Adaptação fenotípica de raízes de várias plantas com frutos de Dictyosperma rubra Wendl. & Drude encontrados no solo

It was verified phenotypic adaptation of roots of several plants (Paspalum notatum, Phyllanthus minuri, Solanum nigrum, Amaranthus sp, Cyperus rotundusand others) with fruits found in the soil of the palm-tree Dictyosperma rubra Wendl. & Drude cultivated as ornamental plant in the ESALQ park. This adaptation characterized by the penetration of roots through the round orifices found in the fruit pericarp promoted by an insect of the Bostriquide family and Coleoptera category. An experiment was realized in a plastic box with layers of soil alternated with layers of palm fruits without perforations. It was used the same weeds found near of the palm-tree in the park. It was verified after three months that the roots did not perforate the fruits, showed that the insects was not present in the soil.Resumimos, neste trabalho, os resultados das observações sobre a adaptação fenotípica de raízes de várias plantas, tais como grama-batatais - Paspalum notatum, quebra-pedra ou erva-pombinha Phyllathus ninuri, maria-preta - Solanum nigrum, carurú - Amaranthus sp., tiririca - Cyperus rotundus e outras, com os frutos encontrados no solo da palmeira Dictyosperma rubra Wendl. & Drude, cultivada como ornamental no Parque da Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz". Essa adaptação caracteriza-se pela penetração das raízes através de orifícios circulares, existentes no pericarpo dos frutos, e produzidos por uma broca da família Bostriquide, da ordem Coleoptera. As raízes assim assemelham-se a um colar. Diante desse fato, decidimos montar um experimento que nos permitisse elucidar o mecanismo dessa curiosa adaptação fenotípica

Detection of Borrelia lusitaniae, Rickettsia sp. IRS3, Rickettsia monacensis and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in Ixodes ricinus collected in Madeira Island, Portugal

A total of 300 Ixodes ricinus ticks were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp., and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Sequence analysis demonstrated 8 (2.7%) ticks infected with B. lusitaniae, 60 (20%) with Rickettsia spp., and 1 (0.3%) with A. phagocytophilum. Seven (2.3%) ticks were coinfected with B. lusitaniae and Rickettsia spp., 2 (0.6%) with R. monacensis, and 5 (1.7%) with Rickettsia sp. IRS3. The results of this study suggest simultaneous transmission of multiple tick-borne agents on Madeira Island, Portugal

Nutrients, antinutrients, phenolic composition, and antioxidant activity of common bean cultivars and their potential for food applications

Phaseolus vulgaris L. is the most commonly consumed legume in the world, given its high vegetable protein content, phenolic compounds, and antioxidant properties. It also represents one of the most sustainable, low-carbon and sources of food available at present to man. This study aims to identify the nutrients, antinutrients, phenolic composition, and antioxidant profile of 10 common bean cultivars (Arikara yellow, butter, cranberry, red kidney, navy, pinto, black, brown eyed, pink eyed, and tarrestre) from two harvest years, thereby assessing the potential of each cultivar for specific applications in the food industry. Navy and pink eyed beans showed higher potential for enrichment of foodstuffs and gluten-free products due to their higher protein and amino acid contents. Additionally, red kidney, cranberry and Arikara yellow beans had the highest content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant properties, which can act as functional ingredients in food products, thus bringing health benefits. Our study highlights the potential of using specific bean cultivars in the development of nutrient-enriched food and as functional ingredients in diets designed for disease prevention and treatment.publishersversionpublishe

Modified Brans-Dicke theory of gravity from five-dimensional vacuum

We investigate, in the context of five-dimensional (5D) Brans-Dicke theory of gravity, the idea that macroscopic matter configurations can be generated from pure vacuum in five dimensions, an approach first proposed in the framework of general relativity. We show that the 5D Brans-Dicke vacuum equations when reduced to four dimensions lead to a modified version of Brans-Dicke theory in four dimensions (4D). As an application of the formalism, we obtain two five-dimensional extensions of four-dimensional O'Hanlon and Tupper vacuum solution and show that they lead two different cosmological scenarios in 4D.Comment: 9 page

Multidisciplinary Experience In The Selection Of Patients For Tubal Sterilization.

Results of the use of a special protocol for evaluation of patients requiring tubal ligation is presented after applied by a multidisciplinary group. The authors conclude that the use of defined parameters of age, parity, marital union duration, number of children alive and the presence of maternal clinical pathology are useful to identify patients with smaller chances of regret after surgery.27% of reproductive-age women in Brazil have chosen surgical sterilization as their contraceptive method. Most of these women who have undergone tubal sterilization opted for cesarean surgery. However, given the young ages of many of these women, many regret having been sterilized. This paper summarizes the experience of a multidisciplinary group in evaluating women who apply for surgical sterilization at the Department of Tocogynecology, Faculdade de Ciencas Medicas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Sao Paulo. Detailed descriptions are presented of the medical and social characteristics of cases seen between June 1988 and July 1989. The authors conclude that the use of the defined parameters of age, parity, marital union duration, number of living children, and the presence of maternal clinical pathology are useful in identifying the patients who are least likely to regret undergoing surgical sterilization.113171572

Developing tools for the e-learning platform mathE

MathE (mathe.pixel-online.org) is an e-learning platform for higher education developed and implemented by a consortium of seven institutional partners from five European countries. The aim of the project is to enhance the quality of teaching and improve pedagogies and assessment methods by facilitating the identification of students’ gaps in Math, providing appropriate digital tools and promoting self-evaluation with immediate feedback. The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), in Portugal, is one of the consortium members: sixteen of its teachers collaborate in the development of this platform, being responsible for thirteen of the topics/subtopics in which the platform is structured. Such topics cover a wide range of contents, from linear transformations to integration, from graph theory to probabilities. The articulation of the topics of the MathE collection corresponds to the canonic mathematics content of engineering, business and education degrees. The MathE platform is organized into three main sections: Student´s Assessment, MathE Library and Community of Practice. So far, IPB has already developed a collection of around 800 questions for the student´s assessment section and is currently developing the MathE Library. More than 350 students from IPB are using the MathE platform; some offered as volunteers, whose role is testing the behavior of the platform as well as looking for bugs and other details that require improvement, while others are already using the platform in their study. The feedback received up until now is quite encouraging.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Behavior problems and prevalence of asthma symptoms among Brazilian children.

OBJECTIVE: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood and has been designated a public health problem due to the increase in its prevalence in recent decades, the amount of health service expenditure it absorbs and an absence of consensus about its etiology. The relationships among psychosocial factors and the occurrence, symptomatology, and severity of asthma have recently been considered. There is still controversy about the association between asthma and a child's mental health, since the pathways through which this relationship is established are complex and not well researched. This study aims to investigate whether behavior problems are associated with the prevalence of asthma symptoms in a large urban center in Latin America. METHODS: It is a cross-section study of 869 children between 6 and 12 years old, residents of Salvador, Brazil. The International Study of Allergy and Asthma in Childhood (ISAAC) instrument was used to evaluate prevalence of asthma symptoms. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was employed to evaluate behavioral problems. RESULTS: 19.26% (n=212) of the children presented symptoms of asthma. 35% were classified as having clinical behavioral problems. Poisson's robust regression model demonstrated a statistically significant association between the presence of behavioral problems and asthma symptoms occurrence (PR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.10-1.85). CONCLUSION: These results suggest an association between behavioral problems and pediatric asthma, and support the inclusion of mental health care in the provision of services for asthma morbidity

AI at the disco: Low sample frequency human activity recognition for night club experiences

Human activity recognition (HAR) has grown in popularity as sensors have become more ubiquitous. Beyond standard health applications, there exists a need for embedded low cost, low power, accurate activity sensing for entertainment experiences. We present a system and method of using a deep neural net for HAR using low-cost accelerometer-only sensor running at 0.8Hz to preserve battery power. Despite these limitations, we demonstrate an accuracy at 94.79% over 6 activity classes with an order of magnitude less data. This sensing system conserves power further by using a connectionless reading - -embedding accelerometer data in the Bluetooth Low Energy broadcast packet - -which can deliver over a year of human-activity recognition data on a single coin cell battery. Finally, we discuss the integration of our HAR system in a smart-fashion wearable for a live two night deployment in an instrumented night club

The club of the future: Participatory clubbing experiences

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Impact of the intensification of beef production in Brazil on greenhouse gas emissions

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of increasing pasture productivity using fertilizers, forage legumes, supplements and concentrates, on the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in five scenarios for beef production with Nellore cattle in the Cerrado region of Brazil. A life cycle analysis (LCA) approach, from birth of calves to mature animals ready for slaughter at the farm gate, was utilized using both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 methodologies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the results were expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents per kg of carcass produced. The first four scenarios were based solely on cattle production on pasture, ranging from degraded Brachiaria pastures with minimal management, through to a mixed legume/Brachiaria pasture reformed every five years with P and K fertilizers and lime and an improved N fertilized (150 kg N/ha per year) pasture of Guinea grass (Panicum maximum). The most intensive scenario was also based on a fertilized Guinea grass pasture but with a 75 day finishing period in confinement with total mixed ration. To compare scenarios a herd based on 400 cows was utilized. Across the scenarios from 1 to 5 the increase in digestibility promoted a reduction in the forage intake for animal weight gain and a concomitant reduction in methane emissions per herd. For the estimation of nitrous oxide emissions from animal excreta using Tier 2, emission factors from a study in the Cerrado region were utilized which postulated lower emission from dung than from urine and much lower emissions in the long dry season in this region. Fossil carbon dioxide emissions from direct use of fuel and energy were also included in the LCA along with that necessary for the production of fertilizers, supplements and feeds. The greatest impact of intensification of the beef production systems was in the reduction of the area necessary for carcass production from 320 to 45 square meters per kg carcass. Carcass production increased from 43 to 65 Mg per herd across the scenarios from 1 to 5, and total emissions per kg carcass were estimated by Tier 2 methodology to be reduced from 53.7 to 27.9 kg carbon dioxide equivalents. GHG emissions per kg carcass were slightly lower for the mixed grass legume scenario (3), although this was partly due to the lack of data on emissions of nitrous oxide from legume residues. Another large source of uncertainty for the confection of such LCAs was the lack of data for enteric methane emissions from cattle grazing tropical forages