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To solve the problems of low accuracy and high miss rate in the recognition of cotton apical buds during mechanical topping, an enhanced method based on the RetinaNet network is proposed for the accurate identification of cotton apical buds under natural light. The traditional RetinaNet algorithm is validated to improve the recall rate and average accuracy of cotton apical bud recognition (mAP@0.5) at 83.61% and 77.64% respectively. Due to the shallow nature of the network, there is still overfitting and the RetinaNet algorithm is improved. This algorithm incorporates R-CBAM and ShuffleViT Block network modules and uses Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling (ASPP) to connect the cross-domain feature layer to the feature fusion layer. The results indicate thatcompared with the traditional RetinaNet algorithm, theimprovedRetinaNet algorithm has an average accuracy (mAP@0.5) of 96.25% and a recall rate of 91.10% for cotton apical bud recognition. This indicates that the improved RetinaNet algorithm has optimal recognition performance and high recognition accuracy for cotton apical buds, laying a solid foundation for precise topping operations in cotton cultivation.

Self-aggregation and the hemolytic effect limit the application of gamma-cyclodextrin (gamma-CD) in bioactive molecular delivery systems. In this study, gamma-CD was modified by grafting onto bovine serum albumin protein (BSA), with epichlorohydrin (ECH) acting as the cross-linking agent. The effects of BSA concentration, reaction temperature, pH and time on the grafting rate were studied, and the gamma-CD-BSA complex with a grafting rate of 99.5 +/- 0.1% +/- 0.06)% was achieved. The complex was confirmed using H-1 NMR and FT-IR spectra. Compared with gamma-CD, the hemolytic effect and self-aggregation of gamma-CD-BSA were significantly reduced, and the encapsulation efficiency of curcumin was increased by 10.8%. The results of scanning electron microscopy showed that both gamma-CD and gamma-CDBSA nanoparticles were formed and the structure of the gamma-CD-BSA complex was more uniform. The pH stability and salt stability of gamma-CD-BSA were higher than gamma-CD. The release rate of gamma-CD-BSA was 15.2 +/- 0.2% after 2 h at pH 1.2, and 57 +/- 1% after 4 h at pH 7.2. The gamma-CD-BSA nanoparticles could protect curcumin in acidic environments and release it in neutral environments. The results suggested a promising wall material for delivery of hydrophobic substances.

This paper proposes a fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control method for a system with a fast time-varying delay and time-varying parameters. A fault observer is designed to estimate faults, and an improved fast adaptive fault estimation (FAFE) algorithm is developed to reduce the relevant constraints in the general form of this algorithm. With newly introduced relaxation matrices, this study estimates faults in a system exhibiting a fast time-varying delay. Based on the estimated faults, an output feedback controller is designed to accommodate the faults. The fault-tolerant control is realized using the introduced relaxation matrices. An algorithm is derived to solve for the observer and controller. Finally, the theory and method are validated using a real example of a helicopter system.

Recent works suggest that thermal intensity values (TIVs) measured around the facial thermal feature points (FTFPs) can help in distinguishing between the facial expression of affective states. This work investigates if the average pixel grey-levels, instead of TIVs, measured in sub-image masks around the FTFPs allow classifying facial expressions. Thermal infrared images from the IEEE OTCBVS database were used to distinguish between facial expressions. The pixel grey-levels measured in sub-image masks were used to measure, for each individual, the Euclidean distance between images of different facial expressions. Linear discriminant analysis was performed to obtain hyper-planes for separating the clusters of sample images. Significant pixel grey-level differences were observed at FTFPs between three facial expressions; neutral, happy, and angry. More than 96 of the original images in a three-expression Gaussian mixture model were separable and clustered around distant centroids in a discriminant space.

This paper reports the design and implementation of an infrared signal transmitting tongue activated emergency beacon. This low-cost, simple and reliable device can help immobile patients communicate with the medical staff in the event of an emergency without interfering with other equipment. The physical dimensions of this device were minimized to provide flexibility and suit the most vulnerable and impaired patients. The presented sensor-microcontroller configuration results in a robust and intelligent functionality that would allow this device to outperform many of the commercially available systems used in similar environments.

The convoluted nature of thermal infrared radiation and poor understanding of the physical mechanismsof human emittance, make objective image acquisition and processing protocols prerequisite for meaningful diagnostic specificity. A longitudinal dataset of clinical thermal infrared images was objectively processed to facilitate visualization of osseous stress pathology in the lower limbs.. This paper details processing of 500+ thermal infrared images acquired during a recent three month clinical study into osseous stress pathology in the lower limbs of Australian Army basic trainees. The use ofthermal chroma-keying in segmentation and multitemporal image calibration is demonstrated. The ‘OpenSURF’ implementation of the scale and rotation-invariant interest point detector and escriptor are shown to be performant in registration of multitemporal clinical thermal infrared image data. Thermal ‘signs’ observed in longitudinal images appear to be revealing detectable changes in osseous stress pathophysiology.

Complementation of finite automata on infinite words is not only a fundamental problem in automata theory, but also serves as a cornerstone for solving numerous decision problems in mathematical logic, model-checking, program analysis and verification. For Streett complementation, a significant gap exists between the current lower bound 2^{Omega(n*log(n*k))} and upper bound 2^{O(n*k*log(n*k))}, where n is the state size, k is the number of Streett pairs, and k can be as large as 2^{n}. Determining the complexity of Streett complementation has been an open question since the late 80's. In this paper we show a complementation construction with upper bound 2^{O(n*log(n)+n*k*log(k))} for k=O(n) and 2^{O(n^{2}*log(n))} for k=Omega(n), which matches well the lower bound obtained in the paper arXiv:1102.2963. We also obtain a tight upper bound 2^{O(n*log(n))} for parity complementation.

Finite automata on infinite words (omega-automata) proved to be a powerful weapon for modeling and reasoning infinite behaviors of reactive systems. Complementation of omega-automata is crucial in many of these applications. But the problem is non-trivial; even after extensive study during the past two decades, we still have an important type of omega-automata, namely Streett automata, for which the gap between the current best lower bound 2^(Omega(n lg nk)) and upper bound 2^(O (nk lg nk)) is substantial, for the Streett index size k can be exponential in the number of states n. In a previous work we showed a construction for complementing Streett automata with the upper bound 2^(O(n lg n+nk lg k)) for k = O(n) and 2^(O(n^2 lg n)) for k = omega(n). In this paper we establish a matching lower bound 2^(Omega (n lg n+nk lg k)) for k = O(n) and 2^(Omega (n^2 lg n)) for k = omega(n), and therefore showing that the construction is asymptotically optimal with respect to the ^(Theta(.)) notation.

© 2008 Riley et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The definitive version was published in BMC Genomics 9 (2008): 210, doi:10.1186/1471-2164-9-210., The genome sequence of the sea-ice bacterium Psychromonas ingrahamii 37, which grows exponentially at -12C, may reveal features that help to explain how this extreme psychrophile is able to grow at such low temperatures. Determination of the whole genome sequence allows comparison with genes of other psychrophiles and mesophiles. Correspondence analysis of the composition of all P. ingrahamii proteins showed that (1) there are 6 classes of proteins, at least one more than other bacteria, (2) integral inner membrane proteins are not sharply separated from bulk proteins suggesting that, overall, they may have a lower hydrophobic character, and (3) there is strong opposition between asparagine and the oxygen-sensitive amino acids methionine, arginine, cysteine and histidine and (4) one of the previously unseen clusters of proteins has a high proportion of "orphan" hypothetical proteins, raising the possibility these are cold-specific proteins. Based on annotation of proteins by sequence similarity, (1) P. ingrahamii has a large number (61) of regulators of cyclic GDP, suggesting that this bacterium produces an extracellular polysaccharide that may help sequester water or lower the freezing point in the vicinity of the cell. (2) P. ingrahamii has genes for production of the osmolyte, betaine choline, which may balance the osmotic pressure as sea ice freezes. (3) P. ingrahamii has a large number (11) of three-subunit TRAP systems that may play an important role in the transport of nutrients into the cell at low temperatures. (4) Chaperones and stress proteins may play a critical role in transforming nascent polypeptides into 3-dimensional configurations that permit low temperature growth. (5) Metabolic properties of P. ingrahamii were deduced. Finally, a few small sets of proteins of unknown function which may play a role in psychrophily have been singled out as worthy of future study. The results of this genomic analysis provide a springboard for further investigations, MR acknowledges support from DE-FG02-04ER63940. JTS acknowledges the support from the University of Washington NASA NAI program and the NSF Astrobiology IGERT program. TZW acknowledges support from a grant from the Fondation Fourmentin-Guilbert and AD acknowledges support from the European Union BioSapiens Network of Excellence, Grant LSHG CT-2003-503265

© 2008 Riley et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The definitive version was published in BMC Genomics 9 (2008): 210, doi:10.1186/1471-2164-9-210., The genome sequence of the sea-ice bacterium Psychromonas ingrahamii 37, which grows exponentially at -12C, may reveal features that help to explain how this extreme psychrophile is able to grow at such low temperatures. Determination of the whole genome sequence allows comparison with genes of other psychrophiles and mesophiles. Correspondence analysis of the composition of all P. ingrahamii proteins showed that (1) there are 6 classes of proteins, at least one more than other bacteria, (2) integral inner membrane proteins are not sharply separated from bulk proteins suggesting that, overall, they may have a lower hydrophobic character, and (3) there is strong opposition between asparagine and the oxygen-sensitive amino acids methionine, arginine, cysteine and histidine and (4) one of the previously unseen clusters of proteins has a high proportion of "orphan" hypothetical proteins, raising the possibility these are cold-specific proteins. Based on annotation of proteins by sequence similarity, (1) P. ingrahamii has a large number (61) of regulators of cyclic GDP, suggesting that this bacterium produces an extracellular polysaccharide that may help sequester water or lower the freezing point in the vicinity of the cell. (2) P. ingrahamii has genes for production of the osmolyte, betaine choline, which may balance the osmotic pressure as sea ice freezes. (3) P. ingrahamii has a large number (11) of three-subunit TRAP systems that may play an important role in the transport of nutrients into the cell at low temperatures. (4) Chaperones and stress proteins may play a critical role in transforming nascent polypeptides into 3-dimensional configurations that permit low temperature growth. (5) Metabolic properties of P. ingrahamii were deduced. Finally, a few small sets of proteins of unknown function which may play a role in psychrophily have been singled out as worthy of future study. The results of this genomic analysis provide a springboard for further investigations, MR acknowledges support from DE-FG02-04ER63940. JTS acknowledges the support from the University of Washington NASA NAI program and the NSF Astrobiology IGERT program. TZW acknowledges support from a grant from the Fondation Fourmentin-Guilbert and AD acknowledges support from the European Union BioSapiens Network of Excellence, Grant LSHG CT-2003-503265