Caracterização agro-sócio-econômico de unidades agrícolas familiares do município de Iranduba.

Caracterizacao de uma amostra de 80 propriedades de pequenos produtores no municipio de Iranduba (AM). O levantamento das informacoes foi realizado em 1991, sendo as propriedads selecionadas para incluir areas nos ecossistemas de varzea e terra firme, tipos de sistemas de uso da terra, isto e', olericultura, cultivo de subsistencia, fruteiras e tempo de ocupacao, desde o assentamento inicial dos lotes. Os resultados confirmaram a variacao substancial em uso da terra, de acordo com os diferentes ecossistemas, de tal forma que permitiu a caracterizacao dos ecossistemas varzea baixa e varzea alta. Diferencas marcantes foram tambem observadas em certas categorias de uso da terra, de acordo com os ecossistemas, incluindo os tipos e tamanho dos cultivos e rebanho animal, titulacao da terra e tempo de permanencia no local. Foram detectadas as principais limitacoes nos sistemas, identificadas pelos proprios produtores, o que podera servir de subsidios para futuras acoes de pesquisa ou adequacoes de praticas agricolas e combinacoes de exploracao para melhoria da renda familiar.

Caracterização agro-sócio-econômica de unidades agrícolas familiares do município de Manaquiri.

Caracterizacao agro-socio-economica do municipio de Manaquiri (AM), por meio da caracterizacao dos produtores e dos istemas de uso da terra, em tres ecossistemas (terra firme, varzea e vazante). Com base nos resultados, concluiu-se que as unidades familiares sao ocupadas principalmente por produtores amazonidas; os cultivos de subsistencia sao caracteristicas comuns aos sistemas de uso da terra nos tres ecossistemas; as principais atividades de renda, nos tres ecossistemas, sao olericultura, na varzea, fruticultura, em terra firme, e bovinocultura, na vazante; o ecossistema vazante pode ser considerado o mais importante tanto pelo tamanho das areas dedicadas a cada uma das atividades de exploracao agricola como pelo numero de produtores entrevistados; a ocorrencia de pragas e doencas em plantas e animais foi considerada a mais seria das limitacoes tecnicas dos sistemas de uso da terra nos tres ecossistemas; e a falta de credito agricola e a comercializacao foram consideradas limitacoes struturais comuns e mais criticas dos tres ecossistemas.

Caracterização agro-sócio-econômica de unidades agrícolas de assentamentos de Manaus.

Caracterizacao agricola e socioeconomica das unidades agricolas de assentamentos de Manaus (AM), por meio da caracterizacao dos assentamentos, dos produtores e dos sistemas de uso da terra. Segundo o estudo realizado, o insucesso economico e' o principal fator de migracao dos produtores para capital e/ou outro assentamento; a fragmentacao e/ou agregacao de lotes e resultado tanto da compra de lotes adjacentes como da divisao dos lotes com familiares ou venda de parte dos lotes como alternativa de viabilizar o restante; os cultivos de subsistencia e de especies perenes foram mais frequentes nos sistemas de uso da terra dos assentamentos estudados; a producao animal parece de pouca importancia comercial por serem criados mais para subsistencia que para venda; e a falta de organizacao na producao e na comercializacao, associada a falta de infra-estrutura adequada, restringem o desenvolvimento socioeconomico dos produtores nos assentamentos.

Rainfall infiltration and soil hydrological characteristics below ancient forest, planted forest, and grassland in a temperate northern climate

How rainfall infiltration rate and soil hydrological characteristics develop over time under forests of different ages in temperate regions is poorly understood. In this study, infiltration rate and soil hydrological characteristics were investigated under forests of different ages and under grassland. Soil hydraulic characteristics were measured at different scales under a 250 year old grazed grassland (GL), a six (6 yr) and 48 (48 yr) year old Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) plantation, remnant 300 year old individual Scots pines (OT) and a 4000 year old Caledonian Forest (AF). In-situ field saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs) was measured and visible root:soil area was estimated from soil pits. Macroporosity, pore structure, and macropore connectivity were estimated from X-ray tomography of soil cores, and from water-release characteristics. At all scales the median values for Kfs, root fraction, macro-porosity and connectivity values tended to AF > OT > 48 yr > GL > 6 yr, indicating that infiltration rates and water storage increased with forest age. The remnant Caledonian Forest had a huge range of Kfs (12 to > 4922 mm h-1), with maximum Kfs values 7 to 15 times larger than 48-year-old Scots pine plantation, suggesting that undisturbed old forests, with high rainfall and minimal evapotranspiration in winter, may act as important areas for water storage and sinks for storm rainfall to infiltrate and transport to deeper soil layers via preferential flow. The importance of the development of soil hydrological characteristics under different aged forests is discussed.

Langmuir-Blodgett assembly of colloidal crystals combined with controlled infiltration of conducting metal oxides

Colloidal photonic crystals (PhCs) possess a periodic dielectric structure which gives rise to a photonic band gap (PBG) and offer great potential in the ability to modify or control light at visible wavelengths. Although the refractive index contrast between the void or infill and the matrix material is paramount for photonics applications, integration into real optoelectronics devices will require a range of added functionalities such as conductivity. As such, colloidal PhCs can be used as templates to direct infiltration of other functional materials using a range of deposition strategies. The work in this thesis seeks to address two challenges; first to develop a reproducible strategy based on Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition to assemble high quality colloidal PhCs based on silica with precise film thickness as most other assembly methods suffer from a lack of reproducibility thickness control. The second is to investigate the use of LBdeposited colloidal PhCs as templates for infiltration with conducting metal oxide materials using vapor phase deposition techniques. Part of this work describes the synthesis and assembly of colloidal silica spheres with different surface chemical functionalities at the air-water interface in preparation for LB deposition. Modification of surface funtionality conferred varying levels of hydrophobicity upon the particles. The behaviour of silica monolayer films at the air-water interface was characterised by Brewster Angle Microscopy and surface pressure isotherms with a view to optimising the parameters for LB deposition of multilayer colloidal PhC films. Optical characterisation of LB-fabricated colloidal PhCs indicated high quality photonic behaviour, exhibiting a pseudo PBG with a sharp Bragg diffraction peak in the visible region and reflectance intensities greater than 60%. Finally the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of nominally undoped ZnO and aluminium “doped” ZnO (Al-doped ZnO) inside the pores of a colloidal PhC assembled by the LB technique was carried out. ALD growth in this study was performed using trimethyl aluminium (TMA) and water as precursors for the alumina and diethyl zinc (DEZn) and water for the ZnO. The ZnO:Al films were grown in a laminate mode, where DEZn pulses were substituted for TMA pulses in the sequences with a Zn:Al ratio 19:1. The ALD growth of ZnO and ZnO:Al in colloidal PhCs was shown to be highly conformal, tuneable and reproducible whilst maintaining excellent photonic character. Furthermore, at high levels of infiltration the opal composite films demonstrated significant conductivity.

A PK2/Bv8/PROK2 antagonist suppresses tumorigenic processes by inhibiting angiogenesis in glioma and blocking myeloid cell infiltration in pancreatic cancer.

Infiltration of myeloid cells in the tumor microenvironment is often associated with enhanced angiogenesis and tumor progression, resulting in poor prognosis in many types of cancer. The polypeptide chemokine PK2 (Bv8, PROK2) has been shown to regulate myeloid cell mobilization from the bone marrow, leading to activation of the angiogenic process, as well as accumulation of macrophages and neutrophils in the tumor site. Neutralizing antibodies against PK2 were shown to display potent anti-tumor efficacy, illustrating the potential of PK2-antagonists as therapeutic agents for the treatment of cancer. In this study we demonstrate the anti-tumor activity of a small molecule PK2 antagonist, PKRA7, in the context of glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer xenograft tumor models. For the highly vascularized glioblastoma, PKRA7 was associated with decreased blood vessel density and increased necrotic areas in the tumor mass. Consistent with the anti-angiogenic activity of PKRA7 in vivo, this compound effectively reduced PK2-induced microvascular endothelial cell branching in vitro. For the poorly vascularized pancreatic cancer, the primary anti-tumor effect of PKRA7 appears to be mediated by the blockage of myeloid cell migration/infiltration. At the molecular level, PKRA7 inhibits PK2-induced expression of certain pro-migratory chemokines and chemokine receptors in macrophages. Combining PKRA7 treatment with standard chemotherapeutic agents resulted in enhanced effects in xenograft models for both types of tumor. Taken together, our results indicate that the anti-tumor activity of PKRA7 can be mediated by two distinct mechanisms that are relevant to the pathological features of the specific type of cancer. This small molecule PK2 antagonist holds the promise to be further developed as an effective agent for combinational cancer therapy.

Low frequency of paleoviral infiltration across the avian phylogeny.

BACKGROUND: Mammalian genomes commonly harbor endogenous viral elements. Due to a lack of comparable genome-scale sequence data, far less is known about endogenous viral elements in avian species, even though their small genomes may enable important insights into the patterns and processes of endogenous viral element evolution. RESULTS: Through a systematic screening of the genomes of 48 species sampled across the avian phylogeny we reveal that birds harbor a limited number of endogenous viral elements compared to mammals, with only five viral families observed: Retroviridae, Hepadnaviridae, Bornaviridae, Circoviridae, and Parvoviridae. All nonretroviral endogenous viral elements are present at low copy numbers and in few species, with only endogenous hepadnaviruses widely distributed, although these have been purged in some cases. We also provide the first evidence for endogenous bornaviruses and circoviruses in avian genomes, although at very low copy numbers. A comparative analysis of vertebrate genomes revealed a simple linear relationship between endogenous viral element abundance and host genome size, such that the occurrence of endogenous viral elements in bird genomes is 6- to 13-fold less frequent than in mammals. CONCLUSIONS: These results reveal that avian genomes harbor relatively small numbers of endogenous viruses, particularly those derived from RNA viruses, and hence are either less susceptible to viral invasions or purge them more effectively.

Caracterización de la infiltración acumulada y de la tasa de infiltración ante diferentes laboreo de suelo

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Las transformaciones en el agro pampeano y su incidencia sobre el sector cooperativo

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CFD analysis of one-dimensional infiltration in vadose zone

This study presents a CFD analysis constructed around PHYSICA, an open framework for multi-physics computational continuum mechanics modelling, to investigate the water movement in unsaturated porous media. The modelling environment is based on a cell-centred finite-volume discretisation technique. A number of test cases are performed in order to validate the correct implementation of Richard's equation for compressible and incompressible fluids. The pressure head form of the equation is used together with the constitutive relationships between pressure, volumetric water content and hydraulic conductivity described by Haverkamp and Van Genuchten models. The flow problems presented are associated with infiltration into initially dry soils with homogeneous or layered geologic settings. Comparison of results with the problems selected from literature shows a good agreement and validates the approach and the implementation.

Single-Element and Competitive Metal Mobility Measured with Column Infiltration and Batch Tests

The distribution coefficient, K-d, is often used to quantify heavy metal mobility in soils. Batch sorption or column infiltration tests may be used to measure K-d. The latter are closer to natural soil conditions, but are difficult to conduct in clays. This difficulty can be overcome by using a laboratory centrifuge. An acceleration of 2600 gravities was applied to columns of London Clay, an Eocene clay sub-stratum, and Cu, Ni, and Zn mobility was measured in centrifuge infiltration tests, both as single elements and in dual competition. Single-element K-d values were also obtained from batch sorption tests, and the results from the two techniques were compared. It was found that K-d values obtained by batch tests vary considerably depending on the metal concentration, while infiltration tests provided a single K-d value for each metal. This was typically in the lower end of the range of the batch test K-d values. For both tests, the order of mobility was Ni > Zn > Cu. Metals became more mobile in competition than when in single-element systems: Ni K-d decreased 3.3 times and Zn K-d 3.4 times when they competed with Cu, while Cu decreased only 1.2 times when in competition with either Ni or Zn. Our study showed that competitive sorption between metals increases the mobility of those metals less strongly bound more than it increases the mobility of more strongly bound metals.

RAGE Regulates Immune Cell Infiltration and Angiogenesis in Choroidal Neovascularization

Purpose: RAGE regulates pro-inflammatory responses in diverse cells and tissues. This study has investigated if RAGE plays a role in immune cell mobilization and choroidal neovascular pathology that is associated with the neovascular form of age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD).

Methods: RAGE null (RAGE−/−) mice and age-matched wild type (WT) control mice underwent laser photocoagulation to generate choroidal neovascularization (CNV) lesions which were then analyzed for morphology, S100B immunoreactivity and inflammatory cell infiltration. The chemotactic ability of bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDMs) towards S100B was investigated.

Results: RAGE expression was significantly increased in the retina during CNV of WT mice (p<0.001). RAGE−/− mice exhibited significantly reduced CNV lesion size when compared to WT controls (p<0.05). S100B mRNA was upregulated in the lasered WT retina but not RAGE−/− retina and S100B immunoreactivity was present within CNV lesions although levels were less when RAGE−/− mice were compared to WT controls. Activated microglia in lesions were considerably less abundant in RAGE−/− mice when compared to WT counterparts (p<0.001). A dose dependent chemotactic migration was observed in BMDMs from WT mice (p<0.05–0.01) but this was not apparent in cells isolated from RAGE−/− mice.

Conclusions: RAGE-S100B interactions appear to play an important role in CNV lesion formation by regulating pro-inflammatory and angiogenic responses. This study highlights the role of RAGE in inflammation-mediated outer retinal pathology.