Seleção de ingredientes ativos para o controle do cupim subterrâneo Coptotermes gestroi (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Pontos polêmicos acerca do forrageamento de cupins subterrâneos (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae): consumo de alimentos similares, reutilização de iscas e tunelamento em solos não uniformes

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

Busca de parceiros físicos da proteína CRABP2, utilizando o sistema de duplo-híbrido em Saccharomyces cerevisae

A metilação de ilhas CpG em regiões regulatórias de vários genes tem sido descrita como um processo importante no silenciamento de genes supressores de tumor e diretamente envolvida no processo de carcinogênese de uma série de tumores. O estudo desses genes afetados pela metilação em tumores visa à procura de marcadores moleculares para o diagnóstico, prognóstico e tratamento de tumores, e também a caracterização do seu papel no processo biológico do câncer. O nosso grupo de pesquisa participou de um Projeto Temático que visa a identificação de genes metilados em tumores de cabeça e pescoço (processo 03/09497-3) e foi então proposta a utilização do sistema de duplo-híbrido de levedura como ferramenta no início da análise funcional destes genes. Dessa maneira, utilizando como isca o gene CRABP2 identificado como diferencialmente metilado em câncer de cabeça e pescoço, foi realizado o rastreamento de duplo-híbrido para a identificação de interações físicas proteína-proteína. Foram rastreados aproximadamente 2,1x105 transformantes neste sistema, dos quais 550 foram inicialmente positivos para His+. Desses, 182 transformantes confirmaram a marca His+ e foram testados para -galactosidase. Em seguida, 19 foram selecionados para passar pela etapa do “plasmid linkage”. Após esse teste, 9 clones confirmaram a ligação dos marcadores His+ e β-gal+ com a presença do plasmídeo LEU2 . Assim, após o sequenciamento dos insertos contidos nos clones identificados, ciclina D3 (CCND3), alfa-macroglobulina 2 (A2M) (2 clones), canal aniônico dependente de voltagem 2 (VDAC2), tubulina alfa 1 (TUBA1), tubulina alfa 2 (TUBA2), tubulina beta (TUBB), fator de ligação ao “enhancer” do gene interleucina 2 (ILF2) e desoxi-hipusina sintase (DHPS) emergiram como ligantes de CRABP2

Alterações na dinâmica de colônias de Atta sexdens rubropillosa Forel, 1906 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) submetidas ao tratamento com iscas tóxicas

As formigas cortadeiras são consideradas pragas por causarem diversos prejuízos em áreas agrícolas e, por este motivo, há um crescente interesse em métodos variados de controle destes insetos. Atualmente, existem diversos métodos de controle conhecidos, mas o mais utilizado é o controle químico, que apresenta diferentes estratégias de formulação e modos de aplicação. O principal método químico utilizado são as iscas tóxicas, que tem a melhor eficiência e já são utilizadas em escala comercial. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar as alterações que ocorrem na dinâmica de colônias de Atta sexdens rubropilosa Forel, 1906 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) submetidas ao tratamento com iscas tóxicas contendo os ingredientes ativos sulfluramida e hidrametilnona, as quais serão comparadas com uma colônia controle, que receberá isca sem ingrediente ativo. Para isso, foram utilizadas três colônias de A. s. rubropilosa, mantidas em laboratório, com aproximadamente 1000 mL de jardim de fungo cada. Elas foram dispostas em vitrais, interligados a dois potes plásticos, um para a câmara de forrageamento e outro para o lixo. Um dia antes de iniciar o experimento, todo o lixo foi retirado e as colônias foram deixadas sem o fornecimento de alimento. Após 24 horas sem alimentação, as iscas foram oferecidas na câmara de forrageamento de cada colônia. A colônia 1 recebeu 3g de isca sem ingrediente ativo; a colônia 2 recebeu 3g de isca contendo sulfluramida; e a colônia 3 recebeu 3g de isca contendo hidrametilnona. Durante 10 dias, foram avaliados aspectos como carregamento, incorporação e devolução das iscas, alterações comportamentais das operárias classificadas como sintomas de intoxicação, mudanças no aspecto físico dos jardins de fungo, como umidade e aparecimento de fungos contaminantes, e a extinção da colônia. A partir dos dados obtidos, foram feitas análises comparativas das atividades comportamentais...

Associação da ocorrência de formigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) com atributos do solo e da vegetação em um domínio do cerrado à nordeste do estado do maranhão, Brasil

Pós-graduação em Agronomia (Ciência do Solo) - FCAV

Evaluation of Knowledge Regarding Diagnostic Strategies for Genetic Diseases in Select Residents

Genetics education for physicians has been a popular publication topic in the United States and in Europe for over 20 years. Decreasing numbers of medical genetics professionals and an increasing volume of genetic information has created a dire need for increased genetics training in medical school and in clinical practice. This study aimed to assess how well pediatrics-focused primary care physicians apply their general genetics knowledge to clinical genetic testing using scenario-based questions. We chose to specifically focus on knowledge of the diagnostic applicability of Chromosomal Microarray (CMA) technology in pediatrics because of its recent recommendation by the International Standard Cytogenomic Array (ISCA) Consortium as a first-tier genetic test for individuals with developmental disabilities and/or congenital anomalies. Proficiency in ordering baseline genetic testing was evaluated for eighty-one respondents from four pediatrics-focused residencies (categorical pediatrics, pediatric neurology, internal medicine/pediatrics, and family practice) at two large residency programs in Houston, Texas. Similar to other studies, we found an overall deficit of genetic testing knowledge, especially among family practice residents. Interestingly, residents who elected to complete a genetics rotation in medical school scored significantly better than expected, as well as better than residents who did not elect to complete a genetics rotation. We suspect that the insufficient knowledge among physicians regarding a baseline genetics work-up is leading to redundant (i.e. concurrent karyotype and CMA) and incorrect (i.e. ordering CMA to detect achondroplasia) genetic testing and is contributing to rising health care costs in the United States. Our results provide specific teaching points upon which medical schools can focus education about clinical genetic testing and suggest that increased collaboration between primary care physicians and genetics professionals could benefit patient health care overall.

Towards speaking style transplantation in speech synthesis

One of the biggest challenges in speech synthesis is the production of naturally sounding synthetic voices. This means that the resulting voice must be not only of high enough quality but also that it must be able to capture the natural expressiveness imbued in human speech. This paper focus on solving the expressiveness problem by proposing a set of different techniques that could be used for extrapolating the expressiveness of proven high quality speaking style models into neutral speakers in HMM-based synthesis. As an additional advantage, the proposed techniques are based on adaptation approaches, which means that they can be used with little training data (around 15 minutes of training data are used in each style for this paper). For the final implementation, a set of 4 speaking styles were considered: news broadcasts, live sports commentary, interviews and parliamentary speech. Finally, the implementation of the 5 techniques were tested through a perceptual evaluation that proves that the deviations between neutral and speaking style average models can be learned and used to imbue expressiveness into target neutral speakers as intended.

Multilingual number transcription for text-to-speech conversion

This paper describes the text normalization module of a text to speech fully-trainable conversion system and its application to number transcription. The main target is to generate a language independent text normalization module, based on data instead of on expert rules. This paper proposes a general architecture based on statistical machine translation techniques. This proposal is composed of three main modules: a tokenizer for splitting the text input into a token graph, a phrase-based translation module for token translation, and a post-processing module for removing some tokens. This architecture has been evaluated for number transcription in several languages: English, Spanish and Romanian. Number transcription is an important aspect in the text normalization problem.

Soil properties and microbial indicators of samples from Lake Wellman, Darwin Mountains, Antarctica

Four pedons on each of four drift sheets in the Lake Wellman area of the Darwin Mountains were sampled for chemical and microbial analyses. The four drifts, Hatherton, Britannia, Danum, and Isca, ranged from early Holocene (10 ka) to mid-Quaternary (c. 900 ka). The soil properties of weathering stage, salt stage, and depths of staining, visible salts, ghosts, and coherence increase with drift age. The landforms contain primarily high-centred polygons with windblown snow in the troughs. The soils are dominantly complexes of Typic Haplorthels and Typic Haploturbels. The soils were dry and alkaline with low levels of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Electrical conductivity was high accompanied by high levels of water soluble anions and cations (especially calcium and sulphate in older soils). Soil microbial biomass, measured as phospholipid fatty acids, and numbers of culturable heterotrophic microbes, were low, with highest levels detected in less developed soils from the Hatherton drift. The microbial community structure of the Hatherton soil also differed from that of the Britannia, Danum and Isca soils. Ordination revealed the soil microbial community structure was influenced by soil development and organic carbon.

Forest typology of broadleaf forests from Sierra Maestra, Eastern Cuba

A phytosociological study of the forests from Sierra Maestra is conducted, following the methodology of the Zurich- Montpelier School. They are transformed into a forest typology using the standards of the Institute of Agro-Forestry Research. In general, 35 types and/or subtypes are presented. From this group, the most abundant ones belong to semi-deciduous microphyll forest, followed by those from mangroves and mountain rainforest, respectively. Silvicultural treatments are needed; among them, the protection forests are those found above 800 m asl and mangroves. 

Macrofauna epígea de besouros coprófilos em sistema de integração lavoura-pecuária

The soil macrofauna (organisms ≥ 2.0 mm) main function is to act indirectly on the decomposition of organic matter and control the population of microorganisms. This study aims to evaluate the density and richness of coprphilic dung beetles at different levels of nitrogen fertilization and grazing pressure on Crop-Livestock Integration System (ILP) and his opposition to morphotypes present in the native forests of the region. Was used a rural area in Abelardo Luz city, western state of Santa Catarina, on the border of southwest of Paraná, 26° 31' 18.8832" south latitude and 52° 15' 3.4986' west longitude and elevation 862 m for the installation of the experiment, which is already carried out the activity of agriculture and livestock. The study is part of the Integrated Project of Long Duration GISPA UTFPR Group, which evaluates the grazing pressure and time of fertilization deployed in April 2013. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design in a 2x2 factorial arrangement with three replications. The factors were "Nitrogen Application" (NP = N in the pasture and NG = N applied in corn) and "Height Grazing" (high and low). The native forest, which provided the parameters for assessing the degree of conservation, lies 700 meters northeast of the experimental area. Modified pitfall traps were used at ground level, on the bait trap and covered together to prevent dehydration. They were carried out 36 collections in bushland, within one year from 26 April 2013, in which we obtained a total of 16,301 individuals and 28 morphotypes. In ILP area specimens were collected from June to September 2014, totaling 23 collections, 74,586 individuals and 30 morphotypes. To carry out the statistics and faunal analysis, GENES programs were used, ANAFAU, NTIA/EMBRAPA and SigmaPlot version 12.5. Most of the correlations observed (90%) between the variables of insects and environmental conditions was significant. The largest number of insects was directly related to the temperature rise. There was a positive correlation between the application of nitrogen and the occurrence of coprophilous. There was a positive correlation between the number of insects and low grazing height. It was also found that some of the insects migrate from the culture to the area of native forest after reaching their peak population. The great similarity of results observed in the native forest and the ILP System indicates the ecological benefits of adopting this technology.

Caracterização da captura incidental de tartarugas marinhas pela pesca de espinhel pelágico no Nordeste do Brasil

The marine turtles biological characteristics and the impact they have been suffering in consequence of human activities have caused in the last decades the decrease of populations to unsustainable levels. All four of the species described in this paper are registered as endangered in a list by IUCN: Caretta caretta, Lepidochelys olivacea, Chelonia mydas, Dermochelys coriacea. The main causes of such impact include several fishing activities, mostly the surface longline. This paper discusses the monitoring of two foreigner longline fleet along the North East Brazilian coast between October of 2004 and September of 2005. Both operated in the West South Atlantic, one using the Chinese technique and the other the American. The American method s target species is the swordfish (Xiphias gladius), and it is characterized by using squid as bait, J 9/0 offset 5º hook, light sticks and night soaking. It also operates in shallower waters than the Chinese method. The source of information about the efforts and the catches came from onboard observers and were used to calculate the catching rate of turtles over 1000 hooks (CPUE). The American equipment caught more turtles (CPUE = 0,059; N= 103), mainly D. coriacea, while the Chinese longline caught mainly the L. olivacea and presented a CPUE= 0,018 (N= 89). The hooks were most frequently found attached to the mouth of C. caretta, C. mydas, and L. olivacea. The D. coriacea were most frequently caught by hooks externally attached to different parts of their body. There was no significant difference between the hook type catching and most turtles were still alive when released. The results suggest a greater potential of turtle catching by the American method. Besides the statistic tests have showed less interaction between the Chinese equipment and marine turtles, the catches of this fishing technique could have been underestimated due to miscommunication between the onboard observer and the vessel s crew plus the retrieve of the longline during night time

EFEITOS DE DIFERENTES TIPOS DE CONTROLE DE PLANTAS INFESTANTES SOBRE A MIRMECOFAUNA EM Eucalyptus grandis

Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar os efeitos de diferentes tipos de controle de plantas infestantes sobre a mirmecofauna em um plantio inicial de Eucalyptus grandis . Para tanto, em março de 2011 foi realizado o início da implantação da cultura, em uma área localizada no município de Santa Maria - RS. Os seis tratamentos constituíram-se em controle químico total de plantas infestantes, na linha e na entrelinha de plantio, com glifosato (T1); controle químico total de plantas infestantes, na linha de plantio, com glifosato (T2); controle químico de monocotiledôneas na linha e entrelinha de plantio, com setoxidim (T3); controle químico de dicotiledôneas na linha e entrelinha de plantio, com bentazona (T4); controle químico total de plantas infestantes em faixa de um metro paralela à linha de plantio, com glifosato, e de um metro na parte central da entrelinha, sem controle (T5); e testemunha, sem controle de plantas infestantes (T6). O levantamento da mirmecofauna foi realizado no período de um ano utilizando-se três métodos de coleta: isca atrativa, armadilha de solo e funil de Berlese, com seis repetições por tratamento, em cada data de coleta. Nesse período foram coletadas 46.675 formigas, distribuídas em 37 espécies, não sendo verificada diferença significativa entre o total de espécimens coletados. Na área do tratamento constituído pelo controle de plantas infestantes somente na linha de plantio verificou-se eficiência amostral de 99,0% e Sobs = 35. Entre os índices de Diversidade de Shannon (H’), destacou-se o valor encontrado para a área do tratamento T2 (H’= 1,34) em detrimento dos valores das áreas nas quais foram instalados os tratamentos T1 (H’= 1,25) e T5 (H’= 1,23). Havendo assim, uma maior coexistência de espécies de formigas entre as áreas com estrutura florística menos alterada e entre as áreas mais simplificadas. Não tendo sido verificada correlação significativa (r = 0,0463) entre a riqueza de espécies de formigas coletadas e o número de plantas infestantes encontradas ao final do experimento. Assim, conclui-se que os efeitos indiretos da ação dos herbicidas afetam mais a composição local de espécies de formigas do que sua riqueza.

Contribuição ao conhecimento do gênero Coprophanaeus (Insecta: Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) no Cerrado do Distrito Federal

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia, 2015.

Controlled release products for managing insect pests.

2016