Growth and yield of red raspberries cultivated under open field condition vs. high tunnel or rain shelter in the northern canadian climate

La culture sous abris avec des infrastructures de type grands tunnels est une nouvelle technologie permettant d’améliorer la production de framboises rouges sous des climats nordiques. L’objectif principal de ce projet de doctorat était d'étudier les performances de ces technologies (grands tunnels vs. abris parapluie de type Voen, en comparaison à la culture en plein champ) et leur effets sur le microclimat, la photosynthèse, la croissance des plantes et le rendement en fruits pour les deux types de framboisiers non-remontants et remontants (Rubus idaeus, L.). Puisque les pratiques culturales doivent être adaptées aux différents environnements de culture, la taille d'été (pour le cultivar non-remontant), l’optimisation de la densité des tiges (pour le cultivar remontant) et l’utilisation de bâches réfléchissantes (pour les deux types des framboisiers) ont été étudiées sous grands tunnels, abris Voen vs. en plein champ. Les plants cultivés sous grands tunnels produisent en moyenne 1,2 et 1,5 fois le rendement en fruits commercialisables que ceux cultivés sous abri Voen pour le cv. non-remontant ‘Jeanne d'Orléans’ et le cv. remontant ‘Polka’, respectivement. Comparativement aux framboisiers cultivés aux champs, le rendement en fruits des plants sous grands tunnels était plus du double pour le cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’ et près du triple pour le cv. ‘Polka’. L’utilisation de bâches réfléchissantes a entrainé un gain significatif sur le rendement en fruits de 12% pour le cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’ et de 17% pour le cv. ‘Polka’. La taille des premières ou deuxièmes pousses a significativement amélioré le rendement en fruits du cv. ‘Jeanne d'Orléans’ de 26% en moyenne par rapport aux framboisiers non taillés. Des augmentations significatives du rendement en fruits de 43% et 71% du cv. ‘Polka’ ont été mesurées avec l’accroissement de la densité à 4 et 6 tiges par pot respectivement, comparativement à deux tiges par pot. Au cours de la période de fructification du cv. ‘Jeanne d'Orléans’, les bâches réfléchissantes ont augmenté significativement la densité de flux photonique photosynthétique (DFPP) réfléchie à la canopée inférieure de 80% en plein champ et de 60% sous grands tunnels, comparativement à seulement 14% sous abri Voen. Durant la saison de fructification du cv. ‘Polka’, un effet positif de bâches sur la lumière réfléchie (jusqu’à 42%) a été mesuré seulement en plein champ. Dans tous les cas, les bâches réfléchissantes n’ont présenté aucun effet significatif sur la DFPP incidente foliaire totale et la photosynthèse. Pour le cv. ‘Jeanne d'Orléans’, la DFPP incidente sur la feuille a été atténuée d’environ 46% sous le deux types de revêtement par rapport au plein champ. Par conséquent, la photosynthèse a été réduite en moyenne de 43% sous grands tunnels et de 17% sous abris Voen. Des effets similaires ont été mesurés pour la DFPP incidente et la photosynthèse avec le cv. Polka. En dépit du taux de photosynthèse des feuilles individuelles systématiquement inférieur à ceux mesurés pour les plants cultivés aux champs, la photosynthèse de la plante entière sous grands tunnels était de 51% supérieure à celle observée au champ pour le cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’, et 46% plus élevée pour le cv. ‘Polka’. Ces résultats s’expliquent par une plus grande (près du double) surface foliaire pour les plants cultivés sous tunnels, qui a compensé pour le plus faible taux de photosynthèse par unité de surface foliaire. Les températures supra-optimales des feuilles mesurées sous grands tunnels (6.6°C plus élevé en moyenne que dans le champ), ainsi que l’atténuation de la DFPP incidente (env. 43%) par les revêtements de tunnels ont contribué à réduire le taux de photosynthèse par unité de surface foliaire. La photosynthèse de la canopée entière était étroitement corrélée avec le rendement en fruits pour les deux types de framboisiers rouges cultivés sous grands tunnels ou en plein champ.Protected culture such as high tunnels is a new technology to improve red raspberry crop production under Northern climates as found in Quebec, Canada. The main objective of this Ph.D. research was to assess the performance of high tunnels vs. Voen shelters, a novel umbrella-shaped cover structure, in comparison to open field cultivation, in terms of microclimate, photosynthetic performance, plant growth, and fruit yield for both floricane- and primocane-fruiting types of red raspberries (Rubus idaeus, L.). As cultural management practices need to be tailored to the different modified growing environments, relevant practices like summer pruning (for floricane-fruiting cultivar), cane density optimization (for primocane-fruiting cultivar) and reflective mulch (for both fruiting types) were tested under high tunnel and Voen shelter vs. open field. Plants grown under high tunnel produced on average 1.2 and 1.5 times more marketable fruit yield than under Voen shelter for floricane-fruiting cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’ and primocane-fruiting cv. ‘Polka’, respectively. Compared to plants grown in open field, the fruit yield of high tunnel-grown plants was more than double for cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’ and almost three times higher for cv. ‘Polka’. The use of reflective mulch had a significant positive effect on fruit yield, namely 12% for cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’ and 17% for cv. ‘Polka’. Pruning the first or second flush of stems from the rhizome significantly improved fruit yield of cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’ by 26% on average compared to unpruned plants. As cane density increased, the fruit yield of cv. ‘Polka’ increased significantly, namely by 43% and 71% for a cane density of 4 and 6 canes per pot, respectively, as compared to the standard lower cane density of 2 canes per pot. During the fruiting period of cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’, reflective ground cover significantly increased the photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) reflected to the lower canopy by 80% in open field and 60% under high tunnel, compared to only 14% under Voen shelter. During the fruiting season of cv. ‘Polka’, a positive reflective mulch effect on the reflected light (up to 42%) was only found in open field. In all cases, ground cover had no significant effect on the total leaf PPFD and photosynthesis under any growing conditions. For cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’, the leaf PPFD was attenuated by approx. 46% under both types of protective covering compared to open field. Correspondingly, photosynthesis was on average reduced by 43% under high tunnel and by 17% under Voen shelter. Cultivar ‘Polka’ plants shared a similar growing condition effects on leaf PPFD and photosynthesis. Despite the fact that lower individual leaf photosynthetic rates were consistently measured in tunnel-grown plants, once leaf-level photosynthesis was scaled up to the whole canopy, the photosynthetic production of tunnel-grown plants was found to be 51% higher than that observed in open field for cv. ‘Jeanne d’Orléans’, and 46% higher for cv. ‘Polka’. This was explained by the greater (nearly twice) leaf area of tunnel-grown plants, which compensated for their lower photosynthetic rate per unit leaf area, the latter being caused by the supra-optimal leaf temperatures found under high tunnel (6.6°C higher on average than in open field) as well as the attenuation of the leaf PPFD (approx. 43%) by the tunnel coverings. Whole-canopy photosynthesis was positively correlated with fruit yield for both fruiting types of red raspberry, whether cultivated under high tunnel or in open field

Network Pharmacology and Traditional Chinese Medicine

Gynaecology & obstetric

An LSH-based offloading method for IoMT services in integrated cloud-edge environment

© 2021 ACM. Benefiting from the massive available data provided by Internet of multimedia things (IoMT), enormous intelligent services requiring information of various types to make decisions are emerging. Generally, the IoMT devices are equipped with limited computing power, interfering with the process of computation-intensive services. Currently, to satisfy a wide range of service requirements, the novel computing paradigms, i.e., cloud computing and edge computing, can potentially be integrated for service accommodation. Nevertheless, the private information (i.e., location, service type, etc.) in the services is prone to spilling out during service offloading in the cloud-edge computing. To avoid privacy leakage while improving service utility, including the service response time and energy consumption for service executions, a Locality-sensitive-hash (LSH)-based offloading method, named LOM, is devised. Specifically, LSH is leveraged to encrypt the feature information for the services offloaded to the edge servers with the intention of privacy preservation. Eventually, comparative experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of LOM with respect to promoting service utility

Establishing an EU-China consortium on traditional Chinese medicine research.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely used in the European Union (EU) and attracts intense research interests from European scientists. As an emerging area in Europe, TCM research requires collaboration and coordination of actions. Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research in the Post-genomic Era, also known as GP-TCM, is the first ever EU-funded 7th Framework Programme (FP7) coordination action, aiming to inform the best practice and harmonise research on the safety and efficacy of TCM through interdisciplinary exchange of experience and expertise among clinicians and scientists. With its increasingly large pool of expertise across 19 countries including 13 EU member states, Australia, Canada, China, Norway, Thailand and the USA, the consortium provides forums and collaboration platforms on quality control, extraction technology, component analysis, toxicology, pharmacology and regulatory issues of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), as well as on acupuncture studies, with a particular emphasis on the application of a functional genomics approach. The project officially started in May 2009 and by the time of its conclusion in April 2012 a Europe-based academic society dedicated to TCM research will be founded to carry on the mission of GP-TCM.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

The quest for modernisation of traditional Chinese medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an integral part of mainstream medicine in China. Due to its worldwide use, potential impact on healthcare and opportunities for new drug development, TCM is also of great international interest. Recently, a new era for modernisation of TCM was launched with the successful completion of the Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research in the Post-genomic Era (GP-TCM) project, the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) coordination action on TCM research. This 3.5-year project that involved inputs from over 200 scientists resulted in the production of 20 editorials and in-depth reviews on different aspects of TCM that were published in a special issue of Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2012; volume 140, issue 3). In this narrative review, we aim to summarise the findings of the FP7 GP-TCM project and highlight the relevance of TCM to modern medicine within a historical and international context. Advances in TCM research since the 1950s can be characterised into three phases: Phase I (1950s-1970s) was fundamental for developing TCM higher education, research and hospital networks in China; Phase II (1980s-2000s) was critical for developing legal, economic and scientific foundations and international networks for TCM; and Phase III (2011 onwards) is concentrating on consolidating the scientific basis and clinical practice of TCM through interdisciplinary, interregional and intersectoral collaborations. Taking into account the quality and safety requirements newly imposed by a globalised market, we especially highlight the scientific evidence behind TCM, update the most important milestones and pitfalls, and propose integrity, integration and innovation as key principles for further modernisation of TCM. These principles will serve as foundations for further research and development of TCM, and for its future integration into tomorrow's medicine.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Endogenous Retinoic Acid Activity in Principal Cells and Intercalated Cells of Mouse Collecting Duct System

Background: Retinoic acid is the bioactive derivative of vitamin A, which plays an indispensible role in kidney development by activating retinoic acid receptors. Although the location, concentration and roles of endogenous retinoic acid in postnatal kidneys are poorly defined, there is accumulating evidence linking post-natal vitamin A deficiency to impaired renal concentrating and acidifying capacity associated with increased susceptibility to urolithiasis, renal inflammation and scarring. The aim of this study is to examine the presence and the detailed localization of endogenous retinoic acid activity in neonatal, young and adult mouse kidneys, to establish a fundamental ground for further research into potential target genes, as well as physiological and pathophysiological roles of endogenous retinoic acid in the post-natal kidneys.Methodology/Principal Findings: RARE-hsp68-lacZ transgenic mice were employed as a reporter for endogenous retinoic acid activity that was determined by X-gal assay and immunostaining of the reporter gene product, beta-galactosidase. Double immunostaining was performed for beta-galactosidase and markers of kidney tubules to localize retinoic acid activity. Distinct pattern of retinoic acid activity was observed in kidneys, which is higher in neonatal and 1- to 3-week-old mice than that in 5- and 8-week-old mice. The activity was present specifically in the principal cells and the intercalated cells of the collecting duct system in all age groups, but was absent from the glomeruli, proximal tubules, thin limbs of Henle's loop and distal tubules.Conclusions/Significance: Endogenous retinoic acid activity exists in principal cells and intercalated cells of the mouse collecting duct system after birth and persists into adulthood. This observation provides novel insights into potential roles for endogenous retinoic acid beyond nephrogenesis and warrants further studies to investigate target genes and functions of endogenous retinoic acid in the kidney after birth, particularly in the collecting duct system