A volatolomic approach using cerumen as biofluid to diagnose bovine intoxication by Stryphnodendron rotundifolium

An innovative volatolomic approach employs the detection of biomarkers present in cerumen (earwax) to identify cattle intoxication by Stryphnodendron rotundifolium Mart., Fabaceae (popularly known as barbatimão). S. rotundifolium is a poisonous plant with the toxic compound undefined and widely distributed throughout the Brazilian territory. Cerumen samples from cattle of two local Brazilian breeds (‘Curraleiro Pé-Duro’ and ‘Pantaneiro’) were collected during an experimental intoxication protocol and analyzed using headspace (HS)/GC–MS followed by multivariate analysis (genetic algorithm for a partial least squares, cluster analysis, and classification and regression trees). A total of 106 volatile organic metabolites were identified in the cerumen samples of bovines. The intoxication by S. rotundifolium influenced the cerumen volatolomic profile of the bovines throughout the intoxication protocol. In this way, it was possible to detect biomarkers for cattle intoxication. Among the biomarkers, 2-octyldecanol and 9-tetradecen-1-ol were able to discriminate all samples between intoxicated and nonintoxicated bovines. The cattle intoxication diagnosis by S. rotundifolium was accomplished by applying the cerumen analysis using HS/GC–MS, in an easy, accurate, and noninvasive way. Thus, the proposed bioanalytical chromatography protocol is a useful tool in veterinary applications to determine this kind of intoxication.     

Isolation of Bisphenol A-Tolerating/degrading Shewanella haliotis Strain MH137742 from an Estuarine Environment

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology - The human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) occurs frequently. Once, this compound was one of the highest volume chemicals produced worldwide and used as a...     

Rietveld refinement of CdSe phases annealed under argon atmosphere

Hexagonal and cubic cadmium selenide were prepared from a chemical route by using cadmium chloride and potassium selenium hydride obtained from reaction of selenium powder and potassium boron hydride. The product obtained was thermally treated under argon flux at 300, 500 and 600 °C for 2 h and characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The X-ray diffraction data were refined by Rietveld method and the structural parameters were determined for the phases of each annealed samples. At 300 °C five phases were identified: Cubic and hexagonal cadmium selenides and the contaminants: Potassium chloride, boron oxide and cadmium boron oxide. At 500 and 600 °C only the hexagonal cadmium selenide phase was identified besides the other above mentioned contaminant.     

226Ra in milk of the dairy cattle from the rural region of Pernambuco, Brazil

Summary Studies performed by the Brazilian Nuclear Corporation (NUCLEBRAS), in collaboration with the Geological Survey Company of Brazil (CPRM), identified high levels of natural uranium in the districts of Pedra and Venturosa, in the rural region of the state of Pernambuco (PE) - Brazil, where the maximum value found in rocks was 22,000 mg.     

Symmetry properties of radioactive N=Z nuclei

Recent mass measurements of proton-rich nuclei close to the N=Z line were used for the calculation of the interaction strength δV _pn between valence protons and neutrons. When compared with δV _pn values calculated from mass values of the AME’95 mass tables, the breaking down of the SU(4) symmetry is verified at Z=32,33,34.     

Internal standardization for the determination of cadmium,cobalt, chromium and manganese in saline produced water from petroleum industry by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry after cloud point extraction

In the present paper a procedure is proposed for the determination of traces of Cd, Co, Mn and Cr in petroleum industry produced water by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The procedure is based on cloud point extraction of these metals, as their dithizonate complexes, into the surfactant-rich phase of octylphenoxypolyethoxyethanol surfactant (Triton X-114). Extractions were carried out in solutions with salinities between 10‰ and 70‰. Since residual salinity in the surfactant-rich phase caused differences in its transport to the plasma, yttrium was used as an internal standard to correct for this effect. The simultaneous metal extraction procedure was optimized by response surface methodology using a Doehlert design and desirability function. Enhancement factors of 21, 21, 9 and 19, along with limits of quantification of 0.093, 0.20, 0.73 and 1.2 μg L^− 1, and precision expressed as relative standard deviation (n = 8, 20.0 μg L^− 1) of 5.8, 1.2, 1.7 and 5.7% were obtained for Cd, Co, Mn and Cr, respectively. The accuracy was evaluated by spike recovery tests on the high salinity water samples with salinity of 40 and 63‰.     

Comparison of the Kerr effect and X-ray pole figure methods for determining crystallographic texture in PrFeB magnets

In this study, magnetic domains in Pr₁₆Fe₇₆B₈ sintered magnets have been observed by Kerr effect and a histogram of the angular distribution of domain orientations has been used to determine the magnetic texture (cos Φ). The degree of easy-axis alignment of Pr₂Fe₁₄B matrix grains in these magnets has been also determined by X-ray pole figure analysis using the (0 0 4) reflection. The (0 0 4) pole figure measurements were carried out by the Schultz's reflection method. The (0 0 4) normalized intensity data has been fitted for a Gaussian distribution and the degree of crystal alignment, cos Θ, has been calculated using the Stoner–Wohlfarth model. Comparison of these methods has been carried out. It has been shown that in magnets with medium and high degrees of crystallographic alignment, the pole figure values are higher than that obtained by the Kerr effect method. Conversely, in magnets with low degrees of alignment, cos Θ is lower than cos Φ.     

In‐situ synthesis of transparent and conductive carbon nanotube networks

A method for the production of transparent carbon nanotube networks (CNTNs) over transparent substrates was developed. In this method, CNTNs were grown directly in the target surface by applying the catalyst in specific zones of the substrate through lithographic techniques. The networks can be also transferred from the original substrate to other surfaces. The newly grown carbon nanotubes have a very high aspect ratio (>50000). Thus far, networks with an optical transmittance of 94% at 550 nm and a surface resistivity of 3.6 kΩ/sq have been produced. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Ionic relaxation in nematic liquid crystal cells

We investigate the dependence of the relaxation time of the current flowing in a nematic cell submitted to an external dc voltage on the physical properties of the substrate. We show that previously presented analyses of the same problem are not very useful for practical applications. We compare our theoretical predictions with experimental data, and show that the agreement is rather good. The influence of the adsorption-desorption phenomenon on the relaxation time is also discussed.     

A novel approach based on recurrent neural networks applied to nonlinear systems optimization

This paper presents an efficient approach based on recurrent neural network for solving nonlinear optimization. More specifically, a modified Hopfield network is developed and its internal parameters are computed using the valid subspace technique. These parameters guarantee the convergence of the network to the equilibrium points that represent an optimal feasible solution. The main advantage of the developed network is that it treats optimization and constraint terms in different stages with no interference with each other. Moreover, the proposed approach does not require specification of penalty and weighting parameters for its initialization. A study of the modified Hopfield model is also developed to analyze its stability and convergence. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed neural network.