Influence of sulfide on the evaluation of methane production through the degradation of sugarcane vinasse

Anaerobic digestion is a widely used effluent and organic waste treatment practice, in which it is possible to minimize and control environmental problems, associating the reduction of environmental impacts with energy recovery. Low methane production and process instability are often found in anaerobic digestion reactors, preventing this technique from being widely applied. Inhibitory substances, such as sulfides resulting from sulfate conversion by the sulfur reducing bacteria, are one of the causes of inhibition or malfunctioning of anaerobic digesters if they are present in the effluent to be treated. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effect of sulfide at two different values of pH (7.0 and 7.5) using sulfide concentrations of 0 to 1000 mg S2-L-1. All the tests were performed in batches and performed at mesophilic conditions. For the concentrations of 50 mg S2-L-1 and 1000 mg S2-L-1, the inhibitions of the methanogenic activity at pH 7.0 were in the order of 38.5% to 59.8% and at pH 7.5 in the order of 67% to 94%, respectively. Concerning the test at pH 7.0, the removal of COD in the experiment without addition of any concentration of S2- was 93.3%, and it reached a 49.14% COD removal at concentrations of 1000 mg S2-L-1. At pH 7.5 under the same conditions, the COD removals were respectively 80.7% and 9.6%. The concentrations of 50, 75 and 100 mg S2-L-1 of S2- initially tested at the two aforementioned pH values promoted the greatest increase in the reduction of SMA. When the experiments were carried out at pH 7.0 the reductions were 37.96%, 41.70%, and 46.06% respectively for the same concentrations. At pH 7.5 the reductions represented 67.01%, 82.47% and 81.81%

Multi-scale assessment of human-induced changes to Amazonian instream habitats

Context Land use change and forest degradation have myriad effects on tropical ecosystems. Yet their consequences for low-order streams remain very poorly understood, including in the world´s largest freshwater basin, the Amazon. Objectives Determine the degree to which physical and chemical characteristics of the instream habitat of low-order Amazonian streams change in response to past local- and catchment-level anthropogenic disturbances. Methods To do so, we collected field instream habitat (i.e., physical habitat and water quality) and landscape data from 99 stream sites in two eastern Brazilian Amazon regions. We used random forest regression trees to assess the relative importance of different predictor variables in determining changes in instream habitat response variables. Results Multiple drivers, operating at multiple spatial scales, were important in determining changes in the physical habitat and water quality of the sites. Although we found few similarities in modelled relationships between the two regions, we observed non-linear responses of specific instream characteristics to landscape change; for example 20 % of catchment deforestation resulted in consistently warmer streams. Conclusions Our results highlight the importance of local riparian and catchment-scale forest cover in shaping instream physical environments, but also underscore the importance of other land use changes and activities, such as road crossings and upstream agriculture intensification. In contrast to the property-scale focus of the Brazilian Forest code, which governs environmental regulations on private land, our results reinforce the importance of catchment-wide management strategies to protect stream ecosystem integrity

Environmental and sanitary conditions of guanabara bay, Rio de Janeiro

Guanabara Bay is the second largest bay in the coast of Brazil, with an area of 384 km2. In its surroundings live circa 16 million inhabitants, out of which 6 million live in Rio de Janeiro city, one of the largest cities of the country, and the host of the 2016 Olympic Games. Anthropogenic interference in Guanabara Bay area started early in the XVI century, but environmental impacts escalated from 1930, when this region underwent an industrialization process. Herein we present an overview of the current environmental and sanitary conditions of Guanabara Bay, a consequence of all these decades of impacts. We will focus on microbial communities, how they may affect higher trophic levels of the aquatic community and also human health. The anthropogenic impacts in the bay are flagged by heavy eutrophication and by the emergence of pathogenic microorganisms that are either carried by domestic and/or hospital waste (e.g., virus, KPC-producing bacteria, and fecal coliforms), or that proliferate in such conditions (e.g., vibrios). Antibiotic resistance genes are commonly found in metagenomes of Guanabara Bay planktonic microorganisms. Furthermore, eutrophication results in recurrent algal blooms, with signs of a shift toward flagellated, mixotrophic groups, including several potentially harmful species. A recent large-scale fish kill episode, and a long trend decrease in fish stocks also reflects the bay’s degraded water quality. Although pollution of Guanabara Bay is not a recent problem, the hosting of the 2016 Olympic Games propelled the government to launch a series of plans to restore the bay’s water quality. If all plans are fully implemented, the restoration of Guanabara Bay and its shores may be one of the best legacies of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

Determinação de fósforo biodisponível em rações de peixes utilizando extração assistida por ultra-som e espectrofotometria no visível

The aim of the present work was to develop and optimize a method for determination of bioavailable phosphorus in samples of feces and fish feed using ultrasound extraction and subsequent quantification by visible spectrophotometry. Using as extractor solution HNO3 0.50 mol L-1, the great conditions of extraction established were: sample mass - 100 mg, samples granulometry - < 60 µm, sonification time - five cycles of 40 s and ultrasound potency - 136 W. The proposed method was applied in studies of digestibility of this nutrient in different feeds used in diets of juvenile of Nile tilapia

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Physical Properties and Purity of a Galaxy Cluster Sample Selected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

We present optical and X-ray properties for the first confirmed galaxy cluster sample selected by the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect from 148 GHz maps over 455 square degrees of sky made with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. These maps, coupled with multi-band imaging on 4-meter-class optical telescopes, have yielded a sample of 23 galaxy clusters with redshifts between 0.118 and 1.066. Of these 23 clusters, 10 are newly discovered. The selection of this sample is approximately mass limited and essentially independent of redshift. We provide optical positions, images, redshifts and X-ray fluxes and luminosities for the full sample, and X-ray temperatures of an important subset. The mass limit of the full sample is around 8e14 Msun, with a number distribution that peaks around a redshift of 0.4. For the 10 highest significance SZE-selected cluster candidates, all of which are optically confirmed, the mass threshold is 1e15 Msun and the redshift range is 0.167 to 1.066. Archival observations from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and ROSAT provide X-ray luminosities and temperatures that are broadly consistent with this mass threshold. Our optical follow-up procedure also allowed us to assess the purity of the ACT cluster sample. Eighty (one hundred) percent of the 148 GHz candidates with signal-to-noise ratios greater than 5.1 (5.7) are confirmed as massive clusters. The reported sample represents one of the largest SZE-selected sample of massive clusters over all redshifts within a cosmologically-significant survey volume, which will enable cosmological studies as well as future studies on the evolution, morphology, and stellar populations in the most massive clusters in the Universe.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Higher resolution figures available at: http://peumo.rutgers.edu/~felipe/e-prints

Long-Term 3-Dimensional Stability of Mandibular Advancement Surgery

To evaluate the three-dimensional changes in the position of the condyles, rami, and chin from 1 to 3 years after mandibular advancement surgery

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Cosmology from Galaxy Clusters Detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

We present constraints on cosmological parameters based on a sample of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich-selected galaxy clusters detected in a millimeter-wave survey by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. The cluster sample used in this analysis consists of 9 optically-confirmed high-mass clusters comprising the high-significance end of the total cluster sample identified in 455 square degrees of sky surveyed during 2008 at 148 GHz. We focus on the most massive systems to reduce the degeneracy between unknown cluster astrophysics and cosmology derived from SZ surveys. We describe the scaling relation between cluster mass and SZ signal with a 4-parameter fit. Marginalizing over the values of the parameters in this fit with conservative priors gives sigma_8 = 0.851 +/- 0.115 and w = -1.14 +/- 0.35 for a spatially-flat wCDM cosmological model with WMAP 7-year priors on cosmological parameters. This gives a modest improvement in statistical uncertainty over WMAP 7-year constraints alone. Fixing the scaling relation between cluster mass and SZ signal to a fiducial relation obtained from numerical simulations and calibrated by X-ray observations, we find sigma_8 = 0.821 +/- 0.044 and w = -1.05 +/- 0.20. These results are consistent with constraints from WMAP 7 plus baryon acoustic oscillations plus type Ia supernoava which give sigma_8 = 0.802 +/- 0.038 and w = -0.98 +/- 0.053. A stacking analysis of the clusters in this sample compared to clusters simulated assuming the fiducial model also shows good agreement. These results suggest that, given the sample of clusters used here, both the astrophysics of massive clusters and the cosmological parameters derived from them are broadly consistent with current models.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Ap

Estudos paleoambientais interdisciplinares: dinâmica da vegetação, do ambiente marinho e inferências climáticas milenares a atuais na Costa Norte do Espírito Santo, Brasil

Estudos paleoambientais desde ~50.000 anos na costa do Brasil e, em particular, no litoral do Espírito Santo, são ainda insuficientes para servir de base a reconstituições da dinâmica da vegetação, de oscilações do nível relativo do mar e de flutuações climáticas e respectivas influências sobre a ação humana milenar. Para obter essas informações, uma equipe interdisciplinar, financiada por projetos temáticos FAPESP e CNPq, desenvolveu pesquisas correlatas na Reserva Natural Vale (RNV) e região. Para a caracterização da dinâmica da vegetação e marinha, com inferências climáticas, em locais de floresta de tabuleiros e campos naturais da RNV e região desde ~16.000 anos, utilizaram-se isótopos do C (12C, 13C e 14C) da matéria orgânica do solo e sedimentar, além de palinologia em sedimentos lacustres e terrestres. No estudo da dinâmica do ecótono floresta – campo, apresentam-se inferências preliminares sobre a evolução pedogenética dos Espodossolos associados ao campo, com ênfase às suas características físico-químicas, e também dos Argissolos, encontrados sob floresta. Finaliza-se com o estágio inicial de uma coleção de referência de fitólitos, bioindicador de vegetação utilizado em estudos paleoambientais, extraídos de plantas da floresta de tabuleiros da RNV.A equipe agradece todo o empenho dos funcionários e apoio logístico da Reserva Natural Vale, Linhares, Espírito Santo; à FAPESP através do projeto Temático 2011/00995-7 (ProjES); e ao CNPq – Universal 2012-5/470210, pelo aporte financeiro e a colaboração dos técnicos do Laboratório 14C, Liz Mary Bueno de Moraes e Thiago Casemiro Barrios de Campos, na preparação de amostras gasosas para a datação 14C.Peer Reviewe

A measurement of the millimetre emission and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect associated with low-frequency radio sources

We present a statistical analysis of the millimetre-wavelength properties of 1.4GHz-selected sources and a detection of the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) effect associated with the haloes that host them. We stack data at 148, 218 and 277GHz from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope at the positions of a large sample of radio AGN selected at 1.4GHz. The thermal SZ effect associated with the haloes that host the AGN is detected at the 5σ level through its spectral signature, representing a statistical detection of the SZ effect in some of the lowest mass haloes (average M 200 ≈ 10 13 M. h −1 70 ) studied to date. The relation between the SZ effect and mass (based on weak lensing measurements of radio galaxies) is consistent with that measured by Planck for local bright galaxies. In the context of galaxy evolution models, this study confirms that galaxies with radio AGN also typically support hot gaseous haloes. Adding Herschel observations allows us to show that the SZ signal is not significantly contaminated by dust emission. Finally, we analyse the contribution of radio sources to the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background