Search

Abstract The aim of this study was to build and validate an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm to predict sleep using data from a portable monitor (Biologix system) consisting of a high-resolution oximeter with built-in accelerometer plus smartphone application with snoring recording and cloud analysis. A total of 268 patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) were submitted to standard polysomnography (PSG) with simultaneous Biologix (age: $$56\pm 11$$ 56 ± 11 years; body mass index: $$30.9\pm 4.6$$ 30.9 ± 4.6 $$\hbox {kg/m}^{2}$$ kg/m 2 , apnea-hypopnea index [AHI]: $$35\pm 30$$ 35 ± 30 events/h). Biologix channels were input features for construction an ANN model to predict sleep. A k-fold cross-validation method (k=10) was applied, ensuring that all sleep studies (N=268; 246,265 epochs) were included in both training and testing across all iterations. The final ANN model, evaluated as the mean performance across all folds, resulted in a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 91.5%, 71.0% and 86.1%, respectively, for detecting sleep. As compared to the oxygen desaturation index (ODI) from Biologix without sleep prediction, the bias (mean difference) between PSG-AHI and Biologix-ODI with sleep prediction (Biologix-Sleep-ODI) decreased significantly (3.40 vs. 1.02 events/h, p

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) cultivated in cages and net-pens are regularly exposed to natural variations in dissolved oxygen levels, occasionally experiencing events of low oxygen availability. Quantifying the impact of low dissolved oxygen levels on fish performance can help fish farmers better manage the risks associated with such events.This article describes the zootechnical performance of Atlantic salmon reared under experimental conditions at three different dissolved oxygen levels (i.e., low: 50 % saturation; medium: 60 % saturation; high: 95 % saturation). The data was collected in the context of two in vivo trials: (i) Trial A, where fish with an initial average body weight of 312.44 ± 11.53 g were reared in indoor tanks at the different DO levels for 30 days; (ii) Trial B, where fish with an initial average body weight of 735.33 ± 40.42 g were reared in indoor tanks at the different DO levels for 26 days.The dataset [1] is composed of spreadsheets (.xlsx format) and charts (.png format), and includes daily and hourly resolution data (e.g., dissolved oxygen, water temperature, salinity, number of fish and feed intake), sampling and laboratory data (e.g., fish weight, fork length, sex, organs weight, whole-body composition, and tail and opercular beat frequency), and zootechnical indicators calculated at the tank level and averaged per treatment (e.g., survival rate, weight gain, cumulative feed intake, feed conversion ratio and somatic indexes). The differences between treatment means were analyzed using ANOVA, followed by post-hoc testing.The data presented here has the potential to be used in subsequent analyses, for example when analyzed together with other experimental data or through its use to parameterize mathematical models, aiming at better understand and describe the effects of dissolved oxygen on the performance of Atlantic salmon.

ABSTRACT Mining is a high-risk activity due to its dangerous processes. Tin (Sn) is obtained from cassiterite ore and mining activities expose workers to the metal. Chronic exposure to Sn may cause pneumoconiosis, gastrointestinal and hematological effects, among others. This work aimed to assess the exposure of workers to tin in a cassiterite ore processing industry, using the speciation analysis in blood plasma. Twelve subjects donated the blood samples; six were occupationally exposed to Sn. Size exclusion chromatography separated proteins in blood plasma; a graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer determined total tin in the plasma and eluted fractions, while SDS-PAGE determined molecular masses of proteins. Tin levels in the workers’ plasma were four times higher than in the reference individuals. After fractionation, the metal only appeared in the total inclusion volume, not being possible to confirm the binding of tin to proteins, which certainly modifies their functions and impair workers’ health. Despite that, the work process needs to change since Sn levels in the workers’ plasma pointed to metal exposure. Further works are necessary to clarify whether the metal is free or bound to small proteins in blood plasma and understand the true impact of tin on workers’ health.

Deep learning approaches require a large amount of data to be transferred to centralized entities. However, this is often not a feasible option in healthcare, as it raises privacy concerns over sharing sensitive information. Federated Learning (FL) aims to address this issue by allowing machine learning without transferring the data to a centralized entity. FL has shown great potential to ensure privacy in digital healthcare while maintaining performance. Despite this, there is a lack of research on the impact of different types of data heterogeneity on the results. In this study, we research the robustness of various FL strategies on different data distributions and data quality for glaucoma diagnosis using retinal fundus images. We use RetinaQualEvaluator to generate quality labels for the datasets and then a data distributor to achieve our desired distributions. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the different strategies on local data and an independent test dataset. We observe that federated learning shows the potential to enable high-performance models without compromising sensitive data. Furthermore, we infer that FedProx is more suitable to scenarios where the distributions and quality of the data of the participating clients is diverse with less communication cost.

Quality control procedures in the manufacturing of tableware ceramics require a demanding, monotonous, subjective, and faulty human manual inspection. This paper presents two machine learning strategies and the results of a semi-automated visual inspection of ceramics tableware applied to a private dataset acquired during the VAICeramics project. In one method, an anomaly detection step was integrated to pre-select possible defective patches before passing through an object detector and defects classifier. In the alternative one, all patches are directly provided to the object detector and then go through the classification phase. Contrary to expectations, the inclusion of the anomaly detector demonstrated a slight reduction in the performance of the pipeline, which may result from error propagation. Regarding the proposed methodology for defect detection, it exhibits average performance in monochromatic images with more than 600 real defects in total, efficiently identifying the most common defect classes in highly reflective surfaces. However, when applied to newly acquired images, the pipeline encounters challenges revealing a lack of generalization ability and experiencing limitations in detecting specific defect classes, due to their appearance and limited available samples used for training. Only two defect types presented high classification performance, namely Dots and Cracked defects.

Glaucoma is a heterogeneous group of diseases characterised by cupping of the optic nerve head and visual field damage, starting with a progressive loss of vision that leads to permanent blindness. When diagnosed in time, Glaucoma can be delayed by adequate treatment. More efficient processes for diagnosis are being proposed, and the role of artificial intelligence in the field is growing. This work presents a pipeline to evaluate the impact of generative modelling in Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CADx) of Glaucoma based on Deep Learning, particularly focused on the optic disc region. The methodology relies on transforming retinal fundus images to improve and degrade their quality to augment the training data and assess the diagnostic performance. The objective evaluation of the proposed model based on Generative Adversarial Networks revealed quantitative and qualitative improvements in image quality. To support this, we propose a new model to evaluate the quality of fundus images, which can also be used within the pipeline to reject samples with lower image quality for diagnosis. Its performance surpassed related work, achieving a balanced accuracy of 0.929. Concerning Glaucoma CADx, the results obtained in public datasets point to a considerable gain in Sensitivity, Specificity, and Accuracy, achieving scores of 0.883 (+0.054), 0.957 (+0.019), and 0.931 (+0.031), respectively, after image data augmentation when compared with previous work targeted at offline inference in mobile devices. Considering the restriction of choosing simpler backbone networks that can run on edge devices, our findings support the importance of image quality diversity and realistic augmentation.

As long as the COVID-19 pandemic is still active in most countries worldwide, rapid diagnostic continues to be crucial to mitigate the impact of seasonal infection waves. Commercialized rapid antigen self-tests proved they cannot handle the most demanding periods, lacking availability and leading to cost rises. Thus, developing a non-invasive, costless, and more decentralized technology capable of giving people feedback about the COVID-19 infection probability would fill these gaps. This paper explores a sound-based analysis of vocal and respiratory audio data to achieve that objective. This work presents a modular data-centric Machine Learning pipeline for COVID-19 identification from voice and respiratory audio samples. Signals are processed to extract and classify relevant segments that contain informative events, such as coughing or breathing. Temporal, amplitude, spectral, cepstral, and phonetic features are extracted from audio along with available metadata for COVID-19 identification. Audio augmentation and data balancing techniques are used to mitigate class disproportionality. The open-access Coswara and COVID-19 Sounds datasets were used to test the performance of the proposed architecture. Obtained sensitivity scores ranged from 60.00% to 80.00% in Coswara and from 51.43% to 77.14% in COVID-19 Sounds. Although previous works report higher accuracy on COVID-19 detection, this research focused on a data-centric approach by validating the quality of the samples, segmenting the speech events, and exploring interpretable features with physiological meaning. As the pandemic evolves, its lessons must endure, and pipelines such as the proposed one will help prepare new stages where quick and easy disease identification is essential.

This trial aimed to assess the growth performance of trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fed novel formulations, evaluate fish welfare status, and determine flesh quality as part of the evaluation of sustainable feeds. A control diet containing fish meal and soy products (CTRL) was compared to: a diet with processed animal proteins (PAP); a diet without PAP (NoPAP); a PAP diet lower in protein (PAP−); and a NoPAP diet higher in protein (NoPAP+). Groups of 50 fish, weighing 58.84 ± 1.39 g (IBW), were allocated to 20 tanks and fed with formulated diets ad libitum over 91 days. Better growth performance was observed after the experiment in fish fed the NoPAP+ diet when compared to other diets. Protein retention was higher in CTRL diets than in PAP and PAP− diets. Protein and phosphorous digestibility were lower in fish fed PAP− diet. Diets did not influence the texture analysis. However, sensory analysis revealed higher acceptance for fish fed the NoPAP diet when compared to the PAP diet. Lysozyme was higher in the NoPAP diet than in other treatments. In addition, long-term predictions using FEEDNETICSTM software suggest some of these alternative formulations may be economically sustainable. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that the new formulations are viable options for trout farming.

Resenha do Livro Sobre o Autoritarismo Brasileiro. Na discussão, proponho uma interlocução com a autora, onde valorizo a importância e atualidade do tema. No texto são recuperados os principais argumentos, sem, contudo, deixar que sejam feitas as críticas necessárias à abordagem presente no livro. SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz. Sobre o autoritarismo brasileiro. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2019.

Diabetic Retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that can cause severe vision impairment or even blindness. The condition is treatable in early stages, but it often progresses asymptomatic and undetected. Once the symptoms become noticeable, damage in the retina might already be permanent, thus many countries have implemented retinal imaging screening programmes for their diabetic population. However, existing screening programmes are not reaching all patients, and Diabetic Retinopathy stands as a leading cause of preventable blindness in the active population. We contend that the existing technological infrastructures and clinical processes may be hindering the coverage of Diabetic Retinopathy screening programmes. This paper presents EyeFundusScopeNEO, a Tele-Ophthalmology system based on a screening information system and a mobile fundus camera, which shall support opportunistic and planned screening in primary care, using cameras that are handheld, non-invasive, avoid drug-induced pupil dilation, are usable by clinicians who are not specialised in Ophthalmology, and that cost a fraction of existing table-top fundus cameras. Preliminary studies indicate the potential of the system to increase the reach of screening programmes and clinical research field trials are under preparation.

The microwave-assisted digestion of dietary supplements using diluted nitric acid under oxygen pressure for subsequent indirect determination of phosphorus and sulfur by ion chromatography (IC) was proposed. Different concentrations of nitric acid (from 1 to 14.4 mol L−1) and oxygen pressures (from 5 to 20 bar) were evaluated. Dissolved organic carbon and residual acidity were used to choose the most suitable digestion condition. Using the proposed method, it was possible to digest up to 1350 mg of dietary supplements using only 5 mol L−1 HNO3 under 5 bar of oxygen pressure. Comparing to conventional digestion procedure it was possible to digest up to 60% higher sample mass using HNO3 around 30% more diluted. Recoveries ranging from 96 to 102% were obtained when recovery tests using a standard solution or a mixture with certificate reference material were carried out. The concentration of P and S indirectly determined by IC agreed with the results obtained by conventional microwave-assisted digestion using concentrated HNO3 and subsequent determination by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Keywords: Sample preparation, Digestion under oxygen pressure, Diluted acid, Ion chromatography, Food safety, Routine analysis

Reducing office buildings’ energy consumption can contribute significantly towards carbon reduction commitments since it represents ∼40% of total energy consumption. Major components of this are lighting, electrical equipment, heating, and central cooling systems. Solid evidence demonstrates that individual occupants’ behaviors impact these energy consumption components. In this work, we propose the methodology of using virtual choreographies to identify and prioritize behavior-change interventions for office users based on the potential impact of specific behaviors on energy consumption. We studied the energy-related office behaviors of individuals by combining three sources of data: direct observations, electricity meters, and computer logs. Data show that there are behaviors with significant consumption impact but with little potential for behavioral change, while other behaviors have substantial potential for lowering energy consumption via behavioral change.

In this study, the microwave-induced combustion (MIC) method was evaluated for the sample preparation of the most consumed mushroom species in Brazil (Champignon, Shiitake, and Shimeji) and further halogen determination by ion chromatography (IC). For this, sample mass, combustion aid mass, and absorbing solution (H2O and 50 mmol·L−1, 100 mmol·L−1, or 150 mmol·L−1 NH4OH) were evaluated. Bromine and iodine concentrations, determined by IC, were lower than the limits of detection (LODs, Br: 6 mg·kg−1 and I: 24 mg·kg−1). Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was also used for Br and I determination, and the LODs were lower (Br: 0.066 mg·kg−1 and I: 0.014 mg·kg−1) than those obtained by IC. Concentrations of Cl, obtained by IC, ranged from 523 mg·kg−1 to 13053 mg·kg−1 with LOD of 40 mg·kg−1. In turn, Br and I concentrations, obtained by ICP-MS, ranged from 2.49 mg·kg−1 to 5.50 mg·kg−1 and from

Introduction: The use of sunscreens is recommended to reduce skin damage and prevent skin cancer. However, evidence has shown that sunscreen can undergo degradation processes induced by ultraviolet (UV) radiation which can lead to reduction or loss of photoprotective capacity, generation of free radicals and toxic intermediates which react with skin structures generating biological damage. Objective: To evaluate the photostability of four sunscreen formulations with Sun Protection Factor (SPF) 30 added by different chemical and physical UV filters. Material and Methods: Each product was exposed to solar radiation from 10 a.m. to 15 p.m. (UV index: 6.0). The areas under the curves (AUC) of the absorbance spectrum of the formulations before and after radiation exposure were used to calculate the ratio between the AUC before and after the solar radiation (AUCI). Results: Only two formulations, which presented the AUCI higher than 0.8, were considered photostable. Despite having the same SPF 30, formulations showed different absorption spectrum in regions of UVA1, UVA2 and UVB and the photostability of the products tested varied considerably. Conclusion: The development of photostable formulations is critical because degradation products of UV filters can act as photo-oxidants. Furthermore, increased exposure to UV radiation due to the reduction of the photoprotective capacity of unstable products increases the risk of burns and skin cancer.

Resumo Este estudo trata os táxons das famílias Athyriaceae, Lomariopsidaceae, Metaxyaceae e Saccolomataceae (Polypodiopsida) encontrados nas formações de Floresta Ombrófila Densa circunvizinhas às formações de canga da Serra dos Carajás, estado do Pará, e conta com descrições, imagens, distribuição e comentários. Na área de estudo foram registradas oito espécies distribuídas em cinco gêneros.

Introdução: Em virtude do interesse para o tratamento da hepatite, o processo de produção industrial do INF-α foi desenvolvido e aperfeiçoado ao longo dos últimos anos. Objetivo: O presente trabalho teve como objetivo desenvolver um protocolo para caracterizar a estrutura molecular do INF-α2b em formulações farmacêuticas por espectrometria de massa do tipo MALDI-TOF. Método: Inicialmente foi desenvolvido um método de cromatografia líquida baseado em fase reversa para promover a separação entre o INF-α2b constituinte ativo e minoritário e a soro albumina humana, também componente presente nas formulações farmacêuticas, obtendo-se amostras com homogeneidade proteica, revelada por eletroforese. As amostras em solução foram submetidas à digestão com tripsina, levadas ao espectrômetro de massa MALDI-TOF. Para que fosse analisada a estrutura molecular, foi desenvolvido um procedimento baseado em imunoafinidade e cromatografia de gel filtração. Resultados: As amostras preparadas por estes métodos apresentaram homogeneidade proteica por eletroforese, sendo analisadas por dicroísmo circular e fluorescência, o que demonstrou ter degradação da estrutura tridimensional. Conclusões: Esse trabalho fornece dados importantes que subsidiam o estabelecimento de um protocolo para a análise de INF-α2b em produto final, que poderia substituir o mapa de peptídeos tradicional por cromatografia líquida, com a vantagem de resultar em um maior número de informações sobre a estrutura molecular do biofármaco. ========================================== Introduction: Due to the interest in the treatment of hepatitis, the industrial production process of INF-α has been developed and perfected over the last few years. Objective: The present work aimed to develop a protocol to characterize the molecular structure of INF-α2b in pharmaceutical formulations by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Method: Initially, a reversed-phase liquid chromatography method was developed to promote the separation of active and minor constituent INF-α2b and human serum albumin, also present in the pharmaceutical formulations, to obtain samples with protein homogeneity revealed by electrophoresis. Samples were hydrolyzed with trypsin and submitted to MALDI-TOF. In order to analyze the molecular structure, a procedure based on immunoaffinity and gel filtration chromatography was developed. Results: Prepared samples by these methods showed protein homogeneity by SDS-PAGE, and were analyzed by circular dichroism and fluorescence, which showed three – dimensional structure degradation. Conclusions: This work provides important data that support the establishment of a protocol for the analysis of INF-α2b in final product, which could replace the traditional peptide mapping by liquid chromatography, with the advantage of resulting in a larger amount of information about the structure of the biopharmaceutical.

ABSTRACT Initiatives directed at managing information on aquatic plants can support different areas of scientific research, educational practices and political decisions for sustainable management and protection of wetlands and natural resources, as well as reveal knowledge gaps regarding aquatic plants and wetlands. Furthermore, such initiatives can contribute directly to consolidating wetland classification systems in Brazil. The objectives of this work are to present and explore the use of a data repository and online platform created specifically for the management of data on aquatic plants in Brazil. The data repository for aquatic plants was developed to store information on species occurrence records in a standardized form considering: systematics, taxonomy, habit, life form, geographic distribution, hydrographic basin, wetland, bibliographic references and herbarium material. A total of 3,903 records referring to the Southeast Region of Brazil were generated for the data repository. This total encompassed 1,036 species distributed among 132 families and 466 genera. Our results illustrate the diversity of information available regarding aquatic plants, circumscribe this group of species and serve as a source of data about them. Similar databases and electronic infrastructures can be developed for other flora in the future.

The energy efficiency requirements of most energy-consuming sectors have increased recently in response to climate change. For buildings, this means targeting both facility managers and building users with the aim of identifying potential energy savings and encouraging more energy-responsible behaviors. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform developed in Horizon 2020 FEEdBACk project intends to fulfill these goals by enabling the optimization of energy consumption, generation, and storage and control of flexible devices without compromising comfort levels and indoor air quality parameters. This work aims to demonstrate the real-world implementation and functionality of the ICT platform composed of Load Disaggregation, Net Load Forecast, Occupancy Forecast, Automation Manager, and Behavior Predictor applications. Particularly, the results obtained by individual applications during the test phase are presented alongside the specific metrics used to evaluate their performance.

Energy efficiency in buildings can be enhanced by several actions: encouraging users to comprehend and then adopt more energy-efficient behaviors; aiding building managers in maximizing energy savings; and using automation to optimize energy consumption, generation, and storage of controllable and flexible devices without compromising comfort levels and indoor air-quality parameters. This paper proposes an integrated Information and communications technology (ICT) based platform addressing all these factors. The gamification platform is embedded in the ICT platform along with an interactive energy management system, which aids interested stakeholders in optimizing “when and at which rate” energy should be buffered and consumed, with several advantages, such as reducing peak load, maximizing local renewable energy consumption, and delivering more efficient use of the resources available in individual buildings or blocks of buildings. This system also interacts with an automation manager and a users’ behavior predictor application. The work was developed in the Horizon 2020 FEEdBACk (Fostering Energy Efficiency and BehAvioral Change through ICT) project.

Small-scale farming can benefit from the usage of information and communication technology (ICT) to improve crop and soil management and increase yield. However, in order to introduce digital farming in rural areas, related ICT solutions must be viable, seamless and easy to use, since most farmers are not acquainted with technology. With that in mind, this paper proposes an Internet of Things (IoT) sensing platform that provides information on the state of the soil and surrounding environment in terms of pH, moisture, texture, colour, air temperature, and light. This platform is coupled with computer vision to further analyze and understand soil characteristics. Moreover, the platform hardware is housed in a specifically designed robust casing to allow easy assembly, transport, and protection from the deployment environment. To achieve requirements of usability and reproducibility, the architecture of the IoT sensing platform is based on low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware and software modularity, following a do-it-yourself approach and supporting further extension. In-lab validations of the platform were carried out to finetune its components, showing the platform’s potential for application in rural areas by introducing digital farming to small-scale farmers, and help them delivering better produce and increasing income.

With the growing concern about decreasing CO 2 emissions, renewable energy sources are being vastly integrated in the energy systems worldwide. This will bring new challenges to the network operators, which will need to find sources of flexibility to cope with the variable-output nature of these technologies. Demand response and multi-energy systems are being widely studied and considered as a promising solution to mitigate possible problems that may occur in the energy systems due to the large-scale integration of renewables. In this work, an optimal model to manage the resources and loads within residential and commercial buildings was developed, considering consumers preferences, electrical network restrictions and CO 2 emissions. The flexibility that these buildings can provide was analyzed and quantified. Additionally, it was shown how this model can be used to solve technical problems in electrical networks, comparing the performance of two scenarios of flexibility provision: flexibility obtained only from electrical loads vs. flexibility obtained from multi-energy loads. It was proved that multi-energy systems bring more options of flexibility, as they can rely on non-electrical resources to supply the same energy needs and thus relieve the electrical network. It was also found that commercial buildings can offer more flexibility during the day, while residential buildings can offer more during the morning and evening. Nonetheless, Multi-Energy System (MES) buildings end up having higher CO 2 emissions due to a higher consumption of natural gas.

This paper presents a characterization processes study of metallic alloys, more specifically the shape memory alloys (SMA) composed by Nickel and Titanium (NiTinol). Two different wire suppliers were studied, starting with metallographic analysis until observe the contours of the grain wires. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) test was also performed to obtain phase transformation temperatures of the NiTinol alloys. Finally, after several tensile tests, some results were obtained for stresses, strains, elasticity modules and maximum rupture deformation.

Objetivo: Analisar se a prática regular de atividade física influencia a prevalência da obesidade, nas crianças. Métodos: Este estudo contempla uma amostra de 239 alunos que representam 32,16% da população de 743 alunos do 1º Ciclo do Concelho do Entroncamento (ensino público). As idades variam entre os 6 e os 12 anos e 50,6% pertencem ao género feminino. Foi avaliada a Composição Corporal (Estatura; Peso; pregas subcutâneas; Índice de Massa Corporal e Percentagem de Massa Gorda); Resultados: Os resultados obtidos, quando comparados com estudos realizados anteriormente no mesmo concelho, parecem indicar que esta população evoluiu positivamente no que diz respeito à prevalência de obesidade e à prevalência de excesso de peso, assim como revelam valores mais baixos do que os apresentados por estudos internacionais concretamente dados da OMS, 2002 e 2009. Conclusões: a maioria dos inquiridos praticam atividade física regularmente, dentro ou fora da Escola, sendo que são 14,5% os que nunca a praticam. Pode-se dizer que todos os alunos dizem fazer uma alimentação consciente, preferindo os “bons alimentos” em detrimento daqueles que se podem considerar prejudiciais à saúde, assim raramente comem gelado, batata frita e em oposição comem fruta e legumes várias vezes por dia. ABSTRACT Objective: To determine whether regular physical activity influences the prevalence of obesity in children. Methods: This study includes a sample of 239 students representing 32.16% of the population of 743 students of 1st Cycle of Entroncamento city (public education). Ages ranging between 6 and 12 years and 50.6% belong to the female gender. Body composition was assessed (Height, Weight, Skinfold, Body Mass Index and Percent Fat Mass); Results: The results, when compared with previous studies in the same county, seem to indicate that this population has evolved positively in regard to the prevalence of obesity and the prevalence of overweight, as well as indicate lower values than those presented by international studies specifically WHO (2002) and (2009). Conclusions: most individuals do regular physical activity within or outside the school, and 14.5% are those who never practice it. It can be said that all the students say make a conscious power, preferring the "good food" as opposed to those that can be considered harmful to health, and rarely eat ice cream, fries and opposed eat fruit and vegetables several times a day.

Este trabalho foi realizado com o objetivo de avaliar os efeitos da suplementação de rações de poedeiras comerciais com um complexo multienzimático (CE), nas formas “on top”, com reduções nos níveis de PB, EM, Ca, P disponível e aminoácidos, com adição em níveis crescentes do complexo enzimático. Foram utilizadas 384 poedeiras semipesadas da linhagem Isa Brown, com idade inicial de 29 semanas, distribuídas em seis tratamentos com oito repetições, sendo oito aves por parcela experimental, utilizando o delineamento inteiramente casualizado (DIC) com parcelas subdividas no tempo (4 períodos de 28 dias cada). Os tratamentos foram: Controle Positivo (CP) 2.750 kcal kg-1 EM, 17,2% PB e 0,41% P disponível; Controle Negativo (CN) 2.600 kcal kg-1 EM, 16,7% PB e 0,26% P disponível; Controle Positivo + 350 g tonelada-1 do complexo enzimático (CP350); Controle Negativo + 250 g tonelada-1 de complexo enzimático (CN250); Controle Negativo + 350 g tonelada-1 de complexo enzimático (CN350) e; Controle Negativo + 500 g tonelada-1 do complexo enzimático (CN500). As variáveis analisadas de desempenho zootécnico foram: consumo de ração/ave/dia, produção de ovos/ave/dia, peso médio do ovo e conversão alimentar por massa de ovos. As variáveis de qualidade interna e externa dos ovos foram: espessura da casca, porcentagens de casca, albúmen e gema, Unidade Haugh e gravidade específica. A inclusão do complexo multienzimático não interferiu nos resultados de importância zootécnica nem na qualidade dos ovos de poedeiras com idade entre 29 a 44 semanas de vida. O aumento no consumo de ração/ave/dia foi suficiente para suprir os níveis nutricionais reduzidos das dietas CN e manter em equilíbrio os resultados para o restante das variáveis. Para algumas variáveis de desempenho zootécnico, em alguns momentos, foi possível observar a influência negativa da inclusão de altos níveis do complexo multienzimático.

This study was conducted in order to evaluate the association of phytase with an enzymatic complex comprised of carbohydrases (α-galactosidase, galactomannan, xylanase and β-glucanase) in nutrition reduction diets for semi-heavy laying hens and its effect on egg performance and egg quality. Four hundred Isa Brown laying hens with 42 to 57 weeks of age were distributed in an entirely random experiment with five treatments and 8 repetitions, during five production periods of 21 days. Variables studied: egg production, feed intake, mean egg weight, feed conversion, Haugh unit, percentage of yolk, egg white and albumen, yolk color, eggshell thickness and specific gravity. There was a significant interaction (p < 0.05) between treatments and experimental periods for feed intake. There were no significant effects (p > 0.05) of treatment on production, egg weight or internal and external egg quality. Treatment effects on feed conversion showed better values for hens fed with the control diet. The levels of nutrient reduction used in the diets with or without enzyme supplementation did not provide good results with regard to feed conversion and feed intake. However, they did not affect the other parameters for egg production and internal and external egg quality.

Este trabalho apresenta uma lista de espécies de pteridófitas que ocorrem na Serra Negra, Minas Gerais. A serra está inserida no complexo da Serra da Mantiqueira situada entre Rio Preto, Lima Duarte, Santa Bárbara do Monte Verde e Olaria, tendo seus limites nos pontos 21º58'11"S 43º53'21" W, 22º01'46,4" S 43º52'31,5" W, 21º58'21,4" S 43º50'06,5" W e 21º58'53" S 43º56'08" W. A vegetação da serra é formada por um mosaico de fitofisionomias, sendo encontradas formações florestais (florestas ombrófilas e semidecíduas) e campestres (campos rupestres). O inventário florístico foi realizado entre os anos de 2003 e 2008, em excursões mensais para coleta de amostras e registro de dados. Na serra foram registradas 209 táxons infragenéricos distribuídas em 24 famílias e 75 gêneros. As famílias com maior número de espécies foram Polypodiaceae (40), Dryopteridaceae (33) e Pteridaceae (25). A maioria das espécies (109) foi encontrada ocorrendo exclusivamente no interior de floresta. Em relação ao hábito, 69 espécies foram encontradas exclusivamente como terrestres, 37 como rupícolas ou terrestres e 32 exclusivamente epífitas. Este trabalho revela uma elevada riqueza de pteridófitas na região e indica a importância de estudos desta natureza na conservação e manejo das pteridófitas em Minas Gerais.This work presents an inventory of pteridophyte species that occur in the Serra Negra, of Minas Gerais. The area is part of the Mantiqueira Range, and is situated between the coordinates 21º58'11"S 43º53'21" W, 22º01'4.4" S, 43º52'31.5" W, 21º58'21.4" S, 43º50'06.5" W and 21º58'53" S, 43º56'08" W. The vegetation in the Serra Negra is characterized by a mosaic of different phytophysiognomies, divided into forests (evergreen and seasonal semideciduous forests) and open formations (rocky grasslands). The inventory was carried out from 2003 to 2008, during monthly excursions to collect botanical material and data in the study area. A total of 209 species, distributed in 24 families and 75 genera, were recorded. The families with the highest number of species were Polypodiaceae (40), Dryopteridaceae (33) and Pteridaceae (25). More than the half (110) of the inventoried species were recorded exclusively in the forests formations. Sixty-nine species were terrestrial, 37 were saxicolous or terrestrial and 32 were epiphytes. This work shows that this region is rich in ferns and reveals the importance of this kind of study for conservation and management of pteridophytes in the state of Minas Gerais.

In order to evaluate possible solubility of BaSO4 in soils under reducing conditions, column leaching assay was settled down, where the soil received three doses of BaSO4 (100, 300 and 3000 mg kg-1) at two humidities. After reaching an Eh of -200 mV rainfall of 200 mm per day-1 was simulated. The condition of reduction led to the increased levels of barium in the fractions of higher lability and the highest levels of barium in the leachate extract, which were above the potability standards. Only 0.05% of barium in the column that received the highest dose was removed by leaching.

In future power grids, a large integration of renewable energy sources is foreseen, which will impose serious technical challenges to system operators. To mitigate some of the problems that renewable energy sources may bring, new voltage and frequency control strategies must be developed. Given the expected evolution of technologies and information systems, these new strategies will benefit from increasing system observability and resources controllability, enabling a more efficient grid operation. The ELECTRA IRP project addressed the new challenges that future power systems will face and developed new grid management and control functionalities to overcome the identified problems. This work, implemented in the framework of ELECTRA, presents an innovative functionality for the control room of the cell operator and its application in assistance with the voltage control designed for the Web-of-Cells. The voltage control method developed uses a proactive mode to calculate the set-points to be sent to the flexible resources, each minute, for a following 15-min period. This way, the voltage control method developed is able to mitigate voltage problems that may occur, while, at the same time, contributes to reduce the energy losses. To enable a straightforward utilization of this functionality, a user interface was created for system operators so they can observe the network state and control resources in a forthright manner accordingly.

A doença celíaca é uma intolerância alimentar relacionada ao glúten. O tratamento consiste na exclusão do glúten da dieta. A Lei n° 10.674, de 16 de maio de 2003, obriga que os produtos alimentícios comercializados informem sobre a presença ou não de glúten. A advertência deve ser impressa nos rótulos, embalagens, cartazes e materiais de divulgação em caracteres com destaque, nítidos e de fácil leitura. O trabalho analisou o cumprimento da legislação vigente em 226 propagandas tipo folder de alimentos industrializados coletadas em estabelecimentos comerciais nos municípios de Juiz de Fora, Viçosa, Belo horizonte e São Paulo, no período de março de 2006 a março de 2007, utilizando-se da amostragem não probabilística de conveniência. Observou-se a predominância de amostras (n=221, 97,8%) em desacordo com a legislação. Concluiu-se que há necessidade de maior esforço para a implementação das ações de Vigilância Sanitária que resultem na promoção e proteção da saúde pública.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo caracterizar a flora fanerogâmica da região da Serra Negra localizada no sul da Zona da Mata de Minas Gerais, entre os municípios de Lima Duarte, Rio Preto, Santa Bárbara do Monte Verde e Olaria. Embora considerada de importância biológica alta, esta região não possui nenhum registro anterior de dados florísticos, o que levou ao desenvolvimento deste levantamento, durante o período de 2003 a 2010. A vegetação é caracterizada por um mosaico de formações florestais e campestres onde se destacam os campos rupestres e florestas nebulares em altitudes que variam de 1300 a ca. 1700 m. Um total de 1033 espécies foi encontrado, distribuídas em 469 gêneros e 121 famílias sendo as mais representativas Orchidaceae (115 spp.), Asteraceae 54 spp.), Melastomataceae (56 spp.), Myrtaceae (53 spp.), Fabaceae, Poaceae e Rubiaceae (48 spp. cada), Bromeliaceae (43 spp.), Solanaceae (38 spp.) e Piperaceae (33 spp). Novos registros e endemismos para a flora mineira foram encontrados e 58 espécies estão citadas na lista de espécies ameaçadas de Minas Gerais.

Resumo Neste estudo são apresentadas as licófitas e samambaias inventariadas na Serra do Itauajuri, estado do Pará. Foram registradas 64 espécies distribuídas em 36 gêneros e 21 famílias, sendo uma família, um gênero e quatro espécies pertencentes à linhagem das licófitas e 20 famílias, 35 gêneros e 60 espécies à linhagem das samambaias. As famílias mais representativas foram Pteridaceae (19 spp.), Polypodiaceae (8) e Selaginellaceae (4). Os gêneros com maior riqueza específica foram Adiantum (9 spp.) e Selaginella (4). A maioria das espécies foi coletada como terrestre (35 spp., ca. 55%), ocorrendo em matas ripárias (51 spp., ca. 80%), com padrão de distribuição americana (46 spp., ca. 72%). São apresentados dois novos registros para a Região Norte do Brasil (Asplenium pumilum e Marsilea ancylopoda) e dois para o estado do Pará (Ophioglossum nudicaule e Selaginella minima). A área estudada possui características ambientais bastante distintas do que comumente se observa na Amazônia brasileira, sendo uma área biologicamente importante. Os resultados obtidos neste trabalho reúnem informações que podem subsidiar a criação e a implementação da Unidade de Conservação da Serra do Itauajuri, o que garantirá a preservação de suas riquezas históricas e naturais.