Population structure of the migratory fish Prochilodus lineatus (Characiformes) from rio Grande basin (Brazil), an area fragmented by dams

1. Prochilodus lineatus (Prochilodontidae, Characiformes) is a migratory species of great economic importance both in fisheries and aquaculture that is found throughout the Jacui, Paraiba do Sul, Parana, Paraguay and Uruguay river basins in South America. Earlier population studies of P. lineatus in the rio Grande basin (Parana basin) indicated the existence of a single population; however, the range of this species has been fragmented by the construction of several dams. Such dams modified the environmental conditions and could have constrained the reproductive migration of P. lineatus, possibly leading to changes in the population genetic structure. 2. In order to evaluate how genetic diversity is allocated in the rio Grande basin, 141 specimens of P. lineatus from eight collection sites were analysed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) with 15 restriction enzymes. 3. Forty-six haplotypes were detected, and 70% of them are restricted. The mean genetic variability indexes (h = 0.7721 and pi = 1.6%) were similar to those found in natural populations with a large effective size. Fst and Exact Test values indicated a lack of structuring among the samples, and the model of isolation by distance was tested and rejected. 4. The haplotype network indicated that this population of P. lineatus has been maintained as a single variable stock with some differences in the genetic composition (haplotypes) between samples. Indications of population expansion were detected, and this finding was supported by neutrality tests and mismatch distribution analyses. 5. The present study focused on regions between dams to serve as a parameter for further evaluations of genetic variability and the putative impact of dams and repopulation programmes in natural populations of P. lineatus. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Crystal structure of garciniaphenone and evidences on the relationship between keto-enol tautomerism and configuration

Garciniaphenone (=rel-(1R,5R,7R)-3-benzoyl-4-hydroxy-8,8-dimethyl-1,7-bis(3-methylbut-2-en-1-yl)bicyclo[3.3.1]non-3-ene-2,9-dione; 1). a novel natural product, was isolated from a hexane extract of Garcinia brasiliensis fruits. The crystal structure of 1 as well as the selected geometrical and Configurational features were compared with those of known related polyprenylated benzophenones. Garciniaphenone is the first representative of polyprenylated benzophenones without a prenyl substituent at C(5). Notably, the absence of a 5-prenyl substituent has an impact on the molecular geometry. The tautomeric form of 1 in the solid state was readily established by a residual-electronic-density map generated by means of a difference Fourier analysis, and there is an entirely delocalized six-membered chelate ring encompassing the keto-enol moiety. The configuration at C(7) was used to rationalize the nature of the keto-enol tautomeric form within 1. The intermolecular array in the network is maintained by nonclassical intermolecular H-bonds.

Distribution of ABCB1 polymorphisms among Brazilians: impact of population admixture

Introduction: Interethnic admixture is a source of cryptic population structure that may lead to spurious genotype-phenotype associations in pharmacogenomic studies. We studied the impact of population stratification on the distribution of ABCB1 polymorphisms (1236C > T, 2677G > T/A and 3435C > T) among Brazilians, a highly admixed population with Amerindian, European and African ancestral roots. Methods: Individual DNA from 320 healthy adults was genotyped with a panel of ancestry informative markers, and the proportions of African component of ancestry (ACA) were estimated. ABCB1 genotypes were determined by the single base extension/termination method. We describe the association between ABCB1 polymorphisms and ACA by fitting a linear proportional odds logistic regression model to the data. Results: The distribution of the ABCB1 2677G > T/A and 3435C > T, but not the 1236C > T, SNPs displayed a significant trend for decreasing frequency of the T alleles and TT genotypes from White to Intermediate to Black individuals. The same trend was observed in the frequency of the T/nonG/T haplotype at the 1236, 2677 and 3435 loci. When the population sample was proportioned in quartiles, according to the individual ACA estimates, the frequency of the T allele and TT genotype at each locus declined progressively from the lowest (< 0.25 ACA) to the highest (> 0.75 ACA) quartile. Linear proportional odds logistic regression analysis confirmed that the odds of having the T allele at each locus decreases in a continuous manner with the increase of the ACA, throughout the ACA range (0.13-0.94) observed in the overall population sample. A significant association was also detected between the individual ACA estimates and the presence of the T/nonG/T haplotype in the overall population. Conclusion: Self-identification according to the racial/color categories proposed by the Brazilian Census is insufficient to properly control for population stratification in pharmacogenomic studies of ABCB1.

The Emerging Civil Society in China and Its Impact on Democratization

Recent years have seen an emerging civil society in an authoritarian China. The authoritarian embrace of civil society challenges the conventional wisdom that civil society is closely linked to democracy. In Beijing, the rhetoric of civil society linked less to democracy than to modernization. However, does civil society development have any impact on democratization in authoritarian regimes? The thesis tries to provide a tentative answer by studying civil society and democratization in post-Mao China. As a result of economic development and political reforms, gradual political liberalization has marked a shift of state-society relations that gives rise to a certain degree of democratization and a growing civil society. The thesis uses a statistical correlation study to examine the relations between grassroots democratization and civil society development. The study concludes that civil society development may have contributed to democratization at the grassroots level but not on the national level. The impact of civil society on democratization depends on the political structure of the state and will remain limited unless the government allows for further state-led democratic openings.

The impact of structured teaching methods on the quality of education

This paper estimates the impact of the use of structured methods on the quality of education of the students in primary public school in Brazil. Structure methods encompass a range of pedagogical and managerial instruments applied to the education system. In recent years, several municipalities in the State of São Paulo have contracted out private educational providers to implement these structured methods in their schooling system. Their pedagogical proposal involves structuring curriculum contents, elaboration and use of teachers and students textbooks, and training and supervision of the teachers and instructors. Using a difference in differences estimation strategy, we find that the fourth and eighth grader students in the municipalities with structured methods performed better in Portuguese and Math than students in municipalities not exposed to the methods. We find no differences in approval rates. However, a robustness check is not able to discard the possibility that unobserved municipal characteristics may affect the results.

The Olympic impact on hosting candidate countries

In this paper, we analyze the impact of hosting the Summer Olympics on macroeconomic aggregates such as GDP, consumption, government consumption and investments per capita. The data is in panel structure and includes the period of ten years before and ten years after the event containing the Olympic Summer Games between 1960 and 1996. The sample countries comprise only candidates to host the games. This sampling strategy allows us to estimate the average treatment effect consistently, because it is assumed that these countries are comparable to each other, including those that ultimately hosted the games. The impact of hosting the Olympic games is measured by Fixed Effect and First Difference regressions. Moreover, we do a structural break test developed by Andrews (1993) to identify if hosting the Olympic Games creates anticipation effects for demand changes that stimulate current GDP, consumption, government consumption and investments. The results indicate a positive effect of the Summer Olympics in all variables of interest. However, the distribution in time and anticipation of these effects is unclear in the tests, changing significantly depending on the model and the significance level used.

Speed of adjustment of capital structure: empirical study

We analyze the impact of firm-specific characteristics as well as economic factors on the speed of adjustment to the target debt ratio. Using different methods, we document speeds of adjustment ranging from 14.4% to 37%. The results indicate that the speed of adjustment is affected by business-cycle variables: The interaction term related to term spread reveals, as expected, faster adjustment in booms than in recessions and a negative relationship between short term spread and adjustment speed. We also show that the speed of adjustment becomes stationary when the increasing fractions of zero-debt firms are considered.

Impact of worksite health-promotion programs in hospital admission costs and medical leaves in a sample of brazilian companies

Programas de saúde e bem-estar têm sido adotados por empresas como forma de melhorar a saúde de empregados, e muitos estudos descrevem retornos econômicos positivos sobre os investimentos envolvidos. Entretanto, estudos mais recentes com metodologia melhor têm demonstrado retornos menores. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar se características de programas de saúde e bem-estar agem como preditores de custos de internação hospitalar (em Reais correntes) e da proporção de funcionários que têm licença médica, entre Abril de 2014 e Maio de 2015, em uma amostra não-aleatória de empresas no Brasil, através de parceria com uma empresa gestora de ‘big data’ para saúde. Um questionário sobre características de programas de saúde no ambiente de trabalho foi respondida por seis grandes empresas brasileiras. Dados retirados destes seis questionários (presença e idade de programa de saúde, suas características – inclusão de atividades de screening, educação sobre saúde, ligação com outros programas da empresa, integração do programa à estrutura da empresa, e ambientes de trabalho voltado para a saúde – e a adoção de incentivos financeiros para aderência de funcionários ao programa), bem como dados individuais de idade, gênero e categoria de plano de saúde de cada empregado , foram usados para construir um banco de dados com mais de 76.000 indivíduos. Através de um modelo de regressão múltipla e seleção ‘stepwise’ de variáveis, a idade do empregado foi positivamente associada e a idade do programa de saúde e a categoria ‘premium’ de plano de saúde do funcionário foram negativamente associadas aos custos de internação hospitalar (como esperado). Inesperadamente, a inclusão de programas de screening e iniciativas de educação de saúde nos programas de saúde e bem-estar nas empresas foram identificados como preditores positivos significativos para custos de admissão hospitalar. Para evitar a inclusão errônea de licenças-maternidade, apenas os dados de licença médica de pacientes do sexo masculino foram analisados (dados disponíveis apenas para duas entre as companhias incluídas, com um total de 18.957 pacientes do sexo masculino). Analisando estes dados através de um teste Z para comparação de proporções, a empresa com programa de saúde que inclui atividades voltadas a cessação de hábitos ruins (como tabagismo e etilismo), controle de diabetes e hipertensão, e que adota incentivos financeiros para a aderência de funcionários ao programa tem menor proporção de empregados com licençca médica no período analisado, quando comparada com a outra empresa que não tem estas características (também conforme esperado). Entretanto, a companhia com menor proporção de funcionários com licença médica também foi aquela que adota programa de screening entre as atividades de seu programa de saúde. Potenciais fontes de ameaça à validade interna e externa destes resultados são discutidas, bem como possíveis explicações para a associação entre programas de screening e educação médica a piores indicadores de saúde nesta amostra de companhias são discutidas. Novos estudos com melhor desenho, com amostras maiores e randômicas são necessários para validar estes resultados e possivelmente melhorar a validade interna e externa destes resultados.

The impact of social security reform on occupational and retirement behavior : a quantitative assessment for Brazil

Population ageing is a problem that countries will have to cope with within a few years. How would changes in the social security system affect individual behaviour? We develop a multi-sectoral life-cycle model with both retirement and occupational choices to evaluate what are the macroeconomic impacts of social security reforms. We calibrate the model to match 2011 Brazilian economy and perform a counterfactual exercise of the long-run impacts of a recently adopted reform. In 2013, the Brazilian government approximated the two segregated social security schemes, imposing a ceiling on public pensions. In the benchmark equilibrium, our modelling economy is able to reproduce the early retirement claiming, the agents' stationary distribution among sectors, as well as the social security deficit and the public job application decision. In the counterfactual exercise, we find a significant reduction of 55\% in the social security deficit, an increase of 1.94\% in capital-to-output ratio, with both output and capital growing, a delay in retirement claims of public workers and a modification in the structure of agents applying to the public sector job.

Population structure, habitat use and conservation of short-finned pilot whales Globicephala macrorhynchus in the Archipelago of Madeira

This thesis provides information on the grouping structure, survival, abundance, dive characteristics and habitat preferences of short-finned pilot whales occurring in the oceanic archipelago of Madeira (Portugal, NE Atlantic), based on data collected between 2001-2011, and contributes for its conservation. Photo-identification methods and genetic analyses demonstrated that there is a large degree of variability in site fidelity, including resident, regular visitor and transient whales, and that they may not be genetically isolated. It is proposed that the pilot whales encountered in Madeira belong to a single population encompassing several clans, possibly three clans of island-associated (i.e. resident and regular visitor) whales and others of transients, each containing two to three matrilineal pods. Mark-recapture methods estimated that the island-associated community is composed of less than 150 individuals and that their survival rate is within the range of other long-lived cetacean species, and that around 300 whales of different residency patterns uses the southern area of the island of Madeira from mid-summer to mid-autumn. No significant trend was observed between years. Time-depth recorders deployed in adult whales during daytime revealed that they spend over ¾ of their time at the surface, that they have a low diving rate, and that transient whales also forage during their passage. The analyses of visual data collected from nautical and aerial line-transect surveys indicate a core/preferred habitat area in the south-east of the island of Madeira. That area is used for resting, socializing, foraging, breeding, calving and birthing. Thus, that area should be considered as an important habitat for this species, at least seasonally (during autumn) when the species is more abundant, and included in conservation plans. No direct threat needing urgent measures was identified, although the impact of some activities like whale-watching or marine traffic should be assessed.

Estimation and evaluation of dynamic properties as indicators of changes on soil structure in sugarcane fields of São Paulo State - Brazil

The indiscriminate management and use of soils without moisture control has changed the structure of it due to the increment of the traffic by agricultural machines through the years, causing in consequence, a soil compaction and yield reduction in the areas of intensive traffic. The purpose of this work was to estimate and to evaluate the performance of preconsolidation pressure of the soil and shear stress as indicators of changes on soil structure in fields cropped with sugarcane, as well as the impact of management processes in an Eutrorthox soil structure located in São Paulo State. The experimental field was located in Piracicaba's rural area (São Paulo State, Brazil) and has been cropped with sugarcane, in the second harvest cycle. The soil was classified by Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA) [Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA), 1999. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Solos. Sistema Brasileiro de Classificao de Solos, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA), Brasilia, 412 pp.] as an Eutrorthox. Undisturbed samples were collected and georeferenced in a grid of 60 m x 60 m from two depths: 0-0.10 m (superficial layer - SL) and in the layer of greatest mechanical resistance (LGMR), previously identified by cone index (CI). The investigated variables were pressure preconsolidation (sigma(p)), apparent cohesion (c) and internal friction angle (phi). The conclusions from the results were that the SLSC was predicted satisfactorily from up as a function of soil moisture; thus, decisions about machinery size and loading (contact pressures) can be taken. Apparent cohesion (c), internal friction angle (phi) and the Coulomb equation were significantly altered by traffic intensity. The sigma(p), c and phi maps were shown to be important tools to localize and visualize soil compaction and mechanical resistance zones. They constitute a valuable resource to evaluate the traffic impact in areas cropped with sugarcane in State of São Paulo, Brazil. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Soil erosion fragility assessment using an impact model and geographic information system

A study was taken in a 1566 ha watershed situated in the Capivara River basin, municipality of Botucatu, São Paulo State, Brazil. This environment is fragile and can be subjected to different forms of negative impacts, among them soil erosion by water. The main objective of the research was to develop a methodology for the assessment of soil erosion fragility at the various different watershed positions, using the geographic information system ILWIS version 3.3 for Windows. An impact model was created to generate the soil's erosion fragility plan, based on four indicators of fragility to water erosion: land use and cover, slope, percentage of soil fine sand and accumulated water flow. Thematic plans were generated in a geographic information system (GIS) environment. First, all the variables, except land use and cover, were described by continuous numerical plans in a raster structure. The land use and cover plan was also represented by numerical values associated with the weights attributed to each class, starting from a pairwise comparison matrix and using the analytical hierarchy process. A final field check was done to record evidence of erosive processes in the areas indicated as presenting the highest levels of fragility, i.e., sites with steep slopes, high percentage of soil fine sand, tendency to accumulate surface water flow, and sites of pastureland. The methodology used in the environmental problems diagnosis of the study area can be employed at places with similar relief, soil and climatic conditions.

Structural, electronic structure and magnetic studies of GdFe1-xNixO3 (x <= 0.5)

The structural, electronic structure and magnetic properties of Ni doped GdFeO3 perovskite materials have been studied. A decreasing trend in volume with the increasing Ni concentration without any structural change is confirmed from X-ray diffraction studies. The electronic structural studies show that the competing ions within the ensemble have +3 oxidation states, which includes the Gd, Fe and Ni ions, and also confirms the octahedral symmetry of the Fe/Ni ions. The magnetic properties clearly depict that the Ni doping can tailor the phase transitions arising due to temperature/field dependence having a heavy impact on spin dynamics. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding the effects of isolation on seed and pollen flow, spatial genetic structure and effective population size of the dioecious tropical tree species Myracrodruon urundeuva

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

Ultra-structure and histochemistry of digestive cells of Podisus nigrispinus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) fed with prey reared on bt-cotton

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)