Search Results (7)

An efficient solar water evaporator is an important strategy for addressing the problem of water shortage. Constructing high-performance solar interfacial evaporators through bionic design has become a crucial approach for performance enhancement. Through the study of zebra patterns, it has been found that the black-and-white alternating patterns generate vortices on the surface of the zebra’s skin, thereby reducing the temperature. By utilizing the vortices brought about by the temperature difference, the design of a solar water evaporator is created based on the bionic zebra pattern, so as to improve its water evaporation performance. In this work, green and sustainable wood is used as the base of the evaporator, and the bionic design of zebra stripes is adopted. Meanwhile, the following research is conducted: The wood is cut into thin slices with dimensions of 30 × 30 × 5 mm³, and a delignification treatment is performed. Tannic acid-Fe ions are used as the photothermal material for functionalization. A series of stable patterned water evaporators based on delignification wood loaded with tannic acid-Fe ion complex (TA-Fe³⁺) are successfully prepared. Among them, the wood-based solar water evaporator with 3 mm zebra stripes exhibits excellent photothermal water evaporation performance, achieving a water evaporation rate of 1.44 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ under the illumination intensity of one sun. Its water evaporation performance is significantly superior to that of other coating patterns, proving that the bionic design of zebra patterns is effective and can improve water evaporation efficiency. This work provides new insights into the development of safe and environmentally friendly solar interfacial water evaporation materials through bionic design. Full article

In the production of high-definition maps, it is necessary to achieve the three-dimensional instantiation of road furniture that is difficult to depict on traditional maps. The development of mobile laser measurement technology provides a new means for acquiring road furniture data. To address the issue of traffic marking extraction accuracy in practical production, which is affected by degradation, occlusion, and non-standard variations, this paper proposes a 3D reconstruction method based on energy functions and template matching, using zebra crossings in vehicle-mounted LiDAR point clouds as an example. First, regions of interest (RoIs) containing zebra crossings are obtained through manual selection. Candidate point sets are then obtained at fixed distances, and their neighborhood intensity features are calculated to determine the number of zebra stripes using non-maximum suppression. Next, the slice intensity feature of each zebra stripe is calculated, followed by outlier filtering to determine the optimized length. Finally, a matching template is selected, and an energy function composed of the average intensity of the point cloud within the template, the intensity information entropy, and the intensity gradient at the template boundary is constructed. The 3D reconstruction result is obtained by solving the energy function, performing mode statistics, and normalization. This method enables the complete 3D reconstruction of zebra stripes within the RoI, maintaining an average planar corner accuracy within 0.05 m and an elevation accuracy within 0.02 m. The matching and reconstruction time does not exceed 1 s, and it has been applied in practical production. Full article

This study aimed at correlating image features with the lycopene content of tomato fruit. Tomato cultivars with different fruit colors, such as ‘Ożarowski’ (yellow), ‘Marvel Striped’ (yellow-orange-pink), ‘Green Zebra’ (green), Sandoline F1 (red), Cupidissimo F1 (red), and Sacher F1 (brown) were selected for the study. The tomato fruits were imaged using a digital camera. The texture parameters were computed from the images converted to color channels R, G, B, L, a, b, X, Y, and Z based on the histogram, autoregressive model, gradient map, co-occurrence matrix, and run-length matrix. Lycopene content was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Pearson’s correlation coefficients (R), regression equations, and coefficients of determination (R²) were determined. The lycopene content in fruit ranged from 0.31 mg 100 g⁻¹ for ‘Green Zebra’ to 11.83 mg 100 g⁻¹ for Sacher F1. The correlation coefficient (R) between lycopene content and selected image textures reached −0.99 for selected textures from color channels G, b, and Y. The highest positive correlation (R parameter equal to 0.98) was obtained for texture from color channel Y. Based on the individual color channel providing the highest results, one texture was selected for the determination of regression equations. Coefficients of determination (R²) of 0.99 were obtained for texture from color channel G. The regression equations may be used in practice for nondestructive, objective, and precise estimation of the lycopene content in tomato fruit. Full article

The rice leaf color mutant B03S was previously generated from the photoperiod- and thermo-sensitive genic male sterile (PTGMS) rice line Efeng 1S, of which male sterility manifests by photoperiod and temperature but exhibits mainly temperature-sensitive characteristics. After these plants were deeply transplanted, the new leaves manifested typical zebra stripe patterns. Here, B03S was subjected to deep and shallow transplanting, shading with soil and aluminum foil, and control conditions in situ to determine the cause of the striped-leaf trait. The direct cause of striped leaves is the base of the leaf sheath being under darkness during deep transplanting, of which the critical shading range reached or exceeds 4 cm above the base. Moreover, typical striped leaves were analyzed based on the targeted metabolome method by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) combined with transcriptome and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR)-based verification to clarify the metabolic pathways and transcriptional regulation involved. Carotenoids enter the xanthophyll cycle, and the metabolites that differentially accumulate in the striped leaves include zeaxanthin and its derivatives for photooxidative stress protection, driven by the upregulated expression of OsZEP. These findings improve the understanding of the physiological and metabolic mechanisms underlying the leaf color mutation in rice plants, enrich the theoretical foundation of the nonuniform leaf color phenomenon widely found in nature and highlight key advancements concerning rice production involving the transplanting of seedlings or direct broadcasting of seeds. Full article

Urban growth has increased the risk of over-heating both in the microclimate and inside buildings, affecting thermal comfort and energy efficiency. That is why this research aims to evaluate the energy performance of buildings in terms of thermal comfort (operative temperature (OP) levels, satisfied hours of natural ventilation SHNV, thermal lag), and energy efficiency (roof heat gains and surface temperatures) in an urban area in Panama City, using superficial-heat-dissipation biomimetic strategies. Two case studies, a base case and a proposed case, were evaluated using the Designbuilder software through dynamic simulation. The proposed case is based on a combined biomimetic strategy; the reflective characteristics of the Saharan ant applied as a coating on the roofs through a segmented pattern such as the Zebra’s stripes (one section with coating, and another without). Results showed that the OP decreased from 8 to 10 °C for the entire urban zone throughout the year. A reduction of 3.13% corresponding to 8790 kWh per year was achieved for cooling energy consumption. A difference of 5 °C in external surface temperature was obtained, having a lower temperature in which the biomimetic strategy was applied. Besides, it was evidenced that a contrasted-reflectivity-stripes pitched roof performed better than a fully reflective roof. Thus, the functionality of Zebra stripes, together with the reflective characteristics of the Saharan ant, provide better performance for buildings’ thermal regulation and energy needs for cooling. Full article

Few studies of walkability include both perceived and audited walkability measures. We examined perceived walkability (Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale—Abbreviated, NEWS-A) and audited walkability (Irvine–Minnesota Inventory, IMI) measures for residents living within 2 km of a “complete street”—one renovated with light rail, bike lanes, and sidewalks. For perceived walkability, we found some differences but substantial similarity between our final scales and those in a prior published confirmatory factor analysis. Perceived walkability, in interaction with distance, was related to complete street active transportation. Residents were likely to have active transportation on the street when they lived nearby and perceived good aesthetics, crime safety, and traffic safety. Audited walkability, analyzed with decision trees, showed three general clusters of walkability areas, with 12 specific subtypes. A subset of walkability items (n = 11), including sidewalks, zebra-striped crosswalks, decorative sidewalks, pedestrian signals, and blank walls combined to cluster street segments. The 12 subtypes yielded 81% correct classification of residents’ active transportation. Both perceived and audited walkability were important predictors of active transportation. For audited walkability, we recommend more exploration of decision tree approaches, given their predictive utility and ease of translation into walkability interventions. Full article

Zebra crossings provide guidance and warning to pedestrians and drivers, thereby playing an important role in traffic safety management. Most previous studies have focused on detecting zebra stripes but have not provided full information about the areas, which is critical to both driver assistance systems and guide systems for blind individuals. This paper presents a stepwise procedure for recognizing and reconstructing zebra crossings using mobile laser scanning data. First, we propose adaptive thresholding based on road surface partitioning to reduce the impact of intensity unevenness and improve the accuracy of road marking extraction. Then, dispersion degree filtering is used to reduce the noise. Finally, zebra stripes are recognized according to the rectangular feature and fixed size, which is followed by area reconstruction according to arrangement patterns. We test our method on three datasets captured by an Optech Lynx mobile mapping system. The total recognition rate of 90.91% demonstrates the effectiveness of the method. Full article