YunMa: Enabling Spectral Retrievals of Exoplanetary Clouds

In this paper, we present YunMa, an exoplanet cloud simulation and retrieval package, which enables the study of cloud microphysics and radiative properties in exoplanetary atmospheres. YunMa simulates the vertical distribution and sizes of cloud particles and their corresponding scattering signature in transit spectra. We validated YunMa against results from the literature. When coupled to the TauREx 3 platform, an open Bayesian framework for spectral retrievals, YunMa enables the retrieval of the cloud properties and parameters from transit spectra of exoplanets. The sedimentation efficiency (f sed), which controls the cloud microphysics, is set as a free parameter in retrievals. We assess the retrieval performances of YunMa through 28 instances of a K2-18 b-like atmosphere with different fractions of H2/He and N2, and assuming water clouds. Our results show a substantial improvement in retrieval performances when using YunMa instead of a simple opaque cloud model and highlight the need to include cloud radiative transfer and microphysics to interpret the next-generation data for exoplanet atmospheres. This work also inspires instrumental development for future flagships by demonstrating retrieval performances with different data quality

Identification of chromosomes responsible for crown rot resistance in durum wheat

Dissertação de mestrado em Saúde Ocupacional, apresentada á Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de CoimbraA Segurança, Higiene e Saúde no Trabalho (SHST) tem como objetivo conservar o bem-estar físico, mental e social dos trabalhadores, para isso, é necessário adotar medidas que exigem a interação de várias áreas como a medicina do trabalho, a higiene do trabalho, a engenharia de segurança, a ergonomia, a psicologia, entre outras. Este assunto começou a ser tido em conta, em meados do Séc. XX. Até aí o único aspeto importante relacionado com o trabalho era a produtividade, não havendo preocupação com lesões, doenças nem mesmo se essas situações conduzissem à morte do trabalhador. Tem-se verificado que os riscos psicossociais são riscos emergentes de saúde ocupacional, ou seja, são riscos novos, que estão a aumentar e cujos efeitos sobre a saúde dos trabalhadores estão a agravar-se. As novas formas de contratos de trabalho e insegurança no emprego, a mão-de-obra em envelhecimento, a intensificação do trabalho, as exigências emocionais elevadas no trabalho e a difícil conciliação entre a vida profissional e pessoal são os principais geradores de consequências negativas para os trabalhadores, para as organizações e para a sociedade. Estes riscos requerem grande preocupação por parte das empresas, no entanto devido à delicadeza necessária para abordar esta temática, à escassez dos recursos e à falta de sensibilização, muitas vezes não lhe é dada a devida importância. Os objetivos deste estudo são analisar o nível de exposição da população ativa aos riscos psicossociais, avaliar a capacidade para o trabalho e analisar os efeitos dos riscos psicossociais no trabalho na capacidade para o trabalho. Para atingir os objetivos anteriormente referidos, a metodologia utilizada foram dois questionários, autoadministrados, numa amostra de 140 trabalhadores residentes na localidade de Outil. Com os dados obtidos, foi possível inferir que a população se encontra numa situação de risco intermédio relativamente à exposição aos riscos psicossociais. Este facto não se deve ao sexo do trabalhador nem ao setor em que exerce a sua atividade profissional. Concluiu-se também que a população em estudo apresenta, de um modo geral um bom Índice de Capacidade para o Trabalho (ICT). Este índice vai diminuindo com o avançar Riscos Psicossociais e Capacidade no Trabalho na população de Outil (Cantanhede) XV da idade do trabalhador. O ICT não está correlacionado linearmente com o sexo nem com o setor profissional. Com este estudo verifica-se também que o nível de exposição aos riscos psicossociais se relaciona com a capacidade para o trabalho na medida em que alguns aspetos psicossociais do trabalho potenciam ou inibem a capacidade para o trabalho. Os aspetos que inibem a capacidade para o trabalho são: as exigências quantitativas, os conflitos laborais, a confiança horizontal e vertical, o compromisso face ao local de trabalho, a saúde em geral e os problemas em dormir. Já pelo contrário, o significado do trabalho, a importância que o trabalhador atribui ao trabalho é um fator que potencia a capacidade para o trabalho. A crise económico-financeira atravessada pelo país, e um pouco por toda a Europa, neste momento origina muitas alterações organizacionais e estruturais nas empresas, o que potencia o aparecimento dos riscos psicossociais afetando a saúde física e mental do trabalhador e consequentemente a sua capacidade para o trabalho. O reconhecimento e a gestão dos riscos psicossociais a que estão sujeitos os trabalhadores e a avaliação da sua capacidade para o trabalho tornam mais fácil e eficaz a tomada de decisão e o desenrolar de programas de ação que ajudem as empresas a ultrapassar este momento conturbado a nível socioeconómico e financeiro, mantendo os trabalhadores saudáveis física e mentalmente.The Safety and Health at Work aims to conserve the physical well-being, mental and social workers, for that is necessary to adopt measures that require the interaction of several areas such as occupational medicine, hygiene at work safety engineering, ergonomics, psychology, among others. This issue began to be taken into account in the mid-century. XX, until then the only important aspect related to the work was productivity, with no concern for injury, illness or even if these situations would lead to the death of the workers. It has been found that psychosocial risks are emerging risks to occupational health, it means that they are new risks that are increasing and whose effects on the health of workers are getting worse. The new forms of contracts of work and job insecurity, the hand labor aging, work intensification, high emotional demands at work and the difficult balance between work and personal life are the main triggers of negative consequences for workers, to organizations and to society. These risks require major concern of companies, however because of the sensitivity needed to approach this issue, resources are scarce and the lack of awareness often not been given due importance. The objectives of this study are analyze the level of exposure of the workforce to psychosocial risks, assessing the ability to work and analyze the effects of psychosocial risks at work in the capacity for work. To achieve the above objectives, the methodology used were two questionnaires, self-administered on a sample of 140 workers living in Outil. With the data obtained, it was possible to infer that the population is at an intermediate risk for exposure to psychosocial risks. This is not due to the sex of the worker or the sector where he is pursuing his professional activity. It was also concluded that the study population has, in general a good Work Ability Index (WAI). This ratio decreases with advancing age of the worker. The WAI is not correlated linearly with sex or with the professional sector. The level of exposure to psychosocial risk relates to the ability to work in so far some psychosocial aspects of the work potentiate or inhibit the ability to work. The aspects that inhibit the ability to work are: quantitative requirements, labor disputes, the horizontal and vertical trust, commitment towards the workplace, health in general and trouble sleeping. Already the contrary, the meaning of work, the importance that the worker attaches to the work is a factor that enhances the ability to work. The economic and financial crisis experienced by the country, and almost everywhere in Europe at this time gives many organizational and structural changes in companies, which enhances the appearance of psychosocial risks affecting the physical and mental health of the worker and consequently their ability to the work. Riscos Psicossociais e Capacidade no Trabalho na população de Outil (Cantanhede) XVII The recognition and management of psychosocial risks to which they are subject workers and the evaluation of their ability to make work easier and more effective decision-making and the development of programs which help companies overcome this troubled time the level socio-economic and financial, keeping the physical and mentally healthy worker

The expression of caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase in two wheat genotypes differing in lodging resistance

Stem lodging-resistance is an important phenotype in crop production. In the present study, the expression of the wheat COMT gene (TaCM) was determined in basal second internodes of lodging-resistant (H4564) and lodging-susceptible (C6001) cultivars at stem elongation, heading, and milky endosperm corresponding to Zadoks stages Z37, Z60, and Z75, respectively. The TaCM protein levels were analysed by protein gel blot and COMT enzyme activity was determined during the same stem developmental stages. TaCM mRNA levels were higher in H4546 from elongation to the milky stages and in C6001 the TaCM mRNA levels decreased markedly at the heading and milky stages. The TaCM protein levels and COMT activity were also higher in H4564 than that in C6001 at the heading and milky stages. These results corresponded to a higher lignin content measured by the Klason method and stem strength and a lower lodging index in H4564 than in C6001 at the heading and milky stages. Therefore, the TaCM mRNA levels, protein levels, and enzyme activity in developing wheat stems were associated with stem strength and lodging index in these two wheat cultivars. Southern analysis in a different population suggested that a TaCM locus was located in the distal region of chromosome 3BL, which has less investigated by QTL for lodging-resistant phenotype

Electron beam crosslinked natural rubber/multiwalled carbon nanotube nanocomposite

The physical properties of the rubber blends are influenced by vulcanization and filler distribution. Normally, rubbers are vulcanized by systems based on sulfur or peroxide with the most common filler carbon black. Radiation can also produce crosslink densities like those obtained by sulphur curing, but the net effects, are similar, though not identical. The type of crosslink formed in this method (–C–C–) give rise to better mechanical properties at higher temperature. This work reports on the investigations carried out on natural rubber (SMR) filled with the multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). This system of SMR/MWCNTs was subjected to different radiation dosages and compared with nonradiated samples in order to determine the improvement in mechanical properties of the rubber system in the presence of MWCNTs and irradiation dosages. The amount of MWCNTs in this study was varied from 1 to 7 Phr and the irradiation doses were varied from 50 to 200 KGy. Mechanical properties, especially, tensile strength (TS), elongation at break had been studied as a function of irradiation dose and degree of loading with MWCNTs. Gel fraction indicated an increase in the degree of crosslink with the increase in the MWCT and radiation dosage. XRD was carried out to check the increase in the crytallinty of the nanocomposite system. The overall results obtained indicate significant improvement in the mechanical and thermal properties by radiation crosslinking in presence of MWCNTs. These results were further supported by TEM micrograph and nanoindentation

On the well-posedness of the stochastic Allen-Cahn equation in two dimensions

White noise-driven nonlinear stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) of parabolic type are frequently used to model physical and biological systems in space dimensions d = 1,2,3. Whereas existence and uniqueness of weak solutions to these equations are well established in one dimension, the situation is different for d \geq 2. Despite their popularity in the applied sciences, higher dimensional versions of these SPDE models are generally assumed to be ill-posed by the mathematics community. We study this discrepancy on the specific example of the two dimensional Allen-Cahn equation driven by additive white noise. Since it is unclear how to define the notion of a weak solution to this equation, we regularize the noise and introduce a family of approximations. Based on heuristic arguments and numerical experiments, we conjecture that these approximations exhibit divergent behavior in the continuum limit. The results strongly suggest that a series of published numerical studies are problematic: shrinking the mesh size in these simulations does not lead to the recovery of a physically meaningful limit.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; accepted by Journal of Computational Physics (Dec 2011

Resequencing and comparative genomics of stagonospora nodorum: Sectional gene absence and effector discovery

Stagonospora nodorum is an important wheat (Triticum aestivum) pathogen in many parts of the world, causing major yield losses. It was the first species in the large fungal Dothideomycete class to be genome sequenced. The reference genome sequence (SN15) has been instrumental in the discovery of genes encoding necrotrophic effectors that induce disease symptoms in specific host genotypes. Here we present the genome sequence of two further S. nodorum strains (Sn4 and Sn79) that differ in their effector repertoire from the reference. Sn79 is avirulent on wheat and produces no apparent effectors when infiltrated onto many cultivars and mapping population parents. Sn4 is pathogenic on wheat and has virulences not found in SN15. The new strains, sequenced with short-read Illumina chemistry, are compared with SN15 by a combination of mapping and de novo assembly approaches.Each of the genomes contains a large number of strain-specific genes, many of which have no meaningful similarity to any known gene. Large contiguous sections of the reference genome are absent in the two newly sequenced strains. We refer to these differences as “sectional gene absences.” The presence of genes in pathogenic strains and absence in Sn79 is added to computationally predicted properties of known proteins to produce a list of likely effector candidates. Transposon insertion was observed in the mitochondrial genomes of virulent strains where the avirulent strain retained the likely ancestral sequence. The study suggests that short-read enabled comparative genomics is an effective way to both identify new S. nodorum effector candidates and to illuminate evolutionary processes in this species