Anatomical characterisation of the kidneys of Didelphis aurita (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae)

Background: Didelphis aurita is a marsupial with wide distribution in the South American continent and highly adapted to urban centres. The objective of this study was to describe the measurements and skeletopy of the kidneys and renal vascularisation of this species.Materials and methods: With this aim, 29 cadavers (14 males and 15 females) of D. aurita collected on highways were analysed. The rostrum-sacral length of specimens, kidney measurements (length, width and thickness) and the length of the renal vessels were measured and the renal skeletopy registered.Results: In the right kidney, average length, width, thickness and ellipsoid volume were 28.6 ± 5.0 mm, 15.6 ± 2.9 mm, 12.8 ± 3.0 mm and 3.3 ± 2.4 cm3, respectively; in the left kidney, 31.0 ± 3.8 mm, 14.5 ± 3.6 mm, 12.6 ± 2.6 mm and 3.2 ± 2.2 cm3, respectively. There was no significant difference in the comparison of averages of renal dimensions between sexes and between antimeres. The right renal artery (13.2 ± 2.6 mm) was significantly longer (p < 0.01) than the left renal artery (10.7 ± 2.3 mm). In contrast, the left renal vein (13.9 ± 3.5 mm) was longer (p < 0.01) than the right renal vein (7.0 ± 2.3 mm). The skeletopy of the right kidney predominated between T13–L1 in 58.6% of the cases and the skeletopy of the left kidney between L1–L3 in 41.4%. The average length of the kidneys corresponded to 6% to 8% of the rostrum-sacral length of the specimens.Conclusions: The data of the present study characterised the measurements and topography of kidneys and renal vessels in D. aurita and can support the interpretation of clinical, experimental and pathological findings in this species

Crescimento do cafeeiro sob diferentes níveis de disponibilidade de radiação solar.

O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de diferentes níveis de radiação solar no crescimento do cafeeiro arabica. A pesquisa foi conduzida ESALQ/USP, em Piracicaba-SP. O experimento foi composto de seringueira adulta (clone PB 235) e cafeeiro (cultivar Obatã IAC 1669-20), plantado em dezembro de 2001 no sub bosque do seringal, interfaceando as árvores e em monocultivo. Os tratamentos foram constituídos por um gradiente de luminosidade de 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 80, 90, 95, 98, 99 e 100%, formado por linhas de cafeeiros plantados a diferentes distâncias das árvores de seringueira, tanto dentro como interfaceando o seringal e em monocultivo (pleno sol). O delineamento experimental utilizado foi de blocos casualizados, com 11 tratamentos e 4 repetições. Os cafeeiros foram avaliados semestralmente, perfazendo-se 6 avaliações (8, 14, 20, 26, 32 e 38 meses após o plantio), sendo analisadas as seguintes variáveis: diâmetro do caule, altura da planta, altura inicial da copa e diâmetro da copa. Algumas variáveis de crescimento do cafeeiro foram modificadas, tais como altura da planta e diâmetro da copa, que aumentaram com o incremento da radiação solar. O diâmetro do tronco e a altura da planta não foram modificados pela disponibilidade de radiação. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of different levels of solar radiation on the growth coffee (Coffea arabica L). The research was conduced at ESALQ/USP, in Piracicaba-SP. The experiment was composed of adult rubber trees and coffee plant planted in December of 2001 inside and aside rubber trees plantation. The treatments were constituted by an irradiance gradient (25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 80, 90, 95, 98, 99 and 100%), formed by coffee plants rows planted at different distances of the rubber trees, both within and interfacing the rubber plantation and in monocrop (full sun). The experimental design was random blocks with 11 treatments and 4 replications. The analyzed variables were trunk diameter, plant height, initial height of canopy and canopy diameter. Some variables of growth of plant coffee were modified by irradiance availability such as plant height and canopy diameter, which increased with the solar radiation increment. The trunk diameter and the initial height of canopy weren?t modified by irradiance availability

Dinâmica populacional e distribuição espacial de percevejos fitófagos em cultivos de soja [Glycine Max (L.) Merril].

Durante as safras de 2011/2012 e 2012/2013 campos de soja foram amostrados em diversos estádios fenológicos da planta. Neste caso objetivou-se conhecer a flutuação populacional das principais espécies de percevejos fitófagos e determinar a sua distribuição espacial na lavoura com o intuito de analisar como ocorre a colonização nos campos de soja

Study on the introgression of beef breeds in canchim cattle using single nucleotide polymorphism markers.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of introgression of breeds in the Canchim (CA: 62.5% Charolais?37.5% Zebu) and MA genetic group (MA: 65.6% Charolais?34.4% Zebu) cattle using genomic information on Charolais (CH), Nelore (NE), and Indubrasil (IB) breeds. The number of animals used was 395 (CA and MA), 763 (NE), 338 (CH), and 37 (IB). The Bovine50SNP BeadChip from Illumina panel was used to estimate the levels of introgression of breeds considering the Maximum likelihood, Bayesian, and Single Regression method. After genotype quality control, 32,308 SNPs were considered in the analysis. Furthermore, three thresholds to prune out SNPs in linkage disequilibrium higher than 0.10, 0.05, and 0.01 were considered, resulting in 15,286, 7,652, and 1,582 SNPs, respectively. For k = 2, the proportion of taurine and indicine varied from the expected proportion based on pedigree for all methods studied. For k = 3, the Regression method was able to differentiate the animals in three main clusters assigned to each purebred breed, showing more reasonable according to its biological viewpoint. Analyzing the data considering k = 2 seems to be more appropriate for Canchim-MA animals due to its biological interpretation. The usage of 32,308 SNPs in the analyses resulted in similar findings between the estimated and expected breed proportions. Using the Regression approach, a contribution of Indubrasil was observed in Canchim-MA when k = 3 was considered. Genetic parameter estimation could account for this breed composition information as a source of variation in order to improve the accuracy of genetic models. Our findings may help assemble appropriate reference populations for genomic prediction for Canchim-MA in order to improve prediction accuracy. Using the information on the level of introgression in each individual could also be useful in breeding or crossing design to improve individual heterosis in crossbred cattle

Crescimento e maturação do fruto do cafeeiro (Coffea arabica L.) em um sistema arborizado e em monocultivo.

Na busca por condições climáticas que minimizem efeitos negativos de extremos de temperatura e irradiância, a arborização pode viabilizar a cafeicultura brasileira, em particular, com o advento das mudanças climáticas. A pesquisa avaliou a dinâmica do crescimento e da maturação do fruto e a produtividade do café sob diferentes níveis de luminosidade

On Quantum Markov Chains on Cayley tree II: Phase transitions for the associated chain with XY-model on the Cayley tree of order three

In the present paper we study forward Quantum Markov Chains (QMC) defined on a Cayley tree. Using the tree structure of graphs, we give a construction of quantum Markov chains on a Cayley tree. By means of such constructions we prove the existence of a phase transition for the XY-model on a Cayley tree of order three in QMC scheme. By the phase transition we mean the existence of two now quasi equivalent QMC for the given family of interaction operators $\{K_{}\}$.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figur

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE