Waste brine from water desalination is a highly salty residue that can be used to grow crops if carefully managed. The aim of this research was to examine the response of two species of the Caatinga (Mimosa caesalpiniifolia Benth and Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.)Poir) to five salinity levels [0.46 (control), 3.2, 3.78, 5.02 and 5.96 dS m-1] of irrigation water obtained by dilution of the waste brine from water desalination. The 2 x 5 factorial treatments were arranged according to a completely randomized design with three replications. At 81 days of cultivation, plants of sabiá and jurema preta were sensitive to salinity increase with the addition of waste water in irrigation, especially the sabiá, which decreases more intensely its dry weight of roots and leaves and leaf area. This decrease however, does not rule out the possibility of production of forest tree seedlings using reject water desalination.

There was evaluated the effect of protein supplementation on the diurnal behavior activities of non-castrated Nellore steers at rainy season, from January to April of 2007. The grazing method was continuous with variable stocking rate. The treatments consisted of mineral supplement with 0% of crude protein (CP) and multiple supplements with 20 and 40% of CP. The behavior activities evaluated were grazing time, idling time, rumination time, bite rate and permanence time of the animals in the trough. The experimental design used was the completely random design, with seven replications. To evaluate the effect of the time of day there was use a split-plot design. With the supplementation the animals reduced at 1.1 hours razing time, offsetting part of the time for the activities of idling and permanence in the trough. The animals did not alter the rumination time, according to supplementation, and maintained the same bite rate, because of the homogeneity of the structural and chemical characteristics of pasture.

The objective of this research was to characterize the nutritional limitations of Jatropha curcas, in addition the effect of the absence of certain nutrients in the growth of the plant. The research was carried in the greenhouse conditions at Agriculture Science Institute of Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The soil was used dystrophic Yellow Oxisol, colleted in the superficial layer (0-20cm), under cerrado vegetation. The experimental design was totally randomized with 13 treatments and three replications. The treatments were based on the missing element technique (with omission of liming and each one of the macro and micronutrients). The plants without the nutrients P, K and liming showed less growth. The nutrients N, P, K, Ca, Mg e liming affected the shoot of plants. The roots were more affected by absence N, P, Mg and Ca. The results allowed concluding that the macronutrients were more limiting to growth of plant.

This paper aimed to collect, to characterize and to estimate the phenotypic divergence of Dimorphandra spp. from different regions of Brazil. Dimorphandra species are sources of rutin, quercetin and rhamnose for pharmaceutical industry. Fruits at mature stage were collected from 21 areas, totaling 84 trees in cities of Minas Gerais, Maranhão and Tocantins states. The following descriptors were used to characterize the collected fruits: mean fruit fresh weight; mean seed fresh weight; fruit length and diameter; length, diameter and thickness of seed; seed color; number of viable and unviable seeds per fruit, and boron content in mesocarp and endocarp. The data were analyzed using a standardized average Euclidian distance matrix. The areas were clustered based on Neighbor Joining algorithm. Phenotypic variability among areas was detected. The clustering of the groups was consistent with geographic region of the collection and the species were separated in different groups. The D. wilsonii Rizz. species was the most divergent considering the three studied species. However, for germplasm conservation, more expeditions to collect samples are needed to increase the effective population number and to ensure an adequate accuracy to assure the occurrence of minimal genetic erosion.

Mastitis is responsible for expressive losses in the breeding systems of ovine due to the low development of lambs or death because of starvation, beyond precocious discarding and occasionally the death of sheep. Studies had been carried through to determine the occurrence of mastitis in the north of Minas Gerais, to characterize the main etiological agents involved and identify the predispose factors of handling to the disease. The occurrence of mastitis under the clinical form was 11.19% and under the sub clinical form 54.54% of the analyzed cases, predominating as etiological agent the coagulase-negative staphylococci. The epidemiologist characterization of the frequency of the installations cleanness (P<0.05) and the practical of depletes of females (P<0.01) presented relation of dependence with the occurrence of illness, having been this work a contribution for the elaboration of prophylactic rules of mastitis in ovine breeding in the north of Minas Gerais.

Substrates containing 0, 10, 20, and 40% (v/v) of urban waste compost were evaluated for the production of Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) seedlings in polytube containers. At 40 days after planting, growth characteristics and macro nutrient content in shoot were determined. The urban waste compost added to the substrate promoted increase in Jatropha plants growth. The maximum growth was obtained with the estimated dose of 24% of compost mixed with subsoil material. Increments in the dose of compost caused linear increase in K, Mg, and S shoot content, but N and Ca contents were reduced by dilution, as the shoot dry mass increased more than the uptake of those nutrients.

The aim of this research was to investigate the similarity of water quality in space and time in the upland of Salgado watershed, Ceará, Brazil. Multivariate analysis/Cluster Analysis was used for this investigation. Water samples were took in nine stations, spread out along the rivers during March, May, July, August and September, 2005, totalizing 45 samples. The water quality attributes analyzed were: electrical conductivity (EC), chloride (Cl-), sulphate (SO4-2), soluble orthophosphate (OPS), nitrate (NO3-), dissolved oxygen (DO), bicarbonate alkalinity (BA), total coliforms (TC) and turbidity (T). Four homogeneous groups were identified. The water samples collected at rainfall season defined the dissimilarity of group 1 in relation to the others. This group showed the best water quality due to the dilution of salts. Water samples collected during the end of rain-fall season and began of dry season formed group 2. Waters sampled at dry season in stations located down of discharge point of effluents defined group 3. These stations presented the highest concentrations of Cl-, EC, SO4-2 and TC. The values of NO3- and TC defined the similarity of group 4. Although Cl-, SO4-2, DO, and TC influenced the cluster definition, the most important variables were EC and NO3-. The water quality similarity was defined by two factors: punctual pollution and climatic seasonality.

In order to evaluate the growth and accumulation of nutrients in watermelon 'Quetzal' grown under different levels of salinity of irrigation water, was developed in the period november/2007 to January 2008, an experiment at the Experimental Farm "Rafael Fernandes", University Federal Rural do Semi-arid (UFERSA) Mossoró-RN. The experiment was a randomized blocks design with four replications. The treatments were arranged in split plots with the plots represented by the salinity levels of irrigation water: 0.60, 1.69, 2.36, 3.46 and 3.98 dS m-1, and the subplots consist of samplings of plants: 12, 22, 32, 42 and 52 days after transplanting, DAT. In achieving the levels of salinity were mixed natural waters and / or saline in order to obtain approximate composition of natural waters in the region. Plant growth, expressed by the accumulation of dry matter and accumulation of macronutrients by watermelon over the age of the plants decreased with increasing water salinity. The largest increases of dry matter and macronutrients occurred after fruit set, which took place from 42 DAT. The period of greatest demand for phosphorus, potassium and calcium was 42-52 DAT, and nitrogen, and magnesium was 32-42 DAT. The order of extracted nutrients was K> N> Ca> Mg> P.

Water is a limiting factor for crop yields, for example yellow passion fruit, requiring from use of irrigation due to limitation of surface waters. This study aimed to evaluate irrigation levels and fruits quality in yellow passion fruit production in Semiarid conditions, thus an experiment was carried out. The seedlings were grown in greenhouse and transplanted in the field spacing 4 m x 2 m. The treatments studied were five water levels: 60; 80; 100; 120 and 140% from ETo, applied through drip irrigation with 4 repetition. The parameters evaluated were average fruit weight (g), yield (t ha-1), the pulp yield with seed (%), juice yield (%) and skin percentage (%). The results obtained in the experiment showed that the highest yield of hybrid passion fruit with average weight over 150 g, and the highest yield was obtained with the blade of 120% ETo. The yield of pulp with seeds was negatively affected by increased volumes of water for irrigation. Can use plant 120% ETo for the irrigation of yellow passion fruit 'IAC 273/277¿ to optimize production and improve fruit quality in semiarid conditions.

This work aimed to determine over the Brazilian territory extreme air temperatures: maximum (Tx) and minimum (Tn) absolute, using multiple regression techniques, orbital data and climatological. The data of Tx and Tn were observed between the years of 1961 and 1990 in 204 meteorological stations by the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), and topography information was obtained from the program Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The multiple regression models were validated with the observational data of 30 meteorological stations in different locations than those generated. The statistical analysis was performed using bootstrap techniques. The results showed that the multiple regression model for Tn presented good agreement with the observed data (R² = 0.86) showing no tendencies to overestimate or underestimate Tn. The Tn varied between -12 to 25 °C and the Tx between 31 and 42 °C. For the Tx the results were not as satisfactory. In a first approach, the limits of the Tn can be used for data quality control of the meteorological station. The map of Tn can be used to subsidize research in agroclimatic zoning in the region where these data are not available.