Search results for "Conventional"

Soil erosion assessment on tillage and alternative soil managements in a Sicilian vineyard

2011

Mediterranean crops favour high erosion rates. Vineyards use to reach the highest soil and water losses due to the lack of vegetation cover. A topographical approach by means of the use of vineyards poles as fixed reference point as erosion markers allowed to quantify high and non-sustainable soil erosion rates on the Sicilian vineyards during 9 years. In order to develop strategies to control the soil losses, seven land management were selected and applied in a typical blanc wine grape vineyard located in southwestern Sicily. Comparable plots were managed traditionally using conventional tillage and alternatively using various cover crops: 1) Vicia faba; 2) Vicia faba and Vicia sativa; 3) …

Logic, Computing and Biology

2015

Logic and Computing are appropriate formal languages for Biology, and we may well be surprised by the strong analogy between software and DNA, and between hardware and the protein machinery of the cell. This chapter examines to what extent any biological entity can be described by an algorithm and, therefore, whether the Turing machine and the halting problem concepts apply. Last of all, I introduce the concepts of recursion and algorithmic complexity, both from the field of computer science, which can help us understand and conceptualise biological complexity.

The Social and Economic Burden of Venous Leg Ulcers : Focus on the Role of Micronized Purified Flavonoid Fraction Adjuvant Therapy

2003

UK QE reconsidered: the real economy effects of monetary policy inthe UK, 1990-2012 – an empirical analysis

2013

Empirical studies of so called ‘unconventional’ monetary policy – ‘Quantitative Easing’ or ‘Large Scale Asset Purchases’ - since the North Atlantic Financial Crisis of 2007-2009 in the United Kingdom and elsewhere have mainly focussed on the effect of policy on intermediate variables rather than the stated ultimate goal of such policies, boosting nominal demand and GDP growth. Secondly and relatedly they tend to focus on the crisis and post-crisis period, a time of extraordinary economic and financial dislocation, which creates counterfactual and attribution problems and fails to capture typical macroeconomic lag dynamics. Adopting the approach of Voutsinas and Werner (2010), and building o…

Using Beerkan experiments to estimate hydraulic conductivity of a crusted loamy soil in a Mediterranean vineyard

2019

Abstract In bare soils of semi-arid areas, surface crusting is a rather common phenomenon due to the impact of raindrops. Water infiltration measurements under ponding conditions are becoming largely applied techniques for an approximate characterization of crusted soils. In this study, the impact of crusting on soil hydraulic conductivity was assessed in a Mediterranean vineyard (western Sicily, Italy) under conventional tillage. The BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) algorithm was applied to the infiltration data to obtain the hydraulic conductivity of crusted and uncrusted soils. Soil hydraulic conductivity was found to vary during the year and also spatially (i.e., ro…

Differential Responses of Nitrate Reducer Community Size, Structure, and Activity to Tillage Systems

2009

ABSTRACT The main objective of this study was to determine how the size, structure, and activity of the nitrate reducer community were affected by adoption of a conservative tillage system as an alternative to conventional tillage. The experimental field, established in Madagascar in 1991, consists of plots subjected to conventional tillage or direct-seeding mulch-based cropping systems (DM), both amended with three different fertilization regimes. Comparisons of size, structure, and activity of the nitrate reducer community in samples collected from the top layer in 2005 and 2006 revealed that all characteristics of this functional community were affected by the tillage system, with increa…

The spatial and temporal distribution of carabid and weed seed predation in winter wheat: a comparison between conventional and conservation agricult…

2013

Carabids can be key players in weed seed predation within arable crops under temperate climate. Field management options, because they affect carabid communities, may represent potential levers to increase weed seed predation levels within fields. Among these options, Conservation Agriculture is often presented as a promising management option for carabids but its effect on weed seed predation levels is less clear. In this study, carabids and weed seed predation were monitored using a grid sampling from April till September 2011 in two adjacent winter-wheat fields in North-eastern France, one conducted as no-till with cover crop for 5 years (conservation agriculture) and the other as conven…

De Cratyle à la TME : une longue tradition dans le débat sur la motivation ou l’arbitraire des mots

2016

In the specialized literature, the concepts of motivation and arbitrariness refer to very different realities. Using some essential readings, we endeavour to clarify these points in the "motivated vs arbitrary nature of lexical forms" debate inaugurated in Plato's Cratylus. Amongst other things, these reveal that the lexical motivation phenomenon is more complex than the supporters of the Saussurian doxa of arbitrariness would have us believe. Even if a considerable amount of time separates the first forms of language from the most ancient linguistic forms available to us and any attempt to reconstruct these original forms is based upon an illusion, it is, nevertheless, possible to decipher…

THE PRODUCTION COSTS OF CONVENTIONAL AND ORGANIC APPLE ORCHARDS IN THE VENETO REGION (ITALY)

2012

In times of crisis people are thinking how to make the best choice to be more profitable. Both the manufacturers and the consumers must choose the best solutions for them and their businesses. Making a choice between organic and conventional methods in times of crisis is even more difficult considering production costs and consumption patterns. What is the composition of production costs for an apple orchard, how they can be divided into homogeneous categories and why to choose green are the questions we have tried to answer in this paper.

An investigation of the bacteriocinogenic potential of lactic acid bacteria associated with wheat (triticum durum) kernels and non-conventional flours

2008

One hundred and thirty-seven lactic acid bacteria (LAB), previously isolated from wheat (Triticum durum) grains and non-conventional flour samples, were tested for the production of antibacterial substances. A total of 16 strains (5 Enterococcus faecium, 5 Enterococcus mundtii, 4 Pediococcus pentosaceus, 1 Lactobacillus coryniformis and 1 Lactococcus garvieae) were found to inhibit the growth of Listeria innocua. The antibacterial activities were preliminarily investigated for their general behaviour with proteolytic (proteinase K, protease B and trypsin), amylolytic (α-amylase) and lipolytic (lipase) enzymes, after heat treatment, and exposure to different pHs and ethanol concentrations. B…