Quantitative trait loci mapping for resistance to maize streak virus in F2: 3 population of tropical maize

Open Access Article; Published online: 01 Feb 2020Maize streak virus (MSV) continues to be a major biotic constraint for maize production throughout Africa. Concerning the quantitative nature of inheritance of resistance to MSV disease (MSVD), we sought to identify new loci for MSV resistance in maize using F2:3 population. The mapping population was artificially inoculated with viruliferous leafhoppers under screenhouse and evaluated for MSVD resistance. Using 948 DArT markers, we identified 18 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with different components of MSVD resistance accounting for 3.1–21.4% of the phenotypic variance, suggesting that a total of eleven genomic regions covering chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 are probably required for MSVD resistance. Two new genomic regions on chromosome 4 revealed the occurrence of co-localized QTLs for different parameters associated with MSVD resistance. Moreover, the consistent appearance of QTL on chromosome 7 for MSVD resistance is illustrating the need for fine-mapping of this locus. In conclusion, these QTLs could provide additional source for breeders to develop MSV resistance

Trends in adjuvant development for vaccines: DAMPs and PAMPs as potential new adjuvants

Aluminum salts have been widely used in vaccine formulations and, after their introduction more than 80 years ago, only few vaccine formulations using new adjuvants were developed in the last two decades. Recent advances in the understanding of how innate mechanisms influence the adaptive immunity opened up the possibility for the development of new adjuvants in a more rational design. The purpose of this review is to discuss the recent advances in this field regarding the attempts to determine the molecular basis and the general mechanisms underlying the development of new adjuvants, with particular emphasis on the activation of receptors of innate immune recognition. One can anticipate that the use of these novel adjuvants will also provide a window of opportunities for the development of new vaccines

In situ crosslinked electrospun gelatin nanofibers for skin regeneration

Due to its intrinsic similarity to the extracellular matrix, gelatin electrospun nanofibrous meshes are promising scaffold structures for wound dressings and tissue engineering applications. However, gelatin is water soluble and presents poor mechanical properties, which generally constitute relevant limitations to its applicability. In this work, gelatin was in situ crosslinked with 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether (BDDGE) at different concentrations (2, 4 and 6 wt%) and incubation time-points (24, 48 and 72 h) at 37 °C. The physico-chemical and biological properties of BDDGE-crosslinked electrospun gelatin meshes were investigated. Results show that by changing the BDDGE concentration it is possible to produce nanofibers crosslinked in situ with well-defined morphology and modulate fiber size and mechanical properties. Crosslinked gelatin meshes show no toxicity towards fibroblasts, stimulating their adhesion, proliferation and synthesis of new extracellular matrix, thereby indicating the potential of this strategy for skin tissue engineering.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Physiological quality of soybean seeds grown under different low altitude field environments and storage time

The use of high-quality seeds is essential to maintain high rates of production and productivity. The physiological quality of seeds obtained in the field is directly correlated to storage conditions and storage time. This study aimed to evaluate the physiological quality of soybean seeds in relation to different field environments (seed lots) and storage time. Commercial lots of seeds of the soybean cultivar M8349 IPRO were stored for three and six months. Seed moisture content was determined before and after accelerated aging, along with seed germination percentage and vigour evaluations performed before and after each storage period. The experiment was carried out as a completely randomised factorial design (10 × 3): with ten seed lots and three storage periods. The data were analysed by ANOVA, and the means of four independent replicates for each parameter evaluated were compared using the Scott-Knott test at 5% probability (P ≤ 0.05). Our results revealed that the low altitude regions where the seed samples were collected are suitable for soybean seed production with high physiological quality. Seed storage for six months does not cause a significant reduction in subsequent soybean seed field performance

MICROMORFOLOGIA DE SOLOS APLICADA AO ESTUDO DA DIFERENCIAÇÃO DE CAMBISSOLOS EM UMA VERTENTE DO PLANALTO DO ESPINHAÇO MERIDIONAL/MG

Este trabalho caracteriza dois Cambissolos de uma vertente no Espinhaço Meridional/MG a partir de análises texturais e de seções delgadas. Diferenças significativas foram observadas, como cor, espessura do horizonte Bi e presença de mosqueados na média vertente. Diante das diferenças, este perfil foi considerado um Cambissolo em vias de transformação para Latossolo, fato evidenciado pelos indícios de microagregação

Malware Distributed Collection And Pre-classification System Using Honeypot Technology

Malware has become a major threat in the last years due to the ease of spread through the Internet. Malware detection has become difficult with the use of compression, polymorphic methods and techniques to detect and disable security software. Those and other obfuscation techniques pose a problem for detection and classification schemes that analyze malware behavior. In this paper we propose a distributed architecture to improve malware collection using different honeypot technologies to increase the variety of malware collected. We also present a daemon tool developed to grab malware distributed through spam and a pre-classification technique that uses antivirus technology to separate malware in generic classes. © 2009 SPIE.7344Grossman, J., Niedzialkowski, T.C., Hacking Intranet Websites from the Outside - Javascript malware just got a lot more dangerous (2006) Black Hat, , http://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bhusa-06/BH-US-06-Grossman.pdf, USA, Las Vegas, Available atWhitehouse, O., An Analysis of Address Space Layout Randomization on Windows Vista (2007) Symantec Advanced Threat Research, , http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/reference/Address-Space-Layout-Randomization.pdf, White paper available atWhitehouse, O., Analysis of GS Protections in Microsoft Windows Vista (2007) Symantec Advanced Threat Research, , http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/reference/GS-Protections-in-Vista.pdf, White paper available atMcDermott, J., Fox, C., Using abuse cases models for security requirement analysis (1999) Proceedings of the 15th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, p. 55. , IEEE Computer Society, ISBN:0-7695-0346-2Collection, , http://Nepenthes.carnivore.it, Available at:, Accessed on January 2009Baecher, P., The Nepenthes Platform: An Efficient Approach to Collect Malware (2006) Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection, pp. 165-184. , Springer Berlin, HeidelbergHoneytrap, , http://honeytrap.mwcollect.org, Available at:, Accessed on January 2009Zhuge, J., Holz, T., Han, X., Song, C., Zou, W., Collecting Autonomous Spreading Malware Using Highinteraction Honeypots (2007) Proceedings of 9th International Conference on Information and Communications Security (ICICS'07), , Zhengzhou, China, DecemberProvos, N., Holz, T., (2007) Virtual Honeypots: From Botnet Tracking to Intrusion Detection, , Addison Wesley, ISBN: 0-321-33632-1Seifert, C., Welch, I., Komisarczuk, P., HoneyC - The Low-Interaction Client Honeypot (2007) Proceedings of the 2007 NZCSRCS, , Waikato University, Hamilton, New Zealand, AprilNazario, J., Phoneyc, , http://svn.carnivore.it/browser/phoneyc, Accessed on January 2009Seifert, C., Steenson, R., Holz, T., Yuan, B., Davis, M.A., Know Your Enemy: Malicious Web Servers, , http://www.honeynet.org/papers/mws, Available at:, Accessed on January 2009Spitzner, L., (2002) Honeypots: Tracking Hackers, , Addison Wesley, ISBN: 0-321-10895-1http://www.honeypots-alliance.org.br, Brazilian Honeypots Alliance, Distributed Honeypots Project. Available at:, Accessed on January 200

Green manure in coffee systems in the region of Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais: characteristics and kinetics of carbon and nitrogen mineralization.

The use of green manure may contribute to reduce soil erosion and increase the soil organic matter content and N availability in coffee plantations in the Zona da Mata, State of Minas Gerais, in Southeastern Brazil. The potential of four legumes (A. pintoi, C. mucunoides, S. aterrimum and S. guianensis)to produce above-ground biomass, accumulate nutrients and mineralize N was studied in two coffee plantations of subsistence farmers under different climate conditions. The biomass production of C. mucunoides was influenced by the shade of the coffee plantation.C. mucunoides tended to mineralize more N than the other legumes due to the low polyphenol content and polyphenol/N ratio. In the first year, the crop establishment of A. pintoi in the area took longer than of the other legumes, resulting in lower biomass production and N2 fixation. In the long term, cellulose was the main factor controlling N mineralization. The biochemical characteristics, nutrient accumulation and biomass production of the legumes were greatly influenced by the altitude and position of the area relative to the sun

Evidence for geometry-dependent universal fluctuations of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang interfaces in liquid-crystal turbulence

We provide a comprehensive report on scale-invariant fluctuations of growing interfaces in liquid-crystal turbulence, for which we recently found evidence that they belong to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class for 1+1 dimensions [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 230601 (2010); Sci. Rep. 1, 34 (2011)]. Here we investigate both circular and flat interfaces and report their statistics in detail. First we demonstrate that their fluctuations show not only the KPZ scaling exponents but beyond: they asymptotically share even the precise forms of the distribution function and the spatial correlation function in common with solvable models of the KPZ class, demonstrating also an intimate relation to random matrix theory. We then determine other statistical properties for which no exact theoretical predictions were made, in particular the temporal correlation function and the persistence probabilities. Experimental results on finite-time effects and extreme-value statistics are also presented. Throughout the paper, emphasis is put on how the universal statistical properties depend on the global geometry of the interfaces, i.e., whether the interfaces are circular or flat. We thereby corroborate the powerful yet geometry-dependent universality of the KPZ class, which governs growing interfaces driven out of equilibrium.Comment: 31 pages, 21 figures, 1 table; references updated (v2,v3); Fig.19 updated & minor changes in text (v3); final version (v4); J. Stat. Phys. Online First (2012

Decomposition and nutrient release of leguminous plants in coffee agroforestry systems.

Leguminous plants used as green manure are an important nutrient source for coffee plantations, especially for soils with low nutrient levels. Field experiments were conducted in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais State, Brazil to evaluate the decomposition and nutrient release rates of four leguminous species used as green manures (Arachis pintoi, Calopogonium mucunoides, Stizolobium aterrimum and Stylosanthes guianensis) in a coffee agroforestry system under two different climate conditions. The initial N contents in plant residues varied from 25.7 to 37.0 g kg-1 and P from 2.4 to 3.0 g kg-1. The lignin/N, lignin/polyphenol and(lignin+polyphenol)/N ratios were low in all residues studied. Mass loss rates were highest in the first 15 days, when 25 % of the residues were decomposed. From 15 to 30 days, the decomposition rate decreased on both farms. On the farm in Pedra Dourada (PD), the decomposition constant k increased in the order C. mucunoides < S. aterrimum < S. guianensis < A. pintoi. On the farm in Araponga (ARA), there was no difference in the decomposition rate among leguminous plants. The N release rates varied from 0.0036 to 0.0096 d-1. Around 32 % of the total N content in the plant material was released in the first 15 days. In ARA, the N concentration in the S. aterrimum residues was always significantly higher than in the other residues. At the end of 360 days, the N released was 78 % in ARA and 89 % in PD of the initial content. Phosphorus was the most rapidly released nutrient (k values from 0.0165 to 0.0394 d-1). Residue decomposition and nutrient release did not correlate with initial residue chemistry and biochemistry, but differences in climatic conditions between the two study sites modified the decomposition rate constants

Calculating invariants as coreflexive bisimulations

Invariants, bisimulations and assertions are the main ingredients of coalgebra theory applied to software systems. In this paper we reduce the first to a particular case of the second and show how both together pave the way to a theory of coalgebras which regards invariant predicates as types. An outcome of such a theory is a calculus of invariants’ proof obligation discharge, a fragment of which is presented in the paper. The approach has two main ingredients: one is that of adopting relations as “first class citizens” in a pointfree reasoning style; the other lies on a synergy found between a relational construct, Reynolds’ relation on functions involved in the abstraction theorem on parametric polymorphism and the coalgebraic account of bisimulations and invariants. This leads to an elegant proof of the equivalence between two different definitions of bisimulation found in coalgebra literature (due to B. Jacobs and Aczel & Mendler, respectively) and to their instantiation to the classical Park-Milner definition popular in process algebra.Partially supported by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, Portugal, under grant number SFRH/BD/27482/2006