Detection and counting of pigment glands in cotton leaves using improved U-Net.

Gossypol, as an important oil and raw material for feed, is mainly produced by cotton pigment gland, and has a wide range of applications in the fields of pharmaceutics, agriculture and industry. Accurate knowledge of the distribution of pigment gland in cotton leaves is important for estimating gossypol content. However, pigment glands are extremely small and densely distributed, manual counting is laborious and time-consuming, and difficult to count quickly and accurately.

High-Throughput Root Image Segmentation Based on the Improved DeepLabv3+ Method.

The Rhizotrons method is an important means of detecting dynamic growth and development phenotypes of plant roots. However, the segmentation of root images is a critical obstacle restricting further development of this method. At present, researchers mostly use direct manual drawings or software-assisted manual drawings to segment root systems for analysis.

Determining the number of chemical species in nuclear magnetic resonance data matrix by taking advantage of collinearity and noise.

The number of chemical species is crucial in analyzing pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance spectral data. Any method to determine the number must handle the obstacles of collinearity and noise. Collinearity in pulsed field gradient NMR data poses a serious challenge to and fails many existing methods.

Biochemical, hydrological and mechanical behaviors of high food waste content MSW landfill: Preliminary findings from a large-scale experiment.

A large-scale bioreactor experiment lasting for 2years was presented in this paper to investigate the biochemical, hydrological and mechanical behaviors of high food waste content (HFWC) MSW. The experimental cell was 5m in length, 5m in width and 7.5m in depth, filled with unprocessed HFWC-MSWs of 91.

Reconstructing diffusion ordered NMR spectroscopy by simultaneous inversion of Laplace transform.

2D diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy (DOSY) has been widely recognized as a powerful tool for analyzing mixtures and probing inter-molecular interactions in situ. But it is difficult to differentiate molecules with similar diffusion coefficients in presence of overlapped spectra. Its performance is susceptible to the number of chemical components, and usually gets worse when the number of components increases.

Calcium effect on the metabolic pathway of phosphorus accumulating organisms in enhanced biological phosphorus removal systems.

Phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs) have been found to act as glycogen-accumulating organisms (GAOs) under certain conditions, thus, the deterioration in the performance of enhanced biological phosphorus removal systems is not always attributed to the proliferation of GAOs. In this work, the effects of calcium on the metabolic pathway of PAOs were explored. It was found that when the influent Ca(2+) concentration was elevated, the tendency and extent of extracellular calcium phosphate precipitation increased, and the intracellular inert Ca-bound polyphosphate was synthesized, while the microbial population remained almost unchanged.

[Discrimination of donkey meat by NIR and chemometrics].

Donkey meat samples (n = 167) from different parts of donkey body (neck, costalia, rump, and tendon), beef (n = 47), pork (n = 51) and mutton (n = 32) samples were used to establish near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) classification models in the spectra range of 4,000~12,500 cm(-1). The accuracies of classification models constructed by Mahalanobis distances analysis, soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) and least squares-support vector machine (LS-SVM), respectively combined with pretreatment of Savitzky-Golay smooth (5, 15 and 25 points) and derivative (first and second), multiplicative scatter correction and standard normal variate, were compared. The optimal models for intact samples were obtained by Mahalanobis distances analysis with the first 11 principal components (PCs) from original spectra as inputs and by LS-SVM with the first 6 PCs as inputs, and correctly classified 100% of calibration set and 98.

Increasing the quantitative credibility of open-path Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic data, with focus on several properties of the background spectrum.

The choice of the type of background spectrum affects the credibility of open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP/FT-IR) data, and consequently, the quality of data analysis. We systematically investigated several properties of the background spectrum. The results show that a short-path background measured with the lowest amplifier gain could significantly reduce noise in the calculated absorbance spectrum, by at least 30% in our case.

[Nondestructive discrimination of strawberry varieties by NIR and BP-ANN].

Strawberry variety is a main factor that can influence strawberry fruit quality. The use of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy was explored discriminate among samples of strawberry of different varieties. And the significance of difference among different varieties was analyzed by comparison of the chemical composition of the different varieties samples.

Minimizing the effect of extraneous spikes in open-path Fourier transform infrared interferograms.

Intense spikes caused by extraneous factors are sometimes found in the interferograms of open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP/FT-IR) measurements. Those spikes result in dominant oscillations in the corresponding spectra and make the true spectral features indistinguishable from the noise. Three techniques were designed to remove the spikes: replacing the affected region by zeroes; grafting the data from the corresponding region on the other side of the centerburst ("homografting"); and grafting the data from the same region on the same side of the centerburst from a neighboring interferogram ("heterografting").

Using multiple calibration sets to improve the quantitative accuracy of partial least squares (PLS) regression on open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP/FT-IR) spectra of ammonia over wide concentration ranges.

The use of multiple calibration sets in partial least squares (PLS) regression was proposed to improve the quantitative determination of NH(3) over wide concentration ranges from open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP/FT-IR) spectra. The spectra were measured near animal farms, where the path-integrated concentration of NH(3) can fluctuate from nearly zero to as high as approximately 1000 ppm-m. PLS regression with a single calibration set did not cover such a large concentration range effectively, and the quantitative accuracy was degraded due to the nonlinear relationship between concentration and absorbance for spectra measured at low resolution (1 cm(-1) and poorer.

Advances in data processing for open-path Fourier transform infrared spectrometry of greenhouse gases.

The automated quantification of three greenhouse gases, ammonia, methane, and nitrous oxide, in the vicinity of a large dairy farm by open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP/FT-IR) spectrometry at intervals of 5 min is demonstrated. Spectral pretreatment, including the automated detection and correction of the effect of interrupting the infrared beam, is by a moving object, and the automated correction for the nonlinear detector response is applied to the measured interferograms. Two ways of obtaining quantitative data from OP/FT-IR data are described.

Detection of chemical agents in the atmosphere by open-path FT-IR spectroscopy under conditions of background interference: II. Fog and rain.

Open-path FT-IR spectra of low-concentration releases of diethyl ether were measured both when a glycol fog was passed into the infrared beam and when large water droplets from a lawn sprinkler were sprayed into the beam. It was shown that the glycol fog, for which the droplet size was much less than the wavelength of the infrared radiation, gave rise to a significant interference such that partial least squares (PLS) regression would only yield reasonable values for the ether concentration if background spectra in which the glycol fog was present were included in the calibration set. On the other hand, target factor analysis (TFA) allowed the presence of the ether to be recognized without precalibration.

Detection of chemical agents in the atmosphere by open-path FT-IR spectroscopy under conditions of background interference: I. High-frequency flashes.

Open-path FT-IR spectra were measured while fireworks were emitting smoke and incandescent particles into the infrared beam. These conditions were designed to simulate the appearance of smoke and explosions in a battlefield. Diethyl ether was used to simulate the vapor-phase spectra of G agents such as sarin.

Information extraction from a complex multicomponent system by target factor analysis.

A theoretical investigation into the mechanism of information extraction by target factor analysis (TFA) is presented from experimental data in the form of a matrix, and the results were validated using composite spectra obtained by open-path Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry. The composite spectra were generated by adding the spectral information of a target molecule with known path-integrated concentrations to the raw open-path FT-IR spectra obtained in a pristine atmosphere. Target molecules are deemed to be detected when the weighted correlation coefficient between the calculated spectrum of the analyte and its reference spectrum exceeds 0.

Self-weighted correlation coefficients and their application to measure spectral similarity.

A technique for spectral searching with noisy data is described that improves the performance over contemporary approaches. Instead of simply calculating the correlation coefficient between the spectrum of an unknown and a series of reference spectra, greater weight is given to the more intense features in the reference spectra. The weight array, w, is given by |r|/{1 + d}, where the vector r represents the reference spectrum and the difference vector, d, contains the difference between the sample and reference data points, equal to |s-kr|, where k is a scaling factor that eliminates the effect of signal strength.

Completely automated open-path FT-IR spectrometry.

Atmospheric analysis by open-path Fourier-transform infrared (OP/FT-IR) spectrometry has been possible for over two decades but has not been widely used because of the limitations of the software of commercial instruments. In this paper, we describe the current state-of-the-art of the hardware and software that constitutes a contemporary OP/FT-IR spectrometer. We then describe advances that have been made in our laboratory that have enabled many of the limitations of this type of instrument to be overcome.

Correcting nonlinear response of mercury cadmium telluride detectors in open path Fourier transform infrared spectrometry.

The effect of a nonlinear response of mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) detectors to photon flux is to cause a large offset and a slow variation in the zero-line of single-beam Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, which dramatically reduce the accuracy to which strongly absorbing bands or lines can be measured. We describe a noniterative numerical technique by which the baseline offset can be corrected by adjusting the values of the maximum point in the interferogram (the "centerburst") and the points on either side. The technique relies on the presence of three spectral regions at which the signal is known to be zero.

Carbon-13 chemical shift tensors of disaccharides: measurement, computation and assignment.

A recently developed chemical shift anisotropy amplification solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiment is applied to the measurement of the chemical shift tensors in three disaccharides: sucrose, maltose, and trehalose. The measured tensor principal values are compared with those calculated from first principles using density functional theory within the planewave-pseudopotential approach. In addition, a method of assigning poorly dispersed NMR spectra, based on comparing experimental and calculated shift anisotropies as well as isotropic shifts, is demonstrated.

Automatic baseline correction by wavelet transform for quantitative open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

A technique for automatically correcting the baseline of open-path Fourier transform infrared spectra is described in which the spectra are decomposed into high-frequency (details) and low-frequency (discrete approximations) information using a wavelet transform. After an appropriate number of iterations, n, the discrete approximation simulates the baseline of the spectrum. By setting the nth approximation to zero and reversing this process, the reconstructed signal contains only the high-frequency components in the original signal on a baseline that is approximately flat and at zero absorbance.

Obtaining qualitative information on trace species in continuous open-path fourier transform spectroscopic measurements using target factor analysis and related techniques.

We report the application of target factor analysis (TFA) to the identification of trace analytes in open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP/FT-IR) spectra. Results showed that for components such as methane and ammonia, for which the path-integrated concentration was greater than approximately 100 ppm.m, TFA yielded results that closely match corresponding reference spectra.

Triggered ligand release coupled to framework rearrangement: generating crystalline porous coordination materials.

A robust 3-D porous structure of formula [Ln2(PDC)3(DMF)2](infinity) has been constructed from lanthanide cations (Ln = Er3+ or Y3+) and the non-linear anionic bridging ligand, pyridine-3,5-dicarboxylate (PDC2-) in dimethylformamide (DMF). The solvated framework polymers {[M2(PDC)3(DMF)2].n(solv)}(infinity) (M = Er, Y) undergo a solid-state, crystal-to-crystal reaction upon heating and are converted via loss of both sorbed and coordinated solvent and rearrangement of the framework core to give a desolvated and porous form with retention of structural integrity.

CAESURA: measurement of slow molecular dynamics by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shift anisotropy modulation amplification.

An alternative magic angle spinning (MAS) exchange NMR experiment based on chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) amplification is described. The CSA amplification experiment correlates a standard MAS spectrum in the omega(2) dimension with a sideband pattern in omega(1) in which the intensities are identical to those expected for a sample spinning at some fraction 1N of the actual rate omega(r). In common with 2D-PASS, the isotropic shift appears only in the omega(2) dimension, and long acquisition times can be avoided without loss of resolution of different chemical sites.

Quantitative vapor-phase infrared spectrometry of ammonia.

Reference spectra of ammonia from four sources are compared. Low-resolution spectra (i.e.