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'

Simbol-X Hard X-ray Focusing Mirrors: Results Obtained During the Phase A Study

Simbol-X will push grazing incidence imaging up to 80 keV, providing a strong improvement both in sensitivity and angular resolution compared to all instruments that have operated so far above 10 keV. The superb hard X-ray imaging capability will be guaranteed by a mirror module of 100 electroformed Nickel shells with a multilayer reflecting coating. Here we will describe the technogical development and solutions adopted for the fabrication of the mirror module, that must guarantee an Half Energy Width (HEW) better than 20 arcsec from 0.5 up to 30 keV and a goal of 40 arcsec at 60 keV. During the phase A, terminated at the end of 2008, we have developed three engineering models with two, two and three shells, respectively. The most critical aspects in the development of the Simbol-X mirrors are i) the production of the 100 mandrels with very good surface quality within the timeline of the mission; ii) the replication of shells that must be very thin (a factor of 2 thinner than those of XMM-Newton) and still have very good image quality up to 80 keV; iii) the development of an integration process that allows us to integrate these very thin mirrors maintaining their intrinsic good image quality. The Phase A study has shown that we can fabricate the mandrels with the needed quality and that we have developed a valid integration process. The shells that we have produced so far have a quite good image quality, e.g. HEW <~30 arcsec at 30 keV, and effective area. However, we still need to make some improvements to reach the requirements. We will briefly present these results and discuss the possible improvements that we will investigate during phase B.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, invited talk at the conference "2nd International Simbol-X Symposium", Paris, 2-5 december, 200

Perturbation of a turbulent boundary layer by spatially-impulsive dynamic roughness

First experimental measurements of manipulation of the structure of a canonical zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer using a low frequency (compared to the viscous frequency) mechanical dynamic roughness are presented. “Dynamic” (or time-dependent) surface roughness is proposed as a method for both control and diagnosis of turbulent boundary layers

Magnetic structure, excitations and field induced transitions in the honeycomb lattice Er2Si2O7\rm{Er_2Si_2O_7}

We investigate the magnetic properties of the monoclinic D-type $\rm{Er_2Si_2O_7}$ with a distorted honeycomb lattice using powder and single crystal neutron scattering techniques, as well as single crystal magnetisation measurements. The powder neutron diffraction shows that below the ordering temperature, $T_{\rm N}=1.85$ K, the compound forms a ${\bf q}=0$ antiferromagnetic structure with four sublattices. For $H \! \parallel \! a$, magnetisation measurements reveal a narrow, but clearly visible plateau at one third of the magnetisation saturation value. The plateau's stabilisation is accompanied by a significant increase of the magnetic unit cell, as the magnetic peaks with fractional indices are observed in single crystal neutron diffraction experiments. At low-temperatures, the inelastic neutron scattering measurements reveal the presence of low-energy dispersionless excitations. Their spectrum is sensitive to the applied field, it significantly softens on the magnetisation plateau, and demonstrates the behaviour expected for a non-collinear Ising antiferromagnet away from the plateau.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures and Supplementary Material containing 8 pages, 6 figures. To view the .mcif file, please download and extract the gzipped tar source file listed under "Other formats

Spontaneous immunogenicity of ribosomal P0 protein in patients with benign and malignant breast lesions and delay of mammary tumor growth in P0-vaccinated mice

A common carboxyl-terminal epitope (C-22 P0) of the ribosomal P proteins (P0, P1 and P2) was shown to elicit autoantibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and in head and neck cancer patients. In this report we provide evidence for the in vivo immunogenicity of the P0 protein in breast cancer patients. Using recombinant P proteins, we demonstrated that sera from breast carcinoma patients (8/75) displayed significant reactivity to P0 protein when compared with healthy donor sera (0/45). Four out of the eight sera showed simultaneous reactivity to all P proteins. Breast benign tumor (3/17) and mammary hyperplasia (3/17) patient sera also showed significant reactivity to P proteins, thus suggesting that the occurrence of P protein autoantibodies might reveal mammary cell cycle dysregulation. Patient sera reacting with all P proteins recognized C-22 P0. Anti-P0 autoantibodies did not correlate with prognostic parameters of breast carcinomas. High level expression of C-22 P0 was found in mammary carcinomas compared with normal adjacent epithelium and benign lesions. To determine the antitumor activity of P0 as an immunogen, BALB-neuT transgenic mice displaying age-related breast cancer progression were vaccinated using xenogeneic P0 at the stage of mammary atypical hyperplasia. P0 vaccination significantly delayed the onset of mouse mammary tumors that overexpressed C-22 P0. Sera from P0 vaccinated mice recognized C-22 P0. Evidence for immunity to the P0 protein, its overexpression in carcinomas and its peculiar surface localization on cancer cells, along with its antitumor activity as an immunogen might be relevant for the use of P0 protein in monitoring cancer progression and in planning immunotherapeutic strategies

ELEMENTOS CONDICIONANTES DA EVOLUÇÃO SOCIOECONÔMICA DE MATO GROSSO E DA MESORREGIÃO NORTE MATOGROSSENSE

ELEMENTOS CONDICIONANTES DA EVOLUÇÃO SOCIOECONÔMICA DE MATO GROSSO E DA MESORREGIÃO NORTE MATOGROSSENS

Primary cardiac sarcoma presenting as acute left-sided heart failure

Primary cardiac sarcomas are rare malignant tumors of the heart. Clinical features depend on the site of tumor and vary from symptoms of congestive heart failure to thromboembolism and arrhythmias. Echocardiography is helpful but definitive diagnosis is established by histopathology. Surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment, and the role of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is unclear. We report a case of primary cardiac sarcoma which presented with signs and symptoms of acute left-sided heart failure

CUPID-0: the first array of enriched scintillating bolometers for 0decay investigations

The CUPID-0 detector hosted at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy, is the first large array of enriched scintillating cryogenic detectors for the investigation of82Se neutrinoless double-beta decay (0). CUPID-0 aims at measuring a background index in the region of interest (RoI) for 0at the level of 10- 3 counts/(keV kg years), the lowest value ever measured using cryogenic detectors. CUPID-0 operates an array of Zn82Se scintillating bolometers coupled with bolometric light detectors, with a state of the art technology for background suppression and thorough protocols and procedures for the detector preparation and construction. In this paper, the different phases of the detector design and construction will be presented, from the material selection (for the absorber production) to the new and innovative detector structure. The successful construction of the detector lead to promising preliminary detector performance which is discussed here

Minimum black hole mass from colliding Gaussian packets

We study the formation of a black hole in the collision of two Gaussian packets. Rather than following their dynamical evolution in details, we assume a horizon forms when the mass function for the two packets becomes larger than half the flat areal radius, as it would occur in a spherically symmetric geometry. This simple approximation allows us to determine the existence of a minimum black hole mass solely related to the width of the packets. We then comment on the possible physical implications, both in classical and quantum physics, and models with extra spatial dimensions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure