Candidatus Bartonella merieuxii, a potential new zoonotic Bartonella species in canids from Iraq.

Bartonellae are emerging vector-borne pathogens infecting erythrocytes and endothelial cells of various domestic and wild mammals. Blood samples were collected from domestic and wild canids in Iraq under the United States Army zoonotic disease surveillance program. Serology was performed using an indirect immunofluorescent antibody test for B. henselae, B. clarridgeiae, B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii and B. bovis. Overall seroprevalence was 47.4% in dogs (n = 97), 40.4% in jackals (n = 57) and 12.8% in red foxes (n = 39). Bartonella species DNA was amplified from whole blood and representative strains were sequenced. DNA of a new Bartonella species similar to but distinct from B. bovis, was amplified from 37.1% of the dogs and 12.3% of the jackals. B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii was also amplified from one jackal and no Bartonella DNA was amplified from foxes. Adjusting for age, the odds of dogs being Bartonella PCR positive were 11.94 times higher than for wild canids (95% CI: 4.55-31.35), suggesting their role as reservoir for this new Bartonella species. This study reports on the prevalence of Bartonella species in domestic and wild canids of Iraq and provides the first detection of Bartonella in jackals. We propose Candidatus Bartonella merieuxii for this new Bartonella species. Most of the Bartonella species identified in sick dogs are also pathogenic for humans. Therefore, seroprevalence in Iraqi dog owners and bacteremia in Iraqi people with unexplained fever or culture negative endocarditis requires further investigation as well as in United States military personnel who were stationed in Iraq. Finally, it will also be essential to test any dog brought back from Iraq to the USA for presence of Bartonella bacteremia to prevent any accidental introduction of a new Bartonella species to the New World

Modeling body size evolution in Felidae under alternative phylogenetic hypotheses

The use of phylogenetic comparative methods in ecological research has advanced during the last twenty years, mainly due to accurate phylogenetic reconstructions based on molecular data and computational and statistical advances. We used phylogenetic correlograms and phylogenetic eigenvector regression (PVR) to model body size evolution in 35 worldwide Felidae (Mammalia, Carnivora) species using two alternative phylogenies and published body size data. The purpose was not to contrast the phylogenetic hypotheses but to evaluate how analyses of body size evolution patterns can be affected by the phylogeny used for comparative analyses (CA). Both phylogenies produced a strong phylogenetic pattern, with closely related species having similar body sizes and the similarity decreasing with increasing distances in time. The PVR explained 65% to 67% of body size variation and all Moran's I values for the PVR residuals were non-significant, indicating that both these models explained phylogenetic structures in trait variation. Even though our results did not suggest that any phylogeny can be used for CA with the same power, or that “good” phylogenies are unnecessary for the correct interpretation of the evolutionary dynamics of ecological, biogeographical, physiological or behavioral patterns, it does suggest that developments in CA can, and indeed should, proceed without waiting for perfect and fully resolved phylogenies

Avaliação das cultivares brasileiras de arroz irrigado em várzeas do Estado de Goiás.

A EMATER-GO em parceria com a Embrapa Arroz e Feijão, teve a iniciativa de avaliar o conjunto de cultivares em utilização pelos produtores, a fim de identificar as melhores opções para as várzeas do Estado de Goiás

Análise de haplótipos em QTL associado ao conteúdo de ferro no músculo de bovinos Nelore.

Editores técnicos: João de Mendonça Naime, Caue Ribeiro, Maria Alice Martins, Elaine Cristina Paris, Paulino Ribeiro Villas Boas, Ladislau Marcelino Rabello

Forage cactus-sorghum intercropping at different irrigation water depths in the Brazilian Semiarid Region.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the productive performance, biological efficiency, and the competitive ability of the forage cactus-sorghum intercropping under different irrigation depths with saline water in the Brazilian Semiarid Region. The experiment was carried out in Serra Talhada, in the state of Pernambuco, between 2014 and 2015, in a randomized complete block design, with four replicates, and a 5x3 factorial arrangement in split plots, with one year of forage cactus cycle and two years of sorghum cycles. The plots were composed by four irrigation water depths based on the fractions of 25, 50, 75, and 100% of the reference evapotranspiration, besides dry conditions; and the subplots consisted of three cropping systems (single crop of forage cactus, single crop of sorghum, and intercropping of forage cactus-sorghum). The increase of water irrigation depths increased the yields of sorghum in single crop and of the forage cactus-sorghum intercropping. The intercropping system promoted production stability with a higher system productivity index (SPI) for forage cactus-sorghum intercropping (6,279.02 kg ha-1 DM) than for forage cactus in single crop (4,626.98 kg ha-1 DM). The relative density coefficient (12.33) was indicative of the great compatibility of the intercropping system. The forage cactus-sorghum association shows biological advantage and competitiveness capacity, with a higher productive index than their monocultures.Título em português: Consórcio palma-sorgo irrigado com diferentes lâminas de água no Semiárido brasileiro

Testing for Network and Spatial Autocorrelation

Testing for dependence has been a well-established component of spatial statistical analyses for decades. In particular, several popular test statistics have desirable properties for testing for the presence of spatial autocorrelation in continuous variables. In this paper we propose two contributions to the literature on tests for autocorrelation. First, we propose a new test for autocorrelation in categorical variables. While some methods currently exist for assessing spatial autocorrelation in categorical variables, the most popular method is unwieldy, somewhat ad hoc, and fails to provide grounds for a single omnibus test. Second, we discuss the importance of testing for autocorrelation in data sampled from the nodes of a network, motivated by social network applications. We demonstrate that our proposed statistic for categorical variables can both be used in the spatial and network setting

Forage Cactus in Different Cropping Systems in the Semi-Arid Region of Brazil

Forage cactus is a Cactaceae grown in the Semiarid region of Brazil and other regions of the world, representing vital forage support. Using legumes in consortium with forage cactus can be an alternative in the region to increase the supply of nitrogen (N) in the soil and improve the quality of the animal diet. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the yield of the different production systems with ‘Míuda’ Cactus (Nopalea cochenillifera Salm Dyck) and Mexican Elephant Ear [Opuntia Sricta (Haw.) Haw] in consortium with the ‘Cunhã’ legumes [Clitoria ternatea (L.)] and ‘Jureminha’ [Demanthus pernambucanus (L.) Thellung]. The experiment was carried out at the experimental farm of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), located in the municipality of Garanhuns-PE. A randomized block design with four replications was used. The experimental treatments were: T1 - Forage Cactus – Miúda + D. pernambucanus; T2 - Forage Cactus Miúda + C. ternatea; T3 - Forage cactus – Mexican Elephant Ear + D. pernambucanus; T4 - Forage cactus – Mexican Elephant Ear + C. ternatea; T5 - Forage Cactus – Miúda; T6 - Forage cactus – Mexican Elephant Ear; T7 - C. ternatea; and T8 - D. pernambucanus. The forage cactus was harvested after one year of cultivation, keeping the mother cladode, while the legumes were harvested every three months with a cutting height of 20 cm. Means were compared by Tukey\u27s test at the 5% probability level. The width of the forage cactus showed different behavior in the arrangements, with the smallest width in the monoculture of forage cactus – Mexican Elephant Ear, which differed from the intercropping with D. pernambucanus. However, there were no differences in the monoculture and intercropping systems of Forage Cactus – Miúda. The Forage Cactus – Miúda showed the highest number of cladodes in all orders and greater thickness of the mother cladode in monoculture and in the intercropping with D. pernambucanus. Furthermore, the adoption of the system intercropped with legumes significantly affected the dry matter production of Forage Cactus and legume (P \u3c 0.05), with lower yields for the Forage Cactus – Miúda system in intercropping with C.ternatea. Altogether, it is concluded that the adoption of the intercropped system of cactus and legumes decreased the width of the Opuntia stricta when in consortium with D. pernambucanus. Likewise, it reduced the production of cactus and legume dry matter in the Forage Cactus – Miúda system, in consortium with C. ternatea

Automatic Power Consumption Reading on Digital Meters based on Adaptive Thresholds and Multiresolution Templates

The reading of electricity consumption in Brazil is usually performedmanually. One way to improve the time spent in the reading process is toprovide a tool that recognizes the consumption based on images. In thiscontext, this paper presents a method based on adaptive template matching forrecognizing the power consumption displayed in digital power meters troughimages. This is a part of SILEM - Mobile Reading System module, a validationsystem to automatically read and process images that are captured in the field,detect inconsistencies and at the same time perform automatic consumptionrecognition. The methodology results are promising, it recognized 72.18% ofall meter consumption correctly, with 86.38% of all meter having at least 5 of 6digits correctly recognized, minimizing human interactions to correct the readpower consumption