Chemical properties and enzyme activity in a sewage sludge-treated soil

A soil sample was taken from the top 0-20cm at Jaboticabal county, São Paulo State, Brazil, air dried, sieved to 5mm, and placed into pots (2700g per pot). Sewage sludge was air-dried, ground to 2mm, and thoroughly mixed to the top 0-10cm soil of each pot, which were irrigated with distilled water in a total volume equivalent to the last 30years average rainfall in the region. Sorghum was sowed 120days after sewage sludge incorporation and then the irrigation was made according to the plants' requirement. When the plants were about 10 cm high, they were thinned to two per pot. Soil samples (0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm depth) were obtained immediately after the incorporation of sewage sludge and at 30, 60, 120, and 170 days after, air dried, sieved to 2 mm and analyzed for organic matter (OM), pH (0,01 mol L-1 CaCl2), extractable P (resin), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg), amylase and cellulase activity. Sewage sludge increased soil OM, pH, extractable phosphorus (P), K. Ca. amylase and cellulase activity, especially at the rate 16 t ha(-1). Organic matter, extractable P, K, Ca, Mg. and amylase activity were higher in the top 0-10cm, while pH was higher in the 20-30cm layer. Amylase activity was not affected by sampling depth. Organic matter, pH, extractable P. K, Ca, and Mg decreased during the experimental period. Amylase activity decreased until sorghum was sowed and increased afterwards. Cellulase activity increased until 90 days after sewage sludge application and then decreased. Sewage sludge used in the experiment should already contain some amylase activity or a substance that was a soil enzyme activator and also a substance that was an inhibitor of soil cellulase inhibitor. Sonic of the plant nutrients contained in sewage sludge, mainly P, did not migrate down the soil column. an indication that sewage sludge should be incorporated into the soil to improve nutrient bioavailability. Sorghum roots increased amylase activity but did not affect cellulase activity.

Information Visualization to Enhance Sensitivity and Selectivity in Biosensing

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

A Prodrug Approach to Improve the Physico-Chemical Properties and Decrease the Genotoxicity of Nitro Compounds

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

Cassava wastewater as a substrate for the simultaneous production of rhamnolipids and polyhydroxyalkanoates by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

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

Electroluminescence and electric current response spectroscopy applied to the characterization of polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells

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

Combined experimental and theoretical investigations of the photoluminescent behavior of Ba(Ti,Zr)O-3 thin films

The correlation between experimental data and theoretical calculations have been investigated to explain the photoluminescence at room temperature of Ba(Ti0.75Zr0.25)O-3 (BTZ) thin films prepared by the polymeric precursor method. The degree of structural order-disorder was investigated by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. First-principles quantum mechanical calculations based on density functional theory (B3LYP level) were employed to study the electronic structure of ordered and deformed asymmetric models. The electronic properties are analyzed and the relevance of the present theoretical and experimental results on the PL behavior is discussed. The presence of localized electronic levels and a charge gradient in the band gap due to a break in symmetry, are responsible for the PL in disordered BTZ lattice. (c) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Very Intense Distinct Blue and Red Photoluminescence Emission in MgTiO3 Thin Films Prepared by the Polymeric Precursor Method: An Experimental and Theoretical Approach

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Production and partial characterization of serine and metallo peptidases secreted by Aspergillus fumigatus Fresenius in submerged and solid state fermentation

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

SUBSTITUTIONAL DONOR RELATED STATES AND AU/GE/NI CONTACTS TO ALXGA1-XAS

Current-voltage measurements performed on bulk AlxGa1-xAs equipped with Au/Ge/Ni contacts reveal surprising deviations from ohmic behaviour when the temperature is lowered to that of liquid nitrogen. Significant differences are observed between samples with x = 0.3 (direct band-gap material) and x = 0.5 (indirect band-gap material). The dominant states of the donor atoms Si (doping) or Ge are found to be responsible for such behaviour. Evidence for the existence of an effective-mass X-valley metastable state is also presented.

Vibrational spectra and surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering of palladium phthalocyanine evaporated films

The vibrational spectra of palladium phthalocyanine (PdPc) evaporated thin solid films are reported, including the resonance Raman scattering, surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) and SERRS mapping of the film surface using micro-Raman spectroscopy with 633 nm laser radiation. SERRS of PdPc was obtained by evaporating an overlayer of Ag nanoparticles on to the PdPc film on glass. The SERRS enhancement factor is estimated as similar to10(4) with reference to PdPc evaporated films on glass. The molecular organization of the PdPc evaporated films was probed using transmission and reflection-absorption infrared spectra. It was established that a random molecular distribution found in PdPc evaporated films is independent of temperature. No evidence of thermal degradation due to thermal annealing was found in the films. Electronic absorption and emission spectra are also discussed. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Laboratory essays on solid residues from an area of sand mining activities at Analandia, São Paulo, Brazil, and implications to the water resources quality

This investigation reports the results of tests performed in a laboratory with solid waste samples from an area belonging to Sibelco Mineracao Ltd., which is located around Analandia municipality, nearly in the center of São Paulo State, Brazil. Dissolution and leaching essays were realized under different experimental conditions in four samples collected from the mining front and decantation pool, with the aim of evaluating the possibility of release of several constituents to the liquid phase.

Speciation analysis of Sn(II) and Sn(IV) using baker's yeast and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

The use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a substrate to selectively retain Sn(II) and Sn(IV) has been investigated. Several factors affecting the retention of the analytes by yeast, such as pH, amount of biomass, temperature and time of contact were evaluated. Based on this study, a method for determination of Sn(II) and Sn(IV) combining inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) and solid phase extraction using Saccharomyces cerevisiae is proposed. The procedure consists of the selective retention of Sn(IV) by yeast at pH = 2.0 while Sn(II) remains in solution. Determination of tin in the solid phase was easily carried out by submitting a slurry of the yeast (0.5 g/40 mL) directly to ICP OES. The precision of the extraction procedure was characterized by an RSD lower than 4%. The detection limits of tin (3 sigma) in the solid phase and the liquid phase were 1.1 and 0.7 mu g L-1, respectively. The proposed approach was evaluated for determination of Sn(II) and Sn(IV) in spiked river water and real samples of industrial waste water (untreated and treated). For all samples, recoveries of spiked Sn(II) and Sn(IV) were between 85 and 112%.

Magnetic behavior of interstitial Fe impurities in divalent Ca, Sr, and Yb hosts

We have used a first-principles real-space approach to investigate the electronic structure and the magnetic behavior of interstitial Fe impurities in divalent Ca, Sr, and Yb hosts. The dependence of the local moment as a function of lattice relaxation around the impurity is obtained and contrasted with that of interstitial Fe in trivalent and tetravalent Zr, Y, Ti, and Sc hosts. The trends obtained for local moment formation at the impurity site an in agreement with experimental time-differential perturbed gamma-ray angular distribution technique observations.

Synthesis, X-ray Crystal Structure and Theoretical Calculations of Antileishmanial Neolignan Analogues

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Using the Euclidean Distance as a Mechanism Distance between Signatures to the Detect Spam and Phishing Scams

Spams and Phishing Scams are some of the abuse forms on the Internet that have grown up now. These abuses influence in user's routine of electronic mail and in the infrastructure of Internet communication. So, this paper proposes a new model messages filter based in Euclidian distance, beyond show the containment's methodologies currently more used. A new model messages filter, based in frequency's distribution of character present in your content and in signature generation is described. An architecture to combat Phishing Scam and spam is proposed in order to contribute to the containment of attempted fraud by mail.