Spatial-temporal evaluation of water quality in Brazilian semiarid Reservoirs

Reservoirs are used in the Brazilian semiarid for human supply, power generation, irrigated agriculture and more recently, intensive fish farming, the Sobradinho reservoir being the largest of this region. In the last decade, the semiarid region has suffered a strong drought, in opposite direction to the increasing demand of multiple water uses. The present work aims to study the spatial-temporal variation of water quality in two reservoirs in the Brazilian semiarid region (Sobradinho and Itaparica reservoirs). For this, samples were collected in the dry and wet periods between 2011 and 2014, and the results were analyzed through boxplot charts and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). For both reservoirs, our results showed that the PCAs did not evidence a specific seasonal change in the water quality characteristics, distinguishing the wet and dry periods through the four years studied. A clear temporal pattern was detected in both reservoirs, with higher values of turbidity, dissolved oxygen and total phosphorus in the wet period and higher values of pH and alkalinity in the dry period. An upstream reduction of nutrients and turbidity was not found in this study, as is reported in literature for consecutive reservoirs, probably due to the irrigation and aquaculture activities, mainly in Itaparica reservoir

The origin and genetic diversity of the causal agent of Asian soybean rust, Phakopsora pachyrhizi, in South America

A sequence‐based approach was used to investigate molecular genetic variations in Phakopsora pachyrhizi, an obligate biotrophic pathogen that causes Asian soybean rust. In Argentina, the samples came from uredinium‐bearing leaves taken from 11 soybean fields; in Brazil, the samples comprised urediniospores from leaves of 10 soybean genotypes that had been grown in three experimental stations during two growing seasons. PCR‐based cloning techniques were used to generate DNA sequences for two gene regions and alignments were supplemented with data from GenBank. A total of 575 sequences for the internal transcribed spacer region (18 ribotypes) and 160 partial sequences for a housekeeping gene encoding ADP‐ribosylation factor (10 haplotypes) were obtained. Ribotype accumulation curves predicted that about 20 bacterial clones would recover 5–6 ribotypes (c. 70–80% of the total molecular variation) per locality. The samples from the three experimental stations in Brazil displayed most (14 out of 16) ribotypes found worldwide; the lack of genetic structure and differentiation at a diverse geographic scale suggests that both local and distant sources provide airborne inoculum during disease establishment. Soybean genotypes with resistance genes for the Asian soybean rust did not decrease the molecular genetic variation of fungal populations.Instituto de GenéticaFil: Jorge, V.R. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular; BrasilFil: Silva, M.R. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular; BrasilFil: Guillin, Eduardo Alejandro. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Genética; ArgentinaFil: Freire, M.C.M. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular; BrasilFil: Schuster, I. Cooperativa Central de Pesquisa Agrícola; BrasilFil: Almeida, A.M.R. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Embrapa‐Soja; BrasilFil: Oliveira, Luiz O. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular; Brasi

Generic Model Refactorings

Many modeling languages share some common concepts and principles. For example, Java, MOF, and UML share some aspects of the concepts\ud of classes, methods, attributes, and inheritance. However, model\ud transformations such as refactorings specified for a given language\ud cannot be readily reused for another language because their related\ud metamodels may be structurally different. Our aim is to enable a\ud flexible reuse of model transformations across various metamodels.\ud Thus, in this paper, we present an approach allowing the specification\ud of generic model transformations, in particular refactorings, so\ud that they can be applied to different metamodels. Our approach relies\ud on two mechanisms: (1) an adaptation based mainly on the weaving\ud of aspects; (2) the notion of model typing, an extension of object\ud typing in the model-oriented context. We validated our approach by\ud performing some experiments that consisted of specifying three well\ud known refactorings (Encapsulate Field, Move Method, and Pull Up Method)\ud and applying each of them onto three different metamodels (Java,\ud MOF, and UML)

Behavior of the antiferromagnetic phase transition near the fermion condensation quantum phase transition in YbRh2Si2

Low-temperature specific-heat measurements on YbRh2Si2 at the second order antiferromagnetic (AF) phase transition reveal a sharp peak at T_N=72 mK. The corresponding critical exponent alpha turns out to be alpha=0.38, which differs significantly from that obtained within the framework of the fluctuation theory of second order phase transitions based on the scale invariance, where alpha=0.1. We show that under the application of magnetic field the curve of the second order AF phase transitions passes into a curve of the first order ones at the tricritical point leading to a violation of the critical universality of the fluctuation theory. This change of the phase transition is generated by the fermion condensation quantum phase transition. Near the tricritical point the Landau theory of second order phase transitions is applicable and gives alpha=1/2. We demonstrate that this value of alpha is in good agreement with the specific-heat measurements.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. to be published in Phys. Letters

Strongly correlated Fermi-systems: non-Fermi liquid behavior, quasiparticle effective mass and their interplay

Basing on the density functional theory of fermion condensation, we analyze the non-Fermi liquid behavior of strongly correlated Fermi-systems such as heavy-fermion metals. When deriving equations for the effective mass of quasiparticles, we consider solids with a lattice and homogeneous systems. We show that the low-temperature thermodynamic and transport properties are formed by quasiparticles, while the dependence of the effective mass on temperature, number density, magnetic fields, etc gives rise to the non-Fermi liquid behavior. Our theoretical study of the heat capacity, magnetization, energy scales, the longitudinal magnetoresistance and magnetic entropy are in good agreement with the remarkable recent facts collected on the heavy-fermion metal YbRh2Si2.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Benefícios Da Adequação Postural Em Cadeira De Rodas E Fatores Que Interferem Em Sua Utilização: Uma Revisão Sistemática

Seating and positioning are an assistive technology resource that aims to improve functional performance in the wheelchair. The aim of this paper was to find in the literature studies that addressed the benefits of seating and positioning in a wheelchair and factors that interfere with the prescription and use of this technology. Articles found that discuss the benefits addressed: the functionality and respiratory function; the pressure ulcer prevention; and user satisfaction and the family with assistive technology. Articles discussing the factors linked to prescription and use of adapting wheelchairs are those that address the environmental factors, components and wheelchair accessories. There are factors involved in the prescription process to achieve its benefits through its use, the prescribed process must have an interdisciplinary and biopsychosocial approach applied individually to each patient.5218119