Search results for "unity"
showing 10 items of 3852 documents
Beyond budgeting since inception: what is the status?
2017
Master's thesis Business Administration BE501 - University of Agder 2017 The Beyond Budgeting idea as developed by Hope and Fraser (1997) has been in existence for almost twenty years, yet, the research community still has divergent views on whether the concept is a better management accounting tool for organizations’ management control system or not. Also, whether it has received attention in research community like other management accounting tools such as Traditional Budgeting and Balanced Scorecard. On this notion, this study is developed to investigate the status of the research discourse on the concept to gain relevant knowledge. Inspired by Scapens and Bromwich (2001) and built on Ac…
MICROBIAL COMMUNITY CHANGES IN TNT SPIKED SOIL BIOREMEDIATION TRIAL USING BIOSTIMULATION, PHYTOREMEDIATION AND BIOAUGMENTATION
2013
Trinitrotoluene (TNT), a commonly used explosive for military and industrial applications, can cause serious environmental pollution. 28-day laboratory pot experiment was carried out applying bioaugmentation using laboratory selected bacterial strains as inoculum, biostimulation with molasses and cabbage leaf extract, and phytoremediation using rye and blue fenugreek to study the effect of these treatments on TNT removal and changes in soil microbial community responsible for contaminant degradation. Chemical analyses revealed significant decreases in TNT concentrations, including reduction of some of the TNT to its amino derivates during the 28-day tests. The combination of bioaugmentation…
Evidence for shifts in the structure and abundance of the microbial community in a long-term PCB-contaminated soil under bioremediation.
2011
International audience; Although the impact of bioremediation of PCB-contaminated sites on the indigenous microbial community is a key question for soil restoration, it remains poorly understood. Therefore, a small-scale bioremediation assay made of (a) a biostimulation treatment with carvone, soya lecithin and xylose and (b) two bioaugmentation treatments, one with a TSZ7 mixed culture and another with a Rhodococcus sp. Z6 pure strain was set up. Changes in the structure of the global soil microbial community and in the abundances of different taxonomic phyla were monitored using ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (RISA) and real-time PCR. After an 18-month treatment, the structure of th…
The excellent biocompatibility and negligible immune response of the titanium heterometallic MOF MUV-10
2021
The Ti-Ca heterometallic MOF MUV-10 exhibits good dispersibility in phosphate buffer and low phosphate-induced degradation in comparison to other MOF systems. It induces no cytotoxicity towards cells of the immune system and no inmune response, making it an attractive candidate for biomedical applications and demonstrating its safe use for other applications.
Hydrogeological Behaviour and Geochemical Features of Waters in Evaporite-Bearing Low-Permeability Successions: A Case Study in Southern Sicily, Italy
2020
Knowledge about the hydrogeological behaviour of heterogeneous low-permeability media is an important tool when designing anthropogenic works (e.g., landfills) that could potentially have negative impacts on the environment and on people&rsquo
Relationships between soil water repellency and microbial community composition under different plant species in a Mediterranean semiarid forest
2014
Abstract Soil water repellency (SWR) can influence many hydrological soil properties, including water infiltration, uneven moisture distribution or water retention. In the current study we investigated how variable SWR persistence in the field is related to the soil microbial community under different plant species (P. halepensis, Q. rotundifolia, C. albidus and R. officinalis) in a Mediterranean forest. The soil microbial community was determined through phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA). The relationships between microbiological community structure and the soil properties pH, Glomalin Related Soil Protein (GRSP) and soil organic matter (SOM) content were also studied. Different statistical …
Integrity of predator assemblages controls the abundanceof the alien crab Percnon gibbesi
2016
Ecosystem resistance to species invasion is considered to be related to the abundance and diversity of native species (i.e. diversity-resistance hypothesis). In particular, the integrity of predator assemblages may enhance the control of prey populations through direct and indirect interactions (e.g.: different predation strategies by different predators, facilitative interactions among predators). Depletion of predators due to overfishing is therefore expected to enhance the abundance and ultimately the spread of alien prey species. Manipulative field experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of different abundance and diversity of predator assemblages on the invasion success of t…
DNA-mediated immunization to hepatitis B virus envelope proteins: preS antigen secretion enhances the humoral response.
1999
In order to design optimized DNA vectors as genetic vaccines against infections with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) we investigated if secretion or retention of the viral antigens has an influence on the quality and quantity of the humoral immune response. Intramuscular injection of plasmid DNA encoding the HBV large L envelope protein, known to be retained within host cells, induced only a weak response in mice whereas a vector expressing the secretion-competent small S envelope protein elicited strong and sustained immunity. Immunization with rearranged envelope genes further demonstrated that secretion affects the magnitude of the immune response. In situ expression of modified small and mi…
Plant effects on the soil community: A microcosm experiment
1999
Abstract An experiment was carried out in microcosms for testing the hypothesis that a higher level of primary production should maintain a decomposer community with higher biomass and activity. Microcosms with coniferous forest humus and a diverse microbial and faunal community were divided into three sets: (1) control without plants, (2) with birch seedlings in full illumination, and (3) with birch seedlings, shaded to reduce the net primary production. During 16 weeks of incubation at +16 °C, no treatment effects were found in numbers or biomass of taxonomic or functional groups of soil organisms, nor in the system respiration in darkness. The community structure of the shaded systems di…
Soil carbon quality and nitrogen fertilization structure bacterial communities with predictable responses of major bacterial phyla
2014
Abstract Agricultural practices affect the soil ecosystem in multiple ways and the soil microbial communities represent an integrated and dynamic measure of soil status. Our aim was to test whether the soil bacterial community and the relative abundance of major bacterial phyla responded predictably to long-term organic amendments representing different carbon qualities (peat and straw) in combination with nitrogen fertilization levels and if certain bacterial groups were indicative of specific treatments. We hypothesized that the long-term treatments had created distinctly different ecological niches for soil bacteria, suitable for either fast-growing copiotrophic bacteria, or slow-growing…