Trigona spinipes (Fabr.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) em espécies de maracujazeiro: flutuação populacional, horário de visitação e danos às flores

Avaliou-se a infestação, flutuação populacional e horário de visitação de Trigona spinipes (Fabr.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) em espécies de maracujazeiro. As espécies utilizadas foram Passiflora coccinea, P. setacea, P. alata, P. edulis f. flavicarpa, P. laurifolia e P. nitida, aos três anos de idade. O ensaio foi conduzido em parcelas de 1,5 m de comprimento, avaliando-se os dois lados da espaldeira, considerando-se apenas o 0,5 m superior desta e totalizando, para os dois lados, a área de 1,5 m². Avaliaram-se os seguintes parâmetros: número de irapuás e porcentagem de dano nos botões florais, flores, frutos, ramos, folhas e pedúnculos. Para a determinação do horário de visitação, foi utilizada P. coccinea, sendo as avaliações realizadas às 9:00h, 12:00h e 15:00h. A correlação entre o número médio de T. spinipes presentes nas flores de espécies de maracujazeiro e a porcentagem de danos foi positiva e significativa (r = 0,99). em nenhuma das observações efetuadas, constatou-se a presença de T. spinipes nos botões florais, frutos, ramos, folhas ou pedúnculos das espécies de maracujazeiro, não ocorrendo danos nessas estruturas. Esse resultado sugere que as abelhas são atraídas pelas flores ocasionando danos nessas estruturas, provavelmente, por utilizar o tecido floral ou resinas contidas neste para a construção de ninhos. P. coccinea foi a espécie mais danificada por T. spinipes, apresentando suscetibilidade ao ataque desse inseto. Os horários de maior incidência de T. spinipes foram 9:00h e 12:00h, ocorrendo decréscimo significativo no número de abelhas por flor às 15:00h. Constatou-se maior infestação de T. spinipes nas flores das plantas de maracujá nos meses de outubro a novembro, coincidindo com a primavera, em Jaboticabal, SP.

Não-preferência para oviposição e alimentação de Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith, 1797) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) por cultivares de amendoim.

This study aimed to select peanut cultivars resistant to Spodoptera frugiperda, selecting non-oviposition and non-feeding preference in choice and no-choice tests. Peanut cultivars with upright growth habit (IAC 5, IAC 8112, IAC 22 and IAC Tatu ST) and runner growth habit (IAC 503, IAC 505, IAC 147, IAC 125, IAC Caiapo and IAC Runner 886) were evaluated. Tests of non-oviposition preference were conducted with newly emerged adults. Adults were fed a 10% honey solution, remaining in cages for 4 days until the start of the evaluations. The evaluations consisted of quantifying the number of eggs and egg masses, followed by calculating the number of eggs per egg mass. To perform non-feeding preference tests, leaf discs from different peanut cultivars were placed in disposable Petri dishes followed by releasing of a third-instar caterpillar for each cultivar. The attractiveness at 1, 5; 10, 15, 30, 60, 120, 360, 720 and 1,440 minutes was evaluated by counting the caterpillars that were feeding on cultivars. The leaf area consumed was evaluated at the end of the experiment for each cultivar. In the tests of non-oviposition and non-feeding preference, with choice or no-choice, none of the cultivars of the upright growth and runner growth habit influenced the oviposition or food of S. frugiperda. Thus, the peanut cultivars showed no resistance of the non-feeding and non-oviposition types.

Esporos de Clostridium botulinum em mel comercializado no Estado de São Paulo e em outros Estados brasileiros

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Superação de dormência de sementes de Piptadenia moniliformis Benth

O angico-de-bezerro (Piptadenia moniliformis Benth.) é uma espécie arbórea melífera, de crescimento rápido, característica da caatinga do nordeste brasileiro, onde é muito abundante e com dispersão contígua e irregular. Seus ramos finos, junto com as folhas, servem como alimento para animais. Como suas sementes apresentam dormência por impermeabilidade do tegumento à água, objetivou-se neste trabalho avaliar a eficiência de tratamentos pré-germinativos para superar a dormência de suas sementes visando maximizar e uniformizar o processo de germinação. Foram estudados 28 tratamentos pré-germinativos: imersão em água a 70, 80, 90 ºC e fervente por 1, 2, 3, 4 e 5 minutos e imersão em ácido sulfúrico concentrado por 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 e 30 minutos, além da testemunha. A semeadura foi realizada sobre papel em temperatura alternada de 20-30 ºC, utilizando-se quatro repetições de 25 sementes. Foram avaliadas as porcentagens de germinação das sementes considerando a protrusão da raiz primária, de plântulas normais e de sementes duras e o índice de velocidade de germinação. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado e as médias comparadas pelo teste de Scott-Knott a 5% de probabilidade. Os tratamentos de imersão em água, independentemente da temperatura e do período de imersão, aumentaram a porcentagem de germinação das sementes, comparativamente ao tratamento controle, mas foram menos eficientes que os tratamentos em ácido sulfúrico nos maiores períodos de imersão. Desta forma, a imersão por 20, 25 e 30 minutos em ácido sulfúrico é recomendada para a superação da dormência de sementes de Piptadenia moniliformis Benth.

Temperatura e substrato para a germinação de sementes de Piptadenia moniliformis Benth.

In germination tests, substrate and ideal temperature are important for providing favorable conditions for the germination of seeds and the eventual development of seedlings. This research aimed at evaluating the effects of temperature and substrate on the germination of Piptadenia moniliformis Benth seeds. Two trials were done. In the first, seeds were submitted to germination under constant temperatures of 5 to 40 degrees C (increases of 5 degrees C) and alternated temperatures of 20-25, 25-30, 30-35, 20-30, 25-35 and 20-35 degrees C on paper. In the second trial, temperatures of 25, 20-30 e 20-35 degrees C were used in the substrates on (OP) and between paper (BP), on (OS) and between sand (BS), on (0V) and between vermiculite (BV) and paper roll (PR). The following traits were evaluated: percentage of seeds with protrusion of primary root and normal seedlings; speed germination index; length of primary root and of the hypocotyls and the dry mass of seedlings. A completely randomized design was used with 14 treatments. In the first experiment and a factorial scheme of 7 x 3 (7 substrates and 3 temperatures) was used in the second with four replicates of 25 seeds each. In the first experiment the constant temperatures of 25 e 30 degrees C and the alternated of 20-30 e 20-35 degrees C provided best results for the germination of seeds. In the second, the temperature of 25 C associated with the substrates BP, BS and BV surpassed the other treatments proving adequate for carrying out the germination tests of Piptadenia moniliformis Benth seeds.

A expansão da agroindústria do mel no Rio Grande do Norte

The beekeeping activity has become in all regions of Brazil until the early 80s and from 2000 to beekeeping Northeast also has developed, becoming a major oil producing honey. The Rio Grande do Norte following these developments happened to occupy fourth place in the ranking of export of honey between the states of the Northeast in 2007. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a macro radiography of recent developments in the production chain of honey in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, organizing and discussing the information, collected in the period 2004 to 2007, as well as evaluating the prospect of the honey industry in order to provide a diagnosis able to identify opportunities and enhance the marketing of their products. From the methodological point of view, this study can be classified as a research study exploratory and descriptive by using questionnaires. The group of several studies has been productivity, production and market. Search results indicated the growth of industry in 4 years of activity by the number of beehives full and populated, infrastructure, production and marketing of the state. It can be said that beekeeping of Rio Grande do Norte, despite its potential for developing the activity comes in a different way when compared to other activities, because the actors who play to start the activity through training and to play with it in a professional manner, in addition to support staff who work in the industry

Estratégia de produçãp agroindustrial :um estudo dos fatores que afetam a exportação do mel

This thesis approaches the situation of small and medium Brazilian companies facing the exportation process, focusing honey (Apis Mellifera). The world economy has had growing market internationalization, known as globalization. In this context, the exportation has to be faced as a way to minimize the inner market difficulties and increase the levels of quality and productivity to attend the external markets in a competitive way. A company exportation process is not linked to its dimensions, but connected to the commitment with quality, creativity and professionalism. The search for new productive frontiers has benefited Brazilian beekeeper, mainly the northeast ones. Besides, the claim for products that are free of chemical remains, with a bigger aggregate value has increased every day, and the Apismel Company is benefited for having potential to produce organic honey. This paper approaches a case study realized with Sixty-nine beekeeper from Serra do Mel, RN, that make the Apismel Company and it aims to investigate the competitive factors that affects honey exportation. In order to obtain subsidies to execute the objective of this work, it was chosen a questionnaire as instrument of research. The questionnaire was structured from variables that were considered as directions of competition in honey exportation. The results were tabled in Software (Statistics version 11.0). The descriptive, exploiter and Kolmogorov-Smirnov analyses were used to analyze the obtained results. At the end, this work recommends that the Apismel Company promote capacitating courses and technical consultations at the many villages that make the county, to ripen and add efficiency in handling implementation in order to equilibrate production factors and to attract inner and external markets

Gestão agroindustrial: um estudo sobre o modelo SEBRAE-RN de produção de mel de abelha no Rio Grande do Norte

The present study makes an analysis of the Development Program of Beekeeping on Rio Grande do Norte, evaluating the model of management implanted for the SEBRAE/RN in the production of bee honey in Rio Grande do Norte; on the basis of the annual reports emitted by the company in 2003, 2004 and 2005 a discerning survey is done in order to identify to the positive points and the possible imperfections that need to be readjusted, or to be substituted for the success of the program; a bibliographical study of the main authors of the subject with the purpose to gound the study, necessary base for the good performance of this work; the study made with the reports identifies some readjustments that need to be corrected, that will be suggested in the end of this study. However the work developed for the SEBRAE/RN is of good quality and the identified negative points do not compromise the good performance of the program, but it can delay the success desired; Despite the studied reports being inconsistent in some points, it can be identified significant improvements with the result of the work developed for the SEBRAE/RN, among others the creation of financial alternatives for the agriculturists who deal with the beekeeping, the employment, income and development of the enterprising capacity of the producers. However, is verified that it would have to exist more efficient ways that made possible a bigger interaction among the managers of the program and the participant public so that the continuous and necessary improvements were made to any well guided project

Otimização de superfícies seletivas de frequência com elementos pré-fractais utilizando rede neural MLP e algoritmos de busca populacional

This thesis describes design methodologies for frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) composed of periodic arrays of pre-fractals metallic patches on single-layer dielectrics (FR4, RT/duroid). Shapes presented by Sierpinski island and T fractal geometries are exploited to the simple design of efficient band-stop spatial filters with applications in the range of microwaves. Initial results are discussed in terms of the electromagnetic effect resulting from the variation of parameters such as, fractal iteration number (or fractal level), fractal iteration factor, and periodicity of FSS, depending on the used pre-fractal element (Sierpinski island or T fractal). The transmission properties of these proposed periodic arrays are investigated through simulations performed by Ansoft DesignerTM and Ansoft HFSSTM commercial softwares that run full-wave methods. To validate the employed methodology, FSS prototypes are selected for fabrication and measurement. The obtained results point to interesting features for FSS spatial filters: compactness, with high values of frequency compression factor; as well as stable frequency responses at oblique incidence of plane waves. This thesis also approaches, as it main focus, the application of an alternative electromagnetic (EM) optimization technique for analysis and synthesis of FSSs with fractal motifs. In application examples of this technique, Vicsek and Sierpinski pre-fractal elements are used in the optimal design of FSS structures. Based on computational intelligence tools, the proposed technique overcomes the high computational cost associated to the full-wave parametric analyzes. To this end, fast and accurate multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network models are developed using different parameters as design input variables. These neural network models aim to calculate the cost function in the iterations of population-based search algorithms. Continuous genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and bees algorithm (BA) are used for FSSs optimization with specific resonant frequency and bandwidth. The performance of these algorithms is compared in terms of computational cost and numerical convergence. Consistent results can be verified by the excellent agreement obtained between simulations and measurements related to FSS prototypes built with a given fractal iteration

Bee communities (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) of the Cerrado ecosystem in São Paulo State, Brazil

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

Efeito Peltier em estruturas semicondutoras quasiperiódicas

There is nowadays a growing demand for located cooling and stabilization in optical and electronic devices, haul of portable systems of cooling that they allow a larger independence in several activities. The modules of thermoelectrical cooling are bombs of heat that use efect Peltier, that consists of the production of a temperature gradient when an electric current is applied to a thermoelectrical pair formed by two diferent drivers. That efect is part of a class of thermoelectrical efcts that it is typical of junctions among electric drivers. The modules are manufactured with semiconductors. The used is the bismuth telluride Bi2Te3, arranged in a periodic sequence. In this sense the idea appeared of doing an analysis of a system that obeys the sequence of Fibonacci. The sequence of Fibonacci has connections with the golden proportion, could be found in the reproductive study of the bees, in the behavior of the light and of the atoms, as well as in the growth of plants and in the study of galaxies, among many other applications. An apparatus unidimensional was set up with the objective of investigating the thermal behavior of a module that obeys it a rule of growth of the type Fibonacci. The results demonstrate that the modules that possess periodic arrangement are more eficient

Efeitos do tratamento com Hidrogel na cicatrização de úlceras venosas de membros inferiores: revisão sistemática

Chronic venous disease (CVD) is evident among the chronic diseases and affects the elderly population and primarily is responsible for leg ulcers in this population. The use of dressings in the care of a venous ulcer is a fundamental part of the treatment for healing, however, evidence to assist in choosing the best dressing is scarce. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment with hydrogel in the healing of venous ulcers using search methods, synthesis of information and statistical research through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Randomized controlled trials were selected in the following databases: CENTRAL; DARE; NHS EED; MEDLINE; EMBASE; CINAHL. Beyond these databases three websites were consulted to identify ongoing studies: ClinicalTrials.gov, OMS ICTRP e ISRCTN. The primary outcomes were analyzed: complete wound healing, incidence of wound infection and the secondary were: changes in ulcer size, time to ulcer healing, recurrence of ulcer, quality of life of participants, pain and costs of treatment. Four studies are currently included in the review with a total of 250 participants. The use of hydrogel appears to be superior to conventional dressing, gauze soaked in saline, for the healing of venous leg ulcers; 16/30 patients showed complete healing of ulcers (RR 5,33, 95%CI [1,73,16,42]). The alginate gel was shown to be more effective when compared to the hydrogel dressing in reduction of the wound area; 61,2% (± 26,2%) with alginate e 19,4% (± 24,3%) with hydrogel at the end of four weeks of treatment. Manuka honey has shown to be similar to the hydrogel dressings in percentage of area reduction. This review demonstrated that there is no evidence available about the effectiveness of the hydrogel compared to other types of dressings on the healing of venous leg ulcers of the lower limbs, thus demonstrating the need of future studies to assist health professionals in choosing the correct dressing.

Método multirresíduo para monitoramento de contaminação ambiental de pesticidas na região de Bauru (SP) usando mel como bio-indicador

The presence of residues of the major groups of pesticides (organohalogen, organophosphorous, pyrethroids and organonitrogen) in representative samples of honey produced in Bauru (state of São Paulo, Brazil) was investigated from 1999 through2004. A multiresidue method was applied to honey samples to determine 48 pesticides with recoveries ranging from 76 to 95%. The limits of detection found were lower than 10 µg/kg for GC-MS-SIM. The results indicated that most pesticides found in the samples belonged to the organohalogen and organonitrogen groups. Residues of malathion were detected in almost all of the samples in high concentration.

Sistema de agentes poligínicos para esteganálise de imagens digitais

In this work, we propose a multi agent system for digital image steganalysis, based on the poliginic bees model. Such approach aims to solve the problem of automatic steganalysis for digital media, with a case study on digital images. The system architecture was designed not only to detect if a file is suspicious of covering a hidden message, as well to extract the hidden message or information regarding it. Several experiments were performed whose results confirm a substantial enhancement (from 67% to 82% success rate) by using the multi-agent approach, fact not observed in traditional systems. An ongoing application using the technique is the detection of anomalies in digital data produced by sensors that capture brain emissions in little animals. The detection of such anomalies can be used to prove theories and evidences of imagery completion during sleep provided by the brain in visual cortex areas

Tropical dermatology: Venomous arthropods and human skin Part I. Insecta

Although many tropical insects carry infectious diseases, cutaneous injury can occur by other mechanisms, for example erucism (envenomation by caterpillars) or lepidopterism (dermatitis from moths). Pararama is a unique form of erucism seen in workers in contact with rubber trees in the Amazon, and it is caused by Premolis larvae, resulting in progressive periarticular fibrosis, ankylosis, and the loss of articulation. Ants and aquatic insects of the Belostomatidae family can cause painful bites and stings. Anaphylactic shock and death can result from the venom of bees and wasps. Beetles can cause vesicular dermatitis via cantharidin or paederin. Myiasis results from fly larvae (maggots) feeding on live or necrotic tissue of humans or other hosts, while New World screwworm fly larvae feed only on living tissue and burrow (ie, screw) more deeply when attempts are made to remove them. Tungiasis is characterized by very pruritic and painful papules and ulcers resulting from a Tunga flea penetrating the host's skin. Dermatologists should be able to diagnose and treat the cutaneous manifestations of these tropical insects and educate their patients on prevention. (J Am Acad Dermatol 2012; 67:339.e1-14.)