We report on the first implementation of a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) in 90nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The detector features an octagonal multiplication region and a guard ring to prevent premature edge breakdown using a standard mask set exclusively. The proposed structure emerged from a systematic study aimed at miniaturization, while optimizing ove...

The Gram-positive organism Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the cause of diphtheria in humans, expresses pili on its surface which it uses for adhesion and colonization of its host. These pili are covalent protein polymers composed of three types of pilin subunit that are assembled by specific sortase enzymes. A structural analysis of the major pilin SpaD, which forms the polymeric backbone of one ...

Remote sensing is a suitable tool for estimating the spatial variability of crop canopy characteristics, such as canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) and green ground cover (GGC%), which are often used for crop productivity analysis and site-specific crop management. Empirical relationships exist between different vegetation indices (VI) and CCC and GGC% that allow spatial estimation of canopy char...

In a 3-year experiment (2002-2004), five N rates (0, 60, 120, 180, 240 kg N ha-1) were applied to sugar beets arranged in a Randomized Complete Block design with six replications. Experimentation took place under the semi-arid, irrigated conditions of central Greece. The aim of this work was to study the late season response of sugar beet crop to N fertilization as assessed by non-destructive m...

Hydroponic systems have become increasingly popular for growers in recent years year-round local production. Whereas optimal air temperature plant growth has been considered, root zone temperatures not examined as thoroughly. The objective of this research was to determine the water growing different types basil hydroponically. Research conducted at greenhouses Stillwater, OK. Seventeen cultiva...

Nitrogen (N) in plants is generally diagnosed by a soil test and plant tissue analysis.However, such analyses are costly in terms of time and money and are not easily accessible byresearchers and extension workers, let alone farmers. Alternative cost-effective methods arerequired for rapid analysis of the N status of crops and to guide N management in wheat. Theobjective of this study was to as...

Title of dissertation: INTEGRATED SINGLE-PHOTON SENSING AND PROCESSING PLATFORM IN STANDARD CMOS Babak Nouri, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Pamela Abshire Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Practical implementation of large SPAD-based sensor arrays in the standard CMOS process has been fraught with challenges due to the many performance trade-offs existing at ...

Humic acids are the most active components of soil organic matter and have been shown to have an hormone-like activity thus stimulating plant growth. The objective of this work was to verify the quantitative and qualitative yield responses of the table grape cv. Italia after the application of a humic acid at various phenological stages. The humic acid used in this study has been extracted from...

This work introduces a new vision-based approach for estimating chlorophyll contents in a plant leaf using reflectance and transmittance as base parameters. Images of the top and underside of the leaf are captured. To estimate the base parameters (reflectance/transmittance), a novel optical arrangement is proposed. The chlorophyll content is then estimated by using linear regression where the i...