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

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

Beef cattle stocking rate, a key to the conservation of the pastoral system in Brazilian biomes.

Abstract: In Brazil, beef cattle are raised in predominantly extensive systems. The feeding base is represented by native and/or cultivated pastures. The latter may be in a well conserved state or may present some degree of degradation. The amount of animals per hectare, supported by the pasture by each time unit, is basically related to the pasture production. There is interaction between quality and production, and changes in these parameters are strongly affected by the stocking rate. Therefore, the adjustment in the stocking rate is the most important management factor and the main determinant of animal production and pasture composition. Municipal data from the 2006 agriculture and cattle raising business census were considered with the objective to analyze, by means of typologies, the use of pastoral areas in Brazil. In the census, the producers declared their pastoral areas according to the following classification: native pasture areas (PN), cultivated pasture areas in good conservation status (PC) and cultivated pasture areas with some degree of degradation (PCD). They also indicated the number of bovine in each type of pasture. The data were submitted to exploratory factorial analysis, with varimax rotation. The first two factors (extracted by main components) explained 0.83 of the (co)variance, and the estimate of the Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO) adequacy test was 0.76, which meant good adjustment of the variables selected. The commonalities of the variables selected, PN area; total pasture area (TP), bovines in PN (Bov_PN); bovines in PCD area (Bov_PCD); bovines in PC area (Bov_PC); bovines in total pasture area (Bov_APT); and the stocking rate (TxLota) were 0.65; 0.97; 0.77; 0.74; 0.79; 0.87; and 0.99, respectively. The first factor was associated with the variables PN, TP, Bov_PN, Bov_PCD, Bov_PC, and Bov_APT, which directs to the latent variable correlated to those municipalities with large pasture areas, in general, and also with the largest cattle population. The variable TxLota presented the most significant factorial load in the second factor, that is, all those municipalities with the greatest concentration of cattle per unit area are represented in the second factor. The municipalities that were best represented in factor_1 are different from the ones represented in factor_2. The non-parametric correlation between the classifications of the two groups of municipalities formed by the factorial scores in the first and the second factors is small (0,24). This indicates that the context of those municipalities with the highest stocking rate is a lot different from the ones with the largest areas and cattle herds. The application of livestock development policies in the different Brazilian biomes should take into account all the distinguishing features of the municipalities, regarding their context, especially the pasture areas and their vocation for primary livestock production.ICAS VI