Bioquímica molecular como ferramenta para conservação e uso da biodiversidade agrícola tropical: desenvolvimento de marcador imunoquímico para identificação da bactérias endofíticas do milho.

Marcadores moleculares estão sendo amplamente utilizados na agricultura. Entre as várias aplicações práticas, destacam-se a identificação de raças, linhagens e estirpes, eliminação de réplicas em bancos de germoplasma, identificação de genes associados com a performance da planta, entre outros. Em todos esses casos, a definição da estratégia que deverá ser adotada precisa considerar os custos para a obtenção dos marcadores. Ênfase crescente tem sido dada para identificar marcadores menos onerosos. Marcadores bioquímicos constituem um tipo especial de marcador molecular que se caracteriza pela análise do produto da expressão gênica. Destacam-se dois tipos principais: isoenzimas e proteínas. Esses marcadores também são definidos como marcadores fenotípicos, pois podem resultar da interação genótipo/ambiente. Embora de aplicação limitada, o uso desses marcadores em algumas áreas ou em casos especiais fornece informações seguras e úteis para a identificação de indivíduos. Recentemente, as técnicas de SDS-PAGE, RAPD-PCR, ARDRA e seqüenciamento de genes ribossomais foram empregadas no Laboratório de Bioquímica Molecular de Microrganismos da Embrapa Milho e Sorgo, para identificar bactérias endofíticas isoladas do milho. Naquele estudo, foi verificada, em todos os isolados, a presença de um polipeptídio de aproximadamente 42 kDa e cuja expressão era bastante elevada. O objetivo deste trabalho consistiu em aprofundar os estudos sobre o polipeptídio de 42 kDa, visando o desenvolvimento de marcadores imunoquímicos para identificar e estudar a dinâmica de colonização bactérias endofíticas em plantas de milho.

Transformação genética de embriões zigóticos da linhagem de milho tropical L3 mediada por Agrobacterium Tumefaciens.

2009

Produção de uvas para processamento no sistema de condução Scott Henry, em região tropical do Brasil.

2007

Produção de uva Isabel para processamento, no sistema GDC, em região tropical do Brasil.

2007

Otimização da rede de estradas secundárias em projetos de manejo sustentável de floresta tropical.

A otimização da rede de estradas secundárias em função das distâncias ideais de arraste não tem sido considerada na elaboração dos planos de manejo de floresta tropical. No Estado do Acre, as florestas com potencial de manejo, possuem diferentes tipologias, volume comercial e potencialmente aproveitáveis por hectare, topografia e solos variados. Isto implicará sempre diferentes densidades ideais de construção de estradas florestais para manejo, tornando necessária a utilização de metodologia que defina o menor custo e dano ao povoamento. Este trabalho tem a finalidade de fornecer suporte técnico à planificação de redes de estradas para o manejo em florestas tropicais, abordando os principais elementos necessários as planejamento e sugerindo uma sistemática de trabalhos para elaboração de um projeto.

Planejamento de arraste mecanizado em floresta tropical.

Este trabalho visa basicamente sugerir uma sequência de metodológica de trabalho para o planejamento adequado do arraste mecanizado, baseado no proposto em Braz & Oliveira (1996), e métodos existentes.

Rapid Losses of Surface Elevation following Tree Girdling and Cutting in Tropical Mangroves.

Discussion Conclusions Materials and Methods Acknowledgments Author Contributions References Reader Comments (0) Figures Abstract The importance of mangrove forests in carbon sequestration and coastal protection has been widely acknowledged. Large-scale damage of these forests, caused by hurricanes or clear felling, can enhance vulnerability to erosion, subsidence and rapid carbon losses. However, it is unclear how small-scale logging might impact on mangrove functions and services. We experimentally investigated the impact of small-scale tree removal on surface elevation and carbon dynamics in a mangrove forest at Gazi bay, Kenya. The trees in five plots of a Rhizophora mucronata (Lam.) forest were first girdled and then cut. Another set of five plots at the same site served as controls. Treatment induced significant, rapid subsidence (−32.1±8.4 mm yr−1 compared with surface elevation changes of +4.2±1.4 mm yr−1 in controls). Subsidence in treated plots was likely due to collapse and decomposition of dying roots and sediment compaction as evidenced from increased sediment bulk density. Sediment effluxes of CO2 and CH4 increased significantly, especially their heterotrophic component, suggesting enhanced organic matter decomposition. Estimates of total excess fluxes from treated compared with control plots were 25.3±7.4 tCO2 ha−1 yr−1 (using surface carbon efflux) and 35.6±76.9 tCO2 ha−1 yr−1 (using surface elevation losses and sediment properties). Whilst such losses might not be permanent (provided cut areas recover), observed rapid subsidence and enhanced decomposition of soil sediment organic matter caused by small-scale harvesting offers important lessons for mangrove management. In particular mangrove managers need to carefully consider the trade-offs between extracting mangrove wood and losing other mangrove services, particularly shoreline stabilization, coastal protection and carbon storage.

Traversing digital learning landscapes: an Institutional and faculty case study.

Within the UK, there is a growing awareness to better understand what online educational technologies can offer in relation to learning and teaching, and how social technologies are changing communication and collaboration out with formal education. The concept of the ‘digital university’ is being widely debated within the UK Higher education sector (McCluskey and Winter, 2012), becoming embedded in educational policy, and beginning to be explored within many institutions. This session will report on one such institutional initiative, undertaken at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland. A Digital Futures Working Group was established to: benchmark best practice in key areas including digitally enhanced education and digital literacies development; identify areas for short term action; and to produce a robust ‘digital agenda’ to inform the future direction of the university. Pivotal to this was the recognition to evolve staff digital pedagogical practices and to harness emerging digital opportunities, meet learner expectations, and meet wider expectations for contemporary able citizens. This session will be delivered in two parts. Firstly we will provide an insight into the focus of the project and the rich picture methodology used to consult with staff and students. Secondly we will specify the outcomes produced, and provide a case study of how the Faculty of Health, Life and Social Sciences engaged with the process and the progression of their digitally enabled educational practices.

An Englishwoman's twenty-five years in tropical Africa: being the biography of Gwen Elen Lewis, missionary to the Cameroons and the Congo, by George Hawker

http://www.archive.org/details/anenglishwomanst00hawkuoft

Theme and variations: Christianity and regional landscapes in early medieval Ireland

This thesis explores the impact of Christianity on the landscape in Ireland from the conversion period to the coming of the Anglo-Normans. The premise is that ecclesiastical and secular settlement formed a cohesive whole which characterised the societal organisation of early medieval Ireland. The matter of the thesis is to isolate some of the agents of cohesion to see was this homogenous or did it vary in different areas. One of these agents was the ownership of land and the thesis undertakes to identify ecclesiastical landholding and examine the manner of settlement on it. A corollary is to explore the contribution of the genealogical link between kin-group, founding saint and territory to the construction of local identities. This necessitated a narrow focus; thus small study areas were chosen, which approximated to early medieval kingdoms in North Louth, Rathdown, Co Dublin and Ross, Co Cork. A multidisciplinary approach was taken using both archaeological and documentary evidence. The thesis found ecclesiastical sites were at the same density through the study areas, but there were considerable regional variations in related secular settlement. Ecclesiastical estates were identified in the three study areas and common settlement patterns were found in two of them. Settlement in all areas indicated the foundation of minor churches by local groups. Ecclesiastical sites were found to be integral to kin-group identity and status, but the manner in which each group negotiated this, was very different. Finally the thesis examined material evidence for a change from diffused to concentrated power in the political organisation of Irish society, a process entwined with developments of the Viking Age. This centralisation of power and associated re-formation of identity was still often mediated through the ecclesiastical sphere but the thesis demonstrates diversity in the materialising of the mediation.

Landscapes of kingship in early medieval Ireland, AD 400–1150

This thesis explores the evolution of kingship in early medieval Ireland (AD 400–1150) through a kingdom based and multi-scalar approach to royal landscapes. Through exploring the role of place and landscape in the construction of early medieval Irish kingship, this study will assess the relationship between the social, economic and ideological roles of the king in Irish society. Kingship in Ireland was vested in places, such that royal landscapes were the pre-eminent symbol of regality and authority. As such, an interdisciplinary study of kingship grounded in archaeological methodologies has a unique potential to contribute to our knowledge of the practice of kingship. Consequently, this research considers the material apparatus of different scales of kingships and explores the role of landscape in the construction of kingship and the evolution of kingdoms. It takes two major case studies; (i) Cashel, Munster and the Éoganachta federation; and (ii) the Uí Néill, Tara and the Síl nÁedo Sláine kingdom of Brega. Through interdisciplinary methodologies it charts the genesis and development of political federations, focusing specifically on the role that royal landscapes’ played in their evolution. Similarly, this thesis engages critically with the nature of assembly places and practices in Ireland, and focuses specifically on issues pertaining to the nature of assembly and the archaeological manifestation of such practices. It includes a list of 115 landscapes identified as assembly places, and through the analysis of this material, this thesis examines the ways in which different types of royal sites articulated together to create royal landscapes implicated in the exercise of kingship, and the construction and maintenance of authority. Moreover, through the analysis of assembly places within the context of the development of kingdoms, and structures of jurisdiction and administration, it also investigates the evolution of supra-regional scales of identity and community associated with the emergence of major political federations in early medieval Ireland.

Impact of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation on Tropical Cyclone Activity in the North Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific.

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the most devastating weather systems affecting the United States and Central America (USCA). Here we show that the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) strongly modulates TC activity over the North Atlantic (NA) and eastern North Pacific (eNP). During positive IPO phases, less (more) TCs were observed over NA (eNP), likely due to the presence of stronger (weaker) vertical wind shear and the resulting changes in genesis potential. Furthermore, TCs over NA tend to keep their tracks more eastward and recurve at lower latitudes during positive IPO phases. Such variations are largely determined by changes in steering flow instead of changes in genesis locations. Over the eNP, smaller track variations are observed at different IPO phases with stable, westward movements of TCs prevailing. These findings have substantial implications for understanding decadal to inter-decadal fluctuations in the risk of TC landfalls along USCA coasts.

Heat balances and thermally driven lagoon-ocean exchangeson a tropical coral reef system (Moorea, French Polynesia)

© 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.The role of surface and advective heat fluxes on buoyancy-driven circulation was examined within a tropical coral reef system. Measurements of local meteorological conditions as well as water temperature and velocity were made at six lagoon locations for 2 months during the austral summer. We found that temperature rather than salinity dominated buoyancy in this system. The data were used to calculate diurnally phase-averaged thermal balances. A one-dimensional momentum balance developed for a portion of the lagoon indicates that the diurnal heating pattern and consistent spatial gradients in surface heat fluxes create a baroclinic pressure gradient that is dynamically important in driving the observed circulation. The baroclinic and barotropic pressure gradients make up 90% of the momentum budget in part of the system; thus, when the baroclinic pressure gradient decreases 20% during the day due to changes in temperature gradient, this substantially changes the circulation, with different flow patterns occurring during night and day. Thermal balances computed across the entire lagoon show that the spatial heating patterns and resulting buoyancy-driven circulation are important in maintaining a persistent advective export of heat from the lagoon and for enhancing ocean-lagoon exchange.

Biological and physical interactions on a tropical island coral reef: Transport and retention processes on moorea, French Polynesia

The Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research project funded by the US National Science Foundation includes multidisciplinary studies of physical processes driving ecological dynamics across the fringing reef, back reef, and fore reef habitats of Moorea, French Polynesia. A network of oceanographic moorings and a variety of other approaches have been used to investigate the biological and biogeochemical aspects of water transport and retention processes in this system. There is evidence to support the hypothesis that a low-frequency counterclockwise flow around the island is superimposed on the relatively strong alongshore currents on each side of the island. Despite the rapid flow and flushing of the back reef, waters over the reef display chemical and biological characteristics distinct from those offshore. The patterns include higher nutrient and lower dissolved organic carbon concentrations, distinct microbial community compositions among habitats, and reef assemblages of zooplankton that exhibit migration behavior, suggesting multigenerational residence on the reef. Zooplankton consumption by planktivorous fish on the reef reflects both retention of reef-associated taxa and capture by the reef community of resources originating offshore. Coral recruitment and population genetics of reef fishes point to retention of larvae within the system and high recruitment levels from local adult populations. The combined results suggest that a broad suite of physical and biological processes contribute to high retention of externally derived and locally produced organic materials within this island coral reef system. © 2013 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved.