The effects of ice-water storage on blood gas and acid-base measurements

Objective: To determine the effects of storage of arterial and venous blood samples in ice water on blood gas and acid-base measurements.Design: Prospective, in vitro, laboratory study.Setting: School of veterinary medicine.Subjects: Six healthy dogs.Measurements and main results: Baseline measurements of partial pressure of oxygen (PO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), pH, hemoglobin concentration (tHb), oxyhemoglobin saturation, and oxygen content (ContO(2)) were made. Bicarbonate (HCO3) and standard base excess (SBE) were calculated. Arterial and venous blood samples were separated into 1 and 3 mL samples, anaerobically transferred into 3 mL plastic syringes, and stored in ice water for 6 hours. Measurements were repeated at 15, 30 minutes, and 1, 2, 4, and 6 hours after baseline measurements. Arterial (a) PO2 increased significantly from baseline after 30 minutes of storage in the 1 mL samples and after 2 hours in the 3 mL samples. Venous (v) PO2 was significantly increased from baseline after 4 hours in the 1 mL samples and after 6 hours in the 3 mL samples. The pHa significantly decreased after 2 hours of storage in the 1 mL samples and after 4 hours in the 3 mL samples. In both the 1 and 3 mL samples, pHv decreased significantly only after 6 hours. Neither the arterial nor the venous PCO2 values changed significantly in the 1 mL samples and increased only after 6 hours in the 3 mL samples. No significant changes in tHb, ContO(2), SBE, or HCO3 were detected.Conclusions: the PO2 of arterial and venous blood increased significantly when samples were stored in plastic syringes in ice water. These increases are attributable to the diffusion of oxygen from and through the plastic of the syringe into the blood, which occurred at a rate that exceeded metabolic consumption of oxygen by the nucleated cells.

A Non-Destructive Testing Based on Electromagnetic Measurements and Neural Networks for the Inspection of Concrete Structures

This paper presents a new non-destructive testing (NDT) for reinforced concrete structures, in order to identify the components of their reinforcement. A time varying electromagnetic field is generated close to the structure by electromagnetic devices specially designed for this purpose. The presence of ferromagnetic materials (the steel bars of the reinforcement) immersed in the concrete disturbs the magnetic field at the surface of the structure. These field alterations are detected by sensors coils placed on the concrete surface. Variations in position and cross section (the size) of steel bars immersed in concrete originate slightly different values for the induced voltages at the coils.. The values for the induced voltages were obtained in laboratory tests, and multi-layer perceptron artificial neural networks with Levemberg-Marquardt training algorithm were used to identify the location and size of the bar. Preliminary results can be considered very good.

ARE CORPORAL ALLOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS GOOD PREDICTORS of PALATABILITY IN NEOTROPICAL BUTTERFLIES (LEPIDOPTERA)?

Since palatable butterflies are more dependent on evasive flight to escape from predators, they should be more restricted in their flight-related morphology than unpalatable ones. We compared: the ratios between the (1) length of head plus thorax and the length of abdomen (A/B), (2) length of the tip of the head to wing base and the length of the wing base to end of the abdomen (C/D), (3) the variances of A/B and C/D, (4) the proportion between the thoracic and the body weight, and (5) the flight speed between palatable and unpalatable butterflies. A/B and thoracic/body weight were higher for palatable species, indicating higher body symmetry and muscular mass. However, flight speed did not differ. Unexpectedly, the variance of A/B was higher for palatable species while that of C/D did not differ. Therefore, corporal allometric measurements of Neotropical butterflies are good predictors of palatability, though not of flight speed.

Use of radiographic measurements in the evaluation of dogs with medial patellar luxation

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

Correlation of properties of Brazilian Haplustalfs with magnetic susceptibility measurements

Magnetic susceptibility (chi, mass specific) is useful for easy indirect estimation of other soil properties at a low cost. The aim of this study was to assess the use of chi as measured with an analytical balance for predicting properties with a substantial influence on the management of Typic Haplustalfs in southern Brazil. To achieve this 48 topsoil samples were taken at the intersection points in a rectangular grid of 20 m x 20 m cells, with 38 of these used for calibration and 10 for validation in regression analyses. The obtained chi values were slightly higher than, and highly correlated (r = 0.970; P < 0.001) with those measured with a susceptibility meter. Highly significant (P < 0.001) correlations were also found between chi and other soil properties relevant to soil classification and management such as clay content (r = 0.68), cation exchange capacity (r = 0.62), P sorption capacity (r = 0.76) and haematite content (r = 0.82). Results from a principal component analysis of eight properties important for soil classification explained 11% of the variance in the data set. The good predictive ability of chi was consistent with current knowledge on the formation pathways for pedogenic ferrimagnets. In summary, chi, which can be readily measured with an analytical balance, has the potential for quantifying soil attributes and may therefore be used in pedotransfer functions.

A device to improve the Schleger and Turner method for sweating rate measurements

The objective of this study was to test a device developed to improve the functionality, accuracy and precision of the original technique for sweating rate measurements proposed by Schleger and Turner [Schleger AV, Turner HG (1965) Aust J Agric Res 16:92-106]. A device was built for this purpose and tested against the original Schleger and Turner technique. Testing was performed by measuring sweating rates in an experiment involving six Mertolenga heifers subjected to four different thermal levels in a climatic chamber. The device exhibited no functional problems and the results obtained with its use were more consistent than with the Schleger and Turner technique. There was no difference in the reproducibility of the two techniques (same accuracy), but measurements performed with the new device had lower repeatability, corresponding to lower variability and, consequently, to higher precision. When utilizing this device, there is no need for physical contact between the operator and the animal to maintain the filter paper discs in position. This has important advantages: the animals stay quieter, and several animals can be evaluated simultaneously. This is a major advantage because it allows more measurements to be taken in a given period of time, increasing the precision of the observations and diminishing the error associated with temporal hiatus (e.g., the solar angle during field studies). The new device has higher functional versatility when taking measurements in large-scale studies (many animals) under field conditions. The results obtained in this study suggest that the technique using the device presented here could represent an advantageous alternative to the original technique described by Schleger and Turner.

Stepped light-induced transient measurements of photocurrent and voltage in dye-sensitized solar cells based on ZnO and ZnO:Ga

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

NDACC/SAOZ UV-visible total ozone measurements: improved retrieval and comparison with correlative ground-based and satellite observations

Accurate long-term monitoring of total ozone is one of the most important requirements for identifying possible natural or anthropogenic changes in the composition of the stratosphere. For this purpose, the NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change) UV-visible Working Group has made recommendations for improving and homogenizing the retrieval of total ozone columns from twilight zenith-sky visible spectrometers. These instruments, deployed all over the world in about 35 stations, allow measuring total ozone twice daily with limited sensitivity to stratospheric temperature and cloud cover. The NDACC recommendations address both the DOAS spectral parameters and the calculation of air mass factors (AMF) needed for the conversion of O-3 slant column densities into vertical column amounts. The most important improvement is the use of O-3 AMF look-up tables calculated using the TOMS V8 (TV8) O-3 profile climatology, that allows accounting for the dependence of the O-3 AMF on the seasonal and latitudinal variations of the O-3 vertical distribution. To investigate their impact on the retrieved ozone columns, the recommendations have been applied to measurements from the NDACC/SAOZ (Systeme d'Analyse par Observation Zenithale) network. The revised SAOZ ozone data from eight stations deployed at all latitudes have been compared to TOMS, GOMEGDP4, SCIAMACHY-TOSOMI, SCIAMACHY-OL3, OMI-TOMS, and OMI-DOAS satellite overpass observations, as well as to those of collocated Dobson and Brewer instruments at Observatoire de Haute Provence (44 degrees N, 5.5 degrees E) and Sodankyla (67 degrees N, 27 degrees E), respectively. A significantly better agreement is obtained between SAOZ and correlative reference ground-based measurements after applying the new O-3 AMFs. However, systematic seasonal differences between SAOZ and satellite instruments remain. These are shown to mainly originate from (i) a possible problem in the satellite retrieval algorithms in dealing with the temperature dependence of the ozone cross-sections in the UV and the solar zenith angle (SZA) dependence, (ii) zonal modulations and seasonal variations of tropospheric ozone columns not accounted for in the TV8 profile climatology, and (iii) uncertainty on the stratospheric ozone profiles at high latitude in the winter in the TV8 climatology. For those measurements mostly sensitive to stratospheric temperature like TOMS, OMI-TOMS, Dobson and Brewer, or to SZA like SCIAMACHY-TOSOMI, the application of temperature and SZA corrections results in the almost complete removal of the seasonal difference with SAOZ, improving significantly the consistency between all ground-based and satellite total ozone observations.

Aerosol and precipitation chemistry measurements in a remote site in Central Amazonia: the role of biogenic contribution

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

Electron time-of-flight measurements in sulfur interpreted via an extra surface mobility channel

Time-of-flight measurements were carried out in orthorhombic sulfur for various fields, ranging from -2 to -20 kV/cm. No dependence of the mobility with the electric field was found but the current, normalized by the initial current, showed an electric field dependence at small times, decaying faster for larger electric field. After the failure of the usual models in explaining the resultsincluding the assumption of depth-dependent density of trapsa model assuming an extra mobility channel near the surface provided a reasonable set of parameters independent of the electric field. The measurements were carried out at 8.5, 29, 53, 68, and 79°C. © 1988 The American Physical Society.

Determination of density of states in PPS from space-charge-limited current measurements

Space-charge-limited currents measurements have been carried out on undoped amorphous poly p-phenylene sulfide. The scaling law is checked for different samples with varying thickness, and J-V data analyzed. The position of the quasi-Fermi level and the density of states was obtained.

Time-resolved Z-scan and thermal lens measurements in Er+3 and Nd+3 doped fluoroindate glasses

In rare earth ion doped solids, a resonant non-linear refractive index, n2, appears when the laser pumps one of the ion excited states and the refractive index change is proportional to the excited state population. In these solids there are usually thermal and non-thermal lensing effects, where the non-thermal one is due to the polarizability difference, Δα, between excited and ground states of the ions. We have used the time resolved Z-scan and a mode-mismatched thermal lens technique with an Ar+ ion laser in Er+3 (20ZnF2-20SrF2-2NaF-16BaF2-6GaF3-(36 - x)InF3-xErF3, with x= 1, 2, 3 and 4 mol%) and Nd+3 (20SrF2-16BaF2-20ZnF2-2GdF3-2NaF-(40 - x)InF3-xNdF3, with x = 0.1, 0.25, 0.5-1 mol%) doped fluoroindate glasses. In both samples we found that the non-linear refraction is due to the thermal effect, while the non-thermal effect is negligible. This result indicates that in fluoride glasses Δα is very small (less than 10-26 cm3). We also measured the imaginary part of the non-linear refractive index (n″2) due to absorption saturation.

SAXS measurements of the porosity in Cu(II)-doped SnO2 xerogels during crystallization

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)