Atraso da poda hibernal em "Chardonnay" e "Pinot Noir" (Vitis vinifera L.) na Serra Gaúcha-RS.

Nos últimos anos tem sido observado no Sul do Brasil alterações climáticas que culminam com picos de calor no inverno e frio estendido na primavera. Os picos de calor podem fazer com que as videiras precoces brotem antecipadamente e sejam danificadas posteriormente por frentes frias na primavera

Promoting the use of Motor Function Measure (MFM) as outcome measure in patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) treated by corticosteroids

ObjectivesAssessing muscle function is a key step in measuring changes and evaluating the outcomes of therapeutic interventions in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Regarding the large use of corticosteroids (CS) in this population to delay the loss of function, our goal was to monitor the evolution of motor function in patients with DMD treated by corticosteroids (CS) and to study the responsiveness of Motor Function Measure (MFM) in this population in order to provide an estimation of the number of subject needed for a clinical trial.MethodA total of 76 patients with DMD, aged 5.9 to 11.8 years, with at least 6 months of follow-up and 2 MFM were enrolled, 30 in the CS treated group (8±1.62 y) and 46 in the untreated group (7.91±1.50 y).ResultsThe relationship between MFM scores and age was studied in CS treated patients and untreated patients. The evolution of these scores was compared between groups, on a 6-, 12- and 24-month period by calculating slopes of change and standardized response mean. At 6, 12 and 24 months, significant differences in the mean score change were found, for all MFM scores, between CS treated patients and untreated patients. For D1 subscore specifically, at 6 months, the increase is significant in the treated group (11.3±14%/y; SRM 0.8) while a decrease is observed in the untreated group (–17.8±17.7%/y; SRM 1). At 12 and 24 months, D1 subscore stabilized for treated patients but declined significantly for untreated boys (–15.5±15.1%/y; SRM 1 at 12 mo and–18.8±7.1%/y; SRM 2.6 at 24 mo). 21 patients lost the ability to walk during the study: 6 in the CS treated group (25% at 24 months, mean age: 10.74±1.28 y) and 15 in the untreated group (64.71% at 24 months, mean age: 9.20±1.78 y).Discussion and conclusionPatients with DMD treated by CS present a different course of the disease described in this paper using the MFM. Based on these results, an estimation of the number of patients needed for clinical trial could be done

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

The co-operative university: Labour, property and pedagogy

I begin this article by discussing the recent work of academics and activists to identify the advantages and issues relating to co-operative forms of higher education, and then focus on the ‘worker co-operative’ organisational form and its applicability and suitability to the governance of and practices within higher educational institutions. Finally, I align the values and principles of worker co-ops with the critical pedagogic framework of ‘Student as Producer’. Throughout I employ the work of Karl Marx to theorise the role of labour and property in a ‘co-operative university’, drawing particularly on later Marxist writers who argue that Marx’s labour theory of value should be understood as a critique of labour under capitalism, rather than one developed from the standpoint of labour

From Cleanroom to Desktop: Emerging Micro-Nanofabrication Technology for Biomedical Applications

This review is motivated by the growing demand for low-cost, easy-to-use, compact-size yet powerful micro-nanofabrication technology to address emerging challenges of fundamental biology and translational medicine in regular laboratory settings. Recent advancements in the field benefit considerably from rapidly expanding material selections, ranging from inorganics to organics and from nanoparticles to self-assembled molecules. Meanwhile a great number of novel methodologies, employing off-the-shelf consumer electronics, intriguing interfacial phenomena, bottom-up self-assembly principles, etc., have been implemented to transit micro-nanofabrication from a cleanroom environment to a desktop setup. Furthermore, the latest application of micro-nanofabrication to emerging biomedical research will be presented in detail, which includes point-of-care diagnostics, on-chip cell culture as well as bio-manipulation. While significant progresses have been made in the rapidly growing field, both apparent and unrevealed roadblocks will need to be addressed in the future. We conclude this review by offering our perspectives on the current technical challenges and future research opportunities

Inverse effects of time‐on‐task in task‐related and task‐unrelated theta activity

The phenomenon of mental fatigue has recently been investigated extensively by means of the EEG. Studies deploying spectral analysis consistently reported an increase of spectral power in the lower frequencies with increasing time-on-task, whereas event-related studies observed decreases in various measures related to task engagement and attentional resources. The results from these two lines of research cannot be aligned easily. (Frontal) theta power has been linked to cognitive control and was found to increase with time-on-task. In contrast, theoretical frameworks on mental fatigue suggest a decline in task-engagement as causal for the performance decline observed in mental fatigue. The goal of the present study was to investigate mental fatigue in time–frequency space using linear regression on single-trial data in order to obtain a better understanding about how time-on-task affects theta oscillatory activity. A data-driven analysis approach indicated an increase of alpha and theta power during the intertrial interval. In contrast, task-related theta activity declined. This reduction of stimulus-locked theta power may be interpreted as a reduction of task engagement with increasing mental fatigue. The increase of theta spectral power in the intertrial interval, moreover, could possibly be explained by an increased idling of cognitive control networks. Alternatively, it might be the case that the increase of theta power with time-on-task is a by-product an alpha power increase. As alpha peak frequency systematically decreases with time-on-task, the theta band might be affected as well

Patterns and dynamics of neutral lipid fatty acids in ants – implications for ecological studies

Background: Trophic interactions are a fundamental aspect of ecosystem functioning, but often difficult to observe directly. Several indirect techniques, such as fatty acid analysis, were developed to assess these interactions. Fatty acid profiles may indicate dietary differences, while individual fatty acids can be used as biomarkers. Ants are among the most important terrestrial animal groups, but little is known about their lipid metabolism, and no study so far used fatty acids to study their trophic ecology. We set up a feeding experiment with high- and low-fat food to elucidate patterns and dynamics of neutral lipid fatty acids (NLFAs) assimilation in ants. We asked whether dietary fatty acids are assimilated through direct trophic transfer, how diet influences NLFA total amounts and patterns over time, and whether these assimilation processes are similar across species and life stages. Results: Ants fed with high-fat food quickly accumulated specific dietary fatty acids (C18:2n6, C18:3n3 and C18:3n6), compared to ants fed with low-fat food. Dietary fat content did not affect total body fat of workers or amounts of fatty acids extensively biosynthesized by animals (C16:0, C18:0, C18:1n9). Larval development had a strong effect on the composition and amounts of C16:0, C18:0 and C18:1n9. NLFA compositions reflected dietary differences, which became more pronounced over time. Assimilation of specific dietary NLFAs was similar regardless of species or life stage, but these factors affected dynamics of other NLFAs, composition and total fat. Conclusions: We showed that ants accumulated certain dietary fatty acids via direct trophic transfer. Fat content of the diet had no effect on lipids stored by ants, which were able to synthesize high amounts of NLFAs from a sugar-based diet. Nevertheless, dietary NLFAs had a strong effect on metabolic dynamics and profiles. Fatty acids are a useful tool to study trophic biology of ants, and could be applied in an ecological context, although factors that affect NLFA patterns should be taken into account. Further studies should address which NLFAs can be used as biomarkers in natural ant communities, and how factors other than diet affect fatty acid dynamics and composition of species with distinct life histories