2021
Authors
Guo, YH; Chen, SZ; Wu, ZF; Wang, SX; Bryant, CR; Senthilnath, J; Cunha, M; Fu, YSH;
Publication
REMOTE SENSING
Abstract
With the recent developments of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing, it is possible to monitor the growth condition of trees with the high temporal and spatial resolutions of data. In this study, the daily high-throughput RGB images of pear trees were captured from a UAV platform. A new index was generated by integrating the spectral and textural information using the improved adaptive feature weighting method (IAFWM). The inter-relationships of the air climatic variables and the soil's physical properties (temperature, humidity and conductivity) were firstly assessed using principal component analysis (PCA). The climatic variables were selected to independently build a linear regression model with the new index when the cumulative variance explained reached 99.53%. The coefficient of determination (R-2) of humidity (R-2 = 0.120, p = 0.205) using linear regression analysis was the dominating influencing factor for the growth of the pear trees, among the air climatic variables tested. The humidity (%) in 40 cm depth of soil (R-2 = 0.642, p < 0.001) using a linear regression coefficient was the largest among climatic variables in the soil. The impact of climatic variables on the soil was commonly greater than those in the air, and the R-2 grew larger with the increasing depth of soil. The effects of the fluctuation of the soil-climatic variables on the pear trees' growth could be detected using the sliding window method (SWM), and the maximum absolute value of coefficients with the corresponding day of year (DOY) of air temperature, soil temperature, soil humidity, and soil conductivity were confirmed as 221, 227, 228, and 226 (DOY), respectively. Thus, the impact of the fluctuation of climatic variables on the growth of pear trees can last 14, 8, 7, and 9 days, respectively. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the adoption of the integrated new index to explore the long-time impact of climate on pears growth be undertaken.
2021
Authors
Moreira, P; Duarte, L; Cunha, M; Teodoro, AC;
Publication
2021 IEEE INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING SYMPOSIUM IGARSS
Abstract
This work aims to integrate Remote Sensing (RS) and cadastral data in QGIS software to perform the spatiotemporal mapping of Wine Yield (WY) cluster zones in the Douro region. Spatiotemporal modelling approach for prediction of wine yield was based on Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Land Surface Temperature (LST) and topographic data. The results showed that 74% (R2 = 0.744, n=128, p<0.000) WY interannual variability at administrative division could be explained by the developed model. This information allows establishing wine production region pattern which can improve the agronomic and economic efficiency of vineyard and winery operations.
2021
Authors
Santos, MG; Moreira, GS; Pereira, R; Carvalho, SP;
Publication
SSRN Electronic Journal
Abstract
2021
Authors
Neto, A; Camera, J; Oliveira, S; Cláudia, A; Cunha, A;
Publication
Procedia Computer Science
Abstract
Glaucoma is a silent disease that shows symptoms when severe, leading to partial vision loss or irreversible blindness. Early screening permits treating patients in time. For glaucoma screening, retinal images are very important since they enable the observation of initial glaucoma lesions, which typically begins with the cupping formation in the optic disc (OD). In clinical settings, practical indicators such as Cup-to-Disc Ratio (CDR) are frequently used to evaluate the presence and stage of glaucoma. The ratio between the cup and the optic disc can be measured using the vertical or horizontal diameter, or the area of the two. Mass screening programs are limited by the high costs of specialised teams and equipment. Current deep learning (DL) methods can assist the glaucoma mass screening, lower the cost and allow it to be extended to larger populations. With DL methods in the OD and optic cup (OC) segmentation, is possible to evaluate the presence of glaucoma in the patient more quickly based on cupping formation in the OD, using CDR. In this work, is assessed the contribution of Multi-Class and Single-Class segmentation methods for glaucoma screening using the 3 types of CDR. U-Net architecture is trained using transfer learning models (Inception V3 and Inception ResNet V2) to segment the OD and OC and then evaluate glaucoma prediction based on different types of CDRs indicators. The models were trained and evaluated on main public known databases (REFUGE, RIM-ONE r3 and DRISHTI-GS). The segmentation of both OD and OC reach Dice over 0.8 and IoU above 0.7. The CDRs were computed to glaucoma assessment where was reach sensitivity above 0.8, specificity of 0.7, F1-Score around 0.7 and AUC above 0.85. Finally, conclusions of segmentation methods showing adequate performance to be used in practical glaucoma screening.
2021
Authors
Coelho, L; Reis, S; Coelho, F;
Publication
2021 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE PORTUGUESE SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION (CISPEE)
Abstract
In a multimodal world the contact time between the teacher and the students is not always sufficient to ensure the effectiveness of the learning process. For the assimilation of concepts, students often endeavor on a search for the materials that best suit their learning needs. With the application of new technologies in teaching, study materials and support platforms are increasingly abundant and diverse. Additionally, recommendation algorithms overwhelm students with several options, sometimes hard to resist and select, especially after the COVID-19 restrictions, where the amount of connected time as increased. In this context, it is important for the teacher, to know which methods and materials the students use when they are autonomously developing their knowledge and skills. A survey was conducted within a group of engineering students at a Portuguese higher education institution with the main goal of characterizing the study habits and the materials that students. The obtained results are here reported and analyzed and compared with previous results from pre-pandemic study.
2021
Authors
Yang, CY; Menz, C; Fraga, H; Reis, S; Machado, N; Malheiro, AC; Santos, JA;
Publication
AGRONOMY-BASEL
Abstract
Reliable estimations of parameter values and associated uncertainties are crucial for crop model applications in agro-environmental research. However, estimating many parameters simultaneously for different types of response variables is difficult. This becomes more complicated for grapevines with different phenotypes between varieties and training systems. Our study aims to evaluate how a standard least square approach can be used to calibrate a complex grapevine model for simulating both the phenology (flowering and harvest date) and yield of four different variety-training systems in the Douro Demarcated Region, northern Portugal. An objective function is defined to search for the best-fit parameters that result in the minimum value of the unweighted sum of the normalized Root Mean Squared Error (nRMSE) of the studied variables. Parameter uncertainties are estimated as how a given parameter value can determine the total prediction variability caused by variations in the other parameter combinations. The results indicate that the best-estimated parameters show a satisfactory predictive performance, with a mean bias of -2 to 4 days for phenology and -232 to 159 kg/ha for yield. The corresponding variance in the observed data was generally well reproduced, except for one occasion. These parameters are a good trade-off to achieve results close to the best possible fit of each response variable. No parameter combinations can achieve minimum errors simultaneously for phenology and yield, where the best fit to one variable can lead to a poor fit to another. The proposed parameter uncertainty analysis is particularly useful to select the best-fit parameter values when several choices with equal performance occur. A global sensitivity analysis is applied where the fruit-setting parameters are identified as key determinants for yield simulations. Overall, the approach (including uncertainty analysis) is relatively simple and straightforward without specific pre-conditions (e.g., model continuity), which can be easily applied for other models and crops. However, a challenge has been identified, which is associated with the appropriate assumption of the model errors, where a combination of various calibration approaches might be essential to have a more robust parameter estimation.
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