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Differentiation of Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Fuels to Conventional Diesel Fuel

Jewison et al. | May 25, 2018

Differentiation of Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Fuels to Conventional Diesel Fuel

Plastic pollution and energy shortages are pressing issues in today’s world. The authors examined whether waste plastic pyrolysis fuels are similar to conventional diesel and, thus, a plausible alternative fuel. Results showed that waste plastic pyrolysis fuels did not match up to diesel overall, though several fuels came close in calorific value.

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The Development and Maximization of a Novel Photosynthetic Microbial Fuel Cell Using Rhodospirillum rubrum

Gomez et al. | Mar 02, 2014

The Development and Maximization of a Novel Photosynthetic Microbial Fuel Cell Using <em>Rhodospirillum rubrum</em>

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical systems that utilize bacteria and are promising forms of alternative energy. Similar to chemical fuel cells, MFCs employ both an anode (accepts electrons) and a cathode (donates electrons), but in these devices the live bacteria donate the electrons necessary for current. In this study, the authors assess the functionality of a photosynthetic MFC that utilizes a purple non-sulfur bacterium. The MFC prototype they constructed was found to function over a range of environmental conditions, suggesting its potential use in industrial models.

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Quantitative analysis and development of alopecia areata classification frameworks

Dubey et al. | Jun 03, 2024

Quantitative analysis and development of alopecia areata classification frameworks

This article discusses Alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder causing sudden hair loss due to the immune system mistakenly attacking hair follicles. The article introduces the use of deep learning (DL) techniques, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNN), for classifying images of healthy and alopecia-affected hair. The study presents a comparative analysis of newly optimized CNN models with existing ones, trained on datasets containing images of healthy and alopecia-affected hair. The Inception-Resnet-v2 model emerged as the most effective for classifying Alopecia Areata.

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Effects of material advantage and space advantage on the Komodo and Stockfish chess engines

Kaushikan et al. | May 14, 2024

Effects of material advantage and space advantage on the Komodo and Stockfish chess engines
Image credit: The authors

Chess engines, or computer programs built to play chess, outperform even the best human players. Kaushikan and Park investigate the inner workings of these chess engines by studying popular chess engines' evaluations of which side of a chess match is most likely to win, and how this is affected by the number of pieces and controlled squares on each side.

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Comparison of three large language models as middle school math tutoring assistants

Ramanathan et al. | May 02, 2024

Comparison of three large language models as middle school math tutoring assistants
Image credit: Thirdman

Middle school math forms the basis for advanced mathematical courses leading up to the university level. Large language models (LLMs) have the potential to power next-generation educational technologies, acting as digital tutors to students. The main objective of this study was to determine whether LLMs like ChatGPT, Bard, and Llama 2 can serve as reliable middle school math tutoring assistants on three tutoring tasks: hint generation, comprehensive solution, and exercise creation.

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