Panama City Fisheries Resources Office: FY 2002 Annual Report

HIGHLIGHTS FOR FY 2002 1. United States Senator Bob Graham assisted with a Gulf sturgeon survey. 2. Completed 3-year Gulf sturgeon population study in the Choctawhatchee River drainage. 3. Completed Gulf sturgeon potential spawning habitat survey for Northwest Florida and Southeast Alabama river systems. 4. Initiated Gulf sturgeon marine habitat and food resources study. 5. Completed Gulf sturgeon sentinel fish study. 6. Coordinated and conducted tagging of over 110,000 Phase II striped bass at Welaka and Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery. 7. Completed Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge fishery sampling. 8. Developed a manuscript regarding the fishery of Banks Lake NWR. 9. Initiated development of a fish Index of Biotic Integrity for Florida panhandle streams. 10. Coordinated Okaloosa darter workshop. 11. Continued examining insect communities on Eglin AFB. 12. Sponsored and coordinated stream restoration workshop. 13. Provided technical assistance via Partners for Fish and Wildlife for stream restoration within the Northeast Gulf Ecosystem. 14. Finalized regional curve development in the Northern Region of Florida and secured significant funds for FY03 to expand to other regions in Florida. 15. Initiated freshwater mussel conservation in the Northeastern Gulf Ecosystem.

STUDIES ON THE PURIFICATION AND RECLAMATION OF WASTE-WATER FROM A MEDIUM-SIZED CITY BY AN INTEGRATED BIOLOGICAL POND SYSTEM

The feasibility of an inexpensive wastewater treatment system is evaluated in this study. An integrated biological pond system was operated for more than 3 years to purify the wastewater from a medium-sized city, Central China. The experiment was conducted in 3 phases with different treatment combinations for testing their purification efficiencies. The pond system was divided into 3 functional regions: influent purification, effluent upgrading and multi-utilization. These regions were further divided into several zones and subzones. Various kinds of aquatic organisms, including macrophytes, algae, microorganisms and zooplankton, were effectively cooperating in the wastewater treatment in this system. The system attained high reductions of BOD5, COD, TSS, TN, TP and other pollutants. The purification efficiencies of this system were higher than those of most traditional oxidation ponds or ordinary macrophyte ponds. The mutagenic effect and numbers of bacteria and viruses declined significantly during the process of purification. After the wastewater flowed through the upgrading zone, the concentrations of pollutants and algae evidently decreased. Plant harvesting did not yield dramatic effects on reductions of the main pollutants, though it did significantly affect the biomass productivity of the macrophytes. The effluent from this system could be utilized in irrigation and aquaculture. Some aquatic products were harvested from this system and some biomass was utilized for food, fertilizer, fodder and some other uses. The wastewater was reclaimed for various purposes.

The Postmodern Non-city in Miquel de Palol’s "El Jardí del Set Crepuscles"

El Jardí del Set Crepuscles –primera novela del escritor y arquitecto catalán Miquel de Palol– nos brinda la oportunidad de reflexionar acerca de la metamorfosis experimentada por la ciudad occidental a principios de los años setenta del siglo pasado. De acuerdo con autores como Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, Giandomenico Amendola o Edward Soja, el surgimiento de la ciudad posmoderna en el marco de la transición hacia el modo de acumulación postfordista se presenta acompañado por un debilitamiento del tejido social y de la esfera pública y cívica. El objetivo del presente artículo es ilustrar las estrategias narrativas y retóricas con las que el texto de Miquel de Palol representa, y analiza, dicho fenómeno.

The influence of materialism on consumption indebtedness in the context of low income consumers from the city of São Paulo

This research is in the domains of materialism, consumer vulnerability and consumption indebtedness, concepts frequently approached in the literature on consumer behavior, macro-marketing and economic psychology. The influence of materialism on consumer indebtedness is investigated within a context that is characterized by poverty and by factors that cause vulnerability, such as high interest rates, limited access to credit and to quality affordable goods. The objectives of this research are: to produce a materialism scale that is well adapted to its environment, characterizing materialism adequately for the population studied; to compare results obtained with results of other studies; and to measure the relationship between materialism, socio-demographic variables, attitude to debt and consumption indebtedness. The primary data used in the analyses were collected from field research carried out in August, 2005 that relied on a probabilistic household sample of 450 low income individuals who live in poor regions of the city of Sao Paulo. The materialism scale, adapted and translated into Portuguese from Richins (2004), proved to be very successful and encourages new work in the area. It was noted that younger adults tend to be more materialistic than older ones; that illiterate adults tend to be less materialistic than those who did literacy courses when they were already adults; and that gender, income and race are not associated with the materialism construct. Among the other results, a logistic regression model was developed in order to distinguish those individuals who have an installment plan payment booklet from those who do not, based on materialism, socio-demographic variables and purchasing and consumer habits. The proposed model confirms materialism as a behavioral variable useful for forecasting the probability of an individual getting into debt in order to consume, in some cases almost doubling the chance of occurrence of this event. Findings confirm the thesis that it is not only adverse economic factors that lead people to get into debt; and that the study of demand for credit for consumption purposes must, of necessity, include variables of a psychological nature. It is suggested that the low income materialistic consumer experiences feelings of powerlessness and exclusion because of the gap that exists between their possessions and their desires. Lines of conduct to combat this marginalization from the consumer society are drawn targeting marketing professionals, public policy makers and vulnerability researchers. Finally, the possibility of new studies involving the materialism construct, which is central to literature on consumer behavior, albeit little used in empirical studies in Brazil, are discussed.

Uranium levels in the diet of São Paulo City residents

Natural levels of uranium in the diet of São Paulo City residents were studied, and radionuclide concentrations were measured by the fission track method on samples of typical adult food items. This information was used to evaluate the daily intake of uranium in individuals living in São Paulo City which is, according to our findings, around 0.97 mu g U/day. Using the ICRP Uranium-model, we estimated the uranium accumulation and committed doses in some tissues and organs, as function of time. We compared the output of the ICRP uranium biokinetic model, tailored for the conditions prevailing in São Paulo, with experimental data from other localities. Such comparison was possible by means of a simple method we developed, which allows normalization among experimental results from different regions where distinct values of chronic daily intake are observed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incidence of Leptospirosis infection in the East Zone of Sao Paulo City, Brazil

Background: Leptospirosis is a zoonosis which is spread through contamined running water. This contaminations is seriously affected by the flooding which occurs in the area surrounding the Aricanduva river. The transmission of the disease results mainly from the contact of water with soil contaminated by the urine of infected animals. We aimed to conduct an epidemiological survey on Leptospirosis cases in Sao Paulo East Zone area. Method. The analysis conducted in this study was based on data collected from the health authorities of that region close the Aricanduva river between 2007 and 2008 years, which give the rates of confirmed cases, mortality and death from human Leptospirosis. Other information concerned with the relationships among rainfall index, points of flooding and incidence of Leptospirosis. Results: We observed a direct and important water contamination. Records of flooding points and dates of the reported cases in the region showed a direct relationship from which the period of higher rainfall also recorded an increase in cases. The annual record of the city and the region and rainfall regions also presented correlation. Conclusion: The association between the indices of flooding and Leptospirosis cases indicates that preventive measures are necessary to avoid exposing the community. © 2013 Miyazato et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Using phenology to assess urban heat islands in tropical and temperate regions

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Power laws, Discontinuities and Regional City Size Distributions

Urban systems are manifestations of human adaptation to the natural environment. City size distributions are the expression of hierarchical processes acting upon urban systems. In this paper, we test the entire city size distributions for the southeastern and southwestern United States (1990), as well as the size classes in these regions for power law behavior. We interpret the differences in the size of the regional city size distributions as the manifestation of variable growth dynamics dependent upon city size. Size classics in the city size distributions are snapshots of stable states within urban systems in flux.

Biomonitoring of coastal regions of So Paulo State, Brazil, using mussels Perna perna

The marine environment is constantly affected by anthropic actions, with causes consequent degradation of the waters and marine biota by various discharges of xenobiotics. In the present study, the focus was the study of a region of the marine coast of the State of So Paulo (city of Santos), which is one of the most industrialized parts of Brazil and suffers also from a strong impact of domestic effluents. The mussel Perna perna, very abundant in the coast of the State of So Paulo, Brazil, was selected as the biomonitoring organism for the determination of inorganic elements and a passive biomonitoring was performed. The organisms were collected at two sites in So Paulo State coast: Cocanha beach in Caraguatatuba (mussel farm) and Santos Bay (Itaipu and Palmas). Seasonally, the Perna perna were collected between September/08 and July/09 in each study sites. After removal and sample preparation, the elements As, Co, Cr, Fe, Se and Zn were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and Cd, Pb and Hg were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) in this organism.

Prevalence of celiac disease among blood donors in Sao Paulo - the most populated city in Brazil

OBJECTIVE: Celiac disease is a permanent enteropathy caused by the ingestion of gluten, which leads to an immune-mediated inflammation of the small intestine mucosa. The prevalence of celiac disease varies among different nations and ethnic backgrounds, and its diversity is determined by genetic and environmental factors. Sao Paulo city is one of the largest cities in the world, with a vast population and an important history of internal migratory flow from other Brazilian regions, as well as immigration from other, primarily European, countries, resulting in significant miscegenation. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of adults with undiagnosed celiac disease among blood donors of Sao Paulo by collecting information on the ancestry of the population studied. METHODS: The prevalence of celiac disease was assessed by screening for positive IgA transglutaminase and IgA endomysium antibodies in 4,000 donors (volunteers) in the Fundacao Pro-Sangue Blood Center of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. The antibody-positive subjects were asked to undergo a small bowel biopsy. RESULTS: Of the 4,000 subjects, twenty-four had positive tests, although both antibody tests were not always concordant. For example, ten subjects were positive for IgA tissue transglutaminase only. In twenty-one positive patients, duodenal biopsies were performed, and the diagnosis of celiac disease was confirmed in fourteen patients (Marsh criteria modified by Oberhuber). In this group, 67% claimed to have European ancestry, mainly from Italy, Portugal and Spain. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of celiac disease is at least 1: 286 among supposedly healthy blood bank volunteers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Incidence of Leptospirosis infection in the East Zone of Sao Paulo City, Brazil

Abstract Background Leptospirosis is a zoonosis which is spread through contamined running water. This contaminations is seriously affected by the flooding which occurs in the area surrounding the Aricanduva river. The transmission of the disease results mainly from the contact of water with soil contaminated by the urine of infected animals. We aimed to conduct an epidemiological survey on Leptospirosis cases in Sao Paulo East Zone area. Method The analysis conducted in this study was based on data collected from the health authorities of that region close the Aricanduva river between 2007 and 2008 years, which give the rates of confirmed cases, mortality and death from human Leptospirosis. Other information concerned with the relationships among rainfall index, points of flooding and incidence of Leptospirosis. Results We observed a direct and important water contamination. Records of flooding points and dates of the reported cases in the region showed a direct relationship from which the period of higher rainfall also recorded an increase in cases. The annual record of the city and the region and rainfall regions also presented correlation. Conclusion The association between the indices of flooding and Leptospirosis cases indicates that preventive measures are necessary to avoid exposing the community.

Prevalence of celiac disease among blood donors in São Paulo: the most populated city in Brazil

OBJECTIVE: Celiac disease is a permanent enteropathy caused by the ingestion of gluten, which leads to an immunemediated inflammation of the small intestine mucosa. The prevalence of celiac disease varies among different nations and ethnic backgrounds, and its diversity is determined by genetic and environmental factors. São Paulo city is one of the largest cities in the world, with a vast population and an important history of internal migratory flow from other Brazilian regions, as well as immigration from other, primarily European, countries, resulting in significant miscegenation. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of adults with undiagnosed celiac disease among blood donors of São Paulo by collecting information on the ancestry of the population studied. METHODS: The prevalence of celiac disease was assessed by screening for positive IgA transglutaminase and IgA endomysium antibodies in 4,000 donors (volunteers) in the Fundação Pró-Sangue Blood Center of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. The antibody-positive subjects were asked to undergo a small bowel biopsy. RESULTS: Of the 4,000 subjects, twenty-four had positive tests, although both antibody tests were not always concordant. For example, ten subjects were positive for IgA tissue transglutaminase only. In twenty-one positive patients, duodenal biopsies were performed, and the diagnosis of celiac disease was confirmed in fourteen patients (Marsh criteria modified by Oberhuber). In this group, 67% claimed to have European ancestry, mainly from Italy, Portugal and Spain. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of celiac disease is at least 1:286 among supposedly healthy blood bank volunteers in São Paulo, Brazil.

Mortality and morbidity in the city of Bern, Switzerland, 1805-1815 with special emphasis on infant, child and maternal deaths

This article contributes to the research on demographics and public health of urban populations of preindustrial Europe. The key source is a burial register that contains information on the deceased, such as age and sex, residence and cause of death. This register is one of the earliest compilations of data sets of individuals with this high degree of completeness and consistency. Critical assessment of the register's origin, formation and upkeep promises high validity and reliability. Between 1805 and 1815, 4,390 deceased inhabitants were registered. Information concerning these individuals provides the basis for this study. Life tables of Bern's population were created using different models. The causes of death were classified and their frequency calculated. Furthermore, the susceptibility of age groups to certain causes of death was established. Special attention was given to causes of death and mortality of newborns, infants and birth-giving women. In comparison to other cities and regions in Central Europe, Bern's mortality structure shows low rates for infants (q0=0.144) and children (q1-4=0.068). This could have simply indicated better living conditions. Life expectancy at birth was 43 years. Mortality was high in winter and spring, and decreased in summer to a low level with a short rise in August. The study of the causes of death was inhibited by difficulties in translating early 19th century nomenclature into the modern medical system. Nonetheless, death from metabolic disorders, illnesses of the respiratory system, and debilitation were the most prominent causes in Bern. Apparently, the worst killer of infants up to 12 months was the "gichteren", an obsolete German term for lethal spasmodic convulsions. The exact modern identification of this disease remains unclear. Possibilities such as infant tetanus or infant epilepsy are discussed. The maternal death rate of 0.72% is comparable with values calculated from contemporaneous sources. Relevance of childbed fever in the early 1800s was low. Bern's data indicate that the extent of deaths related to childbirth in this period is overrated. This research has an explicit interdisciplinary value for various fields including both the humanities and natural sciences, since information reported here represents the complete age and sex structure of a deceased population. Physical anthropologists can use these data as a true reference group for their palaeodemographic studies of preindustrial Central Europe of the late 18th and early 19th century. It is a call to both historians and anthropologists to use our resources to a better effect through combination of methods and exchange of knowledge.

Defining and measuring urban regions: A sensitivity analysis

This paper evaluates the impact of alternative city boundary definitions on economic performance. First we discuss the theoretical background and motivate the empirical work. Then we present the methodological concept of the sensitivity analysis, which will be applied to a variety of data of Zurich and Bern (the financial and the administrative centres of Switzerland) in order to see how the values of different indicators vary depending on the definition adopted. Finally we will show whether the empirical patterns found are statistically significant. The analysis shows, that the delimitation of a city or city region indeed matters.