Cytogenetic analysis of three catfish species of the family Pseudopimelodidae (Teleostei, Siluriformes)

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

Trends in the karyotypic evolution of the Neotropical catfish family Heptapteridae Bockmann 1998 (Teleostei: Siluriformes)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Description of an injury in a human caused by a false tocandira (Dinoponera gigantea, Perty, 1833) with a revision on folkloric, pharmacological and clinical aspects of the giant ants of the genera Paraponera and Dinoponera (sub-family Ponerinae)

A partir de um acidente causado pela picada de uma formiga falsa tocandira na mão de um pescador amador, os autores descrevem os achados clínicos locais observados, tais como edema, eritema e dor excruciante e a evolução do envenenamento, que cursou com fenômenos sistêmicos imediatos, como sudorese fria, náuseas, vômitos, mal estar, taquicardia e linfadenopatia axilar à esquerda. Após três horas, a dor intensa persistia e o paciente apresentou um episódio de hematoquesia, sem história anterior de enfermidades do trato digestivo, hematológicas ou vasculares. O uso de analgésicos (Tramal® 300 mg/dia), água quente e gelo não melhorou a dor, que arrefeceu em oito horas, tendo permanecido por cerca de 24 horas. São apresentados ainda os aspectos folclóricos, farmacológicos e clínicos relacionados às picadas de tocandiras.

Assessment and statistics of Brazilian hydroelectric power plants: Dam areas versus installed and firm power

The Brazilian relief, predominantly composed by small mountains and plateaus, contributed to formation of rivers with high amount of falls. With exception to North-eastern Brazil, the climate of this country are rainy, which contributes to maintain water flows high. These elements are essential to a high hydroelectric potential, contributing to the choice of hydroelectric power plants as the main technology of electricity generation in Brazil. Though this is a renewable source, whose utilized resource is free, dams must to be established which generates a high environmental and social impact. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact caused by these dams through the use of environmental indexes. These indexes are ratio formed by installed power with dam area of a hydro power plant, and ratio formed by firm power with this dam area. In this study, the greatest media values were found in South, Southeast, and Northeast regions respectively, and the smallest media values were found in North and Mid-West regions, respectively. The greatest encountered media indexes were also found in dams established in the 1950s. In the last six decades, the smallest indexes were registered by darns established in the 1980s. These indexes could be utilized as important instruments for environmental impact assessments, and could enable a dam to be established that depletes an ecosystem as less as possible.

A Family of Autoconnected Transformers for 12-and 18-Pulse Converters-Generalization for Delta and Wye Topologies

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Alternative Transfers to the NEOs 99942 Apophis, 1994 WR12, and 2007 UW1 via Derived Trajectories from Periodic Orbits of Family G

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

Systematic review of the frog family Hylidae, with special reference to Hylinae: Phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision

Hylidae is a large family of American, Australopapuan, and temperate Eurasian treefrogs of approximately 870 known species, divided among four subfamilies. Although some groups of Hylidae have been addressed phylogenetically, a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis has never been presented. The first goal of this paper is to review the current state of hylid systematics. We focus on the very large subfamily Hylinae (590 species), evaluate the monophyly of named taxa, and examine the evidential basis of the existing taxonomy. The second objective is to perform a phylogenetic analysis using mostly DNA sequence data in order to (1) test the monophyly of the Hylidae; (2) determine its constituent taxa, with special attention to the genera and species groups which form the subfamily Hylinae, and c) propose a new, monophyletic taxonomy consistent with the hypothesized relationships. We present a phylogenetic analysis of hylid frogs based on 276 terminals, including 228 hylids and 48 outgroup taxa. Included are exemplars of all but 1 of the 41 genera of Hylidae (of all four nominal subfamilies) and 39 of the 41 currently recognized species groups of the species-rich genus Hyla. The included taxa allowed us to test the monophyly of 24 of the 35 nonmonotypic genera and 25 species groups of Hyla. The phylogenetic analysis includes approximately 5100 base pairs from four mitochondrial (12S, tRNA valine, 16S, and cytochrome b) and five nuclear genes (rhodopsin, tyrosinase, RAG-1, seventh in absentia, and 28S), and a small data set from foot musculature. Concurring with previous studies, the present analysis indicates that Hemiphractinae are not related to the other three hylid subfamilies. It is therefore removed from the family and tentatively considered a subfamily of the paraphyletic Leptodactylidae. Hylidae is now restricted to Hylinae, Pelodryadinae, and Phyllomedusinae. Our results support a sister-group relationship between Pelodryadinae and Phyllomedusinae, which together form the sister taxon of Hylinae. Agalychnis, Phyllomedusa, Litoria, Hyla, Osteocephalus, Phrynohyas, Ptychohyla, Scinax, Smilisca, and Trachycephalus are not monophyletic. Within Hyla, the H. albomarginata, H. albopunctata, H. arborea, H. boons, H. cinerea, H. eximia, H. geographica, H. granosa, H. microcephala, H. miotympanum, H. tuberculosa, and H. versicolor groups are also demonstrably nonmonophyletic. Hylinae is composed of four major clades. The first of these includes the Andean stream-breeding Hyla, Aplastodiscus, all Gladiator Frogs, and a Tepuian clade. The second clade is composed of the 30-chromosome Hyla, Lysapsus, Pseudis, Scarthyla, Scinax (including the H. uruguaya group), Sphaenorhynchus, and Xenohyla. The third major clade is composed of Nyctimantis, Phrynohyas, Phyllodytes, and all South American/West Indian casque-headed frogs: Aparasphenodon, Argenteohyla, Corythomantis, Osteocephalus, Osteopilus, Tepuihyla, and Trachycephalus. The fourth major clade is composed of most of the Middle American/Holarctic species groups of Hyla and the genera Acris, Anotheca, Duellmanohyla, Plectrohyla, Pseudacris, Ptychohyla, Pternohyla, Smilisca, and Triprion. A new monophyletic taxonomy mirroring these results is presented where Hylinae is divided into four tribes. Of the species currently in Hyla, 297 of the 353 species are placed in 15 genera; of these, 4 are currently recognized, 4 are resurrected names, and 7 are new. Hyla is restricted to H. femoralis and the H. arborea, H. cinerea, H. eximia, and H. versicolor groups, whose contents are redefined. Phrynohyas is placed in the synonymy of Trachycephalus, and Pternohyla is placed in the synonymy of Smilisca. The genus Dendropsophus is resurrected to include all former species of Hyla known or suspected to have 30 chromosomes. Exerodonta is resurrected to include the former Hyla sumichrasti group and some members of the former H. miotympanum group. Hyloscirtus is resurrected for the former Hyla armata, H. bogotensis, and H. larinopygion groups. Hypsiboas is resurrected to include several species groups - many of them redefined here - of Gladiator Frogs. The former Hyla albofrenata and H. albosignata complexes of the H. albomarginata group are included in Aplastodiscus. New generic names are erected for (1) Agalychnis calcarifer and A. craspedopus; (2) Osteocephalus langsdorffii; the (3) Hyla aromatica, (4) H. bromeliacia, (5) H. godmani, (6) H. mixomaculata, (7) H. taeniopus, (8) and H. tuberculosa groups; (9) the clade composed of the H. pictipes and H. pseudopuma groups; and (10) a clade composed of the H. circumdata, H. claresignata, H. martinsi, and H. pseudopseudis groups. Copyright © American Museum of Natural History 2005.

E-commerce and export promotion policies for small- and medium-sized enterprises: East Asian and Latin American experiences

Includes bibliography

Building sustainable values in organizations with the support of human resource management: Evidence from one firm considered as the 'best place to work' in Brazil

Researchers and other professionals unanimously agree that companies should become more sustainable, but this will not happen without the support of human resource management. Paradoxically, there is a lack of information on the support human resource management offers to organizational sustainability applied to real cases. Therefore, this research presents a case study on this topic that was carried out in a leading Brazilian company, which is considered as a model and has been selected as 'the best place to work in the country'. The results provide practical examples of how this family company has been working to guarantee an increasingly sustainable performance with the support of human resources, highlighting the achievements and challenges the company has faced. One of the main results indicates that companies seeking to achieve sustainability need the assistance of the human resource field in order to design a communication system which bridges the gap between practices and sustainable values. © 2012 Management Centre for Human Values.

Scaling invariance of the diffusion coefficient in a family of two-dimensional Hamiltonian mappings

We consider a family of two-dimensional nonlinear area-preserving mappings that generalize the Chirikov standard map and model a variety of periodically forced systems. The action variable diffuses in increments whose phase is controlled by a negative power of the action and hence effectively uncorrelated for small actions, leading to a chaotic sea in phase space. For larger values of the action the phase space is mixed and contains a family of elliptic islands centered on periodic orbits and invariant Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) curves. The transport of particles along the phase space is considered by starting an ensemble of particles with a very low action and letting them evolve in the phase until they reach a certain height h. For chaotic orbits below the periodic islands, the survival probability for the particles to reach h is characterized by an exponential function, well modeled by the solution of the diffusion equation. On the other hand, when h reaches the position of periodic islands, the diffusion slows markedly. We show that the diffusion coefficient is scaling invariant with respect to the control parameter of the mapping when h reaches the position of the lowest KAM island. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Development and Biotechnological Application of a Novel Endoxylanase Family GH10 Identified from Sugarcane Soil Metagenome

Metagenomics has been widely employed for discovery of new enzymes and pathways to conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals. In this context, the present study reports the isolation, recombinant expression, biochemical and structural characterization of a novel endoxylanase family GH10 (SCXyl) identified from sugarcane soil metagenome. The recombinant SCXyl was highly active against xylan from beechwood and showed optimal enzyme activity at pH 6,0 and 45°C. The crystal structure was solved at 2.75 Å resolution, revealing the classical (β/α)8-barrel fold with a conserved active-site pocket and an inherent flexibility of the Trp281-Arg291 loop that can adopt distinct conformational states depending on substrate binding. The capillary electrophoresis analysis of degradation products evidenced that the enzyme displays unusual capacity to degrade small xylooligosaccharides, such as xylotriose, which is consistent to the hydrophobic contacts at the +1 subsite and low-binding energies of subsites that are distant from the site of hydrolysis. The main reaction products from xylan polymers and phosphoric acid-pretreated sugarcane bagasse (PASB) were xylooligosaccharides, but, after a longer incubation time, xylobiose and xylose were also formed. Moreover, the use of SCXyl as pre-treatment step of PASB, prior to the addition of commercial cellulolytic cocktail, significantly enhanced the saccharification process. All these characteristics demonstrate the advantageous application of this enzyme in several biotechnological processes in food and feed industry and also in the enzymatic pretreatment of biomass for feedstock and ethanol production. © 2013 Alvarez et al.

Scattered organization of the histone multigene family and transposable elements in Synbranchus

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Aspergillus niger beta-Glucosidase Has a Cellulase-like Tadpole Molecular Shape INSIGHTS INTO GLYCOSIDE HYDROLASE FAMILY 3 (GH3) beta-GLUCOSIDASE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

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

Physical mapping of 18S rDNA and heterochromatin in species of family Lygaeidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

RP93-395 Liability Insurance and the Family Child Care Provider

Life other small business owners, family child care providers need adequate life, health, and disability insurance to protect their families from the loss of their income. However, child care providers also face unique risks. Perhaps the most important of these risks is the financial loss that would result if the provider were found liable or responsible for the injury or death of a child or a child's parent. If a claim were filed against you as a provider, three different types of financial losses are possible: medical expenses, damages awarded to the victim or his/her family after a lawsuit, and court costs related to your defense. This booklet will help you to: (1) evaluate options for insuring a family child care operation, and (2) evaluate available liability insurance policies.