title: [Concordance among analysts from Latin-American laboratories for rice grain appearance determination using a gallery of digital images].
abstract: The appearance of rice grain is a key aspect in quality determination. Mainly, this analysis is performed by expert analysts through visual observation; however, due to the subjective nature of the analysis, the results may vary among analysts. In order to evaluate the concordance between analysts from Latin-American rice quality laboratories for rice grain appearance through digital images, an inter-laboratory test was performed with ten analysts and images of 90 grains captured with a high resolution scanner. Rice grains were classified in four categories including translucent, chalky, white belly, and damaged grain. Data was categorized using statistic parameters like mode and its frequency, the relative concordance, and the reproducibility parameter kappa. Additionally, a referential image gallery of typical grain for each category was constructed based on mode frequency. Results showed a Kappa value of 0.49, corresponding to a moderate reproducibility, attributable to subjectivity in the visual analysis of grain images. These results reveal the need for standardize the evaluation criteria among analysts to improve the confidence of the determination of rice grain appearance.
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Investigación Agricola Danac, San Felipe, Venezuela.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Avila
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Graterol
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Alezones
authors.forename: Beisy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Criollo
authors.forename: Dámaso
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Castillo
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kuri
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Oviedo
authors.forename: Cesar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moquete
authors.forename: Marbella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: Zaida
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hanley
authors.forename: Margie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards*; D007843:Latin America; D015588:Observer Variation; D012275:Oryza / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D011786:Quality Control; D013045:Species Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods