The Gran Chaco is the largest continuous region of the South American dry forest, spanning Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil. Prosopis rubriflora and Prosopis ruscifolia are typical tree ...species of chaquenian area forests, which have been subjected to continuous fragmentation caused by cattle raising. This study evaluated P. rubriflora and P. ruscifolia in areas with varying levels of disturbance. We investigated the contemporary genetic diversities of both species in areas with distinct anthropogenic disturbances. Even with a lower heterozygote frequency, disturbed areas can provide important storage for alleles, allowing the maintenance of diversity. The genetic diversity of P. rubriflora was surprisingly similar to that of P. ruscifolia (He = 0.59 and He = 0.60, respectively) even with very different distribution ranges of both species. However, P. ruscifolia exhibited a higher intrapopulation fixation index than P. rubriflora. P. rubriflora showed evidence of bottlenecking in 64% of the sampled areas, while P. ruscifolia showed such evidence in 36% of the sampled areas. Additionally, P. rubriflora had two distinct populations due to its disjunctive geographic distribution, whereas P. ruscifolia had a single population that exhibited few signs of population structure in some areas, possibly due to the main pollinators presenting a short range of dispersion. Our results suggest that 42 Chaco areas should be conserved to retain the minimum of 500 individuals necessary to maintain genetic diversity for 100–1,000 generations. This study improves our understanding of these two Prosopis species and provides information for the conservation of their genetic diversities.
Chaquenian forests have been subjected to continuous fragmentation caused by cattle breeding. This study evaluates P. rubriflora and P. ruscifolia in areas with different levels of anthropic disturbance, investigating the impact of population disturbance on genetic diversity for both species.
Large amounts of residual grass originating from the management of landscape and natural areas are produced in Europe. This material, which is not competing for land use like energy crops, and is ...only partially recovered for animal feeding, can be profitably used for sustainable bioenergy production. In this study we demonstrated through a GIS based approach that this feedstock can be of some interest for the production of biogas in the Veneto Region, north east Italy, where more than 150 anaerobic digesters are in operation and feedstock availability can be sometime problematic. Specific field trials showed that costs for grass management are around 30 euros/ton while corresponding CO
2
emission for grass handling (cutting, wrapping and harvesting) are 25 kg CO
2
/ton of grass processed. On the other hand, average biogas productions of some 500–600 m
3
of biogas/ton of volatile solids (52–56% methane) should be expected from this residual material. Both treatment costs and biogas yields of residual grass are in line with similar data for some energy crops. The technical, environmental, and economic sustainability for the production of bioenergy through the proposed approach was demonstrated.
Chondrocalcinosis is frequently associated with osteoarthritis. The role of osteoarthritis in the onset and progression of disability is well known. The impact of chondrocalcinosis on disability has ...never been investigated in epidemiological studies.
Progetto Veneto Anziani is a survey of 3099 older Italians, focusing on chronic diseases and disability. Assessment was by questionnaires, physical performance tests and clinical evaluations. Chondrocalcinosis was determined by x-ray readings of 1629 consecutive subjects. Knee and hip osteoarthritis severity was evaluated by summing the radiographic features score (RFS) assigned during x-ray reading.
with chondrocalcinosis were older and more frequently women (age-adjusted p<0.0001). The gender association disappeared following adjustment for osteoarthritis severity. However, at the knee, the prevalence of osteoarthritis was higher in chondrocalcinosis patients independently of age and sex (age-adjusted p<0.0001). No difference was found between chondrocalcinosis and controls in sociodemographic variables and comorbidity. Knee chondrocalcinosis was strongly associated with clinical features of knee osteoarthritis and with disability assessment parameters in the bivariate analysis. Most associations remained after adjusting for age. After further adjustment for RFS, a significant association remained for knee deformity and pain, the need for a cane, difficulty walking 500 m, using a toilet, shopping and repeatedly rising from a chair.
Pain and physical function are the outcome measures of choice for assessing disability in osteoarthritis patients. The presence of chondrocalcinosis contributes to both, independently of age and osteoarthritis severity, thus compromising the quality of life and worsening comorbidity.
The establishment and maintenance of plant species in the Chaco, one of the widest continuous areas of forests in the South American with sharp climatic variations, are possibly related to biological ...features favoring plants with particular defenses. This study assesses the physical and chemical defenses mechanisms against herbivores of vegetative and reproductive organs. Its analyses of 12 species of Fabaceae (Leguminosae) collected in remnants of Brazilian Chaco shows that 75% present structural defense characters and 50% have chemical defense - defense proteins in their seeds, like protease inhibitors and lectins. Physical defenses occur mainly on branches (78% of the species), leaves (67%), and reproductive organs (56%). The most common physical characters are trichomes and thorns, whose color represents a cryptic character since it does not contrast with the other plant structures. Defense proteins occur in different concentrations and molecular weight classes in the seeds of most species. Protease inhibitors are reported for the first time in seeds of: Albizia niopoides, Anadenanthera colubrina, Mimosa glutinosa, Prosopis rubriflora, and Poincianella pluviosa. The occurrence of physical and chemical defenses in members of Fabaceae indicate no associations between defense characters in these plant species of the Chaco.
This paper examine the efficiency of energy use of three conservation tillage practices (SST – sub-soil tillage; MT – minimum tillage; and NT – no tillage) performed within two management zones, ...previously identified in a field according to the stability of yield variability. Experiments were carried out in 2003 in NE Italy, on a farm near Rovigo, on a 8-ha field with clay soil, in maize (Zea mays, L.). The purpose of the paper is (i) to investigate the energy variability due to these tillage practices performed spatially within two management zones and (ii) to analyze the long-term energetic efficiency for each tillage practice. The energy balance was highest for SST with respect to MT and NT, due to labor and fuel consumption rates. The energy balance was influenced by the spatial pattern of yield, with appreciable differences between practices in terms of both the conversion index of energy for tillage (9.0, 12.6 and 22.8GJha−1 for SST, MT and NT, respectively) and the energy use efficiency for tillage (8.0, 11.6, 21.8GJha−1 for SST, MT and NT, respectively). Based on the simulated data and the calibration results, SALUS model proved to be a good tool for analyzing long-term effects of tillage practices on yield. The NT treatment showed the best efficiency over years, due to the low inputs in comparison with the output level.
Free-form design of rotor blades Bottasso, C L; Croce, A; Sartori, L ...
Journal of physics. Conference series,
01/2014, Letnik:
524, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This work investigates an integrated free-form approach for the design of rotor blades, where airfoil shapes are treated as unknowns. This leads to the simultaneous optimization of the chord, twist ...and structural design variables, together with the airfoil shapes along the blade. As airfoils are automatically tailored to the evolution of the blade, this process results in a better exploration of the solution space and relieves the user from the burden of up-front choices, leading to better final designs. The proposed approach is demonstrated by sizing a 2 MW wind turbine blade.
The objective was to describe a mathematical model to estimate cases by COVID-19 in Brazil in the short term and to identify the existence of forces to inhibit the spread of SARS-CoV2. Cases ...confirmed by COVID-19 in Brazil from March 16 to May 31, 2020 were used to develop a mathematical equation for estimating COVID-19 cases for up to 13 future days. Correction factors were calculated to identify whether there was an inhibition of the spread of infection in the country. The relative error and Pearson's correlation were analyzed to determine the model's performance. Six models were developed (gross, S1, S2, S3, S4 and corrected). The corrected model showed good adherence to the number of estimated and observed cases. Eight correction factors were calculated, which increased during the study period. The increase in correction factors expressed the loss of the inhibition force of interventions implemented in the country for the prevention and control of infection. The proposed mathematical model proved to be viable and feasible for implementation in epidemiological surveillance services.
In the course of the AVATAR project, partner predictions for key load components in storm idle conditions separated in two groups. One group showed large loading due to edgewise instability, the ...other group damped edgewise oscillation and lower load levels. To identify the cause for this separation, the impact of structural and aerodynamic modeling options on damping of stall-induced vibrations is investigated for two simplified operating conditions of a single AVATAR blade. The choice of the dynamic stall model is found to be the primary driver, and is therefore most likely also the reason for previously observed differences in AVATAR storm load predictions. Differences in structural dynamics, mode shapes, structural and dynamic twist, as well as wake model are only secondary in terms of impact on damping. Resolution suffered from failure of system identification methods to extract reliable damping values from various non-linear response simulations.
Background: Lysine specific demethylase 1 KDM1A (LSD1) is an epigenetic eraser that regulates histone methylation at residues K4 and K9 and plays an important role in mediating the expression of ...genes involved in cancer and non-cancer diseases. Its overexpression in fact has been demonstrated in several tumor types. The first KDM1A inhibitor from Oryzon entered clinical trials for the treatment of AML in 2014, subsequently GSK2879552 was admitted to clinical investigation also for solid tumor. Both the clinical candidates are tranylcypromine derivatives and are characterized by an irreversible mechanism of action. The identification of reversible inhibitors of the enzyme instead has not led to any clinical candidate so far, in particular the lack of compounds demonstrating in vivo their mechanism of action represents a challenge to face. Material and Methods and Results: We report on a high throughput screening (HTS) campaign, performed with a time resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) technology, on a subset of our chemical collection, representative of almost 200000 compounds. We identified several chemical series able to reversibly inhibit KDM1A at micromolar concentration. Among them, we prioritized the N-phenyl-4H-thieno3.2-bpyrrole-5-carboxamide for which we obtained X-ray structure of the most potent hit in complex with the enzyme. To our knowledge no other co-crystal X-ray structure has been reported for a reversible inhibitor in complex to KDM1A. An exhaustive chemical expansion, Structure Based Drug Design (SBDD) driven, thanks to several structures solved, led to the obtainment compounds active in single digit nanomolar range, able to show target modulation in cells. The medicinal chemistry modifications applied on the scaffolds subsequently brought us towards the identification of new chemical classes, even more potent than the originators. Conclusions: With an HTS campaign several potent reversible inhibitors of KDM1A, belonging to different chemical series have been identified. Further optimization SBDD driven brought to low nanomolar compounds active in cells, which have been selected for further development.
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