This book provides a review of precision agriculture technology development, followed by a presentation of the state-of-the-art and future requirements of precision agriculture technology. It ...presents different styles of precision agriculture technologies suitable for large scale mechanized farming; highly automated community-based mechanized production; and fully mechanized farming practices commonly seen in emerging economic regions. The book emphasizes the introduction of core technical features of sensing, data processing and interpretation technologies, crop modeling and production control theory, intelligent machinery and field robots for precision agriculture production.
Probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) such as Bayesian network (BN) have been widely applied in uncertain causality representation and probabilistic reasoning. Dynamic uncertain causality graph ...(DUCG) is a newly presented model of PGMs, which can be applied to fault diagnosis of large and complex industrial systems, disease diagnosis, and so on. The basic methodology of DUCG has been previously presented, in which only the directed acyclic graph (DAG) was addressed. However, the mathematical meaning of DUCG was not discussed. In this paper, the DUCG with directed cyclic graphs (DCGs) is addressed. In contrast, BN does not allow DCGs, as otherwise the conditional independence will not be satisfied. The inference algorithm for the DUCG with DCGs is presented, which not only extends the capabilities of DUCG from DAGs to DCGs but also enables users to decompose a large and complex DUCG into a set of small, simple sub-DUCGs, so that a large and complex knowledge base can be easily constructed, understood, and maintained. The basic mathematical definition of a complete DUCG with or without DCGs is proved to be a joint probability distribution (JPD) over a set of random variables. The incomplete DUCG as a part of a complete DUCG may represent a part of JPD. Examples are provided to illustrate the methodology.
Systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is induced by pathogens and confers protection against a broad range of pathogens. Several SAR signals have been characterized, but the nature of the other unknown ...signalling by small metabolites in SAR remains unclear. Glutathione (GSH) has long been implicated in the defence reaction against biotic stress. However, the mechanism that GSH increases plant tolerance against virus infection is not entirely known. Here, a combination of a chemical, virus‐induced gene‐silencing‐based genetics approach, and transgenic technology was undertaken to investigate the role of GSH in plant viral resistance in Nicotiana benthamiana. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) infection results in increasing the expression of GSH biosynthesis genes NbECS and NbGS, and GSH content. Silencing of NbECS or NbGS accelerated oxidative damage, increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), compromised plant resistance to TMV, and suppressed the salicylic acid (SA)‐mediated signalling pathway. Application of GSH or l‐2‐oxothiazolidine‐4‐carboxylic acid (a GSH activator) alleviated oxidative damage, decreased accumulation of ROS, elevated plant local and systemic resistance, enhanced the SA‐mediated signalling pathway, and increased the expression of ROS scavenging‐related genes. However, treatment with buthionine sulfoximine (a GSH inhibitor) accelerated oxidative damage, elevated ROS accumulation, compromised plant systemic resistance, suppressed the SA‐mediated signalling pathway, and reduced the expression of ROS‐regulating genes. Overexpression of NbECS reduced oxidative damage, decreased accumulation of ROS, increased resistance to TMV, activated the SA‐mediated signalling pathway, and increased the expression of the ROS scavenging‐related genes. We present molecular evidence suggesting GSH is essential for both local and systemic resistance of N. benthamiana to TMV through a differential modulation of SA and ROS.
Glutathione is required for both local and systemic resistance of Nicotiana benthamiana to tobacco mosaic virus infection through a differential modulation of salicylic acid signalling and reactive oxygen species.
Summary
Plants harbour highly diverse mycobiomes which sustain essential functions for host health and productivity. However, ecological processes that govern the plant–mycobiome assembly, ...interactions and their impact on ecosystem functions remain poorly known. Here we characterized the ecological role and community assembly of both abundant and rare fungal taxa along the soil–plant continuums (rhizosphere, phyllosphere and endosphere) in the maize–wheat/barley rotation system under different fertilization practices at two contrasting sites. Our results indicate that mycobiome assembly is shaped predominantly by compartment niche and host species rather than by environmental factors. Moreover, crop‐associated fungal communities are dominated by few abundant taxa mainly belonging to Sordariomycetes and Dothideomycetes, while the majority of diversity within mycobiomes are represented by rare taxa. For plant compartments, the abundant sub‐community is mainly determined by stochastic processes. In contrast, the rare sub‐community is more sensitive to host selection and mainly governed by deterministic processes. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that rare taxa play an important role in fungal co‐occurrence network and ecosystem functioning like crop yield and soil enzyme activities. These results significantly advance our understanding of crop mycobiome assembly and highlight the key role of rare taxa in sustaining the stability of crop mycobiomes and ecosystem functions.
Given the rapid development of plant genomic technologies, a lack of access to plant phenotyping capabilities limits our ability to dissect the genetics of quantitative traits. Effective, ...high-throughput phenotyping platforms have recently been developed to solve this problem. In high-throughput phenotyping platforms, a variety of imaging methodologies are being used to collect data for quantitative studies of complex traits related to the growth, yield and adaptation to biotic or abiotic stress (disease, insects, drought and salinity). These imaging techniques include visible imaging (machine vision), imaging spectroscopy (multispectral and hyperspectral remote sensing), thermal infrared imaging, fluorescence imaging, 3D imaging and tomographic imaging (MRT, PET and CT). This paper presents a brief review on these imaging techniques and their applications in plant phenotyping. The features used to apply these imaging techniques to plant phenotyping are described and discussed in this review.
Soft and stretchable electronic devices are important in wearable and implantable applications because of the high skin conformability. Due to the natural biocompatibility and biodegradability, silk ...protein is one of the ideal platforms for wearable electronic devices. However, the realization of skin‐conformable electronic devices based on silk has been limited by the mechanical mismatch with skin, and the difficulty in integrating stretchable electronics. Here, silk protein is used as the substrate for soft and stretchable on‐skin electronics. The original high Young's modulus (5–12 GPa) and low stretchability (<20%) are tuned into 0.1–2 MPa and > 400%, respectively. This plasticization is realized by the addition of CaCl2 and ambient hydration, whose mechanism is further investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Moreover, highly stretchable (>100%) electrodes are obtained by the thin‐film metallization and the formation of wrinkled structures after ambient hydration. Finally, the plasticized silk electrodes, with the high electrical performance and skin conformability, achieve on‐skin electrophysiological recording comparable to that by commercial gel electrodes. The proposed skin‐conformable electronics based on biomaterials will pave the way for the harmonized integration of electronics into human.
Silk protein is plasticized and demonstrated as a soft and stretchable substrate for skin‐conformable stretchable electronics. The plasticization is enabled by the addition of CaCl2 and ambient hydration, and the mechanism is investigated using molecular dynamics simulation. Moreover, highly stretchable (>100%) silk electrodes are fabricated for on‐skin electrophysiological measurements. This progress will enable more biomaterial‐based wearable electronics.
The ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is a type of classical swarm intelligence algorithm that is especially suitable for combinatorial optimization problems. To further improve the convergence ...speed without affecting the solution quality, in this paper, a novel strengthened pheromone update mechanism is designed that strengthens the pheromone on the edges, which had never been done before, utilizing dynamic information to perform path optimization. In addition, to enhance the global search capability, a novel pheromone-smoothing mechanism is designed to reinitialize the pheromone matrix when the ACO algorithm's search process approaches a defined stagnation state. The improved algorithm is analyzed and tested on a set of benchmark test cases. The experimental results show that the improved ant colony optimization algorithm performs better than compared algorithms in terms of both the diversity of the solutions obtained and convergence speed.
Graphitic carbon nitride (g‐CN) is a unique organic semiconductor that has been widely applied as a visible‐light‐driven photocatalyst. However, these applications are primarily based on g‐CN ...powders. Applications of g‐CN in devices are hindered because of difficulties associated with the synthesis of high‐quality g‐CN films. This work reviews the latest advances in g‐CN films. The deposition methods are summarized and the structural, optical, and electronic properties of g‐CN films and their applications in catalysis, solar cells, and light‐emitting diodes are outlined. Moreover, the challenges remaining in this field are also discussed.
Caught on film: Graphitic carbon nitride (g‐CN) films show great potential in a wide range of applications. In this review, we briefly summarize the latest advances in the synthesis of g‐CN films; their structural, optical, and electronic properties; and their applications in phototelectrochemical cells, electrocatalysis, light‐emitting diodes, and solar cells.
When the call center queuing system becomes complex, it turns out that the static routing policy is not optimal. This paper considers the problem of the dynamic routing policy for call centers with ...multiple skill types and agent groups. A state-dependent routing policy based on the Deep Q Network (DQN) is proposed, and a reinforcement learning algorithm is applied to optimize the routing. A simulation algorithm is designed to help customers and agents interact with the external environment to learn the optimal strategy. The performance evaluation considered in this paper is the service level/abandon rate. Experiments show that the DQN-based dynamic routing policy performs better than the common static policy Global First Come First Serve (FCFS) and the dynamic policy Priorities with Idle Agent Thresholds and Weight-Based Routing in various examples. On the other hand, the training time of the routing policy model based on the DQN is much faster than routing optimization based on simulation and a genetic algorithm.
TiO2 nanotube arrays (TiO2 NTAs) decorated with molybdenum disulfide quantum dots (MoS2 QDs) were synthesized by a facile electrodeposition method and used as a composite photocatalyst. MoS2 QDs/TiO2 ...NTAs showed enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with pristine TiO2 NTAs for solar light‐promoted H2 evolution without adding any sacrificial agents or cocatalysts. The photocatalytic activity was influenced by the amount of MoS2 QDs coated on TiO2 NTAs. The optimal composition showed excellent photocatalytic activity, achieving H2 evolution rates of 31.36, 5.29, and 1.67 μmol cm−2 h−1 corresponding to ultraviolet (UV, λ<420 nm), visible (Vis, λ≥420 nm), and near‐infrared (NIR, λ>760) illumination, respectively. The improved photocatalytic activity was attributed to the decreased bandgap and the surface plasmonic properties of MoS2 QDs/TiO2 NTAs, which promoted electron–hole pair separation and the absorption capacity for Vis and NIR light. This study presents a facile approach for fabricating MoS2 QDs/TiO2 NTA heterostructures for efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution, which will facilitate the development of designing new photocatalysts for environment and energy applications.
Dotty array: A facile approach is presented for fabricating MoS2 quantum dots (QDs)/TiO2 nanotube array (NTA)‐type heterostructures for efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution without adding any sacrificial agents or cocatalysts. The improved photocatalytic activity is owed to the decreased bandgap and the surface plasmonic properties of MoS2 QDs/TiO2 NTAs promoting electron–hole pair separation and improving absorption capacity for visible and near infrared light.
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