Combating the COVID-19 infodemic using Prompt-Based curriculum learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a proliferation of online misinformation and disinformation about the virus. Combating this 'infodemic' has been identified as one of the top priorities of the World Health Organization, because false and misleading information can lead to a range of negative consequences, including the spread of false remedies, conspiracy theories, and xenophobia. This paper aims to combat the COVID-19 infodemic on multiple fronts, including determining the credibility of information, identifying its potential harm to society, and the necessity of intervention by relevant organizations. We present a prompt-based curriculum learning method to achieve this goal. The proposed method could overcome the challenges of data sparsity and class imbalance issues. Using online social media texts as input, the proposed model can verify content from multiple perspectives by answering a series of questions concerning the text's reliability. Experiments revealed the effectiveness of prompt tuning and curriculum learning in assessing the reliability of COVID-19-related text. The proposed method outperforms typical text classification methods, including fastText and BERT. In addition, the proposed method is robust to the hyperparameter settings, making it more applicable with limited infrastructure resources.

Impact of root hairs on microscale soil physical properties in the field.

Aims: Recent laboratory studies revealed that root hairs may alter soil physical behaviour, influencing soil porosity and water retention on the small scale. However, the results are not consistent, and it is not known if structural changes at the small-scale have impacts at larger scales. Therefore, we evaluated the potential effects of root hairs on soil hydro-mechanical properties in the field using rhizosphere-scale physical measurements. Methods: Changes in soil water retention properties as well as mechanical and hydraulic characteristics were monitored in both silt loam and sandy loam soils. Measurements were taken from plant establishment to harvesting in field trials, comparing three barley genotypes representing distinct phenotypic categories in relation to root hair length. Soil hardness and elasticity were measured using a 3-mm-diameter spherical indenter, while water sorptivity and repellency were measured using a miniaturized infiltrometer with a 0.4-mm tip radius. Results: Over the growing season, plants induced changes in the soil water retention properties, with the plant available water increasing by 21%. Both soil hardness (P = 0.031) and elasticity (P = 0.048) decreased significantly in the presence of root hairs in silt loam soil, by 50% and 36%, respectively. Root hairs also led to significantly smaller water repellency (P = 0.007) in sandy loam soil vegetated with the hairy genotype (-49%) compared to the hairless mutant. Conclusions: Breeding of cash crops for improved soil conditions could be achieved by selecting root phenotypes that ameliorate soil physical properties and therefore contribute to increased soil health. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11104-022-05530-1.

Novel form of collective movement by soil bacteria.

Although migrations are essential for soil microorganisms to exploit scarce and heterogeneously distributed resources, bacterial mobility in soil remains poorly studied due to experimental limitations. In this study, time-lapse images collected using live microscopy techniques captured collective and coordinated groups of B. subtilis cells exhibiting "crowd movement". Groups of B. subtilis cells moved through transparent soil (nafion polymer with particle size resembling sand) toward plant roots and re-arranged dynamically around root tips in the form of elongating and retracting "flocks" resembling collective behaviour usually associated with higher organisms (e.g., bird flocks or fish schools). Genetic analysis reveals B. subtilis flocks are likely driven by the diffusion of extracellular signalling molecules (e.g., chemotaxis, quorum sensing) and may be impacted by the physical obstacles and hydrodynamics encountered in the soil like environment. Our findings advance understanding of bacterial migration through soil matrices and expand known behaviours for coordinated bacterial movement.

Significance of root hairs for plant performance under contrasting field conditions and water deficit.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Previous laboratory studies have suggested selection for root hair traits in future crop breeding to improve resource use efficiency and stress tolerance. However, data on the interplay between root hairs and open-field systems, under contrasting soils and climate conditions, are limited. As such, this study aims to experimentally elucidate some of the impacts that root hairs have on plant performance on a field scale. METHODS: A field experiment was set up in Scotland for two consecutive years, under contrasting climate conditions and different soil textures (i.e. clay loam vs. sandy loam). Five barley (Hordeum vulgare) genotypes exhibiting variation in root hair length and density were used in the study. Root hair length, density and rhizosheath weight were measured at several growth stages, as well as shoot biomass, plant water status, shoot phosphorus (P) accumulation and grain yield. KEY RESULTS: Measurements of root hair density, length and its correlation with rhizosheath weight highlighted trait robustness in the field under variable environmental conditions, although significant variations were found between soil textures as the growing season progressed. Root hairs did not confer a notable advantage to barley under optimal conditions, but under soil water deficit root hairs enhanced plant water status and stress tolerance resulting in a less negative leaf water potential and lower leaf abscisic acid concentration, while promoting shoot P accumulation. Furthermore, the presence of root hairs did not decrease yield under optimal conditions, while root hairs enhanced yield stability under drought. CONCLUSIONS: Selecting for beneficial root hair traits can enhance yield stability without diminishing yield potential, overcoming the breeder's dilemma of trying to simultaneously enhance both productivity and resilience. Therefore, the maintenance or enhancement of root hairs can represent a key trait for breeding the next generation of crops for improved drought tolerance in relation to climate change.

Significance of root hairs at the field scale - modelling root water and phosphorus uptake under different field conditions.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Root hairs play a significant role in phosphorus (P) extraction at the pore scale. However, their importance at the field scale remains poorly understood. METHODS: This study uses a continuum model to explore the impact of root hairs on the large-scale uptake of P, comparing root hair influence under different agricultural scenarios. High vs low and constant vs decaying P concentrations down the soil profile are considered, along with early vs late precipitation scenarios. RESULTS: Simulation results suggest root hairs accounted for 50% of total P uptake by plants. Furthermore, a delayed initiation time of precipitation potentially limits the P uptake rate by over 50% depending on the growth period. Despite the large differences in the uptake rate, changes in the soil P concentration in the domain due to root solute uptake remains marginal when considering a single growth season. However, over the duration of 6 years, simulation results showed that noticeable differences arise over time. CONCLUSION: Root hairs are critical to P capture, with uptake efficiency potentially enhanced by coordinating irrigation with P application during earlier growth stages of crops.

Surface tension, rheology and hydrophobicity of rhizodeposits and seed mucilage influence soil water retention and hysteresis.

AIMS: Rhizodeposits collected from hydroponic solutions with roots of maize and barley, and seed mucilage washed from chia, were added to soil to measure their impact on water retention and hysteresis in a sandy loam soil at a range of concentrations. We test the hypothesis that the effect of plant exudates and mucilages on hydraulic properties of soils depends on their physicochemical characteristics and origin. METHODS: Surface tension and viscosity of the exudate solutions were measured using the Du Noüy ring method and a cone-plate rheometer, respectively. The contact angle of water on exudate treated soil was measured with the sessile drop method. Water retention and hysteresis were measured by equilibrating soil samples, treated with exudates and mucilages at 0.46 and 4.6 mg g-1 concentration, on dialysis tubing filled with polyethylene glycol (PEG) solution of known osmotic potential. RESULTS: Surface tension decreased and viscosity increased with increasing concentration of the exudates and mucilage in solutions. Change in surface tension and viscosity was greatest for chia seed exudate and least for barley root exudate. Contact angle increased with increasing maize root and chia seed exudate concentration in soil, but not barley root. Chia seed mucilage and maize root rhizodeposits enhanced soil water retention and increased hysteresis index, whereas barley root rhizodeposits decreased soil water retention and the hysteresis effect. The impact of exudates and mucilages on soil water retention almost ceased when approaching wilting point at -1500 kPa matric potential. CONCLUSIONS: Barley rhizodeposits behaved as surfactants, drying the rhizosphere at smaller suctions. Chia seed mucilage and maize root rhizodeposits behaved as hydrogels that hold more water in the rhizosphere, but with slower rewetting and greater hysteresis.

The effect of root exudates on rhizosphere water dynamics.

Most water and nutrients essential for plant growth travel across a thin zone of soil at the interface between roots and soil, termed the rhizosphere. Chemicals exuded by plant roots can alter the fluid properties, such as viscosity, of the water phase, potentially with impacts on plant productivity and stress tolerance. In this paper, we study the effects of plant exudates on the macroscale properties of water movement in soil. Our starting point is a microscale description of two fluid flow and exudate diffusion in a periodic geometry composed from a regular repetition of a unit cell. Using multiscale homogenization theory, we derive a coupled set of equations that describe the movement of air and water, and the diffusion of plant exudates on the macroscale. These equations are parametrized by a set of cell problems that capture the flow behaviour. The mathematical steps are validated by comparing the resulting homogenized equations to the original pore scale equations, and we show that the difference between the two models is ≲7% for eight cells. The resulting equations provide a computationally efficient method to study plant-soil interactions. This will increase our ability to predict how contrasting root exudation patterns may influence crop uptake of water and nutrients.

Morphological and genetic characterisation of the root system architecture of selected barley recombinant chromosome substitution lines using an integrated phenotyping approach.

Discoveries on the genetics of resource acquisition efficiency are limited by the ability to measure plant roots in sufficient number and with adequate genotypic variability. This paper presents a root phenotyping study that explores ways to combine live imaging and computer algorithms for model-based extraction of root growth parameters. The study is based on a subset of barley Recombinant Chromosome Substitution Lines (RCSLs) and a combinatorial approach was designed for fast identification of the regions of the genome that contribute the most to variations in root system architecture (RSA). Results showed there was a strong genotypic variation in root growth parameters within the set of genotypes studied. The chromosomal regions associated with primary root growth differed from the regions of the genome associated with changes in lateral root growth. The concepts presented here are discussed in the context of identifying root QTL and its potential to assist breeding for novel crops with improved root systems.

Liming impacts on soils, crops and biodiversity in the UK: A review.

Fertile soil is fundamental to our ability to achieve food security, but problems with soil degradation (such as acidification) are exacerbated by poor management. Consequently, there is a need to better understand management approaches that deliver multiple ecosystem services from agricultural land. There is global interest in sustainable soil management including the re-evaluation of existing management practices. Liming is a long established practice to ameliorate acidic soils and many liming-induced changes are well understood. For instance, short-term liming impacts are detected on soil biota and in soil biological processes (such as in N cycling where liming can increase N availability for plant uptake). The impacts of liming on soil carbon storage are variable and strongly relate to soil type, land use, climate and multiple management factors. Liming influences all elements in soils and as such there are numerous simultaneous changes to soil processes which in turn affect the plant nutrient uptake; two examples of positive impact for crops are increased P availability and decreased uptake of toxic heavy metals. Soil physical conditions are at least maintained or improved by liming, but the time taken to detect change varies significantly. Arable crops differ in their sensitivity to soil pH and for most crops there is a positive yield response. Liming also introduces implications for the development of different crop diseases and liming management is adjusted according to crop type within a given rotation. Repeated lime applications tend to improve grassland biomass production, although grassland response is variable and indirect as it relates to changes in nutrient availability. Other indicators of liming response in grassland are detected in mineral content and herbage quality which have implications for livestock-based production systems. Ecological studies have shown positive impacts of liming on biodiversity; such as increased earthworm abundance that provides habitat for wading birds in upland grasslands. Finally, understanding of liming impacts on soil and crop processes are explored together with functional aspects (in terms of ecosystems services) in a new qualitative framework that includes consideration of how liming impacts change with time. This holistic approach provides insights into the far-reaching impacts that liming has on ecosystems and the potential for liming to enhance the multiple benefits from agriculturally managed land. Recommendations are given for future research on the impact of liming and the implications for ecosystem services.

Fluid flow in porous media using image-based modelling to parametrize Richards' equation.

The parameters in Richards' equation are usually calculated from experimentally measured values of the soil-water characteristic curve and saturated hydraulic conductivity. The complex pore structures that often occur in porous media complicate such parametrization due to hysteresis between wetting and drying and the effects of tortuosity. Rather than estimate the parameters in Richards' equation from these indirect measurements, image-based modelling is used to investigate the relationship between the pore structure and the parameters. A three-dimensional, X-ray computed tomography image stack of a soil sample with voxel resolution of 6 µm has been used to create a computational mesh. The Cahn-Hilliard-Stokes equations for two-fluid flow, in this case water and air, were applied to this mesh and solved using the finite-element method in COMSOL Multiphysics. The upscaled parameters in Richards' equation are then obtained via homogenization. The effect on the soil-water retention curve due to three different contact angles, 0°, 20° and 60°, was also investigated. The results show that the pore structure affects the properties of the flow on the large scale, and different contact angles can change the parameters for Richards' equation.

Plant exudates may stabilize or weaken soil depending on species, origin and time.

We hypothesized that plant exudates could either gel or disperse soil depending on their chemical characteristics. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Optic) and maize (Zea mays L. cv. Freya) root exudates were collected using an aerated hydroponic method and compared with chia (Salvia hispanica L.) seed exudate, a commonly used root exudate analogue. Sandy loam soil was passed through a 500-µm mesh and treated with each exudate at a concentration of 4.6 mg exudate g-1 dry soil. Two sets of soil samples were prepared. One set of treated soil samples was maintained at 4°C to suppress microbial processes. To characterize the effect of decomposition, the second set of samples was incubated at 16°C for 2 weeks at -30 kPa matric potential. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of the exudates showed that barley had the largest organic acid content and chia the largest content of sugars (polysaccharide-derived or free), and maize was in between barley and chia. Yield stress of amended soil samples was measured by an oscillatory strain sweep test with a cone plate rheometer. When microbial decomposition was suppressed at 4°C, yield stress increased 20-fold for chia seed exudate and twofold for maize root exudate compared with the control, whereas for barley root exudate decreased to half. The yield stress after 2 weeks of incubation compared with soil with suppressed microbial decomposition increased by 85% for barley root exudate, but for chia and maize it decreased by 87 and 54%, respectively. Barley root exudation might therefore disperse soil and this could facilitate nutrient release. The maize root and chia seed exudates gelled soil, which could create a more stable soil structure around roots or seeds. HIGHLIGHTS: Rheological measurements quantified physical behaviour of plant exudates and effect on soil stabilization.Barley root exudates dispersed soil, which could release nutrients and carbon.Maize root and chia seed exudates had a stabilizing effect on soil.Physical engineering of soil in contact with plant roots depends on the nature and origin of exudates.

A conceptual model of root hair ideotypes for future agricultural environments: what combination of traits should be targeted to cope with limited P availability?

BACKGROUND: Phosphorus (P) often limits crop production and is frequently applied as fertilizer; however, supplies of quality rock phosphate for fertilizer production are diminishing. Plants have evolved many mechanisms to increase their P acquisition, and an understanding of these traits could result in improved long-term sustainability of agriculture. This Viewpoint focuses on the potential benefits of root hairs to sustainable production. SCOPE: First the various root-related traits that could be deployed to improve agricultural sustainability are catalogued, and their potential costs and benefits to the plant are discussed. A novel mathematical model describing the effects of length, density and longevity of root hairs on P acquisition is developed, and the relative benefits of these three root-hair traits to plant P nutrition are calculated. Insights from this model are combined with experimental data to assess the relative benefits of a range of root hair ideotypes for sustainability of agriculture. CONCLUSIONS: A cost-benefit analysis of root traits suggests that root hairs have the greatest potential for P acquisition relative to their cost of production. The novel modelling of root hair development indicates that the greatest gains in P-uptake efficiency are likely to be made through increased length and longevity of root hairs rather than by increasing their density. Synthesizing this information with that from published experiments we formulate six potential ideotypes to improve crop P acquisition. These combine appropriate root hair phenotypes with architectural, anatomical and biochemical traits, such that more root-hair zones are produced in surface soils, where P resources are found, on roots which are metabolically cheap to construct and maintain, and that release more P-mobilizing exudates. These ideotypes could be used to inform breeding programmes to enhance agricultural sustainability.

What are the implications of variation in root hair length on tolerance to phosphorus deficiency in combination with water stress in barley (Hordeum vulgare)?

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Phosphorus commonly limits crop yield and is frequently applied as fertilizer; however, supplies of quality rock phosphate for fertilizer production are diminishing. Plants have evolved many mechanisms to increase their P-fertilizer use efficiency, and an understanding of these traits could result in improved long-term sustainability of agriculture. Here a mutant population is utilized to assess the impact of root hair length on P acquisition and yield under P-deficient conditions alone or when combined with drought. METHODS: Mutants with various root hair phenotypes were grown in the glasshouse in pots filled with soil representing sufficient and deficient P treatments and, in one experiment, a range of water availability was also imposed. Plants were variously harvested at 7 d, 8 weeks and 14 weeks, and variables including root hair length, rhizosheath weight, biomass, P accumulation and yield were measured. KEY RESULTS: The results confirmed the robustness of the root hair phenotypes in soils and their relationship to rhizosheath production. The data demonstrated that root hair length is important for shoot P accumulation and biomass, while only the presence of root hairs is critical for yield. Root hair presence was also critical for tolerance to extreme combined P deficit and drought stress, with genotypes with no root hairs suffering extreme growth retardation in comparison with those with root hairs. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that although root hair length is not important for maintaining yield, the presence of root hairs is implicit to sustainable yield of barley under P-deficient conditions and when combined with extreme drought. Root hairs are a trait that should be maintained in future germplasm.

RF-Medisys: a radio frequency identification-based electronic medical record system for improving medical information accessibility and services at point of care.

This paper presents an innovative electronic medical records (EMR) system, RF-MediSys, which can perform medical information sharing and retrieval effectively and which is accessible via a 'smart' medical card. With such a system, medical diagnoses and treatment decisions can be significantly improved when compared with the conventional practice of using paper medical records systems. Furthermore, the entire healthcare delivery process, from registration to the dispensing or administration of medicines, can be visualised holistically to facilitate performance review. To examine the feasibility of implementing RF-MediSys and to determine its usefulness to users of the system, a survey was conducted within a multi-disciplinary medical service organisation that operates a network of medical clinics and paramedical service centres throughout Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories. Questionnaires were distributed to 300 system users, including nurses, physicians and patients, to collect feedback on the operation and performance of RF-MediSys in comparison with conventional paper-based medical record systems. The response rate to the survey was 67%. Results showed a medium to high level of user satisfaction with the radiofrequency identification (RFID)-based EMR system. In particular, respondents provided high ratings on both 'user-friendliness' and 'system performance'. Findings of the survey highlight the potential of RF-MediSys as a tool to enhance quality of medical services and patient safety.

Professional Practice and Innovation: RF-MediSys: A Radio Frequency Identification-Based Electronic Medical Record System for Improving Medical Information Accessibility and Services at Point of Care.

This paper presents an innovative electronic medical records (EMR) system, RF-MediSys, which can perform medical information sharing and retrieval effectively and which is accessible via a 'smart' medical card. With such a system, medical diagnoses and treatment decisions can be significantly improved when compared with the conventional practice of using paper medical records systems. Furthermore, the entire healthcare delivery process, from registration to the dispensing or administration of medicines, can be visualised holistically to facilitate performance review. To examine the feasibility of implementing RF-MediSys and to determine its usefulness to users of the system, a survey was conducted within a multi-disciplinary medical service organisation that operates a network of medical clinics and paramedical service centres throughout Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories. Questionnaires were distributed to 300 system users, including nurses, physicians and patients, to collect feedback on the operation and performance of RF-MediSys in comparison with conventional paper-based medical record systems. The response rate to the survey was 67%. Results showed a medium to high level of user satisfaction with the radiofrequency identification (RFID)-based EMR system. In particular, respondents provided high ratings on both 'user-friendliness' and 'system performance'. Findings of the survey highlight the potential of RF-MediSys as a tool to enhance quality of medical services and patient safety.