Selectivity of herbicides used in corn on Crotalaria ochroleuca G. Don.

In the cropping systems that integrate the corn crop, the insertion of Crotalaria ochroleuca G. Don is predominantly intercropped. In this context, there is a need to observe herbicides that present selectivity for this sunn hemp species. The objective of this study was to evaluate the selectivity of pre and post-emergent herbicides on C. ochroleuca. Two field experiments were conducted in randomized blocks with four replications, involving the pre-emergence and post-emergence application of different herbicide treatments. For the pre-emergent ones, amicarbazone, atrazine and flumioxazin provided phytotoxicity higher than 90% and, consequently, low plant biomass. On the other hand, acetochlor and s-metolachlor did not cause phytotoxicity and did not affect the dry mass of crotalaria. In post-emergence, atrazine + mesotrione showed phytotoxicity >95%, followed by nicosulfuron and 2.4-D with phytotoxicity between 50-60%, whereas tembotrione did not cause injury to the plants. Thus, it was found that among the pre-emergent, acetochlor and s-metolachlor were selective, and for the emerging powders, only tembotrione was the most selective for all parameters analyzed.

Rotatable magnetic anisotropy in Si/SiO2/(Co2Fe)(x)Ge(1-x) Heusler alloy films.

Polycrystalline (Co2Fe)(x)Ge(1-x) Heusler alloy films are fabricated by sputtering on amorphous substrates and shown to possess three types of magnetic anisotropy. The nearly stoichiometric composition of x = 50 m.f.% shows a rectangular hysteresis loop and isotropic coercive and ferromagnetic resonance fields when the film is field-magnetized along any in-plane direction, thus predominantly possessing rotatable in-plane magnetic anisotropy. Higher-x compositions show evidence of two- and fourfold in-plane anisotropy superposed on the rotatable one. A qualitative model of the observed anisotropic magnetic properties is proposed. The model explains the rotatable anisotropy by taking into account dry friction for the in-plane rotation of the magnetization direction in a fine-grained polycrystalline film with the magnetic grain size smaller than the correlation length of the inter-grain exchange interaction. The observed two- and fourfold magnetic anisotropy contributions are attributed to partial texturing of the fine-grained films, even though the films are grown on amorphous SiO2 substrates. These results should be valuable for understanding and controlling the magnetic behaviour of highly spin-polarized Heusler alloy films used in various magnetic nanodevices.

Litter size, age-related memory impairments, and microglial changes in rat dentate gyrus: stereological analysis and three dimensional morphometry.

It has been demonstrated that rat litter size affects the immune cell response, but it is not known whether the long-term effects aggravate age-related memory impairments or microglial-associated changes. To that end, we raised sedentary Wistar rats that were first suckled in small or large litters (6 or 12pups/dam, respectively), then separated into groups of 2-3 rats from the 21st post-natal day to study end. At 4months (young adult) or 23months (aged), all individual rats were submitted to spatial memory and object identity recognition tests, and then sacrificed. Brain sections were immunolabeled with anti-IBA-1 antibodies to selectively identify microglia/macrophages. Microglial morphological changes in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus were estimated based on three-dimensional reconstructions. The cell number and laminar distribution in the dentate gyrus was estimated with the stereological optical fractionator method. We found that, compared to young rat groups, aged rats from large litters showed significant increases in the number of microglia in all layers of the dentate gyrus. Compared to the microglia in all other groups, microglia in aged individuals from large litters showed a significantly higher degree of tree volume expansion, branch base diameter thickening, and cell soma enlargement. These morphological changes were correlated with an increase in the number of microglia in the molecular layer. Young adult individuals from small litters exhibited preserved intact object identity recognition memory and all other groups showed reduced performance in both spatial and object identity recognition tasks. We found that, in large litters, brain development was, on average, associated with permanent changes in the innate immune system in the brain, with a significant impact on the microglial homeostasis of aged rats.

Changes in the surface of four calcium silicate-containing endodontic materials and an epoxy resin-based sealer after a solubility test.

AIM: To compare the changes in the surface structure and elemental distribution, as well as the percentage of ion release, of four calcium silicate-containing endodontic materials with a well-established epoxy resin-based sealer, submitted to a solubility test. METHODOLOGY: Solubility of AH Plus, iRoot SP, MTA Fillapex, Sealapex and MTA-Angelus (MTA-A) was tested according to ANSI/ADA Specification 57. The deionized water used in the solubility test was submitted to atomic absorption spectrophotometry to determine and quantify Ca(2+), Na(+), K(+), Zn(2+), Ni(2+) and Pb(2+) ions release. In addition, the outer and inner surfaces of nonsubmitted and submitted samples of each material to the solubility test were analysed by means of scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDX). Statistical analysis was performed by using one-way anova and Tukey's post hoc tests (α = 0.05). RESULTS: Solubility results, in percentage, sorted in an increasing order were -1.24 ± 0.19 (MTA-A), 0.28 ± 0.08 (AH Plus), 5.65 ± 0.80 (Sealapex), 14.89 ± 0.73 (MTA Fillapex) and 20.64 ± 1.42 (iRoot SP). AH Plus and MTA-A were statistically similar (P > 0.05), but different from the other materials (P < 0.05). High levels of Ca(2+) ion release were observed in all groups except AH Plus sealer. MTA-A also had the highest release of Na(2+) and K(+) ions. Zn(+2) ion release was observed only with AH Plus and Sealapex sealers. After the solubility test, all surfaces had morphological changes. The loss of matrix was evident and the filler particles were more distinguishable. EDX analysis displayed high levels of calcium and carbon at the surface of Sealapex, MTA Fillapex and iRoot SP. CONCLUSIONS: AH Plus and MTA-A were in accordance with ANSI/ADA's requirements regarding solubility whilst iRoot SP, MTA Fillapex and Sealapex did not fulfil ANSI/ADA's protocols. High levels of Ca(2+) ion release were observed in all materials except AH Plus. SEM/EDX analysis revealed that all samples had morphological changes in both outer and inner surfaces after the solubility test. High levels of calcium and carbon were also observed at the surface of all materials except AH Plus and MTA-A.

Nitrogen and argon doped zinc oxide.

In this work argon and nitrogen were implanted into ZnO single crystals in order to compare the influence of these non-magnetic elements in the magnetic and electrical behaviour of zinc oxide. The results indicate that both nitrogen and argon implantations induce magnetic defects in ZnO, although these do not remain stable upon annealing. The comparison between the electrical behaviour of argon and nitrogen implanted crystals indicates that mobile charge carriers exist in the argon implanted sample after annealing, but were not detected in the nitrogen implanted sample.