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New Breeding Techniques (NBTs) include several new technologies for introduction of new variation into crop plants for plant breeding, in particular the methods that aim to make targeted mutagenesis at specific sites in the plant genome (NBT mutagenesis). However, following that the French highest legislative body for administrative justice, the Conseil d'État, has sought advice from The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in interpreting the scope of the genetically modified organisms (GMO) Directive, CJEU in a decision from 2018, stated that organisms modified by these new techniques are not exempted from the current EU GMO legislation. The decision was based in a context of conventional plant breeding using mutagenesis of crop plants by physical or chemical treatments. These plants are explicitly exempted from the EU GMO legislation, based on the long-termed use of mutagenesis. Following its decision, the EU Court considers that the NBTs operate \"at a rate out of all proportion to those resulting from the application of conventional methods of mutagenesis.\" In this paper, we argue that in fact this is not the case anymore; instead, a convergence has taken place between conventional mutagenesis and NBTs, in particular due to the possibilities of TILLING methods that allow the fast detection of mutations in any gene of a genome. Thus, by both strategies mutations in any gene across the genome can be obtained at a rather high speed. However, the differences between the strategies are 1) the precision of the exact site of mutation in a target gene, and 2) the number of off-target mutations affecting other genes than the target gene. Both aspects favour the NBT methods, which provide more precision and fewer off-target mutations. This is in stark contrast to the different status of the two technologies with respect to EU GMO legislation. In the future, this situation is not sustainable for the European plant breeding industry, since it is expected that restrictions on the use of NBTs will be weaker outside Europe. This calls for reconsiderations of the EU legislation of plants generated NBT mutagenesis.

Gully erosion is a form of natural disaster and one of the land loss mechanisms causing severe problems worldwide. This study aims to delineate the areas with the most severe gully erosion susceptibility (GES) using the machine learning techniques Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosted Regression Tree (GBRT), Naïve Bayes Tree (NBT), and Tree Ensemble (TE). The gully inventory map (GIM) consists of 120 gullies. Of the 120 gullies, 84 gullies (70%) were used for training and 36 gullies (30%) were used to validate the models. Fourteen gully conditioning factors (GCFs) were used for GES modeling and the relationships between the GCFs and gully erosion was assessed using the weight-of-evidence (WofE) model. The GES maps were prepared using RF, GBRT, NBT, and TE and were validated using area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve, the seed cell area index (SCAI) and five statistical measures including precision (PPV), false discovery rate (FDR), accuracy, mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean squared error (RMSE). Nearly 7% of the basin has high to very high susceptibility for gully erosion. Validation results proved the excellent ability of these models to predict the GES. Of the analyzed models, the RF (AUROC = 0.96, PPV = 1.00, FDR = 0.00, accuracy = 0.87, MAE = 0.11, RMSE = 0.19 for validation dataset) is accurate enough for modeling and better suited for GES modeling than the other models. Therefore, the RF model can be used to model the GES areas not only in this river basin but also in other areas with the same geo-environmental conditions.

The two-dimensional (2D) measurement of radiation dose distribution on non-planar surfaces requires the use of a flexible dosimeter. This work concerns the use of a unique cotton textile-based dosimeter to characterize the dose distribution of a [sup.60]Co source used in the research and sterilization of products. Alternatively, for high-dose-rate experiments, an electron beam accelerator has been used. The dosimeter was prepared by the padding-squeezing-drying of a cotton textile made of cellulose, where a 10% solution of nitrotetrazolium blue chloride (NBT) was used for the padding process. NBT served as a radiation-sensitive compound, which transformed into a purple-brown NBT formazan upon exposure to ionizing radiation. The NBT dosimeter is scanned after irradiation using a flatbed scanner, and the data is processed using dedicated software packages, which together constitute a 2D dose distribution measurement system. The green channel of the RGB color model contributes the most to the color change of the dosimeter. The calibration relation obtained for the green channel showed that the dosimeter responds to doses of 0.8–45 kGy. Conversions of the green channel signal were performed using the calibration relation to analyze the 2D dose at a large distance and close to a [sup.60]Co source shielded by a solid metal and a cylindrical metal structure with holes. Additionally, the dose distribution was assessed using a dosimeter placed on metal implant models undergoing radiation serialization. This work demonstrates the potential of such a dosimeter for characterizing high-dose-rate [sup.60]Co sources and measuring the dose distribution on non-planar surfaces.

Lead-free Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 (NBT) ceramics were prepared via a conventional oxide-mixed sintering route and their electrical transport properties were investigated. Direct current (DC, σ DC ) and alternating current (AC, σ AC ) electrical conductivity values, polarization current (first measurements) and depolarization current, current–voltage ( I – U ) characteristics (first measurements), and the Seebeck coefficient (α) were determined under various conditions. The mechanism of depolarization and the electrical conductivity phenomena observed for the investigated samples were found to be typical. For low voltages, the I – U characteristics were in good agreement with Ohm’s law; for higher voltages, the observed dependences were I – U 2 , I – U 4 , and then I – U 6 . The low-frequency σ AC followed the formula σ AC –ω s (ω is the angular frequency and s is the frequency exponent). The exponent s was equal to 0.18–0.77 and 0.73–0.99 in the low- and high-frequency regions, respectively, and decreased with temperature increasing. It was shown that conduction mechanisms involved the hopping of charge carriers at low temperatures, small polarons at intermediate temperatures, and oxygen vacancies at high temperatures. Based on AC conductivity data, the density of states at the Fermi-level, and the minimum hopping length were estimated. Electrical conduction was found to undergo p–n–p transitions with increasing temperature. These transitions occurred at depolarization temperature T d , 280 ℃, and temperature of the maximum of electric permittivity T m is as typical of NBT materials.

The present work investigates enhancement in depolarization temperature ( T d ) and pyroelectric property of Fe-doped 0.94Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 -0.06BaTiO 3 . The enhanced T d and pyroelectric coefficient ( p ) for Fe-doped (0–1.5 mol %) 0.94Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 -0.06BaTiO 3 (NBT-6BT) play an essential role in pyrocatalytic driven dye degradation application. The maximum T d and p are obtained as ~ 140 °C and 4.95 × 10 − 4 Cm − 2 °C − 1 for 1% Fe-doped NBT-6BT. The higher p promotes enhanced charge generation, which improves the pyrocatalysis process. The methylene blue (MB) dye degradation of 57% is achieved by 1% Fe-doped NBT-6BT (powder form) in 60 heating/cooling cycles. The radical trapping experiment is done to ensure the presence of various radicals in the pyrocatalysis process. The bulk form of best composition is also investigated to overcome the limitations of catalyst in powder form during dye degradation.

Genetic modification of living organisms has been a prosperous activity for research and development of agricultural, industrial and biomedical applications. Three decades have passed since the first genetically modified products, obtained by transgenesis, become available to the market. The regulatory frameworks across the world have not been able to keep up to date with new technologies, monitoring and safety concerns. New genome editing techniques are opening new avenues to genetic modification development and uses, putting pressure on these frameworks. Here we discuss the implications of definitions of living/genetically modified organisms, the evolving genome editing tools to obtain them and how the regulatory frameworks around the world have taken these technologies into account, with a focus on agricultural crops. Finally, we expand this review beyond commercial crops to address living modified organism uses in food industry, biomedical applications and climate change-oriented solutions.

(1- x )NBT- x BY( x  = 0.00-0.04) ferroelectric ceramics were fabricated by a solid-state reaction method, and the crystal structure, surface morphology, dielectric, ferroelectric and energy storage properties of NBT ceramics incorporated BY were investigated in detail. Introduction of BY can transformed the phase of NBT from rhombohedral phase R3c to pseudo-cubic phase Pm3m, and make the diffraction peak shift to a lower angle with increasing BY content. Incorporating BY into NBT matrix contributes to the grain refinement for NBT ceramic, and enhances the relaxation performance to a certain extent. The largest dispersion coefficient is obtained when BY content is 0.02. In addition, the dielectric constant decreases with incorporating BY. The introduction of BY into NBT can greatly increase E b , △ P , W rec , and η , as well as a small decrease in P max . When x  = 0.010, the relative best energy storage performance is obtained, W rec = 2.07 J/cm 3 , η  = 31.66%, which is 10 times and 8 times higher than that of pure NBT ceramics, respectively. This work provides a strategy to strengthen the relaxation behavior and enhance the energy storage performance of ferroelectrics. These findings suggest that the instruction of BY into NBT is an effective method to improve the energy storage properties of NBT ceramic.

Perovskite-based DSSCs were manufactured using Sodium bismuth titanate (NBT) as a photoanode and their performance was extended studied by doping NBT perovskite with iron. The hydrothermal method was used to prepare pure NBT, and iron-doped NBT perovskite, which was deposited by spin coating on titanium oxide films previously prepared by screen printing. Pure and iron-doped NBT films were studied structurally, morphologically, and optically using X-ray diffraction, Field emission scanning electron microscope, photoluminescence spectra, and Fourier transform infrared. FESEM images showed some nanosheets appeared between agglomerated particles at the 8% Fe-doped NBT. The lead-free perovskite dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) based on pure NBT showed highest conversion efficiency of 6.041%, highest external quantum efficiency, highest electron lifetime (2.17 s) and lowest ideality factor (3.52) compared to those DSSCs in which iron-doped NBT was used. This study proposes a nanoscale lead-free inorganic perovskite material that has been used in photovoltaic applications, and whose efficiency could be improved through future research.The current study was expanded to include studying the effects of photoresponse, response time and recovery timeof DSSCs based on Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 Fe x Ti 1−x O 3 .

This work describes the development of a reusable 2D detector based on radiochromic reaction for radiotherapy dosimetric measurements. It consists of a radiochromic gel dosimeter in a cuboidal plastic container, scanning with a flatbed scanner, and data processing using a dedicated software package. This tool is assessed using the example of the application of the coincidence test of radiation and mechanical isocenters for a medical accelerator. The following were examined: scanning repeatability and image homogeneity, the impact of image processing on data processing in coincidence tests, and irradiation conditions—monitor units per radiation beam and irradiation field are selected. Optimal conditions for carrying out the test are chosen: (i) the multi-leaf collimator gap should preferably be 5 mm for 2D star shot irradiation, (ii) it is recommended to apply ≥2500–≤5000 MU per beam to obtain a strong signal enabling easy data processing, (iii) Mean filter can be applied to the images to improve calculations. An approach to dosimeter reuse with the goal of reducing costs is presented; the number of reuses is related to the MUs per beam, which, in this study, is about 5–57 for 30,000–2500 MU per beam (four fields). The proposed reusable system was successfully applied to the coincidence tests, confirming its suitability as a new potential quality assurance tool in radiotherapy.