CONTROLE DE QUALIDADE DO PROCESSO DE PRODUÇÃO DE MUDAS CLONAIS DE EUCALIPTO

Em um mercado competitivo é necessário que as empresas se adequem às normas exigidas pelo respectivo setor, para que o produto final atinja a qualidade mínima que satisfaça às exigências dos clientes. A qualidade do produto final promove, dentre outros, a diminuição do retrabalho e de perdas no processo de produção, consequentemente promove a redução dos custos, tendo em vista que a aquisição de mudas florestais ocupa significante parte dos custos de implantação florestal. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar as atividades pré-selecionadas na produção de mudas clonais de eucalipto e verificar se as mesmas foram executadas dentro dos padrões ou limites aceitáveis de qualidade de execução, propostos pelo setor florestal. A pesquisa foi realizada em dois viveiros, localizados em Sooretama, Espirito Santo. A obtenção dos dados foi por amostragem, dados compilados em folha de verificação utilizando da ferramenta da Qualidade 5W + 1H. Se foi avaliado a qualidade dos tubetes, preparo e plantio das miniestacas, as seleções das mudas e a expedição das mudas a campo. Para a análise do processo foram usadas ferramentas do Controle Estatístico de Processos CEP, especificamente, gráficos de controle por atributos e outra ferramenta do Controle da Qualidade, os Diagramas de Pareto. Pode-se verificar que a maior parte das etapas avaliadas do processo de produção de mudas no Viveiro A estavam sob controle. Entretanto, algumas intervenções no seu processo produtivo devem ser adotadas, particularmente no preparo das miniestacas e na segunda seleção de mudas e toalete, operações que apresentaram sinais fora de controle. Já, no Viveiro B, observou-se que os níveis de controle em alguns casos eram críticos indicando a necessidade de inserção de medidas corretivas. O conhecimento detalhado das etapas, profissionalismo e mudança na postura operacional e gerencial são essenciais em quaisquer empresas objetivando sempre a busca da melhoria contínua. Palavras-chave: atividade florestal, ferramentas da qualidade, controle estatístico

Crystallization behavior in miscible blends of poly(ε-caprolactone) and poly(hexylene adipate) with similar thermal properties studied by time - resolved Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

Melt crystallization behavior in miscible crystalline blends of poly(-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(hexylene adipate) (PhAd) was investigated by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Polarized Optical Microscopy (POM), Wide Angle X-Ray Diffraction (WAXD) and time resolved Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Both polymers were highly crystalline, had similar thermal properties and formed negative birefringence spherulites. Non-isothermal cooling thermograms showed fractional crystallization of PCL in blends with less than 40 wt% PCL. The crystallization kinetics of the polyesters was investigated by monitoring the absorbance intensities of the crystalline bands at 841 cm-1 and 911cm-1 for PCL and PhAd respectively at 47 oC. For all of the blends examined in this study, simultaneous onsets of crystallization were found although the neat polymers showed very different crystallization kinetics. PCL exhibited a longer induction period with slow crystallization rate while PhAd kinetics were completely opposite. Furthermore, for the PCL/PhAd (80/20) blend, the coincident values of the relative crystallinity were found for both the components. As for the 40/60 and 20/80 blends, the induction period of PCL were much shortened, which is due to PhAd playing a role of the nucleation agent. WAXD ruled out co-crystallization. These findings are important to the field of polymer physics

Validating a new methodology for optical probe design and image registration in fNIRS studies

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an imaging technique that relies on the principle of shining near-infrared light through tissue to detect changes in hemodynamic activation. An important methodological issue encountered is the creation of optimized probe geometry for fNIRS recordings. Here, across three experiments, we describe and validate a processing pipeline designed to create an optimized, yet scalable probe geometry based on selected regions of interest (ROIs) from the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature. In experiment 1, we created a probe geometry optimized to record changes in activation from target ROIs important for visual working memory. Positions of the sources and detectors of the probe geometry on an adult head were digitized using a motion sensor and projected onto a generic adult atlas and a segmented head obtained from the subject's MRI scan. In experiment 2, the same probe geometry was scaled down to fit a child's head and later digitized and projected onto the generic adult atlas and a segmented volume obtained from the child's MRI scan. Using visualization tools and by quantifying the amount of intersection between target ROIs and channels, we show that out of 21 ROIs, 17 and 19 ROIs intersected with fNIRS channels from the adult and child probe geometries, respectively. Further, both the adult atlas and adult subject-specific MRI approaches yielded similar results and can be used interchangeably. However, results suggest that segmented heads obtained from MRI scans be used for registering children's data. Finally, in experiment 3, we further validated our processing pipeline by creating a different probe geometry designed to record from target ROIs involved in language and motor processing

pH ‐ responsive studies of bacterial cellulose / chitosan hydrogels crosslinked with Genipin: swelling and drug release behaviour

Semi interpenetrating hydrogels (semi‐IPN) of bacterial cellulose (BC) and chitosan (Ch) crosslinked with genipin were prepared and characterised using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Infrared spectra showed amide I and II absorption peaks at 1632 and 1554 cm−1 and C−N stretching absorptions at 1250 and 1020 cm−1, respectively, for crosslinked hydrogels. The fibrous structure of BC and the porosity in the hydrogels were revealed by SEM. Swelling of hydrogels was sensitive to pH, and maximum at pH 1.0. Swelling of non‐crosslinked samples decreased as the pH increased. However, with crosslinked hydrogels, swelling increased as chitosan ratio increased at low pH, as well as with increase in BC ratio at high pH. Free, bound and intermediate water types in hydrogels were revealed by DSC. The release kinetics of Quetiapine fumarate (QF), an antipsychotic drug used for the treatment of Schizophrenia was studied using UV spectrometry, followed predominantly, the Higuchi model at all pH for crosslinked hydrogels. The transport mechanism of hydrogels was a combination of non‐Fickian and Super Case II. Crosslinked hydrogels showed controlled drug release behaviour. These hydrogel systems possess potential application in pharmaceutical field as all chemicals used in the development of the hydrogels are non‐toxic, with BC−Ch 60:40 showing most promising potential

A weighted q-gram method for glycan structure classification

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glycobiology pertains to the study of carbohydrate sugar chains, or glycans, in a particular cell or organism. Many computational approaches have been proposed for analyzing these complex glycan structures, which are chains of monosaccharides. The monosaccharides are linked to one another by glycosidic bonds, which can take on a variety of comformations, thus forming branches and resulting in complex tree structures. The <it>q</it>-gram method is one of these recent methods used to understand glycan function based on the classification of their tree structures. This <it>q</it>-gram method assumes that for a certain <it>q</it>, different <it>q</it>-grams share no similarity among themselves. That is, that if two structures have completely different components, then they are completely different. However, from a biological standpoint, this is not the case. In this paper, we propose a weighted <it>q</it>-gram method to measure the similarity among glycans by incorporating the similarity of the geometric structures, monosaccharides and glycosidic bonds among <it>q</it>-grams. In contrast to the traditional <it>q</it>-gram method, our weighted <it>q</it>-gram method admits similarity among <it>q</it>-grams for a certain <it>q</it>. Thus our new kernels for glycan structure were developed and then applied in SVMs to classify glycans.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two glycan datasets were used to compare the weighted <it>q</it>-gram method and the original <it>q</it>-gram method. The results show that the incorporation of <it>q</it>-gram similarity improves the classification performance for all of the important glycan classes tested.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results in this paper indicate that similarity among <it>q</it>-grams obtained from geometric structure, monosaccharides and glycosidic linkage contributes to the glycan function classification. This is a big step towards the understanding of glycan function based on their complex structures.</p

Genes in S and T Subgenomes Are Responsible for Hybrid Lethality in Interspecific Hybrids between Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana occidentalis

Many species of Nicotiana section Suaveolentes produce inviable F(1) hybrids after crossing with Nicotiana tabacum (genome constitution SSTT), a phenomenon that is often called hybrid lethality. Through crosses with monosomic lines of N. tabacum lacking a Q chromosome, we previously determined that hybrid lethality is caused by interaction between gene(s) on the Q chromosome belonging to the S subgenome of N. tabacum and gene(s) in Suaveolentes species. Here, we examined if hybrid seedlings from the cross N. occidentalis (section Suaveolentes)×N. tabacum are inviable despite a lack of the Q chromosome.Hybrid lethality in the cross of N. occidentalis×N. tabacum was characterized by shoots with fading color. This symptom differed from what has been previously observed in lethal crosses between many species in section Suaveolentes and N. tabacum. In crosses of monosomic N. tabacum plants lacking the Q chromosome with N. occidentalis, hybrid lethality was observed in hybrid seedlings either lacking or possessing the Q chromosome. N. occidentalis was then crossed with two progenitors of N. tabacum, N. sylvestris (SS) and N. tomentosiformis (TT), to reveal which subgenome of N. tabacum contains gene(s) responsible for hybrid lethality. Hybrid seedlings from the crosses N. occidentalis×N. tomentosiformis and N. occidentalis×N. sylvestris were inviable.Although the specific symptoms of hybrid lethality in the cross N. occidentalis×N. tabacum were similar to those appearing in hybrids from the cross N. occidentalis×N. tomentosiformis, genes in both the S and T subgenomes of N. tabacum appear responsible for hybrid lethality in crosses with N. occidentalis