The aim of this paper was to assess the hygiene and sanitary profile of sun-dried meat sell points in the county of Cruz das Almas, Bahia. Four supermarkets, three food stores, two marketplace stallsand three butcher shops were researched, from December 2009 to January 2010. Data were collected by visiting, observing and the use of a checklist. From the places visited, only the supermarkets reached most of the evaluated parameters. In 50% of the sell points no refrigeration was used, and in 100% of them, the sun-dried meat was not packaged. In 75% of the establishments there was no exclusive knife to cut sun-dried meat, and in 25% of them food and money were handled simultaneously. Aprons, hairnets and clean closed-toe shoes were used in 25% of the sell points. No proper hand washing and others inadequate habits, such as chatting while handling and commercializing the product were in all the establishments. The sun-dried meat commercialized in the county does not comply with the Brazilian legislation, thus affecting food quality and putting at risk consumers' health, being necessary actions to qualify the workers involved in the handling of this food, as well a higher intervention of the responsible sanitary authority.

The aim was to evaluate the effect of late application of different nitrogen levels in different cultivars. The experimental design was a block design with four replications in a factorial 3 x 5 compounds by combining three soybean varieties: Conquest (early season), Pioneer 98C81 (medium cycle) and M-Soy 9350 (late maturity) and five nitrogen rates: zero, 20, 40, 80 and 160 kg ha-1 applied at growth stage R.1 (early flowering), using urea as nitrogen source. The application of 20 and 40 kg N ha-1 provided an increase in the number of pods per plant in all cultivars. Effect on thousand seed weight in cultivar checked only for conquest, with the application of 20 and 40 kg ha-1 N. Yield was reduced with application of 80 and 160 kg N ha-1 and increased with the application of 20 and 40 kg ha-1 N. There was a similar behavior among cultivars for yield components and yield when subjected to nitrogen in a late period. Although it was observed an increase in production around 300 kg ha-1, is still not economically viable application of nitrogen in soybean.

Seed treatment with insecticides is a routine practice that helps control initial field pests. However there is little information on the effects of insecticides on physiological quality of soybean seeds. Thus, this paper was to evaluate the effect of seed treatment with insecticides on the germination and vigor of soybean seeds. The design was completely randomized consisting of 7 treatments with 4 repetitions. The seeds of the cv. M-soy-6101 were treated with the insecticide thiamethoxam on the rate of 0.15 kg of a.i./100 kg of seeds, fipronil in the rate of 0.37 kg of a.i./100 kg of seeds, imidacloprido in the rate of 0,10 kg of a.i./100 kg of seeds; [thiodicarb + imidacloprid] at a rates of 0.14 + 0.13 kg of a.i./ha-1, carbofuran of rate 0.52 kg of a.i./100 kg of seeds, acephate at a rate of 0.75 kg of i.a./100 kg of seeds and a control without treatment. The variables analyzed were: germination, emergence speed, root length and seedling and percentage of normal seedlings in the accelerated aging. In the greenhouse (pot of 6 dm-3 of soil) were obtained levels of phytotoxicity, height and dry mass of shoots. Treatment with insecticides thiamethoxam, fipronil and imidacloprid provides adequate quality of the seeds and do not negatively affect the early development of plants. Insecticides [imidacloprid + thiodicarb], acephate and carbofuran affect the germination and vigor of soybean seeds.

Studies on the floristic diversity including climbers and also research directed to survey of these species are rare in Northeastern Brazil. With the aim of contributing to the knowledge of this component in the Northeast region and provide data on the flora of Rio Grande do Norte, a floristic study was carried out in a fragment of the Semideciduous Seasonal Forest in the municipality of Parnamirim and an identification key was created for the species. 20 species were registered belonging to 19 genera and 11 families. Eight of these species are new records for the state. The richest families in species were Fabaceae (05), Dilleniaceae (03), Bignoniaceae (02), Convolvulaceae (02) and Passifloraceae (02). The sum of the representatives of these families corresponded to 60% of the total number of species recorded. Comparative analysis suggests that studies be conducted focusing the diversity of climbing in northeastern Brazil, especially because these indicate the state of conservation of forests.

To study plant growth and yield of cauliflower, two field trials were carried out: the first springsummer (Oct. 07, 2006 to Jan. 28, 2007) and the second autumn-winter (Apr. 04, 2007 to Jul. 09, 2007). The experimental design was randomized complete blocks in 4 x 4 factorial design with three replications. The following factors: line spacing (0.6, 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2 m) and plant spacing (0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7 m). The used cultivar was cv. Verona 284. The characteristics, number of leaves by plant, diameter of stem, diameter of inflorescence, inflorescence mass and yield were evaluated. With the reduction in spacing, were observed lower numbers of leaves, stem diameter, diameter and mass of the inflorescence, but there was an increase in yield. The maximum yield (23 t ha-1) was obtained with 0.6 x 0.4 m, ie, in higher plant population (41,667, plants ha-1).

This paper aims to investigate the susceptibility of Coackroach Suriname (Pycnoscelus surinamensis) to entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana, and vegetable products. The first phase of the research aimed to study the biological cycle of the insect. The second step was using bioassays in the laboratory using eight commercial products at different doses and each with three replicates being made three applications at weekly intervals. 10 cockroaches were placed in each container and kept in this chamber at 25 °C and U.R. of 70%. The treatments were: Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill (Boveril® B102), B. bassiana (Bovenat®), Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorok (Metarril® M102); M. anisopliae (Metanat®), all doses of 1, 2, 3 and 5 kg ha-1; azadirachtin (Natuneem®), neem oil + pepper extract (Nim-I-Go®), neem + timbó + citronella + fedegoso + geranium + organic acids (Compostonat®), rotenone (Rotenat®), all at concentrations of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 5.0%, and control (distilled water). The Compostonat® at a dose of 5% was 100% effective in controlling the 1st application and also excelled on the lowest dose applied, reaching 83.33% efficiency in the 3rd application at a dose of 0.5%. We observed five instars: the first lasts an average of 18 days, the second 22, third 36, fourth and fifth in 45 days 63 days on average. Reproduce between 45 and 60 days after adult average of 25 nymphs per ootheca and average adult length of 24 mm.

The cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is one of the most cultivated leguminous in the world. In spite of being a very studied species, there are theoretical models for the development for different habits of culture. The concept of thermal time, replacing the chronological time, has been used frequently, with the advantage to be independent of location and time of sowing. Considering the relevance of the activity for the State of Piauí, this work had the purpose of describing fenology of the variety BR 17 - Gurguéia, relating the number of day-degrees necessary to the development of each fenological state. An experiment was realized in the Departamento de Fitotecnia of Centro de Ciências Agrárias of Universidade Federal do Píauí, Teresina- Piauí. It was found that the number of vegetative stages is indefinite and that the variety shows at least six reproductive stages. The vegetative stage V1 (2º in the main branch with leaflets fully open) was the longest and from the stadium V10 (11º in the main branch with leaflets fully open) was overlap of vegetative and reproductive stages. The cultivar BR 17 - Gurguéia in rainfed crop, requires 818.2 degree-days from sowing until the early reproductive stage and 1103.5 degree days from planting to the end of the reproductive cycle, with wide adaptability for the State of Piauí; the cultivar BR 17 - Gurguéia presents six reproductive stages, LV the stadium is the longest among the vegetative and reproductive stages, individually, need a greater number of degree- days that the vegetation

Due to continued machinery, soil mobilization has caused considerable changes in both soil bulk density (physical attributes) and organic C content, risking crop yield reduction and negative environmental effects. In this context, this work aimed at assessing changes in both physical attributes and in organic C content of a Argissolo Vermelho-Amarelo surface horizon, subjected to no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage with disk plow (DP), heavy harrow (HG), and disc plow plus harrow (DP+HG) for 23 years. A natural forest fragment (NF) was used as reference area. A randomized-block design with 8 x 12 m plots and four replications was used. Soil samples were collected at 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, and 20-40 cm depths in order to assess soil density, total organic carbon content, porosity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and aggregate stability. Results showed that continued cultivation increases soil physical degradation, as evidenced by both macro porosity and total porosity reduction, aggregate stability, saturated hydraulic conductivity, total organic carbon, and soil density increase. The NT was found to best contribute to soil physical properties improvement and total organic carbon recovery in 0-5 cm surface layer.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the chemical composition and microbial of biofertilizers at different decompositions times. For this, we used biofertilizers two. The experimental designused was entirely randomized in factorial scheme 2x7 two sources of manure (cattle and chicken) and seven times of decomposition (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 days), with three replications. We evaluated the chemical parameters (pH, CE, dry mass, N, P, K, Ca and Mg) and microbiological (bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes total). The chicken manure gave significant increase of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, dry mass and electrical conductivity. The highest concentration was within 15 to 20 days of decomposition, with the exception of nitrogen, with the highest concentration on the preparation of biofertilizer. In the microbiological analysis, the chicken manure resulted in higher total population of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes total) compared to beef. The decomposition periods of biofertilizers influence on nutrient levels, diversity and populations of microorganisms.

In order to determine the effect of organic fertilizer on growth of seedlings of melon inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), an experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions. The experimental design adopted was a completely randomized design with four treatments and four replications. Treatments consisted of melon plants cultivated on sterile and non sterile soil in the presence or absence of organic compost. The melon seeds were germinated in trays containing substrate formed by 70% of Soil + 30% of green coconut powder, and the mycorrhizal inoculation used a mixture of the species Glomus clarum and Glomus intraradices, applied at the time of sowing. The seedlings with the first definitive sheet were transplanted into pots with sterile or non sterile soil, fertilized or not with organic compost. After 30 days from transplanting plants were harvested for determining the weight of fresh and dry shoot, stem diameter, arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization and content of macro and micronutrients. Organic compost addition did not influence arbuscular mycorrhizal activity and also increased shoot dry weight. AMF colonization of roots showed influence on macro (N, P and Ca) and micronutrients (Fe and Mn) shoot content on soil sterile with organic compost.