Improving water productivity in the hydroponics with a plasma-nanobubble hybrid technology.

Among new technologies aimed at improving water productivity, nanotechnology have been identified as effective means of enhancing the properties of agricultural water. Building on the synergy of plasma and nanobubbles, this study explored the combination of plasma electric discharge and nanocavitation as a novel approach for soilless cultivation. The study aimed to investigate the impact of this hybrid technology on hydroponics nutrient solution. Additionally, the study further aimed to assess the effect of both technologies individually, as well as various application periods, including 3, 9, and 15 min for hybrid technology use. The study employed the nutrient flow technique to hydroponically cultivate lettuce. The findings showed that the application of each technology individually did not significantly increase yield. However, the hybrid technology treatment for 9 min resulted in a significant yield increase of almost 60 %. This improvement can be attributed to the stability, solubility, and absorption of products resulting from plasma treatment, as well as the antimicrobial and anti-algae effects of both technologies. Additionally, an increase in flavonoid and potassium content and a decrease in iron were observed in plants grown under optimal treatment. Overall, this study demonstrated the potential for synergy between plasma and nanobubble techniques in hydroponic culture.

Measurement bruise volume of olive during impact test using FEM and quality evaluation of extracted olive oil.

Mechanical damage is a phenomenon that always occurred in the postharvest process. Due to the inappropriate harvest and postharvest process of Olive that lead to the bruise phenomenon, the quality of the extracted olive oil reduces. In this study, the effect of olive damage on bruising volume and quality characteristics was investigated. Three different varieties of Yellow, Oily, and Fishemi in three stages of unripe, semiripe, and ripped were used. Also, three kinds of the surface of rubber, nylon, and foam for the drop test were considered. The tests were performed in laboratory mode and simulated. For all tests, with increasing maturity, the amount of stress and internal energy were decreased and the bruise volume was increased. The amount of bruise volume and bruise susceptibility were obtained, and the experimental and simulated conditions were compared. On the other hand, the quality characteristics of olive oil including free fatty acid (FFA), peroxide value (PV), k232 and K270 coefficients, total chlorophyll, total carotenoid, total phenol, and total flavonoid were measured. The results showed that the finite element and chemometric methods are acceptable methods for predicting the generated energy of the fruit during impact, the amount of bruising volume, as well as evaluating the quality of the extracted oil.

An intelligent procedure for watermelon ripeness detection based on vibration signals.

In this paper, an efficient procedure for ripeness detection of watermelon was presented. A nondestructive method was used based on vibration response to determine the internal quality of watermelon. The responses of samples to vibration excitation were optically recorded by a Laser Doppler (LD) vibrometer. Vibration data was collected from watermelons of two qualities, namely, ripe and unripe. Vibration signals were transformed from time-domain to frequency-domain by fast Fourier transform (FFT). Twenty nine features were extracted from the FFT amplitude and phase angle of the vibration signals. K-nearest neighbor (KNN) analysis was applied as a classifier in decision-making stage. The experimental results showed that the usage of the FFT amplitude of the vibration signals gave the maximum classification accuracy. This method allowed identification at a 95.0 % level of efficiency. Hence, the proposed method can reliably detect watermelon ripeness.