Search results for "SYSTEMS"
showing 10 items of 11952 documents
Decision support systems (DSS) for wastewater treatment plants - A review of the state of the art.
2019
The use of decision support systems (DSS) allows integrating all the issues related with sustainable development in view of providing a useful support to solve multi-scenario problems. In this work an extensive review on the DSSs applied to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is presented. The main aim of the work is to provide an updated compendium on DSSs in view of supporting researchers and engineers on the selection of the most suitable method to address their management/operation/design problems. Results showed that DSSs were mostly used as a comprehensive tool that is capable of integrating several data and a multi-criteria perspective in order to provide more reliable results. Only …
Spatio‐temporal patterns of tree growth as related to carbon isotope fractionation in European forests under changing climate
2019
Aim The aim was to decipher Europe‐wide spatio‐temporal patterns of forest growth dynamics and their associations with carbon isotope fractionation processes inferred from tree rings as modulated by climate warming. Location Europe and North Africa (30‒70° N, 10° W‒35° E). Time period 1901‒2003. Major taxa studied Temperate and Euro‐Siberian trees. Methods We characterize changes in the relationship between tree growth and carbon isotope fractionation over the 20th century using a European network consisting of 20 site chronologies. Using indexed tree‐ring widths (TRWi), we assess shifts in the temporal coherence of radial growth across sites (synchrony) for five forest ecosystems (Atlantic…
Constitutive Activation of the Midgut Response to Bacillus thuringiensis in Bt-Resistant Spodoptera exigua
2010
Bacillus thuringiensis is the most effective microbial control agent for controlling numerous species from different insect orders. The main threat for the long term use of B. thuringiensis in pest control is the ability of insects to develop resistance. Thus, the identification of insect genes involved in conferring resistance is of paramount importance. A colony of Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) was selected for 15 years in the laboratory for resistance to Xentari (TM), a B. thuringiensis-based insecticide, reaching a final resistance level of greater than 1,000-fold. Around 600 midgut ESTs were analyzed by DNA-macroarray in order to find differences in midgut gene expression …
Mitigating forest biodiversity and ecosystem service losses in the era of bio-based economy
2018
Abstract Forests play a crucial role in the transition towards a bioeconomy by providing biomass to substitute for fossil-based materials and energy. However, a policy-policy conflict exists between the desire to increase the utilization of bio based renewable resources and the desire to protect and conserve biodiversity. Increasing forest harvest levels to meet the needs of the bioeconomy may conflict with biodiversity protection and ecosystem services provided by forests. Through an optimization framework, we examined trade-offs between increasing the extraction of timber resources, and the impacts on biodiversity and non-wood ecosystem services, and investigated possibilities to reconcil…
Disintegration of Italian rural landscapes to international environmental agreements
2015
In Italy, the first law that puts landscape and historical buildings under public control was implemented in 1922. While this represents a significant achievement for those times, for that law landscape essentially has an historical and aesthetic connotation, without any explicit reference to the components of flora, fauna and geology. Today, many protection policies and initiatives are still biased by the lack of reference to the intrinsic value that biodiversity and ecosystem services have for the maintenance of traditional landscapes, as well as for the survival of the human species. The priority accorded to historical and aesthetic values can lead to a lack of attention to the complex r…
Innovative technologies for encapsulation of Mediterranean plants extracts
2017
Abstract Background High-added value biological compounds (BACs) from herbal and plant sources, such as essential oils (EO), antioxidants and volatile compounds, often exhibit remarkable features, ranging from nutritive and medicinal properties, as well as antimicrobial and antioxidant activities, which can be exploited in the production of functional foods. However, most BACs exhibit low water solubility, strong off-flavors/odors, and are generally unstable and easily degraded under common processing and storage conditions. Encapsulation is a technology that enables the delivery in food systems, the protection, as well as the controlled and targeted release of BACs. Scope and approach The …
Light availability and land‐use history drive biodiversity and functional changes in forest herb layer communities
2020
International audience; A central challenge of today's ecological research is predicting how ecosystems will develop under future global change. Accurate predictions are complicated by (a) simultaneous effects of different drivers, such as climate change, nitrogen deposition and management changes; and (b) legacy effects from previous land use. We tested whether herb layer biodiversity (i.e. richness, Shannon diversity and evenness) and functional (i.e. herb cover, specific leaf area [SLA] and plant height) responses to environmental change drivers depended on land-use history. We used resurvey data from 192 plots across nineteen European temperate forest regions, with large spatial variabi…
Temperate Fish Detection and Classification: a Deep Learning based Approach
2021
A wide range of applications in marine ecology extensively uses underwater cameras. Still, to efficiently process the vast amount of data generated, we need to develop tools that can automatically detect and recognize species captured on film. Classifying fish species from videos and images in natural environments can be challenging because of noise and variation in illumination and the surrounding habitat. In this paper, we propose a two-step deep learning approach for the detection and classification of temperate fishes without pre-filtering. The first step is to detect each single fish in an image, independent of species and sex. For this purpose, we employ the You Only Look Once (YOLO) …
Comparative biogeography of echinoids, bivalves and gastropods from the Southern Ocean.
2013
ABSTRACTAim Biogeographical patterns within three classes, the Echinoidea, Bivalvia andGastropoda, were investigated in Antarctic, sub-Antarctic and cold-temperateareas based on species occurrence data. Faunal similarities among regions wereanalysed to: (1) test the robustness of the biogeographical patterns previouslyidentified in bivalves and gastropods; (2) compare them with the biogeographi-cal patterns identified for echinoids; and (3) evaluate the reliability of the bio-geographical provinces previously proposed, depending on the taxa andtaxonomic levels analysed.Location The Southern Ocean, sub-Antarctic islands and cold-temperate areassouth of 45° S latitude at depths of < 1000 m.Meth…
Checklist of gypsophilous vascular flora in Italy
2018
Our understanding of the richness and uniqueness of the flora growing on gypsum substrates in Italy has grown significantly since the 19th century and, even today, new plant species are still being discovered. However, the plants and plant communities, growing on gypsum substrates in Italy, are still a relatively unknown subject. The main aim of this paper was to elaborate a checklist of the Italian gypsophilous flora, to increase knowledge about this peculiar flora and for which conservation efforts need to be addressed. Through a structured group communication process of experts (application of the Delphi technique), a remarkable number of experienced Italian botanists have joined togethe…