Effect of stocking density of fish on water quality and growth performance of European Carp and leafy vegetables in a low-tech aquaponic system

Aquaponics (AP) is a semi-closed system of food production that combines aquaculture and hydroponics and represents a new agricultural system integrating producers and consumers. The aim of this study was to test the effect of stocking densities (APL, 2.5 kg m-3; APH, 4.6 kg m-3) on water quality, growth performance of the European Carp (Cyprinus carpio L.), and yield of leafy vegetables (catalogna, lettuce, and Swiss Chard) in a low-technology AP pilot system compared to a hydroponic cultivation. The AP daily consumption of water due to evapotranspiration was not different among treatments with an average value of 8.2 L d-1, equal to 1.37% of the total water content of the system. Dissolved oxygen was significantly (p < 0.05) different among treatments with the lowest median value recorded with the highest stocking density of fish (5.6 mg L-1) and the highest median value in the hydroponic control (8.7 mg L-1). Marketable yield of the vegetables was significantly different among treatments with the highest production in the hydroponic control for catalogna (1.2 kg m-2) and in the APL treatment for Swiss Chard (5.3 kg m-2). The yield of lettuce did not differ significantly between hydroponic control and APL system (4.0 kg m-2 on average). The lowest production of vegetables was obtained in the APH system. The final weight (515 g vs. 413 g for APL and APH, respectively), specific growth rate (0.79% d-1 vs. 0.68% d-1), and feed conversion (1.55 vs. 1.86) of European Carp decreased when stocking density increased, whereas total yield of biomass was higher in the APH system (4.45 kg m-3 vs. 6.88 kg m-3). A low mortality (3% on average) was observed in both AP treatments. Overall, the results showed that a low initial stocking density at 2.5 kg m-3 improved the production of European Carp and of leafy vegetables by maintaining a better water quality in the tested AP system

Fertimetro, a Principle and Device to Measure Soil Nutrient Availability for Plants by Microbial Degradation Rates on Differently-Spiked Buried Threads

A novel patented method (PCT/IB2012/001157: Squartini, Concheri, Tiozzo, University of Padova) and the corresponding application devices, suitable to measure soil fertility, are presented. The availability or deficiency of specific nutrients for crops is assessed by monitoring the kinetics of progressive weakening of cotton or silk threads due to in situ microbial activity. The method is based on a nutrient-primed incremented substrate degradation principle. Threads are buried as is or pre-impregnated with N or P solutions, and the acceleration of the degradation rate for the N-supplemented or P-supplemented thread, in comparison to the untreated thread, is proportional to the lack of the corresponding nutrient in that soil. Tests were validated on corn crops in plots receiving increasing fertilizer rates in a historical rotation that has been established since 1962. The measurement carried out in May significantly correlated with the subsequent crop yields recorded in October. The analysis allows an early, inexpensive, fast, and reproducible self-assessment at field level to improve fertilization rates. The device is envisaged as a user-friendly tool for agronomy, horticulture, and any environmental applications where organic matter cycling, soil quality, and specific nutrients excess or deficiency are critical considerations

Tunable dynamic response of magnetic gels: impact of structural properties and magnetic fields

Ferrogels and magnetic elastomers feature mechanical properties that can be reversibly tuned from outside through magnetic fields. Here we concentrate on the question how their dynamic response can be adjusted. The influence of three factors on the dynamic behavior is demonstrated using appropriate minimal models: first, the orientational memory imprinted into one class of the materials during their synthesis; second, the structural arrangement of the magnetic particles in the materials; and third, the strength of an external magnetic field. To illustrate the latter point, structural data are extracted from a real experimental sample and analyzed. Understanding how internal structural properties and external influences impact the dominant dynamical properties helps to design materials that optimize the requested behavior.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Delivering COBie data - Focus on curtain walls and building envelopes

COBie is a standard data framework whose main purpose is to transmit useful, reliable and us-able information collected throughout the whole building process and to be consumed in order to properly maintain the facility. Focusing on Facility Management information exchanges and considering the UK BIM policies and requirements, this paper shows the results obtained applying COBie to complex products such as curtain walls. Two Information Delivery Manuals (IDMs) were also developed, in order to provide a com-monly known and standardized framework, which can regulate the COBie-based information exchanges. Fu-ture developments of this study could concern the application of the developed IDMs to different case studies in order to overtake that specificity characterizing each single project and verify the validity of the proposal

Fecal Viral Community Responses to High-Fat Diet in Mice.

Alterations in diet can have significant impact on the host, with high-fat diet (HFD) leading to obesity, diabetes, and inflammation of the gut. Although membership and abundances in gut bacterial communities are strongly influenced by diet, substantially less is known about how viral communities respond to dietary changes. Examining fecal contents of mice as the mice were transitioned from normal chow to HFD, we found significant changes in the relative abundances and the diversity in the gut of bacteria and their viruses. Alpha diversity of the bacterial community was significantly diminished in response to the diet change but did not change significantly in the viral community. However, the diet shift significantly impacted the beta diversity in both the bacterial and viral communities. There was a significant shift away from the relatively abundant Siphoviridae accompanied by increases in bacteriophages from the Microviridae family. The proportion of identified bacteriophage structural genes significantly decreased after the transition to HFD, with a conserved loss of integrase genes in all four experimental groups. In total, this study provides evidence for substantial changes in the intestinal virome disproportionate to bacterial changes, and with alterations in putative viral lifestyles related to chromosomal integration as a result of shift to HFD.IMPORTANCE Prior studies have shown that high-fat diet (HFD) can have profound effects on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract microbiome and also demonstrate that bacteria in the GI tract can affect metabolism and lean/obese phenotypes. We investigated whether the composition of viral communities that also inhabit the GI tract are affected by shifts from normal to HFD. We found significant and reproducible shifts in the content of GI tract viromes after the transition to HFD. The differences observed in virome community membership and their associated gene content suggest that these altered viral communities are populated by viruses that are more virulent toward their host bacteria. Because HFD also are associated with significant shifts in GI tract bacterial communities, we believe that the shifts in the viral community may serve to drive the changes that occur in associated bacterial communities

Resposta do algodoeiro à adubação fosfatada comparando fertilizante de liberação lenta com fertilizante convencional.

A baixa recuperação pelas culturas do fósforo (P) aplicado nas adubações tem despertado o interesse por produtos que anunciam o aumento da eficiência de fertilizantes convencionais. Esse estudo foi realizado em condições de campo na safra 2008/2009, em área de Latossolo Vermelho argiloso com teor médio de P, no município de Perolândia, Goiás. O objetivo foi comparar fertilizante fosfatado revestido com polímero de liberação lenta com fertilizante fosfatado convencional para a adubação do algodoeiro. O experimento foi constituído por 9 tratamentos resultantes da combinação de duas fontes (MAP e MAP recoberto com polímero de liberação lenta) e quatro doses de fósforo (40, 80, 120 e 160 kg/ha de P2O5), além de um tratamento testemunha (sem fósforo). Os tratamentos foram dispostos no campo em esquema fatorial 2x2+1, utilizando-se o delineamento experimental de blocos ao acaso com quatro repetições. No primeiro ano de avaliação, o fertilizante fosfatado revestido com polímero de liberação lenta apresentou desempenho semelhante ao fertilizante fosfatado convencional na adubação do algodoeiro cultivado em solo argiloso com 5 mg/dm3 de P. Independente das fontes usadas, houve resposta em produtividade de algodão em caroço até a dose de 115 kg/ha de P2O5

Adubação nitrogenada e inoculação com Azospirillum brasilense em algodoeiro.

De modo geral, no Brasil, o aproveitamento dos fertilizantes nitrogenados pelas plantas é relativamente baixo, chegando, em muitos casos, a menos que 50%. Nesse contexto, várias pesquisas têm apresentado como fonte alternativa para a economia de fertilizantes nitrogenados, a fixação biológica de nitrogênio (FBN), que pode suplementar ou até mesmo substituir a adubação nitrogenada, e o uso de bactérias promotoras do crescimento de plantas (BPCP), que atuam por meio de vários mecanismos, inclusive a FBN. O uso de BPCP em culturas de não leguminosas como milho, trigo e algumas pastagens é promissor. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar se a inoculação de sementes de algodão (nome científico) com Azospirillum brasilense melhora o efeito da adubação nitrogenada em cobertura.O experimento foi instalado em Santa Helena de Goiás, Goiás, Brasil. O algodoeiro foi semeado em dezembro de 2012 em sistema de semeadura direta, sob palhada de Brachiaria (=Urochloa) ruziziensis, utilizando sementes da cultivar BRS 370 RF, objetivando população de 110.000 plantas por hectare. O delineamento experimental foi de blocos casualizados com 4 repetiçoes com os tratamentos distribuídos em esquema fatorial 2x4, sendo dois tratamentos de semente: com e sem inoculação de A. brasilense estirpes Ab-V5 + Ab-V6 e quatro doses de nitrogênio (N) (0, 90, 180 e 270 kg ha-1 fornecido como uréia) aplicadas em cobertura. As doses de N foram aplicadas no algodoeiro, parceladas em duas coberturas até o início do florescimento. Na adubação de semeadura, todas as parcelas receberam o equivalente a 20 kg ha-1 de N. A inoculação foi realizada com inoculante turfos, na dose de 100 g por 25 kg de semente. As variáveis avaliadas foram: altura final de plantas; número de capulhos por planta (NCP); produtividade de algodão em caroço. Os resultados obtidos foram analisados estatisticamente por meio da análise de variância (teste F; Pr<0,01), análise de regressão para doses de N. A interação entre os fatores dose e tratamento de sementes não foi significativa. A inoculação com A. brasiliense não resultou em diferença nas variáveis estudadas. Já as doses de N influenciaram a altura de plantas, o NCP e a produtividade de algodão. O aumento da dose de N incrementou linearmente a altura de plantas eo NCP. A produtividade de algodão em caroço apresentou comportamento quadrático em função de doses de N, sendo a produtividade física máxima atingida com a dose estimada de 217 kg ha-1.Pode-se concluir que o algodoeiro semeado em sistema de semeadura direta, sob palhada de B. ruziziensis responde positivamente ao aumento da adubação nitrogenada de cobertura

Microbial oil-degradation under mild hydrostatic pressure (10 MPa): which pathways are impacted in piezosensitive hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria?

Oil spills represent an overwhelming carbon input to the marine environment that immediately impacts the sea surface ecosystem. Microbial communities degrading the oil fraction that eventually sinks to the seafloor must also deal with hydrostatic pressure, which linearly increases with depth. Piezosensitive hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria are ideal candidates to elucidate impaired pathways following oil spills at low depth. In the present paper, we tested two strains of the ubiquitous Alcanivorax genus, namely A. jadensis KS_339 and A. dieselolei KS_293, which is known to rapidly grow after oil spills. Strains were subjected to atmospheric and mild pressure (0.1, 5 and 10?MPa, corresponding to a depth of 0, 500 and 1000?m, respectively) providing n-dodecane as sole carbon source. Pressures equal to 5 and 10?MPa significantly lowered growth yields of both strains. However, in strain KS_293 grown at 10?MPa CO2 production per cell was not affected, cell integrity was preserved and PO43- uptake increased. Analysis of its transcriptome revealed that 95% of its genes were downregulated. Increased transcription involved protein synthesis, energy generation and respiration pathways. Interplay between these factors may play a key role in shaping the structure of microbial communities developed after oil spills at low depth and limit their bioremediation potential