Crop Planning using Stochastic Visual Optimization

As the world population increases and arable land decreases, it becomes vital to improve the productivity of the agricultural land available. Given the weather and soil properties, farmers need to take critical decisions such as which seed variety to plant and in what proportion, in order to maximize productivity. These decisions are irreversible and any unusual behavior of external factors, such as weather, can have catastrophic impact on the productivity of crop. A variety which is highly desirable to a farmer might be unavailable or in short supply, therefore, it is very critical to evaluate which variety or varieties are more likely to be chosen by farmers from a growing region in order to meet demand. In this paper, we present our visual analytics tool, ViSeed, showcased on the data given in Syngenta 2016 crop data challenge 1 . This tool helps to predict optimal soybean seed variety or mix of varieties in appropriate proportions which is more likely to be chosen by farmers from a growing region. It also allows to analyse solutions generated from our approach and helps in the decision making process by providing insightful visualizationsComment: 5 page

Analysis of the Influence of Soil Roughness, Surface Crust and Soil Moisture on Spectral Reflectance

Soil moisture is an important component of numerous systems, influencing crop development, and runoff and infiltration partitioning, among other things. However, due to its spatial and temporal variability, it is difficult to estimate soil moisture consistently using conventional techniques such as gravimetric sampling, which is point-based and time-consuming. Therefore, to overcome this drawback in soil moisture estimation and mapping, and to facilitate its measurement spatially and temporarily, remote sensing is a promising technique. Measurement of soil surface reflectance in the visible and near infrared (VIS/NIR) may be used for this purpose. However, soil reflectance within this spectral range is affected by numerous factors, including soil surface roughness and the presence of soil crust. Thus, in order to determine the utility of VIS/NIR remote sensing for surface soil moisture estimation, roughness and crusting must be considered. In this study, we quantify the effects of these three components (moisture, roughness, and degree of crusting) on soil surface reflectance within the spectral range of 450 nm to 1000 nm in order to determine the extent to which moisture can be estimated under different soil surface conditions

Text Detection in Document Images: Highlight on using FAST algorithm

In recent years, text extraction from document images is one of the most widely studied topics in Image Analysis and Optical Character Recognition. These extractions of document images can be used for document analysis, content analysis, document retrieval and many more. Many complex text extracting processes Maximization Likelihood (ML), Edge point detection, Corner point detection etc. are used to extract text documents from images. In this article, the corner point approach was used. To extract document from images we used a very simple approach based on FAST algorithm. Firstly, we divided the image into blocks and their density in each block was checked. The denser blocks were labeled as text blocks and the less dense were the image region or noise. Then we check the connectivity of the blocks to group the blocks so that the text part can be isolated from the image. This method is very fast and versatile, it can be used to detect various languages, handwriting and even images with a lot of noise and blur. Even though it is a very simple program the precision of this method is closer or higher than 90%. In conclusion, this method helps in more accurate and less complex detection of text from document images

Embelia ribes extract reduces high fat diet and low dose streptozotocin-induced diabetic nephrotoxicity in rats

Nephropathy associated with type 2 diabetes is the single most common cause of end-stage renal disease. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the preventive effect of ethanolic extract of Embelia ribes fruit (EER) against high fat diet (HFD) and low dose streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic nephrotoxicity in Wistar rats. HFD-fed and low dose STZ (35 mg/kg, i.p)-induced diabetic rats were treated with EER (100 and 200 mg/kg/day) for 21 days while continuing on HFD. Preventive effects of EER were demonstrated by significant reduction (p< 0.01) in body weight gain, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatinine, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, while elevation in serum albumin and total protein levels. Insulin sensitizing effects were seen during oral glucose tolerance testing. Further, EER treatment significantly (p< 0.01) decreased the kidney thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) levels, while increasing the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione (GSH) levels in diabetic rats. Histological studies of kidney also supported the experimental findings. Taken together, our data suggest that EER attenuates renal injury in type 2 diabetic rats, possibly by improvement in glucose and lipid metabolism, enhancement of insulin sensitivity, blood pressure lowering, and inhibition of lipid peroxidation process

Effect of Benzene and Ethylbenzene on the Transcription of methyl-\u3cem\u3etert\u3c/em\u3e-butyl Ether Degradation Genes of \u3cem\u3eMethylibium petroleiphilum\u3c/em\u3e PM1

Methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and its degradation by-product, tert-butyl alcohol (TBA), are widespread contaminants detected frequently in groundwater in California. Since MTBE was used as a fuel oxygenate for almost two decades, leaking underground fuel storage tanks are an important source of contamination. Gasoline components such as BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) are often present in mixtures with MTBE and TBA. Investigations of interactions between BTEX and MTBE degradation have not yielded consistent trends, and the molecular mechanisms of BTEX compounds’ impact on MTBE degradation are not well understood. We investigated trends in transcription of biodegradation genes in the MTBE-degrading bacterium, Methylibium petroleiphilum PM1 upon exposure to MTBE, TBA, ethylbenzene and benzene as individual compounds or in mixtures. We designed real-time quantitative PCR assays to target functional genes of strain PM1 and provide evidence for induction of genes mdpA (MTBE monooxygenase), mdpJ (TBA hydroxylase) and bmoA (benzene monooxygenase) in response to MTBE, TBA and benzene, respectively. Delayed induction of mdpA and mdpJ transcription occurred with mixtures of benzene and MTBE or TBA, respectively. bmoA transcription was similar in the presence of MTBE or TBA with benzene as in their absence. Our results also indicate that ethylbenzene, previously proposed as an inhibitor of MTBE degradation in some bacteria, inhibits transcription of mdpA, mdpJ and bmoAgenes in strain PM1

Brassinosteroids Denigrate the Seasonal Stress through Antioxidant Defense System in Seedlings of Brassica juncea L.

The present work has been undertaken to study the effect of exogenously application of 24-epiBL and 28-homoBL on soluble protein, proline contents and antioxidant defense system of Brassica juncea L. RLM 619 under the influence of seasonal stress. It was observed that 24-epiBL and 28-homoBL treatment enhance the soluble protein, dry weight and shoot length of B. juncea seedlings under seasonal stress. If seeds treated with the different concentrations (10-6, 10-8 and 10-10 M) of 24-epiBL and 28-homoBL revealed batter growth, protein and proline contents as compare to untreated seedlings. Similarly the activities of antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT, APOX, DHAR, PPO and Auxinases were enhanced by the application of different concentration of both brassinosteroids, whereas MDA content was decrease with both brassinosteroids treatments. Then we have concluded that both brassinolides have the seasonal stress ameliorative properties in B. juncea seedlings grown under the influence of seasonal stress. This study culminates to the role of brassinolides as an anti-stress property for protection of plant from various types of stresses