Dinâmica da composição florística após a colheita de madeira em uma área de terra firme na Floresta Nacional do Tapajós (PA).

Avaliou-se a dinâmica da composição florística em uma floresta explorada na Floresta Nacional do Tapajós, na Amazônia brasileira. As árvores foram distribuídas em estratos: estrato 1 (15 cm DAP (diâmetro a 1,30m do solo) < 45cm), estrato 2 (45 cm 5 DAP <75 cm) e estrato 3 (DAP 75cm). Antes da exploração havia 136 espécies distribuídas em 36 famílias botânicas e 96 gêneros. A exploração causou grandes mudanças na composição florística, principalmente em relação as arvores com DAP > 45cm. O numero de espécies esta crescendo gradualmente, porem ainda não atingiu a diversidade original. As famílias Leguminosae, Moraceae, Euphorbiaceae e Lecythidaceae resistiram à exploração, mantendo grande numero de espécies com a possibilidade de manter também a sua importância na diversidade florística da área.

Ingresso e mortalidade de árvores após a colheita de madeira em área de terra firme na Floresta Nacional do Tapajós (PA).

Foram analisados o ingresso e a mortalidade de arvores em uma área explorada na Floresta Nacional do Tapajós na Amazônia brasileira. Ingresso foi considerado como sendo o número de arvores que atingiram 5cm de diâmetro em duas medições consecutivas. Mortalidade foi o número de arvores com DAP (diâmetro a 1,30m do solo) > 5cm encontradas mortas entre duas medições consecutivas. O ingresso aumentou imediatamente após a exploração, mas o gradativo fechamento do dossel da floresta aumentou a taxa de mortalidade, principalmente nas espécies intolerantes a sombra, e nos últimos dez anos a floresta mostrou tendência de equilíbrio entre ingresso e mortalidade. O ingresso de espécies comerciais foi maior do que a mortalidade nos últimos dez anos do período estudado.

Fungos associados ao escurecimento da madeira em paricá.

O paricá (Schizolobium parahyba var. amazonicum (Huber ex Ducke) Barneby) é uma espécie de potencial madeireiro e alternativa para reflorestamento de recuperação de áreas degradadas. Sua ocorrência é restrita à Bacia Amazônica, no Brasil, Bolívia e Venezuela. No Brasil, ocorre em mata primária e secundária de terra-firme e várzea alta. Muitos fungos têm sido relatados causando doenças nesta cultura. Em amostras de madeira provenientes de plantios do município de Vigia-PA observou-se a presença de manchas escurecidas associadas à fungos. Assim, o trabalho teve como objetivo identificar os fungos associados ao escurecimento da madeira de paricá por meio de PCR, seguido do sequenciamento do DNA. Para isso, amostras de tecido doente de paricá foram plaqueados em ágar-água. Posteriormente, os fungos foram repicados para meio BDA e mantidos a temperatura ambiente. Foi realizada a extração de DNA para a realização do PCR utilizando os primers ITS4 e ITS5 e posteriormente o sequenciamento nucleotídico. Os produtos do PCR foram avaliados utilizando o programa Blastn, onde foi permitido apenas a identificação dos gêneros dos fungos Lasiodiplodia sp., Fusarium sp., Trichoderma sp. e Rhizoctonia sp. Outros dois fungos não foram identificados.

OS ESPAÇOS RURAIS NO RIO MADEIRA: OS DESAFIOS DIANTE DO AVANÇO CAPITALISTA E DAS POLÍTICAS AMBIENTAIS

O modelo desenvolvimentista aplicado no Brasil, dominante desde a década de 1970, tem na Amazônia suas consequências mais graves. As ações resultantes das políticas e empreendimentos privados provoca transformações no espaço, gerando desequilíbrios sociais e ambientais. Com intuito de fazer uma análise das transformações ocorridas no espaço rural dos municípios do Rio Madeira, este artigo pretende analisar através da análise espaço-temporal, como os espaços rurais, em específico da Micro Região Madeira no Estado do Amazonas, vêm sendo influenciados e transformados pelas ações do avanço capitalista e pela reação das políticas ambientais. A análise foi desenvolvida a partir de um estudo de caso de caráter exploratório, com enfoque geo-histórico e análise espacial. O método geo-histórico leva a estudar diversas conjunturas, sendo elas econômicas, sociais, políticas e culturais. Observação direta e análise documental foram os procedimentos metodológicos privilegiados. O estudo teve como objeto as políticas sócio-ambientais e as estratégias empresariais e, como sujeitos, moradores dos municípios do Rio Madeira (em especial dos Municípios de Humaitá, Manicoré, Apui, Novo Aripuanã e Borba que fazem parte da Micro Região Madeira). O levantamento e análise das políticas e ações empresariais sustentam a compreensão de como o avanço capitalista e as políticas ambientais influencia a vida dos moradores da zona rural da Micro Região Madeira.

Organizational probes : exploring playful interactions in work environment

Playfulness, with non-intrusive elements, can be considered a useful resource for enhancing social awareness and community building within work organizations. Taking inspirations from the cultural probes approach, we developed organizational probes as a set of investigation tools that could provide useful information about employees’ everyday playful experiences within their work organizations. In an academic work environment, we applied our organizational probes over a period of three weeks. Based on the collected data we developed two design concepts for playful technologies in work environments.

Structures of life : the role of molecular structures in scientists' work

The visual and multidimensional representations like images and graphical structures related to biology provide great insights into understanding the complexities of different organisms. Especially, life scientists use different representations of molecular structures to answer biological questions and to better understand cellular processes. Combining results from two field studies, we explore the role of molecular structures in life scientists’ current work from a humanfactors perspective. Our main conclusion is that different representations of molecular structures, due to their visual nature, are important for supporting collaboration, constructing new knowledge and supporting scientists’ professional activities in general.

Exploring mediated interactions : a design exercise

With the emergence of personal and ubiquitous computing systems in the last decade, interaction designers have started designing products by employing quality oriented aspects such as user experience, playfulness, enchantment and others. In order to explore novel forms of mediated interactions, designers need to focus beyond the basic user requirements and usability issues. We present a procedure and results of a design exercise that we carried out with students of a master's course on Visual Design. Our intention was to explore new forms of mediated interaction by using a specific design exercise. We provide the details of the resulted design concepts and discuss the usefulness of our design exercise.

Designing awareness support for distributed cooperative design teams

Motivation Awareness is an integral part of remote collaborative work and has been an important theme within the CSCW research. Our project aims at understanding and mediating non-verbal cues between remote participants involved in a design project. Research approach Within the AMIDA project we focus on distributed 'cooperative design' teams. We especially focus on the 'material' signals - signals in which people communicate through material artefacts, locations and their embodied actions. We apply an ethnographic approach to understand the role of physical artefacts in co-located naturalistic design setting. Based on the results we will generate important implications to support remote design work. We plan to develop a mixed-reality interface supported by a shared awareness display. This awareness display will provide information about the activities happening in the design room to remotely located participants. Findings/Design Our preliminary investigation with real-world design teams suggests that both the materiality of designers' work settings and their social practices play an important role in understanding these material signals that are at play. Originality/Value Most research supporting computer mediated communication have focused on either face-to-face or linguistically oriented communication paradigms. Our research focuses on mediating the non-verbal, material cues for supporting collaborative activities without impoverishing what designers do in their day to day working lives. Take away message An ethnographic approach allows us to understand the naturalistic practices of design teams, which can lead to designing effective technologies to support group work. In that respect, the findings of our research will have a generic value beyond the application domain chosen (design teams).

Association of IL23R and ERAP1 genes with ankylosing spondylitis in a Portuguese population

Objective: Association between ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and two genes, ERAP1 and IL23R, has recently been reported in North American and British populations. The population attributable risk fraction for ERAP1 in this study was 25%, and for IL23R, 9%. Confirmation of these findings to ERAP1 in other ethnic groups has not yet been demonstrated. We sought to test the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes and susceptibility to AS among a Portuguese population. We also investigated the role of these genes in clinical manifestations of AS, including age of symptom onset, the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity, Metrology and Functional Indices, and the modified Stoke Ankylosing Spondylitis Spinal Score. Methods: The study was conducted on 358 AS cases and 285 ethnically matched Portuguese healthy controls. AS was defined according to the modified New York Criteria. Genotyping of IL23R and ERAP1 allelic variants was carried out with TaqMan allelic discrimination assays. Association analysis was performed using the Cochrane-Armitage and linear regression tests of genotypes as implemented in PLINK for dichotomous and quantitative variables respectively. A meta-analysis for Portuguese and previously published Spanish IL23R data was performed using the StatsDirect® Statistical tools, by fixed and random effects models. Results: A total of 14 nsSNPs markers (8 for IL23R, 5 for ERAPl, 1 for LN-PEP) were analysed. Three markers (2 for IL23R and 1 for ERAP1) showed significant single-locus disease associations, confirming that the association of these genes with AS in the Portuguese population. The strongest associated SNP in IL23R was rs1004819 (OR=1.4, p=0.0049), and in ERAP1 was rs30187 (OR=1.26, p=0.035). The population attributable risk fractions in the Portuguese population for these SNPs are 11% and 9.7% respectively. No association was seen with any SNP in LN-PEP, which flanks ERAP1 and was associated with AS in the British population. No association was seen with clinical manifestations of AS. Conclusions: These results show that IL23R and ERAP1 genes are also associated with susceptibility to AS in the Portuguese population, and that they contribute a significant proportion of the population risk for this disease.

Spectrum of ankylosing spondylitis in Portugal. Development of BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI and mSASSS reference centile charts

The availability of population-specific normative data regarding disease severity measures is essential for patient assessment. The goals of the current study were to characterize the pattern of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in Portuguese patients and to develop reference centile charts for BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI and mSASSS, the most widely used assessment tools in AS. AS cases were recruited from hospital outpatient clinics, with AS defined according to the modified New York criteria. Demographic and clinical data were recorded. All radiographs were evaluated by two independent experienced readers. Centile charts for BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI and mSASSS were constructed for both genders, using generalized linear models and regression models with duration of disease as independent variable. A total of 369 patients (62.3% male, mean ± (SD) age 45.4 ± 13.2 years, mean ± (SD) disease duration 11.4 ± 10.5 years, 70.7% B27-positive) were included. Family history of AS in a first-degree relative was reported in 17.6% of the cases. Regarding clinical disease pattern, at the time of assessment 42.3% had axial disease, 2.4% peripheral disease, 40.9% mixed disease and 7.1% isolated enthesopatic disease. Anterior uveitis (33.6%) was the most common extra-articular manifestation. The centile charts suggest that females reported greater disease activity and more functional impairment than males but had lower BASMI and mSASSS scores. Data collected through this study provided a demographic and clinical profile of patients with AS in Portugal. The development of centile charts constitutes a useful tool to assess the change of disease pattern over time and in response to therapeutic interventions.

ANKH and susceptibility to and severity of ankylosing spondylitis

Objective. Unconfirmed reports describe association of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) with several candidate genes including ANKH. Cellular export of inorganic pyrophosphate is regulated by the ANK protein, and mutant mice (ank/ank), which have a premature stop codon in the 3′ end of the ank gene, develop severe ankylosis. We tested the association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in these genes and susceptibility to AS in a population of patients with AS. We investigated the role of these genes in terms of functional (BASFI) and metrological (BASMI) measures, and the association with radiological severity (mSASSS). Methods. Our study was conducted on 355 patients with AS and 95 ethnically matched healthy controls. AS was defined according to the modified New York criteria. Four SNP in ANKH (rs27356, rs26307, rs25957, and rs28006) were genotyped. Association analysis was performed using Cochrane-Armitage and linear regression tests for dichotomous and quantitative variables. Analyses of Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI), BASFI, and mSASSS were controlled for sex and disease duration. Results. None of the 4 markers showed significant single-locus disease associations (p > 0.05), suggesting that ANKH was not a major determinant of AS susceptibility in our population. No association was observed between these SNP and age at symptom onset, BASDAI, BASFI, BASMI, or mSASSS. Conclusion. These results confirm data in white Europeans that ANKH is probably not a major determinant of susceptibility to AS. ANKH polymorphisms do not markedly influence AS disease severity, as measured by BASMI and mSASSS. The Journal of Rheumatology