Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2017
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Anna Kårlund Kati Hanhineva Marko Lehtonen Gordon J. McDougall Derek Stewart Reijo O. KarjalainenAbstract
BACKGROUND: The non-edible parts of horticultural crops, such as leaves, contain substantial amounts of valuable bioactive compounds which are currently only little exploited. For example, strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) leaves may be a promising bioresource for diverse health-related applications. However, product standardization sets a real challenge, especially when the leaf material comes from varying cultivars. The first step towards better quality control of berry fruit leaf-based ingredients and supplements is to understand metabolites present and their stability in d ifferent plant cultivars, so this study surveyed the distribution of potentially bioactive strawberry leaf metabolites in six different strawberry cultivars. Non-targeted metabolite profiling analysis using LC/qTOF-ESI-MS with data processing via principal component analysis and k-means clustering analysis was utilized to examine differences and commonalities between the leaf metabolite profiles. RESULTS: Quercetin and kaempferol derivatives were the dominant flavonol groups in strawberry leaves. Previously described and novel caffeic and chlorogenic acid derivatives were among the major phenolic acids. In addition, ellagitannins were one of the distinguishing compound classes in strawberry leaves. In general, strawberry leaves also contained high levels of octadecatrienoic acid derivatives, precursors of valuable odour compounds. CONCLUSION: The specific bioactive compounds found in the leaves of different strawberry cultivars offer the potential for the selection of optimized leaf materials for added-value food and non-food applications.
Authors
Anna Bucharova Walter Durka Norbert Hölzel Johannes Kollmann Stefan Michalski Oliver BossdorfAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Janne O. Kjønaas Gro HylenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Diego Faustolo Alves Bispo Marx Leandro Naves Silva Joao Jose Granate de Sa e Melo Marques Marianne Bechmann Pedro Velloso Gomes Batista Nilton CuriAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
I. Figueira G. Garcia R.C. Pimpao A.P. Terrasso I. Costa A.F. Almeida L. Tavares T.F. Pais P. Pinto M.R. Ventura A. Filipe G. J. McDougall Derek Stewart K.S. Kim I. Palmela D. Brites M.A. Brito C. Brito C. N. SantosAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Sigmund Hågvar Ronny Steen Daniel FløAbstract
Nine species of carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) were pitfall-trapped during two years in an alpine glacier foreland of southern Norway. A two-year (biennial) life cycle was documented for Nebria nivalis (Paykull, 1790), N. rufescens (Ström, 1768), and Patrobus septentrionis Dejean, 1828. This was based on the simultaneous hibernation of larvae and adults. In P. septentrionis, both larvae and adults showed a considerable activity beneath snow. A limited larval material of Amara alpina (Paykull, 1790) and A. quenseli (Schönherr, 1806) from the snow-free period indicated larval hibernation. A. quenseli was, however, not synchronized with respect to developmental stages, and its life cycle was difficult to interpret. Measurements of claw lengths in eight species showed a considerable wearing during adult life. The data indicated that some individuals might hibernate a second time and thus experience two egg-laying seasons. Wearing of mandible tooth was not suited as age indictor in Nebria nivalis and N. rufescens, since some individuals hatched with a small tooth. Supplied with literature data, a “niche profile” is presented for each species. The most important ecological factors that contributed to niche segregation were: preference for vegetation-free ground, occurrence along the successional and time gradient, humidity or temperature preference, nocturnal versus diurnal activity, flight ability, food habits, phenology, and the ability to be active under snow.
Abstract
Air pollution has become a global problem and affects nearly all of us. Most of the pollution is of anthropogenic origin and therefore we are obliged to improve this situation. In solving this problem basically our only partners are plants with their enormous biologically active surface area. Plants themselves are also victims of air pollution but because they are sedentary they developed very efficient defence mechanisms, which can also be exploited to improve the humanosphere. For their life processes plants require intensive gas exchange, during which air contaminants are accumulated on leaf surfaces or absorbed into the tissues. Some of the pollutants are included by plants in their own metabolism while others are sequestered. In some plant species, the processes of removing pollutants from the air is conducted in a very efficient way and therefore they are used in the environmental friendly biotechnology called phytoremediation. For urban areas, outdoor phytoremediation is recommended while indoor phytoremediation can be applied in our homes and workplaces. Because in near future purifying outdoor air to protect human health and well-being does not look the most promising, an important and increasing role will be played by indoor phytoremediation.
Abstract
Currently, sugar snap peas are harvested manually. In high-cost countries like Norway, such a labour-intensive practise implies particularly large costs for the farmer. Hence, automated alternatives are highly sought after. This project explored a concept for robotic autonomous identification and tracking of sugar snap pea pods. The approach was based on a combination of visible–near infrared reflection measurements and image analysis, along with visual servoing. A proof-of-concept harvesting platform was implemented by mounting a robotic arm with hand-mounted sensors on a mobile unit. The platform was tested under plastic greenhouse conditions on potted plants of the sugar snap pea variety Cascadia using LED-lights and a partial shade. The results showed that it was feasible to differentiate the pods from the surrounding foliage using the light reflection at the spectral range around 970 nm combined with elementary image segmentation and shape modelling methods. The proof-of-concept harvesting platform was tested on 48 representative agricultural environments comprising dense canopy, varying pod sizes, partial occlusions and different working distances. A set of 104 images were analysed during the teleoperation experiment. The true positive detection rate was 93 and 87% for images acquired at long distances and at close distances, respectively. The robot arm achieved a success rate of 54% for autonomous visual servoing to a pre-grasp pose around targeted pods on 22 untouched scenarios. This study shows the potential of developing a prototype robot for semi-automated sugar snap pea harvesting.
Authors
Kris Van Looy Johan Bouma Michael Herbst John Koestel Budiman Minasny Umakant Mishra Carsten Montzka Attila Nemes Yakov A. Pachepsky José Padarian Marcel G. Schaap Brigitta Tóth Anne Verhoef Jan Vanderborght Martine J. van der Ploeg Lutz Weihermüller Steffen Zacharias Yonggen Zhang Harry VereeckenAbstract
No abstract has been registered