AFD-Net: Apple Foliar Disease Multi Classification using Deep Learning on Plant Pathology Dataset

Plant diseases significantly affect the crop, so their identification is very important. Correct identification of these diseases is crucial for establishing a good disease control strategy to avoid time and financial losses. In general, machines can greatly reduce the possibility of human error. In particular, computer vision techniques developed through deep learning have paved a way to detect and diagnose these plant diseases on the leaf. In this work, the model AFD-Net was developed to detect and identify various leaf diseases in apple trees. The dataset is from Kaggle 2020 and 2021 and was financially supported by the Cornell Initiative for Digital Agriculture. A AFD-Net was proposed for leaf disease classification in apple trees and the results of the efficiency of the model are compared with other state-of-the-art deep learning approaches. The results of the experiments in the validation dataset show that the proposed AFD-Net model achieves the highest values compared to other deep learning models in the original and extended datasets with 98.7% accuracy for Plant Pathology 2020 and 92.6% for Plant Pathology 2021.

Red flower apple in the collection of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine

Apple trees with red flowers are especially attractive during the flowering period, making ones a desirable component of ornamental plantings. 30 samples of apple trees with anthocyanin organ coloring in the collection of Scientific Laboratory "Genetic resources, introduction, and breeding of unusual fruit and ornamental crops", located in Agronomic Research Station of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine have been studied. In 2001 phenological observations during blooming and morphometric analysis of flowers and leaves were carried out, also decorativeness was evaluated. The dominant gene that controls the anthocyanin pigmentation of organs in the apple tree comes from Malus niedzwetzkyana. Now the rank of this taxon is reduced to a variety – M. domestica var. niedzwetzkyana. Niedzvetzky’s apple was involved in crossing with small-fruited apple species to develop ornamental hybrids, some of which received nothospecies names, and in the breeding of fruit varieties and rootstocks of M. domestica. According to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants, varieties with anthocyanin-colored petals having in the pedigree M. domestica var. niedzwetzkyana can be distinguished as Malus Niedzwetzkyana Group. If the Malus Niedzwetzkyana Group is supplemented with varieties with anthocyanin color of petals that originate from other species of apple trees, e.g., M. halliana and M. spectabilis, then the expanded Group can be called Malus Purpurea Group. At the same time, some varieties may belong to other Groups, in particular, Malus Pendula Group, Malus Redflesh Group, etc. The highest decorativeness (5 points) during blooming is inherent for the samples Nos. 2332 'Makamik', 2947, 3100 'Aldenhamensis', 3157 'Pionerka', 3305, 3382, 3540, 3592, 3601, 3603, 3656, 3691, 3692, 4292 and hybrids '17-279', '17-316', '18-275', '18-293', '18-325'. The samples No. 1723 'Lawn Krasnolepestnaya', 3314 'Royalty', 3375 'Black Pearl' are slightly inferior to them in decorativeness, but they have a special habitus or intense anthocyanin color of the leaves, which gives them certain advantages. The use of these samples allows you to establish a conveyor of elongated flowering of red-flowered apple trees at green construction sites.

Sr isotope ratio in vegetable crops and apple trees depends on that of the soil environment while is unaffected by the genotype

The 87Sr/86Sr ratio is an effective geographical tracer for horticultural products. In plants this ratio reflects closely the characteristics of the growing area. However, information about the variability of this parameter when measured in different plant species or cultivars is still scarce. In this work, we have tested the hypothesis that, when plants are growing in the same environment, their 87Sr/86Sr ratio is independent from the plant species or cultivar. For this, four to six vegetable species were collected from two fields in different locations in South Tyrol (Italy), together with the corresponding soils. Additionally, within a single apple orchard located in the same area, apple leaves were collected from trees of five cultivars. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio was measured applying an established and validated method. In general, vegetable species growing in the same field had similar 87Sr/86Sr ratios and showed a lower variability compared to their corresponding soils, while a significant difference was found comparing the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the two vegetable fields. Apple leaves sampled from different tree cultivars also did not show a significant difference in their 87Sr/86Sr ratio. We concluded that the 87Sr/86Sr ratio in vegetables and apple trees was affected by the soil, but not significantly by the type of species or cultivar. Therefore, within limited areas, the results of the 87Sr/86Sr ratio analysis based on samples of a certain species/cultivar can be extended to other similar plants growing in the same site.

Genetic diversity of Malus Mill. in the collection plantings of the Experimental pomology station named after L. P. Symyrenko

Gene pool of apple trees of the Experimental Station of Pomology named after L. P. Symyrenko IS of NAAS of Ukraine is supported in the “field gene bank” and has more than 1260 samples. The main task that gene banks solve is to preserve the genetic diversity of plants for present and future generations of people. As a result of attracting new samples to the collection and studying the imported introduced material, the selected sources of economically valuable traits are transferred for further inclusion in the selection programs of other research institutions. The genetic potential of apple productivity and resistance to biotic and abiotic environmental factors is far from exhausted.

Evaluation of the aesthetic qualities and adaptability of introduced ornamental apple trees from the genetic collection of the Orenburg Branch of the Federal Horticultural Research Center for Breeding, Agrotechnology and Nursery

The study of ornamental and adaptive qualities of Malus Mill. from the genetic collection of ornamental crops of the Orenburg branch of the Research Center of Horticulture was carried out to assess the gene pool of introduced wild apple tree species and forms and identify suitable for the urban landscaping and the breeding process. Such characteristics as habitus, abundance of flowering, color and number of flowers in the inflorescence, color of vegetative organs, flowers and fruits during the season were taken into account; resistance to major diseases and adverse abiotic factors was evaluated. Additionally, the color of buds and flowers was characterized on the basis of the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society Color Chart). As a result of a preliminary survey on the complex of ornamental qualities and the level of adaptability, 5 most promising species were identified, which received the best ratings on the ornamental scale. Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne ex C. K. Schneid. (31 points) was characterized by an attractive habit, the presence of flowers with a diameter of up to 40 mm and subsequently fruits that acquire a yellow-red color. Malus sargentii Rehder (29 points) was notable for its compact rounded crown, a large number of flowers with a diameter of 30 mm, followed by the formation of fruits with a dark red color. Malus floribunda Siebold ex Van Houtte (28 points) was distinguished by a large number of fragrant flowers in an umbrella-shaped inflorescence (5 — 7 pcs) with an average diameter of 30 mm, as well as attractive red-yellow fruits. Malus sieboldii (Regel) Rehder, M. toringo Siebold (28 points) was interesting primarily by the presence of 5 -7 flowers of 20 — 30 mm in the inflorescence and decorative fruits, the color of which varies from yellow to red. Malus niedzwetzkyana Dieck (28 points) attracted attention to the rich purple color of all organs due to the presence of a large number of anthocyanins, it was also worth noting the presence of a pleasant aroma during flowering and large flowers with an average diameter of 40 mm. The selected ornamental types of apple trees are favorable for use in landscaping of various scales, they are recommended for breeding work as initial parent forms.

Draft Genome Sequences of Four Streptomycin-Sensitive Erwinia amylovora Strains Isolated from Commercial Apple Orchards in Ohio

Erwinia amylovora is the causative agent of fire blight, a devastating disease of apples and pears worldwide. Here, we report draft genome sequences of four streptomycin-sensitive strains of E. amylovora that were isolated from diseased apple trees in Ohio.

Essays in Risk Management

<p>This thesis consists of five chapters that examines risk and uncertainty within two frameworks: foreign exchange market and real options. The first chapter is a preliminary part that overviews the structure of thesis. In the second chapter, I examine the impact of scheduled macroeconomic announcements on realised variance in the Canadian dollar/US dollar foreign exchange market. Information shocks as a whole are made up of public information shocks and private information shocks. I measure the public information shocks from the analyst forecast surprise and the private information shocks from volatility sensitivity to liquidity variables. I find that the realized variance is driven mainly by the latter rather than the former. However, my results for the most important announcements are not significant, which might be due to these being well-analysed publicly. Spread, as a proxy of private information shocks, is the most important liquidity measure, showing a significant increase around the arrival of announcements. My results are robust to joint effects of liquidity variables, considering announcements throughout the day (times other than 8:30 announcement), alternative measures of volatility (absolute return and modified absolute return), evaluation of announcements for US and Canada separately, examine the impact of surprise in model, and the economic classification of announcements. In the third chapter, I aim to evaluate risk and uncertainty using real options technique. I develop a framework to evaluate representative agents’ behaviour in a real options switching framework. I set up three models with revertible switching process under uncertainty and solve these using the alternating direction implicit algorithm. The models break down into: cash-cost model, cash-time model, and projection model. The cash-cost model captures the cash expenses of switching whereas the cash-time model not only captures the cash cost but also the exact time cost, which is critical in horticulture. The projection model presents an approximation of cash-time model that has less computational complexity. The results of my sensitivity analyses indicate that increases in cost, time, volatility, drift, and discount rate have negative impacts on the switch frequency. If the correlation between two crops is positive, it has negative impacts on switch frequency, otherwise it has positive impacts. Differences between the models are more pronounced over longer periods. In the fourth and fifth chapters, I extend the cash-time model from chapter three to evaluate orchardists’ behaviour in the Hawke’s Bay region. Chapter four examines the dataset thoroughly and provide a statistical review of orchards that will be modeled in chapter five. Orchardists have the incentive to switch from one type of apple to another as the apple profits change. In my model, orchardists have the option to carry on with the existing apple trees or to switch to competing apple types by uprooting the existing apple trees and planting new ones or grafting on the existing rootstock. The uprooting strategy is relatively expensive but is instantaneous, and results in young (unproductive) apple trees with a long life ahead of them. In contrast, the grafting strategy is less expensive and faster but continues with old trees. I compute the optimal land value at each age of apple trees from one-year to 33-years old. My results show that grafting is the optimal strategy when trees are young, whereas planting becomes optimal when they are old. Examining the apple dataset, I find that orchardists are biased against uprooting and grafting relative to my predictions. The deviation from what my model proposes and what orchardists follow in reality might be due to the assumption of my model and possible factors in the orchards that my model does not capture. My results show that the deviation from optimal policy for small orchardists is not significantly different from large orchardists.</p>