Sinusoidal LED light recipes can improve rocket edible biomass and reduce electricity costs in indoor growth environments.

Accumulation of edible biomass by crop plants relies on maintenance of a high photosynthetic rates across the photoperiod, with assimilation rate () generally responding to increasing light intensity in a hyperbolic fashion. In natural environments light fluctuates greatly over the course of the day, however in Controlled Environmental Agricultural (CEA) systems, light intensity can be supplemented or precisely controlled using LEDs to create near optimum conditions. In such indoor growth environments light is often delivered as a square wave and recommendations to horticulturalists are given in the form of Daily Light Integrals (DLI).

Remote Sensing Techniques: Hyperspectral Imaging and Data Analysis.

Hyperspectral imaging is a remote sensing technique that enables remote, noninvasive measurement of plant traits. Here, we outline the procedures for camera setup, scanning, and calibration, along with the acquisition of black and white reference materials, which are the key steps in collecting hyperspectral imagery. We also discuss the development of predictive models such as partial least-squares regression, using both large and small datasets, which are used to predict plant traits from hyperspectral data.

Spectral Reflectance Measurements.

This chapter provides a methodology for evaluating plant health and leaf characteristics using spectral reflectance. It provides a step-by-step guide to using spectrometers for high-resolution point measurements of leaf spectral reflectance and multispectral imaging for capturing spatial data, emphasizing the importance of consistent measurement conditions. The chapter further explores the intricacies of multispectral imaging, including calibration, data collection, and image processing.

Using Infrared Thermography for High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping.

Infrared thermography offers a rapid, noninvasive method for measuring plant temperature, which provides a proxy for stomatal conductance and plant water status and can therefore be used as an index for plant stress. Thermal imaging can provide an efficient method for high-throughput screening of large numbers of plants. This chapter provides guidelines for using thermal imaging equipment and illustrative methodologies, coupled with essential considerations, to access plant physiological processes.

Development of an accurate low cost NDVI imaging system for assessing plant health.

Background: Spectral imaging is a key method for high throughput phenotyping that can be related to a large variety of biological parameters. The Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), uses specific wavelengths to compare crop health and performance. Increasing the accessibility of spectral imaging systems through the development of small, low cost, and easy to use platforms will generalise its use for precision agriculture.

The silver linings of Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition, characterized by motor, non-motor disability, and a reduced quality of life. Stimulated by a question raised by a person with PD, we posted an orienting survey on social media, asking whether there is possibly any “silver lining” (an upside) to having PD. Most respondents identified one or more positive changes, mainly a new focus in life, better coping skills, new activities, healthier lifestyle, and improved relationships with relatives and friends.

Bringing Advanced Therapies for Parkinson's Disease to the Clinic: The Patient's Perspective.

There is an urgent unmet need in the Parkinson's disease community-advanced therapies to modify the inevitable decline that occurs in those affected by this progressive neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure. This will require collaboration from all stakeholders and central to those partnerships are patients themselves. But participation in clinical trials and clinical use of advanced therapies have their own risk profile above and beyond standard therapeutics as evidenced by past invasive procedures.

A Long Way to Go: Patient Perspectives on Digital Health for Parkinson's Disease.

Digital health promises to improve healthcare, health, and wellness through the use of digital technologies. The purpose of this commentary is to review and discuss the field of digital health for Parkinson's disease (PD) focusing on the needs, expectations, and wishes of people with PD (PwP). Our analysis shows that PwP want to use digital technologies to actively manage the full complexity of living with PD on an individual level, including the unpredictability and variability of the condition.

Erratum: Author Correction: Using a smartphone-based self-management platform to support medication adherence and clinical consultation in Parkinson's disease.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/s41531-016-0003-z.].

Patient-driven N-of-1 in Parkinson's Disease. Lessons Learned from a Placebo-controlled Study of the Effect of Nicotine on Dyskinesia.

Background: New insights and knowledge in biomedical science often come from observation and experimentation. Methods traditionally used include self-experimentation, case reports, randomised controlled trials, and N-of-1 studies. Technological advances have lead to an increasing number of individuals and patients engaging in self-tracking.

Attitudes Towards Data Collection, Ownership and Sharing Among Patients with Parkinson's Disease.

Background: The ownership and sharing of patient medical data is an increasingly contentious subject in medicine generally but also within the field of Parkinson's disease (PD). Despite being the providers of the medical data, patients are rarely consulted as to its usage.

Objective: The objective of this paper is to establish patient attitudes to ownership of their own medical data and the sharing thereof.

Using a smartphone-based self-management platform to support medication adherence and clinical consultation in Parkinson's disease.

The progressive nature of Parkinson's disease, its complex treatment regimens and the high rates of comorbid conditions make self-management and treatment adherence a challenge. Clinicians have limited face-to-face consultation time with Parkinson's disease patients, making it difficult to comprehensively address non-adherence. Here we share the results from a multi-centre (seven centres) randomised controlled trial conducted in England and Scotland to assess the impact of using a smartphone-based Parkinson's tracker app to promote patient self-management, enhance treatment adherence and quality of clinical consultation.

Challenges of Improving Patient-Centred Care in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative condition with a complex pattern of motor and non-motor symptoms. Of several clinical scales used to measure patient experience few are delivered by patients themselves.

Objective: The present study reports the results of an online survey to establish (a) factors that most influence QoL (quality of life) for people with Parkinson's and (b) areas where self-monitoring may help.

Exploring Issues Around Wearing-off and Quality of Life: The OFF-PARK Survey of People with Parkinson's Disease and their Care Partners.

Background: The negative impact of wearing-off on the quality of life (QoL) of people with Parkinson's (PWPs) is well established. However, most studies have been performed from the clinician's perspective, and the needs of PwPs and care partners have been considered separately.

Objective: This survey aimed to better understand the impact of wearing-off on both patient and care partner lives and to assess how often they are asked about their QoL in their specialist consultations.

What Engineering Technology Could Do for Quality of Life in Parkinson's Disease: A Review of Current Needs and Opportunities.

Parkinson's disease (PD) involves well-known motor symptoms such as tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and altered gait, but there are also nonlocomotory motor symptoms (e.g., changes in handwriting and speech) and even nonmotor symptoms (e.

Drugs of abuse and Parkinson's disease.

The term "drug of abuse" is highly contextual. What constitutes a drug of abuse for one population of patients does not for another. It is therefore important to examine the needs of the patient population to properly assess the status of drugs of abuse.

Abnormal pregnancy outcomes in mice using an induced periodontitis model and the haematogenous migration of Fusobacterium nucleatum sub-species to the murine placenta.

Objectives: To investigate if there is subspecies specific migration to the placenta by Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn) and to determine whether experimentally induced periodontitis results in adverse pregnancy outcomes (APO) in mice.

Methods: Periodontitis was induced in pregnant mice using an inoculum of Fn and Porphyromonas gingivalis. In parallel, four sub-species of Fn were individually injected into the circulatory system.

Rising to the Challenges of Clinical Trial Improvement in Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Despite an urgent need for new medications, clinical trials in Parkinson's have a relatively low rate of success. Although many reasons have been proposed for this, the opinions of patients and scientists, the two principal stakeholders, have not been widely canvassed.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to establish the main barriers to clinical trials success in Parkinson's, as perceived by people with Parkinson's and those engaged in conducting clinical trials in Parkinson's.

Smartphone- and internet-assisted self-management and adherence tools to manage Parkinson's disease (SMART-PD): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (v7; 15 August 2014).

Background: Nonadherence to treatment leads to suboptimal treatment outcomes and enormous costs to the economy. This is especially important in Parkinson's disease (PD). The progressive nature of the degenerative process, the complex treatment regimens and the high rates of comorbid conditions make treatment adherence in PD a challenge.

Innovations in e-health.

The theme of ISOQOL's 19th Annual Conference in Budapest, Hungary, was The Journey of Quality of Life Research: A Path Towards Personalized Medicine. Innovations in e-health was one of four plenary panels. E-health is changing the landscape of clinical practice and health care, but the best way to leverage the many promised benefits of emerging e-health technologies is still not clear.

Local selection and population structure in a deep-sea fish, the roundnose grenadier (Coryphaenoides rupestris).

Local populations within a species can become isolated by stochastic or adaptive processes, though it is most commonly the former that we quantify. Using presumably neutral markers we can assess the time-dependent process of genetic drift, and thereby quantify patterns of differentiation in support of the effective management of diversity. However, adaptive differences can be overlooked in these studies, and these are the very characteristics that we hope to conserve by managing neutral diversity.

Unexpected panmixia in a long-lived, deep-sea fish with well-defined spawning habitat and relatively low fecundity.

The marine environment presents particular challenges for our understanding of the factors that determine gene flow and consequent population structure. For marine fish, various aspects of life history have been considered important in an environment with few physical barriers, but dominated by current patterns, often varying with depth. These factors include the abundance and longevity of larval stages, typically more susceptible to movement along current paths.