Assessing the Harvest Maturity of Brazilian Mangoes

No clear criterion exists to determine the optimum time to harvest mango. Some empirical relations are used to assess maturity, such as shoulder development. Moreover, as a result of the typical growing conditions in tropical climates, a huge variation in maturity and ripeness exists, seriously hampering the export of fruit in the global chain. The consequence for consumers in western countries is that sometimes mangoes are overripe at the retailer, or have to be kept for several days, even weeks, to reach the edible state, provided they do not rot in the meantime. To ensure an edible quality, the chlorophyll content in the fruit flesh, measured at harvest by Time-resolved Reflectance Spectroscopy (TRS), could be used as a maturity criterion for mango fruit. Commercially grown fruit were harvested in Brazil and transported to Italy by plane. Fruits were measured using TRS at 630 nm for absorption coefficient (µa) and skin colour. The development of µa was followed on 60 fruits during 15 days of storage at 20°C. The remainders of fruit were used to measure firmness destructively. Absorption coefficient decreased during shelf life according to a logistic pattern, as expected for colour development. Taking the variation between the individual fruit into account, 72% of the variation was accounted for. Nevertheless, µa assessed at harvest could be converted into a biological shift factor (BSF), as an expression of the maturity at harvest of each individual fruit. This biological shift factor explained about 70% of the variation in firmness development in individual fruit. These preliminary results indicate that TRS methodology coupled with BSF theory could be useful in assessing maturity at harvest and assuring acceptable eating quality of mango

Modeling the Dashboard Provenance

Organizations of all kinds, whether public or private, profit-driven or non-profit, and across various industries and sectors, rely on dashboards for effective data visualization. However, the reliability and efficacy of these dashboards rely on the quality of the visual and data they present. Studies show that less than a quarter of dashboards provide information about their sources, which is just one of the expected metadata when provenance is seriously considered. Provenance is a record that describes people, organizations, entities, and activities that had a role in the production, influence, or delivery of a piece of data or an object. This paper aims to provide a provenance representation model, that entitles standardization, modeling, generation, capture, and visualization, specifically designed for dashboards and its visual and data components. The proposed model will offer a comprehensive set of essential provenance metadata that enables users to evaluate the quality, consistency, and reliability of the information presented on dashboards. This will allow a clear and precise understanding of the context in which a specific dashboard was developed, ultimately leading to better decision-making.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, one table, to be published in VIS 2023 (Vis + Prov) x Domai

Análise da atividade florestal no Pará através da matriz de contabilidade social.

As indústrias de base florestal e de madeira processada mecanicamente possuem relevância na economia brasileira, pois participaram na formação do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) em 2006 com 4,7% e geraram 10,6 milhões de empregos (ABIMCI, 2007). No âmbito estadual, o Pará se destaca com produtos extrativos da floresta tropical, principalmente da madeira em tora, cuja participação, em 2005, foi de 57,2% do total de 17.372.428 m3 produzidos no País (IBGE, 2006). Frente a esse cenário, este estudo teve como objetivo analisar a importância socioeconômica das atividades florestal e de madeira e mobiliário no Pará, através do modelo da Matriz de Contabilidade Social (MCS) do ano de 1999. Os resultados revelaram que as atividades de base florestal foram consideradas atividades-chave, por apresentarem efeito de linkages para frente e/ou para trás superior a um. Todavia, em função do ajuste da legislação ambiental em vigor, as atividades de base florestal terão que implementar novos padrões de produção sustentáveis, atendendo as exigências dos mercados nacional e internacional

Stimulation Of The Salicylic Acid Pathway Aboveground Recruits Entomopathogenic Nematodes Belowground

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Plant defense pathways play a critical role in mediating tritrophic interactions between plants, herbivores, and natural enemies. While the impact of plant defense pathway stimulation on natural enemies has been extensively explored aboveground, belowground ramifications of plant defense pathway stimulation are equally important in regulating subterranean pests and still require more attention. Here we investigate the effect of aboveground stimulation of the salicylic acid pathway through foliar application of the elicitor methyl salicylate on belowground recruitment of the entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema diaprepesi. Also, we implicate a specific root-derived volatile that attracts S. diaprepesi belowground following aboveground plant stimulation by an elicitor. In four-choice olfactometer assays, citrus plants treated with foliar applications of methyl salicylate recruited S. diaprepesi in the absence of weevil feeding as compared with negative controls. Additionally, analysis of root volatile profiles of citrus plants receiving foliar application of methyl salicylate revealed production of d-limonene, which was absent in negative controls. The entomopathogenic nematode S. diaprepesi was recruited to d-limonene in two-choice olfactometer trials. These results reinforce the critical role of plant defense pathways in mediating tritrophic interactions, suggest a broad role for plant defense pathway signaling belowground, and hint at sophisticated plant responses to pest complexes.115Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES) programConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq)FAEPEX-PAPDIC grant from UNICAMPCNPq [474449/2012-2]Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq