About a Coincidente Index for the State of the Economy

The construction of coincident indexes for the economic activity of a country is a common practice since the fifties. The methodologies vary from heuristic methods to probabilistic or statistical ones. In this paper, we present a new procedure for estimating a coincient index of the state of the economy which is optimum in a statiscal sense. This procedure is based on state space models that do possess the steady-state property.We apply our methodology for computing a coincident index for the Colombian economy.State of the economy, Coincidente Index, State Space Models.

Impact of Policy Actions on the Deployment of the Circular Value-Chain for Composites

The effect of legislation on composites recycling can be both a driving force, such as in the case of End-of-Life Vehicle legislation, that is making it mandatory to reuse the materials used in vehicle manufacturing, or a boundary, increasing the burden to manufacturers reusing composite materials. As a consequence, a deep study on the impact of policies on the reuse of composites is fundamental to promote those actions boosting the deployment of circular value-chains. In this Chapter, a model based on System Dynamics theory, representing the entire industrial environment of composite materials, has been developed, leading to a prioritization of most impacting legislations, providing conclusions and recommendations derived from data

Yield and fruit quality of Santa Cruz and Italian tomatoes depending on fruit thinning

O manejo do tomateiro cultivado em ambiente protegido, com ênfase no raleio de frutos, pode contribuir de forma significativa para a produção de frutos de qualidade superior, expressando assim o potencial de cada cultivar. Foi avaliado o efeito do raleio de frutos na produtividade e seus componentes e em alguns atributos de qualidade de frutos de genótipos de tomateiro dos segmentos Santa Cruz e Italiano de crescimento indeterminado, visando ao consumo in natura. Avaliaram-se 12 genótipos de tomate de mesa (seis híbridos experimentais e seis cultivares) e dois modos de condução (plantas conduzidas com e sem raleio de frutos). O experimento foi com parcelas subdivididas, distribuídas em blocos completos ao acaso com três repetições. As parcelas foram representadas pelos genótipos e as subparcelas pelos modos de condução. Avaliaram-se o número de frutos por planta, produtividade comercial de frutos, produtividade de frutos não-comercializáveis, massa média do fruto, comprimento e largura do fruto, pH, teor de sólidos solúveis totais (SS), acidez titulável (AT), relação entre SS e AT, teor de ácido ascórbico e teor de licopeno. O raleio dos frutos proporcionou incremento da produtividade comercial, massa média, comprimento e largura do fruto para os híbridos THX-02 e THX-03, do segmento Santa Cruz, e THX-04, THX-05 e Netuno, do segmento Italiano e não mostrou vantagens para a produção e seus componentes para os demais genótipos e características avaliadas. Considerando o raleio de frutos, os genótipos Giuliana e Sahel obtiveram maior produtividade comercial e massa média do fruto. Sem o raleio de frutos, 'Netuno' alcançou maior número de frutos por planta, porém, o híbrido Sahel foi quem se destacou por apresentar maior produtividade comercial e massa média do fruto. O raleio não influenciou a qualidade organoléptica dos genótipos avaliados. 'Avalon' apresentou maior teor de ácido ascórbico que 'Netuno' e 'Sahel'. 'Débora Max', THX-01, THX-02 e THX-04 foram semelhantes entre si quanto ao teor de licopeno e superaram 'Giuliana', 'Sahel', THX-03 e THX-06.The management of the tomato plant under greenhouse, with emphasis on fruit thinning, contributes significantly to the production of fruits of superior quality, expressing the potential of each cultivar. We determined the effect of fruit thinning on yield and its components in tomato hybrids of the Santa Cruz and Italian types of indeterminate growth, and we performed the qualitative characterization of the fruits, aiming in natura market. Twelve fresh-market tomato genotypes (six experimental hybrids and six commercial cultivars) and two training methods (with and without manual fruit thinning) were evaluated. A randomized complete block design was used in this trial, with split-plots and three replications. The plots were represented by genotypes and the subplots were constitued by training methods. Number of fruits per plant, yield of marketable and not marketable fruits, average fruit weight, fruit length and fruit width were measured. For quantitative characterization, pH, soluble solids concentration (SS), tritratable acidity (AT), ascorbic acid content, SS and AT ratio and lycopene content were measured. The fruit thinning increased marketable yield, average weight, length and width for the Santa Cruz hybrids THX-02 and THX-03 and for THX-04, THX-05 and Netuno, classified as Italian type. The fruit thinning did not provide benefits for yield and its components for the other evaluated characteristics and genotypes. Giuliana and Sahel genotypes presented higher marketable yield and average fruit weight. Without fruit thinning, 'Netuno' reached the highest number of fruits per plant, but the hybrid Sahel showed higher marketable yield and average fruit weight. Thinning did not affect the organoleptic quality of the genotypes. 'Avalon' showed higher ascorbic acid content than 'Netuno' and 'Sahel', and 'Débora Max', 'THX-01', 'THX-02' and 'THX-04', which were similar to each other in the content of lycopene, overcame 'Giuliana', 'Sahel', 'THX-03', and 'THX-06'.FAPESPCoordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES

Two Populations of Molecular Clouds in the Antennae Galaxies

Super star clusters --- extremely massive clusters found predominately in starburst environments --- are essential building blocks in the formation of galaxies and thought to dominate star formation in the high-redshift universe. However, the transformation from molecular gas into these ultra-compact star clusters is not well understood. To study this process, we used the Submillimeter Array and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer to obtain high angular resolution (~1.5" or 160 pc) images of the Antennae overlap region in CO(2--1) to search for the molecular progenitors of the super star clusters. We resolve the molecular gas distribution into a large number of clouds, extending the differential cloud mass function down to a 5\sigma completeness limit of 3.8x10^5 M_sun. We identify a distinct break in the mass function around log M_mol/M_sun ~ 6.5, which separates the molecular clouds into two distinct populations. The smaller, less massive clouds reside in more quiescent areas in the region, while the larger, more massive clouds cluster around regions of intense star formation. A broken power-law fit to the mass function yields slopes of \alpha = -1.39+/-0.10 and \alpha = -1.44+/-0.14 for the low- and high-mass cloud population, well-matched to the mass function found for super star clusters in the Antennae galaxies. We find large velocity gradients and velocity dispersions at the locations of intense star formation, suggestive of compressive shocks. It is likely that these environmental factors contribute to the formation of the observed massive molecular clouds and super star clusters in the Antennae galaxies.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, accepted by Ap

Isolation and characterization of mercury resistant trichoderma strains from soil with high levels of mercury and its effects on Arabidopsis thaliana mercury uptake

"Traditional mining activities are usually correlated with high levels of soil pollution, which is a major environmental concern. Extensive mining activities have taken place in the San Joaquin region in the State of Querétaro, México resulting in high levels of mercury soil pollution (up to 1532 ± 300 mg/kg). We isolated mercury-resistant fungal strains from the San Joaquin region soils and identified them through morphologic characteristics and ITS rDNA region sequence analysis. We determined that fungi isolated belong to the genus Trichoderma. All the isolates selected showed the ability to catalyze the volatilization of Hg. For air sampling, an active sampling device was constructed and using acid KMnO4 as an absorbent, the concentration of mercury in solution was determined through the cold vapor atomic absorption method. The results show mercury volatilization from the fungal species assay, with a maximum of 213.04 ± 32.6 µg/m3 while mycelium accumulation ranged from less than 17.5 ± 2.9 to 20.0 ± 3.4 µg/g. The fungal isolates were also evaluated for their ability to reduce mercury uptake in Arabidopsis thaliana. These observations suggest the utility of Trichoderma for the mobilization of mercury in those contaminated soils.

The Pierre Auger Observatory III: Other Astrophysical Observations

Astrophysical observations of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger ObservatoryComment: Contributions to the 32nd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Beijing, China, August 201

Highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest cosmic ray observatory. Our current exposure reaches nearly 40,000 km$^2$ str and provides us with an unprecedented quality data set. The performance and stability of the detectors and their enhancements are described. Data analyses have led to a number of major breakthroughs. Among these we discuss the energy spectrum and the searches for large-scale anisotropies. We present analyses of our X$_{max}$ data and show how it can be interpreted in terms of mass composition. We also describe some new analyses that extract mass sensitive parameters from the 100% duty cycle SD data. A coherent interpretation of all these recent results opens new directions. The consequences regarding the cosmic ray composition and the properties of UHECR sources are briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, talk given at the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Rio de Janeiro 201

Anisotropy and chemical composition of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Collaboration has reported evidence for anisotropy in the distribution of arrival directions of the cosmic rays with energies $E>E_{th}=5.5\times 10^{19}$ eV. These show a correlation with the distribution of nearby extragalactic objects, including an apparent excess around the direction of Centaurus A. If the particles responsible for these excesses at $E>E_{th}$ are heavy nuclei with charge $Z$, the proton component of the sources should lead to excesses in the same regions at energies $E/Z$. We here report the lack of anisotropies in these directions at energies above $E_{th}/Z$ (for illustrative values of $Z=6,\ 13,\ 26$). If the anisotropies above $E_{th}$ are due to nuclei with charge $Z$, and under reasonable assumptions about the acceleration process, these observations imply stringent constraints on the allowed proton fraction at the lower energies