Aiming at the issue that it is easy to cause visual fatigue to count the quantity of milk somatic cells by microscope artificially, this paper raised automatic detection methods of counting milk somatic cells. To improve the quality of milk somatic cell's image, filtering and strengthening images with the method of DFT (Discrete Fourier Transformation). In order to increase the accuracy and speed of segmentation for somatic cell of milk images, and adjust the rapid testing requirement, it came up with the optimal threshold of image segmentation method based on niching particle swarm optimization Otsu(maximum class square error method). This method overcame the disadvantage of easily trapping in local solution and low rate in later convergence, improved the global optimization ability of the algorithmic. Using niche particle swarm optimization to optimize fitness function, it got the best segmentation threshold of Otsu, which could be used for image segmentation. At last, this paper provided handling methods for cell overlap and adhesion, through segmentation experiments using three different kinds of images of dyed milk somatic cell. Experiments showed that the methods raised in this paper are workable.

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To optimize sorbitol production through solid state fermentation (SSF) process using response surface methodology (RSM), the central composite design (CCD) was employed in this study in order to minimize the number of experiments needed for the determination of the best combination of parameters for the process optimization. The raw material used in this study was Meranti wood sawdust (MWS) obtained from Gambang Sawmill (M) Sdn Bhd, Gambang Kuantan, Pahang. The type of bacteria used for the study was Lactobacillus plantarum (BAA 793; NCIMB 8826), purchased from the America Type Culture Collection (ATCC). The physical and chemical pretreatment methods were used in the study to recover cellulose from the MSW, followed by the enzymatic hydrolysis process to produce glucose. The last phase of this work was the fermentation process using SSF to convert the produced glucose to sorbitol; this is the section of the study where the parameters were optimized using the RSM. The result of the RSM studies showed that the interactions between moisture content and temperature had a very significant effect with an F value of <0.0001. The highest yield of sorbitol (29.0625 g/L) was obtained when using 50% of moisture content, at a temperature of 35 °C for 10 h of fermentation time. The RSM helped in the optimization of the effective parameters as well as to analyze the interaction between the parameters.

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In this study, we report the long term operation results of analyses of characteristics of the Rakuno Gakuen University Biogas generation plant (BGP), which has been in operation since March 2000. We evaluated using data for the 11-year period between April 2000 (FY2000), when BGP was built, and March 2011 (FY2010). The average biogas production per unit showed substantial fluctuations during this period, increasing from 20 m³ during the trial operation period in FY2000 to 30–40 m³ in FY2001–FY2006, and then decreasing to 15–25 m³ in FY2007–FY2010. The optimal methane fermentation facility temperature for steady methane gas production was approximately 40 °C. In FY2007, this BGP experienced its first localized functionality decline in energy use, including methane fermentation and power generation facilities. This resulted from changes in the substrate characteristics, inputs, and methane fermentation facility temperature, indicating that operations need to accommodate such changes in the long term.

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Sugar industry wastewater has the complex characteristic. Wastewater from the sugar industry, if discharged without treatment, poses pollution problems in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. An attempted has been made to treat the sugar industry wastewater in an economical way with a combination of thermal and chemical treatment by aluminium salt. Results showed thermal treatment of sugar industry wastewater were 72% COD and 74% color removal at optimum pH 4.5, working temperature 85 °C, catalyst mass loading 5 kg/m³ and treatment time 9 hrs. The treated wastewater again treated with commercial alum shows 98% COD and 99.9% color removal at pH 6.5 and mass loading 6 mM. The filterability results show combined treated wastewater having 3.64 kg/m³ cake resistance and 5.26 × 10⁻¹² medium resistance. Nearly 80% of supernatant settling was achieved at 40 min of settling time. Overall combined treatment was found to be more suitable to treat sugar industry wastewater up to the dischargeable limit.

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The purpose of this study was to develop extruded snack products using a blend of rice flour, corn flour and deoiled rice bran. Effects of feed moisture (12%–18%), barrel temperature (86⁰C-154 °C) and screw speed (116–284 rpm) on the product properties like lateral expansion (LE), bulk density (BD), water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI) and hardness (H) were investigated. All these physical properties of extruded snacks were found to be significantly affected by changes in moisture, temperature and screw speed. The regression models for product responses like lateral expansion, bulk density, water absorption index, water solubility index and hardness were highly significant (p ≤ 0.001). The optimized extruded product was obtained at moisture content of 13%, barrel temperature 140 °C, and 203 rpm of screw speed. It was revealed that deoiled rice bran can be incorporated to produce snack products with desirable quality characteristics.

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Appropriate residue management is a key factor underlying successful crop establishment in no-tillage systems. Satisfactory opening and closing of furrows, and uniform seeding depth and seed-spacing are achieved when the design of the residue management unit of the seeder, and machinery settings are correctly selected for the soil type, soil condition, and soil surface residue characteristics. Improper selection of such units or settings can result in blockage of tine furrow openers, with accumulated residues and hairpinning when disc openers are used. This can affect seed-soil contact and result in uneven seedling emergence or sub-optimal plant stand, and reduce crop yield potential. This article critically examines the effectiveness of residue management units of no-tillage sowing equipment in maintaining appropriate levels (e.g., ≥30%) of residue cover on sown rows, preventing the interference of such residue with opening and closing of furrows (blockage), enabling the seed to be correctly placed (depth control, seed-spacing), and by discussing the influence of unit's design on fuel consumption and power (draft) requirements. This review confirmed that smooth disc coulters, finger row cleaners, and their combinations can retain more than the minimum residue cover recommended for no-tillage systems. Power-assisted units can operate with surface residue up to about 9000 kg ha⁻¹ without blockage, but their adoption in developing countries is restricted by relatively high fuel consumption. Future evaluations of residue management units need to be conducted under controlled conditions. Such work will enable parametrization of suitable models (DEM) and will advance the understanding of soil-machine-residue interactions to further assist the design of no-tillage equipment. Priority research areas are presented and discussed.

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This paper describes an applied research established in response to farmer's request for improvement of performance of tractor-implement in tillage operations. An effort for decrement of variations in plowing depth as well as increment of tractive efficiency of a moderate power tractor in tillage operations with mounted implements led to development of a fuzzy depth and draft control system for tractor-implement. The fuzzy control system consisted of an electrical sensing, control, and electro-hydraulic actuator unit. A command set including four fuzzy rules were programmed for the control unit. To determine merits of the fuzzy control system, the field experiments were carried out at three levels of plowing depth (10, 20 and 30 cm), forward speed (2, 4 and 6 km/h), and implement types (moldboard, disk, and chisel plow) utilizing the system mounted on a tractor (MF-399). Some performance parameters of tractor-implement were then determined in the field experiments. The results indicated application of the fuzzy control system rather than available draft control system of the tractor resulted in increment of tractive efficiency and overall energy efficiency up to 20 and 73%, respectively. Meanwhile, plowing depth error, driving wheel slip, and fuel consumption decreased up to 53, 34 and 34%, respectively. The performance of the fuzzy control system was not sensitive to implement type and plowing depth, while it was influenced by forward speed (P ≤ 0.01). The fuzzy control system adequately improved performance of tractor-implement in tillage operations and satisfied farmer's requirements. Hence, it is recommended to industrialize and commercialize the fuzzy control system in order to mount it on any moderate power tractor.

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The change of received signal strength index and packet loss rate under 2.4 GHz radio communication in a persimmon orchard in flowering phase was investigated. Texas CC2530 RF chip and the TinyOS system based WSN nodes were selected as instruments to conduct interwoven tests along a column of persimmon trees and different rows and columns of the orchard, and measure the receiving signal strength and packet loss rate which were in the three different heights from 0.80 m at the bottom of the canopy to 2.80 m at the top. In the tests, distance of each three trees was set as a tested distance, and there were eight tested distances in each row or column totally. Afterwards, all the obtained data underwent regression analysis. The results showed that when the transmitter and receiver were maintained at a fixed height, the received signal strength decreased, while the packet loss rate increased with the augment of tested distance. Furthermore, under the two situations where receiver was at the fringe of persimmon orchard and both transmitter and receiver were in the orchard, the models of signal strength attenuation affected by different factors along a row of persimmon tree were established and evaluated. Additionally, the curved surface graphs of different transceiver heights and different ranks of trees which were drawn by MATLAB software was able to reflect wireless signal transmission characteristics in persimmon orchard straightly.

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This paper is devoted to determine the concentration of two types of food additives using continuous injection technique supported by a new software designed by the authors. This methodology was developed to determine the tartrazine and sodium benzoate in some locally traded juices and the results obtained were compared with those obtained using traditional methods in the literature. The data is then received by a signal detector and a developed software spectrometer where a spectral scan was used to obtain the maximum wavelength for the two substances, a calibration curve was constructed and measurements obtained to find the actual concentrations of the two substances in the selected juices. It was found that the detection limit and the quantitative limit are 0.229, 0.694 and 0.221, 0.666 ppm for tartrazine and sodium benzoate respectively. This method is simple, fast, accurate, economical and versatile, which makes it a preferred routine method.

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Accurate grain and food moisture content (mc) estimation is an issue of great economic importance in agro-food industry operations such as drying, storage, and processing. Nonetheless, there is a high level of unmet need for on-line mc sensing that could lead to more reliable grain processing automation. Dielectric models that relate product mc to its relative permittivity ε′ and loss factor ε″ are considered promising solutions for continuous measurement of moisture in grain. The object of this paper was to investigate the applicability of three dielectric models derived from the function [(ε′–1)/ε″] for mc measurement of sorghum from 7 to 23% w.b. Of the three dielectric models tested, the most satisfactory was the function [(ε′–1)/ε″]/[(2√ε′)/(1+√ε′)] at 0.1 and 1.0 MHz. However, the moisture range had to be divided into two intervals. The corresponding equations could estimate sorghum mc with standard errors of calibration of 0.6 and 0.7, and standard errors of prediction of 0.6 and 0.8 percentage point moisture, for calibration and validation sets respectively. Comparison of the results obtained here with those reported in literature revealed that the function [(ε′–1)/ε″]/[(2√ε′)/(1+√ε′)] produced mc values which are well within the performance of commercial moisture meters.

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Biofilm formation in processing equipment can lead to higher costs due to more frequent cleaning events as well as the contamination of processed foods and is a concerning issue. It is necessary to establish new methods for the detection of biofilms formation on surfaces. The use of electrochemical microsensors for biofilm detection could be a strategy for real time biofilm control in processing equipment. In this study, voltammetric methods, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV), were employed to detect P. polymyxa biofilms and CIP cleaning solutions on platinum-based interdigitated ring array microelectrodes. The differences between the current responses of the uncovered sterile microelectrodes and the microelectrodes after Paenibacillus polymyxa attachment for 18 h were determined. The surface coverage of microelectrodes was visualized using microscopy techniques. The results of this study demonstrated that cyclic voltammetry revealed the most promising results for P. polymyxa biofilm detection, while square wave voltammetry can be recommended for the detection of CIP cleaning solutions.

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The enhancement in efficiency of water distribution system can provide water to farmers equally by controlling water loses. The main objective of this study was to quantify canal water distribution and its impact on income of the farmers in selected watercourses of 3-R distributary before and after the remodeling of outlets in district Bahawalnagar, Pakistan. The result showed that the water supply to the farmers at the tail reach was less than those at head and middle reaches of the watercourses. The tail end farmers had to spend more money to pump groundwater and the net income of the farmers decreased with increase in distance from the outlets before and after remodeling of the outlets. The net income of head, middle and tail reach farmers along the watercourses decreased from 20 to 25 percent and yield of wheat reduced approximately 30–40% after remodeling of the outlets. It was concluded that newly designed outlets did not show any improvement in distribution of canal water and this inequity of canal water distribution reduced the income of the farmers.

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Plum (Japanese Apricot) having various economic importances, has been mainly processed for valuable products from its fleshes. To obtain plum flesh, seed removing is necessary but serious obstacle is to remove seeds. Therefore, an automatic plum seed remover (APSR) was identified, designed, manufactured and evaluated. The introduced APSR was comprised with an automatic plum supplying unit, plum positioning unit, punching and cutting unit, discharging unit, and controlling unit. The cutting unit was equipped with zero, two, or four blade cutters. The performance parameters of the APSR were assessed including in terms of flesh recovery, seed breakage, deseeding efficiency, and machine efficiency. In order to the performance evaluation of APSR, experiments were conducted at different conditions based on positioning competency on both fresh and frozen plums. The APSR was exhibited the better results comparing with Japanese and traditional plum seed remover. The test results of the developed machine showed 100% deseeding efficiency for ripe and hard plums. The capacity of APSR was 80 kg h⁻¹ without seed breakage. Flesh amount of plums were significantly different between four and zero blade cutters with positioning angles nearly, 0°, 15° and 180°. The developed APSR was recorded 87.90% flesh recovery for ripe plums and 83.02% flesh recovery for hard plums, respectively. APSR is preferred, because of its minimal flesh loss, rapid operation, increased productivity, low seed breakage and low labor expenditure. Hence, this APSR will take in advanced plum technology and be useful to flourish the plum industry for post-harvest processing of plum seeds.

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The objective of this study was to develop a generator-powered self-propelled automatic tray loading/unloading machine for rice seedling nurseries by using a gantry as the transport system to automate seedling tray placement and harvesting. During input operations, seedling trays are transported by conveyor belts to the nursery, and the tray loading/unloading machine automatically places the trays in rows in the nursery. During output operations, the tray loading/unloading machine automatically gathers the seedling trays from the nursery and transports them on conveyor belts to an automatic seedling mat roller. The entire system comprises mechanical components that achieve high operational stability and few malfunctions. Using a programmable logic controller for automation can effectively alleviate the inconvenience of laying heavy power cables. The tray loading/unloading machine automatically moves along the trusses of the gantry transport system, placing seedling trays in rows in the nursery. Alternatively, it can reverse directions and gather seedling trays from the nursery and transport them to the conveyor belts. The tray unloading capacity is 741 trays per hour, and tray loading capacity is 763 trays per hour. The tray loading/unloading machine enhances the automation operation of rice seedling nursery and alleviates the difficulty in hiring workers in farming villages where there are a shortage of labor.

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Fourier transform near infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR) in diffuse reflectance mode was used for the rapid estimation of curcumin, starch and moisture contents in turmeric samples. Thirty samples each of fingers and bulbs from varieties ‘Erode local’ and ‘Salem local’ (n = 120) were used for the study. Calibration models were developed and evaluated to describe the relationship between the three quality attributes with the NIR spectra of the turmeric powder. NIR reflectance spectra were acquired for each turmeric sample at a resolution of 8 cm⁻¹ over a wave number range of 12,500 to 3600 cm⁻¹. Vector normalization, first derivative and first derivative plus vector normalization were used as spectral pre-processing options. The relationship between the acquired spectra of turmeric samples and the quality attributes was examined through partial least square (PLS) regression algorithm. First derivative plus vector normalization technique predicted curcumin content with best accuracy with lowest root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) of 0.178% and maximum correlation coefficient for validation plots (R² = 91.9). Vector normalization technique predicted the starch and moisture content with RMSECV and R² value of 0.076%, 96.8 and 0.032%, 81.1 respectively. The results demonstrated that FT-NIR could be used as a rapid technique for quantification of curcumin, starch and moisture content in turmeric rhizomes for online grading in spice processing.

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