Starfruit classification based on linear hue computation

In this paper, a classification process to group starfruit into six maturity indices is proposed based on 1- dimensional color feature called hue, which is extracted from the starfruit image. As the original hue is quantified from the nonlinear transformation of the 3-dimensional Red, Green and Blue color, this paper proposes a linear hue transformation computation based on the 2 colors of Red and Green. The proposed hue computation leads to a reduced computational burden, less computational complexity and better class discriminant capability. The hue is then applied as the input for the maturity classification process. The classification process is based on the hypothesis that for each of the maturity index, certain area of the starfruit surface is supposed to have distinctive value of the hue. In this work, the said starfruit surface area is set as 70% of the total area and based on 600 samples, the proposed technique results in 93% classification accuracy

Starfruit Leaves as Glucose Absorption Inhibitor in Mice's Small Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Background: Starfruit (Averrhoa carambola) leaves contain flavone derivatives that exhibit anti-hyperglycemic effects. This study aims to determine the effect of starfruit leaves in reducing glucose absorption in intestinal epithelial cells of mice. Methods: This study was done by performing perfusion on the small intestines of mice. The mice that were used in this study were divided into four groups. The control group was given glucose solution without infused starfruit leaves whereas, the remaining 3 groups were given 3 mmol (540 mg/dL) glucose solution with infused starfruit leaves of varying concentrations; 200, 400, and 600 mg/kg. Samples were collected at 0, 15th, 30th, 45th, and 60th minute. The sample was tested for glucose levels using spectrophotometry. Results: Test of significance showed a significant difference between the control group and the test group with p < 0.05. Conclusions: Starfruit leaves have a reduction effect towards glucose absorption in the small intestines in Wistar strains where the group using 600 mg/kg of infused starfruit leaves have the most significant effect as compared to other groups

Starfruit Leaves as Glucose Absorption Inhibitor in Mice's Small Intestinal Epithelial Cells

Background: Starfruit (Averrhoa carambola) leaves contain flavone derivatives that exhibit anti-hyperglycemic effects. This study aims to determine the effect of starfruit leaves in reducing glucose absorption in intestinal epithelial cells of mice. Methods: This study was done by performing perfusion on the small intestines of mice. The mice that were used in this study were divided into four groups. The control group was given glucose solution without infused starfruit leaves whereas, the remaining 3 groups were given 3 mmol (540 mg/dL) glucose solution with infused starfruit leaves of varying concentrations; 200, 400, and 600 mg/kg. Samples were collected at 0, 15th, 30th, 45th, and 60th minute. The sample was tested for glucose levels using spectrophotometry. Results: Test of significance showed a significant difference between the control group and the test group with p < 0.05. Conclusions: Starfruit leaves have a reduction effect towards glucose absorption in the small intestines in Wistar strains where the group using 600 mg/kg of infused starfruit leaves have the most significant effect as compared to other groups

Topical Application of Ethanol Extract of Starfruit Leaves (Averrhoa Bilimbi Linn) Increases Fibroblasts in Gingival Wounds Healing of White Male Rats

Injuries to the gingiva are often encountered because of abnormalities in the oral cavity. Gingival wound healing is more complex because it lies in an open area, often contaminated and exposed to various types of bacteria in the oral cavity. Gingiva wound healing is determined by increase of fibroblasts. Plants widely used by humans as medicine is star fruit (Averrhoa Bilimbi Linn). This study aims to determine an increase of gingival fibroblasts on wound healing of male white rats given various concentrations of starfruit leaves extract topically. The study was conducted with a pretest-posttest control group design, consisted of four groups: the control group with distilled water and the groups treated with ethanol extract of starfruit leaves with a concentration of 10%, 20% and 40%. The result based on comparison test between the groups with One Way Anova, showed that the average amount of fibroblast in four groups after receiving the treatment was significantly different (p<0.01). The result of the test showed an increase in the number of fibroblasts in groups concentration of 10% and 20%, there was a decline observed in group concentration of 40%. It was concluded that application of ethanol extract of starfruit leaves with concentration of 10% increase the highest number of fibroblasts in the rat gingival wound healing process

Optimization of return value and handling cost

This paper discusses the application of Operations Research methodology in aiding manager in decision making regarding assignment and transportation problem. The project involved here is a case study done at a medium sized plantation run by Bumiputras. There are two objectives to be achieved namely to maximize the return value in assigning types of plants to the appropriate categories of land plot and to minimize transportation and service costs to respective market center. The methods being applied are the transportation technique and the Hungarian method

Pengaruh Ekstrak Daun Belimbing Wuluh (Averrhoa Bilimbi L.) terhadap Penurunan Tekanan Darah Tikus Putih Jantan (Rattus Norvegicus) Hipertensi

Background: Hypertension is an important risk factor for coronary disease. This happens both in developed or developing country. Starfruit (Averrhoa bilimbi L.) has chemical constituents that are benefi cial for health. Phytochemical screening showed that crude drugs starfruit leaves contain fl avonoids, saponins, tannins and steroids/triterpenoids. Tannin has diuretic effect. Tannin and fl avonoid also contain antioxidants that can decrease blood pressure.Objective: To determine of the eff ect of starfruit leaf extract to decrease blood pressure of hypertension white rats (Rattus norvegicus).Methods: This study was a pure experimental research design with pretest-posttest control group. The Number of samples was 21 white rats, which had previously been induced with 2.5% NaCl and prednisone dose of 1.5 mg/kg BW for 15 days. The samples were divided into 3 groups; group 1 was given captopril treatment dose of 2.5 mg/kg BW, group 2 was given a dose of starfruit leaf extract 52.517 mg/100 gram BW; and group 3 was given doses of leaf starfruit extract 105.034 mg/100 gram BW of the rats. Treatment was given for 15 days and then the blood pressure of the white rats was measured.Results: captopril dose 2.5 mg/kg BW was effective to decrease the white rats blood pressure (P <0.05). The Starfruit leaf extract dose 52. 517 mg/100 gram BW was effective to decrease white rats blood pressure (P <0.05) and starfruit leaf extract dose 105. 034 mg/100 gram BW was effective to decrease white rats blood pressure (p< 0.05).Conclusion: captopril dose 2.5 mg/kg BW and starfruit leaf extract dose 105. 034 mg/100 gram BW mice had similar effectiveness to decrease white rats blood pressure

Identifikasi Tingkat Manis Buah Belimbing Berdasarkan Citra Red Green Blue Menggunakan Fuzzy Neural Network

  Fuzzy Neural Network (FNN) has a capability to classify a pattern within two different classes which a classical Neural Network (NN) is failed to do so. The fuzzy pattern classification use membership degree on output of neuron as learning target. This research aim is to develop an artificial intelligence system model for non-destructive classification of starfruit using Fuzzy Neural Network. The input parameter is the estimator parameter of starfruit sweet level of red, green and blue index color obtained from image processing. The best result of starfruit sweet level identification using FNN with three classification class target (sour, medium and sweet) is achieved with 25 neurons in hidden layer and 14th epoch with 100% accuracy.   Keyword : classification, fuzzy neural network, starfruit, non-destructive grading, pattern recognition.   &nbsp

Yield And Quality Of Starfruit (Averrhoa Carambola Cv. B10) Under Protected Cultivation

Starfruit (Averrhoa carambola) is an important export fruit with an annual export value of RM30 million. The fruit is mainly exported to Europe. A critical constraint to the future expansion of the starfruit industry is its high labour requirement especially in wrapping of individual fruits, which takes up about 45% of the labour cost. Besides the labour requirement, from 2004 onward all fresh produce to be exported to Europe must meet the EUREPGAP requirement, which encompasses a good agriculture practice such as minimum usage of agrochemicals to maintain consumer confidence in food quality and safety. Thus cultivation of starfruit under protected structure offers an alternative production technique that can be considered. Three experiments were conducted to study the agronomic performance of starfruit under protected structure. The first study was on the effect of crop load on plant’s physiological performance, yield and fruit quality. The rate of stomatal conductance and transpiration of matured leaf (35 day old) was significantly affected by the crop load treatments. The stomatal conductance of the high and medium crop load were 83-93 % higher (P ≤ 0.05) than the low crop load. At the same time the transpiration rate of the middle and high crop load were 91 % higher than the lowest crop load (P ≤ 0.05). The yield increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) with increase in crop load from 6.3 t/ha at the lowest to 22 t/ha at the highest crop load. The number of exportable size fruit increased with increase in number of ‘M’ and ‘S’ size fruits at the highest crop load. Increase in crop load did not affect the fruit chemical properties such as soluble solids and ascorbic acid concentration. The fruit firmness was not significantly influenced by the crop load treatments. Thus maintaining crop load of starfruit up to 600 fruit per trees per harvesting season was able to increase exportable yield of starfruit without affecting fruit chemical properties and fruit firmness. The second experiment was on the effect of fruit microenvironment on fruit development, qualities and nutrient concentration. The position of fruit under the tree canopy influenced the fruit microenvironment such as heat units and cumulative irradiance impinging on the fruits. The difference in heat units and cumulative irradiance had significant influence on fruit development, and fruit chemical properties. The fruits that were exposed to higher irradiance (PAR m.m-2) were lower in fruit fresh weight (P ≤ 0.05) compared to fruits protected under the canopy. Thus at harvest these fruits were small and mainly of the ‘S’ size, while fruits protected under the tree canopy were bigger mainly of ‘M’ size. Exposure to higher irradiance (PAR m.m-2) did not influence the soluble solids concentration. Although exposure to higher irradiance could increase the ascorbic acid and carotenoid concentrations, the fruits lacked lustre. Exposure to higher heat unit caused a reduction in fruit calcium, which was the only element that was found to influence firmness of starfruit. Hence a third study was conducted to determine the effect of foliar calcium on fruit quality improvement. Application of calcium onto the fruit during the early fruit development stage resulted in increase in fruit calcium concentration from 228 mg/kg to 287 mg/kg (P ≤ 0.05). The calcium treated fruits had smaller cells with thicker cell walls when examined under the electron microscope. The application of calcium also increased the wing tip thickness (P ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, when cultivated under protected structure yield of starfruit can be increased by increasing the crop load up to 600 fruits per tree without adverse effect on fruit quality. Best quality fruits were those protected under the tree canopy. Application of the foliar calcium on to the fruit further enhanced fruit quality, resulting in fruit with thicker wings and increased in firmness