An end-to-end convolutional selective autoencoder approach to Soybean Cyst Nematode eggs detection

This paper proposes a novel selective autoencoder approach within the framework of deep convolutional networks. The crux of the idea is to train a deep convolutional autoencoder to suppress undesired parts of an image frame while allowing the desired parts resulting in efficient object detection. The efficacy of the framework is demonstrated on a critical plant science problem. In the United States, approximately $1 billion is lost per annum due to a nematode infection on soybean plants. Currently, plant-pathologists rely on labor-intensive and time-consuming identification of Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN) eggs in soil samples via manual microscopy. The proposed framework attempts to significantly expedite the process by using a series of manually labeled microscopic images for training followed by automated high-throughput egg detection. The problem is particularly difficult due to the presence of a large population of non-egg particles (disturbances) in the image frames that are very similar to SCN eggs in shape, pose and illumination. Therefore, the selective autoencoder is trained to learn unique features related to the invariant shapes and sizes of the SCN eggs without handcrafting. After that, a composite non-maximum suppression and differencing is applied at the post-processing stage.Comment: A 10 pages, 8 figures International Conference on Machine Leaning(ICML) Submissio

Perceiving the Trend of Terrestrial Climate Change during the Past 40 year (1978-2018)

In past few decades, climate has manifested numerous shifts in its trend. Various natural and anthropogenic factors have influenced the dynamics and the trends of climate change at longer time scale. To understand the long term climate fluctuations, we have analyzed forty years (1978 - 2018) data of ten climatic parameters that are responsible to influence the climate dynamics. The parameters involved in the present study are total solar irradiance (TSI), ultra violet (UV) index, cloud cover, carbon dioxide (CO2) abundances, multivariate (ENSO) index, volcanic explosivity index (VEI), global surface temperature (GST) anomaly, global sea ice extent, global mean sea level and global precipitation anomaly. Using the above mentioned climate entities; we have constructed a proxy index to study the quantitative measure of the climate change. In this process these indicators were aggregated to a single proxy index as global climate index (GCI) that has measured the strength of present climate change in semblance with the past natural variability. To construct GCI, the principal component analysis (PCA) has been used on yearly based data for the period 1978 - 2018. Actually PCA is a statistical tool with which we can reduce the dimensionality of the data and it retains most of the variation in the new data set. Further, we have confined our study to natural climate drivers and anthropogenic climate drivers. Our result has indicated that the strongest climate change has been occurred globally by the end of the year 2018 in comparison to late 1970’s natural variability

Recycling of Products Causing Pollution: A Suggestive Reverse Supply Chain Model for India

Introduction The concept of reuse of metal scrap, waste paper, packing materials, soft drink bottles, etc has been in viable existence for some time. The primary reason for this is the simple fact that recycling of the used product is far more economical than disposal. Further, concerns for the environment have also promoted inclusion of several new products to the above list of ‘reusable’ items. Globally, waste reduction efforts have incubated the idea of developing reverse supply chains for recycling instead of only the forward supply chain. Total paper recycled in Europe, during 1994 was only 27.7 million tonnes. Thereafter, consumer awareness assured an annual increase in collections by about 70 per cent. By year 2000 Europe was recovering 43 per cent of the total paper consumption. During the same period, recycling of glass in Europe grew by almost 10 per cent (in tonnes collected) to more than 7 million tonnes, with a recycling rate of about 60 per cent (EUROSTAT, 1997).  Regulations in Germany mandate recovery rate for packaging materials between 60 per cent and 75 per cent. The Netherlands reuses 46 per cent of all industrial waste (CBS, 1997). In these cases the concept of reuse gave rise to a new material flow system, i.e. from the user back to the producers. ‘The management of this material flow opposite to the conventional supply chain is a fast growing field and now addressed as reverse logistics’ (Stock, 1992) (Kopicky, 1993).  DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.340598

Designing Information Systems Security Policy Methods: A Meta-Theoretical Approach

Information systems security policy (ISP) is the critical foundation of information systems security. Despite the criticality of the ISP, information systems security scholars have expressed concerns about the lack of theory and limited methodological support for the development of ISP. Existing literature on ISP Development (ISPD) is scattered and lack meta-theoretical approach toward designing ISPD Methods (ISPDM). This paper aims to fill the gap by consolidating extant ISPD approaches and put forth a systematic way by adopting a meta-theoretic approach in defining essential principles for designing ISPD method. After presenting the principles we demonstrate that none of the existing methods are based on all the essential principles

Buried Online: State Laws That Limit E-Commerce in Caskets

Consumers seeking to purchase caskets online could benefit from the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision that states cannot discriminate against interstate direct wine shipment. Federal courts have reached conflicting conclusions when asked whether state laws requiring casket sellers to be licensed funeral directors violate the U.S. Constitution’s Due Process Clause. In Powers v. Harris, the 10th Circuit even offered an unprecedented ruling that economic protectionism is a legitimate state interest that can justify otherwise unconstitutional policies. In Granholm v. Heald, however, the Supreme Court declared that discriminatory barriers to interstate wine shipment must be justified by a legitimate state interest, and states must present real evidence that the discrimination is necessary to accomplish their policy objectives. The Court conducted a fact-intensive analysis which concluded the states had failed to make a persuasive case in favor of discrimination against out-of-state wine sellers. Examining the economic evidence, we find that state laws which impede electronic commerce in caskets would almost certainly fail a Granholm-style factual analysis. This implies that such laws could be held unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause, if a plaintiff brought a challenge similar to the one in Granholm. Our analysis also suggests that the laws are vulnerable to an Equal Protection or Due Process challenge if courts consider whether evidence actually supports the state’s defense

Length variation of chloroplast simple sequence repeats in the genus Eucalyptus L'Hér.

Eucalyptus L'Hér. is an economically important genus of plants with several environmental significances and great industrial advantages. To accelerate breeding and conservation studies, efforts on molecular breeding and molecular genetic analysis are underway in the genus Eucalyptus. Despite these efforts, no sufficient information is available about common, polymorphic and unique chloroplast simple sequence repeats (cpSSRs) in the genus Eucalyptus. . These repeats consist of 1-6 nucleotides and play important role in the development of molecular markers, genetic mapping and plant breeding. In the present study, a total of 920 cpSSRs were detected and length variation of cpSSRs analysed between each pair of species among 31 chloroplast genome sequences of the genus Eucalyptus. Additionally, cross species transferability of common and polymorphic cpSSRs were also observed. The common, unique and putative polymorphic cpSSRs analysed in this study can be used for species identification and genetic diversity studies of Eucalyptus