Wild vascular plants gathered for consumption in the Polish countryside: a review

BACKGROUND: This paper is an ethnobotanical review of wild edible plants gathered for consumption from the end of the 18(th )century to the present day, within the present borders of Poland. METHODS: 42 ethnographic and botanical sources documenting the culinary use of wild plants were analyzed. RESULTS: The use of 112 species (3.7% of the flora) has been recorded. Only half of them have been used since the 1960s. Three species: Cirsium rivulare, Euphorbia peplus and Scirpus sylvaticus have never before been reported as edible by ethnobotanical literature. The list of wild edible plants which are still commonly gathered includes only two green vegetables (Rumex acetosa leaves for soups and Oxalis acetosella as children's snack), 15 folk species of fruits and seeds (Crataegus spp., Corylus avellana, Fagus sylvatica, Fragaria vesca, Malus domestica, Prunus spinosa, Pyrus spp., Rosa canina, Rubus idaeus, Rubus sect. Rubus, Sambucus nigra, Vaccinium myrtillus, V. oxycoccos, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea) and four taxa used for seasoning or as preservatives (Armoracia rusticana root and leaves, Carum carvi seeds, Juniperus communis pseudo-fruits and Quercus spp. leaves). The use of other species is either forgotten or very rare. In the past, several species were used for food in times of scarcity, most commonly Chenopodium album, Urtica dioica, U. urens, Elymus repens, Oxalis acetosella and Cirsium spp., but now the use of wild plants is mainly restricted to raw consumption or making juices, jams, wines and other preserves. The history of the gradual disappearance of the original barszcz, Heracleum sphondylium soup, from Polish cuisine has been researched in detail and two, previously unpublished, instances of its use in the 20(th )century have been found in the Carpathians. An increase in the culinary use of some wild plants due to media publications can be observed. CONCLUSION: Poland can be characterized as a country where the traditions of culinary use of wild plants became impoverished very early, compared to some parts of southern Europe. The present use of wild plants, even among the oldest generation, has been almost entirely restricted to fruits

Improved detection of centroids in aberroscope and Hartmann-Shack grid images

Purpose: An aberroscope or a Hartmann-Shack sensor is often used to determine the monochromatic aberrations of the human eye. Today, most of these instruments are equipped with a CCD video camera and a computer which calculates the wavefront error using the displacements in a grid image. These displacements are determined from the centroid locations of the grid points. Methods: The images that are acquired from the camera may be of low resolution and/or low intensity. The main factors that give rise to the insufficient quality of captured images include poor reflectance from the retina, eye aberrations, absorption and scatter within the eye, and limited light source power because of the potential for retinal light damage. Current methods for detecting the centroids in these images are essentially based on a Canny-Deriche oriented edge detecting filter, the performance of which has been found to be insufficient in some clinical applications. The limitations of current methods can be overcome by utilizing an image processing procedure that can not only reduce noise and other side-effects but also significantly improve the accuracy of the detected centroid estimates. Results: We have developed a four step technique comprised of the follower: (i) enhancement of the captured image, (ii) calculation of the initial coarse regions of interest using watershed transformation (iii) refinement of the regions using a constrained watershed, and (iv) centroid detection using shrinking procedure. We have tested this new technique on simulated images with controlled amounts of added noise in addition to real aberroscope and Hartmann-Shack images. The proposed technique performs very well and can accurately detect the centroids in the image grid for signal-to-noise ratios down to SNR-5 dB. Conclusions: Our technique can accurately determine the centroid locations in images of low resolution and intensity where Canny-Deriche filter based techniques fail

Concepts and science for coastal erosion – an introduction to the Conscience framework

The main objective of the Conscience project was to develop and test concepts, guidelines and tools for the sustainable management of erosion along the European coastline, based on the best available scientific knowledge and on existing practical experience. Four concepts are potentially capable of providing the nexus between scientific knowledge and management: coastal resilience, coastal sediment cell, favourable sediment status and strategic sediment reservoir. The project has tested the use of these concepts and found that they are useful, provided that they are positioned and linked within a logical structure that we shall call the Conscience “Frame of Reference”, defined in time and space and supported through data and monitoring. Practical experience in six coastal sites in Europe has shown that the use of this Frame of Reference together with these concepts can make management objectives explicit and transparent. It can therefore support the design of an appropriate, resilience based coastal erosion management practice