Evaluation of Meteorological Elements and Lettuce (lactuca Sativa, L.) Yield Related to Geographic Orientation of Polyethylene Greenhouses

O experimento foi realizado na área experimental do Departamento de Engenharia Rural da Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas – Unesp/Botucatu, Estado de São Paulo, em duas estufas dispostas em diferentes orientações geográficas, Leste/Oeste e Norte/Sul. A alface (Lactuva sativa L.) cv. Elisa foi cultivada em ambas estufas, sendo semeada em 05/05/99, transplantada em 29/05/99 e colhida em 31/06/99. Utilizou-se tensiômetros para monitorar o potencial de água no solo para realizar o manejo do sistema de irrigação por gotejamento. Microevaporímetros eqüidistantes de 3 m e colocados em 3 alturas, 0.50, 1.00 e 1.50 m, termohigrógrafos e tanques Classe “A” foram instalados nas duas estufas. Através de análise geoestatística, não se observou dependência espacial nem variabilidade espacial da evaporação nas duas estufas. Entretanto, a altura dos evaporímetros apresentou diferenças significativas: a evaporação à altura de 1.50 foi menor que nas outras duas.As médias de temperatura, umidade relativa e déficit de pressão de vapor do arnão diferiram estatisticamente entre as estufas e o ambiente externo. Os valores médios de evaporação de água no tanque Classe A instalado fora das estufas diferiram estatisticamente quando comparados com os instalados no interior das estufas, porém, entre as orientações não se constatou diferença significativa. Pôde-se verificar que não houve diferença significativa das características agronômicas da alface em ambas orientações estudadas. No entanto, houve diferença significativa para essas características entre os canteiros no interior das mesmas, havendo variância espacial para os dados de matéria fresca apenas na estufa N/S.

Controle da população de morcegos hematófagos na região de Andradina, São Paulo

Pós-graduação em Ciência Animal - FMVA

Projeto mecânico de um modelo para túnel de vento e validação de seus componentes à partir de simulações em software de elementos finitos

The objective of this study was to develop a model that allows testing in the wind tunnel at high angles of attack and validates its most critical components by analyzing the results of simulations in finite element software. During the project this structure suffered major loads identified during the flight conditions and, from these, we calculated the stresses in critical regions defined as the parts of the model that have higher failure probabilities. All aspects associated with Load methods, mesh refining and stress analysis were taken into account in this approach. The selection of the analysis software was based on project needs, seeking greater ease of modeling and simulation. We opted for the software ANSYS® since the entire project is being developed in CAD platforms enabling a friendly integration between software's modeling and analysis

Two-spotted spider mite and its natural enemies on strawberry grown as protected and unprotected crops in Norway and Brazil

Cultivation of strawberry in plastic tunnels has increased considerably in Norway and in southeastern Brazil, mainly in an attempt to protect the crop from unsuitable climatic factors and some diseases as well as to allow growers to expand the traditional production season. It has been hypothesized that cultivation under tunnels could increase the incidence of one of its major pests in many countries where strawberry is cultivated, including Norway and Brazil, the two spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the use of tunnels on the incidence of T. urticae and on its natural enemies on strawberry in two ecologically contrasting regions, Norway (temperate) and southeastern Brazil (subtropical). In both countries, peak densities of T. urticae in tunnels and in the open fields were lower than economic thresholds reported in the literature. Factors determining that systematically seem to be the prevailing relatively low temperature in Norway and high relative humidity in both countries. The levels of occurrence in Norway and Brazil in 2010 were so low that regardless of any potential effect of the use of tunnel, no major differences were observed between the two cropping systems in relation to T. urticae densities. In 2009 in Norway and in 2011 in Brazil, increase in T. urticae population seemed to have been restrained mainly by rainfall in the open field and by predatory mites in the tunnels. Phytoseiids were the most numerous predatory mite group of natural occurrence on strawberry, and the prevalence was higher in Brazil, where the most abundant species on strawberry leaves were Neoseiulus anonymus and Phytoseiulus macropilis. In Norway, the most abundant naturally occurring phytoseiids on strawberry leaves were Typhlodromus (Anthoseius) rhenanus and Typhlodromus (Typhlodromus) pyri. Predatory mites were very rare in the litter samples collected in Norway. Infection rate of the pest by the fungus Neozygites floridana (Neozygitaceae) was low. The results of this work suggest that in Norway the use of tunnels might not affect the population densities of T. urticae on strawberry in years of lower temperatures. When temperature is not a limiting factor for the development of T. urticae in that country (apparently always the case in southern Brazil), strawberry cultivation in the tunnels may allow T. urticae to reach higher population levels than in open fields (because of the provided protection from the direct impact of rainfall), but natural enemies may prevent higher levels from being reached.

The effects of environmental enrichment on biochemical and metric parameters of aged rats

The enriched environment (EE) is a promoter of physical activity, by its characteristics such as ample room for movement and exploration, presence of wheels, tunnels and toys. The maintenance of animals in enriched environment can bring a range of benefits, but the majority of the researches investigate cognitive parameters and changes related to the nervous system. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of the maintenance of aged rats in enriched cages on biochemical and metric parameters. Wistar rats were randomly distributed (n=6) into two groups during 6 weeks: control (C) in a conventional cage and enriched environment (EE). The body mass were recorded weekly and the body length at the end of the study. After euthanasia, blood was collected for analysis of glucose, triglycerides and the brain was collected for analysis of mass. The EE group had higher brain mass and lower gain of body weight compared to control group. The control group animals had normal values of blood glucose and triglyceride levels, and the maintenance in an EE did not promote changes in these parameters. Therefore, it can be concluded that the EE group increases brain mass and reduces the gain of body weight without changing the blood glucose and triglycerides in aged animals.

What is the stimulus for the excavation of fungus chamber in leaf-cutting ants?

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

Comparative study of resistance to heat in two species of leaf-cutting ants

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estudo comparativo de restos fósseis e recentes de Amphisbaenia: abordagens filogenéticas, paleoecológicas, paleobiogeográficas

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Visualização experimental de escoamentos no interior de canais munidos de protuberâncias parietais

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Mecânica - FEIS

Projeto de adaptação do sistema de injeção do túnel transônico para ensaios em bocais de foguete

In this work, the project of a new experimental facility to be installed at the Aerodynamics Division of the Institute of Aeronautics and Space is presented. This new facility will provide means to perform experimental campaigns to analyze the flow behavior at different rocket nozzle concepts using cold gas that will be obtained from a modification of the Pilot Transonic Wind Tunnel air system. The new installation will enable less expensive experiments in a more secure environment, since the cold gas experimental procedures do not demand fuel storage and burn and security procedures are much less severe. Furthermore, experiments can be carried with different types of sensors, commonly used in wind tunnel tests. Also, the optical access is facilitated enabling the use of optical techniques for the characterization of flow properties inside the nozzles, such as pressure and temperature sensitive painting. The full project design and the operation conditions will be showed, as also some technical considerations about the flor behavior in the facility

Projeto de adaptação do sistema de injeção do túnel transônico para ensaios em bocais de foguete

In this work, the project of a new experimental facility to be installed at the Aerodynamics Division of the Institute of Aeronautics and Space is presented. This new facility will provide means to perform experimental campaigns to analyze the flow behavior at different rocket nozzle concepts using cold gas that will be obtained from a modification of the Pilot Transonic Wind Tunnel air system. The new installation will enable less expensive experiments in a more secure environment, since the cold gas experimental procedures do not demand fuel storage and burn and security procedures are much less severe. Furthermore, experiments can be carried with different types of sensors, commonly used in wind tunnel tests. Also, the optical access is facilitated enabling the use of optical techniques for the characterization of flow properties inside the nozzles, such as pressure and temperature sensitive painting. The full project design and the operation conditions will be showed, as also some technical considerations about the flor behavior in the facility

Extremely slow feeding in a tropical drilling ectoparasite, Vitularia salebrosa (King and Broderip, 1832) (Gastropoda: Muricidae), on molluscan hosts from Pacific Panama

This study documents one of the slowest feeding behaviors ever recorded for a muricid gastropod in one of the most biotically rigorous regions on the planet. In Pacific Panama, Vitularia salebrosa attacks mollusks by drilling through their shells. The duration of attacks estimated by isotope sclerochronology of oyster shells collected during attacks in progress range from 90 to 230 days, while experimental observation of interactions documented one attack greater than 103 days. The prolonged nature of attacks suggests that V. salebrosa is best characterized as an ectoparasite than as a predator, which is the ancestral condition in the Muricidae. An ectoparasitic lifestyle is also evident in the unusual interaction traces of this species, which include foot scars, feeding tunnels and feeding tubes, specialized soft anatomy, and in the formation of male-female Pairs, which is consistent with protandrous hermaphroditism, as is typical in sedentary gastropods. To delay death of its host, V. salebrosa targets renewable resources when feeding, such as blood and digestive glands. A congener, Vitularia miliaris from the Indo-Pacific, has an identical feeding biology The origin and persistence of extremely slow feeding in the tropics challenges our present understanding of selective pressures influencing the evolution of muricid feeding behaviors and morphological adaptations. Previously, it has been suggested that faster feeding is advantageous because it permits predators to spend a greater proportion of time hiding in enemy-free refugia or to take additional prey, the energetic benefits of which could be translated into increased fecundity or defenses. The benefits of exceptionally slow feeding have received little consideration. In the microhabitat preferred by V. salebrosa (beneath boulders), it is possible that prolonged interactions with hosts decrease vulnerability to enemies by reducing the frequency of risky foraging events between feedings . Ectoparasitic feeding through tunnels by V. salebrosa may also reduce competitive interactions with kleptoparasites (e.g., crabs, snails) that steal food through the gaped valves of dead or dying hosts.

Potential of a neutrino detector in the ANDES underground laboratory for geophysics and astrophysics of neutrinos

The construction of the Agua Negra tunnels that will link Argentina and Chile under the Andes, the world's longest mountain range, opens the possibility of building the first deep underground laboratory in the Southern Hemisphere. This laboratory has the acronym ANDES (Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site) and its overburden could be as large as similar to 1.7 km of rock, or 4500 mwe, providing an excellent low background environment to study physics of rare events like the ones induced by neutrinos and/or dark matter. In this paper we investigate the physics potential of a few kiloton size liquid scintillator detector, which could be constructed in the ANDES laboratory as one of its possible scientific programs. In particular, we evaluate the impact of such a detector for the studies of geoneutrinos and Galactic supernova neutrinos, assuming a fiducial volume of 3 kilotons as a reference size. We emphasize the complementary roles of such a detector to the ones of the Northern Hemisphere neutrino facilities, given the advantages of its geographical location.

L'analisi di rischio nel trasporto stradale di merci pericolose: due software a confronto

Confronto tra due software specifici per l'analisi di rischio nel trasporto stradale di merci pericolose (TRAT GIS 4.1 e QRAM 3.6) mediante applicazione a un caso di studio semplice e al caso reale di Casalecchio di Reno, comune della provincia di Bologna.

Cenozoic volcanism II: the Canary Islands

[EN] The Canarian archipelago comprises seven main volcanic islands and several islets that form a chain extending for c. 500 km across the eastern Atlantic, with its eastern edge only 100 km from the NW African coast (Fig. 18.1). The islands have had a very long volcanic history, with formations over 20 million years old cropping out in the eastern Canaries. Thus all stages of the volcanic evolution of oceanic islands, including the submarine stage as well as the deep structure of the volcanoes, can be readily observed. Rainfall and vegetation cover are relatively low, with the exception of the island of La Palma, favouring both geological observation and rock preservation. Furthermore, the absence of surface water has promoted groundwater mining by means of up to 3000 km of subhorizontal tunnels (locally known as ‘galerías’).