Efficiency of low versus high airline pressure in stunning cattle with a pneumatically powered penetrating captive bolt gun

The efficiency of stunning cattle was assessed in 443 animals (304 pure Zebu and 139 crossbred cattle), being mainly mature bulls and cows. Cattle were stunned using a Jarvis pneumatically powered penetrating captive bolt gun operating with low (160–175 psi, N = 82) and high (190 psi, N = 363) airline pressure, which was within the manufactures specifications. Signs of brain function and the position of the shots on the heads were recorded after stunning. Velocity of the captive bolt and its physical parameters were calculated. Cattle shot with low pressures showed more rhythmic respiration (27 vs. 8%, P < 0.001), less tongue protrusion (4 vs. 12%, P = 0.03) and less masseter relaxation (22 vs. 48%, P < 0.001). There was an increased frequency of shots in the ideal position when cattle were shot with the low compared to high airline pressures (15.3 vs. 3.1%). Bolt velocity and its physical parameters were significantly (P < 0.01) higher when using high pressure. Airline pressures below 190 psi are inappropriate when shooting adult Zebu beef cattle with pneumatically powered penetrating captive bolt guns

Characterizing neuromorphologic alterations with additive shape functionals

The complexity of a neuronal cell shape is known to be related to its function. Specifically, among other indicators, a decreased complexity in the dendritic trees of cortical pyramidal neurons has been associated with mental retardation. In this paper we develop a procedure to address the characterization of morphological changes induced in cultured neurons by over-expressing a gene involved in mental retardation. Measures associated with the multiscale connectivity, an additive image functional, are found to give a reasonable separation criterion between two categories of cells. One category consists of a control group and two transfected groups of neurons, and the other, a class of cat ganglionary cells. The reported framework also identified a trend towards lower complexity in one of the transfected groups. Such results establish the suggested measures as an effective descriptors of cell shape

What are the Best Hierarchical Descriptors for Complex Networks?

This work reviews several hierarchical measurements of the topology of complex networks and then applies feature selection concepts and methods in order to quantify the relative importance of each measurement with respect to the discrimination between four representative theoretical network models, namely Erd\"{o}s-R\'enyi, Barab\'asi-Albert, Watts-Strogatz as well as a geographical type of network. The obtained results confirmed that the four models can be well-separated by using a combination of measurements. In addition, the relative contribution of each considered feature for the overall discrimination of the models was quantified in terms of the respective weights in the canonical projection into two dimensions, with the traditional clustering coefficient, hierarchical clustering coefficient and neighborhood clustering coefficient resulting particularly effective. Interestingly, the average shortest path length and hierarchical node degrees contributed little for the separation of the four network models.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Fast Community Identification by Hierarchical Growth

A new method for community identification is proposed which is founded on the analysis of successive neighborhoods, reached through hierarchical growth from a starting vertex, and on the definition of communities as a subgraph whose number of inner connections is larger than outer connections. In order to determine the precision and speed of the method, it is compared with one of the most popular community identification approaches, namely Girvan and Newman's algorithm. Although the hierarchical growth method is not as precise as Girvan and Newman's method, it is potentially faster than most community finding algorithms.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Estimativas de repetibilidade de características de frutos do cupuaçuzeiro no Estado do Acre.

Este trabalho teve o objetivo de estimar a capacidade de cupuaçuzeiros de repetirem a expressão de caracteres do fruto, a variabilidade genética e determinar o número de frutos por planta necessário para a seleção de genótipos superiores. Utilizando-se dois frutos por planta, estimou-se os coeficientes de repetibilidade para os caracteres comprimento, circunferência e peso do fruto, espessura e percentagem em peso da casca; percentagens da polpa e das fibras e número de sementes por fruto. Constatou-se a existência de variabilidade genética entre as plantas matrizes para a maioria dos caracteres estudados. Os caracteres peso do fruto, comprimento do fruto e espessura da casca com coeficientes de repetibilidade de 0,76, 0,82 e 0,93, respectivamente, apresentam as mais altas estimativas de repetibilidade, evidenciando bom controle genético. Os caracteres que apresentaram o menos número de frutos por planta exigido para uma efetiva seleção foram comprimento do fruto, espessura da casca e peso do fruto com 1, 1 e 2 frutos/planta, respectivamente. Devido à importância econômica do caracter peso do fruto, ao coeficiente de repetibilidade apresentado e à possibilidade de se obter uma seleção eficiente a partir de um número reduzido de frutos, evidencia-se que uma seleção fenotípica simples para este caráter pode proporcionar bons resultados com custos reduzidos

Coleta de variedades tradicionais (crioulas) de feijoeiro comum (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) na região norte do Rio Grande do Sul.

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar informações sobre a coleta de feijão realizada em municípios da região norte do Rio Grande do Sul, como métodos de cultivo, metodologia de coleta, tipos de acessos coletados e futuras avaliações para utilização do germoplasma coletado.bitstream/item/29001/1/doc260.pd