Growth of world population and consequent growth of food demand drives expansion and intensification of agriculture. High-yield agriculture relies on fertilizers that, therefore, become a key focus to address concerns on global food security. Currently, potassium fertilizers are produced in the northern hemisphere. These fertilizers do not suit the deep leached soils of tropical countries, partly due to their high solubility. The use of geological materials (agrominerals) such as K-bearing silicates could be an option to develop slow-release potassium fertilizers from abundant and readily available geologic sources. Thus far, both laboratory and agronomic field tests on such materials have been inconclusive, meaning that a clear relationship between the application of agrominerals to soil and the fertilizing effect could not be established. Novel interdisciplinary approaches are needed to predict the release of nutrients from agrominerals. This study presents one such approach, proposing a detailed analysis of the relationship between petrographic characteristics of twelve samples of ultrapotassic syenite (K-feldspar ore), and the leaching of potassium from their powders. The correlation between petrographic features, comminution and leaching proposed here, is expected to play a major role in the assessment of the fertilizing properties of agrominerals in the field.

is acknowledged for carrying out the hydrothermal processing batches. Ms. Kaitlyn Hennacy is acknowledged for collecting SEM images of Figure 2. Dr. Steve Miller (H&M Analytics) is acknowledged for collection of X-ray powder diffraction data and Rietveld refinements.

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Video quality evaluation is an important subject in video broadcasting. No-Reference (NR) metrics are especially interesting, given that it does not demand the original video for the quality assessment, thus it is adequate for industrial applications. This work describes the implementation of a NR technique in an FPGA platform that can be potentially employed in real time video quality assessment in broadcast systems.

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O ceticismo acadêmico se encontra utilizado na formulação dos preceitos epistêmicos para a reformulação da ciência, nas Règles Pour La Direction De L’Esprit (1701, Amsterdam, texto póstumo e inacabado). O probabilismo de Carnéades, compreendido como o principal vetor do ceticismo acadêmico na modernidade, fundamenta a certeza. Outras teses para a correção epistêmica do espírito parecem advir da tradição acadêmica, como a definição de science como sagesse, por exemplo (Règle I). Desse modo, a busca da verdade (coordenada principal das Règles, como nos evidencia a Règle IV) não abdica do ceticismo. Tratar-se-á, neste artigo, de compreender que o probabilismo acadêmico aparece no projeto de busca da verdade das Règles de modo negativo, pois Descartes ataca a modalidade do provável. Outros tópicos acadêmicos aparecem em questão, como a busca de sabedoria, a mitigação da dúvida, a disciplina do assentimento pela recusa do provável e a verdade do fideísmo. Estes tópicos se resumem ao método acadêmico, definido pela recursividade epistêmica.