Combined impact of diurnal type and time of day on children’s results in a battery of measurements probing reading abilities: Preliminary Results

The present work is part of a larger ongoing research project and it specifically aims to scrutinize whether diurnal-type (morningness- eveningness) and time-of-day have an impact (synchrony effect) on the results obtained by primary school children in standardized measures assessing reading skills and difficulties. Morning- and evening-type children attending the 2nd, 3rd or 4th grades were selected in a Portuguese “School Cluster” Using the Portuguese version of the Werner et al. (2009) Children Chronotype Questionnaire. The selected participants were randomly assigned to assessment sessions in the morning (9:00-10:30) or in the afternoon (16:00-17:30). There were 78 children (40 boys, 38 girls), 39 (50.0%) morning-type and 38 (50.0%) evening-type, 40 assessed in morning sessions and 38 in afternoon sessions. Reading abilities/difficulties were assessed using the Sucena & Castro (2011) battery ALEPE ‐ Avaliação da Leitura em Português Europeu [European Portuguese Reading Assessment battery], by a single evaluator who was blind to each child diurnaltype. Comparing morning and afternoon sessions, morning-types mainly showed similar scores, both in terms of answer correctness and reaction times, excepting for significantly higher scores in three tests in the morning sessions. Evening-types showed similar scores in most tests for answer correctness, but in two tests they achieved significantly higher scores in the morning, and mean reaction times were consistently shorter in the morning in comparison to the afternoon sessions. In 5 out of the 7 ALEPE tests that yield reaction time scores, differences reached, or were close to, statistical significance (p < 0.05, or p < 0.15, respectively). In conclusion, in spite of evening types’ performance seeming in most cases to be unaffected by time-of-day in a standardized battery of tests assessing reading abilities and difficulties, their shorter reaction times when tested in their nonoptimal time-of-day (i.e., in the morning) indicates an asynchrony effect. Contrarily to our initial expectations, results obtained so far in evening-type children suggest that specific tasks may benefit from non-optimal moments, as indicated by recent evidence. Support: FCT/COMPETE/QREN – research project PTDC/PSIEDD/120003/2010

Ex vivo exposure to titanium dioxide and silver nanoparticles mildly affect sperm of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) - A multiparameter spermiotoxicity approach

Nanoparticles (NP) are potentially repmtoxic, which may compromise the success of populations. However, the reprotoxicity of NP is still scarcely addressed in marine fish. Therefore, we evaluated the impacts of environmentally relevant and supra environmental concentrations of titanium dioxide (TiO2: 10 to 10,000 mu g.L-1) and silver NP (Ag: 0.25 to 250 mu g.L-1) on the sperm of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). We performed short-term direct exposures (ex vivo) and evaluated sperm motility, head morphometry, mitochondrial function, antioxidant responses and DNA integrity. No alteration in sperm motility (except for supra environmental Ag NP concentration), head morphometry, mitochondrial function, and DNA integrity occurred. However, depletion of all antioxidants occurred after exposure to TiO2 NP, whereas SOD decreased after exposure to Ag NP (lowest and intermediate concentration). Considering our results, the decrease in antioxidants did not indicate vulnerability towards oxidative stress. TiO2 NP and Ag NP induced low spermiotoxicity, without proven relevant ecological impacts.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Rhizobium strains competitiveness on bean nodulation in Cerrado soils.

ABSTRACT: The objective of this work was to identify the most competitive and effective Rhizobium strains in order to increase common bean yield by nitrogen fixation as alternative or complementation to the nitrogen fertilization. Competitiveness tests were lead in axenic conditions, in Cerrado soil pots and in three field experiments, with native Rhizobium strains that were previously identified, according to their effectiveness and genetic variability. The identification of strains in nodules was performed using serological tests (axenic conditions) ? agglutination and enzyme linked immunosorbent (Elisa) assays ? and random amplified polymorfic DNA (RAPD) (Cerrado soil). Plant yield was determined using the dry weight (greenhouse conditions), total N and grain yield (field experiments). Among the analyzed Rhizobium strains, native strain SLA 2.2 and commercial strain CIAT 899 were the dominant nodules in plants of the most productive plots, presenting yield productivity similar or higher to those obtained in treatments where 20 kg ha-1 of N were applied. RESUMO: O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar as estirpes de Rhizobium mais efetivas e competitivas, a fim de maximizar a produtividade do feijoeiro por meio da fixação de nitrogênio, como alternativa à adubação nitrogenada. Foram conduzidos testes de competitividade em condições axênicas, em vasos com solo do Cerrado e em três experimentos de campo, com estirpes de Rhizobium nativas, previamente selecionadas quanto à efetividade e à variabilidade genética. A identificação das estirpes nos nódulos foi efetuada por meio das técnicas de aglutinação e ensaio imunoabsorvente de ligação de enzimas (Elisa), em condições de casa de vegetação, e pela técnica de DNA polimórfico amplificado ao acaso (RAPD), em solo de Cerrado. A produtividade das plantas foi determinada pela produção de matéria seca, teor de N e produção de grãos (condições de campo). A estirpe nativa SLA 2.2 e a estirpe comercial CIAT 899 foram dominantes nos nódulos das plantas das parcelas mais produtivas, com índices de produtividade iguais ou superiores aos obtidos nos tratamentos em que foram aplicados 20 kg ha-1 de N

High potential for weathering and climate effects of non-vascular vegetation in the Late Ordovician

It has been hypothesized that predecessors of today’s bryophytes significantly increased global chemical weathering in the Late Ordovician, thus reducing atmospheric CO2 concentration and contributing to climate cooling and an interval of glaciations. Studies that try to quantify the enhancement of weathering by non-vascular vegetation, however, are usually limited to small areas and low numbers of species, which hampers extrapolating to the global scale and to past climatic conditions. Here we present a spatially explicit modelling approach to simulate global weathering by non-vascular vegetation in the Late Ordovician. We estimate a potential global weathering flux of 2.8 (km3 rock) yr−1, defined here as volume of primary minerals affected by chemical transformation. This is around three times larger than today’s global chemical weathering flux. Moreover, we find that simulated weathering is highly sensitive to atmospheric CO2 concentration. This implies a strong negative feedback between weathering by non-vascular vegetation and Ordovician climate

Efeito da implantação de uma floresta mista sobre a população de microrganismos celulolíticos em solos do semi-árido mineiro.

Na recuperacao e manutencao da fertilidade dos solos degradados, a decomposicao apresenta-se particularmente importante sendo a razao celulose/N um dos principais fatores que influenciam a efetividade desses processo. Neste trabalho avaliou-se a ocorrencia e a dinamica da populacao de microorganismos celuloliticos nos solos de diferentes modelos de reflorestamento de uma area degradada do Projeto Jaiba/MG. Esses modelos incluiram especies arboreas de eucalipto, leguminosas e nao leguminosas nativas. Observaram-se diferencas significativas no numero de celuloliticos entre as estacoes e os locais estudados. Nas areas impactadas ocorreu elevacao menos intensa dos microrganismos evidenciando o efeito limitante do impacto sobre essa populacao microbiana. Nos modelos de plantio avaliados o numero de celuloliticos diferiu significativamente, sendo o mais elevado no modelo representado pelo plantio do maior numero de especies. em todos os experimentos, a maior populacao de celuloliticos ocorreu nos consorcios entre leguminosas e outras especies vegetais nativas e a menor nas areas de plantio de eucalipto, sugerindo uma acao limitante dessa planta sobre o crescimento desses microrganismos. Esses resultados evidenciaram o papel dos celuloliticos como bioindicadores da qualidade do solo e da resposta as diferentes praticas de manejo

Mapping and Assessment of forest Ecosystem and Their Services. Applications and guidance for decision making in the framework of MAES

The aim of this report is to illustrate by means of a series of case studies the implementation of mapping and assessment of forest ecosystem services in different contexts and geographical levels. Methodological aspects, data issues, approaches, limitations, gaps and further steps for improvement are analysed for providing good practices and decision making guidance. The EU initiative on Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), with the support of all Member States, contributes to improve the knowledge on ecosytem services. MAES is one of the building-block initiatives supporting the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2000

Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool) v2.0 - An extended set of large-scale diagnostics for quasi-operational and comprehensive evaluation of Earth system models in CMIP

The Earth System Model Evaluation Tool (ESMValTool) is a community diagnostics and performance metrics tool designed to improve comprehensive and routine evaluation of Earth system models (ESMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). It has undergone rapid development since the first release in 2016 and is now a well-tested tool that provides end-to-end provenance tracking to ensure reproducibility. It consists of (1) an easy-to-install, well-documented Python package providing the core functionalities (ESMValCore) that performs common preprocessing operations and (2) a diagnostic part that includes tailored diagnostics and performance metrics for specific scientific applications. Here we describe large-scale diagnostics of the second major release of the tool that supports the evaluation of ESMs participating in CMIP Phase 6 (CMIP6). ESMValTool v2.0 includes a large collection of diagnostics and performance metrics for atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial variables for the mean state, trends, and variability. ESMValTool v2.0 also successfully reproduces figures from the evaluation and projections chapters of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and incorporates updates from targeted analysis packages, such as the NCAR Climate Variability Diagnostics Package for the evaluation of modes of variability, the Thermodynamic Diagnostic Tool (TheDiaTo) to evaluate the energetics of the climate system, as well as parts of AutoAssess that contains a mix of top-down performance metrics. The tool has been fully integrated into the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) infrastructure at the Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum (DKRZ) to provide evaluation results from CMIP6 model simulations shortly after the output is published to the CMIP archive. A result browser has been implemented that enables advanced monitoring of the evaluation results by a broad user community at much faster timescales than what was possible in CMIP5