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Conventional tractor transmission spiral bevel gears are designed and evaluated based on the engine rated load, which is significantly higher than the load conditions in the field. In this study, the fatigue life of a spiral bevel gear is evaluated to obtain data for design optimization. The equivalent load was calculated using the field load data, and the integrated equivalent load was calculated based on the annual usage of major field operations in Korea. The fatigue life of three spiral bevel gear samples was evaluated using the accelerated life test (ALT) under an engine rated load condition of 120%. It was also evaluated under engine rated, plow equivalent, and integrated equivalent load. Fatigue life was estimated using the ALT results and the fatigue damage exponent based on the ALT equation. We observed that the fatigue life of the spiral bevel gear under the plow equivalent and integrated equivalent loads is higher than that under the rated load by 214 and 9,400 times, respectively. The results of this study can provide useful information for the design optimization of tractor transmission spiral bevel gears considering the field equivalent load.

Polygalacturonase (PG) activity in plants can serve as an important index for plant disease. However, the conventional method to detect PG activity is a complex process and requires a skilled technician and expensive analytical equipment. In this study, a paper-based colorimetric sensor was developed based on the principle of the ruthenium red (RR) dye method for easy and simple measurement of PG activity. The proposed paper-based sensor has a three-layer structure for detection of PG activity in samples. The sensor sensitivity was enhanced by optimizing the pH of the sodium acetate buffer used in polygalacturonic acid (PGA)-RR complex formation and the reaction temperature for PG and the PGA-RR complex. Further, for quantitative analysis of PG activity, Delta RGB analysis was conducted to detect color changes in the sensing window of the sensor. Results presented that the linear measurement range of the paper sensor was 0.02-0.1 unit with the limit of detection of 0.02 unit, which showed a similar detection range, but a lower detection limit, compared to the spectrophotometry. Furthermore, PG activity based on culture condition was measured using samples from Sclerotium cepivorum to verify the potential application of the developed paper-based sensor in the field. The measured activity showed no statistically significant difference from the values obtained from the spectrophotometry at 95% confidence level. Therefore, the paper-based colorimetric sensor can be used to predict plant diseases in Allium crops during the stage of pathogen invasion, potentially contributing to the improvement of crop production.

Free proline, termed proline, is a biomarker used for diagnosing drought stress in plants. A previously developed proline–ninhydrin reaction-based paper sensor could quickly and easily detect proline, but it was limited by low sensitivity. In this study, we developed an enclosed multilayer paper-based microfluidic sensor with high sensitivity for the quantitative detection of proline in plants. The multilayer paper-based sensor was manufactured using simple wax printing and origami methods, and contained an internal mixing channel to allow good mixing of the proline with ninhydrin, increasing the proline–ninhydrin reactivity and providing accurate and sensitive proline detection. By preloading ninhydrin onto the sample loading area, uniform coloration of the sensing window was achieved, allowing quantitative analysis of various proline concentrations using a constant reaction time. Only the sensing window and sample loading area were exposed to limit sample evaporation and contamination from the external environment. The LOD of the fabricated sensor was 23 μM, which is approximately 29-fold lower than that of the previously proposed paper sensor (657 μM). Samples were extracted from A. thaliana plants subjected to drought stress for proline detection. The proline concentrations measured using the developed paper sensor and a spectrophotometric method were not statistically significant at a confidence level of 95%. Therefore, the developed sensor can be applied to measure proline concentrations precisely in the field with a low detection limit. The developed paper-based sensor can be used to detect the early stages of drought in plants and thus improve crop productivity.

Transduction of glucose (Glc) signaling is critical for plant development, metabolism, and stress responses. However, identifying initial Glc sensing and response stimulating mechanisms in plants has been difficult due to dual functions of glucose as energy sources and signaling component. A basic Helix-Loop-Helix 104 (bHLH104) protein is a homolog of bHLH34 previously isolated from Arabidopsis that functions as a transcriptional activator of Glc and abscisic acid (ABA) responses. In this study, we characterized bHLH104 as a transcription factor that binds to the regulatory region of Arabidopsis Plasma membrane Glc-responsive Regulator (AtPGR) gene. The bHLH104 binds to 5'-AANA-3' element of the promoter region of AtPGR in vitro and represses beta-glucuronidase (GUS) activity in AtPGR promoter-GUS transgenic plants. Genetic approaches show that bHLH104 positively regulates Glc and abscisic acid (ABA) response. These results suggest that bHLH104 is involved in Glc- and ABA-mediated signaling pathway. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that bHLH104 is an important transcription regulator in plant-sensitivity to Glc and ABA signaling.

Predicting the harvest yield enables farm practices to be modified throughout the growing season, with potential to increase the final yield. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based remote sensing is a promising way to estimate crop yields. In this study, rice yield was estimated by segmenting grain areas using low altitude RGB images collected using a rotary-wing type UAV. In particular, an image processing method that combines K-means clustering with a graph-cut (KCG) algorithm was proposed to segment the rice grain areas. The graph-cut algorithm was applied to extract the foreground and background of the images. The foreground RGB images were converted to the Lab colour space and then K-means clustering was used to label pixels based on colour information. The area of the rice grains in the images was calculated from the clustered images. Using this grain area information, the rice yield of the field could be estimated. Experiments show that the proposed method can segment the grain areas with a relative error of 6%–33%, and it improved the relative error of the previous method (by 1%–31%). The coefficient of determination between the results of the proposed method and the ground truth was found to be 0.98. Furthermore, the relative error of the yield estimation for four field sections was 21%–31%. The results indicate that the UAV image-based grain segmentation has the potential to estimate rice yield accurately and conveniently.

In this study, real-time disease monitoring was conducted on onion which is the most representative crop in Republic of Korea, using an image acquisition system newly developed for the mobile measurement of phenotype. The purpose of this study was to improve the accuracy of prediction of disease and state variables by processing images acquired from monitoring. The image acquisition system was consisted of two parts, a motorized driving system and a PTZ (pan, tilt and zoom) camera to take images of the plants. The acquired images were processed as follows. Noise was removed through an image filter and RGB (red, green and blue) colors were converted to HSV (hue, saturation and value), which enabled thresholding of areas with different colors and properties for image binarization by comparing the color of onion leaf with ambient areas. Four objects with the most significant browning in the onion leaf to the naked eye were selected as the samples for data acquired. The thresholding method with image processing was found to be superior to the naked eye in identifying accurate disease areas. In addition, it was found that the incidence of disease was different in each disease area ratio. As a result, the use of image acquisition system in image processing analysis will enable more prompt detection of any changes in the onion and monitoring of disease outbreaks during the crop lifecycle.

Proline (Pro) metabolism plays important roles in protein synthesis, redox balance, and abiotic stress response. However, it is not known if cross-talk occurs between proline and brassinosteroid (BR) signaling pathways. Here, an Arabidopsis intergenic enhancer double mutant, namely proline content alterative 41 (pca41), was generated by inserting a T-DNA tag in the Arabidopsis thaliana ring zinc finger 1 (atrzf1 ) mutant background. pca41 had a T-DNA inserted at the site of the gene encoding BES1/BZR1 Homolog 3 (BEH3). pca41 has a drought-insensitive phenotype that is stronger than atrzf1 under osmotic stress, including high Pro accumulation and decreased amounts of reactive oxygen species. Analysis of physiological, genetic, and molecular networks revealed that negative regulation of BEH3 during abiotic stress was linked to the BR signaling pathway. Our data also suggest that AtRZF1, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, might control osmotic stress, abscisic acid, and BR responses in a BEH3-dependent manner. Under darkness, pca41 displays a long hypocotyl phenotype, which is similar to atrzf1 and beh3, suggesting that BEH3 acts in the same pathway as AtRZF1. Overexpression of BEH3 results in an osmotic stress-sensitive phenotype, which is reversed by exogenous BR application. Taken together, our results indicate that AtRZF1 and BEH3 may play important roles in the osmotic stress response via ubiquitination and BR signaling.

In this paper, we present an algorithm for eigenvalue assignment of linear singularly perturbed systems in terms of reduced-order slow and fast subproblem matrices. No similar algorithm exists in the literature. First, we present an algorithm for the recursive solution of the singularly perturbed algebraic Sylvester equation used for eigenvalue assignment. Due to the presence of a small singular perturbation parameter that indicates separation of the system variables into slow and fast, the corresponding algebraic Sylvester equation is numerically ill-conditioned. The proposed method for the recursive reduced-order solution of the algebraic Sylvester equations removes ill-conditioning and iteratively obtains the solution in terms of four reduced-order numerically well-conditioned algebraic Sylvester equations corresponding to slow and fast variables. The convergence rate of the proposed algorithm is Oε, where ε is a small positive singular perturbation parameter.

We developed a high-throughput technique for highly sensitive measurement of trace amounts of proline, an indicator of drought stress in plants, using an optimized proline-ninhydrin reaction. In order to do this, proline detection time was minimized by omitting phosphoric acid from the ninhydrin reagent. Chromophore extraction using toluene was also omitted, thus lowering the risks to environment and human health, and allowing the use of readily available polystyrene plates. Proline detection sensitivity was assessed based on the concentration of sulfosalicylic acid in the solution, which indicated that 1% sulfosalicylic acid yielded the best sensitivity and linearity. These findings were applied to a multiwell plate-based multiplex analysis using a dry oven for the simultaneous analysis of a large number of drought-stressed plant samples with trace amounts of proline. The results showed that proline could be effectively detected in plants grown in soil with water content under 5%, demonstrating its potential for diagnosing drought early. The proposed multiwell plate-based multiplex assay is expected to be useful in manifold agricultural applications.

Highlight PCA22 negatively regulates the drought response through the modulation of osmolytic components and regulates pollen tube length in Arabidopsis., Proline metabolism is important for environmental responses, plant growth, and development. However, its precise roles in plant abiotic stress tolerance are not well understood. Mutants are valuable for the identification of new genes and for elucidating their roles in physiological mechanisms. We applied a suppressor mutation approach to identify novel genes involved in the regulation of proline metabolism in Arabidopsis. Using the atrzf1 (Arabidopsis thaliana ring zinc finger 1) mutant as a parental line for activation tagging mutagenesis, we selected several mutants with suppressed induction of proline accumulation under dehydration conditions. One of the selected mutants [proline content alterative 22 (pca22)] appeared to have reduced proline contents compared with the atrzf1 mutant under drought stress. Generally, pca22 mutant plants displayed suppressed atrzf1 insensitivity to dehydration and abscisic acid during early seedling growth. Additionally, the pca22 mutant exhibited shorter pollen tube length than wild-type (WT) and atrzf1 plants. Furthermore, PCA22-overexpressing plants were more sensitive to dehydration stress than the WT and RNAi lines. Green fluorescent protein-tagged PCA22 was localized to the cytoplasm of transgenic Arabidopsis cells. Collectively, these results suggest that pca22 acts as dominant suppressor mutant of atrzf1 in the abiotic stress response.

Agricultural bioresources are being recognised as emerging functional platforms that can find application in biological, environmental, and agricultural engineering. Eggshell membrane (ESM), the protein-rich membrane between the eggshell and egg white, has usually been regarded as waste and overlooked. However, its potential is now being highlighted in many engineering fields. This review provides basic information about ESM starting with its structural, chemical, and physical properties, and expands on its role in engineering fields. It touches upon various fabrication methods for constructing compatible ESM-based functional platforms. The review focuses on the role and performance of ESM in engineering applications: electric devices, sensors, environmental engineering, biomedical engineering, and commercialization. Finally, new perspectives about the potential of ESM as a highly valuable bioresource in various engineering fields are discussed.

Optimal design of transmission gears is important to ensure product durability and reliability. This study measured a multi-purpose cultivator during a rotary ditching operation and analyzed the strength of the power take off (PTO) gear-train for the cultivator using analysis software (KISSsoft, KISSsoft AG&mdash, A Gleason Company, Bubikon, Switzerland) based on ISO 6336 standards and a modified Miner&rsquo, s rule. A load measurement system was installed on the cultivator to measure the load on the PTO shaft. To measure the load on the PTO shaft, the load measuring system consisting of a data acquisition board (NI USB-6212, National Instruments, Austin, TX, USA) and a torque sensor was installed on the cultivator. Rotary ditching operations were conducted at two ground speeds and two PTO rotational speeds on a field with the same soil conditions. The measured load data were constructed using the rainflow-counting algorithm and the Smith-Watson-Topper equation. When the ground speed or PTO rotational speed increased, the average and maximum PTO torque increased significantly. The average measured torque ratio to rated torque of the PTO input shaft (19.6 Nm) was in the range of 50.1&ndash, 105.9%. The simulation results using the actual measurement load indicated that the strength of the PTO gear-train tended to decrease with higher transmission gear stage and lower PTO gear stage except for the G2 and G3 gears. The simulation results of the safety factor for contact stress were lower than the minimum safety factor of &lsquo, 1.0&rsquo, at the T2P1 gear stage (G4 and G2). The simulation results of the fatigue life analysis showed fatigue life of less than service life (1000 h) at T2P2 (G2) and T2P1 (G2, G3, and G4). The simulation results indicate that there is a possibility of gear failure before service life at the T2P1 (G2, G3, and G4) and T2P2 (G2). It is known that the weak parts (G2, G3, and G4) should be the focus of design optimization through gear strength simulation to meet upward of a 1.0 safety factor and service life.

Purpose: Phosphorus is an essential element for water quality control. Excessive amounts of phosphorus causes algal bloom in water, which leads to eutrophication and a decline in water quality. It is necessary to maintain the optimum amount of phosphorus present. During the last decades, various studies have been conducted to determine phosphorus content in water. In this study, we present a comprehensive overview of colorimetric, electrochemical, fluorescence, microfluidic, and remote sensing technologies for the measurement of phosphorus in water, along with their working principles and limitations. Results: The colorimetric techniques determine the concentration of phosphorus through the use of colorgenerating reagents. This is specific to a single chemical species and inexpensive to use. The electrochemical techniques operate by using a reaction of the analyte of interest to generate an electrical signal that is proportional to the sample analyte concentration. They show a good linear output, good repeatability, and a high detection capacity. The fluorescence technique is a kind of spectroscopic analysis method. The particles in the sample are excited by irradiation at a specific wavelength, emitting radiation of a different wavelength. It is possible to use this for quantitative and qualitative analysis of the target analyte. The microfluidic techniques incorporate several features to control chemical reactions in a micro device of low sample volume and reagent consumption. They are cheap and rapid methods for the detection of phosphorus in water. The remote sensing technique analyzes the sample for the target analyte using an optical technique, but without direct contact. It can cover a wider area than the other techniques mentioned in this review. Conclusion: It is concluded that the sensing technologies reviewed in this study are promising for rapid detection of phosphorus in water. The measurement range and sensitivity of the sensors have been greatly improved recently.

Various field tests are needed to improve agricultural tractor performance; however, field tests require expenditures for constructing an experiment system and time for conducting the tests repeatedly. In addition, it is difficult to acquire reliable data because field tests depend on environmental conditions. For this reason, indoor tests using dynamometers have been used in the automotive industry instead of field tests. To ensure the reliability of indoor tests, standardized driving cycles are needed as input data for the dynamometer. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a standardized plow tillage cycle for agricultural tractors using real field data. A load measurement system was installed on a tractor to collect real field data from loads acting on the four driving axles and the hydraulic pumps. Plow tillage was conducted on ten farmlands of similar size (3000 m 2 ; 100 m x 30 m) at three sites (A, B, and C). The plow tillage cycles for each site were developed using the driving cycle construction method for conventional vehicles with the measured load data. At one site, the entire dataset from the ten farmlands was first classified into micro-trips, which were the minimum patterns of plow tillage including plowing, three-point hitch ascending, and tractor turning. The arbitrary working cycles were generated by combining micro-trips, and less than 5% absolute percentage error was achieved between the entire dataset and the generated arbitrary working cycle. Second, the plow tillage cycle was determined considering the sum square difference (SSD) with a torque and torque variation probability distribution. The selected working cycle with the lowest SSD was determined as the plow tillage cycle. Third, the performance values (PVs) of the plow tillage cycles of agricultural tractors and the driving cycles of conventional vehicles were compared to evaluate the performance of the plow tillage cycle. The results showed that the ranges of absolute percentage error relative to the entire dataset were 1.0% to 4.9% for all sites. The SSDs of the plow tillage cycles were 1195.96, 958.77, and 1202.50, and the PVs of the plow tillage cycles were 99.60, 77.90, and 84.15 for sites A, B, and C, respectively. The PVs of the commonly used driving cycles were low, at 60% to 125% of the plow tillage cycles. The plow tillage cycles had especially higher performance than some of the international standard driving cycles by 104% to 125% for site B. The results showed that the developed plow tillage cycles can be applied to indoor tests for performance evaluation of agricultural tractors.

Purpose: The necessity for precise manipulation of bioparticles has greatly increased in the fields of bioscience, biomedical, and environmental monitoring. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is considered to be an ideal technique to manipulate bioparticles. The objective of this study is to develop a DEP microfluidic device that can trap fluorescent beads, which mimic bioparticles, at the low voltage and frequency of the sinusoidal signal supplied to the microfluidic device. Methods: A DEP microfluidic device, which is composed of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) channels and interdigitated electrode networks, is fabricated to trap fluorescent beads. The geometry of the interdigitated electrodes is determined through computational simulation. To determine the optimum voltage and frequency of the sinusoidal signal supplied to the device, the experiments of trapping beads are conducted at various combinations of voltage and frequency. The performance of the DEP microfluidic device is evaluated by investigating the correlation between fluorescent intensities and bead concentrations. Results: The optimum ratio of the widths between the negative and positive electrodes was 1:4 () at a gap of between the two electrodes. The DEP electrode networks were fabricated based on this geometry and used for the bead trapping experiments. The optimum voltage and frequency of the supplied signal for trapping fluorescent beads were 15 V and 5 kHz, respectively. The fluorescent intensity of the trapped beads increased linearly as the bead concentration increased. The coefficient of determination () between the fluorescent intensity and the bead concentration was 0.989. Conclusions: It is concluded that the microfluidic device developed in this study is promising for trapping bioparticles, such as a cell or virus, if they are conjugated to beads, and their concentration is quantified.

In order to optimize tractor design and optimize efficiency during tillage operation, it is essential to verify the impact through field tests on factors affecting the tractor load. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of tillage depth on power transmission efficiency of 42 kW power agricultural tractor during moldboard plowing. A load measurement system and a tillage depth measurement system were configured for field tests. To analyze the effect of tillage depth on power transmission efficiency and fuel consumption, the data measured in the three-repeated field test were classified according to tillage depth. As the tillage depth increased from 11 cm at the top of the hardpan to 23 cm at the deepest, the required power of the engine increased by approximately 13% from 35.48 kW to 40.11 kW, and the power transmission efficiency also increased significantly from 66% to 95%. Among them, the power transmission efficiency of the rear axle was significantly increased from 38% to 59%, which was the most affected. As the tillage depth increased, the overall power requirement is greatly increased due to the resulting workload, but the fuel consumption and the specific fuel consumption are reduced because the engine speed of the tractor is reduced. As the tillage depth increased from 11 cm to 23 cm, the fuel consumption rate was rather reduced by 13.5% as the engine rotational speed decreased 11.3% due to the increase work load of tractor. In addition, the specific fuel consumption decreased from 302.44 g/kWh to 236.93 g/kWh, showing a fuel consumption saving of up to 21.7% during moldboard plow. In addition, as the tillage depth increased, the ratio of the value excluding the mechanical and hydraulic power requirements has significantly decreased from 34% to 5% as the power transmission efficiency increases. This study considers the soil properties according to the soil depth, as well as the power transmission efficiency and fuel consumption rate. The research results can provide useful information for research on power transmission efficiency and selection of an appropriate power source of agricultural tractor according to tillage depth during moldboard plowing and are expected to be used in various ways as basic studies of digital farming research in agricultural machinery.

The modulation of glucose (Glc) homeostasis and signaling is crucial for plant growth and development. Nevertheless, the molecular signaling mechanism by which a plant senses a cellular Glc level and coordinates the expression of Glc-responsive genes is still incompletely understood. Previous studies have shown that Arabidopsis thaliana plasma membrane Glc-responsive regulator (AtPGR) is a component of the Glc-responsive pathway. Here, we demonstrated that a transcription factor bHLH34 binds to 5′-GAGA-3′ element of the promoter region of AtPGR in vitro, and activates beta-glucuronidase (GUS) activity upon Glc treatment in AtPGR promoter-GUS transgenic plants. Gain- and loss-of-function analyses suggested that the bHLH34 involved in the responses to not only Glc, but also abscisic acid (ABA) and salinity. These results suggest that bHLH34 functions as a transcription factor in the Glc-mediated stress responsive pathway as well as an activator of AtPGR transcription. Furthermore, genetic experiments revealed that in Glc response, the functions of bHLH34 are different from that of a bHLH104, a homologue of bHLH34. Collectively, our findings indicate that bHLH34 is a positive regulator of Glc, and may affect ABA or salinity response, whereas bHLH104 is a negative regulator and epistatic to bHLH34 in the Glc response.

In this paper, the PTO severeness of an agricultural tractor during rotary tillage and baler operation was analyzed. The S–N curves of the PTO driving gears were obtained through fatigue life test. To obtain the S–N curves of the PTO driving gears, the breakage time and rotational speed of the gears were measured through observation of the bending stress with changing torque. The torque acting on the PTO was measured and analyzed during rotary tillage and baler operation. Rotary tillage and baler operation were conducted at two ground speeds and two PTO rotational speeds at upland field sites with similar soil conditions, respectively. The load data were inverted to a load spectrum using rain-flow counting and SWT equations. Modified Miner’s rule was used to calculate the partial damage sum. The severeness was defined as the relative ratio of the damage sum. The results showed that the damage of the PTO increased when the ground speed or the PTO rotational speed increased. The effect of the PTO rotational speed on the severeness of the PTO was more significant than that of the ground speed. The severeness of the PTO of rotary tillage was greater than that of baler operation.

Abscisic acid (ABA) receptors in plants are thought to be involved in various cellular processes mediated by signal transduction pathways. There are about 14 ABA receptors in Arabidopsis, but only a few have been studied. In this study, we investigated the effect of the disruption and overexpression of an ABA receptor gene, PYL8 (At5g53160) on plant responses to glucose (Glc) and dark-induced leaf senescence. Expression of PYL8 was strongly reduced by Glc treatment. Overexpression of PYL8 in Arabidopsis resulted in significantly reduced seed germination and cotyledon greening under high Glc conditions, while RNAi transgenic lines were more insensitive to Glc stress. Activities of two Glc-responsive genes, Arabidopsis thaliana Hexokinase 1 (AtHXK1) and ABA insensitive 5 (ABI5) were higher in PYL8-overexpressing plants than in the wild-type (WT) plants after Glc treatment, whereas the transcript levels of these genes in RNAi plants decreased. Furthermore, PYL8-overexpressing plants displayed increased yellowing, membrane ion leakage, and reduced chlorophyll content due to dark-induced senescence, and exhibited stronger expression of a group of senescence-inducible genes than did WT. The data show that PYL8 plays essential roles in responses to both Glc and dark-induced senescence in A. thaliana.

Path planning is an essential part for traveling and mowing of autonomous lawn mower tractors. Objectives of the paper were to analyze operation patterns by a skilled farmer, to extract and optimize waypoints, and to demonstrate generation of formatted planned path for autonomous lawn mower tractors. A 27-HP mower tractor was operated by a skilled farmer on grass fields. To measure tractor travel and operation characteristics, an RTK-GPS antenna with a 6-cm RMS error, an inertia motion sensing unit, a gyro compass, a wheel angle sensor, and a mower on/off sensor were mounted on the mower tractor, and all the data were collected at a 10-Hz rate. All the sensor data were transferred through a software program to show the status immediately on the notebook. Planned path was generated using the program parameter settings, mileage and time calculations, and the travel path was plotted using developed software. Based on the human operation patterns, path planning algorithm was suggested for autonomous mower tractor. Finally path generation was demonstrated in a formatted file and graphic display. After optimizing the path planning, a decrease in distance about 13% and saving of the working time about 30% was achieved. Field test data showed some overlap, especially in the turning areas. Results of the study would be useful to implement an autonomous mower tractor, but further research needs to improve the performance.

Development of highly efficient and energy-saving tractors has been one of the issues in agricultural machinery. For design of such tractors, measurement and analysis of load on major power transmission parts of the tractors are the most important pre-requisite tasks. Objective of this study was to perform pre-processing procedures before effective analysis of load data of agricultural tractors (30, 75, and 82 kW) during major field operations such as plow tillage, rotary tillage, baling, bale wrapping, and to select the suitable pre-processing method for the analysis. A load measurement systems, equipped in the tractors, were consisted of strain-gauge, encoder, hydraulic pressure, and radar speed sensors to measure torque and rotational speed levels of transmission input shaft, PTO shaft, and driving axle shafts, pressure of the hydraulic inlet line, and travel speed, respectively. The entire sensor data were collected at a 200-Hz rate. Plow tillage, rotary tillage, baling, wrapping, and loader operations were selected as major field operations of agricultural tractors. Same or different farm works and driving levels were set differently for each of the load measuring experiment. Before load data analysis, pre-processing procedures such as outlier removal, low-pass filtering, and data division were performed. Data beyond the scope of the measuring range of the sensors and the operating range of the power transmission parts were removed. Considering engine and PTO rotational speeds, frequency components greater than 90, 60, and 60 Hz cut off frequencies were low-pass filtered for plow tillage, rotary tillage, and baler operations, respectively. Measured load data were divided into five parts: driving, working, implement up, implement down, and turning. Results of the study would provide useful information for load characteristics of tractors on major field operations.

Efficient GF(2 m ) arithmetic clearly affects the performance of compute-intensive applications. A new low-complexity parallel-in/out systolic AB 2 multiplier based on the least significant bit-first scheme is presented. Compared with related works, the scheme yields significantly lower area-time complexity.

Proline (Pro) metabolism in plants is involved in various cellular processes mediated during abiotic stress. However, the Pro-regulatory mechanisms are unclear. We used a suppressor mutation technique to isolate novel genes involved in the regulation of Pro metabolism in Arabidopsis. Using atrzf1 as a parental plant for T-DNA tagging mutagenesis, we identified a suppressor mutant, termed proline content alterative 21 (pca21), that displayed reduced Pro contents compared with the atrzf1 under osmotic stress conditions. Genomic Thermal Asymmetric Interlaced (TAIL)-PCR revealed pca21 harbored an inserted T-DNA in the region of At2g36620 that encodes Ribosomal Protein L24A. In general, the pca21 mutant partially suppressed the insensitivity of atrzf1 to osmotic stress and abscisic acid during seed germination and early seedling stage. Additionally, the pca21 mutant had increased MDA content and lower expression of several Pro biosynthesis-related genes than the atrzf1 mutant during drought condition. These results suggest that pca21 acts as partial suppressor of atrzf1 in the osmotic stress response through the Pro-mediated pathway.

The precise roles of the B-box zinc finger family of transcription factors in plant stress are poorly understood. Functional analysis was performed on AtCOL4, an Arabidopsis thaliana L. CONSTANS-like 4 protein that is a putative novel transcription factor, and which contains a predicted transcriptional activation domain. Analyses of an AtCOL4 promoter-β-glucuronidase (GUS) construct revealed substantial GUS activity in whole seedlings. The expression of AtCOL4 was strongly induced by abscisic acid (ABA), salt, and osmotic stress. Mutation in atcol4 resulted in increased sensitivity to ABA and salt stress during seed germination and the cotyledon greening process. In contrast, AtCOL4-overexpressing plants were less sensitive to ABA and salt stress compared to the wild type. Interestingly, in the presence of ABA or salt stress, the transcript levels of other ABA biosynthesis and stress-related genes were enhanced induction in AtCOL4-overexpressing and WT plants, rather than in the atcol4 mutant. Thus, AtCOL4 is involved in ABA and salt stress response through the ABA-dependent signaling pathway. Taken together, these findings provide compelling evidence that AtCOL4 is an important regulator for plant tolerance to abiotic stress.

We developed and characterized a paper-based microfluidic sensor for the on-site diagnosis of drought stress in plants. Proline was used as a biomarker for analyzing drought stress, which was extracted by a colorimetric method using the proline-ninhydrin reaction. Paper was used as the main sensor material for the on-site detection of proline as it is easily transportable and cost-effective. The paper-based sensor was fabricated using wax-printing and origami methods, and the sensor was precoated with ninhydrin to allow for easy and convenient on-site use. Furthermore, a sample-to-ninhydrin ratio of 1:2 was found to confer optimal sensitivity to the drought diagnosis sensor. The concentration of proline in a sample was quantified by red-green-blue analysis to determine the change in green color intensity levels in response to distinct proline concentrations, which were detected by the sensor. The limit of detection of proline using the devised sensor was 657 µM, and the green color intensity level decreased with increasing proline concentration. In addition, the sensor was validated in an experimental drought stress model with Arabidopsis and subjected to drought stress for 21 days, and the amount of proline detected was 10 mM. The devised paper-based microfluidic sensor highlights the possibility of the on-site evaluation of drought stress in plants with potential to be utilized in various agricultural areas in the future.

Path planning is an essential part for autonomous mower tractor to travel and mow. Objectives of the paper were to analyze operation patterns by a farmer, to extract and optimize waypoints, and to demonstrate generation of formatted planned path for autonomous mower tractors. An 18-kW mid-mower tractor was operated by a skilled farmer on grass fields. To measure tractor travel and operation characteristics, an RTK-GPS antenna with a 2-cm RMS error, an inertia motion sensing unit, a gyro compass, a wheel angle sensor, and a mower on/off sensor were mounted on the mower tractor, and all the data were collected at a 10-Hz rate. And all of sensor data were transferred through a program to show the status immediately on the notebook. From 3 grass field tests, total 53,412 data points (every 0.1s) were obtained, and amount the data 73% was straight steering, 22% was turning steering, and 5% was for others (e.g. artificial error, needless work). Field test data showed some overlap, especially in the turning areas. Based on the human operation patterns, path planning algorithm was suggested for autonomous mower tractor. Finally path generation was demonstrated in a formatted file and graphic display. Results of the study would be useful to implement and test autonomous mower tractor, but further research needs to be done to improve the performance.

Current molecular methods that include PCR have been used to detect norovirus in many food samples. However, the protocols require removing PCR inhibitors and incorporate time-consuming concentration steps to separate virus from analyte for rapid and sensitive detection of norovirus. We developed an immunomagnetic separation (IMS) and a quantum dots (QDs) assay to detect norovirus eluted from fresh lettuce with Tris buffer containing 1% beef extract (pH 9.5). IMS facilitated viral precipitation with a 10-min incubation, whereas virus concentration using polyethylene glycol (PEG) requires more than 3 h and an additional high-speed centrifugation step to precipitate virus before reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) analysis. The fluorescence intensity of QDs was detected qualitatively on norovirus dilutions of 10(-1) to 10(-3) in a stool suspension (100 RT-PCR units/ml). The results suggest that a fluorescence assay based on IMS and QDs is valid for detecting norovirus qualitatively according to fluorescent signal intensity within the same virus detection limit produced by IMS-RT-PCR and PEG-RT-PCR.

In this paper, we suggest a new audio watermarking method for audio contents copyrights that can efficiently provide protection from MP3 compression attacks. Watermarks were inserted at the coefficients repeatedly from low frequencies to high frequencies after DCT transform in commonly used Cox`s spread spectrum method. Because the methods using arbitrary coefficients are not effective, we use the new weight functions that make small losses for the watermark coefficients during attacks, using psychological acoustics. In the results of various sound clips, the suggested method had overall better outcomes than the Cox`s method by preserving watermarks and reducing distortions of the original sounds.

Purpose: The net rind pattern and color of melon surface are important for a high market value of melon fruits. The development of the net and color are closely related to the changes in shape, size, and maturing. Therefore, the net and color characteristics can be used indicators for assessment of melon quality. The goal of this study was to investigate the possibility of estimating melon soluble solids content (SSC) and firmness by analyzing the net and color characteristics of fruit surface. Methods: The true color images of melon surface obtained at fruit equator were analyzed with 18 color features and 9 texture features. The partial least squares (PLS) method was used to estimate SSC and firmness in melons using their color and texture features. Results: In sensing melon SSC, the coefficients of determination of validation (Rv 2) of the prediction models using the color and texture features were 0.84 (root mean square error of validation, RMSEV: 1.92 °Brix) and 0.96 (RMSEV: 0.60 °Brix), respectively. The Rv 2 values of the models for predicting melon firmness using the color and texture features were 0.64 (RMSEV: 4.62 N) and 0.79 (RMSEV: 2.99 N), respectively. Conclusions: In general, the texture features were more useful for estimating melon internal quality than the color features. However, to strengthen the usefulness of the color and texture features of melon surface for estimation of melon quality, additional experiments with more fruit samples need to be conducted.