Soil nutrient availability and its impact on fruit quality of Tahiti acid lime

The Tahiti acid lime in Brazil is mostly grown in the São Paulo State. The value of this crop production ranks among the ten most important fruits in the country. The Brazilian exports of Tahiti limes have increased in the last years with a corresponding increased demand for superior quality of fresh fruits, which is affected by mineral nutrients. Therefore, this study evaluated nutrient soil availability and its influence on nutritional status of trees based on the determination of leaf and fruit nutrient concentrations, fruit characteristics, and post harvest quality. Eleven commercial groves with trees older than 4-yr and differently managed were studied. Plots with six trees in each grove were sampled for soil (0-20 cm depth layer), leaf and fruit analyses with three replicates. Correlation coefficients were pair wised established for all variables. The results showed that N leaf concentration was well correlated with green color of fruit peel as measured by a color index (r = -0.71**), and which was optimum with Leaf-N around 22 g kg-1. Leaf-Ca was inversely correlated with fruit water loss after 14-day interval from harvest (r = -0.54*) demonstrating that Ca plays an important role in Tahiti fruit shelf-life. Data also suggested that increased fruit K concentration correlated with increased fruit water losses during storage (r >0.58*).

Use and availability of scholarly journals in Catalan academic libraries

This paper presents the results of a survey of academics affiliated to the universities that are members of the Consortium of Academic Libraries of Catalonia (CBUC) and an analysis of the availability in the libraries of these universities of the references cited in a sample of articles published by these academics. The results reflect the major importance that researchers assign to scholarly journals as the main source of scientific information. Most state that they use electronic journals either exclusively or in any case more than print journals, a preference that is higher among younger scholars. With regard to frequency of reading, four out of ten researchers state that they read journals virtually every day, while nine out of ten report that they do so at least once a week. Scholars claim that the obstacles they face when trying to download an article are related to the lack of subscriptions. However, the availability study showed that most of the articles cited in their publications are available at least at one of the CBUC libraries. Though most researchers keep a copy of the articles they consult, just over a third of them use some kind of reference management software.

Availability, Cost or Culture ? : Obstacles to Childcare Services for Low-Income Families

Recent research has highlighted the existence of a social bias in the extent to which children have access to childcare. In general, children living in higher income households are more likely to be cared for in childcare centres. While the existence of a social bias in access to childcare services has been clearly demonstrated, we currently lack a clear explanation as to why this is the case. This paper uses a unique dataset based on survey data collected specifically to study patterns of childcare use in the Swiss canton of Vaud (N = 875). The paper exploits the variation in the way childcare is organised within the canton. Childcare is a municipal policy, as a result of which there are twenty-nine different systems in operation. Fees are progressive everywhere, but variation is substantial. Availability is also very different. This peculiar institutional setup provides an ideal situation to examine the determinants of childcare use by different income groups. Our findings suggest that differences in the fees charged to low-income households, as well as the degree of progressivity of the fee structure, are significant predictors of use, while availability seems to matter less.

Water availability predicts forest canopy height at the global scale.

The tendency of trees to grow taller with increasing water availability is common knowledge. Yet a robust, universal relationship between the spatial distribution of water availability and forest canopy height (H) is lacking. Here, we created a global water availability map by calculating an annual budget as the difference between precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) at a 1-km spatial resolution, and in turn correlated it with a global H map of the same resolution. Across forested areas over the globe, Hmean increased with P-PET, roughly: Hmean (m) = 19.3 + 0.077*(P-PET). Maximum forest canopy height also increased gradually from ~ 5 to ~ 50 m, saturating at ~ 45 m for P-PET > 500 mm. Forests were far from their maximum height potential in cold, boreal regions and in disturbed areas. The strong association between forest height and P-PET provides a useful tool when studying future forest dynamics under climate change, and in quantifying anthropogenic forest disturbance.

Building distributed high availability system

Today’s commercial web sites are under heavy user load and they are expected to be operational and available at all times. Distributed system architectures have been developed to provide a scalable and failure tolerant high availability platform for these web based services. The focus on this thesis was to specify and implement resilient and scalable locally distributed high availability system architecture for a web based service. Theory part concentrates on the fundamental characteristics of distributed systems and presents common scalable high availability server architectures that are used in web based services. In the practical part of the thesis the implemented new system architecture is explained. Practical part also includes two different test cases that were done to test the system's performance capacity.

The effects of depleted, current and elevated growth [CO2] in wheat are modulated by water availability

Drought is the main constraint on wheat yield in Mediterranean conditions. The photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence and plant growth parameters of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum, L. var. durum) were compared at three [CO2] (i.e., depleted 260 ppm, current 400ppm and elevated 700 ppm) in plants subjected to twowater regimes (i.e.,well-wateredWW, and mildwater stress by drought orwater deficit WS), during pre-anthesis, post-anthesis and the end of grain filling. We showed that [CO2] effects on plants are modulated by water availability. Plants at depleted [CO2] showed photosynthetic acclimation (i.e., up-regulation) and reduced plant biomass and Harvest Index, but depleted [CO2] combined with WS has a more negative impact on plants with decreases in C assimilation and biomass. Plants at elevated [CO2] had decreased plant growth and photosynthesis in response to a down-regulation mechanism resulting from a decrease in Rubisco and N content, but plants exposed to a combination of elevated [CO2] and WS were the most negatively affected (e.g., on plant biomass).

GLUT2-mediated glucose uptake and availability are required for embryonic brain development in zebrafish

Glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2; gene name SLC2A2) has a key role in the regulation of glucose dynamics in organs central to metabolism. Although GLUT2 has been studied in the context of its participation in peripheral and central glucose sensing, its role in the brain is not well understood. To decipher the role of GLUT2 in brain development, we knocked down slc2a2 (glut2), the functional ortholog of human GLUT2, in zebrafish. Abrogation of glut2 led to defective brain organogenesis, reduced glucose uptake and increased programmed cell death in the brain. Coinciding with the observed localization of glut2 expression in the zebrafish hindbrain, glut2 deficiency affected the development of neural progenitor cells expressing the proneural genes atoh1b and ptf1a but not those expressing neurod. Specificity of the morphant phenotype was demonstrated by the restoration of brain organogenesis, whole-embryo glucose uptake, brain apoptosis, and expression of proneural markers in rescue experiments. These results indicate that glut2 has an essential role during brain development by facilitating the uptake and availability of glucose and support the involvement of glut2 in brain glucose sensing.

Altered nitrogen balance and decreased urea excretion in male rats fed cafeteria diet are related to arginine availability

Hyperlipidic diets limit glucose oxidation and favor amino acid preservation, hampering the elimination of excess dietary nitrogen and the catabolic utilization of amino acids.We analyzed whether reduced urea excretion was a consequence of higherNO ; (nitrite,nitrate, and other derivatives) availability caused by increased nitric oxide production in metabolic syndrome. Rats fed a cafeteria diet for 30 days had a higher intake and accumulation of amino acid nitrogen and lower urea excretion.There were no differences in plasma nitrate or nitrite. NO and creatinine excretion accounted for only a small part of total nitrogen excretion. Rats fed a cafeteria diet had higher plasma levels of glutamine, serine, threonine, glycine, and ornithinewhen comparedwith controls,whereas arginine was lower. Liver carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase I activity was higher in cafeteria diet-fed rats, but arginase I was lower. The high carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase activity and ornithine levels suggest activation of the urea cycle in cafeteria diet-fed rats, but low arginine levels point to a block in the urea cycle between ornithine and arginine, thereby preventing the elimination of excess nitrogen as urea. The ultimate consequence of this paradoxical block in the urea cycle seems to be the limitation of arginine production and/or availability.

Síntese, caracterização e avaliação catalítica de Vo x/Mg yAlo x na reação de decomposição do isopropanol

Vanadium oxide supported on hydrotalcite-type precursors was studied in the decomposition of isopropanol. Hydrotalcite-type compounds with different y = Mg+2/Al+3 ratios were synthesized by the method of coprecipitating nitrates of Mg+2 and Al+3 cations with K2CO3 as precipitant. The X-ray diffraction patterns of Al-rich hydrotalcite precursors showed the presence of crystalline phases of brucite and gibbsite. It was shown that chemical composition, texture, acid-base properties of the active sites and also Mg/Al ratio strongly affect the formation of the products in the oxidation of isopropanol. The Al-rich catalysts were much more active than the Mg-rich ones, converting isopropanol mainly to propylene.

Effect of metal ions on the in vitro availability of enoxacin, its in vivo implications, kinetic and antibacterial studies

The present paper describes the effect of metals ions on the in vitro availability of enoxacin (a second generation quinolone antibiotic) owing to drug-metal interaction. These interaction studies were performed at 37 °C in different pH environments simulating human body compartments and were studied by UV spectroscopic technique. In order to determine the probability of these reactions different kinetic parameters (dissolution constants (K) and free energy change (ΔG)) for these reactions were also calculated. It is proposed that the structure of enoxacin contains various electron donating sites which facilitate its binding with metallic cations forming chelates. Hence taking food products, nutritional supplements or multivitamins containing multivalent cations at the same time as enoxacin, could reduce the absorption of the drug into the circulation and thus would decrease the effectiveness of the drug. In addition, the MIC of enoxacin for various microorganisms before and after interaction with metal ions was calculated which in most cases was increased which possibly could impair the clinical efficacy of the drug.

KINETIC STUDY OF SELECTIVE GAS-PHASE OXIDATION OF ISOPROPANOL TO ACETONE USING MONOCLINIC ZRO2 AS A CATALYST

Zirconia was prepared by a precipitation method and calcined at 723 K, 1023 K, and 1253 K in order to obtain monoclinic zirconia. The prepared zirconia was characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, surface area and pore size analyzer, and particle size analyzer. Monoclinic ZrO2 as a catalyst was used for the gas-phase oxidation of isopropanol to acetone in a Pyrex-glass-flow-type reactor with a temperature range of 443 K - 473 K. It was found that monoclinic ZrO2 shows remarkable catalytic activity (68%) and selectivity (100%) for the oxidation of isopropanol to acetone. This kinetic study reveals that the oxidation of isopropanol to acetone follows the L-H mechanism.

Measurement and simulation of solar radiation availability in relation to the growth of coffee plants in an agroforestry system with rubber trees

Solar radiation is an important factor for plant growth, being its availability to understory crops strongly modified by trees in an Agroforestry System (AFS). Coffee trees (Coffea arabica - cv. Obatã IAC 1669-20) were planted at a 3.4 x 0.9 m spacing inside and aside rows of monocrops of 12 year-old rubber trees (Hevea spp.), in Piracicaba-SP, Brazil (22º42'30" S, 47º38'00" W - altitude: 546m). One-year-old coffee plants exposed to 25; 30; 35; 40; 45; 80; 90; 95 and 100% of the total solar radiation were evaluated according to its biophysical parameters of solar radiation interception and capture. The Goudriaan (1977) adapted by Bernardes et al. (1998) model for radiation attenuation fit well to the measured data. Coffee plants tolerate a decrease in solar radiation availability to 50% without undergoing a reduction on growth and LAI, which was approximately 2m².m-2 under this condition. Further reductions on the availability of solar radiation caused a reduction in LAI (1.5m².m-2), thus poor land cover and solar radiation interception, resulting in growth reduction.

Characterization of water availability in a hydrographic basin

The quantitative knowledge of hydrological parameters (rainfall and flow) and their spatial and temporal variability on the regions or basins should be understood as essential to the efficient planning and management of water resources. Because the Ivinhema Basin, located in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, represents an important inductor on the region agricultural development, characterized as a major producer of grains and meat, it was used to characterize the hydrological study. Knowing the rainfall, flow and drainage area of each of the studied affluent, it was calculated the proportion of contribution of the affluent. To that end, it was proposed the concepts of potential and real contributions, aiming to identify the proportion of contribution of each of the affluent to the formation of the flow in the Ivinhema Basin. The results revealed that: the highest rainfall in the Ivinhema Basin occurred in the headwater regions; the mean specific flow of long duration reduces from the headwater to the mouth of Ivinhema Basin; the Sub-basin of Dorado's River has the highest potential and real contribution for the formation of the Ivinhema Basin flow; and the drainage areas of the affluent Dourados and Vacaria contribute with 53% flow of the basin.