Ammonium thiosulfate as blossom thinner in 'Maxi Gala' apple trees.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of using ammonium thiosulfate as a chemical blossom thinner in 'Maxi Gala' apple (Malus domestica) trees and its effects on fruit quality. The experiment was carried out in an experimental orchard in the Southern Brazil, in a randomized complete block design, with five replicates. Ammonium thiosulfate was sprayed on the apple trees at the full bloom stage, at 0, 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5%. Evaluations were performed for the effects on crop load, fruit set, yield efficiency, and fruit quality parameters such as weight, shape, total soluble solids, seed number, flesh firmness, color, and russeting occurrence. Ammonium thiosulfate at 2.5% is effective to reduce crop load and to improve fruit quality. The thinning effect of ammonium thiosulfate is not dependent on the weather conditions during the crop season. The rate of 3.5% of ammonium thiosulfate causes overthinning and does not result in the improvement of fruit quality. Index terms: Malus domestica, ATS, blossom stage, flower thinning. Tiossulfato de amônio como raleante de floração em macieiras 'Maxi Gala' O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a viabilidade de uso de tiossulfato de amônio, como raleante químico de floração, em macieiras 'Maxi Gala' (Malus domestica), e os seus efeitos sobre a qualidade dos frutos. O experimento foi realizado em pomar experimental no sul do Brasil, em delineamento de blocos ao acaso, com cinco repetições. O tiossulfato de amônio foi aplicado às macieiras em plena floração, a 0, 1,5, 2,5 e 3,5%. Foram feitas avaliações quanto aos efeitos sobre carga de frutos, frutificação efetiva, eficiência produtiva e parâmetros de qualidade de frutos como massa, formato, sólidos solúveis totais, número de sementes, firmeza de polpa, coloração e ocorrência de “russeting”. O tiossulfato de amônio a 2,5% é efetivo na redução da carga de frutos e no aumento da qualidade dos frutos. O efeito raleante do tiossulfato de amônio não é dependente das condições climáticas durante o período de raleio. A dose de 3,5% de tiossulfato de amônio causa raleio excessivo e não resulta em melhoria na qualidade dos frutos. Termos para indexação: Malus domestica, ATS, plena floração, raleio de flores.Título em português: Tiossulfato de amônio como raleante de floração em macieiras 'Maxi Gala'

Lateral branch induction at nursery with growth regulators in ?maxi gala? apple trees grafted on four rootstocks.

Apple production in Southern Brazil has been increasing along the past decade, and part of this was due to the introduction of more adapted dwarfing rootstocks and consequently increased tree density in the orchards. Looking for obtaining early beariness, the use of branched nursery trees is one of the most important steps. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effects of plant the growth regulators Benzyladenine (BA), Benzyladenine + Gibberellic acid4+7, Thidiazuron, and Cyclanilide + Ethephon on the induction of lateral branches of ?Maxi Gala? apple trees at nursery, grafted on the rootstocks G.202, G.213, M.9, and Marubakaido with M.9 interstem. The growth regulators Benzyladenine (BA), and Benzyladenine + Gibberellic acid4+7 are the most effective on improving tree?s architecture and on increasing the number of spurs, for all scion-rootstock combinations tested. Plant growth regulators at elevated doses strongly interrupt apical dominance and stimulate an elevated number of lateral branches with narrower crotch angles

Confirming the unusual temperature dependence of the electric-field gradient in Zn

The electric-field gradient (EFG) at nuclei in solids is a sensitive probe of the charge distribution. Experimental data, which previously only existed in insulators, have been available for metals with the development of nuclear measuring techniques since about 1970. An early, systematic investigation of the temperature dependence of the EFG in metals, originally based on results for Cd, but then also extended to various other systems, has suggested a proportionality to T 3/2 . However, later measurements in the structurally and electronically similar material Zn, which demonstrated much more complex behavior, were largely ignored at the time. The present experimental effort has confirmed the reliability of this unexpected behavior, which was previously unexplained

Manejo da carga de frutos de macieira da cultivar Gala através da poda de precisão.

A poda de precisão para manejar a carga de frutos é um conceito que visa determinar o número de frutos suficiente para obter uma boa produção, objetivando frutos de melhor qualidade e maior massa e tamanho. Além disso, a poda de precisão objetiva reduzir o tempo dispendido com o raleio de frutos. Este processo engloba três etapas: realização da poda de precisão para deixar uma carga de gemas predefinida na planta; raleio químico para reduzir o número inicial de flores; raleio manual para ajustar o número de frutos ao estimado para a colheita. Reduzindo o número de gemas floríferas da planta precocemente, através da poda, pode-se reduzir a competição entre flor e fruto resultando em maior disponibilidade de fotoassimilados para os frutos remanescentes, com tamanho e qualidade. Para determinar o número apropriado de gemas por planta deve-se levar em consideração a produção e a massa média dos frutos desejadas. É importante trabalhar com um número maior de gemas floríferas do que o necessário, já que podem ocorrer fatores naturais que impossibilitam a formação da gema, como geada, má polinização e pouca viabilidade de flor. Desta forma, o presente trabalho teve por objetivo implementar o sistema de poda de precisão na cultivar Gala, em pomar comercial no município de Vacaria, RS.(Embrapa Uva e Vinho. Documentos, 99

Managing toxicities associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: consensus recommendations from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Toxicity Management Working Group.

Cancer immunotherapy has transformed the treatment of cancer. However, increasing use of immune-based therapies, including the widely used class of agents known as immune checkpoint inhibitors, has exposed a discrete group of immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Many of these are driven by the same immunologic mechanisms responsible for the drugs\u27 therapeutic effects, namely blockade of inhibitory mechanisms that suppress the immune system and protect body tissues from an unconstrained acute or chronic immune response. Skin, gut, endocrine, lung and musculoskeletal irAEs are relatively common, whereas cardiovascular, hematologic, renal, neurologic and ophthalmologic irAEs occur much less frequently. The majority of irAEs are mild to moderate in severity; however, serious and occasionally life-threatening irAEs are reported in the literature, and treatment-related deaths occur in up to 2% of patients, varying by ICI. Immunotherapy-related irAEs typically have a delayed onset and prolonged duration compared to adverse events from chemotherapy, and effective management depends on early recognition and prompt intervention with immune suppression and/or immunomodulatory strategies. There is an urgent need for multidisciplinary guidance reflecting broad-based perspectives on how to recognize, report and manage organ-specific toxicities until evidence-based data are available to inform clinical decision-making. The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) established a multidisciplinary Toxicity Management Working Group, which met for a full-day workshop to develop recommendations to standardize management of irAEs. Here we present their consensus recommendations on managing toxicities associated with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy

A computational study of the configurational and vibrational contributions to the thermodynamics of substitutional alloys: the Ni3Al case

We have developed a methodology to study the thermodynamics of order-disorder transformations in n-component substitutional alloys that combines nonequilibrium methods, which can efficiently compute free energies, with Monte Carlo simulations, in which configurational and vibrational degrees of freedom are simultaneously considered on an equal footing basis. Furthermore, by appropriately constraining the system, we were able to compute the contributions to the vibrational entropy due to bond proportion, atomic size mismatch, and bulk volume effects. We have applied this methodology to calculate configurational and vibrational contributions to the entropy of the Ni3Al alloy as functions of temperature. We found that the bond proportion effect reduces the vibrational entropy at the order-disorder transition, while the size mismatch and the bond proportion effects combined do not change the vibrational entropy at the transition. We also found that the volume increase at the order-disorder transition causes a vibrational entropy increase of 0.08 kB/atom, which is significant when compared to the configurational entropy increase of 0.27 kB/atom. Our calculations indicate that the inclusion of vibrations reduces in about 30 percent the order-disorder transition temperature determined solely considering the configurational degrees of freedom.Comment: Already submitte

Impact of management and luminosity on morphological composition of giant missionary grass (Axonopus catharinensis Valls.).

Resumo.Zootecnia Brasil 2018

Formação de mudas de macieira pré-formadas com a aplicação de benziladenina.

O desenvolvimento da fruticultura no sul do Brasil é uma realidade que vem se consolidando ao longo do tempo, pois o aprimoramento das técnicas de cultivo torna possível o alcance de produtividades satisfatórias nas culturas de interesse

A Study of Time-Dependent CP-Violating Asymmetries and Flavor Oscillations in Neutral B Decays at the Upsilon(4S)

We present a measurement of time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in neutral B meson decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The data sample consists of 29.7 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$ recorded at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance and 3.9 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$ off-resonance. One of the neutral B mesons, which are produced in pairs at the $\Upsilon(4S)$, is fully reconstructed in the CP decay modes $J/\psi K^0_S$, $\psi(2S) K^0_S$, $\chi_{c1} K^0_S$, $J/\psi K^{*0}$ ($K^{*0}\to K^0_S\pi^0$) and $J/\psi K^0_L$, or in flavor-eigenstate modes involving $D^{(*)}\pi/\rho/a_1$ and $J/\psi K^{*0}$ ($K^{*0}\to K^+\pi^-$). The flavor of the other neutral B meson is tagged at the time of its decay, mainly with the charge of identified leptons and kaons. The proper time elapsed between the decays is determined by measuring the distance between the decay vertices. A maximum-likelihood fit to this flavor eigenstate sample finds $\Delta m_d = 0.516\pm 0.016 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.010 {\rm (syst)} {\rm ps}^{-1}$. The value of the asymmetry amplitude $\sin2\beta$ is determined from a simultaneous maximum-likelihood fit to the time-difference distribution of the flavor-eigenstate sample and about 642 tagged $B^0$ decays in the CP-eigenstate modes. We find $\sin2\beta=0.59\pm 0.14 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.05 {\rm (syst)}$, demonstrating that CP violation exists in the neutral B meson system. (abridged)Comment: 58 pages, 35 figures, submitted to Physical Review