Revolutionizing Crop Production: The Imperative of Speed Breeding Technology in Modern Crop Improvement

Speed breeding (SB) technology is an innovative solution to shorten the breeding cycle and accelerate crop improvement. The key factors of plant growth and development, including photoperiod, light intensity and quality, temperature, relative humidity, planting density and plant nutrition are manipulated in such a way as to stimulate flowering and seed set under controlled conditions. The development of SB technology may be challenging as crops tend to vary in their response to physiological manipulations. Therefore, crop-specific optimization is highly critical to developing successful SB technology in crops. The SB technology can also be synergistically integrated with cutting edge genomics and marker-assisted selection technologies to enhance genetic gain in crop breeding programmes. In this review, various aspects concerning the science and techniques underpinning SB technology, the successful implementation of SB technology in different crops, the inherent challenges faced, and the potential opportunities to integrate SB technology with cutting-edge genomics technologies towards accelerating crop improvement are discussed

Esophageal and Gastric Malignancies After Bariatric Surgery: a Retrospective Global Study

Background: Bariatric surgery can influence the presentation, diagnosis, and management of gastrointestinal cancers. Esophagogastric (EG) malignancies in patients who have had a prior bariatric procedure have not been fully characterized. Objective: To characterize EG malignancies after bariatric procedures. Setting: University Hospital, United Kingdom. Methods: We performed a retrospective, multicenter observational study of patients with EG malignancies after bariatric surgery to characterize this condition. Results: This study includes 170 patients from 75 centers in 25 countries who underwent bariatric procedures between 1985 and 2020. At the time of the bariatric procedure, the mean age was 50.2 ± 10 years, and the mean weight 128.8 ± 28.9 kg. Women composed 57.3% (n = 98) of the population. Most (n = 64) patients underwent a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) followed by adjustable gastric band (AGB; n = 46) and sleeve gastrectomy (SG; n = 43). Time to cancer diagnosis after bariatric surgery was 9.5 ± 7.4 years, and mean weight at diagnosis was 87.4 ± 21.9 kg. The time lag was 5.9 ± 4.1 years after SG compared to 9.4 ± 7.1 years after RYGB and 10.5 ± 5.7 years after AGB. One third of patients presented with metastatic disease. The majority of tumors were adenocarcinoma (82.9%). Approximately 1 in 5 patients underwent palliative treatment from the outset. Time from diagnosis to mortality was under 1 year for most patients who died over the intervening period. Conclusion: The Oesophago-Gastric Malignancies After Obesity/Bariatric Surgery study presents the largest series to date of patients developing EG malignancies after bariatric surgery and attempts to characterize this condition.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Colloid deposition experiments as a diagnostic tool for biomass attachment onto bioproduct adsorbent surfaces

Background: Detrimental processing conditions can be expected in any downstream operation where direct contacting between a crude feedstock and a reactive solid phase is supposed to occur. In this paper we have investigated the factors influencing intact yeast cells deposition onto anion and cation exchangers currently utilized for expanded-bed adsorption of biotechnological products. The aim of this study was twofold: (a)to confirm previous findings relating biomass deposition with surface energetics according to the extended Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey and Overbeek theory (XDLVO) theory; and (b) to provide a simple experimental tool to evaluate biomass deposition onto process surfaces. Results: Biomass deposition experiments were performed on an automated workstation utilizing a packedbed format. Two commercial ion exchangers intended for the direct capture of bioproducts in the presence of suspended biological particles were employed. Intact yeast cells in the late exponential phase of growth were selected as model bio-colloids. Cell deposition was systematically evaluated as a function of fluid-phase conductivity and quantitatively expressed as a biomass deposition parameter (α). Conclusion: α ≤ 0.15 was established as a criterion to reflect negligible biomass adhesion to the process support(s). Biomass deposition experiments further confirmed predictions made on the basis of free interfacial energy calculations as per the extended DLVO approach.Inter-American Development Bank (BID) 1201/OC AR 649 PICT 08352; Jacobs University (IUB/2130-90050) and TÜBİTA

Lightweight Deflectometer for Compaction Quality Control

Quality assessment and control (QA/QC) of compacted pavement layers involve regular monitoring of density and moisture content during compaction. In situ density is traditionally determined using sand-cone test method. However, many recent studies have indicated that stiffness- or strength-based quality measurements are easy to determine and more reliable than the density-based quality measurements. In this study, lightweight deflectometer (LWD) is used as a quality control device to assess the quality of compacted pavement layers. As a part of this study, an extensive LWD field testing program is undertaken on the expressway along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) located in Hyderabad, India, to determine the modulus of deformation (ELWD) of base and surface pavement layers. ELWD of compacted base and surface layers was found to commonly range from 37.6 to 58.6 and 89.3 to 125.7 MPa, respectively. In addition, a case study on a low-volume road is presented to demonstrate the relationship between the ELWD and in situ density obtained from the sand-cone test. LWD is found to be simple to operate and provides quick test results on any pavement layer. Hence, the frequency of quality control tests can be increased leading to an improvement in the overall quality of compacted pavement layers