The opacity is one of the important properties of various commercial products such as paper. The common opacity measurement method by using spectrophotometer is expensive. This work explains the novel method for measuring opacity by using SCANNER as a lower cost instrument. The opacity is evaluated by using RGB value of paper image which was obtained by SCANNER. The obtained results indicate that opacity measurement performance of SCANNER is comparable with spectrophotometer. The best opacity estimation is obtained conversion RGB to CIELab color space. J. Color Sci. Tech. 7(2013), 15-24© Institute for Color Science and Technology.

Estimating dry biomass is one of the important parts of production estimation. Among vegetation indices, leaf area index (LAI) is the most common used index to estimate water demand and yield. In this study, attempts have made to estimate LAI without destroying plant and by using the AccuPAR-LP80 CROP SCANNER device. The case study performed in Magsal Agro-Industrial Company Qazvin, Iran with the aim of introducing relations to estimate the amount of dry biomass via LAI for three plant- maize, sugar beet and alfalfa. LAI values of above mentioned plants measured through nondestructive method by calibrated AccuPAR-LP80 CROP SCANNER. Statistical evaluation showed that the highest correlation was for maize with R2=0.96 and the lowest was for alfalfa with R2=0.87. In addition, measured dry biomass was a linear function of fraction of photosynthesis active radation (fPAR). Statistical evaluation showed that correlation coefficient varies from 0.94 to 0.90 and PMSE from 2.85 to 3.3 kg ha-1 for maize and alfalfa, respectively.

In this study, colorimetric calibration of SCANNER has been done via perceptron neural network with three or jour layers by back propagation algorithm for colored polyester fabrics. The results obtained for random training samples are not satisfactory but application of selective training samples for L*a*b* or RGB leads to good results, with better results obtained for the L* a* b* method On the other hand, the color differences between calculation XYZ and real XYZ for unknown samples, are not only in agreement with the results of polynomials and regression methods, but are also better than the results obtained in previous studies where neural network had been used for colorimetric calibration of SCANNER.`

In this study, a relationship between SCANNER response (RGB) and CIE tristimulus values (XYZ) is established by regression technique with different polynomial for colored polyester fabrics. The results showed that the transformation process is material dependent and higher order polynomials will fit the experimental data better than lower polynomials. The results also showed that the way the colors are chosen for primary calibration samples is more important than the number of samples. Using calibration samples with color characteristics closer to unknown samples leads to better results.

CROP Simulation models are used for water management in farms and are widely used for optimization of water use efficiency. AquaCROP model, developed by FAO, is based on yield response to water. Compared to other similar models, AquaCROP requires fewer input parameters. The objective of this study was evaluation of this model for barley under deficit irrigation in Pakdasht region. The experiment was done in 2014-15 growing season and included three irrigation treatments and three sowing dates. The irrigation treatments included full irrigation and two treatments of 80% and 60 percent of full irrigation. Sowing dates included early, normal, and late planting. Comparing the estimated values of AquaCROP model and measured values showed that the model is well capable of simulating the barley biomass production. Average R2, RMSE and MBE for the comparison between measured and estimated values were calculated to be 0.96, 8.4 %, and 2.6 %, respectively.

CROP models are suitable for simulation of CROP yield by different scenarios of deficit irrigation and salinity. In this research, the AquaCROP model was evaluated to simulate the soybean grain yield and biomass under different levels of salinity and deficit irrigation in Gorgan County during 2011 and 2012 growing seasons. The model was calibrated by experimental data of 2011 and validated with data of 2012. The experiment included three irrigation levels of 100%, 75% and 55% water requirement and three salinity levels of 0.7, 5 and 10 dS/m. Statistical indices of the results of validated model including RMSE, E, and d for grain yield were 0.225 ton/ha, 0.88 and 0.97, respectively, and for biomass, they were 0.718 ton/ha, 0.77 and 0.95, respectively. Results showed that grain yield decreased with decrease in the amount of irrigation water and increase in salinity level. Further analysis showed that the sensitivity of AquaCROP model to the canopy decline coefficient (CDC) was more than the other parameters at senescence and maximum canopy cover stages.

Iran is a country with an average rainfall of about one third of the world's average rainfall, and is severely under water due to water resources. Therefore, improvement of water use efficiency based on production in agricultural sector is very important. In this regard, the simulation of plant growth stages and, as a result of the need for forecasting, will result in better planning and more efficient management in the production process.Nowadays, tools are needed to help irrigation system designers to optimize irrigation water management in agriculture; Therefore, the FAO, with the development of the Aqua CROP model, provides these essential management tools for the various agricultural sectors necessary; In this research, Aqua CROP plant model was used for water requirement of barberry cultivars. For this purpose, inputs to the model include meteorological, vegetation data, irrigation management, farm management, soil characteristics, simulation time period, and initial conditions in the field. The survey of water requirement zonation map indicates that, considering the climatic conditions, the climate of the northern regions of the country, despite the fact that it is not recommended for the cultivation of barberry, is the least water requirement in comparison with other regions of the country. The provinces of Khorasan Razavi, North and South, which are the best places to grow barberry at the moment, and the major production of barberry in these areas, are higher than other areas in need of water. The northern parts of the country also have a moderate water requirement.

Background: Radiograph of hand and wrist has been widely used in children's bone age assessment (BAA). However, ionizing radiation may be harmful for children in the future. Therefore, alternative methods have been attempted for the evaluation of children's bone age. Here, we reported an automated volume SCANNER (AVS) in assessing the biological age of children in comparison with X-ray radiograph as the gold standard. Material and Methods: Total 22 children (13 male and 9 female) with short stature or precocious puberty were enrolled into this study. Their chronological age ranged from 4 to 14 years old. The children's left hand-wrist was scanned with the AVS by putting them into a water sink containing tape water. Coronal images of the left hand-wrist were reconstructed and compared with X-ray images. Results: The number of patients whose hand-wrist bones (except for the first metacarpal sesamoid bone and the secondary ossification center of the first metacarpal bone) identified by AVS image was not significantly different from that by X-ray image. In addition, the total number of observed bones in each patient were not significantly different between the two methods. The concordance rate (percentage of patients whose hand-wrist bone presented in both AVS image and X-ray image) was high and the interobserver variance of BA was small. Conclusions: The AVS method was highly correlated with the standard radiograph for children's bone age assessment with small inter-observer variability. This novel AVS method could be an alternative method in clinical practice for bone age assessment with higher safety and reliability.