Direct Determination of Sugar Cane Quality Parameters by X-ray Spectrometry and Multivariate Analysis

Current methods for quality control of sugar cane are performed in extracted juice using several methodologies, often requiring appreciable time and chemicals (eventually toxic), making the methods not green and expensive. The present study proposes the use of X-ray spectrometry together with chemometric methods as an innovative and alternative technique for determining sugar cane quality parameters, specifically sucrose concentration, POL, and fiber content. Measurements in stem, leaf, and juice were performed, and those applied directly in stem provided the best results. Prediction models for sugar cane stem determinations with a single 60 s irradiation using portable X-ray fluorescence equipment allows estimating the % sucrose, % fiber, and POL simultaneously. Average relative deviations in the prediction step of around 8% are acceptable if considering that field measurements were done. These results may indicate the best period to cut a particular crop as well as for evaluating the quality of sugar cane for the sugar and alcohol industries.Fapesp [2011_05860-2]FAPESPCNPqCNP

Design and Development of a License Plate Recognition System for Adventist University of the Philippines

Plate number recording is a practice that is done in vehicular terminals to ensure the security and order inside the premise that corresponds to the vehicular terminal. The Adventist University of the Philippines adopts the method by manual logging of plate numbers at the university main gate. The study designed an automation process of recording vehicle’s plate number using Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) algorithm, a barrier beam prototype-to-software interaction using Arduino microcontroller, and secured data storage using MySQL administrator. Findings showed that the ALPR library is tuned to have greater affinity with 2016 Philippine Plate Number format. The software interacts with the barrier beam through serial communication that which is facilitated by the microcontroller. The system is able to detect and recognize the plate number of interacting vehicles, and store it in the database with minimum supervision required. It also has the ability to distinguish local vehicles from the visiting ones. The system’s override capabilities compensate for the ever-varying environment and situation in the university. On the other hand, the barrier beam reacts accordingly for every prompt given by the system. The proposed system is warranted as useful for automating the license plate recording process in the university’s vehicular terminals

Cross-sectional analysis of students and school workers reveals a high number of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections during school reopening in Brazilian cities

Brazil experienced one of the most prolonged periods of school closures, and reopening could have exposed students to high rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the infection status of students and school workers at the time of the reopening of schools located in Brazilian cities is unknown. Here we evaluated viral carriage by RT-PCR and seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (IgM and IgG) by immunochromatography in 2259 individuals (1139 students and 1120 school workers) from 28 schools in 28 Brazilian cities. We collected the samples within 30 days after public schools reopened and before the start of vaccination campaigns. Most students (n = 421) and school workers (n = 446) had active (qRT-PCR + IgM− IgG− or qRT-PCR + IgM + IgG−/+) SARS-CoV-2 infection. Regression analysis indicated a strong association between the infection status of students and school workers. Furthermore, while 45% (n = 515) of the students and 37% (n = 415) of the school workers were neither antigen nor antibody positive in laboratory tests, 16% of the participants (169 students and 193 school workers) were oligosymptomatic, including those reinfected. These individuals presented mild symptoms such as headache, sore throat, and cough. Notably, most of the individuals were asymptomatic (83.9%). These results indicate that many SARS-CoV-2 infections in Brazilian cities during school reopening were asymptomatic. Thus, our study highlights the need to promote a coordinated public health effort to guarantee a safe educational environment while avoiding exacerbating pre-existent social inequalities in Brazil, reducing social, mental, and economic losses for students, school workers, and their families

Natural radiation levels in powdered milk samples Níveis de radioatividade natural em amostras de leite em pó

The control and monitoring of radioactive elements in foodstuffs is fundamental for human health maintenance. This work presents procedures to measure radioactivity levels in powdered milk samples and also a brief discussion of radionuclide transference from the environment to mankind. The measurements were performed utilizing a high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer using an HPGe detector. The results allowed the quantification of 40K, 137Cs and 208Tl radionuclides. For 40K the average activity was 482 ± 37 Bq/kg and for 137Cs and 208Tl the lower level of detection was, respectively, 3.7 ± 1.1 and 0.5 ± 0.2 (Bq/kg). The results obtained for the milk samples were compared to data found in the literature and to the limits established by the Brazilian National Commission of Nuclear Energy (CNEN) to assure its safety to human consuption.A medida de traços radioativos, no ambiente e em elimentos, é de fundamental importância para o monitoramento dos níveis de radiação a que o homem està exposto, direta ou indiretamente. Este trabalho consiste na medida de traços radioativos em leite em pó, através da espectrometria gama de alta resolução. Foi possível identificar os radionuclídeos 40K, 137Cs e 232Th (obtido do 208Tl) com as respectivas atividades médias, em Bq/Kg, 482 ± 37, 5,1 - 11,2 and 1,6 - 3,7. Os resultados foram comparados com os limites estabelecidos pela Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN), apresentando níveis normais para os leites analisados, podendo ser consumido sem restrições

^{<span style="font-size:17.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">40</span>}<span style="font-size:21.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">K<span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:15.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">, ^{<span style="font-size: 17.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">137</span>}<span style="font-size:21.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">C <span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:15.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">san<span style="font-size:21.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">d ^{<span style="font-size:17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">232</span>}<span style="font-size:21.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.5pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Th <span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">ac<span style="font-size:20.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">tivitiesin<span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> <span style="font-size:21.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">B<span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">razilian mi<span style="font-size:21.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">lk <span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:15.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">samp<span style="font-size:21.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">I<span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">es measured by gamma ray spectrometry </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>

5-11<span style="font-size: 15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">This work deals with the measurement of radioactivity in powdered milk. with high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry, using a HPGe detector. Preliminary measurements were accomplished to define the kind of the system shield, the geometry of the sample recipient, the size of the sampling and the self-absorption correction. <span style="font-size:15.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;font-family:" arial","sans-serif""="">It <span style="font-size:15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">was possible to measure the radionuclides <span style="font-size:12.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 5.5pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">40K, <span style="font-size:12.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:5.5pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman","serif""="">137<span style="font-size:15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">Cs and 232Th. Tukey's average comparison test was used to check the repeatability of the measurements. </span

Improved prediction of soil properties with multi-target stacked generalisation on EDXRF spectra

Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) is one of the most quick, environmentally friendly and least expensive spectroscopic analytical methodologies for assessing soil quality parameters. However, challenges in EDXRF spectral data analysis still demand more efficient methods. One possible solution is using Machine Learning (ML), particularly Multi-target Regression (MTR) methods, which predict multiple parameters taking advantage of inter-correlated parameters. In this study, we proposed the Multi-target Stacked Generalisation (MTSG), a novel MTR method relying on learning from different regressors in stacking structure for a boosted outcome. We compared MTSG and 5 MTR methods for predicting 10 parameters of soil fertility. Random Forest and Support Vector Regression (SVR) were used as learning algorithms embedded into each MTR method. Results showed the superiority of MTR methods over the Single-target Regression (the traditional ML method), reducing the predictive error for 5 parameters. Particularly, MTSG obtained the lowest error for phosphorus, total organic carbon and cation exchange capacity. When observing the relative performance of SVR with a radial kernel, the prediction of base saturation percentage was improved by 19%. Finally, the proposed method was able to reduce the average error from 0.67 (single-target) to 0.64 analysing all targets, representing a global improvement of 4.48%

Direct Determination of Sugar Cane Quality Parameters by X-ray Spectrometry and Multivariate Analysis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Current methods for quality control of sugar cane are performed in extracted juice using several methodologies, often requiring appreciable time and chemicals (eventually toxic), making the methods not green and expensive. The present study proposes the use of X-ray spectrometry together with chemometric methods as an innovative and alternative technique for determining sugar cane quality parameters, specifically sucrose concentration, POL, and fiber content. Measurements in stem, leaf, and juice were performed, and those applied directly in stem provided the best results. Prediction models for sugar cane stem determinations with a single 60 s irradiation using portable X-ray fluorescence equipment allows estimating the % sucrose, % fiber, and POL simultaneously. Average relative deviations in the prediction step of around 8% are acceptable if considering that field measurements were done. These results may indicate the best period to cut a particular crop as well as for evaluating the quality of sugar cane for the sugar and alcohol industries.60431075510761Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq