Search results for " availability"

Pre-Migratory Movements of Adult Montagu's HarriersCircus pygargus

2008

Pre-migratory and migratory movements of Montagu's Harrier Circus pygargus, a long-distance migrant, are poorly documented by ring recoveries and observations. In the present study, we tagged 10 adult Montagu's Harriers in NE Spain with satellite transmitters and tracked their movements until their arrival on the wintering grounds. To identify the end of the breeding season and the onset of the migration based on our satellite-telemetry data we developed and applied a statistical approach, defining the time period between these two events as the pre-migratory stage. We then compared habitat preferences during the breeding season and the pre-migratory stage. The duration of the pre-migratory…

Xarxes semàntiques en el lèxic disponible de València. Una aproximació al lexicó bilingüe

2016

This work deals with the situation of languages in contact and explores the nature of bilingual lexicon by studying lexical availability. Based on the results published in 2010 in Lèxic disponible de València, and in relation to 'town' as the center of interest, the study applied a new analytical tool called DispoGrafo, which enabled us to observe issues related to the construction and organization of the mental lexicon, for example, the incidence or profitability of facilitating semantic-priming-in clusters made up of three or more closely linked elements. The sample was obtained from 464 high school students of 2nd baccalaureate in the Valencia province, and was established to represent t…

Resource, environmental and economic considerations in the development of a Reverse Electrodialysis Heat Engine

The RED Heat Engine operates as a closed-loop RED system, where limited amounts of artificial saline solutions are used as working fluids. The solutions exiting from the RED unit are regenerated by means of a separation step, which uses low-temperature heat as its energy source. Essentially the system converts low-grade heat to electricity. There are two main alternative regeneration strategies: (i) extract solvent from the high salinity solution and move it to the low salinity solution or (ii) extract salt from the low salinity solution and move it to the high salinity solution. In this thesis are considered the Multi-effect distillation (MED) and the Membrane Distillation (MD) under the s…

Improving soil and water conservation and ecosystem services by sustainable soil management practices: From a global to an Italian soil partnership

2020

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identify the need to restore degraded soils in order to improve productivity and the provision of ecosystem services. The aim is to support food production, store and supply clean water, conserve biodiversity, sequester carbon, and improve soil resilience in a context of climate change. Within this framework, in order to achieve the SDGs and to correct land management in the long-term, soil management is considered mandatory. The reduction of land degradation should be based on various sustainable soil management practices that improve and maintain soil organic matter levels, increase water infiltration, and improve soil water management. This tec…

Bioavailability of inorganic arsenic in cooked rice: practical aspects for human health risk assessments.

2005

Arsenic is present in rice grain mainly as inorganic arsenic. Little is known about the effect of cooking on inorganic arsenic content in rice and its bioavailability. This study evaluated total arsenic and inorganic arsenic in rice cooked with arsenic-contaminated water, the bioaccessibility of As(III) and As(V) after simulated gastrointestinal digestion, and the extent of arsenic retention and transport by Caco-2 cells used as a model of intestinal epithelia. After cooking, inorganic arsenic contents increase significantly. After simulated gastrointestinal digestion, the bioaccessibility of inorganic arsenic reached 63-99%; As(V) was the main species found. In Caco-2 cells, arsenic retent…

Local food availability affects invasion ability of alien bivalves: an experimental and simulation integrated approach

2009

The Lessepsian bivalve Brachidontes pharaonis is considered as one of 100 worst invasive species in the Mediterranean rapidly colonizing the most part of the Basin. Its current distribution seems primarily due to ship transport of carrying larvae by ballast waters and/or in the fouling attached beneath the ship-keels. Although humanmediated transport seems to potentially in!uence dispersal of invasive species, habitat suitability, temperature, salinity and food availability (i.e. in terms of quality and quantity of organic matter) seem to represent decisive factors in determining survivorship and distribution of this species. Physiological tolerance of B. pharaonis to temperature and salini…

Optimal design of k-out-of-n systems

2016

The present paper is aimed at finding the best compromise to design a system k-out-of-n reliability configuration by means of the formulation of a multi-objective mathematical model. The Pareto front, which is the set of non-dominated solutions, is determined by considering the stationary availability and the achievable profit as objectives to be simultaneously optimized. The Pareto front represents a useful tool for the analyst to make the choice related to the analyzed design problem. In addition, the knowledge of the Pareto front permits to consider different design scenarios.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF DILUTE SOLID-LIQUID SUSPENSION IN AN UNBAFFLED STIRRED VESSELS BY A NOVEL PULSED LASER BASED IMAGE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE

2009

The availability of experimental information on solid distribution inside stirred tanks is a topic of great importance in several industrial applications. The measurement of solid particle distribution in turbulent multiphase flow is not simple and the development of suitable measurement techniques is still in progress. In this work a novel non-intrusive technique for measuring particle concentration fields in solid-liquid systems is employed. The technique makes use of a laser sheet, a high sensitivity digital camera for image acquisition and a Matlab procedure for post-processing the acquired images. Experimental data are here obtained for the case of an unbaffled stirred tank. Stable tor…

Temperature effects explain continental scale distribution of cyanobacterial toxins

2018

Insight into how environmental change determines the production and distribution of cyanobacterial toxins is necessary for risk assessment. Management guidelines currently focus on hepatotoxins (microcystins). Increasing attention is given to other classes, such as neurotoxins (e.g., anatoxin-a) and cytotoxins (e.g., cylindrospermopsin) due to their potency. Most studies examine the relationship between individual toxin variants and environmental factors, such as nutrients, temperature and light. In summer 2015, we collected samples across Europe to investigate the effect of nutrient and temperature gradients on the variability of toxin production at a continental scale. Direct and indirect…

Macroalgal responses to ocean acidification depend on nutrient and light levels

2015

Ocean acidification may benefit algae that are able to capitalize on increased carbon availability for photosynthesis, but it is expected to have adverse effects on calcified algae through dissolution. Shifts in dominance between primary producers will have knock-on effects on marine ecosystems and will likely vary regionally, depending on factors such as irradiance (light vs. shade) and nutrient levels (oligotrophic vs. eutrophic). Thus experiments are needed to evaluate interactive effects of combined stressors in the field. In this study, we investigated the physiological responses of macroalgae near a CO2 seep in oligotrophic waters off Vulcano (Italy). The algae were incubated in situ …