Study on the mineral extraction of legume and grass species from various soil types, by instrumental neutron activation analysis.

There is a continuous search for forage species more adapted to the environmental conditions, like soil, climate and vegetation. The adaption study of grasses and legumes to different cultivation regions need, therefore, to consider climatic, soil and management parameters. 1 Besides this, the vegetal species, with their preferential accumulation of certain elements could be used as mineral contamination and depository indicators of the area where they grow, considering that the mineral composition of plants can reflect the chemical composition of the soil. 2 The extension in which this relation exists, is highly variable and governed by many factors. 3 Furthermore, with the appearance of the precision agriculture and the intensification of the agricultural production systems, we need a more precise knowledge of the mineral mobilization and extraction potential of plants used as green manure for cycling minerals, or by forage plants returned as faeces, or of the mineral exportation when plant parts are taken out of the growing place. And this not only with the essential minerals for plants and animals, but also with those introduced in the production systems as impurities in limestones, fertilizers etc., and which could accumulate to toxic levels in the soil. The aim of this work was to study the influence of soil on the quali and quantitative extraction of minerals by many legume and grass species, cultivated on two types of oxisols, a red yellow Latosol, and a dark red Latosol. Each soil was treated with grinded dolomitic limestone to increase the base saturation to 50% and 75%, to verify how the pH correction of the soil affect the elemental absorption by each vegetal species, and find the adequate limestone to reach the optimal plant production on each soil, to avoid unnecessary expenditure and eventual damage on mineral absorption. The analysed plant material could be used as food for animals, as source of organic material and recicled nutrients to soil and/or energy source for microorganisms, or also, to improve the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil and be a mineral source. In view of the high sensitivity and possibility of multielemental analyses, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) followed by gamma-ray spectrometry was used as a powerful analytic option to verify the chemical composition of different sources, 4-6 and to determine the K, Ca, Mg, Na, Zn, Fe, Mn, Mo, Co, Cr, La, Eu and Th content of the whole 90-day old plants (leaf, stalk and flowers)

Sistema de controle de temperatura para câmara de armazenamento de alimentos frescos em meio líquido.

Neste trabalho é proposto um sistema de controle da temperatura para uma câmara na qual os produtos (já embalados) são armazenados imersos em meio Irquido. Esta metodologia de armazenamento permite aumentar o tempo de prateleira de produtos vegetais frescos através da redução da temperatura, sem o perigo de congelar os produtos armazenados. Foi avaliado o desempenho do sistema de controle quanto à precisão e gradientes internos em comparação com uma câmara convencional de meio aéreo. Os resultados mostraram que a nova metodologia permite armazenar produtos frescos com segurança à apenas Q,4°C acima do ponto de congelamento, enquanto que em câmaras convencionais esses devem ser armazenados à, pelo menos, 2,QoC acima do ponto de congelamento.bitstream/CNPDIA/8730/1/BPD04_2003.pd

Report on the second International Consensus on ANA Pattern (ICAP) workshop in Dresden 2015

The second meeting for the International Consensus on Antinuclear antibody (ANA) Pattern (ICAP) was held on 22 September 2015, one day prior to the opening of the 12th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies in Dresden, Germany. The ultimate goal of ICAP is to promote harmonization and understanding of autoantibody nomenclature, and thereby optimizing ANA usage in patient care. The newly developed ICAP website www.ANApatterns.org was introduced to the more than 50 participants. This was followed by several presentations and discussions focusing on key issues including the two-tier classification of ANA patterns into competent-level versus expert-level, the consideration of how to report composite versus mixed ANA patterns, and the necessity for developing a consensus on how ANA results should be reported. The need to establish on-line training modules to help users gain competency in identifying ANA patterns was discussed as a future addition to the website. To advance the ICAP goal of promoting wider international participation, it was agreed that there should be a consolidated plan to translate consensus documents into other languages by recruiting help from members of the respective communities