The network-centric world of the 21st century and explosive growth of the internet related technologies brought modern cybersecurity culture with complex threat landscape in the Higher Education environment. Cybersecurity landscape is always changing and education providers often do not have remit or in fact the means and capacity to cover the range of activities learners engage with, which attest their achievements, knowledge, and skills. Currently the awarding and validation of qualifications occurs exclusively under centralised management of an education institution or an employer take more ownership of the learning experience and its outcomes without compromising on safety, security, and accessibility. The centralised model of the present awarding and validation is no longer sustainable because learning happens increasingly on online platforms, and learning is far more international than it used to be. Key higher educational providers introduced degree apprenticeships which are new way to 'do both' higher level skills and provide progression routes to improve their employability prospects. The 'Blockchain' (BC) facilitates digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. It embraces a set of interrelated technologies. This paper expounds a novel BC-based architecture for transform centralised model of awarding and validation in to decentralized ledger of secured database. This database is shared, replicated, and synchronized for validation among the universities, partner institutions, professionals, statutory or regulatory bodies and industry bodies across the internet. The architecture offers secured collaborative validating system by qualification exchange with BC using trust methods within the decentralized topology.

Links between phenology, yield and composition of the essential oil of common sage, Salvia officinalis L., grown in Guadalajara (Central Spain) were determined in the different phases of the biological cycle during one year. Data showed an average yield about 1.0%. The analysis of the oil components was carried out by GC-FID and GC/MS. The main oil constituent was alpha thujone (40.1-46.5%). Other identified compounds are beta pinene (2.6-4.5%), cineole (3.5-8.7%), beta thujone (4.1-5.6%), camphor (4.1-8.0%), borneol (1.3-3.7%), alpha humulene (3.8-7.3%), viridiflorol (3.4-12.6%) and manool (0.1-4.5%). The highest yield of oil was obtained in the period of full flowering and the highest concentration of alpha thujone in the period of initial flowering.

Links between phenology, yield and composition of the essential oil of common thyme, Thymus vulgaris L., grown in Guadalajara (Central Spain) were determined in the different phases of the biological cycle during one year. Data showed an average yield of about 2%. The analysis of the oil components was carried out by GC-FID and GC/MS. The main oil constituents were thymol (36.3-47.5%), p-cymene (13.0-27.8%) and g-terpinene (5.3-16.2%), which is in accord with a thymol chemotype. The highest yield of oil was obtained in the period of full flowering and the highest concentration of thymol in the period of initial flowering.

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Essential oils are employed in agriculture, medicine and food industries among others, due to their antimicrobial, antiviral, insecticidal and antifungal properties. In this chapter, we will focus on the control of fungal plant pathogens with essential oils. Fungal diseases in agricultural crops and forestry alter the physiology of plants, disrupting their normal functioning, reducing their yield and sometimes causing their death. Recent studies show antifungal effects of many essential oils against plant pathogenic fungi, which make them candidates for the development of new fungicidal agents. This chapter presents a review of the most recent advances in this area, as well as the future trends in this field.

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The preservation of biodiversity is a fundamental objective of all policies related to a more sustainable development in any modern society. The rain forest and pine forests are two unique Canarian ecosystems with high importance to global biodiversity, holding a large number of endemic species and subspecies that is a priority to preserve. In this work the challenges that will face the natural areas of the Canary Islands are studied, as well as their fundamental value for economic and environmental development of the islands.