Search results for "ECOLOGY"

Restoration of a XVII Century’s predella reliquary: From Physico-Chemical Characterization to the Conservation Process

2021

We report on the restoration of a XVII century’s predella reliquary, which is a part of a larger setup that includes a wall reliquary and a wooden crucified Christ, both belonging to the church of “Madre Maria SS. Assunta”, in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily, Italy. The historical/artistic and paleographic research was flanked successfully by the scientific objective characterization of the materials. The scientific approach was relevant in the definition of the steps for the restoration of the artefact. The optical microscopy was used for the identification of the wood species. Electron microscopy and elemental mapping by energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) was successful in the identification of the l…

New genera, species and records of Phaneropterinae (Orthoptera, Phaneropteridae) from sub-Saharan Africa

2015

The results of the study of many specimens preserved in different European museums are reported. The tribe Terpnistrini Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878 is resurrected. The distribution of the following species is enhanced: Pardalotaasymmetrica Karsch, 1896, Diogenadenticulata Chopard, 1954, Diogenafausta (Burmeister, 1838), Plangiopsisadeps Karsch, 1896, Poreuomenasanghensis Massa, 2013 and Tylopsiscontinua (Walker, 1869). Further, for their peculiar characteristics, two African representatives of the American genus Symmetropleura Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878 are included in two new genera: Symmetrokarschiaafricana (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878), comb. n. and Symmetroraggeadirempta (Karsch, 1889)…

Breeding birds in Burgundy, 2006-2018.

2020

FMECA Application in Tomotherapy: Comparison between Classic and Fuzzy Methodologies

2022

Accident analysis in radiotherapy highlighted the need to increase quality assurance (QA) programs by the identification of failures/errors with very low probability (rare event) but very severe consequences. In this field, a Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) technique, used in various industrial processes to rank critical events, has been met with much interest. The literature describes different FMECA methods; however, it is necessary to understand if these tools are incisive and effective in the healthcare sector. In this work, comparisons of FMECA methodologies in the risk assessment of patients undergoing treatments performed with helical tomotherapy are reported. …

Paysage et risque sanitaire - Le cas de l'echinococcose alvéolaire. Approche multiscalaire

2005

Echinococcus multilocularis is a parasite of public health importance causing the fatal zoonotic disease alveolar echinococcosis. The parasite's eggs are dispersed in the environment through the fox faeces. Epidemiological issues associated with the disease led to the monitoring of the endemic status in foxes in France and in Europe. Fox faeces collected in the field were tested for the presence of the parasite and assembled in a georeferenced database. GIS-assisted analysis investigated relationships between landscape characteristics and potential risk. Three scale levels were successively explored. In the french Doubs département located in a high endemicity area, binary logistic regressi…

Is it possible to understand a book missing a quarter of the letters? Unveiling the belowground species richness of grasslands

2022

Abstract Knowledge of species richness patterns in plant communities is biased toward its hidden belowground part and is derived only from the part visible aboveground. Studies on the relationship of the above- to belowground parts of plant communities suffer from the lack of a consistent and uniform approach to assess their taxonomic composition, particularly in species-rich ecosystems. This study described the proportion between above- and belowground parts of vegetation in three grassland types along with the environmental factors that affect them, using eDNA metabarcoding and an observer survey. The internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region was used to analyze the total plant richness…

From Scarcity to Abundance : Food Waste Themes and Virtues in Agrarian and Mature Consumer Society

2019

Uusitalo and Takala address the food waste problem as a societal phenomenon and examine ethical virtues, values linked to them and food practices in two different time periods: agrarian society (1885–1917) and mature consumer society (2008–2017), in Finland. They use data from newspapers to uncover how ethical principles can underpin understanding of the food waste phenomenon. The study shows how the virtues adopted by food chain actors guide their practices towards sustainable ways of handling excess food. While societal themes of food waste are changing, virtues and food practices are changing as well, but some deep-rooted societal virtues and values persist. The chapter concludes with re…

Ultrasound bioeffects in rats: quantification of cellular damage in the fetal liver after pulsed Doppler imaging

2011

Objective To determine whether pulsed Doppler examination of the ductus venosus in rat fetuses could damage exposed tissue. Methods On gestational day 18, the livers of a mean of approximately five fetuses per mother (n = 5.14, SD = 1.6), in a cohort of 35 pregnant female rats, were exposed individually to pulsed Doppler and these were considered the 'exposed group'. The remaining fetuses in each pregnant rat (n = 5.16, SD = 2.1) formed the 'control group'. We tested for 600, 300, 60, 20, 15, 10 and 3 s of exposure of the fetal ductus venosus and the damage was evaluated measuring a cell death index of apoptotic activity at 7 h post-exposure (n = 16). In addition, subgroups of mothers were …

Combined effect of low-molecular-weight organic acids and creosote on phosphatase activities in sandy soil

2018

This paper assesses the impact of creosote and low-molecular-weight organic acids (LMWOAs) on the activity of acid phosphomonoesterase, alkaline phosphomonoesterase, phosphotriesterase, and inorganic pyrophosphatase in soil. The experiment was carried out on loamy sand samples with organic carbon content of 8.71 g · kg -1 , with the following variable factors: dosages of creosote: 0, 0.5%, and 2.5%; type of LMWOAs: oxalic acid, tartaric acid, and citric acid in the amount of 50 mmol · kg -1 of soil; days of experiment: 1, 7, 14, 28, 56, 112. Obtained results showed that contamination with creosote caused decrease in the activity of soil phosphatases. The observed effect did not always incre…

Dead wood profile of a semi-natural boreal forest – implications for sampling

2019

Dead wood profile of a forest is a useful tool for describing forest characteristics and assessing forest disturbance history. Nevertheless, there are few studies on dead wood profiles, including both coarse and fine dead wood, and on the effect of sampling intensity on the dead wood estimates. In a semi-natural boreal forest, we measured every dead wood item over 2 cm in diameter from 80 study plots. From eight plots, we further recorded dead wood items below 2 cm in diameter. Based on these data we constructed the full dead wood profile, i.e. the overall number of dead wood items and their distribution among different tree species, volumes of different size and decay stage categories. We …