Apoptose de neutrófilos na Sepse e na Síndrome da Angústia Respiratória Aguda secundária à Sepse

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Resonance as a design strategy for AI and social robots

Resonance, a powerful and pervasive phenomenon, appears to play a major role in human interactions. This article investigates the relationship between the physical mechanism of resonance and the human experience of resonance, and considers possibilities for enhancing the experience of resonance within human–robot interactions. We first introduce resonance as a widespread cultural and scientific metaphor. Then, we review the nature of “sympathetic resonance” as a physical mechanism. Following this introduction, the remainder of the article is organized in two parts. In part one, we review the role of resonance (including synchronization and rhythmic entrainment) in human cognition and social interactions. Then, in part two, we review resonance-related phenomena in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). These two reviews serve as ground for the introduction of a design strategy and combinatorial design space for shaping resonant interactions with robots and AI. We conclude by posing hypotheses and research questions for future empirical studies and discuss a range of ethical and aesthetic issues associated with resonance in human–robot interactions

Plant Diversity Surpasses Plant Functional Groups and Plant Productivity as Driver of Soil Biota in the Long Term

One of the most significant consequences of contemporary global change is the rapid decline of biodiversity in many ecosystems. Knowledge of the consequences of biodiversity loss in terrestrial ecosystems is largely restricted to single ecosystem functions. Impacts of key plant functional groups on soil biota are considered to be more important than those of plant diversity; however, current knowledge mainly relies on short-term experiments.We studied changes in the impacts of plant diversity and presence of key functional groups on soil biota by investigating the performance of soil microorganisms and soil fauna two, four and six years after the establishment of model grasslands. The results indicate that temporal changes of plant community effects depend on the trophic affiliation of soil animals: plant diversity effects on decomposers only occurred after six years, changed little in herbivores, but occurred in predators after two years. The results suggest that plant diversity, in terms of species and functional group richness, is the most important plant community property affecting soil biota, exceeding the relevance of plant above- and belowground productivity and the presence of key plant functional groups, i.e. grasses and legumes, with the relevance of the latter decreasing in time.Plant diversity effects on biota are not only due to the presence of key plant functional groups or plant productivity highlighting the importance of diverse and high-quality plant derived resources, and supporting the validity of the singular hypothesis for soil biota. Our results demonstrate that in the long term plant diversity essentially drives the performance of soil biota questioning the paradigm that belowground communities are not affected by plant diversity and reinforcing the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem functioning

Seasonal changes in the soil microbial community in a grassland plant diversity gradient four years after establishment

Aboveground plant diversity is known to influence belowground diversity and ecosystem processes. However, the knowledge on soil microbial succession from an agricultural field to grassland varying in plant diversity is scarce. Therefore, we investigated the effects of vegetation cover, varying plant biodiversity and season on soil microbial parameters in a temperate grassland ecosystem. In May and October 2006 mixed soil samples were taken from the field site from The Jena Experiment: a large biodiversity experiment in Germany which was established in 2002 on a former agricultural field. Sampled plots differed in plant species richness (0, 4, 8,16), number of plant functional groups (0, 1, 2, 3, 4), and plant functional group composition. We measured basal respiration (BR) and microbial biomass (C-mic/CFE: chloroform fumigation extraction method), phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), and substrate induced respiration (SIR). We found distinct seasonal variations in the microbial community structure; BR and amount of PLFAs were higher at the end of the vegetation period than in spring, which was primarily due to increased biomass of fungi and Gram negative bacteria. Furthermore, BR and the amount of PLFAs were higher on vegetated plots than on bare ground plots. Although the number of plant functional groups had no effect on microbial parameters, plant species richness affected the amount of PLFAs at the end of the vegetation period with higher biomass in 4 than in 8 and 16 species mixtures. Moreover, the proportion of Gram negative bacteria was increased whereas the proportion of fungi was decreased in presence of legumes. The present study showed distinct seasonal changes in the soil microbial community composition, which is probably driven by the availability and quality of organic resources. Further, our results highlight the time-lag of belowground responses to aboveground vegetation manipulations with only few significant changes four years after the establishment of the experiment. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. [References: 42