The 20th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival (CICAF) opened on Wednesday in Hangzhou, provincial capital of east China's Zhejiang.
Spanning five days, the event themed as "The Prime of Chinese Animation" takes place in multiple venues. The main venue is located at the Hangzhou White Horse Lake International Convention and Exhibition Center, with a secondary venue at the China Comic and Animation Museum in the city.
Additionally, three sub-venues are set across Hangzhou's various districts and townships to host a slew of sideline activities.
This year's festival emphasizes AI empowerment and the cultivation of talent. The AIGC Chinese Animation exhibition area has been designed to provide visitors with interactive experiences that combine technology with traditional Chinese culture.
Prominent domestic animation makers such as CCTV Animation, Zhejiang Radio and Television Group, and Shanghai Animation Film Studio, as well as numerous international companies and institutions, such as Mega House and Hello Kitty, are presenting their most well-known intellectual property brands and cultural products.
According to media reports, over 140,000 animated works, both domestic and international, will be showcased over the course of the festival.
The festival has attracted more than 2,100 enterprises and institutions from more than 50 countries and regions in the world.
20th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival opens in Hangzhou
China’s first intelligent field plant phenotype precision identification platform went into operation recently in Sanya City, south China’s Hainan Province, which is a milestone in the country’s development of intelligent breeding.
The phenotype of a plant is a term used to describe observable characteristics of the plant, such as its appearance, and some inherent physiological characteristics, such as resistance to drought and diseases.
In an experimental field of the National Nanfan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a large piece of equipment is moving across the field. The equipment, called the field plant phenotype precision identification platform, can move according to the preset track and can be remotely controlled. While moving, the equipment can scan the plants with its six sensors, just like a CT machine for plants.
"The ultimate goal is to achieve high-throughput, large-scale, efficient and precise collection of germplasm resources, which can be four to five times higher than the efficiency of the traditional manual collection," said Jin Xiuliang, a researcher at the institute.
Although the equipment looks simple from the outside, it contains six high-precision image acquisition devices such as multi-spectral, thermal infrared, and chlorophyll fluorescence devices. Data can be collected at fixed times and points according to experimental needs, and the collection of a germplasm material can be completed within 30 seconds.
After the data collected through this platform is transmitted to the data analysis center, researchers can more quickly and accurately screen out germplasm resources with excellent traits, laying the foundation for subsequent crop breeding.
"The plant phenotype identification facility at the National Nanfan Research Institute is a milestone in the field of crop science in China. It can greatly enhance the independent innovation capabilities of germplasm innovation, gene mining, and variety breeding, and enhance the international competitiveness of China's seed industry," said Li Huihui, vice president of the institute.
China makes major progress in smart crop breeding
