Patterns of oral contraceptives consumption and estimated concentrations of 17α-ethinylestradiol in water bodies from the municipality of Santa Maria Madalena, Southeastern Brazil

Organic contaminants with estrogenic activity have generated increasing concerns in the scientific community since they are capable of triggering adverse effects in the endocrine system of several organisms. 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), a synthetic estrogen used in oral contraceptives, has been identified as one of the main responsible for causing such changes. Thereby the objective of this study was to generate information on EE2 consumption and estimate its possible impact on the water bodies of Santa Maria Madalena. Firstly, a survey was carried out about EE2 consumption through interviews with 325 women aged 15 to 59 residing in the study area, and then estimated the EE2 release in the water bodies. About 30% of the women interviewed reported using oral contraceptives. The EE2 average daily intake for each woman was 20 μg day-1. Extrapolating this intake to 30% of the population and adopting an excretion rate of 57%, it was calculated a total discharge of 4.8 mg day-1 of this estrogen into the local water bodies. It diluted by the small flow of these streams leads to an estimated environmental concentration of 0.3 ng L-1, which according to ecotoxicological studies is already enough to trigger adverse effects to the aquatic biota

PREVALÊNCIA DO TREMOR ESSENCIAL EM POPULAÇÃO EXPOSTA OCUPACIONALMENTE A AGROTÓXICOS NO ESTADO DO RIO DE JANEIRO

O tremor essencial é um dos distúrbios de movimentomais frequentes em adultos. Objetivo: Estimar a prevalência detremor essencial em um grupo de guardas de endemia expostoscronicamente a agrotóxicos, identificar seus municípios de lotaçãoe os principais inseticidas e larvicidas aplicados. Método: Estudotransversal descritivo e inferencial com dados obtidos de prontuáriosmédicos dos guardas de endemias oriundos da Fundação Nacionalde Saúde (Funasa), que buscaram atendimento no Ambulatório deNeurotoxicologia Ocupacional e Ambiental do Cesteh/Ensp/Fiocruzno período entre agosto/2010 a setembro/2012. Resultados: Foramanalisados 383 registros. A estimativa da prevalência de tremoressencial foi de 14,4% (IC95%: 10,9 -- 17,9). Foram identificados 19municípios de lotação e 12 princípios ativos aplicados. Conclusão:Observou-se elevada prevalência de tremor essencial nesta amostra.Limitações no desenho devem ser consideradas, sendo necessárioavaliar seus resultados com cautela

Evaluation of the stability of concentrated emulsions for lemon beverages using sequential experimental designs.

The study of the stability of concentrated oil-in-water emulsions is imperative to provide a scientific approach for an important problem in the beverage industry, contributing to abolish the empiricism still present nowadays. The use of these emulsions would directly imply a reduction of transportation costs between production and the sales points, where dilution takes place. The goal of this research was to evaluate the influence of the main components of a lemon emulsion on its stability, aiming to maximize the concentration of oil in the beverage and to correlate its physicochemical characteristics to product stability, allowing an increase of shelf life of the final product. For this purpose, analyses of surface and interface tension, electrokinetic potential, particle size and rheological properties of the emulsions were conducted. A 2(4-1) fractional factorial design was performed with the following variables: lemon oil/water ratio (30% to 50%), starch and Arabic gum concentrations (0% to 30%) and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate (0 mg/L to 100 mg/L), including an evaluation of the responses at the central conditions of each variable. Sequentially, a full design was prepared to evaluate the two most influential variables obtained in the first plan, in which concentration of starch and gum ranged from 0% to 20%, while concentration of lemon oil/water ratio was fixed at 50%, without dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate. Concentrated emulsions with stability superior to 15 days were obtained with either starch or Arabic gum and 50% lemon oil. The most stable formulations presented viscosity over 100 cP and ratio between the surface tension of the emulsion and the mucilage of over 1. These two answers were selected, since they better represent the behavior of emulsions in terms of stability and could be used as tools for an initial selection of the most promising formulations

Responses obtained in the 2^4-1 fractional factorial experimental design and triplicate at the central points to calculate the average, standard deviation and relative standard deviation.

<p>Responses obtained in the 2^4-1 fractional factorial experimental design and triplicate at the central points to calculate the average, standard deviation and relative standard deviation.</p

Responses obtained in the two-level full-factorial experimental design to evaluate the effects of starch and Arabic gum concentrations.

<p>Triplicate in the central points were used to calculate the average, standard deviation and relative standard deviation.</p><p>Responses obtained in the two-level full-factorial experimental design to evaluate the effects of starch and Arabic gum concentrations.</p

Results for viscosity of the emulsions at a shear rate of 1000 1/s (cP).

<p>(a) Response surface obtained from the model for cP (= <i>173</i>.<i>6</i> + <i>124</i>.<i>0</i> x₁ + <i>126</i>.<i>5</i> x₂ + <i>69</i>.<i>5</i> x₁ x₂, where x₁ and x₂ are the normalized values of starch and Arabic gum concentrations). (b) Viscosity curve versus stability after 15 days.</p

Experimental data and predicted by the model for stability after 15 days (%), for the viscosity of the emulsions at a shear rate of 1000 1/s and for the emulsion/mucilage surface tension ratio.

<p>Relative error (%) = ((experimental data2014predicted by model) / experimental data) x 100.</p><p>Experimental data and predicted by the model for stability after 15 days (%), for the viscosity of the emulsions at a shear rate of 1000 1/s and for the emulsion/mucilage surface tension ratio.</p