Trait-Based Root Phenotyping as a Necessary Tool for Crop Selection and Improvement

Most of the effort of crop breeding has focused on the expression of aboveground traits with the goals of increasing yield and disease resistance, decreasing height in grains, and improvement of nutritional qualities. The role of roots in supporting these goals has been largely ignored. With the increasing need to produce more food, feed, fiber, and fuel on less land and with fewer inputs, the next advance in plant breeding must include greater consideration of roots. Root traits are an untapped source of phenotypic variation that will prove essential for breeders working to increase yields and the provisioning of ecosystem services. Roots are dynamic, and their structure and the composition of metabolites introduced to the rhizosphere change as the plant develops and in response to environmental, biotic, and edaphic factors. The assessment of physical qualities of root system architecture will allow breeding for desired root placement in the soil profile, such as deeper roots in no-till production systems plagued with drought or shallow roots systems for accessing nutrients. Combining the assessment of physical characteristics with chemical traits, including enzymes and organic acid production, will provide a better understanding of biogeochemical mechanisms by which roots acquire resources. Lastly, information on the structural and elemental composition of the roots will help better predict root decomposition, their contribution to soil organic carbon pools, and the subsequent benefits provided to the following crop. Breeding can no longer continue with a narrow focus on aboveground traits, and breeding for belowground traits cannot only focus on root system architecture. Incorporation of root biogeochemical traits into breeding will permit the creation of germplasm with the required traits to meet production needs in a variety of soil types and projected climate scenarios

Nature quality in organic farming: A conceptual analysis of considerations and criteria in a European context

Nature quality in relation to farming is a complex field. It involves different traditions and interests, different views of what nature is, and different ways of valuing nature. Furthermore there is a general lack of empirical data on many aspects of nature quality in the farmed landscape. The present paper looks at nature quality from the perspective of organic farming, which has its own values and goals in relation to nature – the "Ecologist View of Nature". This is in contrast to the "Culturist View" characteristic of much conventional agriculture and the "Naturalist View" characteristic of the traditional biological approach to nature quality. This threefold distinction forms a framework for exploration of nature quality criteria in the farmed landscape. The traditional work on nature quality has mainly focused on biological interests based on a Naturalist View of Nature. In this paper we will explore how criteria for nature quality based on the Ecologist View can be developed and thereby feed into the ongoing discussion of the development of the organic farming practises. We suggest additional criteria for nature quality based on an Ecologist View of Nature: biodiversity; habitat diversity, extent and structure; functional integrity of habitats and agroecosystems; and landscape integrity, accessibility and experientiality. The larger set of Naturalist and Ecologist criteria can provide a wider and more balanced basis for developing nature quality indicators that are relevant in the farmed landscapes. This broader approach to nature quality is also expected to benefit the general societal discussions and decisions on farming and nature

Review of perspectives applied in the assessment of organic food networks

Value is a key concept for understanding how organic food networks function because values are the foundation of the organic production practice, thus value must be given a significant role in assessing and balancing the effects of organic food networks. At the same time value is a loose concept, widely used and with various meanings in different scientific perspectives, in which ontological difference produces different perceptions of what values are. Assessing organic food networks is thus a complicated process, since the perspective which is chosen has important implications for the analysis and for the outcome of the assessment. This paper reviews five perspectives which predominate in the assessment of food networks, 1) Food Science, 2) Discourse Analysis, 3) Phenomenology, 4) Neoclassical Welfare Economics and 5) ANT. The perspectives are compared with regards to how the food network is assessed, how value is measured and how organic is understood. It is concluded that the perspectives focus analytically on different aspects of the same phenomena and differ in terms of where value is found, but also in the degree of reductionism applied, which factors are included in the analysis and whether or not the analysis focuses on the individual actors or the network as a whole

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace vehicle Design (IPAD). Volume 2: The design process

The extent to which IPAD is to support the design process is identified. Case studies of representative aerospace products were developed as models to characterize the design process and to provide design requirements for the IPAD computing system

Business Models and their Implications for Skills

The dominant political-economic narrative of our time is that, under conditions of global competition with low-wage economies able to undercut even efficient western firms, the only viable and sustainable route to competitiveness is to trade on high value-added goods and services and that these in turn require enhanced skills and knowledge. This kind of analysis finds echo and sustenance in the management literature concerning 'knowledge'. Drawing upon a series of case studies this monograph reveals a more varied and complex pattern of possibilities

Cyclone: A close air support aircraft for tomorrow

To meet the threat of the battlefield of the future, the U.S. ground forces will require reliable air support. To provide this support, future aircrews demand a versatile close air support aircraft capable of delivering ordinance during the day, night, or in adverse weather with pin-point accuracy. The Cyclone aircraft meets these requirements, packing the 'punch' necessary to clear the way for effective ground operations. Possessing anti-armor, missile, and precision bombing capability, the Cyclone will counter the threat into the 21st Century. Here, it is shown that the Cyclone is a realistic, economical answer to the demand for a capable close air support aircraft

Aeronautical Engineering: A special bibliography, supplement 60

This bibliography lists 284 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in July 1975

Substantiation Of Hot Smoking Parameters Based On Sensory Researches In Hot Fish Marinades Technology In The Jelly Pouring

Modern technologies of food products provide creation of healthy, tasty and safe products, characterized by high organoleptic properties, balance by main food factors and structural-mechanical parameters of a product.The main technological process in the technology of fish marinades and a jelly pouring is the hot smoking. Technological parameters of the hot smoking have been scientifically grounded on the base of the statistical processing of data of sensory studies. Organoleptic assessment of semi-products after the thermal processing was carried out by 5-point system corresponding to the elaborated scale. The quantitative assessment of organoleptic parameters of the quality of experimental samples was determined by the totality of all assessment points, taking into account chosen weight coefficients depending on the importance degree of a given parameter at forming consumer qualities of a product. The generalizing quality parameter was calculated as a sum of assessments of organoleptic parameters – taste, consistence and appearance. Individual assessments of separated quality parameters of products (in points) were put in degustation lists and statistically processed by the averaging method.The smoking process realization, according to scientifically grounded parameters allows to produce the new type of tasty, healthy and presentable culinary products of a perspective object of Ukrainian aquaculture – silver carp of a prolonged storage term

Development of the Integrated Model of the Automotive Product Quality Assessment

Issues on building an integrated model of the automotive product quality assessment are studied herein basing on widely applicable methods and models of the quality assessment. A conceptual model of the automotive product quality system meeting customer requirements has been developed. Typical characteristics of modern industrial production are an increase in the production dynamism that determines the product properties; a continuous increase in the volume of information required for decision-making, an increased role of knowledge and high technologies implementing absolutely new scientific and technical ideas. To solve the problem of increasing the automotive product quality, a conceptual structural and hierarchical model is offered to ensure its quality as a closed system with feedback between the regulatory, manufacturing, and information modules, responsible for formation of the product quality at all stages of its life cycle. The three module model of the system of the industrial product quality assurance is considered to be universal and to give the opportunity to explore processes of any complexity while solving theoretical and practical problems of the quality assessment and prediction for products for various purposes, including automotive

Sustainability vs. Quality in gilthead seabream (Sparusaurata L.) farming: are trade-offs inevitable?

European aquaculture industry should be at the forefront of sustainable development, providing healthy and safe food of the highest quality to the consumer, through an environmentally sound approach. The purpose of this review was to explore in what way the current drive for sustainability has affected what the consumer perceives as quality in fish, specifically in gilthead seabream, one of the most important farmed species in the Mediterranean. It focuses on nutritional aspects such as fish meal and fish oil replacement, quality tailoring through finishing strategies, the influence of different farming systems and the effect of slaughter stress on seabream quality. In general, fish meal and fish oil replacement with vegetable ingredients will result in changes in the fatty acid profile of the fillets, and consequently the potential health benefits seabream offers to the consumer. While organoleptic properties suffer little change, the impact of these ingredients on welfare has not been fully investigated. Further studies are also needed to evaluate the effect of land animal ingredients on seabream quality. In either case, although finishing strategies to restore essential fatty acids are not completely effective, seabream can still retain a high nutritional value. Information on the use of dietary supplements as finishing strategies is still extremely scarce. Regarding fish welfare, the high densities practised in intensive production systems pose concerns which warrant further research in this area. Furthermore, new alternatives for common harvesting and slaughter methods are needed to improve welfare, as traditional methods are clearly stressful.FCT, Portugal [SFRH/BD/40886/2007, SFRH/BD/41392/2007]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio