Towards the Development, Maintenance and Standardized Phenotypic Characterization of Single-Seed-Descent Genetic Resources for Chickpea

Here we present the approach used to develop the INCREASE “Intelligent Chickpea” Collections, from analysis of the information on the life history and population structure of chickpea germplasm, the availability of genomic and genetic resources, the identification of key phenotypic traits and methodologies to characterize chickpea. We present two phenotypic protocols within H2O20 Project INCREASE to characterize, develop, and maintain chickpea single-seed-descent (SSD) line collections. Such protocols and related genetic resource data from the project will be available for the legume community to apply the standardized approaches to develop Chickpea Intelligent Collections further or for multiplication/seed-increase purposes. © 2022 The Authors. Current Protocols published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

The INCREASE project: Intelligent Collections of food‐legume genetic resources for European agrofood systems

Food legumes are crucial for all agriculture-related societal challenges, including climate change mitigation, agrobiodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, food security and human health. The transition to plant-based diets, largely based on food legumes, could present major opportunities for adaptation and mitigation, generating significant co-benefits for human health. The characterization, maintenance and exploitation of food-legume genetic resources, to date largely unexploited, form the core development of both sustainable agriculture and a healthy food system. INCREASE will implement, on chickpea (Cicer arietinum), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), lentil (Lens culinaris) and lupin (Lupinus albus and L. mutabilis), a new approach to conserve, manage and characterize genetic resources. Intelligent Collections, consisting of nested core collections composed of single-seed descent-purified accessions (i.e., inbred lines), will be developed, exploiting germplasm available both from genebanks and on-farm and subjected to different levels of genotypic and phenotypic characterization. Phenotyping and gene discovery activities will meet, via a participatory approach, the needs of various actors, including breeders, scientists, farmers and agri-food and non-food industries, exploiting also the power of massive metabolomics and transcriptomics and of artificial intelligence and smart tools. Moreover, INCREASE will test, with a citizen science experiment, an innovative system of conservation and use of genetic resources based on a decentralized approach for data management and dynamic conservation. By promoting the use of food legumes, improving their quality, adaptation and yield and boosting the competitiveness of the agriculture and food sector, the INCREASE strategy will have a major impact on economy and society and represents a case study of integrative and participatory approaches towards conservation and exploitation of crop genetic resources

Enhanced Non-Uniformity Modeling of 4H-SiC Schottky Diode Characteristics over Wide High Temperature and Forward Bias Ranges

A practical model, adequate for full reproduction of inhomogeneous Schottky diodes' forward characteristics over wide high-temperature and bias ranges, is proposed. According to this ${p}$ -diode model, the Schottky contact current is considered to flow through ${m}$ parallel-connected internal diodes, each with stable, constant barrier height and specific series resistance (both main model parameters). The value of ${m}$ , required to reproduce the entire electrical forward behavior of a non-uniform Schottky contact, is directly connected to a particular model parameter ( $p_{eff}$ ), used to define the inhomogeneity degree. The p-diode model was tested on forward characteristics measured for both Ni and commercial Ti Schottky diodes on 4H-SiC, which exhibited varying degrees of inhomogeneity. Excellent replication of experimental curves was achieved for all investigated samples, even those with obvious irregularities, such as 'humps', explained in the model by the series resistances' influence. In the case of m = 1, the proposed model does not produce identical results with the conventional model of a homogeneous Schottky contact if $p_{eff} e 0$. The value of this parameter indicates how much of an inhomogeneous contact's area is essentially used for current conduction

Theoretical and numerical investigation of SiC JFET and MOSFET at 6.5 kV

This paper presents a preliminary theoretical and numerical investigation of 4H-SiC JFET and MOSFET at 6.5 kV. To improve the on-state/breakdown performance of the JFET, buried layers in conjunction with a highly doped buffer layer have been used. Trench technology has been employed for the MOSFET. The devices were simulated and optimized using MEDICI[I] simulator. From the comparison between the two devices, it turns out that the JFET offers a better on-state/breakdown trade-off, while the trench MOSFET has the advantage of MOS-control

A technique for improving the precision of the direct measurement of junction temperature in power light-emitting diodes

: Extending the lifetime of power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is achievable if proper control methods are implemented to reduce the side effects of an excessive junction temperature, TJ. The accuracy of state-of-the-art LED junction temperature monitoring techniques is negatively affected by several factors, such as the use of external sensors, calibration procedures, devices aging, and technological diversity among samples with the same part number. Here, a novel method is proposed, indeed based on the well-known technique consisting in tracking the LED forward voltage drop when a fixed forward current is imposed but exploiting the voltage variation with respect to room temperature. This method, which limits the effects of sample heterogeneity, is applied to a set of ten commercial devices. The method led to an effective reduction of the measurement error, which was below 1 °C