How changes in human activities during the lockdown impacted air quality parameters: A review

The health emergency linked to the spread of COVID-19 has led to important reduction in industrial and logistics activities, as well as to a drastic changes in citizens' behaviors and habits. The restrictions on working activities, journeys and relationships imposed by the lockdown have had important consequences, including for environmental quality. This review aims to provide a structured and critical evaluation of the recent scientific bibliography that analyzed and described the impact of lockdown on human activities and on air quality. The results indicate an important effect of the lockdown during the first few months of 2020 on air pollution levels, compared to previous periods. The concentrations of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide have decreased. Tropospheric ozone, on the other hand, has significantly increased. These results are important indicators that can become decision drivers for future policies and strategies in industrial and logistics activities (including the mobility sector) aimed at their environmental sustainability. The scenario imposed by COVID-19 has supported the understanding of the link between the reduction of polluting emissions and the state of air quality and will be able to support strategic choices for the future sustainable growth of the industrial and logistics sector

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). The application of a fast algorithm for the classification of olives by machine vision. Food Research International, 33, 305–309.DOGV (2006) Diari Oficial de la Comunitat Valenciana, 5346, 30321-30328.Gardner, J. L. (2007). Comparison of calibration methods for tristimulus colorimeters. Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 112, 129–138.Hashim, N., Janius, R. B., Baranyai, L., Rahman, R. A., Osman, A., & Zude, M. (2011). Kinetic model for colour changes in bananas during the appearance of chilling injury symptoms. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 5(8), 2952–2963.HunterLab (2008): Applications note, 8(9), http://www.hunterlab.com/appnotes/an08_96a.pdf . Accessed September 2012.Hutchings, J. B., Luo, R., & Ji, W. (2002). Calibrated colour imaging analysis of food. In D. MacDougall (Ed.), Colour in Food (pp. 352–366). 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. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 71, 189–197.Lorente, D., Aleixos, N., Gómez-Sanchis, J., Cubero, S., García-Navarrete, O. L., & Blasco, J. (2012). Recent advances and applications of hyperspectral imaging for fruit and vegetable quality assessment. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 5(4), 1121–1142.Mendoza, F., Dejmek, P., & Aguilera, J. M. (2006). Calibrated color measurements of agricultural foods using image analysis. Postharvest Biology and Technology, 41, 285–295.Montgomery, D. C. (2005). Design and analysis of experiments, 6th ed. Tempe: Wiley.Noboru, O., & Robertson, A. R. (2005). Colorimetry. West Sussex: Wiley.Pathare, P. B., Opara, U. L., & Al-Said, F. A. (2012). Colour measurement and analysis in fresh and processed foods: a review. Food and Bioprocess Technology. doi: 10.1007/s11947-012-0867-9 . In-press.Quevedo, R. A., Aguilera, J. M., & Pedreschi, F. (2010). Colour of salmon fillets by computer vision and sensory panel. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 3, 637–643.Sahin, S., & Sumnu, S. G. (2006). Physical properties of foods. New York: Springer.Quevedo, R., Valencia, E., Alvarado, F., Ronceros, B., & Bastias, J. M. (2011). Comparison of whiteness index vs. fractal Fourier in the determination of bloom chocolate using image analysis. Food and Bioprocess Technology. doi: 10.1007/s11947-011-0729-x . In-press.Smith, T., & Guild, J. (1931). The C.I.E. colorimetric standards and their use. Transactions of the Optical Society, 33(3), 73–134.Yam, K. L., & Papadakis, S. E. (2004). A simple digital imaging method for measuring and analyzing color of food surfaces. Journal of Food Engineering, 61, 137–142

A novel 3D imaging system for strawberry phenotyping

Accurate and quantitative phenotypic data in plant breeding programmes is vital in breeding to assess the performance of genotypes and to make selections. Traditional strawberry phenotyping relies on the human eye to assess most external fruit quality attributes, which is time-consuming and subjective. 3D imaging is a promising high-throughput technique that allows multiple external fruit quality attributes to be measured simultaneously. A low cost multi-view stereo (MVS) imaging system was developed, which captured data from 360° around a target strawberry fruit. A 3D point cloud of the sample was derived and analysed with custom-developed software to estimate berry height, length, width, volume, calyx size, colour and achene number. Analysis of these traits in 100 fruits showed good concordance with manual assessment methods. This study demonstrates the feasibility of an MVS based 3D imaging system for the rapid and quantitative phenotyping of seven agronomically important external strawberry traits. With further improvement, this method could be applied in strawberry breeding programmes as a cost effective phenotyping technique

Building Babies - Chapter 16

In contrast to birds, male mammals rarely help to raise the offspring. Of all mammals, only among rodents, carnivores, and primates, males are sometimes intensively engaged in providing infant care (Kleiman and Malcolm 1981). Male caretaking of infants has long been recognized in nonhuman primates (Itani 1959). Given that infant care behavior can have a positive effect on the infant’s development, growth, well-being, or survival, why are male mammals not more frequently involved in “building babies”? We begin the chapter defining a few relevant terms and introducing the theory and hypotheses that have historically addressed the evolution of paternal care. We then review empirical findings on male care among primate taxa, before focusing, in the final section, on our own work on paternal care in South American owl monkeys (Aotus spp.). We conclude the chapter with some suggestions for future studies.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HU 1746/2-1) Wenner-Gren Foundation, the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation (BCS-0621020), the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation, the Zoological Society of San Dieg

Tracing animal genomic evolution with the chromosomal-level assembly of the freshwater sponge Ephydatia muelleri

Abstract The genomes of non-bilaterian metazoans are key to understanding the molecular basis of early animal evolution. However, a full comprehension of how animal-specific traits such as nervous systems arose is hindered by the scarcity and fragmented nature of genomes from key taxa, such as Porifera. Ephydatia muelleri is a freshwater sponge found across the northern hemisphere. Here we present its 326 Mb genome, assembled to high contiguity (N50: 9.88 Mb) with 23 chromosomes on 24 scaffolds. Our analyses reveal a metazoan-typical genome architecture, with highly shared synteny across Metazoa, and suggest that adaptation to the extreme temperatures and conditions found in freshwater often involves gene duplication. The pancontinental distribution and ready laboratory culture of E. muelleri make this a highly practical model system, which with RNAseq, DNA methylation and bacterial amplicon data spanning its development and range allows exploration of genomic changes both within sponges and in early animal evolution

Search For Heavy Pointlike Dirac Monopoles

We have searched for central production of a pair of photons with high transverse energies in $p\bar p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.8$ TeV using $70 pb^{-1}$ of data collected with the D\O detector at the Fermilab Tevatron in 1994--1996. If they exist, virtual heavy pointlike Dirac monopoles could rescatter pairs of nearly real photons into this final state via a box diagram. We observe no excess of events above background, and set lower 95% C.L. limits of $610, 870, or 1580 GeV/c^2$ on the mass of a spin 0, 1/2, or 1 Dirac monopole.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

The Dijet Mass Spectrum and a Search for Quark Compositeness in bar{p}p Collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV

Using the DZero detector at the 1.8 TeV pbarp Fermilab Tevatron collider, we have measured the inclusive dijet mass spectrum in the central pseudorapidity region |eta_jet| < 1.0 for dijet masses greater than 200 Gev/c^2. We have also measured the ratio of spectra sigma(|eta_jet| < 0.5)/sigma(0.5 < |eta_jet| < 1.0). The order alpha_s^3 QCD predictions are in good agreement with the data and we rule out models of quark compositeness with a contact interaction scale < 2.4 TeV at the 95% confidence level.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Search for High Mass Photon Pairs in p-pbar --> gamma-gamma-jet-jet Events at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV

A search has been carried out for events in the channel p-barp --> gamma gamma jet jet. Such a signature can characterize the production of a non-standard Higgs boson together with a W or Z boson. We refer to this non-standard Higgs, having standard model couplings to vector bosons but no coupling to fermions, as a "bosonic Higgs." With the requirement of two high transverse energy photons and two jets, the diphoton mass (m(gamma gamma)) distribution is consistent with expected background. A 90(95)% C.L. upper limit on the cross section as a function of mass is calculated, ranging from 0.60(0.80) pb for m(gamma gamma) = 65 GeV/c^2 to 0.26(0.34) pb for m(gamma gamma) = 150 GeV/c^2, corresponding to a 95% C.L. lower limit on the mass of a bosonic Higgs of 78.5 GeV/c^2.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Replacement has new H->gamma gamma branching ratios and corresponding new mass limit

Zgamma Production in pbarp Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV and Limits on Anomalous ZZgamma and Zgammagamma Couplings

We present a study of Z +gamma + X production in p-bar p collisions at sqrt{S}=1.8 TeV from 97 (87) pb^{-1} of data collected in the eegamma (mumugamma) decay channel with the D0 detector at Fermilab. The event yield and kinematic characteristics are consistent with the Standard Model predictions. We obtain limits on anomalous ZZgamma and Zgammagamma couplings for form factor scales Lambda = 500 GeV and Lambda = 750 GeV. Combining this analysis with our previous results yields 95% CL limits |h{Z}_{30}| < 0.36, |h{Z}_{40}| < 0.05, |h{gamma}_{30}| < 0.37, and |h{gamma}_{40}| < 0.05 for a form factor scale Lambda=750 GeV.Comment: 17 Pages including 2 Figures. Submitted to PR