Leaf Image-Based Plant Disease Identification Using Color and Texture Features

Wireless Personal Communications - Identification of plant disease is usually done through visual inspection or during laboratory examination which causes delays resulting in yield loss by the time...     

Stent use for hemodialysis access: What a general nephrologist needs to know

Recurrent stenosis due to neo‐intimal hyperplasia leads to loss of patency in an established hemodialysis access. The current treatment strategy to maintain patency involves percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with or without stent placement. There are several key points that an interventionalist needs to weigh before deciding to place a stent. These include appropriateness of stent placement, the long term consequences, the type of stent to be deployed, the size of stent and finally the impact on cannulation during dialysis. A general nephrologist needs to be aware of the various benefits and pitfalls of stent placement. The current review provides basic information that will educate the dialysis provider about stents and its use in treating dysfunctional hemodialysis access using commonly encountered clinical scenarios.     

Automatic melanoma detection and segmentation in dermoscopy images using deep RetinaNet and conditional random fields

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Melanoma is one of the major causes of death around the world and is also known as malignant skin cancer. Melanoma detection is possible at an early stage by...     

First and second law analysis of an ejector expansion Joule–Thomson cryogenic refrigeration cycle

In this paper, a combined first and second law approach is applied to study an ejector expansion Joule–Thomson cryogenic refrigeration cycle. The effects of the evaporator temperature, ejector pressure ratio and compressor function on the coefficient of performance (COP), exergy destruction and the exergetic efficiency have been investigated. The present study has been conducted for the evaporator and compressor temperature in the range of 75–135 and 270–330 K, respectively. The ejector pressure ratio is varied from 1.5 to 5.5. Simulation results show that COP and exergy efficiency increase with increasing evaporator temperature and ejector pressure ratio. In addition, it was found that the increase in the compressor temperature leads to the reduction in the first and second law efficiencies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inlet Pressure for Horizontal Tapered Laterals

Analytical equations are presented for two average pressure correction factors developed for linear displacement laterals with or without outflow at the downstream end. The average correction factor for laterals without downstream outflow, when applied to a relatively large number of outlets is in good agreement with earlier work. For a relatively small number of outlets, the average correction factor presented is more accurate. The average correction factor for laterals with outflow reduces to that for laterals without outflow when the outflow ratio is reduced to zero. For a relatively large number of outlets, this average correction factor is primarily a function of the outflow ratio. For both large outflow ratios and large outlet numbers, the average correction factor is almost a constant. To apply the average correction factor to design a tapered lateral, an expression relating lateral inlet head to required average head and friction head loss has been developed. The expression can be applied to a lateral with any number of reaches with different diameters. A practical application has been demonstrated through an example.     

Electrodeposition of Copper-Nickel Alloys from a Citrate Bath Containing Boric Acid

Copper-nickel alloys have been electrodeposited on steel substrates from a bath containing copper sulphate, nickel sulphate, sodium sulphate, sodium citrate and boric acid. Galvanostatic cathodic polarization, cathodic current efficiency and composition of the alloys were studied as influenced by bath composition, current density and temperature.

The bath is characterized by high cathodic current efficiency. Current density is found to strongly influence the composition of the deposits. At low current densities (lower than a certain transition current density), a copper-rich alloy is deposited with copper (the more noble metal) being the preferentially deposited metal. At larger current densities, nickel becomes the nobler metal and is deposited preferentially. The magnitude of the transition current density depends upon the bath composition and temperature. The structure and surface morphology of the as-deposited alloys were examined by XRD and SEM. The results reveal the presence of a single solid solution phase with face centred cubic structure. The morphology of the deposits is mainly controlled by the alloy composition.     

Effect of Aqueous Enzymatic Processes on Sunflower Oil Quality

The use of enzymes in aqueous vegetable oilseed extraction for simultaneous recovery of high quality oil and protein is gaining recognition. In the present work, five enzyme preparations [Protex 7L by Genencor (Rochester, NY USA), Alcalase 2.4L, and Viscozyme L by Novozymes (Bagsvaerd, Denmark), Natuzyme by Bioproton Pty Ltd (Australia) and Kemzyme by Kemin Europa N·V. (Belgium)] were studied to evaluate their effects on the extraction of oil and protein from sunflower seeds. Preliminary experiments were conducted for the selection of enzymes, optimum enzyme concentration, incubation time and pH. Maximum oil yield (87.25% of the total oil in the seed) was obtained with Viscozyme L, whereas, Protex 7L offered the highest level of protein in the aqueous phase. The comparison of the quality attributes of enzyme-assisted aqueous extracted (EAAE) oil with those of solvent-extracted and control (oils extracted without enzyme treatment) oils revealed no significant (P > 0.05) variations for iodine value, density, refractive index, unsaponifiable matter, and fatty acid composition among the extraction methods. The control and EAAE oils also exhibited a better oxidation state. The tocopherol concentration for the oils, produced with the enzymes, was noted to be quite improved relative to the control and solvent-extracted oils. A higher antioxidant activity in terms of total phenolic contents, 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl scavenging capacity and inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation was also observed for the EAAE oils as against control and the solvent-extracted oils.     

Is bioelectrical impedance accurate for use in large epidemiological studies?

Percentage of body fat is strongly associated with the risk of several chronic diseases but its accurate measurement is difficult. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a relatively simple, quick and non-invasive technique, to measure body composition. It measures body fat accurately in controlled clinical conditions but its performance in the field is inconsistent. In large epidemiologic studies simpler surrogate techniques such as body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-hip ratio are frequently used instead of BIA to measure body fatness. We reviewed the rationale, theory, and technique of recently developed systems such as foot (or hand)-to-foot BIA measurement, and the elements that could influence its results in large epidemiologic studies. BIA results are influenced by factors such as the environment, ethnicity, phase of menstrual cycle, and underlying medical conditions. We concluded that BIA measurements validated for specific ethnic groups, populations and conditions can accurately measure body fat in those populations, but not others and suggest that for large epdiemiological studies with diverse populations BIA may not be the appropriate choice for body composition measurement unless specific calibration equations are developed for different groups participating in the study.     

Risk-free WHO grading of astrocytoma using convolutional neural networks from MRI images

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Astrocytoma is the most common and aggressive brain tumor, in its highest grade, the prognosis is ‘low survival rate’. Spinal tap and biopsy are the...     

Comparative experimental study of sand and binder for flowability and casting mold quality

A good sand mold is an indispensable prerequisite to obtaining a good metal casting. Although sand casting is one of the oldest metal forming technique known to humans, it still has a lot to discover. In a bid to meet the ever-growing demand for quality, economics and increasing environmental restrictions, research is still ongoing to optimize for example the process of making the sand mold. This paper presents a comparative study of six different foundry sands for flowability using simple inexpensive apparatus and some quality parameters achieved by these sands when used with three different types of binder, two organic and one inorganic. The study aims to facilitate the choice of mold materials with a more extensive outlook into their characteristics through a serious of sand and mold tests. A good comparison of already existing materials provides a good reference point when novel materials are investigated. All the sands exhibited ‘good’ flow property according to the simple flowability tests done. However, not the same consensus for flowability rank is reached by all the flow tests. The mold quality tests reveal the strength, loss on ignition and permeability values achieved with each of the binder and sand combination which can also be used in mold material selection.