Resultados preliminares sobre la variación en vulnerabilidad a la cavitación por sequía en clones de Eucalyptus grandis Hill ex Maid

El transporte de agua está ligado funcionalmente con la fijación de carbono en las plantas terrestres. El agua transportada dentro de la planta se encuentra en estado meta-estable debido a las presiones negativas de acuerdo a la Teoría de Cohesión-Tensión. Las curvas de vulnerabilidad a la cavitación, es decir, aquellas que relacionan las pérdidas de conductividad hidráulica (ks) del leño por ruptura de la columna de agua, con las tensiones dentro del mismo, dan valiosa información acerca de la capacidad de respuesta de distintas especies y genotipos al estrés hídrico. El objetivo del estudio fue evaluar la variación en tolerancia al estrés hídrico de cuatro clones de Eucalyptus grandis (K, B, 2 y 4) del Programa de Mejoramiento Genético de INTA. Para ello, debió ajustarse una metodología adecuada para realizar las curvas de vulnerabilidad a la cavitación en árboles adultos. Se trabajó con el método de inyección de aire que relaciona la pérdida de conductividad hidráulica con la cavitación inducida por presiones positivas en una cámara de doble entrada. Los clones seleccionados presentan densidad de madera contrastante (alta/ baja) y distintas tasas de crecimiento. El material evaluado se obtuvo de un ensayo clonal de 18 años de edad ubicado en Concordia, Entre Ríos, Argentina (31°22’ L S; 58° 07’ L W; Altitud: 43 msnm) en un suelo arenoso profundo. Entre abril y mayo de 2012, mediante un hidroelevador se ascendió a las copas y se cortaron ramas de tres individuos por clon. Para la realización de las curvas de cavitación se utilizó la porción basal (20 cm) de las ramas secundarias. Se comparó con ANOVA los parámetros a y b de la curva de vulnerabilidad a la cavitación que describen el P50 o presión a la que se produce el 50 % de pérdida de ks y la forma de la curva. Los resultados obtenidos muestran diferencias significativas entre dos de los clones evaluados, siendo el más tolerante a la cavitación (P50= -1,85 +/- 0,19MPa) el clon 2, que es uno de los clones de alta densidad de madera. El menos tolerante fue el clon B (P50= -1,11 +/- 0,11MPa), caracterizado por ser de rápido crecimiento y baja densidad de madera. Estos resultados son congruentes con su respuesta post-sequía evaluada en crecimiento y flujo de savia (estudios previos), que mostró una mayor resiliencia en el clon 2 y una menor en el clon B. El clon K, de alta densidad, también presentó alta resiliencia post-sequía, pero no mostró ventajas claras en vulnerabilidad a la cavitación, aunque sí fue el de mayor ajuste osmótico en el tejido foliar. Se concluye que la vulnerabilidad a la cavitación es variable entre clones, tendría un rol adaptativo importante en la resistencia a la sequía de E. grandis, pero existen mecanismos alternativos (y/o complementarios) en otros sistemas de órganos que deben también evaluarse con miras a la selección de genotipos más resistentes al estrés ambiental.Water transport is functionally linked to carbon fixation in terrestrial plants. Water inside plants is under meta-stable state due to negative pressure (tension) according to Cohesion-Tension Theory. Vulnerability to cavitation curves, i.e., those relating losses in xylem hydraulic conductivity (ks) due to water column breakage with tension inside the xylem, provide valuable information about different species and genotypes response capacity to environmental stress. The objective of this study was to evaluate the variation in drought stress tolerance of four Eucalyptus grandis clones (K, B, 2 and 4) from the Genetic Improvement Program of INTA. For this purpose, methodological adjustments were needed in order to develop vulnerability to cavitation curves in adult trees. The air-injection method was applied, which relates ks losses with cavitation induced by positive pressures in a double-ended chamber. The selected clones present contrasting wood density (high, low) and different growth rates. The studied material was obtained from a 18 years-old clonal trial located in Concordia, Entre Ríos, Argentina (S L: 31°22’ S; W L.: 58° 07’; Altitude: 43 masl) in deep sandy soil. Crown access was possible with a hydraulic crane. Branch samples (3 individuals per clone) were taken between April and May 2012. Vulnerability to cavitation curves were developed in the basal portion (20 cm long) of secondary branches. Curves parameters (a and b) were compared between clones with ANOVA, describing the water potential at which 50% of ks is lost (P50) and the curve form. Significant differences were observed between two studied clones. The most cavitation resistant clone 2 (P50= -1.85 +/- 0.19MPa) was a high wood density clone. The least cavitation resistant clone B (P50= -1.11 +/- 0.11 MPa) was characterized by its high growth rates and low wood density. These results are consistent with post-drought responses evaluated through growth and sapflow measurements (previous studies) which demonstrated a higher resilience in clone 2 than in clone B. High wood density clone K also presented a high resilience after a severe drought event, but it did not present clear advantages in terms of cavitation resistance. However, it presented the highest osmotic adjustment capacity of the studied clones. In conclusion, vulnerability to cavitation is variable between clones and it would have an adaptive role in terms of E. grandis drought resistance. However, alternative (and/or complementary) mechanisms exist in other plant organs which have to be evaluated in order to select drought resistant genotypes.Fil: Tesón, Natalia. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Entre Ríos. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Concordia. Agencia de Extensión Rural Concordia; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez, Maria Elena. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Buenos Aires Sur. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce. Agencia de Extensión Rural Balcarce; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; ArgentinaFil: Licata, Julian Andres. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Entre Ríos. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Concordia. Agencia de Extensión Rural Concordia; Argentin

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe