In city farming, when growing green crops, a significant part of the production cost is the cost of electricity for lighting. The physiology, biochemistry, morphology and productivity of plants can be affected by changing irradiation modes and these changes reduce electricity costs. However, the results of studies in the literature are contradictory. In this work, we investigated the effect of impulse (frequency 1000 Hz and duty cycle 67%), scanning (the principle of running lights) and constant 16 h and 24 h modes of operation of white light LED irradiators on the physiological, biochemical and morphometric parameters of lettuce with red and green leaves. The daytime integral of light in all variants remained unchanged ~15.6 mol m⁻² day⁻¹. Daily electricity consumption also did not differ significantly. Plants were grown on racks in a climatic chamber up to 35 days of age. For lettuce with red leaves, the most optimal for biomass accumulation and synthesis of anthocyanins was the impulse illumination mode, while for lettuce with green leaves, no statistically significant differences in biomass were observed under different irradiation modes. For red-leaved lettuce, it was found that the highest concentration of carotenoids in the leaf was observed under constant (24 h) and scanning irradiation, which is associated with a more active reaction of the photosynthetic system to prolonged irradiation and increased intensity during scanning irradiation. Also, increased photosynthetic activity was found in both varieties of lettuce at 16 h of operation of LED irradiators, which, however, did not affect their final productivity. The results may be useful for the development of LED illuminators for use in rack growing.

The roller and sieve machines most commonly used in Russia for the post-harvest processing of root and tuber crops and onions have a number of disadvantages, the main one being a decrease in the quality of sorting due to the contamination of working bodies, which increases the quantity of losses during sorting and storage. To obtain high-quality competitive production, it is necessary to combine a number of technological operations during the sorting process, such as dividing the material into classes and fractions by quality and size, as well as identifying and removing damaged products. In order to improve the quality of sorting of root tubers and onions by size, it is necessary to ensure the development of an automatic control system for operating and technological parameters, the use of which will eliminate manual sorting on bulkhead tables in post-harvest processing. To fulfill these conditions, the developed automatic control system must have the ability to identify the material on the sorting surface, taking into account external damage and ensuring the automatic removal of impurities. In this study, the highest sorting accuracy of tubers (of more than 91%) was achieved with a forward speed of 1.2 m/s for the conveyor of the sorting table, with damage to 2.2% of the tubers, which meets the agrotechnical requirements for post-harvest processing. This feature distinguishes the developed device from similar ones.

Identification of specific mycotoxins p. Fusarium contained in infected winter wheat seeds can be achieved by visually recognizing their distinctive phenotypic species. The visual identification (ID) of species is subjective and usually requires significant taxonomic knowledge. Methods for the determination of various types of mycotoxins of the p. Fusarium are laborious and require the use of chemical invasive research methods. In this research, we investigate the possibility of using Raman spectroscopy (RS) as a tag-free, non-invasive and non-destructive analytical method for the rapid and accurate identification of p. Fusarium. Varieties of the r. Fusarium can produce mycotoxins that directly affect the DNA, RNA and chemical structure of infected seeds. Analysis of spectra by RS methods and chemometric analysis allows the identification of healthy, infected and contaminated seeds of winter wheat with varieties of mycotoxins p. Fusarium. Raman seed analysis provides accurate identification of p. Fusarium in 96% of samples. In addition, we present data on the identification of carbohydrates, proteins, fiber and other nutrients contaminated with p. Fusarium seeds obtained using spectroscopic signatures. These results demonstrate that RS enables rapid, accurate and non-invasive screening of seed phytosanitary status.

One of the most important problems during the implementation of any technology is to reduce labor costs, energy, and resource conservation while increasing the yield of cultivated crops and, as a result, reducing the cost of production. Despite a significant amount of scientific research devoted to the problem of energy and resource conservation in the cultivation and harvesting of agricultural crops and the development of mechanization tools that ensure the high-quality performance of technological operations, there remain issues that have not been fully resolved to date. In addition, not all the results of known theoretical and experimental studies can be directly applied to intensify the process of harvesting root crops since the quality indicators of marketable products depend on the type and technological parameters of the separating working bodies. This article presents the design of a rod elevator with an adjustable angle of inclination of the web, which reduces damage to commercial products of root crops and bulbs with maximum completeness of separation. A laboratory facility has been developed to substantiate the design and technological parameters of a separating system with an adjustable web inclination angle. Based on the results of theoretical and experimental studies, a machine for harvesting onions with an adjustable blade inclination angle has been developed, which provides an increase in the quality indicators of onion harvesting at optimal values of the parameters: (1) translational speed of movement of the rod elevator with an adjustable web inclination angle of 1.7 m/s with a 98.4% completeness of separation and 1.7% damage to the bulbs; (2) translational speed of the movement of the machine for harvesting root crops and onions 1.0 m/s with a 98.5% separation completeness and 1.1% damage to the bulbs; (3) digging depth of the digging plowshare equal to 0.02 m, with an onion heap separation completeness of more than 98% and product damage of less than 1.4%. The results of theoretical and experimental studies of a rod elevator to substantiate the design and technological parameters during its interaction with a heap of onion are presented. Basic design and technological parameters of the studied rod elevator are substantiated, namely, the distance S1 of the movement of the rod of the actuators, the angle a1 of the longitudinal inclination of the surface of the rod elevator relative to the horizon, and differential equations of motion of the onion-sowing pile element on the surface of the rod elevator with an adjustable angle of inclination of the web.

We present an in-depth analysis of Raman spectra of novel block copolymers of methyl ethylene phosphate (MeOEP) with caprolactone (CL) and L-lactide (LA), recorded with the excitation wavelengths of 532 and 785 nm. The experimental peak positions, relative intensities and profiles of the poly(methyl ethylene phosphate) (PMeOEP), polycaprolactone (PCL) and poly(L-lactide) (PLA) bands in the spectra of the copolymers and in the spectra of the PMeOEP, PCL and PLA homopolymers turn out to be very similar. This clearly indicates the similarity between the conformational and phase compositions of PMeOEP, PCL and PLA parts in molecules of the copolymers and in the PMeOEP, PCL and PLA homopolymers. Experimental ratios of the peak intensities of PMeOEP bands at 737 and 2963 cm⁻¹ and the PCL bands at 1109, 1724 and 2918 cm⁻¹ can be used for the estimation of the PCL—b—PMeOEP copolymers chemical composition. Even though only one sample of the PMeOEP—b—PLA copolymers was experimentally studied in this work, we assume that the ratios of the peak intensities of PLA bands at 402, 874 and 1768 cm⁻¹ and the PMeOEP band at 737 cm⁻¹ can be used to characterize the copolymer chemical composition.

This method is a variant of non-destructive multiparametric surface analysis and includes the implementation of hyperspectral and RGB image processing approaches from different angles. This work is based on a fundamental hyperspectral survey system for obtaining data on scanned biological objects in many spectral ranges and with several possible variants of assembling a system with different types of surface illumination with point light and diffuse illumination. The implementation of the technology through the use of a diffused light source provides the diffuse illumination of a biological object with pronounced symptoms of rarefaction on the surface of a biological object—in this case, potato tubers, due to the presence of signs of disease on the potato peel, as well as their deformation. Using broadband lamps, a short-pass filter is located between the source and the object (λ ≤ 400 nm, λ may vary depending on the excitation length), and a long-pass filter (λ ≥ 400 nm) between the root or onion and the chamber. The use of a vision system with a created database containing models of real defects in potato tubers showed a high sorting efficiency, providing an accuracy of sorting by size of 95.4%, and an accuracy by the presence of defects of 93.1%.