INFLUÊNCIA DO DIÂMETRO DE ESTACAS NO DESENVOLVIMENTO DOS BROTOS DE Platanus x acerifolia

O objetivo do presente trabalho foi determinar o diâmetro ideal de estacas para a produção de mudas de Platanus x acerifolia. As estacas utilizadas foram coletadas em árvores cuja a brotação apresentava-se com um ano de idade. Foram comparados três diâmetros de estacas: diâmetros inferiores a 1 cm, diâmetros entre 1 e 2 cm e diâmetros superiores a 2 cm. Todas as estacas possuiam 30 cm de comprimento. Decorridos 90 dias do plantio das estacas, foram medidas as alturas dos brotos, onde na qual o maior desenvolvimento foi observado nas estacas com diâmetro entre 1 e 2 centímetros

Olfactory neuroepithelium alterations and cognitive correlates in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: Few studies have investigated alterations of olfactory neuroepithelium (ONE) as a biomarker of schizophrenia, and none its association with cognitive functioning. METHOD: Fresh ONE cells from twelve patients with schizophrenia and thirteen healthy controls were collected by nasal brushing, cultured in proper media and passed twelve times. Markers of cell proliferation (BrdU incorporation, Cyclin-D1 and p21 protein level) were quantified.Cognitive function was measured using Brief Neuropsychological Examination-2. PRIMARY OUTCOME: proliferation of ONE cells from schizophrenic patients at passage 3. Secondary outcome: association between alteration of cell proliferation and cognitive function. RESULTS: Fresh ONE cells from patients showed a faster cell proliferation than those from healthy controls at passage 3. An opposite trend was observed at passage 9, ONE cells of patients with schizophrenia showing slower cell proliferation as compared to healthy controls. In schizophrenia, overall cognitive function (Spearman's rho -0.657, p\u202f<\u202f0.01), verbal memory - immediate recall, with interference at 10\u202fs and 30\u202fs (Spearman's rho from -0.676 to 0.697, all p\u202f<\u202f0.01) were inversely associated with cell proliferation at passage 3. CONCLUSION: Fresh ONE cells collected by nasal brushing might eventually represent a tool for diagnosing schizophrenia based upon markers of cell proliferation, which can be easily implemented as single-layer culture. Cell proliferation at passage 3 can be regarded as a promising proxy of cognitive functioning in schizophrenia. Future studies should replicate these findings, and may assess whether ONE alterations are there before onset of psychosis, serving as an early sign in patients with at risk mental state

Folksonomy-based adaptive query expansion

Adaptive query expansion (QE) allows users to better define their search domain by supplementing the original query with additional terms related to their preferences and information needs. The system we present is an extension of the traditional QE techniques, which rely on the computation of two-dimensional co-occurrence matrices. Our system makes use of three-dimensional co-occurrence matrices, where the added dimension is represented by semantic classes (i.e., categories comprising all the terms that share a semantic property) related to the folksonomy extracted from social book-marking services such as delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon. The generation of the user profile occurs through the creation of a model that is dynamically updated using the information gleaned from the searches (visited pages and corresponding search queries). The system analyzes the input queries and, if they actually reflect the interests already shown by the user in previous searches, it returns different QEs involving different semantic fields. The output of the system is structured in different blocks categorized through keywords, thus helping the user judge which result is most relevant to him. The results of an experimental evaluation involving real users are reported

INFLUENCE OF STAKE DIAMETER ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF Platanus x acerifolia SHOOTS

<p>It aimed at determining the ideal diameter of stakes for the production of <em> Platanus x acerifolia</em> shoot. The used stakes were taken from trees whose shoots were one year old. Three diameters were compared:  diameters under 1 cm, diameters which ranged from 1 to 2 cm and diameters over 2 cm. All stakes were 30 cm of length. After 90 days of stakes planting, the shoots heights were measured and the most  developed shoots were the ones with diameters which ranged from 1 to 2 cm.</p

Pollen and macroremains from Holocene archaeological sites: a dataset for the understanding of the bio-cultural diversity of the Italian landscape

Over the last millennia, the land between the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea, characterized by extraordinary habitat diversity, has seen an outstanding cross-cultural development. For the first time, this paper reports on the census of the Holocene archaeological sites that have been studied as part of archaeobotany in Italy (continental Italy, the Italian peninsula and islands) over the last quarter in a century. Pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, seeds and fruits, woods/charcoals and other plant remains have all been analysed in multidisciplinary researches. A list of 630 sites has been provided by more than 15 archaeobotanical teams. The sites are located across the 20 regions of Italy, and in the Republic of San Marino (356 sites in northern Italy, 118 in central Italy, 156 in southern Italy and on the islands). They belong to several cultural phases: 321 sites are only pre- Roman, 264 are Roman/post-Roman, and 45 sites cover a broader range of time, present in both time spans. Site distribution is plotted inmaps of site density according to geographical districts and the main chronological phases. The reference list helps to find analytical data referring to the descriptive papers that may be scattered throughout monographs and specific books on the matter