Green manure in coffee systems in the region of Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais: characteristics and kinetics of carbon and nitrogen mineralization.

The use of green manure may contribute to reduce soil erosion and increase the soil organic matter content and N availability in coffee plantations in the Zona da Mata, State of Minas Gerais, in Southeastern Brazil. The potential of four legumes (A. pintoi, C. mucunoides, S. aterrimum and S. guianensis)to produce above-ground biomass, accumulate nutrients and mineralize N was studied in two coffee plantations of subsistence farmers under different climate conditions. The biomass production of C. mucunoides was influenced by the shade of the coffee plantation.C. mucunoides tended to mineralize more N than the other legumes due to the low polyphenol content and polyphenol/N ratio. In the first year, the crop establishment of A. pintoi in the area took longer than of the other legumes, resulting in lower biomass production and N2 fixation. In the long term, cellulose was the main factor controlling N mineralization. The biochemical characteristics, nutrient accumulation and biomass production of the legumes were greatly influenced by the altitude and position of the area relative to the sun

Quantifying the intra-habitat variation of seagrass beds with unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs)

Accurate knowledge of the spatial extent of seagrass habitats is essential for monitoring and management purposes given their ecological and economic significance. Extent data are typically presented in binary (presence/absence) or arbitrary, semi-quantitative density bands derived from low-resolution satellite imagery, which cannot resolve fine-scale features and intra-habitat variability. Recent advances in consumer-grade unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) have advanced our ability to survey large areas at higher resolution and at lower cost. This has improved the accessibility of mapping technologies to developing coastal nations, where a large proportion of the world’s seagrass habitats are found. Here, we present the application of UAV-gathered imagery to determine seagrass habitat extent and percent of canopy cover. Four contrasting sites were surveyed in the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, Belize, and seagrass canopy cover was ground truthed from in situ quadrats. Orthomosaic images were created for each site from the UAV-gathered imagery. Three modelling techniques were tested to extrapolate the findings from quadrats to spatial information, producing binary (random forest) and canopy cover (random forest regression and beta regression) habitat maps. The most robust model (random forest regression) had an average absolute error of 6.8–11.9% (SE of 8.2–14), building upon previous attempts at mapping seagrass density from satellite imagery, which achieved errors between 15–20% approximately. The resulting maps exhibited great intra-habitat heterogeneity and different levels of patchiness, which were attributed to site energetics and, possibly, species composition. The extra information in the canopy cover maps provides greater detail and information for key management decisions and provides the basis for future spatial studies and monitoring programmes

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Estudio prospectivo, de seguimiento en pacientes con enfermedad de Gaucher Tipo 1 que reciben tratamiento con CERDELGA®. Proyecto TRAZELGA

Poster [PC-303] Introducción: La enfermedad de Gaucher tipo 1 (EG1), secundaria al déficit en la enzima glucocerebrosidasa lisosomal, provoca el acúmulo de glucocerebrósido principalmente en macrófagos, causando deterioro de los órganos en los que se deposita. El nuevo inhibidor de substrato Eliglustat (ELG), aprobado por la EMEA en 2015 y disponible desde enero 2017, inhibe de forma selectiva y potente la enzima glucosilceramida sintasa, disminuyendo el acúmulo de substrato, está indicado en EG1 metabolizadores rápidos, intermedios o lentos para el citocromo CYP2D6. Los ensayos clínicos de fase 2 y 3 demostraron mejora y estabilización de los parámetros tanto en los pacientes naïve, como en los de tratamiento enzimático sustitutivo. En este trabajo se expone el estudio de trazabilidad del tratamiento con eliglustat en pacientes con GD1 en España (TRAZELGA). Material y Métodos: El estudio nacional, multicéntrico TRAZELGA, ha sido diseñado como herramienta para evaluar de forma uniforme la respuesta al tratamiento durante un año, analizando los cambios en parámetros clínicos y biomarcadores habituales, registro de medicamentos concomitantes y efectos adversos a ELG, estudio de calidad de vida e incorporando un estudio exploratorio de marcadores de activación del sistema inmune (perfil de citoquinas, ferritina, lipocalina, gammaglobulinas, marcadores de estrés oxidativo), así como cambios en la infiltración medular cuantificados por RM y DEXA. Previo al inicio de ELG se realizó una evaluación de función cardíaca, hepática y renal. Resultados: 35 pacientes han iniciado tratamiento oral con Eliglustat. En esta presentación aportamos resultados preliminares de 21 pacientes (mediana de edad: 43, 8 años(23-75), 47% varones), genotipo de EG N370S/N370S: (29, 4%), N370S/L444P (41, 2%), otros dobles heterocigotos con N370S (29, 4%), metabolismo del CYP2D6 (12% metabolizadores lentos, 64, 5% intermedios y 33, 5% rápidos, ningún paciente recibió el tratamiento en prímera línea y sus características basales (tabla1), son de pacientes estabilizados con TES (15 casos) o miglustat (6). Un paciente esplenectomizado. 3 pacientes esplenomegalia palpable al momento de inclusión. 6 pacientes con multimorbilidades y polimedicaciones y 5 pacientes aquejaban astenia como síntoma principal antes de su inclusión en este estudio. El seguimiento medio actual es de 6 meses. Conclusiones: Se espera incluir un total de 30 pacientes en el estudio y analizar la influencia de Eliglustat sobre los biomarcadores, marcadores de inflamación, densidad mineral ósea. Tener información sobre adherencia, efectos adversos en práctica clínica habitual y grado de satisfacción. Aunque escasos, hasta ahora no hay publicada información de la respuesta al tratamiento en pacientes provenientes de tratamiento con miglustat. En caso de aceptación se presentará un análisis exhaustivo, invitando a todos los interesados a unirse al proyecto

Pathways to teacher education for intercultural communicative competence: teachers’ perceptions

Intercultural and plurilingual encounters have become increasingly frequent due to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) developments, mobility (real/ virtual) and migration. To face the challenges inherent in such encounters, the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is crucial. ICC development may start in the home but should also be a commitment in school curricula, in particular in language classrooms. To facilitate this, language teachers require training in order to integrate the intercultural dimension into their professional practice. In such a context, we implemented a training programme entitled The Intercultural Teacher with an experimental group of language teachers from secondary schools in the Aveiro district (Portugal). In this article, we describe teachers’ social perceptions of ICC and explore the following questions: (a) what does ICC mean for language teachers?; and (b) what are teachers’ views on the development of ICC? The findings of this analysis enabled us, firstly, to design a heuristic model of ICC, based on teachers’ views and perceptions. We were then able to identify some pathways for developing ICC through teacher education, which were validated by teachers themselves