Identification of proteaginous pea cultivars (Pisum sativum L.) using microsatellites molecular markers

Abstract: Conventionally morphological descriptors are routinely used for establishing the identity of varieties. This kind of descriptors has some disadvantages, namely most of them are quantitative, controlled by several pairs of genes, and their expression is influenced by environmental factors. Molecular markers have a potential to facilitate this procedure, increase the reliability of decisions, and substantially save the time and space needed for experiments. In this study we intended to identify 20 cultivars of proteaginous pea (Pisum sativum L.), registered in the Community Catalog of Varieties, by microsatellites molecular markers. After DNA extraction, seven different loci were analyzed. PCR amplifications were conducted and the resulting fragments were separated on an 3,5% MS-8 agarose gel in TBE buffer, at 90V/h. The gels were analyzed for the presence/ absence of bands and a table with binary code was made. The data were processed with the statistical software NTSYS-pc, using the SIMQUAL module and Jaccard similarity coefficient, followed by UPGMA cluster analysis. With the analysis of six polymorphic loci was possible to distinguish almost all of cultivars. The most informative loci were AD61 and AB53. The cluster analysis of SSR markers separated the pea genotypes into two distinct clusters. The first cluster included the five cultivars: Isard, Cartouche, Audit, Corrent and James. The second cluster included the remaining fifteen cultivars and was further divided in two subclusters. The first subcluster had the Portuguese genotype Grisel and second subcluster contained the remaining fourteen cultivars. In this subcluster Ideal and Alezan had 100 percent similarity. There was a low number of heterozygous loci which is consistent with the nature of self pollinated species. The results showed a high potential and resolving power of SSR markers in distinctness assessment. SSR markers might also be useful in Pisum sativum L. germplasm management and genetic diversity studies.The present study was financially by the EU within the POCTEP – “Programa Operacional de Cooperação Transfronteiriça Espanha - Portugal”, Project 0186_AGROCELE_3_E

Liquid Polymorphism and Density Anomaly in a Lattice Gas Model

We present a simple model for an associating liquid in which polymorphism and density anomaly are connected. Our model combines a two dimensional lattice gas with particles interacting through a soft core potential and orientational degrees of freedom represented through thermal \char`\"{}ice variables\char`\"{} . The competition between the directional attractive forces and the soft core potential leads to a phase diagram in which two liquid phases and a density anomaly are present. The coexistence line between the low density liquid and the high density liquid has a positive slope contradicting the surmise that the presence of a density anomaly implies that the high density liquid is more entropic than the low density liquid

Attitudes, Behaviours and Motivations for Mechanization in Small Scale Portuguese Agriculture

Knowing that the purchase of agricultural machinery largely dominates the investment made at farm level in many programs to support the development of the agricultural sector, we sought to evaluate the reasons and rationale for that choice by farmers. The study was conducted in Beira Interior region at the request of the Regional Agricultural Services under the EC measure AGRIS and regarding the period between 2000 and 2004. The methodology includes the analysis of documentary sources, interviews with machinery agents and technicians, and a questionnaire survey of farmers benefiting from the AGRIS measure in the region. The analysis identified relatively homogeneous groups of farmers regarding the behaviour, attitudes and motivations in the use and purchase of tractors. As a consequence the demand was characterized. It was also possible to identify the factors that influenced the supply, either of the machinery and equipment or the funds to purchase them. The findings measured the opportunity of farmer’s technology choices, aiming at the increasing productivity and welfare that the funds available helped to achieve.

Substance and non-substance addictions

What are we talking about when we speak of substance and nonsubstance addictions? Why is prevention important to society? What are the impacts of prevention on general health? These questions were the guidelines for structuring this paper, in which the conceptualization of prevention and prevention practices are systematically discussed. Furthermore, some emerging challenges in the development of preventive strategies are raised. The present paper starts with a theoretical debate, supported with empirical evidence and literature.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Driving for success in family reunification: professionals' views on intervention

Family reunification is a complex process and is consensually considered the best solution for children in care, as soon as the family has changed the dysfunctional patterns that prevent child safety and well-being. Intervention throughout the entire process is crucial to the success of family reunification. This study aimed to explore and understand child protection professionals’ views on factors influencing (un)successful family reunification trajectories. Using a qualitative design, 33 Portuguese child protection professionals participated in five focus groups. The thematic analysis revealed a set of influential factors within three different systemic levels: child, family, and child welfare system. The latter level was clearly predominant, pointing to the powerful role of the intervention as a vehicle for successful family reunification. The results showed the relevance attributed by the professionals to some main intervention guidelines, children–professionals’ relationships, multisystemic assessment and intervention, coordinated work of intervention teams, and sufficient time between the court decision and the child’s re-entry into the family home. The need for early intervention and its continuity after the child’s reintegration into the home also emerged as relevant factors. This study provides in-depth knowledge of professionals’ views on the intervention process, thus contributing to a comprehensive understanding of (un)successful family reunification trajectories

A perturbative approach to the polaron shift of excitons in transition metal dichalcogeniedes

In this Letter, we study the effect of phonons on the position of the 1s excitonic resonance of the fundamental absorption transition line in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides. We apply our theory to WS2, a two-dimensional material where the shift in the absorption peak position has been measured as a function of temperature. The theory is composed of two ingredients only: (i) the effect of longitudinal optical phonons on the absorption peak position, which we describe with second-order perturbation theory, and (ii) the effect of phonons on the value of the single-particle energy gap, which we describe with the Huang Rhys model. Our results show excellent agreement with the experimentally measured shift of the absorption peak with the temperature.- N.M.R.P. acknowledges support by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UIDB/04650/2020. J.C.G.H. acknowledges the Center of Physics for a grant funded by the UIDB/04650/2020 strategic project. N.M.R.P. acknowledges support from the European Commission through the project Graphene-Driven Revolutions in ICT and Beyond (Ref. No. 881603, CORE 3), COMPETE 2020, PORTUGAL 2020, FEDER, and the FCT through Projects No. POCI-01-0145FEDER-028114 and No. PTDC/NAN-OPT/29265/2017

Meson-like Baryons and the Spin-Orbit Puzzle

I describe a special class of meson-like \Lambda_Q excited states and present evidence supporting the similarity of their spin-independent spectra to those of mesons. I then examine spin-dependent forces in these baryons, showing that predicted effects of spin-orbit forces are small for them for the same reason they are small for the analogous mesons: a fortuitous cancellation between large spin-orbit forces due to one-gluon-exchange and equally large inverted spin-orbit forces due to Thomas precession in the confining potential. In addition to eliminating the baryon spin-orbit puzzle in these states, this solution provides a new perspective on spin-orbit forces in all baryons.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figure

Exciton energies and wave functions in hexagonal Boron Nitride using Miller and Good’s uniform approach

In this paper we revisit the work of Miller and Good, which describes an uniform JWKB type of approximation to the solution of quantum problems. This paper, very well known in atomic physics in the 1970's 1980's of the last century, did not attract the same attention from the condensed matter community. Contrary to the usual JWKB approach, Miller and Good's method yields wave functions that do not diverge at the classical turning points. We apply the method in the context of two-dimensional excitons, an important condensed matter system. In particular, we apply our results to excitons in hexagonal boron nitride, solving the corresponding Wannier equation. We compare the semiclassical results with others from the literature and find good agreement.The authors acknowledge Mike Belsley for carefully reading the manuscript and for comments that allowed to improve the overall presentation. N.M.R.P. acknowledges support from the European Commission through the project "Graphene-Driven Revolutions in ICT and Beyond" (Ref. no. 881603 - core 3), and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Financing UID/FIS/04650/2019. In addition, N.M.R.P. acknowledges COMPETE2020, PORTUGAL2020, FEDER and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028114, POCI-01-0145-FEDER- 029265, PTDC/NAN-OPT/29265/2017, and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-02888