Face.evoLVe: A High-Performance Face Recognition Library

In this paper, we develop face.evoLVe -- a comprehensive library that collects and implements a wide range of popular deep learning-based methods for face recognition. First of all, face.evoLVe is composed of key components that cover the full process of face analytics, including face alignment, data processing, various backbones, losses, and alternatives with bags of tricks for improving performance. Later, face.evoLVe supports multi-GPU training on top of different deep learning platforms, such as PyTorch and PaddlePaddle, which facilitates researchers to work on both large-scale datasets with millions of images and low-shot counterparts with limited well-annotated data. More importantly, along with face.evoLVe, images before & after alignment in the common benchmark datasets are released with source codes and trained models provided. All these efforts lower the technical burdens in reproducing the existing methods for comparison, while users of our library could focus on developing advanced approaches more efficiently. Last but not least, face.evoLVe is well designed and vibrantly evolving, so that new face recognition approaches can be easily plugged into our framework. Note that we have used face.evoLVe to participate in a number of face recognition competitions and secured the first place. The version that supports PyTorch is publicly available at https://github.com/ZhaoJ9014/face.evoLVe.PyTorch and the PaddlePaddle version is available at https://github.com/ZhaoJ9014/face.evoLVe.PyTorch/tree/master/paddle. Face.evoLVe has been widely used for face analytics, receiving 2.4K stars and 622 forks.Comment: A short verson is accepted by NeuroComputing (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925231222005057?via%3Dihub). Primary corresponding author is Dr. Jian Zha

On-Farm-Produced Organic Amendments on Maintaining and Enhancing Soil Fertility and Nitrogen Availability in Organic or Low Input Agriculture

Maintaining and enhancing soil fertility are key issues for sustainability in an agricultural system with organic or low input methods. On-farm–produced green manure as a source of soil organic matter (SOM) plays a critical role in long-term productivity. But producing green manure requires land and water; thus, increasing biodiversity, such as by intercropping with green manure crops, could be an approach to enhance the efficiency of renewable resources especially in developing countries. This article discusses soil fertility and its maintenance and enhancement with leguminous intercropping from four points of view: soil fertility and organic matter function, leguminous green manure, intercropping principles, and soil conservation. Important contributions of leguminous intercropping include SOM enhancement and fertility building, biological nitrogen (N) and other plant nutrition availability. Under a well-designed and managed system, competition between the target and intercropping crops can be reduced. The plant uptake efficiency of biologically fixed N is estimated to be double that of industrial N fertilizers. After N-rich plant residues are incorporated into soil, the carbon (C):nitrogen ratio of added straw decreases. Another high mitigation potential of legume intercropping lies in soil conservation by preventing soil and water erosion. Many opportunities exist to introduce legumes in short-term rotation, intercropping, living mulch, and cover crops in an organically managed farm system. Worldwide, long-term soil fertility enhancement remains a challenge due to the current world population and agricultural practices. Cropping system including legumes is a step in the right direction to meeting the needs of food security and sustainability

Ultimate strength of carbon nanotubes: A theoretical study

Article on a theoretical study of the ultimate strength of carbon nanotubes

Carbon Nanotube-Metal Cluster Composites: A New Road to Chemical Sensors?

Article on carbon nanotube-metal cluster composites proposed as prototype systems for molecular recognition at the nanoscale

Identification of a novel MYC target gene set signature for predicting the prognosis of osteosarcoma patients

Osteosarcoma is a primary malignant tumor found mainly in teenagers and young adults. Patients have very little long-term survival. MYC controls tumor initiation and progression by regulating the expression of its target genes; thus, constructing a risk signature of osteosarcoma MYC target gene set will benefit the evaluation of both treatment and prognosis. In this paper, we used GEO data to download the ChIP-seq data of MYC to obtain the MYC target gene. Then, a risk signature consisting of 10 MYC target genes was developed using Cox regression analysis. The signature indicates that patients in the high-risk group performed poorly. After that, we verified it in the GSE21257 dataset. In addition, the difference in tumor immune function among the low- and high-risk populations was compared by single sample gene enrichment analysis. Immunotherapy and prediction of response to the anticancer drug have shown that the risk signature of the MYC target gene set was positively correlated with immune checkpoint response and drug sensitivity. Functional analysis has demonstrated that these genes are enriched in malignant tumors. Finally, STX10 was selected for functional experimentation. STX10 silence has limited osteosarcoma cell migration, invasion, and proliferation. Therefore, these findings indicated that the MYC target gene set risk signature could be used as a potential therapeutic target and prognostic indicator in patients with osteosarcoma

OsTDL1A binds to the LRR domain of rice receptor kinase MSP1, and is required to limit sporocyte numbers

Hybrids lose heterotic yield advantage when multiplied sexually via meiosis. A potential alternative breeding system for hybrids is apospory, where female gametes develop without meiosis. Common among grasses, apospory begins in the nucellus, where aposporous initials (AIs) appear near the sexual megaspore mother cell (MeMC). The cellular origin of AIs is obscure, but one possibility, suggested by the mac1 and msp1 mutants of maize and rice, is that AIs are apomeiotic derivatives of the additional MeMCs that appear when genetic control over sporocyte numbers is relaxed. MULTIPLE SPOROCYTES1 (MSP1) encodes a leucine-rich-repeat receptor kinase, which is orthologous to EXS/EMS1 in Arabidopsis. Like mac1 and msp1, exs/ems1 mutants produce extra sporocytes in the anther instead of a tapetum, causing male sterility. This phenotype is copied in mutants of TAPETUM DETERMINANT1 (TPD1), which encodes a small protein hypothesized to be an extracellular ligand of EXS/EMS1. Here we show that rice contains two TPD1-like genes, OsTDL1A and OsTDL1B. Both are co-expressed with MSP1 in anthers during meiosis, but only OsTDL1A and MSP1 are co-expressed in the ovule. OsTDL1A binds to the leucine-rich-repeat domain of MSP1 in yeast two-hybrid assays and bimolecular fluorescence complementation in onion cells; OsTDL1B lacks this capacity. When driven by the maize Ubiquitin1 promoter, RNA interference against OsTDL1A phenocopies msp1 in the ovule but not in the anther. Thus, RNAi produces multiple MeMCs without causing male sterility. We conclude that OsTDL1A binds MSP1 in order to limit sporocyte numbers. OsTDL1A-RNAi lines may be suitable starting points for achieving synthetic apospory in rice

Isolation of Robinsoniella peoriensis from the fecal material of the endangered Yangtze finless porpoise, Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis

The aim of this study was to determine the causative agent of diarrhea in an endangered Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis). From the fecal material collected from this porpoise Robinsoniella peoriensis was isolated. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The aim of this study was to determine the causative agent of diarrhea in an endangered Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis). From the fecal material collected from this porpoise Robinsoniella peoriensis was isolated. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

A Genome-wide Microsatellite Polymorphism Database for the Indica and Japonica Rice

Microsatellite (MS) polymorphism is an important source of genetic diversity, providing support for map-based cloning and molecular breeding. We have developed a new database that contains 52 845 polymorphic MS loci between indica and japonica, composed of ample Class II MS markers, and integrated 18 828 MS loci from IRGSP and genetic markers from RGP. Based on genetic marker positions on the rice genome (http://rise.genomics.org.cn/rice2/index.jsp ), we determined the approximate genetic distances of these MS loci and validated 100 randomly selected markers experimentally with 90% success rate. In addition, we recorded polymorphic MS positions in indica cv. 9311 that is the most important paternal parent of the two-line hybrid rice in China. Our database will undoubtedly facilitate the application of MS markers in genetic researches and marker-assisted breeding. The data set is freely available from www.wigs.zju.edu.cn/achievment/polySSR

Notch2 and Notch3 Function Together to Regulate Vascular Smooth Muscle Development

Notch signaling has been implicated in the regulation of smooth muscle differentiation, but the precise role of Notch receptors is ill defined. Although Notch3 receptor expression is high in smooth muscle, Notch3 mutant mice are viable and display only mild defects in vascular patterning and smooth muscle differentiation. Notch2 is also expressed in smooth muscle and Notch2 mutant mice show cardiovascular abnormalities indicative of smooth muscle defects. Together, these findings infer that Notch2 and Notch3 act together to govern vascular development and smooth muscle differentiation. To address this hypothesis, we characterized the phenotype of mice with a combined deficiency in Notch2 and Notch3. Our results show that when Notch2 and Notch3 genes are simultaneously disrupted, mice die in utero at mid-gestation due to severe vascular abnormalities. Assembly of the vascular network occurs normally as assessed by Pecam1 expression, however smooth muscle cells surrounding the vessels are grossly deficient leading to vascular collapse. In vitro analysis show that both Notch2 and Notch3 robustly activate smooth muscle differentiation genes, and Notch3, but not Notch2 is a target of Notch signaling. These data highlight the combined actions of the Notch receptors in the regulation of vascular development, and suggest that while these receptors exhibit compensatory roles in smooth muscle, their functions are not entirely overlapping