Dominance of legume trees alters nutrient relations in mixed species forest restoration plantings within seven years

Failures in reforestation are often attributed to nutrient limitation for tree growth. We compared tree performance and nitrogen and phosphorus relations in adjacent mixed-species plantings of contrasting composition, established for forest restoration on Ultisol soil, originally covered by tropical semi-deciduous Atlantic Forest in Southeast Brazil. Nutrient relations of four tree species occurring in both planting mixtures were compared between a legume-dominated, species-poor direct seeding mixture of early-successional species ("legume mixture"), and a species-diverse, legume-poor mixture of all successional groups ("diverse mixture"). After 7 years, the legume mixture had 6-fold higher abundance of N(2)-fixing trees, 177% higher total tree basal area, 22% lower litter C/N, six-fold higher in situ soil resin-nitrate, and 40% lower in situ soil resin-P, compared to the diverse mixture. In the legume mixture, non-N(2)-fixing legume Schizolobium parahyba (Fabaceae-Caesalpinioideae) had significantly lower proportional N resorption, and both naturally regenerating non-legume trees had significantly higher leaf N concentrations, and higher proportional P resorption, than in the diverse mixture. This demonstrate forms of plastic adjustment in all three non-N(2)-fixing species to diverged nutrient relations between mixtures. By contrast, leaf nutrient relations in N(2)-fixing Enterolobium contortisiliquum (Fabaceae-Mimosoideae) did not respond to planting mixtures. Rapid N accumulation in the legume mixture caused excess soil nitrification over nitrate immobilization and tighter P recycling compared with the diverse mixture. The legume mixture succeeded in accelerating tree growth and canopy closure, but may imply periods of N losses and possibly P limitation. Incorporation of species with efficient nitrate uptake and P mobilization from resistant soil pools offers potential to optimize these tradeoffs.

BROKEN SU(8) AND HADRONIC MASS RELATIONS IN HEAVY-QUARK EFFECTIVE THEORY

Mass relations for hadrons containing a single heavy quark (charm or beauty) are studied from the viewpoint of a quark model with broken SU(8) symmetry, developed by Hendry and Lichtenberg some time ago, in comparison to that of the heavy quark effective theory. The interplay of the two approaches is explored and spectroscopic consequences derived.

The South Atlantic: Brazil-Africa Relations in the Field of Security and Defense

South-South Cooperation has become one of the axis of the Brazilian foreign policy, especially when related to Africa. Besides the economic, political and technologic areas, among others, the Brazilian government created a series of cooperation agreements with many African countries in the field of security and defense. This paper analyses the objective and reach of the actions concerning South-South Cooperation between the government of Brazil and the African countries, especially the ones from Atlantic Africa, making use of a bibliography related to the subject and sources derived from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Defense.

Systemic blood flow relations in conscious South American rattlesnakes

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

Teachers Formation in Higher Education: Some Aspects under the Light of Education-Work Relations

This text is mainly aimed to address essential aspects of teacher formation in the light of education-work relations in the higher education, from our systematic experience in higher education teaching, particularly teaching and research in the field of Didactics discipline. This formulation is justified considering our concern in seeking to situate this discussion in the context of bringing together knowledge areas and the field of teaching knowledge. Still, our choice to develop such an approach in the light of work-education relationship is due to the belief about the possibilities of seeking to overcome the requirements imposed by capitalism to our educational system, within the possible contradictions of these relationships. In this context the teachers’ formation in higher education gains social and strategic importance, taking on the task of forming individuals of “action-reflection-action” in a society established historically based on the social relations which settle in the light of capital’s multiple determinations. It appears that, in this sense, the major confrontations have been given within the discussions about what to prioritize or combine in the list of criteria and content for teacher’s formation. In Didactic, we seek to emphasize discussions that we consider with a philosophical background, referring to the orientation of teaching practice in knowledge of contemporary ideological struggle; socio-historical, referring to the possibility of formation of disciplines, among them Didactic, and curriculums and references to support its guidance in the process of teacher’s formation. This context of discussion is based on the concrete teaching practice with a view to transformation and to search for new syntheses in terms of knowledge and in terms of historical reality. Then therefore, our methodological approach grounded in the dimensions of the same unit: historical materialism as posture, method and as praxis.

The Relationship between Authors and Main Thematic Categories in the Field of Knowledge Organization: A Bibliometric Approach

This is a study about the relationships between authors and the main thematic categories in the papers published in the last five International ISKO Conferences, held between 2002 and 2010. The aim is to map the domain as ISKO conferences are considered the most representative forum in the field. The published papers are considered to indicate the relationships between authors and themes. The Classification Scheme for Knowledge Organization Error! Bookmark not defined Literature (CSKOL) was used to categorize the papers. The theoretical and methodological foundations of the study can be found in the concept of domain analysis proposed by Hjorland. The analysis of the papers (n=146) led to the identification of the most productive authors, the networks representing the relationships between the authors as also the categories that constitute the primary areas of research.

Estimating mortality in laying hens as the environmental temperature increases

Layer mortality due to heat stress is an important economic loss for the producer. The aim of this study was to determine the mortality pattern of layers reared in the region of Bastos, SP, Brazil, according to external environment and bird age. Data mining technique were used based on monthly mortality records of hens in production, 135 poultry houses, from January 2004 to August 2008. The external environment was characterized according maximum and minimum temperatures, obtained monthly at the meteorological station CATI in the city of Tupa, SP, Brazil. Mortality was classified as normal (<= 1.2%) or high (> 1.2%), considering the mortality limits mentioned in literature. Data mining technique produced a decision tree with nine levels and 23 leaves, with 62.6% of overall accuracy. The hit rate for the High class was 64.1% and 59.9% for Normal class. The decision tree allowed finding a pattern in the mortality data, generating a model for estimating mortality based on the thermal environment and bird age.

A novel A2 allele found in Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum chagasi

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

An efficient neural approach to economic load dispatch in power systems

A neural approach to solve the problem defined by the economic load dispatch in power systems is presented in this paper, Systems based on artificial neural networks have high computational rates due to the use of a massive number of simple processing elements and the high degree of connectivity between these elements the ability of neural networks to realize some complex nonlinear function makes them attractive for system optimization the neural networks applyed in economic load dispatch reported in literature sometimes fail to converge towards feasible equilibrium points the internal parameters of the modified Hopfield network developed here are computed using the valid-subspace technique These parameters guarantee the network convergence to feasible quilibrium points, A solution for the economic load dispatch problem corresponds to an equilibrium point of the network. Simulation results and comparative analysis in relation to other neural approaches are presented to illustrate efficiency of the proposed approach.

A DOE based approach for the design of RBF artificial neural networks applied to prediction of surface roughness in AISI 52100 hardened Steel turning

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in children with obstructive sleep apnea and primary snoring

Objective: To evaluate the systemic blood pressure (BP) during daytime and nighttime in children with sleep breathing disorders (SBD) and compare parameters of BP in children with diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) to those one with primary snoring (PS).Methods: Children, both genders, aged from 8 to 12 years, with symptoms of SBD realized an overnight polysomnography followed by a 24 h recording of ambulatory BP.Results: All subjects presented with a history of snoring 7 nights per week. Children who have apnea/hipoapnea index >= four or a apnea index >= one presented a mean BP of 93 +/- 7 mmHg and 85 +/- 9 mmHg diurnal and nocturnal respectively whereas children who have a apnea/hipoapnea < four or a apnea index < one presented 90 +/- 7 mmHg and 77 +/- 2 mmHg. Eight children out of fourteen, from OSA group, lost the physiologic nocturnal dipping of the blood pressure. Among OSA children 57% were considered non-dippers. Two (16%) have presented absence of nocturnal dipping among children with primary snoring. The possibility of OSA children loosing physiologic blood pressure dipping was 6.66 higher than the possibilities of patients from PS group.Discussion: Our results indicate that children with sleep apnea syndrome exhibit a higher 24 h blood pressure when compared with those of primary snoring in form of decreased degree of nocturnal dipping and increased levels of diastolic and mean blood pressure, according to previous studies in literature. OSA in children seems to be associated to the development of hypertension or other cardiovascular disease. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of different protocols for anatomical studies in Parmeliaceae (lichenized Ascomycota)

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