abstract: Granular activated carbon (GAC) filters are final polishing step in the drinking water treatment systems for removal of dissolved organic carbon fractions. Generally filters are colonized by bacterial communities and their activity reduces biodegradable solutes allowing partial regeneration of GAC's adsorptive capacity. When the bacteria pass into the filtrate due to increased growth, microbiological quality of drinking water is compromised and regrowth in the distribution system occurs. Bacteria attached to carbon particles as biofilms or in conjugation with other bacteria were observed to be highly resistant to post filtration microbial mitigation techniques. Some of these bacteria were identified as pathogenic. This study focuses on one such pathogen Legionella pneumophila which is resistant to environmental stressors and treatment conditions. It is also responsible for Legionnaires' disease outbreak through drinking water thus attracting attention of regulatory agencies. The work assessed the attachment and colonization of Legionella and heterotrophic bacteria in lab scale GAC media column filters. Quantification of Legionella and HPC in the influent, effluent, column's biofilms and on the GAC particles was performed over time using fluorescent microscopy and culture based techniques. The results indicated gradual increase in the colonization of the GAC particles with HPC bacteria. Initially high number of Legionella cells were detected in the column effluent and were not detected on GAC suggesting low attachment of the cells to the particles potentially due to lack of any previous biofilms. With the initial colonization of the filter media by other bacteria the number of Legionella cells on the GAC particles and biofilms also increased. Presence of Legionella was confirmed in all the samples collected from the columns spiked with Legionella. Significant increase in the Legionella was observed in column's inner surface biofilm (0.25 logs up to 0.52 logs) and on GAC particles (0.42 logs up to 0.63 logs) after 2 months. Legionella and HPC attached to column's biofilm were higher than that on GAC particles indicating the strong association with biofilms. The bacterial concentration slowly increased in the effluent. This may be due to column's wall effect decreasing filter efficiency, possible exhaustion of GAC capacity over time and potential bacterial growth. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Civil and Environmental Engineering 2014

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:28:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-09-05Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:37:00Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 eduardo_mf_me_prud.pdf: 2349066 bytes, checksum: bce1a62635eb9daac962ffb78a262ea0 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta pesquisa tem como finalidade analisar elementos da dinâmica territorial das agroindústrias artesanais e familiares (ou agroartesanato) no município de Francisco Beltrão/PR. A produção de alimentos via agroartesanato é um domínio antigo desses produtores familiares (o que chamamos de saber fazer produtivo); historicamente inerente ao patrimônio cultural dos imigrantes desterritorializados da Itália, da Alemanha e da Polônia e que reterritorializaram-se no Rio Grande do Sul e em Santa Catarina no final do século XIX por força do movimento global do capital. A mesorregião Sudoeste do Paraná, na qual está inserido o município de Francisco Beltrão, foi colonizada efetivamente a partir da década de 1940, intermediada pela ação política do governo de Getúlio Vargas através da constituição da CANGO (Colônia Agrícola Nacional General Osório). Com a CANGO, foram reterritorializados numa frente colonial formada, majoritariamente, por migrantes gaúchos e catarinenses, com predominância de ascendências italiana, alemã e polonesa e com arraigado conteúdo de sociabilidade campesina e mesclando tradição rural, pequena propriedade, trabalho familiar, produção mercantil e policultura de subsistência. A heterogeneidade é característica basal da formação territorial desse espaço, pois, o território, como manifestação concreta e simbólica da atividade social no espaço, congrega uma vastidão de possibilidades. Na década de 1990, entretanto, essas atividades rudimentares e familiares de produção de alimentos começaram a assimilar maior conotação mercantil. Em Francisco Beltrão isso se efetivou, mais notoriamente, nos anos posteriores à criação do SIM (Selo de Inspeção Municipal), instituído... / This research has as purpose to analyze the elements of the territorial dynamics of the craft and family agribusinesses (or rural handmade production of food) in the city of Francisco Beltrão/PR. The production of foods through the rural handmade production of food is an old domain of those family producers (what we call to know how to do the products); historically, inherent associated to the cultural patrimony of the immigrants without territory of Italy, Germany and Poland and that established in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina in the end of the XIX century because the global movement of the capital. The Southwest region of Paraná, in the which Francisco Beltrão is located, it was colonized indeed starting from the decade of 1940, intermediated by Getúlio Vargas's government's political action through the constitution of CANGO (Colônia Agrícola Nacional General Osório). With CANGO, they were established in a formed colonial front, formed for the most part with migrants from Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, with Italian predominance of origins, German and Pole and with ingrained content of rural sociability; mixing the rural tradition, small property, family work, mercantile production and mixed farming of subsistence. The heterogeneity is a basic characteristic of the territorial formation of that place, because the territory, as concrete and symbolic manifestation of the social activity in the space has huge possibilities. In the decade of 1990, however, those rudimentary and family activities of production of foods began to assimilate larger mercantile connotation. In Francisco Beltrão it was mostly executed, in the subsequent years the creation of the SIM (Selo de Inspeção Municipal) that was instituted... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Este estudo avaliou a colonização vaginal/anal por Streptococcus agalactiae em 167 grávidas entre a 32a e 41a semanas de gestação, atendidas no ambulatório prénatal da Maternidade Escola da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), no período de fevereiro de 2003 a fevereiro de 2004. A freqüência de colonização foi de 19,2%, não havendo diferenças significativas quando comparadas variáveis como faixa etária, número de gestações, hipertensão, doenças auto-imunes, prematuridade em gestações anteriores, número de abortos e a presença ou não de diabetes (p>0.05). Todas as 32 amostras isoladas foram sensíveis à penicilina, cefotaxima, ofloxacina, cloranfenicol, vancomicina e meropenem. Com relação à penicilina, a resistência apresentada por 3 amostras no teste de difusão, não foi confirmada pelo teste de diluição. A resistência concomitante a clindamicina e eritromicina foi verificada em 2 amostras; estas apresentaram o fenótipo MLSB constitutivo. A amostra resistente apenas a eritromicina apresentou o fenótipo M. A incidência relativamente elevada (19,2%) de colonização por S.agalactiae entre as gestantes estudadas e o isolamento de amostras resistentes aos antibióticos recomendados nos casos de alergia à penicilina, enfatizam a importância de detectar esta colonização no final da gravidez assim como de avaliar a susceptibilidade de S.agalactiae aos antimicrobianos, para uma correta prevenção da infecção neonatal. / This study evaluated the vaginal/anal colonization by Streptococcus agalactiae among 167 pregnant women between 32nd and 41st weeks of gestation, attended in the prenatal ambulatory of the School Maternity of Rio de Janeiro University (UFRJ), during the period from february 2003 to february 2004. The frequency of colonization was of 19,2%, without significant differences when variants like age, number of gestations, premature delivery in previous pregnancies, number of abortions and the presence or absence of diabetes (p>0,05) were compared. All 32 strains isolated were susceptible to penicillin, cefotaxime, ofloxacin, chloramphenicol, vancomycin and meropenem. Resistance to penicillin of two strains, as detected by disk diffusion susceptibility test, was not confirmed by dilution antimicrobial susceptibility tests. The concomitant resistance to clindamycin and erythromycin was verified in 2 strains; these presented the constitutive MLSB phenotype. The isolate resistant only to erythromycin presented the M phenotype. The relatively high incidence (19,2%) of colonization by S. agalactiae among the pregnant women evaluated and the recovery of antimicrobial resistant strains, specialy those recommended in cases of penicillin allergy, emphasize the importance, for a correct prevention of neonatal infections, to detect colonization at the end of pregnancy and to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility of S. agalacti

This paper will examine the effects of French colonization on the education systems of three ex-colonies: Algeria, Senegal, and Vietnam. This will be accomplished by first exploring the goals of French colonial policy and the doctrines of assimilation and association. Then, the paper will examine three case studies of Algeria, Senegal, and Vietnam by looking at historical context of French colonization, independence, indigenous education, French colonial education, and finally modern day education within each country. Finally, this paper argues that the modern-day education systems in these three countries continue to represent the political and economic interests of their ex-colonizer, France.

The dense and diverse community of microorganisms inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract of ruminant animals plays critical roles in the metabolism and absorption of nutrients, and gut associated immune function. Understanding microbial colonization in the small intestine of new born ruminants is a vital first step toward manipulating gut function through interventions during early life to produce long-term positive effects on host productivity and health. Yet the knowledge of microbiota colonization and its induced metabolites of small intestine during early life is still limited. In the present study, we examined the microbiota and metabolome in the jejunum and ileum of neonatal sika deer (Cervus nippon) from birth to weaning at days 1, 42, and 70. The microbial data showed that diversity and richness were increased with age, but a highly individual variation was observed at day 1. Principal coordinate analysis revealed significant differences in microbial community composition across three time points in the jejunum and ileum. The abundance of Halomonas spp., Lactobacillus spp., Escherichia-Shigella, and Bacteroides spp. tended to be decreased, while the proportion of Intestinibacter spp., Cellulosilyticum spp., Turicibacter spp., Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Romboutsia spp. was significantly increased with age. For metabolome, metabolites separated from each other across the three time points in both jejunum and ileum. Moreover, the amounts of methionine, threonine, and putrescine were increased, while the amounts of myristic acid and pentadecanoic acid were decreased with age, respectively. The present study demonstrated that microbiota colonization and the metabolome becomes more developed in the small intestine with age. This may shed new light on the microbiota-metabolome-immune interaction during development.

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Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The history of geography is much more than the mere listing of the names and publications of great geographers, identifying different research traditions, or searching for paradigms. The history of geography ought to be seen within the context of the society of which it is an integral part.

My dissertation investigates how an Aztec religious antiquity was defined and codified in colonial Mexico by focusing on the transformation of Aztec figures of power (Nahuatl: teteoh) into “pagan gods.” Through a wide range of texts, images and pictorial manuscripts produced in colonial Mexico as well as in Santo Domingo, Spain, Italy and the Low Countries, I argue that the dominant interpretation of the Aztec gods that arose in the sixteenth century was an instance of the “reception of reception”: the result of the creative deployment, by central Mexican native elites, of the interpretative strategies of the Conquerors. I eschew traditional ethnohistorical approaches by arguing that the figures that came to be known as the Aztec gods were in fact sixteenth- and seventeenth-century constructions that emerged from the convergence of three phenomena in Post-Conquest Mesoamerica: fifteenth-century Castilian historical culture, early modern antiquarian and humanist intellectual practices, and “native exegesis”—native interpretation and re-creation of tradition, often influenced by rivalries between central-Mexican indigenous elites. I contend that native and mestizo elites held a far greater degree of intellectual agency in creating an image of their own past than what is conveyed by their common characterization as “informants.” Under the epistemic conditions that obtained within a budding colonial society, central-Mexican elites managed to selectively present some of their ancient teteoh under a new light, as deified rulers, founders of political lineages, inventors of important arts and trades, or even as forerunners of an autochthonous monotheism. The Aztec pantheon emerged from an interplay between European and Native forms of exegesis, thus foreclosing clean-cut distinctions between “production” and “reception,” or between “social facts” and “interpretations.” At the same time, the pantheon codified an image of New Spain’s pagan past: a reflection of Classical Antiquity that manifested Mexico-Tenochtitlan’s political hegemony over and against other local traditions. A construction of unparalleled efficacy, the Aztec pantheon still shapes our understanding of Mesoamerican civilizations up to the present day.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Chlamydia is the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted infection in the world. Most urogenital chlamydia infections in men and women are asymptomatic, but these infections can lead to irreparable damage in the reproductive system and other tissues. Apart from the urogenital chlamydial infections, we know that chlamydia infects the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) in humans and can colonize the GIT for extended intervals without eliciting pathology. We are interested in investigating tissue tropism determinants in Chlamydia spp. because these could be targeted to development live-attenuated vaccines. Recently, we generated mutagenized isolates of the mouse pathogen Chlamydia muridarum, a close relative of the human pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis which causes chlamydia. One mutant that we isolated is significantly attenuated in murine gastrointestinal tissues compared to wild type, but retains its pathogenicity in the murine urogenital tract. Using novel genetic techniques, whole-genome sequencing, and complementation using newly developed vector systems we identified a chromosomal factor, tc0600, that we believe mediates the altered tissue tropism phenotype of this mutant in mice. Notably, the Chlamydia trachomatis ortholog of tc0600 has been linked to chlamydial GIT tropism in humans.

Probiotics are an alternative to increase broiler productivity and flock health. For this reason, the objective of the first study was to evaluate commercially available Bacillus spp. based probiotic products on their ability to reduce Salmonella Heidelberg, in vitro. Results showed that most products reduced the lower concentrations of S. Heidelberg and maintained a reduction for up to 8 h. The second study was conducted to determine if bacterial colonization occurred in a broiler chick after in ovo injection. Using bioluminescence, it was demonstrated that bacteria could migrate and colonize the embryo within 2 h after in ovo injection into the amniotic fluid. The results of these studies demonstrated that probiotics could reduce pathogenic microorganisms and can potentially have a positive impact on the chick before it even hatches and is placed in a broiler house.