6,215 research outputs found
Colonization of rice and Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) larvae by genetically modified endophytic Methylobacterium mesophilicum
The colonization of Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith larvae and rice seedlings by genetically modified endophytic bacterium Methylobacterium mesophilicum, and also the possible transfer of this bacterium to inside the larva's body during seedlings consumption were studied. The data obtained by bacterial reisolation and fluorescence microscopy showed that the bacterium colonized the rice seedlings, the larva's body and that the endophytic bacteria present in seedlings could be acquired by the larvae. In that way, the transference of endophytic bacterium from plants to insect can be a new and important strategy to insect control using engineered microorganisms.CNPq National Council of Researc
Application of Scrum and PM Canvas in a Project-based Learning Approach
Project-based Learning (PBL) is a teaching and learning strategy that allows students to develop competences while working on projects. It is important to apply good management approaches in order to achieve all project and learning objectives. This paper presents an application of Scrum and Project Model Canvas (PM Canvas) to manage learning projects developed by teams of students in interaction with industrial companies. These projects are part of a Project-based Learning (PBL) approach developed in the fourth year of an integrated master program in Industrial Engineering and Management. A group of 5 students from the fifth year of the same degree gave support to the PBL teams regarding the utilization of these tools. The work was developed during one month with meetings every Fridays. These project management tools were applied to help the PBL teams to organize and share the tasks, as well as visualize and control the whole project. To evaluate the teams' performance and the way they are realizing the tasks, it was counted the number of tasks done in each weekday and the students were inquired in order to understand their perceptions of the use of these project management tools. The results revealed that the groups performed most of the tasks on Wednesday and the inquiry revealed that most of the PBL teams did not know and had never used project management tools. The inquiry also revealed that the project management tools were considered helpful for the control and organization of the project tasks, improving overall team performance.(undefined
Exactly Solvable Interacting Spin-Ice Vertex Model
A special family of solvable five-vertex model is introduced on a square
lattice. In addition to the usual nearest neighbor interactions, the vertices
defining the model also interact alongone of the diagonals of the lattice. Such
family of models includes in a special limit the standard six-vertex model. The
exact solution of these models gives the first application of the matrix
product ansatz introduced recently and applied successfully in the solution of
quantum chains. The phase diagram and the free energy of the models are
calculated in the thermodynamic limit. The models exhibit massless phases and
our analyticaland numerical analysis indicate that such phases are governed by
a conformal field theory with central charge and continuosly varying
critical exponents.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure
The 1+1-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation and its universality class
We explain the exact solution of the 1+1 dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang
equation with sharp wedge initial conditions. Thereby it is confirmed that the
continuum model belongs to the KPZ universality class, not only as regards to
scaling exponents but also as regards to the full probability distribution of
the height in the long time limit.Comment: Proceedings StatPhys 2
Penalized likelihood and multi-objective spatial scans for the detection and inference of irregular clusters
Background: Irregularly shaped spatial clusters are difficult to delineate. A cluster found by an algorithm often spreads through large portions of the map, impacting its geographical meaning. Penalized likelihood methods for Kulldorff's spatial scan statistics have been used to control the excessive freedom of the shape of clusters. Penalty functions based on cluster geometry and non-connectivity have been proposed recently. Another approach involves the use of a multi-objective algorithm to maximize two objectives: the spatial scan statistics and the geometric penalty function. Results & Discussion: We present a novel scan statistic algorithm employing a function based on the graph topology to penalize the presence of under-populated disconnection nodes in candidate clusters, the disconnection nodes cohesion function. A disconnection node is defined as a region within a cluster, such that its removal disconnects the cluster. By applying this function, the most geographically meaningful clusters are sifted through the immense set of possible irregularly shaped candidate cluster solutions. To evaluate the statistical significance of solutions for multi-objective scans, a statistical approach based on the concept of attainment function is used. In this paper we compared different penalized likelihoods employing the geometric and non-connectivity regularity functions and the novel disconnection nodes cohesion function. We also build multi-objective scans using those three functions and compare them with the previous penalized likelihood scans. An application is presented using comprehensive state-wide data for Chagas' disease in puerperal women in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Conclusions: We show that, compared to the other single-objective algorithms, multi-objective scans present better performance, regarding power, sensitivity and positive predicted value. The multi-objective non-connectivity scan is faster and better suited for the detection of moderately irregularly shaped clusters. The multi-objective cohesion scan is most effective for the detection of highly irregularly shaped clusters
Stochastic Modelling Approach to the Incubation Time of Prionic Diseases
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies like the bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE) and the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans are
neurodegenerative diseases for which prions are the attributed pathogenic
agents. A widely accepted theory assumes that prion replication is due to a
direct interaction between the pathologic (PrPsc) form and the host encoded
(PrPc) conformation, in a kind of an autocatalytic process. Here we show that
the overall features of the incubation time of prion diseases are readily
obtained if the prion reaction is described by a simple mean-field model. An
analytical expression for the incubation time distribution then follows by
associating the rate constant to a stochastic variable log normally
distributed. The incubation time distribution is then also shown to be log
normal and fits the observed BSE data very well. The basic ideas of the
theoretical model are then incorporated in a cellular automata model. The
computer simulation results yield the correct BSE incubation time distribution
at low densities of the host encoded protein
Effect of proximity-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene mesoscopic billiards
van der Waals heterostructures based on two-dimensional materials have recently become a very active topic of research in spintronics, both aiming at a fundamental description of spin dephasing processes in nanostructures and as a potential element in spin-based information processing schemes. Here, we theoretically investigate the magnetoconductance of mesoscopic devices built from graphene proximity-coupled to a high spin-orbit coupling material. Through numerically exact tight-binding simulations, we show that the interfacial breaking of inversion symmetry generates robust weak antilocalization even when the z → −z symmetric spin-orbit coupling in the quantum dot dominates over the Bychkov-Rashba interaction. Our findings are interpreted in the light of random matrix theory, which links the observed behavior of quantum interference corrections to a transition from a circular-orthogonal to circular-symplectic ensemble
A paradox of syntactic priming: why response tendencies show priming for passives, and response latencies show priming for actives
Speakers tend to repeat syntactic structures across sentences, a phenomenon called syntactic priming. Although it has been suggested that repeating syntactic structures should result in speeded responses, previous research has focused on effects in response tendencies. We investigated syntactic priming effects simultaneously in response tendencies and response latencies for active and passive transitive sentences in a picture description task. In Experiment 1, there were priming effects in response tendencies for passives and in response latencies for actives. However, when participants' pre-existing preference for actives was altered in Experiment 2, syntactic priming occurred for both actives and passives in response tendencies as well as in response latencies. This is the first investigation of the effects of structure frequency on both response tendencies and latencies in syntactic priming. We discuss the implications of these data for current theories of syntactic processing
Modeling the Halpha line emission around classical T Tauri stars using magnetospheric accretion and disk wind models
Spectral observations of classical T Tauri stars show a wide range of line
profiles, many of which reveal signs of matter inflow and outflow. Halpha is
the most commonly observed line profile due to its intensity, and it is highly
dependent on the characteristics of the surrounding environment of these stars.
Our aim is to analyze how the Halpha line profile is affected by the various
parameters of our model which contains both the magnetospheric and disk wind
contributions to the Halpha flux. We used a dipolar axisymmetric stellar
magnetic field to model the stellar magnetosphere and a modified Blandford &
Payne model was used in our disk wind region. A three-level atom with continuum
was used to calculate the required Hydrogen level populations. We use the
Sobolev approximation and a ray-by-ray method to calculate the integrated line
profile. Through an extensive study of the model parameter space, we have
investigated the contribution of many of the model parameters on the calculated
line profiles. Our results show that the Halpha line is strongly dependent on
the densities and temperatures inside the magnetosphere and the disk wind
region. The bulk of the flux comes, most of the time, from the magnetospheric
component for standard classical T Tauri stars parameters, but the disk wind
contribution becomes more important as the mass accretion rate, the
temperatures and densities inside the disk wind increase. We have also found
that most of the disk wind contribution to the Halpha line is emitted at the
innermost region of the disk wind. Models that take into consideration both
inflow and outflow of matter are a necessity to fully understand and describe
classical T Tauri stars.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysics. Revised version with English correction
- …