ABSTRACT:With the purpose to evaluate the effect of short (12 hours) and long (13 and 14 hours) photoperiods and air temperature regimes (winter and summer growing seasons) on soybean behaviour, greenhouse experiments were installed at the Federal University of Viçosa, Brasil, from June 1984 to December 1985. In each experiment, under a completely randomized design with 12 treatments (soybean cultivars) and eight replicates: duration of vegetative period from emergency to stage Rl or flowering (DVP, in days); plant height (PH, m); number of nodes per plant at stage Rl (NNP); and duration of soybean cycle from emergency to stage R7 or physiological maturity point (DC, days), were evaluated. The results permit to conclude that: the vegetative period from emergency to flowering and the juvenile period are significantly affected by the photoperiod and temperature differences; shorter photoperiods or higher temperatures anticipate flowering; longer photoperiods under the same temperature regime or higher temperature under the same photoperiod regime result in higher plants. Keywords: phenology, plant height, photoperiodism INFLUÊNCIA DO FOTOPERÍODO E DA TEMPERATURA DO AR NO CRESCIMENTO, FLORAÇÃO E MATURAÇÃO DA SOJA (Glycine max (L.) Merrill)RESUMO: Experimentos em casa-de-vegetacão visando estudar o comportamento de cultivares de soja perante fotoperíodo curto (12 horas) e longo (13 e 14 horas) e na presença de temperaturas variáveis em função de diferentes épocas de semeadura, foram instalados na Universidade Federal de Viçosa, MG, Brasil, durante o período de junho de 1984 a dezembro de 1985. Delineado inteiramente ao acaso, cada experimento contou com doze cultivares de soja repetidos oito vezes por época. Avaliaram-se as seguintes características: duração do subperíodo emergência -inicio do florescimento, altura de planta e número de nós vegetativos formados por planta e duração do subperíodo emergencia -maturidade fisiológica. Concluiu-se que a fase fenológica da soja compreendida entre a emergência e o inicio do florescimento é significativamente influenciada pelas variações do fotoperíodo e da temperatura do ar; fotoperíodo e temperatura interferem com a duração fenológica do período juvenil da soja e acréscimos de fotoperíodo e de temperatura antecipam o florescimento da soja e aumentam a altura de suas plantas. Descritores: fenología, altura de planta, fotoperiodismo

We report a process of fabrication of latex tubes using the dip-coating technique. We investigated centrifuged latex, with different original viscosities, extracted from the Hevea brasiliensis. The influence of the main deposition parameters (dip-coating velocity, mold material, mold diameter and number of coatings) and post-deposition drying process parameters (temperature and time) on the properties of the final samples are investigated and discussed. Additional investigation about the elastic behavior of the tubes is presented for strain values up to rupture. The rupture occurred at 120 mm for tubes 15 mm-long, which represents an elongation of 800%. The tubes presented two distinct elastic mechanisms, with the most elastic one being observed below an elongation of about 500%. During a cycled strain experiment with strain values below the rupture point, a hysteretic-like curve was observed, which was related to the uncurling and recurling of the polymeric chains.

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The coffee leaf-miner (CLM) (Leucoptera coffeella Guérin-Mèneville; Lepidoptera: Lyonetiidae), the main pest of coffee plants, occurs widely throughout the Neotropics where it has a significant, negative economic and quantitative impact on coffee production. This study was conducted in a rubber tree/ coffee plant interface that was influenced by the trees to a varying degrees depending on the location of the coffee plants, i.e. from beneath the rubber trees, extending through a range of distances from the edge of the tree plantation to end in a coffee monocrop field. The most severe damage inflicted on coffee plants by the CLM (number of mined leaves) from April, which marks the start of the water deficit period, until September 2003 was in the zone close to the rubber trees, whereas the damage inflicted on plants in the monocropped field was comparable to that on coffee plants grown directly beneath the rubber trees, which received about 25-40 % of the available irradiance (I r-available irradiation at a certain position divided by the irradiation received in full sunlight, i.e. in the monocrop). From May until July damage caused by the CLM nearly doubled in each month. In midwinter (July), the damage decreased perceptibly from the tree edge toward the open field. From September onward, with the rising air temperatures CLM damage in the coffee monocrop started to increase. Based on these results, we conclude that coffee plants grown in the full sun incurred the most damage only at the end of winter, with warming air