Construction of a river buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) whole-genome radiation hybrid panel and preliminary RH mapping of chromosomes 3 and 10

The buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) not only is a useful source of milk, it also provides meat and works as a natural source of labor and biogas. To establish a project for buffalo genome mapping a 5,000-rad whole genome radiation hybrid panel was constructed for river buffalo and used to build preliminary RH maps from two chromosomes (BBU 3 and BBU10). The preliminary maps contain 66 markers, including coding genes, cattle ESTs and microsatellite loci. The RH maps presented here are the starting point for mapping additional loci, in particular, genes and expressed sequence tags that will allow detailed comparative maps between buffalo, cattle and other species to be constructed. A large quantity of DNA has been prepared from the cell lines forming the RH panel reported here and will be made publicly available to the international community both for the study of chromosome evolution and for the improvement of traits important to the role of buffalo in animal agriculture.

Construction of a river buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) whole-genome radiation hybrid panel and preliminary RH mapping of chromosomes 3 and 10

The buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a source of milk and meat, and also serves as a draft animal. In this study, a 5000-rad whole-genome radiation hybrid (RH) panel for river buffalo was constructed and used to build preliminary RH maps for BBU3 and BBU10 chromosomes. The preliminary maps contain 66 markers, including coding genes, cattle expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and microsatellite loci. The RH maps presented here are the starting point for mapping additional loci that will allow detailed comparative maps between buffalo, cattle and other species whose genomes may be mapped in the future. A large quantity of DNA has been prepared from the cell lines forming the river buffalo RH panel and will be made publicly available to the international community both for the study of chromosome evolution and for the improvement of traits important to the role of buffalo in animal agriculture.

Classification and characterization of places for mapping of environment using hierarchical neural network and omnivision

Mobile robots need autonomy to fulfill their tasks. Such autonomy is related whith their capacity to explorer and to recognize their navigation environments. In this context, the present work considers techniques for the classification and extraction of features from images, using artificial neural networks. This images are used in the mapping and localization system of LACE (Automation and Evolutive Computing Laboratory) mobile robot. In this direction, the robot uses a sensorial system composed by ultrasound sensors and a catadioptric vision system equipped with a camera and a conical mirror. The mapping system is composed of three modules; two of them will be presented in this paper: the classifier and the characterizer modules. Results of these modules simulations are presented in this paper.

Purification and characterization of a new alkaline serine protease from the thermophilic fungus Myceliophthora sp.

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

Absence or weak correlation between chewing side preference and lateralities in primary, mixed and permanent dentition

Objectives: To determine whether chewing side preference (CSP) is correlated to lateralities (handedness, footedness, eyedness and earedness) in primary, mixed and permanent dentitions.Design: Three-hundred subjects were divided into 3 groups: Group 1-100 children 3-5 years old, primary dentition; Group 2-100 children 6-12 years old, mixed dentition; Group 3 - 100 subjects 18-47 years old, permanent dentition. CSP was determined using a method developed by Mc Donnell et al.(9) Subjects were given a piece of gum and the position of the chewing gum was recorded 7 times as right or left. Subjects were classified as 'observed preferred chewing side' (OPCS) when they performed 5/7, 6/7 or 7/7 strokes on the same side. OPCS corresponded to the CSP. Laterality tests were performed for handedness, footedness, eyedness and earedness tasks. The Chi-square (chi(2)) and phi correlation (r) tests were used to investigate significant correlations between CSP and sidedness.Results: There was a significant correlation between chewing and earedness (p = 0.00), although there was weak positive correlation (r = 0.30) for primary dentition. There were significant correlations between chewing and handedness (p = 0.02; r = 0.25) and chewing and footedness (p = 0.02; r = 0.26), however, there were weak positive correlations for mixed dentition; there were significant correlations between chewing and handedness (p = 0.02; r = 0.26); chewing and footedness (p = 0.00; r = 0.33) and chewing and earedness (p = 0.01; r = 0.29); however, there were weak positive correlations for permanent dentition.Conclusion: It may be concluded that CSP can be significantly correlated with: earedness for primary dentition; handedness and footedness for mixed dentition; handedness, footedness and earedness for permanent dentition, but these are weak positive relationships. Future work on larger samples of left- and right-sided individuals is required to validate the findings. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mapping the Wigner distribution function of the Morse oscillator onto a semiclassical distribution function

The mapping of the Wigner distribution function (WDF) for a given bound state onto a semiclassical distribution function (SDF) satisfying the Liouville equation introduced previously by us is applied to the ground state of the Morse oscillator. The purpose of the present work is to obtain values of the potential parameters represented by the number of levels in the case of the Morse oscillator, for which the SDF becomes a faithful approximation of the corresponding WDF. We find that for a Morse oscillator with one level only, the agreement between the WDF and the mapped SDF is very poor but for a Morse oscillator of ten levels it becomes satisfactory. We also discuss the limit h --> 0 for fixed potential parameters.

Mapping of composite hadrons into elementary hadrons and effective hadronic Hamiltonians

A mapping technique is used to derive in the context of constituent quark models effective Hamiltonians that involve explicit hadron degrees of freedom. The technique is based on the ideas of mapping between physical and ideal Fock spaces and shares similarities with the quasiparticle method of Weinberg. Starting with the Fock-space representation of single-hadron states, a change of representation is implemented by a unitary transformation such that composites are redescribed by elementary Bose and Fermi field operators in an extended Fock space. When the unitary transformation is applied to the microscopic quark Hamiltonian, effective, hermitian Hamiltonians with a clear physical interpretation are obtained. Applications and comparisons with other composite-particle formalisms of the recent literature are made using the nonrelativistic quark model. (C) 1998 Academic Press.

THE EFFECT of WEAK DISSIPATION IN TWO-DIMENSIONAL MAPPING

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Mapping soil pollution by spatial analysis and fuzzy classification

Spatial analysis and fuzzy classification techniques were used to estimate the spatial distributions of heavy metals in soil. The work was applied to soils in a coastal region that is characterized by intense urban occupation and large numbers of different industries. Concentrations of heavy metals were determined using geostatistical techniques and classes of risk were defined using fuzzy classification. The resulting prediction mappings identify the locations of high concentrations of Pb, Zn, Ni, and Cu in topsoils of the study area. The maps show that areas of high pollution of Ni and Cu are located at the northeast, where there is a predominance of industrial and agricultural activities; Pb and Zn also occur in high concentrations in the northeast, but the maps also show significant concentrations of Pb and Zn in other areas, mainly in the central and southeastern parts, where there are urban leisure activities and trade centers. Maps were also prepared showing levels of pollution risk. These maps show that (1) Cu presents a large pollution risk in the north-northwest, midwest, and southeast sectors, (2) Pb represents a moderate risk in most areas, (3) Zn generally exhibits low risk, and (4) Ni represents either low risk or no risk in the studied area. This study shows that combining geostatistics with fuzzy theory can provide results that offer insight into risk assessment for environmental pollution.

Mapping an uncertainty zone between interpolated types of a categorical variable

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Geoelectrical mapping of contamination in the cemeteries: the case study in Piracicaba, São Paulo/Brazil

This paper presents the results of electrical resistivity methods in the area delineation that was potentially contaminated by liquefaction products, which are also called putrefactive liquids in Vila Rezende municipal cemetery, Piracicaba, So Paulo, Brazil. The results indicate a depth of water table between 3.1 and 5.1 m, with two groundwater direction flows, one to the SW and another to the SE. Due to the contamination plumes, which have the same groundwater direction flow, as well the conductive anomalies observed in the geoelectric sections, the contamination suspicions in the area were confirmed. The probable plume to the SE extends beyond the limits of the cemetery. The location of the conductive anomalies and the probable contamination plumes showed that the contamination is linked with the depth of the water table and the burial time. Mapping using the geostatistical method of ordinary kriging applied to the work drew structural characteristics of the regional phenomenon and spatial behavior of the electrical resistivity data, resulting in continued surfaces. Thus, this method has proved to be an important tool for mapping contamination plumes in cemeteries.

Preference ratios for mercury and other chemical elements in the Madeira River, Brazil

Samples of water, suspended solids, and bottom sediments from the Madeira River, Rondonia state, Brazil, were physically and chemically analyzed to investigate the actual Hg mobilization in the aquatic environment and compare it with that of other heavy metals and elements in the area. Two dimensionless Hg preference ratios were defined, expressing (1) the ratio of Hg and other elements in the liquid phase divided by the ratio of Hg and other elements in bottom sediments (P(l.phase)) and (2) the ratio of Hg and other elements in the particulate matter divided by the ratio of Hg and other elements in bottom sediments (P(s.solids)). These preference ratios are useful for comparing Hg transport in three different phases (liquid, particulate matter, and bottom sediments). They also were applicable to any analyzed elementin the area studied, because they generated an almost constant value when the maximum calculated was divided by the minimum (P(l.phase) = 2931; P(s.solids) = 84) and because of their sensitivity to the dominance of sorption processes by Fe oxides and hydroxides. Mercury could be transported preferentially to other analyzed elements in the particulate phase only if its concentration reached values at least 10(4)-fold higher than those expected or quantified in the area. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oviposition preference of Bemisia tabaci (Genn.) biotype B (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) for bean genotypes containing arcelin in the seeds

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

Mapping oil spill environmental sensitivity in cardoso island state park and surroundings areas, São Paulo, Brazil

This study presents an environmental oil spill sensitivity map of Cardoso Island State Park, located in São Paulo state, Brazil, including some of its surrounding areas. This map was designed following the procedures determined by the Brazilian Federal Environment Organ (Ministry of the Environment), which separates coastal habitats in different littoral sensitivity indexes (LSI) to oil spills. We have also analysed some seasonal variations in morphologic and textural parameters at the local marine beaches that could affect their sensitivity, having found that they are more sensitive during summer due to a wider foreshore zone during these periods. Local most sensitive habitats are estuarine mangroves (LSI 10) and estuarine mud banks (LSI 9). Marine beaches were ranked LSI 3, and littoral rocky shores were subdivided in exposed flat rocky shores (LSI 1), boulder rocky shores (LSI 6) and sheltered rocky shores (LSI 8). Due to the elevated sensitivity of an estuarine system in the area, we considered necessary the installation of an Environmental Emergency Centre and the design of an emergency plan for the region in case of an accident resulting in oil spills within its vicinities. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.