Abstract
A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica ). The fruit fresh-mass—diameter relationship changed with time during the season, hence no single function fitted the data well. Smooth piecewise functions that assume different relationships for intervening segments of a curve bounded by knots on the x-axis are particularly useful for modeling such data. The curve is said to be smooth because the first derivative of the function is continuous on the interval, including the knots. Two such equations, a three-parameter piecewise power function and a five-parameter spline exponential function, provided good fits to data. For both equations, the estimated mean bias on individual fruit predictions was within 5% of predicted mass over the two validating data sets. As for the precision conditional on no bias, a sample size of 20 fruit gave standard errors within 2.5% of mean predicted mass. These precisions are adequate to meet the industry requirements for monitoring fruit mass through the growing season. There was evidence of a seasonal difference in the estimated bias, but we were unable to confirm that this variation resulted from seasonal differences in fruit shape. Application of these two equations to data from other regions suggested that divergence from the estimated functional form may in fact be greater under increasingly different climatic conditions. Hence, further investigations to identify possible sources of these differences are necessary before the proposed equations can be applied across climatically different regions.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Two piecewise equations, a three-parameter power function and a five-parameter spline exponential function, provided good fits to Royal Gala apple fruit mass–diameter data.
- Taxon
- apple
Malus domesticae1 - Material
- Royal Galae1
- Outcome
- good fits to datae2
- Comparator
- a number of mass—diameter equationse1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica )”
e2“Two such equations, a three-parameter piecewise power function and a five-parameter spline exponential function, provided good fits to data”
Claim · model-written summary
For both equations the estimated mean bias on individual fruit predictions was within 5% of predicted mass over the two validating data sets.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae1
- Outcome
- estimated mean bias on individual fruit predictionse3
- Value
- within 5%e3
- Qualifier
- over the two validating data setse3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica )”
e3“For both equations, the estimated mean bias on individual fruit predictions was within 5% of predicted mass over the two validating data sets”
Claim · model-written summary
A sample of 20 fruit gave standard errors within 2.5% of mean predicted mass.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae1
- Outcome
- standard errorse4
- Value
- within 2.5%e4
- Qualifier
- a sample size of 20 fruite4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica )”
e4“As for the precision conditional on no bias, a sample size of 20 fruit gave standard errors within 2.5% of mean predicted mass”
Claim · model-written summary
There was evidence of a seasonal difference in the estimated bias of the equations.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae1
- Outcome
- estimated biase5
- Qualifier
- evidence of a seasonal differencee5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica )”
e5“There was evidence of a seasonal difference in the estimated bias, but we were unable to confirm that this variation resulted from seasonal differences in fruit shape”
Claim · model-written summary
Seasonal differences in fruit shape could not be confirmed as the cause of the bias variation.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae1
- Outcome
- seasonal differences in fruit shapee5
- Qualifier
- unable to confirm that this variation resulted frome5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica )”
e5“There was evidence of a seasonal difference in the estimated bias, but we were unable to confirm that this variation resulted from seasonal differences in fruit shape”
Claim · model-written summary
The equations applied to data from other regions suggest that divergence from the estimated functional form may be greater under increasingly different climatic conditions.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae1
- Outcome
- divergence from the estimated functional forme6
- Direction
- greatere6
- Setting
- other regionse6
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica )”
e6“Application of these two equations to data from other regions suggested that divergence from the estimated functional form may in fact be greater under increasingly different climatic conditions”
Claim · model-written summary
Further investigation is needed before the proposed equations are applied across climatically different regions.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae1
- Outcome
- applied across climatically different regionse7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica )”
e7“further investigations to identify possible sources of these differences are necessary before the proposed equations can be applied across climatically different regions”
Claim · model-written summary
The precisions are adequate for industry requirements for monitoring fruit mass through the growing season.
- Taxon
- appleMalus domesticae1
- Outcome
- These precisions are adequatee7
- Comparator
- the industry requirementse7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“A number of mass—diameter equations were compared for their potential use in indirect measurement of fruit masses of `Royal Gala' apple ( Malus × domestica )”
e7“These precisions are adequate to meet the industry requirements for monitoring fruit mass through the growing season”