Software PPBB_MX: Potential Productivity Modelling of Brachiaria Brizantha (Cultivars Marandu and Xaraés)

Recent improvements in computer capacity and technology allow models to be built to simulate the attributes of many agricultural processes and systems. Although Brachiaria brizantha is the most cultivated tropical grass species in Brazil, there is no single tool to predict its production under optimal conditions. The objective of this paper is to present PPBB_MX software to calibrate and simulate (using a stochastical procedure) the shoot and total biomass potential productivity (output variables) of Brachiaria brizantha as a function of the following input variables: local latitude, season (from cutting date - Julian day), length of regrowth (time, days) and climate attributes (global solar radiation and air temperature)

Anxiety and speaking in people who stutter: An investigation using the emotional Stroop task

People with anxiety disorders show an attentional bias towards threat or negative emotion words. This exploratory study examined whether people who stutter (PWS), who can be anxious when speaking, show similar bias and whether reactions to threat words also influence speech motor planning and execution. Comparisons were made between 31 PWS and 31 fluent controls in a modified emotional Stroop task where, depending on a visual cue, participants named the colour of threat and neutral words at either a normal or fast articulation rate. In a manual version of the same task participants pressed the corresponding colour button with either a long or short duration. PWS but not controls were slower to respond to threat words than neutral words, however, this emotionality effect was only evident for verbal responding. Emotionality did not interact with speech rate, but the size of the emotionality effect among PWS did correlate with frequency of stuttering. Results suggest PWS show an attentional bias to threat words similar to that found in people with anxiety disorder. In addition, this bias appears to be contingent on engaging the speech pro-duction system as a response modality. No evidence was found to indicate that emotional reactivity during the Stroop task constrains or destabilises, perhaps via arousal mechanisms, speech motor adjustment or execution for PWS

Virtual laboratories in (bio)chemical engineering education

In the last decades, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) have been promoting the creation and adoption of new learning and teaching styles. Virtual laboratories, by overcoming some limitations of conventional hands-on experiments, have been adopted as a complement or in substitution of laboratory sessions. This paper describes the design and implementation of two virtual labs for biochemical engineering education intended for students at the BSc degree. One of the virtual labs is intended to fully replace the hands-on experiment and consists on the determination of the correlation between oxygen transfer rate, aeration rate and agitation power in a reactor. The other virtual lab consists on the determination of the residence time distribution (RTD) in continuous stirred tanks series and was implemented to support the physical experiments rather than replacing them. The virtual labs provide the students a learning platform covering the fundamentals underlying the experiment, its pre-visualization and simulation. The effectiveness of the implemented system was evaluated through direct experimentation and survey (through questionnaires) with students taking the chemical technology lab course. For the RTD virtual Lab, and based on specific learning outcomes, teachers could assess significant improvement in students’ performance in the lab and also a more thorough discussion of the results in the reports. The survey results show that, in average, considering the two virtual labs and several classes, 93% of the students consider the virtual labs of great utility.Universidade do Minho (UM) - “Programa Qualidade

Virtual laboratories in (bio)chemical engineering education

"Qualidade” of the Universidade do Minho

Produtividade de palha, teor de N total na palha e nos grãos de milho cultivado sob diferentes doses de N em solo de várzea.

O nitrogênio (N) é o nutriente absorvido e exportado em maior quantidade, o de maior custo, e o que mais influencia a resposta em produtividade do milho. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito de doses de N na produtividade de matéria seca de palha e nos teores de N total na palha e nos grãos de milho após a colheita, cultivado em solo de várzea sob sistema de drenagem subterrânea. O experimento foi desenvolvido em uma área pertencente à ESALQ/USP, Piracicaba, SP. Utilizou-se o delineamento experimental de blocos casualizados, com cinco tratamentos - 0, 50, 100, 150 e 200 kg ha -1 N - e três repetições. Concluiu-se que: (1) houve resposta quadrática as doses crescentes de N total para a produtividade de matéria seca de palha de milho; (2) a aplicação de N em doses crescentes proporcionou aumento de forma linear e positivo no teor de N total na parte aérea das plantas e nos grãos após a colheita

Convexity in partial cubes: the hull number

We prove that the combinatorial optimization problem of determining the hull number of a partial cube is NP-complete. This makes partial cubes the minimal graph class for which NP-completeness of this problem is known and improves some earlier results in the literature. On the other hand we provide a polynomial-time algorithm to determine the hull number of planar partial cube quadrangulations. Instances of the hull number problem for partial cubes described include poset dimension and hitting sets for interiors of curves in the plane. To obtain the above results, we investigate convexity in partial cubes and characterize these graphs in terms of their lattice of convex subgraphs, improving a theorem of Handa. Furthermore we provide a topological representation theorem for planar partial cubes, generalizing a result of Fukuda and Handa about rank three oriented matroids.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure