77 resultados para Natural Systems
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Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE
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In an attempt to optimize a high yield, high efficiency artificial photosynthetic protein we have discovered unique energy and spatial architecture limits which apply to all light-activated photosynthetic systems. We have generated an analytical solution for the time behavior of the core three cofactor charge separation element in photosynthesis, the photosynthetic cofactor triad, and explored the functional consequences of its makeup including its architecture, the reduction potentials of its components, and the absorption energy of the light absorbing primary-donor cofactor. Our primary findings are two: First, that a high efficiency, high yield triad will have an absorption frequency more than twice the reorganization energy of the first electron transfer, and second, that the relative distance of the acceptor and the donor from the primary-donor plays an important role in determining the yields, with the highest efficiency, highest yield architecture having the light absorbing cofactor closest to the acceptor. Surprisingly, despite the increased complexity found in natural solar energy conversion proteins, we find that the construction of this central triad in natural systems matches these predictions. Our analysis thus not only suggests explanations for some aspects of the makeup of natural photosynthetic systems, it also provides specific design criteria necessary to create high efficiency, high yield artificial protein-based triads.
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Laboratory time scale experiments were conducted on soils from the Mendip Hills area, England, with the purpose of evaluating the release of Rn-222 and their parent nuclides U-238 and U-234 to the water phase and to determine the influence of parameters that can affect the geochemical behaviour of these nuclides in natural systems. The specific surface area of the samples ranged from 43.8 to 52.5 cm(2) g(-1), where the particle size for all soil horizons is lognormally distributed, with modal values of the particle radius undersize ranging from 107 up to 203 mu m. The values for the released radon were between 26 and 194 pCi, which allowed to estimate emanation coefficients for these materials between 0.1 and 0.2, within the context of other values reported elsewhere. Soils derived from Carboniferous limestone and characterized by higher pH, exchangeable calcium, and the presence of U, but with a lower U-231/U-238 activity ratio, yielded the highest values for released Rn; however, this trend was not observed for dissolved U and its respective U-234/U-238 activity ratio, when considering the less aggressive etchant. Uranium is mobilized from rock matrix to A and B horizons in the analysed soil profiles, where its enrichment is about 10 times higher in soils derived from Carboniferous limestone. These data also permitted an evaluation of a theoretical model for the generation of Rn in soils and its transfer to water, in order to interpret the radioactivity due to this gas in groundwaters from the Mendip Hills district, England. (C) 1999 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All lights reserved.
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Ecologists usually estimate means, but devote much less attention to variation. The study of variation is a key aspect to understand natural systems and to make predictions regarding them. In community ecology, most studies focus on local species diversity (alpha diversity), but only in recent decades have ecologists devoted proper attention to variation in community composition among sites (beta diversity). This is in spite of the fact that the first attempts to estimate beta diversity date back to the pioneering work by Koch and Whittaker in the 1950s. Progress in the last decade has been made in the development both of methods and of hypotheses about the origin and maintenance of variation in community composition. For instance, methods are available to partition total diversity in a region (gamma diversity), in a local component (alpha), and several beta diversities, each corresponding to one scale in a hierarchy. The popularization of the so-called raw-data approach (based on partial constrained ordination techniques) and the distance-based approach (based on correlation of dissimilarity/distance matrices) have allowed many ecologists to address current hypotheses about beta diversity patterns. Overall, these hypotheses are based on niche and neutral theory, accounting for the relative roles of environmental and spatial processes (or a combination of them) in shaping metacommunities. Recent studies have addressed these issues on a variety of spatial and temporal scales, habitats and taxonomic groups. Moreover, life history and functional traits of species such as dispersal abilities and rarity have begun to be considered in studies of beta diversity. In this article we briefly review some of these new tools and approaches developed in recent years, and illustrate them by using case studies in aquatic ecosystems.
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The wastewater discharge produces impacts on receiving water bodies. Nutrients as P produce implications on lentic systems because they accelerate the eutrophication processes. Several technologies for P removal from the wastewater have been used: physic chemical treatment systems with important effects by coagulant products addition; biological processes based on anaerobic and aerobic conditions with great implications on the required volume; natural systems as stabilization ponds and irrigation require bigger areas and post-treatment processes. The aerobic fluidized bed reactors with internal circulation (AFBRIC) are compact options with high concentrations of active biomass that have demonstrated their capacity for organic matter and N removal. For sewage from the wastewater pumping station of Ilha Solteira city and effluents of a recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) for semi-intensive tilapia farming, the reactive P and total P removal efficiency in three AFBRIC with 250 mm external tube diameter and different internal tube diameter (ITD), for two different support media at different concentrations was evaluated. The average reactive P removal efficiency for domestic wastewater to hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3 hours and 125 mm ITD reactor varied from 25,6 to 38,4% and with 150 mm ITD reactor varied from 27,5 to 32,5%; the average total P removal for the RAS wastewater at a HRT of 0,19 hours and 100 mm ITD was of 32,7%.
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Pós-graduação em Biologia Animal - IBILCE
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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
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Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)
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Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE
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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
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This study is based on the mapping of occurrences associated with social vulnerability and natural risks, which refer to the resilience of populations and territories, regarding natural hazards associated with the functioning of natural systems (eg, earthquakes, flood, mass movements). According to UNISDR (2014), the state of São Paulo is a reference in working with Urban Resilience and Disaster in the Resilient Cities Campaign (2014), considering the high investment in Risk Areas Mapping and Public Education Campaigns implemented by the Civil Defense. Thus, this study aims to mapping the occurrence of events related to Tree Falls, Erosion, Landslides, Irregular Housing, Rocky Blocks Falls, Wall Falls, Unroofing and Irregular Construction, attended by the Civil Defense in the city of Santos, São Paulo State, from 2011 to 2014. Thereafter, correlated analyzes to the Environmental Vulnerabilities were generated. The Environmental Vulnerability databases used in this dissertation compose the results of the CNPQ Project - Environmental Vulnerability Mapping of the State of Sao Paulo - Brazil: a methodological contribution of Freitas (2013) and Bortolettoet al (2014), with information collected from the 2010 Census (IBGE, 2010), on a census sectors scale. The adopted methodological procedure involves document analysis followed by data integration in Geographic Information System, through algorithms analysis and mapscrossing.The results obtained in Maps of Social and Environmental Vulnerability Occurrences presented areas of High or Very High Vulnerability. The main variables obtained with such characteristics are Irregular Housing, Landslides and Rocky Blocks Falls, which was associated with hilly terrain formations, with slopes above 30%. To the areas of Medium, Low and Very Low Vulnerability were associated the variables Tree Falls, Wall Falls, Erosion, Unroofing and Irregular Construction, which are spatially distributed without an...
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Pós-graduação em Ciência e Tecnologia Animal - FEIS
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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
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Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)
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Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)