Monthly rainfall hind-cast using machine learning algorithms for Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Due to current world climate change, the accuracy of predicting rainfall is critical. This paper presents an approach using four different machine learning algorithms, viz., Decision Tree Regression (DTR), Gradient Boosting (GB), Ada Boost (AB) and Random Forest Regression (RFR) techniques to improve the rainfall forecast performance. When historical events are entered into the model and get validated to realise how well the output suits the known results referred as Hind-cast. Historical monthly weather parameters over a period of 42 years (1976 to 2017) were collected from Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The global climate driver’s viz., Southern Oscillation Index and Indian Ocean Dipole indices were retrieved from Bureau of Meteorology, Australia. K- means algorithm was employed for centroid identification (which select the rows with unique distinguished features) at 90 per cent of the original data for the period of 42 years by eliminating the redundancy nature of the datawhich were used as training set. The result indicated the supremacy and notable strength of RFR over the other algorithms in terms of performance with 89.2 per cent. The Co-efficient of Determination (R2) for the predicted and observed values was found to be 0.8 for the monthly rainfall from 2015 to 2017.

FAO AquaCrop model for determining optimum wheat sowing date in Tarai region of Uttarakhand

The ideal sowing period is critical for maximizing the crop's yield potential under specific agroclimatic conditions (Nain, 2016; Patra et al., 2017). It influences the phenological stages of the crop's development and, as a result, the efficient conversion of biomass into economic yield. During rabi 2013-14, a field research was done at GBPUA&T's Borlaug Crop Research Centre to determine the best sowing dates for wheat crops employing Aquacrop model. Aquacrop model has been calibrated against vegetative and economic yield forthree sowing dates, viz., 3rd December, 18th December and 3rd January (Pareek et al., 2017). After calibrating the Aquacrop model, a set of conservative variables was obtained (Pareek et al., 2017). Afterward, the calibrated Aquacrop model was used to validate wheat yield and biomass for three years in a row, namely 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. The model subsequently used to simulate yield under different sowing dates. For all of the tested years, the simulation findings of the Aquacrop model reflected the observed crop yields and biomass of wheat. The model was used to simulate the optimum sowing week based on varying sowing dates and produced grain yield for a period of 10 years (Malik et al., 2013). The average and assured yield of wheat was worked out based on probability analysis (60, 75 and 90%). The optimum sowing time for Tarai region of Uttarakhand was suggested as first week of November followed by second week of November (Nain, 2016). In no case wheat should be sown during third week of November and beyond due to poor assured yield and average yield (Nain, 2016). The finding of the studies will help to increase productivity and production of wheat crop in Tarai region of Uttarakhand.

Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Growth and Quality Flower Production of Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum Indicum L.)

A field study was conceded to assess the effect of plant growth regulators on growth and quality flower production of chrysanthemum at Horticulture Research Centre (HRC), Gazipur, Bangladesh. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with ten (10) treatments and three replications. The treatments of plant growth regulators concentration were T1-50 ppm GA3, T2-100 ppm GA3, T3-150 ppm GA3, T4-400 ppm CCC, T5-600 ppm CCC, T6-800 ppm CCC, T7-250 ppm MH, T8-500 ppm MH, T9-750 ppm MH and, T10-Control. The maximum spreading of plant (27.0 cm) was observed when plants were treated with GA3 @ 150 ppm where the minimum plant spread (16.8 cm) was recorded in plants treated with CCC @ 800 ppm. The higher number of suckers (33) per pot was produced when pots were treated with GA3 @ 150 ppm whereas, application of CCC at three different concentrations produced lower number of suckers. The highest number of flower (40) was recorded with 150 ppm GA3, where minimum number of flowers (25) per pot in 800 ppm CCC. The plants sprayed with 50 ppm GA3 took 48 days to flower initiation, whereas, it took 70 days with 750 ppm MH. the highest plants recorded (7.40 cm) with 800 ppm CCC, whereas, lowest size (6.50 cm) was obtained with the application of 500 ppm MH. The maximum vase life of flowers was recorded for the treatment 800 ppm CCC (15 days), which was at par with 13 days vase life obtained by spraying 600 ppm CCC. Therefore, it is concluded that the GA3 acted as growth promoter and the CCC acted as growth retardants on yield and quality of chrysanthemum.

Effect of Controlled Atmospheres and Environmental Conditions on the Physicochemical and Sensory Characteristics of Sweet Cherry Cultivar Satin

Sweet cherry is a highly appreciated seasonal fruit with a high content of bioactive compounds; however, this highly perishable fruit has a relatively short shelf-life period. Here, we evaluated the evolution of the physicochemical and sensory qualities of sweet cherries (Prunus avium (L.) cv. Satin) under different storage conditions, namely at a Farmers’ Organization (FO) and in a Research Centre (RC) under normal and four different conditions of controlled atmosphere for 49 days. Additional parameters were monitored, such as rotten fruit incidence and stem appearance. Temperature was the factor that most influenced the fruit quality changes over the study time. In fact, fruits stored at higher mean temperatures showed higher weight loss, higher variation in CIE-Lab colour parameters, higher firmness loss, and browner and more dehydrated stems and were less appealing to the consumer. Controlled atmosphere conditions showed a smaller decrease in CIE-Lab colour parameters and lower weight loss. The incidence of rotting was very low and was always equal or lower than 2% for all conditions. Thus, RC chamber conditions were able to sustain fruit quality parameters over 28 days under normal atmosphere conditions and 49 days under controlled atmosphere conditions.

Implementing effective community-based surveillance in research studies of maternal, newborn and infant outcomes in low resource settings

Background Globally adopted health and development milestones have not only encouraged improvements in the health and wellbeing of women and infants worldwide, but also a better understanding of the epidemiology of key outcomes and the development of effective interventions in these vulnerable groups. Monitoring of maternal and child health outcomes for milestone tracking requires the collection of good quality data over the long term, which can be particularly challenging in poorly-resourced settings. Despite the wealth of general advice on conducting field trials, there is a lack of specific guidance on designing and implementing studies on mothers and infants. Additional considerations are required when establishing surveillance systems to capture real-time information at scale on pregnancies, pregnancy outcomes, and maternal and infant health outcomes. Main body Based on two decades of collaborative research experience between the Kintampo Health Research Centre in Ghana and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, we propose a checklist of key items to consider when designing and implementing systems for pregnancy surveillance and the identification and classification of maternal and infant outcomes in research studies. These are summarised under four key headings: understanding your population; planning data collection cycles; enhancing routine surveillance with additional data collection methods; and designing data collection and management systems that are adaptable in real-time. Conclusion High-quality population-based research studies in low resource communities are essential to ensure continued improvement in health metrics and a reduction in inequalities in maternal and infant outcomes. We hope that the lessons learnt described in this paper will help researchers when planning and implementing their studies.

Teacher-reported emotional and behavioural problems and ethnic background associated with children’s psychosocial care use: a longitudinal population-based study

Approximately, 15% of children in Western countries suffer from emotional and behavioural problems. However, not all children receive the psychosocial care they need, especially children with a non-Western background experience an unmet need for care. This might be because parents of non-Western children report a lower need for care than parents of Western children, unrelated to the actual need. This study examined the association between teacher-reported problems and psychosocial care use, independent of mother-reported problems. Further, the role of ethnic background in this association was investigated. The study sample of 9-year-old children was retrieved from the Generation R Study (N = 3084), a prospective, population-based cohort of children born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Teacher- and mother-reported problems were measured via questionnaire when the children were 6/7 years old. Psychosocial care use was mother-reported at the research centre when children were 9 years old (8.1%). Hierarchical logistic regressions showed significant positive associations between teacher-reported total, externalising and internalising problems and later psychosocial care use. These associations were independent of mother-reported problems. Children with a non-Western background used less care, but ethnic background did not moderate the association between teacher-reported problems and care use. Our findings suggest that teachers might have an important role, next to parents, in the identification of problems and children’s access to care. This may be particularly important for non-Western children, as they use less psychosocial care than Western children, despite other research showing that they generally display higher levels of problems. Directions for future research and implications are discussed.

SARS-CoV-2-positive patients display considerable differences in proteome diversity in urine, nasopharyngeal, gargle solution and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples

Background: Proteome profile changes post-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (post-SARS-CoV-2) infection in different body sites of humans remains an active scientific investigation whose solutions stand a chance of providing more information on what constitutes SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. While proteomics has been used to understand SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis, there are limited data about the status of proteome profile in different human body sites infected by sarscov2 virus. To bridge this gap, our study aims to profile the proteins secreted in urine, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), gargle solution, and nasopharyngeal samples and assess the proteome differences in these body samples collected from SARS-CoV-2-positive patients. Materials and methods: We downloaded publicly available proteomic data from (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride/). The data we downloaded had the following identifiers: i) PXD019423, n=3 from Charles Tanford Protein Center in Germany. ii) PXD018970, n=15 from Beijing Proteome Research Centre, China. iii)PXD022085, n=5 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, and iv) PXD022889, n=18 from Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905 USA. MaxQuant was used for the peptide spectral matching using human and SARS-CoV-2 downloaded from UniProt database (access date 13th October 2021). Results: The individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 viruses displayed a different proteome diversity from the different body sites we investigated. Overally, we identified 1809 proteins across the four different sample types we compared. Urine and BALF samples had significantly more abundant SARS-CoV-2 proteins than the other body sites we compared. Urine samples had 257(33.7%) unique proteins followed by nasopharyngeal with 250(32.8%) unique proteins. Garlge solution and BALF had 38(5%) and 73(9.6%) unique proteins respectively. Conclusions: Urine, gargle solution, nasopharyngeal, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples have different protein diversity in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, our data also demonstrated that a given body site is characterized by a unique set of proteins in SARS-CoV-2 seropositive individuals. Key words: SARS-CoV-2, body sites,urine,gargle solution, BALF,nasopharyngeal

Agrotechnological passport of the potato variety Azart

Цель исследований: изучить реакцию нового среднераннего сорта картофеля Азарт селекции ФГБНУ «ФИЦ картофеля имени А.Г. Лорха» на густоту, сроки посадки и способы внесения минеральных удобрений, по комплексу хозяйственно ценных признаков (морфологические и биологические особенности, потребительские и столовые качества клубней, урожайность, показатели качества клубней, устойчивость к болезням, лежкость при хранении). Опыты проводили на экспериментальной базе «Коренево» ФГБНУ «ФИЦ картофеля имени А.Г. Лорха» (Московская область) в 2018–2020 годах на дерново-подзолистой супесчаной почве с низким содержанием гумуса (1,8–1,9%), высоким – подвижного фосфора (269–278 мг/кг почвы) и ниже среднего – обменного калия (128–130 мг/кг почвы). Минеральные удобрения (азофоска с добавлением калимагнезии) вносили локально двумя лентами при нарезке гребней культиватором КРН-4,2 с туковысевающими аппаратами в середине апреля. Изучали три приема внесения: 1. Единовременное N90P90K135(контроль); 2. Дробно-локальное (стартовое N60P60K90+ подкормка N30P30K45) через 7–10 дней после всходов; 3. Дробное (стартовое N30P30K45 + подкормка N30P30K45) через 7–10 дней после всходов + подкормка N30P30K45 в фазе бутонизации. Посадку картофеля проводили в два срока: ранний (третья декада апреля при температуре почвы не ниже 5–7 °C) и базовый (контроль) – через 7–10 дней после первого срока. Клубни массой 50–80 г высаживали клоновой сажалкой СН-4Б-К на глубину 8–10 см. Исследовали три густоты посадки: 44 (контроль), 50 и 56 тыс. клубней/га по схеме 75×30, 75×27, 75×24 см. Определен наиболее эффективный агрокомплекс приемов, включающий раннюю посадку (третья декада апреля при температуре почвы не ниже 5–7 °C) с густотой 44 тыс. клубней/га на фоне дробно-локального внесения удобрений (стартовое N60P60K90при нарезке гребней + подкормка N30P30K45) при междурядной обработке через 7–10 дней после всходов. В условиях дерново-подзолистой супесчаной почвы Центрального региона Нечерноземной зоны сорт дает прибавку урожая в размере 3,9 т/га, или 10,3%. При этом условный доход составил 39,0 тыс. р/га. The purpose of the research: to study the reaction of a new medium-early potato variety Azart selection of the Russian Potato Research Centre on the density, planting dates and methods of applying mineral fertilizers, according to a complex of economically valuable characteristics (morphological and biological features, consumer and table qualities of tubers, yield, quality indicators of tubers, resistance to diseases, storage shelf life). The experiments were carried out at the experimental base Korenevo Russian Potato Research Centre (Moscow region) in 2018–2020 on sod-podzolic sandy loam soil with low humus content (1.8–1.9%), high – mobile phosphorus (269–278 mg/kg of soil) and below average – exchangeable potassium (128–130 mg/kg of soil). Mineral fertilizers (azofoska with the addition of kalimagnesia) were applied locally with two ribbons when cutting the ridges with a KRN-4,2 cultivator with tow-raising devices in mid-April. We studied three methods of making: 1. One-time N90P90K135 (control); 2. Fractional-local (starting N60P60K90 + top dressing N30P30K45) 7–10 days after germination; 3. Fractional (starting N30P30K45+ top dressing N30P30K45) 7–10 days after germination + top dressing N30P30K45 in the budding phase. Potato planting was carried out in two terms: early (the third decade of April at a soil temperature of at least 5–7 °C) and basic (control) – 7–10 days after the first term. Tubers weighing 50–80 g were planted with a clone planter CH-4B-K to a depth of 8–10 cm. Three planting densities were studied: 44 (control), 50 and 56 thousand tubers/ha according to the scheme 75×30, 75×27, 75×24 cm. The most effective agrocomplex of techniques has been determined, including early planting (the third decade of April at a soil temperature of at least 5–7 °C) with a density of 44 thousand tubers/ha against the background of fractional-local fertilization (starting N60P60K90when cutting ridges + top dressing N30P30K45) with row-to-row processing 7–10 days after germination. In the conditions of sod-podzolic sandy loam soil of the Central region of the Non-Chernozem zone, the variety gives an increase in yield of 3.9 t/ha or 10.3%. At the same time, the conditional income amounted to 39.0 thousand rubles/ha.

Evaluating a Social Media Campaign for a Parent Educational Video on Bronchiolitis

Bronchiolitis, or lower airway swelling, is a common cause of pediatric hospital admissions. Parents have expressed wishes for more information regarding bronchiolitis but had difficulty finding reliable information, suggesting the need for more effective and easily accessible information resources. Knowledge translation (KT) tools like videos provide research-based information and may be conveniently disseminated to large audiences through social media. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a social media campaign to promote a video on bronchiolitis. A social media campaign was conducted from 14 October to 30 November 2019. User interactions were recorded for the Facebook and Twitter accounts, website, and YouTube of Evidence in Child Health to Enhance Outcomes (ECHO), Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence (ARCHE), and Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK). Baseline metrics were collected from 1 August to 30 September 2019 and post-campaign metrics were collected from 1 December 2019 to 31 March 2020. Mean monthly changes, standard deviations, and percent changes between periods were generated for the baseline, campaign, and post-campaign periods. Overall, there was a visible increase in user interactions throughout the campaign period. There was an overall downward trend in user interactions following the campaign. These findings suggest that social media may be a useful method of KT tool dissemination when consistently used. The downward trend post-campaign highlights the need for further research to investigate methods to maintain continuous interaction following a campaign.