78 research outputs found
In vitro photoprotective activity of plants extracts from Zona da Mata Mineira (Brazil)
Many plants have recently been considered as potential sunscreen resources because of their capacity to absorb the solar ultraviolet radiation. The objective of this work was to evaluate the sunscreen activity of ten Zona da Mata Mineira plants extracts by in vitro test using ultraviolet spectrophotometry. From the studied species, three (Lantana aff. fucata Lindl, Solidago microglossa DC and Stachytarpheta gesnerioides Cham.) showed sun protection factor (SPF) higher than 2, which is the minimum value required by the Brazilian legislation to label a product as containing a SPF. These results suggest that it can be possible to utilize these species to manufacture a new natural sunscreen or associate them with synthetic UV-filters.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire
In vitro photoprotective activity of plants extracts from Zona da Mata Mineira (Brazil)
Many plants have recently been considered as potential sunscreen resources because of their capacity to absorb the solar ultraviolet radiation. The objective of this work was to evaluate the sunscreen activity of ten Zona da Mata Mineira plants extracts by in vitro test using ultraviolet spectrophotometry. From the studied species, three (Lantana aff. fucata Lindl, Solidago microglossa DC and Stachytarpheta gesnerioides Cham.) showed sun protection factor (SPF) higher than 2, which is the minimum value required by the Brazilian legislation to label a product as containing a SPF. These results suggest that it can be possible to utilize these species to manufacture a new natural sunscreen or associate them with synthetic UV-filters.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire
Networks of nonlinear superconducting transmission line resonators
We investigate a network of coupled superconducting transmission line
resonators, each of them made nonlinear with a capacitively shunted Josephson
junction coupling to the odd flux modes of the resonator. The resulting
eigenmode spectrum shows anticrossings between the plasma mode of the shunted
junction and the odd resonator modes. Notably, we find that the combined device
can inherit the complete nonlinearity of the junction, allowing for a
description as a harmonic oscillator with a Kerr nonlinearity. Using a dc SQUID
instead of a single junction, the nonlinearity can be tuned between 10 kHz and
4 MHz while maintaining resonance frequencies of a few gigahertz for realistic
device parameters. An array of such nonlinear resonators can be considered a
scalable superconducting quantum simulator for a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian. The
device would be capable of accessing the strongly correlated regime and be
particularly well suited for investigating quantum many-body dynamics of
interacting particles under the influence of drive and dissipation.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure
In vitro photoprotective activity of plants extracts from Zona da Mata Mineira (Brazil)
Many plants have recently been considered as potential sunscreen resources because of their capacity to absorb the solar ultraviolet radiation. The objective of this work was to evaluate the sunscreen activity of ten Zona da Mata Mineira plants extracts by in vitro test using ultraviolet spectrophotometry. From the studied species, three (Lantana aff. fucata Lindl, Solidago microglossa DC and Stachytarpheta gesnerioides Cham.) showed sun protection factor (SPF) higher than 2, which is the minimum value required by the Brazilian legislation to label a product as containing a SPF. These results suggest that it can be possible to utilize these species to manufacture a new natural sunscreen or associate them with synthetic UV-filters.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire
Benchmarks for Pir\'a 2.0, a Reading Comprehension Dataset about the Ocean, the Brazilian Coast, and Climate Change
Pir\'a is a reading comprehension dataset focused on the ocean, the Brazilian
coast, and climate change, built from a collection of scientific abstracts and
reports on these topics. This dataset represents a versatile language resource,
particularly useful for testing the ability of current machine learning models
to acquire expert scientific knowledge. Despite its potential, a detailed set
of baselines has not yet been developed for Pir\'a. By creating these
baselines, researchers can more easily utilize Pir\'a as a resource for testing
machine learning models across a wide range of question answering tasks. In
this paper, we define six benchmarks over the Pir\'a dataset, covering closed
generative question answering, machine reading comprehension, information
retrieval, open question answering, answer triggering, and multiple choice
question answering. As part of this effort, we have also produced a curated
version of the original dataset, where we fixed a number of grammar issues,
repetitions, and other shortcomings. Furthermore, the dataset has been extended
in several new directions, so as to face the aforementioned benchmarks:
translation of supporting texts from English into Portuguese, classification
labels for answerability, automatic paraphrases of questions and answers, and
multiple choice candidates. The results described in this paper provide several
points of reference for researchers interested in exploring the challenges
provided by the Pir\'a dataset.Comment: Accepted at Data Intelligence. Online ISSN 2641-435
Production and characterization of new fibrinolytic protease from Mucor subtillissimus UCP 1262 in solid-state fermentation
Fibrinolytic enzymes have received attention regarding their medicinal potential for thrombolytic
diseases, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Various natural enzymes purified
from animal, plant and microbial sources have been extensively studied. The aim of this work was
to produce fibrinolytic protease by solid state fermentation using agro industrial substrates. Rhizopus
arrhizus var. arrhizus UCP 1295 and Mucor subtillissimus UCP 1262 filamentous fungi species
isolated from soil of Caatinga-PE, Brasil, were used as producer microorganisms. Wheat bran
was shown to be the best substrate for the production of the enzyme and by using a 23 full factorial
design the main effects and interactions of the quantity of the substrate wheat bran, moisture and
temperature on the fibrinolytic enzyme production and protease were evaluated. The best results
for fibrinolytic and protease activities, 144.58 U/mL and 48.33 U/mL, respectively, were obtained
with Mucor subtillissimus UCP 1262 using as culture medium 3 g wheat bran, 50% moisture at a
temperature of 25ËšC for 72 hours. The optimum temperature for the produced enzyme was 45ËšC
and most of its original activity was retained after being subjected to 80ËšC for 120 min. The protease activity was enhanced by K+, Ca+ and Mn+; but with Cu+ there was an inhibition. The specificity
to chromogenic substrate and the inhibition by PMSF indicates that it is a chymotrypsin-like
serine protease. Presented results suggest that this enzyme produced by solid-state fermentation
is an interesting alternative as a candidate for thrombolytic therapy
In vitro Efficacy of Photoprotection in Sunscreens: a Comparison Between Methods
Sunscreens are known to play an important role on the prevention of skin cancer, as they act by blocking the carcinogenic solar radiations. The currently methods for determining the sun protection efficacy of these products are all based on in vivo tests. In this light, the aim of the present study was to compare the performance of two spectrophotometric in vitro methods, in order to determine which one generates more trustworthy Sun Protection Factors (SPF) values: the classical UV spectrophotometry or the diffuse transmittance reflectance spectrophotometry. For that, twenty-five SPF 30 commercial sunscreen samples were used. The methods generated different results, being the diffuse transmittance spectrophotometry more appropriate and reliable for determining the SPF of these products. Moreover, it provides as additional advantage the possibility of quantifying the protection against UVA radiation through the UVA/UVB Ratio and the Critical Wavelength.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire
Optimization of a new dissolution test for oxcarbazepine capsules using mixed-level factorial design
A high performance liquid chromatography method for determination of hydroxyzine hydrochloride in syrup
A simple isocratic method for quantification of hydroxyzine dihydrochloride by HPLC with UV detection at 232 nm in syrup has been developed and validated. Separation was achieved on a C18 column (250 x 4.6 mm, 5 μm) maintained at 90 ºC with 0.5 mol/L potassium dihydrogen phosphate buffer : acetonitrile (1:1, v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min. The method was proven to be linear over the range of 80–120 μg/mL, accurate (recovery = 97.8 %), precise (coefficient of variation = 1.52 % for sample) and robust.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire
The BLue Amazon Brain (BLAB): A Modular Architecture of Services about the Brazilian Maritime Territory
We describe the first steps in the development of an artificial agent focused
on the Brazilian maritime territory, a large region within the South Atlantic
also known as the Blue Amazon. The "BLue Amazon Brain" (BLAB) integrates a
number of services aimed at disseminating information about this region and its
importance, functioning as a tool for environmental awareness. The main service
provided by BLAB is a conversational facility that deals with complex questions
about the Blue Amazon, called BLAB-Chat; its central component is a controller
that manages several task-oriented natural language processing modules (e.g.,
question answering and summarizer systems). These modules have access to an
internal data lake as well as to third-party databases. A news reporter
(BLAB-Reporter) and a purposely-developed wiki (BLAB-Wiki) are also part of the
BLAB service architecture. In this paper, we describe our current version of
BLAB's architecture (interface, backend, web services, NLP modules, and
resources) and comment on the challenges we have faced so far, such as the lack
of training data and the scattered state of domain information. Solving these
issues presents a considerable challenge in the development of artificial
intelligence for technical domains
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