Prickly pear seed oil extraction, chemical characterization and potential health benefits

4openInternationalBothPrickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica L.) is a member of the Cactaceae family originally grown in South America, and the plant is now distributed to many parts of the world, including the Middle East. The chemical composition and biological activities of different parts of prickly pear, including cladodes, flowers, fruit, seeds and seed oil, were previously investigated. Oil from the seeds has been known for its nutritive value and can be potentially used for health promotion. This review is an effort to cover what is actually known to date about the prickly pear seeds oil extraction, characteristics, chemical composition and potential health benefits to provide inspiration for the need of further investigation and future research. Prickly pear seeds oil has been extracted using different extraction techniques from conventional to advanced. Chemical characterization of the oil has been sufficiently studied, and it is sufficiently understood that the oil is a high linoleic oil. Its composition is influenced by the variety and environment and also by the method of extraction. The health benefits of the prickly pear seed oil were reported by many researchers. For future research, additional studies are warranted on mechanisms of action of the reported biological activities to develop nutraceutical products for the prevention of various chronic human diseasesopenAl-Naqeb, Ghanya; Fiori, Luca; Ciolli, Marco; Aprea, EugenioAl-Naqeb, G.; Fiori, L.; Ciolli, M.; Aprea, E

Extending the vibroscape to agroecosystems: investigating the influence of abiotic factors and monitoring insect vibrational signaling

Environmental conditions are crucial factors that influence communication systems and affect animal behavior. Research in the field of biotremology has improved our understanding of insect behavior, ecology, and evolution. However, the interactions between vibrational signaling and environmental factors are less studied, mainly because of technical issues faced in field trials. We therefore developed and tested an approach to investigate the effect of abiotic factors on insect vibrational signaling and explored its implementation as a monitoring tool for insect vibrational signals, using a vineyard as an agroecosystem model. Our results showed a significant decrease in insect signaling activity during unsuitable conditions of high temperature and wind velocity. We determined for the first time, the daily signaling pattern of the two insect pests, Scaphoideus titanus and Halyomorpha halys, in natural conditions. Biotremology techniques could be profitably used to monitor not only the presence of target pest species but also the biodiversity associated with vibrational signaling insects. In particular, the method implemented in this study could be used as a tool to compare the quality of cultivated areas under different management system

Investigating alcohol consumption during pregnancy for the prevention of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

The term FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders) is used to describe the entire spectrum of pathologies and disorders caused by alcohol exposure in uterus. Alcohol assumed in pregnancy passes directly through the placental barrier causing a broad range of symptoms whose severity can greatly vary in degree. The alcohol teratogenic effect may result in physical damage and specific facial anomalies, growth delays, neurological defects along with intellectual disabilities and behavioral problems. Children affected show difficulties in verbal learning, memory, visual-spatial abilities, attention, logic and math abilities, information processing, executive functions as well as in many other domains and in general coping with daily life. Total abstention from alcohol during pregnancy is strongly recommended, as a safe threshold of consumption has not been established yet. Hence, the early identification of alcohol consumption in pregnancy is crucial. Specific methodologies to overcome difficulties related to the identification of alcohol behavior in pregnant women are needed and intervention protocols should be implemented to prevent damage in offsprings. This paper gives an overview on this pathology, from clinical delineation to epidemiology and risk factors with a special focus to promote alcohol-free pregnanc

Socio-Ecological Connectivity for Productive, Circular and Resilient Territories. The Experience of the "Saturn" EIT Climate-KIC Pan European Project

Since the European conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns happened in Aalborg in 1994 the urgency to promote a more balanced relationship and to enhance the reconnection between urban and rural areas became a matter of discussion in research and policy-making. A further important push towards the implementation of reconnection strategies occurred in 1997 with the European Conference on Rural Development. Nowadays, many stakeholders involved in territorial and landscape planning, in order to implement a new relationship between cities and countryside, aim to remove rural areas from margins, to bring citizens closer to the urgent need to safeguard the entire natural ecosystem, and to preserve rural areas and the ecosystem services they provide. The food system can be a key of reconnection between urban and rural areas and has a great impact on materials and energy flows in the metabolism of a city-region. The contribution will explore the spatial transformation of urban and rural landscapes in the city of Trento through a multidisciplinary lens on social dynamics and the governance of food policies

FOSS tools and applications for education in geospatial sciences

While the theory and implementation of geographic information systems (GIS) have a history of more than 50 years, the development of dedicated educational tools and applications in this field is more recent. This paper presents a free and open source software (FOSS) approach for education in the geospatial disciplines, which has been used over the last 20 years at two Italian universities. The motivations behind the choice of FOSS are discussed with respect to software availability and development, as well as educational material licensing. Following this philosophy, a wide range of educational tools have been developed, covering topics from numerical cartography and GIS principles to the specifics regarding different systems for the management and analysis of spatial data. Various courses have been implemented for diverse recipients, ranging from professional training workshops to PhD courses. Feedback from the students of those courses provides an invaluable assessment of the effectiveness of the approach, supplying at the same time directions for further improvement. Finally, lessons learned after 20 years are discussed, highlighting how the management of educational materials can be difficult even with a very open approach to licensing. Overall, the use of free and open source software for geospatial (FOSS4G) science provides a clear advantage over other approaches, not only simplifying software and data management, but also ensuring that all of the information related to system design and implementation is available

A method to assess the economic impacts of forest biomass use on ecosystem services in a National Park

The aim of the paper is to develop a method to assess the effect of forest biomass use for energy on ecosystem services (ES). Such method has been in the GRASS GIS environment, by creating an Decision Support System (DSS) called r.green.biomassfor. The method has been tested in the Triglav National Park in Slovenia. The potential forest biomass was estimated with r.green.biomassfor DSS taking into account the effects of forest biomass harvesting on ES in terms of economic value. The economic value of each ecosystem service to society has been estimated using different economic evaluation methods and were spatially located with a Geographical Information System (GIS) application. Then, a semi-structured questionnaire was administered face-to-face to the experts in order to understand the effects of forest biomass harvesting on the ES at local level. Finally, the results of the questionnaire survey were elaborated to obtain indicators useful to assess the economic gain or loss on the benefits provided by ES based on the results of r.green.biomassfor DSS. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserve

Relevance of the cell neighborhood size in landscape metrics evaluation and free or open source software implementations

Landscape metrics constitute one of the main tools for the study of the changes of the landscape and of the ecological structure of a region. The most popular software for landscape metrics evaluation is FRAGSTATS, which is free to use but does not have free or open source software (FOSS). Therefore, FOSS implementations, such as QGIS’s LecoS plugin and GRASS’ r.li modules suite, were developed. While metrics are defined in the same way, the “cell neighborhood” parameter, specifying the configuration of the moving window used for the analysis, is managed differently: FRAGSTATS can use values of 4 or 8 (8 is default), LecoS uses 8 and r.li 4. Tests were performed to evaluate the landscape metrics variability depending on the “cell neighborhood” values: some metrics, such as “edge density” and “landscape shape index”, do not change, other, for example “patch number”, “patch density”, and “mean patch area”, vary up to 100% for real maps and 500% for maps built to highlight this variation. A review of the scientific literature was carried out to check how often the value of the “cell neighborhood” parameter is explicitly declared. A method based on the “aggregation index” is proposed to estimate the effect of the uncertainty on the “cell neighborhood” parameter on landscape metrics for different map

Human‐induced risk drives behavioural decisions in a recovering brown bear population

In human-dominated landscapes, rebounding bear populations share space with people, which may lead to bear–human conflicts and, consequently, a decrease in acceptance and an increase in bear mortality linked to human causes. Previous analyses of brown bear (Ursus arctos) movement data have shown that bears adopt a security-food trade-off strategy in response to variable human-related risk. However, brown bear flexibility to cope with these risky situations may be reduced when resting, mating or stocking fat in preparation for hibernation. In this study, we measured the multi-scale spatial response of brown bears to human-related risk and food resource distribution in a highly heterogeneous human-dominated landscape. We examined habitat selection both within the population range (‘second-order’ selection) and at bedding site locations (‘third-order’) for GPS-tagged brown bears of a recently reintroduced population in the Italian Alps. We identified resting locations by field-validated spatio-temporal cluster analysis of telemetry locations. We mapped food availability and distribution using dynamic geographic layers of fruiting wild berries, and human-related risk using human mobility data (Strava-based Cumulated Outdoor activity Index). Brown bears appeared to compromise their need for food resources for avoidance of anthropogenic disturbance when selecting home ranges, as they utilized areas richer in wild berries less when human use of outdoor tracks was higher. Furthermore, selection of resting site locations strongly depended on the avoidance of human-related risk only, with less frequented, more concealed and inaccessible sites being selected. We conclude that humans compete for space with bears beyond their infrastructural impact, that is, by actively occupying key areas for bear survival, thereby potentially restricting the bears' realized niche. We propose mitigating actions to promote bear–human coexistence by selectively restricting human access to key areas during sensitive annual physiological phases for bear surviva

Decision Making in City Planning: Processes of Visioning and Stakeholders Engagement and their Relation to Sustainable Land-Use in the SATURN Project

The EIT Climate-KIC SATURN project deals with rural-urban territories, their landscapes and environmental challenges. The land of our cities and regions is fragmented and prone to several challenges in terms of ecology, governance and social coherence. As a result of unregulated overlapping of different land uses and complex governance patterns, landscape fragmentation creates severe challenges in the ways the land is perceived, identified and therefore managed. The SATURN consortium is working on different models to help address the governance and decision-making process and support on a policy level by applying holistic ideas of visioning and stakeholder engagement at a city scale. The diversity of the three hubs (Birmingham in central England, Gothenburg in western Sweden, and Trentino in northern Italy) is reflected by their approaches to stakeholders’ engagement and visioning processes as well as especially adopted activities in each location. Within the SATURN project, we are investigating how these approaches could change perceptions and impact on landscape strategic actions. Through a series of especially designed workshops on landscape visioning and stakeholder engagement, the project aims to create a toolbox supporting urban, peri-urban and regional planning. This paper reports on the visioning and stakeholder mapping and analysis tools, and shares examples where these processes were tested during the broader SATURN scheme. Results demonstrate how the visioning exercise has changed public perceptions about an area and how this has affected the decision-making process of each city towards a more effective planning of sustainable landscapes. The stakeholder engagement activity demonstrates the importance of “mapping and analysis” of the various actors involved in a city and the ways a landscape project can effectively engage with them and seek further collaboration. Questions on how the results differ in cases where the stakeholder engagement process focused on a broad policy level or targeted specific actions for a certain region are being explored. Both the visioning and stakeholder engagement tools are subject to a holistic approach and a collaborative and open process between the stakeholders and the trainers, allowing the participants to build a vision for their regions and be one-step closer to systemic change