Dialelo parcial entre clones de Eucalyptus camaldulensis e clones de E. urophylla, E. grandis e E. saligna.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar combinações híbridas superiores nos cruzamentos entre clones-elite de Eucalyptus grandis, E. urophylla e E. saligna com clones-elite de E. camaldulensis da Aracruz Celulose S.A., por meio de cruzamentos dialélicos parciais. Para isso, as 44 combinações híbridas obtidas e mais quatro testemunhas foram plantadas de setembro a outubro de 2001, em três localidades: Aracruz, ES; São Mateus, ES; e Caravelas, BA, no delineamento de blocos casualizados com 40 repetições e uma planta por parcela. Dois anos após o plantio, foram avaliadas a circunferência à altura do peito (CAP) e a densidade básica da madeira (DEN). Os dados médios foram submetidos à análise dialélica segundo o método de Griffing (1956), adaptado por Geraldi e Miranda Filho (1988). Constatou-se que muitos híbridos foram promissores tanto para a obtenção de ganhos em CAP quanto para obter a densidade da madeira, pois associaram média e variância altas. A maior parte da variação entre os híbridos foi explicada pela capacidade geral de combinação, indicando a predominância de efeitos aditivos no controle dos caracteres. Palavras-chave: Eucalipto, melhoramento e capacidade de combinação

Comparison between open pollinated progenies and hybrids performance in Eucalyptus grandis and Eucalyptus urophylla.

The cellulose industry in Brazil uses, mainly, hybrids between Eucalyptus grandis x E. urophylla. Not only the volume but also the wood density has great influence in the cellulose productivity, therefore a selection for both characteristics should be done as an alternative to increase the improvement program efficiency. The present work has been carried out with the objective of comparison between Open Pollinated progenies (OP) and hybrids performance in E. grandis and E. urophylla. To do so, 15 OP progenies of E. grandis, 15 OP progenies of E. urophylla, and 15 hybrids between E. grandis x E. urophylla, plus four controls were evaluated. The experiment was carried out from October to November 2001, in three sites, Aracruz and São Mateus, in the Espírito Santo State, and Caravelas, Bahia State, Brazil, in a 14 x 14 lattice design, involving the 49 treatments mentioned plus other progenies not considered in this article, with single tree plots and 40 replicates. Two years later the circumference at breast height (CBH) and the basic wood density (BWD) were evaluated. The hybrids performance for CBH was higher, an average, 38,7% than the OP progenies for both species. Part of the heterosis in relation to parental means could be attributed to the inbreeding depression due to selfing that occurred in the OP progenies and the dominance controlling this character. For the BWD the hybrids performance was the same of the OP progenies. Since there was divergence between the parents, it can be inferred that dominance has no importance for this trait. The negative correlation between the CBH and the BWD could impair the simultaneous selection for both traits, depending on the wood basic density range used by the industry

Métodos e estratégias de melhoramento de espécies perenes: estado da arte e perspectivas.

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Factors affecting the performance of Pantaneiro horses.

This study aimed to assess the physical performance of Pantaneiro horses with and without equine infectious anemia (EIA) under functional conditions of cattle management. The horses were subjected to a performance test and split into two groups according to a completely randomized design: animals were chosen from populations testing positive and negative for EIA. Performance was measured as a function of a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model considering four outputs and one unitary input. The output measures were the distance achieved in the performance test, hematocrit as a weighted average over the test duration, respiratory rate as weighted average over the test duration, and the level of lactic acid at the test termination. Weights for the hematocrit and the respiratory rate output variables were determined by means of factor analysis. The performance score was a weighted average of the output variables with the weights defined by the averages of the optimum individual multipliers in the DEA analysis. Contextual variables of interest were age, horse weight, room temperature, and corporal temperature. Only groups and room temperature were statistically significant effects, as indicated by a bootstrap analysis. The performance of group positive for EIA is significantly lower than that of the group negative for EIA and room temperature has a negative effect

Self-similar magnetoresistance of Fibonacci ultrathin magnetic films

We study numerically the magnetic properties (magnetization and magnetoresistance) of ultra-thin magnetic films (Fe/Cr) grown following the Fibonacci sequence. We use a phenomenological model which includes Zeeman, cubic anisotropy, bilinear and biquadratic exchange energies. Our physical parameters are based on experimental data recently reported, which contain biquadratic exchange coupling with magnitude comparable to the bilinear exchange coupling. When biquadratic exchange coupling is sufficiently large a striking self-similar pattern emerges.Comment: 5 pages, 5 EPS figures, REVTeX, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Tricritical Points in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick Model in the Presence of Discrete Random Fields

The infinite-range-interaction Ising spin glass is considered in the presence of an external random magnetic field following a trimodal (three-peak) distribution. The model is studied through the replica method and phase diagrams are obtained within the replica-symmetry approximation. It is shown that the border of the ferromagnetic phase may present first-order phase transitions, as well as tricritical points at finite temperatures. Analogous to what happens for the Ising ferromagnet under a trimodal random field, it is verified that the first-order phase transitions are directly related to the dilution in the fields (represented by $p_{0}$). The ferromagnetic boundary at zero temperature also exhibits an interesting behavior: for $0<p_{0}<p_{0}^{*} \approx 0.30856$, a single tricritical point occurs, whereas if $p_{0}>p_{0}^{*}$ the critical frontier is completely continuous; however, for $p_{0}=p_{0}^{*}$, a fourth-order critical point appears. The stability analysis of the replica-symmetric solution is performed and the regions of validity of such a solution are identified; in particular, the Almeida-Thouless line in the plane field versus temperature is shown to depend on the weight $p_{0}$.Comment: 23pages, 7 ps figure

Comparison of nonlinear models to describe the growth curves of Jaffarabaddi, Mediterranean and Murrah Buffaloes.

Knowledge of buffalo growth curves is essential for improving reproductive management, nutritional strategies and identifying the best slaughter age. We provided the first joint study comparing growth curves of the three major buffalo breeds..

A Geometric Variational Approach to Bayesian Inference

We propose a novel Riemannian geometric framework for variational inference in Bayesian models based on the nonparametric Fisher-Rao metric on the manifold of probability density functions. Under the square-root density representation, the manifold can be identified with the positive orthant of the unit hypersphere in L2, and the Fisher-Rao metric reduces to the standard L2 metric. Exploiting such a Riemannian structure, we formulate the task of approximating the posterior distribution as a variational problem on the hypersphere based on the alpha-divergence. This provides a tighter lower bound on the marginal distribution when compared to, and a corresponding upper bound unavailable with, approaches based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence. We propose a novel gradient-based algorithm for the variational problem based on Frechet derivative operators motivated by the geometry of the Hilbert sphere, and examine its properties. Through simulations and real-data applications, we demonstrate the utility of the proposed geometric framework and algorithm on several Bayesian models