Mechanical properties and microstructure of high performance concrete containing stabilized nano-silica

Nanotechnology can significantly improve the mechanical strength and durability of concrete. At thenanoscale, good dispersion of constituent materials is an essential factor for the improvement of concreteproperties. In this scenario, the objective of this research was to evaluate the mechanical properties of highperformance concrete containing stabilized nano-silica. The incorporation of nano-silica to thepolycarboxylate chemical admixture allowed its application in concrete, since the nano-silica was evenlydispersed in the concrete mass. For this study, three different concretes were employed: a reference concrete,one containing stabilized nano-silica and another containing a mixture of silica fume and stabilized nanosilica.The evaluated concrete mechanical properties were the axial compressive strength and secant modulusof elasticity measured in three different ages. The results indicated a substantial increase in concretecompressive strength and modulus of elasticity with the addition of stabilized nano-silica combined with areduction in cement content. The results also showed that use of stabilized nano-silica proved to be veryadvantageous, especially when mixed with silica fume. When they were combined, a synergy effect occurredin the concrete that was of chemical nature in addition to the physical effect of better concrete particlepackaging. Analysis by scanning electron microscopy showed the improvement in microstructure ofconcretes with stabilized nano-silica, which contributed to gains in mechanical properties

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The complete genome sequence of Chromobacterium violaceum reveals remarkable and exploitable bacterial adaptability

Chromobacterium violaceum is one of millions of species of free-living microorganisms that populate the soil and water in the extant areas of tropical biodiversity around the world. Its complete genome sequence reveals (i) extensive alternative pathways for energy generation, (ii) ≈500 ORFs for transport-related proteins, (iii) complex and extensive systems for stress adaptation and motility, and (iv) wide-spread utilization of quorum sensing for control of inducible systems, all of which underpin the versatility and adaptability of the organism. The genome also contains extensive but incomplete arrays of ORFs coding for proteins associated with mammalian pathogenicity, possibly involved in the occasional but often fatal cases of human C. violaceum infection. There is, in addition, a series of previously unknown but important enzymes and secondary metabolites including paraquat-inducible proteins, drug and heavy-metal-resistance proteins, multiple chitinases, and proteins for the detoxification of xenobiotics that may have biotechnological applications

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Chemical stabilization of soils for road engineering applications: case study using RBI Grade 81

Este trabalho teve como objetivo caracterizar, tecnologicamente, em laboratório, misturas de quatro tipos de solos da Microrregião de Viçosa – MG, Brasil, com o aditivo químico RBI Grade 81, para fins rodoviários. Dois desses solos são constituídos de textura argilo-areno-siltosa e referidos neste trabalho como ETA e PVB, de classificação TRB A-7-5 (20). Os demais, são de textura areno-silto-argilosa, de classificação TRB A-2-6 (3) e A-2-4 (0) e referidos nesta investigação de SP e VS, respectivamente. O aditivo químico é um pó de cor cinza, pH básico, inodoro e de baixa solubilidade em água. Segundo o fabricante, o produto vem sendo utilizado em vários países como estabilizante químico dos materiais empregados nas camadas dos pavimentos de rodovias. O seu uso no Brasil ainda não foi difundido, sendo este o primeiro trabalho de pesquisa com o referido produto na área de pavimentação. Nos quatro solos foram realizados ensaios de índice de suporte Califórnia (CBR) e resistência à compressão não-confinada, com três teores de RBI Grade 81 (2%, 4% e 6%) e três períodos de cura (1, 7 e 28 dias), trabalhando com duas energias de compactação (Proctor Intermediário e Modificado). Isto possibilitou observar a influência do teor de aditivo, da energia de compactação e do período de cura no comportamento mecânico das misturas. Determinou-se também o módulo de resiliência das misturas dos solos com 6% de RBI Grade 81, com 7 dias de cura, nas duas energias de compactação citadas anteriormente. Através dos resultados obtidos nesta pesquisa, observou-se que apesar de algumas misturas apresentarem resultados diferentes do esperado, a maioria das misturas solo-RBI Grade 81 tiveram melhorias significativas no comportamento mecânico aqui representados pelos parâmetros CBR e resistência à compressão não-confinada, com o aumento do teor de RBI Grade 81, da energia de compactação e do período de cura.This study is directed to the laboratory geotechnical characterization of soil-RBI Grade 81 mixtures for road engineering applications. Four soils from the microregion of the country of Viçosa, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, are used throughout the experiment. Two of those soils, named ETA and PVB, are silty- sandy clays, and following the Transportation Research Board (TRB) classification system are A-7-5 (20). The other two soils, named SP and VS, are clayey-silty sands classified, respectively, as A-2-6 (3) and A-2-4 (0). The RBI Grade 81 is a gray powder stabilizer presenting basic pH, low water solubility, and without odor. The manufacturer informs that this product has been used worldwide as a stabilizer for road engineering application. However, in Brazil, there is no information regarding its use, as well as this is the first research already developed for this purpose. The laboratory testing program encompassed the following tests: soil geotechnical characterization, California Bearing Ration (CBR), unconfined compression, and dynamic triaxial. In order to evaluate the influence of stabilizer content, curing time, and compaction effort on mixtures mechanical strength mixtures specimens were prepared using three RBI Grade 81 contents (2, 4 and 6%), three curing times (1, 7 and 28 days), and two compaction efforts (Intermediate and Modified Proctor). Dynamic triaxial tests were performed on specimens prepared at the two referred compaction efforts at 6% of stabilizer, and 7 days curing time. Data analysis support that increases in stabilizer content, curing time, and compaction effort are responsible for increase in mixtures mechanical strength.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superio

A Polarization Approach for Understanding Online Conflicts in Times of Pandemic: A Brazilian Case Study

As society becomes digitalized, online social networks tend to be primary places for debate but can turn into a battlefield for imposing conflicting narratives. Automating the identification of online conflicts is a challenge due to difficulties in defining antagonist communities and controversial discussions. Here, we propose a polarization approach for understanding Twitter conflicts in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic, where a small group of polarizers influences a larger group of polarizees according to their ideological leaning. Polarizers are automatically identified by centrality metrics in following, retweet, and reply networks, and manually labeled as leftists, rightists, or undefined. We collected and analyzed the polarization of 21 potentially conflicted political events in Brazil. Our results show that polarizers adequately represent the polarization of events, the traditional media is giving way to a new breed of tweeters, and retweet and reply play different roles within a conflict that reflects their polarization level

Taxas de crescimento de mudas de catingueira submetidas a diferentes substratos e sombreamentos Growth rates of catingueira seedlings submitted to different substrates and shading

A catingueira (Caesalpinia pyramidalis Tul.) é uma espécie nativa da caatinga dotada de grande resistência à seca e de grande potencial econômico. No entanto, não existem informações sobre o desenvolvimento dessa espécie em diferentes substrates e luminosidade, fatores ambientais que mais influenciam a produção de seedlings florestais. Dessa forma, este trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar o efeito de diferentes níveis de shading e tipos de substrates nas taxas de crescimento de mudas de catingueira. O experimento foi conduzido na Universidade do Estado da Bahia e na Embrapa Semiárido, Petrolina, PE. As sementes foram semeadas em recipientes preenchidos com diferentes substratos: solo, areia, solo+areia, solo+areia+esterco caprino e substrato comercial, sendo os recipientes mantidos em quatro diferentes sombreamentos, a céu aberto (sem sombreamento) e em telados tipo sombrite de 30%, 50% e 75% de sombreamento. Aos 30, 60 e 100 dias após a estabilização da emergência das plântulas, as mudas foram avaliadas quanto à taxa de crescimento absoluto, taxa de crescimento relativo, taxa assimilatória líquida, razão de área foliar,área foliar específica, peso específico da folha e razão de peso foliar. Não houve interação significativa entre os dois fatores estudados em nenhuma das taxas de crescimento calculadas. Nas condições deste trabalho, foi possível concluir que as taxas de crescimento das mudas de catingueira, em geral, não foram influenciadas pela luminosidade às quais elas foram submetidas e que solo coletado em região de caatinga, combinado ou não, com areia e esterco, possibilitou maior crescimento das mudas.Caesalpinia pyramidalis Tul. is a native species from the caatinga biome, with a great resistance to drought and great economic potential. However, there is no information regarding the development of this species under different substrates and light intensities, the major environmental factors that influence forest seedling growth. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of different shadings and substrates on the growth rates of C.pyramidalis seedlings. The experiment was carried out at the Universidade do Estado da Bahia and Embrapa Semi-Árido. The seeds were sowed in recipients filled with different substrates: soil, sand, soil+ sand, soil+ sand+ goat manure and commercial substrate. The recipients were maintained under different shadings: sunlight (no shading) and at 30%, 50% and 75% shadings. 30 , 60 and 100 days after the emergence stabilization, the seedlings were evaluated as to the absolute growth rate, relative growth rate, net assimilation rate, leaf area ratio, specific leaf area, specific leaf weight and leaf weight ratio. There was no interaction between the two studied factors for any growth rate. Under the conditions of this work, it is possible to conclude that, in general, the growth rates of C.pyramidalis seedlings were not influenced by shading and that the soil collected in the caatinga region, associated or not, to sand and manure, allowed a higher growth