Genomics and synthetic biology as a viable option to intensify sustainable use of biodiversity

The Amazon basin is an area of mega-biodiversity. Different models have been proposed^1-8^ for the establishment of an effective conservation policy, increasing sustainability and adding value for biodiversity. Currently, a broad spectrum of technologies from genomics to synthetic biology is available, and these permit the collection, manipulation and effective evaluation of countless organisms, metabolic pathways and molecules that exist as potential products of a large, biodiverse ecosystem. The use of Genomics and synthetic biology may constitute an important tool and be a viable option for the prospection, evaluation and manipulation of biodiversity as advocated as well as be useful for developing methods for sustainable use and the production of novel molecules

Conserving many body approach to the fully screened, infinite U Anderson model

Using a Luttinger Ward scheme for interacting gauge particles, we present a conserving many body treatment of a family of fully screened infinite U Anderson models that has a smooth cross-over into the Fermi liquid state, with a finite scattering phase shift at zero temperature and a Wilson ratio greater than one. We illustrate our method, computing the temperature dependence of the thermodynamics, resistivity and electron dephasing rate and discuss its future application to non-equilibrium quantum dots and quantum critical mixed valent systems

Soft Error Effects on Arm Microprocessors: Early Estimations versus Chip Measurements

Extensive research efforts are being carried out to evaluate and improve the reliability of computing devices either through beam experiments or simulation-based fault injection. Unfortunately, it is still largely unclear to which extend fault injection can provide an accurate error rate estimation at early stages and if beam experiments can be used to identify the weakest resources in a device. The importance and challenges associated with a timely, but yet realistic reliability evaluation grow with the increase of complexity in both the hardware domain, with the integration of different types of cores in an SoC (System-on-Chip), and the software domain, with the OS (operating system) required to take full advantage of the available resources. In this paper, we combine and analyze data gathered with extensive beam experiments (on the final physical CPU hardware) and microarchitectural fault injections (on early microarchitectural CPU models). We target a standalone Arm Cortex-A5 CPU and an Arm Cortex-A9 CPU integrated into an SoC and evaluate their reliability in bare-metal and Linux-based configurations. Combining experimental data that covers more than 18 million years of device time with the result of more than 176,000 injections we find that both the SoC integration and the presence of the OS increase the system DUEs (Detected Unrecoverable Errors) rate (for different reasons) but do not significantly impact the SDCs (Silent Data Corruptions) rate which is solely attributed to the CPU core. Our reliability analysis demonstrates that even considering SoC integration and OS inclusion, early, pre-silicon microarchitecture-level fault injection delivers accurate SDC rates estimations and lower bounds for the DUE rates

Oxygen vacancies in tungsten oxide and their influence on tungsten oxide silicon heterojunction solar cells

Tungsten oxide WOx can be incorporated into amorphous crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells as hole contact and for interface modification between p type amorphous silicon and indium tin oxide. This paper aims at understanding the influence of tungsten oxides properties on silicon heterojunction solar cells. Using in system photoelectron spectroscopy on thermally evaporated WOx layers, it was verified that WOx with a stoichiometry close to WO3 features a work function close to 6 eV and is therefore suitable as hole contact on silicon. Additionally the oxygen vacancy concentration in WOx was measured using photoelectron spectroscopy. High oxygen vacancy concentrations in WOx lead to a low band bending in the WOx silicon junction. Furthermore solar cells were fabricated using the same WOx, and the band bending in these cells is correlated with their fill factors FF and open circuit voltages VOC VOC . Combining these results, the following picture arises positively charged oxygen vacancies raise the Fermi level in WOx and reduce the band bending at the WOx silicon junction. This, in turn, leads to reduced VOCVOC and FF. Thus, when incorporating WOx into silicon solar cells it is important to minimize the oxygen vacancy density in WOx. Therefore deposition methods, enabling adjustment of the WOx stoichiometry are preferabl

Técnicas laboratoriais para isolamento de Campylobacter em material avícola.

Projeto/Plano de Ação: 03.08.06.004

NanoUPLC-MSE proteomic data assessment of soybean seeds using the Uniprot database.

Background: Recombinant DNA technology has been extensively employed to generate a variety of products from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) over the last decade, and the development of technologies capable of analyzing these products is crucial to understanding gene expression patterns. Liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for analyzing protein contents and possible expression modifications in GMOs. Specifically, the NanoUPLC-MSE technique provides rapid protein analyses of complex mixtures with supported steps for high sample throughput, identification and quantization using low sample quantities with outstanding repeatability. Here, we present an assessment of the peptide and protein identification and quantification of soybean seed EMBRAPA BR16 cultivar contents using NanoUPLC-MSE and provide a comparison to the theoretical tryptic digestion of soybean sequences from Uniprot database. Results: The NanoUPLC-MSE peptide analysis resulted in 3,400 identified peptides, 58% of which were identified to have no miscleavages. The experiment revealed that 13% of the peptides underwent in-source fragmentation, and 82% of the peptides were identified with a mass measurement accuracy of less than 5 ppm. More than 75% of the identified proteins have at least 10 matched peptides, 88% of the identified proteins have greater than 30% of coverage, and 87% of the identified proteins occur in all four replicates. 78% of the identified proteins correspond to all glycinin and betaconglycinin chains. The theoretical Uniprot peptide database has 723,749 entries, and 548,336 peptides have molecular weights of greater than 500 Da. Seed proteins represent 0.86% of the protein database entries. At the peptide level, trypsin-digested seed proteins represent only 0.3% of the theoretical Uniprot peptide database. A total of 22% of all database peptides have a pI value of less than 5, and 25% of them have a pI value between 5 and 8. Based on the detection range of typical NanoUPLC-MSE experiments, i.e., 500 to 5000 Da, 64 proteins will not be identified. Conclusions: NanoUPLC-MSE experiments provide good protein coverage within a peptide error of 5 ppm and a wide MW detection range from 500 to 5000 Da. A second digestion enzyme should be used depending on the tissue or proteins to be analyzed. In the case of seed tissue, trypsin protein digestion results offer good databank coverage. The Uniprot database has many duplicate entries that may result in false protein homolog associations when using NanoUPLC-MSE analysis. The proteomic profile of the EMBRAPA BR-16 seed lacks certain described proteins relative to the profiles of transgenic soybeans reported in other works

Greenhouse gas emissions mitigation in more sustainable agroecosystems in Cerrado.

In this work, we show that the transition to more sustainable rural production can mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by agroecosystems without compromising revenues, particularly in the Cerrado region.(Embrapa Gado de Corte. Documentos, 216). Coordenador Roberto Giolo de Almeida. II SIGEE. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 30 nov. 2016

Spatial multi-criteria decision analysis to predict suitability for African swine fever endemicity in Africa

Background African swine fever (ASF) is endemic in several countries of Africa and may pose a risk to all pig producing areas on the continent. Official ASF reporting is often rare and there remains limited awareness of the continent-wide distribution of the disease. In the absence of accurate ASF outbreak data and few quantitative studies on the epidemiology of the disease in Africa, we used spatial multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to derive predictions of the continental distribution of suitability for ASF persistence in domestic pig populations as part of sylvatic or domestic transmission cycles. In order to incorporate the uncertainty in the relative importance of different criteria in defining suitability, we modelled decisions within the MCDA framework using a stochastic approach. The predictive performance of suitability estimates was assessed via a partial ROC analysis using ASF outbreak data reported to the OIE since 2005. Results Outputs from the spatial MCDA indicate that large areas of sub-Saharan Africa may be suitable for ASF persistence as part of either domestic or sylvatic transmission cycles. Areas with high suitability for pig to pig transmission (‘domestic cycles’) were estimated to occur throughout sub-Saharan Africa, whilst areas with high suitability for introduction from wildlife reservoirs (‘sylvatic cycles’) were found predominantly in East, Central and Southern Africa. Based on average AUC ratios from the partial ROC analysis, the predictive ability of suitability estimates for domestic cycles alone was considerably higher than suitability estimates for sylvatic cycles alone, or domestic and sylvatic cycles in combination. Conclusions This study provides the first standardised estimates of the distribution of suitability for ASF transmission associated with domestic and sylvatic cycles in Africa. We provide further evidence for the utility of knowledge-driven risk mapping in animal health, particularly in data-sparse environments.</p

Electronic structure of indium tungsten oxide alloys and their energy band alignment at the heterojunction to crystalline silicon

The electronic structure of thermally co evaporated indium tungsten oxide films is investigated. The stoichiometry is varied from pure tungsten oxide to pure indium oxide and the band alignment at the indium tungsten oxide crystalline silicon heterointerface is monitored. Using in system photoelectron spectroscopy, optical spectroscopy and surface photovoltage measurements we show that the work function of indium tungsten oxide continuously decreases from 6.3 eV for tungsten oxide to 4.3 eV for indium oxide, with a concomitant decrease of the band bending at the hetero interface to crystalline silicon than indium oxid