Estimativas de parâmetros cosmológicos para o Dark Energy Survey

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Support area as an indicator of environmental load: Comparison between Embodied Energy, Ecological Footprint, and Emergy Accounting methods

Environmental aspects have been acknowledged as an important issue in decision making at any field during the last two decades. There are several available methodologies able to assess the environmental burden, among which the Ecological Footprint has been widely used due to its easy-to-understand final indicator. However, its theoretical base has been target of some criticisms about the inadequate representation of the sustainability concept by its final indicator. In a parallel way, efforts have been made to use the theoretical strength of the Emergy Accounting to obtain an index similar to that supplied by the Ecological Footprint. Focusing on these aspects, this work assesses the support area (SA) index for Brazilian sugarcane and American corn crop through four different approaches: Embodied Energy Analysis (SA(EE)), Ecological Footprint (SA(EF)), Renewable Empower Density (SA(R)), and Emergy Net Primary Productivity (SA(NPP)). Results indicate that the load on environment varies accordingly to the methodology considered for its calculation, in which emergy approach showed the higher values. Focusing on crops comparison, the load by producing both crops are similar with an average of 0.04 ha obtained by SA(EE), 1.86 ha by SA(EF), 4.24 ha by SA(R), and 4.32 ha by SA(NPP). Discussion indicates that support area calculated using Emergy Accounting is more eligible to represent the load on the environment due to its global scale view. Nevertheless, each methodology has its contribution depending of the study objectives, but it is important to consider the real meaning and the scope of each one. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relationship between chronological and bone ages and pubertal stage of breasts with bone biomarkers and bone mineral density in adolescents

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Metabolic syndrome reduces bone mineral density in overweight adolescents

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Heating value of eucalypt wood grown on SRC for energy production

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Release of Cyanopyridine from a Ruthenium Complex Adsorbed on Gold: Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering, Electrochemistry, and Density Functional Theory Analyses

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Baryon and meson density of states

In a finite size bag like picture consisting of quarks (2 flavour) and gluons with SU(3) colour singlet restriction on the partition function and the chemical potential μ ≠ 0 with the constraint that the baryon number b = 0 and b = 1 for mesons and baryons, respectively we find a very good agreement with baryon density of states upto 2 GeV and with mesonic ones upto 1.3 GeV. Similar to a hadron-scale string theory our calculation also suggests that beyond 1.3 GeV there should exist exotic mesons.

Handgrip strength as a predictor of bone mineral density in cirrhotic outpatients

Osteoporosis is well recognized as a cirrhosis complication; however, most studies assessing this condition included only patients on liver transplantation lists with an elevated rate of bone diseases. While general population studies show that handgrip strength is clearly associated with bone mineral density, until now this tool has not been applied to cirrhotic patients in relation to their bone condition. This study aimed to evaluate whether handgrip strength, bone and liver tests may be useful as predictors of bone disease in cirrhotic outpatients. 129 subjects were included (77 men and 52 women). Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry was applied to evaluate lumbar-spine and femoral-neck T scores. Osteoporosis/osteopenia rates were 26.3%/35.6% in the lumbar spine and 6.9%/41.8% in the femoral neck, respectively. Model selections were based on backward procedures to find the best predictors of low T scores. For lumbar spine, only low handgrip strength and high parathyroid hormone levels were clearly related to low T scores. For femoral neck, only age was associated with low T scores. Handgrip strength may serve as an effective predictor of low lumbar spine T score among cirrhotic outpatients. As cirrhosis affects the lumbar spine more than the femoral neck, these results suggest that handgrip strength should be tested in all cirrhotic patients as a first indicator of bone health. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Effects of β-(1→3,1→6)-d-glucan and density of diets on the blood profiles of immunologically challenged weaned piglets

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of two levels of the β-(1→3,1→6)-d-glucan (0 and 500ppm) from yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and two levels of energy (3300 and 3450kcalMEkg(-1)) on the hematological, immunological and, biochemical profiles of thirty-six 21-days-old weaned piglets, challenged with 150μgkg(-1) of BW lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Escherichia coli serotype 055:B5. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design in a 2×2 factorial arrangement with nine replicates per treatment and, one animal per experimental unit. The data were analyzed in accordance with the multivariate analysis procedure of SAS and, the treatment means of parametric and non-parametric data were compared by Bonferroni's test (P<0.05) and, by Dunn's test (P<0.05), respectively. The data of the blood profiles of alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and, creatinine showed that LPS did not cause kidney or liver damage in the animals. The addition of beta-glucan in the diets did not prove the robustness of its effect and biological relevance when provided with low nutrient-density. However, its addition combined with the high-nutrient-density diets showed less marked hypoglobulinemia in piglets, which may have contributed to the decreasing of the synthesis of inflammatory mediators.

Evaluation of femur of orchiectomized guinea pigs by bone densitometry using dual-energy x-ray absortiometry (DXA) and mechanical testing

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Effect of low-dose combined oral contraceptives on bone mineral density in adolescents: a 1-year follow-up

Purpose: To assess the bone mineral density (BMD) and bone mineral content (BMC) of female adolescents in use of standard low-dose combined oral contraceptives (COC) (EE 20 mcg/ Desogestrel 150 mcg) for a one-year period and to compare results against healthy controls matched for age and gender not in use of COC. Methods: A prospective, longitudinal study was conducted.Fifty adolescents, 12 to 20 years of age, were divided into a COC user group (n 35) and a control group (n 15) and submitted to a Bone Densitometry scan using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at study inclusion and again at 12-month follow-up. Results: Results showed no statistically significant differences between the COC user and control groups at the initial moment. However, at 12-month follow-up, COC users showed negative mean percentage variation between initial and follow-up values for lumbar spine BMD and BMC of -1.09% and -1.58%, respectively, whereas controls had positive variations of +12.44% and +15.87%, respectively. Thus, the adolescents in use of COC showed a loss, albeit slight, in bone mass whereas the control group showed an increase. Conclusions: The low dose COC assessed (EE 20 mcg/Desogestrel 150 mcg) appeared to negatively affect the process of bone mass acquisition which occurs during adolescence.