scholarly journals Multidisciplinary analysis of Italian Alpine wildflower honey reveals criticalities, diversity and value

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Leoni ◽  
Luca Giupponi ◽  
Radmila Pavlovic ◽  
Carla Gianoncelli ◽  
Francisco Cecati ◽  
...  

AbstractWildflower honeys produced in mountain grasslands are an expression of the biodiversity of these fragile habitats. Despite its importance, the botanical origin of honey is often defined without performing formal analysis. The aim of the study was to characterize six wildflower mountain honeys produced in the Italian Alps with different analytic techniques (SPME–GC–MS, HPLC-Orbitrap, cicatrizing and antioxidant activity) alongside melissopalynological analysis and botanical definition of the production area. Even though the apiaries were in mountain grasslands rich in Alpine herbaceous species, the honey could be defined as rhododendron/raspberry unifloral or raspberry and rhododendron bifloral while the honey produced at the lowest altitude differed due to the presence of linden, heather and chestnut. The non-compliance of the honey could be due to habitat (meadows and pastures) fragmentation, but also to specific compounds involved in the plant–insect relationship, such as kynurenic acid, present in a high quantity in the sample rich in chestnut pollen. 255 volatile compounds were detected as well as some well-known markers of specific botanic essences, in particular chestnut, linden and heather, also responsible for most of the differences in aroma profiling. A high correlation between nicotinaldehyde content and percentage of raspberry pollen (r = 0.853, p < 0.05) was found. Phenolic acid and hydroxy-fatty acid were predominant in the chestnut pollen dominant honey, which presented the highest antioxidant activity and the lowest cicatrizing activity, while the flavonoid fraction was accentuated in one sample (rhododendron pollen prevalent), that was also the one with the highest effect on wound closure, although all samples had similar cicatrizing effects apart from the chestnut pollen dominant honey (lowest cicatrizing activity). Our study highlighted the difficulty of producing mountain wildflower honey and the importance of a thorough characterization of this product, also to encourage its production and valorisation.

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agostino Cera ◽  

Abstract: While putting forward the proposal of a “philosophy of technology in the nominative case,” grounded on the concept of Neoenvironmentality, this paper intends to argue that the best definition of our current age is not “Anthropocene.” Rather, it is “Technocene,” since technology represents here and now the real “subject of history” and of (a de-natured) nature, i.e. the (neo)environment where man has to live.This proposal culminates in a new definition of man’s humanity and of technology. Switching from natura hominis to conditio humana, the peculiarity of man can be defined on the basis of an anthropic perimeter, the core of which consists of man’s worldhood: man is that being that has a world (Welt), while animal has a mere environment (Umwelt). Both man’s worldhood and animal’s environmentality are derived from a pathic premise, namely the fundamental moods (Grundstimmungen) that refer them to their respective findingness (Befindlichkeit).From this anthropological premise, technology emerges as the oikos of contemporary humanity. Technology becomes the current form of the world – and so gives birth to a Technocene – insofar as it introduces in any human context its ratio operandi and so assimilates man to an animal condition, i.e. an environmental one. Technocene corresponds on the one side to the emergence of technology as (Neo)environment and on the other to the feralization of man. The spirit of Technocene turns out to be the complete redefinition of the anthropic perimeter.While providing a non-ideological characterization of the current age, this paper proposes the strategy of an ‘anthropological conservatism,’ that is to say a pathic desertion understood as a possible (pre)condition for the beginning of an authentic Anthropocene, i.e. the age of an-at-last-entirely-human-man.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-506
Author(s):  
J. A. DE CARVALHO NETO ◽  
L. A. C. M. VELOSO

AbstractThe knowledge on the active moving load of a bridge is crucial for the achievement of the information on the behavior of the structure, and thus foresee maintenance, repairs and better definition of the logistics of its active vehicles. This paper presents the development of the algorithms for the application of the Bridge-Weigh In Motion (B-WIM) method created by Moses for the weighing of trains during motion and also for the characterization of the rail traffic, allowing the obtainment of information like passage's train velocity and number and spacing of axles, eliminating the dynamic effect. There were implemented algorithms for the determination of the data referring to the geometry of the train and its loads, which were evaluated using a theoretical example, in which it was simulated the passage of the train over a bridge and the loads of its axles were determined with one hundred percent of precision. In addition, it was made a numerical example in finite elements of a reinforced concrete viaduct from the Carajás' Railroad, in which the developed system reached great results on the characterization and weighing of the locomotive when the constitutive equation of the Brazilian Standards was substituted by the one proposed by Collins and Mitchell.


Literatūra ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-124
Author(s):  
Eleonora Lassan

In 2015, Vremya Publishing House issued A Flute Solo, a book by V. Shenderovich, a multigenre and, according to the author of the article, intermedial work, since the peculiarities of the content of a political satire and a tragedy, a farce and a fantasy on the one hand and some features of musical pieces, a fugue in particular, on the other hand, have merged there. The author provides a detailed characterization of the plot, constructed as a grotesque depiction of the reality, the composition as relating a verbal text to a piece of music, and the symbolic value of certain elements, allowing not to agree to the definition of the book as being “desperately hopeless”.


2013 ◽  
Vol 554-557 ◽  
pp. 1116-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Tabourot ◽  
Pascale Balland ◽  
Mathieu Vautrot ◽  
Odd Sture Hopperstad ◽  
Jonathan Raujol-Veillé ◽  
...  

This article discusses the characterization and modeling of the elastic behavior of a semi-hard steel used in incremental forming operations which implies great loading speeds at high temperatures and large springback after each passage of the roller. The knowledge of the elastic behavior is essential to correctly predict these springbacks during forming. The objective is therefore on the one hand the characterization of the elastic response of the material under different conditions and on the other hand the definition of a model that describes the material behavior with as much precision as possible. To this end, two models, one phenomenological and the other built on more physical basis, are considered.


1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-318
Author(s):  
Lino Gutierrez Novoa

It is well known that the real number field can be characterized as an ordered field satisfied the “least upper bound” property.Using the idea of n -ordered set, introduced in [3], and generalizing the notion of l.u.b. in a suitable way, it is possible to give a similar categorical definition of the complex field.With these extended meanings, the main theorem of this paper (Theorem 7 in the text) is stated almost identically to the one for the real field. Any directly two-ordered field, in which the "supremum property" holds, is isomorphic to the complex field.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-122
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Bulajić ◽  
Miomir Despotović ◽  
Thomas Lachmann

Abstract. The article discusses the emergence of a functional literacy construct and the rediscovery of illiteracy in industrialized countries during the second half of the 20th century. It offers a short explanation of how the construct evolved over time. In addition, it explores how functional (il)literacy is conceived differently by research discourses of cognitive and neural studies, on the one hand, and by prescriptive and normative international policy documents and adult education, on the other hand. Furthermore, it analyses how literacy skills surveys such as the Level One Study (leo.) or the PIAAC may help to bridge the gap between cognitive and more practical and educational approaches to literacy, the goal being to place the functional illiteracy (FI) construct within its existing scale levels. It also sheds more light on the way in which FI can be perceived in terms of different cognitive processes and underlying components of reading. By building on the previous work of other authors and previous definitions, the article brings together different views of FI and offers a perspective for a needed operational definition of the concept, which would be an appropriate reference point for future educational, political, and scientific utilization.


Author(s):  
Ross McKibbin

This book is an examination of Britain as a democratic society; what it means to describe it as such; and how we can attempt such an examination. The book does this via a number of ‘case-studies’ which approach the subject in different ways: J.M. Keynes and his analysis of British social structures; the political career of Harold Nicolson and his understanding of democratic politics; the novels of A.J. Cronin, especially The Citadel, and what they tell us about the definition of democracy in the interwar years. The book also investigates the evolution of the British party political system until the present day and attempts to suggest why it has become so apparently unstable. There are also two chapters on sport as representative of the British social system as a whole as well as the ways in which the British influenced the sporting systems of other countries. The book has a marked comparative theme, including one chapter which compares British and Australian political cultures and which shows British democracy in a somewhat different light from the one usually shone on it. The concluding chapter brings together the overall argument.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 482-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Bittanti ◽  
Fabrizio Lorito ◽  
Silvia Strada

In this paper, Linear Quadratic (LQ) optimal control concepts are applied for the active control of vibrations in helicopters. The study is based on an identified dynamic model of the rotor. The vibration effect is captured by suitably augmenting the state vector of the rotor model. Then, Kalman filtering concepts can be used to obtain a real-time estimate of the vibration, which is then fed back to form a suitable compensation signal. This design rationale is derived here starting from a rigorous problem position in an optimal control context. Among other things, this calls for a suitable definition of the performance index, of nonstandard type. The application of these ideas to a test helicopter, by means of computer simulations, shows good performances both in terms of disturbance rejection effectiveness and control effort limitation. The performance of the obtained controller is compared with the one achievable by the so called Higher Harmonic Control (HHC) approach, well known within the helicopter community.


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