Diagnóstico ambiental do segmento urbano do Rio Palmeirinha no município de Cruz Machado, PR

Orientador : Alessandro C. AngeloMonografia (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Agrárias, Curso de Especialização em MBA em Gestão AmbientalInclui referênciasResumo : A supressão da mata ciliar ocasionada pelo crescimento urbano desordenado e pelo interesse de uso da terra para agricultura e criação de animais ao longo do rio Palmeirinha no município de Cruz Machado, no Paraná, vem gerando vários impactos importantes. Por meio de diagnóstico ambiental foi possível observar a qualidade fitossanitária dos fragmentos de mata ciliar existentes ao longo do curso d’ água no seu perímetro urbano. O presente trabalho identificou também vários impactos gerados diretamente ao corpo hídrico causando a degradação da qualidade da água e o assoreamento de sua calha. O inventário florístico nos demostrou com seus resultados que os fragmentos florestais ainda possuem em sua maioria árvores nativas, por esta razão propôs-se que seja feita um controle das espécies exóticas nestes fragmentos assim como uma fiscalização mais efetiva dos órgãos competentes as ligações de esgoto e cumprimentos da preservação das áreas de APP. Palavras-chave: Mata ciliar, diagnóstico ambiental, inventário florístico, impactos

Modelling growth of juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish on the northern Great Barrier Reef

The corallivorous crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster spp.) is a major cause of coral mortality on Indo-Pacific reefs. Despite considerable research into the biology of crown-of-thorns starfish, our understanding of the early post-settlement life stage has been hindered by the small size and cryptic nature of recently settled individuals. Most growth rates are derived from either laboratory studies or field studies conducted in Fiji and Japan. The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is currently experiencing its fourth recorded outbreak and population models to inform the progression of outbreaks lack critical growth rates of early life history stages. High numbers of 0+ year juveniles (n = 3532) were measured during extensive surveys of 64 reefs on the northern GBR between May and December 2015. An exponential growth model was fitted to the size measurement data to estimate monthly ranges of growth rates for 0+ year juveniles. Estimated growth rates varied considerably and increased with age (e.g., 0.028–0.041 mm.day-1 for one-month-old juveniles versus 0.108–0.216 mm.day-1 for twelve-month-old juveniles). This pioneering study of 0+ year juveniles on the GBR will inform population models and form the basis for more rigorous ongoing research to understand the fate of newly settled Acanthaster spp

Machine Learning Prediction of Critical Cooling Rate for Metallic Glasses From Expanded Datasets and Elemental Features

We use a random forest model to predict the critical cooling rate (RC) for glass formation of various alloys from features of their constituent elements. The random forest model was trained on a database that integrates multiple sources of direct and indirect RC data for metallic glasses to expand the directly measured RC database of less than 100 values to a training set of over 2,000 values. The model error on 5-fold cross validation is 0.66 orders of magnitude in K/s. The error on leave out one group cross validation on alloy system groups is 0.59 log units in K/s when the target alloy constituents appear more than 500 times in training data. Using this model, we make predictions for the set of compositions with melt-spun glasses in the database, and for the full set of quaternary alloys that have constituents which appear more than 500 times in training data. These predictions identify a number of potential new bulk metallic glass (BMG) systems for future study, but the model is most useful for identification of alloy systems likely to contain good glass formers, rather than detailed discovery of bulk glass composition regions within known glassy systems

Qualitative Evaluation of a Complex Intervention to Improve Rheumatic Heart Disease Secondary Prophylaxis

BACKGROUND Rheumatic heart disease is a high-burden condition in Australian Aboriginal communities. We evaluated a stepped-wedge, community, randomized trial at 10 Aboriginal communities from 2013 to 2015. A multifaceted intervention was implemented using quality improvement and chronic care model approaches to improve delivery of penicillin prophylaxis for rheumatic heart disease. The trial did not improve penicillin adherence. This mixed-methods evaluation, designed a priori, aimed to determine the association between methodological approaches and outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS An evaluation framework was developed to measure the success of project implementation and of the underlying program theory. The program theory posited that penicillin delivery would be improved through activities implemented at clinics that addressed elements of the chronic care model. Qualitative data were derived from interviews with health-center staff, informants, and clients; participant observation; and project officer reports. Quantitative data comprised numbers and types of "action items," which were developed by participating clinic staff with project officers to improve delivery of penicillin injections. Interview data from 121 health-center staff, 22 informants, and 72 clients revealed barriers to achieving the trial's aims, including project-level factors (short trial duration), implementation factors (types of activities implemented), and contextual factors (high staff turnover and the complex sociocultural environment). Insufficient actions were implemented addressing "self-management support" and "community linkage" streams of the chronic care model. Increased momentum was evident in later stages of the study. CONCLUSIONS The program theory underpinning the study was sound. The limited impact made by the study on adherence was attributable to complex implementation challenges.This study was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant 1027040 and Center of Research Excellence 1080401 and by the Wesfarmers Center for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at Telethon Kids Institute. Ralph and Maguire are supported by NHMRC fellowships (1142011 and 1046563, respectively)

New insights into the intracellular distribution pattern of cationic amphiphilic drugs

Cationic amphiphilic drugs (CADs) comprise a wide variety of different substance classes such as antidepressants, antipsychotics, and antiarrhythmics. It is well recognized that CADs accumulate in certain intracellular compartments leading to specific morphological changes of cells. So far, no adequate technique exists allowing for ultrastructural analysis of CAD in intact cells. Azidobupramine, a recently described multifunctional antidepressant analogue, allows for the first time to perform high-resolution studies of CADs on distribution pattern and morphological changes in intact cells. We showed here that the intracellular distribution pattern of azidobupramine strongly depends on drug concentration and exposure time. The mitochondrial compartment (mDsRed) and the late endolysosomal compartment (CD63-GFP) were the preferred localization sites at low to intermediate concentrations (i.e. 1 mu M, 5 mu M). In contrast, the autophagosomal compartment (LC3-GFP) can only be reached at high concentrations (10 mu M) and long exposure times (72 hrs). At the morphological level, LC3-clustering became only prominent at high concentrations (10 mu M), while changes in CD63 pattern already occurred at intermediate concentrations (5 mu M). To our knowledge, this is the first study that establishes a link between intracellular CAD distribution pattern and morphological changes. Therewith, our results allow for gaining deeper understanding of intracellular effects of CADs

Infrared Assisted Production of 3,4-Dihydro-2(1H)-pyridones in Solvent-Free Conditions

A green approach for the synthesis of a set of ten 4-aryl substituted-5-alcoxy carbonyl-6-methyl-3,4-dihydro-2(1H)-pyridones using Meldrum’s acid has been devised, the absence of solvent and the activation with infrared irradiation in addition to a multicomponent protocol are the main reaction conditions. The transformations proceeded with moderated yields (50–75%) with a reasonable reaction rate (3 h). It is worth noting that two novel molecules of the new class of the bis-3,4-dihydropyridones were also obtained. In addition, a comparison without the use of infrared irradiation was performed