Cold winters vs long journeys : adaptations of primary moult and body mass to migration and wintering in the Grey Plover Pluvialis Squatarola

Includes bibliographical references.The Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola is a circumpolar breeding wader with a cosmopolitan winter distribution. Primary moult generally starts only when potential wintering sites are reached. Across the Palearctic-African region Grey Plovers experience an enormous variety of ecological and climatic conditions, which determine the development of different moult patterns, according to local conditions and timing of migration

Composizione biochimica di quattro specie fitoplanctoniche impiegate in acquicoltura

The protein, lipid, carbohydrate, and amino acid content of four algae of the genus Chlorella, Dunaliella, Nannochloris and Tetraselmis was determined: each species was grown on Walne's media containig two different levels of nitrogen. The results show how tbe media influenced the biochemical composition of the algae

Hand Segmentation for Gesture Recognition in EGO-Vision

Portable devices for first-person camera views will play a central role in future interactive systems. One necessary step for feasible human-computer guided activities is gesture recognition, preceded by a reliable hand segmentation from egocentric vision. In this work we provide a novel hand segmentation algorithm based on Random Forest superpixel classification that integrates light, time and space consistency. We also propose a gesture recognition method based Exemplar SVMs since it requires a only small set of positive samples, hence it is well suitable for the egocentric video applications. Furthermore, this method is enhanced by using segmented images instead of full frames during test phase. Experimental results show that our hand segmentation algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches and improves the gesture recognition accuracy on both the publicly available EDSH dataset and our dataset designed for cultural heritage applications

Species introductions through coconut fibre: Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Glinus oppositifolius, new records for the Balearic Islands, Spain

Based on plant material collected in the forest nursery of the Balearic Island Forestry Center (CEFOR) for autochthonous plant production and the University of the Balearic Islands experimental facilities, two new plant records are presented for the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Dactyloctenium aegyptium, an invasive grass previously recorded in other areas of the Mediterranean basin, and Glinus oppositifolius, a new record for the European flora. In both cases the species are presumed to have arrived through contaminated batches of the coconut fibre substrate used in both facilities

Local Pyramidal Descriptors for Image Recognition

In this paper, we present a novel method to improve the flexibility of descriptor matching for image recognition by using local multiresolution pyramids in feature space. We propose that image patches be represented at multiple levels of descriptor detail and that these levels be defined in terms of local spatial pooling resolution. Preserving multiple levels of detail in local descriptors is a way of hedging one's bets on which levels will most relevant for matching during learning and recognition. We introduce the Pyramid SIFT (P-SIFT) descriptor and show that its use in four state-of-the-art image recognition pipelines improves accuracy and yields state-of-the-art results. Our technique is applicable independently of spatial pyramid matching and we show that spatial pyramids can be combined with local pyramids to obtain further improvement. We achieve state-of-the-art results on Caltech-101 (80.1%) and Caltech-256 (52.6%) when compared to other approaches based on SIFT features over intensity images. Our technique is efficient and is extremely easy to integrate into image recognition pipelines

Suspended culture of Ostrea edulis in the Calich lagoon (North western Sardinia, Italy): preliminary results

Suspended culture is a widespread farming method used for many bivalve species such as mussels, oysters and scallops. In the Mediterranean, this technique is mainly practised in lagoons or in sheltered coastal areas using floating lines from which molluscs are suspended in several ways. In this study, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis Linné, 1758) was grown in suspended lantern nets in the Calich lagoon (Sardinia, Mediterranean Sea) from March 2004 to March 2005. Two distinct groups of 6 lanterns each were hung to longline ropes near the mouth (station 1) and in the central portion of the lagoon (station 2). In each lantern (diameter=50cm; height=30cm), 90 O. edulis specimens were grown and, in order to ensure good water circulation inside the lantern net, fouling organisms were removed every month. Overall mortality, shell length (anterior-posterior axis), shell width (maximum distance on the lateral axis, between both valves of the closed shell) and total wet weight of a 180 specimen oyster sample (30 from each lantern) were recorded every 2 months at each site. In addition, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and pH were monitored monthly by means of a multi-parametric probe at both sites (between 10a.m. and 12p.m.). One-way ANOVA was used to test for differences in oyster final mean morphometric characters recorded at the 2 growing stations. Chi-square test (with Yates correction for continuity) was performed to compare survival rates at the end of the trial. From an initial mean shell length of 49.5±4.6mm, O. edulis growth rate showed a similar trend at both the stations. Nevertheless, ANOVA detected significant differences (F=7.10; p<0.01) in final mean oyster length values (83.7±6.5mm at station 1 vs 81.7±7.6mm at station 2). Significant differences (F=9.74; p<0.01) were also found in final mean oyster width (28.4±3.1mm at station 1 vs 27.5±2.8mm at station 2) and weight (F=4.00; p<0.05) values (91.4±16.7g at station 1 vs 87.7±18.3g at station 2). Moreover, chi-square test revealed a significantly different survival rate (χ2=10.04; p<0.01) between the 2 groups (57.4% at station 1 vs 47.6% at station 2).Water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and pH monthly values recorded at the 2 growing stations were almost identical. Thus, the observed differences in oyster growth and survival seemed not to be due to the hydrological variables considered. Instead, they could probably be related to mechanical and chemical effects of water renewal by coastal waters, which may have led to different seasonal seston food supplies at the 2 sites. The suspended culture of the European flat oyster described in this paper can increase the mollusc production of the Calich lagoon by growing a valuable bivalve species which is naturally scarce in this biotope. In fact, our preliminary results showed good survival and growth rates of O. edulis especially near the mouth of the lagoon. Furthermore, this farming technique could be a possible source of economic benefits for local fishermen and, above all, a low impact aquacultural activity compatible with the environment