Behavioural and electrophysiological responses of the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae), to male- and female-borne sex attractants

In the olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae, females attract males by producing 1,7-dioxaspiro[5.5]undecane (olean), the main component of the sex pheromone secreted by rectal glands. It has been recently demonstrated that males are able to produce (Z)-9-tricosene (muscalure) in rectal glands, a compound that selectively attracts females. In this study, a male grooming reaction that may transfer the male-borne compounds from rectal to urotergal glands was observed, suggesting that urotergal glands could be involved in B. oleae sexual communication. GC/MS, EAG, GC/EAD analyses and behavioural assays were carried out to compare the role of male rectal and urotergal glands during courtship. In both male glands, olean and muscalure amounts were age dependent. Extracts of rectal glands contained higher amounts of olean and/or muscalure than urotergal ones. Extracts of rectal and urotergal glands of males and females elicited EAG responses in both sexes. GC/EAD showed that female EAG response to male rectal extracts was mainly due to olean and muscalure. Synthetic compounds evoked EAG dose-dependent responses in both sexes, and the EAG response to muscalure was higher as compared to olean. Rectal and urotergal glands from old males were able to attract females, while urotergal glands from young males attracted only males. Overall, our results add knowledge to the mating system of B. oleae, giving first evidences on the electrophysiological activity of muscalure towards both sexes, as well as on the involvement of male urotergal glands in the chemical sexual communication of this pest.     

Geochemical fingerprints of “Prosecco” wine based on major and trace elements

The terroir can be defined as interactive ecosystem that includes climate, geology, soil and grapevine, and it is used to explain the hierarchy of high quality of wine. In order to understand the terroir functions, it is necessary to analyse the interactions among the geology, soil and wine. To define a geochemical fingerprint, the relationship between geochemistry of vineyard soil and chemical composition of wine from Veneto Italian Region was studied. The vineyards tested belonged to four distinct wineries located in the Veneto alluvial plain, included in the Controlled Designation of Origin (DOC) area of Prosecco. We investigated the relationship between major and trace elements in soil and their concentrations in Prosecco wine according to geographical origin. The detection of chemical composition in soil and wine were analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and data were elaborated by nonparametric test and multivariate statistics Linear Discrimination Analysis. The geochemical and statistical analyses allowed to discriminate the vineyard soils according to geo-lithological characteristics of each area and to identify the geochemical “Prosecco” fingerprints, useful against fraudulent use of DOC wine labels.     

Investigating the influence on safety of retrofitting Italian motorways with barriers meeting a new EU standard

Objective: A new European Union (EU) regulation for safety barriers, which is based on performance, has encouraged road agencies to perform an upgrade of old barriers, with the expectation that there will be safety benefits at the retrofitted sites. The new class of barriers was designed and installed in compliance with the 1998 (European Norm) EN 1317 standards for road restraint systems, which lays down common requirements for the testing and certification of road restraint systems in all countries of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). Both the older and new barriers are made of steel and are installed in such a way as to avoid vehicle intrusion, but the older ones are thought to be only effective at low speeds and large angles of impact. The new standard seeks to remedy this by providing better protection at higher speeds. This article seeks to quantify the effect on the frequency of fatal and injury crashes of retrofitting motorways with barriers meeting the new standards.

Methods: The estimation of the crash modification was carried out by performing an empirical Bayes before–after analysis based on data from the A18 Messina–Catania motorway in Italy. The methodology has the great advantage to account for the regression to the mean effects. Besides, to account for time trend effects and dispersion of crash data, a modified calibration methodology of safety performance was used.

Results: This study, based on data collected on 76 km of motorway in the period 2000–2012, derived Crash Modification Factor point estimates that indicate reductions of 72% for run-off-road fatal and injury crashes and 38% in total fatal and injury crashes that could be expected by upgrading an old safety barrier by complying with new EU 1317 standards. The estimated benefit-cost ratio of 5.57 for total crashes indicates that the treatment is cost effective.

Conclusions: The magnitude of this benefit indicates that the retrofits are cost-effective even for total crashes and should continue in any European country inasmuch as the estimated Crash Modification Factors are based on treatment sites that are reasonably representative of all European motorways.     

Gathering new knowledge from existing monitoring dataset of Campania marine coastal area (Southern Italy)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study we propose, a multi-step strategy of selection and characterization of long-term dataset of contaminant concentrations in different...     

The key role played by the Augusta basin (southern Italy) in the mercury contamination of the Mediterranean Sea

The Augusta basin, located in SE Sicily (southern Italy), is a semi-enclosed marine area, labelled as a highly contaminated site. The release of mercury into the harbour seawater and its dispersion to the blue water, make the Augusta basin a potential source of anthropogenic pollution for the Mediterranean Sea. A mass balance was implemented to calculate the HgT budget in the Augusta basin. Results suggest that an average of ～0.073 kmol of HgT is released, by diffusion, on a yearly basis, from sediments to the seawater, with a consequent output of 0.162 kmol y(-1) to coastal and offshore waters; this makes the Augusta area an important contributor of mercury to the Mediterranean Sea. Owing to the geographical location of the Augusta basin, its outflowing shelf-waters are immediately intercepted by the surface Atlantic Ionian Stream (AIS) and mixed with the main gyres of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, thus representing a risk for the large-scale marine system.     

A compilation of field surveys on gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) from contrasting environmental settings in Europe,South America,South Africa and China: separating fads from facts

Mercury is transported globally in the atmosphere mostly in gaseous elemental form (GEM, \( {\text{Hg}}_{\text{gas}}^{0} \) ), but still few worldwide studies taking into account different and contrasted environmental settings are available in a single publication. This work presents and discusses data from Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, China, Croatia, Finland, Italy, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Slovenia and Venezuela. We classified the information in four groups: (1) mining districts where this contaminant poses or has posed a risk for human populations and/or ecosystems; (2) cities, where the concentration of atmospheric mercury could be higher than normal due to the burning of fossil fuels and industrial activities; (3) areas with natural emissions from volcanoes; and (4) pristine areas where no anthropogenic influence was apparent. All the surveys were performed using portable LUMEX RA-915 series atomic absorption spectrometers. The results for cities fall within a low GEM concentration range that rarely exceeds 30 ng m^?3, that is, 6.6 times lower than the restrictive ATSDR threshold (200 ng m^?3) for chronic exposure to this pollutant. We also observed this behavior in the former mercury mining districts, where few data were above 200 ng m^?3. We noted that high concentrations of GEM are localized phenomena that fade away in short distances. However, this does not imply that they do not pose a risk for those working in close proximity to the source. This is the case of the artisanal gold miners that heat the Au–Hg amalgam to vaporize mercury. In this respect, while GEM can be truly regarded as a hazard, because of possible physical–chemical transformations into other species, it is only under these localized conditions, implying exposure to high GEM concentrations, which it becomes a direct risk for humans.