PREPs: An Open-Source Software for High-Throughput Field Plant Phenotyping.

An open-source software for field-based plant phenotyping, Precision Plots Analyzer (PREPs), was developed using Window.NET. The software runs on 64-bit Windows computers.

High-Throughput Yield Prediction of Diallele Crossed Sugar Beet in a Breeding Field Using UAV-Derived Growth Dynamics.

Data-driven techniques could be used to enhance decision-making capacity of breeders and farmers. We used an RGB camera on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to collect time series data on sugar beet canopy coverage (CC) and canopy height (CH) from small-plot breeding fields including 20 genotypes per season over 3 seasons. Digital orthomosaic and digital surface models were created from each flight and were converted to individual plot-level data.

Improved Field-Based Soybean Seed Counting and Localization with Feature Level Considered.

Developing automated soybean seed counting tools will help automate yield prediction before harvesting and improving selection efficiency in breeding programs. An integrated approach for counting and localization is ideal for subsequent analysis. The traditional method of object counting is labor-intensive and error-prone and has low localization accuracy.

Effects of Different Types of Additional Fertilizers on Root-associated Microbes of Napa Cabbage Grown in an Andosol Field in Japan.

The effects of different types of additional fertilizations (a compound fertilizer and Chiyoda-kasei) on the root-associated microbes of napa cabbage grown in an Andosol field were investigated by molecular community ana-lyses. Most of the closest known species of the bacterial sequences whose relative abundance significantly differed among fertilizers were sensitive to nitrogen fertilization and/or related to the geochemical cycles of nitrogen. The fungal community on the roots of napa cabbage was dominated by two genera, Bipolaris and Olpidium.

Noradrenaline increases intracellular Ca concentration in epithelial cells via α-adrenoceptors in isolated mouse ileal crypts.

The stimulation of α-adrenoceptors caused a transient increase of intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca]) monitored by ratiometry using Fura-2 in epithelial cells including enterochromaffin cells in isolated mouse ileal crypts, while stimulation of α-and β-adrenoceptors had no effect. The effect of noradrenaline was suppressed by α-adrenoceptor antagonists, but not by α-and β-adrenoceptor antagonists, and partially suppressed by Ni and nicardipine, but not by ω-conotoxin and ω-agatoxin. These results suggest that noradrenaline causes an increase of [Ca] by the influx of extracellular Ca through certain Ca channels via α-adrenoceptors in epithelial cells of mouse ileal crypts.