Biomass and minerals distribution in family of banana 'prata-ana' fertilized with zinc through thinned sprout

In the North of Minas Gerais it is cultivated basically 'Prata-Ana' banana, a cultivar that requires mainly Zn. The possibility of zinc supply, without this nutrient getting in contact with the soil, it is important for the region, since several factors take to the low availability of the element supplied by the soil, as: elevated organic matter content on the surface (from cultural residues); maintenance of high pH of the soil - above 6,00 - as strategy contrary to the proliferation of the causal agent of the Fusarium Wilt; frequent fertilizations with potassium and magnesium that, besides converting the medium into base, they reduce the participation of Zn in the balance cation/anion of the soil, hindering the absortion of this micronutrient by the plant. For determining the distribution of biomass and minerals in the Prata-Ana" banana, cultivated under irrigation in the North of Minas Gerais, when the zinc was supplied through thinned sprout, an experiment was carried out in the Irrigated Perimeter of Jaiba. The plants were fertilized with 0,00; 1,66 and 3,33 g.family-(1) of Zn, through thinned sprout. One month after the fertilizations from October 2007 and February 2008, the production of fresh mass (FM) and dry mass (DM) were evaluated, the contents and meanings of minerals in all the bananas "family" bodies composed by mother-plant with bunch + tall daughter-plant + granddaughter-plant. The doses of Zn did not influence on the production of FM and DM of the plants in the first evaluation, while in the second evaluation positive effect of the treatment was observed just for MF accumulated in the inferior leaves, in the portions of the medium third and inferior of the pseudostem, and in the mother-plant's rhizome. As much the content as the accumulation of nutrients in the mother-plants presented the following decreasing order: K > N > Ca > Mg > P > S > Fe > Zn > B > Cu. The Zn contents were affected by the dose of that micronutrient in the most of the studied situations. The zinc supplied through thinned sprout increased in the mother-plant, and then it was redistributed in the banana's "family".

Bifurcation analysis of a new Lorenz-like chaotic system

In this paper we study the local codimension one and two bifurcations which occur in a family of three-dimensional vector fields depending on three parameters. An equivalent family, depending on five parameters, was recently proposed as a new chaotic system with a Lorenz-like butterfly shaped attractor and was studied mainly from a numerical point of view, for particular values of the parameters, for which computational evidences of the chaotic attractor was shown. In order to contribute to the understand of this new system we present an analytical study and the bifurcation diagrams of an equivalent three parameter system, showing the qualitative changes in the dynamics of its solutions, for different values of the parameters. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Levenberg-Marquardt application to two-phase nonlinear parameter estimation for finned-tube coil evaporators

A procedure for calculation of refrigerant mass flow rate is implemented in the distributed numerical model to simulate the flow in finned-tube coil dry-expansion evaporators, usually found in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. Two-phase refrigerant flow inside the tubes is assumed to be one-dimensional, unsteady, and homogeneous. In themodel the effects of refrigerant pressure drop and the moisture condensation from the air flowing over the external surface of the tubes are considered. The results obtained are the distributions of refrigerant velocity, temperature and void fraction, tube-wall temperature, air temperature, and absolute humidity. The finite volume method is used to discretize the governing equations. Additionally, given the operation conditions and the geometric parameters, the model allows the calculation of the refrigerant mass flow rate. The value of mass flow rate is computed using the process of parameter estimation with the minimization method of Levenberg-Marquardt minimization. In order to validate the developed model, the obtained results using HFC-134a as a refrigerant are compared with available data from the literature.

Between freedom and reclusion: Social support as a quality-of-life component in the family caregiver-dependent person binomial

This is a qualitative study which uses Grounded Theory as its methodological framework and Symbolic Interactionism as a theoretical base to understand the experience of family caregivers for Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA) patients with regard to social support during their rehabilitation process at home. The components (themes and categories) of the phenomenon assuming home care and specifically the themes assuming care with support and assuming care without support were inter-related for the purpose of comparison and analysis, in order to apprehend how the interaction between them occurred, It was observed that, in addition to the recovery of the patient's autonomy, social support is one of the intervenient components in the quality of life for the family caregiver-disabled person binomial, particularly with respect to the caregiver's freedom to resume his/her life plan.

Abdominopelvic sarcoma of perivascular epithelioid cells. Report of four cases in young women, one with tuberous sclerosis

The perivascular epithelioid cell has been proposed to be the unifying proliferating cell type in a number of lesions such as angiomyolipoma, lymphangiomyomatosis, clear cell sugar tumor and renal capsuloma. With the exception of rare examples of angiomyolipoma, they are non-metastasizing. We report four examples of a new member of this family of perivascular epithelioid cell neoplasms that occur in abdominopelvic location and show metastatic properties. The patients, all women, were aged 19 to 41 years (mean, 32), and presented with a tumor mass involving the serosa of the ileum, uterus or pelvic cavity. Morphologically, the tumors were composed of sheets of large polygonal cells with glycogen-rich clear or eosinophilic cytoplasm and moderately pleomorphic nuclei, traversed by a delicate vasculature, mimicking clear cell carcinoma. There were areas of coagulative necrosis and occasional mitotic figures. Intracytoplasmic brown pigment was present in two cases. Spindly cells, smooth muscle and fat were absent. Lymphovascular invasion was present in all, lymph node metastasis was documented in two and metastasis to the ovary was present in one case. Two patients developed widespread metastatic disease after 10 and 28 months from diagnosis. One patient showed the clinical signs of tuberous sclerosis. In spite of the epithelial-like appearance, the tumor cells were negative for epithelial markers but were strongly positive with the melanogenesis-related marker HMB45. Another melanogenesis marker (MART-1) was positive in two cases. Other markers including S-100 protein, vimentin, muscle-specific actin, desmin and chromogranin A were negative. Thus, these tumors are not readily classifiable in the existing schema of known entities, and show over-lapping morpho-phenotypic features of clear cell sugar tumor of the lung and epithelioid angiomyolipoma. We consider them as sarcomas composed of a pure population of uncommitted perivascular epithelioid cell, that lack modulation toward smooth muscle or adipose cells.

Karyotype characterization of Mugil incilis Hancock, 1830 (Mugiliformes: Mugilidae), including a description of an unusual co-localization of major and minor ribosomal genes in the family

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The 5S rDNA family evolves through concerted and birth-and-death evolution in fish genomes: an example from freshwater stingrays

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Cytogenetics studies in Brazilian species of Pseudophyllinae (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): 2n(♂)=35 and fn=35 the probable basic and ancestral karyotype of the family tettigoniidae

The karyotypes of five species of Brazilian Pseudophyllinae belonging to four tribes were here studied. The data available in the literature altogether with those obtained with species in here studied allowed us to infer that 2n(♂)=35 is the highest chromosome number found in the family Tettigoniidae and that it is present in species belonging to Pseudophyllinae, Zaprochilinae and in one species of Tettigoniinae. In spite of that all five species exhibit secondary karyotypes arisen surely by a mechanism of chromosomal rearrangement of centric fusion, tandem fusion and centric inversion types from those with 2n(♂)=35 and FN=35, they share some common traits. The X chromosome is submetacentric (FN=36), heteropicnotic during the first prophase, the largest of the set but its size is rather variable among the species and the sex chromosomal mechanism is of the XO( ♂ ), XX( ♀ ) type. The chromosomal rearrangements involved in the karyotype evolution of the Pseudophyllinae and its relationship with those of the family Tettigoniidae are discussed and we propose that the basic and the ancestral karyotype of the Tettigoniidae is formed by 2n(♂)=35, FN=35 and not by 2n(♂)=31, FN= 31, as usually accepted.

A single nucleotide deletion at the C1 inhibitor gene as the cause of hereditary angioedema: insights from a Brazilian family

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Trends in the karyotypic evolution of the Neotropical catfish family Heptapteridae Bockmann 1998 (Teleostei: Siluriformes)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Comparative analysis of the testes and spermatogenesis in species of the family Pentatomidae (Heteroptera)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Venom peptide analysis of Vipera ammodytes meridionalis (Viperinae) and Bothrops jararacussu (Crotalinae) demonstrates subfamily-specificity of the peptidome in the family Viperidae

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

An Extension of Craig's Family of Lattices

Let p be a prime, and let zeta(p) be a primitive p-th root of unity. The lattices in Craig's family are (p - 1)-dimensional and are geometrical representations of the integral Z[zeta(p)]-ideals < 1 - zeta(p)>(i), where i is a positive integer. This lattice construction technique is a powerful one. Indeed, in dimensions p - 1 where 149 <= p <= 3001, Craig's lattices are the densest packings known. Motivated by this, we construct (p - 1)(q - 1)-dimensional lattices from the integral Z[zeta(pq)]-ideals < 1 - zeta(p)>(i) < 1 - zeta(q)>(j), where p and q are distinct primes and i and fare positive integers. In terms of sphere-packing density, the new lattices and those in Craig's family have the same asymptotic behavior. In conclusion, Craig's family is greatly extended while preserving its sphere-packing properties.

A study of actinic cheilitis treatment by two low-morbidity CO(2) laser vaporization one-pass protocols

Therapeutic approaches to chronic actinic cheilitis focus on the removal or destruction of diseased epithelium. The CO(2) laser has become an important therapeutic alternative, achieving clinical resolution in around 90% of patients. Although many laser physical parameters have been reported, some are known for their low potential for scar induction without compromising the success of the results. The aim of this clinicohistological study was to compare the therapeutic responses to two low-morbidity protocols involving a single laser pass. A total of 40 patients with chronic multicentric and microscopically proven disease were randomly submitted to two conservative CO(2) laser protocols using a bilateral comparative model. The degree of histological atypia of the epithelium was determined in 26 patients both pre- and postoperatively for both protocols. Other histological phenomena were assessed in addition to this central analysis parameter. Clinical recurrence occurred in 12.5% of patients for each protocol, together with a significant reduction in the degree of epithelial atypia (p < 0.001), which was occasionally complete. However, no difference was found between the protocols (p > 0.05). Using these morphological parameters it was not possible to determine whether postoperative epithelial atypias in part of the sample were reactive or residual in nature. A few patients may show minor postoperative lesions. Due to their potential to achieve clinical and importantly microscopic resolution, the studied protocols may be used for mild through moderate dysplastic epithelium and clinically diffuse disease.

Parameter degeneracies in neutrino oscillation measurement of leptonic CP and T violation

The measurement of the mixing angle theta(13), sign of Deltam(13)(2), and the CP or T violating phase delta is fraught with ambiguities in neutrino oscillation. In this paper we give an analytic treatment of the paramater degeneracies associated with measuring the nu(mu)-->nu(e) probability and its CP and/or T conjugates. For CP violation, we give explicit solutions to allow us to obtain the regions where there exist twofold and fourfold degeneracies. We calculate the fractional differences, (Deltatheta/(θ) over bar), between the allowed solutions which may be used to compare with the expected sensitivities of the experiments. For T violation we show that there is always a complete degeneracy between solutions with positive and negative Deltam(13)(2) which arises due to a symmetry and cannot be removed by observing one neutrino oscillation probability and its T conjugate. Thus there is always a fourfold parameter degeneracy apart from exceptional points. Explicit solutions are also given and the fractional differences are computed. The biprobability CP/T trajectory diagrams are extensively used to illuminate the nature of the degeneracies.