Cubatão, o maior pólo industrial da américa latina também já foi uma das cidades mais poluídas do mundo. Os 30 anos de intensa atividade industrial vêm pressionando o meio ambiente com substâncias tóxicas e afetando gravemente a saúde da população. Dentre as substâncias contaminantes mais importantes da região estão os derivados de petróleo como o benzeno, tolueno, etilbenzeno e xilenos. Conhecidos como BTEX, eles são produzidos e utilizados em larga escala e a contaminação ocorre frequentemente através de vazamentos. Nos solos, devido à sua solubilidade em água, essas substâncias podem se espalhar por longas distâncias a partir do ponto afetado contaminando locais distantes. Já foi comprovada a capacidade de micro-organismos de sobreviver e até utilizar BTEX como fonte de carbono. Os micro-organismos adaptados catabolizam os contaminantes transformando-os em substâncias menos tóxicas e até mesmo eliminando-os do ambiente, capacidade de grande interesse econômico e ambiental. Nessa linha, nossa proposta visa o estudo das comunidades microbianas de solos afetados e não afetados por BTEX. Para isso foi utilizada a metagenômica como abordagem de estudo identificando-se diferenças qualitativas e quantitativas nas estruturas microbianas de três diferentes locais do município de Cubatão, sendo um deles afetado diretamente por BTEX. Pelo método utilizado e aqui desenvolvido, foi possível identificar um panorama metabólico geral identificando-se genes relevantes e o potencial de degradação de hidrocarbonetos aromáticos de micro-organismos conhecidos e desconhecidos, revelando melhor o potencial metabólico dos solos identificados. Os resultados apresentados podem contribuir para um melhor entendimento da dinâmica in situ de uma comunidade microbiana afetada por BTEX assim como melhorar o conhecimento sobre a comunidade microbiana de um local altamente impactado como Cubatão. / Cubatão is the largest industrial site in Latin America and was in the past one of the most polluted cities in the world. 30 years of intense industrial activity has pushed environmental limits with toxic substances and has severely affected the inhabitants\' health. Among the contaminants found in the region, the petroleum derivatives benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes are the most important. Known collectively as BTEX, they are produced and used at a large scale and contamination frequently occurs. Because it is highly soluble in water, when in soil BTEX can spread long distances from the original contamination site, thus affecting large areas. Some microorganisms are known to live in contaminated environments and use contaminants such as BTEX as a unique carbon source for energy production. They catabolize contaminants into less dangerous products or even eliminate them from environment, a feature which has great commercial and environmental interest. We therefore compared the microbial communities in soils which were affected and un-affected by BTEX contamination. To this end, we used a metagenomics approach and developed a comparison method to identify microorganisms and degradation potential of soils studied. We found qualitative and quantitative differences in microbial structures from three different sites in Cubatão County, one of which is contaminated with BTEX. We constructed a metabolic overview identifying important genes, degradation potential and microorganisms related to BTEX degradation. The results presented here could contribute to understanding the in situ dynamics of a BTEX affected microbial community as well as improving our knowledge of the microbial community of Cubatão, a highly environmentally impacted place.

The objective of this study was to use soil chemical properties, particularly carbon isotopes to describe the agricultural landscape in the Blue Creek region on the Rio Bravo Escarpment in northwestern Belize. The primary question associated with this study focused on the comparative agricultural potential of the soils between the upland karst environment and the lowland coastal plains using the distribution and frequency of ancient Maya maize production. Soil physical features, such as clay concentrations throughout profiles in conjunction with soil chemical properties were used to aid in determining the level of ancient maize production. Isotopic evidence suggests that anciently, lowland soils were used for maize production more so than upland soils. In addition, profiles at Crocodile Lake indicate the potential for transport of soil δ13C signatures as a result of mass movement events.

There is growing interest in the use of geochemical analyses for the evaluation of anthropogenically altered soils and other archaeological deposits. Areas of human habitation and activity tend to accumulate greater levels of soil phosphorus and trace metals. These elevated concentrations leave permanent signatures that can only be removed by erosion of the soil itself, and so phosphorus and trace metal mapping have become popular field procedures to identify areas of habitation and activity. Gridded soil samples were collected and soil phosphate and trace metal ions were extracted to identify these activity areas at the ancient Fremont site Wolf Village located in Goshen, UT. The geochemical analysis of the chemical patterns indicates possible areas of ancient activity such as food preparation, craft production, and waste. These results and techniques will be used to help locate additional activity areas for future excavation of the site as well as settlement and activity areas of ancient sites in the western US.

The objective of this study was to use pedological evidence in conjunction with Geographic Information Systems, and soil physical and chemical analyses as means to better understand the agricultural landscape surrounding the ancient Maya city of Uci. Specifically, the query of this thesis is to determine whether there is an association between settlement density and soil resources, and what relationship if any there is between the ancient sacbe of Uci and its surrounding agricultural potential. Stable carbon isotope analysis of the humin fraction of the soil organic matter was conducted on several profiles from karst depressions known as rejolladas near the site center, and from a select number of sufficiently deep profiles along and surrounding the ancient sacbe, and from beneath ancient structures. A strong C isotopic signature of ancient C4 crops was found in a limited number of profiles while a majority of the profiles showed no evidence, or little to inconclusive evidence due to a mixture of C3 and C4 plants in the natural landscape. A majority of the soils surrounding Uci are shallow to extremely shallow and many profiles sampled and studied did not allow for C isotopic analysis. Isotopic evidence along with other soil chemical and physical characteristics suggests that settlement density was linked to soil resources, specifically in the case of the rejolladas proximity to the Uci site center. However, it does not appear that the construction and location of the sacbe was linked to its surrounding soil resources or agricultural potential even though ancient maize crops may have been cultivated sporadically close to the sacbe and nearby structures. The soil resources of Uci are not conducive to the production of large maize crops and the ancient Maya of this area likely utilized maize along with alternative crops, arboriculture, wild game and trade to sustain its population.

In this work the Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) and detection of sorbed metals in contaminated soils is explored. Iron containing samples were spiked onto sea sand and extracted with Supercritical Fluid CO₂. On-line detection was accomplished by decompressing the SF-CO₂ and analyte into a microwave induced plasma, whereby the resulting Iron atomic emission signal was quantified. This dissertation reports the first successful coupling of SFE and Microwave Induced Plasma - Atomic Emission Detection (MIP-AED) for the on-line analysis of sorbed metal contaminants. The on-line analysis was accomplished with a novel SFE-MIP interface design. Experiments involving the on-line extraction and detection of ferrocene spiked sea sand were very promising, in that unity of extraction and detection was achieved with this nonpolar compound. Percent recovery was greatly reduced when the on-line extraction of Iron III Trifluoroacetylacetonate (FeTFA) was attempted. Off-line extraction studies were performed to establish the optimum conditions necessary to effect the SFE of the following Iron III complexes: Iron III Acetylacetonate (FeAcac) and Iron III Trifluoroacetylacetonate. The greatest recovery (55.85 0/0) was achieved with Supercritical Fluid-CO₂ under the following conditions: 60°C, 150 atm, 20 minute static extraction followed by 20 minute dynamic extraction. The extraction vessel contained 0.250 mg iron complex, 20 μL HPLC grade methanol, and 20 μL deionized water. Trapping of the analyte was achieved by decompressing the SF-CO₂ and analyte in 10 mL of HPLC grade methanol held at O°C. / Ph. D.

Medieval castle ruins undoubtedly create the face of the Czech landscape. Moreover, the few previous studies on this topic have shown that ruins are unique and extraordinary biotope. This work aims to characterize castle vegetation on thirty examined localities (thirty ruins). Phytosociological relevés and soil samples were collected, soil depth was measured and the cover of individual layers was observed - all of this on three spots on each locality. One of the places covered castle and the other ones the nearby forests (each one was chosen differently than the other). The castle walls were sampled separately. The results show that castles not only increase the diversity of forests by hosting a higher number of species but also by a different species composition - castles have a rather large set of species with high fidelity to ruins areas. Approximately half of the uniqueness of the ruins can be explained by the soil qualities, such as higher pH, higher quantity of calcium and magnesium, the other half remains unclear notwithstanding the usage of various explanatory variables. It is certain that castle ruins are from a biological point of view exceptional, unique and they surely deserve the attention which we owe them so far.

Neste trabalho, é apresentado um novo modelo de reconstrução tridimensional (3D) para amostras agrícolas com filtragem de Wiener em processamento paralelo, o qual é obtido a partir de reconstruções tomográficas bidimensionais (2D). No desenvolvimento, foram modelados algoritmos paralelos de retroprojeção filtrada e reconstrução tridimensional, baseando-se na inserção de um conjunto de planos virtuais entre pares de planos reais obtidos em ensaios tomográficos de raios X na faixa de energia de 56 keV a 662 keV. No modelo, os planos virtuais gerados em algoritmo paralelo são implementados com base na técnica de interpolação por B-Spline-Wavelet. Para validação do modelo desenvolvido, foi utilizada uma plataforma paralela composta de 4 processadores DSP, a qual possibilitou a troca de dados entre os processadores DSP e o envio de informações para o host, um computador desktop com processador Pentium III operando em 800 MHz. A extração de medidas de eficiência, de ganho e de precisão dos algoritmos paralelos foi realizada com base em um conjunto de amostras agrícolas (solo, vidro e madeiras) e de phantoms de calibração. Nessa avaliação, observou-se que o algoritmo de reconstrução 2D, utilizado como base para o algoritmo de reconstrução 3D, possibilitou uma alta eficiência para imagens de maior resolução, atingindo um pico de 92% de eficiência na resolução de 181X181 pixels. O algoritmo paralelo de reconstrução 3D foi analisado para um conjunto de amostras, sob diferentes configurações de planos reais e virtuais, organizados de forma a possibilitarem a avaliação do impacto causado pelo aumento da granularidade da comunicação e da carga de trabalho. Um melhor desempenho, com ganho médio igual a 3,4, foi obtido na reconstrução de objetos que demandaram o cálculo de um maior número de planos. Também, buscou-se conhecer a adaptabilidade do modelo para uso em arquitetura convencional, sendo que neste caso o uso de MPI permitiu a comunicação entre as tarefas projetadas em cada algoritmo paralelo. Adicionamente, foram incluídas ferramentas de visualização 2D e 3D para que usuários possam analisar as imagens e as características das amostras agrícolas em ambiente tridimensional. Os resultados obtidos indicam que o modelo de reconstrução 3D paralela trouxe contribuições originais para a área de tomografia agrícola aplicada à física de solos, bem como para a criação de ferramentas que viabilizem explorar recursos computacionais disponíveis em arquiteturas paralelas que demandem elevada capacidade de processamento. / This work presents a new method for three dimensional (3D) image reconstruction dedicated to the investigation in soil physics by means of X-ray tomography which is obtained using two-dimensional (2D) tomographic image reconstructed slices. The conception of the 3D model for reconstruction and visualization was based on the filtered back projection algorithm, operating under parallel environment together the insertion of virtual planes between pairs of real planes obtained by X-Ray tomography under energies varying from 56 keV to 662 keV. In this model, the virtual planes were generated by interpolation with the use of B-Spline-Wavelets. The evaluation of the 3D reconstruction model was established by using a set of agricultural samples (i.e., soil, glass, wood and calibration phantoms) having different configuration for the planes. Such configuration was based on setting not only the sizes and the number of the real but also the virtual planes in the volume. This procedure allows the impact measurements as a function of the increasing in workload and the communication granularity. To validate the reconstruction model, a dedicated parallel architecture composed of 4 DSP processors was used. This board enables data exchange between DSP processors and communication with host computer. A measurement of efficiency with a speed up equal to 3.4 was obtained using the same set of samples and a better performance was observed with a higher number of planes. Also, to understand about its adaptability, the model was implemented in conventional architecture, using MPI library to enable communication between designed tasks. Additionally, 2D and 3D visualization tools based on Vizualization ToolKit were included in order to help users to analyze images and their characteristics. Results have shown that the 3D parallel model reconstruction brought original contributions for the soil science diagnosis by X-Ray tomography, as well as to explore the available computational resources in parallel architectures, which demands great processing capacity.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2017-05-26T20:13:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2014 - Deyvid Diego Carvalho Maranh?o.pdf: 3511156 bytes, checksum: 353d33c1ec8bd59e0324501bd6a5033a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-26T20:13:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2014 - Deyvid Diego Carvalho Maranh?o.pdf: 3511156 bytes, checksum: 353d33c1ec8bd59e0324501bd6a5033a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-20 / CAPES / Calcareous soils represent a significant portion of agricultural areas of the planet; commonly have high contents of calcium, magnesium, carbonates, associated with high pH values. In general, although there is little information about their attributes, they are located in areas with great potential for agricultural use. This study aimed to evaluate aspects involved in the genesis of calcareous soils of the Bambu? Group in the municipalities of Lavandeira and Aurora, southeast of Tocantins state, using morphological, physical, chemical and mineralogical attributes, and to compare methods for analytical evaluation ofthis soil attributes. Mostly, these soils havea low degree of pedogenetic development, highlighting the pedogenic processes of melanization and calcification, as well as high levels of silt fraction, which are related to the occurrence of siltstones layers associated with the limestone. From the evaluations, it is suggested that the carbonate character or calcic horizon must be included in the large group level in the class of Luvissolos H?plicos in the Brazilian System of Soil Classification. In this study, the profil P4 of toposequence T2 showed high calcium carbonate content, but were classified as "?rtico" respectively; thus omitting a feature of great importance in the management aspect. This attribute should be emphasized in the classification, since it influences the soil pH, available phosphorus content and micronutrients. The use of the suffix "r" should be reviewed in the Manual for Soil Description and Sampling in the Field, as this suffix has been used exclusively to the horizon and / or layer C, omitting this feature to other horizons, as it is featured in profile P1 of toposequence T2. As for the analytical methods, the phosphorus (P) determination more efficiently to calcareous soilsuses a buffered alkaline solution extraction (Olsen et al., 1954), and the use of acidic nature extractors (Mehlich 1) may overestimate the values of available phosphorus. Moreover, the method for determining calcium carbonateequivalent, with the changes proposed by Donagemma et al. (2011), quantified higher concentrations of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), suggesting that other methods have underestimating the CaCO3 content of the samples. As for the particle size analysis of fine earth, the usage of sodium hydroxide as chemical dispersant was more efficient in determining the clay fraction, with better dispersion of this fraction compared to the sodium hexametaphosphate solution. In contrast, the method for organic carbon measurement proposed by Yeomans and Bremner (1988) was more efficient, when compared to the method of Donagemma et al. (2011), as shown by the values similar to the ones obtained from elemental analysis (CHNS-O) in samples pretreated with an acid solution. / Os solos calc?rios representam uma parcela significativa das ?reas agr?colas do planeta; comumente, apresentam elevados teores de c?lcio, magn?sio, carbonatos, associados a elevados valores de pH. De modo geral, embora haja poucas informa??es acerca de seus atributos, est?o em ?reas de grande potencial para a utiliza??o agr?cola. Esse estudo teve como objetivo avaliar aspectos envolvidos na g?nese de solos calc?rios do Grupo Bambu?, nos munic?pios de Lavandeira e Aurora, sudestedo estado do Tocantins, a partir de atributos morfol?gicos, f?sicos, qu?micos e mineral?gicos, bem como comparar m?todos anal?ticos para avalia??o de atributos desses solos. Majoritariamente, esses solos apresentaram baixo grau de desenvolvimento pedogen?tico, destacando-se os processos pedogen?ticos de melaniza??o e calcifica??o, al?m de elevados teores da fra??o silte, o que est? relacionado ? ocorr?ncia de l?minas de siltitos associadas ao calc?rio. A partir das avalia??es realizadas, sugere-se que o car?ter carbon?tico ou horizonte c?lcico devem ser inclu?dos no n?vel de grande grupo na classe dos Luvissolos H?plicos do Sistema Brasileiro de Classifica??o de Solos. Neste estudo, os perfis P1 e P4 da topossequ?ncia T2 apresentaram elevados teores de carbonato de c?lcio, por?m foram classificados como ?L?tico? e ??rtico?, respectivamente, omitindo-se essa caracter?stica que ? de grande relev?ncia no aspecto de manejo. Esse atributo deve ser ressaltado na classifica??o, visto que ? determinante do pH, teor de f?sforo e de micronutrientes dispon?veis. A utiliza??o do sufixo ?r? deve ser revista no Manual de Descri??o e Coleta de Solo no Campo, pois esse sufixo tem sido de uso exclusivo para o horizonte e/ou camada C, omitindo essa caracter?stica para os demais horizontes, assim como caracterizado no perfil P1 da topossequ?ncia T2. Quanto aos m?todos anal?ticos, o m?todo de determina??o de f?sforo (P) mais eficiente para solos calc?rios faz uso de uma solu??o extratora alcalina tamponada (Olsen et al., 1954), sendo que a utiliza??o de extratores de natureza ?cida (Mehlich-1) pode superestimar os teores de P dispon?vel. Por outro lado, o m?todo de determina??o de carbonato de c?lcio equivalente, com altera??es da metodologia proposta pela Donagemma et al. (2011), quantificou maiores teores de carbonatos de c?lcio (CaCO3), sugerindo que os demais m?todos t?m subestimando os teores de CaCO3 das amostras. Quanto ? an?lise granulom?trica da terra fina, o hidr?xido de s?dio, como dispersante qu?mico, mostrou-se mais eficiente na determina??o da fra??o argila do solo, por ter proporcionado maior dispers?o dessa fra??o, quando comparado ? solu??o de hexametafosfato de s?dio. Em contrapartida, o m?todo de determina??o de carbono org?nico proposto por Yeomans e Bremner (1988) mostrou-se mais eficiente em compara??o ao m?todo da Donagemma et al. (2011), apresentando valores mais pr?ximos dos obtido na an?lise elementar (CHNS-O) em amostras pr?-tratadas com solu??o ?cida.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Neste trabalho, é apresentado um novo modelo de reconstrução tridimensional (3D) para amostras agrícolas com filtragem de Wiener em processamento paralelo, o qual é obtido a partir de reconstruções tomográficas bidimensionais (2D). No desenvolvimento, foram modelados algoritmos paralelos de retroprojeção filtrada e reconstrução tridimensional, baseando-se na inserção de um conjunto de planos virtuais entre pares de planos reais obtidos em ensaios tomográficos de raios X na faixa de energia de 56 keV a 662 keV. No modelo, os planos virtuais gerados em algoritmo paralelo são implementados com base na técnica de interpolação por B-Spline-Wavelet. Para validação do modelo desenvolvido, foi utilizada uma plataforma paralela composta de 4 processadores DSP, a qual possibilitou a troca de dados entre os processadores DSP e o envio de informações para o host, um computador desktop com processador Pentium III operando em 800 MHz. A extração de medidas de eficiência, de ganho e de precisão dos algoritmos paralelos foi realizada com base em um conjunto de amostras agrícolas (solo, vidro e madeiras) e de phantoms de calibração. Nessa avaliação, observou-se que o algoritmo de reconstrução 2D, utilizado como base para o algoritmo de reconstrução 3D, possibilitou uma alta eficiência para imagens de maior resolução, atingindo um pico de 92% de eficiência na resolução de 181X181 pixels. O algoritmo paralelo de reconstrução 3D foi analisado para um conjunto de amostras, sob diferentes configurações de planos reais e virtuais, organizados de forma a possibilitarem a avaliação do impacto causado pelo aumento da granularidade da comunicação e da carga de trabalho. Um melhor desempenho, com ganho médio igual a 3,4, foi obtido na reconstrução de objetos que demandaram o cálculo de um maior número de planos. Também, buscou-se conhecer a adaptabilidade do modelo para uso em arquitetura convencional, sendo que neste caso o uso de MPI permitiu a comunicação entre as tarefas projetadas em cada algoritmo paralelo. Adicionamente, foram incluídas ferramentas de visualização 2D e 3D para que usuários possam analisar as imagens e as características das amostras agrícolas em ambiente tridimensional. Os resultados obtidos indicam que o modelo de reconstrução 3D paralela trouxe contribuições originais para a área de tomografia agrícola aplicada à física de solos, bem como para a criação de ferramentas que viabilizem explorar recursos computacionais disponíveis em arquiteturas paralelas que demandem elevada capacidade de processamento. / This work presents a new method for three dimensional (3D) image reconstruction dedicated to the investigation in soil physics by means of X-ray tomography which is obtained using two-dimensional (2D) tomographic image reconstructed slices. The conception of the 3D model for reconstruction and visualization was based on the filtered back projection algorithm, operating under parallel environment together the insertion of virtual planes between pairs of real planes obtained by X-Ray tomography under energies varying from 56 keV to 662 keV. In this model, the virtual planes were generated by interpolation with the use of B-Spline-Wavelets. The evaluation of the 3D reconstruction model was established by using a set of agricultural samples (i.e., soil, glass, wood and calibration phantoms) having different configuration for the planes. Such configuration was based on setting not only the sizes and the number of the real but also the virtual planes in the volume. This procedure allows the impact measurements as a function of the increasing in workload and the communication granularity. To validate the reconstruction model, a dedicated parallel architecture composed of 4 DSP processors was used. This board enables data exchange between DSP processors and communication with host computer. A measurement of efficiency with a speed up equal to 3.4 was obtained using the same set of samples and a better performance was observed with a higher number of planes. Also, to understand about its adaptability, the model was implemented in conventional architecture, using MPI library to enable communication between designed tasks. Additionally, 2D and 3D visualization tools based on Vizualization ToolKit were included in order to help users to analyze images and their characteristics. Results have shown that the 3D parallel model reconstruction brought original contributions for the soil science diagnosis by X-Ray tomography, as well as to explore the available computational resources in parallel architectures, which demands great processing capacity.