{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,26]],"date-time":"2026-01-26T00:35:02Z","timestamp":1769387702886,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,26]],"date-time":"2022-07-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1658793600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Science Foundation of China","award":["42002294"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42002294"]}]},{"name":"National Science Foundation of China","award":["51639007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["51639007"]}]},{"name":"National Science Foundation of China","award":["12075162"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["12075162"]}]},{"name":"National Science Foundation of China","award":["U19A20111"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U19A20111"]}]},{"name":"National Science Foundation of China","award":["2020YJ0357"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020YJ0357"]}]},{"name":"National Science Foundation of China","award":["2021JDR0399"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021JDR0399"]}]},{"name":"National Science Foundation of China","award":["SKLGP2017Z001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SKLGP2017Z001"]}]},{"name":"Sichuan Science and Technology Program","award":["42002294"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42002294"]}]},{"name":"Sichuan Science and Technology Program","award":["51639007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["51639007"]}]},{"name":"Sichuan Science and Technology Program","award":["12075162"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["12075162"]}]},{"name":"Sichuan Science and Technology Program","award":["U19A20111"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U19A20111"]}]},{"name":"Sichuan Science and Technology Program","award":["2020YJ0357"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020YJ0357"]}]},{"name":"Sichuan Science and Technology Program","award":["2021JDR0399"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021JDR0399"]}]},{"name":"Sichuan Science and Technology Program","award":["SKLGP2017Z001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SKLGP2017Z001"]}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Pretection Research Project","award":["42002294"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["42002294"]}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Pretection Research Project","award":["51639007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["51639007"]}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Pretection Research Project","award":["12075162"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["12075162"]}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Pretection Research Project","award":["U19A20111"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U19A20111"]}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Pretection Research Project","award":["2020YJ0357"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020YJ0357"]}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Pretection Research Project","award":["2021JDR0399"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021JDR0399"]}]},{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Pretection Research Project","award":["SKLGP2017Z001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SKLGP2017Z001"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The shape and the size of grains in sediments and soils have a significant influence on their engineering properties. Image analysis of grain shape and size has been increasingly applied in geotechnical engineering to provide a quantitative statistical description for grain morphologies. The statistic robustness and the era of big data in geotechnical engineering require the quick and efficient acquirement of large data sets of grain morphologies. In the past publications, some semi-automation algorithms in extracting grains from images may cost tens of minutes. With the rapid development of deep learning networks applied to earth sciences, we develop UNetGE software that is based on the U-Net architecture\u2014a fully convolutional network\u2014to recognize and segregate grains from the matrix using the electron and optical microphotographs of rock and soil thin sections or the photographs of their hand specimen and outcrops. Resultantly, it shows that UNetGE can extract approximately 300~1300 grains in a few seconds to a few minutes and provide their morphologic parameters, which will ably assist with analyses on the engineering properties of sediments and soils (e.g., permeability, strength, and expansivity) and their hydraulic characteristics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s22155565","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,27]],"date-time":"2022-07-27T04:59:16Z","timestamp":1658897956000},"page":"5565","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["UNetGE: A U-Net-Based Software at Automatic Grain Extraction for Image Analysis of the Grain Size and Shape Characteristics"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3986-3298","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ling","family":"Zeng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Geomathematics Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tianbin","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiekang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lei","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Geomathematics Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Peng","family":"Zeng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jason Scott","family":"Herrin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facility for Analysis Characterization Testing Simulation, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"04016071","DOI":"10.1061\/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001569","article-title":"Effect of particle shape on the mechanical behavior of natural sands","volume":"142","author":"Altuhafi","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. 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