Advanced phenotyping offers opportunities for improved breeding of forage and turf species

ISSN:1095-8290ISSN:0305-736

Non-Destructive Techniques Applied to Monumental Stone Conservation

Non-destructive techniques have always been used in the study of built cultural heritage because of the high cultural value of the concerned objects and the need to preserve them as intact as possible. In this chapter, different non-destructive techniques applied to the conservation of historical building are presented. The selected techniques concern the measurement of some physical properties of the building materials measured at the surface: water absorption, permeability, water content, cohesion, hardness and so on; the actual conditions of the building: stress state, deformation, crack growth and so on; and in-depth physical properties: mechanical properties, inner structure of walls, damp location and salt content. Some of these techniques are used for inspection of the building at a given time, whereas others can be applied for long periods of time to investigate the evolution of the building or of one of its parts (e.g., crack propagation) with time

Advanced phenotyping offers opportunities for improved breeding of forage and turf species

Background and Aims Advanced phenotyping, i.e. the application of automated, high-throughput methods to characterize plant architecture and performance, has the potential to accelerate breeding progress but is far from being routinely used in current breeding approaches. In forage and turf improvement programmes, in particular, where breeding populations and cultivars are characterized by high genetic diversity and substantial genotype × environment interactions, precise and efficient phenotyping is essential to meet future challenges imposed by climate change, growing demand and declining resources. Scope This review highlights recent achievements in the establishment of phenotyping tools and platforms. Some of these tools have originally been established in remote sensing, some in precision agriculture, while others are laboratory-based imaging procedures. They quantify plant colour, spectral reflection, chlorophyll-fluorescence, temperature and other properties, from which traits such as biomass, architecture, photosynthetic efficiency, stomatal aperture or stress resistance can be derived. Applications of these methods in the context of forage and turf breeding are discussed. Conclusions Progress in cutting-edge molecular breeding tools is beginning to be matched by progress in automated non-destructive imaging methods. Joint application of precise phenotyping machinery and molecular tools in optimized breeding schemes will improve forage and turf breeding in the near future and will thereby contribute to amended performance of managed grassland agroecosystem

Wearable, high-density fNIRS and diffuse optical tomography technologies: a perspective

Recent progress in optoelectronics has made wearable and high-density functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and diffuse optical tomography (DOT) technologies possible for the first time. These technologies have the potential to open new fields of real-world neuroscience by enabling functional neuroimaging of the human cortex at a resolution comparable to fMRI in almost any environment and population. In this perspective article, we provide a brief overview of the history and the current status of wearable high-density fNIRS and DOT approaches, discuss the greatest ongoing challenges, and provide our thoughts on the future of this remarkable technology