Levantamento de reconhecimento dos solos da Zona do Médio Jequitinhonha - Minas Gerais.

O presente trabalho refere-se ao levantamento de reconhecimento dos solos da zona do Medio Jequitinhonha, constituindo mais uma contribuicao ao programa de levantamento de reconhecimento dos solos do Brasil e primeira etapa para elaboração da carta de solos do Estado de Minas Gerais. A area mapeada esta localizada no extremo Nordeste do Estado, entre os paralelos de 15.40' e 17.40' de latitude sul e os meridianos de 39.50' e 42.30' a oeste de Greenwich, na regiao Leste Meridional do Brasil. Ocupa uma area de 30.977 km2, que corresponde aproximadamente a 1/20 da supeerficie total do Estado, compreendendo 17 municipios. Os trabalhos tiveram por objetivo o estudo dos diferentes solos da regiao, atraves da verificacao da distribuicao geografica e investigacao de caracteristicas morfologicas, fisicas, quimicas e mineralogicas, visando a elaboracao da carta de solos do tipo reconhecimento na escala de 1:500.000 com definicao e caracterizacao das unidades de mapeamento, alem de descricao da area (formacao geologica, material originario, relevo, clima e vegetacao). No capitulo final, e apresentada de maneira sintetica um apanhado de cada unidade de mapeamento, constando dos seguintes itens: area mapeada, ocorrencia, clima, altitude, vegetacao natural, relevo, material originario, profundidade efetiva, drenagem, textura superficial, produtividade aparente, materia organica, reacao, soma das bases permutaveis, capacidade de permuta de cations, saturacao de bases, erosao atual, culturas, forrageiras, erosao, excesso de agua.bitstream/item/212071/1/EPFS-BT-9-1970.pdf; bitstream/item/125760/1/Carta-dos-Solos-da-Zona-do-Medio-Jequitinhonha-MG.pdfAcompanha 1 mapa, color. Escala 1:500.000

Integrated Nuclear Knowledge Management System – NUTEMA

Knowledge Management has become one of the most important issues for the nuclear industry. On the one hand, the amount of codifiable knowledge in the nuclear technology area saw a steep increase in the last years; on the other hand, due to the “generation gap” in the nuclear industry it became very challenging to organize the seamless transfer of the noncodifiable knowledge from one generation of engineers to the other. Computer aided systems so far where aiming at to preserve the codifiable knowledge. The present paper introduces a system that should support knowledge management not only dealing with the codifiable part of it, but also address broader aspects (which includes the management of non-codifiable knowledge).- NUTEMA. The integrated nuclear knowledge management system NUTEMA should provide interactive combination of information and methods, but also identifying competences which more adequately fit to a given task, keeping track of keeping skills of the experts within an organization. Application is foreseen in nuclear engineering fields as system design, operation and maintenance plant and process modifications, standardization, certification and even for licensing-related tasks. The system combines an extensively diverse and modular database with computer based simulations including a scientific software platform. NUTEMA is conceived to operate in different modes, for example collecting and retrieving database knowledge, training applications, NPP operations support, computer code applications, and as plant analyzer. This paper will present two examples; one acting as at a supporting tool for typical NPP plant modification: In a second case, application on review and optimization of operational process is described. Despite the provided examples deal with different objectives and methods associated with different stages of an NPP lifetime, (design and operation) both are supported by the integrated nuclear knowledge management system

Dynamics in binary cluster crystals

As a result of the application of coarse-graining procedures to describe complex fluids, the study of systems consisting of particles interacting through bounded, repulsive pair potentials has become of increasing interest in the last years. A well known example is the so-called Generalized Exponential Model (GEM-$m$), for which the interaction between particles is described by the potential $v(r)=\epsilon\exp[-(r/\sigma)^m]$. Interactions with $m > 2$ lead to the formation of a novel phase of soft matter consisting of cluster crystals. Recent studies on the phase behavior of binary mixtures of GEM-$m$ particles have provided evidence for the formation of novel kinds of alloys, depending on the cross interactions between the two species. This work aims to study the dynamic behavior of such binary mixtures by means of extensive molecular dynamics simulations, and in particular to investigate the effect of the addition of non-clustering particles on the dynamic scenario of one-component cluster crystals. Analogies and differences with the one-component case are revealed and discussed by analyzing self- and collective dynamic correlators.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, submitted to JSTA

Sleep apnea-hypopnea quantification by cardiovascular data analysis

Sleep disorders are a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Sleep apnea is the most common sleep disturbance and its detection relies on a polysomnography, i.e., a combination of several medical examinations performed during a monitored sleep night. In order to detect occurrences of sleep apnea without the need of combined recordings, we focus our efforts on extracting a quantifier related to the events of sleep apnea from a cardiovascular time series, namely systolic blood pressure (SBP). Physiologic time series are generally highly nonstationary and entrap the application of conventional tools that require a stationary condition. In our study, data nonstationarities are uncovered by a segmentation procedure which splits the signal into stationary patches, providing local quantities such as mean and variance of the SBP signal in each stationary patch, as well as its duration L. We analysed the data of 26 apneic diagnosed individuals, divided into hypertensive and normotensive groups, and compared the results with those of a control group. From the segmentation procedure, we identified that the average duration 〈L〉, as well as the average variance 〈σ2〉, are correlated to the apnea-hypoapnea index (AHI), previously obtained by polysomnographic exams. Moreover, our results unveil an oscillatory pattern in apneic subjects, whose amplitude S∗ is also correlated with AHI. All these quantities allow to separate apneic individuals, with an accuracy of at least 79%. Therefore, they provide alternative criteria to detect sleep apnea based on a single time series, the systolic blood pressure

Delineamento esquemático dos solos do Brasil.

Os dados sobre a natureza e distribuição geográfica dos solos do Brasil são ainda insuficientes para permitir um delineamento razoavelmente preciso, mesmo de um tipo esquemático ou generalizado como é o presente caso. A disponibilidade e detalhe de informações sobre os solos são heterogêneas e dispersas, sendo mesmo inexistentes para certas zonas do país. Com a finalidade de suprir essa deficiência, foram colecionadas informações e dados que permitiram, tentativamente, fazer um esboço dos solos do Brasil. Tal esboço e do tipo esquemático, foi desenvolvido por processos de compilação, generalização, extrapolação e dedução, conforme as correlações conhecidas para as condições do Brasil. Tal esboço esta constituído por associações amplas, formadas por número variável de diversas classes de solos. Da apreciação integrada combinando o ponto de vista pedológico e o geográfico resultou o estabelecimento de vinte associações gerais de solos; basicamente individualizadas pelos solos dominantes e tanto quanto possível, por solos exclusivos da associação. Para tornar mais objetiva a definição tentativa de cada uma das associações, foram descritas preliminarmente de modo sumário as classes de solos fundamentais componentes das mesmas. As denominações utilizadas para as diversas classes de solos foram basicamente referidas a sistema americano de classificação de solos.bitstream/item/212985/1/DPFS-BT-1-1966.pdf; bitstream/item/213810/1/Mapa-Delineamento-esquematico-dos-solos-do-Brasil-1966.pdfSeparata de: Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira, v. 1, p. 47-54, 1966. Acompanha 1 mapa, color. Escala 1:10.000.000

De Novo Transcriptome Assembly And Analysis To Identify Potential Gene Targets For Rnai-mediated Control Of The Tomato Leafminer (tuta Absoluta)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Background: Providing double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to insects has been proven to silence target genes, and this approach has emerged as a potential method to control agricultural pests by engineering plants to express insect dsRNAs. A critical step of this technology is the screening of effective target genes essential for insect development and/or survival. The tomato leafminer (Tuta absoluta Meyrick) is a major Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) pest that causes significant yield losses and has recently invaded Europe, from where it is spreading at an alarming rate. To explore RNA interference (RNAi) against T. absoluta, sequence information on potential target genes is necessary, but only a few sequences are available in public databases. Results: We sequenced six libraries from RNA samples from eggs, adults, and larvae at four stages, obtaining an overall total of around 245 million reads. The assembled T. absoluta transcriptome contained 93,477 contigs with an average size of 1,574 bp, 59.8 % of which presented positive Blast hits, with 19,995 (21.4 %) annotated by gene ontology. From the transcriptome, most of the core genes of the RNAi mechanism of Lepidoptera were identified indicating the potential suitability of T. absoluta for gene silencing. No contigs displayed significant similarity with a RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase. Genes from the juvenile hormone and ecdysteroid biosynthetic pathways were identified, representing potential target genes for systemic silencing. Comparisons of transcript profiles among stages revealed 1,577 genes differentially expressed at earlier larval stages, from which potential gene targets were identified. Five of these genes were evaluated using in vitro transcribed dsRNA absorbed by tomato leaflets, which were fed to 1st instar T. absoluta larvae, resulting in significant reduction of larval body weight while exhibiting significant knockdown for three of the genes. Conclusions: The transcriptome we generated represents a valuable genomic resource for screening potential gene targets that affect the development or survival of T. absoluta larvae. Five novel genes that showed greater expression at the 1st larval stage were demonstrated to be effective potential RNAi targets by reducing larval weight and can be considered good candidates for use in RNAi-mediated crop protection.16Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)FAPESP [2011/12869-6, 2012/24990-8, 2010/11313-1

Height-diameter allometry of tropical forest trees

Tropical tree height-diameter (H:D) relationships may vary by forest type and region making large-scale estimates of above-ground biomass subject to bias if they ignore these differences in stem allometry. We have therefore developed a new global tropical forest database consisting of 39 955 concurrent H and D measurements encompassing 283 sites in 22 tropical countries. Utilising this database, our objectives were: 1. to determine if H:D relationships differ by geographic region and forest type (wet to dry forests, including zones of tension where forest and savanna overlap). 2. to ascertain if the H:D relationship is modulated by climate and/or forest structural characteristics (e.g. stand-level basal area, A). 3. to develop H:D allometric equations and evaluate biases to reduce error in future local-to-global estimates of tropical forest biomass. Annual precipitation coefficient of variation (PV), dry season length (SD), and mean annual air temperature (TA) emerged as key drivers of variation in H:D relationships at the pantropical and region scales. Vegetation structure also played a role with trees in forests of a high A being, on average, taller at any given D. After the effects of environment and forest structure are taken into account, two main regional groups can be identified. Forests in Asia, Africa and the Guyana Shield all have, on average, similar H:D relationships, but with trees in the forests of much of the Amazon Basin and tropical Australia typically being shorter at any given D than their counterparts elsewhere. The region-environment-structure model with the lowest Akaike\u27s information criterion and lowest deviation estimated stand-level H across all plots to within amedian −2.7 to 0.9% of the true value. Some of the plot-to-plot variability in H:D relationships not accounted for by this model could be attributed to variations in soil physical conditions. Other things being equal, trees tend to be more slender in the absence of soil physical constraints, especially at smaller D. Pantropical and continental-level models provided less robust estimates of H, especially when the roles of climate and stand structure in modulating H:D allometry were not simultaneously taken into account