Search results for "PLANT"

Multimodal Aposematic Signals and Their Emerging Role in Mate Attraction

2018

Chemically defended animals often display conspicuous color patterns that predators learn to associate with their unprofitability and subsequently avoid. Such animals (i.e., aposematic), deter predators by stimulating their visual and chemical sensory channels. Hence, aposematism is considered to be “multimodal.” The evolution of warning signals (and to a lesser degree their accompanying chemical defenses) is fundamentally linked to natural selection by predators. Lately, however, increasing evidence also points to a role of sexual selection shaping warning signal evolution. One of the species in which this has been shown is the wood tiger moth, Arctia plantaginis, which we here put forward…

Particle balance and return loops for microplastics in a tertiary-level wastewater treatment plant.

2021

Highlights: Dewatering by centrifugation was a step that removed a high number of MPs from the sludge. Sludge retained especially the fibrous microplactics. Reject water transported microplastics inside a wastewater treatment plant. Disc filter-based tertiary treatment ensured removal of 99% of microplastics in wastewater. Microplastics (MPs) from households, stormwater, and various industries are transported to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), where a high proportion of them are captured before discharging their residuals to watersheds. Although recent studies have indicated that the removed MPs are mainly retained in wastewater sludge, sludge treatment processes have gained less atten…

FRUIT AND LEAF SENSING FOR THE CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF TREE WATER STATUS IN HIGH-DENSITY ORCHARD SYSTEMS

A Comparative Eye Tracking Study of Usability—Towards Sustainable Web Design

2021

Websites are one of the most frequently used communication environments, and creating sustainable web designs should be an objective for all companies. Ensuring high usability is proving to be one of the main contributors to sustainable web design, reducing usage time, eliminating frustration and increasing satisfaction and retention. The present paper studies the usability of different website landing pages, seeking to identify the elements, structures and designs that increase usability. The study analyzed the behavior of 22 participants during their interaction with five different landing pages while they performed three tasks on the webpage and freely viewed each page for one minute. Th…

Ginger and Turmeric Essential Oils for Weed Control and Food Crop Protection

2019

Ginger and turmeric are two food ingredients that are in high demand due to their flavor and positive effects on health. The biological properties of these spices are closely related to the aromatic compounds they contain. The chemical compositions of their essential oils and their in vitro phytotoxic activity against weeds (Portulaca oleracea, Lolium multiflorum, Echinochloa crus-galli, Cortaderia selloana, and Nicotiana glauca) and food crops (tomato, cucumber, and rice) were studied. Forty-one compounds, accounting for a relative peak area of 87.7% and 94.6% of turmeric and ginger essential oils, respectively, were identified by Gas Chromatography&ndash

Wielkie Księstwo Litewskie w relacjach berlińskich Philipa Plantamoura z lat 1700–1703

2019

Ważnym elementem w obecnych badaniach historycznych jest analiza relacji dyplomatycznych dotyczących dawnej Rzeczypospolitej w tym Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. Ukazują one dzieje państwa oraz jego politykę wewnętrzną i zagraniczna z innej perspektywy historycznej. W 1700 r. wybuchła Wielka Wojna Północna, która zmieniła układ sił politycznych w Europie Środkowo Wschodniej na kolejne dziesięciolecia. Dyplomaci obcych dworów byli zainteresowani tą wojną, w tym Philipp Plantamour, sekretarz ambasadora angielskiego w Berlinie. Przesyłał on do Londynu swoje relacje, w których umieszczał nie tylko informacje dotyczące działań militarnych w czasie wojny, ale także te dotyczące najważniejszych r…

Importazione massale di dati in Wikiplantbase: l'esperienza con Wikiplantbase #Sicilia

2019

Il progetto Wikiplantbase è stato avviato nel 2013 al fine di offrire un sistema dove caricare record floristici georeferenziati, liberamente accessibili via internet. Sino ad allora, infatti, esistevano un gran numero di banche dati online sulla nomenclatura, tassonomia, erbari, specie aliene, vegetazione, numeri cromosomici e sequenze di DNA, ma non vi era facile accesso ai dati floristici a grande dettaglio geografico. I record floristici costituiscono i dati primari sulla biodiversità utili per qualsiasi ricerca di biologia vegetale. Al fine di aumentare i dati sulla Sicilia disponibili in Wikiplantbase, si sono elaborati e standardizzati alcuni dei dati liberamente accessibili dal sito…

Essential oil crops for sustainable agriculture - A review

2009

Multifunctionality and diversification of farming systems, integration of agricultural practices both inter se and with the non-agricultural productive systems operating on the territory, biodiversity safeguards, and reduction in off-farm inputs, are key factors for all modern development strategies in agricultural areas. Such issues are valid worldwide, but are especially true in areas in which the cultivation of the more widespread and “classical” crops is constrained by factors of varying degree and importance. In Mediterranean areas, where many environmental and economic factors often reduce rural areas to marginal conditions, the search for new crop opportunities has become one of the …

Study of quantitative and qualitative variations in essential oils of Sicilian oregano biotypes

2015

Essential oil (EO) was extracted using hydrodistillation from samples of Origanum vulgare subspecies hirtum (Link) Ietswaart, gathered from the wild in various parts of Sicily, Italy; GC-FID and GC-MS analyses were subsequently performed. The aim of the study was to analyze the relationship between essential oil yields and the geographical distribution of oregano wild populations based on variations in environmental factors as collection sites. Moreover, the purpose was to group Origanum vulgare subspecies hirtum biotypes according to the chemical composition of the EO. The seven principal components in the EO was thymol (24.0–54.4%), γ-terpinene (9.8–30.5%), ρ-cymene (5.2–18.7%), α-terpine…

Wildflowers: opportunities for urban landscapes

2022

The concept of “sustainability” is also becoming of great interest in the management of ornamental and territorial greenery. The new trends in the design of green spaces are aimed both at enhancing their “natural” aspects and at researching schemes characterized by lower maintenance costs. Spontaneous vegetation represents a characteristic component of the urban environment and is always adequate to the conditions of the site in which it is located. In this context, the role of spontaneous herbaceous plants becomes fundamental and constitutes an effective response to the current demand for the defence, conservation and enhancement of biodiversity. So far, the use of spontaneous vegetation f…