The golden-faced saki monkey Pithecia pithecia chrysocephala (Cebidae, Primates) was observed eating soil from termite nests during a long-term study of a family group in a Central Amazonian forest fragment. In this paper we describe the behaviour involved in the geophagy in these monkeys, and the results of geochemical and physical analyses of the termite nest material, as well as root mat and topsoil samples below the trees, in order to clarify the possible reasons for it. The sakis ate soil from nine arboreal termite nests on 26 soil feeding-bouts (in 853 observation hours); 25 soil feeding-bouts occurred in March 1987 (rainy season), during 19 days or 132 observation hours, and occupied 0.7% of the feeding time. Geophagy frequencies did not differ between sexes (17 feeding-bouts of four females and 8 for two males). Mineral composition was higher in arboreal termitaria than in the topsoil. Kaolinite was the major clay component. Tannin adsorptive capacity, tested through a modi®ed radial diffusion method of Hagerman, was around 10±20%, similar to a control with kaolin (10±20%), but lower than bentonite or celite (30±45%). The observations reported here, although inconclusive as to the function of geophagy in this species, indicate that it is not a mineral supplement during times of scarcity or high consumption of leaves, as has been reported for other primates, nor that it is related to fruit consumption (redressing possible mineral imbalance), as has been suggested for some other frugivorous mammals. Our results do not rule out tannin adsorptive hypothesis for the ingestion of clays, but, being an irregular habit, we argue that it is most likely related to rare and occasional dietary components.
In this work two mathematical methodologies to solve the diffusion differential equation related to the banana drying process were used in order to obtain the mass diffusion coefficient value. A simplified mathematical model was considered that was based on Fick's Law, with initial and boundary conditions according to the experimental procedure carried out for banana drying. The first methodology was performed by using an approximation of the analytical solution and the second by using the numerical simulation according to the implicit scheme of the finite difference method. The calculation was carried out by looking for the minimal value of the norm calculated between the experimental data and the theoretical results obtained using different values of the diffusion coefficient. The algorithms associated with these methodologies were implemented with Matlab. The values of the diffusion coefficient according to the first and second methodologies were 1.65 x 10-6 [m² h-1] and 1.58 x 10-6 [m² h-1] respectively, with the associated minimal residual values of 0.0269 and 0.0257.
RESUMO: Neste trabalho, foi utilizada uma ferramenta matemática promissora na análise de sistemas e/ou processos, particularmente na área de produção animal. Essa ferramenta é a desenvolvida segundo a abordagem da teoria dos Conjuntos Fuzzy e, neste caso específico, permitiu a análise da composição das variáveis climáticas independentes, como temperatura de bulbo seco e umidade relativa do ar, que influenciam na variável dependente denominada conforto térmico das aves. Foi realizada a construção de regras baseadas na intuição humana, segundo o conhecimento de especialistas da área, a partir do que é possível simular cenários distintos para o suporte à decisão de construção de galpões para abrigo a animais. Neste trabalho, foi estimado o conforto térmico para alojamento de aves poedeiras em produção. Os resultados foram analisados, usando-se o ambiente de computação científica MATLAB 6.5, o que pode ser realizado iterativamente a cada cenário gerado. Com base nos resultados obtidos, pode-se analisar as condições de conforto para distintas composições das variáveis de entrada. PALAVRAS-CHAVE:suporte à decisão, conforto térmico, aves de postura. ESTIMATED THERMAL COMFORT CONDITION FOR LAYERS ACCORDING TO FUZZY THEORYABSTRACT: In this research a promising mathematical tool in system's analysis and/or process particularly in the area of Animal Production was used. Such tool was developed according to Fuzzy theory which in this specific case allows analyzing the composition of independent climatic variables, such as temperature and humidity that may influence the dependent variable named bird's thermal comfort. It was necessary to build up rules based on human intuition according to experts in this area, from which was possible to simulate distinct scenarios for supporting the decision of the construction of animal's housing. In this research thermal comfort for layer's housing in production were considered. The results were analyzed using the scientific computer environment of MATLAB 6.5, which could be done iteratively for each generated scenario. Based on the results it is possible to analyze thermal comfort conditions for several compositions of the input variables.
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