Abstract
Digital radiography is currently the main method of medical imaging diagnosis. It also has a wide range of applications across different fields. This study used radiation to conduct non-destructive visual imaging, and further established a quantitative analysis for visual gray-scale images to determine changes in the quality of eggs. Eggs of the same weight with three quality classes were chosen according to the egg labels available on the market. Furthermore, a general medical X-ray digital imaging system was used to apply two-dimensional digital radiography. A photometric interpretation of monochrome gray-scale imaging established by the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard was used to conduct a quantitative stratification analysis of the matrix data visualization, along with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for quantitative statistics of the gray-scale values for the three structures, i.e., shell, air cell, and yolk. The statistical results showed that X-ray digital gray-scale images and a quantitative stratification analysis of the matrix data visualization results are less easily identified based on visual differences. In the quantitative statistical results of the one-way ANOVA gray-scale values, the whole-egg and in-egg quantitative matrix analysis both show p < 0.05. In the analysis of egg freshness, the quantitative statistics of the percentage of space occupied by the air cell in the eggs also showed p < 0.05. In addition, the results of the freshness of each egg were graded. The quality and freshness of the eggs can be quantitatively analyzed through radiographic imaging. The results of this study will provide a more scientific and quantitative reference for the quality and freshness of agricultural products in the future.
Highlights
The structure of eggs mainly constitutes the shell, yolk, albumen, and air cell [1]
The equipment with an X-ray imaging system used for this study was composed of a general Hitachi PHF-15XH2 medical diagnostic X-ray system (Hitachi Medical corporation, Tokyo, Japan), a digital radiography system (Rayence Inc., Closter, NJ, USA), and Xmaru View V1 Ver.2.0 operating software used in the teaching and experimentation at the Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Technology, Yanpei University of Medical Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan
The classified three groups underwent a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test using Sigmaplot software to quantitatively analyze the egg quality grading
Summary
The structure of eggs mainly constitutes the shell, yolk, albumen, and air cell [1]. The quality of eggs varies with storage time and the way of raising the laying hens [3]. Different housing systems have impacts on egg production performance [4,5] and the health of hens [5,6] leading to the egg qualities. This information is printed on the outer packaging of the eggshell, and makes a difference in the quality and market pricing [7]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
