Analysis of a hyper-diverse seed dispersal network: modularity and underlying mechanisms

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

Amphibians and reptiles from a highly diverse area of the Caatinga domain: composition and conservation implications

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

Prediction of occurrences of diverse chemical classes in the Asteraceae through artificial neural networks

The training and the application of a neural network system for the prediction of occurrences of secondary metabolites belonging to diverse chemical classes in the Asteraceae is described. From a database containing about 604 genera and 28,000 occurrences of secondary metabolites in the plant family, information was collected encompassing nine chemical classes and their respective occurrences for training of a multi-layer net using the back-propagation algorithm. The net supplied as output the presence or absence of the chemical classes as well as the number of compounds isolated from each taxon. The results provided by the net from the presence or absence of a chemical class showed a 89% hit rate; by excluding triterpenes from the analysis, only 5% of the genera studied exhibited errors greater than 10%. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Genetically Diverse Coronaviruses in Captive Bird Populations in a Brazilian Zoological Park

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

Diverse Amorphous Carbonaceous Thin Films Obtained by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition and Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation and Deposition

Diverse amorphous hydrogenated carbon and similar films containing additional elements were produced by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) and by Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation and Deposition (PIIID). Thus a-C:H, a-C:H:F, a-C:H:N, a-C:H:Cl and a-C:H:O:Si were obtained, starting from the same feed gases, using both techniques. The same deposition system supplied with radiofrequency (RF) power was used to produce all the films. A cylindrical stainless steel chamber equipped with circular electrodes mounted horizontally was employed. RF power was fed to the upper electrode; substrates were placed on the lower electrode. For PIIID negative high tension pulses were also applied to the lower electrode. Raman spectroscopy confirmed that all the films are amorphous. Chemical characterization of each pair of films was undertaken using Infrared Reflection Absorption Spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. The former revealed the presence of specific structures, such as C-H, C-O, O-H. The latter allowed calculation of the ratio of hetero-atoms to carbon atoms in the films, e. g. F:C, N:C, and Si:C. Only relatively small differences in elemental composition were detected between films produced by the two methods. The deposition rate in PIIID is generally reduced in relation to that of PECVD; for a-C:H:Cl films the reduction factor is almost four.

Environmental diagnosis in areas with different use and occupation using the perception of diverse biological activity

In Brazil, the degradation of soil and landscape by urban and agricultural frontiers expansion leads to the need for comprehensive studies and consider the diverse biological activities generated from different interventions in the landscape, becoming an instrument for assessing the impacts and the decision for its environmental management. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of different forms of occupation of the landscape, considering ecological elements and their interactions. The work was carried out on the Instituto Agronômico in the county of Jundiai, in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The area under study has been subjected to different use and occupancy for a period of about 40 years. During this period the landscape has been transformed, with the current scenario can be classified as a degraded area mining; grassy area; Araucaria forest and pasture. These areas were evaluated by means of a transect, from which ten sampling sites were selected for the description of diverse biological activities, which included: evaluation and description of ground cover, identifying the presence of fungus and insect species. Furthermore, we evaluated in these points the pH, fertility and porosity of the topsoil (0-0.10 m). The results showed a variation of the elements analyzed and a relationship between the use and occupation of land in the different scenarios of the current landscape. The biological activity was more diverse in the Araucaria forest, reflected by the abundance of litter, higher content of organic matter and soil nutrients, demonstrating the effectiveness of the technique for assessing the level of degradation of the landscape used, which is expeditious and inexpensive.

Os projetos para o desenvolvimento da nação na Revista Cultura Política durante o Governo Vargas

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FFC

Marginália tropical: Cacaso, um poeta antropófago

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Ciência, técnica e periodismo no Rio de Janeiro (1808-1852)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Detection of chromosomal bla(CTX-M-2) in diverse Escherichia coli isolates from healthy broiler chickens

The rise of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli in food-producing animals is a growing concern for public health. We investigated ESBL producers isolated from broiler chickens in Brazil and characterized 19 CTX-M-2-producing E.coli. The ISCR1 was detected upstream of the chromosome-located gene bla(CTX-M-2), associated with sul-1 type integron structure. CTX-M-2-producing E.coli exhibited different PFGE-types and phylogenetic groups, showing a non-clonal dissemination. The sequence types found (ST93, ST155 and ST2309) have been associated with humans and animals worldwide. Herein, we report the chromosomal location of bla(CTX-M-2) on E.coli, highlighting the risks of multidrug-resistant bacteria in food-producing animals.

Biogeographic Distribution Patterns and Their Correlates in the Diverse Frog Fauna of the Atlantic Forest Hotspot

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

Diverse urban plantings managed with sufficient resource availability can increase plant productivity and arthropod diversity

Buildings structures and surfaces are explicitly being used to grow plants, and these "urban plantings" are generally designed for aesthetic value. Urban plantings also have the potential to contribute significant "ecological values" by increasing urban habitat for animals such as arthropods and by increasing plant productivity. In this study, we evaluated how the provision of these additional ecological values is affected by plant species richness; the availability of essential resources for plants, such as water, light, space; and soil characteristics. We sampled 33 plantings located on the exterior of three buildings in the urban center of Brisbane, Australia (subtropical climatic region) over 2, 6 week sampling periods characterized by different temperature and rainfall conditions. Plant cover was estimated as a surrogate for productivity as destructive sampling of biomass was not possible. We measured weekly light levels (photosynthetically active radiation), plant CO2 assimilation, soil CO2 efflux, and arthropod diversity. Differences in plant cover were best explained by a three-way interaction of plant species richness, management water regime and sampling period. As the richness of plant species increased in a planter, productivity and total arthropod richness also increased significantly likely due to greater habitat heterogeneity and quality. Overall we found urban plantings can provide additional ecological values if essential resources are maintained within a planter such as water, light and soil temperature. Diverse urban plantings that are managed with these principles in mind can contribute to the attraction of diverse arthropod communities, and lead to increased plant productivity within a dense urban context.

Murilo Mendes, Francis Ponge e o poema em prosa

The present paper aims to discuss the configuration of the prose poem both in the works of Murilo Mendes' Poliedro (1972) and Francis Ponge's Le parti pris des choses (1942). From the beginning, the similarity between both works is explained by the impulse of focusing on daily objects and also the diverse positioning of the lyrical subjects in Murilo Mendes (less objective) and Francis Ponge (more objective) when they establish a relation with the simple things they wish to marvel. In accordance, the form of the prose poem helps to build this specific and singular view of the objects. Using this background to dialogue with the critical scholarly resources on both writers, we briefly analyse some poems and set out to reflect on the prose poem, which holds the works of the Brazilian and the French poets open to comparison.

O conto de Rubens Figueiredo em As palavras secretas: conto contemporâneo

We work with the storybook, As Palavras Secretas, written by carioca Rubens Figueiredo. We treat, then, the Brazilian contemporary tale. For we study the writer’s fiction, first we met a critical bibliography about the narrative and a set of diverse texts: reports, articles, press releases, interviews and essays about the author’s work. We discourse characteristics and the compositional elements of each story and noticed that they are full of symbolism and various elements that they are recurrent. Some of these narratives deal with fragmentation of the man who, indeed, is a very striking feature in the actual Brazilian tale. We meet, then, with characters who feel the need to simulate an identity and that, therefore, coexist with a strong inner conflict. Three of the tales include the unlikelihood of that work, and present, therefore, elements that escape from reality. Finally, Rubens Figueiredo, in As Palavras Secretas, presented us narratives rather elongated, unlike what was ordinary in the category of the tale, which it usually consists of a short extension narrative

A emergência do pluralismo teórico-metodológico na alfabetização: em busca de uma prática pedagógica para formar escritores

This qualitative research was performed with the goal of investigating the contributions of theoretical and methodological perspectives in the alphabetization process, aiming to train proficient writers of texts with communicative function. Hence, such were the goals established for this research: giving a retrospective look on the synthetic and analytic methods of teaching literacy; verifying the possibilities and limits of theoretical and methodological approaches of acquiring the ability to write and identifying the teachers’ ideas concerning basic concepts (such as literacy, text and textual genres) imbued in the teaching of writing; and establishing which activities they develop in the course of teaching whether the pedagogical practices of the teacher observed contributed to the formation of students who were capable of producing significant texts of diverse genres, suitable to the objectives, to the readers, and to the context of the circulation of texts. The research was done in a public elementary school, in a 2nd grade class of the city of Jaú. Subjects of the research were four teachers and twenty-eight children. For this work, two instruments were used for data collecting: a questionnaire and direct observation, registered in research diaries. Among the observations made were that, although there are many studies on literacy, the practices actually adopted in class are empirical in nature and do not contribute to the process of developing individual writing or reading skills at all; rather, it is only valued the ability of establishing relations between phonemes and graphemes; literacy teachers do not have adequate knowledge of concepts of literacy, teaching, text and textual genres, valuing only one methodological theory and disregarding other contributions on the field of text production