Sunflower Hybrid Breeding: From Markers to Genomic Selection

In sunflower, molecular markers for simple traits as, e.g., fertility restoration, high oleic acid content, herbicide tolerance or resistances to Plasmopara halstedii, Puccinia helianthi, or Orobanche cumana have been successfully used in marker-assisted breeding programs for years. However, agronomically important complex quantitative traits like yield, heterosis, drought tolerance, oil content or selection for disease resistance, e.g., against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum have been challenging and will require genome-wide approaches. Plant genetic resources for sunflower are being collected and conserved worldwide that represent valuable resources to study complex traits. Sunflower association panels provide the basis for genome-wide association studies, overcoming disadvantages of biparental populations. Advances in technologies and the availability of the sunflower genome sequence made novel approaches on the whole genome level possible. Genotype-by-sequencing, and whole genome sequencing based on next generation sequencing technologies facilitated the production of large amounts of SNP markers for high density maps as well as SNP arrays and allowed genome-wide association studies and genomic selection in sunflower. Genome wide or candidate gene based association studies have been performed for traits like branching, flowering time, resistance to Sclerotinia head and stalk rot. First steps in genomic selection with regard to hybrid performance and hybrid oil content have shown that genomic selection can successfully address complex quantitative traits in sunflower and will help to speed up sunflower breeding programs in the future. To make sunflower more competitive toward other oil crops higher levels of resistance against pathogens and better yield performance are required. In addition, optimizing plant architecture toward a more complex growth type for higher plant densities has the potential to considerably increase yields per hectare. Integrative approaches combining omic technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics) using bioinformatic tools will facilitate the identification of target genes and markers for complex traits and will give a better insight into the mechanisms behind the traits

Dynamic capacity allocation for quality-of-service support in IP-based satellite networks

This thesis concentrates on advanced dynamic capacity allocation (DCA) schemes that allow an efficient and fair sharing of the BSA return channel capacity among many user terminals (UTs), by dynamically adapting each UT's capacity assignment to the input traffic variations, while satisfying QoS requirements. DCA performance is evaluated with respect to satellite bandwidth utility (utilization) and QoS performance experienced by user traffic (expressed in terms of packet delay and loss). DCA performance is affected by various elements/parameters, some internal to the DCA scheme and others, external. Relying on simulation, the thesis considers the effects of these elements/parameters on performance, focusing on their optimization in order to balance the DCA performance against the signaling overhead and computational/algorithmic complexity of the DCA scheme. A novel DCA scheme is proposed, capable of providing Differentiated Services (DiffServ) IP QoS support for multimedia applications and high bandwidth utility, while maintaining reduced signaling overhead and computational/algorithmic complexity. (Abstract shortened by UMI.

Sunflower (Helianthus) germplasm ant its utilisation in breeding at the Research Institute for Cereals And Technical Plants Fundulea-Romania

Genetic manipulation of a large germplasm collection of sunflower (Helianthus L.) at the I.C.C.P.T. Fundulea, Romania, resulted in a number of valuable new hybrid cultivars: (Romsun 59, Sorem 82, Felix 206, Select, Super, Fundulea 206 etc.). Based on the study of the available germplasm, research is carried out at this institute responsible for sunflower breeding on international level, in order to transfer new valuable genes from wild species to cultivated varieties (e.g. from H. acrophyllus to H. annuus). As it is difficult to anticipate the future utilization of different genetic resources, a possible comprehensive gene collection is intended to be put out. Results in detail are published in a special periodical - Helia - edited in collaboration at I.C.C.P.T. Fundulea

VoIP with QoS and Bandwidth-on-Demand for DVB-RCS”, White Paper, http : //satlabs.org/pdf/V oIP with QoS and BoD for DV B − RCS.pdf

This paper proposes a consolidated approach for Voice over IP (VoIP) with Bandwidth on Demand over satellite networks based on the ETSI DVB-RCS standard. A real-time service like voice communication needs priority over other services in IP environments with limited bandwidth. In satellite networks bandwidth utilization should be optimized in order to save service costs, which requires dynamic bandwidth allocation schemes, and we study trade-off between voice quality and bandwidth efficiency under different DVB-RCS-specific capacity request and allocation strategies. It is demonstrated that DVB-RCS provides an efficient platform for integrated support for a variety of VoIP applications over satellite. The main contribution of this paper consists in the identification of the mechanisms capable of responding to the key challenges raised by the VoIP application in satellite environment. 1