EfficientNet-Based Robust Recognition of Peach Plant Diseases in Field Images

Plant diseases are a major cause of degraded fruit quality andyield losses. These losses can be significantly reduced with early detection ofdiseases to ensure their timely treatment, particularly in developing countries.In this regard, an expert system based on deep learning model where the expertknowledge, particularly the one acquired by plant pathologist, is recursivelylearned by the system and is applied using a smart phone application for use inthe target field environment, is being proposed. In this paper, a robust diseasedetection method is developed based on convolutional neural network (CNN),where its powerful features extraction capabilities are leveraged to detectdiseases in images of fruits and leaves. The features extraction pipelines ofseveral state-of-the-art pretrained networks are fine-tuned to achieve optimaldetection performance. A novel dataset is collected from peach orchards andextensively augmented using both label-preserving and non-label-preservingtransformations. The augmented dataset is used to study the effects of finetuning the pretrained networks’ feature extraction pipeline as opposed tokeeping the network parameters unchanged. The CNN models, particularlyEfficientNet exhibited superior performance on the target dataset once theirfeature extraction pipelines are fine-tuned. The optimal model is able toachieve 96.6% average accuracy, 90% sensitivity and precision, and 98%specificity on the test set of images.

Prevalence of Dental Fluorosis in Mianwali and Mardan Districts

This study was conducted to assess the level of dental flourosis and Decaying, Missing, Filled Tooth (DMFT) of selected patients, in district Mardan village Rustam and District Mianwali village Harnoli. Study was conducted among people of age 10 - 60 years. The regions of Rustam and Harnoli are known to have high value of fluoride in drinking water. A cross sectional study was conducted among the subjects and the grade of fluorosis was calculated according to Deans Fluorosis Index. DMFT of each subject was also calculated. Total of 100 subjects were selected by simple random sampling technique among the population of Rustam and Harnoli and they were observed for the extent of fluorosis they had along with the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth they had Most of the population uses underground water, the water people commonly used was collected and was tested for amount of fluoride. The results show that there is a strong relationship between fluoride level and extent of fluorosis. Populations of both areas have dental fluorosis due to high concentration of fluoride in drinking water and also comparatively low DMFT because fluoride has caries protective effect.

Considering solid shear stress in MP-PIC simulation of a CFB riser

To enable successful multi-phase particle-in-cell(MP-PIC)simulations of circulating fluidized beds(CFBs),both the interphase drag force and interparticle collisions need to be carefully modeled.Particle collisions are usually represented by the solid stress consisting of the normal and shear components,in which the normal stress was found to have a leading role in the numerical stability of MP-PIC simulations,whereas the impact of the shear stress has seldom been reported.In this work,the effects of the solid shear stress are investigated by using two-dimensional simulations of the moderately dense laboratory-scale CFB riser with in-house MP-PIC code implemented on MFIX open-source platform.Cases including only normal solid stress and those considering both normal and shear solid stresses are simulated.The results of solids flux,axial and radial solids profiles are compared with available experimental data.The results show that the solid shear stress plays a minor role on the accuracy of simulation,and the increase of PPP(number particles per parcel)leads to a lower accuracy of simulation.

Phase microstructure evaluation and microwave dielectric properties of (1-x)Mg_(0.95)Ni_(0.05)Ti_(0.98)Zr_(0.02)O_3–xCa_(0.6)La_(0.8/3)TiO_3 ceramics

All the compositions in the(1-x)Mg_(0.95)Ni_(0.05)Ti_(0.98)Zr_(0.02)O_3–xCa_(0.6)La_(0.8/3)TiO_3(0 ≤ x ≤ 0.2) series were fabricated using solid state sintering route. Mg_(0.95)Ni_(0.05)Ti_(0.98)Zr_(0.02)O_3 possessed excellent microwave dielectric properties with ε_r ≈ 17.1, Q_uf_0 ≈ 195855 GHz, and τ_f ≈-46 ppm/℃. t f was tuned through zero by mixing with Ca_(0.6)La_(0.8/3)TiO_3. In the present study, τ_f ≈-2 ppm/℃ with er ≈ 23.9 and high Q_uf_0 ≈ 115870 GHz was achieved for x = 0.15, i.e., for a mixture of 85% Mg_(0.95)Ni_(0.05)Ti_(0.98)Zr_(0.02)O_3–xCa_(0.6)La_(0.8/3)TiO_3.

EMMS mixture model with size distribution for two-fluid simulation of riser flows

Further development of an energy-minimization multiscale modeling approach to simulating two-phase flow under turbulent conditions that considers the size distribution of mesoscale structures, i.e. bubbles and clusters, is presented. User-defined values of minimum and maximum cluster or bubble diame- ters were specified. A uniform size distribution was first considered as a test case, in which the drag force comprised contributions from each size group. The mathematical form of the objective function describing the energy for suspension and transport was not altered. The heterogeneity index of this new drag modification was then used to simulate pilot-scale circulating fluidized-bed risers involving Geldart group A particles. The results were validated against available experimental data. The model is capable of capturing both axial and radial profiles of flow-field variables.

Counter-current three-phase fluidization in a turbulent contact absorber： A CFD simulation

A computational fluid dynamics study of three-phase counter-current fluidization occurring in a turbu- lent contact absorber was performed. A two-dimensional, transient Eulerian multi-fluid model was used, in which the dispersed solid phase was modeled employing a kinetic theory of granular flow. The grid independence of the model, the effect of wall boundary conditions, the choice of granular temperature model, the effects of order of discretization scheme and drag models were studied for a base case setting, The results of simulations were validated against experimental results obtained from the literature. Once the model settings were finalized, simulations were performed for different gas and liquid velocities to predict the hydrodynamics of the absorber. Computed bed expansion and pressure drop were compared with experimental data. Good agreement between the two was found for low velocities of gas and liquid.

High energy storage density with ultra-high efficiency and fast charging-discharging capability of sodium bismuth niobate lead-free ceramics

Ceramics-based capacitors with excellent energy storage characteristics,fast charging/discharge rate,and high efficiency have received significant attention.In this work,Na0.73Bi0.09NbO3(NBN)ceramics were processed through solid-state sintering route.The investigated ceramics were crystallized in a single perovskite phase.Dense microstructure,with small average grain size(~0.92 mm)is obtained for the investigated ceramics.A high dielectric constant>1000 accompanied by a low dielectric loss was achieved for these ceramics at ambient temperature.A recoverable energy density~0.92 J/cm3 and ultra-high efficiency of 96.33%at 138 kV/cm were obtained at room temperature.Furthermore,a lower discharging time of 0.14 ms was also achieved.This material is a suitable candidate for power pulsed applications.

Grain boundary effects on piezoelectric properties of the core–shell-structured BaTiO_(3)@TiO_(2) ceramics

Grain boundary effect on BaTiO_(3) has been widely investigated for several decades.However,all of them tailored the grain boundary by grain size of BaTiO_(3).In this case,a direct way was introduced to modify the grain boundary by coating technique to investigate the role of grain boundary in ferroelectric materials.Nonferroelectric phase TiO_(2) was employed to investigate grain boundary effects on the electrical properties of BaTiO3 piezoelectric ceramics.TiO_(2) coating can result in the reduction of piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties and the annealing process in oxygen can increase piezoelectric behavior of pure BaTiO3 due to valence state of Ti ions while that remains for Ti-modified composition possibly due to the increased grain boundary effect by impedance analysis.Compared with ferroelectric grain,grain boundary plays a critical role to impact the electrical properties of perovskite-type ferroelectric materials.

Detection of onset of agglomeration in a bubbling fluidized bed biomass combustor using reactive Eulerian computational fluid dynamics

The choice of a type of combustion technology to be used for heat or power generation depends on economic,technical,operational and fuel availability constraints.The benefits associated with the evolving market driven by the fluidised bed combustion(FBC)technology cannot be overlooked especially when gauged at 65 GWth of worldwide installed capacity alongside added benefits of handling fuel variation,low pollutant emissions and high combustion efficiency.Biomass or biomass waste will continue to have a vital role to play in the future FBC technology-based power generation.Biomass often contains high levels of inorganic species that can form sticky agglomerates posing a significant risk to boiler operation resulting in unscheduled outages.This added complexity of the behaviour of the fuel and bed material mix highlights the requirement for simulation models to identify agglomeration to help improve the overall performance and reliability of FBC technology.To resolve this problem,this research devised a simulation strategy for the detection of agglomeration using the Eulerian–Eulerian approach.The developed modelling strategy is validated with the experimental data available in literature for two-dimensional simplified geometry of a pilot-scale fluidised bed combustor.The model results were found promising and robust to predict bed defluidisation times and other parameters consistent with the experimental data.