Search

Demand for fresh‐cut fruit and vegetables is increasing, in the face of global population growth and new interest in plant‐based diets. At the same time, year‐round supply across the world of popular vegetables means that post‐harvest losses, which can be significant, need to be minimized in the face of complex global supply chains and markets. Sweet corn (Zea mays L.) is harvested before physiological maturity when the kernel has high water and sugar concentrations making it a very perishable fresh produce and effective post‐harvest handling essential to reduce losses and ensure quality. Taste, aroma and colour are the main customer‐appreciated characteristics, hence the most important to preserve. Among the sweet corn post‐harvest disorders, loss of sweetness, dehydration, fungal growth and post‐cooking browning are the biggest issues impacting sweet corn quality, leading to post‐harvest losses. The critical factor driving these losses in sweet corn is temperature. Sweet corn is not a chilling sensitive product and has high sugar content. For this reason, temperatures as close as 0°C and the appropriate use of packaging films to create an altered gas composition with high CO2 and low O2 concentrations can significantly prevent post‐harvest decay. The use of low temperatures and effective choice of appropriate packaging films can control sweet corn respiration rates and prevent microorganism growth, subsequently delaying quality loss. This comprehensive review assembles a description of the most customer‐appreciated sweet corn characteristics. And it describes the major sweet corn post‐harvest challenges and provides a summary of four approaches to improve post‐harvest quality in this popular fresh‐cut vegetable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas and renewable energy generation are critical tools to combat biodiversity loss and climate change, respectively. Over the coming decades, expansion of the protected area network to meet conservation objectives will be occurring alongside rapid deployment of renewable energy infrastructure to meet climate targets, driving potential conflict for a finite land resource. Renewable energy infrastructure can have negative effects on wildlife, and co-occurrence may mean emissions targets are met at the expense of conservation objectives. Here, we assess current and projected overlaps of wind and solar photovoltaic installations and important conservation areas across nine global regions using spatially explicit wind and solar data and methods for predicting future renewable expansion. We show similar levels of co-occurrence as previous studies but demonstrate that once area is accounted for, previous concerns about overlaps in the Northern Hemisphere may be largely unfounded, although they are high in some biodiverse countries (e.g., Brazil). Future projections of overlap between the two land uses presented here are generally dependent on priority threshold and region and suggest the risk of future conflict can be low. We use the best available data on protected area degradation to corroborate this level of risk. Together, our findings indicate that while conflicts between renewables and protected areas inevitably do occur, renewables represent an important option for decarbonization of the energy sector that would not significantly affect area-based conservation targets if deployed with appropriate policy and regulatory controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California has large and diverse biomass resources and provides a pertinent example of how biomass use is changing and needs to change, in the face of climate mitigation policies. As in other areas of the world, California needs to optimize its use of biomass and waste to meet environmental and socioeconomic objectives. We used a systematic review to assess biomass use pathways in California and the associated impacts on climate and air quality. Biomass uses included the production of renewable fuels, electricity, biochar, compost, and other marketable products. For those biomass use pathways recently developed, information is available on the effects—usually beneficial—on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and there is some, but less, published information on the effects on criteria pollutants. Our review identifies 34 biomass use pathways with beneficial impacts on either GHG or pollutant emissions, or both—the "good." These included combustion of forest biomass for power and conversion of livestock‐associated biomass to biogas by anaerobic digestion. The review identified 13 biomass use pathways with adverse impacts on GHG emissions, criteria pollutant emissions, or both—the "bad." Wildfires are an example of one out of eight pathways which were found to be bad for both climate and air quality, while only two biomass use pathways reduced GHG emissions relative to an identified counterfactual but had adverse air quality impacts. Issues of high interest for the "future" included land management to reduce fire risk, future policies for the dairy industries, and full life‐cycle analysis of biomass production and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a nurse-led hospital-to-home transitional care intervention versus usual care on mental functioning (primary outcome), physical functioning, depressive symptoms, anxiety, perceived social support, patient experience, and health service use costs in older adults with multimorbidity (≥ 2 comorbidities) and depressive symptoms. Design and setting: Pragmatic multi-site randomized controlled trial conducted in three communities in Ontario, Canada. Participants were allocated into two groups of intervention and usual care (control). Participants: 127 older adults (≥ 65 years) discharged from hospital to the community with multimorbidity and depressive symptoms. Intervention: This evidence-based, patient-centred intervention consisted of individually tailored care delivery by a Registered Nurse comprising in-home visits, telephone follow-up and system navigation support over 6-months. Outcome measures: The primary outcome was the change in mental functioning, from baseline to 6-months. Secondary outcomes were the change in physical functioning, depressive symptoms, anxiety, perceived social support, patient experience, and health service use cost, from baseline to 6-months. Intention-to-treat analysis was performed using ANCOVA modeling. Results: Of 127 enrolled participants (63-intervention, 64-control), 85% had six or more chronic conditions. 28 participants were lost to follow-up, leaving 99 (47 -intervention, 52-control) participants for the complete case analysis. No significant group differences were seen for the baseline to six-month change in mental functioning or other secondary outcomes. Older adults in the intervention group reported receiving more information about health and social services (p = 0.03) compared with the usual care group. Conclusions: Although no significant group differences were seen for the primary or secondary outcomes, the intervention resulted in improvements in one aspect of patient experience (information about health and social services). The study sample fell below the target sample (enrolled 127, targeted 216), which can account for the non-significant findings. Further research on the impact of the intervention and factors that contribute to the results is recommended. Trial registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT03157999. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathways to decarbonisation are commonly explored by government and industry through the use of energy system models. However, such models rarely consider where new energy infrastructure might be located. This is problematic as the spatial context of new renewable energy infrastructure will determine, in part, the environmental, social, and technical impacts of the energy transition. This paper presents the ADVENT-NEV model which brings together innovations in energy and natural capital modelling to identify the optimal locations of multiple renewable energy technologies at a national scale and high spatial resolution. Using Great Britain as a case study, the results show how the spatial distribution of renewable energy technologies changes when a natural capital approach is taken. In particular, the least-cost locations for onshore wind farms and bioenergy crops are highly influenced by the value of carbon sequestration, or emissions associated with their land use change. Siting using a natural capital approach produced appreciable ecosystem service benefits, such that the overall welfare gain to society was estimated at nearly £25 B. Overall, this paper demonstrates that understanding the geospatial context of the energy transition is essential to identifying which renewable energy pathways are consistent with decarbonisation and environmental objectives. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Anti-cancer glucosinolates are increased when watercress is grown in a soil system in California, relative to an aquatic system in the UK. • Higher antioxidants were quantified for watercress grown in the UK. • Morphological plasticity in response to contrasting environments was observed for watercress. • Watercress yield was highest in California, but leaf quality better in the UK. Watercress (Nasturtium officinale R. Br.; Brassicaceae) is a highly nutritious leafy green vegetable consumed globally, with a rich health-related phytonutrient profile that includes the secondary plant metabolites glucosinolates (GLS), especially gluconasturtiin and its hydrolysis product phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC). The peppery taste and pungency of watercress comes from these mustard oils, and they are known to help reduce inflammation and chronic damage in cells and have been shown to have a role in cancer prevention in vitro and in vivo. We explored how both genotype and highly contrasting environments of California (CA) and the United Kingdom (UK) alter phenotypic traits for a set of F 2 :4 genotypes created from a unique bi-parental cross, chosen for their extreme phenotypes for yield, leaf and branch morphology, antioxidant capacity, and glucosinolate content in two contrasting field locations. Although both genotype and environment had a significant impact on plant morphology, nutritional quality, and yield, overall, the highly contrasting environments of California and the UK, had a much stronger effect. Plants grown in CA had higher biomass, thicker main stem and more branches, and a higher concentration of aromatic GLS, whilst plants grown in the UK had larger leaves with longer stems, suggesting a better harvestable product, at least for a salad and not a soup crop. Significant G x E interactions were observed for multiple traits, suggesting significant phenotypic plasticity of watercress and variation between genotypes that will enable the selection of ideotypes suitable for these highly contrasting growth environments, that can be considered as the 'extremes' of an environmental gradient where the crop might be grown, from the warm and dry soil-grown conditions of California to the relatively cool and wet aquatic growing system of the UK. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Vertical farm (VF) cultivation increased fresh weight and leaf area. • Glucosinolate (GLS) content was highest for VF-grown watercress. • Previously unidentified 4-Phenylbutyl GLS was only found in VF-grown watercress. • Watercress is highly suited for cultivation in vertical farms. Watercress (Nasturtium officinale R. Br.) is a highly nutritious leafy crop with a rich health-related phytonutrient profile including secondary plant metabolites such as glucosinolates. This semi-aquatic crop is well-suited for indoor hydroponic cultivation and has a growing market for its distinctive peppery taste and health benefits. We describe crop trials in three contrasting environments and report the changes to plant morphology, yield, and nutritional profile under varying blue light treatments. Yield and glucosinolate quantity were significantly increased in a vertical farm system enriched in blue light, relative to field-grown crops. Additionally, PBITC, a glucosinolate not previously identified in field-grown watercress, was found in plants grown in a vertical farm. This work demonstrates the great potential of watercress in a new era of controlled environment agriculture to deliver improved health benefits to customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]