When I grew up, I wanted to be an engine driver. Still do in fact. But my parents palmed me off with a train set, packed me off to grammar school, and that was that.
In recent decades, global agriculture has been dominated by conventional practices associated with negative impacts such as the loss of biodiversity, changes in land use, habitat degradation and ...pollution. Faced with the urgent need of a sustainable shift, the organic scheme has emerged as an alternative to minimize agriculture's environmental footprint, requiring an assessment of the real impacts of both production methods. By means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the aim of this research is to evaluate the environmental impacts of conventional and organic apples with a cradle to grave approach. Apples grown in Washington state and consumed in Mexico City are considered as a case study and analyzed through seventeen impact categories. The results highlight five main findings. First, pesticides are identified as the main source of toxicity in the conventional model, underlining the relevance of biological pest control. Although the organic model does use authorized pesticides, these did not represent a significant impact. Second, the use of cardboard boxes for packaging implies changes in agricultural land occupation, as well as the use of plastic bags that impacts climate change, calling for no-waste or reduced packaging. Third, transportation is a key contributor to fossil depletion and climate change, noting the importance local production. Fourth, the final disposal of apples residues in landfills has implications for eutrophication, bringing out the importance of composting residues. Fifth, conventional apple production has a higher environmental footprint in most impact categories when compared to organic production for both surface-based and mass-based functional units. As such, this study recommends the production and consumption of local and in-season organic apples to reduce the negative environmental impacts and the effects on human health.
The aim of this research was to determine the sample size (number of fruits) needed to estimate the average of Royal Gala and Fuji apples characters, evaluated at harvest and postharvest, after a ...period in cold storage. In Royal Gala and Fuji apples were measured eight characters at harvest and 11 after could refrigeration. For each character in each cultivar, measured at harvest and after cold storage, was calculated the mean, variance, coefficient of variation, skewness, kurtosis and checked the normality and, then, was calculated the sample size. Larger sample sizes are needed to estimate the average of: ethylene production, ratio, respiration, weight and acidity. Smaller sample sizes are needed for the measurement of longitudinal diameter, pulp firmness, total soluble solids, transversal diameters (major and minor) and juice content. The sample size required to measure the characters of Royal Gala apples is lower than that required for Fuji apples. In Royal Gala and Fuji apples, 88 and 190 fruits, respectively, are sufficient for the measurement of characters, at harvest and after cold storage, with estimation error of 5% of the average.
The aim of this research was to determine the sample size (number of fruits) needed to estimate the average of Royal Gala and Fuji apples characters, evaluated at harvest and postharvest, after a ...period in cold storage. In Royal Gala and Fuji apples were measured eight characters at harvest and 11 after could refrigeration. For each character in each cultivar, measured at harvest and after cold storage, was calculated the mean, variance, coefficient of variation, skewness, kurtosis and checked the normality and, then, was calculated the sample size. Larger sample sizes are needed to estimate the average of: ethylene production, ratio, respiration, weight and acidity. Smaller sample sizes are needed for the measurement of longitudinal diameter, pulp firmness, total soluble solids, transversal diameters (major and minor) and juice content. The sample size required to measure the characters of Royal Gala apples is lower than that required for Fuji apples. In Royal Gala and Fuji apples, 88 and 190 fruits, respectively, are sufficient for the measurement of characters, at harvest and after cold storage, with estimation error of 5% of the average. Key words: Malus domestica, sampling, experimental design, post-harvest. O objetivo deste trabalhofoi determinar o tamanho de amostra (numero de frutos) necessario para a estimacao da media de caracteres de macas Royal Gala e Fuji, avaliados na colheita e pos-colheita, apos periodo sob armazenamento refrigerado. Em frutos de macieira Royal Gala e Fuji, foram mensurados oito caracteres na colheita e 11 caracteres apos armazenamento refrigerado. Para cada caractere mensurado em cada cultivar, na colheita e apos o armazenamento refrigerado, foram calculados a media, a variancia, o coeficiente de variacao, a assimetria, a curtose e verificada a normalidade e, em seguida, calculado o tamanho de amostra. Maior tamanho de amostra e necessario para a estimacao da media de: producao de etileno, ratio, respiracao, massa e acidez titulavel. Menor tamanho de amostra e necessario para a mensuracao de: diametro longitudinal, firmeza de polpa, solidos soluveis totais, diametros transversais (maior e menor) e teor de suco. O tamanho de amostra necessario para a mensuracao de caracteres de macas Royal Gala e menor em relacao ao necessario para macas Fuji. Em macas Royal Gala e Fuji, 88 e 190 frutos, respectivamente, sao suficientes para a mensuracao de caracteres na colheita e apos o armazenamento refrigerado, com erro de estimacao de 5% da media. Palavras-chave: Malus domestica, amostragem, planejamento experimental, pos-colheita.
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of specific doses of the compound 1-methylcyclopropene (1MCP), after harvest, on the physiological and physicochemical quality of apples Eva ...during refrigerated storage. After applying thetreatment with different doses of 1-MCP (0, 10, 50, 100 and 500mg L.sup.-1), fruit were stored in cold 0.5degreesC (+ or - 0.5) for up to 135 days. The cold storage with the application of 1-MCP resulted in a lower production of ethylene in fruits treated with doses of 10, 50 and 100mg L.sup.-1. The control group lost 45% of its firmness, while the treated groups lost on average 27%o of their firmness the parameter C fruit color identified with a more intense color to the 135 days of storage and Hue angle showed that when treated with doses of 10 and 50mg L.sup.-1, fruit showed more yellow, evidenced best action of 1-MCP at low concentrations. Fruit that have not undergone the treatments showed a higher ratio of soluble solids and acidity, thus demonstrating increased metabolic activity.
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of specific doses of the compound 1-methylcyclopropene (1MCP), after harvest, on the physiological and physicochemical quality of apples Eva ...during refrigerated storage. After applying thetreatment with different doses of 1-MCP (0, 10, 50, 100 and 500mg L.sup.-1), fruit were stored in cold 0.5degreesC (+ or - 0.5) for up to 135 days. The cold storage with the application of 1-MCP resulted in a lower production of ethylene in fruits treated with doses of 10, 50 and 100mg L.sup.-1. The control group lost 45% of its firmness, while the treated groups lost on average 27%o of their firmness the parameter C fruit color identified with a more intense color to the 135 days of storage and Hue angle showed that when treated with doses of 10 and 50mg L.sup.-1, fruit showed more yellow, evidenced best action of 1-MCP at low concentrations. Fruit that have not undergone the treatments showed a higher ratio of soluble solids and acidity, thus demonstrating increased metabolic activity. Key words: quality, ethylene, respiratory rate. O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar o efeito de doses especificas do composto 1-metilciclopropeno (1-MCP), apos a colheita, nos aspectos fisiologicos e na qualidade fisico-quimica de macas Eva durante o armazenamento refrigerado. Apos a aplicacao dos tratamentos com diferentes doses de 1-MCP (0, 10, 50, 100 e 500mg L.sup.-1), os frutos foram armazenados em camara fria 0,5degreesC (+ or - 0,5) por ate 135 dias. O armazenamento refrigerado juntamente com a aplicacao de 1-MCP resultou em uma menor producao de etileno, principalmente nos frutos tratados com as doses de 10, 50 e 100mg L.sup.-1. O grupo controle perdeu 45% de sua firmeza, enquanto os grupos tratados perderam, em media, 27% de sua firmeza. O parametro C de cor identificou frutos com cor mais intensa aos 135 dias de armazenamento e o angulo Hue mostrou que, quando tratados com as doses de 10 e 50mg L.sup.-1, os frutos apresentaram-se mais amarelados, evidenciando melhor acao do 1-MCP em baixas concentracoes. Frutos que nao foram submetidos aos tratamentos apresentaram maior relacao solidos soluveis e acidez, demonstrando assim maior atividade metabolica. Palavras-chave: qualidade, etileno, taxa respiratoria.
Every apple destined for the fresh market is picked by the human hand. Despite extensive research over the past four decades, there are no mechanical apple harvesters for the fresh market ...commercially available, which is a significant concern because of increasing uncertainty about the availability of manual labor and rising production costs. The highly unstructured orchard environment has been a major challenge to the development of commercially viable robotic harvesting systems. This paper reports the design and field evaluation of a robotic apple harvester. The approach adopted was to use a low‐cost system to assess required sensing, planning, and manipulation functionality in a modern orchard system with a planar canopy. The system was tested in a commercial apple orchard in Washington State. Workspace modifications and performance criteria are thoroughly defined and reported to help evaluate the approach and guide future enhancements. The machine vision system was accurate and had an average localization time of 1.5 s per fruit. The seven degree of freedom harvesting system successfully picked 127 of the 150 fruit attempted for an overall success rate of 84% with an average picking time of 6.0 s per fruit. Future work will include integration of additional sensing and obstacle detection for improved system robustness.
•Stem/calyx position play a key role in recognizing fruit posture.•Images acquisition system based on fruit posture adjustment equipment was built.•The optimized YOLO-v5 algorithm was proposed to ...recognize apple stem/calyx.•The algorithm could realize real-time detection under CPU condition.
Fruit loading and packaging are still labor-intensive tasks during postharvest commercialization, of which the key issues is to realize the real-time detection and adjustment of fruit posture. However, fruit stem/calyx position is a key structural characteristic for fruit posture and will also affect fruit internal quality detection. In this paper, an image acquisition system based on fruit posture adjustment equipment was set up, and the YOLO-v5 algorithm based on deep learning was used to study the real-time recognition of stem/calyx of apples. First, hyperparameters were determined, and the training method of transfer learning was used to obtain better detection performance; then the networks with different widths and depths were trained to find the best baseline detection net; finally, the YOLO-v5 algorithm was optimized for this task by using detection head searching, layer pruning and channel pruning. The results showed that under the same setting conditions, YOLO-v5s had a more superior usability and could be selected as the baseline network considering detection performance, model weight size, and detection speed. After optimization, the complexity of the algorithm was further reduced. The model parameters and weight volume were decreased by about 71 %, while mean Average Precision (mAP) and F1-score (F1) were only decreased by 1.57 % and 2.52 %, respectively. The optimized algorithm could achieve real-time detection under CPU condition at a speed of 25.51 frames per second (FPS). In comparison with other deep learning target detection algorithms, the algorithm used in this paper was similar to other lightweight networks in complexity. Its mAP and F1 were 0.880 and 0.851, respectively. This was better than other one-stage object detection algorithms in detection ability, only lower than that of Faster R-CNN. The optimized YOLO-v5s achieved 93.89 % accuracy in fruit stem/calyx detection for different cultivars of apples. This research could lay the foundation for the automation of fruit loading and packing systems.
