Water Quality Index (WQI) of Jaguari and Atibaia Rivers in the region of Paulínia,São Paulo,Brazil

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment - Due to the concern with the quality of hydric resources, the monitoring is essential to evaluate and identify the anthropogenic and environmental...     

Petroleum Hydrocarbons Rhizodegradation by Sebastiania commersoniana (Baill.) L. B. SM. & Downs

Petroliferous activities in Brazil have an accelerated development in the last years. As a consequence, the incidence of environmental accidents such as oil spills and contamination of soils has increased significantly. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to develop remediation techniques with lower costs, decontamination efficiency and impact minimisation. The aim of this work was to evaluate Sebastiania commersoniana phytoremediation potential in soil contaminated by petroleum. This species, which is a native tree, was selected due to its proven capacity for surviving in areas contaminated by petroleum. Experiments were carried out with soils that were vegetated but non-contaminated, soils that were freshly contaminated (25, 50 and 75 g kg^?1) but non-vegetated, and soils that were vegetated and contaminated, samples were collected 60 and 424 days after contamination with the purpose of evaluating the percentage of petroleum degradation in relation to the time. The results obtained in the present study allow us to state that S. commersoniana proves to be tolerant to petroleum contamination with respect to plant’s growth. The degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons was evaluated by gas chromatography with a flame ionisation detector (GC-FID) equipped with a capillary column HP-5 (5% phenyl-methylpolysiloxane, 30 m; 0.25 mm; 0.25 μm). According to chromatographic analysis, samples in contact with S. commersoniana showed a significant area reduction of the hydrocarbon peaks. Analysis of the 60-day samples showed a reduction of petroleum hydrocarbons area higher than 60% and the 424-day samples showed a reduction higher than 94%, which demonstrates that a petroleum degradation process is occurring.     

Prenatal foetal diagnosis of partial trisomy 3q and monosomy 13p due to a maternal balanced rearrangement

The authors describe a case of a male foetus whose ultrasound at 20 weeks' gestation revealed cystic hygroma, cleft lip and ventricular septal defect. Amniotic fluid cytogenetics using GTG banding showed a 46,XY,der(13)t(3;13)(q12;p11.1) rearrangement, and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) delineated the relevant breakpoints. Familial studies identified a maternal balanced translocation involving chromosomes 3 and 13. The post-mortem examination confirmed the prenatal ultrasound findings. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi-criteria assessment of the viability of valorising vegetable by-products from the distribution as secondary raw material for animal feed

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Approximately 33% of food produced around the world is wasted. In the distribution sector, erroneous orders or demand predictions result in products...     

Discussion of “Tang,H., Zhang,H., & Yuan,S. (2018). Hydrodynamics and contaminant transport on a degraded bed at a 90-degree channel confluence. Environmental Fluid Mechanics, 18(2), 443–463”

The authors measured and computed the hydrodynamics and passive scalar dispersion in 90-degree open channel confluences over flat and degraded beds with a dominant upstream or tributary inflow. The present discussion essentially deals with the direction of rotation of the secondary currents, reported for the flat bed configuration with dominant tributary inflow. This rotation direction is indeed surprisingly opposite to the ones reported in the literature, both from calculations and measurements, even if present geometry slightly differs from literature geometries.     

The effects of the nitrofuran furaltadone on Ulva lactuca

The use of pharmaceuticals in the food production industry as prophylatic and therapeutic agents is necessary to promote animal health, but may entail significant consequences to natural ecosystems, especially in the cases of overdosing and use of banned pharmaceuticals. The vast effects that antibiotics released into the environment have on non-target organisms are already under the scope of researchers but little attention has been given to primary producers such as macroalgae. The present study assessed furaltadone’s, an antibacterial agent illegally used for veterinary purposes, uptake capacity by Ulva lactuca and its effect in the growth of this cosmopolitan macroalgae. Differences in macroalgal growth were shown when submitted to prophylactic and therapeutic concentrations of furaltadone in the water (16 and 32 μg mL⁻¹, respectively). The therapeutic concentration caused higher growth impairment than the prophylactic treatment did, with 87.5% and 58% reductions respectively. Furthermore, together with data collected from the accumulation assays, with values of internal concentrations as high as 18.84 μg g⁻¹ WW, suggest that the macroalgae U. lactuca should be included in field surveys as a biomonitor for the detection of nitrofurans.     

Satellite Rainfall Estimates Over South America – Possible Applicability to the Water Management of Large Watersheds1

Pereira Filho, Augusto J., Richard E. Carbone, John E. Janowiak, Phillip Arkin, Robert Joyce, Ricardo Hallak, and Camila G.M. Ramos, 2010. Satellite Rainfall Estimates Over South America – Possible Applicability to the Water Management of Large Watersheds. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(2):344-360. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2009.00406.x Abstract: This work analyzes high-resolution precipitation data from satellite-derived rainfall estimates over South America, especially over the Amazon Basin. The goal is to examine whether satellite-derived precipitation estimates can be used in hydrology and in the management of larger watersheds of South America. High spatial-temporal resolution precipitation estimates obtained with the CMORPH method serve this purpose while providing an additional hydrometeorological perspective on the convective regime over South America and its predictability. CMORPH rainfall estimates at 8-km spatial resolution for 2003 and 2004 were compared with available rain gauge measurements at daily, monthly, and yearly accumulation time scales. The results show the correlation between satellite-derived and gauge-measured precipitation increases with accumulation period from daily to monthly, especially during the rainy season. Time-longitude diagrams of CMORPH hourly rainfall show the genesis, strength, longevity, and phase speed of convective systems. Hourly rainfall analyses indicate that convection over the Amazon region is often more organized than previously thought, thus inferring that basin scale predictions of rainfall for hydrological and water management purposes have the potential to become more skillful. Flow estimates based on CMORPH and the rain gauge network are compared to long-term observed average flow. The results suggest this satellite-based rainfall estimation technique has considerable utility. Other statistics for monthly accumulations also suggest CMORPH can be an important source of rainfall information at smaller spatial scales where in situ observations are lacking.     

Study of drying systems for the utilization of biodegradable municipal solid wastes as animal feed

The effectiveness of different drying systems used for the dehydration of certain fractions of biodegradable municipal solid wastes with a high moisture content (fruit and vegetable remains) was analyzed. Some tests using small amounts of the material were carried out in natural and forced convection ovens. For larger quantities of wastes, a discontinuous cabinet dryer and a continuous rotary dryer were used. With these dryers, the moisture content was reduced from 800 to 100 g kg(-1). It was verified that the continuous rotary dryer was the most efficient type of equipment studied, since it allowed a dried waste to be obtained with better nutritional and microbiological qualities and in accordance to the specifications of the products for animal feeding.     

Parent–offspring dietary segregation of Cory’s shearwaters breeding in contrasting environments

In pelagic seabirds, who often explore distant food resources, information is usually scarce on the level of trophic segregation between parents and their offspring. To investigate this issue, we used GPS tracking, stable isotopes and dietary information of Cory’s shearwaters Calonectris diomedea breeding in contrasting environments. Foraging trips at Selvagem Grande (an oceanic island) mainly targeted the distant African coast, while at Berlenga island (located on the continental shelf), shearwaters foraged mainly over nearby shelf waters. The degree of isotopic segregation between adults and chicks, based on δ¹³C, differed markedly between the two sites, indicating that adult birds at Selvagem fed their chicks with a mixture of shelf and offshore pelagic prey but assimilated more prey captured on coastal shelf waters. Isotopic differences between age classes at Berlenga were much smaller and may have resulted from limited dietary segregation or from age-related metabolic differences. The diet of shearwaters was also very different between the two colonies, with offshore pelagic prey only being detected at Selvagem Grande. Our findings suggest that spatial foraging constraints influence resource partitioning between pelagic seabirds and their offspring and can lead to a parent–offspring dietary segregation.