An Approach to Selection of Variety and Planting Date in Corn Silage Production

The major purpose of this study is to make additional information available to the farm manager to improve the decision-making process relating to corn silage production. This study is primarily concerned with factors that influence planting date and variety selection. With-in the framework of decision theory analysis, a Bayesian approach is employed to calculate the best time to plant and the best variety to plant. The approach is used both with and without the possible occurrence of harmful spring frosts. The seventy growing degree day method is employed as a criterion for planting date selection. The planting dates are matched with four different season length corn varieties to formulate the courses of action available to the farm manager. The states of nature that may confront a grower are the degrees of damage associated with various frost intensities

Literature review: a surgeon’s view of recurrent hiatal hernia

Las hernias hiatales recidivantes constituyen una patología común que generan un reto diagnóstico y terapéutico para cirujanos y gastroenterólogos. Generalmente se presentan de forma asintomática o con síntomas atípicos y se asocian a factores fisiológicos, propios del paciente y de la técnica quirúrgica. Su tratamiento es complejo y dependiendo de la causa de los síntomas pueden requerir manejo médico o quirúrgico. En este artículo, se pretenden definir pautas para la identificación y manejo de esta patología, así como establecer claves para el tratamiento desde un enfoque quirúrgico.Recurrent hiatal hernias are a common pathology that generate a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for surgeons and gastroenterologists. They are generally asymptomatic or present with atypical symptoms and are associated with the patient’s own physiological factors and the surgical technique. Treatment is complex and, depending on the cause of the symptoms, will require either medical or surgical management. This article starts from a surgical approach to define guidelines for identification and management of this condition and to establish keys to treatment

Circulating anti-galectin-1 antibodies are associated with the severity of ocular disease in autoimmune and infectious uveitis

Galectin (Gal)-1, an endogenous lectin found at sites of immune privilege, plays a critical role in the regulation of the immune response. Therapeutic administration of Gal-1 or its genetic delivery suppresses chronic inflammation in experimental models of autoimmunity. The purpose of this work was to investigate the occurrence of circulating anti-Gal-1 antibodies in patients with autoimmune and infectious uveitis as potential determinant factors of disease progression.Fil: Romero, Marta D.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; Argentina. Fundación Ver; Argentina. Laboratorio Inmunopatología Investigación y Docencia LIIDO; ArgentinaFil: Muiño, Juan Carlos. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina. Fundación Ver; ArgentinaFil: Bianco, German Ariel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Ferrero, Mercedes. Laboratorio Inmunopatología Investigación y Docencia LIIDO; Argentina. Fundación Ver; ArgentinaFil: Juarez, Claudio P.. Fundación Ver; ArgentinaFil: Luna, José Domingo. Fundación Ver; ArgentinaFil: Rabinovich, Gabriel A.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; Argentin

Survival and Nesting Ecology of Scaled Quail in the Trans-Pecos, Texas

Scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) are one of the most ecologically and economically important wildlife species in the Trans-Pecos, because they are the primary upland game bird in the Chihuahuan Desert. Using radiotelemetry, we evaluated survival (Kaplan–Meier) and nesting success of quail on 3 study sites in the Trans-Pecos, Texas: one (Santiago Mountain Ranch, central Brewster Co.) was supplemented with milo (Sorghum bicolor) year-round, the second (Lado Ranch, south Culberson Co.) never used supplements, and the third (Apache Ranch, central Culberson Co.) was supplemented with quail blocks. We trapped and radiocollared 164 female quail collectively across all study sites, and followed them for 2 years (May–Sep 2012–2013). There were no survival differences between years within study sites (P = 0.985), so we grouped data across years and compared survival between study sites. Apache Ranch had the lowest survival (55%) compared with the Santiago Mountain Ranch (76.3%) and Lado Ranch (75%). We found 47 nests across the reproductive seasons for 2012 and 2013. On average, scaled quail had high nesting success (72.6%), eggs per nest (11.6), and hatchability (91.25%). Nesting occurred from May to September with peak nesting in June and July. Timing and quantity of rain, combined with range conditions seemed to have the greatest effect on nesting performance

Production of a biodiesel-like biofuel without glycerol generation, by using Novozym 435, an immobilized Candida antarctica lipase

Background: Novozym 435, a commercial lipase from Candida antarctica, recombinant, expressed in Aspergillus niger, immobilized on macroporous acrylic resin, has been already described in the obtention of biodiesel. It is here evaluated in the production of a new biofuel that integrates the glycerol as monoglyceride (MG) together with two fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) molecules by the application of 1,3-selective lipases in the ethanolysis reaction of sunflower oil. Results: Response surface methodology (RSM) is employed to estimate the effects of main reaction. Optimum conditions for the viscosity, selectivity, and conversion were determined using a multifactorial design of experiments with three factors run by the software Stat Graphics version XV.I. The selected experimental parameters were reaction temperature, oil/ethanol ratio and alkaline environment. On the basis of RSM analysis, the optimum conditions for synthesis were 1/6 oil/EtOH molar ratio, 30°C, and 12.5 μl of NaOH 10 N aqueous solutions, higher stirring than 300 rpm, for 2 h and 0.5 g of biocatalyst. Conclusions: These obtained results have proven a very good efficiency of the biocatalyst in the studied selective process. Furthermore, it was allowed sixteen times the successive reuse of the biocatalyst with good performanc

Biodiesel at the Crossroads: A Critical Review

The delay in the energy transition, focused in the replacement of fossil diesel with biodiesel, is mainly caused by the need of reducing the costs associated to the transesterification reaction of vegetable oils with methanol. This reaction, on an industrial scale, presents several problems associated with the glycerol generated during the process. The costs to eliminate this glycerol have to be added to the implicit cost of using seed oil as raw material. Recently, several alternative methods to convert vegetable oils into high quality diesel fuels, which avoid the glycerol generation, are being under development, such as Gliperol, DMC-Biod, or Ecodiesel. Besides, there are renewable diesel fuels known as “green diesel”, obtained by several catalytic processes (cracking or pyrolysis, hydrodeoxygenation and hydrotreating) of vegetable oils and which exhibit a lot of similarities with fossil fuels. Likewise, it has also been addressed as a novel strategy, the use of straight vegetable oils in blends with various plant-based sources such as alcohols, vegetable oils, and several organic compounds that are renewable and biodegradable. These plant-based sources are capable of achieving the effective reduction of the viscosity of the blends, allowing their use in combustion ignition engines. The aim of this review is to evaluate the real possibilities that conventional biodiesel has in order to success as the main biofuel for the energy transition, as well as the use of alternative biofuels that can take part in the energy transition in a successful way

GPCA vs. PCA in Recognition and 3-D Localization of Ultrasound Reflectors

In this paper, a new method of classification and localization of reflectors, using the time-of-flight (TOF) data obtained from ultrasonic transducers, is presented. The method of classification and localization is based on Generalized Principal Component Analysis (GPCA) applied to the TOF values obtained from a sensor that contains four ultrasound emitters and 16 receivers. Since PCA works with vectorized representations of TOF, it does not take into account the spatial locality of receivers. The GPCA works with two-dimensional representations of TOF, taking into account information on the spatial position of the receivers. This report includes a detailed description of the method of classification and localization and the results of achieved tests with three types of reflectors in 3-D environments: planes, edges, and corners. The results in terms of processing time, classification and localization were very satisfactory for the reflectors located in the range of 50–350 cm

Especificación y verificación formal de sistemas críticos : Análisis de modelos de seguridad para dispositivos móviles

Este documento presenta resultados generados principalmente en el marco de una línea de investigación que involucra a dos proyectos de investigación: "Especificación formal y verificación de sistemas críticos", SeCyT-FCEIA, UNR (ING266), Argentina; y "STEVE: Seguridad a Través de Evidencia VErificable", proyecto PDT, DINACYT, Uruguay. Asimismo, algunas actividades de estos proyectos se enmarcaron en un proyecto de cooperación STIC-AMSUD: "ReSeCo: Reliability and Security of Distributed Software Components". El artículo describe esencial y sucintamente los trabajos realizados, las principales publicaciones obtenidas y la formación de recursos humanos en Argentina y Uruguay.Eje: Aspectos teóricos de Ciencias de la ComputaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI