DeepQC: A Deep Learning System for Automatic Quality Control of In-situ Soil Moisture Sensor Time Series Data

Amidst changing climate, real-time soil moisture monitoring is vital for the development of in-season decision support tools to help farmers manage weather related risks. Precision Sustainable Agriculture (PSA) recently established a real-time soil moisture monitoring network across the central, Midwest, and eastern U.S., but field-scale sensor observations often come with data gaps and anomalies. To maintain the data quality needed for development of decision tools, a quality control system is necessary. The International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) introduced the Flagit module for anomaly detection in soil moisture observations. However, under certain conditions, Flagit's quality control approaches may underperform in identifying anomalies. Recently deep learning methods have been successfully applied to detect anomalies in time series data in various disciplines. However, their use in agriculture has not been yet investigated. This study focuses on developing a Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model, referred to as DeepQC, to identify anomalies in soil moisture data. Manual flagged PSA observations were used for training, validation, and testing the model, following an 80:10:10 split. The study then compared the DeepQC and Flagit based estimates to assess their relative performance. Flagit corrected flagged 95.5% of the corrected observations and 50.3% of the anomaly observations, indicating its limitations in identifying anomalies. On the other hand, the DeepQC correctly flagged 99.7% of the correct observations and 95.6% of the anomalies in significantly less time, demonstrating its superiority over Flagit approach. Importantly, DeepQC's performance remained consistent regardless of the number of anomalies. Given the promising results obtained with the DeepQC, future studies will focus on implementing this model on national and global soil moisture networks.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Site-1 protease inhibits mitochondrial respiration by controlling the TGF-β target gene Mss51

The mitochondrial response to changes in cellular energy demand is necessary for cellular adaptation and organ function. Many genes are essential in orchestrating this response, including the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 target gene Mss51, an inhibitor of skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration. Although Mss51 is implicated in the pathophysiology of obesity and musculoskeletal disease, how Mss51 is regulated is not entirely understood. Site-1 protease (S1P) is a key activator of several transcription factors required for cellular adaptation. However, the role of S1P in muscle is unknown. Here, we identify S1P as a negative regulator of muscle mass and mitochondrial respiration. S1P disruption in mouse skeletal muscle reduces Mss51 expression and increases muscle mass and mitochondrial respiration. The effects of S1P deficiency on mitochondrial activity are counteracted by overexpressing Mss51, suggesting that one way S1P inhibits respiration is by regulating Mss51. These discoveries expand our understanding of TGF-β signaling and S1P function

Seroprevalence and risk factors of herpes simplex virus type-2 infection among pregnant women in Northeast India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections that facilitate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition by over two fold or more. The development of HSV-2 control methods as a measure to control HIV epidemic in high HSV-2/HIV areas has become a priority. Two out of the six high HIV prevalent states of India are located in the Northeastern region of India. Due to lack of documented HSV-2 studies from this part of the country; there was a need for estimating the seroprevalence and risk factors of HSV-2 infection in this defined population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Pregnant women (n = 1640) aged18 years and above attending antenatal clinics of tertiary referral hospitals in five Northeastern states of India were screened for type specific HSV-2 IgG antibodies. Blood samples were collected from all the participants after conducting interviews. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the risk factors associated with HSV-2 seropositivity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall seroprevalence of HSV-2 infection was 8.7% (142/1640; 95% CI 7.3-10.0) with a highest prevalence of 15.0% (46/307; 95% CI 11.0-19.0) in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Higher seroprevalence was observed with increasing age (Adj. Odds Ratio [AOR] 1.9 for 22-25 years old, AOR 2.29 for > 29 years old). The risk factors associated with HSV-2 seropositives were multiple sex partners (AOR 2.5, <it>p </it>= 0.04), condom non-user's (AOR 4.7, p <it><</it>0.001), early coitarchal age (age of first intercourse) 'less than 18 years' (AOR 9.6, <it>p = </it>0.04), middle income group (AOR 2.1, <it>p = </it>0.001) compared to low income group and low level of education (AOR 3.7, <it>p = </it>0.02) compared to higher education. HSV-2 seropositivity was higher among Christians (12.6%) compared to Muslims (3.8%). The most frequent clinical symptoms among HSV-2 seropositives were excess vaginal discharge in last one year (53.5%, 76/142) and pelvic pain (26.1%, 37/142). While among subjects with genital ulcers, HSV-2 seroprevalence was 36.8% (7/19).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Overall seroprevalence of HSV-2 infection among pregnant women of Northeast India is relatively low. The generation of awareness among high risk groups may have played key role to limit the infection. The role of vaccination against HSV-2 in near future and elimination of HSV-2 viral shedding along with genital tract inflammation in high HIV/HSV-2 areas may be an option for initiating successful intervention strategies to reduce the transmission and acquisition of HIV infection in Northeast India.</p

Viewers' Perception and Preference towards Ott Platforms – A Study With Reference To Mangaluru City

Abstract Over the past two decades, there has been a drastic change in the way people access and use video content. The age-old experience of watching TV is no longer limited to real- time or TV screen in the living room. Content is now used on laptops, tablets, etc- anytime and anywhere people want. Although not a household name in itself, OTT is the precise technology that has made the transition to broadcasting possible. The advent of online streaming platform such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc, means children and teenagers now have access to uncensored content, since there is no law or autonomous body to monitor and manage the digital contents provided on these OTT platforms and it is made available to the public at large without any filter or screening. As it is the case, OTT platforms should be responsible to create digital awareness i.e., viewers’ should be made aware of the impacts of their streaming and realise if there is really a need for watching those videos. Therefore, this study has been conducted to know the perception and preference of viewers’ towards OTT platforms and also to identify the factors influencing customers to use OTT

A Brief Review of Mimosa Pudica

MimosapudicaLinn.has been found to be a potent herb and used by different traditional practioner in different ailments. Different traditional formulation.In Charakasamhitha.It is mentioned that decoction of the plant could be used for vaginal wash in vaginal infections. South Asian peoples have been using Mimosapudica for several ailments for decades.MimosapudicaLinn is an annual or perennial herb found to have several activities like Antihelminthic, anti hyperglycemicanti inflammatory antipyretic antispasmodic , antitussiue, antiviral,calmative ,contraceptive, depilatory, diuretic ,emetic, expectorant, poison, sedative tranquilizing. People of different community used the medicinal value of the plant for the treatment of tooth ache, Urinary tract infections and vuvlvovaginal infections. It is well justified that there would be a potent antimicrobial activity against several bacterial and fungal infections

Meromorphic functions sharing two sets

summary:In the paper we discuss the uniqueness problem for meromorphic functions that share two sets and prove five theorems which improve and supplement some results earlier given by Yi and Yang [13], Lahiri and Banerjee [5]

Strigolactones enhance root‐knot nematode (Meloidogyne graminicola) infection in rice by antagonizing the jasmonate pathway

• Strigolactones (SLs) are carotenoid‐derived plant hormones that also act in the rhizosphere to stimulate germination of root‐parasitic plants and enhance plant symbiosis with beneficial microbes. Here, the role of SLs was investigated in the interaction of rice roots with the root‐knot nematode Meloidogyne graminicola. •Genetic approaches and chemical sprays were used to manipulate SL signaling in rice prior to infection with M. graminicola. Then, nematode performance was evaluated and plant defense hormones were quantified. •Meloidogyne graminicola infection induced SL biosynthesis and signaling and suppressed jasmonic acid (JA)‐based defense in rice roots suggesting a potential role of SLs during nematode infection. While the application of low dose of the SL analog GR24 increased nematode infection and decreased jasmonate accumulation, the SL biosynthesis and signaling d mutants were less susceptible to M. graminicola, and constitutively accumulated JA and JA‐isoleucine compared to wild‐type plants. Spraying with 0.1 μM GR24 restored nematode susceptibility in SL‐biosynthesis mutants but not in the signaling mutant. Furthermore, foliar application of the SL biosynthesis inhibitor TIS108 impeded nematode infection and increased jasmonate levels in rice roots. •In conclusion, SL signaling in rice suppresses jasmonate accumulation and promotes root‐knot nematode infection

Discriminant Substrokes for Online Handwriting Recognition

A discriminant-based framework for automatic recognition of online handwriting data is presented in this paper. We identify the substrokes that are more useful in discriminating between two online strokes. A similarity/dissimilarity score is computed based on the discriminatory potential of various parts of the stroke for the classification task. The discriminatory potential is then converted to the relative importance of the substroke. Experimental verification on online data such as numerals, characters supports our claims. We achieve an average reduction of in the classification error rate on many test sets of similar character pairs