A computer vision algorithm is proposed for omnidirectional bee counting in images of Langstroth beehive entrances captured in situ with a miniature camera connected to a multi-sensor, solar-powered electronic beehive monitoring device. The algorithm consists of three stages: pre-processing, landing pad identification, and omnidirectional bee counting. In the pre-processing stage, an approximat...

Melioidosis results from an infection with the soil-borne pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei, and cases of melioidosis usually cluster after rains or a typhoon. In an endemic area of Taiwan, B. pseudomallei is primarily geographically distributed in cropped fields in the northwest of this area, whereas melioidosis cases are distributed in a densely populated district in the southeast. We hypoth...

In order to further the development of plant-based remediation of sites contaminated by carbo-chemical and petro-chemical industries, the penetration of the roots of Phragmites australis in contaminated soil substrate was studied in model trials. The series of experiments contained model substrate with firm bitumen and tar. In terms of the level of root penetration, the roots and rhizomes penet...

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of composted pineapple residue return (CPRR) on soil bio-chemical properties and the growth performance of next-cropped pineapple plants. The results suggested that CPRR markedly decreased the soil bulk density and increased the contents of available P and K. CPRR significantly increased the abundance of bacteria and actinomycetes, a...

The effects of an autumn-planted, spring-killed, grass cover crop (Elymus trachycaulus [Link] Gould ex Shinners) on populations of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte and its predator community were evaluated in South Dakota maize fields over two seasons. Abundance and size of D. virgifera larvae and adults and sex ratio of adults were measured in maize produced under two treatments (i.e., a...

Previous research has shown that long-term intensive cropping of irrigated lowland rice has led to significant grain-yield declines in field trials. The yield decline was attributed to decreased availability of soil nitrogen, which is held mostly in the soil organic matter. By advanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy, we have detected significant amounts of amide nitrogen directly bonded to aromat...

Facial expressions are non-verbal signs that play an important role in interpersonal communications. There are six basic universally accepted emotions viz., happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, fear and disgust. An emotion recognition system is used for recognising different expressions from the facial images/videos and classifying them into one of the six basic emotions. Spatial domain methods...

Media authentication is important in content delivery via untrusted intermediaries, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. Many differently encoded versions of a media file might exist. Our previous work applied distributed source coding not only to distinguish the legitimate diversity of encoded images from tampering but also localize the tampered regions in an image already deemed to be ina...