Avaliação física e físico-química de 25 genótipos de maracujázeiro-azedo cultivados no Distrito Federal.

O trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o desempenho agronômico de 25 genótipos de maracujazeiro azedo no Distrito Federal, bem como estimar parâmetros genéticos para serem utilizados em programas de melhoramento genético dessa cultura

Desempenho de hibridos de abóboras e morangas avaliadas no Distrito Federal.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o desempenho agronômico de oito hibridos experimentais de abóboras e morangas em Brasília, DF.Suplemento. Edição dos Anais do 53 Congresso Brasileiro de Olericultura, jul. 2014

Anti-de Sitter curvature radius constrained by quasars in brane-world scenarios

This paper is intended to investigate the luminosity due to accretion of gas in supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the center of quasars, using a brane-world scenario naturally endowed with extra dimensions, whereon theories formulated introduce corrections in the field equations at high energies. SMBHs possess the necessary highly energetic environment for the introduction of these corrections, which are shown to produce small deviations in all SMBH properties and, consequentely, corrections in the accretion theory that supports quasars radiative processes. The radiative flux observed from quasars indicates these deviations, from which the magnitude of the AdS$_5$ bulk curvature radius, and consequently the extra dimension compactification radius is estimated.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, Eq.(2) and (3) expanded, and comments thereon update

Graphene oxide prevents lateral amygdala dysfunctional synaptic plasticity and reverts long lasting anxiety behavior in rats

Engineered small graphene oxide (s-GO) sheets were previously shown to reversibly down-regulate glutamatergic synapses in the hippocampus of juvenile rats, disclosing an unexpected translational potential of these nanomaterials to target selective synapses in vivo. Synapses are anatomical specializations acting in the Central Nervous System (CNS) as functional interfaces among neurons. Dynamic changes in synaptic function, named synaptic plasticity, are crucial to learning and memory. More recently, pathological mechanisms involving dysfunctional synaptic plasticity were implicated in several brain diseases, from dementia to anxiety disorders. Hyper-excitability of glutamatergic neurons in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala complex (LA) is substantially involved in the storage of aversive memory induced by stressful events enabling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here we translated in PTSD animal model the ability of s-GO, when stereotaxically administered to hamper LA glutamatergic transmission and to prevent the behavioral response featured in long-term aversive memory. We propose that s-GO, by interference with glutamatergic plasticity, impair LA-dependent memory retrieval related to PTSD

He II λ\lambda4686 emission from the massive binary system in η\eta Car: constraints to the orbital elements and the nature of the periodic minima

{\eta} Carinae is an extremely massive binary system in which rapid spectrum variations occur near periastron. Most notably, near periastron the He II $\lambda 4686$ line increases rapidly in strength, drops to a minimum value, then increases briefly before fading away. To understand this behavior, we conducted an intense spectroscopic monitoring of the He II $\lambda 4686$ emission line across the 2014.6 periastron passage using ground- and space-based telescopes. Comparison with previous data confirmed the overall repeatability of EW(He II $\lambda 4686$), the line radial velocities, and the timing of the minimum, though the strongest peak was systematically larger in 2014 than in 2009 by 26%. The EW(He II $\lambda 4686$) variations, combined with other measurements, yield an orbital period $2022.7\pm0.3$ d. The observed variability of the EW(He II $\lambda 4686$) was reproduced by a model in which the line flux primarily arises at the apex of the wind-wind collision and scales inversely with the square of the stellar separation, if we account for the excess emission as the companion star plunges into the hot inner layers of the primary's atmosphere, and including absorption from the disturbed primary wind between the source and the observer. This model constrains the orbital inclination to $135^\circ$-$153^\circ$, and the longitude of periastron to $234^\circ$-$252^\circ$. It also suggests that periastron passage occurred on $T_0 = 2456874.4\pm1.3$ d. Our model also reproduced EW(He II $\lambda 4686$) variations from a polar view of the primary star as determined from the observed He II $\lambda 4686$ emission scattered off the Homunculus nebula.Comment: The article contains 23 pages and 17 figures. It has been accepted for publication in Ap

Do contaminants originating from state-of-the-art treated wastewater impact the ecological quality of surface waters?

Since the 1980s, advances in wastewater treatment technology have led to considerably improved surface water quality in the urban areas of many high income countries. However, trace concentrations of organic wastewater-associated contaminants may still pose a key environmental hazard impairing the ecological quality of surface waters. To identify key impact factors, we analyzed the effects of a wide range of anthropogenic and environmental variables on the aquatic macroinvertebrate community. We assessed ecological water quality at 26 sampling sites in four urban German lowland river systems with a 0–100% load of state-of-the-art biological activated sludge treated wastewater. The chemical analysis suite comprised 12 organic contaminants (five phosphor organic flame retardants, two musk fragrances, bisphenol A, nonylphenol, octylphenol, diethyltoluamide, terbutryn), 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and 12 heavy metals. Non-metric multidimensional scaling identified organic contaminants that are mainly wastewater-associated (i.e., phosphor organic flame retardants, musk fragrances, and diethyltoluamide) as a major impact variable on macroinvertebrate species composition. The structural degradation of streams was also identified as a significant factor. Multiple linear regression models revealed a significant impact of organic contaminants on invertebrate populations, in particular on Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera species. Spearman rank correlation analyses confirmed wastewater-associated organic contaminants as the most significant variable negatively impacting the biodiversity of sensitive macroinvertebrate species. In addition to increased aquatic pollution with organic contaminants, a greater wastewater fraction was accompanied by a slight decrease in oxygen concentration and an increase in salinity. This study highlights the importance of reducing the wastewater-associated impact on surface waters. For aquatic ecosystems in urban areas this would lead to: (i) improvement of the ecological integrity, (ii) reduction of biodiversity loss, and (iii) faster achievement of objectives of legislative requirements, e.g., the European Water Framework Directive

Gauged Flavor Group with Left-Right Symmetry

We construct an anomaly-free extension of the left-right symmetric model, where the maximal flavor group is gauged and anomaly cancellation is guaranteed by adding new vectorlike fermion states. We address the question of the lowest allowed flavor symmetry scale consistent with data. Because of the mechanism recently pointed out by Grinstein et al. tree-level flavor changing neutral currents turn out to play a very weak constraining role. The same occurs, in our model, for electroweak precision observables. The main constraint turns out to come from WR-mediated flavor changing neutral current box diagrams, primarily K - Kbar mixing. In the case where discrete parity symmetry is present at the TeV scale, this constraint implies lower bounds on the mass of vectorlike fermions and flavor bosons of 5 and 10 TeV respectively. However, these limits are weakened under the condition that only SU(2)_R x U(1)_{B-L} is restored at the TeV scale, but not parity. For example, assuming the SU(2) gauge couplings in the ratio gR/gL approx 0.7 allows the above limits to go down by half for both vectorlike fermions and flavor bosons. Our model provides a framework for accommodating neutrino masses and, in the parity symmetric case, provides a solution to the strong CP problem. The bound on the lepton flavor gauging scale is somewhat stronger, because of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis constraints. We argue, however, that the applicability of these constraints depends on the mechanism at work for the generation of neutrino masses.Comment: 1+23 pages, 1 table, 5 figures. v3: some more textual fixes (main change: discussion of Lepton Flavor Violating observables rephrased). Matches journal versio