Search Results (26,826)

Turmeric has a long history of use as a colorant and flavoring agent. Turmeric extract (TE) is a feed additive containing at least 90% total curcuminoids, comprising mainly curcumin, desmethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin. The published antioxidant effects of TE in humans have sparked interest and feeding studies in companion animals. Studies describing the feeding of TE to cats are scarce and do not provide adequate toxicology data; regulatory approval is required to allow use of TE as a nutritional antioxidant in pet food. The current study describes a safety test of TE in cats. Control cats were fed a standard extruded dry diet whilst two groups of test cats were fed the same diet supplemented with two different levels of TE for four months. Physical examination, body weight, body condition score, food intake, fecal score, monitoring of adverse effects (vomiting, diarrhea, clinical signs), complete blood count, and blood biochemistry (particularly liver enzymes) were used to monitor toxicity signs. The lack of statistically significant effects of clinical or toxicological concern concludes that feeding TE to cats at a dietary level providing up to 1040 ppm total curcuminoids is safe. This allows future application of this ingredient in cat food as a nutritional antioxidant. Full article

Underwater images often suffer from degradations, including color distortion, reduced visibility, and low contrast due to light absorption and scatter in water. Numerous enhancement techniques have been proposed to improve visual quality and address these challenges. However, no single method consistently performs best across all underwater scenes. This work introduces a novel deep learning framework for the automatic selection of the most suitable enhancement technique for underwater images. A novel fused objective metric, combining the Underwater Color Image Quality Evaluation (UCIQE), Underwater Image Quality Measure (UIQM), and Underwater Image Fidelity (UIF) metrics is introduced to assess image quality effectively. The metric is then utilized to train a Shifted Window (Swin) transformer model, which predicts the best enhancement method for each image. This approach advances automatic underwater image enhancement by addressing varying image conditions with a data-driven, adaptive process. Experimental results show that the proposed model achieves an F1 score of 87.88% in selecting the optimal enhancement technique, effectively determining the best enhancement based on the characteristics of the input image. Full article

The Research and Observation in Medium Earth Orbit (ROMEO) mission, developed at the University of Stuttgart‘s Institute of Space Systems, seeks to demonstrate a cost-effective exploitation of the medium Earth orbit (MEO) for sustainable access to space. It uses a green propulsion system with water as propellant to reach up to 2500 km altitude starting from a 450 km sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). This paper presents the design and intended use of the ROMEO satellite as well as its two in-house developed camera systems, the public relations (PR) and the near-infrared (NIR) camera system. The PR camera system features two silicon sensors with a Bayer color pattern in a compact, lightweight package and in a cold redundant setup to reduce the impact of radiation-related degradation. Their wide field of view (128 × 96°) allows imaging of the complete visible Earth in the mission‘s final orbit and supports calibration of the Earthshine telescope, which is the primary payload. The NIR camera system uses a commercial InGaAs sensor with a high quantum efficiency up to 1700 nm, coupled to a 100 mm focal length optics assembly that yields a ground sampling distance of 45 m in the initial orbit. Its scientific objectives include monitoring gas flares and wildfires, which are relevant to climate change research, and demonstrating an exoplanet transit detection—an unprecedented capability for a small satellite using a commercial off-the-shelf InGaAs sensor in the NIR spectrum. This paper demonstrates that ROMEO’s compact, low-mass camera systems meet mission constraints while enabling a broad spectrum of scientific and outreach activities. Full article

Accurate yield estimation is vital for precision wheat management and breeding. Traditional methods based on single growth stages or single-source data cannot capture cumulative growth effects, limiting prediction accuracy. UAV remote sensing provides high-resolution, multi-source, and multi-temporal data, enabling improved non-destructive yield estimation. In this study, UAV-based multispectral and RGB imagery were collected at six key growth stages, and vegetation indices, texture, and color features were extracted to develop yield prediction models using RF, XGBoost, and KNN under single- and multi-temporal scenarios. The results showed that red-edge-based vegetation indices were highly sensitive to wheat yield and outperformed texture- and color-based features. Multi-feature fusion further improved prediction accuracy at key growth stages, particularly during booting and flowering (R² = 0.53–0.67). Compared with single-temporal models, multi-temporal data fusion significantly enhanced yield estimation accuracy, achieving a maximum R² of 0.72 by integrating data from the late-jointing, booting and flowering stages. Among the algorithms, XGBoost and KNN exhibited superior accuracy and stability across most growth stages. Overall, these results demonstrate that integrating UAV-based multi-source and multi-temporal remote sensing data effectively improves the accuracy and robustness of wheat yield estimation, providing valuable technical support for precision agriculture and phenotyping-assisted breeding. Full article

Background: The characterization of thyroid lesions is essential in clinical practice. Recent advances in imaging modalities, including nuclear imaging (NM), color Doppler ultrasonography, and sonography, have markedly improved the diagnostic accuracy for thyroid nodules. Objective: To assess thyroid diseases using Doppler ultrasound, nuclear scintigraphy, and sonography. Results: In this cross-sectional single-center study, 144 patients were examined to determine their thyroid structure and function using a multimodal imaging approach. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) indicated that most thyroid nodules were benign (62.5%), with 37.5% being malignant. Doppler vascularity demonstrated a sensitivity of 70.4% and a specificity of 40% (AUC = 0.514) for malignancy detection, while scintigraphy uptake in hypofunctioning nodules (nodules with decreased radionuclide uptake) showed a sensitivity of 37% and a specificity of 54.4% (AUC = 0.388). Thyroxine hormone levels showed a sensitivity of 57.4% and a specificity of 45.6% (AUC = 0.503) for detecting malignant thyroid nodules. In multivariate logistic regression, increased Doppler vascularity remained an independent predictor of malignancy (OR = 2.39; 95% CI: 1.15–4.96; p = 0.019), whereas decreased scintigraphic uptake showed a borderline effect (OR = 1.82; p = 0.069); high T4 level and increased uptake were not significant predictors. The combined Doppler ultrasound, scintigraphy, and thyroxine level model yielded an AUC of 0.72 (95% CI: 0.63–0.81), markedly higher than any single parameter. At the optimal Youden threshold (0.43), the model achieved 79.6% sensitivity, 68.2% specificity, and 72.4% accuracy, highlighting the superior diagnostic performance of the integrated approach for pre-FNAC stratification of thyroid malignancies. There was a strong, significant linear association between thyroxine levels and thyroid scintigraphy uptake (p-value < 0.001). Most patients with normal thyroxine levels exhibited decreased uptake (66.1%), whereas a minority (6.5%) demonstrated elevated uptake levels. This study found a strong correlation between mixed-echogenicity nodules and thyroid scintigraphy uptake (p-value = 0.019). Mixed-echogenicity nodules were most often associated with reduced uptake (57.8%), and hypoechoic nodules often had normal uptake (57.1%). Conclusions: The complementary integration of color Doppler vascularity, Tc-99m thyroid scintigraphy, and serum thyroxine levels yields superior Doppler–scintigraphy uptake correlation, increases the overall diagnostic accuracy, and offers a practical, non-invasive algorithm for differentiating benign from malignant thyroid nodules prior to FNAC or surgery. Full article

Canities results from a progressive decline in melanocyte activity and melanin synthesis and is commonly associated with aesthetic concerns that motivate the use of cosmetic products for hair color correction. Shampoo, due to its frequent use, represents a suitable vehicle for the gradual deposition of pigments on the hair fiber. This study aimed to design and develop a shampoo containing dark synthetic semi-permanent dyes for the gradual coverage of gray hair. Four shampoo formulations were developed and evaluated through in vitro tests using bleached hair tresses to assess color deposition and performance. The selected formulation was subsequently subjected to accelerated stability studies and color sustainability evaluation. The results showed that the formulation maintained organoleptic, physicochemical, microbiological, and functional stability. Color sustainability assays indicated that the gray–black coloration persisted on hair tresses containing approximately 90% canities after eight washing cycles. The formulation incorporating the semi-permanent dyes Basic Blue 124, Basic Yellow 87, Basic Orange 31, and Basic Red 51 achieved a gradual gray–black tonal effect. In conclusion, the developed shampoo demonstrated stability and effectiveness for the gradual cosmetic coverage of gray hair. Full article

Textile wastewater contains recalcitrant dyes and organic matter, requiring efficient, scalable treatment technologies. This study optimized an aluminum-based electrocoagulation (EC) process to maximize color removal (Y₁) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction (Y₂) using synthetic textile wastewater (SWW), and evaluated the practical transferability of the optimized conditions using real textile wastewater (RTW). A rotatable central composite design (CCD) coupled with response surface methodology (RSM) was used to assess the effects of treatment time, NaCl concentration, and applied voltage on both responses. From a modeling perspective, the results reveal the coexistence of symmetric and asymmetric response behaviors; quadratic effects define locally symmetric regions around the optimum, while interaction terms introduce asymmetry due to coupled electrochemical phenomena. Under the optimized conditions (16.5 min, 2.9 g·L⁻¹ NaCl, 18 V), removal efficiencies reached 99% for color and 97% for COD reduction, with a specific energy consumption of 6.6 kWh·m⁻³ and sludge moisture content of 92–94%. To assess applicability beyond bench scale, the optimized voltage, current, and electrolyte concentration were applied to a 50 L batch of RTW collected from the final rinsing stage of a denim dyeing process. Treatment time was extended to 84 min to compensate for the lower current density at the larger scale; under these conditions, 95% color removal and 80% COD reduction were achieved. Full article

This study aimed to optimize the formulation of gluten-free bread (GFB) based on rice flour (RF) and Quercus rotundifolia acorn flour (AF) by evaluating the combined effects of flour substitution (0%, 50%, and 100%) and water addition (90%, 100%, and 110%) on technological, textural, colorimetric, structural, and sensory properties. A three-level full factorial design (3²) combined with response surface methodology (RSM) was used to model and optimize product quality. The developed models showed high predictive performance (R² = 0.714–0.999; non-significant lack of fit), confirming their suitability for describing complex interactions in gluten-free systems. Water addition was the dominant factor influencing moisture, crumb structure, and textural softness, while AF mainly affected color, structure, and sensory attributes. Increasing acorn content significantly decreased lightness (L*) and increased redness (a*) and darkness index (DI), reflecting higher phenolic compound content and more intense Maillard reactions. Specific volume (1.85–2.41 cm³/g) was maximized at higher hydration levels, especially when combined with intermediate to high acorn substitution, indicating a synergistic interaction between fiber-rich flour and water availability. Texture analysis showed that AF increased hardness and reduced cohesiveness, while water addition significantly improved softness, elasticity, and overall mouthfeel. Image analysis of crumb structure demonstrated that higher hydration promoted larger pore size and porosity, whereas AF increased cell density, resulting in a finer crumb structure under low hydration conditions. Sensory evaluation confirmed that breads with high acorn content were well accepted due to their characteristic nutty flavor. Multi-response desirability optimization yielded an optimal formulation with approximately 83% AF and 108% water, representing the best achievable compromise among the evaluated quality criteria. The results demonstrate that AF can serve as a key functional ingredient in GFB, provided that hydration is carefully adjusted. This study highlights the effectiveness of RSM combined with image-based analysis as a robust approach for developing high-quality gluten-free bakery products. Full article

As global demand grows for natural health-promoting food ingredients, the agri-food industry’s organic wastes are emerging as promising alternatives thanks to attributes such as biocompatibility, nutritional value and nutraceutical effect. During saffron (Crocus sativus L.) production, approximately 53 kg of petals are obtained as a by-product for every 1 kg of saffron spice. The use of saffron petals and petal extracts in bakery products improves products’ shelf life due to the petals’ high content of nutraceuticals and minerals acting as natural preservatives. Petal-enriched bakery products contain high levels of fiber, minerals and antioxidants. Addition of saffron petals into bread dough reduces gluten network strength, increases crumb hardness, enhances acidity, improves water retention, alters color profiles and increases the duration of the shelf life. The formulation for incorporating saffron petals or petal extracts into food products must address three primary criteria: the maximum concentration of bioactive compounds per 100 g of the finished matrix, the thermal stability of these compounds during the baking process, and their bioavailability (in the food matrix) within the human gastrointestinal tract. Nutraceuticals with pharmacological potential are also influenced by the compositional profile: the proximate composition, minerals, phenolic content, flavonols, and antioxidant capacity of saffron petals and bakery products containing saffron petals. Saffron petals exhibit diverse therapeutic potentials, acting as antidepressants, anxiolytics, anticonvulsants, and neuroprotective agents. They also offer metabolic, cardiovascular, hepatoprotective, and renoprotective benefits, along with anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antitumor activities. This article proposes a roadmap for developing bakery products enriched with saffron petals or petal extracts, targeting both pharmacological applications and consumer goods focused on disease prevention and general wellness. This study investigates the biochemical composition of saffron petals and their integration into bakery products. It evaluates the influence of petal-derived additives on rheological properties, shelf stability, and organoleptic characteristics, alongside an assessment of their bioactivity and toxicological profiles. Furthermore, the analytical methodologies employed for ingredient and biological sample characterization are discussed, emphasizing their role in verifying the authenticity, safety, and nutritional functionality of both raw materials and finished formulations. Full article

Background: This study investigated how chronic heat stress affects meat quality and post-slaughter muscle acidification in slow-growing yellow-feathered broilers, focusing on the roles of ALDOB and HSP90B1 in glycometabolism. Methods: From 100 to 120 days of age, broilers were kept either under thermoneutral conditions (25 ± 1 °C, N group) or cyclic heat stress (32 ± 1 °C for 9 h/day, H group). Meat quality traits (pH, shear force, drip loss, color) were measured at 0, 24, and 48 h of refrigeration (4 °C). Free amino acid and fatty acid profiles were analyzed. DF-1 cells were exposed to 43 °C for functional assays of ALDOB and HSP90B1. Results: Chronic heat stress reduced body weight, altered flavor precursors, and induced PSE-like characteristics (lower pH, higher shear force, increased drip loss, paler color), especially in leg muscles. ALDOB and HSP90B1 were upregulated in both tissues and cells. ALDOB overexpression promoted glucose consumption, while HSP90B1 suppressed lactic acid production. Conclusions: Chronic heat stress impairs growth and flavor precursors and exacerbates post-slaughter muscle acidification (primarily driven by ATP hydrolysis, with lactic acid as a secondary contributor). ALDOB and HSP90B1 may dually regulate glycometabolism under heat stress. Full article

Two-dimensional (2D) barcodes are now embedded in payment platforms, authentication workflows, industrial traceability, smart packaging, and mobile information services. Their ubiquity has simultaneously increased the incentive for phishing, tampering, and malicious redirection, while recent RGB-colored barcode designs have introduced a second challenge: maintaining reliable payload recovery under non-ideal capture conditions. This study presents a unified framework for secure and recoverable RGB-colored 2D barcodes across QR Code, Data Matrix, Aztec, and PDF417 symbologies. The framework combines channel-separated RGB encoding, lightweight hybrid cryptographic protection, and pretrained vision-based validation to jointly improve confidentiality, authenticity, and operational trust. A recoverability-oriented evaluation protocol is introduced to quantify robustness under distance variation, angular distortion, illumination change, blur, and color shift. Experimental results show that compact schemes based on ChaCha20-Poly1305 and Ed25519 achieve the most favorable trade-off between security overhead and decoding reliability, while EfficientNet-B0 offers the best deployment balance among the evaluated vision backbones. Data Matrix and Aztec exhibit the strongest maximum reliable distance under the tested conditions. The results indicate that secure barcode design cannot be treated as a purely cryptographic or purely visual problem; instead, practical deployment benefits from a layered architecture in which cryptography, computer vision, and recoverability metrics are optimized together. Full article

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the masking ability of different thicknesses of advanced lithium disilicate (ALDS) ceramic used for implant-supported crowns compared to conventional lithium disilicate (LDS) and to assess the influence of their combination with various implant abutment materials. Methods: Two types of high-translucency computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) glass–ceramics in shade A2 were tested: IPS e.max CAD (LDS) and CEREC Tessera (ALDS). Each material was sectioned into four thicknesses (n = 8 per group). Four implant abutments were evaluated: titanium (Ti), yellow-anodized titanium (TiY), pink-anodized titanium (TiP), and white zirconia (Zir). The translucency parameter (TP₀₀) and color difference (∆E₀₀) between the glass–ceramic and abutment were calculated using the CIEDE2000 formula. Results: Significant differences were observed between 1.0 mm and 2.5 mm thicknesses in all groups except for ALDS on TiY. Both glass–ceramics on TiY and TiP showed lower ∆E00 values than those on Ti, except for 2.0 mm and 2.5 mm ALDS. Additionally, their ∆E00 values were lower than those on Zir. Clinically acceptable ∆E₀₀ values occurred for 2.5 mm LDS on TiP, 2.0 mm ALDS on TiY and TiP, and 2.5 mm ALDS on TiY and TiP. ALDS demonstrated lower TP₀₀ values than LDS at corresponding thicknesses. Conclusions: Greater restoration thickness and titanium anodization improved color masking. Anodized titanium enhanced the glass–ceramic masking ability. ALDS at 2.0–2.5 mm on TiY or TiP and 2.5 mm LDS on TiP achieved clinically acceptable masking, with ALDS showing lower translucency than LDS. Full article

Conventional contact-based monitoring of heart rate (HR) presents challenges such as patient discomfort, skin irritation, and poor long-term adherence, motivating the development of contactless, video-based sensing systems. This study proposes a robust hybrid framework combining advanced signal processing with machine learning to enhance HR estimation accuracy from facial video. The methodology integrates a two-stage geometric stabilization pipeline with dense facial tessellation to mitigate motion. Eulerian Video Magnification (EVM) amplifies subtle color variations, followed by chrominance-based roi filtering. Signal recovery utilizes a sliding-window Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for local coherence, followed by Second-Order Blind Identification (SOBI), with a Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) classifier employed to automatically identify physiological sources. Validated on the challenging COHFACE dataset, the approach achieves a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 1.50 bpm, a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 3.07 bpm, and a Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) of 0.97 on the test set. The method demonstrates robustness across diverse lighting conditions, outperforming traditional algorithms and achieving parity with state-of-the-art deep learning models, while offering an interpretable solution for contactless health monitoring. Full article

Objectives: To evaluate the influence of two surface finishing procedures—mechanical polishing and glaze firing—on the color stability and wear behavior of lithium aluminium disilicate (LAD) hybrid abutment crowns over a three-year clinical observation period. Methods: Twenty-four patients requiring 34 implant-supported single crowns were included in this prospective clinical study. LAD abutment crowns were fabricated using n!ce ceramic and a CAD/CAM workflow and finished either by mechanical polishing (P, n = 17) or glaze firing (G, n = 17). After insertion as well as after one and three years (P: n = 9, G: n = 9) of clinical use color measurements were performed using spectrophotometry, and color differences (ΔE00) were calculated. Wear was assessed by digital surface comparison of baseline and the two follow-up scans using three-dimensional analysis software. Reference teeth (R) were defined and evaluated comparable to the P and F groups. Biological and technical complications were recorded throughout the observation period. Results: Color deviations increased over time in all groups (P, G, R). After three years, G showed lower mean color differences (ΔE00 ≈ 2.77) compared with F (ΔE00 ≈ 5.40), although the difference was not statistically significant. No significant differences in vertical height loss were observed between P and G. One adhesive fracture occurred both in the P and G group, five crowns (P: n = 3, G: n = 2) developed periimplantitis. Conclusions: Both polishing and glazing resulted in comparable clinical outcomes regarding color stability, wear behavior, and complication rates. Clinical Significance: Both finishing protocols might be a reliable option for LAD hybrid abutment crowns. Full article

Remote sensing images are susceptible to atmospheric scattering, imaging conditions, and post-processing strategies during actual acquisition, resulting in issues such as low contrast, insufficient color saturation, and overall poor visual quality. These problems significantly degrade the color quality and expressiveness of the imagery. To address these issues, a prior-guided conditional diffusion enhancement framework (PGCDE) is proposed in this paper. First, an unconditional diffusion model is built upon large-scale natural images to extract stable color priors. Then, these prior features are dynamically injected into the conditional enhancement network through an adaptive hierarchical feature fusion (AHFF) module, with a multi-domain joint loss introduced during training to constrain structural consistency. Finally, at the inference stage, a luminance-decoupled multi-scale fusion strategy is employed to recombine the generated low-frequency color tones with the high-frequency textures of the original image. Experiments on the GID-5 and LoveDA datasets demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing representative approaches, providing a practical solution for remote sensing image color quality enhancement that balances perceptual improvement with structure preservation. Full article