Advanced data analysis as a tool for net blotch density estimation in spring barley

Abstract A novel data analysis method for the evaluation of plant disease risk that utilizes weather information is presented in this paper. This research considers two different datasets: open weather data from the Finnish Meteorological Institute and long-term (1991–2017) plant disease severity observations in different hardiness zones in Finland. Historical net blotch severity data on spring barley were collected from official variety trials carried out by the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and the analysis was performed with existing data without additional measurements. Feature generation was used to combine different datasets and to enrich the information content of the data. The t-test was applied to validate features and select the most suitable one for the identification of datasets with high net blotch risk. Based on the analysis, the selected daily measured variables for the estimation of net blotch density were the average temperature, minimum temperature, and rainfall. The results strongly indicate that thorough data analysis and feature generation methods enable new tools for plant disease prediction. This is crucial when predicting the disease risk and optimizing the use of pesticides in modern agriculture. Here, the developed system resolves the correlation between weather measurements and net blotch observations in a novel way

Data analysis in moving windows for optimizing barley net blotch prediction

Abstract In modern agriculture, the pesticides and the need to decrease their use is under discussion. Optimization methods and modelling tools are important research areas in this context. In this paper, data analysis, feature generation and selection in moving windows have been utilized for the evaluation of net blotch risk in barley. Two different datasets: The open data from the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the historical observation of the net blotch severity in different fields in Finland are combined with feature generation techniques. T-test is then applied to select the most statistically suitable features for prediction the net blotch risk from weather measurements. Analysis proceeds in moving data windows to indicate the most informative time period to predict the risk of net blotch during the growing season. Results show that the selection of the proper time instance and the length of data window may enhance strongly the potential performance of prediction methods for risk analysis on plant disease

One century of Nordic barley breeding: nitrogen use efficiency, agronomic traits and genetic diversity

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Genetic architecture of human plasma lipidome and its link to cardiovascular disease

Abstract Understanding genetic architecture of plasma lipidome could provide better insights into lipid metabolism and its link to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Here, we perform genome-wide association analyses of 141 lipid species (n = 2,181 individuals), followed by phenome-wide scans with 25 CVD related phenotypes (n = 511,700 individuals). We identify 35 lipid-species-associated loci (P <5 ×10−8), 10 of which associate with CVD risk including five new loci-COL5A1, GLTPD2, SPTLC3, MBOAT7 and GALNT16 (false discovery rate<0.05). We identify loci for lipid species that are shown to predict CVD e.g., SPTLC3 for CER(d18:1/24:1). We show that lipoprotein lipase (LPL) may more efficiently hydrolyze medium length triacylglycerides (TAGs) than others. Polyunsaturated lipids have highest heritability and genetic correlations, suggesting considerable genetic regulation at fatty acids levels. We find low genetic correlations between traditional lipids and lipid species. Our results show that lipidomic profiles capture information beyond traditional lipids and identify genetic variants modifying lipid levels and risk of CVD