Iterative Search with Local Visual Features for Computer Assisted Plant Identification

To support computer assisted plant species identification in a realistic, uncontrolled picture-taking condition, we put forward an approach relying on local image features. It combines query by example and relevance feedback to support both the localization of potentially interesting image regions and the classification of these regions as representing or not the target species. We show that this approach is successful, and makes prior segmentation unnecessary

Milk mega farms and the new agrarian capitalism: the multiple dimensions of the current socio-technical transition in Vietnam

In the last 30 years, the Vietnamese dairy sector has gone through a deep transformation. We use the concept of “sociotechnical transition” to capture the multiple dimensions of these changes that reflect the renovation of Asian capitalism and society. Our research comprises a multi-disciplinary long term field study conducted in Hanoi Province, as well as an analysis of national regulations and secondary databases. Based on that, we identify different sociotechnical regimes that govern the dairy sector for a given period. Those regimes are defined as coherent sets of practices, techniques and social rules. From the Doi Moi reforms up to the mid-2000s, the development of Vietnamese dairy production was dominated by the complementarity between small peasant farms, private milk processors and public sector services. We propose to qualify this timeframe as a “peasant” sociotechnical regime. In the late 2000s, however, this regime ran up against questions concerning the underlying food model, mainly due to its dependence on imported milk powder. Following the 2008 melamine health crisis linked to imports from China, Vietnam entered into a “corporate” dairy development regime which gives more space to agro-industries and capitalist logics. This change of direction profoundly changed the outcome of the "transition". The emergence of mega farms holding several thousand cows reflects this change of direction pushed to the extreme. Mega farms reflect the importance of financial capital and high technologies in the transformation of Vietnam's agricultural economy. The new socio-technical regime also relies on a social construction of new food models concerned with “health safety”. But the rise of this “corporate” regime is constraint by the fact that the State, who formally owns the land, tends to preserve land-use rights for smallholder farmers. This situation results in a coexistence of the 2 sociotechnical regimes, rather than in the replacement of one by the other

Alkane-grown Beauveria bassiana produce mycelial pellets displaying peroxisome proliferation, oxidative stress, and cell surface alterations

The entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana is able to grow on insect cuticle18 hydrocarbons as the sole carbon source, inducing several enzymes involved in alkane19 assimilation and concomitantly increasing virulence against insect hosts. In this study, we20 describe some physiological and molecular processes implicated in growth, nutritional21 stress response, and cellular alterations found in alkane-grown fungi. The fungal cytology22 was investigated using light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) while the surface23 topography was examined using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Fungal hydrophobicity24 was also measured on the cell surface. Additionally, the expression pattern of several genes25 associated with oxidative stress, peroxisome biogenesis, and hydrophobicity were analysed26 by qPCR. We found a novel type of growth in alkane-cultured B. bassiana similar to27 mycelial pellets described in other alkane-free fungi, which were able to germinate and28 produce viable conidia in media without a carbon source and to be pathogenic against29 larvae of the beetles Tenebrio molitor and Tribolium castaneum. Optical microscopy and30 TEM showed that pellets were formed by hyphae cumulates with high peroxidase activity,31 exhibiting peroxisome proliferation and an apparent surface thickening. Alkane-grown32 conidia appeared to be more hydrophobic and cell surfaces displayed different topography33 than glucose-grown cells, as it was observed by AFM. We also found a significant34 induction in several genes encoding for peroxins, catalases, superoxide dismutases, and35 hydrophobins. These results show that both morphological and metabolic changes are36 triggered in mycelial pellets derived from alkane-grown B. bassiana.Fil: Huarte Bonnet, Carla. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata ; ArgentinaFil: Santos Da Paixao, Flavia Regina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata ; ArgentinaFil: Ponce, Juan C. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata ; ArgentinaFil: Santana, Marianela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata ; ArgentinaFil: Prieto, Eduardo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas; ArgentinaFil: Pedrini, Nicolás. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata ; Argentin

The ImageCLEF 2012 Plant Identification Task

International audienceThe ImageCLEF's plant identification task provides a testbed for the system-oriented evaluation of plant identification, more precisely on the 126 tree species identification based on leaf images. Three types of image content are considered: Scan, Scan-like (leaf photographs with a white uniform background), and Photograph (unconstrained leaf with natural background). The main originality of this data is that it was specifically built through a citizen sciences initiative conducted by Tela Botanica, a French social network of amateur and expert botanists. This makes the task closer to the conditions of a real-world application. This overview presents more precisely the resources and assessments of task, summarizes the retrieval approaches employed by the participating groups, and provides an analysis of the main evaluation results. With a total of eleven groups from eight countries and with a total of 30 runs submitted, involving distinct and original methods, this second year pilot task confirms Image Retrieval community interest for biodiversity and botany, and highlights further challenging studies in plant identification

The ImageCLEF 2013 Plant Identification Task

International audienceThe ImageCLEF's plant identification task provides a testbed for a system-oriented evaluation of plant identification about 250 species trees and herbaceous plants based on detailed views of leaves, flowers, fruits, stems and bark or some entire views of the plants. Two types of image content are considered: SheetAsBackgroud which contains only leaves in a front of a generally white uniform background, and NaturalBackground which contains the 5 kinds of detailed views with unconstrained conditions, directly photographed on the plant. The main originality of this data is that it was specifically built through a citizen sciences initiative conducted by Tela Botanica, a French social network of amateur and expert botanists. This makes the task closer to the conditions of a real-world application. This overview presents more precisely the resources and assessments of task, summarizes the retrieval approaches employed by the participating groups, and provides an analysis of the main evaluation results. With a total of twelve groups from nine countries and with a total of thirty three runs submitted, involving distinct and original methods, this third year task confirms Image Retrieval community interest for biodiversity and botany, and highlights further challenging studies in plant identification

The ORCHIS software used to identify 100 orchids species of Lao PDR

The identification of plants, especially of orchids, is a major obstacle to the regulation of their trade. Lao PDR recently signed the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), and is facing many difficulties in its application at its borders, precisely because of lack of resources and information about its flora. This is particularly marked in Laos, where the pressures on the country’s natural resources are particularly important because of the growth of this region. The National Herbarium Netherlands, the National University of Laos, and CIRAD have joined within the European project ORCHIS (http://www. orchisasia.org/) to develop, test and disseminate original tools to identify 100 orchids species in Laos. This identification tool, primarily targeted for managers of protected areas and customs authorities of the Country, is adapted to people with only a limited knowledge of botany. The tool, based on the IDAO software developed by CIRAD, enables the creation of a graphic sketch of the plant that is sought, thus allowing to overcome the constraints of language and knowledge of a specialized terminology

L'identification des adventices assistée par ordinateur avec le système IDAO

Identification of crop weeds is essential to get the information needed for elaborating efficient control methods. Non specialised people had difficulties to do this identification with classical tools, such as floras or field guides (too technical, unsuitable for seedlings or partial samples, process difficult to follow...). That brought us to develop a new system for plant recognition assisted by computer that was called IDAO (IDentification Assistée par Ordinateur). This software has the distinctive feature to use a graphical identification system by identikit. This identikit allows the user to build the image of the plant from traits freely chosen according to the specimen or to the user. It tolerates observation errors or polymorphism. Species are listed by their probability of similarity with the identikit. Descriptions, illustrations and information (biology, ecology, control...) are available at any time in local or online Html pages. These descriptive files can be regularly updated on the Web site. IDAO is a multilingual and multiplatform system. It can be used on PC (from cdrom or downloaded) or directly in the field on ultra mobile computer. Several applications have been published on weed floras of different cropping systems (rice, cotton, food crops, sugarcane...) and for different world areas (Africa, Asia, India, Indian Ocean), and also for other kinds of plants (trees, orchids...). The IDAO system will evolve during the Pl@ntnet project that will start in early 2009. IDAO will be available as free software on an Internet platform, for every body can develop by himself or under collaboration new applications available for all the user community. This identification system will be linked to an automatic recognition tool, using image analysis.L’identification des adventices d’une culture est une phase primordiale pour accéder à l’information nécessaire à l’élaboration de moyens de lutte performants. Les difficultés rencontrées par les non botanistes pour réaliser cette identification avec les outils classiques comme les flores ou les manuels (trop techniques, inefficaces pour les plantules ou les spécimens incomplets, processus difficile à suivre…) nous ont amené à développer un nouveau système de reconnaissance assistée par ordinateur appelé IDAO (IDentification Assistée par Ordinateur). Ce logiciel a la particularité d’utiliser un système d’identification graphique par portrait robot qui permet à l’utilisateur de construire l’image de la plante à partir de caractères choisis librement en fonction du spécimen ou de l’utilisateur et de tolérer les erreurs d’observation ou le polymorphisme. Les espèces sont listées en permanence en fonction de leur similitude avec ce portrait robot. Descriptions, illustrations et informations (biologie, écologie, lutte…) sont accessibles à tout moment sous la forme de pages au format Html disponibles localement ou sur un site Internet, et donc régulièrement actualisables. IDAO est multilingue et multiplateformes informatique. Il peut être utilisé sur PC (installable à partir de cdrom ou téléchargeable) ou directement au champ sur ordinateur ultra mobile. Une série d’applications a déjà été développée pour des flores de différents systèmes de cultures (riz, cotonnier, vivrier, canne à sucre…) et de différentes régions du monde (Afrique, Inde, Asie, Océan Indien) ainsi que pour d’autres types de plantes (arbres, orchidées…). Le système IDAO va évoluer dans le cadre du projet Pl@ntnet qui démarrera début 2009. Il sera mis à disposition sous forme de logiciel libre sur une plateforme Internet permettant ainsi à tout utilisateur de développer seul ou en partenariat une application et de la mettre à disposition de la communauté d’utilisateurs. Ce système d’identification sera associé à un outil de reconnaissance automatique par analyse d’images