LECTINA LIGADORA DA MANOSE: PROPRIEDADES, ISOLAMENTO E PURIFICAÇÃO

A lectina ligadora de manose (MBL) é uma proteína encontrada no soro humano, secretada pelo fígado e dependente de cálcio. A MBL é um importante elemento do sistema imune inato, que pode atuar por meio da ativação do sistema do complemento pela via das lectinas e por sua característica de opsonina, facilitando a fagocitose dos patógenos. Esta proteína está associada a doenças infecciosas e auto-imunes, com interferência tanto na susceptibilidade quanto na severidade das patologias. O objetivo deste trabalho foi isolar e purificar a MBL do soro humano, por meio de cromatografia, para uma futura produção de anticorpos monoclonais. O método utilizado para separar e isolar a proteína do pool de soro foi cromatografia por afinidade, realizada em coluna. O protocolo do método foi desenvolvido durante a execução deste trabalho, com base em informações de estudos realizados e publicados anteriormente. Neste estudo, foram utilizadas colunas de diferentes dimensões e a fase estacionária constituiu-se de gel Sepharose 6B-D-manose. As frações obtidas na cromatografia foram submetidas à análise espectrofotométrica, considerando a absorbância como critério de verificação da presença da MBL na amostra. A solução de proteína resultante da separação cromatográfica foi concentrada para permitir a execução da próxima etapa, a identificação por eletroforese. O resultado da eletroforese indicou que a proteína isolada é a MBL. O método cromatográfico desenvolvido neste trabalho mostrou-se eficaz para isolar e purificar a MBL; entretanto, ainda são necessários ajustes para aprimorar o método, a fim de aumentar a rapidez e o rendimento

AVALIAÇÃO DA PRODUÇÃO DE METIL-GALACTOPIRANOSÍDEOS NA GLICOSIDAÇÃO DE FISCHER:: INFLUÊNCIA DE CATALISADORES ÁCIDOS HETEROGÊNEOS

A glicosidação de Fischer foi o primeiro método desenvolvido para a síntese de alquil-piranosídeos e é considerado um dos métodos mais econômicos. Porém, o piranosídeo majoritário desta reação, quando se parte da D-galactose, é o metil-α-Galp. Tendo em conta o alto custo do metil-β-Galp, sua importância no mercado de química fina e as vantagens da glicosidação de Fischer, este trabalho teve por objetivo estudar a influência dos catalisadores ácidos heterogêneos na produção de metil-Galps na glicosidação de Fischer, reagindo a galactose com o metanol na presença de diferentes catalisadores ácidos heterogêneos(sílica-ácido-sulfúrico, sílica-ácido-clorossulfónico, alumina sulfúrica e resina catiônica AMBERLITE-IR-120), em diferentes tempos de reação e diferentes temperaturas. O estudo foi realizado em duas etapas. Na etapa I, todos os catalisadores acima citados, foram avaliados nas mesmas condições reacionais. Os principais resultados obtidos nesta etapa, foram otimizados na etapa II, em diferentes condições reacionais, com o uso de ultrassom, quantidades adicionais de água, metanol desidratado e molecular sieives. Os parâmetros que mais contribuiram para os resultados, foram o tempo de reação e temperatura. Os melhores resultados foram obtidos com a sílica-ácido sulfúrico e sílica-ácido clorossulfônico, na temperatura de 64,7ºC. Na temperatura ambiente, o percentual de metil-Galps foi baixíssimo. Ainda na temperatura de 64,7ºC, a maior produção de metil-Galps foi obtida entre 48 h - 72 h, com algumas exceções. Os melhores resultados do estudo, foram obtidos com os catalisadores sílica-ácido sulfúrico em 48 h (56%metil-α-Galp/43%metil-β-Galp) e sílica-ácido clorossulfônico em 5 h (26%metil-α-Galp/33%metil-β-Galp)

PERCEPÇÃO DE SABOR: UMA REVISÃO

A percepção de sabor é fator importante relacionado à qualidade de vida dos indivíduos. Distúrbios dessa percepção podem levar ao consumo de substâncias tóxicas ou ao consumo exagerado de substâncias que podem interferir no tratamento de doenças, como sal na hipertensão e açúcar no diabetes. Esta percepção ocorre pela união dos sentidos químicos (gosto e olfato) com as sensações táteis. As principais responsáveis são as papilas gustativas, presentes nos órgãos de entrada no sistema digestório. Esta sensação é variável de acordo com o estado psicológico e cultural do indivíduo e tem grande importância no desenvolvimento e determinação da qualidade de produtos alimentícios. Esse artigo busca reunir conhecimentos atuais sobre a percepção de sabor e limiar de percepção

CONCENTRATION OF BIXIN IN TWO VARIETIES OF Bixa orellana L. CULTURED IN PARANA

Urucum (urucum ou Bixa OrellanaL.), uma árvore pequena da família Bixaceae, é nativa da América do Sul e Central e é difundida nos trópicos. Embora a bixina pigmento natural da semente do urucum, representando 80% de todos carotenoides presentes, possui cadeia mais curta (25 C) do que os habituais carotenoides (C 40), a bixina também possui uma cadeia de  duplas ligações conjugadas, o que lhe confere algumas características especiais. Das metodologias utilizadas para extração, o Soxhlet é um dos que permite um rendimento maior. Esta extração resulta em produtos distintos quanto à qualidade e concentração de ativos.As sementes de duas variedades de Bixa orellana cultivadas em Morretes Paraná analisadas mostraram que a variedade vermelha apresentaram concentrações após a extração, fração hexano 6,59%, clorofórmio 5,07% de bixina isolada, acetato de eitla 0,75% e fração hidroalcólica 5,75%, enquanto a variedade verde fração hexano 6,79%, clorofórmio 3,28% de bixina isolada, acetato de eitla 0,87% e fração hidroalcólica 4,8%. Observou-se a presença cristais 1,378%, que foram identificados com sendo sacarose na variedade vermelha após algum tempo em repouso.

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Cadence (steps/min) and intensity during ambulation in 6-20 year olds: The CADENCE-kids study

Background: Steps/day is widely utilized to estimate the total volume of ambulatory activity, but it does not directly reflect intensity, a central tenet of public health guidelines. Cadence (steps/min) represents an overlooked opportunity to describe the intensity of ambulatory activity. We sought to establish thresholds linking directly observed cadence with objectively measured intensity in 6-20 year olds.Methods: One hundred twenty participants completed multiple 5-min bouts on a treadmill, from 13.4 m/min (0.80 km/h) to 134.0 m/min (8.04 km/h). The protocol was terminated when participants naturally transitioned to running, or if they chose to not continue. Steps were visually counted and intensity was objectively measured using a portable metabolic system. Youth metabolic equivalents (METy) were calculated for 6-17 year olds, with moderate intensity defined as >/=4 and /=6 METy. Traditional METs were calculated for 18-20 year olds, with moderate intensity defined as >/=3 and /=6 METs. Optimal cadence thresholds for moderate and vigorous intensity were identified using segmented random coefficients models and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.Result: Participants were on average (+/- SD) aged 13.1 +/- 4.3 years, weighed 55.8 +/- 22.3 kg, and had a BMI z-score of 0.58 +/- 1.21. Moderate intensity thresholds (from regression and ROC analyses) ranged from 128.4 steps/min among 6-8 year olds to 87.3 steps/min among 18-20 year olds. Comparable values for vigorous intensity ranged from 157.7 steps/min among 6-8 year olds to 119.3 steps/min among 18-20 year olds. Considering both regression and ROC approaches, heuristic cadence thresholds (i.e., evidence-based, practical, rounded) ranged from 125 to 90 steps/min for moderate intensity, and 155 to 125 steps/min for vigorous intensity, with higher cadences for younger age groups. Sensitivities and specificities for these heuristic thresholds ranged from 77.8 to 99.0%, indicating fair to excellent classification accuracy.Conclusions: These heuristic cadence thresholds may be used to prescribe physical activity intensity in public health recommendations. In the research and clinical context, these heuristic cadence thresholds have apparent value for accelerometer-based analytical approaches to determine the intensity of ambulatory activity.Peer reviewedCommunity Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psycholog

State of the climate in 2018

In 2018, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth’s atmosphere—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—continued their increase. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth’s surface was 407.4 ± 0.1 ppm, the highest in the modern instrumental record and in ice core records dating back 800 000 years. Combined, greenhouse gases and several halogenated gases contribute just over 3 W m−2 to radiative forcing and represent a nearly 43% increase since 1990. Carbon dioxide is responsible for about 65% of this radiative forcing. With a weak La Niña in early 2018 transitioning to a weak El Niño by the year’s end, the global surface (land and ocean) temperature was the fourth highest on record, with only 2015 through 2017 being warmer. Several European countries reported record high annual temperatures. There were also more high, and fewer low, temperature extremes than in nearly all of the 68-year extremes record. Madagascar recorded a record daily temperature of 40.5°C in Morondava in March, while South Korea set its record high of 41.0°C in August in Hongcheon. Nawabshah, Pakistan, recorded its highest temperature of 50.2°C, which may be a new daily world record for April. Globally, the annual lower troposphere temperature was third to seventh highest, depending on the dataset analyzed. The lower stratospheric temperature was approximately fifth lowest. The 2018 Arctic land surface temperature was 1.2°C above the 1981–2010 average, tying for third highest in the 118-year record, following 2016 and 2017. June’s Arctic snow cover extent was almost half of what it was 35 years ago. Across Greenland, however, regional summer temperatures were generally below or near average. Additionally, a satellite survey of 47 glaciers in Greenland indicated a net increase in area for the first time since records began in 1999. Increasing permafrost temperatures were reported at most observation sites in the Arctic, with the overall increase of 0.1°–0.2°C between 2017 and 2018 being comparable to the highest rate of warming ever observed in the region. On 17 March, Arctic sea ice extent marked the second smallest annual maximum in the 38-year record, larger than only 2017. The minimum extent in 2018 was reached on 19 September and again on 23 September, tying 2008 and 2010 for the sixth lowest extent on record. The 23 September date tied 1997 as the latest sea ice minimum date on record. First-year ice now dominates the ice cover, comprising 77% of the March 2018 ice pack compared to 55% during the 1980s. Because thinner, younger ice is more vulnerable to melting out in summer, this shift in sea ice age has contributed to the decreasing trend in minimum ice extent. Regionally, Bering Sea ice extent was at record lows for almost the entire 2017/18 ice season. For the Antarctic continent as a whole, 2018 was warmer than average. On the highest points of the Antarctic Plateau, the automatic weather station Relay (74°S) broke or tied six monthly temperature records throughout the year, with August breaking its record by nearly 8°C. However, cool conditions in the western Bellingshausen Sea and Amundsen Sea sector contributed to a low melt season overall for 2017/18. High SSTs contributed to low summer sea ice extent in the Ross and Weddell Seas in 2018, underpinning the second lowest Antarctic summer minimum sea ice extent on record. Despite conducive conditions for its formation, the ozone hole at its maximum extent in September was near the 2000–18 mean, likely due to an ongoing slow decline in stratospheric chlorine monoxide concentration. Across the oceans, globally averaged SST decreased slightly since the record El Niño year of 2016 but was still far above the climatological mean. On average, SST is increasing at a rate of 0.10° ± 0.01°C decade−1 since 1950. The warming appeared largest in the tropical Indian Ocean and smallest in the North Pacific. The deeper ocean continues to warm year after year. For the seventh consecutive year, global annual mean sea level became the highest in the 26-year record, rising to 81 mm above the 1993 average. As anticipated in a warming climate, the hydrological cycle over the ocean is accelerating: dry regions are becoming drier and wet regions rainier. Closer to the equator, 95 named tropical storms were observed during 2018, well above the 1981–2010 average of 82. Eleven tropical cyclones reached Saffir–Simpson scale Category 5 intensity. North Atlantic Major Hurricane Michael’s landfall intensity of 140 kt was the fourth strongest for any continental U.S. hurricane landfall in the 168-year record. Michael caused more than 30 fatalities and $25 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages. In the western North Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut led to 160 fatalities and$6 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages across the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was responsible for 170 fatalities in Vietnam and Laos. Nearly all the islands of Micronesia experienced at least moderate impacts from various tropical cyclones. Across land, many areas around the globe received copious precipitation, notable at different time scales. Rodrigues and Réunion Island near southern Africa each reported their third wettest year on record. In Hawaii, 1262 mm precipitation at Waipā Gardens (Kauai) on 14–15 April set a new U.S. record for 24-h precipitation. In Brazil, the city of Belo Horizonte received nearly 75 mm of rain in just 20 minutes, nearly half its monthly average. Globally, fire activity during 2018 was the lowest since the start of the record in 1997, with a combined burned area of about 500 million hectares. This reinforced the long-term downward trend in fire emissions driven by changes in land use in frequently burning savannas. However, wildfires burned 3.5 million hectares across the United States, well above the 2000–10 average of 2.7 million hectares. Combined, U.S. wildfire damages for the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons exceeded $40 billion (U.S. dollars)

Comparative study on dissolution profiles of sibutramine hydrochloride monohydrate from commercial capsules

Sibutramine hydrochloride monohydrate (SHM) has been widely used for the management of overweight and obesity. However, more restrict data have been regarded about in vitro dissolution profile of SHM from pharmaceutical dosage forms. The goal of this paper was to perform a comparative analysis on dissolution profiles of SHM from four commercial capsules (formulations F1, F2, F3 and F4) available in the Brazilian pharmaceutical market. All studied preparations reached a plateau from 85 to 100% of dissolution within 20 min in purified water, HCl 0.1 mol L-1 (pH 1.2) and phosphate buffer solution (PBS pH 6.8) that can be reported as an immediate release behavior. Formulation F4 showed the lower dissolution efficiency (73.40%) in PBS medium. However, since similarity/difference data and analysis of variance were carried out, results demonstrated no statistical differences among the evaluated formulations in the three used media. Weibull equation was chosen as the most suitable kinetic model that better adjusted the experimental dissolution data.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

FATORES QUE ALTERAM A PERCEPÇÃO DE SABOR

O sentido do paladar é geralmente considerado como menos importante em comparação com visão e audição. No entanto, distúrbios neste sentido diminuem consideravelmente os prazeres da vida e podem levar a problemas sérios, podendo até tornar-se um perigo de vida., já que, pessoas com sensibilidade a gosto e odor reduzidos podem tentar compensar as perdas através do aumento da ingestão de substâncias que podem ser prejudiciais se ingeridas em excesso. Além disso, as propriedades sensoriais dos alimentos desempenham um papel não somente na determinação do seu consumo, como também na determinação da saciedade, ingestão e seleção do alimento numa refeição