Aquatic humus from an unpolluted Brazilian dark-brown stream: general characterization and size fractionation of bound heavy metals

The main pool of dissolved organic carbon in tropical aquatic environments, notably in dark-coloured streams, is concentrated in humic substances (HS). Aquatic HS are large organic molecules formed by micro-biotic degradation of biopolymers and polymerization of smaller organic molecules. From an environmental point of view, the study of metal-humic interactions is often aimed at predicting the effect of aquatic HS on the bioavailability of heavy metal ions in the environment. In the present work the aquatic humic substances (HS) isolated from a dark-brown stream (located in an environmental protection area near Cubatao city in São Paulo-State, Brazil) by means of the collector XAD-8 were investigated. FTIR studies showed that the carboxylic carbons are probably the most important binding sites for Hg(II) ions within humic molecules. C-13-NMR and H-1-NMR studies of aquatic HS showed the presence of constituents with a high degree of aromaticity (40% of carbons) and small substitution. A special five-stage tangential-flow ultrafiltration device (UF) was used for size fractionation of the aquatic HS under study and for their metal species in the molecular size range 1-100 kDa (six fractions). The fractionation patterns showed that metal traces remaining in aquatic HS after their XAD-8 isolation have different distributions. Generally, the major percentage of traces of Mn, Cd and Ni (determined by ICP-AES) was preferably complexed by molecules with relatively high molecular size. Cu was bound by fractions with low molecular size and Co showed no preferential binding site in the various humic fractions. Moreover, the species formed between aquatic HS and Hg(II), prepared by spiking (determined by CVAAS), appeared to be concentrated in the relatively high molecular size fraction F-1 (> 100 kDa).

Structural complexity of the nitrogen source and influence on yeast growth and fermentation

The structural complexity of the nitrogen source strongly affects both biomass and ethanol production by industrial strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, during fermentation in media containing glucose or maltose, and supplemented with a nitrogen source varying from a single ammonium salt (ammonium sulfate) to free amino acids (casamino acids) and peptides (peptone). Diauxie was observed at low glucose and maltose concentrations independent of nitrogen supplementation. At high sugar concentrations diauxie was not easily observed. and growth and ethanol production depended on the nature of the nitrogen source. This was different for baking and brewing ale and lager yeast strains. Sugar concentration had a strong effect on the shift from oxido-fermentative to oxidative metabolism. At low sugar concentrations, biomass production was similar under both peptone and casamino acid supplementation. Under casamino acid supplementation, the time for metabolic shift increased with the glucose concentration, together with a decrease in the biomass production. This drastic effect on glucose fermentation resulted in the extinction of the second growth phase, probably due to the loss of cell viability. Ammonium salts always induced poor yeast performance. In general, supplementation with a nitrogen source in the peptide form (peptone) was more positive for yeast metabolism, inducing higher biomass and ethanol production, and preserving yeast viability, in both glucose and maltose media, for baking and brewing ale and lager yeast strains. Determination of amino acid utilization showed that most free and peptide amino acids present, in peptone and casamino acids, were utilized by the yeast, suggesting that the results described in this work were not due to a nutritional status induced by nitrogen limitation.

Nanoscopic photoluminescence memory as a fingerprint of complexity in self-assembled alkyl/siloxane hybrids

A thermally activated photoluminescence memory effect, induced by a reversible order-disorder phase transition of the alkyl chains, is reported for highly organized bilayer alkyl/siloxane hybrids (see figure; left at room temperature, right at 120 degrees C). The emission energy is sensitive to the annihilation/formation of the hydrogen-bonded amide-amide array displaying a unique nanoscopic sensitivity (ca. 150 nm).

Reduction of mercury(II) by tropical river humic substances (Rio Negro) - Part II. Influence of structural features (molecular size, aromaticity, phenolic groups, organically bound sulfur)

The influence of structural features of tropical river humic substances (HS) on their capability to reduce mercury(II) in aqueous solutions was studied. The HS investigated were conventionally isolated from Rio Negro water-Amazonas State/Brazil by means of the collector XAD 8. In addition, the isolated HS were on-line fractionated by tangential-flow multistage ultrafiltration (nominal molecular-weight cut-offs: 100, 50, 30, 10, 5 kDa) and characterized by potentiometry and UV/VIS spectroscopy. The reduction of Hg(II) ions to elemental Hg by size-fractions of Rio Negro HS was assessed by cold-vapor AAS (CVAAS). UV/VIS spectrometry revealed that the fractions of high molecular-size (F-1 > 100 kDa and F-2: 50-100 kDa) have a higher aromaticity compared to the fractions of small molecular-size (F-5: 5-10 kDa, F-6: < 5 kDa). In contrast, the potentiometric study showed different concentration of functional groups in the studied HS fractions. The reduction of Hg(II) by aquatic HS fractions at pH 5 proceeded in two steps (I, II) of slow first order kinetics (t(1/2) of I: 160 min, t(1/2) of II: 300 min) weakly influenced by the molecular-size, in contrast to the differing degree of Hg(II) reduction (F-5 > F-2 > > F-1 > F-3 > F-4 > > F-6). Accordingly, Hg(II) ions were preferably reduced by HS molecules having a relatively high ratio of phenolic/carboxylic groups and a small concentration of sulfur. From these results a complex 'competition' between reduction and complexation of mercury(II) by aquatic HS occurring in tropical rivers such as the Rio Negro can be suggested. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bound states of the Dirac equation for a class of effective quadratic plus inversely quadratic potentials

The Dirac equation is exactly solved for a pseudoscalar linear plus Coulomb-like potential in a two-dimensional world. This sort of potential gives rise to an effective quadratic plus inversely quadratic potential in a Sturm-Liouville problem, regardless the sign of the parameter of the linear potential, in sharp contrast with the Schrodinger case. The generalized Dirac oscillator already analyzed in a previous work is obtained as a particular case. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Lagrangian bound for many-to-many assignment problems

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Aging reduces complexity of heart rate variability assessed by conditional entropy and symbolic analysis

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

Transmission system expansion planning by a branch-and-bound algorithm

A branch and bound (B& B) algorithm using the DC model, to solve the power system transmission expansion planning by incorporating the electrical losses in network modelling problem is presented. This is a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, and in this approach, the so-called fathoming tests in the B&B algorithm were redefined and a nonlinear programming (NLP) problem is solved in each node of the B& B tree, using an interior-point method. Pseudocosts were used to manage the development of the B&B tree and to decrease its size and the processing time. There is no guarantee of convergence towards global optimisation for the MINLP problem. However, preliminary tests show that the algorithm easily converges towards the best-known solutions or to the optimal solutions for all the tested systems neglecting the electrical losses. When the electrical losses are taken into account, the solution obtained using the Garver system is better than the best one known in the literature.

Epidemiologic Evaluation of Mandibular Fractures in the Rio de Janeiro High-Complexity Hospital

The aim of this study was to gather data on trauma etiology and mandibular fracture localization in patients who presented at the General Hospital of Nova Iguacu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. From March 2007 to December 2008, 95 patients with mandibular fracture were registered in a medical form, at the Bucomax-illofacial Surgery Department of the General Hospital of Nova Iguacu, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Concerning mandibular fracture etiology, 21.05% were caused by motorcycle accidents, followed by interpersonal violence without use of weapons (punches, kicks, bumps with the head, blows with the elbow, etc) (16.84%) and interpersonal violence with firearm (14.73%). It was found that 52.63% of the patients had a single fracture line. The most affected fracture area was the parasymphysis (26.02%), followed by the condyle (22.60%) and mandibular angle (18.49%). Concerning the injury area, 24.21% were directed to the mandibular symphysis, 22.17% of the patients did not remember the injury area, and 18.94% had multiple injuries. When the injury was directed to the symphysis, the result was more condyle fractures (11.64%), and injuries at the mandibular angle resulted in fractures at the angle itself (8.90%). The most common fracture cause was traffic accidents, mainly motorcycle accidents, and the most affected areas were the parasymphysis and the condyle. The mandible isolated fractures occurred in half of the cases. Motorcycle accidents resulted in more fractures in the parasymphysis area, and when the symphysis area is affected by injuries, the result is a higher percentage in condyle fractures.

On Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau particles with a mixed minimal-nonminimal vector coupling and the nondegenerate bound-states for the one-dimensional inversely linear background

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Bound state solution of the grassmannian nonlinear sigma model with fermions

We construct the S-matrix for bound state (gauge-invariant) scattering for nonlinear sigma models defined on the manifold SU(n) S(U(p)⊗U(n-p)) with fermions. It is not possible to compute gauge non-singlet matrix elements. In the present language, constraints from higher conservation laws determine the bound state solution. An alternative derivation is also presented. © 1988.

Soluble and bound peroxidases from papaya fruit

Soluble and bound peroxidases were isolated from the pulp of ripening papaya fruit. During papaya ripening, soluble and bound peroxidase activities increased 2.5- and 4.2-fold, respectively. Soluble peroxidase was purified 59-fold by ammonium sulphate precipitation and chromatography on Sephadex G-25, DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex G-100. Bound peroxidase was purified 140-fold by ammonium sulphate precipitation and chromatography on Sephadex G-100 and DEAE-cellulose. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the purified preparations revealed that both enzymes were highly purified by the procedures adopted. The soluble and bound forms had a Mr of 41 000 and 54 000, respectively. Soluble and bound peroxidases showed optimum activity at pH 6.0 and 5.5, respectively, and were inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoate, iodoacetamide, N-ethylmaleimide, potassium cyanide and Fe2+. Soluble peroxidase was activated by ammonium sulphate and this activation was prevented by cyanide. © 1990.

New results on bound excitons in quantum wells

The formation of bound excitons (BE) is investigated for a GaAs/GaAlAs multiple quantum well (QW) system. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra are analysed as a function of the excitation energy. It was found that the carriers photogeneration, either in the barrier or directly in the well, do not play an important role on the BE formation. We conclude that defects localized at interfaces are ionized by of capture charges which in turn bound the free exciton (FE).

Absence of Cooper-type bound states in three- and few-electron systems

It is shown that the appearance of a fixed-point singularity in the kernel of the two-electron Cooper problem is responsible for the formation of the Cooper pair for an arbitrarily weak attractive interaction between two electrons. This singularity is absent in the problem of three and few superconducting electrons at zero temperature on the full Fermi sea. Consequently, such three- and few-electron systems on the full Fermi sea do not form Cooper-type bound states for an arbitrarily weak attractive pair interaction.

Two definitions of the electric polarizability of a bound system in relativistic quantum theory

For the electric polarizability of a bound system in relativistic quantum theory, there are two definitions that have appeared in the literature. They differ depending on whether or not the vacuum background is included in the system. A recent confusion in this connection is clarified. © 1999 American Associations of Physics Teachers.