A Framework for Arabic Concept-Level Sentiment Analysis using SenticNet

Arabic Sentiment analysis research field has been progressing in a slow pace compared to English and other languages. In addition to that most of the contributions are based on using supervised machine learning algorithms while comparing the performance of different classifiers with different selected stylistic and syntactic features. In this paper, we presented a novel framework for using the Concept-level sentiment analysis approach which classifies text based on their semantics rather than syntactic features. Moreover, we provided a lexicon dataset of around 69 k unique concepts that covers multi-domain reviews collected from the internet. We also tested the lexicon on a test sample from the dataset it was collected from and obtained an accuracy of 70%. The lexicon has been made publicly available for scientific purposes

Use of beneficial bacteria and their secondary metabolites to control grapevine pathogen diseases

Grapevine is one of the most important economic crops yielding berries, wine products as well as derivates. However, due to the large array of pathogens inducing diseases on this plant, considerable amounts of pesticides—with possible negative impact on the environment and health—have been used and are currently used in viticulture. To avoid negative impacts of such products and to ensure product quality, a substantial fraction of pesticides needs to be replaced in the near future. One solution can be related to the use of beneficial bacteria inhabiting the rhizo- and/or the endosphere of plants. These biocontrol bacteria and their secondary metabolites can reduce directly or indirectly pathogen diseases by affecting pathogen performance by antibiosis, competition for niches and nutrients, interference with pathogen signaling or by stimulation of host plant defenses. Due to the large demand for biocontrol of grapevine diseases, such biopesticides, their modes of actions and putative consequences of their uses need to be described. Moreover, the current knowledge on new strains from the rhizo- and endosphere and their metabolites that can be used on grapevine plants to counteract pathogen attack needs to be discussed. This is in particular with regard to the control of root rot, grey mould, trunk diseases, powdery and downy mildews, pierce’s disease, grapevine yellows as well as crown gall. Future prospects on specific beneficial microbes and their secondary metabolites that can be used as elicitors of plant defenses and/or as biocontrol agents with potential use in a more sustainable viticulture will be further discussed

Management of Deleterious Effect of Fusarium oxysporum Associated with Red Palm Weevil Infestation of Date Palm Trees

Red palm weevil (RPW) is a dangerous pest that infects the date palm tree and makes tunnels in the tree’s trunk. RPW infection is followed by secondary invaders of microorganisms that cause degradation of the trunk tissues leading to toppling the crown and death of the tree in a short time. This study showed that Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht. was the common fungal species isolated from the root and trunk tissues of the date trees infested with RPW, which recorded 100% of frequency. Pathogenicity of 4 isolates of F. oxysporum was confirmed on date palm seeds and seedlings. The results confirmed that all isolates involved in rot of the germinated seeds (40–100% incidence), root rot, and death of palm seedlings (20–100%) under artificial infection as well as degradation of date palm petioles. Application of 20 L/palm of systemic fungicide (Topsin) at 1% as foliar and soil drench of date palm for successive three times successfully reduced development of the deterioration and suppressed the growth of F. oxysporum. Interestingly this fungicide did not suppress the growth of Trichoderma viride Pers. So, our results recommend this fungicide to suppress the pathological and degradable activities of F. oxysporum during the integrated pest management of RPW on date palm trees

Energy consumption forecast in peer to peer energy trading

Abstract This study predicts future values of energy consumption demand from a novel dataset that includes the energy consumption during COVID-19 lockdown, using up-to-date deep learning algorithms to reduce peer-to-peer energy system losses and congestion. Three learning algorithms, namely Random Forest (RF), Bi-LSTM, and GRU, were used to predict the future values of a building’s energy consumption. The results were compared using the RMSE and MAE evaluation metrics. The results show that predicting the future energy demand with accurate results is achievable, and that Bi-LSTM and GRU perform better, especially when trained as univariate models with only the energy consumption values and no other features included

Management of Deleterious Effect of <i>Fusarium oxysporum</i> Associated with Red Palm Weevil Infestation of Date Palm Trees

Red palm weevil (RPW) is a dangerous pest that infects the date palm tree and makes tunnels in the tree’s trunk. RPW infection is followed by secondary invaders of microorganisms that cause degradation of the trunk tissues leading to toppling the crown and death of the tree in a short time. This study showed that Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht. was the common fungal species isolated from the root and trunk tissues of the date trees infested with RPW, which recorded 100% of frequency. Pathogenicity of 4 isolates of F. oxysporum was confirmed on date palm seeds and seedlings. The results confirmed that all isolates involved in rot of the germinated seeds (40–100% incidence), root rot, and death of palm seedlings (20–100%) under artificial infection as well as degradation of date palm petioles. Application of 20 L/palm of systemic fungicide (Topsin) at 1% as foliar and soil drench of date palm for successive three times successfully reduced development of the deterioration and suppressed the growth of F. oxysporum. Interestingly this fungicide did not suppress the growth of Trichoderma viride Pers. So, our results recommend this fungicide to suppress the pathological and degradable activities of F. oxysporum during the integrated pest management of RPW on date palm trees