Soil acidity or alkalinity are serious limitations for crop production. The purpose of this study was to clarify the negative effects of extreme pH stress (low and high) on alfalfa vegetative growth (VG) and biomass accumulation (BA). Two-week-old alfalfa seedlings were exposed to different pH (4.0, 4.5, 7.0, 8.0 and 8.5, respectively) levels for 72 hours. Alfalfa grown at pH 4.0 and 8.5 significantly reduced VG and BA, wherein as neutral pH (7.0) comparably exhibited better growth and biomass yield. These results indicate that extreme acidic or alkaline level are critical limiting factors for growth and biomass yield in alfalfa.

Minute pirate bug, Orius minutus (L.), is a native predator of many small insects such as aphid, scale, thrips, and mites in Korea. Seven chemical pesticides with lower ecotoxicity being used to control those pests were evaluated for acute toxicity against adult female O. minutus in glass scintillation vial assay. In the 1st batch experiment with three pesticides, flonicamid and buprofezin were least toxic whereas in the 2nd batch experiment with four pesticides spirotetramat and spiromesifen showed least toxicity. The corrected mortality of buprofezin and flonicamid became 100% on 55 and 47 h of exposure in 1st batch and that of spirotetramat and spiromesifen became 100% on 75 and 71 h of exposure in 2nd batch, respectively. In conclusion, flonicamid, buprofezin, spirotetramat, and spiromesifen was least toxic among the seven pesticides tested against adult female of O. minutus.

Trialeurodes vaporariorum is an important greenhouse pest worldwide. We compared the efficacy of a new strain of Beauveria bassiana (ARP14) with a commercialized one (GHA) against 2nd instar and 4th instar of T. vaporarioum. Those nymphs were exposed to the fungus in a concentration of 1×108 conidia/mL by leaf dipping method. There was no difference in mycosis rates at any observation time between the two strains in both 2nd (100.0%) and 4th instar (100.0%). Lethal median time (LT50) wasn't different between the two strains in both 2nd and 4th instar. In conclusion, the new B. bassiana strain (ARP14) would be a good candidate of mycoinsecticide for whitefly management.

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is an important polyphagous pest and transmits plant pathogenic virus to numerous agriculture crops. We compared the efficacy of Beauveria bassiana ARP14 strain with commercialized GHA strain against 2nd instar and 4th instar of B. tabaci. The nymphs were exposed in 1×108 conidia/mL by dipping method. There was no difference in mycosis rate between the two strains in both 2nd and 4th instar. After 72 h, mycosis rate of 2nd instar was 100.0% in B. bassiana ARP14 strain followed by 97.4% in B. bassiana GHA strain. In 4th instar, B. bassiana ARP14 strain caused 100.0% while B. bassiana GHA strain caused 93.3%.

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) is one of the most destructive pest of thin-skinned fruits such as blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, and cherry. We tested effect of fruit damage on the infestation of D. suzukii by using partially peeled blueberry fruits in assays of behavioral choice and development. In choice test, D. suzukii preferred partially peeled blueberry fruit than normal. But in development test, we did not found difference in adult emergence rate between normal and partially peeled blueberry fruit.

A native minute pirate bug, Orius minutus (L.), is a generalist predator of small insect pests such as thrips, mites, scale, etc. By comparing with Tetranychus urticae Koch in choice test, we evaluated the prey preference by counting number of prey killed for 4 hours on Amphitetranychus vienensis (Zacher), Frankliniella intonsa (Trybom), Stephanitis pyrioides Scott, and Eriococcus sp. nymph. Among them F. intonsa was the only one killed more than T. urticae by O. minutus. In no choice test, mean number of prey killed was highest in F. intonsa (7.2) followed by T. urticae (3.0), A. vienensis (2.4), Eriococcus sp. (2.0), and S. pyrioides (0.0) for 4 hours. This experiment shows that O. minutus could be a good predator for F. intonsa and T. urticae.

Orius spp. (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) prey on small arthropods such as aphids, thrips, whitefly, and mites both in greenhouse and field. Use of chemical attractants to natural enemies can improve the efficacy of biological control through push-pull strategy. We compared attractiveness of three synthetic herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), i.e., nonanal, methyl anthranilate, and methyl salicylate for thrips natural enemies, O. laevigatus (Fieber) and O. minutus (L.), in Y-tube olfactometer. Mated unfed adult females of O. laevigatus showed higher choice rate to methyl anthranilate or methyl salicylate than nonanal. Orius minutus showed higher choice rate to methyl anthranilate than methyl salicylate or nonanal. These results suggest that, among the three HIPVs, methyl anthranilate can be used for the attractant of both O. laevigatus and O. minutus.

The use of radar-based systems for vessel monitoring is not suitable in populated areas, due to the high electromagnetic emissions. In this paper, a camera based vessel recognition system for application in the context of Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and Homeland Protection (HP) is proposed. Our approach is designed to extend the functionality of traditional VTS systems by permitting the classification of both cooperative and non-cooperative targets, using camera images only. This allows enhancing the surveillance function in populated areas, where public opinion is strongly concerned about electromagnetic emissions and therefore antennas are suspiciously observed and radars are not allowed. Experiments have been carried out on a publicly available data set of images coming from the ARGOS boat traffic monitoring system in the City of Venice (Italy). The obtained classification accuracy of 89.6% (with 11 different classes of boats) demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

High membrane costs hinders large scale application of microporous ceramic membranes. Preparation on elements of large specific membrane area are a prospective strategy to overcome this problem. NF membranes with a cut-off of 450 Da were produced for first time in a 163-channel tube geometry of 1.25 m². The membranes were successful tested in drink water production and in treatment of produced water from oil production. Zeolite-NaA-membranes were prepared for the first time inside of 1.2 m long tubes in four channel geometry of 0.9 m². Natural gas is dried by stripping with triethylene glycol (TEG). TEG will be regenerated by distillation at 190°C to 205°C. A pilot plant for TEG drying with Zeolite-NaAmembranes at 120°C for a capacity of 10.000 m³/h natural gas and is running since October 2016.