Introducing the INSIGNIA project: environmental monitoring of pesticide use through honey bees

INSIGNIA aims to design and test an innovative, non-invasive, scientifically proven citizen science environmental monitoring protocol for the detection of pesticides by honey bees. It is a 30-month pilot project initiated and financed by the EC (PP-1-1-2018; EC SANTE). The study is being carried out by a consortium of specialists in honey bees, apiculture, statistics, analytics, modelling, extension, social science and citizen science from twelve countries. Honey bee colonies are excellent bio-samplers of biological material such as nectar, pollen and plant pathogens, as well as non-biological material such as pesticides or airborne contamination. Honey bee colonies forage over a circle of 1 km radius, increasing to several km if required, depending on the availability and attractiveness of food. All material collected is accumulated in the hive.The honey bee colony can provide four main matrices for environmental monitoring: bees, honey, pollen and wax. Because of the non-destructive remit of the project, for pesticides, pollen is the focal matrix and used as trapped pollen and beebread in this study. Although beeswax can be used as a passive sampler for pesticides, this matrix is not being used in INSIGNIA because of its polarity dependent absorbance, which limits the required wide range of pesticides to be monitored. Alternatively, two innovative non-biological matrices are being tested: i) the “Beehold tube”, a tube lined with the generic absorbent polyethylene-glycol PEG, through which hive-entering bees are forced to pass, and ii) the “APIStrip” (Absorbing Pesticides In-hive Strips) with a specific pesticide absorbent which is hung between the bee combs.Beebread and pollen collected in pollen traps are being sampled every two weeks to be analysed for pesticide residues and to record foraging conditions. Trapped pollen provides snapshots of the foraging conditions and contaminants on a single day. During the active season, the majority of beebread is consumed within days, so beebread provides recent, random sampling results. The Beehold tube and the APIStrips are present throughout the 2-weeks sampling periods in the beehive, absorbing and accumulating the incoming contaminants. The four matrices i.e. trapped pollen, beebread, Beehold tubes and APIStrips will be analysed for the presence of pesticides. The botanical origin of trapped pollen, beebread and pollen in the Beehold tubes will also be determined with an innovative molecular technique. Data on pollen and pesticide presence will then be combined to obtain information on foraging conditions and pesticide use, together with evaluation of the CORINE database for land use and pesticide legislation to model the exposure risks to honey bees and wild bees. All monitoring steps from sampling through to analysis will be studied and rigorously tested in four countries in Year 1, and the best practices will then be ring-tested in nine countries in Year 2. Information about the course of the project, its results and publications will be available on the INSIGNIA website www.insignia-bee.eu and via social media: on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/insigniabee.eu/); Instagram insignia_bee); and Twitter (insignia_bee). Although the analyses of pesticide residues and pollen identification will not be completed until December 2019, in my talk I will present preliminary results of the Year 1 sampling.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Introducing the INSIGNIA project: Environmental monitoring of pesticides use through honey bees

INSIGNIA aims to design and test an innovative, non-invasive, scientifically proven citizen science environmental monitoring protocol for the detection of pesticides via honey bees. It is a pilot project initiated and financed by the European Commission (PP-1-1-2018; EC SANTE). The study is being carried out by a consortium of specialists in honey bees, apiculture, chemistry, molecular biology, statistics, analytics, modelling, extension, social science and citizen science from twelve countries. Honey bee colonies are excellent bio-samplers of biological material such as nectar, pollen and plant pathogens, as well as non-biological material such as pesticides or airborne contamination. Honey bee colonies forage over a circle of about 1 km radius, increasing to several km if required depending on the availability and attractiveness of food. All material collected is concentrated in the hive, and the honey bee colony can provide four main matrices for environmental monitoring: bees, honey, pollen and wax. For pesticides, pollen and wax are the focal matrices. Pollen collected in pollen traps will be sampled every two weeks to record foraging conditions. During the season, most of pollen is consumed within days, so beebread can provide recent, random sampling results. On the other hand wax acts as a passive sampler, building up an archive of pesticides that have entered the hive. Alternative in-hive passive samplers will be tested to replicate wax as a “pesticide-sponge”. Samples will be analysed for the presence of pesticides and the botanical origin of the pollen using an ITS2 DNA metabarcoding approach. Data on pollen and pesticides will be then be combined to obtain information on foraging conditions and pesticide use, together with evaluation of the CORINE database for land use and pesticide legislation to model the exposure risks to honey bees and wild bees. All monitoring steps from sampling through to analysis will be studied and tested in four countries in year 1, and the best practices will then be ring-tested in nine countries in year 2. Information about the course of the project and its results and publications will be available in the INSIGNIA website www.insignia-bee.eu.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Spatial Learning and Action Planning in a Prefrontal Cortical Network Model

The interplay between hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC) is fundamental to spatial cognition. Complementing hippocampal place coding, prefrontal representations provide more abstract and hierarchically organized memories suitable for decision making. We model a prefrontal network mediating distributed information processing for spatial learning and action planning. Specific connectivity and synaptic adaptation principles shape the recurrent dynamics of the network arranged in cortical minicolumns. We show how the PFC columnar organization is suitable for learning sparse topological-metrical representations from redundant hippocampal inputs. The recurrent nature of the network supports multilevel spatial processing, allowing structural features of the environment to be encoded. An activation diffusion mechanism spreads the neural activity through the column population leading to trajectory planning. The model provides a functional framework for interpreting the activity of PFC neurons recorded during navigation tasks. We illustrate the link from single unit activity to behavioral responses. The results suggest plausible neural mechanisms subserving the cognitive “insight” capability originally attributed to rodents by Tolman & Honzik. Our time course analysis of neural responses shows how the interaction between hippocampus and PFC can yield the encoding of manifold information pertinent to spatial planning, including prospective coding and distance-to-goal correlates

Precipitation requirement of meadows situated on mineral and organic soils

На основании опубликованных опытов (1945-1983) были определены осадковые потребности луговой растительности. Осадковыми нуждами считались такие осадки, при которых получали наибольший урожай сена. Было доказано, что осадковые потребности лугов составляли 351-400мм в период от апреля до сентября. Меньшие осадки от названных были недостаточными, а большие не повышали урожай. Из 4 уровней азотного удобрения наиболее положительной была доза около 180 кг/га.On the grounds of the results of experiments published in scientific and professional literature in the years 1945-1983 the precipitation requirement of meadow vegetation has been determined. The amount of precipitation, which gave the highest hay yield, has been reffered to as the precipitation requirement. It has been found out that precipitation requirement of meadows, both on mineral and organic soils, carried out 351-400 mm in the period from April to September. The lower precipitation has been insufficient, whereas the higher have not given further increase of hay yields. From among four different doses of nitrogenous fertilization, the highest increases of hay yields were obtained with use of the dose amounted to 180 kg/ha N

The effect of oxidant on leaching lead from copper concentrate

W artykule podano wyniki doświadczeń laboratoryjnych ługowania ołowiu z koncentratu miedziowego za pomocą octanu amonu. Przebadano wpływ dodatku nadtlenku wodoru do roztworu ługującego na stopień ługowania ołowiu z koncentratu. Proces prowadzono przez 60 minut w temperaturze 293 K, stosując roztwory octanu amonowego o stężeniu 10% i 40% wagowych.This article presents results of laboratory experiments of leaching lead from copper concentrate with ammonium acetate. The effect of addition of hydrogen peroxide to the leaching solution on the rate of lead leaching from copper concentrate was studied. The process was carried out for 60 minutes at 293 K, in 10 and 40 percent (by weight) ammonium acetate solutions

Selected chemical substances detection using dual-band thermal imaging camera with microbolometer infrared focal plane array detectors

Main notion of this paper is presenting the possibility of applying microbolometer FPAs in detection and visualization of far infrared sub-bands (LWIR 8-12 µm), as a cheaper alternative to cooled detectors. Specifically designed and built device consists of infrared optics, custom made beamsplitter with desired spectral characteristic, two microbolometer infrared FPA detectors, data acquisition and processing software for substance detection

Non-uniformity correction in microbolometer array with temperature influence compensation

In the article a non-uniformity correction method is presented which allows to compensate for the influence of detector’s temperature drift. For this purpose, dependency between output signal value and the temperature of the detector array was investigated. Additionally the influence of the temperature on the Offset and Gain coefficients was measured. Presented method utilizes estimated dependency between output signal of detectors and their temperature. In the presented method, the shutter is used for establishing signal reference. Thermoelectric cooler is used for changing the temperature of the detector array

Output signal change analysis of an uncooled microbolometer focal plane array with respect to varying control voltages and operating point temperature

This paper presents results of output signal analysis of uncooled microbolometric focal plane array FPA. The analysis focuses on detectors manufactured by ULIS. The signal has been tested against varying control voltages, it is blind microbolometer biasing VSK and active microbolometer biasing VFID. The working point temperature of the environment was also altered in range from 5°C to 60°C. Such analysis can be used to check the results against current mathematical model of FPA’s behavior and verify validity of the measurement method in varying working conditions. Later it could allow explore possibility to design corrective algorithms