Effect of sewage sludge on the incidence of corn stalk rot caused by Fusarium.

During the last decades, sewage started to be treated in order to reduce the pollution of rivers, resulting in the production of a sludge rich in organic matter and nutrients, called sewage sludge. Among the alternatives for final discarding, the agricultural use is one of the most convenient, because it combines disposal and recycling. However, using sewage sludge as a fertilizer causes alterations in the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soils. The soilborne plant pathogens are highly influenced by the way the soil is managed; thus, sewage sludge may interfere with the occurrence of diseases caused by these microorganisms. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of sewage sludge on corn stalk rot, caused by Fusarium spp

Efeito da incorporação de lodo de esgoto sobre a fusariose do milho.

O trabalho objetivou verificar os fatores químicos e microbiológicos do lodo de esgoto e do solo responsáveis pela incidência da podridão do colmo do milho, causada por Fusarium em solo fertilizado com lodo, e foi desenvolvido em condições de campo, numa área que vem sendo tratada com lodo e cultivada com milho desde 1999 em latossolo vermelho distroférrico (textura argilosa), localizada no município de Jaguariúna/SP. Os dois lodos utilizados oram obtidos nas Estações de Tratamento de Esgoto de Franca e de Barueri/SP. Os lodos foram incorporados ao solo nas concentrações de 0, 1, 2, 4 e 8 vezes a dose recomendada com base no teor de nitrogênio, em dois cultivos sucessivos de milho(Savana 133S) nas safras 2001/2002 e 2002/2003, em parcelas de 200 m2. As doses de lodo foram comparadas com a adubação mineral recomendada para a cultura do milho. Os tratamentos foram distribuídos em delineamento experimental casualizado em blocos e com três repetições. Foram verificadas, nas safras de 2001/2002/ 2 2002/2003, diferenças significativas entre as doses de lodo de esgoto, sobre a variação de Fusarium spp. no solo, na rizosfera, na raiz, no colmo e na semente, bem como sobre a incidência de plantas com podridão no colmo e nas espigas. As análises de regressão mostraram que a porcentagem de plantas doentes oi positivamente correlacionada com a concentração dos lodos incorporados ao solo. Os coeficientes de determinação para o cultivo de 2001/2002 foram de R2=0,61 e R2=0,32, enquanto para o cultivo de 2002/2003 foram de R2=0,76 e R2=0,45, para os lodos de Franca e Barueri, respectivamente. As concentrações de lodos também apresentaram correlação positiva com a comunidade de Fusarium do solo e da rizosfera e com a incidência de Fusarium na raiz, no colmo e na semente. As correlações entre a comunidade de Fusarium do solo e da rizosfera e o percentual de plantas doentes com os atributos químicos do solo foram significativas e positivas, para os dois tipos de lodos ao nível de 1 e 5%, para o teor de fósforo, cálcio, condutividade elétrica, CTC, N-amônio e N-nitrato, nos dois anos de cultivo.Tese (Doutorado em Agronomia) - Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Botucatu. Orientador: Raquel Ghini (CNPMA)

Asymptotic statistics of the n-sided planar Poisson-Voronoi cell. I. Exact results

We achieve a detailed understanding of the $n$-sided planar Poisson-Voronoi cell in the limit of large $n$. Let ${p}\_n$ be the probability for a cell to have $n$ sides. We construct the asymptotic expansion of $\log {p}\_n$ up to terms that vanish as $n\to\infty$. We obtain the statistics of the lengths of the perimeter segments and of the angles between adjoining segments: to leading order as $n\to\infty$, and after appropriate scaling, these become independent random variables whose laws we determine; and to next order in $1/n$ they have nontrivial long range correlations whose expressions we provide. The $n$-sided cell tends towards a circle of radius (n/4\pi\lambda)^{\half}, where $\lambda$ is the cell density; hence Lewis' law for the average area $A\_n$ of the $n$-sided cell behaves as $A\_n \simeq cn/\lambda$ with $c=1/4$. For $n\to\infty$ the cell perimeter, expressed as a function $R(\phi)$ of the polar angle $\phi$, satisfies $d^2 R/d\phi^2 = F(\phi)$, where $F$ is known Gaussian noise; we deduce from it the probability law for the perimeter's long wavelength deviations from circularity. Many other quantities related to the asymptotic cell shape become accessible to calculation.Comment: 54 pages, 3 figure

Dimensional crossover of a boson gas in multilayers

We obtain the thermodynamic properties for a non-interacting Bose gas constrained on multilayers modeled by a periodic Kronig-Penney delta potential in one direction and allowed to be free in the other two directions. We report Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) critical temperatures, chemical potential, internal energy, specific heat, and entropy for different values of a dimensionless impenetrability $P\geqslant 0$ between layers. The BEC critical temperature $T_{c}$ coincides with the ideal gas BEC critical temperature $T_{0}$ when $P=0$ and rapidly goes to zero as $P$ increases to infinity for any finite interlayer separation. The specific heat $C_{V}$ \textit{vs} $T$ for finite $P$ and plane separation $a$ exhibits one minimum and one or two maxima in addition to the BEC, for temperatures larger than $T_{c}$ which highlights the effects due to particle confinement. Then we discuss a distinctive dimensional crossover of the system through the specific heat behavior driven by the magnitude of $P$. For $T<T_{c}$ the crossover is revealed by the change in the slope of $\log C_{V}(T)$ and when $T>T_{c}$, it is evidenced by a broad minimum in $C_{V}(T)$.Comment: Ten pages, nine figure

Solving the inhomogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equation

We develop an advanced method of solving homogeneous and inhomogeneous Bethe-Salpeter equations by using the expansion over the complete set of 4-dimensional spherical harmonics. We solve Bethe-Salpeter equations for bound and scattering states of scalar and spinor particles for the case of one meson exchange kernels. Phase shifts calculated for the scalar model are in agreement with the previously published results. We discuss possible manifestations of separability for one meson exchange interaction kernels.Comment: 9 pages, 11 eps-figures. Talk presented by S. S. Semikh at XVII International Baldin Seminar on High Energy Physics Problems "Relativistic Nuclear Physics and Quantum Chromodynamics", September 27 - October 2, 2004, Dubna, Russia; to appear in the proceedings of this conferenc

The effects of postexercise feeding on saliva antimicrobial proteins

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a carbohydrate (CHO) and protein (PRO) drink consumed immediately after endurance exercise on saliva antimicrobial proteins known to be important for host defense. Eleven male runners ran for 2 hr at 75% VO2max on 2 occasions and immediately postexercise were provided, in randomized order, either a placebo solution (CON) or a CHO-PRO solution containing 1.2 g CHO/kg body mass (BM) and 0.4 g PRO/kg BM (CHO-PRO). The solutions were flavor and volume equivalent (12 ml/kg BM). Saliva flow rate, lysozyme, α-amylase, and secretory (S) IgA concentrations were determined from unstimulated saliva samples collected preexercise, immediately postexercise, and every 30 min until 180 min postexercise. CHO-PRO ingestion immediately postexercise resulted in a lower saliva flow rate than with CON at 30 and 60 min postexercise. Saliva lysozyme concentration increased immediately postexercise in both trials compared with preexercise (p&lt; .05), and CHO-PRO ingestion immediately postexercise resulted in a higher saliva lysozyme concentration in the first hour of recovery than with CON (125% greater at 30 min, 94% greater at 60 min; p&lt; .01). Saliva SIgA concentration decreased below preexercise concentrations 90–150 min postexercise (p&lt; .001), with no effect of CHO-PRO. Saliva α-amylase activity was unaffected by exercise or CHO-PRO refeeding. CHO-PRO refeeding did not alter the secretion rates of any saliva variables during recovery. In conclusion, immediate refeeding with CHO-PRO evoked a greater saliva lysozyme concentration during the first hour of recovery after prolonged exercise than ingestion of placebo but had minimal impact on saliva α-amylase and SIgA responses.</jats:p

Interaction of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4G with the nuclear cap-binding complex provides a link between nuclear and cytoplasmic functions of the m7 guanosine cap

In eukaryotes the majority of mRNAs have an m7G cap that is added cotranscriptionally and that plays an important role in many aspects of mRNA metabolism. The nuclear cap-binding complex (CBC; consisting of CBP20 and CBP80) mediates the stimulatory functions of the cap in pre-mRNA splicing, 3' end formation, and U snRNA export. As little is known about how nuclear CBC mediates the effects of the cap in higher eukaryotes, we have characterized proteins that interact with CBC in HeLa cell nuclear extracts as potential mediators of its function. Using cross-linking and coimmunoprecipitation, we show that eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4G (eIF4G), in addition to its function in the cytoplasm, is a nuclear CBC-interacting protein. We demonstrate that eIF4G interacts with CBC in vitro and that, in addition to its cytoplasmic localization, there is a significant nuclear pool of eIF4G in mammalian cells in vivo. Immunoprecipitation experiments suggest that, in contrast to the cytoplasmic pool, much of the nuclear eIF4G is not associated with eIF4E (translation cap binding protein of eIF4F) but is associated with CBC. While eIF4G stably associates with spliceosomes in vitro and shows close association with spliceosomal snRNPs and splicing factors in vivo, depletion studies show that it does not participate directly in the splicing reaction. Taken together the data indicate that nuclear eIF4G may be recruited to pre-mRNAs via its interaction with CBC and accompanies the mRNA to the cytoplasm, facilitating the switching of CBC for eIF4F. This may provide a mechanism to couple nuclear and cytoplasmic functions of the mRNA cap structure

Role of retardation in 3-D relativistic equations

Equal-time Green's function is used to derive a three-dimensional integral equation from the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The resultant equation, in the absence of anti-particles, is identical to the use of time-ordered diagrams, and has been used within the framework of $\phi^2\sigma$ coupling to study the role of energy dependence and non-locality when the two-body potential is the sum of $\sigma$-exchange and crossed $\sigma$ exchange. The results show that non-locality and energy dependence make a substantial contribution to both the on-shell and off-shell amplitudes.Comment: 17 pages, RevTeX; 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C56 (Nov. 97