Modelling dominance in a flexible intercross analysis

The aim of this paper is to develop a flexible model for analysis of quantitative trait loci (QTL) in outbred line crosses, which includes both additive and dominance effects. Our flexible intercross analysis (FIA) model accounts for QTL that are not fixed within founder lines and is based on the variance component framework. Genome scans with FIA are performed using a score statistic, which does not require variance component estimation. RESULTS: Simulations of a pedigree with 800 F2 individuals showed that the power of FIA including both additive and dominance effects was almost 50% for a QTL with equal allele frequencies in both lines with complete dominance and a moderate effect, whereas the power of a traditional regression model was equal to the chosen significance value of 5%. The power of FIA without dominance effects included in the model was close to those obtained for FIA with dominance for all simulated cases except for QTL with overdominant effects. A genome-wide linkage analysis of experimental data from an F2 intercross between Red Jungle Fowl and White Leghorn was performed with both additive and dominance effects included in FIA. The score values for chicken body weight at 200 days of age were similar to those obtained in FIA analysis without dominance. CONCLUSION: We have extended FIA to include QTL dominance effects. The power of FIA was superior, or similar, to standard regression methods for QTL effects with dominance. The difference in power for FIA with or without dominance is expected to be small as long as the QTL effects are not overdominant. We suggest that FIA with only additive effects should be the standard model to be used, especially since it is more computationally efficient.

Newly Automated System For Integrated Assessment Of The Conditions Of Underwater Gas Pipelines

An underwater gas pipeline is the portion of the pipeline that crosses a river beneath its bottom. Underwater gas pipelines are subject to increasing dangers as time goes by. An accident at an underwater gas pipeline can lead to technological and environmental disaster on the scale of an entire region. Therefore, timely troubleshooting of all underwater gas pipelines in order to prevent any potential accidents will remain a pressing task for the industry. The most important aspect of resolving this challenge is the quality of the automated system in question. Now the industry doesn't have any automated system that fully meets the needs of the experts working in the field maintaining underwater gas pipelines. Principle Aim of this Research: This work aims to develop a new system of automated monitoring which would simplify the process of evaluating the technical condition and decision making on planning and preventive maintenance and repair work on the underwater gas pipeline. Objectives: Creation a shared model for a new, automated system via IDEF3; Development of a new database system which would store all information about underwater gas pipelines; Development a new application that works with database servers, and provides an explanation of the results obtained from the server; Calculation of the values MTBF for specified pipelines based on quantitative data obtained from tests of this system. Conclusion: The new, automated system PodvodGazExpert has been developed for timely and qualitative determination of the physical conditions of underwater gas pipeline; The basis of the mathematical analysis of this new, automated system uses principal component analysis method; The process of determining the physical condition of an underwater gas pipeline with this new, automated system increases the MTBF by a factor of 8.18 above the existing system used today in the industry.

Expressão de uma quitinase de Metarhizium anisopliae em Nicotiana tabacum : obtenção de plantas transgênicas resistentes a doenças fúngicas

A resistência a doenças em plantas transgênicas tem sido obtida por meio da expressão de genes isolados de bactérias, fungos micoparasitas e plantas. Neste trabalho, relatamos a utilização de um gene do fungo entomopatogênico Metarhizium anisopliae como modo de gerar resistência a doenças fúngicas em plantas. O gene chit1 codifica a quitinase CHIT42 (EC 3.2.1.14), pertencente a uma classe de glicosil-hidrolases capazes de converter quitina em oligômeros de N-acetil-glicosamina (NAcGlc). Quando presentes em tecidos vegetais, supõese que as quitinases ataquem especificamente a parede celular de fungos invasores, provocando danos às hifas e causando a morte por lise das células fúngicas. Deste modo, dois diferentes grupos de plantas transgênicas de Nicotiana tabacum foram produzidos: no primeiro deles, denominado chitplus, os indivíduos possuem o gene chit1 sob o controle do promotor CaMV 35S. O segundo grupo, demoninado chitless, consiste de plantas transformadas com um T-DNA não contendo o gene do fungo. Trinta e quatro plantas transgênicas resistentes à canamicina (17 de cada grupo) foram regeneradas a partir de discos de folhas infectados por Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A produção da quitinase em extratos protéicos de folhas foi analisada por zimogramas em SDS-PAGE contendo glicol-quitina e corados por calcoflúor branco, na forma de um screening dos transgênicos primários. As plantas transgênicas foram testadas, ainda, por meio de ensaios colorimétricos empregando oligômeros sintéticos de NAcGlc como substratos específicos, além de immunoblot e Western blot com soro anti-quitinase. A quantidade de enzima recombinante nas plantas chitplus variou desde nenhuma atividade detectável a elevados níveis de expressão da enzima. A hibridização de Southern blot demonstrou que o número de cópias do gene chit1 integradas no genoma vegetal foi estimado entre uma e quatro. A primeira geração de plantas transgênicas geradas por autofecundação de parentais portadores de duas cópias do transgene foi testada com relação à estabilidade da herança do transgene e em 43 de um total de 67 descendentes, originados de quatro cruzamentos independentes, o padrão de segregação não diferiu das proporções Mendelianas esperadas. Ensaios de resistência, desafiando as plantas transgênicas com o basidiomiceto Rhizoctonia solani foram realizados e uma evidente diminuição da área foliar contendo lesões fúngicas foi observada entre as linhagens transgênicas, embora variações na atividade quitinolítica tenham influenciado o nível de resistência. Nossos resultados sugerem uma relação direta entre a atividade específica de quitinase e ao aumento nos níveis de resistência às lesões causadas pela infecção por R. solani.

Testing the Markov property with ultra high frequency financial data

This paper develops a framework to test whether discrete-valued irregularly-spaced financial transactions data follow a subordinated Markov process. For that purpose, we consider a specific optional sampling in which a continuous-time Markov process is observed only when it crosses some discrete level. This framework is convenient for it accommodates not only the irregular spacing of transactions data, but also price discreteness. Further, it turns out that, under such an observation rule, the current price duration is independent of previous price durations given the current price realization. A simple nonparametric test then follows by examining whether this conditional independence property holds. Finally, we investigate whether or not bid-ask spreads follow Markov processes using transactions data from the New York Stock Exchange. The motivation lies on the fact that asymmetric information models of market microstructures predict that the Markov property does not hold for the bid-ask spread. The results are mixed in the sense that the Markov assumption is rejected for three out of the five stocks we have analyzed.

Caracterização morfológica, citogenética e molecular de uma população de tangerineiras híbridas de 'Clementina fina' (Citrus clementina Hort. ex Tan.) e 'Montenegrina' (Citrus deliciosa Ten.)

A produção citrícola se encontra dispersa por todos os continentes e no Brasil, os citros são a produção frutícola de maior volume de produção. A produção de citros de mesa, como as tangerinas, possibilita ao produtor obter maior valor pelo seu produto. O mercado consumidor é ávido por novas variedades e para tanto, um programa de melhoramento deve estar sempre em busca de genótipos que atendam ao mercado consumidor, bem como a cadeia produtiva. Na Estação Experimental Agronômica da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, está localizada uma população de tangerineiras híbridas oriundas do cruzamento da tangerineira ‘Clementina Fina’ (Citrus clementina Hort. ex Tan.) e ‘Montenegrina’ (Citrus deliciosa Ten.) a qual foi caracterizada neste estudo, avaliando-se características morfológicas de acordo com os descritores propostos pelo International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, além da identificação da época de maturação, viabilidade de pólen, número cromossômico e caracterização molecular, utilizando marcadores do tipo microssatélites. Através da análise morfológica foi possível distinguir todas as 96 plantas avaliadas, porém não foi possível agrupar a F1 em grupos distintos de cada um dos genitores. A época de maturação de frutos das plantas se concentra entre a primeira quinzena de abril até a primeira quinzena de agosto. Todas as plantas analisadas apresentaram um alto grau de viabilidade de pólen, variando entre 79,04 e 98,08 %. Todas as plantas avaliadas são diplóides com um número cromossômico de 2n=18. Utilizando 12 pares de primers de microssatélites foi possível diferenciar 90 acessos do estudo, e agrupar a F1 em indivíduos mais próximos do genitor feminino e do genitor masculino. O PIC (Conteúdo de Informação de Polimorfismo) dos primers variou de 0,27 a 0,65. Não foi possível estabelecer uma relação entre a caracterização utilizando marcadores morfológicos e a caracterização utilizando marcadores moleculares.

Qualidade na justiça federal: um estudo sobre as disfunções da administração da prestação jurisdicional

Esta dissertação objetiva explorar as possibilidades de incremento dos processos e rotinas organizacionais envolvidas na prestação jurisdicional. Para analisar pontos de problema e a viabilidade de ações de melhoria, este estudo buscou identificar a literatura sobre temas que perpassam a ideia central desenvolvida. Assim, foram abordados livros, artigos e publicações de jornais e revistas a respeito de gestão de qualidade, gestão de qualidade no setor de serviços, a namreza do processo judiciário, a estrutura e natureza do Poder Judiciário e ações de melhoria especificamente voltadas para o perfil da gestão pública. Foram entrevistados atores que participam diretamente do processo judiciário, na esfera federal, como forma de se ilustrar o apurado na teoria literária.

A demanda por educação à distância no Brasil

Recentemente, o mercado brasileiro de ensino superior à distância (ESAD) apresentou forte crescimento (33% ao ano de 2005 até 2013). Esse trabalho cruza as informações do Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira (INEP) e do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) para cada município brasileiro, no ano de 2013, e propõem fatores que explicam a demanda por ESAD. Com base em aproximadamente 70 mil registros, um dos resultados indica que a demanda por ESAD tem sido represada, e não apenas pelas restrições de oferta impostas pelo regulador, mas, também, pela política de financiamento estudantil (FIES), que favorece a modalidade presencial. Para uma redução de 10 pontos percentuais na oferta do FIES, estima-se um crescimento de 1,4 pontos percentuais na demanda por ESAD, sugerindo que novas autorizações de expansão da oferta de ESAD são uma alternativa para contrabalançar eventuais cortes de subsídios do FIES. Outro resultado interessante é o de que a demanda por ESAD tende a ser maior tanto em municípios da região sul quanto em municípios onde a procura por cursos de pedagogia e serviço social é maior.

Controle social do espaço público: uma análise do conselho turístico pólo costa das dunas

The managing Conselho of public politics constitute one of the main experiences of democracy in Brazil contemporary representing a conquest for construction of a democratic institutionalism. The historical newness consists of the intensification and the institutionalization of the dialogue between government and society - in public and plural canals - as condition for an allocation more efficient joust and of the public resources. In this context the present study it objectified to understand from readings of the performance of represented group of bencheses the dynamics of functioning of the Tourist Conselho Pólo Costa das Dunas while space of participation and social control. The bibliographical research contemplated diverse sources in order to compile knowledge of credential authors in the quarrel of inherent subjects to the civil society and the public sphere to the construction of the citizenship to the conception formation and dynamics of the social control through Conselho of public politics. A qualitative perspective the case study was adopted as research method and for attainment of the data interviews with the members of the Conselho had been carried through beyond consultation the referring documents the dynamics of functioning of the Conselho. The profiles capacities and limitations of the members of the Conselho had been identified constitution social and dynamic organization of functioning of the Conselho and the readings of the members of the Conselho concerning the power to decide instances and participation. The results had shown that the allotment of being able in the Conselho does not occur of equal form. The functions of coordination of the activities of the Conselho are assumed by the representatives of the public agencies. Level of qualification of council members also if presents as difficulty to development of activities of Conselho since the majority of the interviewed ones disclosed unreliability and unfamiliarity when thematic specific that runs away from its organizacional reality they are boarded in the assemblies. Of this form the Conselho if presents more as half of institutional legitimation of what half of characterization of the creation of a public sphere properly said. Finally he could himself be concluded that a democratic culture inexists that inside crosses practical the institutional ones of the Conselho thus limiting the possibility to reach the effective social control of the public politics of tourism in the Rio Grande do Norte

Crenças e quebranças de um corpo que dança: poéticas do benzimento na criação cênica

This work is a discussion of the artistic process of an artist-researcher made from field research with benzedeiras and benzedores the state of Rio Grande do Norte. This is an investigation on the cultural universe of the popular benzeção as poetic element to the artistic dance. To discuss the different stages of the research and the relationships between the artist-researcher, the benzedeiras/benzedores and the creation/composition scenic, the work takes as reference the triangular relationship created by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, in his discussion on the effectiveness of symbols of healing, adapted to the context of benzeção . For dialogue between tradition, popular knowledge, scientific and artistic knowledge this work approaches as analytical reference the epistemological model of the type rhizome proposed by Deleuze and Guattari, understanding it as a model that seeks to form a network of relations in different paths of research, to establish connections between elements without target them or subordinating them. In the universe of benzeção , benzedeiras and benzedores carry a symbolic power that issued in whispered prayers, in peculiar gestures that form crosses in space, heal those who seek your prayers and blessing. In this research, the mixture of popular knowledge, artistic and academic knowledge, born an artistic work in the context of Performing Arts, more specifically dance, and between branches, saints, candles and conversations the work allowed other looks poetic for our popular culture, (re)asserting their cultural and human values through the art

MELHORAMENTO do TRIGO: XXXI. HERDABILIDADES E CORRELAÇÕES ENTRE TRÊS CARACTERÍSTICAS AGRONÔMICAS em POPULAÇÕES HÍBRIDAS

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Inclusão digital: a inserção das tecnologias informacionais nas escolas públicas da RMNatal

This study aims to determine the influence of Digital Inclusion in school performance of students from public high school in the metropolitan area of Natal, through the use of computers in a pedagogical and Internet use.Throughout the paper we try to answer the question: The pedagogical use of computers connected to the Internet contributes to improving the academic performance of students in public schools in the RMNatal? To answer the research question, we focus on the database INEP on the infrastructure of schools and the bank rates of school performance. For both technical procedures performed to obtain the relationship between Internet and School Performance. Then the School Settings have been configured for Digital Inclusion and made crosses with the approval rates, distortion and failure. The survey results indicate that according to the classification established in: Included in School Settings, School Settings deficit, Adverse Environments School and School Settings Deleted, which has prevailed in the metropolitan area of Natal are the schools that are provided outside.

Tecendo os fios de rede: juventude e produção de si em projetos sociais.

The study is about youthful subjectivities in quarters, of the West Zone of Natal-RN, marked for lacks and contingencies that constitute the everyday life of the social existence of its young inhabitants. For this purpose the researchers selected two youth groups: the Association of Youths Constructing Dreams (in the quarter of Felipe Camarão) and Lelo Melodia Crew (Quarter of Guarapes). Both are articulated through the strategy of coalition in regional and national nets. The hypothesis is that inside the groups and nets new youthful citizens arises. That would be a change in the representation of poor youth: from 1980 s street children - young whose social stigma associated poverty and crime to late 1990 s kids of project (pointing their trajectory in social projects) or, in present days, called as young peripherals - for the enrollment in cultural movements, as the hip hop movement - These new young citizens are contributing to new social imagery significations on poor youths. The methodology encloses: a) focal group; b) participant research analyzing the making arts (ways to think, social daily practices, actions engaged in a diversity plans) of youth groups; c) life stories of some of the youngs produced in workshops; d) not structuralized interviews. d) several documents of the groups; e) local and national surveys. Results emphasize a feeling of opening to a project of autonomy in relation to a social system that leaves them in a situation of social precariousness. Conclusion remarks that such practices of the youthful groups through the art, leisure, sport and culture unfold politics effect so that can point innovative forms of politics participation on the part of this specific segment of poor youths of Brasilian country, although conflicts and paradoxes crosses individual citizens, youth groups and youth nets.

Brincadeira do reisado na comunidade Cipó, Pedro II PI: mediação cultural, tradição e modernidade

This research studies the tradition of epiphany in the community of Cipó de Baixo, which belongs to the city of Pedro II, in the state of Piauí. Readings were made seeeking to emphasize the processivity of the play that navigates between permanence and change. The study starts with a social context of the community, in dialogue with the life history of the owner of the epiphany, Raimundo Milú: strong figure who, along with his family networks, as well as networks of patronage and friendship, struggles for the resistence of the play. The description of the ceremony of Kings, with its constituent parts, punctuates the remarkable character of Cipó community epiphany. This detailed understanding of the play favors the understanding of some of the social vines that serve as the basis for the warp of this cultural practice: modernization vine, where we explore the general motivation of Cipó community epiphany transformations - modernity; family and community exchange vine, which describes the scheme that holds the permanence of the play; masculinity vine, explains the strong gender system that crosses Cipó community epiphany; reinvented tradition vine, where we locate the uniqueness of Cipó community epiphany tradition and its dialogues with modern dynamism; conflict between generation vine, depicts the differences between generations and how they contribute to the dialogue between the traditional and the new; theatrical spectacle vine, describes the play as a performative activity. Thus, we build a social scheme that analyzes the play of Kings of Cipó community as a whole, where change and continuity plan a cultural plot on their own

Características anatômicas e morfométricas do ligamento oblíquo do cotovelo de eqüinos

Neste trabalho, algumas características anatômicas e morfométricas do ligamento oblíquo do cotovelo do eqüino foram descritas em dez animais adultos, sem raça definida, que não apresentavam afecções dos órgãos locomotores. O ligamento oblíquo origina-se dorsal à fossa radial do úmero, atravessa obliquamente a superfície cranial do cotovelo e se divide em uma porção longa, que se insere na tuberosidade radial, e em outra curta, que se une à porção longa do ligamento colateral medial. Foram efetuadas medidas visando a obter o comprimento e a largura máximas entre a origem e a inserção do ligamento oblíquo, não sendo observadas diferenças (P>0,05) nas comparações feitas entre os sexos e os antímeros. O ligamento oblíquo contribui no efeito mola e na manutenção da estabilidade da articulação do cotovelo do eqüino. Pela particularidade de sua localização, cranial à articulação, o ligamento oblíquo possui ação frenadora, impedindo a extensão completa da referida articulação.

A quantitative nature of somatic embryogenesis in soybean

The objectives of this research were to investigate the genetic parameters associated with the in vitro formation of somatic embryos in soybean and to determine the effect of light intensity on the embryogenic capability of F-1, F-2, and backcross (RC1P1 and RC1P2) progenies derived from crosses between embryogenic (IAS-5 and Embrapa-1) and nonembryogenic (Parana) cultivars. Immature cotyledons (4-6 mm in length) derived from the parental lines, F-1, F-2, RC1P1, and RC1P2 were grown for 90 d on the inductive N10 medium, after which the number of somatic embryos was recorded. Chi-square tests for goodness of fit showed that the genetic component of the somatic embryogenesis trait is controlled in a quantitative manner by approximately 10 genes. A normal distribution for somatic embryo formation in the F-2 generations was observed reinforcing the quantitative nature of the trait. Variation in light intensity (8-12 and 27-33 mu mol m(-2) s(-1)) had no effect on somatic embryo formation in the parental material tested.