The authors compared two methods of determining odour concentration under field conditions. Twelve series of odour measurements were carried out at a mink farm. Odour concentration was determined using a portable dynamic olfactometer (nasal ranger, st. croix sensory, inc.) and by approximation using the psychophysical Weber-fechner equation of S-logZ on odour intensity results. Odour concentrat...

The number of non-farming rural residents surrounding pork farm operations has increased greatly in many pork-producin nations. These non-farming rural residents consider pork farm odour emissions to be a serious health threat. This has led t significant lobbying to limit the expansion and development of pork operations, and consequently reduced economic growth i the pork industry. This has led...

Flying fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) locate a concealed appetitive odour source most accurately in environments containing vertical visual contrasts. To investigate how visuomotor and olfactory responses may be integrated, we examine the free-flight behaviour of flies in three visual conditions, with and without food odour present. While odour localisation is facilitated by uniformly di...

Instantaneous downwind malodours from two swine farrowing facilities were assessed in the field by 15 trained human sniffers. A total of 34 1-hour field monitoring sessions were carried out on the two farms between June and October in 2003 and 2004. Odour emissions from the farm were measured and weather conditions were monitored simultaneously. Four air dispersion models, ISCST3, AUSPLUME, IN-...

Approximately 35% of neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex taste and olfactory areas with olfactory responses provide a representation of odour that depends on the taste with which the odour has been associated previously. This representation is produced by a slowly acting learning mechanism that learns associations between odour and taste. Other neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex respond to bot...

Food odours are major determinants for food choice, and their detection depends on nutritional status. The effects of different odour stimuli on both behavioural responses (locomotor activity and sniffing) and Fos induction in olfactory bulbs (OB) were studied in satiated or 48-h fasted rats. We focused on two odour stimuli: isoamyl acetate (ISO), as a neutral stimulus either unknown or familia...

Odour emission from landfill areas has a high potential to cause significant annoyance to people living in their surroundings. In order to avoid odour nuisance, it is crucial to select the best location in the project phase of these facilities. In the present work, two approaches of the Gaussian atmospheric dispersion model were employed to predict odour impact from a projected landfill area an...

Signals that are perceived over long distances or leave extended spatial traces are subject to eavesdropping. Eavesdropping has therefore acted as a selective pressure in the evolution of diverse animal communication systems, perhaps even in the evolution of functionally referential communication. Early work suggested that some species of stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponini) may use...

Learning can rely on stimulus quality, stimulus intensity, or a combination of these. Regarding olfaction, the coding of odour quality is often proposed to be combinatorial along the olfactory pathway, and working hypotheses are available concerning short-term associative memory trace formation of odour quality. However, it is less clear how odour intensity is coded, and whether olfactory memor...