The aim of the present study was to describe the characteristics of Guiana dolphins (S. guianensis) group size and composition in the Paranaguá Estuarine Complex (25° 15' -25° 36' S and 48° 02'-48° 45' W), Paraná State, as well as to verify the existence of relationships between a given environmental variable (water depth, salinity, transparency and temperature) and group size. An area of around 124 km 2 was surveyed by boat from April 2006 to February 2008 in the following subsets of the estuary: Canal do Superagui (~28 km 2 ), Pinheiros bay (~34 km 2 ), part of Laranjeiras bay, which included the Guaraqueçaba sub-estuary (~38 km 2 ), and part of the Mixture Section of the Paranaguá Estuarine Complex (~24 km 2 ). In 45 survey days, a total of 147 hours were spent observing 286 groups of S. guianensis. Groups varied from two individuals to aggregations of up to 90 individuals (mean ± SD: 11.5 ± 14.4 individuals). Solitary individuals were seen only on five occasions (1.7% of all observations). Groups with calves (n = 247) represented 86.4% overall and were more common in all sub-areas when compared to groups without calves. Groups without calves were found in all sub-areas and were usually smaller and composed of up to 12 individuals. A usual group composition of 70% of adults and 30% of calves was observed considering all sub-areas and seasons. No correlations were found between group size and water temperature (Spearman's rank test, r = 0.0059, p = 0.9338), transparency (Spearman's rank test, r = 0.0597, p = 0.9333), depth (Spearman's rank test, r = 0.1421, p = 0.4698), and salinity (Spearman's rank test, r = -0.1938, p = 0.0665). While Guiana dolphin groups were seen in the entire surveyed area, group size varied significantly among the three main surveyed sub-areas (Kruskal Wallis, H 2,196 = 29.85, p = 0.0000). Groups were larger in Laranjeiras bay and smaller in Canal do Superagui. The physical environment, risk of predation, seasonal distribution and abundance of prey are the main possible factors driving larger groups in inner and protected waters.

We propose a simple, fast, and economical method to obtain ZrO 2 powders aided by microwave heating. Partially stabilized zirconia (tetragonal+monoclininc) undergoes transition to fully stabilized zirconia in the tetragonal phase as Gd 3+ ions are incorporated (0.5-5 mol%) into the zirconium precursor solution and posteriorly annealed at 300, 500 and 700°C for 15 min in an adapted household microwave oven. XRD, Rietveld refinement and Raman scattering results confirm that structural evolution of zirconia occurs due to the presence structural ordering at both long-and short-range, whose fully stabilization, and hence, the higher structural order-disorder degree, was kept only for doping content at 5% of Gd 3+ by the elimination of secondary phase (monoclinic). TEM/HRTEM/SAED results revealed that partially and fully stabilized ZrO 2 are polycrystalline materials composed by an agglomerate of nanoparticles formed due to the fast microwave heating.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de comparar o efeito do calor, do SO2 e do ácido ascorbico, visando determinar qual o método mais eficiente para controlar o escurecimento enzímico de cada uma das frutas e hortaliças estudadas. Os resultados mostraram que para a banana, pêssego, maça, cenoura, couve-flor e palmito, o calor foi o melhor agente inativador do sistema enzímico responsável pelo escurecimento. O SO2 foi mais eficiente para a pera, e para o figo e batata, o melhor agente inibidor foi o ácido ascórbico.