ABSTRACT. Yacon is a perennial herbaceous plant that naturally occurs in South America at altitudes ranging from 2,000 m to 3,100 m above sea level. The yacon culture has recently grown in popularity as it has high productive potential in mild climates and multiple benefits to human health. This study aimed to determine the lower and upper base temperatures, cycle duration, and thermal constant for the yacon culture, based on phenological data from field experiments that were carried out during three growing seasons (fall, winter, and spring) in 2013. The experiments were conducted in the municipality of Ibatiba in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, in a randomized block design with four replicates. The lower base temperature was determined using methods of the lowest standard deviation in days and degree-days, relative development, and variation coefficient in degree-days for two subperiods: emergence to maturation, and onset of tuberization to maturation. The upper base temperature was determined by the standard deviation and coefficient of variation methods, both in degrees-days. The relationship between meteorological elements and the onset of tuberization was also investigated. The lower base temperature values determined for yacon were 12.5ºC in the two subperiods studied with a base temperature above 34.0ºC. The productivity of these tuberous roots was higher in the fall because of the longer cycle, lower temperature, and lower photoperiod. In turn, a higher thermal sum was needed to initiate tuberization with the delay of planting.

BACKGROUND This work describes a chemical study of the essential oil from leaves of Xylopia ochrantha, an endemic Annonaceae species from Brazil, and its activity against Biomphalaria species. Considering its poor solubility in aqueous medium, the essential oil was nanoemulsified to evaluate its action on controlling some mollusc species of genus Biomphalaria, snail hosts of Schistosoma mansoni that causes schistosomiasis, which mainly affects tropical and subtropical countries. OBJECTIVES The main aims of this work were to analyse the chemical composition of essential oil from X. ochrantha, and to evaluate the effect of its nanoemulsion on molluscs of genus Biomphalaria and their oviposition. METHODS Chemical analysis was performed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. Nanoemulsions were prepared by a low energy method and characterised by particle size and polydispersity index. Biological assays evaluating the mortality of adult species of B. glabrata, B. straminea and B. tenagophila and their ovipositions upon contact with the most stable nanoemulsion during 24 and 48 h were performed. FINDINGS Chemical analysis by mass spectrometry revealed the majority presence of bicyclogermacrene and germacrene D in the essential oil. The formulation with a hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) of 9.26 was the most suitable for the oil delivery system. This nanoemulsion caused the mortality in B. tenagophila, B. straminea and B. glabarata of different sizes at levels ranging from 50 to 100% in 48 h. Additionally, the formulation could inhibit the development of deposited eggs. CONCLUSION Thus, these results suggest the use of nanoemulsified essential oil from X. ochrantha as a possible alternative in controlling some Biomphalaria species involved in the schistosomiasis cycle.

Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar uma estratégia utilizada para geração de alternativas de manejo na formulação e solução de problemas de planejamento florestal com restrições de recobrimento. O problema de planejamento florestal foi formulado via modelo I e modelo II, assim denominados por Johnson E Scheurman (1977), resultando em problemas de programação linear inteira com 63 e 42 alternativas de manejo, respectivamente. Conforme esperado, no problema formulado via modelo I não houve violação das restrições de recobrimento, enquanto no problema formulado via modelo II algumas unidades de manejo foram fracionadas, fato já esperado, uma vez que essa formulação não assegura a integridade das unidades de manejo. Na formulação via modelo II, para assegurar a integridade das unidades de manejo foi necessário reformular o problema como um problema de programação não-linear inteira, problema esse de solução ainda mais complexa do que os de programação linear inteira. As soluções eficientes dos problemas de programação não-linear inteira esbarram nas limitações de eficiências dos principais algoritmos de solução exata e na carência de aplicações dos algoritmos aproximativos na solução desse tipo de problema, a exemplo das metaeurísticas simulated annealing, busca tabu e algoritmos genéticos, tornando-se, portanto, um atrativo para pesquisas nessa área.

The objective of this work was to analyze the implications of the model II, one of the strategies that have been used for generation of forest management alternatives, in the formulation and solution of problems of forest planning with covering constraint. The forest management problem was formulated via model I and model II, resulting in linear integer programming problems with 63 and 42 alternatives of management, respectively. As expected, there was no singularity constraint violation in the problem formulated via model I, while in the problem formulated via model II some management units were fractionated. This was already expected, since this formulation did not assure the integrity of the management units. To assure the integrity of the management units in the formulation via model II, it was necessary to reformulate the problem as a non-linear integer programming problem, which has a more complex solution than the linear integer programming problems. The efficient solutions of non-linear integer programming problem come up against the efficiency limitations of the main exact solution algorithms and in the lack of applications of approximative algorithms in the solution of this type of problem, such as simulated annealing metaheuristics, tabu search e genetic algorithms, becoming, therefore, attractive for this research field.

Neste artigo consideramos um estudo experimental de alguns algoritmos aproximados para problemas de escalonamento em máquinas paralelas onde se deve minimizar o tempo de término ponderado das tarefas. Foram implementados algoritmos aproximados para os seguintes problemas: P|r j|sigmaCj, P||sigmaw jCj, P|r j|sigmaw jCj, R||sigmaw jCj and R|r j|sigmaw jC j . Foram gerados mais de 1000 testes sobre mais de 200 instâncias diferentes e com isso apresentamos aspectos práticos dos algoritmos implementados. Também fizemos um estudo experimental sobre dois limitantes inferiores baseados em formulações usadas pelos algoritmos. A primeira é uma formulação semidefinida para o problema R||sigmaw jCj e a outra é uma formulação linear para o problema R|r j|sigmaw jCj. Em todos os testes os algoritmos obtiveram resultados muito bons. Notamos que algoritmos usando técnicas mais refinadas, quando comparados com algoritmos que usam estratégias simples, não necessariamente geram soluções melhores. Também apresentamos duas heurísticas, baseadas nos algoritmos aproximados, que geram soluções de melhor qualidade em quase todas as instâncias consideradas.

In this paper we consider an experimental study of approximation algorithms for scheduling problems in parallel machines minimizing the average weighted completion time. We implemented approximation algorithms for the following problems: P|r j|sigmaCj, P||sigmaw jCj, P|r j|sigmaw jCj, R||sigmaw jCj and R|r j|sigmaw jCj. We generated more than 1000 tests over more than 200 different instances and present some practical aspects of the implemented algorithms. We also made an experimental comparison on two lower bounds based on the formulations used by the algorithms. The first one is a semidefinite formulation for the problem R||sigmaw jCj and the other one is a linear formulation for the problem R|r j|sigmaw jCj. For all tests, the algorithms obtained very good results. We notice that algorithms using more refined techniques, when compared to algorithms with simple strategies, do not necessary lead to better results. We also present two heuristics, based on approximation algorithms, that generate solutions with better quality in almost all instances considered.