Internet and social media: technological device or digital locus for political mobilization?

The diversity and range of economic, cultural and political phenomena in individuals and groups in our daily life highlights the urgency of understanding communication from a great variety of codes, given its polysemic nature. Considering that appropriation of the internet for political purposes has spread to a global scale, this work is the result of an investigation that examined the practice of cyber communication taking as an object of study the Brazilian movement Fiscal Grapiúna (FG), which was created as a consequence of concerned citizens that were worried about the political course of the city of Itabuna, in Brazil, after the electoral process that took place in 2012. The aim was to detect if the group managed -and if so, to what extent- to politically mobilize their followers through and from the specific connection between the virtual and the real life.A diversidade e multiplicidade dos fenómenos econômicos, culturais e políticos apresenta a urgência de pensar a comunicação a partir de uma multiplicidade de códigos, dado seu caráter polissêmico. Considerando que a apropriação dainternet com finalidade política vem assumindo cada vez mais proporções globais, este trabalho é fruto de uma pesquisa que analisou a prática da comunicação cibernética tomando como objeto de estudo o grupo Fiscal Grapiúna (FG), constituído a partir das inquietações de cidadãos e cidadãs preocupados com os rumos políticos da cidade de Itabuna, Bahia, Brasil, após os resultados das últimas eleições municipais em 2012. O objetivo principal foi detectar se o grupo conseguiu –e em caso positivo até que ponto– mobilizar politicamente a partir da conexão concreta ente virtual e real.La diversidad y multiplicidad de fenómenos económicos, culturales y políticos de los individuos y grupos en la experiencia contemporánea subraya la urgencia de comprender la comunicación a partir de una multiplicidad de códigos, dado su carácter polisémico. Considerando que la apropiación de internet con finalidad política viene asumiendo una amplitud global, este trabajo es fruto de una investigación que analizó la práctica de la ciber-comunicación tomando como objeto de estudio el grupo Fiscal Grapiúna (FG), constituido a partir de las inquietudes de ciudadanos y ciudadanas preocupados con los rumbos políticos de la ciudad de Itabuna, en Brasil, tras el proceso electoral que se produjo en 2012. El objetivo fue detectar si el grupo logró –y si lo hizo, hasta qué punto– movilizar políticamente a través y a partir de la conexión concreta entre lo virtual y real

Sulfated fucan as support for antibiotic immobilization

Xylofucoglucuronan from Spatoglossum schröederi algae was tested as a support for antibiotic immobilization. The polysaccharide (20 mg in 6 ml) was first activated using carbodiimide, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylamino-propyl)carbodiimide methiodide (20 mg in 2 ml), under stirring for 1 h at 25ºC and pH from 4.5 to 5.0. After adjusting the pH to 8.0, either gentamicin or amikacin (62.5 mg in 1.25 ml) was then immobilized on this chemically modified polysaccharide with shaking for 24 h in a cold room. Infrared spectra of the activated carbodiimide xylofucoglucuronan showed two bands to carbonyl (C = O at 1647.9 and 1700.7 cm-1) and to amide (C<FONT FACE=Symbol>Ý</FONT>-NH2) groups (1662.8 and 1714.0 cm-1). Microbial characterization of the derivatives was carried out by the disk diffusion method using Staphylococcus aureus or Klebsiella pneumoniae incorporated in Müller Hinton medium. Inhibition halos of bacterial growth were observed for the antibiotics immobilized on this sulfated heteropolysaccharide before and after dialysis. However, the halos resulting from the samples after dialysis were much smaller, suggesting that dialysis removed either non-covalently bound antibiotic or other small molecules. In contrast, bacterial growth was not inhibited by either xylofucoglucuronan or its activated form or by gentamicin or amikacin after dialysis. An additional experiment was carried out which demonstrated that the sulfated heteropolysaccharide was hydrolyzed by the microorganism. Therefore, the antibiotic immobilized on xylofucoglucuronan can be proposed as a controlled drug delivery system. Furthermore, this sulfated heteropolysaccharide can be extracted easily from sea algae Spatoglossum schröederi