1,744 research outputs found
Efeitos genéticos aditivos e dominantes do alelo FecGE para caracterÃsticas produtivas e reprodutivas em ovinos Santa Inês.
Evolution of central pattern generators for the control of a five-link bipedal walking mechanism
Central pattern generators (CPGs), with a basis is neurophysiological
studies, are a type of neural network for the generation of rhythmic motion.
While CPGs are being increasingly used in robot control, most applications are
hand-tuned for a specific task and it is acknowledged in the field that generic
methods and design principles for creating individual networks for a given task
are lacking. This study presents an approach where the connectivity and
oscillatory parameters of a CPG network are determined by an evolutionary
algorithm with fitness evaluations in a realistic simulation with accurate
physics. We apply this technique to a five-link planar walking mechanism to
demonstrate its feasibility and performance. In addition, to see whether
results from simulation can be acceptably transferred to real robot hardware,
the best evolved CPG network is also tested on a real mechanism. Our results
also confirm that the biologically inspired CPG model is well suited for legged
locomotion, since a diverse manifestation of networks have been observed to
succeed in fitness simulations during evolution.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures; substantial revision of content, organization,
and quantitative result
Adecuación de los parámetros termocrómicos de recubrimientos de VO2 mediante la morfologÃa a una mayor eficiencia de ahorro energético en ventanas inteligentes
Tamanho amostral na identificação de subpopulações espermáticas em carneiros Santa Inês.
A cinética espermática é importante por estar correlacionada positivamente com a fertilidade do sêmen. Estudos de cinética utilizam ferramentas estatÃsticas multivariadas para incrementar a acurácia na identificação de subpopulações espermáticas em ovinos; assim o tamanho amostral é importante na variabilidade do agrupamento de células. Objetivou-se estudar a influência do n amostral aleatório na identificação de subpopulações espermáticas. Foi utilizado o banco de informações digitais da análise seminal feita em 35 carneiros adultos no Laboratório de Biotecnologia da Reprodução Animal ? Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros; constituindo um total de 77070 observações espermáticas contendo dados de velocidades curvilÃnea (VCL), em linha reta (VSL) e do percurso médio (VAP), linearidade (LIN), retilinearidade (STR), Ãndice de oscilação (WOB), deslocamento lateral da cabeça (ALH) e batimento flagelar Cruzado (BCF) dos espermatozoides. Foi utilizada a metodologia estatÃstica de análise dos componentes principais sendo testados diferentes n amostrais: 10, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, 5000 e 15000. A influência do n amostral na identificação de subpopulações espermáticas em carneiros Santa Inês, considerando cinco parâmetros cinéticos espermáticos foi significativa (p<0,05), onde o n amostral abaixo de 50 espermatozoides avaliados mostrou uma maior variabilidade numérica comparada aos outros tamanhos amostrais. Conclui-se que para identificar subpopulações espermáticas homogêneas, pode ser simulado o n amostral igual ou maior de 50 espermatozoides selecionados aleatoriamente e com pelo menos 10 repetições
Sociobiological Control of Plasmid copy number
Background:
All known mechanisms and genes responsible for the regulation of plasmid replication lie with the plasmid rather than the chromosome. It is possible therefore that there can be copy-up mutants. Copy-up mutants will have within host selective advantage. This would eventually result into instability of bacteria-plasmid association. In spite of this possibility low copy number plasmids appear to exist stably in host populations. We examined this paradox using a computer simulation model.

Model:
Our multilevel selection model assumes a wild type with tightly regulated replication to ensure low copy number. A mutant with slightly relaxed replication regulation can act as a “cheater” or “selfish” plasmid and can enjoy a greater within-host-fitness. However the host of a cheater plasmid has to pay a greater cost. As a result, in host level competition, host cell with low copy number plasmid has a greater fitness. Furthermore, another mutant that has lost the genes required for conjugation was introduced in the model. The non-conjugal mutant was assumed to undergo conjugal transfer in the presence of another conjugal plasmid in the host cell.

Results:
The simulatons showed that if the cost of carrying a plasmid was low, the copy-up mutant could drive the wild type to extinction or very low frequencies. Consequently, another mutant with a higher copy number could invade the first invader. This process could result into an increasing copy number. However above a certain copy number within-host selection was overcompensated by host level selection leading to a rock-paper-scissor (RPS) like situation. The RPS situation allowed the coexistence of high and low copy number plasmids. The non-conjugal “hypercheaters” could further arrest the copy numbers to a substantially lower level.

Conclusions:
These sociobiological interactions might explain the stability of copy numbers better than molecular mechanisms of replication regulation alone
Stomatal Density and its Relationship with Yield of Radish (Raphanus Sativus L.) Fertilized with Biol Produced from Sugar Cane Residues
The impact of agro-industrial waste can be reduced by using it in crop fertilization. The aim of this study was to evaluate the stomatal density and yield of radish (Raphanus Sativus L.) fertilized with biol at different concentrations, produced from sugar cane residues. A completely randomized blocks design statistical model was used, which consisted of 5 tests with 3 repetitions for each one, being T1 the control trial, and T2, T3, T4 and T5 the treatments using 2, 3, 4 and 5 L of biol in 200 L of water respectively. In terms of crop physical characteristics, the T5 treatment excelled in plant length, equatorial diameter, plant weight, as well as yield with 12.71 t/ha. Likewise, in the chemical analysis of the radish leaves, the T5 treatment showed an increase in K, Ca, Zn and MN, while the T2 did it in N, P and Cu, the T3 in Fe and the T4 in Mg. In terms of stomatal density, T5 stood out with 122 stomatal/mm2. Based on this, it is concluded that the increase in the dose of biol influences the increase in nutrient and stomatal density and hence the yield of the radish crop
Engineering of III-Nitride Semiconductors on Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics
This work presents results in the feld of advanced substrate solutions in order to achieve high
crystalline quality group-III nitrides based heterostructures for high frequency and power devices or for
sensor applications. With that objective, Low Temperature Co-fred Ceramics has been used, as a noncrystalline
substrate. Structures like these have never been developed before, and for economic reasons
will represent a groundbreaking material in these felds of Electronic. In this sense, the report presents
the characterization through various techniques of three series of specimens where GaN was deposited
on this ceramic composite, using diferent bufer layers, and a singular metal-organic chemical vapor
deposition related technique for low temperature deposition. Other single crystalline ceramic-based
templates were also utilized as substrate materials, for comparison purposes
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