Manual Separation Research Articles

From Private Practice to Academia: The Experience of a General Academic Pediatrician.

After pediatric residency, the author worked in a rural community where he was able to immediately practice skills acquired during training such as intubations, bag-mask ventilation, IV placement, ear irrigation, foreign body removal from eyes and ears, abscess incision and drainage, intraosseous placement for rapid hydration of a severely dehydrated infant, EKG, X-ray readings, and ear-irrigations to cite but a few examples. Furthermore, the writer acquired other high-valued procedural skills such as neonatal male circumcision, frenotomy, ligation of supernumerary digits, and manual separation of labial adhesions. The author feels that he could only have acquired and maintained these skills by working in a busy rural pediatric practice. When the writer later became a faculty member, he was able to effectively train medical students and pediatric residents to acquire these same skills. Even though there is a paucity of research information on procedural skills acquisition among general pediatric residents, the writer proposes that the recruitment of full-time general academic pediatricians with real-world experience may be potentially beneficial for the training of medical students and pediatric residents.

Çocukluk döneminde labial füzyona yaklaşımımız: Tek merkezde sekiz yıllık deneyim.

Aim: In this study; we aimed to determine the clinical information and treatment results of labial fusion patients who applied directly to or consulted the Pediatric Surgery Outpatient Clinic of our hospital.
 Material and Method: Female patients in the prepubertal age group with labial fusion who applied to the Pediatric Surgery Outpatient Clinic of our hospital were retrospectively reviewed in terms of age, complaints, recommended treatment, recurrence rates, time to recurrence, and complications.
 Results: This study involved 438 patients with labial fusion aged between 32 days and 10 years in our hospital. Labial fusion was detected in 359 (82%) of the patients, a nearly complete opening only in the labia minora, and additional problems related to labial fusion in 180 (41%) patients. The patients were treated with topical estrogen and creams containing the raw material of the Centella Asiatica plant and manual fusion separation. Recurrence of labial fusion was seen in 18(4%) of these patients. It was found that the patient's age at the time of detection and additional problems related to labial fusion were effective on the recurrence of the disease.
 Conclusion: Older age and additional problems may increase the recurrence rate of labial fusion. We think that we can get results faster, with less risk of recurrence, by detecting the pathology early, applying the necessary precautions, and using the creams containing the raw material of Centella Asiatica as well as the raw material of the Centella Asiatica plant in combination, if necessary.

Identifying C. elegans lifespan mutants by screening for early-onset protein aggregation

Genetic screens are widely used to identify genes that control specific biological functions. In Caenorhabditis elegans, forward genetic screens rely on the isolation of reproductively active mutants that can self-propagate clonal populations. Screens that target post-reproductive phenotypes, such as lifespan, are thus challenging. We combine microfluidic technologies and image processing to perform high-throughput automated screening for short-lived mutants using protein aggregation as a marker for aging. We take advantage of microfluidics for maintaining a reproductively active adult mutagenized population and for performing serial high-throughput analysis and sorting of animals with increased protein aggregation, using fluorescently-labeled PAB-1 as a readout. We demonstrate that lifespan mutants can be identified by screening for accelerated protein aggregation through quantitative analysis of fluorescently labeled aggregates while avoiding conditional sterilization or manual separation of parental and progeny populations. We also show that aged wildtypes and premature aggregation mutants differ in aggregate morphology, suggesting aggregate growth is time-dependent.

Efficiency of municipal packaging waste recovery chain and suitability of separated residual waste fractions for use in alternative fuels production

Due to the sheer quantity and quality of material, packaging waste is separately collected by municipal waste management systems, with a primary goal of its use in material recovery. The residual waste, i.e. rejected waste in the separation process can be energy recovered. Both recovery options have specific input material quality requirements. Therefore, it is important to know the characteristics of individual waste streams. This research analysed the composition and morphological characteristics of separately collected packaging waste from municipal waste management system, residual (rejected) waste fractions after separation steps and produced refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The efficiency of primary and secondary (manual) waste separation, as well as of the RDF production step, are tracked. Results show that primary waste separation produces material with under 7% of contaminants and secondary manual waste separation efficiency ranges between 45% and 55%. Physico-chemical comparison of simulated RDF strongly coincides with analysed properties of RDF as a final product which indicates very high separation efficiency in the RDF production. From the energy recovery/conversion standpoint, this can be quantified through deviations in the lower heating value (LHV) and the effective H/C molar ratio between simulated and real RDF samples, which are on the level of 1.8% and 1.1% respectively. The following conclusion can be made from the estimated relation between changes in separation efficiency and RDF energy-related characteristics; the separation efficiency of individual components plays important role in alternative fuel production as chemical compositions directly influence suitability for high-quality liquid fuel production. Results of this analysis shed a light on the connection between aspirations to increase material recovery share and the suitability of produced residual waste for further recovery and valorisation. The material and energetic valorisation are competitors, and further evaluation should be done to understand the investments needed to increase valuable fractions of wastes separation that, in turn, could diminish the energetic value of residual fractions and, therefore, the economic viability of energy recovery facilities.

Optimization of an Analytical Protocol for the Extraction of Microplastics from Seafood Samples with Different Levels of Fat.

Marine organisms are affected by the ubiquitous occurrence of microplastics (MPs) in the environment. Several protocols have been described to extract and quantify MPs in seafood, although their complex matrices, with high level of fat, can compromise the efficiency of MPs extraction. To solve this issue, the present study aimed to develop a detailed methodology suitable to process seafood samples with different levels of fat, namely fish and molluscs, from fresh and canned sources, including the immersive liquids from the cans. Sample digestion was tested using different solutions (10% KOH, 30% H2O2), temperatures (40 °C, 65 °C) and incubation times (24, 48, 72 h). For fat removal, three detergents (two laboratory surfactants and a commercial dish detergent) and 96% ethanol were tested, as well as the manual separation of fat. The methodology optimized in this study combined a digestion with 30% H2O2 at 65 °C, during 24 to 48 h, with a manual separation of the fat remaining after the digestion. All steps from the present methodology were tested in six types of polymers (PE-LD, PET, PE, AC, PS, and lycra), to investigate if these procedures altered the integrity of MPs. Results showed that the optimized methodology will allow for the efficient processing of complex seafood samples with different fat levels, without compromising MPs integrity (recoveries rate higher than 89% for all the polymers tested).

Characteristics and health effects of particulate matter emitted from a waste sorting plant

Solid waste components can be recycled in waste paper and cardboard sorting plants (WPCSP) through a multistep process. This work collected 15 samples every six days from each of the 9 points selected to study the processes taking place in a WPCSP (135 particulate matter samples total). Examining the concentration and size fraction of particulate matter (i.e., PM1, PM2.5 and PM10) in WPCSP is an essential issue to notify policy makers about the health impacts on exposed workers. The major activities for increasing of the concentration of PM in various processing units in the WPCSP, especially in hand-picking routes I and II were related to manual dismantling, mechanical grinding, mechanical agitation, and separation and movement of waste. The results of this work showed that a negative correlation between temperature and particulate matter size followed the order PM10 > PM2.5 > PM1. Exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 in the WPCSP lead to possible risk (HI = 5.561 and LTCRs = 3.41 × 10−6 to 9.43 × 10−5 for PM2.5 and HI = 7.454 for PM10). The exposure duration and the previous concentrations had the most effect on the ILCRs and HQs for PM2.5 and PM10 in all sampling sites. Hence, because WPCSP are infected indoor environments (I/O ratio > 1), the use of control methods such as isolation of units, misting systems, blower systems equipped with bag houses, protective equipment, a mechanical ventilation system, and additional natural ventilation can reduce the amount of suspended PM, enhance worker safety, and increase the recycling rate.

A method for quantifying sporulation efficiency and isolating meiotic progeny in non-GMO strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Meiotic mapping, a linkage-based method for analyzing the recombinant progeny of a cross, has long been a cornerstone of genetic research. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a powerful system because it is possible to isolate and cultivate the four products (spores) of a single meiotic event. However, the throughput of this process has historically been limited by the process of identifying tetrads in a heterogeneous population of vegetative cells, tetrads, and dyads followed by manual separation (dissection) of the spores contained in a tetrad. To date, methods that facilitate high throughput characterization and isolation of meiotic progeny have relied on genetic engineering. Here, we characterize the ability of the fluorescent dye DiBAC4 (5) to stain yeast tetrads and dyads as well as to adhere to spores following bulk tetrad disruption. Applications include quantitative assays of sporulation rates and efficiency by flow cytometry as well as enrichment of intact tetrads, dyads, or disrupted spores by fluorescence-activated cell sorting in strains that have not been genetically modified.

Effects of Organic Maceral on Biogenic Coalbed Gas Generation from Bituminous Coal.

Clarifying the effect of organic maceral on biogenic coalbed gas generation is important to understand the mechanism of biogenic coalbed gas generation and to develop bioengineering of coalbed gas. Bituminous coals in the Huainan mining area of China were selected as the research object, and the organic macerals were enriched through manual separation and floatation–sedimentation experiments first. Then, the simulated biogas generation experiments were carried out by using raw coal, single vitrinite, and inertinite, respectively. The results showed that all the bituminous coal, vitrinite, and inertinite could be biodegraded to generate biogas. The gas production yield of vitrinite was11.5 mL/g, which was more than that of raw coal (9.8 mL/g) and inertinite (6.26 mL/g). The production processes showed the stage characteristics of rapid increase and continuous decrease, but the gas production peak of inertinite lagged behind that of raw coal and vitrinite. Vitrinite content was positively correlated with total gas production, while inertinite could inhibit biogas production. CH4 composition in simulated biogas from vitrinite was the most, and that from inertinite was the least, while there was a positive correlation between vitrinite content and CH4 composition. The above evidence showed that vitrinite in bituminous coal is more easily biodegradable. There were significant positive correlations between chloroform bitumen “A”, H, and H/C to total gas production, and they can be used as important indicators to evaluate the output of coalbed biogas.

Solid Waste Image Classification Using Deep Convolutional Neural Network

Separating household waste into categories such as organic and recyclable is a critical part of waste management systems to make sure that valuable materials are recycled and utilised. This is beneficial to human health and the environment because less risky treatments are used at landfill and/or incineration, ultimately leading to improved circular economy. Conventional waste separation relies heavily on manual separation of objects by humans, which is inefficient, expensive, time consuming, and prone to subjective errors caused by limited knowledge of waste classification. However, advances in artificial intelligence research has led to the adoption of machine learning algorithms to improve the accuracy of waste classification from images. In this paper, we used a waste classification dataset to evaluate the performance of a bespoke five-layer convolutional neural network when trained with two different image resolutions. The dataset is publicly available and contains 25,077 images categorised into 13,966 organic and 11,111 recyclable waste. Many researchers have used the same dataset to evaluate their proposed methods with varying accuracy results. However, these results are not directly comparable to our approach due to fundamental issues observed in their method and validation approach, including the lack of transparency in the experimental setup, which makes it impossible to replicate results. Another common issue associated with image classification is high computational cost which often results to high development time and prediction model size. Therefore, a lightweight model with high accuracy and a high level of methodology transparency is of particular importance in this domain. To investigate the computational cost issue, we used two image resolution sizes (i.e., 225×264 and 80×45) to explore the performance of our bespoke five-layer convolutional neural network in terms of development time, model size, predictive accuracy, and cross-entropy loss. Our intuition is that smaller image resolution will lead to a lightweight model with relatively high and/or comparable accuracy than the model trained with higher image resolution. In the absence of reliable baseline studies to compare our bespoke convolutional network in terms of accuracy and loss, we trained a random guess classifier to compare our results. The results show that small image resolution leads to a lighter model with less training time and the accuracy produced (80.88%) is better than the 76.19% yielded by the larger model. Both the small and large models performed better than the baseline which produced 50.05% accuracy. To encourage reproducibility of our results, all the experimental artifacts including preprocessed dataset and source code used in our experiments are made available in a public repository.

Approach to labial fusion in children: 16 years of experience

Aim: We aimed to retrospectively evaluate the patients with labial fusion who presented to or were referred to the pediatric surgery clinic in a tertiary pediatric hospital.
 Material and Method: Between 01/01/2005 and 31/12/2020, 889 patients admitted or consulted to the pediatric surgery clinic due to labial fusion, age at the time of diagnosis, complaints on admission, which clinic referred the patient to the pediatric surgery clinic, treatments, recurrence, and complications were evaluated retrospectively.
 Results: The mean age of the patients was 2.21 (0.1–11) years. Most of the patients (82.5%) were asymptomatic. Parents noticed the condition and brought their child directly to the pediatric surgery clinic in 72.3% of the cases. Otherwise, patients were consulted to the pediatric surgery clinic from pediatric clinics, the pediatric endocrinology clinic, the pediatric nephrology clinic, or the pediatric emergency department. During the initial examination, manual separation was performed in 885 patients, and surgery was required for four patients. After the procedures, hydrotherapy with warm water and topical estrogen therapy were applied to all patients for 15 days. Recurrence was detected in 80 (9.0%) patients who were treated by manual separation. Manual separation was performed again in 78 of the patients, while surgical separation was performed in two (2.5%) patients who had severe fibrotic fusions.
 Conclusion: In the treatment of labial fusion, we recommend the combination of manual separation and topical estrogen cream treatment because it can be applied safely in the clinic, and the recurrence rate is low. Surgical separation is preferred in severe, thick, and fibrotic labial fusions.

A Conserved Female-Specific Requirement for the GGT Gene in Mosquito Larvae Facilitates RNAi-Mediated Sex Separation in Multiple Species of Disease Vector Mosquitoes.

Although several emerging mosquito control technologies are dependent on mass releases of adult males, methods of sex-sorting that can be implemented globally have not yet been established. RNAi screens led to the discovery of siRNA, which targets gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), a gene which is well conserved in multiple species of mosquitoes and located at the sex-determining M locus region in Aedes aegypti. Silencing the A. aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Anopheles gambiae, Culex pipiens, and Culex quinquefasciatus GGT genes resulted in female larval death, with no significant impact on male survival. Generation of yeast strains that permitted affordable expression and oral delivery of shRNA corresponding to mosquito GGT genes facilitated larval target gene silencing and generated significantly increased 5 males:1 female adult ratios in each species. Yeast targeting a conserved sequence in Culex GGT genes was incorporated into a larval mass-rearing diet, permitting the generation of fit adult male C. pipiens and C. quinquefasciatus, two species for which labor-intensive manual sex separation had previously been utilized. The results of this study indicate that female-specific yeast-based RNAi larvicides may facilitate global implementation of population-based control strategies that require releases of sterile or genetically modified adult males, and that yeast RNAi strategies can be utilized in various species of mosquitoes that have progressed to different stages of sex chromosome evolution.

Analysis of rapid HIT application to touch DNA samples.

Rapid DNA technology is being utilized for reference profiles worldwide. There is also strong data in the literature to support its use for high-template DNA sources, the same is not true for low-template sources, such as touch DNA; this is a requirement before wider implementation to forensic casework is considered. We report on the Rapid HIT Intel cartridge's ability to facilitate successful amplification of touch DNA to obtain profiles from template deposited on items commonly encountered in forensic casework. Eight items were touched in ten replicates- two were tapelifted, three swabbed, and three directly inserted. Significance was observed in the alleles amplified and RFU with respect to sample type. Three samples performed well: cable tie, fabric, and matchstick. As two of these were directly inserted, this should be considered for any sample small enough. Placement of highly absorbent substrates into the cartridge is not advised as it can cause a lysate-pull error. Heterozygote loci often presented as homozygous (32%-78% loci per profile); this was influenced by substrate type and profile RFU. Loci with larger masses exhibited higher false homozygosity also. Comparison of the donor's profile analyzed was performed against previous datasets analyzing touch DNA through standard workflow, including manual DNA extraction, PCR, and CE separation. These data show that for all substrates, except for a fabric swatch, standard processing is preferential to Rapid HIT analysis. In its current form, rapid DNA technology is not fit for the routine analysis of touch DNA samples in forensic casework.

Coal and Gangue Recognition Method Based on Local Texture Classification Network for Robot Picking

Coal gangue is a kind of industrial waste in the coal mine preparation process. Compared to conventional manual or machine-based separation technology, vision-based methods and robotic grasping are superior in cost and maintenance. However, the existing methods may have a poor recognition accuracy problem in diverse environments since coals and gangues’ apparent features can be unreliable. This paper analyzes the current methods and proposes a vision-based coal and gangue recognition model LTC-Net for separation systems. The preprocessed full-scale images are divided into n × n local texture images since coals and gangues differ more on a smaller scale, enabling the model to overcome the influence of characteristics that tend to change with the environment. A VGG16-based model is trained to classify the local texture images through a voting classifier. Prediction is given by a threshold. Experiments based on multi-environment datasets show higher accuracy and stability of our method compared to existing methods. The effect of n and t is also discussed.

Management of labial adhesion in a developing country\u2014an observational study

BackgroundLabial adhesion is the fusion of the labia minora or majora. The literature reports conservative management. However, the situation may be different in our setup, where management differs due to prevailing circumstances. The present study was conducted to evaluate labial adhesion presentation, management, and outcome in our center.MethodsIt was a retrospective observational study from January 2015 to January 2020. The patients were evaluated for age at presentation, presenting symptoms, type of adhesions, treatment, recurrence, and follow-up. The treatment included the manual release of labial adhesion and Mupirocin ointment application for 15 days. They were advised to attend the outpatient department after 1 month for evaluation and later on in case of any problem.ResultsThe total number of patients was 150, of which 104 (69.33%) were from rural backgrounds. The complaint was of the absent vaginal opening in all patients. Seventeen (11.33%) were advised ultrasonography of the abdomen elsewhere to look for the presence of internal genital organs. The local examination revealed poor hygiene in 65 (43.33%) patients. The patient with thick adhesions has minor erythema after the release of adhesions. Ten (6.66%) patients had a recurrence managed by repeat release with no recurrence.ConclusionDespite being a benign entity, labial adhesion may be a cause of severe concern. Manual separation and antibiotic ointment may be a viable first option in its management with minimal recurrence. Maintenance of local hygiene may be needed to prevent a recurrence. The overall outcome is excellent.

Bilateral Lenticule Creation Followed by Bilateral Lenticule Separation Improves Visual Outcomes After SMILE.

To explore the impact of different surgical sequences on the visual and refractive outcomes of bilateral small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) surgery using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. Participants who underwent uneventful SMILE between March 2018 and September 2019 were retrospectively analyzed and were divided into two groups: Sequence A (laser scanning [LS] of the right eye, manual separation lenticule [MSL] of the right eye, and LS and MSL of the left eye) and Sequence B (LS of the right eye, LS of the left eye, MSL of the left eye, and MSL of the right eye). PSM was conducted to minimize the effect of confounding factors on postoperative visual outcomes at days 1 and 7 and months 1, 3, and 6. Safety, efficacy, predictability, and stability were compared between groups. Overall, 1,854 eyes of 927 participants were included (Sequence A, n = 280; Sequence B, n = 647). After PSM, there were no significant differences in baseline characteristics, and 534 eyes (267 patients) in the Sequence A group were matched (1:1) to the Sequence B group. The postoperative corrected distance visual acuity significantly differed between groups at 3 months (adjusted P = .007). The uncorrected distance visual acuity significantly differed between groups at all follow-up visits (adjusted P < .01). The safety index (1.341 ± 0.265 and 1.413 ± 0.294) and efficacy index (1.173 ± 0.191 and 1.251 ± 0.269) were different in the Sequence A and Sequence B groups, respectively, at 3 months (adjusted P < .01). No difference in visual outcomes was found between right and left eyes. Patients who had bilateral lenticule creation followed by bilateral lenticule separation had better postoperative visual outcomes than those who underwent complete SMILE surgery in each eye separately. Regardless of the surgical sequence chosen for the SMILE procedure, there was no impact on outcomes between the right and left eyes. Adjusting the sequence of the surgical procedure may be a way to improve the visual results. [J Refract Surg. 2021;37(11):726-733.].

Prioritizing health, safety and environmental hazards by integrating risk assessment and analytic hierarchy process techniques in solid waste management facilities

The aim of this research was to assess and prioritize risk levels of health, safety, and environmental (HSE) hazards in solid waste management facilities of Tehran, Iran. The risk of HSE hazards was assessed using Fine-Kinney and environmental failure mode and effects analysis (EFMEA) methods and then the high-risk hazards were prioritized for implementing corrective actions by analytic hierarchy process (AHP) considering six criteria of (1) probability of occurrence, (2) severity of consequences, (3) simultaneous HSE effects, and (4-6) feasibility, effectiveness, and cost of corrective actions. A total number of 485 HSE hazards were identified, of which 78% were health and safety hazards and 22% were environmental hazards. The proportions of the transfer and transport, material recovery and composting facilities and landfill sites in the identified hazards were 21%, 38%, and 41%, respectively. Based on the AHP method, the leading hazards in the transfer and transport, material recovery and composting facilities, and landfill sites were exposure to bioaerosol in carwash facilities, exposure to bioaerosols and odor/volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in manual waste separation, and leachate spills in the former landfill site, respectively. This study showed that the hybrid method was an appropriate and reliable tool to prioritize HSE hazards.

COMPOSICIÓN BOTÁNICA Y EVALUACIÓN NUTRICIONAL IN VITRO DE PASTO KIKUYO COMPARADO CON GRAMÍNEAS DE CLIMA TEMPL

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background: &lt;/strong&gt;Intensive continuous grazing of temperate grass and legume pastures has been a feeding strategy adopted in small-scale dairy systems (SSDS) in the highlands of central Mexico that reduces costs and increases profitability of farms. However, temperate grasses have low persistency due to agroclimatic and management conditions, so that pastures are invaded by kikuyu grass (&lt;em&gt;Cenchrus clandestinus&lt;/em&gt;), a sub-tropical grass that may be a valuable forage resource in these systems. There are not many studies in Mexico on kikuyu grass pastures and on the relationship between botanical composition, nutritional value and ruminal fermentation parameters, important aspects for their inclusion in feeding strategies for dairy cattle. &lt;strong&gt;Objective: &lt;/strong&gt; The objective was to determine the botanical composition and to assess the &lt;em&gt;in vitro &lt;/em&gt;digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), and neutral detergent fibre (NDF), and to characterize the kinetics of &lt;em&gt;in vitro &lt;/em&gt;ruminal fermentation of a pasture based on with kikuyu grass (KY) in comparison to pastures based on festulolium cv. Spring Green (FL), tall fescue cv. TF-33 (TF), and perennial ryegrass cv. Pay Day (RG), all associated with white clover. &lt;strong&gt;Methodology: &lt;/strong&gt; There were four sampling periods every 14 days. On the last day of each period, five random samples in each pasture were cut to ground level to determine botanical composition by manual separation, and 200g samples from each pasture taken by simulated grazing to determine digestibilities and the &lt;em&gt;in vitro &lt;/em&gt;fermentation dynamics. Statistical analyses were following a split-plot model. &lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;There was a higher proportion of grasses in KY and a better &lt;em&gt;in vitro &lt;/em&gt;nutritional value for RG, related to a higher content of structural carbohydrates in KY, being a subptropical grass compared to temperate pastures with lower content of cell walls. &lt;strong&gt;Results: &lt;/strong&gt;There was a higher proportion (P&amp;lt;0.05) of live grass in KY. There were no differences (P&amp;gt;0.05) among pastures for &lt;em&gt;in vitro &lt;/em&gt;nutritional value. There were differences (P&amp;lt;0.05) among pastures and periods for the insoluble fraction fermentation rate (C&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt;) and for the interaction between pastures and periods for gas production in 4.0 h of the soluble fraction (A) and the soluble carbohydrate fermentation rate (C&lt;sub&gt;A&lt;/sub&gt;), but no differences between pastures, periods or the interaction (P&amp;gt;0.05) for other parameters of ruminal fermentation (lag time and total gas production). &lt;strong&gt;Implications: &lt;/strong&gt; Pastures of kikuyu grass associated with white clover have a similar &lt;em&gt;in vitro &lt;/em&gt;nutritional value as pastures of temperate grasses representing a valuable forage resource for SSDS. &lt;strong&gt;Conclusion: &lt;/strong&gt;In spite of differences in some &lt;em&gt;in vitro &lt;/em&gt;ruminal fermentation parameters, the &lt;em&gt;in vitro &lt;/em&gt;nutritional value of kikuyu grass pastures associated with white clover is similar to pastures based on temperate grasses with white clover.&lt;/p&gt;

Anchor tuning in Faster R-CNN for measuring corn silage physical characteristics

Efficient measurement of harvested corn silage from forage harvesters can be a critical tool for a farmer. Suboptimal fragmentation of kernels can affect milk yield from dairy cows when the silage is used as fodder and oversized stover particles can promote mould yielding bacteria during storage due to resulting air pockets. As a forage harvester can harvest hundreds of tonnes per hour, an efficient and robust system for measuring quality in the field is required, however, current methods require manual errorsome separation steps or for samples to be sent to an off-site laboratory. Therefore, we propose to adopt Faster R-CNN with an Inceptionv2 backbone to detect kernel fragments and oversized particles in images of corn silage taken directly after harvesting without the need for separating particles. We explore strategies of data sampling for specialist models, transfer learning from differing domains and tuning the anchors in the Region Proposal Network to accommodate for changes in object shapes and sizes. Our approach leads to significant improvements in average precision for kernel fragmentation and stover overlengths of up to 45.2% compared to a naive model development approach, despite the challenging cluttered scenes. Additionally, our models are able to predict quality for network predictions with the Corn Silage Processing Score (CSPS) for kernel fragmentation and a measure we introduce for chopped stover named Overlength Processing Score (OVPS). For both scores we obtain a strong correlation against physically measured samples with an r2 of 0.66 for CSPS, 0.79 and 0.95 for OVPS at two verbal theoretical lengths of cut.

Comparing keratometry readings with manual separation of lids and wire speculum in children under general anesthesia.

Purpose:Keratometry (K) readings are crucial for intraocular lens power calculation in cataract surgery. In children who do not cooperate, the keratometry is done under general anesthesia with a handheld autokeratometer. However, there is little consensus regarding the method for the measurement of K readings. The lids can be separated either by fingers or a wire speculum may be placed to separate the lids for measurement.Methods:The children selected for the study were patients cooperative for keratometry reading. Nidek KM-500 handheld keratometer was used first in the awake period. Then under general anesthesia, readings were taken first by separating the lids manually with fingers and then after putting a wire speculum in both the eyes.Results:The average keratometry reading for participants in the OPD, anesthetized with lids manually opened and with lids separated with speculum was 44.7 ± 1.7 D, 44.4 ± 1.9 D, and 44.7 ± 1.7 D, respectively.Conclusion:No significant change was observed in keratometry values in children with manual separation of eyelids or with wire speculum.

Techno-commercial Assessment of Concurrent Municipal Brown Field Reclamation Procedures: A Pivotal Case study of Jawahar Nagar Dump Site

Techno-commercial Assessment of Concurrent Municipal Brown Field Reclamation Procedures: A Pivotal Case study of Jawahar Nagar Dump Site