DETERMINATION OF LEAF AREA AND PLANT COVER BY USING DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING

The development of different crop models, and crop simulation models in particular, pointed out the importance of quantifying the exact value of the leaf area. To measure the leaf size of plants of pinnatifid form, automatic, portable leaf area meters are necessary. In most places these instruments are not available to measure the assimilatory surface size of crops with special leaf shapes. Any cheap and effective method, that could replace the application of expensive portable area meters could be useful in practical every-day research. A CCD camera was applied in our study to take photos in every leaf level of plant height. Another problem is the determination of the shadowing surface (covering) of the whole plant one at a time. By analyzing the images the leaf area or the covering of a whole plant was evaluated

Modifications of physical properties of coconut oil and anhydrous milk fat as a result of blending

The role of fats in food technology is mainly to develop the desired consistency. The simplest way to reach this goal is the blending of different fats. The aim of our work was to study the solidification and melting properties of blends of coconut oil and anhydrous milk fat. Pure fats and their 25–75%, 50–50%, and 75–25% blends were investigated. Melting profile and isotherm crystallization were measured by pNMR. Non-isotherm melting and solidification were detected by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Possible applications of the blends were established. Results show that AMF and coconut oil has limited miscibility, which is dependent on the temperature. Below 22 °C AMF is the softening component, above 22 °C the effect is inverse. Coconut oil accelerates solidification of AMF, however, basic crystal forms of AMF remained

Anti glutamate-decarboxylase antibodies: A liaison between localisation related epilepsy, stiff-person syndrome and type-1 diabetes mellitus

We present two patients with partial epilepsy, type-1 diabetes and stiff person syndrome associated with high serum autoantibody levels to glutamate-decarboxylase (anti-GAD). Both patients were or have suffered from additional autoimmune conditions. The presence of stiff person syndrome and elevated anti-GAD levels have to make clinicians look for additional autoimmune conditions including type-1 diabetes. On the other hand, the co-morbidity of partial epilepsy with autoimmune conditions in patients with elevated serum anti-GAD suggests an autoimmune mechanism of partial epilepsy in these cases

Vision system and electronic tongue application to detect coffee adulteration with barley

Time consuming and expensive methods have been applied for detection of coffee adulteration based on the literature. In the present work, an optical method (vision system) and the application of an electronic tongue is proposed to reveal the addition of barley in different proportion to coffee in ground and brewed forms. In a range of 1 to 80% (w/w) Robusta coffee was blended with roasted barley. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) accomplished on vision system image data showed a good discrimination of the adulterated samples. The results of Polar Qualification System (PQS) data reduction method revealed even small differences in the right barley content order by point method approach. With Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression the amount of barley in Robusta was predicted with high R2 (0.996) and relatively low RMSEP (∼2%) values in case of vision system data processing. Considering electronic tongue measurements, PCA results showed a good discrimination of samples with higher barley concentration. Misclassification was found in the low concentrated area by Lienar Discriminant Analgsis (LDA). To obtain an accurate model for barley content prediction in coffee, the most sensitive sensor signals were used to apply PLS regression successfully (R2=0.97, RMSEP=3.99% (w/w))

Aquatic and semiaquatic Heteroptera (Nepomorpha and Gerromorpha) fauna of Greek holiday islands (Rhodes, Crete and Corfu) with first records of three species from Europe and Greece

Csabai, Zoltán, Soós, Nándor, Berchi, Gavril Marius, Cianferoni, Fabio, Boda, Pál, Móra, Arnold (2017): Aquatic and semiaquatic Heteroptera (Nepomorpha and Gerromorpha) fauna of Greek holiday islands (Rhodes, Crete and Corfu) with first records of three species from Europe and Greece. Zootaxa 4231 (1): 51-69, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4231.1.