Biomass-based residues valorization for the removal of sertraline from waters by adsorption

Pharmaceutical drugs reach the environment through several anthropogenic sources being scattered and accumulated across flora, fauna and all types of aquifers. Many of these compounds are intensively worldwide medical prescribed for the relief of most common diseases related with modern society, such as hormones, antidepressants, analgesics, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, among others. Sertraline is a pharmaceutical drug used for the relief of depressive severe situations. Recent studies refer that some compounds belonging to this pharmaceutical class of drugs, despite of its very low level of concentration in water can be responsible for several and severe side-effects in the environmental fauna and flora based on toxicity and risk predictions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An event in the iberoamerican cooperation for the conservation and utilization of the zoogenetic resources

Between 1st and 4th of December, 2003; an event was celebrated in the city of Recife (Pernambuco, Brazil) congregating more than 200 researchers of 16 countries, to present results and discuss the last advances in the Iberoamerican Zoogenetics Resources Conservation and Utilization Area, taking into account contents over Genetics, Assisted reproduction, Rural development and Ethnology. In the present editorial a slight introduction is developed to locate the reader in the objectives, the contents and the development of the event, standing out the rule developed by the organizers, the supporters and the contributors.Del uno al cuatro de diciembre de 2003 se celebró en la ciudad de Recife (Pernambuco, Brasil) un evento que congregó a más de 200 investigadores de 16 países, para presentar resultados y discutir los últimos avances en el área de la conservación y utilización de los Recursos Zoogenéticos de Iberoamérica, tratándose contenidos sobre Genética, Reproducción asistida, Desarrollo rural, y Etnología principalmente. En la presente editorial se realiza una somera introducción para ubicar al lector en los objetivos, los contenidos y el desarrollo del evento, resaltando el papel desarrollado por los organizadores, patrocinadores y participantes

Estimation of morphoestructural traits in moxoto breed goats

The raising goat systems in Brazil are characterized as extensive or semi-extensive in the majority of them. In native breeds dominate the extensive system, being common introduction of exotic breed as Anglo Nubian and Boer. In addition, the geographic isolation difficulty change of sires, promote genetic isolation and changes in breed pattern, consequently. The objective of the present work were to evaluate eleven quantitative morphoestructural traits: raised to the withers (RW), raised to the entrance of croup (RC), thoracic perimeter (PT), width of croup (WC), length of croup (LC), width of head (WH), face length (FL), width of face (WF), ear size (ES), shin circumference of the cinnamon (CCi) of 313 Moxoto animal breed of several municipality of Pernambuco and Paraíba States, northeastern, semi arid region of Brazil. According to canonical analyses it is possible to verify diferentiation and sub populations formation.Os sistemas de produção de caprinos no Brasil caracterizam-se na sua maioria como extensivo ou semi-extensivo. Porém, na criação de caprinos nativos predomina o sistema ultra-extensivo, sendo comum a introdução de animais exóticos, principalmente das raças Anglo Nubiana e Boer para cruzamento com o rebanho local, fato que tem contribuído para diluição genética e perda das características raciais.. Além disso, o isolamento geográfico a que estão submetidos, dificulta a troca de reprodutores entre rebanhos, promove isolamento genético e como conseqüência final, mudanças no padrão racial. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo utilizar onze variáveis morfo-estruturais de natureza quantitativas, tais como: longitude da cabeça (LC); longitude do rosto (LR); largura da cabeça (LCa); comprimento do corpo (CC); perímetro torácico (PT); altura da cernelha (AC); altura da região sacral (ARS); largura da garupa (LG); longitude da garupa (LGa); perímetro da canela (PCa) e; tamanho da orelha (TO) de 313 animais da raça caprina Moxotó, de diferentes municípios dos Estados de Pernambuco e Paraíba, região semi-árida do Nordeste brasileiro. Pela análise canônica foi possível verificar diferenciação e formação de sub-populações dentro da raça

FLUVIAL LIMESTONE TUFFS FROM THE S. PORTUGAL (LOULE-TAVIRA) AND N. MOROCCO (TETUAN): COMPARISON AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

Limestone tuff deposits precipitated in fluvial environments are widespread in the northern Morocco and the S Portugal. These deposits represent environmental conditions prone for the carbonate precipitation mainly in areas of Mesozoic limestone substratum with active water seepage from the aquifers. The mesoscopic and microscopic characteristics of tuff deposits from Tetouan (Morocco) and Loule and Tavira (Portugal) are very alike; namely on deposit types (e.g. phytoherm barriers; banded limestones with abundant vegetation macro-remains; carbonates precipitation as cement of some early alluvial conglomerates or interbedded alluvial deposits). The common textural features and macro-facies (e.g. banded calcite in regular layers ; moldic porosity; textures resulting from carbonate precipitation mediated by bacteriological activity) point to a similar origin of these limestone tuffs on both sides of Gibraltar Strait despite their slightly different climatic conditions that are influenced by the active inflow of surface Atlantic water towards the Mediterranean (for the Tetouan region) and by the Azores anticyclone (for the Loulé-Tavira region). The field observations show that the limestone tuffs precipitation is nowadays residual and radiocarbon dating of Portuguese deposits points to a chronological framework for their formation starting in the beginning of the post-Younger Dryas climatic recovery and ending around 2.5 ky BP. The oxygen stable isotopes data show a gradual change in the tuffs isotopic signature through the time interval during which the system remained active, without any particular record of climate events such as the 8.2 ka. The available data and those from monitored modern pluvial characteristics allow the speculation on the parameters controlling the limestone tuffs deposition on both northern and southern sides of the Gibraltar Strait during the Holocene. The carbonate deposition on fluvial systems, such as the studied ones, probably depends on the precipitation / evaporation balance leading to the availability and turbulence of the flowing water along the streams. Acknowledgments: This works was done with the financial support of the FCT Proc. 441.00 CNRST- MARROCOS and PTDC/CTE-GIX/117608/2010 projects and the SFRH/BD/62323/2009 grant

Análises morfométricas entre apis mellifera da mesorregiao do sertao paraibano

Objetivou-se, com esse trabalho, caracterizar as populações de Apis mellifera da mesorregião do Sertão paraibano, comparando os indivíduos morfometricamente. As medidas tomadas foram: comprimento da asa anterior (CAA) e largura da asa anterior (LAA), ângulos B4, E9, G18, J16, K19, N23, O26 e distância b (Db); comprimento da asa posterior (CAP) e largura da asa posterior (LAP), distância L2 (DL2), L5 (DL5) e ângulo W3, comprimento do fêmur (CF), comprimento da tíbia (CT), comprimento do tarso (CTS) e largura do tarso (LTS) e comprimento da probóscide (CP). Para a comparação das diferentes variáveis estudadas utilizou-se a análise de variância, o teste de Tukey, análise canônica e o teste de Tocher a 5% de significância. Para as medidas realizadas em cada amostra utilizou-se um equipamento de análise de imagens, Programa Image Pro Plus 4.0. As variáveis CTS e LTS, ângulos G18 e K19 e DL2 diferiram significativamente (p<0,05) entre as localidades estudadas de acordo com o teste de Tukey. A análise canônica mostrou a existência de um agrupamento com base nas características morfológicas entre duas das localidades estudadas apesar da distância geográfica. Concluiu-se que existem dois grupos distintos morfometricamente para a microrregião estudada e que há um processo adaptativo das abelhas, quanto às medidas morfométricas, para as diferentes regiões geomorfológicas

Service-oriented agents for collaborative industrial automation and production systems

Service-oriented Multi-Agent Systems (SoMAS) is an approach to combine the fundamental characteristics of service-oriented and multi-agent methods into a new platform for industrial automation. Several research works already targeted the connection of these technologies, presenting different perspectives in how and why to join them. This research focuses on available efforts and solutions in the area of SoMAS and explains the idea behind the service-oriented agents in industrial automation. A SoMAS system is mainly composed by shared resources in form of services and their providing/requesting agents. The paper also discusses the required engineering aspects of these systems, from the internal anatomy to the interaction patterns. Parameters of flexibility, reconfiguration, autonomy and reduced development efforts were considered and they should be the trademark of SoMAS. Aiming to illustrate the proposed approach, an example of service-oriented automation agents is given.The authors would like to thank the European Commission and the partners of the EU IST FP6 project “Service-Oriented Cross-layer infrastructure for Distributed smart Embedded devices” (SOCRADES), the EU FP6 "Network of Excellence for Innovative Production Machines and Systems” (I*PROMS), and the EC ICT FP7 project “Cooperating Objects Network of Excellence” (CONET) for their support

É a Murciano-Granadina raça única? Um enfoque genético-molecular

The population structure of the Murciano-Granadina breed was determined using 25 microsatellites from 266 goats of seven populations. The results of the genetic differentiation analysis showed that it is possible to differentiate the Murciana and Granadina populations even though a low FST value (0.0432) had been obtained. Individuals could be assigned to their populations with a success rate of more than 80%. Bayesian-based clustering analysis of allele frequencies and multivariate analysis revealed that Murciana and Granadina populations were grouped in different clusters since K=3. The results demonstrate that Murciana and Granadina are still two different genetic groups included into Murciano-Granadina denomination. There is the opportunity to the genetically manage these populations, under a single herd-book but adding the necessary modifications to respect the conservation of the genetic diversity based on the use of multibreed models of genetic evaluationDeterminou-se a estrutura da raça Murciano-Granadina, usando-se 25 microssatélites e 266 animais de sete populações. Os resultados da diferenciação genética mostram que é possível diferenciar populações de Murciana e Granadina, apesar dos baixos valores de FST obtidos – 0.0432. Os indivíduos foram designados às suas populações com taxa de sucesso superior a 80%. A análise bayesiana de agrupamento das frequências alélicas e a análise multivariada revelaram que as populações Murciana e Granadina foram agrupadas em diferentes clusters, uma vez que o melhor K obtido foi três. Os resultados demonstraram que Murciana e Granadina ainda são dois grupos genéticos distintos incluídos na denominação Murciano-Granadina. É possível manejar geneticamente essas populações dentro de um único livro de registro, porém adotando-se as modificações necessárias em relação à conservação e à diversidade genética, com base no uso de modelos de avaliação multirracia

Orange Pectin Mediated Growth and Stability of Aqueous Gold and Silver Nanocolloids

International audienceThe role of orange based pectin in the nucleation and growth of silver and gold nanoparticles is addressed. Pectin is a complex polysaccharide found in fruits such as oranges, lemons, passion fruits or apples. It displays smooth and hairy chain regions contg. hydroxyl-​, ester-​, carboxylate- and eventually amine groups that can act as surface ligands interacting under various pH conditions more or less efficiently with growing nanometals. Here, a high methoxy pectin (>50​% esterified) was used as a stabilizer​/reducing agent in the prepn. of gold, silver and silver-​gold nanoparticles. Com. pectin (CP) and pectin extd. from orange bagasse (OP) were used. Optionally, trisodium citrate or oxalic acid we used to reduce AgNO3 and HAuCl4 in aq. environment. Characterization methods included UV-​vis absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction and energy-​dispersive X-​ray spectroscopy. The results show that under different pH conditions, pectin and reducing agents allow producing various nanostructures shapes (triangles, spheres, rods, octahedrons and decahedrons) often with high polydispersity and sizes ranging between 5 nm and 30 nm. In addn., depending on Ag​/Au-​ratio and pH, the surface plasmon bands can be continuously shifted between 410 nm and 600 nm. Finally, pectin seems to be a highly efficient stabilizer of the colloidal systems that show a remarkable stability and unchanged optical spectral response even after five years