Análise in silico de genes envolvidos no transporte de nitrato, amônio e uréia em cafeeiro.

O nitrogênio (N) é o nutriente mais requerido pelo cafeeiro, sendo adquirido principalmente pelas raízes. As formas de N mais abundantes em solos agrícolas são nitrato (NO3-) e amônio (NH4+), enquanto que a uréia [CO(NH)2 O nitrato (NO] é a principal forma de N utilizada na adubação do cafeeiro. Devido a participação significativa da adubação nitrogenada nos custos de produção do café, é de interesse a identificação de genes envolvidos na absorção radicular e translocação de nitrogênio no cafeeiro, visando uma otimização da eficiência do uso do nitrogênio pela cultura. Neste trabalho foram encontradas etiquetas de sequências expressas (ESTs) no banco de dados do Projeto Genoma Café relacionadas ao transporte das formas mais relevantes na aquisição do N. O número de contigs/singlets para as diferentes famílias de transportadores decresceu na ordem: nitrato (NRT) > amônio (AMT) > uréia (DUR3). A maior expressão e diversidade de transportadores de nitrato refletem a importância desta forma de N na nutrição e fisiologia do cafeeiro, assim como na maioria das outras espécies de plantas

Concentração de nutrientes minerais em acessos da Etiópia de Coffea arabica.

O sucesso do manejo nutricional em plantas depende de diversos fatores, como características químicas, biológicas e físicas do solo, além da influência do genótipo. Apesar do manejo agronômico visando à adequação do solo para a cultura do cafeeiro estar bem estabelecido, pouco se sabe sobre o efeito do genótipo na absorção e acúmulo de nutrientes minerais. Tradicionalmente, o melhoramento genético do cafeeiro foca-se em características morfológicas, resistência a doenças e na produtividade; dessa forma, a exigência nutricional foi deixada em plano secundário ao longo deste processo. Com a necessidade cada vez maior de variedades que apresentem boa produtividade com impactos menores ao meio ambiente, a introgressão de características de genótipos silvestres é uma relevante estratégia para incremento da eficiência nutricional. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo caracterizar a concentração de nutrientes em 12 acessos silvestres de Coffea arabica provenientes da Etiópia, identificando genótipos de cafeeiro que apresentam acumulação diferencial de nutrientes minerais (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, B e Mn) com relação a três tecidos: folhas, caule e raiz. Entre os acessos da Etiópia, destacou-se a concentração diferencial de P em folhas do acesso CAF032, e o acúmulo em raiz de N (CAF009), Zn (CAF131) e Mn (CAF023). Bourbon teve acúmulo diferencialmente menor de P no caule e maior de Ca na raiz e Catuaí Vermelho apresentou concentração diferencial de Mg no caule. O presente trabalho é uma importante contribuição na definição de genótipos silvestres de Coffea arabica com potencial de introgressão de características relacionadas à eficiência nutricional

Alien Registration- Varney, Meda B. (Island Falls, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/35096/thumbnail.jp

Biocompatible polymeric microparticles produced by a simple biomimetic approach

The use of superhydrophobic surfaces to produce polymeric particles proves to be biologically friendly since it entails the pipetting and subsequent cross-linking of polymeric solutions under mild experimental conditions. Moreover, it renders encapsulation efficiencies of ∼100%. However, the obtained particles are 1 to 2 mm in size, hindering to a large extent their application in clinical trials. Improving on this technique, we propose the fabrication of polymeric microparticles by spraying a hydrogel precursor over superhydrophobic surfaces followed by photo-cross-linking. The particles were produced from methacrylamide chitosan (MA-CH) and characterized in terms of their size and morphology. As demonstrated by optical and fluorescence microscopy, spraying followed by photo-cross-linking led, for the first time, to the production of spherical particles with diameters on the order of micrometers, nominal sizes not attainable by pipetting. Particles such as these are suitable for medical applications such as drug delivery and tissue engineering.We thank Ivo Aroso and Ana Isabel Neto for their valuable support with FTIR and compression experiments, respectively. A.M.S.C. thanks FCT for financial support through grant BIM/PTDC/CTM-BPC/112774/2009_02. M.A.-M. thanks CONACyT (Mexico) for financial support through post-doc grant no. 203732. N.M.O. thanks FCT for financial support through Ph.D. scholarship no. SFRH/BD/73172/2010. This work was funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. REGPOT-CT2012-316331-POLARIS, by FEDER through the Competitive Factors Operation Program-COMPETE, and by national funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia in the scope of project PTDC/CTM-BIO/1814/2012

Detector decoy quantum key distribution

Photon number resolving detectors can enhance the performance of many practical quantum cryptographic setups. In this paper, we employ a simple method to estimate the statistics provided by such a photon number resolving detector using only a threshold detector together with a variable attenuator. This idea is similar in spirit to that of the decoy state technique, and is specially suited for those scenarios where only a few parameters of the photon number statistics of the incoming signals have to be estimated. As an illustration of the potential applicability of the method in quantum communication protocols, we use it to prove security of an entanglement based quantum key distribution scheme with an untrusted source without the need of a squash model and by solely using this extra idea. In this sense, this detector decoy method can be seen as a different conceptual approach to adapt a single photon security proof to its physical, full optical implementation. We show that in this scenario the legitimate users can now even discard the double click events from the raw key data without compromising the security of the scheme, and we present simulations on the performance of the BB84 and the 6-state quantum key distribution protocols.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figure

Florid genital tuberculosis co-existing with adenomyosis and evading diagnosis

When tuberculosis affects genital organs of young females, the disease often remains silent or may present with symptoms which are common to other Gynaecological conditions as well. The diagnosis of genital tuberculosis is challenging and the diagnosis can be missed even with extensive investigations including molecular studies. A case of florid tuberculosis affecting the uterus, cervix, ovaries and tubes, co-existing with adenomyosis of the uterus and the cold abscess masquerading as bilateral ovarian endometriomas is reported

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of mothers and caregivers on infant and young child feeding in Peri-Urban Zones of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso

Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of mothers/caregivers on infant and young child feeding are key factors for optimal nutritional status, health and growth of the children. A community-based, cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted duringJanuary 2017 to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices on infant and young child feeding (IYCF) of mothers/ caregivers who lived in peri-urban areas of Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina-Faso. This study was carried out before a nutrition education-based interventionand included 245 mothers/ caregivers that were randomly selected in the peri-urban communities of Bobo-Dioulasso. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire developed based on Food and Agriculture Organization knowledge, attitudes and practices assessment method was used to collect KAP and socio-economic data. Analyses were performed using SPSS version 20. For this study, authorization was obtained from the regional directorate of health of the Hauts-Bassins region. Verbal consent was obtained after the participants had been informed about the study objectives. Among the 245 study participants, 55.1% were aged less than 30 years. More than 3 out of 4 mothers/caregivers (76.3%) were Muslim and 59.2% of them were illiterate. Almost all mothers/caregivers (98.8%) had adequate knowledge for breastfeeding and 87.9% of them knew about exclusive breast feeding up to 6 months. In addition, 91.8% of mothers/caregivers reported that they gave colostrum at birth. Furthermore, 67.5% of the mothers started breastfeeding within one hour after delivery. Based on mothers/caregivers’ report on complementary foods consumed by 6-59 months  children in the previous 24h before the interview, cereals were the most reported consumed food group (89.8%) followed by meat and fish products (28.6%). This study found that mothers/caregivers had adequate knowledge about IYCF in general. However,mothers/caregivers’ practice of complementary feeding was inappropriate. Cereals were the food group consumed by most of children aged 6-59 months raising the needs for interventions, such as cooking demonstrations during postnatal visits in health facilities, to improve complementary feeding in this population. Key words: IYCF, knowledge, attitude, and practices; low income countries; Burkina Fas

Quality of Neonatal Healthcare in Kilimanjaro Region, Northeast Tanzania: Learning from Mothers' Experiences.

With a decline of infant mortality rates, neonatal mortality rates are striking high in development countries particularly sub Saharan Africa. The toolkit for high quality neonatal services describes the principle of patient satisfaction, which we translate as mother's involvement in neonatal care and so better outcomes. The aim of the study was to assess mothers' experiences, perception and satisfaction of neonatal care in the hospitals of Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. A cross sectional study using qualitative and quantitative approaches in 112 semi structured interviews from 14 health facilities. Open ended questions for detection of illness, care given to the baby and time spent by the health worker for care and treatment were studied. Probing of the responses was used to extract and describe findings by a mix of in-depth interview skills. Closed ended questions for the quantitative variables were used to quantify findings for statistical use. Narratives from open ended questions were coded by colours in excel sheet and themes were manually counted. 80 mothers were interviewed from 13 peripheral facilities and 32 mothers were interviewed at a zonal referral hospital of Kilimanjaro region. 59 mothers (73.8%) in the peripheral hospitals of the region noted neonatal problems and they assisted for attaining diagnosis after a showing a concern for a request for further investigations. 11 mothers (13.8%) were able to identify the baby's diagnosis directly without any assistance, followed by 7 mothers (8.7%) who were told by a relative, and 3 mothers (3.7%) who were told of the problem by the doctor that their babies needed medical attention. 24 times mothers in the peripheral hospitals reported bad language like "I don't have time to listen to you every day and every time." 77 mothers in the periphery (90.6%) were not satisfied with the amount of time spent by the doctors in seeing their babies. Mothers of the neonates play great roles in identifying the illness of the newborn. Mother's awareness of what might be needed during neonatal support strategies to improve neonatal care in both health facilities and the communities