cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907517
title: ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS FOR ESTIMATING TREE VOLUME IN THE BRAZILIAN SAVANNA

description: ABSTRACT This paper seeks to estimate tree volumes of different species from the Brazilian savanna by using artificial neural networks and by making comparisons of results with estimates obtained from traditional volumetric equations. Data was obtained from 15 squared samples of 400 m² in an area of 29.6 ha. In each plot, breast height diameter (D) (diameter at 1.30 m from soil), total height (Ht) and commercial height (Hc) of all individuals with D equals or higher than 3.0 cm were measured. Afterwards, each tree was felled for volume measurement. Huber method was used considering measurement of stem diameters with more than 3.0 cm. Obtained data was used to train artificial neural networks (ANN) and to adjust volumetric equations to estimate total and commercial volume of trees. This study has shown that ANN and regression models are efficient for obtaining estimated volumes of trees in the Brazilian savanna. This suggests that artificial neural networks, that take into consideration species as a categorical input variable and were data trained, presented better results than those that are trained without categorical input.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907517.v1
title: ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS FOR ESTIMATING TREE VOLUME IN THE BRAZILIAN SAVANNA

description: ABSTRACT This paper seeks to estimate tree volumes of different species from the Brazilian savanna by using artificial neural networks and by making comparisons of results with estimates obtained from traditional volumetric equations. Data was obtained from 15 squared samples of 400 m² in an area of 29.6 ha. In each plot, breast height diameter (D) (diameter at 1.30 m from soil), total height (Ht) and commercial height (Hc) of all individuals with D equals or higher than 3.0 cm were measured. Afterwards, each tree was felled for volume measurement. Huber method was used considering measurement of stem diameters with more than 3.0 cm. Obtained data was used to train artificial neural networks (ANN) and to adjust volumetric equations to estimate total and commercial volume of trees. This study has shown that ANN and regression models are efficient for obtaining estimated volumes of trees in the Brazilian savanna. This suggests that artificial neural networks, that take into consideration species as a categorical input variable and were data trained, presented better results than those that are trained without categorical input.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907514
title: Absolute Configuration of Solenopsis Piperidines is a Tool to Classify Fire Ants (Formicidae:Myrmicinae)

description: Piperidine alkaloids are predominant in ant venom glands of S. invicta and S. saevissima. These ants are broadly sympatric in Southeastern Brazil, and potentially diagnostic compounds could assist in ant identification. We determined the absolute configuration of 2,6-dialkyl-piperidines of S. invicta and S. saevissima workers and used these data to group Southeastern Brazil species. The monitoring of venom samples by chiral gas chromatography coupled to a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) revealed that S. saevissima produces the four stereoisomers of 2-methyl-6-undecyl-piperidines, 2-methyl-6-tridecyl-piperidines and 2-methyl-6-tridecenyl-piperidines, while S. invicta venom consisted primarily of a single enantiomer cis and trans from each piperidine alkaloid. Our findings showed that the absolute configuration of piperidine alkaloids of fire ant venom may be a potential chemical tool to distinguish S. invicta and S. saevissima sympatric species in Southeastern Brazil.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907514.v1
title: Absolute Configuration of Solenopsis Piperidines is a Tool to Classify Fire Ants (Formicidae:Myrmicinae)

description: Piperidine alkaloids are predominant in ant venom glands of S. invicta and S. saevissima. These ants are broadly sympatric in Southeastern Brazil, and potentially diagnostic compounds could assist in ant identification. We determined the absolute configuration of 2,6-dialkyl-piperidines of S. invicta and S. saevissima workers and used these data to group Southeastern Brazil species. The monitoring of venom samples by chiral gas chromatography coupled to a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) revealed that S. saevissima produces the four stereoisomers of 2-methyl-6-undecyl-piperidines, 2-methyl-6-tridecyl-piperidines and 2-methyl-6-tridecenyl-piperidines, while S. invicta venom consisted primarily of a single enantiomer cis and trans from each piperidine alkaloid. Our findings showed that the absolute configuration of piperidine alkaloids of fire ant venom may be a potential chemical tool to distinguish S. invicta and S. saevissima sympatric species in Southeastern Brazil.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907511
title: Evaluation of Crocins in Cheeses Made with Saffron by UHPLC

description: Saffron is a widespread consumed spice with potential health promoting compounds. In dairy technologies it is often used to enhance color and flavor of cheeses, so it would be recommended to know the content of saffron functional compounds in cheese made with this spice, as they could still have potential bioactivity. For this purpose, an UHPLC (ultra high performance liquid chromatography) method was developed, with the aim of reducing analysis time and solvent consumption. A methanol:water solution (80:20 v/v) was used to extract saffron compounds from cheese with stirring for 1 h in the dark at room temperature, then the samples were centrifuged at 3500 rpm, for 5 min at 4 °C and the residues were extracted twice. A linear gradient elution of acetonitrile in water allowed to simultaneously determine picrocrocin and crocins in saffron in a short time (16 min), and allowed a quantitative determination of crocins in commercial cheeses.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907511.v1
title: Evaluation of Crocins in Cheeses Made with Saffron by UHPLC

description: Saffron is a widespread consumed spice with potential health promoting compounds. In dairy technologies it is often used to enhance color and flavor of cheeses, so it would be recommended to know the content of saffron functional compounds in cheese made with this spice, as they could still have potential bioactivity. For this purpose, an UHPLC (ultra high performance liquid chromatography) method was developed, with the aim of reducing analysis time and solvent consumption. A methanol:water solution (80:20 v/v) was used to extract saffron compounds from cheese with stirring for 1 h in the dark at room temperature, then the samples were centrifuged at 3500 rpm, for 5 min at 4 °C and the residues were extracted twice. A linear gradient elution of acetonitrile in water allowed to simultaneously determine picrocrocin and crocins in saffron in a short time (16 min), and allowed a quantitative determination of crocins in commercial cheeses.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907508
title: Agronomic performance and nutritive value of millet silages

description: ABSTRACT. The objective of this study was to assess agronomic characteristics and nutritional values of silages of millet genotypes. Planting was done in randomized blocks, with five replicates per genotype. Green matter yield for genotypes ADR 500 and CMS 01 was higher and similar to each other, with 40.16 and 41.36 t ha (p &gt; 0.05). There was no significant difference for dry matter yield, with the mean being 9.93 t ha (p &gt; 0.05). The silages were similar (p &gt; 0.05) as to pH, Aw and N-NH3/TN, presenting values of 3.92, 0.97 and 7.64%, respectively. There were no significant differences (p &gt; 0.05) concerning the bromatological composition of the silages of the different genotypes, with a mean of 30.74% of dry matter, 10.21% for crude protein and 58.69% for neutral detergent fiber (p &gt; 0.05). The dry matter digestibility mean stood at 59.90%. Based on the nutritional values and digestibility of the millet silages, the five genotypes are suitable for silage production, with potential for the North of Minas Gerais.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907508.v1
title: Agronomic performance and nutritive value of millet silages

description: ABSTRACT. The objective of this study was to assess agronomic characteristics and nutritional values of silages of millet genotypes. Planting was done in randomized blocks, with five replicates per genotype. Green matter yield for genotypes ADR 500 and CMS 01 was higher and similar to each other, with 40.16 and 41.36 t ha (p &gt; 0.05). There was no significant difference for dry matter yield, with the mean being 9.93 t ha (p &gt; 0.05). The silages were similar (p &gt; 0.05) as to pH, Aw and N-NH3/TN, presenting values of 3.92, 0.97 and 7.64%, respectively. There were no significant differences (p &gt; 0.05) concerning the bromatological composition of the silages of the different genotypes, with a mean of 30.74% of dry matter, 10.21% for crude protein and 58.69% for neutral detergent fiber (p &gt; 0.05). The dry matter digestibility mean stood at 59.90%. Based on the nutritional values and digestibility of the millet silages, the five genotypes are suitable for silage production, with potential for the North of Minas Gerais.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907496
title: Millikan and the contact potential question on the photoelectric effect experiment

description: Abstract It will be presented in this paper the theoretical and experimental Millikan's approach to the contact potential question in his experiments about the photoelectric effect. The 1923 Nobel prize won by Millikan, had as motivation his experiments which resulted on the electron charge (oil drop experiment) and Planck constant (photoelectric effect experiment) measurements. The precision with which Millikan obtained the Planck constant is due to the importance Millikan attributed to the contact potential between two electrically connected metals. Presenting his calculations on the contact potential in one of his 1916 papers, Millikan showed one result subtly wrong, apparently not perceived by the scholars of the subject. In 1921, Millikan corrected the erroneous equation without mention the 1916 mistake. If this mistake was not due to bad digitation, apparently there is no plausible justification for their occurency.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907493
title: PEROVSKITES SOLAR CELLS: A NEW EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

description: Solar energy has been considered as an important source of clean and safe energy to overcome the problems associate to the burn of fossil fuels (e.g. climate changes, pollution, health problems, etc.). In the area of photovoltaics, devices that convert solar energy into electricity, perovskites solar cells (PSC) have attracted great attention due to their rapid development, high energy conversion efficiency, diversification of the processing methods and different materials. The fantastic properties of the hybrid perovskite materials, such as high absorption coefficient, direct and tunable bandgap, ambipolar charge carrier, simple preparation, etc., have quoted this technology as one the most important in this century. The rapid development of PSC has provided a significant increase in energy conversion efficiency, which was first reported, in 2009, as 3.8% and now reaches up to 22.10%, according to the National Laboratory of Renewable Energy (NREL). Many studies have been carried out to further increase the efficiency of devices and solve problems as the instability of the material, and the presence of lead, so that the PSC can be applied commercially. This paper presents a review on PSC and the major advances reported in device’s architecture, preparation methods, novel materials and interface engineering.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907493.v1
title: PEROVSKITES SOLAR CELLS: A NEW EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

description: Solar energy has been considered as an important source of clean and safe energy to overcome the problems associate to the burn of fossil fuels (e.g. climate changes, pollution, health problems, etc.). In the area of photovoltaics, devices that convert solar energy into electricity, perovskites solar cells (PSC) have attracted great attention due to their rapid development, high energy conversion efficiency, diversification of the processing methods and different materials. The fantastic properties of the hybrid perovskite materials, such as high absorption coefficient, direct and tunable bandgap, ambipolar charge carrier, simple preparation, etc., have quoted this technology as one the most important in this century. The rapid development of PSC has provided a significant increase in energy conversion efficiency, which was first reported, in 2009, as 3.8% and now reaches up to 22.10%, according to the National Laboratory of Renewable Energy (NREL). Many studies have been carried out to further increase the efficiency of devices and solve problems as the instability of the material, and the presence of lead, so that the PSC can be applied commercially. This paper presents a review on PSC and the major advances reported in device’s architecture, preparation methods, novel materials and interface engineering.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907490
title: CHARACTERIZING LANDSCAPE SPATIAL HETEROGENEITY USING SEMIVARIOGRAM PARAMETERS DERIVED FROM NDVI IMAGES

description: ABSTRACT Assuming a relationship between landscape heterogeneity and measures of spatial dependence by using remotely sensed data, the aim of this work was to evaluate the potential of semivariogram parameters, derived from satellite images with different spatial resolutions, to characterize landscape spatial heterogeneity of forested and human modified areas. The NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) was generated in an area of Brazilian amazon tropical forest (1,000 km²). We selected samples (1 x 1 km) from forested and human modified areas distributed throughout the study area, to generate the semivariogram and extract the sill (σ²-overall spatial variability of the surface property) and range (φ-the length scale of the spatial structures of objects) parameters. The analysis revealed that image spatial resolution influenced the sill and range parameters. The average sill and range values increase from forested to human modified areas and the greatest between-class variation was found for LANDSAT 8 imagery, indicating that this image spatial resolution is the most appropriate for deriving sill and range parameters with the intention of describing landscape spatial heterogeneity. By combining remote sensing and geostatistical techniques, we have shown that the sill and range parameters of semivariograms derived from NDVI images are a simple indicator of landscape heterogeneity and can be used to provide landscape heterogeneity maps to enable researchers to design appropriate sampling regimes. In the future, more applications combining remote sensing and geostatistical features should be further investigated and developed, such as change detection and image classification using object-based image analysis (OBIA) approaches.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907490.v1
title: CHARACTERIZING LANDSCAPE SPATIAL HETEROGENEITY USING SEMIVARIOGRAM PARAMETERS DERIVED FROM NDVI IMAGES

description: ABSTRACT Assuming a relationship between landscape heterogeneity and measures of spatial dependence by using remotely sensed data, the aim of this work was to evaluate the potential of semivariogram parameters, derived from satellite images with different spatial resolutions, to characterize landscape spatial heterogeneity of forested and human modified areas. The NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) was generated in an area of Brazilian amazon tropical forest (1,000 km²). We selected samples (1 x 1 km) from forested and human modified areas distributed throughout the study area, to generate the semivariogram and extract the sill (σ²-overall spatial variability of the surface property) and range (φ-the length scale of the spatial structures of objects) parameters. The analysis revealed that image spatial resolution influenced the sill and range parameters. The average sill and range values increase from forested to human modified areas and the greatest between-class variation was found for LANDSAT 8 imagery, indicating that this image spatial resolution is the most appropriate for deriving sill and range parameters with the intention of describing landscape spatial heterogeneity. By combining remote sensing and geostatistical techniques, we have shown that the sill and range parameters of semivariograms derived from NDVI images are a simple indicator of landscape heterogeneity and can be used to provide landscape heterogeneity maps to enable researchers to design appropriate sampling regimes. In the future, more applications combining remote sensing and geostatistical features should be further investigated and developed, such as change detection and image classification using object-based image analysis (OBIA) approaches.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907487
title: Glutaraldehyde test for the rapid diagnosis of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in an area with high tuberculosis incidence

description: BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The primary method for controlling TB is the rapid and accurate identification of infected individuals. Immune response exploitation represents one of the main methods used for early TB diagnosis; however, few studies have reported that whole blood originating from TB-infected patients gels faster in the presence of aldehyde than blood originating from healthy subjects, which is the focus of the current study. OBJECTIVES The study objectives are to determine the diagnostic value of a glutaraldehyde test (GT) in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) and to assess its performance compared with light-emitting diode fluorescence microscopy (LED-FM). MATERIALS AND METHODS This study included 272 specimens (176 suspected PTB specimens and 96 suspected EPTB specimens). Of the 272 patients, 98 patients had TB infection confirmed by culture (64 PTB cases and 34 EPTB cases), and 174 patients had no TB infection. The gold standard technique (culture) was used as reference to verify the GT's performance. RESULTS The GT showed a high sensitivity (96.9%) and specificity (82.1%) for PTB with a good positive predictive value (PPV = 75.6%) and negative predictive value (NPV = 97.9%). For EPTB, the GT showed a sensitivity of 91.2% and a specificity of 77.4%, with PPV = 68.9% and NPV = 94.1%. LED-FM had lower sensitivities for PTB (65.6%) and EPTB (42.1%) and an excellent specificity of 100%, with PPV = 100% and NPV = 100%. CONCLUSION We concluded that GT is rapid, easy, simple and cost-effective and does not require qualified personnel with a specific background or sophisticated equipment like molecular biology or mycobacterium-specific genotyping techniques. These qualities make the GT attractive for use in low- and high-income countries in addition to other conventional methods, particularly culture, which continues to be the gold standard.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907487.v1
title: Glutaraldehyde test for the rapid diagnosis of pulmonary and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in an area with high tuberculosis incidence

description: BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The primary method for controlling TB is the rapid and accurate identification of infected individuals. Immune response exploitation represents one of the main methods used for early TB diagnosis; however, few studies have reported that whole blood originating from TB-infected patients gels faster in the presence of aldehyde than blood originating from healthy subjects, which is the focus of the current study. OBJECTIVES The study objectives are to determine the diagnostic value of a glutaraldehyde test (GT) in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) and to assess its performance compared with light-emitting diode fluorescence microscopy (LED-FM). MATERIALS AND METHODS This study included 272 specimens (176 suspected PTB specimens and 96 suspected EPTB specimens). Of the 272 patients, 98 patients had TB infection confirmed by culture (64 PTB cases and 34 EPTB cases), and 174 patients had no TB infection. The gold standard technique (culture) was used as reference to verify the GT's performance. RESULTS The GT showed a high sensitivity (96.9%) and specificity (82.1%) for PTB with a good positive predictive value (PPV = 75.6%) and negative predictive value (NPV = 97.9%). For EPTB, the GT showed a sensitivity of 91.2% and a specificity of 77.4%, with PPV = 68.9% and NPV = 94.1%. LED-FM had lower sensitivities for PTB (65.6%) and EPTB (42.1%) and an excellent specificity of 100%, with PPV = 100% and NPV = 100%. CONCLUSION We concluded that GT is rapid, easy, simple and cost-effective and does not require qualified personnel with a specific background or sophisticated equipment like molecular biology or mycobacterium-specific genotyping techniques. These qualities make the GT attractive for use in low- and high-income countries in addition to other conventional methods, particularly culture, which continues to be the gold standard.
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5907484
title: Identification of Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Hypertensive Drugs as Inhibitors of Bacterial Diguanylate Cyclases

description: Biofilms are widely present in many human chronic infections, often more resistant to treatment with antibiotics. Bacterial diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) synthesize cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) from two guanosine-5'-triphosphate (GTP) molecules. c-di-GMP is a central second messenger controlling biofilm formation, turning this class of enzymes an attractive target to prevent and disrupt biofilms of pathogenic bacteria. Here, we apply an in silico ligand- and target-based hybrid method to screen potential DGC inhibitors from an FDA-approved drug databank. Mass spectrometry assays confirmed that seven screened compounds selectively bound to the GTP active site of P. aeruginosa WspR GGDEF domain. Four out of those, including the anti-inflammatory sulfasalazine and the anti-hypertensive eprosartan, inhibited distinct DGCs (P. aeruginosa WspR and E. coli YdeH) in the micromolar range. Sulfasalazine and eprosartan reduced aggregation in solution of E. coli overexpressing WspR or YdeH. Similar anti-aggregation effects were also observed for sulfasalazine-related anti-inflammatory drugs sulfadiazine and sulfathiazole, the latter a previously described anti-biofilm agent. The optimized pharmacokinetic properties and toxicological profiles of the DGC inhibitors could be promising candidates for new anti-microbial agents based on the drug reposition strategy.