Antioxidant capacity and phenolic content of sweet rowanberries

Sweet rowanberry cultivars adapted to northern climates have been developed from rowanberries (Sorbus aucuparia L.) and hybrids of rowanberry with Malus, Pyrus, Aronia, or Mespilus. The rowanberries studied here (cvs. Burka, Dessertnaja, Eliit, Granatnaja, Kubovaja, Rosina, Rubinovaja, Titan, and Zholtaja) have high antioxidant and phenolic contents. The phenolic content varied between 550 and 1014 mg/100 g of fresh weight in sweet rowanberries, whereas 846 and 717 mg were found in the well-characterized bilberry and lingonberry, respectively. Anthocyanins (6-80 mg) were mainly found from berries of hybrid cultivars. Of the other phenolics, chlorogenic (29-160 mg) and neochlorogenic (34-104 mg) acids constituted the major fraction in all rowanberries, the concentrations almost equaling those present in coffee. Antioxidant capacities of rowanberries were high, as measured with FRAP (61-105 micromol of Fe2+/g) and DPPH (21.3-9.7 g/g DPPH) methods. Principal component analysis was able to separate the cultivars of different origin into clusters on the basis of their phenolic profiles.     

Benzothiadiazole induces the accumulation of phenolics and improves resistance to powdery mildew in strawberries

Benzothiadiazole (BTH) enhanced the accumulation of soluble and cell-wall-bound phenolics in strawberry leaves and also improved the resistance to powdery mildew infection under greenhouse conditions. The most pronounced change was seen in the levels of ellagitannins, which increased up to 2- to 6-fold 4 days after the BTH application, but persisted only in the inoculated plants. The induction of phenolic metabolism by BTH was also reflected in the fruits, several compounds being increased in inoculated, BTH-treated plants. Basal salicylic acid (SA) content was high in strawberry leaves, but increased in a similar fashion to other phenolics after the treatments. Several phenolic compounds were identified in strawberries for the first time. For example, ellagic acid deoxyhexose, three agrimoniin-like ellagitannins, sanguiin H-10- and lambertianin C-like ellagitannins in the leaves, ellagic acid, p-coumaric acid, gallic acid, and kaempferol hexose in the cell-wall-bound fraction of the leaves, and kaempferol malonylglucoside in the fruits. The findings show that BTH can enhance the accumulation of phenolics in strawberry plants which may then be involved in the BTH-induced resistance to powdery mildew.     

Comparison of Preferences of Farmed Silver and Blue Foxes for Cages with and without a Nest Box

Abstract

The preferences of juvenile farmed silver foxes (n = 14) and blue foxes (n = 12) for an empty cage (105L × 115W × 70H cm) and a cage of equal size with a wooden nest box were assessed in an 11-day preference test. The silver foxes spent a higher percentage of their time (86 ± 8%) in the nest box cage than the blue foxes (66 ± 21%). The silver foxes, but not the blue foxes, had a strong preference for the nest box roof as a resting site (44% of total daily time). Assuming that greater use indicates a greater need, silver foxes may benefit more from the nest boxes than blue foxes.     

Effect of Inside-cage and Outside-cage Environment on Behaviour Test Performance of Blue Foxes (Alopex lagopus)

Abstract

In-cage reaction tests, the open field test and daily activity in the home cage were used to assess the effect of the internal design and location of cages on the behaviour of juvenile blue foxes (Alopex lagopus) during the growing season. The inclusion of nest boxes or resting platforms affected the behaviour of farmed blue foxes, but to a lesser extent than did the location of the animal in the cage row, i.e. the environment outside the cage itself. This study demonstrated that the actual environment in which the farm foxes live may be far larger than the cage interior itself, and that attempts to improve housing design should take into consideration the environment outside the cage to a greater extent than has heretofore been the case.     

Tree mapping using airborne,terrestrial and mobile laser scanning – A case study in a heterogeneous urban forest

We evaluated the accuracy and efficiency of airborne (ALS), terrestrial (TLS) and mobile laser-scanning (MLS) methods that can be utilized in urban tree mapping and monitoring. In the field, 438 urban trees located in park and forested environments were measured and mapped from our study area located in Seurasaari, Helsinki, Finland. A field reference was collected, using a tree map created manually from TLS data. The tree detection rate and location accuracy were evaluated, using automatic or semiautomatic ALS individual tree detection (ALS_ITDauto or ALS_ITDvisual) and manual or automatic measurements of TLS and MLS (TLS_auto, MLS_auto, MLS_manual, MLS_semi). Our results showed that the best methods for tree detection were TLS_auto and MLS_manual, which detected 73.29% and 79.22% of the reference trees, respectively. The location accuracies (RMSE) varied between 0.44 m and 1.57 m; the methods listed from the most accurate to most inaccurate were MLS_semi, TLS_auto, MLS_manual, MLS_auto, ALS_ITDauto and ALS_ITDvisual. We conclude that the accuracies of TLS and ALS were applicable for operational urban tree mapping in heterogeneous park forests. MLS_manual shows high potential but manual measurements are not feasible in operational tree mapping. Challenges that should be solved in further studies include ALS_ITDauto oversegmentation as well as MLS_auto processing methodologies and data collection for tree detection.     

Implications of Uncertainty in a Pre-treatment Dataset when Estimating Treatment Effects in Paired Catchment Studies: Phosphorus Loads from Forest Clear-cuts

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution - Estimates of increased nutrient export caused by forest clear-cuttings are mostly based on long-term paired catchment studies, where the treatment effect is...     

Soil vapor extraction of wet gasoline-contaminated soil made possible by electroosmotic dewatering–lab simulations applied at a field site

Purpose

Soil restoration is still mainly carried out ex situ by excavating and replacing the contaminated soil. In situ remediation would reduce the costs of soil transportation and this way, the problem is not merely transferred elsewhere. The present study introduces a field case where the aged, oil-contaminated soil in a former fuel station in Finland was treated in situ sequentially with different methods.

Materials and methods

Several approaches, including soil vapor extraction and biostimulation with electrokinetic pumping, were performed in the field. After these treatments, the dense original portion of the soil beneath the gasoline pump location, ca 100 m³, was still contaminated with petroleum-derived volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with concentrations of nearly 10,000 mg kg^?1 measured at some hotspots. After a period of electroosmotic water circulation, the electrical field (0.5 V cm^?1, DC) was kept connected for 6 months without addition of water, leading to dewatering and warming of the soil.

Results and discussion

In contrast to the situation with the original wet soil, VOCs, in lab conditions, were found to volatilize very efficiently from the dewatered soil. When the soil vapor extraction treatment was renewed using perforated tubing installed horizontally at ca 1 m depth in the dewatered soil at the contaminated site, the treatment was efficient and the soil was decontaminated in 5 months. The final VOC concentrations were on average 190 mg kg^?1 (n = 13) with the highest value of 700 mg kg^?1 at one hotspot. After a risk evaluation, the site was concluded to be sufficiently clean for industrial use.

Conclusions

Since with many former fuel stations, the contamination consists of both volatile fractions that are difficult to degrade by biological means and heavier compounds for which biostimulation is often suitable, a combination of different methods may be worth pursuing.

     

Characterization of a common susceptibility locus for asthma-related traits

Susceptibility to asthma depends on variation at an unknown number of genetic loci. To identify susceptibility genes on chromosome 7p, we adopted a hierarchical genotyping design, leading to the identification of a 133-kilobase risk-conferring segment containing two genes. One of these coded for an orphan G protein-coupled receptor named GPRA (G protein-coupled receptor for asthma susceptibility), which showed distinct distribution of protein isoforms between bronchial biopsies from healthy and asthmatic individuals. In three cohorts from Finland and Canada, single nucleotide polymorphism-tagged haplotypes associated with high serum immunoglobulin E or asthma. The murine ortholog of GPRA was up-regulated in a mouse model of ovalbumin-induced inflammation. Together, these data implicate GPRA in the pathogenesis of atopy and asthma.     

Seasonal changes in stem radius and production of new tracheids in Norway spruce

The progress of xylem formation in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) was measured during one growing season in southern Finland. Stem radius was monitored continuously with band dendrometers, and the formation of new tracheids was determined by examination of small increment cores taken twice weekly. Tracheid production started in June and ceased in August. Xylem formation was fastest in early July, when 0.75-1.25 new tracheids were formed per day. The rate of xylem formation was significantly correlated with mean daily temperature. Synchronous fluctuations in tracheid and lumen diameters were observed at the same relative positions within each annual ring, but no relationship existed between the diameters and weather variables. The timing of changes in stem radius differed from the timing of actual xylem formation. Stem radius increased in April and May, and the fastest daily increments were recorded in June. Increases in stem radius slowed in July, but small increases were measured more than a month after xylem formation had ceased. Daily changes in stem radius were correlated with daily precipitation, reflecting changes in stem water content. Therefore, dendrometers are of dubious value for measuring the timing of actual xylem formation. Small increment cores proved to be useful in assessing actual xylem formation, but the method is laborious.