Pulmonary Fibrosis (PF) is an immedicable respiratory condition distinguished by permanent fibrotic alterations in the pulmonary tissue for which there is no cure. Hence, it is crucial to diagnose PF ...swiftly and precisely. The existing research on deep learning-based pulmonary fibrosis detection methods has limitations, including dataset sample sizes and a lack of standardization in data preprocessing and evaluation metrics. This study presents a comparative analysis of four vision transformers regarding their efficacy in accurately detecting and classifying patients with Pulmonary Fibrosis and their ability to localize abnormalities within Images obtained from Computerized Tomography (CT) scans. The dataset consisted of 13,486 samples selected out of 24647 from the Pulmonary Fibrosis dataset, which included both PF-positive CT and normal images that underwent preprocessing. The preprocessed images were divided into three sets: the training set, which accounted for 80% of the total pictures; the validation set, which comprised 10%; and the test set, which also consisted of 10%. The vision transformer models, including ViT, MobileViT2, ViTMSN, and BEiT were subjected to training and validation procedures, during which hyperparameters like the learning rate and batch size were fine-tuned. The overall performance of the optimized architectures has been assessed using various performance metrics to showcase the consistent performance of the fine-tuned model. Regarding performance, ViT has shown superior performance in validation and testing accuracy and loss minimization, specifically for CT images when trained at a single epoch with a tuned learning rate of 0.0001. The results were as follows: validation accuracy of 99.85%, testing accuracy of 100%, training loss of 0.0075, and validation loss of 0.0047. The experimental evaluation of the independently collected data gives empirical evidence that the optimized Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture exhibited superior performance compared to all other optimized architectures. It achieved a flawless score of 1.0 in various standard performance metrics, including Sensitivity, Specificity, Accuracy, F1-score, Precision, Recall, Mathew Correlation Coefficient (MCC), Precision-Recall Area under the Curve (AUC PR), Receiver Operating Characteristic and Area Under the Curve (ROC-AUC). Therefore, the optimized Vision Transformer (ViT) functions as a reliable diagnostic tool for the automated categorization of individuals with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) using chest computed tomography (CT) scans.
Membrane technology has been playing a vital role in water filtration and purification. Various technologies such as sand filtration, reverse osmosis, treatment with chemical disinfectants, and ...distillation have been used in the past for clean water sources. Membrane technology is a relatively easy method with many important features, including low operational temperature, low power consumption, and free of chemical additives. Membrane filtration can be further improved by using nanofibrous media in portable forms for drinking water supplies. Electrospun nanofibers possess high porosities, high surface area, good permeability and flexibility, unidirectional orientation, and well-connected pore structures, and therefore, an ideal candidate for portable water filtration purposes. Electrospinning is a novel method of fabricating nanofibers in various forms. In this study, nanofibrous membranes were fabricated using two polymers (polyacrylonitrile - PAN and polyethylene glycol -PEG), one solvent (dimethylformamide - DMF), and activated charcoal at different electrospinning conditions (DC voltages, pump speeds, and collector distances). Different water samples from the local pond, water jet cutter water, tap water, deionized (DI) water, and carbon black (CB) deionized water were used in this study. The water samples were tested for turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), pH, and refractive index. The test results indicated that the proposed portable nanofilter system substantially improved the quality of the water sources for drinking and other household use. It is concluded that these nanofibrous membranes can easily purify contaminated water by eliminating impurities, such as organic and inorganic particles, viruses, bacteria, algae, and other pathogens.
Citrus species (Rutaceae) are known worldwide due to their wide range of fruits having high nutritional value. Other valuable products obtained from citrus are volatile organic compounds and ...essential oils, which are used in food as well as in aroma and flavor industries. Biotechnological interventions have played key role in improvement of citrus in accordance with the consumer demand and increasing fruit range consumption. In this review, some key aspects of biotechnology for improvement of citrus i.e. genetic transformation, cryopreservation, tissue culture propagation, doubled haploid production and somatic embryogenesis are discussed. This article also revealed various genes inserted through genetic engineering to control citrus diseases, insect pests, early flowering induction, salt and drought tolerance etc.
Leaf rust disease affects the wheat crop in several countries around the globe and it can influence the grain yield and its components. This research was carried out using 35 wheat genotypes during ...the growing season of 2016-2017 with 3 replications by RCBD under contrasting rust disease regimes. The statistical techniques used for the multivariate analyses include the calculations of correlations, principal components and clusters. The data about various physiological traits, grain yield components and disease severity were recorded under high disease pressure and maximum disease control conditions. Correlation analysis showed highly significant positive relationship of disease severity with relative membrane permeability but negative association with chlorophyll contents in the flag leaf and some yield attributes. In control conditions, the relative water content exhibited a highly significant positive relationship with the flag leaf area while highly significant negative relationship was observed with specific flag leaf weigh under disease condition. Principal component analysis demonstrated that first 4 PCs having eigenvalue >1 elucidated 73.578% and 82.80% of the total variation under diseased and control conditions respectively. Cluster analysis grouped 35 wheat genotypes among four different clusters. The members of cluster 1 revealed the maximum disease severity under control condition, but the disease severity was maximum for cluster 4 under disease condition. Scatter plot explained that, not a single cluster showed clear separation. The tree diagram also indicated that diversity in different disease conditions is controlled by genotypes. The results concluded that this genetic diversity could be helpful to the researchers and breeders for future objectives to enhance the food production and leaf resistance in bread wheat. Keywords: Wheat, Leaf rust, Multivariate analysis, Genetic diversity, Morpho-physiological traits
Brown leaf rust severely affects the production of wheat crop and causes economic losses worldwide. In the present study, evaluation of the locally developed wheat cultivars collection consisting of ...133 varieties and lines was done to assess local diversity against leaf rust disease and yield attributes under natural conditions in Faisalabad, Pakistan. For this purpose, a field trial was conducted in Faisalabad, Pakistan under a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Various multivariate analyses were carried out including analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis, principal component analysis and cluster analysis to assess varietal response under rust diseased conditions. Twenty-six cultivars were shown to have an resistant (R) type response; while moderately resistant (MR),moderately resistant moderately susceptible (MRMS), moderately susceptible (MS) and susceptible (S) responses were demonstrated by 47, 16, 16, and 28 germplasm accessions, respectively. Analysis of variance indicated that, all the verities have highly significant difference for all the characters. The Pearson’s correlation coefficients revealed that grain yield per plant was positively correlated with most yield attributes, but negatively correlated with disease severity. Principal component (PC) analysis indicated that five PCs have an Eigenvalue >1 and contributed 78.4% to the total variability while rest of 6 attributes contributed (21.6%) between wheat cultivars evaluated for different characters. Cluster analysis categorized the 133 genotypes into five different clusters. The members of the 4 th cluster showed maximum divergence from the members of 3 rd clusters. On the other hand, the members of 1 st and 2nd clusters showed the maximum similarities according to D2 statistics. Scatter plot showed that the genetic variation in the studied germplasm accessions and this diversity can be used for breeding programs aimed at improvement of disease resistance in the wheat germplasm. It concludes that there is significant diversity among the locally developed wheat germplasm for both leaf rust resistance and yield attributes. The present study, clearly emphasize the importance of resistant varieties which are great edge to the farmers in order to prevent yield losses
Sugarcane production face numerous difficulties, including infestations of insects and diseases, particularly red rot, a lack of appropriate seed supply, a lack of industrial support, etc. Using a ...process called plant tissue culture, huge amounts of authentically grown, disease-free plant material may be produced quickly. Plant tissue culture can also be used to quickly reproduce recently released varieties with crucial agronomic characteristics. For this purpose, sugarcane callus culture was collected from the inner soft leaf sheath to increase genetic diversity. Ten different concentrations viz., 1.5, 1.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 mgL-1 of 2, 4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid in MS medium were used for callus development, along with 0 mgL-1 control was used. Different combinations and concentrations of BAP+ Kin (1.0+1.0, 1.0+1.5, 1.0+0.5, 1.0+1.0, 1.5+1.0 and 1.0+1.5 mgL-1) were used for regeneration of shoots and auxin. IBA with 6 different concentrations (0. 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.5 and 1.8 mgL-1) were used for rooting of the shoots. Among all the growth regulators, 2, 4-D at 3.0 mgL-1 demonstrated the greatest auxin for callus development with BAP. The 6-12 mm meristem was grown in MS medium with NAA. It was observed that at concentrations viz., 3.5mgL-1 and 4.0mgL-1 of 2, 4-D, maximum callus (79.0-84.5 %) was developed with 4-5 mm in size. Maximum root growth and length (3.7 mm) were reported at 1.0 mgL-1 IBA and 1.0 mgL-1 Kinetin and 1.5 mgL 1 BAP in MS medium. It was concluded that auxin concentration is best for all sugarcane in vitro callus culture, which will assist researchers in future work.
Leaf and stripe rust caused by Puccinia recondita and Puccinia striiformis are important diseases of wheat in Pakistan and worldwide. The survey was carried out to monitor virulence pattern among the ...pathogen populations on rust trap nurseries planted in four different locations of Pakistan in 2016 and 2017 years. The rust trap nurseries consisted of 39 leaf and 27 stripe rust near isogenic lines and data were recorded following modified Cobb's scale. No virulence was found in the leaf and stripe rust genes of Lr18, Lr19, Lr23+(GAZA), Lr28, Lr29, Lr32, Lr34, Lr35, Lr36 and Lr37 and Yr1, Yr3, Yr4, Yr5, Yr8, Yr9, Yr10, Yr15, Yr17, Yr18, Yr26, Yr28, Yr29, Opata, Yrcv, Yrsp, Super Kauz, PBW-343 and Aoc + Yra, respectively. Faisalabad-08, Punjab-11, AARI-2011, Millat-11, AAS-11, and Ujala-16 varieties exhibited effective resistance to both rust pathotypes. Moderately stripe rust resistance was noticed on Galaxy-13 ranging from 20-30 MRMS. Thus, the use of resistant genes and their effective combination with other genes had paramount importance to combat both leaf and stripe rust effectively.
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