Deep Learning for an Improved Prediction of Rainfall Retrievals From Commercial Microwave Links
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
Authors: Pudashine, Jayaram; Guyot, Adrien; Petitjean, Francois; Pauwels, Valentijn R. N.; Uijlenhoet, Remko; Seed, Alan; Prakash, Mahesh; Walker, Jeffrey P.
Abstract
Commercial microwave links (CMLs) have proven useful for providing rainfall information close to the ground surface. However, large uncertainties are associated with these retrievals, partly due to challenges in the type of data collection and processing. In particular, the most common case is when only minimum and maximum received signal levels (RSLs) over a given time interval (hereafter 15 min) are stored by mobile network operators. The average attenuation and the corresponding rainfall rate are then calculated based on a weighted average method using the minimum and maximum attenuation. In this study, an alternative to using a constant weighted average method is explored, based on a machine learning model trained to produce actual attenuation from minimum/maximum values. A rainfall retrieval deep learning model was designed based on a long short-term memory (LSTM) model architecture and trained with disdrometer data in a form that is comparable to the data provided by mobile network operators. A first evaluation used only disdrometer data to mimic both attenuation from a CML and corresponding rainfall rates. For the test data set, the relative bias was reduced from 5.99% to 2.84% and the coefficient of determination (R-2) increased from 0.86 to 0.97. The second evaluation used this disdrometer-trained LSTM to retrieve rainfall rates from an actual CML located nearby the disdrometer. A significant improvement in the overall rainfall estimation compared to existing microwave link attenuation models was observed. The relative bias reduced from 7.39% to -1.14% and theR(2)improved from 0.71 to 0.82.
Impact on Multiple Antibiotic Pathways Reveals MtrA as a Master Regulator of Antibiotic Production in Streptomyces spp. and Potentially in Other Actinobacteria
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
Authors: Zhu, Yanping; Zhang, Peipei; Zhang, Jing; Wang, Jiao; Lu, Yinhua; Pang, Xiuhua
Abstract
Regulation of antibiotic production by Streptomyces is complex. We report that the response regulator MtrA is a master regulator for antibiotic production in Streptomyces. Deletion of MtrA altered production of actinorhodin, undecylprodigiosin, calcium-dependent antibiotic, and the yellow-pigmented type I polyketide and resulted in altered expression of the corresponding gene clusters in S. coelicolor. Integrated in vitro and in vivo analyses identified MtrA binding sites upstream of cdaR, actII-orf4, and redZ and between cpkA and cpkD. MtrA disruption also led to marked changes in chloramphenicol and jadomycin production and in transcription of their biosynthetic gene clusters (cml and jad, respectively) in S. venezuelae, and MtrA sites were identified within cml and jad. MtrA also recognized predicted sites within the avermectin and oligomycin pathways in S. avermitilis and in the validamycin gene cluster of S. hygroscopicus. The regulator GlnR competed for several MtrA sites and impacted production of some antibiotics, but its effects were generally less dramatic than those of MtrA. Additional potential MtrA sites were identified in a range of other antibiotic biosynthetic gene clusters in Streptomyces species and other actinobacteria. Overall, our study suggests a universal role for MtrA in antibiotic production in Streptomyces and potentially other actinobacteria. IMPORTANCE In natural environments, the ability to produce antibiotics helps the producing host to compete with surrounding microbes. In Streptomyces, increasing evidence suggests that the regulation of antibiotic production is complex, involving multiple regulatory factors. The regulatory factor MtrA is known to have additional roles beyond controlling development, and using bioassays, transcriptional studies, and DNA-binding assays, our study identified MtrA recognition sequences within multiple antibiotic pathways and indicated that MtrA directly controls the production of multiple antibiotics. Our analyses further suggest that this role of MtrA is evolutionarily conserved in Streptomyces species, as well as in other actinobacterial species, and also suggest that MtrA is a major regulatory factor in antibiotic production and in the survival of actinobacteria in nature.