PlantDoc: A Dataset for Visual Plant Disease Detection

India loses 35% of the annual crop yield due to plant diseases. Early detection of plant diseases remains difficult due to the lack of lab infrastructure and expertise. In this paper, we explore the possibility of computer vision approaches for scalable and early plant disease detection. The lack of availability of sufficiently large-scale non-lab data set remains a major challenge for enabling vision based plant disease detection. Against this background, we present PlantDoc: a dataset for visual plant disease detection. Our dataset contains 2,598 data points in total across 13 plant species and up to 17 classes of diseases, involving approximately 300 human hours of effort in annotating internet scraped images. To show the efficacy of our dataset, we learn 3 models for the task of plant disease classification. Our results show that modelling using our dataset can increase the classification accuracy by up to 31%. We believe that our dataset can help reduce the entry barrier of computer vision techniques in plant disease detection.Comment: 5 Pages, 6 figures, 3 table

Cluster Head Selection in a Homogeneous Wireless Sensor Network Ensuring Full Connectivity with Minimum Isolated Nodes

The research work proposes a cluster head selection algorithm for a wireless sensor network. A node can be a cluster head if it is connected to at least one unique neighbor node where the unique neighbor is the one that is not connected to any other node. If there is no connected unique node then the CH is selected on the basis of residual energy and the number of neighbor nodes. With the increase in number of clusters, the processing energy of the network increases; hence, this algorithm proposes minimum number of clusters which further leads to increased network lifetime. The major novel contribution of the proposed work is an algorithm that ensures a completely connected network with minimum number of isolated nodes. An isolated node will remain only if it is not within the transmission range of any other node. With the maximum connectivity, the coverage of the network is automatically maximized. The superiority of the proposed design is verified by simulation results done in MATLAB, where it clearly depicts that the total numbers of rounds before the network dies out are maximum compared to other existing protocols

A Delphi consensus on the nomenclature and diagnosis of lichen planus pigmentosus and related entities

Background: Although well known in clinical practice, research in lichen planus pigmentosus and related dermal pigmentary diseases is restricted due to lack of consensus on nomenclature and disease definition. Aims and Objectives: Delphi exercise to define and categorise acquired dermal pigmentary diseases. Methods: Core areas were identified including disease definition, etiopathogenesis, risk factors, clinical features, diagnostic methods, treatment modalities and outcome measures. The Delphi exercise was conducted in three rounds. Results: Sixteen researchers representing 12 different universities across India and Australia agreed to be part of this Delphi exercise. At the end of three rounds, a consensus of >80% was reached on usage of the umbrella term ‘acquired dermal macular hyperpigmentation’. It was agreed that there were minimal differences, if any, among the disorders previously defined as ashy dermatosis, erythema dyschromicum perstans, Riehl’s melanosis and pigmented contact dermatitis. It was also agreed that lichen planus pigmentosus, erythema dyschromicum perstans and ashy dermatosis did not differ significantly apart from the sites of involvement, as historically described in the literature. Exposure to hair colours, sunlight and cosmetics was associated with these disorders in a significant proportion of patients. Participants agreed that both histopathology and dermatoscopy could diagnose dermal pigmentation characteristic of acquired dermal macular hyperpigmentation but could not differentiate the individual entities of ashy dermatosis, erythema dyschromicum perstans, Riehl’s melanosis, lichen planus pigmentosus and pigmented contact dermatitis. Limitations: A wider consensus involving representatives from East Asian, European and Latin American countries is required. Conclusion: Acquired dermal macular hyperpigmentation could be an appropriate conglomerate terminology for acquired dermatoses characterised by idiopathic or multifactorial non-inflammatory macular dermal hyperpigmentation

Lifetime Optimization of a Multiple Sink Wireless Sensor Network through Energy Balancing

The wireless sensor network consists of small limited energy sensors which are connected to one or more sinks. The maximum energy consumption takes place in communicating the data from the nodes to the sink. Multiple sink WSN has an edge over the single sink WSN where very less energy is utilized in sending the data to the sink, as the number of hops is reduced. If the energy consumed by a node is balanced between the other nodes, the lifetime of the network is considerably increased. The network lifetime optimization is achieved by restructuring the network by modifying the neighbor nodes of a sink. Only those nodes are connected to a sink which makes the total energy of the sink less than the threshold. This energy balancing through network restructuring optimizes the network lifetime. This paper depicts this fact through simulations done in MATLAB

Lifetime Optimization of a Multiple Sink Wireless Sensor Network through Energy Balancing

The wireless sensor network consists of small limited energy sensors which are connected to one or more sinks. The maximum energy consumption takes place in communicating the data from the nodes to the sink. Multiple sink WSN has an edge over the single sink WSN where very less energy is utilized in sending the data to the sink, as the number of hops is reduced. If the energy consumed by a node is balanced between the other nodes, the lifetime of the network is considerably increased. The network lifetime optimization is achieved by restructuring the network by modifying the neighbor nodes of a sink. Only those nodes are connected to a sink which makes the total energy of the sink less than the threshold. This energy balancing through network restructuring optimizes the network lifetime. This paper depicts this fact through simulations done in MATLAB

Sol-gel-derived super-hydrophilic nickel doped TiO2 film as active photo-catalyst

Pure and nickel doped TiO2 thin films on soda glass substrates were prepared by sol-gel dip coating process. The resulting films were annealed at 500 degrees C for 1 h and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis-near IR techniques. AFM reveals that doping of Ni ions suppresses the grain growth of crystal in the TiO2 film. The contact angle with water of these films was measured by sessile drop method. The undoped films could be entirely wetted by water after 1 h UV illuminations, while 0.5 mol% Ni ion-doped films become entirely wetted after 20 min UV illumination. The photo-catalytic activity was characterized by photocatalytic degradation of aqueous methyl orange under UV radiation. It is found that, with a suitable amount (2-10 mol%), the Ni dopant increases the photo-catalytic activity of TiO2 films. The mechanism can be attributed to these processes: (1) as the anatase grain sizes decrease with Ni doping and the specific surface areas of doped TiO2 films increase, the charge transfer in TiO2 film is promoted; (2) by enhancing the electron-hole pair separation and inhibiting their recombination, the Ni dopant enhances the charge pair separation efficiency for doped TiO2 film

Consensus dietary guidelines for healthy living and prevention of obesity, the Metabolic syndrome, Diabetes, and related disorders in Asian Indians

India is undergoing rapid nutritional transition, resulting in excess consumption of calories, saturated fats, trans fatty acids, simple sugars, salt and low intake of fiber. Such dietary transition and a sedentary lifestyle have led to an increase in obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (type 2 diabetes mellitus [T2DM], cardiovascular disease [CVD], etc.) predominantly in urban, but also in rural areas. In comparison with the previous guidelines, these consensus dietary guidelines include reduction in the intake of carbohydrates, preferential intake of complex carbohydrates and low glycemic index foods, higher intake of fiber, lower intake of saturated fats, optimal ratio of essential fatty acids, reduction in trans fatty acids, slightly higher protein intake, lower intake of salt, and restricted intake of sugar. While these guidelines are applicable to Asian Indians in any geographical setting, they are particularly applicable to those residing in urban and in semi-urban areas. Proper application of these guidelines will help curb the rising "epidemics" of obesity, the metabolic syndrome, hypertension, T2DM, and CVD in Asian Indians