Adaptability and Sustainable Management of High-Erucic Brassicaceae in Mediterranean Environment

none4The use of high-erucic acid oils is currently receiving increasing attention, due to the great interest in chemical compounds derived from “green feedstock”. At world level, the production of these raw materials is constantly growing, and a real niche market has progressively been created. This scenario will allow greater substitution of chemicals with “green” compounds, and the introduction of industrial oilcrops. may lead to further expansion of the green market. Alternative uses of crops for nonfood purposes may be an interesting source of profit for farmers, as is happening for higherucic acid oils. Erucic acid is an unsaturated fatty acid (C22:1) with a large number of applications in the chemical industry because it confers desirable technological characteristics, such as high lubricity, cold stability and fire resistance, on oils and derived compounds.mixedFederica Zanetti; Giuliano Mosca; Enrico Rampin; Teofilo VameraliZanetti, Federica; Mosca, Giuliano; Enrico, Rampin; Vamerali, Teofil

Adaptability and Sustainable Management of High-Erucic Brassicaceae in Mediterranean Environment

The use of high-erucic acid oils is currently receiving increasing attention, due to the great interest in chemical compounds derived from “green feedstock”. At world level, the production of these raw materials is constantly growing, and a real niche market has progressively been created (Mosca & Boatto, 1994). This scenario will allow greater substitution of chemicals with “green” compounds, and the introduction of industrial oilcrops may lead to further expansion of the green market. Alternative uses of crops for nonfood purposes may be an interesting source of profit for farmers, as is happening for higherucic acid oils. The current demand for these oils is still limited: at world level, it is nearly 20,000 tonnes of erucic acid, corresponding to about 57,000 tonnes of oils, used for deriving erucamide and various others chemical compounds. Brassicaceae are the most interesting botanical Family for producing erucic acid, due to the large number of suitable species and varieties, providing on their own the whole amount of erucic needed worldwide. The content of erucic acid ranges greatly, with high inter- and intra-specific variations: within the same species, variations may be very large. even higher than 30%, as for Brassica juncea. This probably indicates that efficiency in erucic acid accumulation may be greatly improved by adequate screening of genotypes, but also that important genetic resources may be used for breeding purposes. In this regard, an amount of 66% of erucic acid in oil must be considered, at least in rapeseed, as the current theoretical limit of accumulation (Renard et al., 1994). For some of these species (e.g., Brassica napus var. oleifera, Crambe abyssinica) yield potential and environmental adaptation have been sufficiently studied in southern Europe (Lazzeri et al., 2009; Zanetti et al., 2006 a), although there is lack of information on some others, such as Brassica juncea and B. carinata

Adaptability and sustainable management of high-erucic Brassicaceae in mediterranean environment

The use of high-erucic acid oils is currently receiving increasing attention, due to the great interest in chemical compounds derived from \u201cgreen feedstock\u201d. At world level, the production of these raw materials is constantly growing, and a real niche market has progressively been created. This scenario will allow greater substitution of chemicals with \u201cgreen\u201d compounds, and the introduction of industrial oilcrops. may lead to further expansion of the green market. Alternative uses of crops for nonfood purposes may be an interesting source of profit for farmers, as is happening for higherucic acid oils. Erucic acid is an unsaturated fatty acid (C22:1) with a large number of applications in the chemical industry because it confers desirable technological characteristics, such as high lubricity, cold stability and fire resistance, on oils and derived compounds

A phenological model of winter oilseed rape according to the BBCH scale

Implementation of the BBCH coding system for winter oilseed rape (OSR) phenology simulation can allow detailed description of crop ontogeny necessary for crop management and crop growth modelling. We developed such a BBCH model using an existing approach (Habekotte 1997). The new model describes winter OSR development by a combination of differential and conversion equations based on the structure of the BRASNAP-PH model (Habekotte 1997). Six phenological phases were reproduced daily according to the BBCH codes (00-89): emergence (00-09), leaf development (10-19), stem elongation (30-39), inflorescence emergence (50-59), flowering (60-69) and pod development-maturation period (70-89). The model takes into account temperature (including vernalisation) and photoperiod as the main environmental forces affecting crop phenology. The macro stages of leaf development and shooting were reproduced considering the rates of leaf appearance and internode extension. Model calibration and validation were performed using an extensive database of phenological observations collected from several experimental sites across France (n=144), Germany (n=839) and Italy (n=577). The stability of the parameterisation was checked by a cross-calibration procedure. Applied to the independent datasets used for validation and cross-validation, the model was able to predict the whole-crop cycle with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 2.8 and 3.2 BBCH stages, respectively. Particularly accurate predictions of winter OSR development were obtained with the Italian datasets (RMSE: 2.1 and 2.3 BBCH stages for validation and cross-validation, respectively). Considering the phenological phases separately, emergence, leaf development, flowering and the pod development-maturation period were simulated with RMSE of 1.0, 2.4, 2.9 and 3.2 BBCH stages, respectively (validation datasets). Slightly higher uncertainty emerged in the prediction of stem elongation and inflorescence emergence phases (RMSE: 3.5 and 4.1 BBCH stages, validation datasets). The model reproduced winter OSR development with a sufficient degree of accuracy for a wide range of years, locations, sowing dates and genotypes, resulting in an efficient and widely applicable prediction tool with relevant practical purposes in the crop management scheduling

The Labeled-Leukocyte Scan in the Study of Abdominal Abscesses

The purpose of the present paper was to review the literature over the last 30 years to assess the value of radionuclide imaging, particularly labeled leukocyte scan, as compared to other imaging modalities in the management of abdominal abscesses. A systematic review of the published studies in humans cited in PubMed written in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish was made. Ultrasound (US) has lower sensitivity than leukocyte scan (LS), particularly in patients without localizing signs, while CT has higher sensitivity than US, but less than LS. On the other hand, CT had higher specificity than both LS and US. LS is the more sensitive method to localize abdominal abscesses and may guide dedicated US and CT investigations to improve their diagnostic potential. Further diagnostic evolution is expected from the routine use of hybrid SPECT/CT systems