Fruit and vegetable biodiversity for nutritionally diverse diets: Challenges, opportunities, and knowledge gaps

Planetary health brings together intrinsically linked issues of human health and natural systems. This paper reviews evidence of how agrobiodiversity underpins dietary diversity for current human populations in the context of fruits and vegetables, and ways to maintain and improve these for future generations. Both the conservation and sustainable use of fruit and vegetable biodiversity and the consumption of diverse diets are sub-optimal, and in many contexts getting worse. Agrobiodiversity and nutrition are linked through food availability, access, conservation and consumption, with potential win-wins but notable trade-offs for policy and action through time, place, agrobiodiversity use, and equity. We pinpoint research gaps and call for inclusive deliberation for action

Compressed Sensing of Sparse Multipath MIMO Channels with Superimposed Training Sequence

Recent advances in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems have renewed the interests of researchers to further explore this area for addressing various dynamic challenges of emerging radio communication networks. Various measurement campaigns reported recently in the literature show that physical multipath MIMO channels exhibit sparse impulse response structure in various outdoor radio propagation environments. Therefore, a comprehensive physical description of sparse multipath MIMO channels is presented in first part of this paper. Superimposing a training sequence (low power, periodic) over the information sequence offers an improvement in the spectral efficiency by avoiding the use of dedicated time/frequency slots for the training sequence, which is unlike the traditional schemes. The main contribution of this paper includes three superimposed training (SiT) sequence based channel estimation techniques for sparse multipath MIMO channels. The proposed techniques exploit the compressed sensing theory and prior available knowledge of channel’s sparsity. The proposed sparse MIMO channel estimation techniques are named as, SiT based compressed channel sensing (SiT-CCS), SiT based hardlimit thresholding with CCS (SiT-ThCCS), and SiT training based match pursuit (SiT-MP). Bit error rate (BER) and normalized channel mean square error are used as metrics for the simulation analysis to gauge the performance of proposed techniques. A comparison of the proposed schemes with a notable first order statistics based SiT least squares (SiT-LS) estimation technique is presented to establish the improvements achieved by the proposed schemes. For sparse multipath time-invariant MIMO communication channels, it is observed that SiT-CCS, SiT-MP, and SiT-ThCCS can provide an improvement up to 2, 3.5, and 5.2 dB in the MSE at signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 12 dB when compared to SiT-LS, respectively. Moreover, for BER=10 −1.9 BER=10−1.9, the proposed SiT-CCS, SiT-MP, and SiT-ThCCS, compared to SiT-LS, can offer a gain of about 1, 2.5, and 3.5 dB in the SNR, respectively. The performance gain in MSE and BER is observed to improve with an increase in the channel sparsity

Sensitivity and specificity of wearables for atrial fibrillation in elderly populations: A systematic review

Purpose of review: This study aims to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of wearable devices for AF detection in older adults, as well as examine the incidence of AF across various studies, contextual factors impacting AF detection, and safety and adverse events associated with wearable use. Recent findings: A systematic search of three databases identified 30 studies on wearables for AF detection in older adults, encompassing 111,798 participants. Both PPG-based and single-lead electrocardiography-based wearables show scalable potential for screening and managing AF. The results of this systematic review demonstrate that wearable devices, such as smartwatches, can effectively identify arrhythmias like AF in older adults, with scalable potential in PPG-based and single-lead electrocardiography-based wearables. As wearable technologies continue to gain prominence in healthcare, it is crucial to understand their challenges and incorporate them as preventative and monitoring tools for AF detection in elderly populations to improve patient care and prevention technique

Utilizing the Allelopathic Potential of Brassica Species for Sustainable Crop Production: A Review

Sustainable crop production under changing climate is crucial to feed the increasing population of the world. Efforts are underway to discover novel strategies to ensure global food security. Allelopathy is one such phenomenon that can help in this regard. It is a direct or indirect and positive or negative effect of plant species on other plant species and microorganisms, through the release of secondary metabolites known as allelochemicals. Brassica species are well known for their allelopathic potential as most of them endogenously produce potent allelochemicals such as glucosinolates, allyl isothiocyanates, and brassinosteroids. These allelochemicals are highly phytotoxic to target species when released at high concentrations and, therefore, affect their growth and development. This review illustrates the potential role of Brassica allelopathy for crop production in modern agriculture. Allelopathic potential of Brassica species can be utilized for weed management by using them as cover crops, companion crops, and intercrops, for mulching and residue incorporation, or simply by including them in crop rotations. Similarly, the expression of allelochemicals from these species have great value in the management of crop pests and diseases, and abiotic stresses. Most of these allelochemicals can also act as crop growth promoters when released or applied at low concentrations. Although the use of chemical herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic growth regulators is currently inevitable for crop production, the use of ecological options like allelopathy may help in achieving global food security sustainably. Exploring the potential of Brassica allelopathy could be promising in achieving higher productivity without compromising the environmental safety

Responses of rapid viscoanalyzer profile and other rice grain qualities to exogenously applied plant growth regulators under high day and high night temperatures

High-temperature stress degrades the grain quality of rice; nevertheless, the exogenous application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) might alleviate the negative effects of high temperatures. In the present study, we investigated the responses of rice grain quality to exogenously applied PGRs under high day temperatures (HDT) and high night temperatures (HNT) under controlled conditions. Four different combinations of ascorbic acid (Vc), alpha-tocopherol (Ve), brassinosteroids (Br), methyl jasmonates (MeJA) and triazoles (Tr) were exogenously applied to two rice cultivars (IR-64 and Huanghuazhan) prior to the high-temperature treatment. A Nothing applied Control (NAC) was included for comparison. The results demonstrated that high-temperature stress was detrimental for grain appearance and milling qualities and that both HDT and HNT reduced the grain length, grain width, grain area, head rice percentage and milled rice percentage but increased the chalkiness percentage and percent area of endosperm chalkiness in both cultivars compared with ambient temperature (AT). Significantly higher grain breakdown, set back, consistence viscosity and gelatinization temperature, and significantly lower peak, trough and final viscosities were observed under high-temperature stress compared with AT. Thus, HNT was more devastating for grain quality than HDT. The exogenous application of PGRs ameliorated the adverse effects of high temperature in both rice cultivars, and Vc+Ve+MejA+Br was the best combination for both cultivars under high temperature stress

The effects of high temperature stress and exogenously applied plant growth regulators on Rapid viscoanalyzer (RVA) profile characteristics of two rice cultivars (Avg. of two years).

<p>The effects of high temperature stress and exogenously applied plant growth regulators on Rapid viscoanalyzer (RVA) profile characteristics of two rice cultivars (Avg. of two years).</p

The effects of high temperature stress and exogenously applied plant growth regulators on the milling and appearance grain qualities of two rice cultivars (Avg. of two years).

<p>The effects of high temperature stress and exogenously applied plant growth regulators on the milling and appearance grain qualities of two rice cultivars (Avg. of two years).</p