COLOR VISION SYSTEM FOR RIPENESS INSPECTION OF OIL PALM ELAEIS GUINEENSIS

In checking harvesting discipline and quality control for oil palm fruits, color has presumably been an important guide to whether the oil content has reached a maximum where the fruit bunch is ready for cutting. However, establishing a single and harmonious standard base on color is a very contentious issue in the oil palm industry because of the subjective nature of the human vision of color. This was further complicated due to the lack of information on fruit color upon which to base a definite ripeness criterion. We demonstrated in this paper that this problem can be solved using machine vision technology. Methods used were to treat color in HSI (Hue, Saturation and Intensity) color space and applied multivariate discriminant analysis. These have proven to be highly effective for color evaluation and image processing. The vision system was trained to classify oil palms into four quality grades according to PORIM (Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia) inspection standards. These are the unripe, the underripe, the optimally ripe and the overripe classes. Depending upon the quality feature evaluated, misclassification by the vision system varied from 5 to 12% but averaged at about 8%. Machine vision disagreement ranged from 2 to 19%.     

An automatic subdigraph renovation plan for failure recovery of composite semantic Web services

A Web service-based system never fulfills a user＇s goal unless a failure recovery approach exists. It is inevitable that several Web services may either perish or fail before or during transactions. The completion of a composite process relies on the smooth execution of all constituent Web services. A mediator acts as an intermediary between providers and consumers to monitor the execution of these services. If a service fails, the mediator has to recover the whole composite process or else jeopardize achieving the intended goals. The atomic replacement of a perished Web service usually does not apply because the process of locating a matched Web service is unreliable. Even the system cannot depend on the replacement of the dead service with a com- posite service. In this paper, we propose an automatic renova- tion plan for failure recovery of composite semantic services based on an approach of subdigraph replacement. A replacement subdigraph is posed in lieu of an original subdigraph, which includes the failed service. The replacement is done in two separate phases, ofltine and online, to make the recovery faster. The ofitine phase foresees all possible subdigraphs, pre-calculates them, and ranks several possible replacements. The online phase compensates the unwanted effects and executes the replacement subdigraph in lieu of the original subdigraph. We have evaluated our approach during an experiment and have found that we could recover more than half of the simulated failures. These achievements show a significant improvement compared to current approaches     

Destructive and non-destructive evaluation of concrete for optimum sand to aggregate volume ratio

Aggregates are the biggest contributor to concrete volume and are a crucial parameter in dictating its mechanical properties. As such, a detailed experimental investigation was carried out to evaluate the effect of sand-to-aggregate volume ratio (s/a) on the mechanical properties of concrete utilizing both destructive and non-destructive testing (employing UPV (ultrasonic pulse velocity) measurements). For investigation, standard cylindrical concrete samples were made with different s/a (0.36, 0.40, 0.44, 0.48, 0.52, and 0.56), cement content (340 and 450 kg/m³), water-to-cement ratio (0.45 and 0.50), and maximum aggregate size (12 and 19 mm). The effect of these design parameters on the 7, 14, and 28 d compressive strength, tensile strength, elastic modulus, and UPV of concrete were assessed. The careful analysis demonstrates that aggregate proportions and size need to be optimized for formulating mix designs; optimum ratios of s/a were found to be 0.40 and 0.44 for the maximum aggregate size of 12 and 19 mm, respectively, irrespective of the W/C (water-to-cement) and cement content.     

黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液的研究与应用进展

黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液是以黏弹性表面活性剂为主剂的清洁压裂液。黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液体系具有破胶后无残渣、携砂性好、滤失控制性能好等特点,但随着对环保问题的日益重视及钻井深度的不断增加,丰富黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液体系迫在眉睫。本文介绍了黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液的发展和应用。根据压裂液配方不同,将其分为常规黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液和非常规新型黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液,总结了不同种类的黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液的组成、耐温耐剪切等性能及应用情况。分析表明,降低成本、研制简单的配制工艺是常规黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液的主要发展方向;在油田进行大规模实际应用及得到更完善的体系是非常规新型黏弹性表面活性剂压裂液的主要发展方向。     

POSTHARVEST RETARDATION OF SENESCENCE IN SHADO BENNI (ERYNGIUM FOETIDUM, L.) PLANTS

Leaves of shado benni plants (Eryngium foetidum, L.) are used extensively as a seasoning and herbal medicine. However, the very short shelf-life of 3–4 days of harvested plants is a major drawback to wider use. Plants were harvested with roots intact, dipped in gibberellic acid (GA₃) and stored in perforated and nonperforated LDPE bags up to 22 days at 20–22C and 28–30C. Samples were examined for changes in appearance, color, fresh weight and flavor (loss of pungency and off-flavor development). GA₃ effectively retarded plant senescence up to 22 days at both temperatures when stored in nonperforated LDPE bags. Despite the external maintenance of marketable quality, flavor life was 17 days since development of off-flavors and reduction in pungency occurred after this period. Thus, the combination of polyethylene packaging, GA₃ dip treatment and reduced temperature storage extended the shelf-life of shado benni plants in a fresh, turgid and decay-free condition for in excess of two weeks.     

SHELF-LIFE OF FRIED POTATO CHIPS USING RBD PALM OLEIN, SOYBEAN OIL AND THEIR BLENDS

Shelf-life of potato chips fried in refined, bleached and deodorized palm olein (RBDPO), soybean oil (SBO) and their blends was evaluated. Potato slices were fried for 130 s at 180 PT 5C at 30 min intervals over a period of 5 h/day for 5 consecutive days. Indicators of frying oil quality with the shelf-life of fried products chosen were total polar component and acid value. This study indicated that RBDPO was better than SBO for the preparation of fried potato chips in terms of shelf-life of products. The blends were also slightly better than SBO with increasing proportion of RBDPO. However, the effects were minimal on the rate of development of rancidity in fried products beyond the fourth day of frying in the frying medium.     

STORAGE TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON THE PROTEOLYTIC ACTIVITY OF RADIATION-SURVIVING BACTERIA IN OYSTERS

ABSTRACT— The activity of 2 radiation-surviving and strongly proteolytic strains of Pseudomonas and Achromobacter were compared to the activity of 2 lesser active strains of Neisseria and Bacillus in fresh oysters during iced (32°F) and refrigerated (40°F) storage for 15 days. Radiation doses used for the oysters were 100 and 800 krad. The activity of the former bacteria was higher than that of the latter 2 at both temperatures and radiation doses. Neither the nonirradiated nor the irradiated uninoculated oysters displayed significant increases in proteolytic activity when they were ice-stored for 15 days, but storage at 40°F for the same period resulted in significant activity increases in the nonirradiated. This emphasizes irradiation and storage temperature as related factors. A slight decrease in pH at 15 days in both nonirradiated and 100 krad-irradiated oysters corresponded to the increase in bacterial numbers.     

VAPOR OPERATED SOLAR PUMP

The choice of a water pumping system in remote areas depends on the type of energy available for power generation. In most of these areas where electricity and other sources of energy are not available or expensive to obtain, solar energy offers a cheap source of energy which can be utilized for operating water pumping systems. This paper describes a simple low technology vapor operated solar pump having minimum number of moving parts. The system is easy to manufacture and requires low maintenance. The performance of the system is experimentally investigated and the results obtained are presented and discussed.