Treatment of Industrial Effluents by the Microalgae Selenastrum Sp.

High consumption of clean water results in the generation of effluents that need to be treated and then safely discarded. Conventional methods for such treatment often do not offer an economical and sustainable result; therefore, new methods are needed, such as microalgae usage. Microalgae are unicellular beings capable of rapid adaptation, growth, and production of compounds of interest (pharmaceuticals, biofuels and others). This work aimed to study the effectiveness of the microalgae Selenastrum sp. in the treatment of effluents from the textile and pulp & paper industries, as well as the respective effects on its biomass development and accumulation of compounds. Four types of culture were carried out (for each type of effluent, a control, and a control with addition of glucose) lasting eight days, in duplicate, all with the addition of a standard culture medium and controlled abiotic factors. Analyses for compound removal (chemical oxygen demand and colour readings on the 200–800nm range) and biomass development (cell number, its dimensions, and weight) were performed four times during the process. At the end of the experiments, the average removal in effluents for COD and colour were 56.6% and 32.7% respectively, in addition to a biomass accumulation of 0.45 g/L. These results were comparable to those obtained for the control cultivation using glucose as a carbon source (70.0% COD removal and 0.51 g/L biomass accumulation). These results demonstrate the effectiveness of Selenastrum sp. in the treatment of industrial effluents, its resilience in stressful environments and the potential use of its accumulated compounds for biotechnological purposes. Keywords: microalgae, Selenastrum sp., industrial effluent, textile effluent, pulp effluent, effluent treatmen

Eficiência Energética em Edifícios Históricos – Caso de Estudo da Câmara Municipal de Angra do Heroísmo

Desde a crise energética mundial dos anos 70 que a questão da eficiência energética tem vindo a ganhar cada vez mais relevo. Com o aumento do consumo de energia, especialmente nos países mais desenvolvidos, a eficiência energética é vista pela União Europeia como uma das principais ferramentas no combate ao desperdício de energia. Trata-se da arte de usar a menor quantidade de energia (electricidade , gás, óleo , etc.) para alcançar a satisfação das nossas necessidades luz, calor, frio e conforto em geral. Nos países europeus, o consumo de energia nos edifícios representa uma importante fatia dos consumos. O setor dos edifícios tem uma expressão de cerca de 40% dos consumos finais de energia na Europa e de cerca de 30% em Portugal. A eficiencia energética está, na maioria das vezes, relacionada com edificios novos ou edificios recentes, raramente está associada a edificios antigos, históricos e no caso do edificio dos Paços do Concelho de Angra do Heroísmo, edifício da administração publica em estudo classificado como património mundial pela UNESCO. Este tipo de edificios tem sobre eles uma série implicações e restrições legisladas a qualquer alteração, remodelação e instalação que seja implementada. Este trabalho pretende dar a conhecer que tipo de restrições estão associadas ao caso de estudo e depois de uma pequena auditoria energética ao edificio, propor medidas de eficiencia energética que não estejam em colisão com a legislação

Food quality, standardization and farmers markets in Costa Rica

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar la perspectiva de la calidad de los alimentos, considerando los procesos de estandarización en el contexto de las ferias del agricultor, siendo éstas un mercado local que contribuye con la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional de la población costarricense. El texto se divide en tres secciones, en la primera se caracteriza el sistema alimentario dominante y el tipo de riesgos alimentarios que presentan los mercados que se encuentran inmersos en éste. En la segunda sección se incluyen argumentos sobre dichos riesgos alimentarios y se discute sobre los estándares de calidad del producto. Éstos, en algunos casos, pueden ser excluyentes porque se realizan bajo condiciones de poca representatividad que responden principalmente al mundo comercial. En la tercera sección se presenta el caso de las ferias del agricultor de Costa Rica, mostrando diversas perspectivas de la calidad que pueden ser valoradas en los mercados locales, tomando en cuenta la importancia de las relaciones sociales y la compra directa que se establece entre sector productor y consumidor.The aim of this paper is to analyze the perspective of food quality, considering the standardization processes in the context of farmer markets, that contributes with food and nutrition security of the Costa Rican population. The text is divided into three sections, the first one is characterized by the dominant food system and the type of food risks of those markets involved. The second section includes information about these food risks and discussion about the quality of the product standards, which in some cases may be exclusive because they are carried out under conditions of poor representation in terms of quality prospects as they belong to the commercial world. The third section presents the farmer markets in Costa Rica showing different quality perspectives that can be valued in local markets, taking into account the importance of social relations and the direct purchase established between the producer-consumer sector

Identidade e qualidade culinária de marcas comerciais de arroz parboilizado polido / Identity and culinary quality of polished parboiled rice trademarks

O trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a identidade, através do padrão oficial de classificação, e a qualidade culinária, através do teste de cocção, de marcas comerciais de arroz parboilizado polido. Foram avaliadas cinco marcas de arroz do grupo beneficiado, subgrupo parboilizado polido, classe longo fino e tipo 1 comercializadas em mercados da cidade de Itaqui/RS. As marcas avaliadas diferiram quanto aos teores de umidade, grãos quebrados, danificados, picados e manchados; enquanto que os limites descritos na legislação brasileira para o arroz parboilizado polido tipo 1 foram superados apenas por uma das amostras, que excedeu nos valores referentes à incidência de grãos danificados. No teste de cocção, as amostras diferiram no rendimento em volume, tempo de cocção e soltabilidade.  Alto rendimento, gravimétrico e volumétrico, aliado às altas notas de soltabilidade obtidas no teste de cocção, evidencia que as marcas comerciais avaliadas oferecem produtos adequados às preferências do consumidor de arroz parboilizado. Conclui-se que os lotes das amostras avaliadas apresentam baixa incidência de defeitos e bom desempenho culinário. 

Rammed earth: feasibility of a global concept applied locally

Rammed earth is an ancient building technique that has been continuously reinvented in the dynamic movement of people all over the world, where it has been used to build from dwellings to enormous fortresses and city walls. In the particular case of Portugal, the inhabitants have been closely related to earth construction. From one region to another, rammed earth, adobe and wattle-and-daub buildings are frequently found. The rammed earth construction is mainly found in the southern part of Portugal and is almost absent from the north. However, the relatively low seismic hazard of the north of Portugal plus the sustainability of earth as a building material encourages the development of this technique in the region. The suitability of the typical granite residual soils from the Minho region for rammed earth construction was assessed by means of an experimental program, in which three representative soils were subjected to expeditious and laboratory tests that evaluated the characteristics of the soils and the performance of rammed earth built with them. The results showed that the granite residual soils tested fulfil most of the requirements needed for rammed earth construction, being the low compressive strength its main limitation. In this way, an innovative and sustainable stabilization technique based on alkaline activation of fly ash is proposed

Rammed earth construction with granitic residual soils: the case study of northern Portugal

Building in unstabilised rammed earth results in low environmental impact. However, northern Portugal has not historical tradition with this technique, and thus the suitability of the local granitic residual soils is unknown. This paper presents an experimental investigation, where this possibility is assessed. The results showed that these soils are unsuitable, and that rammed earth construction is only feasible if these soils go through a stabilising process. The alkaline activation of fly ash was investigated as an environmentally friendly stabilisation technique, and it proved to be capable of improving the performance of rammed earth

Clinical Indicators of Child Development in the Capitals of Nine Brazilian States: The Influence of Regional Cultural Factors

OBJECTIVE: Evaluating the interaction between mother or caregiver and infant through the Clinical Indicators of Risks in Infant Development and investigating whether local and cultural influences during infant development affect these clinical indicators. INTRODUCTION: The Clinical Indicators of Risks in Infant Development was created in order to fully assess infants' development and the subjective relationship between the babies and their caregivers. The absence of two or more Clinical Indicators of Risks in Infant Developments suggests a possibly inadequate mental development. Given the continental size of Brazil and its accentuated cultural differences, one might question how trustworthy these indicators can be when applied to each of the geographical regions of the country. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study with 737 infants from the capitals of 9 Brazilian states. The size of the initial sample population was based on a pilot study carried out in the cities of São Paulo and Brasília. The ages of children were grouped: 0-3 months, 4-7 months, 8-11 months and 12-18 months. The chi-square test was used together with analyses by the statistical software SPSS 13.0. RESULTS: Statistical analysis of results from the different municipalities against the total sample did not reveal any statistically significant differences. Municipalities represented were Belém (p=0.486), Brasília (p=0.371), Porto Alegre (p=0.987), Fortaleza (p=0.259), Recife (p=0.630), Salvador (0.370), São Paulo (p=0.238), Curitiba (p=0.870), and Rio de Janeiro (p= 0.06). DISCUSSION: Care for mental development should be considered a public health issue. Its evaluation and follow-up should be part of the already available mother-child assistance programs, which would then be considered to provide "full" care to children. CONCLUSIONS: Local habits and culture did not affect the results of the Clinical Indicators of Risks in Infant Development indicators. Clinical Indicators of Risks in Infant Development proved to be robust despite the specificities of each region

Trombocitopenia versus SOFA para predecir mortalidad en pacientes con sepsis en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos de un hospital de tercer nivel de Guatemala

El trastorno de la coagulación más frecuente en la unidad de cuidadosintensivos es la trombocitopenia. Teniendo en cuenta el papel fundamental delas plaquetas en la hemostasia y como marcadores de la coagulación intravasculardiseminada, una disminución significativa en el recuento de plaquetas es alarmante enel contexto de pacientes sépticos, y se sabe que es un predictor de muerte. El objetivofue comparar la capacidad del recuento de plaquetas con la puntuación SequentialOrgan Failure Assessment (SOFA) para predecir la muerte en pacientes con sepsis graveo choque séptico. Se realizó un estudio longitudinal con una muestra de 29 casosconsecutivos evaluados durante enero a diciembre de 2015 en la Unidad de CuidadoIntensivo del Hospital General de Enfermedades (HGE) del Instituto Guatemaltecode Seguridad Social. Se realizó recuento de plaquetas y SOFA al primero y al quintodía de hospitalización, documentando el desenlace de los pacientes. El 51.7 % de lospacientes eran hombres y 48.3 % mujeres, con edad promedio (desviación estándar)de 62.0 (16.9) años, mediana de SOFA al ingreso de 10 unidades (Q1=4, Q3=14) ymediana de plaquetas al ingreso de 196,000 (Q1=100,000, Q3=250,000). La asociaciónunivariante entre trombocitopenia y muerte fue significativa (p = .021; RR = 2.45,IC95% [1.21, 4.99]). Según una prueba Bootstrap, no existe diferencia significativa entrela capacidad predictiva de SOFA y recuento plaquetario (p = .965). Se concluyó que lapresencia de trombocitopenia es un predictor sencillo de muerte en pacientes con sepsisgrave o choque séptico, con capacidad similar a SOFA