Future studies in Brazil:CGEE approach for bio- and nanotechnology

Companies and governments are increasingly using "Future Studies" for the design of their strategic planning. Techniques and methodologies are in very accelerated development all over the world. So it is necessary to establish the right set of tools and best way to use it in order to have results that you could compare and reproduce if you have in mimd to generate inputs for either companies or countries policy definition. This article describes the methodological approach adopted by a Brazilian Institution - Centre for Strategic Management and Studies - CGEE, mainly devoted to future analyses, and uses the recent examples of the Biotechnology and Nanotechnology foresight exercises in Brazil to show the real use of their results in the process for definition of national strategies

Effects of foliar fungicide application on the growing corn plant

The objective was to evaluate the health and growth of corn plants after application of foliar fungicide. Treatments were replicated once and randomly assigned to eight, one-acre plots: CON, no foliar fungicide application; V5, one application of pyraclotrobin foliar fungicide at corn vegetative growth stage V5; R1, one application of pyraclostrobin and metconazole foliar fungicide at corn reproductive growth stage R1; and V5+R1, one application of pyraclotrobin foliar fungicide at V5 and one application of pyraclostrobin and metconazole foliar fungicide at R1. Measurements were recorded at R1 and R3 growth stages from two locations within each replicate. At R3, a 24.7% of disease incidence in plants evaluated showed symptoms of Grey Leaf Spot. Treatment V5 at R3 was most effected by Grey Leaf Spot (15%). Northern Leaf Blight was also found in the field, the highest percentage of disease incidence being in CON (10%) and least disease incidence in V5+R1 (1.63%). There was no difference (P=0.52) in the weight of the plants. Applications of foliar fungicide increased the average heights (P<0.0001) . Applications of foliar fungicide at V5, R1, and V5+R1 decreased the number of yellow leaves (P=0.0018). Applications of foliar fungicides increased plant health, and may contribute to a higher quality feedstuff.University of Illinois Office of Undergraduate ResearchOpe

Phase slips and metastability in granular boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond microbridges

A phase slip is a localized disturbance in the coherence of a superconductor allowing an abrupt 2π phase shift. Phase slips are a ubiquitous feature of one-dimensional superconductors and also have an analogue in two-dimensions. Here we present electrical transport measurements on boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond (BNCD) microbridges where, despite their three-dimensional macroscopic geometry, we find clear evidence of phase slippage in both the resistance-temperature and voltage-current characteristics. We attribute this behavior to the unusual microstructure of BNCD. We argue that the columnar crystal structure of BNCD forms an intrinsic Josephson junction array that supports a line of phase slippage across the microbridge. The voltage-state in these bridges is metastable and we demonstrate the ability to switch deterministically between different superconducting states by applying electromagnetic noise pulses. This metastability is remarkably similar to that observed in δ-MoN nanowires, but with a vastly greater response voltage