A comprehensive review of image analysis methods for microorganism counting: from classical image processing to deep learning approaches

Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi play essential roles in many application fields, like biotechnique, medical technique and industrial domain. Microorganism counting techniques are crucial in microorganism analysis, helping biologists and related researchers quantitatively analyze the microorganisms and calculate their characteristics, such as biomass concentration and biological activity. However, traditional microorganism manual counting methods, such as plate counting method, hemocytometry and turbidimetry, are time-consuming, subjective and need complex operations, which are difficult to be applied in large-scale applications. In order to improve this situation, image analysis is applied for microorganism counting since the 1980s, which consists of digital image processing, image segmentation, image classification and suchlike. Image analysis-based microorganism counting methods are efficient comparing with traditional plate counting methods. In this article, we have studied the development of microorganism counting methods using digital image analysis. Firstly, the microorganisms are grouped as bacteria and other microorganisms. Then, the related articles are summarized based on image segmentation methods. Each part of the article is reviewed by methodologies. Moreover, commonly used image processing methods for microorganism counting are summarized and analyzed to find common technological points. More than 144 papers are outlined in this article. In conclusion, this paper provides new ideas for the future development trend of microorganism counting, and provides systematic suggestions for implementing integrated microorganism counting systems in the future. Researchers in other fields can refer to the techniques analyzed in this paper.

     

Ultrathin MoSe2 three-dimensional nanospheres as high carriers transmission channel and full spectrum harvester toward excellent photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical performance

MoSe₂ ultrathin nanospheres with three-dimensional network structure (MSS) were prepared by improved solvothermal method. These MoSe₂ nanospheres are only 10 nm in size and actually composed of ultra-thin MoSe₂ nanosheets with a thickness of only 2–3 molecular layers. Compared with the MoSe₂ nanosheets (6–8 molecular layer thicknesses) of the three-dimensional flower structure (MSF) prepared by ordinary hydrothermal method, the MSS are thinner resulting in higher specific surface area of 5 times than that of MSF, and the light absorption ability at all UV–vis spectrum is stronger. The photocatalytic and photoelectrochemistry results show that the photocatalytic activity of MSS is 17 times that of the MSF, and the photoelectrochemical performance is twice. The results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy confirmed that the MoSe₂ ultra-thin nanospheres with three-dimensional network structure have lower internal resistance and higher carrier transport and separation efficiency. In the most important three aspects that determine the photoelectrochemical performance of photocatalyst: specific surface area, light absorption capacity, carrier transport and separation efficiency, MSS exceed MSF. This three-dimensional network nanospheres structure can improve the performance of MoSe₂. This research successfully demonstrates the enhancement of the properties of MoSe₂ two-dimensional materials through structural regulation.     

New observations and critical assessments of incipient plasticity events and indentation size effect in nanoindentation of ceramic nanocomposites

The ceramic nanocomposites (CNCs) like zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) ceramics are important futuristic materials for structural and functional applications in advanced strategic systems, structural components, biomedical prostheses and devices. In all structural materials including the ZTA CNCs, the very early stages of plastic deformation i.e., the incipient plasticity events (IPE) are most important to be understood so that the microstructure and mechanical properties can be tuned to suit a given end application. Here we report for the first time the mechanisms of IPE in the nanoindentation experiments conducted at 10–1000 mN loads in the 40 ZTA CNCs. Here 40 ZTA CNC stands for 40 vol% of 3 mol% Yttria partially stabilized zirconia toughened alumina (40ZTA) CNC. The role of load ranges in variations of the IPE related parameters in the 40 ZTA CNCs is also studied. Further, an attempt is made to assess how the amount of zirconia content in ZTA CNCs affects the variations of the IPE related parameters. Through the extensive usage of field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and theoretical estimations, efforts are also directed to check out the linkage, if any, between the localized shear deformation and/or microcracking with the IPE events that occur in the present CNCs. In addition, a new concept of damage resistance is introduced for the first time in the present work to explain the presence of a strong indentation size effect (ISE) in the 40 ZTA CNCs. Finally, an attempt is also directed to understand how the indentation load (P) controls the relative size of interaction zones of dislocation loops as well as the damage resistance and thereby, engineer the acuteness of the ISE in ZTA CNCs. The implication of these findings in futuristic design of especially the ZTA CNCs for various applications is also discussed.     

Cd-substituted Mg composites with dual-equivalent permeability and permittivity for high-frequency miniaturization antennas

Spinel Mg ferrites Mg_1-xCd_xCo_0.05Fe_1.95O₄ (x=0.0, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) as potential agents for the miniaturization of high frequency antennas are presented. All the synthesized compositions were experimentally revealed to possess pure spinel phase. Dual-equivalent permeability and permittivity (μ'≈26, ε'≈25, x=0.3 and μ'≈29, ε'≈28, x=0.4) from 5 to 100 MHz can be achieved by introducing Cd²⁺ ions, yielding large miniaturization factors of up to 25 and 28. To figure out the effects of Cd²⁺ ions substitution on magnetic and dielectric properties, the change in microstructure is mainly investigated. Meanwhile, enhanced magnetic properties including upward saturation magnetization (Ms) (approximately 47.60 emu/g) and reduced coercivity (approximately 54.22 Oe) are obtained due to increased grain size and denser microstructure arrangements reflected from scanning electron microscopy images. With low magnitude order of magnetic and dielectric losses factors (tanδ_ε reaches 10^-4, tanδ_μ reaches 10^-2), the composites can potentially exhibit high operating efficiencies at high frequencies.     

Equilibrium morphology of gas–liquid Janus droplets: A numerical analysis of buoyancy effect

In this article, a theoretical model for predicting the equilibrium morphology of gas–liquid Janus droplets was built. Based on this model, the effects of bubble radius and volume ratio on morphology change was systematically studied. The increase of bubble radius causes the two parts (bubble and oil drop) in Janus droplets tend to merge while the impact of volume ratio is complicated. When volume ratio increases, these two parts firstly tend to merge, then gradually separate. The accuracy of this model was verified by experimental results.     

Carbon membrane bridged ZnSe and TiO2 nanotube arrays: Fabrication and promising application in photoelectrochemical water splitting

In this work, a cascade structure among ZnSe, carbon membrane and TiO₂ NTAs was constructed precisely. This carbon membrane bridged ZnSe and TiO₂ composite exhibits excellent H₂ evolution activity, the H₂ evolution rate of ZnSe/C/TiO₂ NTAs (866.76 μmol/cm²) is about 6.95 times higher than that of pure TiO₂ NTAs (124.64 μmol/cm²) after 200 min irradiation. The introduction of carbon membrane can greatly facilitate the electron transfer from ZnSe to TiO₂, ZnSe/C/TiO₂ ternary composite exhibits the highest transient photocurrent density (1.05 mA/cm²) and the lowest impedance (677.6 Ω) among all the samples. Besides, the contact between TiO₂ and electrolyte is improved after introducing carbon membrane, therefore C/TiO₂ NTAs shows more positive flat band potential of (1.86 V) compared with TiO₂ NTAs (0.50 V). It is also found that pure carbon powder can achieve H₂ production under visible light irradiation, its sensitization effect can further improve photocurrent density of the composite under 500 nm light radiation, the electrons produced in carbon film can inject into TiO₂, and holes from TiO₂ can quickly transfer to carbon film, leading to excellent H₂ evolution efficiency.     

合成二甲氧基甲烷技术研究进展

二甲氧基甲烷作为用途广泛的化工原料,其合成技术在不断创新与发展。根据反应原料和工艺流程的不同对二甲氧基甲烷合成技术进行了概述与简评,该技术包含甲醇与甲醛催化缩合制备二甲氧基甲烷、甲醇与多聚甲醛反应制备二甲氧基甲烷、甲醇一步法制取二甲氧基甲烷、离子液体电催化氧化甲醇制取二甲氧基甲烷、二甲醚氧化生成二甲氧基甲烷、二溴甲烷合成二甲氧基甲烷、合成气制备二甲氧基甲烷、甲醇与二氧化碳反应制取二甲氧基甲烷等。醇醛缩合制备二甲氧基甲烷仍是当前主流的生产工艺,甲醇一步法制取二甲氧基甲烷工艺因在环境和投资上有优势而被广泛研究,是最具工业化前景的新技术,该技术尚需突破的是兼具氧化还原性与酸性的双功能催化剂。     

A novel joint bidding technique for fuel cell wind turbine photovoltaic storage unit and demand response considering prediction models analysis Effect's

The stake of distributed generation resources like fuel cell in daily market is proved to be a major uncertain problem. The volatile character of market price together with the unbalanced nature of power can take hold of economic advancement of distributed generation resources which in turn can culminate in diversion retribution while the market is being struck. This study introduces a market participation model in share conditions to improve the profit for Fuel Cell/wind turbine/storage/photovoltaic and demand response. To solve the mentioned problem, an accurate prediction model is presented in this paper. This model is based on complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition, and multiple artificial neural network which is coupled with Broyden water cycle algorithm. By this algorithm, the prediction accuracy of proposed forecast engine is enhanced and could get the better results. A sure-footed stochastic optimization approach was deployed in order to take prices of markets and distributed generation resources into account. In the generation of distributed generation resources, forecasting error database in everyday, modified, and depressed market was drawn on to induce probabilistic scenario. Improbable variables were discarded by a neuro-fuzzy model. Eventually, to illustrate the joint model strategy suggested in the study, a testing system contains fuel cell/wind turbine/storage unit/photovoltaic and demand response was utilized and the attained results were calculated in two different periods.     

Microstructural characteristic,outward-inward growth behavior and formation mechanism of MAO ceramic coating on the surface of ADC12 Al alloy with micro-groove

The ceramic coatings on the surface of aluminum alloy substrates with micro-grooves have been successfully fabricated in the silicate solution via micro-arc oxidation (MAO) approach. Microstructure characterization showed that the larger main discharge channels were located in the center of micro-groove, the smaller secondary discharge channels were located on both sides of main discharge channel; and a few irregular micro-pores existed in the vicinity of all discharge channels, which were mainly cause by the rapid cooling and solidification of discharge channels hindering the removal of gases produced via reaction. Moreover, the growing direction of coating in the initial stage was mainly outward-growth and resulted in the formation of inverted triangle coating structure, which was due to the sharp-angled effect. But in the final growing stage, the inward-growth behavior played a key role owing to the spark transfer. According to above results and discussion, the formation of smooth, uniform and homogeneous ceramic coating on the surface of whole trapezoidal micro-groove substrate contained four stages: anodic oxidation growth, sharp corner rapid growth, coating homogenization and groove self-filling.