Adsorption and incorporation of the zinc oxide nanoparticles in seeds of corn: germination performance and antimicrobial protection

The treatments of the seeds are important procedures applied by the agronomical area to improve the culture yield. From these procedures the micronutrients are available for the seeds before and during the germination stages. One high challenge is make efficient these treatment processes and to ensure the adsorption and the incorporation of these micronutrients in the seeds and to improve its performance in the germination phase. In this work studies explored the optimization of the incorporation process and the characteristics of the zinc oxide clusters adsorbed on the surface of the seed. The results were associated with the agronomic responses during the germinations stages of the seeds of corn. The seeds were treated in suspensions containing different concentrations of nanoparticles of zinc oxide and during different treatment times. The adsorptions in the corn surface and the absorption of the nanoparticles for the inner of the seeds were studied together with its antibacterial characteristics and correlated with the germinations indicators. The results showed that is possible to incorporate nanoparticles of zinc oxide in inner of the seeds of corn and improve the germinations indicators. Antibacterial protection was aggregated on the seeds of corn. It´s possible to incorporate 0.280 mg of zinc oxide nanoparticle per seed mass in inner of seeds with the optimal treatment conditions with nanoparticle concentration of 50 mg/L in the suspension and with treatment time of 180 minutes. With the optimal treatment concentration the normal plant percentage increase of 2.70% in relationship to the seeds not treated

Object-oriented Programming Laws for Annotated Java Programs

Object-oriented programming laws have been proposed in the context of languages that are not combined with a behavioral interface specification language (BISL). The strong dependence between source-code and interface specifications may cause a number of difficulties when transforming programs. In this paper we introduce a set of programming laws for object-oriented languages like Java combined with the Java Modeling Language (JML). The set of laws deals with object-oriented features taking into account their specifications. Some laws deal only with features of the specification language. These laws constitute a set of small transformations for the development of more elaborate ones like refactorings

Animal Performance in Signalgrass Monoculture or in Silvopastoral Systems

Silvopastoral systems (SPS) can increase overall productivity and long-term income due to the simultaneous production of trees, forage, and livestock. This 2-yr study evaluated animal performance and herbage responses in C4-grass monoculture or in SPS in the sub-humid tropical region of Brazil. The experimental design was randomized complete block with three replications. Treatments were: Urochloa decumbens (Stapf.) R. Webster (Signalgrass) + Mimosa caesalpiniifolia Benth (SPS-Mimosa); Signalgrass + Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth ex Walp (SPS-Gliricidia); and Signalgrass monoculture (SM). Response variables included herbage and livestock responses. Cattle were managed under continuous stocking with variable stocking rate. There was interaction between treatment × month for herbage mass. Green herbage accumulation rate ranged from 20 to 80 kg DM ha-1d-1 across months, with SPS-Mimosa presenting lower rates. Average daily gain was greater in SPS-Gliricidia, followed by SM, and SPS-Mimosa, respectively (0.77; 0.56; 0.23 kg d-1), varying across months. Stocking rate ranged from 0.86 to 1.6 AU ha-1. Total gain per area during the experimental period was greater for SPS-Gliricidia (423 kg BW ha-1), followed by signalgrass in monoculture (347 kg BW ha-1), and SPS-Mimosa (50 kg BW ha-1). Silvopasture systems using signalgrass and gliricidia enhanced livestock gains compared with signalgrass in monoculture, and mimosa trees outcompeted signalgrass, reducing livestock gains. Silvopasture systems with tree legumes have potential to provide numerous ecosystem services and reduce C footprint of livestock systems in the tropics, however, the choice of tree species is key and determined by which ecosystem service is prioritized

Morphological Divergence among Progeny of Macroptilium lathyroides Accessions from the Semi-Arid Region of Pernambuco, Brazil

Macroptilium is a legume genus with approximately 20 species, usually annual or biennial, herbaceous and distributed mainly in the Americas. It is widely used as a forage resource in grasslands and usually fixes atmospheric N. Martins et al. (2001) indicated that half-sib family selection with progeny testing is the most common plant breeding method used in Brazil. In the scientific literature, however, there are few studies dedicated to Macroptilium spp. This study evaluated morphological divergence among Macroptilium spp. progeny from accessions collected in 4 counties located in the semi-arid region of Pernambuco State, NE Brazil

Canopy Height and Its Relationship with Leaf Area Index and Light Interception of Tropical Grasses

Photosynthetic tissues, mainly green leaves, are the major component of forage growth and development. The amount of these tissues in a forage plant is influenced directly by the cutting management, which is based on cutting frequency and stubble height. It is usual to recommend as a management practice to cut (or graze) the forage whenever it reaches a given stubble height. Brougham (1956) stated that, when the forage canopy is intercepting 95% of the photosynthetic active radiation, this is the critical leaf area index (LAI), which means the forage is near its maximum growth rate without shading itself. There is also the optimum LAI, where the forage reaches the maximum point of mass accumulation, indicating time to start grazing or cut. Generally the critical and optimum LAI have close values, but they are not necessarily the same (Brown and Blaser, 1968). This trial evaluated the relationship among canopy height, leaf area index, and light interception in ten different tropical grasses

Alert classification for the ALeRCE broker system: The real-time stamp classifier

We present a real-time stamp classifier of astronomical events for the Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events broker, ALeRCE. The classifier is based on a convolutional neural network, trained on alerts ingested from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). Using only the science, reference, and difference images of the first detection as inputs, along with the metadata of the alert as features, the classifier is able to correctly classify alerts from active galactic nuclei, supernovae (SNe), variable stars, asteroids, and bogus classes, with high accuracy (~94%) in a balanced test set. In order to find and analyze SN candidates selected by our classifier from the ZTF alert stream, we designed and deployed a visualization tool called SN Hunter, where relevant information about each possible SN is displayed for the experts to choose among candidates to report to the Transient Name Server database. From 2019 June 26 to 2021 February 28, we have reported 6846 SN candidates to date (11.8 candidates per day on average), of which 971 have been confirmed spectroscopically. Our ability to report objects using only a single detection means that 70% of the reported SNe occurred within one day after the first detection. ALeRCE has only reported candidates not otherwise detected or selected by other groups, therefore adding new early transients to the bulk of objects available for early follow-up. Our work represents an important milestone toward rapid alert classifications with the next generation of large etendue telescopes, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.The authors acknowledge support from the National Agency of Research and Development’s Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC12009, awarded to the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (RC, ER, CV, FF, PE, GP, FEB, IR, PSS, GC, SE, Ja, EC, DR, DRM, MC) and from the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) grants: BASAL Center of Mathematical Modelling AFB-170001 (CV, FF, IR, ECN, CS, ECI) and Centro de Astrofísica y Tecnologías Afines AFB170002 (FEB, PSS, MC); FONDECYT Regular #1171678 (PE), #1200710 (FF), #1190818(FEB), #1200495 (FEB), #1171273 (MC), #1201793(GP); FONDECYT Postdoctorado #3200250 (PSS); FONDECYT Iniciación #11191130 (CV); Magíster Nacional 2019 #22190947 (ER). This work was funded in part by project CORFO 10CEII-9157 Inria Chile (PS). The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (MICIU) under the 2019 Ramón y Cajal program RYC2019- 027683 (LG)