ABSTRACT
Due to the world's rapid population expansion, the demand for food is anticipated to increase significantly during the coming decade. Traditional farming practices cannot meet the need for the food crop. Conventional farming methods use resources like land, water, herbicides, and fertilisers rather inefficiently. When it comes to making the most effective and sustainable use of resources to increase production, automation in agriculture is garnering a lot of interest. How people and machines operate on farms has been changed by integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) with numerous sensors, controllers, and communication protocols. A comprehensive literature review of the key technologies involved in smart and sustainable agriculture, viz. various sensors, controllers, communication standards, IoT based intelligent machinery, were compared and presented. These sensors were continuously producing a significant quantity of data on the agricultural field. These data were transmitted to the central control unit for analysis to meet the demands for water, fertiliser, pesticides, etc. The architecture and importance of data analytics in agriculture IoT, case studies of current agricultural automation utilising IoT, key challenges and open issues in agriculture IoT technology were discussed. The findings provide support for the selection of IoT technologies for specific applications.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is one of the worst human health problems faced by humanity in recent centuries. An end to this health crisis relies on our ability to monitor viral transmission dynamics to check spread, develop therapeutics and preventatives for treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection and understand the pathophysiology of the disease for better management of the patients. Omics technologies have played a crucial part in understanding the different aspects of COVID-19 disease. While whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates from across the globe has aided in the development of molecular diagnostic assays and informed about the viral evolution, knowledge of structure and function of viral proteome fueled the development of small molecule and biologicals therapeutics as well as vaccines. Concurrently, metabolomic profiling of samples from COVID-19 patients experiencing a varying level of disease severity has provided a snapshot of the pathophysiology of the disease helping device effective treatment regimen. This chapter deals with genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic profiling of SRAS-CoV-2. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The magnitude and pace of global affliction caused by Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is unprecedented in the recent past. From starting in a busy seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the virus has spread across the globe in less than a year, infecting over 76 million people and causing death of close to 1.7 million individuals worldwide. As no specific anti-viral treatment is currently available, the major strategy in containing the pandemic is focused on early diagnosis and prompt isolation of the infected individuals. Several diagnostic modalities have emerged within a relatively short period, which can be broadly classified into molecular and immunological assays. While the former category is centered around real-time PCR, which is currently considered the gold standard of diagnosis, the latter aims to detect viral antigens or antibodies specific to the viral antigens and is yet to be recommended as a stand-alone diagnostic tool. This review aims to provide an update on the different diagnostic modalities that are currently being used in diagnostic laboratories across the world as well as the up-coming methods and challenges associated with each of them. In a rapidly evolving diagnostic landscape with several testing platforms going through various phases of development and/or regulatory clearance, it is prudent that the clinical community familiarizes itself with the nuances of different testing modalities currently being employed for this condition.