Manipulation of the Phytochemical Profile of Tenderstem® Broccoli Florets by Short Duration, Pre-Harvest LED Lighting.

Light quality has been reported to influence the phytochemical profile of broccoli sprouts/microgreens; however, few studies have researched the influence on mature broccoli. This is the first study to investigate how exposing a mature glasshouse grown vegetable brassica, Tenderstem® broccoli, to different light wavelengths before harvest influences the phytochemical content. Sixty broccoli plants were grown in a controlled environment glasshouse under ambient light until axial meristems reached >1 cm diameter, whereupon a third were placed under either green/red/far-red LED, blue LED, or remained in the original compartment. Primary and secondary spears were harvested after one and three weeks, respectively. Plant morphology, glucosinolate, carotenoid, tocopherol, and total polyphenol content were determined for each sample. Exposure to green/red/far-red light increased the total polyphenol content by up to 13% and maintained a comparable total glucosinolate content to the control. Blue light increased three of the four indole glucosinolates studied. The effect of light treatments on carotenoid and tocopherol content was inconclusive due to inconsistencies between trials, indicating that they are more sensitive to other environmental factors. These results have shown that by carefully selecting the wavelength, the nutritional content of mature broccoli prior to harvest could be manipulated according to demand.

Reduced Visuospatial Attention in Personal Space is Not Limited to the Affected Limb in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

Purpose: Alterations in spatial attention have been reported in people with chronic pain and may be relevant to understanding its cortical mechanisms and developing novel treatments. There is conflicting evidence as to whether people with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) have reduced visuospatial attention to their affected limb and/or its surrounding space, with some evidence that these deficits may be greater in personal (bodily) space. We aimed to test the competing hypotheses of whether the visuospatial attentional bias is specific to the personal space of the affected limb or generalizes to the personal space of other parts of the affected side of the body. Patients and Methods: Using visual Temporal Order Judgement tasks, we measured spatial attention in the personal space of the hands and feet of patients with upper (n=14) or lower (n=14) limb CRPS and pain-free controls (n=17). Participants judged the order of two light flashes presented at different temporal offsets on each of their hands or feet. Slower processing of the flash on one side relative to the other reflects reduced attention to that side of space. Results: Controls prioritized stimuli on the non-dominant (left) relative to dominant side, consistent with the well-documented normal leftward bias of attention (ie "pseudoneglect"). Regardless of the location (upper or lower limb) of the pain or visual stimuli, people with CRPS showed no such asymmetry, representing reduced attention to the affected side (compared to the greater attention of controls to their non-dominant side). More severe CRPS symptoms were associated with a greater tendency to deprioritize stimuli on the affected side. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that relative visuospatial bias in CRPS is generalized to the personal space of the affected side of the body, rather than being specific to the personal space of the CRPS-affected limb.

Variable water cycles have a greater impact on wheat growth and soil nitrogen response than constant watering.

Current climate change models project that water availability will become more erratic in the future. With soil nitrogen (N) supply coupled to water availability, it is important to understand the combined effects of variable water and N supply on food crop plants (above- and below-ground). Here we present a study that precisely controls soil moisture and compares stable soil moisture contents with a controlled wetting-drying cycle. Our aim was to identify how changes in soil moisture and N concentration affect shoot-root biomass, N acquisition in wheat, and soil N cycling. Using a novel gravimetric platform allowing fine-scale control of soil moisture dynamics, a 3 × 3 factorial experiment was conducted on wheat plants subjected to three rates of N application (0, 25 and 75 mg N/kg soil) and three soil moisture regimes (two uniform treatments: 23.5 and 13% gravimetric moisture content (herein referred to as Well-watered and Reduced water, respectively), and a Variable treatment which cycled between the two). Plant biomass, soil N and microbial biomass carbon were measured at three developmental stages: tillering (Harvest 1), flowering (Harvest 2), and early grain milk development (Harvest 3). Reduced water supply encouraged root growth when combined with medium and high N. Plant growth was more responsive to N than the water treatments imposed, with a 15-fold increase in biomass between the high and no added N treatment plants. Both uniform soil water treatments resulted in similar plant biomass, while the Variable water treatment resulted in less biomass overall, suggesting wheat prefers consistency whether at a Well-watered or Reduced water level. Plants did not respond well to variable soil moisture, highlighting the need to understand plant adaptation and biomass allocation with resource limitation. This is particularly relevant to developing irrigation practices, but also in the design of water availability experiments.