Scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) of ornamental plants from Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo, Brazil

A list of 35 scale insects collected from 72 ornamental plant species in Sao Carlos, Sao Paulo, Brazil is provided. Regarding host specificity, 30 scale insects were polyphagous, 4 oligophagous, and 1 monophagous. A total of 102 coccoid/plant associations are recorded, 29 of which are new host records for the species; 60 are new host records for the species in Brazil. Pulvinaria urbicola Cockerell, 1893 (Coccidae), Phenacoccus similis Granara de Willink, 1983 (Pseudococcidae), and Orthezia molinarii (Morrison, 1952) (Ortheziidae) are recorded for the first time in Brazil. In addition, we describe the injury caused by scale insects on ornamental plants

Polimorfismo de (GA)n intra e inter SSR em germoplasma mandioca.

O objetivo do trabalho foi comparar o polimorfismo de (GA)n Inter e Intra SSR na análise preliminar de acessos de germoplasma mantidos no Campo Experimental do Caldeirão, município de Iranduba

Inter-retrotransposon-amplified polymorphism markers for germplasm characterization in Manihot esculenta (Euphorbiaceae).

Manioc, Manihot esculenta, is economically important in many tropical and subtropical countries. The genetic variability of the species has not been fully explored, and new information may help expand its use. Molecular markers based on retrotransposons have good potential for analysis of genetic diversity given their abundance in the genome. Eight long terminal repeat retrotransposons were selected for the development of inter-retrotransposon-amplified polymorphism markers

Genetic diversity among homonymy accessions maintained in the cassava regional Brazilian genebank.

In the Amazon region, the cassava cultivation has great social and economic importance because its production is source of food for traditional population and income for small farmers. The cassava farmer fields are results of the tradition and the preference of consumption and represent the genetic variability of many characters related to the mode of use and the quality of cassava root. The identification of genotypes to generate improved clones has been supported by germplasm conservation, evaluation and molecular characterization

Genetic diversity of cassava accessions from two regions of Amazon State, Brazil.

The study aimed to assess the genetic diversity of accessions collected in two regions from Amazon State, 120 from Lower Amazon River and 120 from Madeira River, using Inter Single Sequence Repeats (ISSR) markers

Princípios cooperativistas e cooperativismo de crédito: Um estudo de caso em Paraíso do Tocantins, Brasil.

O objetivo foi identificar a prática dos princípios cooperativas em uma cooperativa de crédito na percepção dos dirigentes, além de observar se as metas traçadas pelos dirigentes seguem a linha dos princípios cooperativistas. A pesquisa é exploratória de caráter qualitativo e tendo como metodologia o estudo de caso, com o apoio da técnica entrevista semi-estruturada. Entre os resultados, notou-se que a cooperativa segue parcialmente os princípios do cooperativismo, identificou-se que a comunicação está deficiente e é um ponto que deve ser fortalecido, o que facilitaria o desenvolvimento da cooperativa

Systematic analysis of the impact of label noise correction on ML Fairness

Arbitrary, inconsistent, or faulty decision-making raises serious concerns, and preventing unfair models is an increasingly important challenge in Machine Learning. Data often reflect past discriminatory behavior, and models trained on such data may reflect bias on sensitive attributes, such as gender, race, or age. One approach to developing fair models is to preprocess the training data to remove the underlying biases while preserving the relevant information, for example, by correcting biased labels. While multiple label noise correction methods are available, the information about their behavior in identifying discrimination is very limited. In this work, we develop an empirical methodology to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of label noise correction techniques in ensuring the fairness of models trained on biased datasets. Our methodology involves manipulating the amount of label noise and can be used with fairness benchmarks but also with standard ML datasets. We apply the methodology to analyze six label noise correction methods according to several fairness metrics on standard OpenML datasets. Our results suggest that the Hybrid Label Noise Correction method achieves the best trade-off between predictive performance and fairness. Clustering-Based Correction can reduce discrimination the most, however, at the cost of lower predictive performance

ERIC-PCR diferencia guaranazeiro cultivado de espécies afins (Paullinia spp).

O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar o potencial dos primers ERIC-PCR para identificação da variação intra e interespecífica

The venom of South American rattlesnakes inhibits macrophage functions and is endowed with anti-inflammatory properties

The injection of Crotalus durissus terrificus venom into the foot pad of mice did not induce a significant inflammatory response as evaluated by oedema formation, increased vascular permeability and cell migration. The subcutaneous injection of the venom, or its addition to cell cultures, had an inhibitory effect on the spreading and phagocytosis of resident macrophages, without affecting the viability of the cells. This effect was not observed when the venom was added to cultures of thioglycollate elicited macrophages, but it was able to inhibit these macrophage functions when the cells were obtained from animals injected simultaneously with the venom and thioglycollate. These observations suggest that the venom interferes with the mechanisms of macrophage activation. Leukocyte migration induced by intraperitoneal injection of thioglycollate was also inhibited by previous venom injection. This down-regulatory activity of the venom on macrophage functions could account for the mild inflammatory response observed in the site of the snake bite in Crotalus durissus terrificus envenomation in man