Rapid bioassay for evaluating enzyme production in fungal isolates from environmental sources

Fungal hydrolytic enzymes have a great potential due to the rapid development of enzyme technology and their industrial applications. A fluorimetric microplate assay has been developed for measuring activity of β-D-exoglucanase, β-D-glucosidase, α-D-glucosidase, β-N-acetyl-hexosaminidase, β-D-xylosidase in diluted culture broth samples. The substrates used are conjugates of the highly fluorescent compounds 4-methylumbelliferone (MUB) and thus product formation can be measured directly in the microplate without previous extraction and purification of the product. The developed system was evaluated on eight fungal strains isolated from shrub species (Tamarix) that can be used in phytoremediation. Depending upon the enzyme, each species exhibited different levels of enzymatic activities as well as different production profiles. The fluorimetric method could constitute an effective alternative to the pectrophotometric method to screen hydrolase-producing microbial strains

Densidade do solo de um Nitrossolo sob cultivo de cana-de-açúcar utilzando analises geoestatística e bayesiana.

O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a variabilidade espacial da densidade do solo sob cana-de-açúcar, através da geoestatística e da análise bayesiana. Foi determinada a densidade do solo (g cm-3) em uma área de 17,8ha em Mogi Mirim, SP, nas profundidades de 0,15m e de 0,30m, em 90 pontos de amostragem. O padrão espacial foi encontrado tanto na profundidade de 0,15m quanto 0,3m. Os valores de densidade foram considerados altos e maior na maior profundidade. Tanto pelo método de análise geoestatística, quanto bayesiano houve padrão espacial com ligeiro aumento na escala de valores dos mapas de densidade para análise bayesiana

Spatial variability of soil physical attributes in Machadinho d Oeste (Ro), Amazon Basin.

The aim of this paper was to understand the spatial variability of soil physical attributes within the superficial layer (0-10 cm) in an area of agricultural colonization in Machadinho d?Oeste (RO). The attributes analyzed were real density, clay, silt, coarse sand, and fine sand contents. In September, 2004, 76 samples were collected through an irregular sampling strategy, based on soil and topographic features. Oxisols and Ultisols are the predominant soil types in the area. The clay content ranged from 2 to 67%, silt from 2 to 63%, coarse sand from 4 to 78%, fine sand from 6 to 45%, and real density from 2.08 to 2.60 (g cm-3). Some of the high contents of silt can be due to resistant aggregates of the clay fraction, as the adopted methodology did not separate clay grains. The majority of attributes presented coefficients of variation higher than 40%, except for real density. Real density is highly correlated with the coarse sand fraction (r = 0,94) and with the sum of the clay and silt fractions (r = -0,86). Geostatistics was used to understand the spatial variability of such attributes, through the analysis of semivariograms, kriging, and isoline maps. Despite statistical distances among the samples, the spatial dependence ratio (RD) was classified as moderate and strong. The spherical model had good adjustment for the studied attributes. Similarities were found for the spatial behavior of some attributes, such as clay, coarse sand, and real density. The lowest range values were for clay, silt, and coarse sand (i.e., around 10,000 m). For fine sand and real density, the range was between 15,000 and 16,000 m. Kriging techniques were suitable to depict the space distribution of the studied attributes. Soils with clay contents higher than 30% are predominant in the area, followed by soils with loam texture

Spatial variability of some biometric attributes of sugarcane plants (variety IACSP93-3046) and its relation to physical and chemical soil attributes.

Tests to evaluate competition between plants, in general do not consider the soil spatial variability, nevertheless, the uniformity rarely is present and can not be assumed without verification. The aim of this work was to apply geostatistics to verify the spatial variability of the soil in an experimental field near Ribeirão Preto, SP, with sugarcane variety IACSP93-3046. Ninety seven geo-referenced samples, placed at distances of 10 m, were collected for soil chemical analysis, soil resistance to penetration and biometric evaluation of the sugar cane plant included number of tillers, stalk diameter, stalk height, estimated productivity (TSSe) and root density. Geostatistics has been applied by means of semivariogram, data interpolation via kriging and iso-line maps creation. The results have shown soil spatial dependence for most of the evaluated attributes. The spots, within the area, with low resistance to penetration and low soil density have shown the largest number of tillers and the largest root development of sugar cane. For soil chemical attributes, there was spatial dependence showing higher concentration of nutrients in the central area. The sampling allowed a good representativity of the spatial dependence of soil and plants, making it possible to eliminate the randomness hypothesis for the placement of the plots in this area

Aplicações de geoestatística em pesquisas com cana-de-açúcar.

1) Geoestatística; variabilidade espacial; semivariograma; mapeamento da variabilidade do solo e da produtividades de variedades de cana em campo

Role of the Genetic Study in the Management of Carotid Body Tumor in Paraganglioma Syndrome

AbstractDiagnosis of carotid body tumor (CBT) was made in a 36 years old woman. The pre-operative examination included genetic analysis of the succinate dehydrogenase that showed a mutation in his subunit D responsible of multiple paraganglioma at slow growth. Subsequently a thoraco-abdominal CT and indium111 octreotide body scan were performed and another paraganglioma was detected in the anterior mediastinum. CBT was surgically removed; differently the thoracic lesion due to his benign genetic profile was not treated. During a 3-years follow-up the thoracic paraganglioma as expected, didn't increase. Genetic analysis of succinate dehydrogenase, should be performed in the management of CBT

Variabilidade espacial da infiltração de água em solo sob pastagem em função da intensidade de pisoteio.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o efeito da intensidade de pisoteio do gado na variabilidade espacial da infiltração de água no solo. O experimento foi conduzido em um Argissolo Vermelho?Amarelo, com pastagem de Urochloa brizantha dividida em seis piquetes de 1 ha, cada um com 50 pontos de amostragem, em grade de 10x10 m. Em cada local de amostragem, foi medida a taxa de infiltração tridimensional de água em solo saturado, nas profundidades de 0,10 e 0,20 m. As medições foram realizadas na primeira, décima primeira e décima quinta passagens do gado pelos piquetes. Os dados obtidos foram submetidos à análise geoestatística, para avaliação da variabilidade espacial das propriedades do solo. As 15 passagens do gado pelos piquetes resultaram em diminuição da taxa de infiltração de água no solo de 73,3% a 0,10 m e de 64,6% a 0,20 m de profundidade. O estudo da variabilidade espacial da taxa de infiltração de água no solo, por meio da geoestatística, possibilita a construção de mapas para a avaliação dos efeitos da intensificação do pisoteio do gado sobre as propriedades físicas do solo. A taxa de infiltração de água no solo apresenta estrutura de dependência espacial que aumenta em função da intensidade do pisoteio do gado

Imaging the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

We report on results of interferometric imaging of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) with the OVRO and BIMA mm-arrays. Using low-noise cm-wave receivers on the arrays, we have obtained high quality images for 27 distant galaxy clusters. We review the use of the SZE as a cosmological tool. Gas mass fractions derived from the SZE data are given for 18 of the clusters, as well as the implied constraint on the matter density of the universe, $\Omega_M$. We find $\Omega_M h_{100} \le 0.22 ^{+0.05}_{-0.03}$. A best guess for the matter density obtained by assuming a reasonable value for the Hubble constant and also by attempting to account for the baryons contained in the galaxies as well as those lost during the cluster formation process gives $\Omega_M \sim 0.25$. We also give preliminary results for the Hubble constant. Lastly, the power for investigating the high redshift universe with a non-targeted high sensitivity SZE survey is discussed and an interferometric survey is proposed.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, latex, contribution to Nobel Symposium "Particle Physics and the Universe" to appear in Physica Scripta and World Scientific, eds L. Bergstrom, P. Carlson and C. Fransso