ResumoAs cerâmicas porosas possuem um elevado potencial para serem usadas em diversas aplicações importantes. Combinando adequadamente matérias-primas e técnicas de processamento, é possível obter cerâmicas porosas com elevados valores de resistência mecânica, resistência ao ataque químico, elevada refratariedade e elevada uniformidade estrutural. Entre os vários métodos de obtenção de cerâmica porosa, o método de incorporação de produtos orgânicos ao corpo cerâmico é bastante utilizado quando se deseja trabalhar com a porosidade do produto. No entanto, muitas variáveis devem ser analisadas, a começar pela quantidade de material orgânico adicionado ao corpo cerâmico. Este trabalho tem como objetivo a elaboração de cerâmicas porosas com a incorporação do pó-de-madeira ao corpo cerâmico e a análise das propriedades físicas e mecânicas deste material com a variação da temperatura de processamento. Os resultados indicaram que o método é viável, constatando um aumento da fração de poros com a adição do material orgânico e boa resistência mecânica do material. Palavras-chave: argila, pó-de-madeira, porosidade, resistência mecânica. Abstract The porous ceramic have a high potential to be used in several important applications. Combining raw materials with processing techniques appropriately is

SUMMARYThe dermatophytes, keratinophilic fungi, represent important microorganisms of the soil microbiota, where there are cosmopolitan species and others with restricted geographic distribution. The aim of this study was to broaden the knowledge about the presence of dermatophytes in soils of urban (empty lots, schools, slums, squares, beaches and homes) and rural areas and about the evolution of their prevalence in soils of varying pH in cities of the four mesoregions of Paraiba State, Brazil. Soil samples were collected from 31 cities of Paraiba State. Of 212 samples, 62% showed fungal growth, particularly those from the Mata Paraibana mesoregion (43.5%), which has a tropical climate, hot and humid. Soil pH varied from 4.65 to 9.06, with 71% of the growth of dermatophytes occurring at alkaline pH (7.02 -9.06) (ρ = 0.000). Of 131 strains isolated, 57.3% were geophilic species, particularly Trichophyton terrestre (31.3%) and Mycrosporum gypseum (21.4%). M. nanum and T. ajelloi were isolated for the first time in Paraiba State. The zoophilic species identified were T. mentagrophytes var. mentagrophytes (31.3 %) and T. verrucosum (7.6 %), and T. tonsurans was isolated as an anthropophilic species. The soils of urban areas including empty lots, schools, slums and squares of cities in the mesoregions of Paraiba State were found to be the most suitable reservoirs for almost all dermatophytes; their growth may have been influenced by environmental factors, soils with residues of human and/or animal keratin and alkaline pH.

This article presents a method to optimize the formulation of ceramic masses for coatings using the statistical design of experiments. The project of simplex mixtures in pseudocomponents considered six control factors (wt. %): talc, quartz, limestone, phyllite, dolomite and clay and three response variables: linear retraction, bending resistance and water absorption. The proposed method was implemented in the stages: (1) identification of the problem, (2) planning and execution of the experiments and (3) optimization and discussion of the results. The optimization method is defined through the simulation, imposing the restrictions that each response demands.

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