Integrating geo-referenced multiscale and multidisciplinary data for the management of biodiversity in livestock genetic resources

P>In livestock genetic resource conservation, decision making about conservation priorities is based on the simultaneous analysis of several different criteria that may contribute to long-term sustainable breeding conditions, such as genetic and demographic characteristics, environmental conditions, and role of the breed in the local or regional economy. Here we address methods to integrate different data sets and highlight problems related to interdisciplinary comparisons. Data integration is based on the use of geographic coordinates and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In addition to technical problems related to projection systems, GIS have to face the challenging issue of the non homogeneous scale of their data sets. We give examples of the successful use of GIS for data integration and examine the risk of obtaining biased results when integrating datasets that have been captured at different scales.

The Brazilian Seismographic Integrated Systems (BRASIS): Infrastructure and data management

In geophysics and seismology, raw data need to be processed to generate useful information that can be turned into knowledge by researchers. The number of sensors that are acquiring raw data is increasing rapidly. Without good data management systems, more time can be spent in querying and preparing datasets for analyses than in acquiring raw data. Also, a lot of good quality data acquired at great effort can be lost forever if they are not correctly stored. Local and international cooperation will probably be reduced, and a lot of data will never become scientific knowledge. For this reason, the Seismological Laboratory of the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo (IAG-USP) has concentrated fully on its data management system. This report describes the efforts of the IAG-USP to set up a seismology data management system to facilitate local and international cooperation. © 2011 by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. All rights reserved.

Operations strategy and supply chain management: A Brazilian case study

The objective of this study is to understand how an assembly company, that is considered a focal company in the chain of Brazilian white goods sector, can influence the supply chain management established with its first tier suppliers. This is an exploratory qualitative study in which the information was gathered through direct observations, documents' retention, and data from interviews held with management-level employees of the sales and product development areas of the focal company and of the production area of the suppliers' companies. This study indicates that the operations strategy of the focal company influences the supply chain management and that the common business processes shared by its suppliers are a way to verify the truth of such statement. The suppliers cooperate closely with the focal company when complementing their business processes and consequently supporting the company to pursue its operations strategy. A set of mechanisms to aid the comprehension of how the operations strategy can affect the business processes and therefore to achieve the result of this research were adopted. © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2012.

Water productivity assessment by using MODIS images and agrometeorological data in the Petrolina municipality, Brazil

The municipality of Petrolina, located in the semi-arid region of Brazil, is highlighted as an important agricultural growing region, however the irrigated areas have cleared natural vegetation inducing a loss of biodiversity. To analyze the contrast between these two ecosystems the large scale values of biomass production (BIO), evapotranspiration (ET) and water productivity (WP) were quantified. Monteithś equation was applied for estimating the absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR), while the new SAFER (Simple Algorithm For Evapotranspiration Retrieving) algorithm was used to retrieve ET. The water productivity (WP) was analysed by the ratio of BIO by ET at monthly time scale with four bands of MODIS satellite images together with agrometeorological data for the year of 2011. The period with the highest water productivity values were from March to April in the rainy period for both irrigated and not irrigated conditions. However the largest ET rates were in November for irrigated crops and April for natural vegetation. More uniformity of the vegetation and water variables occurs in natural vegetation, evidenced by the lower values of standard deviation when comparing to irrigated crops, due to the different crop stages, cultural and irrigation managements. The models applied with MODIS satellite images on a large scale are considered to be suitable for water productivity assessments and for quantifying the effects of increasing irrigated areas over natural vegetation on regional water consumption in situations of quick changing land use pattern. © 2012 SPIE.

A simple approach to integrate the ecotoxicological and chemical data for the establishment of environmental risk levels

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

Application of chemometric methods in the evaluation of chemical and spectroscopic data on organic matter from Oxisols in sewage sludge applications

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

Cover crops and herbicide timing management on soybean yield under no-tillage system

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Quality of TEC Estimated with Mod Ion Using GPS and GLONASS Data

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Ecological modeling and pest population management: a possible and necessary connection in a changing world

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

A new genus and two new species of Stevardiinae (Characiformes: Characidae) with a hypothesis on their relationships based on morphological and histological data

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

Historical biogeography and conservation of the golden-striped salamander (Chioglossa lusitanica) in northwestern Iberia: integrating ecological, phenotypic and phylogeographic data

The golden-striped salamander (Chioglossa lusitanica) is an endemic species inhabiting stream-side habitats in mountainous areas in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula. This salamandrid is listed in the IUCN Red Data Book as a threatened species. The combination of bioclimatic modeling of the species distribution and multivariate analysis of genetic and phenotypic data strengthens previous hypotheses concerning the historical biogeography of C. lusitanica: the Pleistocene subdivision of the species' range and a process of postglacial recolonization. Discrepancies between bioclimatic modeling predictions and the present-day distribution suggest that the species may still be expanding its range northwards. We propose the identification of two distinct units for the conservation of the species and suggest that this information should be taken into account in defining key areas for conservation in the Iberian Peninsula.

Pb-210 and composition data of near-surface sediments and interstitial waters evidencing anthropogenic inputs in Amazon River mouth, Macapa, Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Using thermal and spectroscopic data to investigate the thermal behavior of epinephrine

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

Supercritical fluid extraction from fennel (Foeniculum vulgare): global yield, composition and kinetic data

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) from solids has proven to be technically feasible for almost any system; nonetheless, its economical viability has been proven for a restricted number of systems. A common practice is to compare the cost of manufacturing of vegetable extracts by a variety of techniques without deeply considering the huge differences in composition and functional properties among the various types of extracts obtained; under this circumstance, the cost of manufacturing do not favor SFE. Additionally, the influence of external parameters such as the agronomic conditions and the SFE system geometry are not considered. In the present work, these factors were studied for the system fennel seeds + CO2. The effects of the harvesting season and the degree of maturation on the global yields for the system fennel seeds + CO2 were analyzed at 300 bar and 40 degrees C. The effects of the pressure on the global yields were determined for the temperatures of 30 and 40 degrees C. Kinetics experiments were done for various ratios of bed height to bed diameter. Fennel extracts were also obtained by hydrodistillation and low-pressure solvent extraction. The chemical composition of the fennel extracts were determined by gas chromatography. The SFE maximum global yield (12.5%, dry basis) was obtained with dry harvested fennel seeds. Anethole and fenchone were the major constituents of the extract; the following fat acids palmitic (C16H32O2), palmitoleic stearic (C18H36O2), oleic (C18H34O2), linoleic (C18H32O2) and linolenic (C18H30O2) were also detected in the extracts. A relation between amounts of feed and solvent, bed height and diameter, and solvent flow rate was proposed. The models of Sovova, Goto et al. and Tan and Lion were capable of describing the mass transfer kinetics. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.