Search Results (204)

Accurate semantic segmentation of indoor architectural elements, such as staircases and elevators, is critical for safe and efficient robotic navigation, particularly in complex multi-floor environments. Traditional fusion methods struggle with occlusions, reflections, and low-contrast regions. In this paper, we propose a novel feature fusion module, Skip-Connection Fusion (SCF), that dynamically integrates RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and depth features through an adaptive weighting mechanism and skip-connection integration. This approach enables the model to selectively emphasize informative regions while suppressing noise, effectively addressing challenging conditions such as partially blocked staircases, glossy elevator doors, and dimly lit stair edges, which improves obstacle detection and supports reliable human–robot interaction in complex environments. Extensive experiments on a newly collected dataset demonstrate that SCF consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods, including PSPNet and DeepLabv3, in both overall mIoU (mean Intersection over Union) and challenging-case performance. Specifically, our SCF module improves segmentation accuracy by 5.23% in the top 10% of challenging samples, highlighting its robustness in real-world conditions. Furthermore, we conduct a sensitivity analysis on the learnable weights, demonstrating their impact on segmentation quality across varying scene complexities. Our work provides a strong foundation for real-world applications in autonomous navigation, assistive robotics, and smart surveillance. Full article

Tung oil, as dry oil, can quickly dry and polymerize into tough and glossy waterproof coatings, with a very high application value. Tung oil was used as a core material to prepare Tung oil microcapsules coated with chitosan–Arabic gum, and the preparation process of the microcapsules was optimized. The effect of adding a UV coating on the performance of the microcapsules was explored. Under the conditions of a core–wall mass ratio of 0.5:1.0, pH value of 3.5, mass ratio of chitosan to Arabic gum of 1.0:4.0, and spray drying temperature of 130 °C, Tung oil microcapsules coated with chitosan–Arabic gum had a higher yield and coverage rate, which were 32.85% and 33.20%, respectively. With the increase of the spray drying temperature during preparation, the roughness of the coating first increased and then decreased, the visible light transmittance decreased first and then increased, and the glossiness showed an overall downward trend. The self-repairing rate decreased gradually. When the microcapsules #11 were added to the UV topcoat at 5%, the coating can obtain excellent comprehensive properties; the roughness was 0.79 μm, elongation at break was 5.04%, visible light transmittance was 77.96%, gloss loss rate was 10.95%, and self-repairing rate was 20.47%. Full article

Digital food-ordering apps make it simple to buy indulgent drinks yet hard to judge their health risks. We conducted five online experiments (N = 1048) to compare two messages for sugary beverages: self-promotion that stresses taste and self-disclosure that plainly warns “high sugar/high calories”. Brands that chose self-disclosure were seen as more socially responsible and transparent, which in turn raised trust and lifted purchase intent. These gains were strongest for users who care deeply about the category or the brand and remained robust even among highly health-conscious shoppers. The results show that, for “vice” foods, honest warnings can outperform glossy claims. Our study extends signaling and attribution theories to digital food markets and offers managers a straightforward playbook for complying with new labeling rules while still driving sales. Full article

(1) Background: Mineral nutrient deficiencies are a major constraint on grapevine growth and productivity, yet the clear identification of deficiency symptoms and their physiological impacts remains challenging. (2) Methods: In this study, ‘Thompson Seedless’ grapevines were grown hydroponically under the controlled omission of ten essential nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, B, Zn, Cu) to assess their impact on growth, leaf morphology, chlorophyll content, photosynthesis, respiration, and tissue nutrient concentrations. (3) Results: Deficiencies in N, P, K, Mn, and B caused distinct leaf symptoms: nitrogen (N) deficiency led to pale leaves with bluish-green veins, phosphorus (P) deficiency caused yellowing in apical leaves followed by interveinal chlorosis, and potassium (K) deficiency induced pale yellow discoloration, curling, and rotting of the leaves. Manganese (Mn) and boron (B) deficiencies showed symptoms such as irregular leaf shapes and brittle, glossy leaves, respectively. These deficiencies resulted in reduced dry matter accumulation, decreased shoot length, and lower chlorophyll content. In contrast, iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) deficiencies had minimal effects, closely resembling those of the control conditions with only slight growth suppression. Notably, N, B, and Mg deficiencies led to significant reductions in Cu, Mg, B, and N levels, particularly evident through distinct symptoms in newly formed leaves. (4) Conclusions: Deficiencies in N, P, K, Mg, and B significantly affect grapevine growth, physiological processes, and nutritional quality. These findings emphasize the importance of maintaining balanced mineral nutrition for optimal grapevine health and productivity. Full article

Fair-faced concrete has garnered substantial attention in recent years owing to its aesthetic appeal and eco-friendly attributes. However, as a construction material, its long-term performance is highly dependent on its service environment, particularly ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This research focuses on examining the influence of UV exposure and managing the admixtures employed in concrete and investigating the effects of UV radiation on the appearance quality, pore distribution, and micro-composition of fair-faced concrete. Results indicate that UV radiation enhances moisture evaporation, increases surface and bulk porosity, and accelerates carbonation and early hydration reactions, forming more calcite on the surface. These factors degrade the appearance quality of fair-faced concrete. To mitigate UV-aging damage, two common anti-UV admixtures, nano-silica (NS) and water-based fluorocarbon paint (FC), were evaluated. Results show that both admixtures effectively improve the UV-resistance of fair-faced concrete, particularly when combined. The FC+NS group reduced the surface glossiness loss rate from 28.63% to 12.95% after 28 days of UV exposure, with surface porosity and maximum pore diameter recorded at 0.157% and 3.66 mm, respectively, indicating excellent appearance quality. These findings underscore the potential of these admixtures, both individually and in combination, to enhance the UV resistance of fair-faced concrete, sustaining its durability under prolonged UV exposure. Full article

This study aims to investigate the sensory characteristics of commercially available vegan mayonnaise using the Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) methodology and to determine the acceptability factors influencing consumer purchase intention. Six mayonnaise samples were evaluated by 112 consumers: one conventional mayonnaise and five commercially available vegan mayonnaises (labeled OGM, VVM, EBM, VM, SM, and OVM). Except for fatty flavor, rancid odor, artificial flavor, mouthcoating, melting, and mouthfeel, 15 characteristics (yellowness, glossiness, slimness, thickness, smoothness, beany odor, lemon aroma, nutty flavor, sourness, saltiness, sweetness, savory flavor, off-flavor, goes well with vegetables, and spreads well on crackers) were significantly different among 6 samples (p < 0.001). Across all evaluation attributes, OGM and VM had the highest acceptance, with no significant differences between the two samples except for overall taste. The VM was the only vegan mayonnaise that produced results similar to those of OGM, which is regular mayonnaise. The results of the study suggest that vegan mayonnaise can be a substitute for regular mayonnaise. We hope that this research will provide data that can be used as a basis for developing vegan mayonnaise products that meet the needs of consumers and food companies. Full article

Insect-specific pathogens present a sustainable alternative to pesticides for managing the red palm weevil (RPW). This study assessed the efficacy of Steinernema carpocapsae ALL nematodes and their symbiotic bacteria against the third-instar larvae and adults of RPW under laboratory conditions. The symbiotic bacteria were isolated, morphologically characterized, and genetically identified. The results indicated that the mortality rates of RPW larvae treated with S. carpocapsae exceeded 50% in all treatments at 120 h, reaching 93.33% at a concentration of 250 IJs/mL. The morphology of isolated symbiotic bacterium from S. carpocapsae on NBTA medium exhibited a light green color with a glossy surface, a raised center, and a mucilaginous texture. A novel strain of symbiotic bacterium was identified and named as LZ-G7. The bacteria toxicity on RPW adults showed a notable mortality rate of 66.67% at 48 h after feeding with concentration of 10 × 10⁷ CFU/mL. The mortality rate of the third-instar larvae of RPW reached 83.33% after feeding with 0.30 × 10⁸ CFU/g at 96 h and 93.33% after injection into blood cavity with 8 × 10⁶ CFU at 48 h. These results suggest that S. carpocapsae and a novel symbiotic bacterium strain exhibit strong virulence against RPW and have the potential to serve as effective biological control agents in integrated pest management strategies. Full article

The properties of wood change after heat treatment, affecting its applications. Glossiness, a key aesthetic property, is of great significance in fields like furniture. Precise prediction can optimize the process and improve product quality. Although the traditional back propagation neural network (BPNN) has been applied in the field of wood properties, it still has issues such as poor prediction accuracy. This study proposes an improved whale optimization algorithm (IWOA) to optimize BPNN, constructing an IWOA-BPNN model for predicting the glossiness of heat-treated wood. IWOA uses chaos theory and tent chaos mapping to accelerate convergence, combines with the sine cosine algorithm to enhance optimization, and adopts an adaptive inertia weight to balance search and exploitation. A dataset containing 216 data entries from four different wood species was collected. Through model comparison, the IWOA-BPNN model showed significant advantages. Compared with the traditional BPNN model, the mean absolute error (MAE) value decreased by 66.02%, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) value decreased by 64.21%, the root mean square error (RMSE) value decreased by 69.60%, and the R² value increased by 12.87%. This model provides an efficient method for optimizing wood heat treatment processes and promotes the development of the wood industry. Full article

The development of an effective artificial diet is essential for the mass rearing of insects used in pest management programs, including augmentative biological control, insecticide resistance monitoring, and sterile insect release. This study evaluated the consumption, utilization, and enzymatic responses of the polyphagous pest Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner, 1808) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) when reared on meridic diets supplemented with different pollen grains. The control diet followed a well-established meridic formulation, while the eight experimental diets incorporated pollen from the honey bee, rapeseed, maize, sunflower, hollyhock, glossy shower, saffron, and date palm. The findings indicate that pollen supplementation enhances the quality of artificial diets for H. armigera. Larvae fed on the date palm pollen-supplemented diet exhibited significantly higher weight gain, efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), efficiency of conversion of digested food (ECD), and relative growth rate (RGR) compared to those fed on the control diet. The highest relative consumption rate (RCR) was observed in larvae fed on the sunflower pollen-supplemented diet. Additionally, pollen-supplemented diets influenced the amylolytic and proteolytic enzyme activities of H. armigera larvae in a diet-dependent manner. Nutritional analysis of the pollen types revealed significant variations in the sugar, lipid, and protein contents. Cluster analysis further identified the date palm pollen-supplemented diet as the most nutritionally beneficial, suggesting its potential application in the large-scale production of H. armigera. Full article

Shitsukan, which encompasses the perception of roughness, glossiness, and transparency/translucency, represents the comprehensive visual appearance of objects and plays a crucial role in accurate reproduction across various fields, including manufacturing and imaging technologies. This study experimentally examines the impact of the pixel–aperture ratio on the perception of roughness, glossiness, and transparency. A visual evaluation experiment was conducted using natural images presented on stimuli with pixel–aperture ratios of 100% and 6%, employing an RGB sub-pixel array. The results demonstrated that the pixel–aperture ratio significantly affects the perception of glossiness and transparency, with the 100% pixel–aperture ratio producing a statistically significant effect compared to the 6% condition. However, roughness perception varied substantially among the observers, and no statistically significant effect was observed. Nonetheless, when comparing two observer clusters identified through clustering analysis, the cluster favoring the 100% pixel–aperture ratio exhibited “Huge” effect sizes for all perceptual attributes. Additionally, the findings indicate that the degree of influence of pixel–aperture ratio on glossiness and transparency is not constant and can vary depending on individual observer differences and image characteristics. Full article

Vehicle color coatings have long been recognized as a factor influencing road safety, particularly regarding their impact on speed perception and crash risk. This study aims to examine how different vehicle color coatings affect drivers’ perception of speed under nighttime driving conditions, with a specific focus on sustainability and visibility. A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted using a driving simulator to replicate realistic night traffic scenarios. A total of 161 participants evaluated passenger vehicles in four distinct color treatments, white (high-reflective paint), yellow (matte safety film), blue (glossy metallic finish), and black (low-reflective coating), at two speeds: 30 km/h and 50 km/h. Participants’ perceived speeds were collected and analyzed using standardized statistical methods. Results indicated a consistent pattern: speed was overestimated at 30 km/h and underestimated at 50 km/h across all vehicle colors. Lighter-colored vehicles (white and yellow) were perceived as moving faster than darker-colored vehicles (blue and black), with significant differences between black and yellow (30 km/h), yellow and blue (30 km/h), and black and white (50 km/h). Additionally, female participants tended to estimate higher speeds than male participants across most conditions. Other individual factors, such as place of residence, driver’s license type, driving experience, and frequency of driving, also showed measurable effects on speed perception. By using a simulator and accounting for diverse demographic characteristics, the study highlights how perceptual biases related to vehicle color can influence driver behavior. These findings emphasize the importance of considering vehicle color in traffic safety strategies, including driver education, vehicle design, and policy development aimed at reducing crash risk. Full article

The industrial application of artificial intelligence (AI) has witnessed outstanding adoption due to its robust efficiency in recent times. Image fault detection and classification have also been implemented industrially for product defect detection, as well as for maintaining standards and optimizing processes using AI. However, there are deep concerns regarding the latency in the performance of AI for fault detection in glossy and curved surface products, due to their nature and reflective surfaces, which hinder the adequate capturing of defective areas using traditional cameras. Consequently, this study presents an enhanced method for curvy and glossy surface image data collection using a Basler vision camera with specialized lighting and KEYENCE displacement sensors, which are used to train deep learning models. Our approach employed image data generated from normal and two defect conditions to train eight deep learning algorithms: four custom convolutional neural networks (CNNs), two variations of VGG-16, and two variations of ResNet-50. The objective was to develop a computationally robust and efficient model by deploying global assessment metrics as evaluation criteria. Our results indicate that a variation of ResNet-50, ResNet-50₂₂₄, demonstrated the best overall efficiency, achieving an accuracy of 97.97%, a loss of 0.1030, and an average training step time of 839 milliseconds. However, in terms of computational efficiency, it was outperformed by one of the custom CNN models, CNN₆-240, which achieved an accuracy of 95.08%, a loss of 0.2753, and an average step time of 94 milliseconds, making CNN₆-240 a viable option for computational resource-sensitive environments. Full article

This work investigates the relationship between the material properties of wardrobe furniture and visual and tactile emotional responses, with a focus on age-related differences in emotional experiences. This research measured material surface properties (roughness, gloss, and Lab color) and utilized the PAD (pleasure, arousal, dominance) emotion model to assess emotional responses among elderly and younger participants. (1) In the context of tactile emotional experiences, a systematic correlation was observed between surface roughness and the reported levels of pleasure, arousal, and dominance in both elderly and younger participants. Moreover, pleasure demonstrated a systematic correlation with gloss. Rough surfaces were perceived as unpleasant. The elderly participants showed greater emotional dominance when exposed to rough surfaces. (2) In terms of visual–tactile emotional experiences, a responsive relationship was found between pleasure, dominance, and the a* parameter (representing the red and green color channels) in both age groups. However, no systematic correlations were observed between luminance (L*), glossiness, and PAD emotional experiences in either group. A responsive correlation was found between pleasure, dominance, and the b* parameter (representing the yellow and blue color channels) in elderly individuals. Notably, a significant correlation was observed between arousal and roughness in younger individuals. These findings suggest a partial difference in emotional responses across the PAD dimensions between elderly and younger participants. Full article

Digital imaging can cause the perception of an appearance that is different from the real object. This study first confirmed that the glossiness and roughness of reproduced images are altered by directly comparing real and colorimetrically reproduced images (CRIs). Then, psychophysical experiments comparing real and modulated images were performed, and the physical features that influence the alteration of the real object were analyzed. Furthermore, we analyzed the image features to recover the altered glossiness and roughness by image reproduction. In total, 67 samples belonging to 11 material categories, including metals, resins, etc., were used as stimuli. Analysis of the physical surface roughness of real objects showed that the low skewness and high kurtosis of samples were associated with alterations in glossiness and roughness, respectively. It was shown that these can be recovered by modulating the contrast for glossiness and the angular second moment in the gray level co-occurrence matrix for roughness, reproducing perceptually equivalent images. These results suggest that although the glossiness and roughness of real objects and their CRIs are perceived differently, reproducing perceptually equivalent glossiness and roughness may be facilitated by measuring the physical features of real objects and reflecting them in image features. Full article

The main chemical components of tea tree essential oil (TTO) are monoterpene compounds, including terpine-4-ol,1,8-cineole, para-cymene and γ-terpene. Among them, terpine-4-ol and 1,8-cineole are the main antibacterial components. The microcapsules were prepared by orthogonal experiments with the core–wall ratio, emulsifier concentration, mass ratio of Tween-80 to SDBS and oil–water ratio as variables. Through the analysis of the yield and coverage rate of nine kinds of microcapsules, the concentration of emulsifier was determined as the most influential factor for TTO–chitosan microcapsules, and six kinds of microcapsules were prepared by a single-factor experiment. With the increase in emulsifier concentration, the antibacterial rate of Escherichia coli increased first and then decreased, the antibacterial rate of Staphylococcus aureus increased first, decreased and then increased, and the antibacterial effect of Staphylococcus aureus was better than that of Escherichia coli. When the emulsifier concentration was 4% (13# microcapsule), the overall performance of the coating was better, the microcapsule dispersion was the most uniform, showing a round spheroid shape, and the particle size was mostly distributed between 4 and 8 μm. The antibacterial rate against Escherichia coli was 72.95%, and the antibacterial rate against Staphylococcus aureus was 75.81%. The color difference was 2.77, the glossiness at a 60° incidence angle was 22.8 GU, and the visible light transmittance was 87.80%. The roughness was 0.304 μm, and the elongation was 17.47%. The research results provide a technical reference for the application of an antibacterial water-based coating on a wood surface. Full article