A multispectral vision system to evaluate enzymatic browning in fresh-cut apple slices

The main objective of this study was to develop a vision system that is able to classify fresh-cut apple slices according to the development of enzymatic browning. The experiment was carried out on ‘Granny Smith’ apple slices stored at 7.5 °C for 9 days (n = 120). Twenty-four samples were analyzed per day: at zero time and after storage for 1, 3, 7 and 9 days, which corresponds to treatments t0, t1, t3, t7 and t9 respectively. Multispectral images were acquired from the samples by employing a 3-CCD camera centered at the infrared (IR, 800 nm), red (R, 680 nm) and blue (B, 450 nm) wavelengths. Apple slices were evaluated visually according to a visual color scale of 1–5 (where 1 corresponds to fresh samples without any browning and 5 to samples with severe discoloration), to obtain a sensory evaluation index (ISE) for each sample. Finally, for each sample and for each treatment, visible (VIS) relative reflectance spectra (360–740 nm) were obtained. In order to identify the most related wavelengths to enzymatic browning evolution, unsupervised pattern recognition analysis of VIS reflectance spectra was performed by principal components analysis (PCA) on the autoscaled data. Maximum loading values corresponding to the B and R areas were observed. Therefore, a classification procedure was applied to the relative histograms of the following monochromatic images (virtual images), which were computed pixel by pixel: (R − B)/(R + B), R − B and B/R. In all cases, a non-supervised classification procedure was able to generate three image-based browning reference classes (BRC): Cluster A (corresponding to the t0 samples), Cluster B (t1 and t3 samples) and Cluster C (t7 and t9 samples). An internal and an external validation (n = 120) were carried out, and the best classifications were obtained with the (R − B)/(R + B) and B/R image histograms (internal validation: 99.2% of samples correctly classified for both virtual images; external validation: 84% with (R − B)/(R + B) and 81% with B/R). The camera classification was evaluated according to the colorimetric measurements, which were usually utilized to evaluate enzymatic browning development (CIE L*a*b* color parameters and browning index, BI) and according to ISE. For both validation phases a*, b*, BI and ISE increased while L* values decreased with image-based class number, thereby reflecting their browning state

I4U System Description for NIST SRE'20 CTS Challenge

This manuscript describes the I4U submission to the 2020 NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation (SRE'20) Conversational Telephone Speech (CTS) Challenge. The I4U's submission was resulted from active collaboration among researchers across eight research teams - I$^2$R (Singapore), UEF (Finland), VALPT (Italy, Spain), NEC (Japan), THUEE (China), LIA (France), NUS (Singapore), INRIA (France) and TJU (China). The submission was based on the fusion of top performing sub-systems and sub-fusion systems contributed by individual teams. Efforts have been spent on the use of common development and validation sets, submission schedule and milestone, minimizing inconsistency in trial list and score file format across sites.Comment: SRE 2021, NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation Workshop, CTS Speaker Recognition Challenge, 14-12 December 202

Plan de negocio para la puesta en marcha de un Marketplace Sectorial

The aim of this Master’s Thesis is to design a robust Business Plan in order to successfully launch a Digital Marketplace. That Marketplace would compete in those sectors where a clear leader is not yet established. Throughout this paper the value proposition is detailed, placing special emphasis on those characteristics which would distinguish us from the already existing competitors not only at generic Marketplaces level, but also at the specific food sector which is the chosen one for this thesis. Implementing this project would allow the company, by having few initial resources and not many fixed costs, to start running the activities, having a minimum viable product to be put in the market early. Furthermore, the operations would be focused on obtaining revenues as soon as possible so that the initial investment is therefore recovered in a short period of time. On one hand, once the revenues increase significantly, the Marketplace range could be expanded to other sectors increasing the turnover. On the other hand, this Business Model could be exported to other countries, maintaining therefore competitive edges which would enable the exponential growth and the “navigation through blue oceans”.El propósito de este Trabajo Fin de Máster es el desarrollo de un plan de negocio para poner en marcha un Marketplace en Internet con el objetivo de competir en aquellos sectores donde aún no se ha desarrollado o establecido ninguno, o donde aún no existe un claro dominador. Se detalla su propuesta de valor diferenciada respecto a la de la competencia existente en el mercado, tanto a nivel de Marketplace en general como a nivel del sector seleccionado para el lanzamiento de proyecto, el de la alimentación, el cual ha sido convenientemente justificado. La puesta en marcha de este plan permitirá a la empresa, utilizando pocos recursos y asumiendo escasos costes fijos, poner en funcionamiento el negocio, tener un producto mínimo viable con el que trabajar en el menor tiempo posible, focalizar las operaciones y comenzar a obtener ingresos por varias vías para que el negocio sea rentable cuanto antes y, de esta manera, recuperar rápidamente la inversión. Posteriormente, a medida que los ingresos vayan en aumento, podrá ser ampliado a otros sectores diferentes, pudiendo generar más volumen de negocio. También se podrá exportar el modelo a otros países, manteniendo así siempre ventajas competitivas que favorezcan el crecimiento exponencial y la navegación por océanos azules

AV@CAR:A Spanish multichannel multimodal corpus for in-vehicle automatic audio-visual speech recognition

This paper describes the acquisition of the multichannel multimodal database AV@CAR for automatic audio-visual speech recognition in cars. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) plays an important role inside vehicles to keep the driver away from distraction. It is also known that visual information (lip-reading) can improve accuracy in ASR under adverse conditions as those within a car. The corpus described here is intended to provide training and testing material for several classes of audiovisual speech recognizers including isolated word system, word-spotting systems, vocabulary independent systems, and speaker dependent or speaker independent systems for a wide range of applications. The audio database is composed of seven audio channels including, clean speech (captured using a close talk microphone), noisy speech from several microphones placed on the overhead of the cabin, noise only signal coming from the engine compartment and information about the speed of the car. For the video database, a small video camera sensible to the visible and the near infrared bands is placed on the windscreen and used to capture the face of the driver. This is done under different light conditions both during the day and at night. Additionally, the same individuals are recorded in laboratory, under controlled environment conditions to obtain noise free speech signals, 2D images and 3D + texture face models. 1

Color identity in South American natural landscapes: herbs, flowers and fruits crops

Natural landscape is associated to national identity. Particularly, local flora expresses national differences and diversity through a number of sensory characteristics. For example, national flowers are symbols representing a country, that may have cultural or religious roots. Depiction of color landscapes may be related to the naturalization of the region, which gives primacy to nature and is typically found in countries which have been former colonies, such as South American countries. Thus in this region, borders of each country become diffuse and a regional identity is historically established. This work is an outcome of a CYTED network composed by members of eight Iberoamerican countries. This network focused in the valorization of unexplored plant sources of bioactive compounds for food, medical and cosmetic applications and in spreading their advantages in several workshops and seminars. The meetings were held at several different locations. During these meetings the different natural and cultural resources prompted the attention of participants and the idea of sharing photographs sprang up. Inspired by the AIC meeting call, color characterization of local flora peculiarities became appealing. For the purpose of this work several plant materials considered of special value, have been selected in different countries of the network. The chromatic coordinates have been thus obtained. The color characteristics were evaluated through all seasons, from January to September, and throughout several South American regions. This work displays the relevance of multidisciplinary and multicultural networks which enable a shared vision and multiple and unexpected outcomes.EEA San PedroFil: Gabilondo, Julieta. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria San Pedro; ArgentinaFil: Pepa, Lorena. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Instituto de Tecnología de Alimentos y Procesos Químicos; Argentina.Fil: Fernández Varela, Aldo. Universidad Popular del César; Colombia. Fundación para la Ciencia y la Agroindustria Tropical Tropilogía. Valledupar; ColombiaFil: Villagrán dos Santos, Nicolás. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Talevi, Lucía. Actividad privada. Diseñadora; ArgentinaFil: Costa, Fabiano Freire. Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora. Faculdade de Farmácia. Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Rodríguez, Analía. Universidad de la República. Facultad de Química. Montevideo; UruguayFil: dos Santos, Cristina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Busch, Verónica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Farroni, Abel Eduardo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino; ArgentinaFil: Panizzolo, Luis. Universidad de la República. Facultad de Química. Montevideo; UruguayFil: Cortés, César. Universidad Popular del César; Colombia. Fundación para la Ciencia y la Agroindustria Tropical Tropilogía. Valledupar; ColombiaFil: Buera, María Pilar. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina

Management of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction after ESC 2016 heart failure guidelines: the Linx Registry

Aims: In May 2016, a new version of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines for the management of heart failure (HF) was released. The aim of this study was to describe the management of HF with reduced ejection fraction after the publication of ESC Guidelines. Methods and results: The Linx registry is a multicentre, observational, cross-sectional study from 14 Catalan hospitals that enrolled 1056 patients with HF and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (≤40%) from 1 February to 30 April 2017 in outpatient cardiology clinics. Results were compared between hospitals according to their level of complexity in our own registry and compared with previously published registries similar to ours. Sacubitril/valsartan was prescribed to 23.9% of patients in our population, as a consequence, use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blockers in monotherapy decreased to 48.1% and 16.9%, respectively, and prescription of beta-blockers (91.8%), mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (72.7%), and ivabradine (21.4%) remained similar to previous registries. Target doses of beta-blockers (25.4%), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (24.9%), angiotensin receptor blockers (7.7%), sacubitril/valsartan (8.1%), and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (19.7%) were accomplished in a low proportion of patients. Our results also suggest that prescription and up-titration of class I HF drugs were greater in hospitals with higher level of complexity. Conclusions: The Linx registry shows an appropriate adherence to pharmacological recommendations from ESC HF Guidelines despite a low proportion of patients reached target doses. Almost one-quarter of patients were under treatment with sacubitril/valsartan a few months after ESC HF Guidelines recommendations

Management of Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction after ESC 2016 Heart Failure Guidelines : The Linx Registry

In May 2016, a new version of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines for the management of heart failure (HF) was released. The aim of this study was to describe the management of HF with reduced ejection fraction after the publication of ESC Guidelines. The Linx registry is a multicentre, observational, cross-sectional study from 14 Catalan hospitals that enrolled 1056 patients with HF and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (≤40%) from 1 February to 30 April 2017 in outpatient cardiology clinics. Results were compared between hospitals according to their level of complexity in our own registry and compared with previously published registries similar to ours. Sacubitril/valsartan was prescribed to 23.9% of patients in our population, as a consequence, use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blockers in monotherapy decreased to 48.1% and 16.9%, respectively, and prescription of beta-blockers (91.8%), mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (72.7%), and ivabradine (21.4%) remained similar to previous registries. Target doses of beta-blockers (25.4%), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (24.9%), angiotensin receptor blockers (7.7%), sacubitril/valsartan (8.1%), and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (19.7%) were accomplished in a low proportion of patients. Our results also suggest that prescription and up-titration of class I HF drugs were greater in hospitals with higher level of complexity. The Linx registry shows an appropriate adherence to pharmacological recommendations from ESC HF Guidelines despite a low proportion of patients reached target doses. Almost one-quarter of patients were under treatment with sacubitril/valsartan a few months after ESC HF Guidelines recommendations