Current advances in next-generation sequencing techniques have allowed researchers to conduct comprehensive research on the microbiome and human diseases, with recent studies identifying associations between health outcomes for a number of chronic conditions. However, data structure, characterized by sparsity skewness, presents challenges building effective classifiers. To address this, we pres...

We demonstrate pronounced differences in the visual system of a polyphenic locust species that can change reversibly between two forms (phases), which vary in morphology and behavior. At low population densities, individuals of Schistocerca gregaria develop into the solitarious phase, are cryptic, and tend to avoid other locusts. At high densities, individuals develop instead into the swarm-for...

New membrane distillation configurations and a new membrane module were investigated to improve water desalination. The performances of three hydrophobic microporous membranes were evaluated under vacuum enhanced direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) with a turbulent flow regime and with a feed water temperature of only 40 ◦C. The new configurations provide reduced temperature polarizatio...

Expolitation of coalbed methane (CBM) involves production of a massive amount saline water that needs to be properly managed for environmental protection. In this study, direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was utilized for treatment of CBM-produced water to remove saline components in the water. Simulated CBM waters containing varying concentrations of NaCl (1, 20, and 500 mM) and NaHCO...

Nervous systems are energetically expensive to operate and maintain. Both synaptic and action potential signalling require a significant investment to maintain ion homeostasis. We have investigated the tuning of neural performance following a brief period of anoxia in a well-characterized visual pathway in the locust, the LGMD/DCMD looming motion-sensitive circuit. We hypothesised that the ener...

Locusts demonstrate remarkable phenotypic plasticity driven by changes in population density. This density dependent phase polyphenism is associated with many physiological, behavioral, and morphological changes, including observations that cryptic solitarious (solitary-reared) individuals start to fly at dusk, whereas gregarious (crowd-reared) individuals are day-active. We have recorded for 2...

A network for the detection of an approaching object with simple-shape recognition is proposed based on lower animal vision. The locust can detect an approaching object through a simple process in the descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD) in the locust brain, by which the approach velocity and direction of the object is determined. The frog can recognize simple shapes through a simp...

The descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD) is a high-performance interneuron in locusts with an axon capable of transmitting action potentials (AP) at more than 500 Hz. We investigated biophysical mechanisms for fidelity of high-frequency transmission in this axon. We measured conduction velocities (CVs) at room temperature during exposure to 10 mmol/L cadmium, a calcium current anta...

Qatar’s primary source of fresh water is through seawater desalination. Amongst the major processes that are commercially available on the market, the most common large scale techniques are Multi-Stage Flash distillation (MSF), Multi Effect distillation (MED), and Reverse Osmosis (RO). Although commonly used, these three processes are highly expensive down to high energy input requirements and ...

As a consequence of the increase in reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plants, number discarded RO modules for 2020 was estimated to be 14.8 million annually. Currently, these are disposed nearby landfills generating high volumes waste. In order extend their useful life, this research study, we propose recycling and reusing internal components modules, membranes spacers, membrane engineering dis...