Capability of an optical sensor in verifying the sugarcane response to nitrogen rates

Técnicas de agricultura de precisão são alternativas para otimizar a utilização de insumos, dentre eles o nitrogênio. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar a possibilidade de uso de um sensor ótico ativo comercial na cultura da cana-de-açúcar, verificando sua capacidade em identificar a resposta da cultura a diferentes doses de nitrogênio (N). Para tanto um experimento em blocos ao acaso foi instalado em área experimental de cana-de-açúcar de terceiro corte, colhida mecanicamente, com diferentes doses de N (0, 50, 100, 150 e 200 kg ha-1) e quatro repetições. Aos 30, 60 e 90 dias após o corte (DAC) realizou-se a mensuração do NDVI (índice de vegetação por diferença normalizada) a partir do sensor ótico. Não se obteve resposta do NDVI mensurado aos 30 e 60 DAC, porém aos 90 DAC se verificou que o sensor foi capaz de diferenciar as doses de N aplicadas, correlacionando-se positivamente com a produtividade final de colmos obtida. Este trabalho dá subsídios a trabalhos de mesma natureza que visem a gestão da adubação nitrogenada em cana-de-açúcar a partir de sensores óticos.Techniques of precision agriculture are alternatives to optimize the use of inputs, among them nitrogen. The present work had as its objective to verify the possibility of use of a commercial optical sensor in sugarcane, verifying its capability in identification of the crop response to different nitrogen (N) rates. An experiment was installed in randomized blocks in an experimental area with third sugarcane ratoon, harvested mechanically, with different N rates (0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 kg ha-1) and four repetitions. At 30, 60 and 90 days after the harvest (DAH) the measuring of NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) was accomplished starting from the optical sensor. No response was verified of NDVI on measurements at the 30 and 60 DAH, however at 90 DAH the sensor was capable to differentiate the doses of applied N, positively correlated with the sugarcane final production. This work gives subsidies to studies of same nature that seek the management of the nitrogen fertilization in sugarcane using optical sensor.FAPES

Percutaneous Liver Biopsy in Oncologic Patients - a Case Report

A biópsia hepática percutânea guiada por imagem é uma ferramenta útil que permite obter um diagnóstico histológico fiável sem necessidade de intervenção cirúrgica. Não é contudo um procedimento isento de complicações. No caso particular dos doentes com contexto oncológico conhecido o diagnóstico e estadiamento preciso é indispensável para seleção da terapêutica adequada. Nestes doentes deve dar-se preferência à caracterização imagiológica, contudo em casos onde permanecem dúvidas pode recorrer-se à biópsia. Neste artigo apresentamos um caso de sementeira tumoral no trajecto da agulha de biópsia hepática percutânea, num doente com diagnóstico recente de neoplasia intra-epitelial do cólon, com múltiplas lesões hepáticas e um nódulo pulmonar, detectados na avaliação imagiológica de estadiamento inicial

Hepatitis C Virus Infection as a Traumatic Experience

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether individuals consider their HCV infection to be a potentially traumatic experience. Additionally, we investigated its association with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the impact of PTSD diagnosis on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in HCV infected subjects. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 127 HCV-infected outpatients recruited at a University Hospital in Salvador, Brazil. All subjects answered an orally-administered questionnaire to gather clinical and socio-demographic data. We investigated traumatic experiences and the subject's perception of the disease using the Trauma History Questionnaire. PTSD and other psychiatric diagnoses were assessed through the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Brazilian Version 5.0.0 (M.I.N.I. PLUS). HRQoL was assessed using Short-Form 36 (SF-36). Results Approximately 38.6% of the patients considered hepatitis C to be a traumatic experience. Of these, 60.7% had a PTSD diagnosis. PTSD was associated with significant impairment in quality of life for individuals in seven SF-36 domains as shown bymultivariate analysis: Role-Physical (β: −24.85; 95% CI: −42.08; −7.61), Bodily Pain (β: −19.36; 95% CI: −31.28; −7.45), General Health (β: −20.79; 95% CI: −29.65; −11.92), Vitality (β: −11.92; 95% CI: −20.74; −3.1), Social Functioning (β: −34.73; 95% CI: −46.79; −22.68), Role-Emotional (β: −26.07; 95% CI: −44.61; −7.53), Mental Health (β: −17.46; 95% CI: −24.38; −10.54). Conclusion HCV is frequently a traumatic experience and it is strongly associated with PTSD diagnosis. PTSD significantly impaired HRQoL

Monitoring ten insect pests in selected orchards in three Azorean Islands : The project CUARENTAGRI

BACKGROUND: The data we present are part of the CUARENTAGRI project, which involves all archipelagos of the Macaronesia (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and Cabo Verde). The project aims to: i) identify and evaluate the risks associated with the introduction of new arthropod pests; ii) study the population dynamics of selected arthropod pest species currently responsible for the damage of key target crops and iii) develop monitoring systems, based on prediction and/or population dynamics of the crop pests, creating warnings and a phytosanitary prevention system. In this contribution, we compile data for three Azorean Islands (Terceira, São Jorge and São Miguel Islands), where pheromone-baited traps were placed in pastures, potato fields and several orchards’ types (apples, banana, chestnuts, olives, orange and strawberry), during three consecutive years (2020, 2021 and 2022). NEW INFORMATION: A total of 114,827 specimens of insects (Arthropoda, Insecta) were collected, belonging to four orders, six families and ten recorded pest species. A total of eight species are considered introduced (Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar, 1824), Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura, 1931), Bactrocera oleae (Rossi, 1790), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann, 1824), Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller, 1873), Cydia pomonella (Linnaeus, 1758), Cydia splendana (Hübner, 1799) and Grapholita molesta (Busck, 1916); n = 84,986 specimens) and two native non-endemic (Mythimna unipuncta (Haworth, 1809) and Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval, 1833); n = 17,465 specimens). This study intended to contribute to a better knowledge of the arthropods pests that can affect the Azorean crops and will serve as a baseline for future monitoring actions, pest risk assessments and prevention systems.This work was financed under the project CUARENTAGRI by Cooperation Programs INTERREG V A (Spain-Portugal) and MAC 2014-2020. Darwin Core Database management was funded by the Project project FCT-UIDB/00329/2020-2024 (Thematic Line 1 – integrated ecological assessment of environmental change on biodiversity) and Portal da Biodiversidade dos Açores (2022-2023) - PO Azores Project - M1.1.A/INFRAEST CIENT/001/2022. Lucas Lamelas-Lopez was supported by the Project FCT-UIDP/00329/2020-2023.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Genome-wide association and HLA fine-mapping studies identify risk loci and genetic pathways underlying allergic rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis is the most common clinical presentation of allergy, affecting 400 million people worldwide, with increasing incidence in westernized countries1,2. To elucidate the genetic architecture and understand the underlying disease mechanisms, we carried out a meta-analysis of allergic rhinitis in 59,762 cases and 152,358 controls of European ancestry and identified a total of 41 risk loci for allergic rhinitis, including 20 loci not previously associated with allergic rhinitis, which were confirmed in a replication phase of 60,720 cases and 618,527 controls. Functional annotation implicated genes involved in various immune pathways, and fine mapping of the HLA region suggested amino acid variants important for antigen binding. We further performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) analyses of allergic sensitization against inhalant allergens and nonallergic rhinitis, which suggested shared genetic mechanisms across rhinitis-related traits. Future studies of the identified loci and genes might identify novel targets for treatment and prevention of allergic rhinitis

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV using 35 pb-1 of ATLAS data

A measurement of the differential cross-section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity ranges |eta|<1.37 and 1.52<=|eta|<2.37 in the transverse energy range 45<=E_T<400GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 35 pb-1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The yields of the signal photons are measured using a data-driven technique, based on the observed distribution of the hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate and the photon selection criteria. The results are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and found to be in good agreement over four orders of magnitude in cross-section.Comment: 7 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 4 tables, final version published in Physics Letters