Towards autonomous mapping in agriculture: A review of supportive technologies for ground robotics

This paper surveys the supportive technologies currently available for ground mobile robots used for autonomous mapping in agriculture. Unlike previous reviews, we describe state-of-the-art approaches and technologies aimed at extracting information from agricultural environments, not only for navigation purposes but especially for mapping and monitoring. The state-of-the-art platforms and sensors, the modern localization techniques, the navigation and path planning approaches, as well as the potentialities of artificial intelligence towards autonomous mapping in agriculture are analyzed. According to the findings of this review, many examples of recent mobile robots provide full navigation and autonomous mapping capability. Significant resources are currently devoted to this research area, in order to further improve mobile robot capabilities in this complex and challenging field

Performance Investigation and Repeatability Assessment of a Mobile Robotic System for 3D Mapping

In this paper, we present a quantitative performance investigation and repeatability assessment of a mobile robotic system for 3D mapping. With the aim of a more efficient and automatic data acquisition process with respect to well-established manual topographic operations, a 3D laser scanner coupled with an inertial measurement unit is installed on a mobile platform and used to perform a high-resolution mapping of the surrounding environment. Point clouds obtained with the use of a mobile robot are compared with those acquired with the device carried manually as well as with a terrestrial laser scanner survey that serves as a ground truth. Experimental results show that both mapping modes provide similar accuracy and repeatability, whereas the robotic system compares favorably with respect to the handheld modality in terms of noise level and point distribution. The outcomes demonstrate the feasibility of the mobile robotic platform as a promising technology for automatic and accurate 3D mapping

Eficiência e viabilidade econômica da aplicação de fungicidas no controle da ferrugem asiática da soja em Campo Grande, MS.

Objetivou-se avaliar a eficiência e a viabilidade econômica da aplicação de fungicidas no controle da ferrugem asiática da soja, Phakopsora packyrhizi, em Campo Grande, MS. O ensaio foi conduzido em na safra 2007-2008. Foram avaliados os fungicidas (g i.a./ha): picoxistrobina + ciproconazole (40 + 16, 50 + 20 e 60 + 24) + nimbus 0,25% (v/v), piraclostrobina + epoxiconazole (66,5 + 25); azoxistrobina + ciproconazole (60 + 24) + nimbus 0,25% (v/v); trifloxistrobina + tebuconazole (50 + 100) + auero 0,13% (v/v) e trifloxistrobina + ciproconazole (56,25 + 24) + aureo 0,13% (v/v). Três aplicações foram realizadas, quinzenalmente, a partir do estádio fenológico R2. Foram realizadas 10 avaliações da severidade da doença (terços inferior e superior da planta) e três da desfolha (a partir do estádio R7), com intervalos de sete dias. Após plotagem das curvas de progresso (CP), foram calculadas as áreas abaixo das CP para a severidade da doença (AACPD) e desfolha (AACPDes). Ao final do ensaio, avaliou-se o rendimento de grãos (Rend - kg/ha), a massa de 1.000 grãos (MMG - g) e a viabilidade econômica do controle da doença. O clima durante a condução do ensaio foi favorável ao desenvolvimento da ferrugem asiática, constatando-se relação positiva entre a precipitação e a severidade da doença. Todos os fungicidas apresentaram valores de AACPD inferiores ao da testemunha, com destaque para picoxistrobina + ciproconazole (maior dose). Esse tratamento também apresentou o menor índice de AACPDes. Os fungicidas apresentaram índices semelhantes de Rend, embora superiores à testemunha. Quanto a MMG, maior índice foi atribuído a azoxistrobina + ciproconazole. A mistura trifloxistrobina + tebuconazole apresentou a menor eficiência de controle da ferrugem asiática. Com base na severidade da doença, rendimento de grãos e nos benefícios econômico gerados pela aplicação de fungicidas, identificou-se os fungicidas picoxistrobina + ciproconazole (60 + 24), azoxistrobina + ciproconazole e trifloxistrobina + ciproconazole como os mais promissores para o controle de P. packyrhizi

Candida albicans enhanced phospholipase production after exposition to a static non-uniform magnetic field

INTRODUCTION: Microbial virulence factors are responsible for tissue damage in hosts. Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen that constitutes an increasing risk of infection, especially for immunosuppressed or immunocompromised patients. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a static non-uniform magnetic field on the phenotype expression of different strains of Candida albicans. METHODS: The strains of Candida albicans were grown on phospholipase-agar, according to Shimizu et al. (1996) and incubated at 37 ºC inside a magnetic field (except the assays used as blank). The magnetic field was generated by two magnetite plates (Figure 1) and standardized as a function of distance versus number of magnetic plates (Figure 2). The magnetic field was of 500 gauss in the central part between the two magnetic plates. RESULTS: The preliminary results show a visible increase in the halo formed due to phospholipase production, suggesting that the exposition to a magnetic field can enhance the expression of this virulence factor

Football Fans’ Emotions: Uncertainty Against Brand Perception

Football is an industry driven by emotions. Fans experience many different emotions related to their teams. This paper aims to inspect how emotions impact attendance at football matches, examining whether football fans prefer to watch highly competitive matches or matches between good teams with star-players. The paper also considers behavioral and emotional differences of match spectators when brand-teams play away or at home. Importantly, we are also looking for the effects that the expectations of these emotions have on the tickets’ price mechanism. We use data from three seasons of the Brazilian State championship with information on more than 1,100 matches. The OLS estimator with the moderation marginal effects allows for analysis of a brand-team playing with different levels of uncertainty over the outcomes measured by the relative level of the divisions of rivals. We look for the difference between the marginal contribution of the brand-team and the uncertainty of outcomes that might change under some conditions. The analysis is performed later using two subsamples and, finally, we address the problem of endogeneity in price using an instrumental variable. From our results, the main findings are: first, that the price of tickets does not much affect the demand when a brand-team is playing. In case of competitive matches between non-brand-teams, price behavior correlates to the rationality of the demand curve having a negative impact. The fact that price is not relevant for matches with the brand-team comes to corroborate the idea that fans are driven more by emotions than by economic reasoning; second, the phenomena of highly competitive matches does not work when a brand-team is playing against a small one; and third, the effect of a brand-team playing is relatively more important than the uncertainty of outcome. The last two findings mean that the satisfaction of watching star-players or big-teams is stronger than the emotion brought by a competitive match

Computer Simulation and Fire Drill in an Educational Building

Despite the evolution of computational models for evacuation simulations, there's still some doubt if they can generate accurate results. The objective is to analyze and compare the evacuation times of a fire drill and a computer simulation in an educational building. The method consisted of a fire drill with prior notice of a 4-floor building with classrooms in a public university. A computational model was developed for the same building and population using the evacuation simulation software Pathfinder. The results were that the evacuation times observed in the computer simulation were slightly lower than the times of the fire drill because people covered smaller distances due to the random distribution performed by the Pathfinder software and because in the drill some time was spent for the start of the movement toward the exit, which was estimated at around 30 seconds, while the software was configured for a pre-movement time equal to zero. The use of the computer simulation, therefore, proved to be an effective solution to replace the fire drill, since it allows for the identification of design failures and for the simulation of different scenarios in less time and without the need to mobilize people

Tumor-Associated Antigen xCT and Mutant-p53 as Molecular Targets for New Combinatorial Antitumor Strategies

The cystine/glutamate antiporter xCT is a tumor-associated antigen that has been newly identified in many cancer types. By participating in glutathione biosynthesis, xCT protects cancer cells from oxidative stress conditions and ferroptosis, and contributes to metabolic reprogramming, thus promoting tumor progression and chemoresistance. Moreover, xCT is overexpressed in cancer stem cells. These features render xCT a promising target for cancer therapy, as has been widely reported in the literature and in our work on its immunotargeting. Interestingly, studies on the TP53 gene have revealed that both wild-type and mutant p53 induce the post-transcriptional down modulation of xCT, contributing to ferroptosis. Moreover, APR-246, a small molecule drug that can restore wild-type p53 function in cancer cells, has been described as an indirect modulator of xCT expression in tumors with mutant p53 accumulation, and is thus a promising drug to use in combination with xCT inhibition. This review summarizes the current knowledge of xCT and its regulation by p53, with a focus on the crosstalk of these two molecules in ferroptosis, and also considers some possible combinatorial strategies that can make use of APR-246 treatment in combination with anti-xCT immunotargeting

Prospects for detecting Gamma-Ray Bursts with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi gamma-ray satellite telescope observes Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) at energies above 100 MeV. Thanks to a new detection algorithm and a new event reconstruction, it is expected to publish a catalogue with more than 100 GRBs. This work aims at revising the prospects for GRB alerts with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) based on the new LAT results. We start by considering the simulation of the observations with the full CTA of two extremely bright events, the long GRB 130427A and the short GRB 090510; then we investigate how these GRBs would be observed by different subsamples of the array pointing to different directions, adopting the \u201ccoupled divergent\u201d mode

Assessing DNA methylation in the developing human intestinal epithelium: potential link to inflammatory bowel disease.

DNA methylation is one of the major epigenetic mechanisms implicated in regulating cellular development and cell-type-specific gene expression. Here we performed simultaneous genome-wide DNA methylation and gene expression analysis on purified intestinal epithelial cells derived from human fetal gut, healthy pediatric biopsies, and children newly diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Results were validated using pyrosequencing, real-time PCR, and immunostaining. The functional impact of DNA methylation changes on gene expression was assessed by employing in-vitro assays in intestinal cell lines. DNA methylation analyses allowed identification of 214 genes for which expression is regulated via DNA methylation, i.e. regulatory differentially methylated regions (rDMRs). Pathway and functional analysis of rDMRs suggested a critical role for DNA methylation in regulating gene expression and functional development of the human intestinal epithelium. Moreover, analysis performed on intestinal epithelium of children newly diagnosed with IBD revealed alterations in DNA methylation within genomic loci, which were found to overlap significantly with those undergoing methylation changes during intestinal development. Our study provides novel insights into the physiological role of DNA methylation in regulating functional maturation of the human intestinal epithelium. Moreover, we provide data linking developmentally acquired alterations in the DNA methylation profile to changes seen in pediatric IBD.This study was supported by funds obtained from The Evelyn Trust, Crohn’s in Childhood Research Association (CICRA) and Crohn’s and Colitis in Childhood (3Cs) charity. J.K. was funded by a PhD studentship from CICRA. Funding for E.C. was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant CA226/4-3) and Interne Forschungsförderung Essen (IFORES).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/mi.2015.8

Perfil antropométrico dos universitários dos cursos de nutrição , enfermagem , fisioterapia e educação física do Centro Universitário La Salle , Canoas /RS.

Este estudo objetiva traçar o perfil antropométrico dos universitários matriculados nos cursos de nutrição, enfermagem, fisioterapia e educação física do Centro Universitário La Salle, Canoas. Avaliaram se 112 universitários divididos entre os quatro cursos, a amostra representa 10% de cada curso, sendo 77 mulheres (68,8%) e 35 homens(31,2%), com média de idade de 26,18 ±7,47anos. a amostra foi colhida de forma aleatória, conforme horários de aula dos alunos. Foi realizada avaliação antropométrica por meio do índice de massa corporal (IMC), circunferência da cintura (CC), prega cutânea triciptal (DCT) e subescapular (DCS), o tratamento estatístico dos resultados encontrados foi feito no programa SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Constatou-se que a grande maioria dos avaliados estavam eutróficos (64,2%), porém foi grande o número de pessoas com excesso de peso (27,7%). Acredita-se que, por serem alunos de cursos da área da saúde, com maior conhecimento a respeito de hábitos de vida saudáveis, ou até mesmo pela maior resistência dos indivíduos com excesso de peso a participarem dessa pesquisa, obteve-se maior percentual de indivíduos com graus adequados de IMC, apesar de a circunferência da cintura estar acima da normalidade para as mulheres (80,90 ±9,34cm), a dobra cutânea triciptal elevada para os homens (123,27 ±59,65%) e a dobra cutânea subescapular estar aumentada para ambos os sexos (Homens=140,64 ±46,49%; Mulheres=124,00 ±41,63%)