3,507 research outputs found

    A Systematic Review and Comparative Meta-analysis of Non-destructive Fruit Maturity Detection Techniques

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    The global fruit industry is growing rapidly due to increased awareness of the health benefits associated with fruit consumption. Fruit maturity detection plays a crucial role in fruit logistics and maintenance, enabling farmers and fruit industries to grade fruits and develop sustainable policies for enhanced profitability and service quality. Non-destructive fruit maturity detection methods have gained significant attention, especially with advancements in machine vision and spectroscopic techniques. This systematic review provides a concise overview of the techniques and algorithms used in fruit quality grading by farmers and industries. The study reviewed 63 full-text articles published between 2012 and 2023 along with their bibliometric analysis. Qualitative analysis revealed that researchers from various disciplines contributed to this field, with techniques falling into 3 categories: machine vision (mathematical modelling or deep learning), spectroscopy and other miscellaneous approaches. There was a high level of diversity among these categories, as indicated by an I-square value of 88.37% in the heterogeneity analysis. Meta-analysis, using odds ratios as the effect measure, established the relationship between techniques and their accuracy. Machine vision showed a positive correlation with accuracy across different categories. Additionally, Egger's and Begg's tests were used to assess publication bias and no strong evidence of its occurrence was found. This study offers valuable insights into the advantages and limitations of various fruit maturity detection techniques. For employing statistical and meta-analytical methods, key factors such as accuracy and sample size have been considered. These findings will aid in the development of effective strategies for fruit quality assessment

    Continuous flow synthesis of hypercrosslinked polymers (HCPs) and its environmental impact evaluation

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    Hypercrosslinked polymers(HCPs) are a class of microporous adsorbents with a wide range of applications, including dye adsorption, and gas storage. Traditionally, HCPs are synthesised through Friedel-Crafts alkylation, which involves a time-consuming synthesis process in batch reactors, posing challenges for scaling up production to meet global demand. The prolong reaction duration issue could be eliminated by means of a new synthetic method to substitute batch reactors. The ultimate aim of this study is to intensify the HCP synthesis process by transitioning from batch reactors to continuous reactors. This shift intents to enhance productivity while maintaining a high specific surface area, crucial for superior adsorption capacity. Additionally, this study aspired to reduce the environmental impact associated with this new method for HCP synthesis. To achieve these objectives, a continuous flow system had been adopted as a replacement for the conventional batch method in HCP synthesis. Three types of HCPs were successfully synthesised using well-established strategies (internally crosslinked, post-crosslinked, and externally crosslinked) in the continuous flow system, showcasing its versatility. The productivity, measured as space-time-yield (STY), of continuous flow synthesis showed an enhancement ranging from 32 – 117-fold when compared to batch synthesis. These improvements were attributed to reducing reaction duration during flow synthesis, from 1440 minutes (24 hours) to 5 – 15 minutes. The specific surface areas of flow-synthesised HCPs were, on average, lower than the batch-synthesised HCPs by 1.5 – 10 %. This meant that when compared to batch-synthesised HCPs, more quantities of flow-synthesised HCPs were needed for dye adsorption and CO2 capture. However, despite this requirement for larger quantities, the environmental assessment of continuous flow synthesis indicated a reduction in negative environmental impacts across most environmental impact indicators. This suggest an improvement in the environmental sustainability of continuous flow HCP synthesis compared to batch synthesis. Furthermore, this study also explored an alternative synthesis method using twin screw extraction (TSE) with deep eutectic solvents (DES), a benign solvent replacement for halogenated solvents, during HCP synthesis. Although this approach offers promising potential as the replacement of continuous flow synthesis using conventional halogenated solvents, further investigations are warranted for its optimisation. In conclusion, this thesis advocates for the adoption of continuous flow synthesis of HCPs, underlining its potential for productivity enhancement and reduced environmental impacts. This study lays the foundation for the potential industrial-scale implementation of continuous flow synthesis, bridging the gap between HCP supply and demand while contributing to lower environmental impacts in the production process

    Spatial Distribution of Meso- and Microplastics in Floodplain Soilscapes: Novel Insights from Rural to Urban Floodplains in Central Germany

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    Plastics and especially microplastics have become an emerging threat to global ecosystems. Despite the manifold benefits and applications of the human-made material plastic, the uncontrolled release of plastics into the environment has led to a “global plastic crisis”. During the last decades it becomes apparent that this crisis leads to the presence of plastics within different environments including marine, aquatic and terrestrial systems under worldwide evidence. Furthermore, environmental plastic research was able to reveal that although plastic often ends up in oceans, the majority of plastics in the environment are transported as part of a “global plastic cycle” from the land to sea via river systems. Those river systems are not isolated in the landscape, but rather a part of an “aquatic-terrestrial interface” which also encompasses floodplains and their soilscapes. The present thesis focuses on the spatial distribution and spatio-temporal accumulation of meso- and microplastics in floodplain soilscapes following the overall objective to unravel the role of floodplain soilscapes as depositional areas of plastics within the global plastic cycle. In this context, a number of individual contributions have been published, reaching from conceptual spatial research approaches, over case studies conducted within two different floodplain soilscapes, to further opinions on the scientific benefit of plastic residues in floodplain soils. The individual contributions are linked by the major hypothesis that floodplain soilscapes act as temporal accumulation sites for plastics, driven by flood-related processes and land use over the last 70 years. To proof this major hypothesis and to overcome the lack of spatial reference in microplastics research, a geospatial sampling approach was conducted. Initial spatial data on meso- and microplastics in floodplain soils were obtained by a holistic analysis approach including the analysis of basic soil feature and metal analysis, the quantification of meso- and microplastics as well as sediment dating. Within both studied river floodplains geospatial sampling enables a detection of meso- and microplastics over the entire floodplain area and within the entire soil column reaching depths of two meters. Additionally, a frequent accumulation of plastics was found within the upper 50 cm of floodplain soils. In combination with dating of near-channel floodplain sites, it could be demonstrated that those plastic accumulations are related to recent sedimentary deposits since the 1960s. However, evidence of plastic from deeper soil layers suggests that vertical displacements in floodplain soils occur and that plastics become mobilized. Furthermore, the presence of plastics in upstream areas suggests that plastics are released to river systems and deposited via flood dynamics already in rural areas. Additionally it appears that anthropogenic impacts, such as tillage or floodplain restoration influence plastic distributions. The findings of this thesis clarify that floodplain soilscapes are part of the global plastic cycle as temporally depositional areas of plastics, but raising further questions on the mobility of plastics in soils and about the exact contribution of different environmental drivers towards plastic deposition. Finally, the present thesis indicates that the spatial reference of environmental plastic research should be rethought, in order to understand the spatial dynamics of plastics within the aquatic-terrestrial interface

    Understanding The Lived Experiences of Elementary Teachers Who Teach Students With Dyslexia How to Read: A Transcendental Phenomenology

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    This transcendental phenomenology sought to understand the lived experiences of elementary teachers who teach students with dyslexia how to read. The central question guiding this study was: “What are the lived experiences of elementary teachers who teach students with dyslexia how to read?” Three sub-questions looked more deeply into the phenomenon. The first sub-question asked: “What internal influences shape elementary teachers’ experiences when teaching students with dyslexia how to read?” The second sub-question asked: “What external influences shape elementary teachers’ experiences when teaching students with dyslexia how to read?” Finally, the third sub-question asked: “How do internal and external influences shape elementary teachers’ experiences when teaching students with dyslexia how to read?” Bandura’s social cognitive theory (SCT) guided this study, as its model of triadic reciprocal causation provided a framework for understanding the internal and external influences that shaped elementary teachers’ experiences when teaching reading to students with dyslexia. A total of 14 teachers were purposefully selected either from public and private elementary teacher Facebook groups across the United States or snowball sampling. Participants were K-4 classroom teachers, special education teachers, and reading specialists. Data were collected from individual interviews, document analysis, and participant journaling. Moustakas’ (1994) data analysis procedures were used to reveal the essence of participants’ lived experiences of the phenomenon. Thus, the science of reading, barriers to teaching students with dyslexia, and the pandemic and dyslexia strongly shaped elementary teachers’ instruction when teaching students with dyslexia how to read

    Language-as-skill Approach in Foreign Language Education: A Phenomenological Study

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    The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand foreign language educators\u27 lived experience of language-as-skill that focuses on language use. The central research question explored the foreign language educators\u27 experiences and perspectives on the concept of language acquisition as a type of skill acquisition. In addition, the researcher investigated foreign language educators\u27 language-as-knowledge and language-as-skill methodologies. This study also aimed to discover how the language-as-skill with advanced technology could be a way to address the contemporary challenges in foreign language education for learners and improve learners\u27 communicative competence to thrive in a globalized world with diversity. A transcendental phenomenological study design was selected to explicate the essence of human understanding. At this stage in the research, skill acquisition views Language learning as other cognitive skills development, such as how people learn to play the piano or drive a car. The theory guiding this study was DeKeyser\u27s skill acquisition theory, which explained the relationship between skill development and Language acquisition. In this study, 10 foreign language teachers from a local language training school became participants in semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. Data that were collected from the interviews, documentation, and observations were reviewed, grouped, coded, and reported as faithfully as possible to the participants\u27 experiences and perceptions of this phenomenological study

    AI: Limits and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence

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    The emergence of artificial intelligence has triggered enthusiasm and promise of boundless opportunities as much as uncertainty about its limits. The contributions to this volume explore the limits of AI, describe the necessary conditions for its functionality, reveal its attendant technical and social problems, and present some existing and potential solutions. At the same time, the contributors highlight the societal and attending economic hopes and fears, utopias and dystopias that are associated with the current and future development of artificial intelligence

    Automated riverbed composition analysis using deep learning on underwater images

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    The sediment of alluvial riverbeds plays a significant role in river systems both in engineering and natural processes. However, the sediment composition can show high spatial and temporal heterogeneity, even on river-reach scale, making it difficult to representatively sample and assess. Conventional sampling methods are inadequate and time-consuming for effectively capturing the variability of bed surface texture in these situations. In this study, we overcome this issue by adopting an image-based deep-learning (DL) algorithm. The algorithm was trained to recognise the main sediment classes in videos that were taken along cross sections underwater in the Danube. A total of 27 riverbed samples were collected and analysed for validation. The introduced DL-based method is fast, i.e. the videos of 300–400 m long sections can be analysed within minutes with continuous spatial sampling distribution (i.e. the whole riverbed along the path is mapped with images in ca. 0.3–1 m2 overlapping windows). The quality of the trained algorithm was evaluated (i) mathematically by dividing the annotated images into test and validation sets and also via (ii) intercomparison with other direct (sieving of physical samples) and indirect sampling methods (wavelet-based image processing of the riverbed images), focusing on the percentages of the detected sediment fractions. For the final evaluation, the sieving analysis of the collected physical samples were considered the ground truth. After correcting for samples affected by bed armouring, comparison of the DL approach with 14 physical samples yielded a mean classification error of 4.5 %. In addition, based upon the visual evaluation of the footage, the spatial trend in the fraction changes was also well captured along the cross sections. Suggestions for performing proper field measurements are also given; furthermore, possibilities for combining the algorithm with other techniques are highlighted, briefly showcasing the multi-purpose nature of underwater videos for hydromorphological assessment.</p

    Sounding the dead in Cambodia: cultivating ethics, generating wellbeing, and living with history through music and sound

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    This dissertation rethinks the ethics of history and trauma in post-genocide Cambodia by examining how Cambodians use a broad repertoire of sounded practices to form relations of mutual care with ancestors, dead teachers, deities, and other predecessors. At its root, the dissertation is the study of an ethical-religious-aesthetic system by which Cambodians recall predecessors’ legacies, care for the dead, and engage ancestors and deities as supportive co-presences. Traditional and popular musics, Buddhist chants and incantations, whispers, and the non-acoustic practice of “speaking in the heart” (niyāy knung citt) are among the primary sounded practices that Cambodians use to engage the dead. Parts One and Two detail those sounded practices and their social implications. I discuss how previous approaches have misinterpreted the nature and capacities of Cambodian music and other ritualized sounds through historicist, colonialist, and secular epistemologies, which cast those sounds as “culture” or “performance” and ignore their capacities as modes of ethics and exchange with the dead. Instead, by rethinking those sounded practices as Cambodian-Buddhist ethics and exchange, I examine how Cambodians fulfill an obligation to care for the ancestors who have supported themselves. I suggest fulfilling that obligation generates personal wellbeing and provides a new model for what living with history can sound like and feel like. Taken together, in Parts One and Two, I detail the non-linear temporalities, types of personhood, ethics, exchange with the dead, and the intergenerational mode of living with history that Cambodians bring into being through music and sound. Part Three zooms further out to discuss how sounded relations with the dead have consequences for national and international politics, which leads to larger critiques of the Cambodian government’s politicization of Khmer Rouge remembrance and international humanitarian efforts that attempt to help Cambodians heal from trauma. Since at least the mid-1990s, a plurality of international activists, scholars, volunteers, and development workers have concluded that Cambodians perpetuate a silence about the Khmer Rouge era that furthers their traumatization. Most observers suggest that Cambodians need to provide public testimony about that violent past in order to heal. This dissertation contests those conclusions, following work in anthropology and trauma studies that problematizes the universalization of the Western psychotherapeutic notion of biomedical trauma and its treatments. I suggest that those calls for a testimonial voice presuppose historicist modes of remembrance and knowledge production that naturalize liberal Western models of personhood, citizenship, justice, wellness, and political agency. To move away from those models, I argue that Cambodian sounded and ritual practices generate what I term “modes of being historical” and “ways of living with history” that are intimate, familial, intergenerational, engage national pasts, and can be a mode of political action. Those “modes of being historical” include but are not limited to telling stories of others’ struggles and deaths. I illustrate how Cambodians have long used a multitude of sounded practices to engage the past, grapple with life’s difficulties, and care for themselves and their ancestors. This dissertation posits that sound studies and ethnomusicology can further the emerging scholarly shifts toward the culturally specific ways people cope with difficult pasts. I propose a new approach to post-violence ethics and history by arguing for the decolonizing possibilities of emphasizing the modes of being historical, ethical relations of mutual care, and ontological entanglements with the dead that Cambodians generate through music and sound

    A Phenomenological Study on Veterans’ Military Sexual Trauma and Its Impacts on Intimate Partner Relationships

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    The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe active duty and military veterans’ experiences with intimate partner relationships after a sexually traumatic event. The theory guiding this study is attachment theory. Therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), and eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), demonstrate they could help victims of military sexual trauma (MST) minimize the suffering of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), substance use disorder (SUD), and a host of other debilitating diseases that may have developed as the result of their MST, which could cause difficulties in their intimate partner relationships. Interviewing each participant, this study collected the stories of active-duty service members and veterans who have experienced an MST. MST can come in many forms, but this study focused on service members who have experienced sexual harassment (SH) or sexual assault (SA). SH and SA can be experienced by everyone, but this study focused on heterosexual service members. Those interviews, once analyzed using narrative and grounded theory analytics to articulate the similarities, outlined what similarities each person experienced, if they have received treatment, and which treatment was the most effective. How has the military sexual traumatic event you experienced impacted your intimate partner sexual relationship is what this study set out to answer

    Fuzzy Logic Weighted Averaging Algorithm for Malaysian Banknotes Reader Featuring Counterfeit Detection

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    This paper proposed a novel fuzzy logic weighted averaging (FLWA) algorithm in image processing techniques to detect counterfeit Malaysian banknotes. Image acquisition techniques on banknote position detection and re-adjustment, image pre-processing techniques, feature extraction methods on Malaysian banknotes’ watermarks are also covered in the paper. The FLWA Algorithm has the advantage of a much simpler model since it is a human guidance learning algorithm that does not require enrolment process to get the specific weights for each security feature. Each security feature is treated with equal weight. The experimental results also shown that FLWA model also outperform the MobileNet model and VGG16 model in Malaysian banknotes’ counterfeit detection. It has a distinct advantage over earlier or current banknote counterfeit detection techniques in that it adopted the known watermarks features, with known machine learning techniques to identify real Malaysian banknotes and detect those counterfeit Malaysian banknotes
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