Modeling and Prediction of Soil Organic Matter Content Based on Visible-Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

In order to explore the ever-changing law of soil organic matter (SOM) content in the forest of the Greater Khingan Mountains, a prediction model of the SOM content with a high accuracy and stability has been developed based on visible near-infrared (VIS-NIR) technology and multiple regression analysis. A total of 105 soil samples were collected from Cuifeng forest farm in Jagdaqi City, Greater Khingan Mountains region, Heilongjiang Province, China. Five classical preprocessing algorithms, including Savitzky−Golay convolution smoothing (S-G smoothing), standard normal variate transformation (SNV), multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), first derivative, second derivative, and the combinations of the above five methods were applied to the raw spectra. Wavelengths were optimized with five methods of competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), successive projections algorithm (SPA), uninformative variable elimination (UVE), synergy interval partial least square (SiPLS), and their combinations, and PLS models were developed accordingly. The results showed that when S-G smoothing is combined with SNV or MSC, both preprocessing strategies can improve the performance of the model. The prediction accuracy of SiPLS-PLS model and SiPLS-UVE-PLS model for the SOM content is higher than for other models, withan Rc2 of 0.9663 and 0.9221, RMSEC of 0.0645 and 0.0981, Rv2 of 0.9408 and 0.9270, and RMSEV of 0.0615 and 0.0683, respectively. The pretreatment strategies and characteristic variable selection methods used in this study could significantly improve the model performance and predicting efficiency.

Identification of Geographical Origin of Chinese Chestnuts Using Hyperspectral Imaging with 1D-CNN Algorithm

The adulteration in Chinese chestnuts affects the quality, taste, and brand value. The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of the hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technique to determine the geographical origin of Chinese chestnuts. An HSI system in spectral range of 400–1000 nm was applied to identify a total of 417 Chinese chestnuts from three different geographical origins. Principal component analysis (PCA) was preliminarily used to investigate the differences of average spectra of the samples from different geographical origins. A deep-learning-based model (1D-CNN, one-dimensional convolutional neural network) was developed first, and then the model based on full spectra and optimal wavelengths were established for various machine learning methods, including partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and particle swarm optimization-support vector machine (PSO-SVM). The optimal results based on full spectra for 1D-CNN, PLS-DA, and PSO-SVM models were 97.12%, 97.12%, and 95.68%, respectively. Competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and a successive projections algorithm (SPA) were individually utilized for wavelengths selection, and the results of simplified models generally improved. The contrasting results demonstrated that the prediction accuracies of SPA-PLS-DA and 1D-CNN both reached 97.12%, but 1D-CNN presented a higher Kappa coefficient value than SPA-PLS-DA. Meanwhile, the sensitivities and specificities of SPA-PLS-DA and 1D-CNN models were both above 90% for the samples from each geographical origin. These results indicated that both SPA-PLS-DA and 1D-CNN models combined with HSI have great potential for the geographical origin identification of Chinese chestnuts.

Multivariate classification techniques and mass spectrometry as a tool in the screening of patients with fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a rheumatological disorder that causes chronic pain and other symptomatic conditions such as depression and anxiety. Despite its relevance, the disease still presents a complex diagnosis where the doctor needs to have a correct clinical interpretation of the symptoms. In this context, it is valid to study tools that assist in the screening of this disease, using chemical work techniques such as mass spectroscopy. In this study, an analytical method is proposed to detect individuals with fibromyalgia (n = 20, 10 control samples and 10 samples with fibromyalgia) from blood plasma samples analyzed by mass spectrometry with paper spray ionization and subsequent multivariate classification of the spectral data (unsupervised and supervised), in addition to the treatment of selected variables with possible associations with metabolomics. Exploratory analysis with principal component analysis (PCA) and supervised analysis with successive projections algorithm with linear discriminant analysis (SPA-LDA) showed satisfactory results with 100% accuracy for sample prediction in both groups. This demonstrates that this combination of techniques can be used as a simple, reliable and fast tool in the development of clinical diagnosis of Fibromyalgia.

Chemometrics in Tandem with Hyperspectral Imaging for Detecting Authentication of Raw and Cooked Mutton Rolls

Authentication assurance of meat or meat products is critical in the meat industry. Various methods including DNA- or protein-based techniques are accurate for assessing meat authenticity, however, they are destructive, expensive, or laborious. This study explores the feasibility of chemometrics in tandem with hyperspectral imaging (HSI) for identifying raw and cooked mutton rolls substitution by pork and duck rolls. Raw or cooked samples (n = 180) of three meat species were prepared to collect hyperspectral images in range of 400–1000 nm. Spectra were extracted from representative regions of interest (ROIs), and spectral principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that PC1 and PC2 were effective for the identification. Different methods including standard normal variable (SNV), first and second derivatives, and normalization were individually employed for spectral preprocessing, and modeling methods of partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and support vector machines (SVM) were also individually applied to develop classification models for both the raw and the cooked. Results showed that PLS-DA model developed by raw spectra presented the highest 100% correct classification rate (CCR) of success in all sets. After that, effective wavelengths selected by successive projections algorithm (SPA) built optimal simplified models which didn’t influence the modeling results compared with full spectra regardless of the meat roll states. Therefore, SPA-PLS-DA models were subsequently used to visualize the raw and cooked meat rolls classification. As a consequence, the general meat species of both raw and cooked meat rolls were readily discernible in pixel-wise manner by generating classification maps. The results showed that HSI combined with chemometrics can be used to identify the authentication of raw and cooked mutton rolls substituted by pork and duck rolls accurately. This promising methodology provides a reference which can be extended to the classification or grading of other meat rolls.

Soil Nutrient Estimation and Mapping in Farmland Based on UAV Imaging Spectrometry

Soil nutrient is one of the most important properties for improving farmland quality and product. Imaging spectrometry has the potential for rapid acquisition and real-time monitoring of soil characteristics. This study aims to explore the preprocessing and modeling methods of hyperspectral images obtained from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform for estimating the soil organic matter (SOM) and soil total nitrogen (STN) in farmland. The results showed that: (1) Multiplicative Scattering Correction (MSC) performed better in reducing image scattering noise than Standard Normal Variate (SNV) transformation or spectral derivatives, and it yielded a result with higher correlation and lower signal-to-noise ratio; (2) The proposed feature selection method combining Successive Projections Algorithm (SPA) and Competitive Adaptive Reweighted Sampling algorithm (CARS), could provide selective preference for hyperspectral bands. Exploiting this method, 24 and 22 feature bands were selected for SOM and STN estimation, respectively; (3) The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm was employed to obtain optimized input weights and bias values of the extreme learning machine (ELM) model for more accurate prediction of SOM and STN. The improved PSO-ELM model based on the selected preference bands achieved higher prediction accuracy (R2 of 0.73 and RPD of 1.91 for SOM, R2 of 0.63, and RPD of 1.53 for STN) than support vector machine (SVM), partial least squares regression (PLSR), and the ELM model. This study provides an important guideline for monitoring soil nutrient for precision agriculture with imaging spectrometry.

Wavelength Selection Method Based on Absorbance Value Optimization to Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Analysis

Regarding absorption spectrum, high absorption corresponds to low light transmittance and relatively loud noise, whereas low absorption corresponds to low information content, which interferes with the modeling of spectral analysis. Appropriate absorbance level is necessary to improve spectral information content and reduces noise level. In this study, based on the selection of the upper and lower bounds of absorbance, the absorbance value optimization partial least squares (AVO-PLS) method was proposed for appropriate wavelength model selection. Near-infrared spectroscopic analysis of hyperlipidemia indicators, namely, total cholesterol (TC), and triglyceride (TG), was conducted to validate the predicted performance of AVO-PLS. Well-performed wavelength selection methods, namely, moving-window PLS (MW-PLS) of continuous type-and successive projections algorithm (SPA) of discrete type, were also conducted for comparison. The spectra were first corrected using Savitzky–Golay smoothing. Modeling was performed based on the multiple partitioning of calibration and prediction sets to avoid data over-fitting and achieve parameter stability. The selected absorbance ranged from 0.45 to 0.86 for TC and from 0.45 to 0.92 for TG, and the corresponding waveband combinations were 1,376–1,388 and 1,560–1840 nm for TC and 1,376–1,390 and 1,552–1,846 nm for TG. Among them, the waveband combination of TG covers TC’s one, and can be used for the high-precision cooperativity analysis of the two indicators. Using the independent validation samples, the RMSEP and RP of 0.164 mmol l−1 and 0.990 for TC and 0.096 mmol l−1 and 0.997 for TG were obtained by the cooperativity model. And the sensitivity and specificity for hyperlipidemia were 98.0 and 100%, respectively. These values were better than those of MW-PLS and SPA. Importantly, the proposed AVO-PLS is a novel multi-band optimization approach for improving prediction performance and applicability. This method is expected to obtain more applications.

Leaf area index estimation model for UAV image hyperspectral data based on wavelength variable selection and machine learning methods

Background To accurately estimate winter wheat leaf area index (LAI) using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral imagery is crucial for crop growth monitoring, fertilization management, and development of precision agriculture. Methods The UAV hyperspectral imaging data, Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD) data, and LAI were simultaneously obtained at main growth stages (jointing stage, booting stage, and filling stage) of various winter wheat varieties under various nitrogen fertilizer treatments. The characteristic bands related to LAI were extracted from UAV hyperspectral data with different algorithms including first derivative (FD), successive projections algorithm (SPA), competitive adaptive reweighed sampling (CARS), and competitive adaptive reweighed sampling combined with successive projections algorithm (CARS_SPA). Furthermore, three modeling machine learning methods including partial least squares regression (PLSR), support vector machine regression (SVR), and extreme gradient boosting (Xgboost) were used to build LAI estimation models. Results The results show that the correlation coefficient between UAV and ASD hyperspectral data is greater than 0.99, indicating the UAV data can be used for estimation of wheat growth information. The LAI bands selected by using different algorithms were slightly different among the 15 models built in this study. The Xgboost model using nine consecutive characteristic bands selected by CARS_SPA algorithm as input was proved to have the best performance. This model yielded identical results of coefficient of determination (0.89) for both calibration set and validation set, indicating a high accuracy of this model. Conclusions The Xgboost modeling method in combine with CARS_SPA algorithm can reduce input variables and improve the efficiency of model operation. The results provide reference and technical support for nondestructive and rapid estimation of winter wheat LAI by using UAV.

Soil nutrient estimation and mapping in agriculture land based on improved ELM and UAV imaging spectrometry

<p>Soil nutrient is one of the most important properties to support farmland quality and product. Imaging spectrometry has the potential for rapid acquisition and real-time monitoring of soil characteristics. The goal of this study was to explore the preprocessing and modeling method of hyperspectral image acquired from UAV platform for soil organic matter (SOM) and soil total nitrogen (STN) content estimation in farmland. The results showed that: 1) Multiple Scattering Correction method performed better in reducing image scattering noise rather than Standard Normal Variate transformation or spectral derivatives with higher correlation and lower signal-to-noise ratio; 2) The proposed feature selection method, which was combined with Competitive Adaptive Reweighted Sampling algorithm (CARS) and Successive Projections Algorithm (SPA), could provide selective preference for hyperspectral bands with final 24 feature bands for SOM estimation and 22 feature bands for STN estimation; 3) The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm was selected to optimize input weights and hidden biases of extreme learning machine (ELM)  model for SOM and STN prediction. The PSO-ELM model with input selective preference bands produced higher prediction accuracy with the R<sup>2</sup> of 0.73, RPD of 1.91 for SOM and R<sup>2</sup> of 0.63, RPD of 1.53 for STN respectively rather than ELM model. These outcomes provided a technical support for wider application of soil properties estimation using imaging spectrometry in agriculture precision monitoring and mapping.</p>

Variables Selection in the Ultraviolet, Visible and Near Infrared Range for Calibration of a Mixture of Vegetable Oils by Absorbance Spectra

The aim of the work was a multivariate calibration of the concentration of unrefined sunflower oil, considered as adulteration, in a mixture with flaxseed oil. The relevance of the study is due to the need to develop a simple and effective method for detecting the falsification of flaxseed oil which is superior in the content of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids to olive oil. A few works only are devoted to identifying adulteration of flaxseed oil, unlike olive oil.Multivariate calibration carried out using a model based on the principal component analysis, cluster analysis and projection to latent structures of absorbance spectra in UV, visible and near IR ranges. Calibration uses three methods for spectral variables selection: the successive projections algorithm, the method of searching combination moving window, and method for ranking variables by correlation coefficient.The application of the successive projections algorithm, ranking variables by correlation coefficient and searching combination moving window makes it possible to reduce the value of the root mean square error of prediction from 0.63 % for wideband projection to latent structures to 0.46 %, 0.50 %, and 0.03 %, respectively.The developed method of multivariate calibration by projection to latent structures of absorbance spectra in UV, visible and near IR ranges using the spectral variables selection by searching combination moving window is a simple and effective method of detecting adulteration of flaxseed oil.

Evaluation of the total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) content in fish fillets using hyperspectral imaging coupled with deep learning neural network and meta-analysis

Recently, hyperspectral-imaging (HSI), as a rapid and non-destructive technique, has generated much interest due to its unique potential to monitor food quality and safety. The specific aim of the study is to investigate the potential of the HSI (430–1010 nm) coupled with Linear Deep Neural Network (LDNN) to predict the TVB-N content of rainbow trout fillet during 12 days storage at 4 ± 2 °C. After the acquisition of hyperspectral images, the TVB-N content of fish fillets was obtained by a conventional method (micro-Kjeldahl distillation). To simplify the calibration models, nine optimal wavelengths were selected by the successive projections algorithm. A seven layers LDNN was designed to estimate the TVB-N content of samples. The LDNN model showed acceptable performance for prediction of TVB-N content of fish fillet (R2p = 0.853; RSMEP = 3.159 and RDP = 3.001). The performance of LDNN model was comparable with the results of previous works. Although, the results of the meta-analysis did not show any significant difference between various chemometric models. However, the least-squares support vector machine algorithm showed better prediction results as compared to the other models (RMSEP: 2.63 and R2p = 0.897). Further studies are required to improve the prediction power of the deep learning model for prediction of rainbow-trout fish quality.