X-ray powder diffraction of high-absorption materials at the XRD1 beamline off the best conditions: Application to (Gd,Nd)5Si4 compounds

Representative compounds of the new family of magnetic materials Gd5-xNdxSi4 were analyzed by X-ray diffraction at the XRD1 beamline at LNLS. To reduce X-ray absorption, thin layers of the powder samples were mounted outside the capillaries and measured in Debye-Scherrer geometry as usual. The X-ray diffraction analyses and the magnetometry results indicate that the behavior of the magnetic transition temperature as a function of Nd content may be directly related to the average of the four smallest interatomic distances between different rare earth sites of the majority phase of each compound. The quality and consistency of the results show that the XRD1 beamline is able to perform satisfactory X-ray diffraction experiments on high-absorption materials even off the best conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Boletim meteorológico da estação convencional de Cruz das Almas, BA: variabilidade e tendências climáticas.

Neste documento reúnem-se análises de dados dos elementos meteorológicos coletados na Estação Meteorológica da Embrapa Mandioca e Fruticultura entre os anos de 1971 e 2010, no município de Cruz das Almas, BA. O conjunto de informações geradas é de relevante importância para o conhecimento do clima da região, da sua variabilidade e das possíveis tendências climáticas, apesar da série de dados de apenas trinta anos. Considerando que todas as atividades sofrem influência do ambiente atmosfera e que o conhecimento dos seus elementos é base para sustentabilidade, a Embrapa Mandioca e Fruticultura atende a grande demanda da comunidade pela busca constante de informações das características climáticas da microrregião e dos seus dados meteorológicos que foram disponibilizados em escala mensal no formato digital. Portanto, uma referência para comunidade do município e importante ferramenta para o planejamento das empresas agrícolas, de ensino, de pesquisa e, principalmente, para o suporte na formulação de políticas públicasbitstream/item/145992/1/Documentos-216-Boletim-Meteorologico.pd

Aquecimento global e aptidão da bananeira no Estado da Bahia.

O Brasil produziu aproximadamente 7 milhões de toneladas de banana no ano de 2008, sendo que o Nordeste é a principal região produtora (40%) e a Bahia o maior produtor nacional (20%), seguido de São Paulo (17%) (IBGE, 2009). O estresse por deficiência de água no solo é o maior limitador da expansão dos cultivos da bananeira em sequeiro, sendo este e o principal critério utilizado nos trabalhos de zoneamento climático no Nordeste brasileiro. A distribuição irregular das chuvas interfere na qualidade e produtividade de frutos e esses riscos podem ser aumentados com as previsões futuras de ocorrência de eventos extremos (seca e enchentes) e dos efeitos diretos da maior restrição hídrica no solo, devido ao aumento da evapotranspiração das culturas, relacionadas ao aquecimento global (Assad & Pinho, 2008; Semenov, 2009).O presente trabalho teve o objetivo de avaliar os impactos do aquecimento global na aptidão climática do estado da Bahia para o cultivo da bananeira em condições de sequeiro.pdf 239

Does gradual diffusion of information really matters: The bankruptcy case

This paper tests to what extent the Hong and Stein (1999) model explains the stock price performance of firms filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In line with the model’s main prediction, I find that the market severely misprices (correctly prices) the bankrupt firms for which information is likely to diffuse slowly (rapidly) across investors. My key finding is robust to a range of alternative methods for adjusting for risk and different periods for computing the abnormal stock returns. My innovative framework provides an acid test of the predictive ability of the Hong and Stein (1999) model, with my results suggesting that it offers important insight into the workings of financial markets, even in the very extreme setting I consider.Corporate Bankruptcy, Gradual Diffusion of Information, Event Study, Behavioral Binance Models.

Physiological roles of regulated Ire1 dependent decay

Inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (Ire1) is an important transducer of the unfolded protein response (UPR) that is activated by the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the endoplamic reticulum (ER stress). Activated Ire1 mediates the splicing of an intron from the mRNA of Xbp1, causing a frame-shift during translation and introducing a new carboxyl domain in the Xbp1 protein, which only then becomes a fully functional transcription factor. Studies using cell culture systems demonstrated that Ire1 also promotes the degradation of mRNAs encoding mostly ER-targeted proteins, to reduce the load of incoming ER "client" proteins during ER stress. This process was called RIDD (regulated Ire1-dependent decay), but its physiological significance remained poorly characterized beyond cell culture systems. Here we review several recent studies that have highlighted the physiological roles of RIDD in specific biological paradigms, such as photoreceptor differentiation in Drosophila or mammalian liver and endocrine pancreas function. These studies demonstrate the importance of RIDD in tissues undergoing intense secretory function and highlight the physiologic role of RIDD during UPR activation in cells and organisms.publishersversionpublishe

Addressing hospitalisations with non-error-free data by generalised SEIR modelling of COVID-19 pandemic

Mendes, J. M., & Coelho, P. S. (2021). Addressing hospitalisations with non-error-free data by generalised SEIR modelling of COVID-19 pandemic. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-20. [19617]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-98975-wSuccessive generalisations of the basic SEIR model have been proposed to accommodate the different needs of the organisations handling the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. These generalisations have not been able until today to represent the potential of the epidemic to overwhelm hospital capacity until today. This work builds on previous generalisations, including a new compartment for hospital occupancy that allows accounting for the infected patients that need specialised medical attention. Consequently, a deeper understanding of the hospitalisations rate and probability as well as of the recovery rates for hospitalised and non-hospitalised individuals is achieved, offering new information and predictions of crucial importance for the planning of the health systems and global epidemic response. Additionally, a new methodology to calibrate epidemic flows between compartments is proposed. We conclude that the two-step calibration procedure is able to recalibrate non-error-free data and showed crucial to reconstruct the series in a specific situation characterised by significant errors over the official recovery cases. The performed modelling also allowed us to understand how effective the several interventions (lockdown or other mobility restriction measures) were, offering insight for helping public authorities to set the timing and intensity of the measures in order to avoid the implosion of the health systems.publishersversionpublishe