Monitoring of agricultural land use in São Paulo State - Brazil using geotechnology approach.

This study evaluated changes in agricultural land use on São Paulo state, Brazil, mapping and qualifying sugarcane expansion. The Percentage Change Index (PCi), calculated using official municipal census data was used to identify areas where sugarcane caused the main land use changes. The PCi provided the sugarcane percentage changes over 20 years of data. Detailed land cover maps for four municipalities with high PCi were created for two time periods (1990 and 2005), using satellite images. Results showed that sugarcane expansion over the 15 year period occurred mainly over pasture lands however, for one municipality, a high substitution of forest plantation areas was observed. Also, only one municipality showed a strong increase in short cycle crop agriculture, which also occurred over pasture areas. Results revealed that sugarcane expansion has a relationship with local economic aspects and the method used provided an important tool to define public policies and management decisions

Pre-harvesting biomass burning for sugarcane crop: comparing emission factors for realist results.

Abstract: In Brazil, burning of residues as an agricultural practice occurs mainly in sugarcane cultivation, which accounts for about 98% of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of agricultural waste. Emission factors for this specific agricultural management practice came from the combustion processes, were the emission of non-CO2 gases CH4, CO, NOx and N2O were recorded, and the emission rates for these gases depend on the type of biomass and burning conditions. In the combustion with flame phase, N2O and NOx gases are generated, and CO and CH4 gases are formed under burning conditions with a predominance of flame. Thus, the use of specific emission factors for sugarcane, within the Brazilian context, in National Inventories is more appropriate than the use of default emission factors, in addition to increasing the level of refinement of emission estimates. In this context, this work aims to present a comparative analysis of the emission estimates of the non- CO2, CO and NOX gases, using the default emission factors presented in the IPCC Guidelines (2006) and those proposed by França et al. [4], for São Paulo State as a test area

Prediction statistical model for soil organic carbon mapping in crop areas using the Landsat/OLI sensor.

Abstract: The quantification of soil organic carbon (SOC) is essential to agriculture and sustainable use of the land. However, there are difficulties to estimate it in large areas due to high cost of soil sample extraction, and laboratory preparations. There are approaches that may facilitate the estimation of SOC, such as the use of satellite imagery and the application of statistical models based on the spectral bands of the satellite under study. In July of 2017, this study proposed a prediction statistical model from optical-orbital data of the series Landsat, OLI sensor for estimating SOC content

Aplicação localizada de parasitoide de ovos e inseticida químico para o manejo do percevejo Euschistus heros em soja.

Devido a variabilidade espacial de percevejos na lavoura, o seu controle quando realizado com base na densidade média da área pode incorrer tanto em intervenção tardia em partes do talhão quanto aplicação desnecessária em outras. O trabalho objetivou estudar o manejo do percevejo Euschistus heros com aplicação localizada do parasitoide de ovos Telenomus podisi e inseticida químico. O estudo foi conduzido em Bela Vista do Paraiso, PR, na safra 2019/2020. Em 20 ha, 80 pontos foram amostrados semanalmente ao longo do ciclo, com 2 batidas de pano/ponto. Os dados foram registrados e georreferenciados com o APP Agrotag, desenvolvido pela Embrapa. Foi procedida análise geoestatística, interpolação por krigagem e geração de mapas com zonas de manejo. Em metade da área foi liberado parasitoide e em outra foi pulverizado inseticida químico nas zonas com densidade a partir de 0,5 e 2,0 percevejos/pano, respectivamente. Os parasitoides foram liberados manualmente e o inseticida químico foi aplicado com pulverizador John Deere com controle de abertura individual de pontas, orientadas pelo mapa. Em paralelo foram conduzidas duas áreas de MIP com controle biológico e químico em área total. Ao final do ciclo foi colhido 1,35m² de soja por ponto para estimada a produtividade e percentual de grãos picados por percevejos. O controle químico localizado reduziu em 17% o uso de inseticida em relação a aplicação em área total no MIP, onde foram realizadas duas pulverizações e em 45% em relação ao manejo do agricultor que realizou três pulverizações. Nas áreas com uso de parasitoides foi realizada apenas uma pulverização com inseticida químico no final do ciclo e a liberação localizada reduziu 66% da área tratada com parasitoide. O percentual de grãos picados foi 64% e 44% menor nos sistemas com controle localizado com parasitoide e inseticida químico, respectivamente, em relação a esses manejos aplicados em área total. Os sistemas de manejo não afetaram a produtividade

Metrics based on information entropy applied to evaluate complexity of landscape patterns.

Abstract: Landscape is an ecological category represented by a complex system formed by interactions between society and nature. Spatial patterns of different land uses present in a landscape reveal past and present processes responsible for its dynamics and organisation. Measuring the complexity of these patterns (in the sense of their spatial heterogeneity) allows us to evaluate the integrity and resilience of these complex environmental systems. Here, we show how landscape metrics based on information entropy can be applied to evaluate the complexity (in the sense of spatial heterogeneity) of patches patterns, as well as their transition zones, present in a Cerrado conservation area and its surroundings, located in south-eastern Brazil. The analysis in this study aimed to elucidate how changes in land use and the consequent fragmentation affect the complexity of the landscape. The scripts CompPlex HeROI and CompPlex Janus were created to allow calculation of information entropy (He), variability (He/Hmax), and López-Ruiz, Mancini, and Calbet (LMC) and Shiner, Davison, and Landsberg (SDL) measures. CompPlex HeROI enabled the calculation of these measures for different regions of interest (ROIs) selected in a satellite image of the study area, followed by comparison of the complexity of their patterns, in addition to enabling the generation of complexity signatures for each ROI. CompPlex Janus made it possible to spatialise the results for these four measures in landscape complexity maps. As expected, both for the complexity patterns evaluated by CompPlex HeROI and the complexity maps generated by CompPlex Janus, the areas with vegetation located in a region of intermediate spatial heterogeneity had lower values for the He and He/Hmax measures and higher values for the LMC and SDL measurements. So, these landscape metrics were able to capture the behaviour of the patterns of different types of land use present in the study area, bringing together uses linked to vegetation with increased canopy coverage and differentiating them from urban areas and transition areas that mix different uses. Thus, the algorithms implemented in these scripts were demonstrated to be robust and capable of measuring the variability in information levels from the landscape, not only in terms of spatial datasets but also spectrally. The automation of measurement calculations, owing to informational entropy provided by these scripts, allows a quick assessment of the complexity of patterns present in a landscape, and thus, generates indicators of landscape integrity and resilience

Increased hippocampal accumulation of autophagosomes predicts short-term recognition memory impairment in aged mice

Constitutive macroautophagy involved in the turnover of defective long-lived proteins and organelles is crucial for neuronal homeostasis. We hypothesized that macroautophagic dysregulation in selective brain regions was associated with memory impairment in aged mice. We used the single-trial object recognition test to measure short-term memory in 18 aged mice compared to 22 young mice and employed immunohistochemistry to assess cellular distribution of proteins involved in the selective degradation of ubiquitinated proteins via macroautophagy. Values of the discrimination ratio (DR, a measure of short-term recognition memory performance) in aged mice were significantly lower than those in young mice (median, 0.54 vs. 0.67; p = 0.005, U test). Almost exclusively in aged mice, there were clusters of puncta immunoreactive for microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), ubiquitin- and LC3-binding protein p62, and ubiquitin in neuronal processes predominantly in the hippocampal formation, olfactory bulb/tubercle, and cerebellar cortex. The hippocampal burden of clustered puncta immunoreactive for LC3 and p62 exhibited inverse linear correlations with DR in aged mice (ρ = −0.48 and −0.55, p = 0.044 and 0.018, respectively, Spearman’s rank correlation). These findings suggest that increased accumulation of autophagosomes within neuronal processes in selective brain regions is characteristic of aging. The dysregulation of macroautophagy can adversely affect the turnover of aggregate-prone proteins and defective organelles, which may contribute to memory impairment in aged mice

Intravenous alteplase for stroke with unknown time of onset guided by advanced imaging: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data

Background: Patients who have had a stroke with unknown time of onset have been previously excluded from thrombolysis. We aimed to establish whether intravenous alteplase is safe and effective in such patients when salvageable tissue has been identified with imaging biomarkers. Methods: We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data for trials published before Sept 21, 2020. Randomised trials of intravenous alteplase versus standard of care or placebo in adults with stroke with unknown time of onset with perfusion-diffusion MRI, perfusion CT, or MRI with diffusion weighted imaging-fluid attenuated inversion recovery (DWI-FLAIR) mismatch were eligible. The primary outcome was favourable functional outcome (score of 0–1 on the modified Rankin Scale [mRS]) at 90 days indicating no disability using an unconditional mixed-effect logistic-regression model fitted to estimate the treatment effect. Secondary outcomes were mRS shift towards a better functional outcome and independent outcome (mRS 0–2) at 90 days. Safety outcomes included death, severe disability or death (mRS score 4–6), and symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020166903. Findings: Of 249 identified abstracts, four trials met our eligibility criteria for inclusion: WAKE-UP, EXTEND, THAWS, and ECASS-4. The four trials provided individual patient data for 843 individuals, of whom 429 (51%) were assigned to alteplase and 414 (49%) to placebo or standard care. A favourable outcome occurred in 199 (47%) of 420 patients with alteplase and in 160 (39%) of 409 patients among controls (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1·49 [95% CI 1·10–2·03]; p=0·011), with low heterogeneity across studies (I2=27%). Alteplase was associated with a significant shift towards better functional outcome (adjusted common OR 1·38 [95% CI 1·05–1·80]; p=0·019), and a higher odds of independent outcome (adjusted OR 1·50 [1·06–2·12]; p=0·022). In the alteplase group, 90 (21%) patients were severely disabled or died (mRS score 4–6), compared with 102 (25%) patients in the control group (adjusted OR 0·76 [0·52–1·11]; p=0·15). 27 (6%) patients died in the alteplase group and 14 (3%) patients died among controls (adjusted OR 2·06 [1·03–4·09]; p=0·040). The prevalence of symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage was higher in the alteplase group than among controls (11 [3%] vs two [<1%], adjusted OR 5·58 [1·22–25·50]; p=0·024). Interpretation: In patients who have had a stroke with unknown time of onset with a DWI-FLAIR or perfusion mismatch, intravenous alteplase resulted in better functional outcome at 90 days than placebo or standard care. A net benefit was observed for all functional outcomes despite an increased risk of symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage. Although there were more deaths with alteplase than placebo, there were fewer cases of severe disability or death. Funding: None