Precisão posicional dos pontos de queimadas na região Centro-Oeste do Brasil.

Dada a importância estratégica dos dados de queimadas para definição das políticas de gestão ambiental nacional, este trabalho teve o objetivo de medir a precisão posicional dos dados de queimadas, produzidos pelo satélite NOAA/AVHRR e publicados pelo INPE, para avaliar a compatibilidade do uso dessa base de dados nas ações de combate e de comando e controle das queimadas na região Centro-Oeste brasileira

Current practices in managing acutely disturbed patients at three hospitals in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil: a prevalence study

The medical management of aggressive and violent behaviour is a critical situation for which there is little evidence. In order to prepare for a randomised trial, due to start in the psychiatric emergency rooms of Rio de Janeiro in 2001, a survey of current practice was necessary. A seven day survey of pharmacological management of aggressive people with psychosis in the emergency rooms of all four public psychiatric hospitals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In one hospital data were not available. Of the 764 people with psychosis attending these ERs, 74 were given IM medication for rapid tranquillisation (9.7%, 2.1/week/100,000). A haloperidol-promethazine mix (with or without other drugs) was used for the majority of patients (83%). The haloperidol-promethazine mix, given intramuscularly for rapid tranquilization, is prevalent in Rio, where it is considered both safe and efficient. However, scientific evaluation of all pharmacological approaches to rapid tranquilization of psychotic people is inadequate or incomplete and a randomized trial of IM haloperidol-promethazine is overdue

On the characterization of bias errors in defocusing-based 3D particle tracking velocimetry for microfluidics

In this work, we provide a systematic theoretical and experimental characterization of bias errors in defocusing particle tracking (DPT) methods based on a single calibration function, with respect to microfluidic applications, in which it is not possible to use calibration targets inside the measurement volume. This approach is widely used in microfluidic experiments, but bias errors are often neglected and to date only few works reported empirical procedures to compensate for that. A systematic characterization of the impact of such error in DPT measurements is still lacking. We show that the field curvature aberration and the refractive index mismatch are the main sources of bias error in these applications. We present a correction methodology for the bias error based on the determination of a reference surface, and in addition we propose a procedure based on a reference measurement of a Poiseuille flow to determine the reference surface on microfluidic channels with constant cross section. We discuss the impact of the refractive index mismatch and how to correctly compensate for it. We validated our methodology and quantified the bias errors on 10 different experimental setups, using different working fluids, materials, geometries, and microscope objective lenses ranging from 5 x to 40x magnification. Our results indicate that the impact of this type of bias errors is in general not predictable and must be evaluated case by case. The proposed methodology allows to estimate and minimize the bias error in most microfluidic setups and is suitable for any single-camera DPT approach

Integraçao reduzida para problemas advectivos-difusivos escalares discretizados pela formulaçao Supg com operador de captura de descontinuidade

Este trabalho apresenta una técnica de controle das oscilaçoes esgúrias que podein surgir quando as integrais provenientes da discretizaçao de problemas escalares advectivos-difusivos em regime permanente pela formulaçao SUPG com operador de captura de descontinuidades, sao avaliadas utilizamdo-se um ponto de quadratura de Gauss. Os termos de correçao saoo obtidos a partir do princípio variacional de Hu-Washizu. Diversos exeinplos numéricos sao apresentados de forma a validar a técnica proposta. REDUCED INTEGRATION FOR STEADY ADVECTIVE-DIFFUSIVE PROBLEMS DISCRETIZED BY THE SUPG FORMULATION WITH DISCONTINUITY-CAPTURING SUMMARY This worlk presents a technique to control thee spurious oscillations that may appear when the integrals arising from the discretization of scalar steady-state advective-diffusive problems by the SUPG formulation with discontinuity-capturing are evaluated usiilg one-point Gaussian quadrature. Tlie correction terms are clerived froin a Hu-Wasl-iizu variational formulation. Severa1 numerical esamples a.re slzown, validating the proposed technique.Peer Reviewe

Bioindicators as a tool for monitoring and control biofilm reactors : a simplified approach

The control of wastewater treatment plants requires an extensive monitoring programme based on physicochemical costly routine analysis. Microbial populations are well known indicators of operational conditions in biological reactors. This research was carried out by the CENTA and the University of Minho in the scope of the Erasmus programme. The aim of the work was the development of a simplified approach, based on biological indicators, for monitoring small biofilm wastewater treatment processes. In that regard, protozoa and metazoan were monitored at CENTA experimental plants - namely a trickling filter and a rotating biological contactor -, and correlated with influent wastewater and effluent composition. The relationship between wastewater performance and the microbiological composition of the biofilm was identified and assessed. Results indicate that a methodology based on the bioindicators provides useful data for process monitoring and control of small wastewater treatment plants, thus diminishing the associated costs of routine analysis and providing information when such analysis aren’t easily available

Distinct roles of salt cations and anions upon the salting-out of electro-positive albumin

Precipitation experiments of electro-positive albumin by the action of a wide number of salts, and at differentconcentrations, were performed at a constant temperature (25 °C). The pH range studied covered extreme acidicconditions up to hydronium concentrations where the dissociation of the protein carboxyl groups becomes no-ticeable. The time required for the clouding phenomenon to occur and the quantity of salted-out protein werealso ascertained. The results here reported show that the salt anion is the main salting-out species for the posi-tively charged protein, where their efficacy in salting-out albumin from aqueous solution increases in theorder: F−bCl−bBr−bNO3−bI−bSCN−~ ClO4−bSO42−. Although at extreme pH conditions the salt cationhas no significant influence on the protein salting-out, experiments performed at higher pH values, where thecarboxyl groups starts to dissociate, revealed a non-monotonic effect of the salt upon protein precipitation. Weinterpret this observation as a result of the presence of different protein forms, with which the salt cation partic-ipates in chemical equilibrium. Overall, the proteins salting-out phenomenon induced by salt can be rationalizedby a general mechanism driven by electrostatic interactions and chemical equilibrium concepts.publishe

Monoolein-based lipoplexes (DODAB/MO/DNA) as non-viral vector for transfection- from physicochemical characterization to biological application

Cationic liposomes/DNA (lipoplexes) have been widely used as non-viral vectors for transfection, the role of the neutral lipid in liposome formulation being determinant for the efficiency of this process [1,2]. In this work, we studied the potential of monoolein (MO) as helper lipid for cellular transfection. Lipoplexes composed of pDNA and dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide (DODAB)/1-monooleoyl-rac-glycerol (MO) at different molar ratios (4:1, 2:1 and 1:1) were investigated, as well as different cationic lipid/DNA ratios. The physicochemical properties of the lipoplexes (size and charge), the formation of the lipoplexes, the effect of MO on pDNA condensation and the effect of heparin on percentage of pDNA release from the lipoplexes were also studied by Ethidium Bromide (EtBr) exclusion assays, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Zeta Potential (æ) and electrophoresis. The cytotoxicity, transfection efficiency, as well as the intracellular localization of labeled DNA were evaluated on 293T cells. It was found that the presence of MO not only increases the efficiency of pDNA compactation, but also affects the physicochemical properties of lipoplexes, which could possibly interfere with lipoplex-cell interactions. The DODAB:MO (2:1) and (4:1) formulations were capable of efficiently mediate in vitro cell transfection. These results were consistent with fluorescence microscopy studies, which illustrated that lipoplexes were able to gain entry into the cytosol and deliver pDNA to the nucleus. Understanding the structure–activity relationship of MO based lipoplexes will give direction toward the development of safe and efficient gene delivery systems.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for financial support to Center of Physics and Center of Molecular & Environmental Biology and funding through projects PTDC/QUI/69795/2006 and SFRH/BD/46968/2009