Response of common bean to Rhizobium reinoculation in topdressing

ABSTRACT The response capacity of the bean to fix atmospheric nitrogen is questionable, mainly due to its inability to supply all the nitrogen in the flowering and grain filling phases when the crop needs it most. Thus, a new application of inoculant can keep the population of rhizobia in the soil at adequate levels, meeting all the nitrogen demands of the plant. This study aimed to investigate the nodulation capacity and the production of beans submitted to doses and reinoculation of Rhizobium in topdressing under field conditions in two growth stages. For this, an experiment was conducted using a randomized block design with four replicates in a 4 × 2 + 2 factorial scheme. The treatments consisted of the application of four doses of liquid inoculant containing Rhizobium tropici (SEMIA 4088), in the concentration 2 × 109 CFU g-1, in topdressing (0, 100, 200 and 400 mL ha-1), in two development stages (V4 and R5) of plants, and two additional treatments (inoculation via seed at a dose of 100 g of the product per 50 kg of seeds and mineral nitrogen fertilization at a dose of 16 kg ha-1 applied at sowing and 60 kg ha-1 in topdressing, divided into two stages, with half being applied at the stage V3 and the other half in V4 stage).The inoculant application increased the nodulation rates of bean cultivar BRS Cometa and the dry biomass produced by plants, using doses of 232 and 221 mL ha-1, respectively. The dose of 257mL ha-1 of the liquid inoculant applied in topdressing at the V4 stage, and the inoculation via seed provide greater common bean yield without supplementing mineral nitrogen.

Novel Albumin Gel-platelet-rich fibrin mixture (Alb-PRF); where do we stand?

AlbPRF is a blood by-product, without additives, using only autologous blood, which after centrifugation will be produced in two stages: heating and incorporation: heating of the serum and low platelet plasma and incorporation of cells (GF and PRF cytokines liquid, removed from the junction of the leukocyte zone and the red blood cells). This new biomaterial has already been tested in vitro and translational research with this new material has already started. Excellent results can be expected from the use of AlbPRF, not only for oral/periodontal surgery applications but also for use in facial medicine and aesthetics.

The Development of Indonesian Accounting Teacher Professional Identity Measurement: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

<p style="text-align: justify;">Measuring accounting teachers’ professional identity is significant to do as an alternative to measure the professionalism of accounting teachers in Indonesia based on their professional identity. This research was conducted in two stages of exploratory factor analysis involving 150 accounting teachers as sample in each stage. The data were collected in collaboration with an accounting teacher organization, comprising the Accounting Subject Teacher Deliberation (MGMP) in Central Java through a questionnaire. Data analysis was divided into several steps including face validity and content validity, inter-item correlation matrix, and exploratory factor analysis. The results showed that 23 question items encompassed five components of accounting teacher professional identity; Cultural Knowledge (pedagogical cultural identity), Blending (accommodating students' purposes for school in the learning objectives), Identity Experiencing (by the experience of working life in the past, present, and individual expectations in the future in accounting work setting), Inter-Personal Skill, and Active in Professional Communities. The scale development requires continuous development tailing various new findings in the teacher professional identity and accountant professional identity.</p>

Tunable Blood Shunt for Neonates With Complex Congenital Heart Defects

Despite advancements in procedures and patient care, mortality rates for neonatal recipients of the Norwood procedure, a palliation for single ventricle congenital malformations, remain high due to the use of a fixed-diameter blood shunt. In this study, a new geometrically tunable blood shunt was investigated to address limitations of the current treatment paradigm (e.g., Modified Blalock-Taussig Shunt) by allowing for controlled modulation of blood flow through the shunt to accommodate physiological changes due to the patient’s growth. First, mathematical and computational cardiovascular models were established to investigate the hemodynamic requirements of growing neonatal patients with shunts and to inform design criteria for shunt diameter changes. Then, two stages of prototyping were performed to design, build and test responsive hydrogel systems that facilitate tuning of the shunt diameter by adjusting the hydrogel’s degree of crosslinking. We examined two mechanisms to drive crosslinking: infusion of chemical crosslinking agents and near-UV photoinitiation. The growth model showed that 15–18% increases in shunt diameter were required to accommodate growing patients’ increasing blood flow; similarly, the computational models demonstrated that blood flow magnitudes were in agreement with previous reports. These target levels of diameter increases were achieved experimentally with model hydrogel systems. We also verified that the photocrosslinkable hydrogel, composed of methacrylated dextran, was contact-nonhemolytic. These results demonstrate proof-of-concept feasibility and reflect the first steps in the development of this novel blood shunt. A tunable shunt design offers a new methodology to rebalance blood flow in this vulnerable patient population during growth and development.

Decrees for the “Volunteers” of the People

The Damascus Document’s Pesher of the Well (CD 6:2–11) has generally been treated as an isolated unit, either as an example of Qumran exegesis or as evidence for the history of the sect. The present study offers a fresh reading of this section that gives special attention to its rhetorical function within the document and its relationship to the document’s legal material in particular. It is argued that the pesher was intended to authorize the body of legal rulings found within the document by interpreting the two lines of Numbers 21:18 as an outline of two stages of the sect’s history. The pesher is built around two anchor-words in the lemma: ‮שרים‬‎ (“officials”), a reference to the sect’s founders who established an authoritative body of torah rulings, and ‮נדיבי העם‬‎, a reference to the sect’s later “volunteer initiates” who were to remain faithful to these rules throughout the Epoch of Wickedness.

Climate Zoning Under Climate Change Scenarios In The Basin Of Lake Urmia And Vicinity Basins

A study of climate change scenarios is presented in this paper by projecting a set of recorded precipitation data into three future periods by statistical downscaling methods by employing LARS-WG using data from 7 synoptic stations. The study area covers the basin of Lake Urmia and its overlaps with two of its surrounding basins flowing to the Caspian Sea. The modelling is at two stages: Downscaling comprises: (i) use large-scale GCM models to provide climate variables (predictors); and (ii) downscale them to the local climatic variables for correlating with the observed timeseries (e.g. rainfall) for the period of T0: 1961-2001 - 40 years; Projecting comprises the derivation of precipitation values during the time periods of ; T1: 2011-2030), T2: 2046-2065 and T3: 2080-2099 at synoptic stations using three of standard scenarios: A1B, A2 and B1. These values are then used to map the climate zoning, which show: (i) climates at T1 are still similar to T0 and if any difference, precipitation increases; but changes are likely at T2 and T3 periods; (ii) the climate is moving toward a peakier regime at the northern region but drier towards the central region; and (iii) precipitation is likely to decrease in some of the zones. Thus, the results underpin the need for more responsive policymaking and should this not be realised in the next 5 to 10 years, the future seems bleak, as the loss of Lake Urmia and the depletion of aquifers are likely to be permanent, inflicting immigration from the region.

The Rise and Fall of Dopamine: A Two-Stage Model of the Development and Entrenchment of Anorexia Nervosa

Dopamine has long been implicated as a critical neural substrate mediating anorexia nervosa (AN). Despite nearly 50 years of research, the putative direction of change in dopamine function remains unclear and no consensus on the mechanistic role of dopamine in AN has been achieved. We hypothesize two stages in AN– corresponding to initial development and entrenchment– characterized by opposite changes in dopamine. First, caloric restriction, particularly when combined with exercise, triggers an escalating spiral of increasing dopamine that facilitates the behavioral plasticity necessary to establish and reinforce weight-loss behaviors. Second, chronic self-starvation reverses this escalation to reduce or impair dopamine which, in turn, confers behavioral inflexibility and entrenchment of now established AN behaviors. This pattern of enhanced, followed by impaired dopamine might be a common path to many behavioral disorders characterized by reinforcement learning and subsequent behavioral inflexibility. If correct, our hypothesis has significant clinical and research implications for AN and other disorders, such as addiction and obesity.

РОЗРОБЛЕННЯ ПРОГРАМНОГО ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ДЛЯ ОЦІНЮВАННЯ ОДНОРІДНОСТІ РОЗПОДІЛУ НАПОВНЮВАЧА В ПОЛІМЕРНІЙ МАТРИЦІ

Purpose. Creation of software for evaluating the uniformity of distribution of the filler in a polyethylene matrix.Methodology. Software development was carried out using the Python programming language and libraries: PIL, Numpy, Matplotlib, Xlsxwriter. The suitability of the developed software for use was determined by verifying it. During this verification, polyethylene compositions filled with colloidal graphite in the form of compressed films were evaluated. To obtain these compositions, we chose P6006AD grade polyethylene and C-1 colloidal graphite. Samples of polyethylene compositions were obtained in two stages: 1) obtaining a strand by extrusion; 2) additional mixing of the composition on a disc mixer and pressing the obtained compositions into a film.Findings. The software has been developed to assess the uniformity of the distribution of the filler in the polyethylene matrix. The data were established on the dependence of the coefficient of heterogeneity of polyethylene compositions on the content of colloidal graphite with use of the developed software. The increase in the content of the filler leads to a decrease in its heterogeneity. It is shown that this effect can be explained by the structuring of the filler in the polyethylene matrix. Despite the formation of aggregates in polyethylene compositions, a significant amount of small colloidal particles of graphite is located between the aggregate space. This leads to a certain leveling of the concentration in the film and reduces its inhomogeneity.Scientific novelty. The influence of the content of colloidal graphite on the homogeneity of polyethylene compositions is determined. It is shown that with an increase in the graphite content from 0 to 20% vol. the coefficient of heterogeneity of the composition decreases from 5.3% to 3.9%, which is due to the structuring of the filler in the polyethylene matrix.Practical value. Software that makes it possible to evaluate the uniformity of the distribution of filler particles in a polymer matrix, and can be used to study the quality of mixing of polymer composite materials has been developed.

Biocompatible and Thermoresistant Hydrogels Based on Collagen and Chitosan

Hydrogels are considered good biomaterials for soft tissue regeneration. In this sense, collagen is the most used raw material to develop hydrogels, due to its high biocompatibility. However, its low mechanical resistance, thermal stability and pH instability have generated the need to look for alternatives to its use. In this sense, the combination of collagen with another raw material (i.e., polysaccharides) can improve the final properties of hydrogels. For this reason, the main objective of this work was the development of hydrogels based on collagen and chitosan. The mechanical, thermal and microstructural properties of the hydrogels formed with different ratios of collagen/chitosan (100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 and 0/100) were evaluated after being processed by two variants of a protocol consisting in two stages: a pH change towards pH 7 and a temperature drop towards 4 °C. The main results showed that depending on the protocol, the physicochemical and microstructural properties of the hybrid hydrogels were similar to the unitary system depending on the stage carried out in first place, obtaining FTIR peaks with similar intensity or a more porous structure when chitosan was first gelled, instead of collagen. As a conclusion, the synergy between collagen and chitosan improved the properties of the hydrogels, showing good thermomechanical properties and cell viability to be used as potential biomaterials for Tissue Engineering.