Search results for " plants"
showing 10 items of 860 documents
Effects of Carbon Emissions, Environmental Disclosures and CSR Assurance on Cost of Equity in Emerging Markets
2021
The objective of the paper is to empirically test the relation between carbon emissions, environmental disclosures, assurance of sustainability reports and firms&rsquo
The Inclusion of Socially Irresponsible Companies in Sustainable Stock Indices
2019
Social rating agencies implement complex filters to identify the companies with the best sustainable and social performance and help investors select the companies for their sustainable portfolios. This study analysed whether companies that are defined as ethical, sustainable and socially responsible by those agencies actually deserve this label. More specifically, the inclusion in the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) World of companies that have been involved in controversies according to the Thomson Reuters Eikon database was studied. The results show that the inclusion of irresponsible companies in the DJSI Index is a fact. This outcome is in line with previous studies t…
Evaluating the Eco-Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants: Comparison of Optimistic and Pessimistic Approaches
2020
The assessment of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) performance has gained the interest of water utilities and water regulators. Eco-efficiency has been identified as a powerful indicator, as it integrates economic and environmental variables into a single index. Most previous studies have employed traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the evaluation of WWTP eco-efficiency. However, DEA allows the selection of input and output weights for individual WWTPs for the calculation of eco-efficiency scores. To overcome this limitation, we employed the double-frontier and common set of weights methods to evaluate the eco-efficiency of a sample of 30 WWTPs in Spain. The WWTPs were ranked b…
Lack of Detrimental Effects of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins on the Insect Predator Chrysoperla carnea : a Toxicological, Histopathological, and …
2006
ABSTRACT The effect of Cry proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis on the green lacewing ( Chrysoperla carnea ) was studied by using a holistic approach which consisted of independent, complementary experimental strategies. Tritrophic experiments were performed, in which lacewing larvae were fed Helicoverpa armigera larvae reared on Cry1Ac, Cry1Ab, or Cry2Ab toxins. In complementary experiments, a predetermined amount of purified Cry1Ac was directly fed to lacewing larvae. In both experiments no effects on prey utilization or fitness parameters were found. Since binding to the midgut is an indispensable step for toxicity of Cry proteins to known target insects, we hypothesized that specific bind…
Essential oils from three Algerian medicinal plants (Artemisia campestris, Pulicaria arabica, and Saccocalyx satureioides) as new botanical insectici…
2020
Medicinal and aromatic plants represent an outstanding source of green active ingredients for a broad range of real-world applications. In the present study, we investigated the insecticidal potential of the essential oils obtained from three medicinal and aromatic plants of economic importance in Algeria, Artemisia campestris, Pulicaria arabica, and Saccocalyx satureioides. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to study the essential oil chemical compositions. The three essential oils were tested against a mosquito vectoring filariasis and arboviruses, i.e., Culex quinquefasciatus, a fly pest acting also as pathogens vector, Musca domestica, and an agricultural…
Neonicotinoids from coated seeds toxic for honeydew-feeding biological control agents
2021
Seed coating (‘seed treatment’) is the leading delivery method of neonicotinoid insecticides in major crops such as soybean, wheat, cotton and maize. However, this prophylactic use of neonicotinoids is widely discussed from the standpoint of environmental costs. Growing soybean plants from neonicotinoid-coated seeds in field, we demonstrate that soybean aphids (Aphis glycines) survived the treatment, and excreted honeydew containing neonicotinoids. Biochemical analyses demonstrated that honeydew excreted by the soybean aphid contained substantial concentrations of neonicotinoids even one month after sowing of the crop. Consuming this honeydew reduced the longevity of two biological control …
Sustainable Weed, Disease and Pest Management in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
2015
As for all other crops, in MAPs as well, weeds, diseases and pests are important yield-reducing factors, which may severely curtain biomass production and, that is maybe more important, may affect several qualitative aspects of production. Research about this topic is generally lacking, for two main reasons: the first is that MAPs are generally grown on rather limited areas, and the incidence of specific pests and diseases rarely takes a relevance outside rather narrow boundaries. The second reason is that the economical importance of MAPs is much lower than that ascribed to the “major” crops, which the bigger efforts of research are addressed to. In the changing scenario of latter years, h…
Can herbivore-induced volatiles protect plants by increasing the herbivores’ susceptibility to natural pathogens?
2018
In response to insect herbivory, plants mobilize various defenses. Defense responses include the release of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) that can serve as signals to alert undamaged tissues and to attract natural enemies of the herbivores. Some HIPVs can have a direct negative impact on herbivore survival, but it is not well understood by what mechanisms. Here, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to HIPVs renders insects more susceptible to natural pathogens. Exposure of the caterpillars of the noctuid Spodoptera exigua to indole and linalool, but not exposure to (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, increased the susceptibility to Spodoptera exigua multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV). …
IPM-recommended insecticides harm beneficial insects through contaminated honeydew
2020
The use of some systemic insecticides has been banned in Europe because they are toxic to beneficial insects when these feed on nectar. A recent study shows that systemic insecticides can also kill beneficial insects when they feed on honeydew. Honeydew is the sugar-rich excretion of hemipterans and is the most abundant carbohydrate source for beneficial insects such as pollinators and biological control agents in agroecosystems. Here, we investigated whether the toxicity of contaminated honeydew depends on i) the hemipteran species that excretes the honeydew; ii) the active ingredient, and iii) the beneficial insect that feeds on it. HPLC-MS/MS analyses demonstrated that the systemic insec…
Circular Economy and Value Creation: Sustainable Finance with a Real Options Approach
2021
This paper presents a methodological proposal that integrates the circular economy concept and financial valuation through real options analysis. The Value Hill model of a circular economy provides a representation of the course followed by the value of an asset. Specifically, after the primary use, the life of an asset may be extended by going through four phases: the 4R phases (Reuse, Refurbish, Remanufacture and Recycle). Financial valuation allows us to quantify value creation from firms’ asset circularity under uncertainty, modelled by binomial trees. Furthermore, the 4R phases are valued as real options by applying no-arbitrage opportunity arguments. The major contribution of this pap…