Rapid identification of chrysanthemum teas by computer vision and deep learning.

Seven commercial Chinese chrysanthemum tea products were classified by computer vision combined with machine learning algorithms. Without the need of building any specific hardware, the image acquisition was achieved in two computer vision approaches. In the first approach, a series of multivariate classification models were built after morphological feature extraction of the image. The best prediction accuracies when classifying flowering stages and tea types were respectively 90% and 63%. In comparison, the deep neural network was applied directly on the raw image, yielded 96% and 89% correct identifications when classifying flowering stage and tea type, respectively. The model can be applied for rapid and automatic quality determination of teas and other related foods. The result indicated that computer vision, especially when combined with deep learning or other machine learning techniques can be a convenient and versatile method in the evaluation of food quality.

Modulation of rat cecal microbiota by administration of raffinose and encapsulated Bifidobacterium breve.

To investigate the effects of administration of raffinose and encapsulated Bifidobacterium breve JCM 1192T cells on the rat cecal microbiota, in a preclinical synbiotic study groups of male WKAH/Hkm Slc rats were fed for 3 weeks with four different test diets: basal diet (group BD), basal diet supplemented with raffinose (group RAF), basal diet supplemented with encapsulated B. breve (group CB), and basal diet supplemented with both raffinose and encapsulated B. breve (group RCB). The bacterial populations in cecal samples were determined by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). B. breve cells were detected only in the RCB group and accounted for about 6.3% of the total cells as determined by FISH analysis. B. breve was also detected only in the RCB group by T-RFLP analysis. This was in contrast to the CB group, in which no B. breve signals were detected by either FISH or T-RFLP. Increases in the sizes of the populations of Bifidobacterium animalis, a Bifidobacterium indigenous to the rat, were observed in the RAF and RCB groups. Principal-component analysis of T-RFLP results revealed significant alterations in the bacterial populations of rats in the RAF and RCB groups; the population in the CB group was similar to that in the control group (group BD). To the best of our knowledge, these results provide the first clear picture of the changes in the rat cecal microbiota in response to synbiotic administration.