The occurrence of unpigmented mature oocytes in Hypsiboas (Anura: Hylidae)

The genus Hypsiboas is composed of 90 species distributed in Central and South America from Nicaragua to Argentina, as well as on Trinidad and Tobago (Frost 2014). Previous studies on the reproductive biology of species in this genus have reported that female mature oocytes or eggs generally have pigmented animal poles (Tab. 1), which has been generally suggested as a protection of the exposed embryos from solar radiation (Wells 2007).Fil: Nali, Renato C.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Faivovich, Julián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Prado, Cynthia P. A.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasi

Efficiency of natural insecticides and thiamethoxam on the control of thrips in grapes and selectivity to natural enemies.

The objective of this work was to verify the efficiency of natural insecticides and thiamethoxan on the control of Selenothrips rubrocinctus and Frankliniella sp. and their selectivity to natural enemies

Micropropagação e aclimatização de goiabeira Paluma.

bitstream/item/29168/1/Juliana.pd

Campus smoking policies and smoking-related Twitter posts originating from California public universities: Retrospective study

BACKGROUND: The number of colleges and universities with smoke- or tobacco-free campus policies has been increasing. The effects of campus smoking policies on overall sentiment, particularly among young adult populations, are more difficult to assess owing to the changing tobacco and e-cigarette product landscape and differential attitudes toward policy implementation and enforcement. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the study was to retrospectively assess the campus climate toward tobacco use by comparing tweets from California universities with and those without smoke- or tobacco-free campus policies. METHODS: Geolocated Twitter posts from 2015 were collected using the Twitter public application programming interface in combination with cloud computing services on Amazon Web Services. Posts were filtered for tobacco products and behavior-related keywords. A total of 42,877,339 posts were collected from 2015, with 2837 originating from a University of California or California State University system campus, and 758 of these manually verified as being about smoking. Chi-square tests were conducted to determine if there were significant differences in tweet user sentiments between campuses that were smoke- or tobacco-free (all University of California campuses and California State University, Fullerton) compared to those that were not. A separate content analysis of tweets included in chi-square tests was conducted to identify major themes by campus smoking policy status. RESULTS: The percentage of positive sentiment tweets toward tobacco use was higher on campuses without a smoke- or tobacco-free campus policy than on campuses with a smoke- or tobacco-free campus policy (76.7% vs 66.4%, P=.03). Higher positive sentiment on campuses without a smoke- or tobacco-free campus policy may have been driven by general comments about one’s own smoking behavior and comments about smoking as a general behavior. Positive sentiment tweets originating from campuses without a smoke- or tobacco-free policy had greater variation in tweet type, which may have also contributed to differences in sentiment among universities. CONCLUSIONS: Our study introduces preliminary data suggesting that campus smoke- and tobacco-free policies are associated with a reduction in positive sentiment toward smoking. However, continued expressions and intentions to smoke and reports of one’s own smoking among Twitter users suggest a need for more research to better understand the dynamics between implementation of smoke- and tobacco-free policies and resulting tobacco behavioral sentiment

Mushroom-Based Supplements in Italy: Let’s Open Pandora’s Box

Mushrooms and derivates are well known to the scientific community for having different health benefits and exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activities, including lipid-lowering, antihypertensive, antidiabetic, antimicrobic, antiallergic, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, immunomodulating, neuroprotective and osteoprotective actions. In Europe, medical mushrooms are mainly marketed in the form of food supplements as single components or combined with other nutraceuticals. In this context, the first peculiarity that distinguishes it is the safety established through the “history of consumption” that characterizes that mushroom. However, the cultivation of medicinal mushrooms on a large scale is performed mainly in China, where most of the production facilities do not have internationally recognized good manufacturing practices, despite that many European companies that sell myotherapies are supplied by Chinese manufacturers. This is particularly evident in Italy, where an arsenal of mushroom products is marketed in the form of powders and extracts not always of ascertained origin and sometimes of doubtful taxonomic identification, and thus not meeting the quality criteria required. The growing interest in mycotherapy involves a strong commitment from the scientific community to propose supplements of safe origin and genetic purity as well as to promote clinical trials to evaluate its real effects on humans. The purpose of this research is to analyze different mushroom-based dietary supplements used in medicine as monotherapy on the Italian market and to evaluate their composition and quality. The molecular identification of the sequences with those deposited in GenBank allowed for identifying 6 out of 19 samples, matching with those deposited belonging to the species indicated in the label, i.e., Lentinula edodes (samples 1, 4, 12 and 18) and Ganoderma lucidum (samples 5 and 10). Samples containing Ganoderma, labeled in the commercial product as G. lucidum, showed sequences that showed homology of 100% and 99% with G. resinaceum and G. sichuanense. An additional investigation was carried out in order to determine the active fungal ingredients, such as ergosterol, aflatoxins, heavy metals, nicotine and total glucan. The results obtained and shown in the manuscript highlight how the data were not only in line with what is expected with respect to what is indicated in the labels

Supplemental red LED light promotes plant productivity, “photomodulate” fruit quality and increases Botrytis cinerea tolerance in strawberry

This work provides new evidences on the effect of pre-harvest red (R), green (G), blue (B), and white (W - R:G:B; 1:1:1) LED light supplementation on production, nutraceutical quality and Botrytis cinerea control of harvested strawberry fruit. Yield, fruit color, firmness, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, primary and specialized metabolites, expression of targeted genes and mold development were analyzed in fruit from light-supplemented plants, starting from the strawberry flowering, radiating 250 mu mol m-2 s-1 of light for five hours per day (from 11:00 to 16:00 h), until the fruit harvest. Briefly, R light induced the highest productivity and targeted antho-cyanin accumulation, whilst B and G lights increased the accumulation of primary and secondary metabolites especially belonging to ellagitannin and proanthocyanidin classes. R light also promoted pathogen tolerance in fruit by the upregulation of genes involved in cell wall development (F x aPE41), inhibition of fungus poly-galacturonases (F x aPGIP1) and the degradation of B. cinerea beta-glucans (F x aBG2-1). Our dataset highlights the possibility to use red LED light to increase fruit yield, "photomodulate" strawberry fruit quality and increase B. cinerea tolerance. These results can be useful in terms of future reduction of agrochemical inputs through the use of R light, enhancing, at the same time, fruit production and quality. Finally, further analyses might clarify the effect of pre-harvest supplemental G light on postharvest fruit quality

Sviluppo di una rete di monitoraggio per una gestione idrica smart del verde urbano

Il Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Agroambientali (DiSAAA-a) è da sempre solido al nesso energia-acqua-cibo e all’importanza che assume lo specialista laureato all’interno delle convergenti crisi e competizioni sociali che possono emergere per la gestione delle risorse di un territorio. In ambito urbano, il corso di laurea magistrale in Progettazione e Gestione del Verde Urbano fornisce una solida specializzazione e coscienza critica necessaria per affrontare in modo proattivo le continue sfide che i fenomeni naturali, come quelli idrologici, pongono ai professionisti del verde urbano. All’interno del Dipartimento l’unità di ricerca di Sensoristica e Modellistica Agro-idrologica sviluppa sistemi di sensori analogici e/o digitali per il monitoraggio dello stato idrico del sistema suolo-pianta, nonché reti di monitoraggio che utilizzano elettronica open-source e modellistica semplificata. La ricerca del DiSAAA-a ha lo scopo di prototipizzare una rete di monitoraggio dei consumi idrici attraverso lo sviluppo di sensori accoppiati a modelli agroidrologici e l’implementazione di un sistema informativo territoriale urbano interfacciato a Tecnologie dell'Informazione e della Comunicazione (ICT). Il primo grado d’informazione (informazione locale) utilizza sistemi combinati di sensori, come l’atmopluviometro e sonde di umidità del suolo. Un modello di bilancio agroidrologico istruito con sito-specifiche funzioni di stress idrico permetterà di simulare su scala oraria i consumi evapotraspirativi reali di un’area vegetata urbana. Le informazioni fruibili da un database, già implementato con il censimento informatizzato degli spazi verdi dell’Ateneo pisano realizzato dal "Gruppo di lavoro per l’ottimizzazione degli spazi verdi dell’Università di Pisa", consentono un monitoraggio approfondito e costante dello stato idrico da parte di specialisti abili a fornire un supporto nella gestione delle risorse idriche, la loro salvaguardia e valorizzazione

Creedy, Jean Iris

The final stage of leaf ontogenesis is represented by senescence, a highly regulated process driven by a sequential cellular breakdown involving, as the first step, chloroplast dismantling with consequent reduction of photosynthetic efficiency. Different processes, such as pigment accumulation, could protect the vulnerable photosynthetic apparatus of senescent leaves. Although several studies have produced transcriptomic data on foliar senescence, just few works have attempted to explain differences in red and green leaves throughout ontogenesis. In this work, a transcriptomic approach was used on green and red leaves of Prunus cerasifera to unveil molecular differences from leaf maturity to senescence. Our analysis revealed a higher gene regulation in red leaves compared to green ones, during leaf transition. Most of the observed DEGs were shared and involved in transcription factor activities, senescing processes and cell wall remodelling. Significant differences were detected in cellular functions: genes related to photosystem I and II were highly down-regulated in the green genotype, whereas transcripts involved in flavonoid biosynthesis, such as UDP glucose-flavonoid-3-O-glucosyltransferase (UFGT) were exclusively up-regulated in red leaves. In addition, cellular functions involved in stress response (glutathione-S-transferase, Pathogen-Related) and sugar metabolism, such as three threalose-6-phosphate synthases, were activated in senescent red leaves. In conclusion, data suggests that P. cerasifera red genotypes can regulate a set of genes and molecular mechanisms that cope with senescence, promoting more advantages during leaf ontogenesis than compared to the green ones