Detecção de Leptospira pomona em sêmen bovino por eletroforese capilar fluorescente

This study was performed in order to evaluate the detection limit of PCR with fluorescent capillary electrophoresis for Leptospira pomona diagnosis in bovine semen. Negative bovine semen samples were artificially contaminated with Leptospira pomona (10 0 to 10 7 bacteria/ ml) and DNA was extracted by phenol/chloroform protocol. DNA fragments visualization was done by three electrophoresis methods: under UV light in 2 % agarose gel, silver staining 8% polyacrylamide gel and fluorescent capillary electrophoresis. The detection limit of capillary electrophoresis for Leptospira pomona was 10 2bacteria/ml. Under UV light, in 2 % agarose gel, the detection limit was of 10 4 bacteria/ ml while for silver stained 8 % polyacrylamide gel it was 10 2 bacteria/ ml. PCR with fluorescent capillary electrophoresis is an efficient and rapid diagnostic test for DNA detection of Leptospira in bovine semen and this can be an important tool for herd and semen sanitary control in artificial insemination centers.

Detecção de bordas em imagens digitais através de um processo de difusão anisotrópica não linear

The edges detection model by a non-linear anisotropic diffusion, consists in a mathematical model of smoothing based in Partial Differential Equation (PDE), alternative to the conventional low-pass filters. The smoothing model consists in a selective process, where homogeneous areas of the image are smoothed intensely in agreement with the temporal evolution applied to the model. The level of smoothing is related with the amount of undesired information contained in the image, i.e., the model is directly related with the optimal level of smoothing, eliminating the undesired information and keeping selectively the interest features for Cartography area. The model is primordial for cartographic applications, its function is to realize the image preprocessing without losing edges and other important details on the image, mainly airports tracks and paved roads. Experiments carried out with digital images showed that the methodology allows to obtain the features, e.g. airports tracks, with efficiency.

Detecção da produção de slime por estafilococos coagulase-negativa isolados de cateter venoso central

Slime production is an important virulence factor of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus spp., allowing them to attach to smooth surfaces of biomaterials, and it has been associated with infections of implanted medical devices. In the present study the production of slime capsules in 27 strains of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus was investigated by culture in Congo Red agar (77.7% positivity), spectrophotometric or microplate method (81.4% positivity) and scanning electron microscopy (88.9% positivity). The resistance of coagulase-negative strains of Staphylococcus to various antimicrobial agents was also determined by agar disk diffusion. The proportion of strains resistant to penicillin G, oxacillin, erythromycin, clindamycin and gentamicin among the slime-producing staphylococci was 88.9%, 70.4%, 81.5%, 66.7% and 59.2%, respectively; all of the coagulase-negative staphylococci were susceptible to vancomycin. The strains isolated from central venous catheters were identified by a conventional method and the API Staph system. The 27 coagulase-negative Staphylococcus strains were identified as: S. saprophyticus (3.7%), S. xylosus (7.4%), S. haemolyticus (14.8%), S. epidermidis (37.0%), S. warneri (14.8%), S. lugdunensis (7.4%), S. hominis (7.4%), S. schleiferi (3.7%) and S. chromogenes (3.7%). It can be concluded that in the most of the coagulase-negative Staphylococcus species there was an association between slime production, the nosocomial origin of the strains and reduced sensitivity to the antibiotics, suggesting a pathogenic potential in the hospital environment.

Utilização do método de aglutina ção direta e da reação de imunofluorescência indireta na detecção de anticorpos para Toxoplasma gondii em cavalos naturalmente infectados

Infection by Toxoplasma gondii in equines is usually not apparent, it being characterized by presence of antibody titers and tissue cysts. This study was aimed at verifying the presence of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies in equine serum by modified agglutination test (MAT) and reaction to indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT). 1984 samples of serum were examined, by MAT, using whole formalin fixed tachyzoites of T.gondii as antigen. The samples reacting in the MAT test, and 150 other negative samples, chosen at random, were also tested by IFAT, utilizing anti-equine IgG. The association among the test results was verified by the McNemar test. 138 samples were positive in the MAT test, with 60 (46.38%) presenting reaction at a dilution of 1:64; 52 (37.7%) at 1:256; 19 (13.8%) at 1:1024; five (3.6%) at 1:4096; and two (1.45%) at 1:16384. Of 132 positive MAT samples, 14 were negative in the IFAT test, but the statistical analysis indicated general agreement in results of the tests. The results obtained showed agreement among the tests utilized, and the possibility of participation of equines in the transmission of toxoplasmosis to carnivorous animals, and also to humans.

Aplicabilidade do TTC para a detecção de bacteriúria

Laboratory tests to detect urinary infection at a lawer cost than uroculture are necessary. Triphenyl tetrazolium chloride was evaluated in parallel with uroculture in 342 urine samples, for the detection of significant bacteriuria. The results showed that the test has high sensitivity (91.3%) but low specificity (64.3%), and negative predictive value 99.0%. Although the test cannot replace uroculture as a diagnostic method, it can be recommended for preliminary screening, and could eliminate the need for uroculture of negative samples.

Análise da evolução da paisagem no entorno da represa dos rios jaguari e jacareí, estado de são paulo, com base em sensoriamento remoto e SIG

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate by means of remote sensing and GIS, the landscape evolution around the Jaguari and Jacareí River Dam, located in the eastern section of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. For this purpose we used LANDSAT 5/YM and CBERS-2/CCD images from 1984/1985 and 2006, respectively, considering the following classes of land use: forest, cultivated forest, agriculture, urban areas and water bodies. The two selected dates reflect important changes in the region such as the installation of the dam and subsequent urbanization of parts of its margins and the enlargement of the Fernão Dias Federal Highway, which contributed to an increase of areas of anthropic activities in the studied region. The results also indicate an increase in areas covered by native and planted forests, thus confirming a similar trend in other areas of the State of São Paulo.

Análise de séries temporais de coordenadas estimadas com gps: Uma proposta metodológica para detecção, remoção e recuperação de efeitos sazonais

GPS active networks are more and more used in geodetic surveying and scientific experiments, as water vapor monitoring in the atmosphere and lithosphere plate movement. Among the methods of GPS positioning, Precise Point Positioning (PPP) has provided very good results. A characteristic of PPP is related to the modeling and / or estimation of the errors involved in this method. The accuracy obtained for the coordinates can reach few millimeters. Seasonal effects can affect such accuracy if they are not consistent treated during the data processing. Coordinates time series analyses have been realized using Fourier or Harmonics spectral analyses, wavelets, least squares estimation among others. An approach is presented in this paper aiming to investigate the seasonal effects included in the stations coordinates time series. Experiments were carried out using data from stations Manaus (NAUS) and Fortaleza (BRFT) which belong to the Brazilian Continuous GPS Network (RBMC). The coordinates of these stations were estimated daily using PPP and were analyzed through wavelets for identification of the periods of the seasonal effects (annual and semi-annual) in each time series. These effects were removed by means of a filtering process applied in the series via the least squares adjustment (LSQ) of a periodic function. The results showed that the combination of these two mathematical tools, wavelets and LSQ, is an interesting and efficient technique for removal of seasonal effects in time series.

Proposição de rotina morfológica para detecção de malha viária em imagens orbitais

The outdating of cartographic products affects planning. It is important to propose methods to help detect changes in surface. Thus, the combined use of remote sensing image and techniques of digital image processing has contributed significantly to minimize such outdating. Mathematical morphology is an image processing technique which describes quantitatively geometric structures presented in the image and provides tools such as edge detectors and morphological filters. Previous studies have shown that the technique has potential on the detection of significant features. Thus, this paper proposes a routine of morphological operators to detect a road network. The test area corresponds to an excerpt Quickbird image and has as a feature of interest an avenue of the city of Presidente Prudente, SP. In the processing, the main morphological operators used were threshad, areaopen, binary and erosion. To estimate the accuracy with which the linear features were detected, it was done the analysis of linear correlation between vectors of the features detected and the corresponding topographical map of the region. The results showed that the mathematical morphology can be used in cartography, aiming to use them in conventional cartographic updating processes.

Diagnóstico das áreas de preservação permanente na bacia hidrográfica do rio Tijuco, Ituiutaba - MG, utilizando tecnologia SIG

The present work had the objective to elaborate the map of land use and vegetation covering from Tijuco river watershed, Ituiutaba-MG, based on digital images obtained by satellite from CBERS 2, through automatic delimitation of permanent preservation areas followed by identification of land use conflict based on the Brazilian Forest Code (Law no 4771/1965) and National Council of Environment's Resolution no 303/02. This paper analyzes, through quantitative parameters and the use of Geographic Information System, the maintenance tracks of width recommended by the legislation for permanent preservation areas over water bodies. The results showed a deficit of conserved areas along the riverbanks of 2334 ha that are not in compliance with the legislation. The pasture occupies unduly 0.97% of the area of the basin in the permanent preservation areas at the riverbanks, while agriculture occupies 0.38%.

Detecção de Escherichia coli e Salmonella spp. em microbiota intestinal de Psittaciformes em fase de reabilitação para soltura

Escherichia coli is a bacteria of the Enterobacteriacea family and it is part of the enterical microflora of mammals and of many species of birds. Salmonella spp. also belongs to the family Enterobacteriacea, it is responsible for human feed toxinfection outbreaks and usually isolated from domestic and wild birds. The present study analyzed the frequency of both agents in Psittaciformes in rehabilitation process for wildlife reintroduction. In 89 birds analyzed, 19% were infected with E. coli and 1,12% with Salmonella spp. It was carried out an analysis of the profile of antibiotic resistance in which was observed the efficiency of estreptomicin, tetraciclin, trimetoprim and gentamicin over the samples. The samples of E. coli were submitted to the Congo Red Binding test and to the Hemolisis test and 70,6% of positive samples for the first test and 53% for the second one were observed.

SIG - SPRING aplicado na determinação da capacidade de uso das terras da microbacia do Ribeirão Pouso Alegre - Jaú (SP)

A população mundial vem sofrendo, cada vez mais, as conseqüências das agressões efetuadas pelo homem ao meio ambiente, principalmente quanto à ocupação e uso inadequado das terras, o que ocasiona empobrecimento e depauperamento do solo, influenciando na qualidade e disponibilidade de água, levando à destruição das reservas florestais. Assim, é necessária a implantação de políticas públicas, que contemplem o desenvolvimento econômico, urbano, rural e social de uma região, preservando os recursos naturais para futuras gerações. A bacia em estudo está localizada entre as coordenadas UTM 764942; 7546214 e 741816; 7534759, com uma área de 14699,7ha. Este trabalho visou definir as classes de capacidade de uso de terra da microbacia do Ribeirão Pouso Alegre - Jaú (SP) através do Sistema de Informações Geográficas - SPRING. A carta de capacidade de uso da terra foi elaborada a partir do cruzamento das cartas clinográfica e de solo, que foram elaboradas pelo SIG Spring, e o cruzamento de dados foi feito através do LEGAL - Linguagem Espacial para Geoprocessamento Algébrico. Os resultados mostraram que a microbacia é constituída essencialmente pelas classes II e III e o SIG-SPRING permitiu através dos seus módulos discriminarem e quantificar as áreas das classes de terras, declive e capacidade de uso da terra rapidamente.

Detecção de anticorpos anti-leishmania infantum syn chagasi em cães de São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has been a widespread zoonosis in São Paulo since 1998, when the first autochthonous canine case was identified in Araçatuba. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of anti-Leishmania infantum syn chagasi antibodies in serum samples of 584 dogs from São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, a non endemic area for the disease. Five dogs (0.86%) seroconverted by ELISA and one (0.17%) by immunochromatography. The indirect immunofluorescent reaction, carried out in 138 animals whose optical densities were above or close to ELISA's cutt-off point, evidenced two dogs (1.45%) with titers above 1:40. Only one dog was serum-reactive on the three techniques. Although there was not a history of displacing this animal to endemic areas, the dog had been acquired in a region with canine and human cases of VL. These results suggests that there were no autochthonous cases of canine VL in this population.

Extração de vias combinando métodos de detecção de regiões e linhas em imagens de intensidade de pulso laser

This paper aims at extracting street centerlines from previously isolated street regions by using the image of laser scanning intensity. In this image, streets are easily identified, since they manifest as dark, elongate ribbons contrasting with background objects. The intensity image is segmented by using the region growing technique, which generates regions representing the streets. From these regions, the street centerlines are extracted in two manners. The first one is through the Steger lines detection method combined with a line length thresholding by which lines being shorter than a minimum length are removed. The other manner is by combining the skeletonization method of regions based on the Medial Axis Transform and with a pruning process to eliminate as much as possible the ramifications. Experiments showed that the Steger-based method provided results better than the method based on skeletonization.

Detecção de anticorpos anti-Toxoplasma gondii em cavalos carroceiros da região metropolitana de Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil

Toxoplasma gondii, the agent for toxoplasmosis, has worldwide distribution. Horses normally play a secondary role in its life cycle, but movement around urban areas, feeding on grass and the increasing use of carthorses for gathering recyclable material in some urban areas of Brazil may increase their exposure to T. gondii infection. The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of anti-T. gondii antibodies in carthorses in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, PR. IgG antibodies against T. gondii were detected using the indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT) (titers ≥ 64). Seventeen (17.0%) of the 100 horses sampled were seropositive. There were no statistical differences in relation to sex (p = 0.28) or age (p = 0.15). Our findings suggest that carthorses are exposed to T. gondii infections and that no associations with age or sex exist.

Uso de sig e fotografias aéreas na determinação de conflitos na rede de drenagem na bacia experimental do Rio Pardo

This study aimed to detect and evaluate potential conflicts in the land use along the Rio Pardo's tributaries and sub-tributaries from its source which is in Pardinho, SP to the water capture system by the Basic Sanitation Company located in Botucatu, SP. It was used 2005 colored aerial photos, taking as a tool for assessing the Geographical Information System - IDRISI Andes. The results showed that the riparian forests were substituted predominantly by pastures, which is called conflict. In other words, the 1590.82ha of environmental preservation areas (PPA's) that should be protected by riparian forests and meadows (41.51%) in 2005, were used as pastures, being in conflict with the legislation. The aerial pictures associated to SIG-Idrisi proved to be efficient tools in mapping the area and monitoring the environmental impacts.