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Topic Review
Bio-Organic Mineral Fertilizer
This entry discusses about Bio-Organic Mineral Fertilizer  for Sustainable Agriculture.
  • 1.3K
  • 31 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Bioindicators of Heavy Metals Pollution
       There is a wide interest in the air quality due to the constant development of many industries and technologies, as well as an extensive use of transport, ultimately leading to emissions of atmospheric pollutants. The application of ubiquitous organisms to assess air pollution has developed significantly during the last few decades. Such living organisms are successful indicators of the presence and availability of different contaminants over time. Lichens are a very popular and effective tool in bioimonitoring. They are usually applied by transplanting from unpolluted area to a contaminated one and assessing the bioaccumulation of the pollutants in the lichen tallus. On the other hand, spider webs are a quite new tool used in the biomonitoring, although they seem to be an easy, cheap method of bioindication which could work all-year–round. Thus, the comparison between these two tools (lichens and spider webs) is eligible and very important  for efficient monitoring of air quality.  We decided to compare the way of heavy metals accumulation in spider webs from Agelenidae family (Eratigena atrica and Agelena labyrinthica) and lichens Hypogymnia physodes, exposed for two months. 
  • 1.3K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Microplastics in Ecosystems
Plastics are widely used due to their excellent properties, inexpensiveness and versatility leading to an exponential consumption growth during the last decades. However, most plastic does not biodegrade in any meaningful sense; it can exist for hundreds of years. Only a small percentage of plastic waste is recycled, the rest being dumped in landfills, incinerated or simply not collected. Microplastics can be generally divided in two big families: primary microplastics and secondary microplastics. Plastics with microscopic size, ca. 2–5 mm in diameter, are defined as primary microplastics. Secondary microplastics enclose tiny plastic fragments derived from the breakdown of larger plastic debris, both at sea and on land. Waste-water treatment plants can only minimize the problem by trapping plastic particles of larger size and some smaller ones remain within oxidation ponds or sewage sludge, but a large amount of microplastics still contaminate water streams and marine systems. 
  • 1.3K
  • 23 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Seaweeds as a Fermentation Substrate
The interest in marine macroalgae are increasing  as novel and functional food and feed products. Marine macroalgae show a high flexibility and applicability due to the bioactive properties of the compounds produced. In the nutraceutical sector, the development of novel food products with high nutritious value and sustainable development raises the interest in this biological group.  Indeed, seaweeds mainly need exposure to sun, aeration, artificial or naturally, and seawater rich in nutrients to grow and obtain a high amount of biomass to then develop novel functional food products that can be produced by the fermentation method, mainly performed by lactic acid bacteria. Still, this is a topic that needs to be further developed in order to improve the beneficial and organoleptic  properties of seaweeds.Here is proposed to the potential of prebiotic and probiotic fermentation and the potential of seaweed in food and feed industrial sectors.
  • 1.3K
  • 08 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy
Social acceptance of renewable energy is the attitude of the local population of a given territory to accept the presence, installation or expansion of plants, projects and processes for the production of energy from renewable sources (RES) such as geothermal, sun, wind and biomass. It differs from the generally favorable predisposition of a population towards RES in places far from their homes: indeed, social acceptance of local RES can hinder the development of renewable energy projects, even for a population whose general acceptance of RES is relatively high. 
  • 1.3K
  • 08 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Marine Nepheloid Layer
Marine nepheloid layer is a turbid layer containing significantly more suspended particles than the adjacent layers in oceans. The suspended particles may collide and form large falling particle aggregates known as marine snow. Although the nepheloid layer continually changes with time and space, it shows certain temporal and spatial stability. A marine nepheloid layer could last a few days to years, with a thickness ranging from meters to kilometers.
  • 1.3K
  • 16 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Image-Based Obstacle Detection Methods
Mobile robots lack a driver or a pilot and, thus, should be able to detect obstacles autonomously. These various image-based obstacle detection techniques include Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). The techniques were divided into monocular and stereo. The former uses a single camera, while the latter makes use of images taken by two synchronised cameras. Monocular obstacle detection methods are discussed in appearance-based, motion-based, depth-based, and expansion-based categories. Monocular obstacle detection approaches have simple, fast, and straightforward computations. Thus, they are more suited for robots like MAVs and compact UAVs, which usually are small and have limited processing power. On the other hand, stereo-based methods use pair(s) of synchronised cameras to generate a real-time 3D map from the surrounding objects to locate the obstacles. Stereo-based approaches have been classified into Inverse Perspective Mapping (IPM)-based and disparity histogram-based methods. Whether aerial or terrestrial, disparity histogram-based methods suffer from common problems: computational complexity, sensitivity to illumination changes, and the need for accurate camera calibration, especially when implemented on small robots.
  • 1.3K
  • 24 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Rice Industry Value Chain and by-products valorization
The quantity of organic waste generated by agricultural sectors is continually increasing due to population growth and rising food demand. Rice is the primary consumable food in Asia. However, many stakeholders follow a linear economic model such as the “take–make–waste” concept. This linear model leads to a substantial environmental burden and the destruction of valuable resources without gaining their actual value. Because these by-products can be converted into energy generating and storage materials, and into bio-based products by cascading transformation processes within the circular economy concept, waste should be considered a central material.
  • 1.3K
  • 18 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Saline Lakes
Saltwater lakes around the world are drying at a rapid rate. These lakes are present in arid and semi-arid regions where evaporation exceeds precipitation. The Aral Sea and Lake Urmia are examples for such rapidly drying lakes. These two lakes have lost up to 90% of their former area in the past 50 years.  
  • 1.3K
  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Impact of the Pandemic and War on Energy
The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine have impacted the global economy, including the energy sector. The pandemic caused drastic fluctuations in energy demand, oil price shocks, disruptions in energy supply chains, and hampered energy investments, while the war left the world with energy price hikes and energy security challenges. The long-term impacts of these crises on low-carbon energy transitions and mitigation of climate change are still uncertain but are slowly emerging. Both crises initially appeared as opportunities for low-carbon energy transitions: the pandemic by showing the extent of lifestyle and behavioral change in a short period and the role of science-based policy advice, and the war by highlighting the need for greater energy diversification and reliance on local, renewable energy sources. However, the early evidence suggests that policymaking worldwide is focused on short-term, seemingly quicker solutions, such as supporting the incumbent energy industry in the post-pandemic era to save the economy and looking for new fossil fuel supply routes for enhancing energy security following the war. As such, the fossil fuel industry may emerge even stronger after these energy crises creating new lock-ins. This implies that the public sentiment against dependency on fossil fuels may end as a lost opportunity to translate into actions toward climate-friendly energy transitions, without ambitious plans for phasing out such fuels altogether. 
  • 1.3K
  • 06 Sep 2022
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