FRUGAL LIVING 数码节能季

在资源日益匮乏的今天,呼吁建设节能型社会的声音日益高涨,节能与环保一样已经被人们提到议事日程。作为单纯的个体,也许你认为自己微不足道,但是所谓不积跬步,无以至千里;不积小流,无以成江海,每个人的力量都是不可缺少的。

Effect of Casuarina Crushed Nodules, Rhizospheric Soil and Leaves Compost on Salt Tolerance of <i>Casuarina equisetifolia</i>L. and <i>Casuarina obesa</i>Miq.

Soil salinization is one of the major causes of land degradation. In Senegal, this phenomenon continues to grow, making soils unsuitable for agriculture. To rehabilitate salty lands, one of the recommended strategies is the use of salt-tolerant plants. Among them, plants of Casuarinaceae family form a relationship with symbiotic microorganisms such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen fixing bacteria. It has been shown that symbiotic microorganisms play an important role in the establishment of tolerant plants in saline conditions (Djighaly et al., 2018). They improve plant performance and reduce transplant shock under salt stress conditions (Diagne et al., 2014). These microorganisms can be used as biofertilizers. However, inocula containing symbiotic microorganisms are either too expensive or unavailable in many developing countries. The aim of this study is to test alternatively affordable and low-tech solutions to promote symbiotic interactions such as Casuarina crushed nodule, Casuarina rhizosphere soil and Casuarina leaves compost that may contain symbiotic microorganisms and also nutrients such as N and phosphorus. Two species of Casuarina (Casuarina equisetifolia L. and Casuarina obesa Miq.) were grown in the greenhouse on sterile soil to which an amendment was added (Casuarina crushed nodules, Casuarina Rhizospheric soil or Casuarina leaves compost). Plants were subjected to saline stress. After four months of cultivation, they were harvested and morphological and physiological parameters were determined. Results showed that inoculation with Casuarina crushed nodules, Casuarina rhizospheric soil and Casuarina leaves compost improved growth, total dry biomass, total chlorophyll and proline contents of C. equisetifolia and C. obesa plants in salt stress condition. These positive effects were more important in C. obesa plants amended with Casuarina leaves compost. This study shows that Casuarina leaves compost can play an important role in the rehabilitation of saline soils by improving Casuarina trees performance in saline conditions.

AI Inventions: The Best Mode Requirement, Is It up for Redefinition, Minimizing Potential Innovation Bias and Optimizing Visual Aids?

From the author, there are not less than a dozen of rather significant recent publications in scientific editions anticipating some aspects of importance to innovation such as “bigger data”, AI, IP, and frontier technology with a central massive contribution in 2020 on AI, IP, and EI. Nonetheless, the IP associated with AI remains still barely covered in scientific publications. Especially patent discussion tends to be rather a legal matter. Another trilogy, 2013, “Business Strategy-IP Strategy-R&D Strategy: An All-in-One Business Model” proposed by the author, marked the advent, and customized implementation of a new strategy level. After the two trilogies’ volumes, the AI-IP “accessibility” chapter was a logical step brought to the attention of a larger public by the author. The time now to bring to light another chapter, namely the IP eligibility of AI innovation steps in ad hoc inventions. The main objectives of this short, principally illustrated communication, are to: 1) Revise the best mode requirement status, i.e. the best way to enable the reproducibility of claimed matter, reviewing its need for improvement when AI is involved. And proposing a unique sequence of evolution inspired by IP’s current and evolving practices. 2) Give a new dimension to visual aids to help the Best Mode description, demystify AI complexity, and underline frontier traits that may hinder a confident adoption or well-argued rejection. 3) Further illustrations take into account the fact that IoT, AI, and 3D can be simpler than perceived. 4) Finally ATA&#169;, Adjacent Technology Analysis, is timely refreshed in a unique challenging, indeed tumultuous, environment. 5) Bias, such as semantic ones is consistently monitored. 6) Overall leaving space for innovative pleasurable interpretation. The emphasis is on educational, illustrative and demonstrative value.

3D printing-based frugal manufacturing of glass pipettes for minimally invasive delivery of therapeutics to the brain

Objective:Intracerebral delivery of agents in liquid form is usually achieved through commercially available and durable metal needles.However,their size and texture may contribute to mechanical brain damage.Glass pipettes with a thin tip may significantly reduce injection-associated brain damage but require access to prohibitively expensive programmable pipette pullers.This study is to remove the economic barrier to the application of minimally invasive delivery of therapeutics to the brain,such as chemical compounds,viral vectors,and cells.Methods:We took advantage of the rapid development of free educational online resources and emerging low-cost 3D printers by designing an affordable pipette puller(APP)to remove the cost obstacle.Results:We showed that our APP could produce glass pipettes with a sharp tip opening down to 20μm or less,which is sufficiently thin for the delivery of therapeutics into the brain.A pipeline from pipette pulling to brain injection using low-cost and open-source equipment was established to facilitate the application of the APP.Conclusion:In the spirit of frugal science,our device may democratize glass pipette-puling and substantially promote the application of minimally invasive and precisely controlled delivery of therapeutics to the brain for finding more effective therapies of brain diseases.

FIMI： A Constant Frugal Incentive Mechanism for Time WindowCoverage in Mobile Crowdsensing

Mobile crowdsensing has become an efficient paradigm for performing large-scale sensing tasks. An incentive mechanism is important for a mobile crowdsensing system to stimulate participants and to achieve good service quality. In this paper, we explore truthful incentive mechanisms that focus on minimizing the total payment for a novel scenario, where the platform needs the complete sensing data in a requested time window (RTW). We model this scenario as a reverse auction and design FIMI, a constant frugal incentive mechanism for time window coverage. FIMI consists of two phases, the candidate selection phase and the winner selection phase. In the candidate selection phase, it selects two most competitive disjoint feasible user sets. Afterwards, in the winner selection phase, it finds all the interchangeable user sets through a graph-theoretic approach. For every pair of such user sets, FIMI chooses one of them by the weighted cost. Further, we extend FIMI to the scenario where the RTW needs to be covered more than once. Through both rigorous theoretical analysis and extensive simulations, we demonstrate that the proposed mechanisms achieve the properties of RTW feasibility (or RTW multi-coverage), computation efficiency, individual rationality, truthfulness, and constant frugality.

无4-圈和5-圈的平面图的k-frugal列表染色

在图G的一个正常点染色c中,对于图中任意一点v,如果每种颜色在点v的邻点中至多出现k-1次,这个染色就称为图G的一个k-frugal染色。关于无4-圈和5-圈的平面图的k-frugal列表染色问题,有以下两个结论:(1)对于一切不含4-圈和5-圈的平面图,如果其最大度满足Δ≥3k+8,其k-frugal列表色数小于等于「Δ/(k-1)]+2;(2)一切不含4-圈和5-圈的平面图,则其k-frugal列表色数小于等于「Δ/(k-1)]+5。

Frugal innovation and the digital divide:Developing an extended model of the diffusion of innovations

Based on diffusion of innovation(DOI)theory and economic consumption analysis as well as the concept of frugal innovation,this study develops an extended DOI model that theorizes the characteristics of the diffusion of frugal information communication technologies(ICTs)and their impacts on the Internet diffusion.This model posits that frugal digital ICTs diffuse more rapidly in developing countries than in developed countries and significantly bridge the digital divide between them.The diffusion of frugal smartphones is investigated as a case of the diffusion of frugal digital ICTs,which provides empirical evidence for the theoretical model presented herein.

The Fold-Illuminator:A low-cost,portable,and disposable incubator-illuminator device

Fluorescent reporters have revolutionized modern applications in the fields of molecular and synthetic biology,enabling applications ranging from education to point-of-care diagnostics.Past advancements in these fields have primarily focused on improving reaction conditions,the development of new applications,and the broad dissemination of these technologies.However,field and classroom-based applications have remained limited in part due to the nature of fluorescent signal detection,which often requires the use of costly lab equipment to observe and quantify fluorescence readouts.Users without access to laboratory equipment rely on qualitative assessments of fluorescence,a process that remains highly variable from user-to-user even within the same classroom.To overcome this challenge,we have developed a foldable illuminator and incubator device to support field-applications of synthetic biology-based biosensors for education and diagnostics.The Fold-Illuminator is an affordable,portable,and recyclable device that allows for the visible detection of fluorescent biomolecules.The Fold-Illuminator’s design allows for assembly in under 10 min,a user can then utilize the optional heating element to incubate biochemical reactions and visualize fluorescence outputs in a defined and light-controlled environment.Interchangeable LED strips and light-filtering screens provide modularity to pair with the fluorescence wavelengths of interest.The user can then unfold the device for convenient storage,transport,or even recycling.The cost for the Fold-Illuminator is$5.58 USD and is compatible with an optional heating element for an additional$3.98 cost,with potential for further reductions in cost for larger quantities.Open-source templates for cutting device parts from paper stock are provided for both printing and cutting by hand;cutting can also be achieved with consumer-grade smart cutting machines such as the Cricut®.Combined with the broad applications of fluorescent reporters,the Fold-Illuminator has the potential to improve access to fluorescence visualization and quantification for new users as well as emerging field applications.