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In the absence of stress, crop growth depends on the amount of light intercepted by the canopy and the conversion efficiency [radiation use efficiency (RUE)]. This study tested the hypothesis that long-term genetic gain for grain yield was partly due to improved RUE. The hypothesis was tested using 30 elite maize hybrids commercialized in the US corn belt between 1930 and 2017. Crops grown under irrigation showed that pre-flowering crop growth increased at a rate of 0.11 g m-2 year-1, while light interception remained constant. Therefore, RUE increased at a rate of 0.0049 g MJ-1 year-1, translating into an average of 3 g m-2 year-1 of grain yield over 100 years of maize breeding. Considering that the harvest index has not changed for crops grown at optimal density for the hybrid, the cumulative RUE increase over the history of commercial maize breeding in the USA can account for ~32% of the documented yield trend for maize grown in the central US corn belt. The remaining RUE gap between this study and theoretical maximum values suggests that a yield improvement of a similar magnitude could be achieved by further increasing RUE., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The study examined how religious beliefs and practices impact upon medication and illness representations in chronic schizophrenia. One hundred three stabilized patients were included in Geneva's outpatient public psychiatric facility in Switzerland. Interviews were conducted to investigate spiritual and religious beliefs and religious practices and religious coping. Medication adherence was assessed through questions to patients and to their psychiatrists and by a systematic blood drug monitoring. Thirty-two percent of patients were partially or totally nonadherent to oral medication. Fifty-eight percent of patients were Christians, 2% Jewish, 3% Muslim, 4% Buddhist, 14% belonged to various minority or syncretic religious movements, and 19% had no religious affiliation. Two thirds of the total sample considered spirituality as very important or even essential in everyday life. Fifty-seven percent of patients had a representation of their illness directly influenced by their spiritual beliefs (positively in 31% and negatively in 26%). Religious representations of illness were prominent in nonadherent patients. Thirty-one percent of nonadherent patients and 27% of partially adherent patients underlined an incompatibility or contradiction between their religion and taking medication, versus 8% of adherent patients. Religion and spirituality contribute to shaping representations of disease and attitudes toward medical treatment in patients with schizophrenia. This dimension should be on the agenda of psychiatrists working with patients with schizophrenia.