A Taxonomy of Deep Convolutional Neural Nets for Computer Vision

Traditional architectures for solving computer vision problems and the degree of success they enjoyed have been heavily reliant on hand-crafted features. However, of late, deep learning techniques have offered a compelling alternative -- that of automatically learning problem-specific features. With this new paradigm, every problem in computer vision is now being re-examined from a deep learning perspective. Therefore, it has become important to understand what kind of deep networks are suitable for a given problem. Although general surveys of this fast-moving paradigm (i.e. deep-networks) exist, a survey specific to computer vision is missing. We specifically consider one form of deep networks widely used in computer vision - convolutional neural networks (CNNs). We start with "AlexNet" as our base CNN and then examine the broad variations proposed over time to suit different applications. We hope that our recipe-style survey will serve as a guide, particularly for novice practitioners intending to use deep-learning techniques for computer vision.Comment: Published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI (http://goo.gl/6691Bm

In vitro cell culture of Charybdis congesta for enhanced production of secondary metabolites: Proscillaridin A, Scillaren A and Scilliroside

Callus cultures of Charybdis congesta were initiated in vitro and the effect of growth regulators was tested on callus growth and secondary metabolite production. Among several standard media formulated for use in the present study, MS and B5 were found to be potentially active and facilitated the calculation of callus induction frequency (CIF). The CIF was higher in both MS (70%) and B5 (63%) media supplemented with 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (9.0 μM) and benzyl amino purine (BAP) (0.9 μM). However, with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (9.0 μM) and BAP (0.8 μM), less amount (22.6%) of CIF was observed in MS medium but no callus formation was noticed in B5 medium. Rapid high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) screening of callus extracts revealed that the callus established in MS medium supplemented with 4.5 μM NAA and 0.46 μM BAP produced the highest yield of Proscillaridin A (4.51 mg/g DW), Scilliroside (3.3 mg/g DW), Scillaren A (2.35 mg/g DW) and desacetylscilliroside (8.62 mg/g DW), which was higher than from the intact plants. The results obtained indicate that the in vitro cultures of C. congesta might be an excellent source of secondary metabolites and further metabolic profiling may provide insights into up scaling of the compounds which lead to greater commercial interest and continuous supply of cultures.Keywords: Squill, Charybdis congesta, bufadienolides, callus cultures, reflectance scanning densitometryAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(15), pp. 1754-17

An Enhanced IUPQC Controller to Provide Grid Voltage Regulation

This paper shows an enhanced controller for the double topology of the brought unified power quality conditioner (iUPQC) developing its materialness in power-quality remuneration, and additionally in smaller scale network applications. By utilizing this controller, past the traditional UPQC control quality components, including voltage list/swell remuneration, the iUPQC will likewise give responsive power support to manage the load-bus voltage as well as the voltage at the matrix side bus.A FUZZY controller is executed in this venture in the place of PI controller. IUPQC will fill in as a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) at the network side, while giving likewise the routine UPQC pay at the heap or small scale framework reproduction results are given to check the new usefulness of the hardware. Reenactment results are introduced to confirm the practicality of the proposed approach in MATLAB/SIMULINK condition.

Soybean aphid biotype 1 genome: Insights into the invasive biology and adaptive evolution of a major agricultural pest

The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is a serious pest of the soybean plant, Glycine max, a major world-wide agricultural crop. We assembled a de novo genome sequence of Ap. glycines Biotype 1, from a culture established shortly after this species invaded North America. 20.4% of the Ap. glycines proteome is duplicated. These in-paralogs are enriched with Gene Ontology (GO) categories mostly related to apoptosis, a possible adaptation to plant chemistry and other environmental stressors. Approximately one-third of these genes show parallel duplication in other aphids. But Ap. gossypii, its closest related species, has the lowest number of these duplicated genes. An Illumina GoldenGate assay of 2380 SNPs was used to determine the world-wide population structure of Ap. Glycines. China and South Korean aphids are the closest to those in North America. China is the likely origin of other Asian aphid populations. The most distantly related aphids to those in North America are from Australia. The diversity of Ap. glycines in North America has decreased over time since its arrival. The genetic diversity of Ap. glycines North American population sampled shortly after its first detection in 2001 up to 2012 does not appear to correlate with geography. However, aphids collected on soybean Rag experimental varieties in Minnesota (MN), Iowa (IA), and Wisconsin (WI), closer to high density Rhamnus cathartica stands, appear to have higher capacity to colonize resistant soybean plants than aphids sampled in Ohio (OH), North Dakota (ND), and South Dakota (SD). Samples from the former states have SNP alleles with high FST values and frequencies, that overlap with genes involved in iron metabolism, a crucial metabolic pathway that may be affected by the Rag-associated soybean plant response. The Ap. glycines Biotype 1 genome will provide needed information for future analyses of mechanisms of aphid virulence and pesticide resistance as well as facilitate comparative analyses between aphids with differing natural history and host plant range

Comparison of reproductive performance of Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus, 1758) collected from three Indian rivers

A study was conducted to compare the reproductive performance of Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus, 1758) collected from three different rivers viz., Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, Godavari in Maharashtra and Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. Twenty pairs of brooders from each location were randomly selected and induced with pituitary extract (P) and ovaprim (O). Reproductive performance in terms of stripping percentage, pseudo gonado-somatic index, spawning, fecundity, fertilisation rate, hatching rate, and survival rate as well as fry rearing performance in terms of percentage weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR)and survival rate were monitored. Brooders collected from Godavari exhibited significantly (p<0.05) higher values for all the reproductive performances indicators compared to brooders collected from Narmada and Krishna rivers. But fishes collected from Krishna River exhibited significantly higher (p<0.05) fry survival. Fry produced from Godavari brooders attained highest (p<0.05) percentage weight gain (1085.88±37.41), SGR (17.61±0.19) and fry survival rate (43.67±1.45) in comparison to Narmada. Results clearly indicated that reproductive performance varied significantly among the brooders collected from the three different rivers

Swimming dynamics of a micro-organism in a couple stress fluid : a rheological model of embryological hydrodynamic propulsion

Mathematical simulations of embryological fluid dynamics are fundamental to improving clinical understanding of the intricate mechanisms underlying sperm locomotion. The strongly rheological nature of reproductive fluids has been established for a number of decades. Complimentary to clinical studies, mathematical models of reproductive hydrodynamics provide a deeper understanding of the intricate mechanisms involved in spermatozoa locomotion which can be of immense benefit in clarifying fertilization processes. Although numerous non-Newtonian studies of spermatozoa swimming dynamics in non-Newtonian media have been communicated, very few have addressed the micro-structural characteristics of embryological media. This family of micro-continuum models include Eringen’s micro-stretch theory, Eringen’s microfluid and micropolar constructs and V.K. Stokes’ couple-stress fluid model, all developed in the 1960s. In the present paper we implement the last of these models to examine the problem of micro-organism (spermatozoa) swimming at low Reynolds number in a homogenous embryological fluid medium with couple stress effects. The micro-organism is modeled as with Taylor’s classical approach, as an infinite flexible sheet on whose surface waves of lateral displacement are propagated. The swimming speed of the sheet and rate of work done by it are determined as function of the parameters of orbit and the couple stress fluid parameter (α). The perturbation solutions are validated with a Nakamura finite difference algorithm. The perturbation solutions reveal that the normal beat pattern is effective for both couple stress and Newtonian fluids only when the amplitude of stretching wave is small. The swimming speed is observed to decrease with couple stress fluid parameter tending to its Newtonian limit as alpha tends to infinity. However the rate of work done by the sheet decreases with α and approaches asymptotically to its Newtonian value. The present solutions also provide a good benchmark for more advanced numerical simulations of micro-organism swimming in couple-stress rheological biofluids

StemCellNet: an interactive platform for network-oriented investigations in stem cell biology.

Stem cells are characterized by their potential for self-renewal and their capacity to differentiate into mature cells. These two key features emerge through the interplay of various factors within complex molecular networks. To provide researchers with a dedicated tool to investigate these networks, we have developed StemCellNet, a versatile web server for interactive network analysis and visualization. It rapidly generates focused networks based on a large collection of physical and regulatory interactions identified in human and murine stem cells. The StemCellNet web-interface has various easy-to-use tools for selection and prioritization of network components, as well as for integration of expression data provided by the user. As a unique feature, the networks generated can be screened against a compendium of stemness-associated genes. StemCellNet can also indicate novel candidate genes by evaluating their connectivity patterns. Finally, an optional dataset of generic interactions, which provides large coverage of the human and mouse proteome, extends the versatility of StemCellNet to other biomedical research areas in which stem cells play important roles, such as in degenerative diseases or cancer. The StemCellNet web server is freely accessible at http://stemcellnet.sysbiolab.eu