South-south cooperation in Lula da Silva administration’s foreign policy

O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir a política de cooperação Sul-Sul voltada para o desenvolvimento e executada pelo Brasil entre 2003 e 2010. O artigo discute até que ponto essa nova proposta de cooperação realizou-se efetivamente dentro de uma lógica sem condicionalidades, contrapondo-se às formas tradicionais marcadas por imposições por parte dos países doadores. Analisamos como essa cooperação foi utilizada durante o governo do presidente Lula da Silva, como parte de sua estratégia de inserção internacional e instrumento para garantir o apoio de aliados.El objetivo de este trabajo es discutir la política de Cooperación Sur-Sur centrada en el tema del desarrollo, e implementada por Brasil entre 2003 y 2010. El artículo cuestiona en qué medida esta nueva propuesta de cooperación siguió efectivamente una lógica sin condicionamientos, en oposición a las formas tradicionales caracterizadas por las imposiciones hechas por los países donantes. El análisis busca verificar cómo la administración del presidente Lula da Silva utilizó esta cooperación como parte de su estrategia de inserción internacional y como herramienta para asegurar el apoyo de los aliados.Fil: Menezes, Roberto Goulart. Universidad de Brasilia.Fil: Mariano, Karina Lilia P. Universidad Estatal PaulistaFil: Klemig, Mariana Costa Guimarães. Universidad de Brasilia

Early release from prison in time of COVID-19: Determinants of unfavourable decisions towards Black prisoners

On the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the overcrowding in prisons led to efforts to decarcerate in order to prevent and control outbreaks in prisons. This study analyses how public support for such exceptional measures are determined by cognitive and ideological factors known to create and maintain racial biases in the criminal system. Participants were asked to express their level of agreement with the early-release of hypothetical prisoners. Results showed participants to be less favourable to the early-release of Black compared to White prisoners, when they had committed a stereotypically Black crime. As expected, the congruency between the crime stereotypicality and the colour of the prisoner's skin did not emerge for White prisoners. Moreover, the difference between the agreement with the release of the Black vs. the White prisoner when both committed a stereotypically Black crime was higher as the level of endorsement of Meritocracy increased. Contrastingly, Anti-egalitarianism only predicted an overall disagreement with prisoners' early-release. This paper highlights the cumulative explanation by different levels of analysis of this current problem and implications for the development of the public opinion on penal subjects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Avaliação do Perfil de Prescrição num Serviço Hospitalar de Psiquiatria

Introduction: As the population ages there is an increase need for certain groups of medication to maintain the individual’s quality of life. On one hand the use of several types of drugs is an important factor in maintaining the patients’ well-being, however on the other hand, these types of drug combinations can lead to various complications especially on psychiatric patients. In view of these problems, the pharmacist has been shown to be the most appropriate health career to minimize medication-related problems.Methods: For 24 hours, the medical prescriptions of the patients admitted in this study were analyzed. A total of 235 patients were chosen.Results and Discussion: In general, most of the services analyzed were in a situation of “excessive polypharmacy”, which can be attributed to the doctors need to prescribe multiple antipsychotics to treat psychiatric disorders. However, the effect of these combinations is yet to be more intensively studied.Conclusion: After careful analysis of the results, the main conclusion is that pharmacists, due to their intensive drug knowledge, play a crucial role in the monitorization of the patient’s therapy.Introdução: À medida que a população envelhece, torna-se imprescindível recorrer a vários tipos de medicamentos para manter a qualidade de vida dos indivíduos. Se por um lado o uso de vários medicamentos é um fator importante para a manutenção do bem-estar dos doentes, é também verdade que este tipo de associações medicamentosas podem origina várias complicações especialmente quando se tratam de doentes com desordens psiquiátricas. Perante estes problemas, o farmacêutico tem-se demonstrado como o profissional de saúde mais indicado para diminuir os problemas relacionados com a medicação.Metodologia: Foram analisadas as prescrições médicas das primeiras 24 horas dos doentes internados nas unidades em estudo durante o período em observação, tendo sido obtida uma amostra total de 235 doentes.Resultados e Discussão: Pode-se averiguar que, no geral, os serviços se encontram numa situação de “excesso de polifarmácia”, em parte devido a necessidade dos médicos em recorrer muitas vezes a combinações de antipsicóticos para tratar os doentes com desordens psiquiátricas, apesar de estas ainda não terem sido propriamente estudadas.Conclusão: Após a análise cuidada dos resultados pode-se concluir que, devido à sua formação, o farmacêutico desempenha um papel fundamental, no que concerne a monitorização da terapêutica dos doentes

Kraft lignin solubility and its chemical modification in deep eutectic solvents

Lignin stands as a promising raw material to produce commodities and specialty chemicals, yet its poor solubility remains a big challenge. Recently, deep eutectic solvents (DES) have been proposed as sustainable solvents with high potential to dissolve and valorize lignin. In the present study, the ability of DES based on cholinium chloride ([Ch]Cl) combined with alcohols and carboxylic acids as hydrogen bond donors (HBDs) to dissolve kraft lignin and to change its chemical structure was examined. The influence of the chemical nature of HBDs, water content, and HBD:hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) molar ratio on the solubility of kraft lignin in DES was studied (313.15 K). The kraft lignin solubility was enhanced by increasing both the HBD’s carbon chain length and the molar ratio, with [Ch]Cl:HEXA (1,6-hexanediol) and [Ch]Cl:MaleA (maleic acid) being the best studied solvents for kraft lignin dissolution, while the addition of water was a negative factor. The thermal treatments (393.15 K) of kraft lignin show that carboxylic acid-based DES promote chemical modifications to kraft lignin, including the disruption of several C–O covalent type bonds (e.g., β-O-4, α-O-4 and α-O-α), while alcohol-based DES were found to be nonderivatizing solvents maintaining the lignin chemical structure. These results show the versatility of DES, which, depending on their chemical nature, may offer distinct strategies for lignin valorization.publishe

Fast and efficient method to evaluate the potential of eutectic solvents to dissolve lignocellulosic components

The application of eutectic solvents (ESs) in lignocellulosic biomass fractionation has been demonstrated as a promising approach to accomplish efficient and environmentally friendly biomass valorization. In general, ESs are a combination of two components, a hydrogen-bonding donor and a hydrogen-bonding acceptor, in which the melting point of the mixture is lower than that of the individual components. However, there are plenty of possible combinations to form ESs with the potential to apply in biomass processing. Therefore, the development of fast and effective screening methods to find combinations capable to dissolve the main biomass components—namely cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin—is highly required. An accurate and simple technique based on optical microscopy with or without polarized lenses was used in this study to quickly screen and monitor the dissolution of cellulose, xylose (a monomer of hemicelluloses), and lignin in several ESs. The dissolution of these solutes were investigated in different choline-chloride-based ESs (ChCl:UREA, ChCl:PROP, ChCl:EtGLY, ChCl:OXA, ChCl:GLY, ChCl:LAC). Small amounts of solute and solvent with temperature control were applied and the dissolution process was monitored in real time. The results obtained in this study showed that cellulose was insoluble in these ESs, while lignin and xylose were progressively dissolved.publishe

BODIPY derivatives: synthesis and evaluation of their optical properties

3-Difluoroborodipyrromethene, commonly known as BODIPY has been used in many innovative applications such as biological fluorescent labelling, electroluminescent devices, tunable laser dyes, components for solid state solar cells, photodynamic therapy and optical sensors (fluorimetric or colorimetric). The numerous desirable properties of BODIPY explain its growing success over recent years. It is endowed with chemical, structural and photochemical stability, both in solution and in solid state. Furthermore, it possesses a high coefficient of molar absorptivity, high quantum yield of fluorescence, negligible triplet formation and narrow band emission with high intensity peaks. Furthermore, its photophysical properties can be tuned/improved introducing groups at suitable positions in the BODIPY core. In continuation of the work developed in our research group, we report in this communication the synthesis, characterization and evaluation of the optical properties of BODIPY derivatives having in mind their potential application as novel chromofluorogenic sensors and/or fluorescent probes for the detection of molecules, cations and anions with biological and medicinal relevance.Thank are due to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal) and FEDERCOMPETE for financial support through Centro de Química (UID/ QUI/0686/2016). The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance III 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased within the framework of the National Program for Scientific Re-equipment, contract REDE/1517/RMN/2005 with funds from POCI 2010 (FEDER) and FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Virulence potential of biofilm producing Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus coagulans causing skin infections in companion animals

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Environmentally-friendly technology for rapid identification and quantification of emerging pollutants from wastewater using infrared spectroscopy

Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in theonline version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2020.103458.The monitoring of emerging pollutants in wastewaters is nowadays an issue of special concern, with the classical quantification methods being time and reagent consuming. In this sense, a FTIR transmission spectroscopy based chemometric methodology was developed for the determination of eight of these pollutants. A total of 456 samples were, therefore, obtained, from an activated sludge wastewater treatment process spiked with the studied pollutants, and analysed in the range of 200cm1 to 14,000cm1. Then, a k-nearest neighbour (kNN) analysis aiming at identifying each sample pollutant was employed. Next, partial least squares (PLS) and ordinary least squares (OLS) modelling approaches were employed in order to obtain suitable prediction models. This procedure resulted in good prediction abilities regarding the estimation of atrazine, desloratadine, paracetamol, -estradiol, ibuprofen, carbamazepine, sulfamethoxazole and ethynylestradiol concentrations in wastewaters. These promising results suggest this technology as a fast, eco-friendly and reagent free alternative methodology for the quantification of emerging pollutants in wastewaters.The authors thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science andTechnology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/BIO/04469/2020 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fundunder the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional doNorte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Strategies for the hypothermic preservation of cell sheets of human adipose stem cells

Cell Sheet (CS) Engineering is a regenerative medicine strategy proposed for the treatment of injured or diseased organs and tissues. In fact, several clinical trials are underway using CS-based methodologies. However, the clinical application of such cell-based methodologies poses several challenges related with the preservation of CS structure and function from the fabrication site to the bedside. Pausing cells at hypothermic temperatures has been suggested as a valuable method for short-term cell preservation. In this study, we tested the efficiency of two preservation strategies, one using culture medium supplementation with Rokepie and the other using the preservation solution Hypothermosol, in preserving human adipose stromal/stem cells (hASC) CS-like confluent cultures at 4°C, during 3 and 7 days. Both preservation strategies demonstrated excellent ability to preserve cell function during the first 3 days in hypothermia, as demonstrated by metabolic activity results and assessment of extracellular matrix integrity and differentiation potential. At the end of the 7th day of hypothermic incubation, the decrease in cell metabolic activity was more evident for all conditions. Nonetheless, hASC incubated with Rokepie and Hypothermosol retained a higher metabolic activity and extracellular matrix integrity in comparison with unsupplemented cells. Differentiation results for the later time point showed that supplementation with both Rokepie and Hypothermosol rescued adipogenic differentiation potential but only Rokepie was able to preserve hASC osteogenic potential.This work was supported by: SF-R by PhD grant PD/BD/135252/2017; AFC by contract financed by SFRH/BPD/109595/2015; MTC by NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000021 and RPP by IF/ 00347/2015, all supported by Fundac¸ão para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT). This work was supported by LA ICVS/3B’s project UID/Multi/ 50026/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038), financed by FCT and Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER), as well as Gene2Skin Project (H2020-TWINN-2015-692221). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript