising-like quantum lattice systems. Application of the study on water-ice phase transition of single-file water in nanopores is proposed.