Cross-domain transfer learning for weed segmentation and mapping in precision farming using ground and UAV images

Weed and crop segmentation is becoming an increasingly integral part of precision farming that leverages the current computer vision and deep learning technologies. Research has been extensively carried out based on images captured with a camera from various platforms. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ground-based vehicles including agricultural robots are the two popular platforms for data collection in fields. They all contribute to site-specific weed management (SSWM) to maintain crop yield. Currently, the data from these two platforms is processed separately, though sharing the same semantic objects (weed and crop). In our paper, we have proposed a novel method with a new deep learning-based model and the enhanced data augmentation pipeline to train field images alone and subsequently predict both field images and UAV images for weed segmentation and mapping. The network learning process is visualized by feature maps at shallow and deep layers. The results show that the mean intersection of union (IOU) values of the segmentation for the crop (maize), weeds, and soil background in the developed model for the field dataset are 0.744, 0.577, 0.979, respectively, and the performance of aerial images from an UAV with the same model, the IOU values of the segmentation for the crop (maize), weeds and soil background are 0.596, 0.407, and 0.875, respectively. To estimate the effect on the use of plant protection agents, we quantify the relationship between herbicide spraying saving rate and grid size (spraying resolution) based on the predicted weed map. The spraying saving rate is up to 90 % when the spraying resolution is at 1.78 × 1.78 cm2 . The study shows that the developed deep convolutional neural network could be used to classify weeds from both field and aerial images and delivers satisfactory results. To achieve this performance, it is crucial to perform preprocessing techniques that reduce dataset differences between two distinct domains

Knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) analysis of agricultural biologicals among smallholder farmers across three counties in Kenya

Agricultural biologicals (agrobiologicals) can be sustainable options to manage plant pests and diseases and enhance growth. This can reduce reliance on synthetic inputs, which often come from non-renewable sources and pose risks to the environment and farmers. However, the use of agrobiologicals in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is low. To understand factors leading to low adoption of Agrobiologicals in Kenya, we performed a Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) analysis among smallholder farmers in three counties in Kenya regarding agrobiologicals. 275 farmers were interviewed in Kajiado, Kiambu and Machakos counties. The farmers' knowledge on agrobiologicals was low and varied across the counties; 18-47 % of respondents were deemed knowledgeable. The main source of knowledge was neighbours (32-57 % depending on the county). Regarding the information flow, agro-dealers were the main source of information for agricultural inputs in general. More than 70 % of the farmers were not trained in employing agrobiologicals, and 70 % of the farmers stated that agrobiologicals are not effective. Still, between 46 % (Kajiado) and 18 % (Machakos) used agrobiologicals in their farming practices. The number of years in farming positively correlated with knowledge of agrobiologicals, but not attitude and practice. Possibly, the low knowledge regarding agrobiologicals influenced attitude and practice; however perceived sufficient knowledge of agrobiologicals did not translate into an increased use, indicating that knowledge alone is not sufficient to ensure use among smallholder farmers. These findings call for new strategies to promote agrobiologicals to smallholder farmers in SSA

Rapid detection and visualization of physiological signatures in cotton leaves under Verticillium wilt stress

Verticillium wilt poses a severe threat to cotton growth and significantly impacts cotton yield. It is of significant importance to detect Verticillium wilt stress in time. In this study, the effects of Verticillium wilt stress on the microstructure and physiological indicators (SOD, POD, CAT, MDA, Chla, Chlb, Chlab, Car) of cotton leaves were investigated, and the feasibility of utilizing hyperspectral imaging to estimate physiological indicators of cotton leaves was explored. The results showed that Verticillium wilt stress-induced alterations in cotton leaf cell morphology, leading to the disruption and decomposition of chloroplasts and mitochondria. In addition, compared to healthy leaves, infected leaves exhibited significantly higher activities of SOD and POD, along with increased MDA amounts, while chlorophyll and carotenoid levels were notably reduced. Furthermore, rapid detection models for cotton physiological indicators were constructed, with the Rp of the optimal models ranging from 0.809 to 0.975. Based on these models, visual distribution maps of the physiological signatures across cotton leaves were created. These results indicated that the physiological phenotype of cotton leaves could be effectively detected by hyperspectral imaging, which could provide a solid theoretical basis for the rapid detection of Verticillium wilt stress. (c) 2025 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Smallholder farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding agricultural inputs with a focus on agricultural biologicals

There is a general drive to reduce pesticide use owing to the potential negative effects of pesticides on the environment and human health. The EU Commission, for example, through its “Farm to Fork Strategy,” has proposed to decrease the use of hazardous chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030. In addition, smallholder farmers in low-income countries do not always follow pesticide safety precautions. This necessitates the introduction of low-risk crop protection strategies also suited for these farmers. Agricultural biologicals can substitute for, or at least partially replace hazardous chemical pesticides. While the market for and use of biologicals is growing quickly in industrialized countries, this practice remains limited in sub-Saharan Africa. To understand the reason behind the low adoption of biologicals, this study examined the knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward biologicals among 150 smallholder farmers in the Chole district in Ethiopia. All farmers used chemical pesticides and/or inorganic fertilizers to protect crops, improve yields, and comply with government regulations. The use of biologicals was, however, restricted to one group of biologicals, bio-fertilizers, which approximately 60% of farmers used, and no use of biologicals for plant protection was reported. Even though the understanding of the concept of biologicals was deemed high among respondents, the majority (90%) did not identify biologicals as safer alternatives to conventional agricultural inputs. More than half of the respondents (54%) did not recommend biologicals as safer alternatives to their colleagues. Nevertheless, even if the responding farmers did not perceive biologicals as risk-free, they had a positive attitude towards biologicals when it came to producing healthy food and increasing crop yields and incomes. In comparison to the positive attitude, farmers’ knowledge and practice of biologicals were generally low; thus, efforts are needed to create awareness among farmers

Contrasting perspectives in a hospital merger: The case of the SUS eye clinic

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding for if, and how, different views on efficiency and effectiveness characterized the organisation of the eye clinic in the SUS hospital merger. What presumptions operative efficiencies affected hospital management’s merger decision? What were the expected benefits and what kind of organisational structure would help to achieve these? Finally, did different views on efficiencies affect how groups of individuals believe that the transformation should be carried out? In order to satisfy this purpose, we formulated three constituent objectives for research: (1) How do doctors and managers believe efficiency is and/or should be measured? (2) What do they think is efficient in an organisational change process, such as the SUS hospital merger? (3) What do they believe is efficient in a doctor’s daily work? Methodology: This is a qualitative study where we have adopted an abductive study approach, with an interpretivist/constructivist positioning. Thus we have not tried to identify the absolute truth. Instead we have tried to identify, evaluate and describe the different individuals’ views and perspectives on various aspects. Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical perspectives cover professions and professional bureaucracies, the definitions of effectiveness, efficiency and related concepts, optimal hospital size, quality of care, organizational change and management and merger theory. Empirical foundation: We conducted interviews with six managers from different levels of the vertical hierarchy of the SUS hospital, and eight clinical doctors with different backgrounds and current responsibilities, all working at the Eye clinic. We created and followed a semi-structured interview guide that we used to interview both managers and doctors. During the interviews we focused on open-ended questions that would bring the interviewees to freely express their views on the subject. Conclusions: In response to our research objectives we can conclude that; there is little agreement as to how measurements in healthcare in general, and the SUS hospital in particular, should be defined; there are different views on how to manage organisational change between managers and doctors, where management prefer a top-down approach while doctors believe that they should have more say in how the change is carried out; doctor’s stress the need for customized IT-support, stricter job specialisation, clear patient processes and the possibility to form informal networks and knowledge clusters. It appears that management has a narrow view of what doctor’s feel is necessary for improving efficiency in their daily work since many of these efficiencies have been impaired as a result of the top-down managed merger. In sum, it seems that our initial impression, that different views on efficiencies may cause problems in change processes, still poses a viable correlation between these aspects

Comparative proteomic analyses of potato leaves from field-grown plants grown under extremely long days

There are limited molecular data and few biomarkers available for studies of field-grown plants, especially for plants grown during extremely long days. In this study we present quantitative proteomics data from 3 years of field trials on potato, conducted in northern and southern Sweden and analyze over 3000 proteins per year of the study and complement the proteomic analysis with metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses. Small but consistent differences linked to the longer days (an average of four more hours of light per day) in northern Sweden (20 h light/day) compared to southern Sweden can be observed, with a high correlation between the mRNA determined by RNA-seq and protein abundances. The majority of the proteins with differential abundances between northern and southern Sweden could be divided into three groups: metabolic enzymes (especially GABA metabolism), proteins involved in redox metabolism, and hydrolytic enzymes. The observed differences in metabolic enzyme abundances corresponded well with untargeted metabolite data determined by GC and LC mass-spectrometry. We also analyzed differences in protein abundance between potato varieties that performed relatively well in northern Sweden in terms of yield with those that performed relatively less well. This comparison indicates that the proteins with higher abundance in the high-yield quotient group are more anabolic in their character, whereas the proteins with lower abundance are more catabolic. Our results create a base of information about potato "field-omics" for improved understanding of physiological and molecular processes in field-grown plants, and our data indicate that the potato plant is not generally stressed by extremely long days

A novel GH3-β-glucosidase from soda lake metagenomic libraries with desirable properties for biomass degradation

Beta-glucosidases catalyze the hydrolysis of the glycosidic bonds of cellobiose, producing glucose, which is a rate-limiting step in cellulose biomass degradation. In industrial processes, beta-glucosidases that are tolerant to glucose and stable under harsh industrial reaction conditions are required for efficient cellulose hydrolysis. In this study, we report the molecular cloning, Escherichia coli expression, and functional characterization of a beta-glucosidase from the gene, CelGH3_f17, identified from metagenomics libraries of an Ethiopian soda lake. The CelGH3_f17 gene sequence contains a glycoside hydrolase family 3 catalytic domain (GH3). The heterologous expressed and purified enzyme exhibited optimal activity at 50 degrees C and pH 8.5. In addition, supplementation of 1 M salt and 300 mM glucose enhanced the beta-glucosidase activity. Most of the metal ions and organic solvents tested did not affect the beta-glucosidase activity. However, Cu2+ and Mn2+ ions, Mercaptoethanol and Triton X-100 reduce the activity of the enzyme. The studied beta-glucosidase enzyme has multiple industrially desirable properties including thermostability, and alkaline, salt, and glucose tolerance

Transcriptome analysis of sugar beet in response to the pathogenic oomycete Aphanomyces cochlioides

BackgroundAphanomyces root rot is one of the most severe diseases in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), resulting in drastic losses in sugar yield and plant degeneration. The causal agent is the soil-borne pathogen Aphanomyces cochlioides, a phytopathogenic oomycete able to infect sugar beet roots from the seedling stage until harvest. Reliable control measures and fully resistant varieties to prevent the disease on mature roots are currently not available. Furthermore, the quantitative nature of the resistance mechanisms to the root rot disease remain unclear. With the aim to identify key genes involved in plant defense responses against the root rot, we performed a transcriptome analysis of sugar beet interactions with A. cochlioides. The transcriptome responses of two partially resistant and two susceptible sugar beet breeding lines, inoculated with three A. cochlioides isolates with different geographical origins have been investigated in this study.ResultsThe results showed that the transcriptional responses to A. cochlioides infection were mainly genotype-dependent. Comparisons of transcriptome profiles of partially resistant and susceptible breeding lines revealed the presence of differentially expressed genes that play a key role in defense mechanisms during the initial stages of infection. Gene Ontology (GO) categories associated with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) metabolism, detoxification and cell wall organization were significantly enriched in the differentially expressed gene set from the two partially resistant lines, while photosynthesis-related GO terms were significantly enriched in the two susceptible lines. Unique and overlapping GO categories were over-represented in specific genotype-isolate-time point interactions, indicating that different genotypes respond with common defense strategies as well as specialized responses to different isolates and time points. Transcription factors belonging to the WRKY and ERF families were up-regulated in all genotypes. Furthermore, increased expression of genes encoding for disease resistant proteins have been identified in the two partially resistant genotypes.ConclusionsThis research offers new insights into the transcriptomic events that regulate the sugar beet defense responses to A. cochlioides infection. The findings of this study emphasize the importance of genotype-specific interactions in response to different A. cochlioides isolates. Moreover, the results showed the up-regulation of genes that may play important roles in the defense responses to A. cochlioides which can be used to improve future breeding and to assist in the development of resistant cultivars

Linking crop traits to transcriptome differences in a progeny population of tetraploid potato

Background Potato is the third most consumed crop in the world. Breeding for traits such as yield, product quality and pathogen resistance are main priorities. Identifying molecular signatures of these and other important traits is important in future breeding efforts. In this study, a progeny population from a cross between a breeding line, SW93-1015, and a cultivar, Desiree, was studied by trait analysis and RNA-seq in order to develop understanding of segregating traits at the molecular level and identify transcripts with expressional correlation to these traits. Transcript markers with predictive value for field performance applicable under controlled environments would be of great value for plant breeding. Results A total of 34 progeny lines from SW93-1015 and Desiree were phenotyped for 17 different traits in a field in Nordic climate conditions and controlled climate settings. A master transcriptome was constructed with all 34 progeny lines and the parents through a de novo assembly of RNA-seq reads. Gene expression data obtained in a controlled environment from the 34 lines was correlated to traits by different similarity indices, including Pearson and Spearman, as well as DUO, which calculates the co-occurrence between high and low values for gene expression and trait. Our study linked transcripts to traits such as yield, growth rate, high laying tubers, late and tuber blight, tuber greening and early flowering. We found several transcripts associated to late blight resistance and transcripts encoding receptors were associated to Dickeya solani susceptibility. Transcript levels of a UBX-domain protein was negatively associated to yield and a GLABRA2 expression modulator was negatively associated to growth rate. Conclusion In our study, we identify 100's of transcripts, putatively linked based on expression with 17 traits of potato, representing both well-known and novel associations. This approach can be used to link the transcriptome to traits. We explore the possibility of associating the level of transcript expression from controlled, optimal environments to traits in a progeny population with different methods introducing the application of DUO for the first time on transcriptome data. We verify the expression pattern for five of the putative transcript markers in another progeny population