Detecting strawberry diseases and pest infections in the very early stage with an ensemble deep-learning model.

Detecting early signs of plant diseases and pests is important to preclude their progress and minimize the damages caused by them. Many methods are developed to catch signs of diseases and pests from plant images with deep learning techniques, however, detecting early signs is still challenging because of the lack of datasets to train subtle changes in plants. To solve these challenges, we built an automatic data acquisition system for the accumulation of a large dataset of plant images and trained an ensemble model to detect targeted plant diseases and pests. After obtaining 13,393 plant image data, our ensemble model shows a decent detection performance with an average of AUPRC 0.81. Also, this data acquisition and the detection process can be applied to other plant anomalies with the collection of additional data.

Largest democracy in the world crippled by COVID-19: current perspective and experience from India.

The outbreak of novel and recent coronavirus disease 2019, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, has made an emergency throughout the world. In India, the outspread of the pandemic was observed on 3 March 2020, and after that exponential growth in the cases was observed in the country. Owing to the widespread transmission, high population density, high testing capacity and ineffective treatment, a continuous rise in cases was observed due to the pandemic in India. In this paper, we have discussed the trend and spread of COVID-19 spread in India with time, history of initial confirmed cases, the impact of phased manner lockdown, age- and gender-wise trend of cases and comparison of cases with the other most affected countries. The study uses exploratory data analysis to describe the current situation of COVID-19 cases in India till 16 August 2020, with the help of data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (GOI) and the World Health Organization (WHO). As of August 16, the total number of confirmed cases in India crossed 2.5 million marks with over 50,000 causalities. With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have crossed the 1.8 million mark with a recovery rate of more than 70% and case fatality rate of 1.94% which is maintained below the global average and is on a continuous positive slide. The study also enlightens the preventive and stringent measures taken by India to combat the COVID-19 situation along with the future prospects. The GOI is following its proactive and preemptive approach for management, prevention and containment of COVID-19 in collaboration with the WHO.

Current perspective of COVID-19 spread across South Korea: exploratory data analysis and containment of the pandemic.

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is regarded as a highly contagious disease that has challenged the healthcare systems worldwide with confirmed cases approaching 12 million and more than 50,000 deaths. Considering the worldwide cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), it remains a pandemic and the vaccines and therapeutic agents have yet to be developed to stop the spread of this outbreak. Due to the unavailability of specific treatment for the COVID-19, it can be viewed that the risk of cluster infection will continue to be present within the intermittent and small-scale outbreaks. Though the COVID-19 has been identified as a communicable disease, the preventive measures and response policies in South Korea are effectively serving the purpose and gained the confidence to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. This paper includes the exploratory data analysis of COVID-19 cases in South Korea till July 8, 2020. South Korea has reported the lowest death rate with the majority of the deaths, associated with persons with underlying health conditions or elderly infected individuals. Currently the infected patients (total 989) remaining in South Korea are mild cases owing to its robust health care system and quarantine inspection procedures followed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea to flatten the COVID-19 curve. Although the COVID-19 countermeasures taken by the South Korean government may not be conclusive or universal for all, but its exemplary approach to tackle COVID-19 can aid countries across the globe to strengthen their response system for the future outbreak of such an infectious disease.

A shock like no other: coronavirus rattles commodity markets.

The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) originated in China has now covered around 213 countries globally. It has posed health calamities which have threatened the world with the emergence. Owing to the number of confirmed cases still rising every day, it has now become a phase of an international health emergency. Sudden outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought global declines in the commodity process. This has majorly affected the demand as well as supply of the commodities. The oil market has been severely affected due to the outrageous collapse in the demand majorly due to travel restrictions which has also caused the steepest decline in oil prices. The prices of both precious and industrial metals have also fallen, although the price drop is less than that of oil prices. The agriculture industry is one of the least affected so far by this pandemic due to its indirect relation with economic activities. However, the ultimate impact of COVID-19 pandemic will greatly depend on the severity and duration of its outspread, but it is expected to have long-lasting implications.

Correction to: The consequences of coronavirus outbreak on commodity markets.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-00934-4.].