897 research outputs found
Fiscal Policy and Imperfectly Credible Inflation Targets: Should We Appoint Expenditure-Conservative Central Bankers?
ADAPTIVE PROCESSING ARCHITECTURE OF MULTISENSOR SIGNALS FOR LOW-IMPACT TREATMENTS OF PLANT DISEASES.
Intelligent sensing for production of high-value crops
Scientific and technical quality
This thesis has been realized within the CROPS project.
CROPS will develop scientific know-how for a highly configurable, modular and clever carrier platform that includes modular parallel manipulators and intelligent tools (sensors, algorithms, sprayers, grippers) that can be easily installed onto the carrier and are capable of adapting to new tasks and conditions. Several technological demonstrators will be developed for high value crops like greenhouse vegetables, fruits in orchards, and grapes for premium wines. The CROPS robotic platform will be capable of site-specific spraying (targets spray only towards foliage and selective targets) and selective harvesting of fruit (detects the fruit, determines its ripeness, moves towards the fruit, grasps it and softly detaches it). Another objective of CROPS is to develop techniques for reliable detection and classification of obstacles and other objects to enable successful autonomous navigation and operation in plantations and forests. The agricultural and forestry applications share many research areas, primarily regarding sensing and learning capabilities. The project started in October 2010 and will run for 48 month.
The aim of this thesis is to lay the foundations, suggesting the guidelines, of one task addressed by the CROPS project, in particular, the aim of this work is to study the application of a VIS-NIR imaging approach (intelligent sensing), based on a relatively simple algorithm, to detect symptoms of powdery mildew and downy mildew disease at early stages of infection (sustainable production of high-value crops). Also a preliminary work for botrytis detection will be shown.
Concept and objectives
Many site-specific agricultural and forestry tasks, such as cultivating, transplanting, spraying, trimming, selective harvesting, and transportation, could be performed more efficiently if carried out by robotic systems. However, to date, agriculture and forestry robots are still not available, partly due to the complex, and often contradictory, demands for developing such systems. On the one hand, agro-forestry robots must be of reasonable cost, but on the other, they must be able to deal with complex, dynamic, and partly changing tasks. Addressing problems such as continuously changing conditions (e.g., rain and illumination), high variability in both the products (size, and shape) and the environment (location and soil properties), the delicate nature of the products, and hostile environmental conditions (e.g. dust, dirt, extreme temperature and humidity) requires advanced sensing, manipulation, and control. Since it is impossible to model a-priori all environments and task conditions, the robot must be able to learn new tasks and new working conditions. The solution to these demands lies in a modular and configurable design that will keep costs to a minimum by applying a basic configuration to a range of agricultural applications. At least a 95% yield rate is necessary for economical feasibility of an agro-forestry robotic system.
Objectives
An objective of CROPS project is to develop an \u201cintelligent tools\u201d (sensors, algorithms, sprayers) that can easily be installed onto a modular and clever carrier platform. The CROPS robotic platform will be capable of site-specific spraying (targeted spraying only on foliage and selected targets).
Research efforts
To achieve the novel systems described above, we will focus on intelligent sensing of disease detection on crop canopy (investigating different types and/or multiple sensors with decision making models).
Technology evaluation
Technology evaluation of the developed systems will include the performance evaluation of the different components (e.g., capacities, success rates/misses).
Progress beyond the state-of-the-art
Despite the extensive research conducted to date in applying robots to a variety of agriculture and forestry tasks (e.g., transplanting, spraying, trimming, selective harvesting), limited operating efficiencies (speeds, success rates) and lack of economic justification have severely limited commercialization. The few commercial autonomous agriculture and forestry robots that are available on the market include a cow milking robot, a robot for cutting roses (RomboMatic), and various remote-controlled forest harvesters. These robots either have a low level of autonomy or are able to perform only simple operations in structured and static environments (e.g. dairy farms and plant breeding facilities). Developing capabilities for robots operating in unstructured outdoor environments or dealing with the highly variable objects that exist in agriculture and forestry is still open-ended, and one of CROPS aims is to address this problem.
Current state-of-the-art
Field trials have routinely shown that most crop damage due to diseases and pests can be efficiently controlled when treatments are applied timely and accurately by hand to susceptible targets (i.e., by intelligent spraying). Site-specific spraying targeted solely to trees and/or to infected areas can reduce pesticide use by 20\u201340%. An issue of relevance to targeted agriculture is the detection of diseases in field crops. Since such events often have a visual manifestation, state-of-the-art methods for achieving this goal include fluorescence imaging or the analysis of spectral reflectance in carefully selected spectral bands. While reports of these methods used separately achieved performance at 75\u201390% accuracy, attempts to combine them have boosted disease discrimination accuracy to 95%. We must note here, however, that despite these promising results, very little research has been conducted on in-field disease detection.
Expected progress
The diseased detection approach for precision pesticide spraying will be developed investigating image processing techniques (after a laboratory spectral evaluation and greenhouse testing) for high-precision close-range targeted spraying to selectively and precisely apply chemicals solely to targets susceptible to specific diseases/pests, with a mean 90% success rate. Local changes in spectral reflection of parts of the canopy will be used as an indication of disease. \u201cSoft-sensor\u201d for detection of ripeness and diseases (noncontact rapid sensing system) will be developed by multispectral sensor (multispectral spectral camera). These \u201csoft sensor\u201d can be used as a decision model for targeted spraying
Case Report: All That Glisters Is Not* Cancer
Properly performed staging in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is necessary to avoid wrong therapeutic decisions. Here we present a case which manifested as advanced NSCLC but ultimately was composed of two different and rare pathologies. The first is a TTF-1 positive axillary lymph node that could be defined either as an unusual isolated differentiated cancer of unknown primary or as an even rarer case of ectopic lung epithelium which underwent malignant transformation. The second is sarcoidosis, a sarcoid-like alteration, in remission after oral steroids. The main implication of a correct diagnosis regards patient outcome and the avoidance of toxic inappropriate systemic chemotherapy
Manipulation and Generation of Supercurrent in Out-of-Equilibrium Josephson Tunnel Nanojunctions
We demonstrate experimentally manipulation of supercurrent in Al-AlO_x-Ti
Josephson tunnel junctions by injecting quasiparticles in a Ti island from two
additional tunnel-coupled Al superconducting reservoirs. Both supercurrent
enhancement and quenching with respect to equilibrium are achieved. We
demonstrate cooling of the Ti line by quasiparticle injection from the normal
state deep into the superconducting phase. A model based on heat transport and
non-monotonic current-voltage characteristic of a Josephson junction
satisfactorily accounts for our findings.Comment: 4 pages, 4 colour figures, published versio
Reperti lapidei di et\ue0 romana rinvenuti a Fornovo Taro: provenienza e circolazione
Nelle collezioni del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Parma tra i reperti litici di et\ue0 romana figurano anche tre oggetti recuperati a Fornovo Taro o nelle sue adiacenze diversi per contesto di ritrovamento e destinazione d\u2019uso, di cui si \ue8 analizzata la pietra ai fini di determinarne la provenienza e le possibili rotte commerciali. In particolare sono stati presi in esame:- una epigrafe frammentaria (n.inv. L 49), databile al II secolo d.C., gi\ue0 murata in uno dei pilastri della Pieve ed entrata a far parte delle collezioni museali nel 18671;
- una piccola scultura raffigurante Afrodite accovacciata secondo il modello dello scultore ellenistico Doidalsas (n.inv. MANPr 31963), recuperata negli anni Ottanta del secolo scorso al margine occidentale di Piazza IV Novembre, databile ai primi decenni sempre del II secolo d.C.2;
- una base di colonna (mancante di n.inv. e abbreviata con la sigla BCG), recuperata nel 1980 a Roncolungo di Sivizzano tra i materiali accatastati ai margini della strada statale dal proprietario del terreno in attesa di disfarsene
Development of a HPLC method for the simultaneous analysis of riboflavin and other flavin compounds in liquid milk and milk products
A high-performance liquid chromatography method with fluorescence detection was developed for the quantification of
riboflavin (RF), flavin mononucleotide (FMN), flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and their photodegradation products,
lumichrome (LC) and lumiflavin (LF), in liquid milk and milk products. Both sample preparation and chromatographic separation were studied to avoid acidic conditions that proved to affect flavin stability and degrade FAD into FMN. The sample preparation includes centrifugal skimming and ultrafiltration steps and is suitable for routine application. Linear response was obtained for individual flavins in the respective concentration ranges of interest and relative standard deviation (RSD) was lower than 5%, except for FAD (RSD 11%). The recovery ranged between 80\u2013100%. The proposed method proved to be suitable for assessing flavins in commercial liquid milk and fermented milk products, and for monitoring the degradation of FAD, FMN and RF and the formation of LF and LC in bottled milk exposed to light during shelf storage
Surgical resection of oral cancer: en-bloc versus discontinuous approach
Objectives: In the past literature agreed on treating oral carcinomas, using an \u201cen-bloc\u201d resection (EBR) but recently minimally invasive transoral surgery has spread as the preferable treatment for selected cases. This latter technique, which is performed with a discontinuous resection (DR), allows for a satisfactory postoperative quality of life (QoL) maintaining good survival rates. Materials and methods: In this study, we analyzed data about 147 surgically treated patients with oral cancer involving tongue and floor of the mouth. The sample was divided according to the surgical approach: EBR and DR group which were compared in terms of recurrence, overall survival, disease-free survival, and QoL. Results: In the DR group, survival analysis showed better results in term of survival, locoregional control, and postoperative anxiety, while the other QoL scores were similar in the two groups. Conclusion: The more invasive approach does not correlate to a better outcome. In selected cases, DR is an oncologically safe technique; EBR is still a valid option to treat advanced oral cancers
Disposable chlorine dioxide wipes for high-level disinfection in the ENT department: A systematic review
Background: Nasopharyngoscope reprocessing methods should be effective, rapid and reproducible with moderate cost. Tristel Trio Wipes system (TTWS) is a manual reprocessing method based on chlorine dioxide that has lately emerged in ENT department. This review aims to collect evidence on this system. Methods: The PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases were searched for all the studies on TTWS or one of its components. Data were grouped according to the study type. Results: Ten articles were included in the review. TTWS ensured high-level disinfection in laboratory and clinical setting. Although the limitations of the manual systems, TTWS proved to be faster than automated endoscope reprocessing (AER) and safe for patients and health-care workers. TTWS represented cheaper system than AER or sheaths in low- and medium-volume centers. Conclusion: TTWS could be a valid, safe and fast HLD method for nasopharyngoscopes, with reasonable costs for medium-low reprocessing volumes
Spatial distribution and daily activity patterns of three carnivore species in temperate grasslands of southern Brazil and northern Uruguay: Distribuição espacial e padrões de atividade diária de trĂŞs espĂ©cies de carnĂvoros em pastagens temperadas do sul do Brasil e norte do Uruguai
In the temperate grasslands of southern Brazil and northern Uruguay, three species of mesopredators have similar size, are in the same guild, and they seem to tolerate anthropogenic modifications. Sympatric species from the same trophic guild tend to divide resources both spatially and temporally to facilitate coexistence. The aim of this study was to determine the patterns of the periods of daily activity and habitat use through different detection and occupancy models, of Cerdocyon thous (crab-eating fox), Lycalopex gymnocercus (pampas fox) and Leopardus geoffroyi (geoffroy's cat) in the mosaic of landscapes of anthropic domain in the Uruguayan Savanna ecoregion, through camera trap records. A total of 66 cameras were installed, divided into the 3 main environments, with a distance of 2 km between each camera to maintain the independence of the records, achieving a real sampling effort of 4,756 trap nights. The three mesocarnivores considered in this study were predominantly nocturnal. Cerdocyon thous presented a vesperal-nocturnal activity pattern, being sunset the moment of highest activity, in contrast, L. gymnocercus presented highest activity at sunrise, being crepuscular-nocturnal. These opposite daily activity patterns among foxes species have not been recorded in other regions. With respect to L. geoffroyi, these specie presented a mostly nocturnal activity pattern. Regarding the use of habitats by the species after applying different models, the highest probability of detection and occupation of C. thous and L. geoffroyi was in the native forest environment and for L. gymnocercus was the natural grassland. Even the preference of L. geoffroyi for the native forest environment, these species presented a certain degree of adaptability for habitats with alterations produced by agricultural activities. The results obtained represent a very important contribution to the region in which this study was carried out, as well as allowing us to compare the results with other studies with these species in other regions
Unsupervised machine learning approaches to the -state Potts model
In this paper with study phase transitions of the -state Potts model,
through a number of unsupervised machine learning techniques, namely Principal
Component Analysis (PCA), -means clustering, Uniform Manifold Approximation
and Projection (UMAP), and Topological Data Analysis (TDA). Even though in all
cases we are able to retrieve the correct critical temperatures , for
and , results show that non-linear methods as UMAP and TDA are
less dependent on finite size effects, while still being able to distinguish
between first and second order phase transitions. This study may be considered
as a benchmark for the use of different unsupervised machine learning
algorithms in the investigation of phase transitions.Comment: Added computation of critical exponents; exposition improve
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