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Discoloration and dehydration are crucial problems associated with quality of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Color and weight loss of the bell pepper were measured at different vibration levels, storage environments and storage periods. Vibration tests were carried out at different ‘g’ levels from normal to the worst-case for 180 sec on the initial day. The effect of two different storage environments (10°C, 90 % RH and 18°C, 40 % RH) for four time periods (1, 4, 7 and 10 days) were observed. At 18°C, 40 % RH storage environment, more weight loss and duller color were observed. In the 10°C, 90 % RH storage environment, the group of bell pepper sample having 12 g level vibration had significantly much more weight loss compared to other groups. In this storage environment, most of bell pepper samples maintained vivid color. Storage life and fruit quality of bell pepper were affected by storage temperatures, humidity and duration. The results showed that high g level vibration, high temperature, and low humidity environment during harvesting and storage process of the bell pepper should be avoided.

【Purpose: This study was carried out to predict the growth period and fresh weight of sprouts grown in a cultivator designed to grow sprouts under optimal conditions. Methods: The temperature, light intensity, and amount of irrigation were controlled, and images of seed sprouts were acquired to predict the days of growth and weight from pixel counts of leaf area. Broccoli, clover, and radish sprouts were selected, and each sprout was cultivated in a 90-mm-diameter Petri dish under the same cultivating conditions. An image of each sprout was taken every 24 hours from the 4th day, and the whole cultivating period was 6 days, including 3 days in the dark. Images were processed by histogram inspection, binary images, image erosion, image dilation, and the overlay image process. The RGB range and ratio of leaves were adjusted to calculate the pixel counts for leaf area. Results: The correlation coefficients between the pixel count of leaf area and the growth period of sprouts were 0.91, 0.98, and 0.97 for broccoli, clover, and radish, respectively. Further, the correlation coefficients between the pixel count of leaf area and fresh weight were 0.90 for broccoli, 0.87 for clover, and 0.95 for radish. Conclusions: On the basis of these results, we suggest that the simple image acquisition system and processing algorithm can feasibly estimate the growth period and fresh weight of seed sprouts.】