scholarly journals Creating Living Landscapes: Why We Need to Increase Plant/Insect Linkages in Designed Landscapes

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 446-452
Author(s):  
Douglas W. Tallamy
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Ecosystem Function ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Insect Herbivores ◽  
Animal Diversity ◽  
Local Ecosystem ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Better Than

Specialized relationships between animals and plants are the norm in nature rather than the exception and landscape designs that destroy them also degrade local ecosystem function. Plants that evolved in concert with local animals provide for their needs better than plants that evolved elsewhere. The most common and arguably most important specialized relationships are those that have developed between insect herbivores and their host plants. Here, I explain why this is so, why specialized food relationships determine the stability and complexity of the local food webs that support animal diversity, and why our yards and gardens are essential parts of the ecosystems that sustain us. I also discuss how we can use our residential and corporate landscapes to connect the isolated habitat fragments around us and produce valuable ecosystem services, and what we can do to make our landscapes living ecosystems once again.

scholarly journals Fungi–Nematode Interactions: Diversity, Ecology, and Biocontrol Prospects in Agriculture

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Shuoshuo Li ◽  
Haixia Li ◽  
Ruirui Wang ◽  
Ke-Qin Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Fungal Pathogens ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Phytopathogenic Fungi ◽  
Agricultural Fields ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Broad Framework ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Trapping Devices

Fungi and nematodes are among the most abundant organisms in soil habitats. They provide essential ecosystem services and play crucial roles for maintaining the stability of food-webs and for facilitating nutrient cycling. As two of the very abundant groups of organisms, fungi and nematodes interact with each other in multiple ways. Here in this review, we provide a broad framework of interactions between fungi and nematodes with an emphasis on those that impact crops and agriculture ecosystems. We describe the diversity and evolution of fungi that closely interact with nematodes, including food fungi for nematodes as well as fungi that feed on nematodes. Among the nematophagous fungi, those that produce specialized nematode-trapping devices are especially interesting, and a great deal is known about their diversity, evolution, and molecular mechanisms of interactions with nematodes. Some of the fungi and nematodes are significant pathogens and pests to crops. We summarize the ecological and molecular mechanisms identified so far that impact, either directly or indirectly, the interactions among phytopathogenic fungi, phytopathogenic nematodes, and crop plants. The potential applications of our understanding to controlling phytophagous nematodes and soilborne fungal pathogens in agricultural fields are discussed.

scholarly journals Dispersion of Carbon Nanotubes with “Green” Detergents

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 2908
Author(s):  
Kazuo Umemura ◽  
Ryo Hamano ◽  
Hiroaki Komatsu ◽  
Takashi Ikuno ◽  
Eko Siswoyo
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Nanotubes ◽  
Sodium Dodecyl ◽  
Detergent Solution ◽  
Absorbance Spectroscopy ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Single Walled Cnts ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Walled Cnts ◽  
Cnt Suspensions

Solubilization of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is a fundamental technique for the use of CNTs and their conjugates as nanodevices and nanobiodevices. In this work, we demonstrate the preparation of CNT suspensions with “green” detergents made from coconuts and bamboo as fundamental research in CNT nanotechnology. Single-walled CNTs (SWNTs) with a few carboxylic acid groups (3–5%) and pristine multi-walled CNTs (MWNTs) were mixed in each detergent solution and sonicated with a bath-type sonicator. The prepared suspensions were characterized using absorbance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Among the eight combinations of CNTs and detergents (two types of CNTs and four detergents, including sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as the standard), SWNTs/MWNTs were well dispersed in all combinations except the combination of the MWNTs and the bamboo detergent. The stability of the suspensions prepared with coconut detergents was better than that prepared with SDS. Because the efficiency of the bamboo detergents against the MWNTs differed significantly from that against the SWNTs, the natural detergent might be useful for separating CNTs. Our results revealed that the use of the “green” detergents had the advantage of dispersing CNTs as well as SDS.

scholarly journals Research on Generation Method of Grasp Strategy Based on DeepLab V3+ for Three-Finger Gripper

Information ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 278
Author(s):  
Sanlong Jiang ◽  
Shaobo Li ◽  
Qiang Bai ◽  
Jing Yang ◽  
Yanming Miao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Field Of View ◽  
Convolution Kernel ◽  
Parallel Connection ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Spatial Pyramid Pooling ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Parameter Values ◽  
Filter Layer ◽  
Complex Dataset ◽  
Better Than

A reasonable grasping strategy is a prerequisite for the successful grasping of a target, and it is also a basic condition for the wide application of robots. Presently, mainstream grippers on the market are divided into two-finger grippers and three-finger grippers. According to human grasping experience, the stability of three-finger grippers is much better than that of two-finger grippers. Therefore, this paper’s focus is on the three-finger grasping strategy generation method based on the DeepLab V3+ algorithm. DeepLab V3+ uses the atrous convolution kernel and the atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) architecture based on atrous convolution. The atrous convolution kernel can adjust the field-of-view of the filter layer by changing the convolution rate. In addition, ASPP can effectively capture multi-scale information, based on the parallel connection of multiple convolution rates of atrous convolutional layers, so that the model performs better on multi-scale objects. The article innovatively uses the DeepLab V3+ algorithm to generate the grasp strategy of a target and optimizes the atrous convolution parameter values of ASPP. This study used the Cornell Grasp dataset to train and verify the model. At the same time, a smaller and more complex dataset of 60 was produced according to the actual situation. Upon testing, good experimental results were obtained.

Attitude reconstruction from strap-down rate gyros using power series

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Habib Ghanbarpourasl
Keyword(s):  
Power Series ◽  
Taylor Series ◽  
Direction Cosine ◽  
Analytical Description ◽  
Double Precision ◽  
Angular Velocity Vector ◽  
Higher Order Terms ◽  
Direction Cosine Matrix ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Better Than

Abstract This paper introduces a power series based method for attitude reconstruction from triad orthogonal strap-down gyros. The method is implemented and validated using quaternions and direction cosine matrix in single and double precision implementation forms. It is supposed that data from gyros are sampled with high frequency and a fitted polynomial is used for an analytical description of the angular velocity vector. The method is compared with the well-known Taylor series approach, and the stability of the coefficients’ norm in higher-order terms for both methods is analysed. It is shown that the norm of quaternions’ derivatives in the Taylor series is bigger than the equivalent terms coefficients in the power series. In the proposed method, more terms can be used in the power series before the saturation of the coefficients and the error of the proposed method is less than that for other methods. The numerical results show that the application of the proposed method with quaternions performs better than other methods. The method is robust with respect to the noise of the sensors and has a low computational load compared with other methods.

Phoretic specialization on insect herbivores facilitates mite transportation to host plants

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Bizzarri ◽  
Erin K. Kuprewicz ◽  
Megana Varma ◽  
Carlos García‐Robledo
Keyword(s):  
Host Plants ◽  
Insect Herbivores

Magnetorheological fluid based on amorphous Fe-Si-B alloy magnetic particles

2021 ◽  
pp. 1045389X2110643
Author(s):  
Chuncheng Yang ◽  
Zhong Liu ◽  
Xiangyu Pei ◽  
Cuiling Jin ◽  
Mengchun Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Field Strength ◽  
Rheological Property ◽  
Magnetic Particles ◽  
Annealing Treatment ◽  
Magnetorheological Fluid ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Magnetic Field ◽  
Amorphous Particle ◽  
Better Than

Magnetorheological fluids (MRFs) based on amorphous Fe-Si-B alloy magnetic particles were prepared. The influence of annealing treatment on stability and rheological property of MRFs was investigated. The saturation magnetization ( Ms) of amorphous Fe-Si-B particles after annealing at 550°C is 131.5 emu/g, which is higher than that of amorphous Fe-Si-B particles without annealing. Moreover, the stability of MRF with annealed amorphous Fe-Si-B particles is better than that of MRF without annealed amorphous Fe-Si-B particles. Stearic acid at 3 wt% was added to the MRF2 to enhance the fluid stability to greater than 90%. In addition, the rheological properties demonstrate that the prepared amorphous particle MRF shows relatively strong magnetic responsiveness, especially when the magnetic field strength reaches 365 kA/m. As the magnetic field intensified, the yield stress increased dramatically and followed the Herschel-Bulkley model.

Durability of BFRP and Hybrid FRP Sheets under Freeze-Thaw Cycling

2010 ◽  
Vol 163-167 ◽  
pp. 3297-3300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Wei Shi ◽  
Hong Zhu ◽  
Zhi Shen Wu ◽  
Gang Wu
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Test Data ◽  
Mechanical Characteristics ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Freeze Thaw ◽  
Frp Composites ◽  
Test Parameters ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Better Than

Coupon tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical characteristics of basalt FRP (BFRP) sheet, basalt-carbon hybrid FRP sheets and the corresponding epoxy rein under the effect of freeze-thaw cycling. FRP sheets and epoxy rein coupons were subjected to up to 200 and 250 freeze-thaw cycles respectively. Test parameters included the number of freeze-thaw cycles and the types of FRP composites. Test results show that (1) BFRP sheet perform better than CFRP or GFRP sheets under high freeze-thaw cycles; (2) exposed hybrid FRP sheets not only show very little loss in mechanical properties, but also contribute to the stability of test data; (3) mechanical properties of rein epoxy decrease significantly with increasing freeze-thaw cycles.

scholarly journals Enhancement the stability of power system using optimal location of FACTS devices

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 648
Author(s):  
Ali Najim Abdullah ◽  
Ahmed Majeed Ghadhban ◽  
Hayder Salim Hameed ◽  
Husham Idan Hussein
Keyword(s):  
Power Network ◽  
Performance Factors ◽  
Facts Devices ◽  
Clearing Time ◽  
Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Stability ◽  
And Control ◽  
Better Than

<p><span>This paper proposes a steady-state of the Static Var Compensator (SVC) &amp; Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor (TCSC) set up for enhancing the damping overall performance and growing the integral clearing time (CCT) of a power network. The indispensable clearing time is carried out through increasing the time fault interval until the gadget loses stability. Increasing the CCT can be contribute to reliability of the safety gadget, decrease the protection machine ranking and cost. In order to attain most enhancement of machine stability via optimizing location, sizing and control modes of SVC and TCSC. Models and methodology for putting and designing shunt FACT’s units SVC (injected reactive strength Q) and series FACT’s devices TCSC (chose capacitive region) are examined in a 6-bus system. Performance factors are described to show validation of SVC and TCSC on extraordinary conditions. It is proven that the SVC is better than TCSC. </span></p>

scholarly journals Ekstraksi dan Uji Stabilitas Zat Warna Alami dari Bayam Merah (Alternanthera amoena Voss)

KOVALEN ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-217
Author(s):  
Khairuddin ◽  
Joy Noldy Baciang ◽  
Indriani ◽  
Nov Irmawati Inda
Keyword(s):  
Sun Exposure ◽  
Natural Dye ◽  
Natural Dyes ◽  
Stability Test ◽  
Stability Testing ◽  
Effect Of Ph ◽  
Color Degradation ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Better Than

Research on the extraction and stability test of natural dye from red spinach (Alternanthera amoena Voss) has been carried out. This study aims to determine the effect of pH and length of sun exposure on the stability of the dye from red spinach. Extraction using the maceration method with ethanol solvent and measurement using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Stability testing is carried out at pH 2-5 and sun exposure for 1-4 hours using a dark and light container. The results obtained, at pH 2 and pH 3, anthocyanins were more stable, compared to pH 4 and 5 which had greater color degradation. In exposure to sunlight, dark containers with a degradation percentage of 31.70% were better than clear containers with a percentage of 48.78%. Keywords: Anthocyanin, red spinach, natural dyes stability.

scholarly journals Enhancing acidic dye adsorption by modified UiO-66

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-62
Author(s):  
Naser Al Amery ◽  
Hussein Rasool Abid ◽  
Shaobin Wang ◽  
Shaomin Liu
Keyword(s):  
Adsorption Process ◽  
Dye Adsorption ◽  
Batch Adsorption ◽  
First Order ◽  
Freundlich Isotherms ◽  
Adsorption Capacities ◽  
Pseudo Second Order ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Second Order Equations ◽  
Better Than

In this study, two improved versions of UiO-66 were successfully synthesised. Modified UiO-66 and UiO-66-Ce were characterised to confirm the integrity of the structure, the stability of functional groups on the surface and the thermal stability. Activated samples were used for removal harmful anionic dye (methyl orange) (MO) from wastewater. Batch adsorption process was relied to investigate the competition between those MOFs for removing MO from aqueous solution. Based on the results, at a higher initial concentration, the maximum MO uptake was achieved by UiO-66-Ce which was better than modified-UiO-66. They adsorbed 71.5 and 62.5 mg g-1 respectively. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms were employed to simulate the experimental data. In addition, Pseudo first order and Pseudo second order equations were used to describe the dynamic behaviour of MO through the adsorption process. The high adsorption capacities on these adsorbents can make them promised adsorbents in industrial areas.

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