Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

Industrial wastes as low-cost potential adsorbents for the treatment of wastewater laden with heavy metals.

Renewable energy-driven desalination technologies: A comprehensive review on challenges and potential applications of integrated systems

Main routes for the thermo-conversion of biomass into fuels and chemicals. Part 2: Gasification systems

Spatial distribution of soil heavy metal pollution estimated by different interpolation methods: accuracy and uncertainty analysis.

Analysis of spatial interpolation for optimising management of a salinized field cultivated with lettuce

Yield response of stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) to the salinity of irrigation water

Limited water stress is one of the most important environmental stresses that affect the growth, quantity and quality of agronomic crops. This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of foliar applied salicylic acid (SA) on physiological responses, antioxidant enzymes and qualitative traits of Cucurbita pepo L. Plants exposed to water-stressed conditions in two years of field studies. Irrigation regimes at three soil matric potential levels (−0.3, −1.2 and −1.8 MPa) and SA at four levels (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mg/L) were considered as main plot and sub-plots, respectively. The soil matric potential values (MPa) was measured just before irrigation. Results showed that under water stressed conditions alone, the amounts of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and ion leakage were higher compared with control treatment. However, spraying of SA under both water stress and non-stress conditions reduced the values of the above parameters. Water stress increased CAT, APX and GR enzymes activity. However foliar application of SA led to the decrease of CAT, APX and GR under all soil matric potential levels. The amount of carbohydrates and fatty acids increased with the intensity of water stress and SA modulated this response. By increasing SA concentration both in optimum and stress conditions, saturated fatty acids content decreased. According to our data, the SA application is an effective approach to improve pumpkin growth under water stress conditions.

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Physiological and Qualitative Response of Cucurbita pepo L. to Salicylic Acid under Controlled Water Stress Conditions

Kyoto’s protocol respects the view that, within the context of worldwide preservation and improvement, the quality of life is impossible to maintain without bringing forward new and replacement technologies. Energy supply is perhaps the most significant contributing vector and it is, in consequence, intrinsically linked to nearly all environmental actions. Liquid fuels, such as diesel oil, for transportation and heating needs, are in the centre of these preoccupations. The Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis is an “old” technology but it can be adapted for use with syngas, biosyngas or biogas, for the production of diesel oil. Such diesel fuel oil, when coming from renewable sources, such as “biomass”, is called “green diesel”. This present work outlines the actual status of the FTS technology and details the scientific challenges, and the technical hurdles, associated with the use of renewable feedstocks and the newly developed “nanometric catalysts”. A recently commenced Canadian R&D project in this technical area is also briefly presented. Key-Words: Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, Green Diesel, Renewable Energy, Nanocatalysts

http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2007creteeeesd/papers/562-097.pdf

Green diesel from Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis: challenges and hurdles.

In most cases, when calculating soil water availability, only thewater content is considered. The effect of salinity on the wiltingpoint is neglected. The objective of this work is to use asimulation model (CERES-maize) in order to predict cornyields as a function of water salinity under severalenvironmental, agrotechnical, and plant characteristics. A modelis presented in which the wilting point is a function of the soilsalt content. At high salinity, the water content at wilting pointis higher than at low salinity, resulting in an insufficient amountof available water and, therefore, a reduced yield. The modelwas used to simulate several theoretical and experimentalsituations for forage corn and grain corn. Simulation resultsshowed that nitrogen fertilization increases the salinity thresholdvalue and the yield sensitivity (rate of yield reduction per unitof salinity). The also showed that forage corn is more sensitiveto salinity than grain corn. If the soil is not leached, a heaviersoil texture has a higher salinity threshold value. On the otherhand, if the soil is leached, the soil texture has no influence onthe salinity threshold value and the yield is less sensitive tosalinity in sandy soils. The determination coefficient (r2= 0.75) indicated that the results of the simulations were in goodagreement with the field data.

Jose Beltrao

Papers

Analysis of spatial interpolation for optimising management of a salinized field cultivated with lettuce

Yield response of stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) to the salinity of irrigation water

Physiological and Qualitative Response of Cucurbita pepo L. to Salicylic Acid under Controlled Water Stress Conditions

Green diesel from Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis: challenges and hurdles.

The effect of salinity on corn yield using the CERES-maize model