Artificial groundwater recharge : is it possible in Mozambique?

The amount of clean drinking water varies across different parts of the world. For example is groundwa- ter a big resource in Sweden and stands for 50% of the drinking water, both artificially and naturally recharged. The corresponding fraction is only about 6% in Mozambique and considering that 47% of the population in Mozam- bique lacks clean drinking water artificial recharge might be a good option. Different ways and reasons to artificial- ly recharge aquifers are summarized in this literature study. Seven of them where selected because they seemed relevant when investigating the potential for suitable areas in Mozambique to initiate artificial recharge. The sys- tems work in different ways; either the water infiltrates permeable soil before reaching the aquifer or the water is led down a borehole straight to the aquifer. This depends on the sediments underneath the surface, how much space that is available on the surface and the water quality that needs to be achieved. There are also different reasons for artificial groundwater like; refill an aquifer and clean the water at the same time, to stop saltwater intrusions, fill an aquifer to make sure that subsidence does not occur or to fill the aquifer during the rain season to save the water for drier seasons. Mozambique has got potential but it takes more than geological and hydrogeological maps (e.g. field- work) to locate one single place where a artificial recharge system would work, instead two different areas were chosen as possible candidates.Tillgången till rent dricksvatten varierar mellan olika delar i världen. Till exempel är grundvat- ten en stor resurs i Sverige där det står för 50 % av dricksvattnet, både artificiellt och naturligt bildat. Den siffran är endast 6 % i Moçambique och med tanke på att 47 % av populationen i landet saknar rent dricksvatten kan artifici- ell grundvattenbildning vara ett bra alternativ. Det finns olika anledningar till varför man använder sig av artificiellt infiltrerat ytvatten som med hjälp av olika processer blir till grundvatten och de summeras i denna litteraturstudie. Det finns många olika tillvägagångsätt av förstärkt grundvattenbildning, av vilka de sju som tas upp i den här rap- porten valdes ut för att de verkade relevanta i utredningen ifall det går att använda förstärkt grundvattenbildning någonstans i Moçambique. De olika sätten att infiltrera vatten beror på sedimenten under ytan, hur mycket plats som finns tillgänglig på ytan och vilken vattenkvalitet som ska uppnås. Orsakerna för användning av förstärkt grundvattenbildning är bland andra att; fylla på en akvifär och samtidigt rena vattnet, stoppa saltvattensintrusion, fylla på en akvifär för att undvika subsidens eller infiltrera vatten under en regnperiod för att sedan utnyttja vatten- källan under en torrare period. Moçambique har potential till att använda sig av förstärkt grundvattenbildning men det krävs mer än geologiska och hydrogeologiska kartor (ex. fältarbete) för att lokalisera en specifik plats grundvat- tenbildning skulle kunna tillämpas, istället valdes två områden ut som möjliga kandidater

Novel functions of acyl-CoA thioesterases and acyltransferases as auxiliary enzymes in peroxisomal lipid metabolism.

Peroxisomes are single membrane bound organelles present in almost all eukaryotic cells, and to date have been shown to contain approximately 60 identified enzymes involved in various metabolic pathways, including the oxidation of a variety of lipids. These lipids include very long-chain fatty acids, methyl branched fatty acids, prostaglandins, bile acid precursors, and xenobiotics that are either β-oxidized or α-oxidized in peroxisomes. The recent identification of several acyl-CoA thioesterases and acyltransferases in peroxisomes has revealed their various functions in acting as auxiliary enzymes in α- and β-oxidation in this organelle. To date, 9 functional acyl-CoA thioesterases and acyltransferases have been identified in mouse and 4 functional acyl-CoA thioesterases and acyltransferases in human, thus these enzymes make up a substantial portion of peroxisomal proteins. This review will therefore focus on new and emerging roles for these enzymes in assisting with the oxidation of various lipids, amidation of lipids for excretion from peroxisomes, and in controlling coenzyme A levels in peroxisomes

The Emerging Role of acyl-CoA Thioesterases and Acyltransferases in Regulating Peroxisomal Lipid Metabolism

The importance of peroxisomes in lipid metabolism is now well established and peroxisomes contain approximately 60 enzymes involved in these lipid metabolic pathways. Several acyl-CoA thioesterase enzymes (ACOTs) have been identified in peroxisomes that catalyze the hydrolysis of acyl-CoAs (short-, medium-, long- and very long-chain), bile acid-CoAs, and methyl branched-CoAs, to the free fatty acid and coenzyme A. A number of acyltransferase enzymes, which are structurally and functionally related to ACOTs, have also been identified in peroxisomes, which conjugate (or amidate) bile acid-CoAs and acyl-CoAs to amino acids, resulting in the production of amidated bile acids and fatty acids. The function of ACOTs is to act as auxiliary enzymes in the α- and β-oxidation of various lipids in peroxisomes. Human peroxisomes contain at least two ACOTs (ACOT4 and ACOT8) whereas mouse peroxisomes contain six ACOTs (ACOT3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12). Similarly, human peroxisomes contain one bile acid-CoA:amino acid N-acyltransferase (BAAT), whereas mouse peroxisomes contain three acyltransferases (BAAT and acyl-CoA:amino acid N-acyltransferases 1 and 2: ACNAT1 and ACNAT2). This review will focus on the human and mouse peroxisomal ACOT and acyltransferase enzymes identified to date and discuss their cellular localizations, emerging structural information and functions as auxiliary enzymes in peroxisomal metabolic pathways. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Metabolic Functions and Biogenesis of Peroxisomes in Health and Disease

Índice nutricional do nitrogênio : uma ferramenta para o diagnóstico do estado nutricional da cultura do milho /

Orientador: Luiz Antonio Corrêa LucchesiCo-orientadora: Tangriani Simioni AssmannDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Agrárias, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências do Solo. Defesa: Curitiba, 2006Inclui bibliografia e anexosÁrea de concentração: Fertilidade do solo e nutrição de planta

Leadership and School Success: The Behaviors and Practices of a Principal in an Effective Urban High School

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the behaviors and practices of a principal in an effective, private, faith-based urban high school. The researcher interviewed school personnel, observed school operations, and reviewed school documents. The researcher administered two surveys to 15 faculty, staff, board members and the principal. The first survey included 76 questions that addressed Powell’s five domains of Vision, Mission, and Culture; Curriculum and Classroom Instruction; Collaboration and Shared Leadership; Family and Community Relations; and Effective Management. The second survey included 30 questions that explored Kouzes and Posner’s leadership characteristics of Model the Way; Inspire a Shared Vision; Challenge the Process; Enable Others to Act; and Encourage the Heart. This study confirmed many of the findings presented in the literature review and found that the study school was effective in part because of the leadership behaviors and practices of the principal. The principal was instrumental in keeping the school moving toward the goal of providing an excellent, Christ-centered education that equips urban students for leadership, service, and peacemaking

O processo de auditoria interna: instrumental de gestão no controle interno das organizações / The internal audit process: instrumental management in internal control of organizations

Trata-se de uma pesquisa bibliográfica, cujo tema é o processo de auditoria interna: instrumental de gestão no controle interno das organizações. Com o objetivo de analisar o instrumental do processo decisório da organização. Mediante uma metodologia voltada totalmente para análise de grande teor de entendimento do assunto em lócus. Foi realizada utilizando como meio de investigação a busca por informações e conteúdos para o embasamento teórico em livros e artigos publicados e encontrados em bibliotecas reais ou virtuais. No entanto observa-se que para um melhor aproveitamento do instrumental de gestão da empresa em questão precisa ter o conhecimento que possibilitará à tomada de decisão sobre seus respectivos lucros meio a sua produtividade e organização, para que assim tenha um controle interno, e uma qualidade de gestão correta sobre os pontos colhidos nesta análise. Tal pesquisa teve embasamento teórico com autores renomados como: Chiavenato (2004); Attie (2011); Boccato (2006); e Araújo (2004). Mediante os autores buscou-se desenvolver uma pesquisa descritiva visando à qualidade das respectivas empresas, bem como, o controle interno

Den sjuknärvarande läraren: En kvantitativ studie kring sjuknärvaro i relation till hälsa och arbetsorganisatoriska faktorer

Sickness presence, also referred to sickness presenteeism, applies when the individual goes to work, despite feeling ill. This thesis serves to highlight this fairly new research area in the context of compulsory school teachers in the southern part of Sweden. The response rate of the survey was 37 % (n=71 valid cases). Earlier research states that there are many factors with a connection to sickness presence where sickness absence is one of them. Self-rated health, irreplaceability, work load and work related control are others, which are all related to teachers. The results show that sickness presence is indeed present among the respondents. The results also reveal a connection between sickness presence and sickness absence and a connection between sickness presence and self-rated health. Lastly, a difference occurred in work demands and level of control between teachers employed at municipal and at independent schools. Sickness presence seems to be widespread among the teachers and may play an important role regarding the health of the workforce. A conclusion we draw from this is that it is time to further the field to get a better understanding of what seems to be an important health and work related factor

One Network, Many Robots: Generative Graphical Inverse Kinematics

Quickly and reliably finding accurate inverse kinematics (IK) solutions remains a challenging problem for robotic manipulation. Existing numerical solvers are broadly applicable, but rely on local search techniques to manage highly nonconvex objective functions. Recently, learning-based approaches have shown promise as a means to generate fast and accurate IK results; learned solvers can easily be integrated with other learning algorithms in end-to-end systems. However, learning-based methods have an Achilles' heel: each robot of interest requires a specialized model which must be trained from scratch. To address this key shortcoming, we investigate a novel distance-geometric robot representation coupled with a graph structure that allows us to leverage the flexibility of graph neural networks (GNNs). We use this approach to train the first learned generative graphical inverse kinematics (GGIK) solver that is, crucially, "robot-agnostic"-a single model is able to provide IK solutions for a variety of different robots. Additionally, the generative nature of GGIK allows the solver to produce a large number of diverse solutions in parallel with minimal additional computation time, making it appropriate for applications such as sampling-based motion planning. Finally, GGIK can complement local IK solvers by providing reliable initializations. These advantages, as well as the ability to use task-relevant priors and to continuously improve with new data, suggest that GGIK has the potential to be a key component of flexible, learning-based robotic manipulation systems

A Peroxisomal Acyltransferase in Mouse Identifies a Novel Pathway for Taurine Conjugation of Fatty Acids.

A wide variety of endogenous carboxylic acids and xenobiotics are conjugated with amino acids, before excretion in urine or bile. The conjugation of carboxylic acids and bile acids with taurine and glycine has been widely characterized and de-novo synthesized bile acids are conjugated to either glycine or taurine in peroxisomes. Peroxisomes are also involved in the oxidation of several other lipid molecules, such as very long chain acyl-CoAs, branched chain acyl-CoAs and prostaglandins. In this study we have now identified a novel peroxisomal enzyme called acyl-CoA:amino acid N-acyltransferase (ACNAT1). Recombinantly expressed ACNAT1 acts as an acyltransferase that efficiently conjugates very long-chain and long-chain fatty acids to taurine. The enzyme shows no conjugating activity with glycine, showing that it is a specific taurine conjugator. Acnat1 is mainly expressed in liver and kidney and the gene is localized in a gene cluster, together with two further acyltransferases, one of which conjugates bile acids to glycine and taurine. In conclusion, these data describe ACNAT1 as a new acyltransferase, involved in taurine conjugation of fatty acids in peroxisomes, identifying a novel pathway for production of N-acyltaurines as signaling molecules or for excretion of fatty acids

Alternative Exon Usage Selectively Determines Both Tissue Distribution and Subcellular Localization of the acyl-CoA Thioesterase 7 Gene Products.

Acyl-CoA thioesterases (ACOTs) catalyze the hydrolysis of acyl-CoAs to free fatty acids and coenzyme A. Recent studies have demonstrated that one gene named Acot7, reported to be mainly expressed in brain and testis, is transcribed in several different isoforms by alternative usage of first exons. Strongly decreased levels of ACOT7 activity and protein in both mitochondria and cytosol was reported in patients diagnosed with fatty acid oxidation defects, linking ACOT7 function to regulation of fatty acid oxidation in other tissues. In this study, we have identified five possible first exons in mouse Acot7 (Acot7a-e) and show that all five first exons are transcribed in a tissue specific manner. Taken together, these data show that the Acot7 gene is expressed as multiple isoforms in a tissue specific manner, and that expression in tissues other than brain and testis is likely to play important roles in fatty acid metabolism