The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with its NextGen Air Transportation System (NextGen) and Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) initiatives, is moving towards a concept of integrated procedures implementation. Performance-Based Navigation initiatives include implementing Area Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) routes and procedures. The integrative concept of implementation of these procedures would mean a migration away from site by site (or runway by runway) procedure implementation process towards a NextGen readiness concept. This concept will include development of an integrated system of PBN routes and procedures by geographic area (incorporating metro areas and outlying airports). This concept delivers optimum benefits for the air traffic and carrier community. In addition, the integrative approach helps in prioritizing and formulating the funding requests to combine airspace, environmental, and procedures development. This paper discusses different aspects of this integrative approach.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/5165450/5172820/05172877.pdf

Integrated approach

Background A number of randomised in vivo trials have to date investigated the health impacts of the genetic variants A1 and A2 of bovine β-casein. The primary difference between these two genetic variants is the mutation leading to an amino acid exchange at a position 67 in the peptide chain. This systematic review evaluated the effects of bovine milk, β-casein and pure β-casomorphin7, in the form of orally administered nutritional ingredients, on possible incidence and risk for chronic digestive discomfort and development of incurable conditions and diseases in human and animal randomised controlled trials. Scope and approach Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist, searches were performed for publications across 7 electronic databases (Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, Medline, EBSCO, PubMed, and Cochrane) up to and until July 2020, to identify randomised controlled trials. The subsequent search results were screened for relevance firstly by title, then abstract, and the chosen ones by full text, with additional screening of included articles reference lists. Key findings and conclusions In total 2006 peer-reviewed journal articles were identified and after applying exclusion criteria, 19 studies were deemed suitable for inclusion. Human-based and animal-based results from the clinical in vivo studies demonstrated that consumption of A2 β-casein milk can lead to improved tolerance of milk via decline in the ubiquity of gut related discomfort. However, the exact mechanism for these effects or specific individuals that may benefit from A2 β-casein milk as opposed to A1 β-casein milk is still poorly understood. Notably, consumption of A2 β-casein milk had very low to completely no effect on the other health statuses investigated, particularly non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders, and diabetes. Based on current data, there is not sufficient evidence to merit public health authority recommendations related to the consumption and health associations of A1 β-casein milk or A2 β-casein milk. Interestingly, regardless of the scientific evidence between A2 β-casein milk and health, this milk continues to gain prominence on the market, thus further functional research is required to understand the mechanisms of action of these identified peptides and gene variants and any implications A1 or A2 β-casein milk may have on human health and techno-functional properties of milks.

Health-related outcomes of genetic polymorphism of bovine β-casein variants: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Silicon-mediated heat tolerance in higher plants: A mechanistic outlook.

With the fast increase of human population and reduction in land areas under cultivation, it is essential to breed rice varieties with higher yield potential and tolerance to multiple stresses using modern breeding technologies. Till date, a large number of rice varieties and rice hybrids have been developed in India for different ecologies. However, average rice production in India is 2600 kg/hectare. Since rice is the staple food in India and grown in ~43.86 million hectare, the present production and productivity are not sufficient enough to feed the increasing population. Therefore, it is required to develop high yielding rice varieties to feed the growing population. However, HYVs are usually amenable to various biotic and abiotic stresses for which there is a great yield loss. Besides, there is no significant increase in yield though a number of high yielding rice varieties have been developed through conventional breeding. Thus, higher genetic gain in rice is required to combat the existing situation which is only possible through advanced breeding approaches such as genomic selection, forward breeding, haplotype-based precision breeding along with genomic tools such as Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology. This review addresses the current progress made in advanced genomic-assisted breeding and need of modern breeding technologies for rice improvement.

Genomics assisted breeding: The need and current perspective for rice improvement in India

Computation simulation study has been performed to demonstrate the fluorescent properties of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) device structure. The critical angle is defined at emission wavelength 500 nm for the crown glass-air boundary with the radiant intensities of the s- and p-polarized light increased significantly at the critical angle range of about ± 40° or about ± 20°, respectively. Effects of dipole orientation and intrinsic radiative quantum efficiency on optical emission are studied as a function of ETL-TPBi thickness for isotropic, TM, and TE mode optical channels, respectively, in air and glass medium. The device outcoupled efficiency is more sensitive for TM mode than others in the air medium. Finally, the real part of impedance (ZR) of the OLED device is defined as a function of frequency for various bias voltages.

Light extraction efficiency analysis of fluorescent OLEDs device

Occurrence of multiple abiotic stresses in a single crop season has become more frequent than before. Most of the traditional donors possessing tolerance to abiotic stresses are tall, low-yielding with poor grain quality. To facilitate efficient use of complex polygenic traits in rice molecular breeding research, we undertook development of introgression lines in background of high-yielding, semi-dwarf varieties with good grain quality. The study reports the development and evaluations of over 25,000 introgression lines in eleven elite rice genetic backgrounds for improvement of yield under multiple abiotic-stresses such as drought, flood, high/low temperature. The developed introgression lines within each genetic background are near isogenic/recombinant inbred lines to their recipient recurrent parent with 50 to 98% background recovery and additionally carry QTLs/genes for abiotic stresses. The multiple-stress tolerant pyramided breeding lines combining high yield under normal situation and good yield under moderate to severe reproductive-stage drought, semi-dwarf plant type with good grain quality traits have been developed. The introgression lines in dwarf backgrounds open new opportunity to improve other varieties without any linkage drag as well as facilitate cloning of QTLs, identification and functional characterization of candidate genes, mechanisms associated with targeted QTLs and the genetic networks underlying complex polygenic traits.

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Development of introgression lines in high yielding, semi-dwarf genetic backgrounds to enable improvement of modern rice varieties for tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses free from undesirable linkage drag.

A significant increase in genetic gains of different crops can be achieved by the pragmatic use of modern breeding techniques. The improvement in “omics” technologies makes an opportunity to generate different datasets for several crop species. The “omics” approach coordinates information gathered from the genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome into a solitary informational collection which can rapid the recognizable proof of doubtful qualities and their administrative organizations related with metabolic pathways of interest. The analysis of genetic and phenotypic data using genomics and functional omics together is the main method to identify genes and pathways responsible for important phenotypic traits. The screening of large number of germplasm pools to identify unique alleles from various sources through high-throughput genotyping technologies. This approach enhances the availability of variation for breeding. The various omics tools and approaches like high-throughput genotyping platforms such as whole genome re-sequencing, proteomics, and metabolomics give more significant prospects to explore molecular phenomenon and the exposure of important genes for developing ideal genotypes which can survive in the rapidly changing climate. This book chapter provides an introduction to the core omics technologies, their relevant tools and methodologies, and application for developing and screening of breeding lines to accelerate precision breeding efforts in crops.

Application of “Omics” Technologies in Crop Breeding

The identification of fertility restoration and genetic diversity of drought-tolerant breeding lines will be useful for the development of promising drought-tolerant rice hybrids. The extent of genetic variation of 204 drought-tolerant breeding lines based on the coefficient of parentage (COP) and test crossing with IR 58025A is studied. The linked molecular markers to Rf genes were screened on identified maintainers and restorers. The average value of COP for 204 drought-tolerant breeding lines was 0.21, which indicates genetic divergence in breeding lines. Four major groups comprising of 81 IR 64 type, 37 Apo type, 28 Vandana type, 6 WAB type and 52 others were identified. Out of 204 breeding lines, 37 (18.14%) maintainers, 55 (26.96%) partial maintainers, 63 (30.88%) partial restorers and 49 (24.02%) restorers were identified. Rf genes linked molecular markers RM7466 and RM443 on chr. 1; RM6344 on chr. 7 and RM6100, RM1108, RM216, RM171 and RM244 on chr. 10 were found associated with restorers and maintainers. These Rf genes linked molecular markers might be furthermore used in marker-assisted restorer selection in cytoplasmic male sterile-WA system from large source nurseries to avoid usual test crosses in the hybrid rice development programme. The identified restorer and maintainers may be used for the development of high-yielding drought-tolerant rice hybrids.

Rahul Priyadarshi

Papers

Development of introgression lines in high yielding, semi-dwarf genetic backgrounds to enable improvement of modern rice varieties for tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses free from undesirable linkage drag.

Application of “Omics” Technologies in Crop Breeding

Study of fertility restoration and genetic diversity of drought-tolerant breeding lines for hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) development