A CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF PAPER DEMAND BY COMMERCIAL GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Conjoint analysis was used to evaluate the preferences of graphic designers toward kenaf paper. Results indicate that price is of overwhelming importance to designers in their purchasing decisions regarding paper stock. If priced competitively with existing wood and recycled papers, kenaf products should gain market share among designers.Demand and Price Analysis,

Wound-up phase turbulence in the Complex Ginzburg-Landau equation

We consider phase turbulent regimes with nonzero winding number in the one-dimensional Complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. We find that phase turbulent states with winding number larger than a critical one are only transients and decay to states within a range of allowed winding numbers. The analogy with the Eckhaus instability for non-turbulent waves is stressed. The transition from phase to defect turbulence is interpreted as an ergodicity breaking transition which occurs when the range of allowed winding numbers vanishes. We explain the states reached at long times in terms of three basic states, namely quasiperiodic states, frozen turbulence states, and riding turbulence states. Justification and some insight into them is obtained from an analysis of a phase equation for nonzero winding number: rigidly moving solutions of this equation, which correspond to quasiperiodic and frozen turbulence states, are understood in terms of periodic and chaotic solutions of an associated system of ordinary differential equations. A short report of some of our results has been published in [Montagne et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 267 (1996)].Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures included. Uses subfigure.sty (included) and epsf.tex (not included). Related research in http://www.imedea.uib.es/Nonlinea

Manipulation of natural grassland in Semiarid region: a review.

Abstract: Because the Caatinga is one of the most densely populated areas in the world and having agriculture and livestock farming as its main activities, ithas been suffering aprocess of desertificationover the years, reflecting on losses in biodiversity and animal productivity, especiallyas agricultural practices are based on deforestation and burning of native vegetation. Thus, it becomes necessary and fundamental, a searchingfor management practices that intensify the use of caatinga?s resources without degrading them. This review aimsto highlight the use of manipulation techniques of the woody stratum of the Caatinga vegetation, asthinning and enrichment, which aim to increase the support capacity of the native and cultivated pasture, through the increase inherbaceous forage biomass and biodiversity. [Manipulação da pastagem natural em região Semiárido: uma revisão]. Resumo: Por se tratar de uma região comouma das mais densamente populosas do mundo, e tendo como atividades principais a agricultura e a pecuária, a Caatinga vem ao longo dos anos entrando em processo de desertificação, refletindo na perca da biodiversidade e da produtividade animal, muito em função das práticas agropecuárias serem pautadas apenas no desmatamento e na queima da vegetação nativa. Deste modo, torna-se necessária e fundamental, a busca por práticas de manejo que intensifiquem o seu uso sem degradá-las. Esta revisão teve como função destacar o uso de técnicas de manipulação do estrato lenhoso da vegetação da Caatinga, caso do raleamento e do enriquecimento, que visam, aumentar a capacidade de suporte do pasto nativo e cultivado, através do incremento de biomassa de forragem herbácea e também da sua biodiversidade

Forage production and preservation of species by enriching caatinga with grasses and thinning areas into strips.

Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the thinning into strips and the enrichment with exotic grasses in a Caatinga area in order to maintain and increase the biodiversity of native vegetable species and forage production. Two studies were carried out?one in an area of Caatinga thinned into strips and one in an unmanipulated Caatinga area?during the rainy and rainy-dry season transition periods in 2016. The production of herbaceous biomass was evaluated, and the diversity and equability of the two areas were assessed through Shannon-Weaver (H') and Pielou (J') indexes. The establishment of massai and buffel grasses at the center and edges of the area thinned into strips was also evaluated. During the rainy season, the production of herbaceous biomass in the area thinned into strips and the unmanipulated area was 1,228 kg ha-1 and 833.33 kg ha-1, while during the rainy-dry transition period, it was 1,973 kg ha-1 and 836.00 kg ha-1, respectively. The indexes remained similar: H' (1.86) and J' (0.74) for the area thinned into strips, and H' (1.77) and J' (0.85) for the unmanipulated area. The massai grass presented better establishment and development than that by the buffel grass in the center and edges of the area thinned into strips. Thus, thinning into strips increases the biodiversity of an area, and this combined with enrichment through grasses increases the biomass of herbaceous forage. Resumo: O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o raleamento em faixas e o enriquecimento com gramíneas exóticas em uma área de Caatinga, de modo que fosse possível manter e ou aumentar a biodiversidade de espécies vegetais nativas, e intensificar a produção de biomassa de forragem. Dois estudos foram conduzidos em uma área de Caatinga raleada em faixas e em outra área de Caatinga não manipulada no período chuvoso e transição águas-seca no ano de 2016. Avaliou-se a produção de biomassa herbácea e, a diversidade e equabilidade pelos índices de Shannon-Weaver (H') e Pielou (J') das áreas raleada em faixas e não manipulada. Foi ainda avaliado o estabelecimento dos capins massai e búffel ao centro e na lateral da área raleada em faixa. Na época das águas a produção de biomassa herbácea na área raleada em faixas e não manipulada foi de 1.228 kg ha-1 e 833, 33 kg ha-1, enquanto o período de transição águas-seca 1.973 kg ha-1 contra 836, 00 kg ha-1, respectivamente. Os índices permaneceram próximos H' (1, 86) e J?(0, 74), para a área raleada e H' (1, 77) e J' (0, 85) para a não manipulada. O capim-massai apresentou melhor estabelecimento e desenvolvimento que o capim-búffel no centro e na lateral da área raleada em faixas. O raleamento em faixas aumenta a biodiversidade da área contribuindo juntamente com o enriquecimento no incremento de biomassa de forragem herbácea

Association of TYR SNP rs1042602 with Melanoma Risk and Prognosis

Cutaneous melanoma is the most aggressive of skin tumors. In order to discover new biomarkers that could help us improve prognostic prediction in melanoma patients, we have searched for germline DNA variants associated with melanoma progression. Thus, after exome sequencing of a set of melanoma patients and healthy control individuals, we identified rs1042602, an SNP within TYR, as a good candidate. After genotyping rs1042602 in 1025 patients and 773 healthy donors, we found that the rs1042602-A allele was significantly associated with susceptibility to melanoma (CATT test: p = 0.0035). Interestingly, we also observed significant differences between patients with good and bad prognosis (5 years of follow-up) (n = 664) (CATT test for all samples p = 0.0384 and for men alone p = 0.0054). Disease-free-survival (DFS) analyses also showed that patients with the A allele had shorter DFS periods. In men, the association remained significant even in a multivariate Cox Proportional-hazards model, which was adjusted for age at diagnosis, Breslow thickness, ulceration and melanoma subtype (HR 0.4; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.20–0.83; p = 0.0139). Based on our results, we propose that rs1042602-A is a risk allele for melanoma, which also seems to be responsible for a poorer prognosis of the disease, particularly in men

Channeling by Proximity: The Catalytic Advantages of Active Site Colocalization Using Brownian Dynamics

Nature often colocalizes successive steps in a metabolic pathway. Such organization is predicted to increase the effective concentration of pathway intermediates near their recipient active sites and to enhance catalytic efficiency. Here, the pathway of a two-step reaction is modeled using a simple spherical approximation for the enzymes and substrate particles. Brownian dynamics are used to simulate the trajectory of a substrate particle as it diffuses between the active site zones of two different enzyme spheres. The results approximate distances for the most effective reaction pathways, indicating that the most effective reaction pathway is one in which the active sites are closely aligned. However, when the active sites are too close, the ability of the substrate to react with the first enzyme was hindered, suggesting that even the most efficient orientations can be improved for a system that is allowed to rotate or change orientation to optimize the likelihood of reaction at both sites

Características morfogênicas do capim-tamani irrigado sob doses de adubação nitrogenada.

Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of nitrogen fertilization on tamani-grass managed under cut. The experiment was carried out in the city of Fortaleza-CE, in the year 2017, in a randomized complete block design. The treatments consisted of increasing doses of 0; 100; 300; 600 and 1,200 kg N ha-1, being the experimental unit plot of 2.5 x 5 m, cultivated with tamani-grass. Leaf elongation rate and stem elongation rate behaved in a linear positive manner, with increments estimated to be 0.00141 and 0.00008643 cm tiller-1 to day-1, making 2.20380 and 3.8958 for the doses of 0 and 1200 kg N ha-1 respectively. The total senescence rate was not significant for the nitrogen doses, presenting 0.38 ± 0.18. The leaf life span responded in a linear negative fashion, with reductions estimated to be 0.00723 days. Nitrogen allowed for higher growth and forage biomass of the tamani-grass, handled under cut, without any increase of senescent material

Parâmetros estruturais e produtivos de gramíneas forrageiras tropicais em Caatinga raleada em savana.

Resumo: O raleamento da Caatinga é uma técnica de manipulação que aumenta a luminosidade no estrato herbáceo favorecendo a produção de biomassa. O enriquecimento desse estrato com espécies perenes favorece a redução na estacionalidade de produção e aumenta a biomassa total disponível. Objetivou-se avaliar parâmetros estruturais das espécies Cenchrus ciliares (buffel) e Panicum maximum cv. Massai em um subbosque de caatinga raleada.Edición de las Memorias de la 25a. Reunión de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Producción Animal (ALPA), 2016, Recife, Brasil