Determinação da composição química do molusco Anadara notabilis encontrado em Galinhos no Rio Grande do Norte

Given the large existing biodiversity in the Brazilian coast, where many species are still little known, even under the nutritional aspect, and considering that bivalve molluscs are constituted by a natural resource of well accepted by the population, chose the bivalve Anadara notabilis, it was not found in the literature any nutritional or toxicological information about it and because its size is much larger than other species of mollusks commonly found in this region. Were studied moisture, ash, protein, macro and micro minerals, and metal ions of toxicological significance. All analytical determinations followed the standards of the Institute Adolfo Lutz. The protein determination was performed by the Kjeldahl method. All metal ions were determined by optical emission spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-OES) method described by USEPA 6010C. The results showed that Anadara notabilis can be introduced into food for human beings, in view of its mineral wealth. Noteworthy among the macronutrients phosphorus and magnesium showed that their values in mg / kg 918.7 and 586.7. With regard to micronutrients stand out with this iron 586.7 mg / kg and zinc with 12.31 mg / kg. Was not found high content of metal contaminants to this mollusc, which would prevent their use, only this chromium 0.7 mg / kg above the value established by Brazilian legislation. The results will certainly be very useful in future studies of nutrition and to build a table of chemical composition of Brazilian foods

Secagem de misturas de polpa de frutas tropicais em leito de jorro

Drying of fruit pulps in spouted beds of inert particles has been indicated as a viable technique to produce fruit powders. Most of the processes employed to produce dried fruit pulps and juices, such as Foam Mat, encapsulation by co-crystallization and spray drying utilize adjuvant and additives (such as thickeners, coating materials, emulsifiers, acidulants, flavors and dyes), which is not always desirable. The fruit pulp composition exerts an important effect on the fruit powder production using a spouted bed. In the study by Medeiros (2001) it was concluded that lipids, starch and pectin contents play an important role on the process performance, enhancing the powder production; however, the drying of fruit pulps containing high content of reducing sugars (glucose and fructose) is practically unviable. This work has the objective of expanding the studies on drying of fruit pulps in spouted bed with aid of adjuvant (lipids, starch and pectin) aiming to enhance the dryer performance without jeopardizing the sensorial quality of the product. The optimum composition obtained by Medeiros (2001) was the basis for preparing the mixtures of pulps. The mixture formulations included pulps of mango (Mangifera indica), umbu (Spondias tuberosa) and red mombin (Spondia purpurea) with addition of cornstarch, pectin and lipids. Different products were used as lipids source: olive and Brazil nut oils, coconut milk, heavy milk, powder of palm fat and palm olein. First of all, experiments were conducted to define the best formulation of the fruit pulps mixture. This definition was based on the drying performance obtained for each mixture and on the sensorial characteristics of the dry powder. The mixture formulations were submitted to drying at fixed operating conditions of drying and atomizing air flow rate, load of inert particles, temperature and flow rate of the mixture. The best results were obtained with the compositions having powder of palm fat and palm olein in terms of the drying performance and sensorial analysis. Physical and physicochemical characteristics were determined for the dry powders obtained from the mixtures formulations. Solubility and reconstitution time as well as the properties of the product after reconstitution were also evaluated. According to these analyses, the powder from the mixtures formulations presented similar characteristics and compatible quality to those produced in other types of dryers. Considering that the palm olein is produced in Brazil and that it has been used in the food industry substituting the palm fat powder, further studies on drying performance were conducted with the composition that included the palm olein. A complete factorial design of experiments 23, with three repetitions at the central point was conducted to evaluate the effects of the air temperature, feeding flow rate and intermittence time on the responses related to the process performance (powder collection efficiency, material retained in the bed and angle of repose of the inert particles after the process) and to the product quality (mean moisture content, loss of vitamin C and solubility). Powder production was uniform for the majority of the experiments and the higher efficiency with lower retention in the bed (59.2% and 1.8g, respectively) were obtained for the air temperature of 80°C, mixture feed rate of 5ml/min in intervals of 10 min. The statistical analysis of the results showed that the process variables had individual or combined significant influences on the powder collection efficiency, material retention in the bed, powder moisture content and loss of vitamin C. At the experimental ranges of this work, the angle of repose and solubility were not influenced by the operating variables. From the results of the experimental design, statistical models were obtained for the powder moisture content and loss of vitamin C

Síntese de catalisadores nanoporosos na ausência total e parcial de direcionadores orgânicos para pirólise catalítica de óleos pesados e intermediários

The processing of heavy oil produced in Brazil is an emergency action and a strategic plan to obtain self-sufficiency and economic surpluses. Seen in these terms, it is indispensable to invest in research to obtain new catalysts for obtaining light fraction of hydrocarbons from heavy fractions of petroleum. This dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy reports the materials preparation that combine the high catalytic activity of zeolites with the greater accessibility of the mesoporosity, more particularly the HZSM-5/MCM-41 hybrid, done by synthesis processes with less environmental impact than conventional ones. Innovative methodologies were developed for the synthesis of micro-mesoporous hybrid material by dual templating mechanism and from crystalline zeolitic aluminosilicate in the absence of organic template. The synthesis of hybrid with pore bimodal distribution took place from one-single organic directing agent aimed to eliminate the use of organic templates, acids of any kind or organic solvents like templating agent of crystalline zeolitic aluminosilicate together with temperature-programmed microwave-assisted, making the experimental procedures of preparation most practical and easy, with good reproducibility and low cost. The study about crystalline zeolitic aluminosilicate in the absence of organic template, especially MFI type, is based on use of H2O and Na+ cation playing a structural directing role in place of an organic template. Advanced characterization techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Highresolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), Adsorption of N2 and CO2, kinetic studies by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Pyrolysis coupled to Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (Pyrolysis-GC/MS) were employed in order to evaluate the synthesized materials. Achieve the proposed objectives, has made available a set of new methodologies for the synthesis of zeolite and hybrid micro-mesoporous material, these suitable for catalytic pyrolysis of heavy oils aimed at producing light fraction

CES: Um Mecanismo Genérico de Composição de Eventos para Sistemas Sensíveis ao Contexto

Pervasive applications use context provision middleware support as infrastructures to provide context information. Typically, those applications use communication publish/subscribe to eliminate the direct coupling between components and to allow the selective information dissemination based in the interests of the communicating elements. The use of composite events mechanisms together with such middlewares to aggregate individual low level events, originating from of heterogeneous sources, in high level context information relevant for the application. CES (Composite Event System) is a composite events mechanism that works simultaneously in cooperation with several context provision middlewares. With that integration, applications use CES to subscribe to composite events and CES, in turn, subscribes to the primitive events in the appropriate underlying middlewares and notifies the applications when the composed events happen. Furthermore, CES offers a language with a group of operators for the definition of composite events that also allows context information sharing

Uma abordagem baseada em aspectos e composição dinâmica para a construção de aplicações adaptativas cientes ao contexto

Ubiquitous computing systems operate in environments where the available resources significantly change during the system operation, thus requiring adaptive and context aware mechanisms to sense changes in the environment and adapt to new execution contexts. Motivated by this requirement, a framework for developing and executing adaptive context aware applications is proposed. The PACCA framework employs aspect-oriented techniques to modularize the adaptive behavior and to keep apart the application logic from this behavior. PACCA uses abstract aspect concept to provide flexibility by addition of new adaptive concerns that extend the abstract aspect. Furthermore, PACCA has a default aspect model that considers habitual adaptive concerns in ubiquitous applications. It exploits the synergy between aspect-orientation and dynamic composition to achieve context-aware adaptation, guided by predefined policies and aim to allow software modules on demand load making possible better use of mobile devices and yours limited resources. A Development Process for the ubiquitous applications conception is also proposed and presents a set of activities that guide adaptive context-aware developer. Finally, a quantitative study evaluates the approach based on aspects and dynamic composition for the construction of ubiquitous applications based in metrics

Cloud Integrator: uma plataforma para composição de serviços em ambientes de computação em nuvem

With the advance of the Cloud Computing paradigm, a single service offered by a cloud platform may not be enough to meet all the application requirements. To fulfill such requirements, it may be necessary, instead of a single service, a composition of services that aggregates services provided by different cloud platforms. In order to generate aggregated value for the user, this composition of services provided by several Cloud Computing platforms requires a solution in terms of platforms integration, which encompasses the manipulation of a wide number of noninteroperable APIs and protocols from different platform vendors. In this scenario, this work presents Cloud Integrator, a middleware platform for composing services provided by different Cloud Computing platforms. Besides providing an environment that facilitates the development and execution of applications that use such services, Cloud Integrator works as a mediator by providing mechanisms for building applications through composition and selection of semantic Web services that take into account metadata about the services, such as QoS (Quality of Service), prices, etc. Moreover, the proposed middleware platform provides an adaptation mechanism that can be triggered in case of failure or quality degradation of one or more services used by the running application in order to ensure its quality and availability. In this work, through a case study that consists of an application that use services provided by different cloud platforms, Cloud Integrator is evaluated in terms of the efficiency of the performed service composition, selection and adaptation processes, as well as the potential of using this middleware in heterogeneous computational clouds scenarios

Um método para desenvolvimento de abordagens generativas com composição de linguagens específicas de domínio

The software systems development with domain-specific languages has become increasingly common. Domain-specific languages (DSLs) provide increased of the domain expressiveness, raising the abstraction level by facilitating the generation of models or low-level source code, thus increasing the productivity of systems development. Consequently, methods for the development of software product lines and software system families have also proposed the adoption of domain-specific languages. Recent studies have investigated the limitations of feature model expressiveness and proposing the use of DSLs as a complement or substitute for feature model. However, in complex projects, a single DSL is often insufficient to represent the different views and perspectives of development, being necessary to work with multiple DSLs. In order to address new challenges in this context, such as the management of consistency between DSLs, and the need to methods and tools that support the development with multiple DSLs, over the past years, several approaches have been proposed for the development of generative approaches. However, none of them considers matters relating to the composition of DSLs. Thus, with the aim to address this problem, the main objectives of this dissertation are: (i) to investigate the adoption of the integrated use of feature models and DSLs during the domain and application engineering of the development of generative approaches; (ii) to propose a method for the development of generative approaches with composition DSLs; and (iii) to investigate and evaluate the usage of modern technology based on models driven engineering to implement strategies of integration between feature models and composition of DSLs

Potencial de uso dos recursos vegetais em uma comunidade rural do semiárido do Rio Grande do Norte

The aim of the present study was to identify the main plant use categories of native varieties from the Caatinga biome, in the rural community of Caicó, Rio Grande do Norte state (Northeastern Brazil). Semi-structured and structured interviews were used to gather information from local specialists about the use of the plants. The uses of 69 species are described by 23 observers (woodsmen, herb doctors, healers, farmers and housewives) aged 35 years or more. These species were allocated to seven categories: medicinal, wood plants, nutritional, mystic, fuel, forage plants and domestic use. The most represented families were Fabaceae (14 spp.), Euphorbiaceae (6 spp.), Cucurbitaceae (3 spp.) and Cactaceae (3 spp.). The calculation of use- value showed that the cumaru (Amburana cearensis (Allemão) A. C. Sm) and the jurema-preta (Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poir) were the most commonly mentioned, in addition to having the largest number of uses. The data obtained confirm the potential of the plants from the Seridó region and reinforce the importance of biodiversity for rural communities, underscoring the need for local plant management

Vegetação dunar: caracterização estrutural de dunas do município de Natal-RN como subsídio para implantação de técnicas de reflorestamernto, recuperação e conservação do ecossistema

The Brazilian coast has a wide variety of complex environments and ecosystems along the coast, about 80% are represented by sandbanks and dunes. The coastal ecosystems were the first to suffer the impacts man and places, as the very fragile ecosystems, are somehow altered. Are few areas of restinga well as natural features, very few protected in conservation units. Only in the last two decades the Brazilian restinga have been studies that are showing their importance for biodiversity of the country, though its economic importance remains largely unknown. In Rio Grande do Norte in the restinga vegetation and dune environments extend for almost the entire coast. The dunes are distinguished in the coastal landscape of the state due to the exuberance of its forms, heights and coating plants. The dune system is of fundamental importance for the maintenance of coastal urban settlements, especially for the city of Natal, acting on the hydrological dynamics of water table and reducing the effect of wind and movement of grains of sand to the interior and thus avoiding the burial City. However, the ecosystem of restinga and dune environments have been weakened and destroyed according to the intense urbanization and the knowledge of the vegetation of restinga installed on the dunes are still scarce. Thus, the objective of this study was to characterize the structure and floristic composition of vegetation established on a dune in the Dunes State Park Christmas and gather information to develop a model of recovery of the dune ecosystem. This dissertation is composed of 2 chapters, the first being: Structure of the vegetation of the dunes Dunes State Park in Natal, RN with the objective of describing the structure and composition of species of tree-shrub vegetation of restinga dunes of the Parque das Dunas and second: Recovery of degraded areas in a sand dune, which aimed to review the terms and concepts used in the theme of recovery and the techniques for recovery of degraded areas with emphasis on sandy environments and poor in nutrients, reporting some experiences within and external to Brazil the country, mainly in the Northeast and dunes positive and negative aspects that should be followed in building a model to be adopted for the recovery of local dunes

Protozoários de vida livre em ambientes aquáticos do RN: ocorrência, caracterização e importância para a educação básica

Water is considered an essential right to life, besides being a determinant of economic development and social welfare, represented by both the quantity available, and the quality. In semi-arid Northeast, droughts occurring on a regular basis combined with human activities, aggravate the situation regarding the conservation of water resources in this area. To alleviate this condition is common to construction of artificial reservoirs, such as reservoirs and dams. As in natural aquatic environments, these reservoirs are potential sites for the proliferation, growth and development of diverse biological communities, whether of animals, plants and microorganisms. Research on the composition and ecology of these communities, especially microbial, are still restricted. One of the least studied groups in these environments are free-living protozoa, which over time have been neglected and after discoveries about its various functions in the aquatic ecosystem are beginning to receive more attention from scholars. They are, in quantitative terms, the most important consumers of microorganisms (mainly bacteria and algae) in aquatic environments, and therefore control the abundance of these. They may therefore influence the structure of the aquatic food chain in terms of species composition, abundance, biomass and biodiversity. Despite the recognition of the importance of protozoa in the final of the trophic transfer in aquatic environments, there are few data and, in general, are still precarious knowledge of them. Given the importance of protozoa in aquatic environments and the paucity of research on this group, especially in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, the present study aimed at identifying the genus and species of free-living protozoa that are present in the Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves Dam as well as to relate the occurrence and dynamics of the trophic conditions in the environment in which they are inserted, in order to support the hypothesis that species that are in these environments can serve to indicate the water quality. We observed the presence of 65 taxa of free-living protozoa, of which 29 were identified at the species level. There was a similarity space in taxonomic composition of protozoa, suggesting a possible regulation of this type of community for limnological variables other than those studied in this work (chlorophyll a, pH, temperature). Although it was aimed to analyze the conceptions of teachers and students from nearby towns Dam Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves, on issues relating to water quality and the role of protozoa. For this, we applied questionnaires with teachers and pupils of public schools of San Rafael and Itajá. It was concluded that teachers and students recognize the multi-dam Armando Ribeiro Gonçalves, although unaware of important aspects of the dynamics and ecology of this environment. Conceptions of teachers and students are matched at various times, especially with regard to waterborne diseases. In an attempt to identify possible misconceptions about the knowledge of the protozoa, assuming that these organisms have neglected their ecological role, and are seen as only, disease, a study was done with teachers and students, following a particular methodology that allowed look so clear and precise results. It was clear that knowledge about the free-living protozoa is still quite limited. The alternative conceptions that were found show a direct relation of protozoans and diseases. From the data obtained by these studies, we planned a series of science communication activities, environmental education and health education in schools close to study environments in order to promote a didactic transposition of accumulated knowledge about these organisms, favoring continuing education of teachers and the increase of information to the local community through the knowledge of biodiversity and ecology of these organisms. Moreover, the results found in this study and reflections on it that led to propose the elaboration of a book Readers with an emphasis on the group of freeliving protozoa in the populations for use in public schools in the region where it was developed the semiarid work

Triagem antifúngica de extratos obtidos de espécies vegetais do nordeste brasileiro

The increase in the incidence of fungal infections due to the drug-resistance or to the number of patients with immune alterations such as AIDS, chemotherapy or organ transplantation, has done the research necesseray for new antifungal drugs. The species from Northeastern Brazil may become an important source of innovative natural molecules. To evaluate the antifungal activity of 10 medicinal plants from Northeastern Brazil, traditionally used as antimicrobial agents, 30 crude extracts (CE) were tested in vitro against four standard species of Candida spp. The CE most promising of these plants were evaluated against yeasts of the oral cavity of kidney transplant patients and through a bioassay-guided fractionation. The extracts form leaves of E. uniflora, the stem bark of L. ferrea and leaves of P. guajava showed significant activity against all yeasts evaluated, with MIC values between 15.62 and 62.5 μg/mL. E. uniflora also showed fungicidal properties against all yeasts, especially against Candida dubliniensis. In patients with immune systems compromised, such as transplanted, oral candidiasis manifests mainly due to immunosuppressive therapy, and resistance to conventional antifungals. The CE of E. uniflora presented range of MIC values between 1.95 to 1000 μg/mL, and lower MIC50 and MIC90 values were observed against C. non-albicans. Due the better results, the CE of E. uniflora was elected to performe the bioassay-guided fractionation. Thus it was possible to obtain enriched fractions, which showed good inhibitory ability against ATCC strains of Candida spp. It was also possible to perform experiments to verify the production of biofilm in two strains of C. dubliniensis and action of extracts and fractions on the same. With this, we observed a behavior between the yeast ATCC and clinical isolate. In addition, CE, fractions and subfractions of E. uniflora inhibit planktonic cells to preventing the growth of biofilm. The preliminary chemical characterization of the fractions obtained revealed the presence of polyphenols (especially flavonoids and tannins). Finally, the results suggests that among the plant species studied, E. uniflora showed a pattern very promising as regards the antifungal, requiring further study of purification and structural elucidation of compounds in order to verify that the antifungal effect found can be attributed to a specific compound or some mechanism depends on synergistic the mixture of polyphenols

Sobre a composição química em estrelas evoluídas do aglomerado aberto M67

The Galaxy open clusters have a wide variety of physical properties that make them valuable laboratories for studies of stellar and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In order to better settle these properties we investigate the abundances of a large number of chemical elements in a sample of 27 evolved stars of the open cluster M67 with different evolutionary stages (turn-off, subgiant and giant stars). For such a study we used high-resolution spectra (R 47 000) and high S/N obtained with UVES+FLAMES at VLT/UT2, covering the wavelength interval 4200-10 600 Å. Our spectral analysis is based on the MARCS models of atmosphere and Turbospectrum spectroscopic tool. The oxygen abundances were determined from the [O I] line at 6300 Å. In addition, we have also computed abundances of Si I, Na I, Mg I, Al I, Ca I, Ti I, Co I, Ni I, Zr I, La II and Cr I. The abundances investigated in this work, combined with their stellar parameters, offers an opportunity to determine the level of mixing and convective dilution of evolved stars in M67. Based on the obtained parameters, the abundances of these seem to follow a similar trend to the curve of solar abundances. Additionally, following strategies of other studies have investigated the relative abundances as a function of effective temperature and metallicity, where it was possible to observe an abundance of Na, Al and Si to the stars in the field of giants. A large dispersion from star to star, is observed in the ratios [X / Fe] for the Co, Zr and La, and the absence of Zr and La, in the stars of the turn-off. Comparisons made between our results and other studies in the literature show that values of abundances are in agreement and close to the limits of the errors