The temporary pastures cultivated in hill regions generate, beside a big dry matter yield, a special forage quality as well. In this direction, the researches performed show that in the temporary ...pastures consisted of a complex structure of perennial gramineae and red clover in different proportions, forage quality is determined by the following indices: the ratio Ca/P ranges between 2.06 and 4.20, the ratio K/Ca + Mg has values below 2.2, the Mg content is between 0.35 and 0.55%, the digestibility between 70.10-75.42% and the amount of crude protein between 1203 and 1340 kg/ha.
Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal quality indices (SQIs) are essential for improving diagnostic accuracy and reliability of ECG analysis systems. In various practical applications, the ECG signals are ...corrupted by different types of noise. These corrupted ECG signals often provide insufficient and incorrect information regarding a patient's health. To solve this problem, signal quality measurements should be made before an ECG signal is used for decision-making. This paper investigates the robustness of existing popular statistical signal quality indices (SSQIs): relative power of QRS complex (SQI
), skewness (SQI
), signal-to-noise ratio (SQI
), higher order statistics SQI (SQI
) and peakedness of kurtosis (SQI
). We analysed the robustness of these SSQIs against different window sizes across diverse datasets. Results showed that the performance of SSQIs considerably fluctuates against varying datasets, whereas the impact of varying window sizes was minimal. This fluctuation occurred due to the use of a static threshold value for classifying noise-free ECG signals from the raw ECG signals. Another drawback of these SSQIs is the bias towards noise-free ECG signals, that limits their usefulness in clinical settings. In summary, the fixed threshold-based SSQIs cannot be used as a robust noise detection system. In order to solve this fixed threshold problem, other techniques can be developed using adaptive thresholds and machine-learning mechanisms.
Groundwater is widely recognized as an essential source of water for drinking and irrigation uses in the South India. It is essential to evaluate the characterization of groundwater for drinking and ...irrigation uses. A total of 67 samples were collected in different locations of study area from tube wells for physio-chemical analysis. Water quality index (WQI), nitrate pollution index (NPI), human health risk assessment (HHRA), and irrigation water quality index (IWQI) efficient tools have been used to evaluate the quality of groundwater in the present study. The Piper and Gibbs diagram revealed that weathering of parent rocks, evaporation, rock water interaction, and ion exchange process are influencing the nature of groundwater. The result of WQI showed that, 20.89% and 7.46% of the sample locations are moderate and poor quality of water for drinking purpose. In order to evaluate the nitrate contamination, NPI divulged that seven sample locations are significant very significant type of pollution. Based on HHRA, the children are at high risk compared to male and female in the study region. The higher percentage of the sample locations are suitable for irrigation uses. The study helps to identify the contaminated zones and also to follow emerging remedial measures to control the source of contamination in the region.
The quality of water for irrigation presents a fundamental challenge to the sustainability of agricultural practices. This study, conducted in the Ras Jbel (RJ) aquifer of Tunisia, aims to evaluate ...the suitability of groundwater for both drinking and irrigation purposes and to identify regions suitable for agriculture. In this research, various indices were employed, including water quality index (WQI), entropy water quality index (EWQI), and Fuzzy logic for irrigation water quality index (FLIWQ). The conventional irrigation indices, such as sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), magnesium hazard (MH), sodium percentage (Na%), Kelly's ratio (KR), permeability index (PI), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), and potential salinity (PS) were converted into fuzzy membership and produced dry and wet seasons maps. The dry and wet season fuzzy logic maps were used as input for final FLIWQI. Eighty-nine groundwater samples were collected from shallow wells and analyzed for major cations and anions. Most parameters exceeded the recommended values for drinking, according to both WHO and Tunisian standards, across all samples. The results of the WQI and EWQI indicated that, during the wet season, over 90% and 86% of the water samples were classified as poor and very poor quality, respectively, compared to 93.33% and 49% during the dry season. For IWQI, the wet season fuzzy logic map suggests 55.57% groundwater suitability, mainly in the central area. In the dry season, the map indicates 41.11% suitability for irrigation. The FLIWQI map confirms that the groundwater in the central part of the study area is suitable for agriculture. This study can help decision-makers initiate efficient water quality management plans in similar water-scarce environments worldwide.
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•WQI and EWQI were used for evaluating drinking water quality.•Final FIWQI map determined the suitable areas for irrigation.•Fuzzy logic method is a powerful tool for assessing irrigation water quality.
Heavy metals are well recognised for their toxicity and pose human health risks even at very low levels. In the present work, groundwater from Ropar wetland, Punjab, India and its environs (18 ...sites), were analysed for physico-chemical parameters, water quality indices, heavy metal contents (cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, lead and zinc) and possible health risks posed to adults and children during summer and winter seasons. Groundwater was slightly-alkaline, non-saline and hard which may be suitable for irrigation purposes. Among 18 samples, 7 and 9 samples in summer; 8 and 18 samples in winter exceeded BIS acceptable limits (mg L−1) of 0.003 and 0.05 for cadmium and chromium, respectively. Mean non-cancer hazard quotients for cobalt (5.09–7.63) were >1. Mean hazard indices for cumulative risks posed by all heavy metals (6.00–10.11) were also >1. These results indicated higher risk of non-cancerous health problems in residents of the study area. Chromium was found to pose significant possible cancer risk (1.20–2.99 cases/1000 persons). Children were more prone to health problems than adults due to their lower body weight with greater risk in winters, which may be attributed to higher contamination of heavy metals in groundwater after leaching during monsoons. The results of water quality analysis and risk assessment indicated that the groundwater suffered from significant contamination and if used for long-term without pre-treatment, may pose serious health risks to human population via drinking water and irrigation of agricultural fields due to bioconcentration of heavy metals in food crops cultivated in those fields.
•Groundwater was found to be slightly-alkaline, non-saline and hard.•Groundwater was found to be heavily contaminated with Cd and Cr.•Groundwater posed high possible non-cancerous and cancerous human health risk.•Children were more prone to health problems than adults.•Health risk was more in winters due to higher heavy metal content in groundwater.
In literature about selective encryption of image and video content, image quality indices are usually used to gauge the degree of encryption. These methods have frequently been shown not to work ...well for the evaluation of encryption, mainly due to them being trained on predominantly high quality contents. The problem for creating a proper recognition index or visual encryption strength index is the lack of data to train on. In this paper we present the first database of encrypted video content, ranging from high quality to completely unrecognizable, together with human observer scores for quality and recognizability. We also provide a basic evaluation of visual quality indices on this database, directly and in different combination by fusion, to showcase that currently image and video quality indices are ill fit for the purpose of estimating video encryption strength/recognizably. This inability of quality indices to perform also showcases that this database fills the required blind spot of currently available data.
Determining the water quality status of a river and accurately identifying potential pollution sources threatening the river are pillars in effective control of pollution and sustainable water ...management. In this study, water quality indices, multivariate statistics and absolute principal component score-multiple linear regression (APCS-MLR) were applied to evaluate the water quality of the Karasu River, the main tributary of the Euphrates River (Turkey). For this, 19 water quality variables were monitored monthly at eight stations along the river during one year. Based on the mean dissolved oxygen (DO), electrical conductivity (EC), nitrate-nitrogen (NO3–N), orthophosphate-phosphorus (PO4–P), total phosphorus (TP), ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN) levels, most stations of the river had “very good” water status according to surface water quality criteria. Spatial cluster analysis (CA) divided eight stations into three regions as clean region, moderate clean region and very clean region. The mean values of Nutrient Pollution Index indicated that the river was “no polluted”. Similarly, Water Quality Index and Organic Pollution Index values indicated that the river water quality was between “good” and “excellent”. A minimum water quality index (WQImin) consisted of ten crucial parameters was not significantly different with the WQI based on all the 17 parameters. Discriminant analysis (DA) results showed that water temperature (WT), EC, chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), NO3–N and COD are the variables responsible for temporal changes, while WT, total dissolves solids (TDS), Chl-a, K, magnesium (Mg), Ca, NH4–N and COD are the variables responsible for spatial changes in the river water quality. Principal component analysis/factor analysis (PCA/FA) identified four potential sources, including anthropogenic, natural, seasonal and phytoplankton. Source apportionment in the APCS-MLR model revealed that seasonal and anthropogenic sources contributed 35.2% and 25.5% to river water quality parameters, respectively, followed by phytoplankton (21.4%) and natural sources (17.9%).
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•The levels of variables were compared with water quality criteria.•WQI, NPI and OPI were applied to determine the water quality status of river.•Multivariate statistics (CA, DA, FA/PCA) were used for interpretation of dataset.•Source apportionment was achieved by APCS-MLR.
As the complexity increases in modern power systems, power quality (PQ) analysis considering interharmonics has become a challenging and important task. This article proposes a novel decomposition ...and estimation method for instantaneous PQ indices (PQIs) monitoring in single- and three-phase systems with interharmonics and transient disturbances. To separate the interharmonic components, a set of new scaling filter and wavelet filter with narrow transition bands is designed for the undecimated wavelet packet transform (UWPT). Furthermore, a two-stage decomposition method for multitone voltage and current signals is proposed. The Hilbert transform (HT) is applied to calculate the instantaneous amplitude and phase of each frequency component, which accordingly allows the monitoring of different PQI parameters. Numerical tests are conducted to check the performance of the proposed method. The test results show that, compared to other conventional approaches, instantaneous PQIs estimated by the proposed method present significant advances for tracking transitory changes in power systems and could be considered as a helpful tool for high-accuracy PQ detections.
Los ambientes acuáticos urbanos están altamente afectados por la contaminación de origen puntual o difuso. Este trabajo tuvo como objetivo determinar el impacto antrópico en un río urbano de la ...provincia de San Luis, Argentina, mediante la estimación de su calidad fisicoquímica, biológica e hidromorfológica. El área de estudio se centró en un río con impacto antropogénico, donde se tomaron muestras de agua y de macroinvertebrados bentónicos, durante dos años en períodos de aguas bajas y altas, en cinco sitios (n = 40). Se adaptó un índice de calidad de ribera QBRs para las ciudades de Juana Koslay y San Luis, Argentina. Los parámetros físico-químicos analizados fueron pH, temperatura, turbidez, conductividad, sólidos totales disueltos, oxígeno disuelto, demanda bioquímica de oxígeno, materia orgánica y concentración de nitrato y fósforo. Se aplicó un índice físico-químico simplificado de calidad de agua (ISQA). Los macroinvertebrados se muestrearon con red D, se identificaron en laboratorio, y se aplicaron el Índice Biótico para las Sierras de San Luis (IBSSL), y el índice Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP). Se estimó riqueza y abundancia de taxones, y se aplicó el índice integral ESCOTRIMED. El Índice ISQA y los índices bióticos mostraron un gradiente desde ambientes contaminados, a ambientes extremadamente contaminados. La riqueza y la abundancia de macroinvertebrados disminuyeron río abajo, siguiendo un gradiente de contaminación creciente. La integración de los parámetros fisicoquímicos, biológicos y de ribera permitió determinar el impacto producto de la urbanización creciente del río, mostrando desde ambientes con fuertes signos de alteración a zonas con deterioro incipiente.
Wild edible mushrooms contain substances of nutritional and biological importance for humans, but they can also accumulate potentially toxic elements. The study aimed to determine the proximate ...composition, fatty acids profile and content of 18 elements (As, B, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Zn) in four species of popular wild edible mushrooms (Agaricus campestris, Boletus edulis, Lepiota Procera, and Russula cyanoxantha) collected from NW Romania. The analysed mushrooms contained 22 – 28 % proteins and 2 – 5 % lipids dry weight (dw) basis, in which the total unsaturated fatty acids contents prevailed over saturated fatty acids. The average contents (mg kg−1dw) of the essential macroelements were: 22900 (K), 5500 (P), 1920 (S), 1250 (Na), 701 (Ca), and 565 (Mg). The contents of potentially toxic elements were lower and decreased in the order of Zn>Fe>Cu>Mn>Cr>Hg>Ni>Pb>As>Cd. The toxicity of these elements is related to the ingested amounts, and thus the health risk was assessed considering their contents. The obtained scores indicated non-carcinogenic health risks, primarily because of the high Hg contents, and children’s vulnerability compared to adults. Fortunately, no carcinogenic risk was indicated for the ingestion of the studied mushrooms.
•Proximate and mineral compositions and fatty acids profile of mushrooms were analyzed.•Mushrooms contained 22 – 28 % proteins, 61 – 69 % carbohydrates, 2 – 5 % lipids.•Total unsaturated fatty acids concentrations prevailed over saturated fatty acids.•Mushrooms are significant sources of the Cu, Zn, P and K in the human body.•Relatively high amounts of PTEs (mainly Hg) in mushrooms pose non-carcinogenic risk.
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