Alterações nos atributos físicos do solo em decorrência da manipulação de resíduos da vegetação secundária.

O objetivo do estudo é verificar as alterações ocorridas nos atributos físicos do solo em decorrência da manipulação de resíduos de vegetação secundária em relação à queima, a fim de propor manejos alternativos e de maior sustentabilidade ao sistema vigente

Contribution for the knowledge of mechanical characteristics of contaminated dune sand with gasoline

Portugal, country of the Southwest of the Europe, has extensive areas of granular lands constituted by sands of dunes that are located next to the coast. The unsustainable development of the society has lead to the intensive occupation of these lands. As consequence sometimes arise contaminated soils where are or can be built buildings or other structures. Therefore, this work presents some results of a group of classic tests in the ambit of the Soils Mechanics (identification, compaction, direct shear and oedometer), in the sense of acquiring sensibility concerning the way as these soils behave when they are contaminated with gasoline.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - CECUBI

Meniscus dynamics in bubble formation : a parametric study

This study brings new experimental data on the bubble formation process with a particular focus on the behaviour of the gas–liquid interface (meniscus) inside a transparent orifice on a perforated plate. The meniscus plays an important role by coupling the gas and liquid sides. The goal was to find the effect of five important control parameters on the bubble production and the meniscus behaviour (orifice diameter, plate thickness, gas chamber size, liquid height, and liquid viscosity). The gas input was also varied. Three physical signals were taken in the measurements to extract the information needed (gas pressure in plenum, acoustic pressure in liquid, and video record of meniscus motion). Several relevant quantities were measured to characterize the bubbling process (bubbling period, active orifice time, and periods of meniscus oscillations). The data obtained show how these quantities depend on the control parameters. The recognition of the role of the meniscus dynamics in the gas dispersing process with perforated plates offers a deeper insight into this important and complicated problem

On the Hamiltonian structure of normal forms at elliptic equilibria of reversible vector fields in R^4

This paper addresses the question whether normal forms of smooth reversible vector fields in R4 at an elliptic equilibrium possess a formal Hamiltonian structure. In the non-resonant case we establish a formal conjugacy between re-versible and Hamiltonian normal forms. In the case of non-semi-simple 1 : 1 resonance and p:q resonance with p+q >2 we establish a weaker form of equivalence, namely that of a formal orbital equivalence to a Hamiltonian normal formthat involves an additional time-reparametrization of orbits. Moreover, in case p+q >3 we show that no formal conjugacy to a Hamiltonian normal form exists

Galactosemia: genotipo y fenotipo de siete pacientes

Rev Neurol. 2004 Jun 16-30;38(12):1132-5. [Galactosemia: the genotype and phenotype of seven patients]. [Article in Spanish] Martins E, Teixeira J, Cardoso ML, Lima MR, Briones-Godino P, Barbot C. SourceUnidad de Metabolismo, Hospital de Niños Maria Pia, Oporto, Portugal. [email protected] Abstract INTRODUCTION: Despite early dietary therapy, many patients with galactosemia show a neurodegenerative disease specially evident in speech impairment and movement disorders. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, show cerebral white matter changes with hypomielinization bilateral and symetrical periventricular hypersignal in T2. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We presented clinical and neuroradiological data of seven children (3 to 12 years of age) with classical galactosemia. All had a typical presentation in neonatal period. Two children had normal development (10 and 12 years-old), four presented developmental delay (10, 7, 4 and 3 years-old), and one showed a dystonic cerebral palsy (kernicterus). RESULTS: The brain MRI showed the typical involvement of white matter, in five children, and basal ganglia abnormalities in the kernicterus patient. Three patients are homozygous for Q188R mutation and two are compound heterozygous. CONCLUSION: We found a positive correlation among developmental delay, white matter involvement and Q188R mutation

Platinum nanoparticles as pH sensor for intelligent packaging

Pt nanoparticles were produced by reverse micelle templating using DTAB. The resulting nanoparticles showes sizes between 250nm and 500nm and formed clusters. Thioglycolic acid (TGA) was covalently attached to the nanoparticle surface as a stabilizer and as. The Pt nanoparticles were dispersed in water and the dependence of its absorvance on the pH of the solution was studied. The spectra showed surface plamon absorption band at 280nm and also red shifted bands that were attributed to clusters of nanoparticles. It was found that the fraction of cluster population depends on the pH of the aqueous solution and that the response of the Pt nanoparticles to pH variations has a memory effect (hysteresis). The possibility of using these Pt nanoparticles in smart labels for food packaging is outlined.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)FEDERCFUMProject NANO/NTec- SQA/0033/200

Structure determination of Split-soret Cytochrome from a Desulfovibrio species isolated from a human abdominal abcess

The determined structure of the split-soret cytochrome (SSC) isolated from Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 (D.d.) revealed a new Heme arrangement, which suggests that this protein constitutes a new cytochrome class.. SSC is a 52.6kDa homodimer containing four hemes at one end of the molecule. In each monomer the two hemes have their edges overlapped within van der Waals contacts. The polypeptide chain of each monomer supplies the sixth ligand to the heme-iron of the other monomer. A similar protein was recently purified from a homologous Desulfovibrio clinical strain isolated from an abdominal wall abscess in human patient2. Crystals of this SSC were grown using vapour diffusion method in the presence of agarose gel. Diffraction data were collected using X-ray synchrotron radiation at the ESRF, beamline, ID 14-1. The structure will be solved by molecular replacement using the structure of the D.d. as a starting model

Production, composition, and application of coffee and its industrial residues

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world and is the second largest traded commodity after petroleum. Due to the great demand of this product, large amounts of residues are generated in the coffee industry, which are toxic and represent serious environmental problems. Coffee silverskin and spent coffee grounds are the main coffee industry residues, obtained during the beans roasting, and the process to prepare “instant coffee”, respectively. Recently, some attempts have been made to use these residues for energy or value-added compounds production, as strategies to reduce their toxicity levels, while adding value to them. The present article provides an overview regarding coffee and its main industrial residues. In a first part, the composition of beans and their processing, as well as data about the coffee world production and exportation, are presented. In the sequence, the characteristics, chemical composition, and application of the main coffee industry residues are reviewed. Based on these data, it was concluded that coffee may be considered as one of the most valuable primary products in world trade, crucial to the economies and politics of many developing countries since its cultivation, processing, trading, transportation, and marketing provide employment for millions of people. As a consequence of this big market, the reuse of the main coffee industry residues is of large importance from environmental and economical viewpoints

Exergy efficiency optimization for gas turbine based cogeneration systems

Energy degradation can be calculated by the quantification of entropy and loss of work and is a common approach in power plant performance analysis. Information about the location, amount and sourc es of system deficiencies are determined by the exergy analysis, which quantifies the exergy destruction. Micro - gas turbines are prime movers that are ideally suited for cogeneration applications due to their flexibility in providing stable and reliable power. This paper presents an exergy analysis by means of a numerical simulation of a regenerative micro - gas turbine for cogeneration applications . The main objective is to study the best configuration of each system component , considering the minimization of the system irreversibilities . Each component of the system was evaluated considering the quantitative exergy balance . Subsequently the optimization procedure was applied to the mathematical model that describes the full system. The rate of irreversibility, efficiency and flaws are highlighted for each system component and for the whole system. The effect of turbine inlet temperature change on plant exergy destruction was also evaluated . The results disclose that considerable exergy destruction occurs in the combustion chamber. Also, it was revealed that the exergy efficiency is expressively dependent on the changes of the turbine inlet temperature and increases with the latter .The authors would like to express their acknowledgments for the support given by the Portuguese F01mdation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the PhD grant SFRH/BD/62287/2009. This work was financed by National Funds-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under Strategic Project and PEst-OE/EME/UI0252/2011 and also the PEst-C/EME/UI4077/2011