Desenvolvimento de bezerros desmamados pastejando caatinga e capim buffel e suplementados com feno de leucena.

O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar um sistema alternativo de suplementacao da alimentacao de bovinos, delineado para antecipar a idade media ao abate de 40-60 meses observada na regiao semi-arida do Nordeste. Para isto, avaliou-se o ganho de peso de 45 bezerros anelorados, desmamados, distribuidos em tres grupos: (C) patejo exclusivo em caatinga durante todo o ano; (B) pastejo em caatinga, no periodo verde, e em capim buffel (Cenchrus ciliaris L.) no periodo seco; (CBL) o mesmo que CB mais suplementacao com feno de leucena (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit.), no periodo seco. As observacoes foram feitas durante dois periodos secos e dois chuvosos, num total de 711 dias. Ao final do periodo experimental, os animais do grupo suplementado com leucena estavam em media, 33,4 Kg e 107,5 Kg mais pesados (P < 0,05) que os dos grupos CB e C, respectivamente. Os resultados indicam que mesmo com uma oferta quantitativamente inaqueada de leucena foi possivel a obtencao de animais com o mesmo peso medio ao abate observado na regiao, com, pelo menos, 14 meses de antecipacao

Remarks on some vacuum solutions of scalar-tensor cosmological models

We present a class of exact vacuum solutions corresponding to de Sitter and warm inflation models in the framework of scalar-tensor cosmologies. We show that in both cases the field equations reduce to planar dynamical systems with constraints. Then, we carry out a qualitative analysis of the models by examining the phase diagrams of the solutions near the equilibrium points.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. To be published in the Brazilian Journal of Physic

Ex vitro hairy root induction in detached peanut leaves for plant-nematode interaction studies.

Abstract Background Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) production is largely affected by a variety of abiotic and biotic stresses, including the root-knot nematode (RKN) Meloidogyne arenaria that causes yield losses worldwide. Transcriptome studies of wild Arachis species, which harbor resistance to a number of pests and diseases, disclosed several candidate genes for M. arenaria resistance. Peanut is recalcitrant to genetic transformation, so the use of Agrobacterium rhizogenes-derived hairy roots emerged as an alternative for in-root functional characterization of these candidate genes. Results The present report describes an ex vitro methodology for hairy root induction in detached leaves based on the well-known ability of peanut to produce roots spontaneously from its petiole, which can be maintained for extended periods under high-humidity conditions. Thirty days after infection with the A. rhizogenes ‘K599’ strain, 90% of the detached leaves developed transgenic hairy roots with 5 cm of length in average, which were then inoculated with M. arenaria. For improved results, plant transformation, and nematode inoculation parameters were adjusted, such as bacterial cell density and growth stage; moist chamber conditions and nematode inoculum concentration. Using this methodology, a candidate gene for nematode resistance, AdEXLB8, was successfully overexpressed in hairy roots of the nematode-susceptible peanut cultivar ‘Runner’, resulting in 98% reduction in the number of galls and egg masses compared to the control, 60 days after M. arenaria infection. Conclusions This methodology proved to be more practical and cost-effective for functional validation of peanut candidate genes than in vitro and composite plant approaches, as it requires less space, reduces analysis costs and displays high transformation efficiency. The reduction in the number of RKN galls and egg masses in peanut hairy roots overexpressing AdEXLB8 corroborated the use of this strategy for functional characterization of root expressing candidate genes. This approach could be applicable not only for peanut–nematode interaction studies but also to other peanut root diseases, such as those caused by fungi and bacteria, being also potentially extended to other crop species displaying similar petiole-rooting competence

Validation of magnetophonon spectroscopy as a tool for analyzing hot-electron effects in devices

It is shown that very high precision hot-electron magnetophonon experiments made on n+n−n+-GaAs sandwich device structures which are customized for magnetoresistance measurements can be very accurately modeled by a new Monte Carlo technique. The latter takes account of the Landau quantization and device architecture as well as material parameters. It is proposed that this combination of experiment and modeling yields a quantitative tool for the direct analysis of spatially localized very nonequilibrium electron distributions in small devices and low dimensional structures