Indicadores para a avaliação da disponibilidade hídrica para o desenvolvimento sustentável da atividade canavieira irrigada.

Para a racionalização do uso dos recursos hídricos e promoção do desenvolvimento sustentável da atividade canavieira na região Centro-Oeste torna-se importante o desenvolvimento de procedimentos metodológicos que possam fornecer subsídios técnicos para o planejamento e gestão setorial - agricultura e recursos hídricos. O presente trabalho apresenta dois indicadores concebidos para a avaliação do potencial da disponibilidade hídrica para atender a demanda projetada de água para o desenvolvimento da atividade canavieira

How will disenfranchised Peoples adapt to Climate Change? Strengthening the Ecojustice Movement

The Fourth assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) acknowledged That millions of people are currently, and will increasingly be, affected by the impacts of climate change, in the form of floods, droughts and other extreme events, as well as related threats to food security. In response to these global environmental changes, the international community, including civil society, is acting on the need for immediate adaptation measures and is developing strategies for future adaptation. However, the impacts of climate change are unevenly distributed, with many of the poorest, most vulnerable peoples experiencing the immediate effects of climate change, in the here and now. As the IPCC noted, developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change and often, the least able to adapt due to lack of infrastructure and resources

Sistema de indicadores para a avaliação da sustentabilidade hídrica da atividade canaviera.

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um estudo de caso realizado na Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Verde (BHRV) para demonstrar a aplicabilidade do Sistema de Indicadores - SISHidro-Cana - para a avaliação da sustentabilidade hídrica da cultura canavieira, proposta por Ferraz (2012), como uma metodologia para avaliar a disponibilidade de água de bacias hidrográficas para subsidiar a proposição de políticas setoriais, ordenação territorial, planejamento agrícola e gestão dos recursos hídricos

Spectrin functions upstream of ankyrin in a spectrin cytoskeleton assembly pathway

Prevailing models place spectrin downstream of ankyrin in a pathway of assembly and function in polarized cells. We used a transgene rescue strategy in Drosophila melanogaster to test contributions of four specific functional sites in β spectrin to its assembly and function. (1) Removal of the pleckstrin homology domain blocked polarized spectrin assembly in midgut epithelial cells and was usually lethal. (2) A point mutation in the tetramer formation site, modeled after a hereditary elliptocytosis mutation in human erythrocyte spectrin, had no detectable effect on function. (3) Replacement of repetitive segments 4–11 of β spectrin with repeats 2–9 of α spectrin abolished function but did not prevent polarized assembly. (4) Removal of the putative ankyrin-binding site had an unexpectedly mild phenotype with no detectable effect on spectrin targeting to the plasma membrane. The results suggest an alternate pathway in which spectrin directs ankyrin assembly and in which some important functions of spectrin are independent of ankyrin

Optimization of Precursor Injection in an Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet System

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (AP PECVD) of thin films is a recently emerged technology, showing important advantages in comparison with the traditional and well established low pressure plasma enhanced deposition methods. The main benefit of AP-PECVD is the potential of cost efficient in-line production without expensive and bulky vacuum equipment. In this work, an innovative AP plasma jet system is investigated which serves as a pilot system for industrial scale equipment, the VITO PlasmaLine®. Applications include moisture/oxygen diffusion barriers as well as grease barriers, UV curing of coatings or chemical activation of a surface. For industrial application a high throughput (~ 100-1000 m/min) is critical in order to compete with conventional techniques, such as wet chemical coating. Barrier coating deposition by AP-PECVD on polymer substrates has been demonstrated to be superior to wet chemical coating, with less consumption of precursor material [1], though many technical challenges remain to obtain the desired (dynamic) growth rates. The pilot equipment utilizes a 0.5 mm double slit configuration with 1000-2000 W power input at a frequency of 40-50 kHz with N2 as the primary carrier gas. By utilizing the plasma afterglow remote from the source, uniform surface treatment can be achieved despite the filamentary discharge in the slits. Deposition on the electrodes is prevented by injection of precursor into the jet and because of the remote nature of the plasma source the thermal load on the substrate is minimized, making it ideally suited for treatment of polymers and paper. A key area for improvement and upscaling of the pilot system for industrial application is optimization of gaseous and liquid (aerosol) precursor injection. To this end, extensive characterization of the plasma jet is undertaken, including current-voltage, fast imaging and optical emission and absorption measurements, with focus on the dynamics of gaseous and aerosol precursor particles in the jet. For optimum control over the gas distribution and precursor injection, Computational Fluid Dynamic models are presented in conjunction with the experimental work