Los cultivos mediterráneos en China : el caso del olivar

El mercado del aceite de oliva en China tiene un gran potencial, por ello, hay un interés creciente en incrementar la superficie de olivo en el país. En este artículo se describe la historia reciente del cultivo del olivo en China, las características del clima y suelo de la zona donde actualmente se cultiva el olivo y la adaptación del olivo a estas condiciones

A coded-aperture technique allowing x-ray phase contrast imaging with conventional sources

Phase contrast imaging (PCI) solves the basic limitation of x-ray imaging, i.e., poor image contrast resulting from small absorption differences. Up to now, it has been mostly limited to synchrotron radiation facilities, due to the stringent requirements on the x-ray source and detectors, and only one technique was shown to provide PCI images with conventional sources but with limits in practical implementation. The authors propose a different approach, based on coded apertures, which provides high PCI signals with conventional sources and detectors and imposes practically no applicability limits. They expect this method to cast the basis of a widespread diffusion of PCI. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics

Laboratory implementation of edge illumination X-ray phase-contrast imaging with energy-resolved detectors

Edge illumination (EI) X-ray phase-contrast imaging (XPCI) has potential for applications in different fields of research, including materials science, non-destructive industrial testing, small-animal imaging, and medical imaging. One of its main advantages is the compatibility with laboratory equipment, in particular with conventional non-microfocal sources, which makes its exploitation in normal research laboratories possible. In this work, we demonstrate that the signal in laboratory implementations of EI can be correctly described with the use of the simplified geometrical optics. Besides enabling the derivation of simple expressions for the sensitivity and spatial resolution of a given EI setup, this model also highlights the EI’s achromaticity. With the aim of improving image quality, as well as to take advantage of the fact that all energies in the spectrum contribute to the image contrast, we carried out EI acquisitions using a photon-counting energy-resolved detector. The obtained results demonstrate that this approach has great potential for future laboratory implementations of EI. © (2015) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only

The “Peripheral Plaintiff”: Duty Determinations in Take-Home Asbestos Cases

Since the 1970s, litigation concerning the dangers of asbestos in the workplace has transformed from a few workers’ compensation claims to hundreds of thousands of lawsuits against companies in nearly every industry. While the typical plaintiff in these claims is an employee injured while handling asbestos at the worksite, a new class of “peripheral plaintiffs” has recently emerged. These plaintiffs consist of family members who are exposed to asbestos after inhaling the dust that saturates an employee’s person and clothing. The family members then bring claims against the employers and the owners of the premises claiming that they were negligent in allowing the workers to carry asbestos home when the danger of asbestos was well known. The highest courts of six states stand divided on whether an employer or premises owner owes a duty to these third-party plaintiffs to protect them from asbestos-related harm. Two states have relied heavily on the foreseeability of the harm to hold that landowners and employers do owe a duty to third-party plaintiffs. On the other hand, four states have focused on a range of factors, like the lack of a relationship between the parties and the need to constrain asbestos litigation, to hold that landowners and employers do not owe a duty to third-party plaintiffs. This Note examines the interstate conflict and concludes that all six courts have engaged in an unclear and unnecessarily fact-specific analysis of duty. It argues that the Third Restatement’s method of determining duty represents a clearer approach, because it sends factual questions to the jury and encourages courts to take “no duty” decisions more seriously

A 10,000 Mississippi Kite flock observed in Fuerte Esperanza, Argentina

The Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) is a Neotropical migrant that nests singly or in loose, small colonies in North America from North Carolina and north Florida west to Kansas, southeastern Colorado, and Texas and north along Mississippi River to south Illinois and Indiana, and west locally to Arizona (Brown & Amadon 1968, Thiollay 1994, Wheeler 2003). The species migrates along the Mesoamerican Land Corridor into South America where it feeds on flying insects in rather small flocks. Wintering range is very imprecisely known but major part of population is likely to winter in central South America east of the Andes, southeastern Bolivia, Paraguay to northern Argentina, and at least to some extent, southwestern Brazil, wandering occasionally to Minas Gerais (Davis 1989, Fergusson-Lees & Christie 2001, Wheeler 2003, Kirwan et al. 2004).Fil: Areta, Juan Ignacio. Provincia de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Argentina. Grupo FALCO; ArgentinaFil: Seipke, Sergio H.. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; Argentin

Toward the valorization of olive (Olea europaea var. europaea L.) biodiversity: horticultural performance of seven Sicilian cultivars in a hedgerow planting system

An intense survey of the Sicilian's olive growing areas for autochthonous germplasm, mainly represented by centennials olive trees (Olea europaea var. europaea L.) apparently older then III centuries, started at the beginning of the 1980s and resulted in the selection of more than 150 cultivars and accessions. This germplasm was propagated in a nursery, by grafting onto seedlings of Olea europaea L., and planted in an experimental orchard, in an olive district located in the South-west of the Island, where they were evaluated for over 30 years and selected for their early bearing, high and constant productivity, as well as high oil content of the fruits and excellent chemical (oleic acid and phenol content) and organoleptic profile of the oil. This paper reports data on the horticultural performances (production, vigor, crop efficiency and oil quality) of four cultivars (\u2018Kalat\u2019, \u2018Olivo di Mandanici\u2019, \u2018Abunara\u2019 and \u2018Minuta\u2019), selected within the Sicilian's autochthonous germplasm trained as 'Free Palmetta' and tested in a hedgerow planting system at three different planting densities: 500, 666 and 1000 trees ha-1. The cultivar \u2018Nocellara del Belice\u2019, \u2018Cerasuola, and \u2018Biancolilla\u2019, widely cultivated in the area where the trial was carried out, were used as references. The outstanding performance of the cultivar \u2018Kalat\u2019 at planting density of 1000 trees ha 121, suggests that this cultivar can be a promising choice for the super high density orchards (SHD). The other cultivars tested did not performed as \u2018Kalat\u2019 and seem not suitable for SHD planting system due to their high vigor. The hedgerow planting system tested, in the first 6 years of planting, increaseed productivity of all cultivars compared to traditional olive orchard typical of the area where the trial was conducted. This hedgerow olive orchard may represent a valid solution to increase orchard productivity and to reduce harvest costs by mechanization, depending on tree high, with straddle or side by side canopy contact machines. Achieve higher yield and reducing management costs using autochthonous, resilient cultivars, could be a new strategy to counteract climate changes. The unique organoleptic profiles of the oils obtained from the cultivars tested, could improve the offer of tasty, flavored and nutraceutical extra virgin olive oils in the international markets. Results highlight the importance of preserving and valorizing biodiversity to increase productivity and resiliency of agricultural systems, facing continuous, fast and deep social and environmental changes

Resistance to the attack of Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin) of some Sicilian olive cultivars

Genetic resistance of olive germplasm could be an important tool in the control of Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin), the key pest in the Mediterranean olive growing. Up to now, no study was carried out on olive cultivars stressed a complete resistance to the attack of B. oleae, and few scientific data are available on susceptibility to olive fruit fly of Sicilian cultivars, although differences among susceptibility of cultivars could be usefully considered to obtain quality productions and to reduce insecticides use both in organic and conventional olive growing. The present study was carried out at Castelvetrano (Trapani province, Sicily), in the olive germplasm collection of Ente di Sviluppo Agricolo of the Sicilian Region and Dipartimento di Colture Arboree of the University of Palermo. From 2002 to 2005, infestation levels in drupes of 18 cv, representing the most widely cultivated in Sicily was recorded. Samplings were carried out every 11-20 days, starting from the second half of August to the end of October. Moreover, from 2003 to 2005 infestation levels were correlated with size and hardness of olives, while in 2004-2005 data on olive coloration were collected at different ripening stages. Among the cultivars producing larger olives, Nocellara del Belice resulted the most susceptible to the olive fruit fly attacks, while Nocellara messinese was the less infested one. Among cultivars with medium, small-sized fruits Moresca, Vaddarica, Nasitana frutto grosso, Minuta and Bottone di gallo were the less susceptible ones. Among the tested cultivars Nocellara del Belice was the most attacked one in every year of the research. A positive correlation between infestation and olive size was found, resulting in higher infestation levels on the cultivars producing larger olives. B. oleae showed a clear preference for green drupes, instead of reddish or blackish ones. In two out of three years a negative correlation between hardness and infestation was found in September

Virtual edge illumination and one dimensional beam tracking for absorption, refraction, and scattering retrieval

We propose two different approaches to retrieve x-ray absorption, refraction, and scattering signals using a one dimensional scan and a high resolution detector. The first method can be easily implemented in existing procedures developed for edge illumination to retrieve absorption and refraction signals, giving comparable image quality while reducing exposure time and delivered dose. The second method tracks the variations of the beam intensity profile on the detector through a multi-Gaussian interpolation, allowing the additional retrieval of the scattering signal