Durum wheat is an important crop in the Mediterranean Rim, and it is deeply rooted in the history and tradition of this region. Recently, several studies that examined DNA markers on Mediterranean landrace collections have successfully elucidated the pathways of this crop across the Mediterranean Rim, but the historical frame is still rather diffuse. This paper aims at tracing the historical evolution of durum wheat throughout the Mediterranean Rim since its commencement as a crop until present times. A search was carried out through archaeological references where durum wheat remains were found. Historical descriptions about cultivation of this crop, references to products made from its grain, and articles interpreting DNA marker information from Mediterranean landraces were also consulted. The present article also examines the currently available durum wheat genetic resources.Durum wheat was domesticated in the Levant area. Phoenicians, Greeks, and above all Romans were active in the expansion and success of durum cultivation in all Mediterranean Rim that started displaced emmer by the mid first millennium BCE. Early Arab empire expanded in the area of durum wheat cultivation promoting food types based on semolina (dry pasta and couscous). Up to 1955 most durum areas in this area were planted with landraces, but several breeding programs were initiated in Italy, and later at CIMMYT and at ICARDA. Landrace collection and conservation efforts were carried out along the Mediterranean Rim countries to preserve the legacy of this crop.

The most appropriate physiological signals to develop simplified as well as accurate screening tests for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) remain unknown. This study aimed at assessing whether joint analysis of at-home oximetry and airflow recordings by means of machine-learning algorithms leads to a significant diagnostic performance increase compared to single-channel approaches. Consecutive patients showing moderate-to-high clinical suspicion of OSA were involved. The apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) from unsupervised polysomnography was the gold standard. Oximetry and airflow from at-home polysomnography were parameterised by means of 38 time, frequency, and non-linear variables. Complementarity between both signals was exhaustively inspected via automated feature selection. Regression support vector machines were used to estimate the AHI from single-channel and dual-channel approaches. A total of 239 patients successfully completed at-home polysomnography. The optimum joint model reached 0.93 (95%CI 0.90-0.95) intra-class correlation coefficient between estimated and actual AHI. Overall performance of the dual-channel approach (kappa: 0.71; 4-class accuracy: 81.3%) significantly outperformed individual oximetry (kappa: 0.61; 4-class accuracy: 75.0%) and airflow (kappa: 0.42; 4-class accuracy: 61.5%). According to our findings, oximetry alone was able to reach notably high accuracy, particularly to confirm severe cases of the disease. Nevertheless, oximetry and airflow showed high complementarity leading to a remarkable performance increase compared to single-channel approaches. Consequently, their joint analysis via machine learning enables accurate abbreviated screening of OSA at home.

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Durum wheat is grown globally on 13.5 million ha in 2020/2021, which amounts to 6.2% of the wheat area. It is assumed that in the past it was more important, but the extent of that importance is unknown. In this work, a historical estimation of the durum wheat area globally was carried out, based on data of the main cultivating countries. Many of the data from the earliest period were based on percentage to all wheat. During the nineteenth century, the percentage of durum wheat to all wheat globally was around 14–16%. However, throughout the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, in America (USA, Canada, Argentina), Asia (Russia, China, India), and Australia, new land was sown with bread wheat, and therefore the percentage of durum wheat fell steadily to 7–9% from 1950 to 2005, and to 6–7% since then. For many years, Russia was the country with more durum wheat cultivation, with around six million ha in the period 1910–1940. Turkey, Italy, Algeria, and India were also big historical players regarding cultivation of this crop. Currently, Canada, Algeria, Italy, and Turkey have the largest durum wheat acreage. The main breeding activities and the future of durum wheat are discussed.

Spain has a great landrace diversity of the subspecies of the tetraploid species Triticum turgidum L., namely, durum (or durum wheat), turgidum (or rivet wheat) and dicoccon (or domesticated emmer wheat). These wheats have to confront several foliar diseases such as the leaf rust. In this work, a core collection of 94 landraces of tetraploid wheats were inoculated with three leaf rust isolates. Besides, a larger collection (of 192 accessions) was evaluated in the field. Although the majority of landraces were susceptible, approximately 20% were resistant, especially domesticated emmer wheat landraces. Several variables, such as late heading and red coat seeds were associated to resistant accessions. Regarding ecogeographic variables, a higher rainfall from October to February and more uniform temperature were found in the area of origin of resistant landraces. Based on these results, several resistant landraces were identified that potentially may be used in durum wheat breeding programs. In addition, a predictive model was elaborated to develop smaller subsets for future screening with a higher hit rate for rust resistance.