Caracterização do nicho alimentar do polvo octopus insularis (cephalopoda: octopodidae): da população ao indivíduo

Octopus insularis, target species in this study, is the dominant benthic octopus of the North and Northeast Brazil. Studies on behavior and ecology of the species have been conducted primarily on oceanic islands, with little information on the continental populations. In this study, two regions of the coast of RN, Rio do Fogo and Pirangi, were chosen for the characterization of the niche by O. insularis populations. The dietary niche, habitat and distribution of O. insularis of oceanic islands and the mainland, were compared. In addition, individual characteristics of feeding behavior in a population at Atol das Rocas was studied, taking into account the size of individuals, the proximity of the dens and characteristics of their "personality". The diet of the Rio do Fogo population was composed mainly of bivalve molluscs (82%), unlike Pirangi population that has a diet consisting mainly of crustaceans Decapoda (68%), similar to that described for the populations of the islands. Consequently, the feeding niches of the island populations were more similar, with greater overlap, but the niche breadth of the continent was larger. The habitats of occurrence on the coast includes reefs, rocks, gravel and an environment called Restinga, a plateau composed of biogenic gravel, sand, sponges and algae, showed a high density of animals. Similarly to that found in the islands, O. insularis in the continent, had a clumped distribution, and a bathymetric segregation between small and large individuals. The differences in diet composition among populations were explained by differences in habitat and coverage of the substrate, which may be directly influencing the diversity and prey availability in these environments. The individual analyzes of the population at Atol das Rocas, showed no relationship between the degree of individual specialization and the different personalities, or the distance between dens. The results suggest that the foraging strategy with greater availability of prey in the environment has an influence on diet octopuses over preferences or personalities

Efeitos individuais e interativos da diversidade de detritos, contexto e variabilidade ambiental sobre a magnitude e estabilidade do processo de decomposição

Studies on the effects of changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning have been a central theme in ecology over the past two decades. Several studies have showed that the diversity of plant debris differently affects the decomposition process in aquatic and terrestrial environments, but we know very about the effects of detritus diversity on decomposition under fluctuating environmental conditions. We tested whether and how the environmental contexts, as well as the dynamic of their alternation, influence the effects of detritus diversity on the decomposition process. We performed a field experiment where we manipulate the litter diversity of 8 species of terrestrial plants decomposing (litterbags) in single and in mixture containing the eight species together in three different environmental contexts: the terrestrial environment (T), aquatic (A) and interface (I) - experimental treatment that simulates variation in flooding regime. We measured the rate of decomposition through the loss of mass of the community and each individual detritus in monocultures and mixtures. Species richness and environmental variability had no effects on the magnitude and stability of the decomposition process. However, there were significant diversity effects on the decomposition of an individual alien species, F. benjamina. Environmental context had significant effects on the magnitude and variability of decomposition. Detritus decomposition was faster and more variable on aquatic, interface and terrestrial conditions, respectively. Our results demonstrate that the diversity of plant detritus has minor effects to the decomposition across disparate environmental conditions and suggest that it is necessary to consider the potential of other abiotic factors in affect the magnitude and variability of the decomposition processes

Sobrevivência de adultos e estimativa populacional da guaracava-de-topete-uniforme elaenia cristata (aves: tyrannidae) em fragmento de mata atlântica no Nordeste do Brasil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

Modelo de avaliação de risco : São o crescimento e a estequiometria dos girinos afetados pelo efeito interativo entre a presença do predador e da densidade de coespecíficos?

Many prey organisms change their phenotype to reduce the predation risk. However, such changes are associated with trade-offs, and can have negative effects on prey growth or reproduction. Understand how preys assess the predation risk is essential to evaluate the adaptive value of predator-induced phenotypic and its ecological consequences. In this study, we performed a mesocosm experiment to test: i) if growth and stoichiometry of Lithobates catesbeianus tadpoles is altered in response to giant water bug presence (Belostoma spp.); ii) if these responses depend on tadpoles density in environment. Here, we show that tadpoles growth and stoichiometry are not changed by predator presence, neither in low nor in high densities. Our results suggest that tadpoles exposed to predation risk regulate their physiology to preserve the elemental stoichiometric homeostase of their body and excretion. Further, point out to need for future studies that elucidate under what conditions growth and stoichiometry are changed in response to predation risk

Seletividade de herbicidas para cebola em semeadura direta

As plantas de cebola provenientes da semeadura direta, têm-se mostrado muito sensíveis aos herbicidas recomendados para a cultura transplantada, principalmente aqueles com ação sobre plantas daninhas dicotiledôneas. Os efeitos do fracionamento da dose dos herbicidas oxyfluorfen, ioxynil-octanoato, fluazifop-p-butil e sethoxydim foram avaliados em dois cultivares (Granex Ouro e Granex 33), no sistema de semeadura direta. A tolerância dos dois cultivares ao oxyfluorfen e ao ioxynil-octanoato aumentou com a idade das plantas e com o parcelamento das doses, aplicando-se doses menores no estádio de duas folhas. Sethoxydim e fluazifop-p-butil foram seletivos para a cultura, independente da dose inicial aplicada e do cultivar avaliado.

Chromatin and morphometry alterations of bovine sperm head after Percoll (TM) density gradient centrifugation

The aim of this work was to assess the morphometry and chromatin integrity of bovine sperm head after a three layers discontinuous Percoll (TM) density gradient centrifugation. Frozen semen doses were obtained from six bulls of different breeds, including three taurine and three Zebu animals. Three ejaculates per bull were evaluated. The semen doses were thawed and two smears were made from each sample before (control) and after the Percoll (TM) centrifugation (Percoll (TM) group). The smears were stained with toluidine blue and grayscale digital images were captured and processed in Scilab environment software. It was observed that chromatin heterogeneity was reduced (P<0.05) and chromatin decondensation was increased (P<0.05) after the Percollm treatment utilized. In addition, it was observed that sperm head length was higher (P<0.05) and the side symmetry was lower (P<0.05) in centrifuged sperm cells. When analyzed separately by subspecies, it was observed that the decrease (P<0.05) in chromatin heterogeneity and the increase (P<0.05) in chromatin decondensation occurred in Zebu sperm heads. In addition, the length and the width:length ratio of sperm heads was affected by Percoll (TM) centrifugation in Zebu semen. In conclusion, the three layers discontinuous Percoll (TM) centrifugation increased the chromatin decondensation and the morphometric alterations of frozen-thawed bovine semen. However, the real implication of these findings in fertility rates of centrifuged sperm must be investigated. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Representações sociais e práticas discursivas de profissionais do programa saúde da família sobre o pré-natal

The present study had the objective to identify to the Social Representations of the professionals of medicine and nursing superior level of the Program Health of the Family concerning the assistance for the gestation. The research was qualitative under the optics of the Theory of the Social Representations of Serge Moscovici, of the Central Nucleus of Jean-Claude Abric and of the Analysis of Content of Laurence Bardin. We worked with the following instruments for the collection of data: Questionnaires, with social-demographic data; Free association of Words, with the inductive terms Pregnancy, Assistance for Gestation and Care; Production of mental image and half-structuralized Interview, with the following question: What does the assistance for the gestation represent for you? . We interviewed all the professionals of nursing and medicine of the Program Health of the Family in the city of Santa Cruz /RN (ten for each profession) in the period of February and March of 2007. From the analysis of the social-demographics data, we respectively identified the following percentages for nursing and medicine: the feminine sex for nursing predominated (90%); the age between 24 and 33 (70 and 60%); the religion catholic (80 and 50%) and 50% of the two groups has up to two years of formation and work in the score of the research. The analysis of the others instruments resulted in two categories: Institutionalized vision and Vision of the Common-sense. In the free association of words, the category institutionalized vision is configured as Central Nucleus and of the common sense one as nucleus Peripheral, demonstrating that the Social Representations of the assistance for the gestation attendance are in the universes consensual. In the mental images, we identified to this same construction. In the content of the interviews, the institutionalized vision is permeated by the responsibility of making and the availability of having - assistance for the gestation is recommended by the Health department and necessary genders - while the vision of the common-sense can be represented by the category sort, whose role of professionals of the assistance for the gestation is to strengthen the responsibility for the woman of a maternity socially constructed. In short, the analyzed speeches reflect that, to the knowledge acquired in the academy, are incorporated in the knowledge of the daily professional, and conducted by popular myths. Medicine and nursing recognize the importance of the attendance in such a way for the chance to educate the women for the maternity as for the possibility to prevent complications, but in its speeches they had excluded from this process the masculine figure. We conclude that the meaning of the inductive term take care, part of the common-sense and is incorporated the institutionalized speech to humanize the assistance. However, the pregnancy ceases from being seen in its natural biological direction and starts to be analyzed as a moment of fragility and predisposition the illnesses. Finally, the social nursing and the central nucleus representations for the assistance in gestation for medicine is anchored in the speeches institutionalized and of the common-sense, reflecting the concern in establishing a humanized assistance with quality

Violência contra a mulher : estudo de caso em uma instituição de ensino

The study research case with a quantitative approach and prospective data, carried out between December 2010 and February 2011 with the aim of identifying the profile of women in the study, to characterize the acts of violence in the type, frequency, location occurrence and aggressor, analyze the steps taken after the occurrence of acts of violence and the main consequences on the victims. The population consisted of 285 workers in a tertiary institution in Rio Grande do Norte. The results showed that 99 (34.74%) have between 51 to 60 years of age, 78 (27.37%) of 41 to 50 and 62 (21.75%) between 20 and 30 years, are considered color white, 162 (56.84%) have completed higher education, 171 (60.00%) and of these 97 (56.73%) reported having some post-graduate degrees, are married, 141 (49.47%) and have from zero to one child, 148 (51.93%) reside in the south of the city of Natal, 146 (51.23%) have a monthly income of three to five minimum wages, 171 (60.00%) and are mostly in the Technical Administrative Sciences 152 (53.33%), 77 (27.02%) reported having experienced violence, 60 (62.50%) episodes of verbal aggression, 26 (27.08%) of bullying , 05 (5.21%) of physical abuse and 05 (5.21%) sexual harassment; 05 (100.00%) assaults were made by the spouse or partner of the victims and co-workers is another profession were responsible for 18 (30.00%) verbal aggression, 15 (57.69%) bullying and 03 (60.00%) sexual harassment, 02 (40.00%) of victims of physical aggression and 18 (30.00 %) of verbal abused only once, 10 (38.46%) of bullying and 02 (40.00%) of sexual harassment experienced four or more times 05 (100.00%) assaults occurred at domestic and work stood out with 36 (60.00%), verbal abuse, 22 (84.62%), moral harassment and 04 (80.00%) sexual harassment, 35 (36.46%) told colleagues work and 31 (32.29%) for family and friends in 75 (78.13%) cases there was no intervention, 07 (7.29) were unable to respond if something had been done and 14 (14.58% ) have been reported intervention of these, 09 (64.29%) were taken by the heads of the victims, 26 (32.10%) did not notify the fact on the ground that no action would be taken, 62 (80.52%) felt stress , 5 (1.76%) of women turned away from work after the episode of violence, accounting for 198 days of absenteeism. It is concluded that there is a high rate of violence against women, even when they have a good socioeconomic status, and in this sense is important to establish bases of new proposals for improving control of cases of health professionals, especially nurses, to approach patients with a more investigative, and that by identifying a case of violence, be instructed about the paths to be followed for notification while providing psychological support to victims.

Preservation of minimally processed aurora-1 peaches using additives

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

Fatores influenciadores da implementação de ações de gestão de segurança da informação :um estudo com executivos e gerentes de tecnologia da informação das empresas do Rio Grande do Norte

Information is one of the most valuable organization s assets, mainly on a global and highly competitive world. On this scenery there are two antagonists forces: on one side, organizations struggle for keeping protected its information, specially those considered as strategic, on the other side, the invaders, leaded by innumerous reasons - such as hobby, challenge or one single protest with the intention of capturing and corrupting the information of other organizations. This thesis presents the descriptive results of one research that had as its main objective to identify which variables influence the Executives´ and CIOs´ perceptions toward Information Security. In addition, the research also identified the profile of Rio Grande do Norte s organizations and its Executives/CIOs concerning Information Security, computed the level of agreement of the respondents according to NBR ISO/IEC 17799 (Information technology Code of practice for information security management) on its dimension Access Control. The research was based on a model, which took into account the following variables: origin of the organization s capital, sector of production, number of PCs networked, number of employees with rights to network, number of attacks suffered by the organizations, respondent´s positions, education level, literacy on Information Technology and specific training on network. In the goal´s point of view, the research was classified as exploratory and descriptive, and, in relation of the approach, quantitative. One questionnaire was applied on 33 Executives and CIOs of the 50 Rio Grande do Norte s organizations that collected the highest taxes of ICMS - Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias on 2000. After the data collecting, cluster analysis and chi-square statistical tools were used for data analysis. The research made clear that the Executives and CIOs of Rio Grande do Norte s organizations have low level of agreement concerning the rules of the NBR ISO/IEC 17799. It also made evident that the Executives and CIOs have its perception toward Information Security influenced by the number of PCs networked and by the number of attacks suffered by the organizations

Fatores inibidores do uso de técnicas ambientais nos postos de combustíveis: um estudo de caso em Natal/RN

The objective of this work was to investigate the factors that inhibit the use of Environmental Techniques in the Gas Station of the city of Natal/RN. For this, a survey with the aid of a questionnaire was used like research instrument. It s used a sample for convenience, not probabilistic. For collection of the data, it was used directly application of the questionnaire to the Managers or Assistant managers of the gas station, in accordance with its availability or presence. The data was collected in all the regions of Natal (North, South, East and West). The population in accordance with the data of the ANP of September 2005 is of 111 ranks and the collected sample was of 86. To carry through the analysis of the data of this research had been used softwares Excel and Statistic version 5.0, for Windows. The analysis of data is divided in two parts; descriptive analysis and analysis of groupings (clusters). The results showed that bigger part of the interviewed ones has between 30 and 39 years of age; they have second grade completed; they had declared to have little between and reasonable knowledge how much to the use of Clean Technology (CT) in gas station; and a small part of the interviewed ones had informed to have much knowledge how much the resolutions of the CONAMA established for the Gas Station. Of the searched ranks, the majority is national(76.7%); the most accurate practice environmental used in the gas station are: it collects selective of oil used or contaminated and ecological tanks - coated with strengthened fibre glass; great part of the interviewed ones (33.8%) informed that never the TL makes planning of referring future action; about of the half of the interviewed ones (84.9%) they had more declared that its employees have of none to a reasonable level of training for deal with problems that compromise the environment; the majority of the ranks (72.1%) functions has for more then six years. It is observed that almost all the interviewed ones (96.5%) evaluate as being important or very important the implantation of CT in Gas Station and the great majority (82.1%) evaluates the difficulty in if implanting these technologies in Gas Station as being easy or very easy. In the analysis of cluster, it was verified existence of two groupings (as much in the variable of the barriers and benefits), being that inside of each clusters exists homogeneity and between clusters exists heterogeneity. In reality, everything is important or very important in the opinion of the interviewed ones. There only exists a small significant difference that separates them in clusters

Periodic inspection of sprayers: diagnostic to the northern of Paraná

Para a otimização no uso de agroquímicos, vários países têm realizado inspeções periódicas em pulverizadores agrícolas. No Brasil, o conhecimento do estado destas máquinas pode nortear pesquisas e investimentos em orientação de uso e de manutenção das mesmas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar o estado de manutenção de pulverizadores em uso para a região norte do Estado do Paraná. Foram avaliados itens como: presença, estado e escala do manômetro, estado das mangueiras, estado dos antigotejadores, presença de vazamentos, estado da barra, estado dos filtros, estado das pontas de pulverização e erros na taxa de aplicação. As máquinas foram caracterizadas como aprovadas quando não havia falha em nenhum item avaliado. O fator que ocasionou o maior índice de reprova entre as máquinas foi a escala incorreta do manômetro, que reprovou 84,55% das máquinas avaliadas. Outro fator de destaque foi a taxa de aplicação incorreta em 75,5% das máquinas. do total dos 110 pulverizadores avaliados,apenas uma unidade foi aprovada.

Desenvolvimento de material compósito a base de raspa de pneu e látex para isolamento térmico

The process of recycling has been stimulated by the markets for several reasons, mainly on economical and environmental. Several products have been developed from recycled materials that already exist as well as several residues have been studied in different forms of applications. The greater majority of the applications for thermal insulation in the domestic, commercial and industrial systems have been elaborated in the temperature ranges between low to medium reaching up to 180oC. Many materials such as glass wool, rock wool, polystyrene are being used which are aggressive to the environment. Such materials in spite of the effectiveness in the retention of heat flow, they cost more and when discarded take several years to be absorbed by the nature. This way, in order to adapt to a world politics concerning the preservation of the environment, the present study was intended to develop a material composed of natural/biodegradable materials and industrial residues. The development of such a product in the form of a composite material based on tyre scrapes and latex for thermal insulation is presented in this research work. Thermal and physical properties of the tire scrapes as well as latex were studied in order to use them as raw materials for the manufacture of the intended composite to be applied as a thermal insulator in hot and cold systems varying between 0ºC and 200oC, respectively. Composite blankets were manufactured manually, in weight proportions of 1:1 (50:50%); 1:2 (33:67%) and 2:1 (67:33%) (tire scrapes: latex) respectively. Physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the composites were analyzed to obtain data about the viability of using the composite as a thermal insulator. The analyses carried out were based on standards ABNT, ASTM and UL. The maximum temperature obtained for the composite as a thermal insulator was 200ºC, which meets the range of applications that could be used as a thermal insulator in domestic as well as industrial purposes. The experimental results prove that the composite can be used as a thermal insulator on heated or cooled surface