First record of Discinidae brachiopods from the Miocene of Hungary

Although Discinidae brachiopods are rare components of Neogene benthic assemblages, several records were published from the Miocene of the Central Paratethys (Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Austria, and Bulgaria). However, until now discinid brachiopods have never been mentioned from Hungary. Recently, remains of one species, Discradisca cf.polonica(Radwańska et Radwański, 1984) were found at two Middle Miocene (Badenian) localities of the Bakony Mts. Two fragments were discovered in old washed samples (Pusztamiske Formation) from the Szabó sand pit of Várpalota in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. The same species is much more numerous in a new material collected at Nyirád locality. Here hundreds of very eroded and fragmentary discinids were found in the Pusztamiske Formation, while the overlying Leitha Limestone Formation contains less, but sometimes more or less complete specimens. D. polonicaseems to be restricted to shallow water environments. The Hungarian record is one of the most southern known occurrences of discinid brachiopods in the Central Paratethys (together with the very limited Bulgarian material). With 22 figures

Water deficit under continuous light enhances the thermal stability of photosystem II in Homalothecium lutescens moss

The thermal stability of photosystem II was examined under different (light and water deficit) treatments in the moss H. lutescens. The decrease in water content under continuous light effected a heat-tolerance increase, further intensified by increasing excitation energy levels. The breakpoints (T, T, F1/2) of the F, vs. T curves significantly shifted towards higher temperatures even under a 30-minute moderate (-1.3 MPa) osmotic treatment, and this was partially inhibited by DTT. Both moderate and higher water deficit (-2.5 MPa) resulted in an increase in thermal stability, independent of the excitation energy level. This effect of water deficit remained observable over a fairly long period. Since in a dark-adapted state the critical values of the F0 vs. T curves did not shift towards significantly higher temperatures with an increase in water deficit, it seems likely that rapid thermal stability increase of PS II induced by water deficit occurs only in energized photosynthetic membranes

Detecting and tracking people in real-time

The problem of detecting and tracking people in images and video has been the subject of a great deal of research, but remains a challenging task. Being able to detect and track people would have an impact in a number of fields, such as driverless vehicles, automated surveillance, and human-computer interaction. The difficulties that must be overcome include coping with variations in appearance between different people, changes in lighting, and the ability to detect people across multiple scales. As well as having high accuracy, it is desirable for a technique to evaluate an image with low latency between receiving the image and producing a result. This thesis explores methods for detecting and tracking people in images and video. Techniques are implemented on a desktop computer, with an emphasis on low latency. The problem of detection is examined first. The well established integral channel features detector is introduced and reimplemented, and various novelties are implemented in regards to the features used by the detector. Results are given to quantify the accuracy and the speed of the developed detectors on the INRIA person dataset. The method is further extended by examining the prospect of using multiple classifiers in conjunction. It is shown that using a classifier with a version of the same classifier reflected in the vertical axis can improve performance. A novel method for clustering images of people to find modes of appearance is also presented. This involves using boosting classifiers to map a set of images to vectors, to which K-means clustering is applied. Boosting classifiers are then trained on these clustered datasets to create sets of multiple classifiers, and it is demonstrated that these sets of classifiers can be evaluated on images with only a small increase in the running time over single classifiers. The problem of single target tracking is addressed using the mean shift algorithm. Mean shift tracking works by finding the best colour match for a target from frame to frame. A novel form of mean shift tracking through scale is developed, and the problem of multiple target tracking is addressed by using boosting classifiers in conjunction with Kalman filters. Tests are carried out on the CAVIAR dataset, which gives representative examples of surveillance scenarios, to show the performance of the proposed approaches.Open Acces

Sporadic Pliocene and Pleistocene brachiopods in Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Leiden, the Netherlands) : records from the Mediterranean, and the North Sea Basin

Th e Cenozoic Mollusc Collection of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center (NBC) contains several Pliocene and some Pleistocene brachiopods from the Mediterranean (5 Italian localities), and from the North Sea Basin (2 English localities, 1 French locality, 4 Dutch localities). Th e stud- ied samples altogether yielded more than 1000, mostly fragmentary specimens (8 genera, 8 spe- cies). Th e Italian Pliocene (and Pleistocene) assemblage is dominated by large terebratulids ( Te r e b - ratula ampulla ), while rhynchonellids ( Aphelesia bipartita ) and cancellothyridids ( Terebratulina retusa ) are rare. Th e Coralline Crag samples of England are characterized by large terebratulids ( Pliothyrina sowerbyana ) and lingulids ( Glottidia dumortieri ), the zeilleriid Macandrevia cranium is rare. Th e only French locality yielded few brachiopods, with relatively higher diversity ( P. s o w e r - byana is more common, the others are rare: G. dumortieri , M. cranium , Argyrotheca cf. plicata ). Th e Dutch Pliocene samples are dominated by mostly fragmentary lingulids ( G. dumortieri ), while the others are much less common ( Notosaria nysti , P. sowerbyana , T. retusa , M. cranium ). Th is is the fi rst photo documentation of N. nysti . With 64 fi gures

Effects of drought on photosynthetic parameters and heat stability of PSII in wheat and in Aegilops species originating from dry habitats

The effects of water deficit induced by withholding water in soil pots were examined on processes related to photosynthesis and heat stability of PSII in wheat cultivars and in Aegilops species. Decrease in relative water content (RWC) of leaves resulted in fast and considerable stomatal closure and decrease in net photosynthetic CO2 fixation (A) in Ae. bicornis and in wheat cultivars, while in Ae. tauschii and Ae. speltoides stomatal conductance (gs) and A remained relatively high between 90 and 70% RWC. Parallel with this, A was limited by the CO2 diffusion to the intercellular spaces (stomatal limitation, Ls) even at a lower RWC in Ae. taushii and in Ae. speltoides, while a significant mesophyll limitation (Lm) was observed for Ae. bicornis and for wheat. On the other hand, drought stress resulted in a significant increase in the thermal stability of PSII in wheat and Aegilops genotypes. The results indicate that some genotypes of Ae. taushii and Ae. speltoides have better drought tolerance with satisfactory heat stability than wheat, making them appropriate for improving the heat tolerance of wheat to survive dry and hot periods in the field

Effects of drought on thermal stability of photosynthetic apparatus in bread wheat and in Aegilops species originating from various habitats

The responses of thermal stability of photosystem II to drought induced by dessication in soil pots were examined in two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars and in Aegilops genotypes originating from habitats with different annual rainfalls and daily temperatures. The three days drought treatment did not effect a considerable water loss in leaves and parallel with this a significant heat-tolerance increase of PS II determined on the basis of breakpoints (Tc, Tp) of the temperature dependence of steady-state fluorescence level (Fs vs. T curves) at 1000 μE m-2 s-1 actinic light (AL) intensity was not observable. Higher water deficit (RWC<75%,10-14 day drought treatment) resulted in a significant increase in thermal stability, for wheat and for several Aegilops genotypes. In a dark-adapted state the critical values of the F0 vs. T curves did not shift towards significantly higher temperatures with an increase in water deficit. The results indicate that some Aegilops genotypes originating from arid habitats have better heat tolerance than wheat during drought, making them appropriate for improving the heat tolerance of wheat enabling it to survive the dry and hot periods in the field

Does increased photorespiration protect the leaves of common reed living in fragmented patches from excess light?

The effects of non-photorespiratory conditions on some photosynthetic parameters were studied in the leaves of common reed from fragmented patches and closed stands at 1500 umol m2 AL intensity. At the steady-state photosynthesis level there was no significant difference in the effective quantum yield of PS II (DFIFm') between untreated leaves from closed stands and fragmented patches. The application of phosphinothricin (PPT) and air containing 2% 02 resulted in a substantial decrease in DFIFm', which was more significant in leaves from fragmented patches. Both PPT and low oxygen tension produced a similar effect on DFIFm'. In addition the photorespiration (R) was twice as high in leaves from fragmented patches than in closed stands and in parallel with this a linear regression ratio was found between RP and in vitro GS activity. The results suggest that the leaves of fragmented patches and closed stands might have divergent defensive strategies against excess light