Submitted by Rodrigo Martins Cruz (rodrigo.cruz@ufvjm.edu.br) on 2015-02-27T13:30:34Z No. of bitstreams: 5 37.pdf: 3780972 bytes, checksum: 25735fd7c2f94a2a52a7a996adefcb6b (MD5) license_url: 52 bytes, checksum: 3d480ae6c91e310daba2020f8787d6f9 (MD5) license_text: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) license_rdf: 23898 bytes, checksum: e363e809996cf46ada20da1accfcd9c7 (MD5) license.txt: 2109 bytes, checksum: aa477231e840f304454a16eb85a9235f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Martins Cruz (rodrigo.cruz@ufvjm.edu.br) on 2015-02-27T18:41:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 5 37.pdf: 3780972 bytes, checksum: 25735fd7c2f94a2a52a7a996adefcb6b (MD5) license_url: 52 bytes, checksum: 3d480ae6c91e310daba2020f8787d6f9 (MD5) license_text: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) license_rdf: 23898 bytes, checksum: e363e809996cf46ada20da1accfcd9c7 (MD5) license.txt: 2109 bytes, checksum: aa477231e840f304454a16eb85a9235f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-27T18:41:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 5 37.pdf: 3780972 bytes, checksum: 25735fd7c2f94a2a52a7a996adefcb6b (MD5) license_url: 52 bytes, checksum: 3d480ae6c91e310daba2020f8787d6f9 (MD5) license_text: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) license_rdf: 23898 bytes, checksum: e363e809996cf46ada20da1accfcd9c7 (MD5) license.txt: 2109 bytes, checksum: aa477231e840f304454a16eb85a9235f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico (CNPq) / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior (Capes) / Funda??o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) / Avaliaram-se neste trabalho os efeitos da competi??o entre cultivares de milho, feij?o e mandioca e seis esp?cies de plantas daninhas no ac?mulo e na aloca??o de mat?ria seca e nutrientes pelas plantas; o potencial de algumas dessas esp?cies em reciclar nutrientes e a efici?ncia nutricional do feijoeiro. Para isso foi realizado um experimento para cada cultura com tr?s gen?tipos de milho, tr?s de feij?o e dois de mandioca, cultivados em competi??o com seis esp?cies de plantas daninhas, al?m dos tratamentos adicionais, correspondentes ?s cultivares de milho, feij?o e mandioca e ?s esp?cies daninhas ausentes de competi??o. O per?odo de conviv?ncia entre as cultivares de milho, feij?o e mandioca e as plantas daninhas foi de 60, 45 e 75 dias ap?s emerg?ncia das culturas, respectivamente. Para a cultura do milho e do feij?o foi avaliada a aloca??o de mat?ria seca e de nutrientes, inclusive entre os diferentes ?rg?os. Ainda para o feij?o foram estimados os coeficientes para efici?ncia de absor??o, transporte e utiliza??o dos nutrientes. Para a cultura da mandioca, foram determinadas, al?m da aloca??o de mat?ria seca, caracter?sticas morfofisiol?gicas ligadas ? ?rea foliar. A folha e o caule do milho foram os principais ?rg?os afetados negativamente pela competi??o, enquanto as ra?zes das esp?cies competidoras foram os ?rg?os mais prejudicados. Em competi??o com o feijoeiro, as folhas e o caule das esp?cies daninhas foram os ?rg?os mais prejudicados. Com mandioca, os componentes vegetativos das plantas daninhas sofreram reduzidas modifica??es, sem preju?zos quanto ? produ??o de mat?ria seca. As ra?zes do feijoeiro e de mandioca foram os principais ?rg?os afetados negativamente pela competi??o. Os gen?tipos AL 25 (milho) e IPR Colibri (feij?o) foram os que menos toleraram a competi??o. De forma contr?ria, as cultivares P?rola (feij?o) e Periquita (mandioca) demonstraram possuir as maiores habilidades competitivas. O milho mostrou-se sens?vel ? competi??o com B. brizantha e C. benghalensis e competitivo com B. plantaginea. Esta esp?cie, entretanto, mostrou-se altamente competitiva com feij?o e mandioca. Al?m disso, A. spinosus, em competi??o com o feijoeiro, demonstrou possuir a maior habilidade competitiva. A capacidade competitiva entre esp?cies vegetais, quando se trata do ac?mulo de mat?ria seca e relativo de nutrientes, n?o representou vantagem para as esp?cies de plantas daninhas, quando elas foram mantidas em conviv?ncia com o milho. O feijoeiro apresentou baixa capacidade de competi??o por nutrientes, particularmente N e P. A ?rea foliar espec?fica e a raz?o de ?rea foliar da mandioca n?o foram afetadas pela competi??o. B. brizantha e C. echinatus, livre da conviv?ncia com o milho, apresentaram elevado potencial em reciclar nutrientes. / Disserta??o (Mestrado) ? Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Produ??o Vegetal, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, 2011. / ABSTRACT There were evaluated in this study the effects of competition between maize, beans and cassava, and six weed species in the accumulation and allocation of dry matter and nutrients by plants, the potential of some of these species in recycling nutrients and nutritional efficiency of bean. For this end an experiment was performed to each culture with three genotypes of maize, beans and two of three cassava grown in competition with six weeds species, apart from additional treatment corresponding to the maize, beans and cassava cultivars and weed species absent from the competition. The period of coexistence among maize, beans and cassava cultivars and the weeds was 60, 45 and 75 days after crop emergence, respectively. For the corn and beans there were evaluated allocation of dry matter and nutrients, including between different organs. Even for the beans there were estimated coefficients for uptake, transport and utilization of nutrients. For cassava plants there were determined, besides the allocation of dry matter, morphological and physiological characteristics related to leaf area. The leaf and stalk of corn were the main adversely affected organs by competition, while the roots of competing species were the most affected organs. In competition with the beans, leaves and stems of weeds were the most affected organs. With cassava, the weeds vegetative components suffered reduced modifications without losses in the production of dry matter. The roots of bean and cassava were the main adversely affected organs by competition. Genotypes AL 25 (maize) and IPR Colibri (beans) were the less tolerant in the competition. Conversely, the P?rola (beans) and Periquita (cassava) have showed the greatest competitive abilities. The corn was sensitive to competition with B. brizantha and C. benghalensis and competitive with B. plantaginea. This species, however, proved to be highly competitive with beans and cassava. Furthermore, A. spinosus, in competition with the bean, has demonstrated the greatest competitive ability. The competitive ability of plant species when it comes to the accumulation of dry matter and related nutrients did not represent the advantage to the weeds, where they were kept in close contact with the corn. The bean had low capacity to compete for nutrients, particularly N and P. The specific leaf area and leaf area ratio of cassava were not affected by competition. B. brizantha and C. echinatus, free of coexistence with the corn, had high potential to recycle nutrients.

MSc (Botany) / Department of Botany

The primary objectives of this research are to determine effective biological and alternative control strategies of insect and disease pests in order to reduce harsh chemical use during greenhouse crop production and transport s. This research includes two separate studies: 1) testing the practical viability of rearing and storing four species of entomopathogenic nematode (EPN), Steinernema feltiae, Steinernema carpocapsae, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, Heterorhabditis indica; and, 2) the efficacy of UV-C radiation applied, pre-transport, as a preventative disease control strategy against Botrytis cinerea. A study was conducted testing EPN infectious juvenile (IJ) rearing production counts and IJ viability after a six-day storage period. When all four species are compared, S. feltiae had a greater number of infectious juveniles emerge from the wax moth cadavers and S. carpocasae had the least. All four species survived the six day storage period but EPN infectious juvenile counts were significantly different among species. Our second study tested the efficacy of UV-C radiation as an alternative control to traditional fungicides to deactivate B. cinerea in vitro and to determine plant tolerance to UV-C. The crops tested were poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) and primula (Primula vulgaris). All the UV-C doses, 1.0, 2.8, 3.7 or 4 W/m2, significantly decreased B. cinerea conidial germination in vitro and resulted in zero percent damage on poinsettia bracts. However, all UV-C doses during both replications caused minor damage, 15% or less, to primula flowers. / Master of Science in Life Sciences / Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) shows promise in being non-chemical and environmentally friendly solution for greenhouse pest and disease control. These can also be referred to as Biological Controls (Biocontrols). Entomopathogenic nematodes are used widely to control multiple greenhouse plant pests which include both Lycoriella spp., Fungus Gnats, and Frankliniella spp., Western Flower Thrips. However, there are challenges with EPN viability and storage from the manufacture to the greenhouse producer. We studied four EPN species, Steinernema feltiae, Steinernema carpocapsae, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, Heterorhabditis indica, which were reared and stored to determine differences in production viability between species. Results show that the EPN species do not respond the same to storage and produce different amounts of infectious juveniles during rearing when conditions are the same. Separate from, but just as concerning as greenhouses plant pests are plant diseases. Ultraviolet radiation in the C spectra is known to be germicidal due to its narrow wavelengths. Because of this, UV-C has been shown to deactivate many different plant pathogens on contact and is being considered as a possible Biocontrol alternative to harsh traditional fungicides and bactericides. One disease that is known to contribute to the highest volume of annual crop losses is Botrytis cinerea. Botrytis cinerea is a plant disease that impacts floricultural crops to vegetables during propagation through the production supply chain to shipping and storage. We evaluated UV-C radiation at different doses, to determine if it could be used to replace a traditional fungicide before plants are shipped to reduce B. cinerea infection during transport. We found that UV-C successfully deactivated B. cinerea in vitro, but the viability of the application to plant tissue before transport has yet to be proven successful as a practical method of reducing B. cinerea during transport.

Es wird die enantioselektive Synthese eines substituierten Cyclopentanfragmentes beschrieben, welches zur Synthese einer Vielzahl von Diterpenen aus Euphorbiaceae genutzt werden kann. Schlüsselschritt hierbei ist eine intramolekulare Carbonyl-En-Reaktion. In zwei verschiedenen Syntheseansätzen wurde versucht, dieses zu einem Jatrophan-Diterpen umzusetzen. Versuche hinsichtlich einer Nozaki-Hiyama-Kishi-Kupplung werden beschrieben. Im zweiten Ansatz, wurde über eine Ringschlussmetathese bzw. eine Relay-Ringschlussmetathese versucht entsprechende Jatrophane herzustellen. Dies gelang bei einem Substrat, welches eine zweifach substituierte Doppelbindung beinhaltet. Somit konnte ein nichtnatürliches 17-Norjatrophan enantioselektiv synthetisiert werden. / The enantioselective synthesis of a highly substituted cyclopentan, useful for the synthesis of diterpenes from Euphorbiaceae is described. Key step is a intramolecular carbonyl-en reaction. Two different approaches towards Jatrophanes were examined. The first one envisioning a Nozaki-Hiyama-Kishi coupling didn´t work. The second one employed a ring-closing-metathesis which was successful in the case of a disubstituted double bond formed. The use of an relay-ring-closing-metathesis was also examined. The enantioselective synthesis of a nonnatural 17-Norjatrophane is described in all details.

Es wird die enantioselektive Synthese eines substituierten Cyclopentanfragmentes beschrieben, welches zur Synthese einer Vielzahl von Diterpenen aus Euphorbiaceae genutzt werden kann. Schlüsselschritt hierbei ist eine intramolekulare Carbonyl-En-Reaktion. In zwei verschiedenen Syntheseansätzen wurde versucht, dieses zu einem Jatrophan-Diterpen umzusetzen. Versuche hinsichtlich einer Nozaki-Hiyama-Kishi-Kupplung werden beschrieben. Im zweiten Ansatz, wurde über eine Ringschlussmetathese bzw. eine Relay-Ringschlussmetathese versucht entsprechende Jatrophane herzustellen. Dies gelang bei einem Substrat, welches eine zweifach substituierte Doppelbindung beinhaltet. Somit konnte ein nichtnatürliches 17-Norjatrophan enantioselektiv synthetisiert werden. / The enantioselective synthesis of a highly substituted cyclopentan, useful for the synthesis of diterpenes from Euphorbiaceae is described. Key step is a intramolecular carbonyl-en reaction. Two different approaches towards Jatrophanes were examined. The first one envisioning a Nozaki-Hiyama-Kishi coupling didn´t work. The second one employed a ring-closing-metathesis which was successful in the case of a disubstituted double bond formed. The use of an relay-ring-closing-metathesis was also examined. The enantioselective synthesis of a nonnatural 17-Norjatrophane is described in all details.

Algunas especies vegetales se consideran malezas debido a que alcanzan niveles poblacionales tales, que al competir con los cultivos causan perjuicios sobre su producción. Por este motivo, en determinadas ocasiones es necesario realizar operaciones de control sobre las poblaciones de malezas para reducir su infestación hasta valores que permitan obtener niveles de producción deseados. A nivel mundial el control químico ha sido el método más práctico y eficiente para controlar malezas, especialmente en cultivos extensivos. Sin embargo, el uso continuo de herbicidas desde hace más de 40 años trajo aparejado un impacto negativo sobre el medio ambiente, la salud y la proliferación de malezas resistentes. Estas consecuencias se deben tener en cuenta para definir manejos adecuados a largo plazo. Desde una perspectiva estratégica, un programa sostenible de manejo de malezas debería basarse en una combinación de métodos tanto preventivos como curativos que apliquen principios basados en el conocimiento, dando lugar a lo que se conoce como Manejo Integrado de Malezas, MIM. En este contexto, el modelado matemático se presenta como una herramienta apropiada para ayudar a guiar el proceso de toma de decisiones asociado al MIM. En esta tesis se propone un modelo de simulación para asistir en la toma de decisiones relacionadas con el MIM. El modelo se desarrolló en colaboración con profesionales extensionistas y fue concebido como una herramienta flexible y adaptable a diversos sistemas de producción agrícola, poseyendo un mayor nivel de detalle que otros modelos similares. Dicho modelo permite simular la dinámica multianual de una maleza en competencia con el cultivo. El ciclo de vida de la maleza se representa a través de los componentes demográficos típicos (ej. banco de semillas, plántulas, adultos en estado vegetativo y reproductivo, producción de semillas). El desarrollo del cultivo se simula de forma simplificada a fin de cuantificar diariamente los efectos de la competencia interespecífica. La simulación de distintas estrategias de MIM permite calcular y comparar indicadores económicos, ambientales y agronómicos. Palabras claves: Manejo Integrado de Malezas, Modelado de sistemas agrícolas, Avena fatua L., Euphorbia davidii Subils., Trigo, Cebada, Soja, Competencia de malezas, Asistencia a la toma de decisiones, Margen bruto, Valor actual, Impacto ambiental, Malezas resistentes, Dinámica poblacional de malezas. / Some species considered weeds reach population levels that impact on crops’ production. For this reason, on certain occasions, it is necessary to carry out control operations to reduce weed infestations to levels compatible with reasonable crops’ yields. Worldwide, chemical control has been the most practical and efficient method for controlling weeds, especially in extensive crops. However, the continuous use of herbicides for over 40 years generated a well-known negative impact on environment and health and the proliferation of resistant species. These environmental consequences must be taken into account to define appropriate long-term management practices. From a strategic perspective, a sustainable weed management program should be based on a combination of preventive and curative methods that apply knowledge-based principles, leading to as the so-called Integrated Weed Management (IWM). In this context, mathematical modelling arises as an appropriate tool to assist in the decision- making process associated with IWM. This thesis proposes a simulation model to support decision-making related to IWM. The model was developed in collaboration with extensionists and was conceived as a flexible and adaptable tool for various agricultural production systems, possessing a higher level of detail than similar models. This model simulates multi-year dynamics of a weed in competition with a crop. The weed's life cycle is represented through typical demographic components (e.g. seed bank, seedlings, vegetative and reproductive individuals, and seed production). The development of the crop is simulated in a simplified manner in order to quantify the daily effects of interspecific competition. The simulation of different IWM strategies allows for the quantification and comparison of economic, environmental, and agronomic indexes.

The objective of this study is to develop a model to evaluate the economic feasibility of biofuels production, and in particular to isolate the variables crucial to feasibility. The model constructed to define these variables is unique in its ability to accommodate a variety of plants and to integrate all portions of the production process; it was tested on a case study of a Euphorbia lathyris industry. The model minimizes costs of production to determine the best configuration for the industry. Total cost equals the sum of costs incurred in each segment of the process: growth, harvest, transport, and extraction. The solution is determined through a non-linear transportation- transshipment algorithm which describes production as a series of nodes and links. Specific application of the model was analysis of E. lathyris biofuel production in Arizona. Simulations were run examining the sensitivity of biocrude cost to changes in input parameters. Conclusions are summarized as follows. * No change in any single element can reduce final cost sufficiently to enable competitive production in the near future. * The major factor necessary to bring cost into range is improvement in biological yield. Two components of equal importance are tonnage produced per acre and percentage extractables recovered in processing. * Lowering cropping costs provided the most effective improvements of economic inputs. Perennial crops significantly reduced farm costs. * Transportation costs outweighed economies of scale in extraction; extractor location close to crops is more efficient than centralized. The cost minimization model was successfully used to isolate the critical factors for an E. lathyris industry in an arid region. Results determine that this industry would not be competitive in Arizona without dramatic improvements in yields and moderate changes in a combination of input costs. Viability is critically dependent on improvements in tonnage yield produced per acre and percent extractables recovered.