A simple method based on ICP-MS for estimation of background levels of arsenic, cadmium, copper, manganese, nickel, lead, and selenium in blood of the Brazillian population

Throughout the world, biomonitoring has become the standard for assessing exposure of individuals to toxic elements as well as for responding to serious environmental public health problems. However, extensive biomonitoring surveys require rapid and simple analytical methods. Thus, a simple and high-throughput method is proposed for the determination of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and selenium (Se) in blood samples by using inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICPMS). Prior to analysis, 200 ml of blood samples was mixed with 500 ml of 10% v/v tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solution, incubated for 10 min, and subsequently diluted to 10 ml with a solution containing 0.05% w/v ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) + 0.005% v/v Triton X-100. After that, samples were directly analyzed by ICP-MS (ELAN DRC II). Rhodium was selected as an internal standard with matrix-matching calibration. Method detection limits were 0.08, 0.04, 0.5, 0.09, 0.12, 0.04, and 0.1 mg//L for As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Se, respectively. Validation data are provided based on the analysis of blood samples from the trace elements inter-\comparison program operated by the Institut National de Santé Publique du Quebec, Canada. Additional validation was provided by the analysis of human blood samples by the proposed method and by using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The method was subsequently applied for the estimation of background metal blood values in the Brazilian population. In general, the mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Se in blood were 1.1, 0.4, 890, 9.6, 2.1, 65.4, and 89.3 mg/L, respectively, and are in agreement with other global populations. Influences of age, gender, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, and geographical variation on the values were also considered. Smoking habits influenced the levels of Cd in blood. The levels of Cu, Mn, and Pb were significantly correlated with gender, whereas Cu and Pb were significantly correlated with age. There were also interesting differences in Mn and Se levels in the population living in the north of Brazil compared to the south.

Estudo do comportamento em fadiga de um tubo de aço microligado, grau API 5L X70

This work focuses on a study on the fatigue behavior of a microalloyed steel API 5L X70, used in pipes lines to transport oil and gas. These types of steels have excellent mechanical resistance values and ductility and therefore increased their study driven by increased demand for oil and especially natural gas, which consequently raises the need to build new pipelines to transport these products. The oil extraction units, composed of the risers (pipelines connecting the oil well to the ship), are dimensioned to remain installed for periods of 20 to 30 years in the marine environment, a hostile environment for high pressure, corrosion, low temperatures and the stresses caused by the movement of water and tides. For analysis, the S-N (stress versus number of cycles) curves were obtained from data collected from bodies-of-proof cylindrical longitudinal, transverse and that one removed from the weld area of the pipe, tested in accordance with ASTM E466. Tensile tests were performed for characterizing the mechanical properties of the samples and welded joints, concluded that the values meet the specifications of the standard API 5L. To characterize microstructural material, also metallographic analysis was made of regions of the base metal and the HAZ. The results of fatigue tests demonstrated a higher life for the specimens removed from the longitudinal direction the pipe, followed by those in the transverse direction and, finally, the welded joint. The origins of the fatigue cracks were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

Chicken fat and inorganic nitrogen source for lipase production by Fusarium sp. (Gibberella fujikuroi complex)

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

Comunicação empresarial e relações públicas: a construção de relacionamentos no contexto do Facebook

Currently with the context of the Internet, especially on online social networks, it is observed that people and companies are establishing relationships both online and offline. The new digital culture and the competitiveness of the market are making companies change the way they communicate with their customers, providing a broader and more participative communication with their stakeholders. This resear chaims to understand the relation of corporate communication and Public Relations and from the conceptualization of the trials will detect the relationship processes of companies and their public in online social networks. Understand this type of relation ship is interesting because that, it is the field of the Public Relations professional. An area that grows in importance in today's market, since Facebook is being used as a channel of communication and relationship with consumers. The methodology used is exploratory research, in which, it aims to familiarize themselves with the subject and the possibility of analyzing three examples of relationships and engagement in the corporate communications field. In this case, the ranking of the top three companies, Coca-Cola, Guaraná Antarctica e Mc Donald's, in the Top Facebook Posts Brazil in January 2015. It is important that to have a Public Relations Professional that is able to create an open channel of communication on social networks with the purpose of detecting the characteristics of the target public and promote the participation of such public in the building of content and the innovative organization process. Therefore, it becomes an engaging and everlasting relationship

Changes in tri-methylation profile of lysines 4 and 27 of histone H3 in bovine blastocysts after cryopreservation

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

Produção, imobilização e aplicação de lipase de Fusarium verticillioides

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Efeito das diferentes direções de aplicação de jato de fluido de corte no torneamento de um aço de difícil usinagem

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Quantificação de metais potencialmente tóxicos em mexilhão dourado (Limnoperna fortunei) por espectrometria de absorção atômica com fonte contínua e alta resolução empregando amostragem direta de sólidos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A literatura no Ensino Fundamental - anos iniciais: entre o prazer emancipatório e o escolar pragmático

The Children's Literature is an invaluable tool for human formation, ethics, aesthetics and politics, as well as serves as an instrument for the formation of interdiscourse and transforms teaching procedures of text written production. Then, the investigation of how the literature is being worked in school. Therefore, in this work, constitutes the general objective, to investigate how the teaching of Children's Literature is organized in the early years of elementary school and if that organization promotes the development of literary literacy of the student, and language skills written and the reader behavior, making it critical on several topics. The question that served as a north to the research was the following one: is Teaching Children's Literature, in the early years of elementary school, organized to develop the literary literacy while acting as a catalyst tool for learning to read and write? Have been established the following objectives: a) describe how the teaching of children's literature is organized (teaching routine) in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th years of elementary school ; b) identify the literary genres that have worked in each school year, describe how they are worked out, analyze whether this work is related to the teaching of writing and the nature of that relation ship; c) verify if the Children's Literature teaching procedure seeks ways to articulate literary activities with the establishment of the interdiscourse as content for writing the textual production. The methodology that was included was the field research, from a qualitative interpretation approach and it had as direct data source the natural environment in which it was developed the teaching of Children's Literature. The work presents data results analyzed according to the concepts of Aesthetics of Reception (Iser, 1977; Jauss, 1977), and the functions of Literature, according to Candido (2000), Yasuda (2004), among others. From the results were extracted

Verissima et ivcvndissima descriptio..., de Ulrico Schmidl: literatura de viagem ou relato de viagem?

Pós-graduação em Letras - FCLAS

Refuge Update – November/December 2007, Volume 4, Number 6

Table of Contents: Celebrating 20 Years of Science on the M/ V Tiglax, page 5 Kevin Bell is honored as Captain of the largest ship operated by the National Wildlife Refuge System. Focus on…A River Runs Through It, pages 8-15 Rivers on refuges are managed for recreation, habitat restoration, water rights and sheer beauty. The Fight Against Giant Salvinia, page 18 Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Texas is fighting a weed that can travel three-quarters of a mile in 24 hours. Awards, page 21 From protecting the land to going “green,” awards recognize excellence.

Evaluation of operational SSM/I ice-concentration algorithms

The United States National Ice Center (NIC) provides weekly ice analyses of the Arctic and Antarctic using information from ice reconnaissance, ship reports and high-resolution satellite imagery. In cloud-covered areas and regions lacking imagery, the higher-resolution sources are augmented by ice concentrations derived from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSMII) passive-microwave imagery. However, the SSMII-derived ice concentrations are limited by low resolution and uncertainties in thin-ice regions. Ongoing research at NIC is attempting to improve the utility of these SSMII products for operational sea-ice analyses. The refinements of operational algorithms may also aid future scientific studies. Here we discuss an evaluation of the standard operational ice-concentration algorithm, Cal/Val, with a possible alternative, a modified NASA Team algorithm. The modified algorithm compares favorably with CallVal and is a substantial improvement over the standard NASA Team algorithm in thin-ice regions that are of particular interest to operational activities.

Baleen Whales: Conservation Issues and The Status Of The Most Endangered Populations

Most species of baleen whales were subject to intensive overexploitation by commercial whaling in this and previous centuries, and many populations were reduced to small fractions of their original sizes. Here, we review the status of baleen whale stocks, with an emphasis on those that are known or thought to be critically endangered. Current data suggest that, of the various threats potentially affecting baleen whales, only entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes may be significant at the population level, and then only in those populations which are already at critically low abundance. The impact of some problems (vessel harassment, and commercial or aboriginal whaling) is at present probably minor. For others (contaminants, habitat degradation, disease), existing data either indicate no immediate cause for concern, or are insufficient to permit an assessment. While the prospect for many baleen whales appears good, there are notable exceptions; populations that are of greatest concern are those suffering from low abundance and associated problems, including (in some cases) anthropogenic mortality. These include: all Northern Right Whales Eubalaena glacialis, Bowhead Whales Balaena mysticetus of the Okhotsk Sea and various eastern Arctic populations, western Gray Whales Eschrichtius robustus, and probably many Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus populations. We review the status of these populations and, where known, the issues potentially affecting their recovery. Although Humpback Whales Megaptera novaeangliae and Southern Right Whales Eubalaena australis were also heavily exploited by whaling, existing data indicate strong recovery in most studied populations of these species.

Cetacean Notes. I. Sei and Rorqual Whales on the Mississippi Coast, a Correction. II. A Dwarf Sperm Whale in Mississippi Sound and Its Helminth Parasites

I. Gunter and Christmas (1973) described the events leading to the stranding of a baleen whale on Ship Island, Mississippi, in 1968, giving the species as Balaenopteru physalus, the Rorqual. Unfortunately the identification was in error, but fortunately good photographs were shown. The underside of the tail was a splotched white, but there was no black margin. The specimen also had fewer throat and belly grooves than the Rorqual, as a comparison with True’s (1904) photograph shows. Dr. James Mead (in litt.) pointed out that the animal was a Sei Whale, Balaenoptera borealis. This remains a new Mississippi record and according to Lowery’s (1974) count, it is the fifth specimen reported from the Gulf of Mexico. The stranding of a sixth Sei Whale on Anclote Keys in the Gulf, west of Tarpon Springs, Florida on 30 May 1974, was reported in the newspapers and by the Smithsonian Institution (1974). II. Gunter, Hubbs and Beal (1955) gave measurements on a Pygmy Sperm Whale, Kogia breviceps, which stranded on Mustang Island on the Texas coast and commented upon the recorded variations of proportional measurements in this species. Then according to Raun, Hoese and Moseley (1970) these questions were resolved by Handley (1966), who showed that a second species, Kogia simus, the Dwarf Sperm Whale, is also present in the western North Atlantic. Handley’s argument is based on skull comparisons and it seems to be rather indubitable. According to Raun et al. (op. cit.), the stranding of a species of Kogia on Galveston Island recorded by Caldwell, Ingles and Siebenaler (1960) was K. simus. They also say that Caldwell (in litt.) had previously come to the same conclusion. Caldwell et al. also recorded another specimen from Destin, Florida, which is now considered to have been a specimen of simus. The known status of these two little sperm whales in the Gulf is summarized by Lowery (op. cit.).

Estimating abundance of killer whales in the nearshore waters of the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands using line-transect sampling

Killer whale (Orcinus orca Linnaeus, 1758) abundance in the North Pacific is known only for a few populations for which extensive longitudinal data are available, with little quantitative data from more remote regions. Line-transect ship surveys were conducted in July and August of 2001–2003 in coastal waters of the western Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Conventional and Multiple Covariate Distance Sampling methods were used to estimate the abundance of different killer whale ecotypes, which were distinguished based upon morphological and genetic data. Abundance was calculated separately for two data sets that differed in the method by which killer whale group size data were obtained. Initial group size (IGS) data corresponded to estimates of group size at the time of first sighting, and post-encounter group size (PEGS) corresponded to estimates made after closely approaching sighted groups.