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(Volume: 4, Issue: 2)
Remodelling NLP With LLMs
Natural Language Processing (NLP) has witnessed a major transformation with the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs). LLMs are artificial intelligence models, which are trained on massive amounts of text from websites, text or conversations using deep architectures, renovating the way the machines interact, interpret or generate human languages. Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s GPT-4 are instances of renowned LLMs of the current era, which excel in creating contents, summarize or translate text as done by the humans. However, LLMs exhibit few limitations too. Ayodeji Olalekan Salau, Esuku Dickson Emmanuel, Ahmed Alemran, Chandra Kumar Dixit and Sepiribo Lucky Braide have explored and detailed the benefits and limitations of LLMs, when applied to NLP. As per their article published in the 2024 Second International Conference Computational and Characterization Techniques in Engineering & Sciences, Lucknow, India, the LLMs also face ethical concerns in terms of content security or privacy and bias to the trained contents, propagating misleading text or media. Further, the authors also point out that the LLMs lack openness in the model’s decision-making procedures or fail to own robust evaluation metrics. Since machines are envisaged to master almost all applications in the nearing years, contributing towards LLMs for NLP have a great scope. Specifically, the contributors should aim for a domain-specific, secure, un-biased and transparent LLM-based NLP with highly-fluent, human-level, multi-lingual text generation or processing. Image courtesy: www.vecteezy.com
Investigating The Thermal Performance Of Thermosyphons
Heat transfer and cooling is essential for all electric and electronic systems/apparatuses for their optimized utilization without thermal failure. Thermosyphons are a kind of heat-transferring device, which work through natural convection and gravity. It consists of an evaporator section that boils and vaporizes the working liquid, which is followed by a condenser that converts the vapor back to liquid and cools the system. The process is actually a loop, without needing pumps or power to achieve the heat transfer or cooling. Whenever, there is excessive heat, the operation in the loop begins. However, there are several factors that needs to be examined to ensure effective operation. For instance, the nature of the working liquid or its fill ratio, the effect of large gas bubbles formed by boiling (called the Taylor bubbles), the pressure inside the thermosyphon and many more requires study. In fact, the Taylor bubbles requires excessive consideration, as they influence the movement of liquid between vapor and liquid phases for efficient heat transfer. Hence, Avinash Jacob Balihar, Arnab Karmakar, Avinash Kumar, Smriti Minj and P. L. John Sangso from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Jharkhand, India have assessed the thermal performance of a two-phase thermosyphon loop using flow visualization and an image processing approach. In their article in Heat Transfer Research, vol. 55 (12), the researchers have used direct image analysis in combination with power spectrum and statistical analysis to identify the bubble frequency and its geometry, along with the dynamic void fraction. As per the researchers’ investigation, bigger Taylor bubbles with slug flow adversely affected the heat transfer capability. However, the thermosyphons find wider applications in electronics cooling, solar water heaters, industrial heat recovery, HVAC systems, nuclear reactor cooling, where heat transfer is utmost essential to ensure safety of life. So, further research is still encouraged to study and design thermosyphons with controlled or no slug flow. Image courtesy: www.freepik.com
Testing Neutron Irradiation Tolerance Of f-PSCs On PET Substrates
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Most avionic and space-related applications are attracted towards flexible and lightweight photovoltaic films or solar cells to power them up, even in the harsh and power-depleting environments of space. Perovskite Solar Cells on Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates are an emerging flexible-type solar cells, which are known for high power-per-weight ratio, high light absorption rate and low-cost manufacture. However, the stability as well as the performance of flexible perovskite solar cells (f-PSCs) gets deteriorated with the earth’s changing atmospheric conditions or the heavily-devastating cosmic radiations of the space. Hence, the f-PSCs are usually tested for their ability to withstand the effect of electrons, protons and neutrons, which can appear in any amounts and at any time in space. Yet, only few researches have reported the stability testing of f-PSCs, which are unencapsulated without any shielding, under neutron irradiation. Few reasons might be: (i) The neutrons, devoid of any charge, causes deeper structural damage to the f-PSC lattice that are hard to measure; (ii) Neutron irradiation has limited sources for stability testing and (iii) The neutron irradiation is hard to control and requires encapsulation to prevent the photovoltaic device from getting damaged. Despite these facts, fast neutron irradiation on unencapsulated f-PSCs needs investigation, as they render the harsh and actual environment of deep space explorations. Knowing the significance, F. De Rossi, B. Taheri, M. Bonomo, V. Gupta, G. Renno, N. Yaghoobi Nia, P. Rech, C. Frost, C. Cazzaniga, P. Quagliotto, A. Di Carlo, C. Barolo, M. Ottavi and F. Brunetti have studied and tested f-PSCs on PET substrates under two fluence levels. In their article in Nano Energy, Elsevier, Vol. 93, the authors have actually compared two commercially-available Hole Transport Materials (HTMs) of the f-PSC layer stack, namely, spiro-OMeTAD and an in- house modified P3HT, identifying the latter HTM to exhibit little degradation and less voltage or current losses than the former one. However, finding out high neutron irradiation-tolerant and thermally/chemically stable f-PSCs with optimized and modified HTMs serves as a new research direction for the young researchers.
Researching Plant-Based Powders For Functional Food Production
Clean-label and health-oriented functional food products are at a high demand these days, as people prioritize health awareness and lifestyle changes in the post pandemic years. Plant-based powders, mostly extracted from leafy greens or seeds, can serve as an excellent choice as they are loaded with essential nutrition, minerals, phytochemicals, antimicrobial compounds, vibrant color and many more. However, using them directly as functional foods in culinary arts or in a medicine-finding motive might end futile at times, as their texture, oil retention or water absorption capability, sensory quality or emulsifying stability and their mixing proportions can have different consequences. Hence, the techno-functional properties, the bio-active compounds, self-life and other physical or chemical attributes of plant-based powder needs extensive analysis for using it as a clean-label, health-assuring functional food. Ankita Awari, Mukul Kumar, Deepika Kaushik, Sneha Kapoor, Fatih Oz and Charalampos Proestos have achieved a proximate, techno-functional characterization of curry leaf powder, scientifically-termed as Murraya koenigii. The authors have brought out various structural and chemical characterizations of Murraya powder to light in their article in Journal of Food Chemistry & Nanotechnology, vol.9(1), employing techniques like, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The authors say, “Insights from this study could be utilized to develop functional foods, supplements, or therapeutic agents harnessing the nutritional and bioactive potential of these leaves”. However, the research on plant-based powder characterization can be extended further with Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, building a thriving platform for the aspiring food scientists or engineers to explore.
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High Strength Concrete With Crumb Rubber-Human Hair Blend
In recent times, concrete manufacture with certain proportions of recycled solid wastes is grabbing much attention. The main reason is to find a means to improve the mechanical, structural and functional properties of cement-based concrete with any of the low-cost and abundant solid waste polluting earth like, plastic, rubber tyres etc. Crumb Rubber (CR), a recycled form of scrap tyres from automobiles, is one of that kind that is known to increase the ductility, durability and strength of concrete. Moreover, Crumb Rubber-Based Concrete (CRC) has been found to impart excellent insulation to the buildings than its conventional cement-based counterpart. However, adding crumb rubber in larger proportions could lessen the workability and tensile strength of concrete, as they might fail to blend well with cement. Hence, the past researchers have sought to find other materials, either organic or inorganic, to improve the CRC characteristics. The human hair is one such organic, biodegradable- yet slowly-decaying waste that is hoped to improve CRC. The human hair might look trivial, but it is a huge waste available all time that can even clog small/large pipelines and hinder day-to-day life. So, Abu Hasan, Mohammad Masud Rana and Riyaj Mahamud Khan from Daffodil International University, Dhaka-1216, Bangladesh, have investigated the use of CR as the fine aggregate that replaces sand in concrete, when human hair is added in three proportions to it. The authors have not failed to observe the proportion of CR mix as well in their article published in the International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development, vol. 15(1). As per the authors, CRC with 5% CR and 1% human hair fiber increased the splitting tensile strength and compressive strength than the concrete. However, the authors report a reduction in workability and density of CRC with human hair because of its inability to completely blend and being light-weight, respectively. So, the upcoming researchers might dwell deeper to evade this shortcoming or suggest yet another eco-friendly, structurally-strong and mechanically-durable solid waste-reinforced concrete to achieve greener architectures. Image Courtesy: www.freepik.com
Disclaimer
The discussions in 'Trending Research' are purely based on the already-published articles received from the respective authors for the easy portrayal of trending research themes to young researchers
This magazine does not accept or publish any kind of novel research and it does not create copyright infringements to the discussed journal articles
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