Plantas de cobertura verde podem controlar o excesso de vigor de uva vinífera.

A vitivinicultura na serra catarinense tem como aliado o clima que permite a colheita tardia, em relação às regiões tradicionalmente produtoras. Entretanto, a alta disponibilidade de nitrogênio do solo, aliada ao uso do porta enxerto P-1103 geralmente promovem vigor excessivo nas videiras, o que favorece a incidência de doenças e diminui a qualidade da uva. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a influência de plantas de cobertura e seu manejo no crescimento vegetativo da vinífera Cabernet Sauvignon em solos de altitude do sul do Brasil. O trabalho foi localizado no município de São Joaquim-SC em Cambissolo Distrofico a 1.120 metros de altitude. Foram avaliados cinco tratamentos compostos de um controle, com plantas espontâneas controladas por herbicida na linha e por roçada na entre linha; uma sucessão de plantas anuais, trigo mourisco-aveia branca; uma planta perene, festuca; e dois manejos, com e sem transferência do resíduo cultural da linha para a entre linha. Avaliou-se o crescimento de ramos da videira, na safra 2012-13 que é a quarta após o início do experimento. Na poda verde não se observou influencia das plantas de cobertura na massa média de ramos. Entretanto, em avaliação referente à poda seca, o consórcio de videira com festuca reduziu o vigor na videira, tanto nos tratamentos manejados com, como sem a transferência dos resíduos culturais da linha para entrelinha.Resumo expandido

A field-grown transgenic tomato line expressing higher levels of polyamines reveals legume cover crop mulch-specific perturbations in fruit phenotype at the levels of metabolite profiles, gene expression, and agronomic characteristics

Genetic modification of crop plants to introduce desirable traits such as nutritional enhancement, disease and pest resistance, and enhanced crop productivity is increasingly seen as a promising technology for sustainable agriculture and boosting food production in the world. Independently, cultural practices that utilize alternative agriculture strategies including organic cultivation subscribe to sustainable agriculture by limiting chemical usage and reduced tillage. How the two together affect fruit metabolism or plant growth in the field or whether they are compatible has not yet been tested. Fruit-specific yeast S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (ySAMdc) line 579HO, and a control line 556AZ were grown in leguminous hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) (HV) mulch and conventional black polyethylene (BP) mulch, and their fruit analysed. Significant genotype×mulch-dependent interactions on fruit phenotype were exemplified by differential profiles of 20 fruit metabolites such as amino acids, sugars, and organic acids. Expression patterns of the ySAMdc transgene, and tomato SAMdc, E8, PEPC, and ICDHc genes were compared between the two lines as a function of growth on either BP or HV mulch. HV mulch significantly stimulated the accumulation of asparagine, glutamate, glutamine, choline, and citrate concomitant with a decrease in glucose in the 556AZ fruits during ripening as compared to BP. It enables a metabolic system in tomato somewhat akin to the one in higher polyamine-accumulating transgenic fruit that have higher phytonutrient content. Finally, synergism was found between HV mulch and transgenic tomato in up-regulating N:C indicator genes PEPC and ICDHc in the fruit

Cell-free (RNA) and cell-associated (DNA) HIV-1 and postnatal transmission through breastfeeding

<p>Introduction - Transmission through breastfeeding remains important for mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) in resource-limited settings. We quantify the relationship between cell-free (RNA) and cell-associated (DNA) shedding of HIV-1 virus in breastmilk and the risk of postnatal HIV-1 transmission in the first 6 months postpartum.</p> <p>Materials and Methods - Thirty-six HIV-positive mothers who transmitted HIV-1 by breastfeeding were matched to 36 non-transmitting HIV-1 infected mothers in a case-control study nested in a cohort of HIV-infected women. RNA and DNA were quantified in the same breastmilk sample taken at 6 weeks and 6 months. Cox regression analysis assessed the association between cell-free and cell-associated virus levels and risk of postnatal HIV-1 transmission.</p> <p>Results - There were higher median levels of cell-free than cell-associated HIV-1 virus (per ml) in breastmilk at 6 weeks and 6 months. Multivariably, adjusting for antenatal CD4 count and maternal plasma viral load, at 6 weeks, each 10-fold increase in cell-free or cell-associated levels (per ml) was significantly associated with HIV-1 transmission but stronger for cell-associated than cell-free levels [2.47 (95% CI 1.33–4.59) vs. aHR 1.52 (95% CI, 1.17–1.96), respectively]. At 6 months, cell-free and cell-associated levels (per ml) in breastmilk remained significantly associated with HIV-1 transmission but was stronger for cell-free than cell-associated levels [aHR 2.53 (95% CI 1.64–3.92) vs. 1.73 (95% CI 0.94–3.19), respectively].</p> <p>Conclusions - The findings suggest that cell-associated virus level (per ml) is more important for early postpartum HIV-1 transmission (at 6 weeks) than cell-free virus. As cell-associated virus levels have been consistently detected in breastmilk despite antiretroviral therapy, this highlights a potential challenge for resource-limited settings to achieve the UNAIDS goal for 2015 of eliminating vertical transmission. More studies would further knowledge on mechanisms of HIV-1 transmission and help develop more effective drugs during lactation.</p&gt

A standardized framework for accurate, high-throughput genotyping of recombinant and non-recombinant viral sequences

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1), hepatitis B and C and other rapidly evolving viruses are characterized by extremely high levels of genetic diversity. To facilitate diagnosis and the development of prevention and treatment strategies that efficiently target the diversity of these viruses, and other pathogens such as human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1), human herpes virus type-8 (HHV8) and human papillomavirus (HPV), we developed a rapid high-throughput-genotyping system. The method involves the alignment of a query sequence with a carefully selected set of pre-defined reference strains, followed by phylogenetic analysis of multiple overlapping segments of the alignment using a sliding window. Each segment of the query sequence is assigned the genotype and sub-genotype of the reference strain with the highest bootstrap (>70%) and bootscanning (>90%) scores. Results from all windows are combined and displayed graphically using color-coded genotypes. The new Virus-Genotyping Tools provide accurate classification of recombinant and non-recombinant viruses and are currently being assessed for their diagnostic utility. They have incorporated into several HIV drug resistance algorithms including the Stanford (http://hivdb.stanford.edu) and two European databases (http://www.umcutrecht.nl/subsite/spread-programme/ and http://www.hivrdb.org.uk/) and have been successfully used to genotype a large number of sequences in these and other databases. The tools are a PHP/JAVA web application and are freely accessible on a number of servers including

Search for Doubly-Charged Higgs Boson Production at HERA

A search for the single production of doubly-charged Higgs bosons H^{\pm \pm} in ep collisions is presented. The signal is searched for via the Higgs decays into a high mass pair of same charge leptons, one of them being an electron. The analysis uses up to 118 pb^{-1} of ep data collected by the H1 experiment at HERA. No evidence for doubly-charged Higgs production is observed and mass dependent upper limits are derived on the Yukawa couplings h_{el} of the Higgs boson to an electron-lepton pair. Assuming that the doubly-charged Higgs only decays into an electron and a muon via a coupling of electromagnetic strength h_{e \mu} = \sqrt{4 \pi \alpha_{em}} = 0.3, a lower limit of 141 GeV on the H^{\pm\pm} mass is obtained at the 95% confidence level. For a doubly-charged Higgs decaying only into an electron and a tau and a coupling h_{e\tau} = 0.3, masses below 112 GeV are ruled out.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Brain networks predict metabolism, diagnosis and prognosis at the bedside in disorders of consciousness

peer reviewedRecent advances in functional neuroimaging have demonstrated novel potential for informing diagnosis and prognosis in the unresponsive wakeful syndrome and minimally conscious states. However, these technologies come with considerable expense and difficulty, limiting the possibility of wider clinical application in patients. Here, we show that high density electroencephalography, collected from 104 patients measured at rest, can provide valuable information about brain connectivity that correlates with behaviour and functional neuroimaging. Using graph theory, we visualize and quantify spectral connectivity estimated from electroencephalography as a dense brain network. Our findings demonstrate that key quantitative metrics of these networks correlate with the continuum of behavioural recovery in patients, ranging from those diagnosed as unresponsive, through those who have emerged from minimally conscious, to the fully conscious locked-in syndrome. In particular, a network metric indexing the presence of densely interconnected central hubs of connectivity discriminated behavioural consciousness with accuracy comparable to that achieved by expert assessment with positron emission tomography. We also show that this metric correlates strongly with brain metabolism. Further, with classification analysis, we predict the behavioural diagnosis, brain metabolism and 1-year clinical outcome of individual patients. Finally, we demonstrate that assessments of brain networks show robust connectivity in patients diagnosed as unresponsive by clinical consensus, but later rediagnosed as minimally conscious with the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised. Classification analysis of their brain network identified each of these misdiagnosed patients as minimally conscious, corroborating their behavioural diagnoses. If deployed at the bedside in the clinical context, such network measurements could complement systematic behavioural assessment and help reduce the high misdiagnosis rate reported in these patients. These metrics could also identify patients in whom further assessment is warranted using neuroimaging or conventional clinical evaluation. Finally, by providing objective characterization of states of consciousness, repeated assessments of network metrics could help track individual patients longitudinally, and also assess their neural responses to therapeutic and pharmacological interventions

Forward pi^0 Production and Associated Transverse Energy Flow in Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Deep-inelastic positron-proton interactions at low values of Bjorken-x down to x \approx 4.10^-5 which give rise to high transverse momentum pi^0 mesons are studied with the H1 experiment at HERA. The inclusive cross section for pi^0 mesons produced at small angles with respect to the proton remnant (the forward region) is presented as a function of the transverse momentum and energy of the pi^0 and of the four-momentum transfer Q^2 and Bjorken-x. Measurements are also presented of the transverse energy flow in events containing a forward pi^0 meson. Hadronic final state calculations based on QCD models implementing different parton evolution schemes are confronted with the data.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures and 3 table