GANS-based data augmentation for citrus disease severity detection using deep learning

Recently, many Deep Learning models have been employed to classify different kinds of plant diseases, but very little work has been done for disease severity detection. However, it is more important to master the severities of plant diseases accurately and timely, as it helps to make effective decisions to protect the plants from being further infected and reduce financial loss. In this paper, based on the Huanglongbing (HLB)-infected leaf images obtained from PlantVillage and crowdAI, we created a dataset with 5,406 citrus leaf images infected by HLB. Then six different kinds of popular models were trained to perform the severity detection of citrus HLB with the goal to find which types of models are more suitable to detect HLB severity with the same training circumstance. The experimental results show that the Inception_v3 model with epochs=60 can achieve higher accuracy than that of other models for severity detection with an accuracy of 74.38% due to its highly computational efficiency and small number of parameters. Additionally, aiming for evaluating whether GANs-based data augmentation can contribute to improve the model learning performance, we adopted DCGANs (Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks) to augment the original training dataset up to two times itself. Finally, a new training dataset with 14,056 leaf images composed by the original training images and the augmented ones were used to train the Inception_v3 model. As a result, we achieved an accuracy of 92.60%, about 20% higher than that of the Inception_v3 model trained by the original training dataset, which suggested that the GANs-based data augmentation is very useful to improve the model learning performance

Host Preference between Symbiotic and Aposymbiotic Aphis fabae, by the Aphid Parasitoid, Lysiphlebus ambiguus

Few empirical studies have directly explored the association between Buchnera aphidicola (Enterobacteriales: Enterobacteriaceae), the primary endosymbiont of aphids, and the life history strategies of aphid parasitoids. A series of paired-choice experiments were conducted to explore the preference of the parasitoid Lysiphlebus ambiguus Halliday (Hymenoptera: Aphididae) for symbiotic and aposymbiotic Aphis fabae Scopoli (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and the suitability of these hosts for parasitoid development. When given a choice between symbiotic and aposymbiotic aphids of the same instar, the parasitoid significantly preferred symbiotic over aposymbiotic aphids only during the later instars (L4 and adult). The suitability of aposymbiotic aphids for parasitoid development was equal to that of symbiotic aphids in terms of survivorship and sex ratio, but was significantly lower than that of symbiotic aphids for L4 and adult instars in development rate and/or female adult size. When given a choice between similar-sized symbiotic L2 and aposymbiotic L4 aphids, the parasitoid preferred the former. No significant differences in preference or host suitability were demonstrated when the parasitoid was given a choice between different instars of aposymbiotic aphids. While parasitoid lifetime fecundity increased with aphid instar at the time of oviposition, there was no significant influence of previous development from symbiotic versus aposymbiotic aphids. These results suggest that while L. ambiguus can discriminate between symbiotic and aposymbiotic A. fabae during later instars and when the aphids are of a similar size, the primary endosymbiont is not needed for successful parasitoid development; and its absence only compromises parasitoid growth reared from later instar aposymbiotic host

Clustering-guided novel unsupervised domain adversarial network for partial transfer fault diagnosis of rotating machinery

Unsupervised partial transfer fault diagnosis studies of rotating machinery have practical significance, which still exists some challenges, for example, the learned domain-specific statistics and parameters usually influence the learning effect of target-domain features to some degree, and the relatively scattered target-domain features will lead to negative transfer. To overcome those limitations and further improve partial transfer fault diagnosis performance, a clustering-guided novel unsupervised domain adversarial network is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a novel unsupervised domain adversarial network is constructed using domain-specific batch normalization to remove domain-specific information to enhance alignment between source and target domains. Secondly, embedded clustering strategy is designed to learn tightly clustered target-domain features to suppress negative transfer in partial domain adaptation process. Finally, a joint optimization objective function is defined to balance different losses to improve the training and diagnosis performance. Two experimental cases of bevel gearbox and bearing are used to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method in solving unsupervised partial transfer fault diagnosis problems

A multi-targeted approach to suppress tumor-promoting inflammation

Cancers harbor significant genetic heterogeneity and patterns of relapse following many therapies are due to evolved resistance to treatment. While efforts have been made to combine targeted therapies, significant levels of toxicity have stymied efforts to effectively treat cancer with multi-drug combinations using currently approved therapeutics. We discuss the relationship between tumor-promoting inflammation and cancer as part of a larger effort to develop a broad-spectrum therapeutic approach aimed at a wide range of targets to address this heterogeneity. Specifically, macrophage migration inhibitory factor, cyclooxygenase-2, transcription factor nuclear factor-κB, tumor necrosis factor alpha, inducible nitric oxide synthase, protein kinase B, and CXC chemokines are reviewed as important antiinflammatory targets while curcumin, resveratrol, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein, lycopene, and anthocyanins are reviewed as low-cost, low toxicity means by which these targets might all be reached simultaneously. Future translational work will need to assess the resulting synergies of rationally designed antiinflammatory mixtures (employing low-toxicity constituents), and then combine this with similar approaches targeting the most important pathways across the range of cancer hallmark phenotypes

The Overseeing Mother: Revisiting the Frontal-Pose Lady in the Wu Family Shrines in Second Century China

Located in present-day Jiaxiang in Shandong province, the Wu family shrines built during the second century in the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) were among the best-known works in Chinese art history. Although for centuries scholars have exhaustively studied the pictorial programs, the frontal-pose female image situated on the second floor of the central pavilion carved at the rear wall of the shrines has remained a question. Beginning with the woman’s eyes, this article demonstrates that the image is more than a generic portrait (“hard motif ”), but rather represents “feminine overseeing from above” (“soft motif ”). This synthetic motif combines three different earlier motifs – the frontal-pose hostess enjoying entertainment, the elevated spectator, and the Queen Mother of the West. By creatively fusing the three motifs into one unity, the Jiaxiang artists lent to the frontal-pose lady a unique power: she not only dominated the center of the composition, but also, like a divine being, commanded a unified view of the surroundings on the lofty building, hence echoing the political reality of the empress mother’s “overseeing the court” in the second century during Eastern Han dynasty

Whole-genome sequencing of the snub-nosed monkey provides insights into folivory and evolutionary history

Colobines are a unique group of Old World monkeys that principally eat leaves and seeds rather than fruits and insects. We report the sequencing at 146× coverage, de novo assembly and analyses of the genome of a male golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) and resequencing at 30× coverage of three related species (Rhinopithecus bieti, Rhinopithecus brelichi and Rhinopithecus strykeri). Comparative analyses showed that Asian colobines have an enhanced ability to derive energy from fatty acids and to degrade xenobiotics. We found evidence for functional evolution in the colobine RNASE1 gene, encoding a key secretory RNase that digests the high concentrations of bacterial RNA derived from symbiotic microflora. Demographic reconstructions indicated that the profile of ancient effective population sizes for R. roxellana more closely resembles that of giant panda rather than its congeners. These findings offer new insights into the dietary adaptations and evolutionary history of colobine primates

Preparation and Application of Electrodes in Capacitive Deionization (CDI): a State-of-Art Review

As a promising desalination technology, capacitive deionization (CDI) have shown practicality and cost-effectiveness in brackish water treatment. Developing more efficient electrode materials is the key to improving salt removal performance. This work reviewed current progress on electrode fabrication in application of CDI. Fundamental principal (e.g. EDL theory and adsorption isotherms) and process factors (e.g. pore distribution, potential, salt type and concentration) of CDI performance were presented first. It was then followed by in-depth discussion and comparison on properties and fabrication technique of different electrodes, including carbon aerogel, activated carbon, carbon nanotubes, graphene and ordered mesoporous carbon. Finally, polyaniline as conductive polymer and its potential application as CDI electrode-enhancing materials were also discussed