Generation and Application of Hyperspectral 3D Plant Models

Hyperspectral remote sensing for tobacco quality estimation, yield prediction, and stress detection: A review of applications and methods

Tobacco is an important economic crop and the main raw material of cigarette products. Nowadays, with the increasing consumer demand for high-quality cigarettes, the requirements for their main raw materials are also varying. In general, tobacco quality is primarily determined by the exterior quality, inherent quality, chemical compositions, and physical properties. All these aspects are formed during the growing season and are vulnerable to many environmental factors, such as climate, geography, irrigation, fertilization, diseases and pests, etc. Therefore, there is a great demand for tobacco growth monitoring and near real-time quality evaluation. Herein, hyperspectral remote sensing (HRS) is increasingly being considered as a cost-effective alternative to traditional destructive field sampling methods and laboratory trials to determine various agronomic parameters of tobacco with the assistance of diverse hyperspectral vegetation indices and machine learning algorithms. In light of this, we conduct a comprehensive review of the HRS applications in tobacco production management. In this review, we briefly sketch the principles of HRS and commonly used data acquisition system platforms. We detail the specific applications and methodologies for tobacco quality estimation, yield prediction, and stress detection. Finally, we discuss the major challenges and future opportunities for potential application prospects. We hope that this review could provide interested researchers, practitioners, or readers with a basic understanding of current HRS applications in tobacco production management, and give some guidelines for practical works.

Visualization Methods of 3D Plant Models: A Systematic Mapping Study

Three-dimensional plant model visualization (3D-PMV) is based on plant biology and the plant structure construction model for virtual simulation three-dimensional display, reflecting plant structure characteristics and demonstrating the growth process. In this work, we used the method of systematic mapping study (SMS) to screen the relevant literature in order to explore and analyze the methods and goals of virtual plant visualization research and to provide assistance in future literature reviews. To this end, we conducted extensive searches to identify articles related to plant model visualization technology. We searched for papers from July 2010 to November 2020 from four mainstream databases, namely, ACM, IEEE Xplore, EI, and Web of Science, and found more than 2,900 papers on 3D-PMV. Finally, we selected 60 qualified papers. We mainly followed the SMS method to classify papers by answering seven questions, mainly extracting data for analysis on research types, research goals, model construction methods, visual model categories, number of publications, tools, and methods. The results show that solution proposals account for the largest proportion of research types, accounting for 75% of the total number of papers. This shows that the focus is on the improvement of original methods or the proposal of new methods in this field; research goals of research plant phenotypic characteristics account for the total 35%; 28% of the research objectives focus on showing the reflection of plant growth process, indicating that the research objective trends in this research field regard plant phenotypic characteristics and visualization of the growth process; static type model visualization also accounts for 83% of the total, indicating that the related research on visualization in this field is mostly static typing. Therefore, our work not only analyzes the challenges faced by 3D-PVM and the research directions that need more attention in the future but also provides some suggestions for researchers to find suitable research directions in this field. As the future direction of development, researchers need to pay more attention to the study of dynamic visualization methods of plant growth. We believe that for future research, it is indispensable to provide 3D-PMV with research methods, research goals, visualization model types, development, and other tools. This article analyzes the results of the extracted data based on the SMS method and makes an important contribution to the researcher's extensive understanding of the current status of 3D-PMV and the potential future research opportunities in the field.

Innovative technologies for chemical security

Advances across the chemical and biological (life) sciences are increasingly enabled by ideas and tools from sectors outside these disciplines, with information and communication technologies playing a key role across 21st century scientific development. In the face of rapid technological change, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention (“the Convention”), seeks technological opportunities to strengthen capabilities in the field of chemical disarmament. The OPCW Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) in its review of developments in science and technology examined the potential uses of emerging technologies for the implementation of the Convention at a workshop entitled “Innovative Technologies for Chemical Security”, held from 3 to 5 July 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event, organized in cooperation with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine of the United States of America, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and the Brazilian Chemical Society, was attended by 45 scientists and engineers from 22 countries. Their insights into the use of innovative technological tools and how they might benefit chemical disarmament and non-proliferation informed the SAB’s report on developments in science and technology for the Fourth Review Conference of the Convention (to be held in November 2018), and are described herein, as are recommendations that the SAB submitted to the OPCW Director-General and the States Parties of the Convention. It is concluded that technologies exist or are under development that could be used for investigations, contingency, assistance and protection, reducing risks to inspectors, and enhancing sampling and analysis.