Effects of age at slaughter and sire genotype on fatness, muscularity, and the quality of meat from ram lambs born to Romney ewes

Ram lambs (n = 356) born to Romney ewes and sired by a range of straightbred or crossbred sires were evaluated for carcass composition and, for a subsample (n = 236), some meat quality characteristics over a period of 4 years. Within each year, 2 to 4 sire genotypes, including Romney controls, were evaluated at 2 slaughter ages (5-9 months and 10-11 months). Weight-adjusted carcass length was greater for lambs with some East Friesian or Finn genes, but no differences were found in dressing-out percent. At a constant carcass weight, carcass fatness (fat depths and leg dissectible fat) was lower in lambs with East Friesian, Texel, or Finn genes. Meat yield at a constant weight tended to be greatest in sire groups that were least fat, and M:B ratio in the femur region was highest in lambs with Texel genes and, to a lesser extent, those with Poll Dorset genes. Leg muscularity in the femur region generally paralleled differences in M:B, except in a comparison of East Friesian-cross and Romney lambs where the former had lower muscularity but slightly better M:B. Lambs slaughtered at the older age for each year had longer and leaner carcasses at the same weight, possibly because they had been taken part way through a winter or because of slower growth rates leading up to slaughter. Meat quality characteristics differed little between the genotype groups, but for 2 of 3 years, meat from the semimembranosus muscle of lambs in the older slaughter lot was significantly tougher.

Genotype by environment interaction in Nelore cattle from five Brazilian states

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

Modelagem de dados de falhas de equipamentos de sub-superfície em poços de petróleo da Bacia Potiguar

This master´s thesis presents a reliability study conducted among onshore oil fields in the Potiguar Basin (RN/CE) of Petrobras company, Brazil. The main study objective was to build a regression model to predict the risk of failures that impede production wells to function properly using the information of explanatory variables related to wells such as the elevation method, the amount of water produced in the well (BSW), the ratio gas-oil (RGO), the depth of the production bomb, the operational unit of the oil field, among others. The study was based on a retrospective sample of 603 oil columns from all that were functioning between 2000 and 2006. Statistical hypothesis tests under a Weibull regression model fitted to the failure data allowed the selection of some significant predictors in the set considered to explain the first failure time in the wells

Genotype by environment interaction for birth and weaning weights of composite beef cattle in different regions of Brazil

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

Effects of sex and age on genotype x environment interaction for beef cattle body weight studied using reaction norm models

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

SurRFE -Sub-rede de filtragens específicas

The increasing of the number of attacks in the computer networks has been treated with the increment of the resources that are applied directly in the active routers equip-ments of these networks. In this context, the firewalls had been consolidated as essential elements in the input and output control process of packets in a network. With the advent of intrusion detectors systems (IDS), efforts have been done in the direction to incorporate packets filtering based in standards of traditional firewalls. This integration incorporates the IDS functions (as filtering based on signatures, until then a passive element) with the already existing functions in firewall. In opposite of the efficiency due this incorporation in the blockage of signature known attacks, the filtering in the application level provokes a natural retard in the analyzed packets, and it can reduce the machine performance to filter the others packets because of machine resources demand by this level of filtering. This work presents models of treatment for this problem based in the packets re-routing for analysis by a sub-network with specific filterings. The suggestion of implementa- tion of this model aims reducing the performance problem and opening a space for the consolidation of scenes where others not conventional filtering solutions (spam blockage, P2P traffic control/blockage, etc.) can be inserted in the filtering sub-network, without inplying in overload of the main firewall in a corporative network

Identification of Rhizoctonia solani AG 1-IB in lettuce, AG 4 HG-I in tomato and melon, and AG 4 HG-III in broccoli and spinach, in Brazil

Fungi isolated in Brazil, from lettuce, broccoli, spinach, melon and tomato, were identified as Rhizoctonia solani. All lettuce isolates anastomosed with both AG 1-IA and IB subgroups and all isolates from broccoli, spinach, melon and tomato anastomosed with AG 4 subgroup HG-I, as well as with subgroups HG-II and HG-III. DNA sequence analyses of ribosomal internal transcribed spacers showed that isolates from lettuce were AG 1-IB, isolates from tomato and melon were AG 4 HG-I, and isolates from broccoli and spinach were AG 4 HG-III. The tomato isolates caused stem rot symptoms, the spinach, broccoli and melon isolates caused hypocotyl and root rot symptoms on the respective host plants and the lettuce isolates caused bottom rot. This is the first report on the occurrence in Brazil of R. solani AG 4 HG-I in tomato and melon, of AG 4 HG-III in broccoli and spinach and of AG 1-IB in lettuce.

Population dynamics of DENV-1 genotype V in Brazil is characterized by co-circulation and strain/lineage replacement

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A Single Intraoperative Sub-Tenon's Capsule Injection of Triamcinolone and Ciprofloxacin in a Controlled-Release System for Cataract Surgery

PURPOSE. To compare intraoperative injection of triamcinolone and ciprofloxacin in a controlled-release system (DuoCat) with prednisolone and ciprofloxacin eye drops after cataract surgery.METHODS. In this randomized, double-masked, controlled trial, a total of 135 patients undergoing cataract surgery were randomly allocated to two groups: 67 patients treated after surgery with prednisolone 1% and ciprofloxacin 3% eye drops four times daily (week 1), three times daily (week 2), twice daily (week 3), and once daily (week 4) and 0.3% ciprofloxacin drops four times daily (weeks 1 and 2), and 68 patients treated at the end of surgery with a sub-Tenon's injection of 25 mg triamcinolone and 2 mg ciprofloxacin in biodegradable microspheres. The patients were examined on postoperative days 1, 3, 7, 14, and 28. The main outcome measures were postoperative anterior chamber cell and flare, intraocular pressure (IOP), lack of anti-inflammatory response, and presence of infection.RESULTS. No significant differences were observed between the groups in anterior chamber cell (P > 0.14) and flare (P > 0.02) at any postoperative visits. The mean (99% confidence interval) differences in IOP between the prednisolone and triamcinolone groups on days 1, 3, 7, 14, and 28 were -0.4 mm Hg (-2.1 to 1.3), 0.0 mm Hg (-1.4 to 1.3), 0.0 mm Hg (-1.1 to 1.1), -0.2 mm Hg (-1.1 to 0.8), and -0.1 mm Hg (-1.1 to 0.9), respectively. No patient had a postoperative infection.CONCLUSIONS. One injection of DuoCat had a therapeutic response and ocular tolerance that were equivalent to conventional eye drops in controlling inflammation after cataract surgery. (Clinical-Trials. gov number, NCT00431028.) (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2009; 50: 3041-3047) DOI: 10.1167/iovs.08-2920

CCR5 genotype and plasma ß-chemokine concentration of Brazilian HIV-infected individuals

The 32-bp deletion in the HIV-1 co-receptor CCR5 confers a high degree of resistance to HIV-1 infection in homozygous individuals for the deleted allele and partial protection against HIV-1 during disease progression in heterozygotes. Natural ligands for CCR5, MIP-1alpha, MIP-1ß and RANTES, have been shown to inhibit HIV replication in CD4+ T cells. In the present study, we examined the CCR5 genotype by PCR and the plasma levels of RANTES and MIP-1alpha by ELISA among blood donors (N = 26) and among HIV-1-infected individuals (N = 129). The control group consisted of healthy adult volunteers and HIV-1-infected subjects were an asymptomatic and heterogeneous group of individuals with regard to immunologic and virologic markers of HIV-1 disease. The frequency of the CCR5 mutant allele (delta32ccr5) in this population was 0.032; however, no delta32ccr5 homozygote was detected. These results could be related to the intense ethnic admixture of the Brazilian population. There was no correlation between circulating ß-chemokines (MIP-1alpha, RANTES) and viral load in HIV-infected individuals. RANTES concentrations in plasma samples from HIV+ patients carrying the homozygous CCR5 allele (CCR5/CCR5) (28.23 ng/ml) were higher than in the control samples (16.07 ng/ml; P<0.05); however, this HIV+ patient group (mean 26.23 pg/ml) had significantly lower concentrations of MIP-1alpha than those observed in control samples (mean 31.20 pg/ml; P<0.05). Both HIV-1-infected and uninfected individuals heterozygous for the delta32ccr5 allele had significantly lower concentrations of circulating RANTES (mean 16.07 and 6.11 ng/ml, respectively) than CCR5/CCR5 individuals (mean 28.23 and 16.07 ng/ml, respectively; P<0.05). These findings suggest that the CCR5 allele and ß-chemokine production may affect the immunopathogenesis of HIV-1.

Biased Atmospheric, Sub-Atmospheric, and Low-Pressure Air Plasmas for Material Surface Improvements

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

Sub-Optimal Orbital Maneuvers for Artificial Satellites

The determination of a specific orbit and the procedure to calculate orbital maneuvers of artificial satellites are problems of extreme importance in the study of orbital mechanics. Therefore, the transferring problem of a spaceship from one orbit to another, and the attention due to this subject has in increased during the last years. Many applications can be found in several space activities, for example, to put a satellite in a geostationary orbit, to change the position of a spaceship, to maintain a specific satellite's orbit, in the design of an interplanetary mission, and others. The Brazilian Satellite SCD-1 (Data Collecting Satellite) will be used as example in this paper. It is the first satellite developed entirely in Brazil, and it remains in operation to this date. SCD-1 was designed, developed, built, and tested by Brazilian scientists, engineers, and technicians working at INPE (National Institute for Space Research, and in Brazilian Industries. During the lifetime, it might be necessary do some complementary maneuvers, being this one either an orbital transferring, or just to make periodical corrections. The purpose of transferring problem is to change the position, velocity and the satellite's mass to a new pre determined state. This transfer can be totally linked (in the case of "Rendezvous") or partially free (free time, free final velocity, etc). In the global case, the direction, the orientation and the magnitude of the thrust to be applied must be chosen, respecting the equipment's limit. In order to make this transferring, either sub-optimal or optimal maneuvers may be used. In the present study, only the sub-optimal will be shown. Hence, this method will simplify the direction of thrust application, to allow a fast calculation that may be used in real time, with a very fast processing. The thrust application direction to be applied will be assumed small and constant, and the purpose of this paper is to find the time interval that the thrust is applied. This paper is basically divided into three parts: during the first one the sub-optimal maneuver is explained and detailed, the second presents the Satellite SCD-1, and finally the last part shows the results using the sub-optimal maneuver applied to the Brazilian Satellite.

Prediction of Hevea progeny performance in the presence of genotype-environment interaction

Twenty two open-pollinated Hevea progenies from different parental clones of the Asian origin were tested at five sites in the Northwestern São Paulo State Brazil to investigate the progeny girth growth, rubber yield, bark thickness and plant height. Except for the rubber yield, the analysis of variance indicated highly significant (p<0.01) genotype x environment interaction and heterogeneity of regressions among the progenies. However, the regression stability analysis identified only a few interacting progenies which had regression coefficients significantly different from the expected value of one. The linear regressions of the progeny mean performance at each test on an environmental index (mean of all the progenies in each test) showed the general stability and adaptability of most selected Hevea progenies over the test environments. The few progenies which were responsive and high yielding on different test sites could be used to maximize the rubber cultivars productivity and to obtain the best use of the genetically improved stock under different environmental conditions.

Temporal stability for unpredictable annual climatic variability for Hevea genotype selection

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