Effects of different cultivation techniques on vineyard fauna

Green covering compared to soil cultivation enhanced the number of individuals of Araneae living on or near soil. No differences between the different soil management systems were found for the number of individuals of Staphylinidae and Carabidae. The typical main species of the two systems were different for all groups analyzed (Araneae, Staphylinidae and Carabidae)

New data on the Pseudoscorpion fauna of the caves of the Bakony Mountains, Hungary

Examining cave samples from the Bakony Museum of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Hungary two pseudoscorpion species were found; Chthonius ressli Beier, 1956 and Neobisium carcinoides (Hermann, 1804). C. ressli is new to the pseudoscorpion fauna of Hungary. The morphological characters of the specimens found are discussed in detail and drawings of the C. ressli specimens are given

Characterisation and effects of a xylanase enzyme preparation extracted from Thermomyces lanuginosus cultures

This paper describes the production of an enzyme preparation from the fungus Thermomyces lanuginosus. Thermal resistance, pH stability and lignocellulolytic activity of the enzyme preparation high in xylanase were studied on a variety of grains and forages. The enzyme preparation preserved more than 70% of its original xylanase activity for 4 and 1 h at 60 and 70 °C, respectively. The xylanase activity remained over 80% when the preparation was incubated for 30 min at pH 4.5. In vitro digestibility studies indicated that the enzyme digested 7.5, 8.5 and 8.0% of the dry matter (DM) of barley meal, wheat bran and oat meal samples, respectively. When applying 60-min incubation, 7.5, 7.3 and 8.4% of DM of the oat straw, alfalfa hay and triticale straw was digested, respectively. When the time of digestion was increased to 360 min, the sunflower hull showed 15.8% DM digestibility

A Monte Carlo simulation of ion transport at finite temperatures

We have developed a Monte Carlo simulation for ion transport in hot background gases, which is an alternative way of solving the corresponding Boltzmann equation that determines the distribution function of ions. We consider the limit of low ion densities when the distribution function of the background gas remains unchanged due to collision with ions. A special attention has been paid to properly treat the thermal motion of the host gas particles and their influence on ions, which is very important at low electric fields, when the mean ion energy is comparable to the thermal energy of the host gas. We found the conditional probability distribution of gas velocities that correspond to an ion of specific velocity which collides with a gas particle. Also, we have derived exact analytical formulas for piecewise calculation of the collision frequency integrals. We address the cases when the background gas is monocomponent and when it is a mixture of different gases. The developed techniques described here are required for Monte Carlo simulations of ion transport and for hybrid models of non-equilibrium plasmas. The range of energies where it is necessary to apply the technique has been defined. The results we obtained are in excellent agreement with the existing ones obtained by complementary methods. Having verified our algorithm, we were able to produce calculations for Ar$^+$ ions in Ar and propose them as a new benchmark for thermal effects. The developed method is widely applicable for solving the Boltzmann equation that appears in many different contexts in physics.Comment: 14 page

The effect of photoemission on nanosecond helium microdischarges at atmospheric pressure

Atmospheric-pressure microdischarges excited by nanosecond high-voltage pulses are investigated in helium-nitrogen mixtures by first-principles particle-based simulations, which include VUV resonance radiation transport via the tracing of photon trajectories. The VUV photons, of which the frequency redistribution in the emission processes is included in some detail, are found to modify the computed discharge characteristics remarkably, due to their ability to induce electron emission from the cathode surface. Electrons created this way enhance the plasma density, and a significant increase of the transient current pulse amplitude is observed. The simulations allow the computation of the density of helium atoms in the 21P resonant state, as well as the density of photons in the plasma and the line shape of the resonant VUV radiation reaching the electrodes. These indicate the presence of significant radiation trapping in the plasma and photon escape times longer than the duration of the excitation pulses are found

Eicosapentaenoic acid production by Phaeodactylum tricornutum under different culture condition

Phaeodactylum tricornutum UTEX 640 strain of microalgae was screened under different culture conditions for their capacity to produce eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) the most abundant polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA). In our experiments, the effect of sodium chlorid, nitrogen source, phosphate, initial pH, as well as the CO2 content of the medium on production of the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) by P. tricornutum were investigated. The EPA content of biomass was enhanced by the low pH of the medium, with increased concentrations of B17 vitamin and nitrate, and also with decreasing concentrations of sodium chlorid. The EPA is most likely associated with polar (membran) lipids and the role of EPA appears to be involved with membran permeability in microalge. The synthesis of phospholipids, enhances the EPA content of the cells, as expected. The maximum EPA yields were observed under optimum culture condition 43 — 48 mg/g of dry cell weight