Natural and bio-based construction materials represent a promising solution for optimizing buildings' environmental sustainability. In this view, the paper presents the multipurpose experimental ...thermo-acoustic characterization of common reed-based building panels. Different geometries, densities, humidity rates and stalk shapes were considered and tested by means of hot-plate, hot-box and impedance tube in-lab experimental benches. The thermal analysis showed that the geometry scarcely affects the thermal conductivity, which is around 0.05 W/mK and, therefore, comparable to other materials already commercialized for the same scope. On the other hand, the acoustic behavior is strongly affected by the stalk configuration, e.g. perpendicular, parallel or combined orientation with respect to the incident wave. In particular, the longitudinal stalk layout showed a significant sound absorption performance. The exhaustive experimental original characterization of such by-product, therefore, showed a very promising overall thermo-acoustic behavior. At the same time, for optimizing the panel field performance, the acoustic requirements should represent the panel design drivers, given the high sensitivity of the panel layout characteristics affecting the acoustic performance.
•Experimental thermo-acoustic characterization of new bio-based panels was performed.•New common reed materials showed promising performance for building applications.•Thermal conductivity resulted around 0.05 W/mK, comparable with market products.•Sound absorption coefficient resulted high in a wide frequency range.•Acoustic behavior was affected by stalks' geometry.
Agricultural pest control often relies on the ecosystem services provided by the predators of pests. Appropriate landscape and habitat management for pest control services requires an understanding ...of insect dispersal abilities and the spatial arrangement of source habitats for pests and their predators. Here we explore how dispersal and habitat configuration determine the locations where management actions are likely to have the biggest impact on natural pest control. The study focuses on the early colonization phase before predator reproduction takes place and when pest populations in crops are still relatively low. We developed a spatially explicit simulation model in which pest populations grow exponentially in pest patches and predators disperse across the landscape from predator patches. We generated 1000 computer-simulated landscapes in which the performance of four typical but different predator groups as biological control agents was evaluated. Predator groups represented trait combinations of poor and good dispersal ability and density-independent and density-dependent aggregation responses toward pests. Case studies from the literature were used to inform the parameterization of predator groups. Landscapes with a small nearest-neighbor distance between pest and predator patches had the lowest mean pest density at the landscape scale for all predator groups, but there can be high variation in pest density between the patches within these landscapes. Mobile and strongly aggregating predators provide the best pest suppression in the majority of landscape types. Ironically, this result is true except in landscapes with small nearest-neighbor distances between pest and predator patches. The pest control potential of mobile predators can best be explained by the mean distance between a pest patch and all predator patches in the landscape, whereas for poorly dispersing predators the distance between a pest patch and the nearest predator patch is the best explanatory variable. In conclusion, the spatial arrangement of source habitats for natural enemies of agricultural pest species can have profound effects on their potential to colonize crops and suppress pest populations.
Vegetable production in open greenhouses is often associated with high inputs of synthetic pesticides. Introducing flowering plants into such greenhouses may promote the top-down pest suppression by ...natural enemies and reduce the reliance on pesticide use. However, it is not known how effective this practice is in organically and conventionally managed greenhouse crops. We assessed the influence of introducing flowering plants into open greenhouses with organically and conventionally managed tomato crops on the abundance of pests, natural enemies (NE), pollinators, and crop yield. We monitored tomato crops during two years in two greenhouses at four organic farms and four conventional farms that used integrated pest management (IPM). On each farm one greenhouse contained flower islands of basil (Ocimum bacilicum), marigold (Tagetes patula) and alyssum (Lobularia maritima), and the other greenhouse served as a control. Organic farms had yields comparable to conventional farms, a lower abundance of pests, less pest injury, and a higher abundance of NE. The cumulative pest:NE ratio was 9 for organic and 38 for conventional management. The effect of introducing flowering plants on arthropods depended significantly on the type of farm management. Conventionally managed tomato crops in greenhouses with seven flower islands per 100 m2 had 18% lower pest abundance compared to the control greenhouses without flowers, while flower islands did not significantly influence arthropod abundances in organically managed tomato crops. Tomato plants had a higher abundance of pests than the three introduced plant species in conventionally managed greenhouses, while marigold had a higher abundance of pests than tomato in organically managed greenhouses. Alyssum supported a relatively low pest abundance and high abundance of NE and pollinators. Our findings indicate that NE in IPM-conventionally managed greenhouses can benefit from resources provided by flowering plants, resulting in reduced pest abundance, while in organically managed greenhouses the conditions are already favourable for the suppression of pests and addition of floral resources does not further improve the effectiveness of NE. This finding highlights the potential of agroecological and organic management to reduce the reliance on synthetic pesticides without yield reduction.
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•Arthropod responses to flower islands in greenhouse tomato in organic and conventional systems were studied.•Organic systems had fewer pests and more natural enemies than conventional systems, and yields were comparable.•Arthropod responses to flower islands depended on the type of management system.•In conventional systems, greenhouses with flower islands had 18% lower pest abundance than greenhouses without flowers.•Adding flowers alone is not enough to suppress pests and a holistic approach is needed.
A very sensitive and selective solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method based on the use of a deep cavity BenzoQxCavitand as innovative coating was developed and ...validated for the simultaneous determination of the 16 US-EPA priority pollutants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in snow samples at ultra-trace levels. The presence of a 8.3 Å deep hydrophobic cavity allowed the engulfment of all the 16 PAHs, providing enhanced selectivity also in presence of interfering aromatic pollutants at high concentration levels. Validation proved the reliability of the method for the determination of the investigated compounds achieving detection limits in the 0.03–0.30 ng/L range, good precision, with relative standard deviations <18% and recovery rates in the 90.8(±2.1)%-109.6(±1.0)%. The detection of low-molecular weight PAHs in snow samples from Antarctica and Alps confirms the widespread occurrence of these compounds, thus assessing the impact of anthropogenic activities onto the environment.
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•A deep cavity BenzoQxCavitand as selective SPME coating.•Ultra-sensitive detection of PAHs from Antarctic and Alpine snow samples.•Completely automatized method requiring reduced sample handling and volumes.•LODs in 0.03–0.30 ng/L range.
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•We applied an interdisciplinary approach to project future scenarios of land use/cover.•The combination of global and local drivers explains the historic land use/cover ...changes.•Public policies contributed to forest recovery and agricultural intensification in the study region of the Atlantic Forest biome, Brazil.•Contrasting future scenarios of local land use/cover can orient public policies related to sustainable development.
Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes have profound impacts on the functioning of (agro)ecosystems and have potential to mitigate global climate change. However, we still lack interdisciplinary methods to project future LULC scenarios at spatial scales that are relevant for local decision making and future environmental assessments. Here we apply an interdisciplinary approach to develop spatially explicit projections of LULC at a resolution of 30 × 30 m informed by historic relationships between LULC and their key drivers, within the context of the four qualitative scenarios of global shared socioeconomic pathways. We apply this methodology to a case study in the Zona da Mata, Brazil, which has a history of major LULC changes. The analysis of LULC changes from 1986 to 2015 indicates that pasture area decreased from 76 to 58 % of total area, while forest areas increased from 18 to 24 %, and coffee from 3 to 11 %. Environmental protection legislation, rural credit for smallholder farmers, and demand for agricultural and raw products were identified as main drivers of LULC changes. Projected LULC for 2045 strongly depends on the global socioeconomic pathway scenarios, and forest and coffee areas may increase substantially under strong government measures in the environmentally conscious Green Road scenario or decrease in the high consumption Rocky Road scenario. Our study shows that under the set of drivers during the past three decades reforestation can go hand in hand with increase of agricultural production, but that major and contrasting changes in LULC can be expected depending on the socioeconomic pathway that will be followed in the future. To guide this process, LULC scenarios at the local scale can inform the planning of local and regional development and forest conservation.
The formaldehyde (FA) content in different fish products was evaluated using a solid phase microextraction (SPME)-GC–MS method based on fiber derivatisation with pentafluorobenzyl-hydroxyl-amine ...hydrochloride. LOD and LOQ values of 17 and 28
μg
kg
−1, respectively were calculated. Fish quality was assessed by the analysis of 12 species (sea-fish, freshwater-fish and crustaceans), revealing variable FA levels. Fresh, deep frozen, canned, boiled and roasted fish were analysed; cooking always produced a decrease in the analyte content. Fish belonging to the
Gadidae family were the samples with the highest FA concentration (from 6.4
±
1.2
mg
kg
−1 to 293
±
26
mg
kg
−1), in four cases out of 14 exceeding the value of 60
mg
kg
−1 proposed by the Italian Ministry of Health. Storage on ice was also investigated, showing moderate FA production also at temperature around 0
°C. FA contents lower than 22
mg
kg
−1 were finally found in all the other samples.
Landscapes are composed of a multitude of habitat types which, potentially, can influence natural enemy populations. The contribution of specific habitat types to sustaining natural enemy populations ...in agricultural landscapes and the associated ecosystem service of pest control is not well understood. We investigated how landscape composition affected parasitism rates in 22 organic Brussels sprout fields in The Netherlands. Second and third instar larvae of Plutella xylostella were placed on experimental Brussels sprout plants in Brussels sprout fields and were recovered after two days in the field. Parasitism rates ranged between 4 and 94% and were related to landscape variables at a scale of 0.3, 1, 2 and 10 km. Univariate analysis using a generalized linear mixed model indicated that parasitism rates were positively related with area of forests at a scale of 1, 2 and 10 km, forest edges at a scale of 1 and 2 km and road verges at a scale of 1 km. Forest and road verges are likely to provide food and alternative hosts for parasitoids and are less disturbed habitats than agricultural fields. These results suggest that forests and road verges may play an important role in sustaining effective densities of parasitoids of P. xylostella in agricultural landscapes.
The space existing between the external and internal dural layer has been anatomically described as a virtual space; no clear clinical significance has been given to it to date. We hereby describe a ...case of a child with what was expected to be a purely epidural hematoma, at surgery, was found to be composed of two equally coexistent components, one in the epidural space and the second one between the two dural layers. The recognition of a possible involvement of the transdural space in the case of post-traumatic epidural hematomas is relevant for a correct conclusion of the surgical treatment of epidural hematomas, extensively considered basic practice among neurosurgical procedures.
Purpose
Sylvian arachnoid cysts (SACs) are the most common type of arachnoid cysts and the most prone to undergo a rupture. This event is considered rare but potentially severe. No definite ...information is available on its occurrence or management. The goal of the present article is to provide an update on the epidemiological, etiological, and clinical aspects and the management of this peculiar clinical condition.
Methods
A comprehensive review of the English literature of the last 40 years on this topic has been realized. Moreover, a personal series of children investigated and treated in the last 20 years is presented. These patients were managed as follows: (1) treatment of the subdural collection; (2) identification of candidates for surgical treatment of the residual cyst (brain MRI, perfusion brain MRI, prolonged invasive ICP monitoring (selected cases), EEG, neuropsychological tests); (3) surgical treatment of the cyst in the patients with pathological perfusion MRI and/or ICP measurement and/or clear neurophysiological and neuropsychological correlations.
Results
A total of 446 patients (430 from the literature and 16 from the personal series), mainly children, adolescents, and young adults, have been analyzed leading to the following results: (1) SAC rupture is rare but not negligible (yearly risk of rupture: 0.04%; overall risk up to 10% in children affected by SCAs). Prophylactic surgery in asymptomatic cases is not advisable. (2) The mechanism of rupture is not known but an impact of SAC against the sphenoid wing and/or a direct injury on SAC through a thinned temporal bone, with possible laceration of the cyst wall vessels and/or tear of the bridging veins, can be hypothesized. A head injury is often not reported (may be misdiagnosed). (3) Subdural collection (hygroma > chronic hematoma) is the most common finding followed by intracystic bleeding, extradural hematoma, and other types of bleeding. Signs or symptoms of raised intracranial pressure are the most frequent ones. (4) The complication of the rupture is usually treated in emergency or in the acute period by burr hole or craniotomic evacuation of the subdural collection, although a conservative management is possible in some cases. Following the rupture, the majority of SACs are treated (70%), often at the same time of the complication, but no specific investigations are routinely performed to select candidates. According to our protocol, only 43.7% of SACs needed to be treated.
Conclusions
The “spontaneous” or posttraumatic rupture of SACs is a rare but potentially significant complication followed by a generally good outcome. The course of the cyst is independent from the outcome of the complication, consequently requiring specific investigations for individuating those lesions interfering with CSF dynamics and/or cerebral blood flow.
•We explored the effects of land use and climate changes on hydrology in a reforested watershed.•Changes in hydrology were mainly explained by changes in climate patterns.•Contribution of land use on ...the hydrology depends strongly on climate conditions.•Public policies underlying the Green Road scenario can improve sustainable future water management.
Global changes in land use and land cover (LULC) and climate are expected to have profound impacts on water dynamics, which are key for human wellbeing. However, we still lack understanding of how changes in climate patterns and LULC are likely to interact and govern the hydrology at the watershed level in tropical regions in the future. Here we assessed the contribution of changes in weather patterns and LULC on the hydrology of a watershed in southeast of Brazil between 1990 and 2015 using the SWAT model. In addition, we explored the likely impacts of two contrasting LULC scenarios (Green Road versus Fossil Fuel) on the hydrology in 2045 under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5. Between 1990 and 2004 and 2005–2015 the watershed witnessed an increase in precipitation and streamflow, in combination with an expansion of forest cover and coffee production. While surface runoff (+5.2 mm year−1) and water yield (+252 mm year−1) increased, soil water (−24.6 mm year−1) and evapotranspiration (−15.7 mm year−1) decreased. The analysis indicated that changes in climate patterns are the main drivers of historical water dynamics in the region. Compared with Fossil Fuel scenario, the increase in forest area in the Green Road scenario will lead to a decrease in surface runoff and consequently in water yield, favouring water infiltration and soil erosion control, and buffer against extreme precipitation events. Therefore, the socioeconomic and public policies underlying the Green Road scenario that favour the expansion of forests can direct sustainable future water management.
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