An accurate semantic segmentation model for bean seedlings and weeds identification based on improved ERFnet.

In agricultural production activities, the growth of crops always accompanies the competition of weeds for nutrients and sunlight. In order to mitigate the adverse effects of weeds on yield, we apply semantic segmentation techniques to differentiate between seedlings and weeds, leading to precision weeding. The proposed EPAnet employs a loss function coupled with Cross-entropy loss and Dice loss to enhance attention to feature information. A multi-Decoder cooperative module based on ERFnet is designed to enhance information transfer during feature mapping. The SimAM is introduced to enhance position recognition. DO-CONV is used to replace the traditional convolution Feature Pyramid Networks (FPN) connection layer to integrate feature information, improving the model's performance on leaf edge processing, and is named FDPN. Moreover, the Overall Accuracy has been improved by 0.65%, the mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) by 1.91%, and the Frequency-Weighted Intersection over Union (FWIoU) by 1.19%. Compared to other advanced methods, EPAnet demonstrates superior image segmentation results in complex natural environments with uneven lighting, leaf interference, and shadows.

A cretaceous frog with eggs from northwestern China provides fossil evidence for sexual maturity preceding skeletal maturity in anurans.

Mesozoic fossils of frogs are rare in the palaeontological record, particularly those exhibiting soft tissues that offer limited insights into early life-history characteristics. Here we report on a skeletally immature frog from the Lower Cretaceous of northwest China, with egg masses in the body and eggs in the oviduct, indicative of a gravid female. CT reconstruction of the specimen allows referral to Gansubatrachus qilianensis and we assign it as a paratype complementing the diagnosis of the type species. The new fossil, which might represent a younger individual than the holotype of Gansubatrachus, shows that sexual maturation occurred before full adulthood in this frog and provides evidence of death linked to mating behaviour. We also discuss other potential sources of variation and life-history traits of Gansubatrachus. The new finding represents the oldest Early Cretaceous frog preserving in situ eggs and provides a glimpse into ancient anuran development during Mesozoic times.

An exceptionally well-preserved herbaceous eudicot from the Early Cretaceous (late Aptian-early Albian) of Northwest China.

A fossil eudicot, Gansufructus saligna gen. et sp. nov., is reported from the Early Cretaceous (late Aptian-early Albian) of the Gansu Province, Northwest China, based on numerous well-preserved axes with attached leaves and infructescences. The leaves are alternate, short petiolate and linear-lanceolate with low rank pinnate to reticulate venation. The infructescences are loose panicles bearing fruits in different stages of maturity, each containing four partly free carpels borne in a whorled arrangement. Each carpel has three to five seeds borne along its ventral margin. The nature of the leaves and axes indicates a terrestrial, herbaceous habit. In general organization, Gansufructus is closely similar to the fruit-bearing axes of Sinocarpus decussatus from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, as well as other more or less contemporaneous angiosperms from the Far East, which together provide evidence of diverse eudicot angiosperms of low stature colonizing areas close to environments of deposition.

Identification of two new species of Meliolinites associated with Lauraceae leaves from the middle Miocene of Fujian, China.

Several studies have investigated both the paleoclimate and the well-preserved fossil remains from the middle Miocene found in China's Fujian Province. This study describes two new species of Meliolinites, including their fungal hyphae, reproductive structures, and spores. The distribution of modern Meliolaceae indicates that they live in warm, humid, subtropical to tropical climates. Moreover, the fossil leaves and the epiphyllous fungal remains, indicate the prevalence of a warm, humid, subtropical to tropical climate in this area during the middle Miocene. In addition, it was observed that the surrounding cells of the fungi found on the uninfected host leaves were normal, whereas the infected host leaves themselves were abnormally dim. These features are a reflection of self-protection, and it can, therefore, be inferred that the host leaves were alive when they were infected. The present study used fossil angiosperm leaves with cuticles obtained from the Fotan sediments from Fujian to investigate not only the taxonomy of the fossils but also to interpret the paleoclimate and paleoecology.