RPNet: Rice plant counting after tillering stage based on plant attention and multiple supervision network

Rice is a major food crop and is planted worldwide. Climatic deterioration, population growth, farmland shrinkage, and other factors have necessitated the application of cutting-edge technology to achieve accurate and efficient rice production. In this study, we mainly focus on the precise counting of rice plants in paddy field and design a novel deep learning network, RPNet, consisting of four modules: feature encoder, attention block, initial density map generator, and attention map generator. Additionally, we propose a novel loss function called RPloss. This loss function considers the magnitude relationship between different sub-loss functions and ensures the validity of the designed network. To verify the proposed method, we conducted experiments on our recently presented URC dataset, which is an unmanned aerial vehicle dataset that is quite challenged at counting rice plants. For experimental comparison, we chose some popular or recently proposed counting methods, namely MCNN, CSRNet, SANet, TasselNetV2, and FIDTM. In the experiment, the mean absolute error(MAE), root mean squared error(RMSE), relative MAE(rMAE) and relative RMSE(rRMSE) of the proposed RPNet were 8.3, 11.2, 1.2% and 1.6%, respectively,for the URC dataset. RPNet surpasses state-of-the-art methods in plant counting. To verify the universality of the proposed method, we conducted experiments on the well-know MTC and WED datasets. The final results on these datasets showed that our network achieved the best results compared with excellent previous approaches. The experiments showed that the proposed RPNet can be utilized to count rice plants in paddy fields and replace traditional methods.

Characteristics and High-yield Cultivation Techniques of the Main Potato Variety Jinshu 16 in Shanxi Province

With NL94014 as the female parent and 9333-11 as the male parent,the potato research laboratory of High Latitude Crops Institute,Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences obtained true seeds through sexual hybridization,and systematically and directionally bred a new potato variety Jinshu 16 with high yield,good comprehensive resistance and middle and late maturity.This variety has been listed as one of the mainstay varieties in Shanxi Province for many times.In this paper,the characteristics and high-yield cultivation techniques of Jinshu 16 are introduced,in order to guide field production and get better returns.

A Novel Roll Compensation Method for Two-Axis Transportable Satellite Antennas

Two-axis transportable satellite antennas(TATSAs) have been widely adopted owing to its simple structure and low cost. However, by searching in a wide range, it will take a very long searching time. Under extreme conditions, it will even fail to work. In this paper, we propose a novel roll compensation(RC) method for the low-cost TATSAs to achieve faster tracking even if when the antenna has no azimuth sensor. By analyzing the influence of roll axis on the system performance, details of the compensation method are derived. Simulation and measurement results indicate that the proposed RC method can effectively reduce the initial searching time for satellite communication. In addition, tracking along with the ellipse path with the RC method provides the highest tracking efficiency.

Frequency dependence of plasma characteristics at different pressures in cylindrical inductively coupled plasma source

The effects of driving frequency on plasma parameters and electron heating efficiency are studied in cylindrical inductively coupled plasma(ICP) source. Measurements are made in an Ar discharge for driving frequency at 13.56/2 MHz, and pressures of 0.4-1.2 Pa. In 13.56 MHz discharge, higher electron density(n_e) and higher electron temperature(T_e) are observed in comparison with 2 MHz discharge at 0.6-1.2 Pa. However, slightly higher n_e and T_e are observed in 2 MHz discharge at 0.4 Pa. This observation is explained by enhanced electron heating efficiency due to the resonance between the oscillation of 2 MHz electromagnetic field and electron-neutral collision process at 0.4 Pa. It is also found that the variation of T_edistribution is different in 13.56 and 2 MHz discharge.For ICP at 13.56 MHz, T_eshows an edge-high profile at 0.4-1.2 Pa. For 2 MHz discharge, T_e remains an edge-high distribution at 0.4-0.8 Pa. However, the distribution pattern involves into a center-high profile at 0.9-1.2 Pa. The spatial profiles of n_e remain a center-high shape in both 13.56 and 2 MHz discharges, which indicates the nonlocal kinetics at low pressures. Better uniformity could be achieved by using 2 MHz discharge. The effects of gas pressure on plasma parameters are also examined. An increase in gas pressure necessitates the rise of n_e in both 13.56 and 2 MHz discharges. Meanwhile, T_e drops when gas pressure increases and shows a flatter distribution at higher pressure.

Clinical and functional comparison of dynamic hip screws and intramedullary nails for treating proximal femur metastases in older individuals

Objective:To compare the outcomes of dynamic hip screws(DHS)and intramedullary nailing(IMN)in the treatment of extra-capsular metastatic carcinoma of the proximal femur.Methods:A retrospective case analysis method was used to examine data of patients with proximal metastatic cancer of the femur who were treated with internal fixation in Department of Orthopaedics,Beijing Friendship Hospital,from January 2007 to December 2018.Blood loss,postoperative pain,functional score,length of stay,and survival rates were compared,and postoperative complications were assessed.Results:Complete follow-up data were available for 33 patients.The mean follow-up period was 12.2±3.6(range:9-32)months and the average age was 72.3±4.7(range:59-83)years old.There were 20 females and 13 males.Twenty-three patients had undergone IMN and 10 DHS,according to bone defects and the patient’s overall condition.The median survival time was 10 months in the IMN group and 11 months in the DHS group.Duration of surgery(t=-7.366,P<0.001)and length of hospital stay(t=-3.509,P<0.001)differed significantly between the two groups.There was one case of breakage of internal fixation in the IMN group.Conclusions:There was no significant difference between DHS and IMN in terms of surgical efficacy.IMN and DHS were different in terms of surgical time and hospital stay.However,due to the limited number of cases in this study,multi-factor analysis has not been performed and needs to be further verified in future analysis.When developing a surgical plan,it is recommended to consider the patient’s condition and the surgeon’s experience.

Rice Plant Counting,Locating,and Sizing Method Based on High-Throughput UAV RGB Images

Rice plant counting is crucial for many applications in rice production,such as yield estimation,growth diagnosis,disaster loss assessment,etc.Currently,rice counting still heavily relies on tedious and time-consuming manual operation.To alleviate the workload of rice counting,we employed an UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle)to collect the RGB images of the paddy field.Then,we proposed a new rice plant counting,locating,and sizing method(RiceNet),which consists of one feature extractor frontend and 3 feature decoder modules,namely,density map estimator,plant location detector,and plant size estimator.In RiceNet,rice plant attention mechanism and positive–negative loss are designed to improve the ability to distinguish plants from background and the quality of the estimated density maps.To verify the validity of our method,we propose a new UAV-based rice counting dataset,which contains 355 images and 257,793 manual labeled points.Experiment results show that the mean absolute error and root mean square error of the proposed RiceNet are 8.6 and 11.2,respectively.Moreover,we validated the performance of our method with two other popular crop datasets.On these three datasets,our method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods.Results suggest that RiceNet can accurately and efficiently estimate the number of rice plants and replace the traditional manual method.

Dynamic aberrations correction of Roll-Nod conformal seeker based on the diffraction surface and anamorphic asphere surface

Traditional optical domes are spherical, which have a large air resistance coefficient. In order to reduce the coefficient of air resistance, conformal optical technology was proposed, which used a streamlined design of the outer surface of the dome. However, conformal domes generate dynamic aberrations varying significantly with look angles in the field of regard(FOR). Thus, correcting the dynamic aberrations is the core task of conformal optics. This Letter presented a correcting method of dynamic aberrations based on the diffraction surface and anamorphic asphere surface. This method is derived from the arch corrector and can only be used on the Roll-Nod gimbal. For the seeker with a Roll-Nod gimbal, the arch corrector is replaced with a diffractive surface superimposed on the inner surface of the conformal dome. To correct astigmatism, which is the main aberration that needs to be corrected, anamorphic asphere surfaces are used in the imaging system. Compared with the arch corrector, this method can reduce the size of the correction element while retaining sufficient design freedom. Design results show that this method can well correct the dynamic aberrations in a larger FOR. With a simpler form in structure, this method can improve the reliability of conformal optical systems and promote the application of conformal optical technology.