Rectifiability and upper Minkowski bounds for singularities of harmonic Q-valued maps

In this article we prove that the singular set of Dirichlet-minimizing Q-valued functions is countably .m2/-rectifiable and we give upper bounds for the .m2/-dimensional Minkowski content of the set of singular points with multiplicity Q

Fifty years of wheat breeding in Southern Brazil: yield improvement and associated changes.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a contribuição do melhoramento genético na produtividade de grãos e identificar as características fisiológicas, associadas ao incremento do rendimento, e os processos de crescimento que as produzem. Foram estudadas sete cultivares de trigo, extensivamente cultivadas na região Sul do Brasil entre 1940 e 1992. As cultivares foram comparadas quanto ao rendimento de grãos, produção biológica, índice de colheita, partição de biomassa e componentes do rendimento. O número de grãos por metro quadrado foi o componente mais afetado pelo melhoramento genético, no período de 52 anos abrangidos pelo estudo, e esteve mais correlacionado ao rendimento de grãos (r = 0,94, p<0,01) do que o peso de grãos (r = -0,39ns). O maior número de grãos por metro quadrado, observado nas cultivares modernas, foi mais correlacionado com seu número de grãos por espiga, em relação às cultivares antigas, o que caracteriza a importância do período de pré-antese na produção de grãos. O ganho genético na produção de grãos foi de 44,9 kg ha-1 por ano e reflete o importante esforço dos programas de melhoramento genético desenvolvidos no Sul do Brasil. As variações em rendimento de grãos, ocorridas no período de estudo, estiveram mais associadas à produção de biomassa (r = 0,78, p<0,01) do que ao índice de colheita (r = 0,65, p<0,01)

Management of laryngeal precancerous lesions

Objective: The identification of precancerous lesions is the basis of an early diagnosis, and of a treatment that allows, in the great part of cases, the preservation of organ functions. The aims of this study were: the evaluation of the less invasive treatment for precancerous lesion of the larynx to minimize the recurrences, the estimation of number of further operation required. Methods: A prospective study was clone on patients with clinical diagnosis of laryngeal precancerosis. The patients were treated by a transoral endoscopic approach with direct microlaryngoscopy (DML) doing an excision-biopsy with cold blade, consisting in excision of the whole visible lesion with vocal ligament preservation. Results: A recurrence of a clinically evident precancerous lesion was present in 13.2% of patients that had a laryngeal intraepithelial lesion (LIN) 1 lesion and in 28.95% of patients that had a LIN 2 lesion. Conclusion: In order to achieve a control of a precancerous lesion, we suggest: excisional biopsy/subepithelial cordectomy (type 1 cordectomy) for LIN 1 lesions and subligament cordectomy (type 2 cordectomy) in case of LIN 2 cases. In case of recurrences of LIN 1 lesion we suggest directly a type 2 cordectomy

Spectroscopic and thermal properties of GeS2-based chalcohalide glasses

The low phonon energy of germanium sulphide glasses makes them ideal candidates as hosts for 1.3µm fibre amplifier applications. However, the GeS2 glass host suffers from a major drawback of poor rare-earth ion solubility. In an efficient device, the solubility of Pr ions has to be enhanced, without adversely affecting either the thermal or the spectroscopic properties of the glass. In the present investigation, we report the synthesis and optical properties of modified GeS2-based chalcohalide glasses with excellent thermal characteristics suitable for drawing low-loss optical fibres

The CRESST Experiment: Recent Results and Prospects

The CRESST experiment seeks hypothetical WIMP particles that could account for the bulk of dark matter in the Universe. The detectors are cryogenic calorimeters in which WIMPs would scatter elastically on nuclei, releasing phonons. The first phase of the experiment has successfully deployed several 262 g sapphire devices in the Gran Sasso underground laboratories. A main source of background has been identified as microscopic mechanical fracturing of the crystals, and has been eliminated, improving the background rate by up to three orders of magnitude at low energies, leaving a rate close to one count per day per kg and per keV above 10 keV recoil energy. This background now appears to be dominated by radioactivity, and future CRESST scintillating calorimeters which simultaneously measure light and phonons will allow rejection of a great part of it.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the CAPP2000 Conference, Verbier, Switzerland, July, 2000 (eds J. Garcia-Bellido, R. Durrer, and M. Shaposhnikov

Low value of detection of KRAS2 mutations in circulating DNA to differentiate chronic pancreatitis to pancreatic cancer

We read with great interest the article by Maire et al (2002), who evaluate the K-Ras mutations in circulating DNA to differentiate pancreatic cancer from chronic pancreatitis. Based on this, we also analysed KRAS2 mutations in the serum of 30 patients with pancreatic cancer and 40 patients with chronic pancreatitis. Pancreatic cancer patients were staged by means of dynamic computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and angiography and/or endoscopic ultrasonography. Diagnosis was histologically confirmed for the patients who underwent surgery. The diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis was based on the radiologic data obtained by means of either endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography or computed tomography. DNA was extracted from 20 ml of the serum by using the QIAmp Blood Kit (Qiagen) and the mutations in codon 12 of the K-ras gene were searched as described previously (Jiang et al, 1989). As positive controls, we used DNA from neoplastic tissues of 10 patients with pancreatic carcinoma by using the DNeasy Tissue Kit (Qiagen). For molecular analysis, DNA was amplified in the codon 12 region introducing a restriction site (GACCT) for digestion with BstNl restriction enzyme (PCR-RFLP). DNA from peripheral blood resulted not mutated in the 40 patients with chronic pancreatitis and in the 30 with pancreatic carcinoma, while DNA from pancreatic neoplastic tissue resulted mutated in 70% of the samples. To verify our results, all the samples were analysed by direct sequencing using Big Dye terminator v 1.1 cycle sequencing Kit and performing runs on ABI Prism 310 genetic analyzer (Applied Biosystem) Despite what was mentioned in Maire's article, we failed to find any mutations in all patients analysed, as well as we failed to correlate K-ras mutations with the levels of tumour markers such as Ca 19.9, CA242, CA50, CEA. The results of the present investigation lead us to these conclusions: (1) the eventual presence of cancer cells in peripheral blood may be a rare event, even if numerous reports support the detection of K-ras abnormalities in the serum, (2) neoplastic cells are supposed to circulate in clusters, and consequently their cognition could be hampered by a single blood sample extraction. (3) Large amounts of nonmutated DNA, coming from leucocytes held in the buffy coat layer, might also mask some vestiges of the mutant type of K-ras gene

Distribuição longitudinal de Chironomidae (Diptera) abaixo de uma barragem em um rio neotropical

The damming of a river causes dangerous consequences on structure of the environment downstream of the dam, modifying the sediment composition, which impose major adjustments in longitudinal distribution of benthic community. The construction of Engenheiro Sérgio Motta Dam in the Upper Paraná River has caused impacts on the aquatic communities, which are not yet fully known. This work aimed to provide more information about the effects of this impoundment on the structure of Chironomidae larvae assemblage. The analysis of data of physical and chemical variables in relation to biological data of 8 longitudinal sections in the Upper Paraná River showed that composition of Chironomidae larvae of stations near Engenheiro Sérgio Motta Dam differed of the other stations (farther of the Dam) The predominance of coarse sediments at stations upstream and finer sediments further downstream affected the choice of habitat by different morphotypes of Chironomidae and it caused a change in the structure of this assemblage in the longitudinal stretch.O barramento de um rio pode causar graves consequências sobre a natureza do ambiente, abaixo da barragem, modificando a composição do sedimento, as quais impõem importantes ajustes da distribuição longitudinal das comunidades bentônicas. A construção da Usina Hidrelétrica Engenheiro Sérgio Motta no alto rio Paraná, tem causado impactos em várias comunidades aquáticas, que ainda não são totalmente conhecidos. Este trabalho objetivou fornecer mais informações sobre os efeitos desse represamento na assembleia de Chironomidae. A análise das variáveis físicas e químicas em relação aos dados biológicos de oito transectos longitudinais no alto rio Paraná revelou que a composição das larvas de Chironomidae das estações mais próximas à barragem da Usina Engenheiro Sérgio Motta diferiu das demais (estações mais distantes). A predominância de sedimentos mais grosseiros nas estações a montante e sedimentos mais finos mais a jusante afetou a escolha de habitat pelos diferentes morfotipos de Chironomidae, que levou a alteração na estrutura desta assembleia ao longo do trecho amostrado.Fil: Pinha, G. D.. Universidade Estadual de Maringá. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais; Brasil.;Fil: Aviz, D.. Universidade Federal Do Pará; Brasil.;Fil: Lopes Filho, D. R.. Universidade Estadual de Maringá. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais; Brasil.;Fil: Petsch, D. K.. Universidade Estadual de Maringá. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais; Brasil.;Fil: Marchese Garello, Mercedes Rosa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico CONICET- Santa Fe. Instituto Nacional de Limnologia (i); Argentina;Fil: Takeda, A. M.. Universidade Estadual de Maringá; Brasil.

EU children in Brexit Britain: re‐negotiating belonging in nationalist times

© 2019 The Authors. International Migration © 2019 IOM This article contributes to debates on identification, home and belonging by focusing on EU children in Brexit times. The article combines attention to the emotional and affective side of integration with a focus on the effects of the discursive practices of the state on these processes. The article explores how Italian children and their parents navigate the increasingly neo-assimilationist pressures in Britain. Specifically, it looks at children's ways of accommodating their parents’ values of mobility, multilingualism and transnationalism with the revived nationalist logic now dominant. The article argues for renewed scrutiny into the role of public discourses on migrants’ experiences, which illuminate the redrawing of the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion at moments of crisis