Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJuly 26, 2024
Decision Letter - Sajid Ali, Editor

PONE-D-24-31212Hyperspectral Technology and Machine Learning Models to Estimate the Fruit Quality Parameters of Mango and Strawberry CropsPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Elbeltagi,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Sajid Ali

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: 1- Introduction suffers from lack of motivations and innovations. It should be expanded to include a more detailed discussion of current problems. Use the following articles to improve the introduction section and other sections:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemolab.2022.104650

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2023.100931

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2022.101829

2- What is the difference between evaluation of fruit ripening level using conventional image processing and hyperspectral technology?

3- A section on network training should be included which details on the parameters (e.g., learning rate, number of iterations, batch size, momentum etc.) used for training algorithms (what filter size?). what is the architecture of algorithms? Such information would increase the quality of manuscript and also provides a way for re-implementation by others.

4- Actual views of the equipment used and all samples should be provided in the manuscript.

5- Results and Discussion; author should compare the finding of present study with previous study and justify for more clarity.

6- The captions of some figures and tables are not descriptive enough.

7- The technical discussion is insufficient, requiring a more thorough analysis and interpretation of results to substantiate the scientific merit of the study.

8- Author should add separate section regarding future outlook and specific comment point wise based on their study.

9- Limitations of the study should be included and discussed.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is interesting providing a suitable method to evaluate the fruit ripening. The manuscript is well-designed and will-written. only some minor comments are there in the attached manuscript need to be addressed before acceptance in order to improve the manuscript for publication

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: PONE-D-24-31212_reviewer.pdf
Revision 1

Reviewer 1

1 Introduction suffers from lack of motivations and innovations. It should be expanded to include a more detailed discussion of current problems. Use the following articles to improve the introduction section and other sections:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemolab.2022.104650

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2023.100931

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2022.101829

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have improved the introduction section and other sections using these articles, as you requested.

2 What is the difference between evaluation of fruit ripening level using conventional image processing and hyperspectral technology?

Conventional Image Processing: Uses visible light images (RGB), analyzes color, shape, and texture, Limited to surface characteristics. less accurate for subtle changes in ripeness. Struggling with varying lighting conditions.

Hyperspectral Technology: Captures a wide range of wavelengths. Provides detailed chemical composition and internal properties. Can detect subtle differences in ripening stages based on spectral signatures. Offers higher accuracy in determining ripeness levels, including internal quality indicators. Better at identifying diseases or defects not visible in conventional images.

3 A section on network training should be included which details on the parameters (e.g., learning rate, number of iterations, batch size, momentum etc.) used for training algorithms (what filter size?). what is the architecture of algorithms? Such information would increase the quality of manuscript and also provides a way for re-implementation by others.

Thank you for your comments. We have included additional details for the parameters used for training algorithms in the Materials and Methods section. This information can be found in lines 223-226 for artificial neural network model, lines 235-238 for random forest model, and lines 252-255 for decision tree model. Additionally, we have already incorporated information in the Results and Discussion section. Specifically, this information can be found in lines 412-447 for the mango’s models and lines 453-499 for the strawberry’s models, emphasizing the optimal hyperparameters utilized in our models.

4 Actual views of the equipment used and all samples should be provided in the manuscript.

Thank you for your comments. We have provided figures for the equipment used in our manuscript, as you requested.

5 Results and Discussion; author should compare the finding of present study with previous study and justify for more clarity.

We have already added recent studies in lines (273-303), (306-337), (353-372), and (384-413) for quality parameters and spectral reflectance indices and in lines (412-447) and (453-499) for our models.

6 The captions of some figures and tables are not descriptive enough.

Thank you for your comments. We have ensured that all captions of figures and tables are descriptive enough, as you requested.

7 The technical discussion is insufficient, requiring a more thorough analysis and interpretation of results to substantiate the scientific merit of the study.

Thank you for your comments. We have already added information in lines (505-544)

8 Author should add separate section regarding future outlook and specific comment point wise based on their study.

Thank you for your comments. We have added section regarding future outlook in line (545-553), as you requested.

9 Limitations of the study should be included and discussed.

Thank you for your comments. We have included limitations of the study in discussion in line (509-511).

Reviewer 2

1 The manuscript is interesting providing a suitable method to evaluate the fruit ripening. The manuscript is well-designed and will-written. only some minor comments are there in the attached manuscript need to be addressed before acceptance in order to improve the manuscript for publication.

Thank you for comment. We have improved our manuscript according to the comments mentioned. Thank you for your special addition.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response_editors.docx
Decision Letter - Sajid Ali, Editor

Hyperspectral Technology and Machine Learning Models to Estimate the Fruit Quality Parameters of Mango and Strawberry Crops

PONE-D-24-31212R1

Dear Dr. Salem,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Sajid Ali

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors have significantly improved the quality of the manuscript and the presentation of results. They have satisfactorily attended to all the reviewer's comments. Hence the manuscript can be accepted.

Reviewer #2: The author responded to all comments. the manuscript can be accepted if there is no negative comments from other reviewers

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Sajid Ali, Editor

PONE-D-24-31212R1

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Salem,

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team.

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Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Sajid Ali

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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