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Begomoviruses infect a wide range of plant species and are emerging as one of the most detrimental pathogens. Recombination has led to the evolution and emergence of new species of begomoviruses that are better adapted to new hosts. With the development of computational recombination detection programs, better detection methods and increased availability of complete genome sequences in the database, it has become easier to identify recombination events. Andrographis paniculata is an important medicinal plant and known for the synthesis of various metabolites of high pharmaceutical value. In a recent field survey, a new strain of begomovirus infecting A. paniculata was discovered and full genome analysis revealed it to be different from the two isolates of begomoviruses reported earlier on this plant. Recombination Detection Program and SimPlot analysis showed the inter-species recombination in these begomoviruses infecting A. paniculata, while no recombination was detected in the previous isolates of these viruses. This study highlights the diversity of begomoviruses infecting A. paniculata in nature and also analyzes the role of recombination events responsible for the emergence of new begomovirus isolates/strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the construction of a Kundt tube adapted to new available technologies for teaching Physics. We propose to use the Arduino board in didactic experiments involving the study of sound waves. The Arduino is a control board I /O, based on the microcontroller Atmega (Atmel) and it was, initially, designed for didactic purposes. The fact of the programming language and hardware are the open source type enabled their wide dissemination in various areas. This work aims to spread the use of this resource for educational purposes and particularly in the study of stationary sound waves in pipes, contributing to the improvement in the approach of this content in Physics teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the scope of energy diversification and profitable forest resource exploitation, increasing the use of biomass residues for energy can play an important role by using local sources of energy, reducing carbon emissions and fossil-energy use, providing additional revenue for the forest sector, and also reducing the risk of forest wildfires. Regional simulators can help forecast available wood and biomass and allow evaluation of possible future conflicts of interest and their consequences for society. This paper focuses on improving an existing regional forest simulator (SIMPLOT) so that it can be applied to study research questions related to increasing the use of eucalyptus biomass for bioenergy and the related consequences for wood available for pulp. Biomass modules were integrated into SIMPLOT so that different sources of biomass used for energy could be accounted for. The updated version of the simulator was used to assess the impact of different biomass demands for bioenergy, combined with different afforestation alternatives on the wood available for the pulp and paper industry in Portugal. SIMPLOT's forecasts indicated that the eucalyptus forest is unable to satisfy wood demand even when pulp afforestation areas are doubled, regardless of the biomass demand considered. Also, the simulation results showed that, with the tested afforestation rates, eucalyptus forest cannot meet high increases in demand for wood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An updated collection of 791 human hepatitis B virus (HBV) genomes and 38 non-human primate HBV genomes was analyzed for identifying putative recombination events and their recombinants by using two bioinformatics software tools: Simplot and RDP3 with five algorithms (RDP, GENECONV, MaxChi, Chimaera, and SiScan). A total of 61 recombinants from nine putative recombination events were detected with RDP3, especially the breakpoints of six events which have both two parental sequences that can be determined precisely with Simplot. To our knowledge, 53 recombinants were found for the first time. Our study also suggests that a relatively high recombination frequency occurs in the PreC/C gene region and the position near gene boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the scope of energy diversification and profitable forest resource exploitation, increasing the use of biomass residues for energy can play an important role by using local sources of energy, reducing carbon emissions and fossil-energy use, providing additional revenue for the forest sector, and also reducing the risk of forest wildfires. Regional simulators can help forecast available wood and biomass and allow evaluation of possible future conflicts of interest and their consequences for society. This paper focuses on improving an existing regional forest simulator (SIMPLOT) so that it can be applied to study research questions related to increasing the use of eucalyptus biomass for bioenergy and the related consequences for wood available for pulp. Biomass modules were integrated into SIMPLOT so that different sources of biomass used for energy could be accounted for. The updated version of the simulator was used to assess the impact of different biomass demands for bioenergy, combined with different afforestation alternatives on the wood available for the pulp and paper industry in Portugal. SIMPLOT's forecasts indicated that the eucalyptus forest is unable to satisfy wood demand even when pulp afforestation areas are doubled, regardless of the biomass demand considered. Also, the simulation results showed that, with the tested afforestation rates, eucalyptus forest cannot meet high increases in demand for wood.