The reusability of FePC amorphous ribbons is improved by their “self-renewing” behaviour.

We study how well different types of approaches generalise in the task of 3D hand pose estimation under single hand scenarios and handobject interaction. We show that the accuracy of state-of-the-art methods can drop, and that they fail mostly on poses absent from the training set. Unfortunately, since the space of hand poses is highly dimensional, it is inherently not feasible to cover the whole space densely, despite recent efforts in collecting large-scale training datasets. This sampling problem is even more severe when hands are interacting with objects and/or inputs are RGB rather than depth images, as RGB images also vary with lighting conditions and colors. To address these issues, we designed a public challenge (HANDS'19) to evaluate the abilities of current 3D hand pose estimators (HPEs) to interpolate and extrapolate the poses of a training set. More exactly, HANDS'19 is designed (a) to evaluate the influence of both depth and color modalities on 3D hand pose estimation, under the presence or absence of objects; (b) to assess the generalisation abilities w.r.t. four main axes: shapes, articulations, viewpoints, and objects; (c) to explore the use of a synthetic hand models to fill the gaps of current datasets. Through the challenge, the overall accuracy has dramatically improved over the baseline, especially on extrapolation tasks, from 27mm to 13mm mean joint error. Our analyses highlight the impacts of: Data pre-processing, ensemble approaches, the use of a parametric 3D hand model (MANO), and different HPE methods/backbones.

SUMMARYThe origin recognition complex (ORC) is a pivotal element in DNA replication, heterochromatin assembly, checkpoint regulation and chromosome assembly. Although the functions of the ORC have been determined in yeast and model animals, they remain largely unknown in the plant kingdom. In this study, Oryza sativa Origin Recognition Complex subunit 3 (OsORC3) was cloned using map-based cloning procedures, and functionally characterized using a rice (Oryza sativa) orc3 mutant. The mutant showed a temperaturedependent defect in lateral root (LR) development. Map-based cloning showed that a G?A mutation in the 9th exon of OsORC3 was responsible for the mutant phenotype. OsORC3 was strongly expressed in regions of active cell proliferation, including the primary root tip, stem base, lateral root primordium, emerged lateral root primordium, lateral root tip, young shoot, anther and ovary. OsORC3 knockdown plants lacked lateral roots and had a dwarf phenotype. The root meristematic zone of ORC3 knockdown plants exhibited increased cell death and reduced vital activity compared to the wild-type. CYCB1;1::GUS activity and methylene blue staining showed that lateral root primordia initiated normally in the orc3 mutant, but stopped growing before formation of the stele and ground tissue. Our results indicate that OsORC3 plays a crucial role in the emergence of lateral root primordia.

Background: The seasonal variations in macroinvertebrate communities in tropical, temperate and subarctic regions have been observed and well documented to date, but similar studies conducted in subtropical rivers at the regional scale are relatively rare. In this paper, the macroinvertebrate communities from the main tributaries in the Three Gorges Reservoir Catchment (TGRC) were investigated as a function of the four seasons to explore the temporal variations in macroinvertebrate communities and further tests the temporal stability of certain metrics that are based on macroinvertebrates under a routine bioassessment framework. Results: The taxa richness reached the highest point in spring, followed by winter, autumn and summer. The taxa Chironomidae, Heptageniidae, Corbiculidae and Baetidae dominated the communities across seasons. The temporal variations in communities were mainly reflected in the changes in taxa proportions between seasons. The percentages of the taxa Heptageniidae and Baetidae were the highest in autumn (normal discharge period) and lowest in summer (high discharge period). The abundance of macroinvertebrates was the lowest in summer, increased in autumn and winter, and then decreased in spring. Natural fluctuations of aquatic ecosystems (temporal effects) resulted in variations that were apparent in macroinvertebrate-based metrics, such as EPT%, Baetidae%, Caenidae%, Ephemerellidae% and Hydropsychidae%. Conclusions:The results of our study demonstrated that the macroinvertebrate communities in the main tributaries of the TGRC varied as a function of seasons. This variation was fundamentally similar to the seasonal patterns in subarctic and temperate streams. Different hydro-morphological characteristics and water quality during the high discharge period (summer), low discharge period (winter) and normal discharge period (spring and autumn) strongly affected the distribution patterns of macroinvertebrate communities. Discharge variation among seasons resulted in seasonal fluctuations in the density of macroinvertebrates. In the TGRC, autumn was the important hatching period for mayflies (Ephemeroptera). The variations in metrics related to macroinvertebrates indicated that temporal effects should not be neglected under a biomonitoring framework in future studies.