Inadequate disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is one of the greatest environmental issues confronted nowadays. One of the techniques used for its final disposal is incineration, otherwise known as mass burning. Although this procedure remains very controversial in Brazil, some recent studies published in Europe reveal a large amount of misinformation about it. It has been widely used in European countries, Japan, and a few U.S. cities and has been increasingly and significantly adopted in China. Therefore, this article aims to carry out a literature review on the evolution of waste-to-energy recovery from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) worldwide and the progress of mass-burning technologies, particularly in the Brazilian context. For such a purpose, global scientific databases were selected and some of their results allowed us to present how the main WtE recovery technologies function, as well as their benefits and impacts. Moreover, it was possible to systematize the main regulatory frameworks on the theme in Brazil and to reveal the country’s electricity generation capacity, in addition to depicting the progress of Waste-to-Energy Plants (WtEPs) undergoing licensing processes in the state of São Paulo.

Locomotion deficiencies in broiler production cause poor welfare and lead to change in drinking and feeding behavior with consequent loss in weight gain. This research aimed to assess locomotion deficiencies in broiler chicken by analyzing the vertical peak force on both feet during walk. A chamber was built with an inlet ramp, a horizontal walkway in the middle and an outlet ramp. In the walkway a thin mat with piezoelectric crystal sensors was placed to record the step vertical peak force of the feet while walking on the force platform. The measurement system consisted of a mat with electronic sensors and software that allowed real time recording of the forces and the processing and analysis of data. Footage was taken from two digital video cameras and used for gait scoring. Forty male broilers were chosen at random, grown under similar rearing conditions and farms, with age varying from 49 to 28 days (ten birds of same age) to be used in the trial. Measurement consisted of inducing the bird to walk on the force platform which automatically registered the peak vertical force of the steps. Results showed that the gait score increased with the weight and age of the birds. Peak force asymmetry was found for each foot, independent of age or gait score. Although not identified visually in the broilers, the peak vertical force values differed in both right and left feet leading to slow and uneven walking. Walking deficiency was more severe in older birds.

Brazil is the world's largest producer of oranges and uses more than 70% of the harvested fruits in the production of juices. The amount of processed orange is growing about 10% per year, confirming the trend of the Brazilian citrus for juice production. This research aimed to investigate the Brazilian orange juice production chain from 2005 to 2009. Data from the amount of frozen juice produced and exported, international price of orange juice, and intermediate transactions were assessed in order to make possible selection of all interveners involved in the chain. The study using the Social Network Analysis (SNA) showed that the densest relationships in the network are from exporters to importers and from orange growers to the orange processing industry. No difference was found in the values of the network geodesic distance or the clustering coefficients from 2005 to 2009. The degree of centrality increased steadily throughout the years indicating that the processing industry attempts to minimize the risks by centralizing the actions. A decrease in export of orange juice from 2007 (2.07 10(6) t) to 2008 (2.05 10(6) t) was found, probably due to the world's financial crisis with recovery in 2009. Since 2004, there has been an increase of nearly 10% per year in the market preference of concentrate juice (OFCJ) when compared to the "not from concentrated" juice (NFC). Nowadays the NFC market represents nearly 50% of all Brazilian export which impacted in the logistic distribution and transportation issues.

The tomato crop is very sensitive to stress conditions. A water deficit is defined as when precipitation is less than the evapotranspiration (ETc) of the crop in a given period, and in this scenario of climate change, it is identified as responsible for global productivity losses. The use of potential technologies for better irrigation management, such as electromagnetically treated water, remains controversial. Thus, the objective of the present work was to investigate the effects of very low-frequency electromagnetic resonance field treatment on water for tomato crops submitted to different irrigation rates. For this, an experiment was carried out under controlled conditions with different types of water: electromagnetically treated water (WTVLF) and untreated water (UNW), as well as four water replacement rates: 40, 60, 80, and 100% ETc. The electromagnetic treatment of the water was carried out using the commercial equipment AQUA4D^®. The experiment was carried out in pots with five replications per treatment. Lower activity of SOD, POD, CAT, and APX enzymes was observed in plants irrigated with water treated with very low-frequency electromagnetic resonance fields (WTVLF), indicating less oxidative stress caused by water deficit. Water deficit reduced chlorophyll content, but the effects were less harmful with WTVLF water. The water deficit resulted in less accumulation of dry matter and less productivity in a linear relationship. However, plants irrigated with WTVLF showed increments of about 20% in dry matter accumulation and 20% in fruit production concerning plants irrigated with untreated water, independent of the irrigation rates. We can conclude that irrigation with WTVLF can be a solution to reduce the damage caused by water deficits and increase the productivity of tomato crops.

The research proposes a methodology for assessing broiler breeder response to changes in rearing thermal environment. The continuous video recording of a flock analyzed may offer compelling evidences of thermal comfort, as well as other indications of welfare. An algorithm for classifying specific broiler breeder behavior was developed. Videos were recorded over three boxes where 30 breeders were reared. The boxes were mounted inside an environmental chamber were ambient temperature varied from cold to hot. Digital images were processed based on the number of pixels, according to their light intensity variation and binary contrast allowing a sequence of behaviors related to welfare. The system used the default of x, y coordinates, where x represents the horizontal distance from the top left of the work area to the point P, and y is the vertical distance. The video images were observed, and a grid was developed for identifying the area the birds stayed and the time they spent at that place. The sequence was analyzed frame by frame confronting the data with specific adopted thermal neutral rearing standards. The grid mask overlapped the real bird image. The resulting image allows the visualization of clusters, as birds in flock behave in certain patterns. An algorithm indicating the breeder response to thermal environment was developed.

A análise qualitativa e quantitativa dos fatores que compõem os indicadores de qualidade da água permite identificar não conformidades, podendo ajudar a evitar perdas significativas para os produtores, que em muitos casos, não possuem o conhecimento necessário para o correto manejo frente a cenários de qualidade da água desfavoráveis. Identificar, conhecer e analisar tais indicadores, possibilita a visualização dos resultados e auxilia o produtor na tomada de decisões quanto ao ambiente de criação. Fatores físicos, como a transparência e químicos, como o oxigênio dissolvido e pH, são alguns dos principais indicadores de qualidade da água. Os resultados obtidos nesta revisão sistemática permitiram identificar e classificar indicadores de qualidade da água para criação da espécie Tilápia-do-Nilo, que poderão facilitar o processo de acompanhamento da qualidade da água do criatório, compondo importante ferramenta de suporte a decisão para os produtores.