The MERIS Terrestrial Chlorophyll Index (MTCI), a standard level 2 ESA product, provides information on the chlorophyll content of vegetation (amount of chlorophyll per unit area of ground). This is a combination of information on leaf area index (LAI, area of leaves per unit area of ground) and the chlorophyll concentration of those leaves. The MTCI correlates strongly with chlorophyll content...

A SPAD-based line sensor fabricated in 130 nm CMOS technology capable of acquiring time-resolved fluorescence spectra (TRFS) in 8.3 milliseconds is presented. To the best of our knowledge, this is the fastest time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) TRFS acquisition reported to date. The line sensor is an upgrade to our prior work and incorporates: i) parallelized interface from sensor to...

To extract the sensitive bands for estimating the winter wheat growth status and yields, field experiments were conducted. The crop variables including aboveground biomass (AGB), soil and plant analyzer development (SPAD) value, yield, and canopy spectra were determined. Statistical methods of correlation analysis, partial least squares (PLS), and stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) were...

Computational protein tertiary structure prediction has made significant progress over the past years. However, most of the existing structure prediction methods are not equipped with functionality to predict accuracy of constructed models. Knowing the accuracy of a structure model is crucial for its practical use since the accuracy determines potential applications of the model. Here we have d...

Crop genotypes play a dominant role in crop production systems. They affect crop productivity by their higher yield potentials, resistance against insect pest and diseases under different climatic conditions. To evaluate different varieties of rice for their growth and yield characteristics, an experiment was conducted during 2012. Four varieties including IR28, NERICA-4, Koshihikari and Nippon...

In this work, we utilize a short-wavelength, 532-nm picosecond pulsed laser coupled with a time-gated complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector to acquire Raman spectra of several drugs of interest. With this approach, we are able to reveal previously unseen Raman features and suppress the fluorescence background of these drugs. Compared to tra...

Improved phenotyping tools for simultaneously characterizing maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes with superior grain yield (GY) and N use effi ciency (NUE) would be benefi cial for breeding progress. Possible phenotypic predictors of the crowding intensity and N availability effects on maize plant N uptake, GY, and NUE were evaluated for different genotypes in two environments. Our objectives were to...