In-Line estimation of the standard colour index of citrus fruits using a computer vision system developed for a mobile platform

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11947-012-1015-2A key aspect for the consumer when it comes to deciding on a particular product is the colour. In order to make fruit available to consumers as early as possible, the collection of oranges and mandarins begins before they ripen fully and reach their typical orange colour. As a result, they are therefore subjected to certain degreening treatments, depending on their standard colour citrus index at harvest. Recently, a mobile platform that incorporates a computer vision system capable of pre-sorting the fruit while it is being harvested has been developed as an aid in the harvesting task. However, due to the restrictions of working in the field, the computer vision system developed for this machine is limited in its technology and processing capacity compared to conventional systems. This work shows the optimised algorithms for estimating the colour of citrus in-line that were developed for this mobile platform and its performance is evaluated against that of a spectrophotometer used as a reference in the analysis of colour in food. The results obtained prove that our analysis system predicts the colour index of citrus with a good reliability (R2 = 0.925) working in real time. Findings also show that it is effective for classifying harvested fruits in the field according to their colour. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.This work was partially funded by the INIA through research project RTA2009-00118-C02-01 with the support of European FEDER funds, and by the project PAID-05-11-2745, Vicerectorat d'Investigacio, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Vidal, A.; Talens Oliag, P.; Prats-Montalbán, JM.; Cubero García, S.; Albert Gil, FE.; Blasco Ivars, J. (2013). In-Line estimation of the standard colour index of citrus fruits using a computer vision system developed for a mobile platform. Food and Bioprocess Technology. 6(12):3412-3419. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-012-1015-2S34123419612Arzate-Vázquez, I., Chanona-Pérez, J. J., Perea-Flores, M. J., Calderón-Domínguez, G., Moreno-Armendáriz, M. A., Calvo, H., Godoy-Calderón, S., Quevedo, R., & Gutiérrez-López, G. (2011). Image processing applied to classification of avocado variety Hass (Persea americana Mill.) during the ripening process. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 4(7), 1307–1313.Blasco, J., Aleixos, N., Cubero, S., Gómez-Sanchis, J., & Moltó, E. (2009). Automatic sorting of satsuma (Citrus unshiu) segments using computer vision and morphological features. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 66, 1–8.Campbell, B. L., Nelson, R. G., Ebel, C. E., Dozier, W. A., Adrian, J. L., & Hockema, B. R. (2004). Fruit quality characteristics that affect consumer preferences for satsuma mandarins. HortScience, 39(7), 1664–1669.Cavazza, A., Corradini, C., Rinaldi, M., Salvadeo, P., Borromei, C., & Massini, R. (2012). Evaluation of pasta thermal treatment by determination of carbohydrates, furosine, and color indices. Food and Bioprocess Technology. doi: 10.1007/s11947-012-0906-6 . In-press.Cubero, S., Aleixos, N., Moltó, E., Gómez-Sanchis, J., & Blasco, J. (2011). Advances in machine vision applications for automatic inspection and quality evaluation of fruits and vegetables. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 4(4), 487–504.Cubero, S., Moltó, E., Gutiérrez, A., Aleixos, N., García-Navarrete, O. L., Juste, F., & Blasco, J. (2010). Real-time inspection of fruit on a mobile harvesting platform in field conditions using computer vision. Progress in Agricultural Engineering Science, 6, 1–16.Díaz, R., Faus, G., Blasco, M., Blasco, J., & Moltó, E. (2000). 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Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing.Jiménez-Cuesta MJ, Cuquerella J & Martínez-Jávega JM (1981) Determination of a color index for citrus fruit degreening. In Proc. of the International Society of Citriculture, Vol. 2, 750-753Kang, S. P., East, A. R., & Trujillo, F. J. (2008). Colour vision system evaluation of bicolour fruit: A case study with ‘B74’ mango. Postharvest Biology and Technology, 49, 77–85.Lang, C., & Hübert, T. (2011). A colour ripeness indicator for apples. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 5(8), 3244–3249.López-Camelo, A. F., & Gómez, P. A. (2004). Comparison of color indexes for tomato ripening. Horticultura Brasileira, 22(3), 534–537. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-05362004000300006 .López-García, F., Andreu-García, A., Blasco, J., Aleixos, N., & Valiente, J. M. (2010). Automatic detection of skin defects in citrus fruits using a multivariate image analysis approach. 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Innovation Practices in Emerging Economies: Do University Partnerships Matter?

Enterprises’ resources and capabilities determine their ability to achieve competitive advantage. In this regard, the key innovation challenges that enterprises face are liabilities associated with their age and size, and the entry barriers imposed on them. In this line, a growing number of enterprises are starting to implement innovation practices in which they employ both internal/external flows of knowledge in order to explore/exploit innovation in collaboration with commercial or scientific agents. Within this context, universities play a significant role providing fertile knowledge-intensive environments to support the exploration and exploitation of innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, especially in emerging economies, where governments have created subsidies to promote enterprise innovation through compulsory university partnerships. Based on these ideas, the purpose of this exploratory research is to provide a better understanding about the role of universities on enterprises’ innovation practices in emerging economies. More concretely, in the context of Mexico, we explored the enterprises’ motivations to collaborate with universities in terms of innovation purposes (exploration and exploitation) or alternatives to access to public funds (compulsory requirement of being involved in a university partnership). Using a sample of 10,167 Mexican enterprises in the 2012 Research and Technological Development Survey collected by the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography, we tested a multinomial regression model. Our results provide insights about the relevant role of universities inside enterprises’ exploratory innovation practices, as well as, in the access of R&D research subsidies

Labeling dating abuse: Undetected abuse among Spanish adolescents and young adults

The Instituto de la Mujer in Spain highlights the existence of adult women being abused both with and without self-labeling as victims (situations of perceived abuse and technically abuse, respectively). The aims of this ex post facto study are assessing the existence of both types of abuse, and developing an alternative evaluation instrument for young couples, mixing behavioral items and a question on abuse perception (atomic and molecular evaluations). Using questions included in the Cuestionario de Violencia de Novios (CUVINO) we carried out two studies with different samples of adolescent and young women in school. The first one (N = 709; M = 18.5 years) replied the study conducted by the Instituto de la Mujer, finding 6.2% of women self-labeled as abused and 71% being technically abused. The second study (N = 1,327; M = 18.5) evaluated the relationship among different general perceptions (feeling abused, afraid and trapped in dating relationships), finding 5.8% of self-labeled abused women, 11.9% of afraid women, and 26.8% of women trapped in their relationships. Implications that these inconsistencies may have on prevention efforts are discussed. � International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology

Labeling dating abuse: Undetected abuse among Spanish adolescents and young adults

The Instituto de la Mujer in Spain highlights the existence of adult women being abused both with and without self-labeling as victims (situations of perceived abuse and technically abuse, respectively). The aims of this ex post facto study are assessing the existence of both types of abuse, and developing an alternative evaluation instrument for young couples, mixing behavioral items and a question on abuse perception (atomic and molecular evaluations). Using questions included in the Cuestionario de Violencia de Novios (CUVINO) we carried out two studies with different samples of adolescent and young women in school. The first one (N = 709; M = 18.5 years) replied the study conducted by the Instituto de la Mujer, finding 6.2% of women self-labeled as abused and 71% being technically abused. The second study (N = 1,327; M = 18.5) evaluated the relationship among different general perceptions (feeling abused, afraid and trapped in dating relationships), finding 5.8% of self-labeled abused women, 11.9% of afraid women, and 26.8% of women trapped in their relationships. Implications that these inconsistencies may have on prevention efforts are discussed. © International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology

The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context Satisfaction of Social and Legal Sciences teachers with the introduction of the European Higher Education Area Satisfacción de los profesores de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas con la introducción

A B S T R A C T University teachers are one of the main figures in the European convergence process, but their attitude towards the reform of Spanish university studies is unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the satisfaction of Social and Legal Sciences teachers towards the introduction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The sample was made up of 3,068 teachers from Spanish public universities, who teach in the said field. An online questionnaire was created for this purpose, with questions relating to the EHEA, teacher tasks and training, as well as aspects related to methodology and the teaching and learning process, amongst others. Cronbach´s alpha coefficient was .81. It is a population-based, descriptive study using a cross-sectional survey with a probability sample. In the results it can be observed that only 9.3% of teachers are satisfied with the adaptation of higher education to the EHEA. Finally, the limitations faced by teaching staff in consolidating this process will be discussed. © 2014 Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid. All rights reserved. Satisfacción de los profesores de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas con la introducción del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior R E S U M E N El profesorado universitario conforma una de las figuras principales en el proceso de convergencia europea, pero se desconoce cuál es su actitud hacia la reforma de los estudios universitarios en España. Por ello, el objetivo del presente estudio es evaluar la satisfacción del profesorado de la rama de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas ante la implantación del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES). La muestra estuvo compuesta por 3.068 profesores pertenecientes a universidades públicas españolas, que imparten docencia en titulaciones de dicha rama. Se aplicó un cuestionario online, elaborado ad hoc que consta de preguntas relacionadas con el EEES, tareas y formación del profesorado, así como aspectos relacionados con la metodología y el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, entre otros. El coeficiente alfa de Cronbach fue de ,81. Es un estudio descriptivo de poblaciones mediante encuesta con muestra probabilística, de tipo transversal. En los resultados se observa que sólo el 9,3% de los profesores está satisfecho con la forma en la que se está desarrollando la adaptación de la educación superior al EEES. Finalmente, se realiza una reflexión sobre las limitaciones que encuentra el profesorado para lograr la consolidación de este proceso