Agroecologia e desenvolvimento sustentável.

O desenvolvimento sustentável tem suas bases conceituais assentadas na Agenda XXI de 1992, que será revisitada na Rio +20, em junho de 2012, como resultado do pacto firmado pelas Nações Unidas com o mundo, para enfrentar os desafios socioambientais e econômicos decorrentes da crise mundial iniciada na década de 1970. Assim, nos últimos 20 anos, todo o sistema econômico vem tentando se ajustar ao que é denominado desenvolvimento sustentável

Métodos para superar a dormência tegumentar em sementes de jurema-preta (Mimosa hostilis Benth.).

Este trabalho foi realizado com o objetivo de avaliar a eficiência de tratamentos físicos e químicos na germinação e no vigor (Índice de Velocidade de Germinação – IVG), em sementes de jurema-preta (Mimosa hostilis Benth.). Os tratamentos testados foram: sementes imersas em H2SO4 (98%) por 1, 5, 10 e 15 minutos; em água, a 100oC, por 1 e 3 minutos; em água à temperatura ambiente, por 36 e 72 horas; escarificação mecânica, por 20 e 40 segundos; choque térmico em estufa a 55oC por 24 e 48 horas e sementes em condições naturais. Os resultados obtidos que a escarificação ácida por 5 a 15 minuts, e a mecânica, por 20 a 40 segundos, mostraram-se mais eficientes na quebra da dormência de sementes dessa espécie

Cosmological constant constraints from observation-derived energy condition bounds and their application to bimetric massive gravity

Among the various possibilities to probe the theory behind the recent accelerated expansion of the universe, the energy conditions (ECs) are of particular interest, since it is possible to confront and constrain the many models, including different theories of gravity, with observational data. In this context, we use the ECs to probe any alternative theory whose extra term acts as a cosmological constant. For this purpose, we apply a model-independent approach to reconstruct the recent expansion of the universe. Using Type Ia supernova, baryon acoustic oscillations and cosmic-chronometer data, we perform a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis to put constraints on the effective cosmological constant $\Omega^0_{\rm eff}$. By imposing that the cosmological constant is the only component that possibly violates the ECs, we derive lower and upper bounds for its value. For instance, we obtain that $0.59 < \Omega^0_{\rm eff} < 0.91$ and $0.40 < \Omega^0_{\rm eff} < 0.93$ within, respectively, $1\sigma$ and $3\sigma$ confidence levels. In addition, about 30\% of the posterior distribution is incompatible with a cosmological constant, showing that this method can potentially rule it out as a mechanism for the accelerated expansion. We also study the consequence of these constraints for two particular formulations of the bimetric massive gravity. Namely, we consider the Visser's theory and the Hassan and Roses's massive gravity by choosing a background metric such that both theories mimic General Relativity with a cosmological constant. Using the $\Omega^0_{\rm eff}$ observational bounds along with the upper bounds on the graviton mass we obtain constraints on the parameter spaces of both theories.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

The conservation of energy-momentum and the mass for the graviton

In this work we give special attention to the bimetric theory of gravitation with massive gravitons proposed by Visser in 1998. In his theory, a prior background metric is necessary to take in account the massive term. Although in the great part of the astrophysical studies the Minkowski metric is the best choice to the background metric, it is not possible to consider this metric in cosmology. In order to keep the Minkowski metric as background in this case, we suggest an interpretation of the energy-momentum conservation in Visser's theory, which is in accordance with the equivalence principle and recovers naturally the special relativity in the absence of gravitational sources. Although we do not present a general proof of our hypothesis we show its validity in the simple case of a plane and dust-dominated universe, in which the `massive term' appears like an extra contribution for the energy density.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publishing in GR