Qualidade sanitária e fisiológica de sementes de abóbora variedade menina Brasileira.

O trabalho teve como objetivos avaliar e correlacionar a qualidade sanitária e fisiológica de sementes de abóbora, variedade Menina Brasileira (Cucurbita moschata.). Foram avaliados dois lotes de sementes de abóbora produzidas no sistema agroecológico e quatro no sistema convencional, com e sem tratamento químico. Os lotes foram submetidos aos testes de sanidade, seguindo a metodologia do “Blotter test”, com congelamento, germinação e vigor (primeira contagem, índice de velocidade de germinação, envelhecimento acelerado e emergência de plântulas). Os resultados indicaram a separação dos lotes de diferentes origens a partir da qualidade sanitária e fisiológica, onde as maiores incidências de fungos foram observadas nos lotes agroecológicos e o maior potencial fisiológico foi observado nos lotes de origem convencional não tratados. Foram encontrados os fungos Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria alternata, Cladosporium cucumerinum, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium digitatum, Rhizopus stolonifer e Phoma terrestris. A qualidade sanitária não interferiu na qualidade fisiológica das sementes de abóbora, variedade Menina Brasileira

Nautical Radar Measurements in Europe: Applications of WaMoS II as a Sensor for Sea State, Current and Bathymetry

This paper presents the remote sensing techniques of measuring sea states, currents and bathymetry by using an X-band nautical radar. It briefly describes the fundamental methods to infer sea state information (e.g. ocean wave and current parameters) from nautical radar imagery. In addition, this work describes in detail the performance of the Wave Monitoring System WaMoS II (a commercial system for real-time monitoring of wave fields based on nautical radar technology). Two examples of nautical radar applications are presented: the first application is an example of the standard WaMoS II installation for sea state measurements, and the second application shows results of a research project aiming at the determination of shallow water bathymetry by means of nautical radar imagery

Investigating the Permissive Environment of Perisynaptic Astroglia for Information Storage in the Dentate Gyrus

Perisynaptic astroglial processes (PAPs), are active modulators of neuronal activity and directly contribute to information processing in the brain. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments have demonstrated that PAPs undergo activity-dependent structural changes. Thus, here we employ cutting-edge resources at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) to explore PAP structural remodeling associated with long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) that may help support local changes in information processing. Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), widely accepted cellular mechanisms of learning and memory, were induced in vivo in the awake adult rat hippocampal dentate gyrus. LTP induction in the middle molecular layer (MML) was achieved by delta-burst stimulation in the medial perforant pathway, a procedure that produced concurrent long-term depression (cLTD) in the outer molecular layer (OML). The contralateral control hemisphere received only baseline stimulation to the medial perforant path. Three-dimensional electron microscopy (3DEM) offers significant advantages over two-dimensional approaches including a more complete view of ultrastructure in all X-Y-Z planes. AlignEM Swift, the state-of-the-art interactive application available at TACC, is integral for achieving the standard of perfect serial section image alignment needed for 3DEM analysis. Furthermore, Blender at TACC, equipped with the computing power of TACC’s supercomputers, similarly facilitates large-scale and realistic PAP reconstructions for visualization and quantitative mesh analysis. Changes to PAP ultrastructure have important implications on the spatiotemporal dynamics of astrocyte calcium signaling. Thus, TACC resources will further enable computational modeling to investigate the functional consequences of PAP morphological changes. Preliminary analysis suggests that more than 80% of all dentate gyrus synapses exhibit some degree of PAP apposition at the axon-spine interface (ASI). Results from this study made possible using TACC systems will contribute to our overall understanding of the cellular mechanism of information processing and the role of specifically astrocytes in this process.Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC

Protein Kinase C activity, translocation and conventional isoforms in aging rat brain.

Protein kinase C was studied in various brain areas in aging Wistar rats. Histone-directed kinase activity from the cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum did not change with aging. Using purified protein B-50 as a substrate, between 3 and 8 months a decrease in in vitro phosphorylation was detected in the membrane fraction of the cortex but after this age values remained stable. In hippocampal membranes, B-50 phosphorylation was increased in aged rats. PKC translocation was impaired in aged rats in both the cortex and the hippocampus. PKC alpha and beta mRNA decreased in the cortex between 3 and 8 months with no further decline in aged animals. Hippocampal mRNA for calcium-dependent PKC isoforms was not modified during aging, as assessed by Northern and in situ hybridization. Western blot analysis revealed a change in PKC gamma protein only, which was increased in hippocampal membranes from aged rats. The data indicate that the key PKC function that is impaired in aged rats is enzyme translocation irrespective of the brain area investigated