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)

Latent heat loss of dairy cows in an equatorial semi-arid environment

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Physical environment modulates the behavioral responses induced by chemical stimulation of dorsal periaqueductal gray in mice

In order to investigate the relationship between behaviors elicited by chemical stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dorsal PAG) and spontaneous defensive behaviors to a predator, the excitatory amino acid D,L-homocysteic acid (5 nmol in 0.1 mu l), was infused into the dorsal PAG and behavioral responses of mice were evaluated in two different situations, a rectangular novel chamber or the Mouse Defense Test Battery (MDTB) apparatus. During a 1-min period following drug infusion, more jumps were made in the chamber than in the MDTB runway but running time and distance traveled were significantly higher in the runway. Animals were subsequently tested using the standard MDTB procedure (anti-predator avoidance, chase and defensive threat/attack). No drug effects on these measures were significant. In a further test in the MDTB apparatus, the pathway of the mouse during peak locomotion response was blocked 3 times by the predator stimulus (anesthetized rat) to determine if the mouse would avoid contact. Ninety percent of D,L-homocysteic treated animals made direct contact with the stimulus (rat), indicating that D,L-homocysteic-induced running is not guided by relevant (here, threat) stimuli. These results indicate that running as opposed to jumping is the primary response in mice injected with D,L-homocysteic into the dorsal PAG when the environment enables flight. However, the lack of responsivity to the predator during peak locomotion suggests that D,L-homocysteic-stimulation into the dorsal PAG does not induce normal antipredator flight. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Quantum correlations between each qubit in a two-atom system and the environment in terms of interatomic distance

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

Evasive Maneuvers in Space Debris Environment and Technological Parameters

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A Bilevel Approach to Transmission Expansion Planning Within a Market Environment

We present a bilevel model for transmission expansion planning within a market environment, where producers and consumers trade freely electric energy through a pool. The target of the transmission planner, modeled through the upper-level problem, is to minimize network investment cost while facilitating energy trading. This upper-level problem is constrained by a collection of lower-level market clearing problems representing pool trading, and whose individual objective functions correspond to social welfare. Using the duality theory the proposed bilevel model is recast as a mixed-integer linear programming problem, which is solvable using branch-and-cut solvers. Detailed results from an illustrative example and a case study are presented and discussed. Finally, some relevant conclusions are drawn.

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.

Interactions between environment, wild animals and human leptospirosis

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