Fruit Orientation Research Articles

Multi-factor fusion models for soluble solid content detection in pear (Pyrus bretschneideri ‘Ya’) using Vis/NIR online half-transmittance technique

Development of the online and nondestructive technologies for inspecting and grading the quality of fruit in the postharvest period can improve industry competitiveness and profitability. The effect of fruit temperature, diameter and weight on online evaluation system of soluble solids content (SSC) of ‘Ya’ pears using visible/near infrared (Vis/NIR) spectroscopy was studied. To establish calibration models, partial least square (PLS) regression and least squares-support vector machine (LS-SVM) were employed in 630–900 nm and two fruit orientations (stem-calyx axis vertical with stem upward (T1), stem-calyx axis horizontal with stem towards belt moving direction (T2)), respectively. After pretreatments of Savitzky-Golay smoothing (SGS), multiplicative scattering correction (MSC), standard normal variate (SNV), and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) for effective wavelength (EWs) selection, models were optimized and compared to evaluate calibration strategies. 36 EWs using PLS (rp = 0.89, RMSEP = 0.56) with the consideration of diameter (T1) and 34 EWs using LS-SVM (rp = 0.90, RMSEP = 0.57) with the consideration of temperature and diameter (T2) were finally selected, respectively. The fusion information of temperature and diameter showed beneficial effect and the best prediction results based on the designed online Vis/NIR half-transmittance system after MSC and 7-SGS for SSC evaluation of pears using LS-SVM, which would be effective to simplify models and promote computing efficiency and further make this proposed nondestructive detection technique have thepractical application.

Viewpoint Analysis for Maturity Classification of Sweet Peppers.

The effect of camera viewpoint and fruit orientation on the performance of a sweet pepper maturity level classification algorithm was evaluated. Image datasets of sweet peppers harvested from a commercial greenhouse were collected using two different methods, resulting in 789 RGB—Red Green Blue (images acquired in a photocell) and 417 RGB-D—Red Green Blue-Depth (images acquired by a robotic arm in the laboratory), which are published as part of this paper. Maturity level classification was performed using a random forest algorithm. Classifications of maturity level from different camera viewpoints, using a combination of viewpoints, and different fruit orientations on the plant were evaluated and compared to manual classification. Results revealed that: (1) the bottom viewpoint is the best single viewpoint for maturity level classification accuracy; (2) information from two viewpoints increases the classification by 25 and 15 percent compared to a single viewpoint for red and yellow peppers, respectively, and (3) classification performance is highly dependent on the fruit’s orientation on the plant.

Impact of fruit orientation and pelleting material on water uptake and germination performance in artificial substrate for sugar beet.

Water uptake into seeds is a fundamental prerequisite of germination and commonly influenced by commercial seed enhancement technologies. The effect of fruit orientation and contrasting pelleting materials on germination and biological performance of sugar beet was assessed. The results indicated there was orientation dependent fruit shrinkage of 37% for the operculum side supplied by moisture compared to 4% for the basal pore side. The expansion rate of 5% compared to the original size, which was also observed for non-shrinking seeds, indicated this was a temporary effect. This behaviour has importance for the application pelleting materials to seeds. Pellets composed of materials exhibiting low levels of swelling act as a water distribution layer which increased germination rates. Careful selection of pelleting material is crucial as it has direct implications on germination speed and subsequent establishment rates.

Optimization and comparison of models for prediction of soluble solids content in apple by online Vis/NIR transmission coupled with diameter correction method

The online system can achieve high efficiency towards fruit quality determination in postharvest period. Thus, developing online and nondestructive technology for inspecting and grading fruit is meaningful and profitable in the existing robotic sorting systems. In this study, the effect of fruit diameter differences on online prediction of soluble solids content (SSC) of ‘Fuji’ apples based on visible and near-infrared (Vis/NIR) spectroscopy was studied. Partial least square (PLS) regression was employed to establish calibration models based on three wavelength regions (675–1025, 710–980, 750–1025 ​nm) and two fruit orientations (stem-calyx axis vertical with stem upward (T1) and stem-calyx axis horizontal with stem towards light source (T2)), respectively. A novel diameter correction method was proposed to reduce the effect of fruit diameter differences on original spectra. Combined with pretreatment and effective wavelength (EWs) selection methods, models were optimized and compared to determine the best calibration strategy. Diffuse transmission spectra in 710–980 ​nm and diameter correction method with calculated attenuation coefficient were testified much better than other corresponding regions and correction methods, respectively. Baseline offset correction (BOC) and 7-point Savitzky-Golay smoothing (SGS) of pretreatments and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) of EWs selection methods were proved to be outstanding among other methods. 59 and 63 ​EWs achieved the best detection accuracies with correlation coefficient of prediction (rp) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.92 and 0.50 °Brix, 0.89 and 0.56 °Brix for T1 and T2, respectively. The overall results indicated that online Vis/NIR transmission spectra after BOC and 7-SGS with proposed diameter correction method can make the variation of fruit diameters a small interference for SSC determination, and CARS-PLS would be effective to simplify models and promote computing efficiency to make this nondestructive detection technique promisingly applied.

Early Retirement, Social Class, and Family Relationships in Cloutier's Bonne retraite, Jocelyne (2018).

Aging women are continuously underrepresented in performing arts. An exception to this trend in Québec is Fabien Cloutier's latest play Bonne retraite, Jocelyne (2018), whose protagonist is a middle-aged woman who has decided to take early retirement. This article aims at examining the interplay between the protagonist's voluntary early retirement, gender, social class, and family relationships. This article mobilizes the theoretical framework of aging studies, which is underdeveloped in the French academic sphere. This qualitative case study connects gender issues and performative strategies in order to study a complex phenomenon within its context. We showed that Cloutier provides new representations of middle-aged women in his play, a corrective to the under-representation of such an age group of actors and actresses in Québec. Our results cast a new light on the combination of class privilege, gender, and ageism, as a most fruitful research orientation to be further developed in the future in order to pursue an in-depth analysis of early retirement. The play reveals that belonging to the upper-middle class is essential in order to be able, economically speaking, to retire early. Cloutier empowers Jocelyne both as an aging individual and as a woman by means of granting her the right to make her own decisions in life.

Detection of internal defect of apples by a multichannel Vis/NIR spectroscopic system

Abstract This paper reports on nondestructive detection of internal defect in apples by using a new noncontact multichannel spectroscopic system in semi-transmittance mode for the visible and near-infrared (Vis/NIR) range of 550-1,650 nm. The specially designed multichannel system consists of six optical fibers arranged in a 360-degree configuration for improved evaluation of each fruit. Spectra were acquired for 430 ‘Honeycrisp’ apples, 243 of which were good (defect free) and 187 internally defective. To assess the effect of fruit orientation on defect detection, each apple was measured in three orientations (i.e., the stem-end facing the light source (A), the calyx end facing the light source (B) and the stem-calyx axis being perpendicular to the light source(C)). Classification models based on partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) were established for spectra of each detection fiber and mean spectra of the six detection fibers, to compare their performance for internal defect detection. Results showed that classification results varied with detection fiber and fruit orientation. Mean spectra for each fruit orientation gave consistently better classifications, with the overall accuracies of 91.5%, 89.2% and 93.1% for orientations A, B and C, respectively. Moreover, the best PLSDA models had lower misclassification rates for good apples (4.3%) than for defective apples (10.0%). Furthermore, significantly better classification results for mildly defective apples were obtained when using mean spectra than using spectra of each detection fiber. The multichannel Vis/NIR spectroscopic system is thus advantageous for detection of internal defects, especially those localized ones, in apples.

Genetics of fruit yield and its component traits under different fruiting habit backgrounds in chilli (Capsicum annuum L.)

The six basic generations (two parents, F1, F2 and backcrosses) of 14 crosses developed from nine parents differing in fruits node-1 and fruit orientation were evaluated to decipher the genetics of three quantitative traits (average fruit weight, fruits plant-1 and green fruit yield plant-1) during the rainly season of 2016 and 2017. The magnitude and direction of the additive genetic effects [a], dominance genetic effects [d], magnitudes of additive genetic variance (σ2 A) and dominance genetic variance (σ2 D) varied with the genetic background of the crosses and traits. In the genetic background of crosses involving parents differing in fruit node-1, the inheritance of average fruit weight, fruits plant-1 and fruit yield plant-1 were controlled by the genes with both additive and ambidirectional dominant effects. On the contrary, genes with only additive effects controlled the inheritance of average fruit weight, fruits plant-1 and fruit yield plant-1 in most genetic backgrounds of crosses involving parents differing in fruit orientation and those differing in both fruits node-1 and fruit orientation. Further, the genes controlling the inheritance of all the traits are dispersed among the parents used in the investigation. These results are discussed in relation to strategies to be used in breeding chilli.

Effect of spectral measurement orientation on online prediction of soluble solids content of apple using Vis/NIR diffuse reflectance

The effect of variation of fruit orientation on online prediction of soluble solids content (SSC) of ‘Fuji’ apples based on visible and near-infrared (Vis/NIR) spectroscopy was studied. The diffuse reflectance spectra in 550–950 nm were collected with a designed online system in six orientations: stem-calyx axis vertical with stem upward (T1) and stem downward (T5), 45° between stem-calyx axis and horizontal with stem slope upward (T2) and stem slope downward (T4), stem-calyx axis horizontal with stem towards computer side lights (T3), stem-calyx axis horizontal with stem towards belt movement direction (T6). The 180 samples with SSC range of 8.00–13.60°Brix were divided into 135 of calibration set with 1.09 standard deviation (S.D.) and 45 of prediction set with 0.85 S.D. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and area change rate (ACR) were used to evaluate the stability of collected spectra. After the comparison of different preprocessing methods, partial least squares (PLS) and least squares-support vector machine (LS-SVM) were used to develop compensation models of SSC for each orientation separately (local models) and all orientations (global model), respectively. Finally, competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), successive projection algorithm (SPA), and their combination were used to select the effective wavelengths (EWs), respectively. Results showed that T1 performed better for our system and influence of measurement orientation on spectra greatly affected SSC prediction accuracy. Comparatively, global model was insensitive to fruit orientation variation. 37 EWs selected by CARS-SPA-PLS model after Savitzky-Golay smoothing in all orientations achieved better results with rp and RMSEP of 0.815, 0.818, 0.837, 0.731, 0.807, 0.842 and 0.487, 0.484, 0.460, 0.573, 0.497, 0.453°Brix, respectively. Generally, global model with EWs could be promisingly used for online SSC prediction of apple.

Inheritance of fruit attributes in chilli pepper

Capsicum annuum has been known for the amount of variability present in the genus for fruit traits and also for other morphological traits. The present study used F1 and F2 generations developed from diverse parental stocks to report the inheritance pattern for different fruits traits. Our results demonstrate that pepper fruit bearing habit, its colour at unripe stage and fruit apex are simply inherited traits with or without epistatic interactions while fruit length is a quantitative character. Fruit orientation(drooping or erect) and fruit habit (solitary or cluster)showed segregation ratio of 3: 1 indicating monogenic inheritance of the trait where drooping character was dominant in nature over erect type and solitary fruit type was dominant over cluster type, fruit bearing habit (single pendant, single erect, cluster pendant and cluster erect) exhibited typical dihybrid ratio of 9: 3: 3: 1, fruit colour at unripe stage (green, purple and mixture of green & purple) segregated in the ratio of 9: 3: 4 exhibiting recessive gene epistasis and fruit apex (acute or blunt) showed a ratio of 15: 1 indicating duplicate dominant gene epistasis. Fruit length exhibited quantitative inheritance with plants showing fruit length greater than the positive parent (parent showing higher fruit length among the two parents) and lesser than the negative parent (parent showing lesser fruit length among the two parents) from different crosses. These results provide new data to clarify and further add on to the information available on the inheritance of chilli pepper fruit attributes.

Profesión e identidad en la agricultura familiar española

Este artículo analiza las posibilidades y límites de la profesionalización agraria en España desde el punto de vista de las opiniones y actitudes de los agricultores que tienen la agricultura como actividad principal. El artículo permite identificar un núcleo de agricultores más bien jóvenes, con explotaciones medio-grandes y de orientación preferentemente hortofrutícola, que se autoidentifican como profesionales o empresarios y que presentan un relativo cumplimiento del ideal profesional. Se trata, sin embargo, de un proceso incipiente que tropieza con todo tipo de limitaciones, no solo actitudinales, sino también institucionales, relativas, por un lado, a la propia naturaleza de la agricultura familiar y, por otro, a la ausencia de un marco político-institucional adecuado.

Zooming Out from the Struggling Individual Student: An Account of the Cultural Construction of Engineering Ability in an Undergraduate Programming Class

AbstractBackgroundTo explain educational problems such as student attrition, engineering education literature often focuses on the characteristics of individuals. In 2006, Ray McDermott and Hervé Varenne called for examining the “cultural construction” of educational problems, uncovering how multiple actors create and inscribe meaning to the educational problem.PurposeWe apply the cultural construction framework to examine how the educational problem of a student being “not cut out for engineering” is constructed within the context of a specific electrical engineering course. We focus on culturally taken‐for‐granted course structures, practices, and interactions, all of which produce the local enactment of this common educational problem.MethodWe used ethnographic methods, including field‐noted participant observations, one‐on‐one participant interviews, and video‐recorded student work on lab assignments. Coordinating multiple data streams enabled us to question explanations couched in terms of individual ability and background, and to illustrate how ability hierarchies were constructed in the educational context.ResultsOur findings illustrate how several mundane and seemingly innocuous aspects of engineering classrooms add up to construct the educational problem of our focal student as “not cut out” for engineering. Contributions to this construction included lecture seating positions, interactional norms in lecture and lab, and labels made meaningful through institutional and interactional processes.ConclusionsThe forces at play in constructing educational problems for students are deeply embedded in institutions, disciplines, and society, making it difficult to generate a simple list of instructional interventions. We highlight cultural construction analysis as a potentially fruitful orientation for researchers and practitioners to find the particular sites and tools for local intervention.

Pewarisan Karakter Kualitatif Cabai Hias Hasil Persilangan Cabai Besar dan Cabai Rawit

ABSTRACT<br /><br />The fruit of ornamental chili functioned as ornamental as well as for consumption, and therefore it requires diversity of traits for selection process. Information on inheritance pattern of the traits are needed for effective selection. The ideotype of ornamental chili are shortened internode that form a bouquet of flowers, erect fruit orientation and contain anthocyanins for attractive appearance. The research was aimed to study qualitative characters inheritance associated with shortened internode, fruit orientation and anthocyanins content. This study used 6 population including female parent (P1) which has anthocyanin in flower parts, the male parent (P2) bird pepper which has the character of a shortened internode, F1, F1R, BCP1, BCP2, and F2. Data were analyzed with Chi-square test to determine the Mendelian ratio in the F2 population. The results showed that there were characters that was controlled by one gene or two genes. Shortened internode and erect fruit orientation were controlled by a single recessive gene with a ratio of 1:3. On the other hand the color of anthocyanin in the anther stem was controlled by one dominant gene with a ratio of 3:1. The characters controlled by two genes that were dominant and recessive epistasis was the color of anthocyanins in the anther with the ratio 13:3.<br /><br />Keywords: Mendelian ratio, antosianin, shortened internode <br /><br />

Photosynthetically active radiation and carbon gain drives the southern orientation of Myrtillocactus geometrizans fruits.

The equatorial orientation of reproductive structures is known in some columnar cacti from extratropical deserts. It has been hypothesised that photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) interception is the main reason for this orientation, because of its key effect on nocturnal CO2 uptake. However, there are no studies addressing both the effect of PAR and its consequence, carbon gain, on fruit orientation. Accordingly, we tested whether PAR and carbon gain could explain the southern fruit orientation of Myrtillocactus geometrizans, an inter-tropical columnar cactus. We studied three populations of M.geometrizans in Mexico. For each population, azimuth of fruits, total daily PAR, nocturnal acid accumulation (NAA) and fruit production were measured. The relationships between rib orientation and number of fruits, as well as total daily PAR, were evaluated using periodic regressions. The effect of total daily PAR and NAA on number of fruits was assessed using generalised linear models. During spring, mean fruit orientation had a south azimuth for three populations. Likewise, rib orientation had a significant effect on fruit production, with the south-facing ribs having the maximum number of fruits. Total daily PAR was highest in the south-facing ribs, at least for those in the northern and central populations. Furthermore, during spring, there was a significant positive effect of total daily PAR and NAA on fruit production. Our results provide strong evidence that the higher carbon gain in equatorial ribs, through a highest interception of PAR, would be the responsible factor for equatorial orientation of fruits in an inter-tropical columnar cactus.

Development of a SNP array and its application to genetic mapping and diversity assessment in pepper (Capsicum spp.)

The development and application of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) is in its infancy for pepper. Here, a set of 15,000 SNPs were chosen from the resequencing data to develop an array for pepper with 12,720 loci being ultimately synthesized. Of these, 8,199 (~64.46%) SNPs were found to be scorable and covered ~81.18% of the whole genome. With this array, a high-density interspecific genetic map with 5,569 SNPs was constructed using 297 F2 individuals, and genetic diversity of a panel of 399 pepper elite/landrace lines was successfully characterized. Based on the genetic map, one major QTL, named Up12.1, was detected for the fruit orientation trait. A total of 65 protein-coding genes were predicted within this QTL region based on the current annotation of the Zunla-1 genome. In summary, the thousands of well-validated SNP markers, high-density genetic map and genetic diversity information will be useful for molecular genetics and innovative breeding in pepper. Furthermore, the mapping results lay foundation for isolating the genes underlying variation in fruit orientation of Capsicum.

Hand-Picking Dynamic Analysis for Undersensed Robotic Apple Harvesting

<abstract> This article evaluates hand-picking methods as candidate grasping techniques for implementation in a robotic system designed to harvest apples. The standard method of hand-picking apples is highly selective to the apple‘s orientation and stem location. However, sensory detection of the fruit‘s orientation and stem while the apple is on the tree is a challenging problem requiring significant computation time. In this study, four picking techniques that do not require knowledge of fruit orientation were applied to five apple varieties growing in several different cultivation systems. The sensors used during hand-picking included force sensors and an inertial measurement unit. Experimental results were obtained for normal contact forces during a three-fingered power grasp as well as the angle of rotation around the axis of the forearm. Field data and controlled laboratory experiments show that fruit separation can be clearly detected. Accelerometer measurements were also used to calculate the average distance to fruit separation, which varied from 3 to 7 cm. The optimum picking method relative to stem attachment was identified for each apple variety.

Drop test of pear fruit: Experimental measurement and finite element modelling

Pear fruit has a soft tissue that must be protected against mechanical bruises. In this paper, the bruised area of pear fruit was determined by experimental dropping tests and then was predicted by the Finite Element Method (FEM). Three dropping heights (200, 500 and 1000 mm), two impact surfaces (steel and wood) and two fruit orientations (vertical and horizontal) were studied. In order to simulate the fruit in the ANSYS 14 software, volume, density and elasticity modulus of unripe, ripe and overripe fruits were determined experimentally using standard methods. The minimum bruised area was occurred for unripe pear falling on the wood surface at vertical orientation and 200 mm dropping height whereas the maximum value was obtained for overripe pear falling on the steel surface at horizontal orientation and 1000 mm dropping height. The minimum and maximum error for prediction of bruised area by finite element modelling was 0.00 and −60.50%, respectively.

Post-floral Erection of Stalks Provides Insight into the Evolution of Fruit Orientation and Its Effects on Seed Dispersal.

That stalks reorient after flowering to face upwards is a common phenomenon in many flowering plants, indicating the potential importance of fruit orientation on seed dispersal. But this idea has not been subject to an empirical test. We examined this hypothesis by analysing the evolutionary correlation between fruit orientation and other characters and by investigating the effects of fruit orientation on seed dispersal. We found that 1) in a sub-alpine plant community, upward fruit orientation strongly correlates with fruits that act as seed containers, which are often of dry type and are dispersed by non-animal vectors; 2) as exemplified by the Campanulaceae s. str., fruit orientation strongly correlates with dehiscence position. Upwardly-oriented capsules dehisce at the apex, whereas pendent ones dehisce at the base, in both cases ensuring that seeds are released from an upright position; 3) in manipulation experiments on Silene chungtienensis, upward fruits (the natural state) exhibit much greater dispersal distances and more dispersive pattern than pendent ones, and have a more even distribution of dispersal direction than horizontal ones. Our results suggest that fruit orientation may have important function in seed dispersal, which may be the reason why the phenomenon that stalk erection after flowering occurs widely.

Using Vis/NIR Diffuse Transmittance Spectroscopy and Multivariate Analysis to Predicate Soluble Solids Content of Apple

The objectives of this research were to compare the effect of different fruit orientations on the quality of acquired spectra and to provide a suitable calibration model for further online determination of soluble solids content (SSC) of “Fuji” apples using visible and near-infrared (Vis/NIR) diffuse transmittance. The diffuse transmittance spectra between 650 and 910 nm were collected with the designed spectrum measurement system in two fruit orientations: stem-calyx axis horizontal (T1) and stem-calyx axis vertical (T2). Area change rate (ACR) was used to evaluate the stability of spectra collected in two fruit orientations. Results showed that the fruit orientation T1 was better for our designed spectrum measurement system. Then, the performance of partial least squares (PLS) models based on spectral data after the pretreatment of several preprocessing methods was analyzed and compared. Finally, the modified competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (MCARS), successive projection algorithm (SPA), and their combination were investigated to select the effective variables for the determination of SSC. It concluded that the MCARS-SPA-PLS model based on the spectra after preprocessing of Savitzky-Golay (SG) smoothing achieved better results for SSC prediction. The correlation coefficients between measured and predicted SSC were 0.962 and 0.946, and the root mean square errors were 0.510 and 0.527°Brix for calibration and prediction set, respectively. Moreover, the physicochemical properties of 27 variables selected by MCARS-SPA were discussed to obtain a better interpretation of the calibration model. The overall results indicated that the designed diffuse transmittance spectrum measurement system together with the PLS calibration model with 27 effective variables selected by MCARS-SPA method had a potential application for online SSC detection of apple.

2P1-C09 Automated Harvesting of Sweet Pepper in Greenhouse : Fruit Orientation Calculation Based on LIDAR Measurements

2P1-C09 Automated Harvesting of Sweet Pepper in Greenhouse : Fruit Orientation Calculation Based on LIDAR Measurements

Field and Morphometric Studies ofPhyllobotryonMüell.Arg. (Salicaceae) in the Korup Forest Area of Cameroon

Morphometric analysis of Phyllobotryon Müell.Arg. in the Korup Forest Area of Cameroon recognizes three distinct morphospecies (1–3), which show significant variation in several leaf and fruit characters. In order to clarify the taxonomy of Phyllobotryon, we conducted univariate and multivariate analyses on sixteen quantitative and four qualitative characters scored from 111 fresh samples. Analysis of Variance revealed nine significant quantitative characters from which the first three Principal Components accounted for 74.6 % of the total variation. Results from Discriminant Analysis strongly support the existence of two groups (96.2 % and 100 %) representing Morphospecies 2 and 3, but morphospecies 2 is only weakly supported (88.9 %) as distinct from morphospecies 1. Characters such as petiole length, fruit surface ornamentation, style & calyx persistence, flower and fruit orientation and leaf shape are of taxonomic importance. A comparison of our three morphospecies to literature descriptions and available herbarium specimens matched up our morphospecies 1 to the published Phyllobotryon spathulatum Müell.Arg., while the two other morphospecies did not correspond to validly published taxa. Based on our results, the analyzed morphological variation suggests three morphological entities and one known species in the genus, and therefore a formal taxonomic status of the species rank should be considered for all three morphospecies. An identification key to taxa of the genus is provided.