Fuzzy C-means Clustering and Pseudo-coloring-based Pest detection of Ripe-Fruit Health Monitoring System using 2-D Aggrotech Images

Fruits are the gift of almighty to nature. Fresh fruit promote good health and having rich source of micronutrients, vitamins and fiber value. But due to its high sugar level on ripping stage different type of pest are attracted by its smell and effects on harvesting. This paper focuses on identification of the pest on ripe fruits using Fuzzy C Means (FCM) clustering for segmentation and simultaneously highlights the segmented insects with Pseudo-coloring using Pseudo-color image processing techniques. IoT integrated Drone based images are inputted as the dataset to perform detection of pest on fruit monitoring system. Before clustering-based segmentation the images undergo preprocessing stage for tone correction and noise removal. Hybrid FCM with Pseudo-color image processing method supersedes many segmentation algorithms by performance

Baltic Botanic Gardens in 2015-2017

The periodical issue of Baltic Botanic Gardens includes information about the main events in the botanical gardens of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 2015-2017. It contains statistical information about the gardens and the articles about plant collections, research and public activities

Wheat pollen viability and physiological, biochemical and biophysical factors impacting pollen storability

Pollen has high potential to preserve and exchange nuclear genes of plant genetic resources. To facilitate breeding programs, short- and more importantly long-term pollen preservation protocols have been established for many species. Long-term pollen preservation, particularly in wheat breeding programs, and especially with spatially and temporally isolated parents, would be of great interest to expand genetic diversity and to facilitate hybrid seed production. Wheat sheds tricellular pollen at maturity which loses the ability to germinate under ambient conditions within one hour. So far, neither short- nor long-term storage protocols for wheat pollen have been established, and physiological, ultrastructural and biochemical processes in pollen after shedding are hardly understood. To gain a comprehensive overview of processes contributing to fast viability loss, in this thesis, three consecutive studies on the viability and storability of wheat pollen were conducted. First, a comparison of different viability tests and their reliability for use in wheat pollen was made (Chapter 2, Manuscript 1). Second, two different environmental factors (temperature and relative humidity, RH) were investigated for their influence on wheat pollen longevity, physiological properties, pollen ultrastructure and metabolism (Chapter 3, Manuscript 2). Finally, experiments were conducted to investigate the feasibility of cryopreservation for wheat pollen (Chapter 4, Manuscript 3). In the first study a consistent semi-solid in vitro pollen germination medium containing raffinose, boric acid, calcium chloride and gelrite was formulated and compared against existing media (Jian et al. 2014; Jayaprakash et al. 2015; Cheng and McComb 1992) for wheat pollen. The medium formulation resulted in consistent germination percentages for fresh pollen of > 87%. The germination was correlated with pollen viability assessed by impedance flow cytometry (IFC viability, r = 0.67, P < 0.001) and fluorescein diacetate (FDA, r = 0.54, P < 0.05) staining (Chapter 2, Manuscript 1, Figure 5). However, when the medium was used with other Poaceae pollen species, germination was low and assumed to require further adaptation. Although, FDA and IFC viability can be easily applied both, FCR and IFC, seem to overestimate pollen viability (Chapter 2, Manuscript 1, Figure 5). Therefore, two viability tests, in vitro germination and IFC viability, were applied in consecutive studies. The second work revealed that low temperature (~ 4 °C) and high RH (> 90%) could keep pollen viable with a maximum of > 70% pollen germination after 60 minutes storage. The metabolic changes were most pronounced in unfavourable conditions (low RH and room temperature) were pollen lost most of its viability (pollen germination reached only 10%) after short storage of only 20 to 30 minutes. Under these conditions, wheat pollen showed extensive and deleterious changes in the ultra-structure (intine and cytoplasmic organization), fluctuations in primary metabolite concentration, and changes in water content (WC) (Chapter 3, Manuscript 2, Figures 1, 2, 6, 7). Overall, metabolic status, ultrastructural and WC changes lead to irreversible damages and viability loss suggesting that wheat pollen is not equipped with sufficient protection mechanisms to survive longer periods. Additionally, in these two studies we found differences in germination percentage (Manuscript 1, Figure 6; Manuscript 2, Supplemental Figure S4) and metabolite concentrations of specific compounds (Manuscript 2, Figure 4) between different genotypes tested. Thus, it is suggested that the genotype may have an important influence on pollen survival. Further research with a wide range of genotypic implications could reveal marker genes that might influence wheat pollen viability under different conditions. In the third study, it was tested if wheat pollen may be able to survive cryopreservation. Therefore, wheat pollen had been dried and cooled under different regimes. Rapidly dried wheat pollen to WC above the unfrozen water content (0.91 ± 0.11 mg H2O mg-1 DW) for 5 min retained IFC viability of around 6.1 ± 8.8% after fast cooling and warming but were not able to germinate. Nevertheless, damages induced by dehydration and cryo-injury during ultra-low temperature exposure seemed to occur to a lesser extent in the rapidly dried pollen compared to fresh pollen and pollen dried at ambient conditions for both, slow and rapid cooling/warming. Thus, within a very small window of a specific pollen WC and further adjustment pollen may survive cryopreservation storage. Future research and amendment of fast-drying and an optimisation of the cooling/warming rate will reveal whether the survival rate of pollen can be increased after exposure to cryo-storage. The use of cryoprotection may have favourable effects on the survival. Further suggestions for possible improvements of cryopreservation will be discussed in one of the sections of discussion

Plant Cryopreservation

Cryopreservation is the storage of cells, tissues and organs at ultra-low temperatures (−196 °C) and can be an important tool for long-term conservation of plant genetic resources. A wide range of cryogenic procedures have been developed for in vitro explants, dormant buds and non-orthodox seeds in many plant species; however, research that provides novelty, insight and advances for developing and improving new protocols in plant species is still needed. This book includes the development of new protocols, physical and chemical studies related to preservation in liquid nitrogen, and some reviews on several aspects of cryopreservation. This publication will be a useful document for the community of cryopreservation scientists

Additive Manufacturing of Bio and Synthetic Polymers

Additive manufacturing technology offers the ability to produce personalized products with lower development costs, shorter lead times, less energy consumed during manufacturing and less material waste. It can be used to manufacture complex parts and enables manufacturers to reduce their inventory, make products on-demand, create smaller and localized manufacturing environments, and even reduce supply chains. Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as fabricating three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D) components, refers to processes that allow for the direct fabrication of physical products from computer-aided design (CAD) models through the repetitious deposition of material layers. Compared with traditional manufacturing processes, AM allows the production of customized parts from bio- and synthetic polymers without the need for molds or machining typical for conventional formative and subtractive fabrication.In this Special Issue, we aimed to capture the cutting-edge state-of-the-art research pertaining to advancing the additive manufacturing of polymeric materials. The topic themes include advanced polymeric material development, processing parameter optimization, characterization techniques, structure–property relationships, process modelling, etc., specifically for AM

Digital Classical Philology

The buzzwords “Information Society” and “Age of Access” suggest that information is now universally accessible without any form of hindrance. Indeed, the German constitution calls for all citizens to have open access to information. Yet in reality, there are multifarious hurdles to information access – whether physical, economic, intellectual, linguistic, political, or technical. Thus, while new methods and practices for making information accessible arise on a daily basis, we are nevertheless confronted by limitations to information access in various domains. This new book series assembles academics and professionals in various fields in order to illuminate the various dimensions of information's inaccessability. While the series discusses principles and techniques for transcending the hurdles to information access, it also addresses necessary boundaries to accessability.This book describes the state of the art of digital philology with a focus on ancient Greek and Latin. It addresses problems such as accessibility of information about Greek and Latin sources, data entry, collection and analysis of Classical texts and describes the fundamental role of libraries in building digital catalogs and developing machine-readable citation systems

Physical and chemical properties of sporopollenin exine particles

The chemical structure of sporopollenin was extensively reviewed, along with some considerations pertaining to its physical and biological properties. A comparative study is presented of extraction protocols to isolate exines from L. clavatum, in particular, but with extension to spores from other species, namely, Lycopodium spec., Ambrosia trifida, Aspergillus niger and Chlorella vulgaris. Physical aspects of the materials extracted were studied, including size (highlighting large and small types of commercial “Lycopodium”), wall thickness, mechanical resistance and density.Encapsulation of a wide variety of compounds in sporopollenin microcapsules was investigated using passive, vacuum, compression and centrifugation methods. Diverse products, with molecular weights ranging from less than 1kDa to 464kDa, were successfully encapsulated in exines, including both polar (e.g. dyes, proteins, carbohydrates and oligonucleotides) and non-polar products (e.g. oils and waxes). It was shown that a protein, alkaline phosphatase, does not lose its initial activity after it has been encapsulated in exines and subsequently released.Sporopollenin was found to grant oils protection against photooxidation triggered by UV light and the extinction coefficient of sporopollenin was determined (20,000-40,000m¯¹). Protective abilities offered by exines to oils against aerial oxidation, and refining effects of sporopollenin on rancid fats, were studied, completed by a preliminary investigation of sporopollenin’s redox characteristics. A flavour test on 20 volunteers showed that exines mask the taste of encapsulated cod liver oil up to a 1/1 (w/w) loading level.Sporopollenin was also used in solid-phase organic synthesis. It was established that the reaction of ammonia, primary aliphatic amines and aniline with sporopollenin formed an amide bond on a carboxylic group of the sporopollenin. A short diamine was attached to sporopollenin in order to construct a spacer arm by further reaction between the free amino end and succinic anhydride. Sporopollenin was derivatised with bromine and chlorine by addition to the unsaturated functional groups, substitution of the hydroxyl groups and chloromethylation of the aromatic rings. The attached halogen atoms were then successfully substituted by azide and thiols. The thiol availability to nucleophilic substitution and formation of disulphide bridges was assessed

Rose viruses: Understanding the current status and protecting the future of the UK rose sector

Ph. D. Thesis.The rose (Rosa spp.) is the national flower of England and one of the most valued ornamental flowering shrubs grown around the globe. Despite the spread of rose viruses and their importance in rose cultivation, they have not been studied in detail in the United Kingdom (UK) since the 1980s. Molecular methods have evolved since then, and as a result they have rarely been deployed to study these viruses. In the UK many viruses have been reported previously infecting roses such as arabis mosaic virus (genus Nepovirus) and strawberry latent ringspot virus (family Secoviridae). However, numerous viruses have been identified infecting roses in recent years, especially with the application of high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Diagnosis is fundamental to facilitate the management of plant diseases, and early detection is essential for successful biosecurity campaigns, for example against rose rosette virus (RRV; genus Emaravirus), which is devastating roses in the USA and Canada, and was recently discovered in India (2017). In this project, different molecular (PCR, qPCR and HTS) and serological methods (ELISA) have been used to understand the baseline of viruses present in roses in the UK. Detailed experiments were performed to compare various targeted and non-targeted methods, including two different pipelines for HTS data analysis, Angua and EDNA. RT-qPCR showed the highest sensitivity for the detection of known viruses, whereas ELISA was identified as the technique with the lowest sensitivity. The Angua and the EDNA pipelines showed non-significant differences in sensitivity from RT-qPCR except in the detection of viral agents with lower titre. The advantages of HTS as a potential future front-line diagnostic tool are described. The performance of this study has allowed the estimation of the prevalence of some previously reported viruses in the UK but also the identification of Rosa spp. as a new host for viruses that are widespread in the country. This work resulted in three first virus records in the UK (rose cryptic virus-1, rose spring dwarf virus, and sweetbriar rose curly top virus), and the discovery of a new virus species (rosa ilarvirus-1; genus Ilarvirus). Furthermore, this research has proven a connection between the movement of plant pathogens and the trade in roses as cut flowers.DEFRA, Royal Horticultural Societ

Going Beyond Relevance: Role of effort in Information Retrieval

The primary focus of Information Retrieval (IR) systems has been to optimize for Relevance. Existing approaches to rank documents or evaluate IR systems does not account for “user effort”. Currently, judges only determine whether the information provided in a given document would satisfy the underlying information need in a query. The current mechanism of obtaining relevance judgments does not account for time and effort that an end user must put forth to consume its content. While a judge may spend a lot of time assessing a document, an impatient user may not devote the same amount of time and effort to consume its content. This problem is exacerbated on smaller devices like mobile. While on mobile or tablets, with limited interaction, users may not put in too much effort in finding information. This thesis characterizes and incorporates effort in Information Retrieval. Comparison of explicit and implicit relevance judgments across several datasets reveals that certain documents are marked relevant by the judges but are of low utility to an end user. Experiments indicate that document-level effort features can reliably predict the mismatch between dwell time and judging time of documents. Explicit and preference-based judgments were collected to determine which factors associated with effort agreed the most with user satisfaction. The ability to locate relevant information or findability was found to be in highest agreement with preference judgments. Findability judgments were also gathered to study the association of different annotator, query or document related properties with effort judgments. We also investigate how can existing systems be optimized for relevance and effort. Finally, we investigate the role of effort on smaller devices with the help of cost-benefit models

Eighth International Symposium “Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas. Problems and Measurement Techniques”

The 8th International Symposium "Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas. Problems and Measurements Techniques" was organized by CNR-IBE in collaboration with FCS Foundation, and Natural History Museum of the Mediterranean and under the patronage of University of Florence, Accademia dei Geogofili, Tuscany Region and Livorno Province. It is the occasion in which scholars can illustrate and exchange their activities and innovative proposals, with common aims to promote actions to preserve coastal marine environment. Considering Symposium interdisciplinary nature, the Scientific Committee, underlining this holistic view of Nature, decided to celebrate Alexander von Humboldt; a nature scholar that proposed the organic and inorganic nature’s aspects as a single system. It represents a sign of continuity considering that in-presence Symposium could not be carried out due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Subjects are related to coastal topics: morphology; flora and fauna; energy production; management and integrated protection; geography and landscape, cultural heritage and environmental assets, legal and economic aspects