9 research outputs found
Bose-Einstein condensation in the presence of a uniform field and a point-like impurity
The behavior of an ideal -dimensional boson gas in the presence of a
uniform gravitational field is analyzed. It is explicitly shown that,
contrarily to an old standing folklore, the three-dimensional gas does not
undergo Bose-Einstein condensation at finite temperature. On the other hand,
Bose-Einstein condensation occurs at for if there is a
point-like impurity at the bottom of the vessel containing the gas.Comment: 14 pages, REVTEX. Revised version, accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.
Bose-Einstein condensation in a one-dimensional interacting system due to power-law trapping potentials
We examine the possibility of Bose-Einstein condensation in one-dimensional
interacting Bose gas subjected to confining potentials of the form , in which , by solving the
Gross-Pitaevskii equation within the semi-classical two-fluid model. The
condensate fraction, chemical potential, ground state energy, and specific heat
of the system are calculated for various values of interaction strengths. Our
results show that a significant fraction of the particles is in the lowest
energy state for finite number of particles at low temperature indicating a
phase transition for weakly interacting systems.Comment: LaTeX, 6 pages, 8 figures, uses grafik.sty (included), to be
published in Phys. Rev.
Mating disruption by vibrational signals: state of the field and perspectives
Until a few years ago, the concept of mating disruption had been
exclusively associated with the use of pheromones to reduce population density
of insect pests. Since the early 2000s, a novel approach has been proposed to the
scientific community: vibrational mating disruption (VMD). The novelty is the
use of disturbance vibrations to disrupt the mating behavior of insect pests that
communicate by means of substrate-borne vibrations. This research falls within
the new field of biotremology and it brought the VMD from a theoretical concept
to practical open field experimentation: in 2017, VMD was applied in an organic
vineyard in Northern Italy to control leafhopper pests’ population density. This
achievement gave us the opportunity to report the state of the field for the method, to
discuss the ongoing research and to make a comparison between pheromone mating
disruption (PMD) and VMD. In this chapter, we review the salient moments that led
to the field application of VMD. Then, we discuss the VMD characteristics and we
provide a benchmark, using as reference the traditional PMD to discuss similarities
and differences. Furthermore, we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of
applying VMD to commercial crops. We are convinced that the first vibrational
vineyard is a starting point and that biotremology will provide many innovative
possibilities for farmers to control pests in the future. We also think that the introduction of electronic devices in the vineyard could be a trailblazer for the
diffusion of smart technology in viticulture, thus improving its general management
Scope for non-crop plants to promote conservation biological control of crop pests and serve as sources of botanical insecticides
Besides providing food and shelter to natural enemies of crop pests, plants used in conservation biological control interventions potentially provide additional ecosystem services including providing botanical insecticides. Here we concurrently tested the strength of these two services from six non-crop plants in managing cabbage pests in Ghana over three successive field seasons. Crop margin plantings of Ageratum conyzoides, Tridax procumbens, Crotalaria juncea, Cymbopogon citratus, Lantana camara and Talinum triangulare were compared with a bare earth control in a three-way split plot design such that the crop in each plot was sprayed with either a 10% (w/v) aqueous extract from the border plant species, a negative control (water) and a positive control (emamectin benzoate ‘Attack’ insecticide). Pests were significantly less numerous in all unsprayed treatments with non-crop plant margins and in corresponding sprayed treatments (with botanical or synthetic insecticide positive control) while treatments with bare earth margin or sprayed with water (negative controls) had the highest pest densities. Numbers of predators were significantly depressed by synthetic insecticide but higher in other treatments whether unsprayed or sprayed with botanical insecticide. We conclude that some plant species have utility in both conservation biological control and as source of botanical insecticides that are relatively benign to natural enemies. In this crop system, however, the additional cost associated with using botanical insecticides was not justified by greater levels of pest suppression than achieved from border plants alone
Biological protection against grape berry moths. A review
Grape is a major crop, covering 7.5 M ha worldwide, that is currently being confronted with three main challenges: intensive pesticide use that must be reduced, invasion by new pests/diseases, and climate change. The biological control of pests and vectors would help address these challenges. Here, we review the scientific literature on the biological control of grape moths by macroorganisms (excluding nematodes). Two components, biological control with an active human role, mainly using biocontrol agents through inundation or inoculation, and conservation biological control, are considered. The major points are the following. (1) Tortricid grape moths seriously damage grapes worldwide, causing yield losses and quality reduction. The more geographically widespread species, Lobesia botrana, continues to extend its range, invading South American and, more recently, North American vineyards. (2) Parasitoids and predators (including arthropods, birds, and bats) that can control grape pests are very diverse. (3) Different methods exist to assess pest control efficiency in the field but some of them remain to be developed. (4) Environmental factors, including host plants, landscape, grass or floral covers, and organic practices, affect the natural control of grape moths. (5) Pest resistance to parasitoids strongly depends on their immune system, which is controlled by the host plant. Future climate changes may modify this tritrophic interaction and thus affect biological control strategies. We conclude that biological control has a great deal of potential in viticulture and that addressing these key factors would improve the efficiency levels of biological control strategies. This would help growers and stakeholders to significantly reduce insecticide use in vineyards