Full Head Research Articles

Impact of field drying at different initial leaf ages on growth and yield formation of direct seeding rice in Chengdu plain

AbstractTo determine the optimal drying period for direct seeding rice, we conducted experiments using two rice cultivars: hybrid indica (Shuyou 217) and conventional indica (Huang Huazhan). The experiments explored the influence of varying initial leaf development stages on tillering dynamics, leaf area, dry matter production, yield, and yield components in direct seeding rice. The results indicated a significant correlation between the initial leaf development stage and the yield of direct seeding rice. As the initial leaf development stage progressed, the number of effective panicles increased, while key traits affecting panicle yield, such as grain/spikelet? Number per panicle, seed setting rate, and 1000-grain weight, decreased. Additionally, varietal differences in tillering reduction were observed across different leaf development stages. Shuyou 217 exhibited a decrease in heading rate with increasing leaf development stage, whereas Huang Huazhan showed no significant difference. With delayed seeding planting age, both cultivars demonstrated an increasing trend in the leaf area index, initially leading to a rise in effective leaf area proportion, followed by a decline. At the full heading and maturity stages, the dry weight of the stem sheath and panicles per plant decreased as the leaf development stage was delayed. However, the output and transport rates of stem sheath assimilated first increased and then decreased. From a practical perspective, field drying management should be aligned with varietal characteristics to reduce ineffective tillering, ensure sufficient dry matter accumulation during the full heading stage, and optimize post-heading dry matter export and transport. This strategy promotes the coordination between the “source” and “sink” dynamics in rice, ultimately maximizing yield in direct-seeded rice systems.

High spatiotemporal resolution optical measurements of two-stage ignition and combustion in Engine Combustion Network Spray D flames

This study explores flame structures and combustion dynamics in high-pressure n-dodecane fuel sprays, focusing on the formation and consumption of formaldehyde (CH2O) during autoignition and the development of poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) as soot precursors. These processes are crucial for optimizing combustion efficiency and reducing emissions. However, traditional approaches, which rely on single-shot measurements or ensemble-averaged visualizations, often overlook critical early-stage processes during low-temperature ignition. To overcome these challenges, we employed an innovative high-speed planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique at 50 kHz using a pulse-burst Nd:YAG laser system with an excitation wavelength of 355 nm. This approach, applied for the first time to Engine Combustion Network (ECN) Spray D flames, provides unprecedented insights into the combustion processes at varying ambient temperatures and oxygen concentrations. Additionally, simultaneous high-speed schlieren imaging at 100 kHz was used to visualize spray penetration, first-stage ignition, and thermal expansion zones. Our findings reveal that, similar to Spray A flames, CH2O forms in cold, fuel-rich zones well upstream of the combustion zone. However, in Spray D flames, the schlieren signal softening observed in the jet's head does not lead to complete disappearance, and the CH2O signal is absent from the full head of the spray. During the second-stage ignition, CH2O consumption accelerates due to high-temperature reactions, leading to a significant reduction in its signal. Unlike the mushroom-shaped structure seen in Spray A flames, Spray D flames exhibit a quasi-steady PAH phase structure, with lean peripheral mixtures insufficient for soot precursor formation. Notably, reducing ambient oxygen concentration to 13 % while maintaining or increasing temperature prolongs the presence of CH2O, highlighting its influence on ignition dynamics and oxidation processes in dodecane spray flames. This study provides new insights into the combustion mechanisms of high-pressure sprays and offers valuable data for developing next-generation combustion technologies, including models, aimed at improving efficiency and reducing emissions.

Effects of different phosphorus and potassium supply on the root architecture, phosphorus and potassium uptake, and utilization efficiency of hydroponic rice

Phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) affect seedling growth, root configuration, and nutrient uptake in hydroponic rice, but there are few studies on all growth stages of rice. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the response characteristics of root morphology, plant physiology, and P and K uptake and utilization efficiency to different supplies of P and K. Two local conventional rice varieties (Shennong 265 and Liaojing 294) were used as experimental materials across four treatments, including HPHK (sufficient P and K supply), HPLK (sufficient P supply under low K levels), LPHK (sufficient K supply under low P levels) and LPLK (low P and K levels) in a hydroponic setting. The results showed that HPHK and HPLK significantly decreased the acid phosphatase activity of leaves and roots from full heading to filling stages when compared to LPHK and LPLK. Sufficient supply of P or K significantly increased the accumulation of P and K (aboveground, leaves, stem sheath, and whole plant) and root morphological parameters (root length, root surface area, total root volume, and tips) during major growth stages when compared to LP or LK levels. HPHK was significantly higher than other treatments in terms of dry weight and the root activity at the main growth stage, P and K uptake rates in nutrient solutions at various stages, related P and K efficiency at the maturity stage, yield, effective panicle number, and grain number per panicle. In addition, the effect of HPHK on the above indexes were significantly greater than those of single sufficient supply of P or K. In conclusion, HPHK can improve plant configuration, increase plant P and K absorption and root activity, and increase rice yield and related P and K utilization efficiency.

MRI in Postero-Lateral Corner Injuries of the Knee Joint: Clinical-Radiological Correlation

Abstract Background The posterolateral corner (PLC) was once regarded as the “dark side of the knee” owing to the complex and variable anatomy superimposed on the inconsistent terminology used in the literature to describe the structures in this region. Aim of the Work To describe the role of MRI in assessment of posteriolateral corner injury of knee joint. Patients and Methods This cross sectional study was conducted in department of Radiology in Ain Shams University, the data collected from database to reach sample size number and enrolled data of 20 patients in period was 18-24 months. Results We were able to show that the MRI procedure we gave accurately visualises the majority of the complex individual components of the posterolateral knee, as well as damage to these structures, in this investigation. When the diagnosis of grade III injuries to the posterolateral knee is in doubt, we believe that MRI of the posterolateral knee is a useful complement to the surgeon. In our capacity to correctly diagnose damaged structures on MRI, there were no clear differences between acute and chronic knee injuries. On MRI, avulsions or tears of the direct arm or anterior arm insertion off the fibular styloid show focal discontinuity, nonvisualization, increased signal intensity, or proximal retraction, often with a contemporaneous bone avulsion. The damage pattern can also be seen in axial and sagittal views. Conclusion When posterolateral rotatory instability is suspected, the MRI approaches that described for visualizing particular injuries to the posterolateral knee will almost always reveal the bulk of the affected structures. When a posterolateral knee injury is assessed on MRI, using a special MRI protocol that covers the full fibular head and styloid on all imaging sequences will help in identifying these structures.

Evaluating normalized registration and preprocessing methodologies for the analysis of brain MRI in pediatric patients with shunt-treated hydrocephalus.

Registration to a standardized template (i.e. "normalization") is a critical step when performing neuroimaging studies. We present a comparative study involving the evaluation of general-purpose registration algorithms for pediatric patients with shunt treated hydrocephalus. Our sample dataset presents a number of intersecting challenges for registration, representing the potentially large deformations to both brain structures and overall brain shape, artifacts from shunts, and morphological differences corresponding to age. The current study assesses the normalization accuracy of shunt-treated hydrocephalus patients using freely available neuroimaging registration tools. Anatomical neuroimages from eight pediatric patients with shunt-treated hydrocephalus were normalized. Four non-linear registration algorithms were assessed in addition to the preprocessing steps of skull-stripping and bias-correction. Registration accuracy was assessed using the Dice Coefficient (DC) and Hausdorff Distance (HD) in subcortical and cortical regions. A total of 592 registrations were performed. On average, normalizations performed using the brain extracted and bias-corrected images had a higher DC and lower HD compared to full head/ non-biased corrected images. The most accurate registration was achieved using SyN by ANTs with skull-stripped and bias corrected images. Without preprocessing, the DARTEL Toolbox was able to produce normalized images with comparable accuracy. The use of a pediatric template as an intermediate registration did not improve normalization. Using structural neuroimages from patients with shunt-treated pediatric hydrocephalus, it was demonstrated that there are tools which perform well after specified pre-processing steps were taken. Overall, these results provide insight to the performance of registration programs that can be used for normalization of brains with complex pathologies.

Comparative transcriptome analysis reveals major genes, transcription factors and biosynthetic pathways associated with leaf senescence in rice under different nitrogen application

BackgroundRice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important food crops in the world and the application of nitrogen fertilizer is an effective means of ensuring stable and high rice yields. However, excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer not only causes a decline in the quality of rice, but also leads to a series of environmental costs. Nitrogen reutilization is closely related to leaf senescence, and nitrogen deficiency will lead to early functional leaf senescence, whereas moderate nitrogen application will help to delay leaf senescence and promote the production of photosynthetic assimilation products in leaves to achieve yield increase. Therefore, it is important to explore the mechanism by which nitrogen affects rice senescence, to search for genes that are tolerant to low nitrogen, and to delay the premature senescence of rice functional leaves.ResultsThe present study was investigated the transcriptional changes in flag leaves between full heading and mature grain stages of rice (O. sativa) sp. japonica ‘NanGeng 5718’ under varying nitrogen (N) application: 0 kg/ha (no nitrogen; 0N), 240 kg/ha (moderate nitrogen; MN), and 300 kg/ha (high nitrogen; HN). Compared to MN condition, a total of 10427 and 8177 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in 0N and HN, respectively. We selected DEGs with opposite expression trends under 0N and HN conditions for GO and KEGG analyses to reveal the molecular mechanisms of nitrogen response involving DEGs. We confirmed that different N applications caused reprogramming of plant hormone signal transduction, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, ascorbate and aldarate metabolism and photosynthesis pathways in regulating leaf senescence. Most DEGs of the jasmonic acid, ethylene, abscisic acid and salicylic acid metabolic pathways were up-regulated under 0N condition, whereas DEGs related to cytokinin and ascorbate metabolic pathways were induced in HN. Major transcription factors include ERF, WRKY, NAC and bZIP TF families have similar expression patterns which were induced under N starvation condition.ConclusionOur results revealed that different nitrogen levels regulate rice leaf senescence mainly by affecting hormone levels and ascorbic acid biosynthesis. Jasmonic acid, ethylene, abscisic acid and salicylic acid promote early leaf senescence under low nitrogen condition, ethylene and ascorbate delay senescence under high nitrogen condition. In addition, ERF, WRKY, NAC and bZIP TF families promote early leaf senescence. The relevant genes can be used as candidate genes for the regulation of senescence. The results will provide gene reference for further genomic studies and new insights into the gene functions, pathways and transcription factors of N level regulates leaf senescence in rice, thereby improving NUE and reducing the adverse effects of over-application of N.

Effects of Grain Sprout Fertilizer Application Rate on Yield and Its Composition of Hybrid Middle Rice–Ratoon Rice System

Enhancing yield and achieving environmental goals represent challenges for the future of agriculture. Rational nitrogen (N) management is one of the most promising ways to meet this challenge. However, complicated nitrogen management strategies and considerable input requirements still exist in rice–ratoon rice production. To address this issue, field experiments were conducted with two main high-yield rice crop genotypes and five fertilization treatments at six sites in Southwest China from 2018 to 2020. The results showed the following: (1) the yield of the main rice crop was extremely significantly affected by the year, location, and fertilization, but not by genotype; (2) the yield of the ratoon rice was extremely significantly affected by year, genotype, location, and fertilization; and (3) the total plant N content (TPN) and leaf SPAD value at the full heading stage of the main crop were significantly positively correlated with the total soil N content (TSN) and soil available N (SAN) content of the basic soil. The highly efficient N application rate of grain- and bud-promoting fertilizer for ratoon rice was 60–120 kg ha−1. The TSN, SAN, TPN, and SPAD values higher than 0.247 kg N kg−1, 298 mg N kg−1, 2.159 kg N kg−1, and 49.94 were, respectively, considered the reference values when not applying grain- and bud-promoting fertilizer. A regression equation was established to predict the amount of high-efficiency grain- and bud-promoting fertilizer based on the TSN and SPAD. Overall, the yield of rice–ratoon rice was significantly affected by year, genotype, location, fertilization, and their interactions. The use of the predicted grain- and bud-promoting fertilizer regression equation can achieve high yields under simplified and reduced N input practices in the rice–ratoon rice systems.

Spindle cell carcinoma of the maxillary antrum presenting in the oral cavity: A case report

AbstractBackgroundSpindle cell carcinoma is a rare biphasic malignancy consisting of epithelial and mesenchymal components. It is a poorly differentiated variant of squamous cell carcinoma accounting for less than 2% of intraoral tumours, with only 69 cases reported in the literature. Clinical presentation may vary from exophytic tumours to infiltrating ulceration in the oral mucosa. Atypical presentation and erractic behaviour of these tumours mean management can be challenging, therefore prompt diagnosis and treatment are required to address the significant morbidity and mortality associated with this disease.Case PresentationA 49‐year‐old patient presented to the oral medicine clinic reporting pain affecting the left side of their palate and cheek. Prior to their attendance, they were assessed by their general medical practitioner and neurologist; however, a trial of various medications resulted in no improvement in their symptoms. Intra‐oral examination revealed an ulcer in the left hard palate with underlying visible maxillary bone. A subsequent biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of spindle cell carcinoma, and the patient received radiotherapy with adjuvant chemotherapy. Further imaging revealed distant metastasis in the right lung and treatment was changed to palliative immunotherapy. Follow‐up imaging has shown lung nodules to be stable, and the patient remains under review with the regional head and neck cancer team.ConclusionsWe report a rare case of intra‐oral spindle cell carcinoma diagnosed from a palatal lesion, which has only been reported in four cases previously at this site. Despite preceding encounters with multiple medical professionals, it is not clear whether an intra‐oral examination was carried out which may have established the diagnosis earlier. It emphasizes the importance of full head & neck examination, including intraoral examination in presentations of unexplained and intractable orofacial pain.

Estimating Key Phenological Dates of Multiple Rice Accessions Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Plant Height Dynamics for Breeding

Efficient and high-quality estimation of key phenological dates in rice is of great significance in breeding work. Plant height (PH) dynamics are valuable for estimating phenological dates. However, research on estimating the key phenological dates of multiple rice accessions based on PH dynamics has been limited. In 2022, field traits were collected using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based images across 435 plots, including 364 rice varieties. PH, dates of initial heading (IH) and full heading (FH), and panicle initiation (PI), and growth period after transplanting (GPAT) were collected during the rice growth stage. PHs were extracted using a digital surface model (DSM) and fitted using Fourier and logistic models. Machine learning algorithms, including multiple linear regression, random forest (RF), support vector regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, and elastic net regression, were employed to estimate phenological dates. Results indicated that the optimal percentile of the DSM for extracting rice PH was the 95th (R2 = 0.934, RMSE = 0.056 m). The Fourier model provided a better fit for PH dynamics compared with the logistic models. Additionally, curve features (CF) and GPAT were significantly associated with PI, IH, and FH. The combination of CF and GPAT outperformed the use of CF alone, with RF demonstrating the best performance among the algorithms. Specifically, the combination of CF extracted from the logistic models, GPAT, and RF yielded the best performance for estimating PI (R2 = 0.834, RMSE = 4.344 d), IH (R2 = 0.877, RMSE = 2.721 d), and FH (R2 = 0.883, RMSE = 2.694 d). Overall, UAV-based rice PH dynamics combined with machine learning effectively estimated the key phenological dates of multiple rice accessions, providing a novel approach for investigating key phenological dates in breeding work.

HQ3DAvatar: High-quality Implicit 3D Head Avatar

Multi-view volumetric rendering techniques have recently shown great potential in modeling and synthesizing high-quality head avatars. A common approach to capture full head dynamic performances is to track the underlying geometry using a mesh-based template or 3D cube-based graphics primitives. While these model-based approaches achieve promising results, they often fail to learn complex geometric details such as the mouth interior, hair, and topological changes over time. This article presents a novel approach to building highly photorealistic digital head avatars. Our method learns a canonical space via an implicit function parameterized by a neural network. It leverages multiresolution hash encoding in the learned feature space, allowing for high quality, faster training, and high-resolution rendering. At test time, our method is driven by a monocular RGB video. Here, an image encoder extracts face-specific features that also condition the learnable canonical space. This encourages deformation-dependent texture variations during training. We also propose a novel optical flow-based loss that ensures correspondences in the learned canonical space, thus encouraging artifact-free and temporally consistent renderings. We show results on challenging facial expressions and show free-viewpoint renderings at interactive real-time rates for a resolution of 480 x 270. Our method outperforms related approaches both visually and numerically. We will release our multiple-identity dataset to encourage further research.

Clinical effects of flaps or myocutaneous flaps transplantation after titanium mesh-retaining debridement in repairing the wounds with exposed titanium mesh after cranioplasty

Objective: To explore the clinical effects of flaps or myocutaneous flaps transplantation after debridement to repair the wounds with exposed titanium mesh after cranioplasty on the premise of retaining the titanium mesh. Methods: This study was a retrospective observational study. From February 2017 to October 2022, 22 patients with titanium mesh exposure after cranioplasty who met the inclusion criteria were admitted to the Department of Plastic, Aesthetic & Maxillofacial Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, including 15 males and 7 females, aged from 19 to 68 years. After admission, treatments such as bacterial culture of wound exudate sample, anti-infection, and dressing change were carried out. Thorough surgical debridement was performed when the wound improved, and the wound area was 3.0 cm×2.0 cm to 11.0 cm×8.0 cm after debridement. The wound was repaired with local flaps, expanded flaps, or free latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flaps according to the size, location, severity of infection, and surrounding tissue condition of the wounds, and the areas of flaps or myocutaneous flaps were 5.5 cm×4.0 cm to 18.0 cm×15.0 cm. The donor areas of flaps were sutured directly or repaired by split-thickness skin grafts from head. The wound repair method was recorded. The survivals of flaps or myocutaneous flaps after surgery and wound healing in 2 weeks after surgery were recorded. During postoperative follow-up, recurrence of infection or titanium mesh exposure in the implanted area of titanium mesh was observed; the head shapes of patients, scar formation of the operative incision, and baldness were observed. At the last follow-up, the satisfaction of patients with the treatment effect (dividing into three levels: satisfied, basically satisfied, and dissatisfied) was evaluated. The total treatment costs of patients during their hospitalization were calculated. Results: The wounds in 11 cases were repaired with local flaps, the wounds in 5 cases were repaired with expanded flaps, and the wounds in 6 cases were repaired with free latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flaps. All flaps or myocutaneous flaps survived completely after surgery, and all wounds healed well in 2 weeks after surgery. Follow up for 6 to 48 months after operation, only one patient with local flap grafting experienced a recurrence of infection in the titanium mesh implanted area at more than one month after surgery, and the titanium mesh was removed because of ineffective treatment. Except for one patient who had a local depression in the head after removing the titanium mesh, the rest of the patients had a full head shape. Except for myocutaneous flap grafting areas in 6 cases and skin grafting area in 1 case with local flaps grafting had no hair growth, the other patients had no baldness. All the scars in surgical incision were concealed. At the last follow-up, 19 cases were satisfied with the treatment effects, 2 cases were basically satisfied, and 1 case was dissatisfied. The total treatment cost for patients in this group during hospitalization was 11 764-36 452 (22 304±6 955) yuan. Conclusions: For patients with titanium mesh exposure after cranioplasty, on the premise of adequate preoperative preparation and thorough debridement, the wound can be repaired with appropriate flaps or myocutaneous flaps according to the wound condition. The surgery can preserve all or part of the titanium mesh. The postoperative wound healing is good and the recurrence of infection or titanium mesh exposure in the titanium mesh implanted area is reduced, leading to good head shape, reduced surgical frequency, and decreased treatment costs.

Head3D: Complete 3D Head Generation via Tri-plane Feature Distillation

Head generation with diverse identities is an important task in computer vision and computer graphics, widely used in multimedia applications. However, current full-head generation methods require a large number of three-dimensional (3D) scans or multi-view images to train the model, resulting in expensive data acquisition costs. To address this issue, we propose Head3D, a method to generate full 3D heads with limited multi-view images. Specifically, our approach first extracts facial priors represented by tri-planes learned in EG3D, a 3D-aware generative model, and then proposes feature distillation to deliver the 3D frontal faces within complete heads without compromising head integrity. To mitigate the domain gap between the face and head models, we present a dual-discriminator to guide the frontal and back head generation. Our model achieves cost-efficient and diverse complete head generation with photo-realistic renderings and high-quality geometry representations. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed Head3D, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Enriching Iodine and Regulating Grain Aroma, Appearance Quality, and Yield in Aromatic Rice by Foliar Application of Sodium Iodide

Applying iodine fertilizers to cultivate iodine-rich crops for daily intake is an effective approach for iodine supplementation, especially for aromatic rice. Field experiments were conducted during the early growing seasons of 2021 and 2022 to evaluate the impacts of foliar application of iodine fertilizer on aromatic rice and to explore the optimal iodine fertilizer concentration. At the full heading stage, six different concentrations of sodium iodide solutions of 0% (CK), 0.010% (T1), 0.025% (T2), 0.050% (T3), 0.075% (T4), and 0.100% (T5) were applied to indica aromatic rice cultivars Meixiangzhan 2 and Xiangyaxiangzhan. The results showed that sodium iodide treatments significantly increased the iodine and sodium contents in both leaves and grains. Compared with the CK, the T1 and T2 treatments increased the 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2-AP) content in mature grains by 8.41%‒101.66% and 13.58%‒ 74.60%, respectively. Improvements in the contents of 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylic acid, proline, 1-pyrroline, and methylglyoxal, as well as the activity of proline dehydrogenase were also detected. Additionally, sodium iodide treatments remarkably decreased the chalky grain rate, chalkiness area, and chalkiness degree of aromatic rice, with the T2 treatment exhibiting a 17.79%‒47.42% decrease in chalkiness degree compared with the CK. Meanwhile, T1 and T2 treatments showed beneficial impacts on chlorophyll content, photosynthetic characteristics, and yield components, while T3, T4, and T5 treatments exhibited adverse effects on leaf and grain yields. The linear discriminant analysis revealed significant differences between treatments. The correlation analysis and piecewise structural equation modeling showed that the iodine and sodium influenced the photosynthetic characteristics and chlorophyll content of the leaves, thereby regulating the 2-AP biosynthesis and yield components, ultimately affecting the 2-AP content and yield. Overall, this study suggests that foliar application of 0.025% sodium iodide is an effective method to enrich the iodine content in rice grains, improve the grain aroma and appearance quality of aromatic rice, without detrimental effects on grain yield.

Individualized monitoring of longitudinal heading exposure in soccer

There is growing concern that repetitive soccer headers may have negative long-term consequences on brain health. However, inconsistent and low-quality heading exposure measurements limit past investigations of this effect. Here we conducted a comprehensive heading exposure analysis across all players on a university women’s soccer team for over two calendar years (36 unique athletes), quantifying both game and practice exposure during all in-season and off-season periods, with over ten thousand video-confirmed headers. Despite an average of approximately 2 headers per day, players’ daily exposures ranged from 0 to 45 headers, accumulating to highly variable total exposure of 2–223 headers over each in-season/off-season period. Overall, practices and off-season periods accounted for 70% and 45% of headers, respectively. Impact sensor data showed that heading kinematics fell within a tight distribution, but sensors could not capture full heading exposure due to factors such as compliance. With first-of-its-kind complete heading exposure data, we recommend exposure assessments be made on an individual level and include practice/off-season collection in addition to games and competitive seasons. Commonly used group statistics do not capture highly variable exposures, and individualized complete heading exposure tracking needs to be incorporated in future study designs for confirming the potential brain injury risk associated with soccer heading.

The effect of meteorological conditions on the course of development stages and yield of winter wheat in southern Poland

Yield and the course of crop vegetation are the result of the interaction between the level of cultivation technology and the course of meteorological conditions, which are a variable production factor. The aim of the study was to quantify the effect of meteorological conditions on the course of development stages and yield of winter wheat cultivated in two technological variants (A1 – medium-intensive and A2 – intensive). The paper uses data on yield and timing of winter wheat development stages from four Experimental Stations for Variety Testing (Pol. Centralny Ośrodek Badania Odmian Roślin Uprawnych – COBORU) experimental stations from 2007–2016 located within the Upper Vistula and Upper Oder River basins. To determine the dependence of the length of development stages of winter wheat on the values of selected meteorological elements, the linear regression metod, correlation coefficient. It was found that the lengths of the selected developmental stages are positively correlated with air temperature and negatively correlated with the sum and number of days with precipitation in these stages. A 1°C increase in air temperature resulted in a shortening of the shooting – heading and heading – full maturity periods by 2.5 and 2.8 days respectively. An increase of 100 mm of precipitation in the periods sowing – full maturity and heading – full maturity resulted in an increase of these periods by 5 and 10 days. Increasing the number of days with precipitation by 10 days in the sowing – full maturity and heading – vax maturity stages resulted in extending these stages by 4.1 to 4.4 and 7 to 7.5 days for the A1 and A2 cropping technologies, respectively.

Toward Robust and Unconstrained Full Range of Rotation Head Pose Estimation.

Estimating the head pose of a person is a crucial problem for numerous applications that is yet mainly addressed as a subtask of frontal pose prediction. We present a novel method for unconstrained end-to-end head pose estimation to tackle the challenging task of full range of orientation head pose prediction. We address the issue of ambiguous rotation labels by introducing the rotation matrix formalism for our ground truth data and propose a continuous 6D rotation matrix representation for efficient and robust direct regression. This allows to efficiently learn full rotation appearance and to overcome the limitations of the current state-of-the-art. Together with new accumulated training data that provides full head pose rotation data and a geodesic loss approach for stable learning, we design an advanced model that is able to predict an extended range of head orientations. An extensive evaluation on public datasets demonstrates that our method significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in an efficient and robust manner, while its advanced prediction range allows the expansion of the application area. We open-source our training and testing code along with our trained models: https://github.com/thohemp/6DRepNet360.

Are owls technically capable of making a full head turn?

The three-dimensional configuration of the neck that produces extreme head turn in owls was studied using the Joint Coordinate System. The limits of planar axial rotation (AR), lateral, and sagittal bending in each vertebral joint were measured. They are not extraordinary among birds, except probably for the extended ability for AR. The vertebral joint angles involved in the 360° head turn do not generally exceed the limits of planar mobility. Rotation in one plane does not expand the range of motion in the other, with one probable exception being extended dorsal bending in the middle of the neck. Therefore, the extreme 360° head turn can be presented as a simple combination of the three planar motions in the neck joints. Surprisingly, certain joints are always laterally bent or axially rotated to the opposite side than the head was turned. This allows keeping the anterior part of the neck parallel to the thoracic spine, which probably helps preserve the ability for peering head motions throughout the full head turn. The potential ability of one-joint muscles of the owl neck, the mm. intertransversarii, to ensure the 360° head turn was addressed. It was shown that the 360° head turn does not require these muscles to shorten beyond the known contraction limit of striated vertebrate muscles. Shortening by 50% or less is enough for the mm. intertransversarii in the middle neck region for the 360° head turn. This study has broad implications for further research on vertebral mobility and function in a variety of tetrapods, providing a new method for CT scan-based measurement of intervertebral angles.

Applying Nitrogen Fertilizer at the Full Heading Stage Has the Potential to Decrease Brown Rice Cd Accumulation

Soil contamination by cadmium (Cd) has presented a major challenge in China. The objective of the field experiments in this study was to examine the influence of nitrogen fertilizer application at the full heading and milky stages on minimizing the absorption of Cd in rice. This was achieved by affecting the distribution of Cd in root plaques and subcellular compartments of the root and flag leaf. The hydroponic culture experiments aimed to examine the effect of nitrogen and Cd interaction or deficiency on Cd accumulation in rice during the late growth stage. The findings revealed that adequate nitrogen supply during the early growth stage, coupled with nitrogen application during the full heading and milky stages, led to a notable increase in Fe concentration in the root plaques during the milk and mature stages. Furthermore, it elevated the Cd proportion in the soluble fraction of the flag leaves at the milky stage. Conversely, nitrogen deficiency during the early growth stage resulted in a significant increase in Fe concentration in the root plaques, along with a decrease in Cd concentration. Additionally, the proportion of Cd in the flag leaf cell walls increased significantly, while the proportion in the soluble fraction decreased notably. Irrespective of nitrogen supply during the early growth stage, applying nitrogen at the full heading stage significantly reduced Cd transport from shoots to brown rice, leading to a considerable reduction in the Cd concentration in brown rice. Under hydroponic culture conditions, combined Cd exposure with nitrogen supply significantly increased the Cd concentration in brown rice. Nitrogen supply had no impact on the Cd concentration in brown rice in the absence of Cd. The study showed that applying nitrogen fertilizer at the full heading stage effectively decreased the brown rice Cd concentration. This was achieved by elevating the concentration of Fe in the root plaque, thereby influencing the adsorption of Cd by the roots. Additionally, nitrogen application at the full heading stage can influence the distribution of Cd in flag leaf cells during the filling stage. Ensuring ample nitrogen supply in the early stage of rice growth is crucial, and nitrogen application at the full heading stage can effectively reduce the Cd concentration in brown rice.

Reducing cadmium accumulation and increasing grain yield with proper timing of flood irrigation in the second season of ratoon rice

Context or problemThe second season of ratoon rice (ratoon crop, RC) exhibits a high risk of cadmium (Cd) contamination in grains, requiring effective irrigation management strategies to reduce its grain Cd concentration. Objective or research questionThis study aimed to determine the crucial growing period for Cd accumulation and provide irrigation recommendations for reducing grain Cd concentrations with limited water input in the ratoon season. MethodsA two-year field experiment was conducted in Hubei province, central China. The entire growth duration of RC was divided into three short periods: from harvest of the main crop (HM) to initial heading of RC (IH), from IH to full heading of RC (FH), and from FH to maturity of RC (MR). During each growth period of RC, two water regimes (flooded and rainfed) were established. Therefore, there were a total of eight water treatment combinations in this experiment, using a randomized complete block design. Two hybrid varieties were planted in this study. ResultsAcross years, varieties and treatments, the grain Cd concentration of RC ranged from 27.8 to 314.1 µg kg−1, with 37.5% of rice samples exceeding the national food safety standard for Cd (200 µg kg−1). RC grown under continuous flooding conditions produced the lowest grain Cd concentration and highest grain yield. Compared with rainfed conditions, maintaining flooded conditions from HM to IH, from IH to FH, and from FH to MR resulted in decreases of 28.4%, 62.7%, and 12.0% in grain Cd concentration and decreases of 25.5%, 49.9%, and 16.3% in total Cd accumulation at maturity, respectively. RC took up the most Cd during the period from IH to FH under rainfed conditions; however, maintaining flooded conditions reduced Cd uptake by 95.4% during this period. Moreover, flooding from IH to FH had the most positive impact on the grain yield of RC, with an increase of 8.1% compared with rainfed conditions. ConclusionsMaintaining flooded conditions from initial to full heading for 15–18 days was not only effective in reducing grain Cd concentration but also beneficial for improving grain yield in the ratoon season. Implications and significanceThis study clarified the effects of water management during different growing periods on Cd accumulation and grain yield in the ratoon season. We emphasized the necessity of flooding during heading period to control Cd accumulation in RC grains, especially in areas with limited water resources and high soil Cd concentration.

Ameliorating Forage Crop Resilience in Dry Steppe Zone Using Millet Growth Dynamics

Introducing new forage crops such as Japanese millet (Echinochloa frumentacea) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is crucial for mitigating the impacts of climate change in the dry steppe zone, expanding forage crop options, and obtaining nutritious feed for the development of animal husbandry. The aim of this study was to assess the productivity and feed value of these crops. Field experiments were conducted in 2021 and 2022 to investigate the changes and variations in the yields and chemical compositions of Japanese millet and pearl millet when grown as sole crops or in mixed cropping in the dry steppe zone of northern Kazakhstan. Among the annual crops sown via sole cropping, the hay of the Japanese millet, sown in the third decade of May and harvested during full heading, was observed to have a higher content of raw protein and other nutrients than Sudanese grass hay, that is, the raw protein content was higher at 1.81%, the raw oil content at 0.12, and the raw ash content at 1.88%. In addition, among the mixtures of crops, the hay of the crop mixtures containing pearl millet, sown in the above period and harvested as hay during the milky stage, the full heading stage, and the formation of spikelets in the grain family stage, differed from the hay of Sudanese grass sown in the same period and collected during full heading in terms of the contents of raw protein and other nutrients and the low content of raw ash, that is, the content of raw protein was at 2.16%, raw oil at 0.39, raw ash at 0.95, without nitrogen extractives (WNEs) at 3.78, and starch at 0.11. The calcium content was higher by 0.08% and carotene by 0.11 mg/kg, and raw lentils were lower by 0.94%. The analysis of the results revealed that the variation in the crops’ phenological phases depended on the moisture availability and the sowing time.