Gibberellic acid is a plant growth hormone that promotes cell expansion and division. Studies have aimed at optimizing and reducing production costs, which could make its application economically viable for different cultivars. Gibberellins consist of a large family of plant growth hormones discovered in the 1930s, which are synthesized via the terpenes route from the geranylgeranyl diphosphate and feature a basic structure formed by an ent-gibberellane tetracyclic skeleton. Among them, only four have biological activity, including gibberellic acid (GA), which acts as a natural plant growth regulator, especially for stem elongation, seed germination, and increased fruit size. It can be obtained from plants, fungi, and bacteria. There are also some reports about microalgae GA producers. Fungi, especially Gibberella fujikuroi, are preferred for GA production via submerged fermentation or solid-state fermentation. Many factors may affect its production, some of which are related to the control and scale-up of fermentation parameters. Different GA products are available on the market. They can be found in liquid or solid formulations containing only GA or a mixture of other biological active gibberellins, which can be applied on a wide variety of cultivars, including crops and fruits. However, the product's cost still limits its large and continuous application. New low-cost and efficient GA production alternatives are surely welcome. This review deals with the latest scientific and technological advances on production, recovery, formulation, and applications of this important plant growth hormone.

The gibberellins (GAs) are an important group of hormones which exert various effects on promoter and regulator of plant growth. Gibberellic acid (GA(3)) is a natural plant hormone, with great economical and industrial importance. It affects stem elongation, germination, elimination of dormancy, flowering, sex expression, enzyme induction and leaf and fruit senescence. Despite its diverse applications, the use of GA(3) is limited due to its high production costs. The industrial process currently used for the production of GA(3) is based on submerged fermentation (SmF) techniques. As an alternative for its production, solid state fermentation (SSF) has also been investigated for its ability to increase the yields of GA(3) with the use of agro-industrial wastes as support/substrate, which contributes to the decreased production costs. This review describes GA(3)'s physical, chemical and biological properties, its production by fermentation and new advances that are being carried out with special interest on the SSF technique.

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Agriculture producers, pushed by the need for high productivity, have stimulated the intensive use of pesticides and fertilizers. Unfortunately, negative effects on water, soil, and human and animal health have appeared as a consequence of this indiscriminate practice. Plant probiotic microorganisms (PPM), also known as bioprotectants, biocontrollers, biofertilizers, or biostimulants, are beneficial microorganisms that offer a promising alternative and reduce health and environmental problems. These microorganisms are involved in either a symbiotic or free-living association with plants and act in different ways, sometimes with specific functions, to achieve satisfactory plant development. This review deals with PPM presentation and their description and function in different applications. PPM includes the plant growth promoters (PGP) group, which contain bacteria and fungi that stimulate plant growth through different mechanisms. Soil microflora mediate many biogeochemical processes. The use of plant probiotics as an alternative soil fertilization source has been the focus of several studies; their use in agriculture improves nutrient supply and conserves field management and causes no adverse effects. The species related to organic matter and pollutant biodegradation in soil and abiotic stress tolerance are then presented. As an important way to understand not only the ecological role of PPM and their interaction with plants but also the biotechnological application of these cultures to crop management, two main approaches are elucidated: the culture-dependent approach where the microorganisms contained in the plant material are isolated by culturing and are identified by a combination of phenotypic and molecular methods; and the culture-independent approach where microorganisms are detected without cultivating them, based on extraction and analyses of DNA. These methods combine to give a thorough knowledge of the microbiology of the studied environment.

Dietary habits, lifestyle, and polymorphisms in VDR (ApaI), CYP24A1 (rs6013897, rs158552, rs17217119) and CYP27B1 (rs10877012) were associated with a higher risk of CRC.

In the present work we describe a method which allows the incorporation of surface tension into the GENSMAC2D code. This is achieved on two scales. First on the scale of a cell, the surface tension effects are incorporated into the free surface boundary conditions through the computation of the capillary pressure. The required curvature is estimated by fitting a least square circle to the free surface using the tracking particles in the cell and in its close neighbors. On a sub-cell scale, short wavelength perturbations are filtered out using a local 4-point stencil which is mass conservative. An efficient implementation is obtained through a dual representation of the cell data, using both a matrix representation, for ease at identifying neighbouring cells, and also a tree data structure, which permits the representation of specific groups of cells with additional information pertaining to that group. The resulting code is shown to be robust, and to produce accurate results when compared with exact solutions of selected fluid dynamic problems involving surface tension

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Aos meus pais: Ailton e Marilú. Agradecimentos À Deus pela vida. Ao Prof. Dr. Antonio Castelo Filho pela orientação, ensinamentos, dedicação, apoio e amizade no desenvolvimento deste trabalho.Aos meus pais, Ailton e Marilú, por tudo que sou, pelo carinho, incentivo e compreensão.Às minhas irmãs, Silmara e Suzeli, e ao meu cunhado Wagner pelo carinho, incentivo e apoio.Ao meu sobrinho Victor por alegrar minha vida e a de minha família. Ao Prof. Dr. Murilo F. Tomé pelas inúmeras dúvidas esclarecidas. À Cris por me mostrar que para a verdadeira amizade não existe distância. À Alê pela amizade desde a época da graduação. Ao Garga pela ajuda no LCAD, e principalmente pela amizade. Aos amigos da graduação, da matemática computacional, da computação e da elétrica pela amizade, ajuda, festas e boas risadas.À todos os professores do ICMC-USP e funcionários dos laboratórios, secretarias, biblioteca, seções da graduação e da pós que de forma direta e/ou indireta contribuiram para a realização deste trabalho.Ao CNPq pelo auxilio financeiro. ResumoEste trabalho apresenta um ambiente integrado para simulação de escoamentos bidimensionais incompressíveis com superfícies livres, denominado Freeflow-2D. Este sistema é compostos por quatro módulos: um modelador de moldes e escoamentos -Modflow-2D, um simulador de escoamentos -Simflow-2D, um visualizador de escoamentos -Visflow-2D e um reiniciador de escoamentos -Resimflow-2D. A comunicação entre os módulos do sistema é feita por arquivos. O Freeflow-2D implementa o método GENSMAC e foi baseado na estrutura de dados do Freeflow-3D. Os objetos geométricos (fluidos, contêineres, injetores e ejetores) são representados pela estrutura de dados B-Rep (Boundary Representation).Alguns resultados de simulação utilizando este sistema são apresentados e comparados com os do sistema Freeflow. AbstractThis work presents an integrated environment for the simulation of the two-dimensional incompressible flows with free surfaces, named Freeflow-2D. This system consist of four modules: a geometric model module -Modflow-2D, a simulation module -Simflow-2D, a visualization module -Visflow-2D and a restart module -Resimflow-2D. The communication between the modules is made by means of files. The Freeflow-2D employed the GENSMAC method and was based in the data structure of the Freeflow-3D. The geometric objects (fiuids, containers, inflows and outflows) are represented by a B-Rep (Boundary Representation) data structure.Some results of the simulation using this system are presented and compared to the results of the Freeflow system. SumárioIntrodução 1