Concentration of tea extracts by osmotic evaporation: optimisation of process parameters and effect on antioxidant activity

In this work, the concentration process of three different tea extracts (medicinal Rosil No. 6, Black, and Forest Fruit teas) using the osmotic evaporation (OE) process, was studied. The effect of the OE process on the content of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity was evaluated. The concentration process was carried out in a hollow-fibre membrane contactor with an effective surface area of 0.54 m2. The tea extract was circulated through the shell side of the contactor, while a concentrated osmotic solution (CaCl2 5 M) was circulated inside the fibres. The flux, the driving force, and the mass transfer coefficient were evaluated. A decrease of the water flux over time was observed and was attributed only to the decrease of the driving force, caused by the dilution of the osmotic solution. Using a surface area/feed volume ratio of 774 m2 m3, it is possible to reach a tea concentration of 40% (w/w) in 5 h, with a constant water flux and without losing the phenolic content and antioxidant potential in most teasinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Engineering risk management in performance-based building environments

Nowadays, a wide range of stakeholders seek explicit performance and risk information on construction projects. These stakeholders include end-users, authorities, insurance companies and financial institutions, among others. They look for proof that engineering risks are being properly managed and that specified performance-based requirements are fulfilled throughout all stages of the project (e.g. technical requirements related to the building such as structural safety, structural serviceability, structural durability, fire safety, energy efficiency, or others). Such demonstration can be conveyed through statements of technical conformity, such as technical risk reports or engineering performance certificates. Statements of conformity are particularly valuable to make informed decisions associated with contractual or other legal warranties against building nonconformities. This paper describes the conceptual background and the methodologies undertaken to design and develop a management framework that enables recognition of the conformity assessment results of building projects. It also presents the outreach of this management framework throughout the planning, programming, design, construction and use phases of building projects. This paper also summarizes the wide range of practical implications and benefits of this management framework for authorities and official bodies, owners and their representatives, banks and insurance companies, conformity assessment bodies, designers, builders, suppliers and end-users

Quality of life of women with and without cardiovascular risk

Introduction and Objectives: Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death in Brazil and in the world, furthermore, affect the quality of life of people affected by these diseases. The objective of this study was to compare the quality of life of women with cardiovascular risk (WCR) and without cardiovascular risk (WTCR). Methods: The G- power software was used to calculate the sample. Cardiovascular risk stratification was performed using the Framingham Risk Score, available in the “ER calculator version 2017”. Quality of life was assessed using the Brazilian version of Short Form Health Survey-36 (SF-36) Questionnaire. Statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS software, version 20. Results: 116 women were stratified into two groups; WCR (n=66) and WTCR (n=50). Mean age, weight, body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and glycemia differed significantly between groups. Among the domains of quality of life, pain (p<0.02) and limitation due to physical aspects (RP, p<0.01) differed significantly. The cardiovascular risk factors (CRF), age and BMI influenced the domain social aspects, TG in physical capacity and BMI in the general health status of women with risk. LDL-c and CT influenced the emotional aspects of WTCR women. Conclusions: The scores of the quality-of-life domains of WCR women are lower (except for SF) than those of WTCR women, differing significantly in pain and limitation due to physical aspects

Influência da capacidade funcional no risco de quedas em adultos com artrite reumatoide

ResumoObjetivosIdentificar a prevalência de quedas nos últimos 12 meses em pacientes com artrite reumatoide (AR) e verificar a influência da atividade da doença e da capacidade funcional no risco de quedas.Pacientes e métodosParticiparam do estudo 43 pacientes com AR. Foram avaliados os seguintes parâmetros: aspectos clínicos; ocorrência de quedas nos últimos 12 meses; VHS (mm/h); dor, através da escala visual analógica (EVA) com escore de 0 a 10 cm; atividade da doença, medida pelo Índice de Atividade da Doença – 28/VHS (Disease Activity Score 28 – DAS‐28/VHS); capacidade funcional, avaliada pelo Questionário de Avaliação da Saúde (Health Assessment Questionnaire – HAQ); e o risco de quedas, avaliado por meio de dois testes, o teste senta‐levanta da cadeira cinco vezes (TSL) e o teste timed get up and go (TUG).ResultadosA prevalência de quedas nos últimos 12 meses foi de 30,2% (13/43). O fator independente que influenciou significativamente o desempenho no TSL foi o escore total do HAQ, sendo que as demais variáveis não conseguiram contribuir de forma significativa na explicação da variabilidade no TSL. A variável HAQ foi responsável por explicar 42,9% (P<0,001, R2 ajustado=0,429) da variabilidade do TSL. As variáveis HAQ e VHS influenciaram de forma significativa o desempenho no escore do TUG. Esses dois fatores em conjunto foram capazes de explicar 68,8% da variabilidade do TUG (R2 ajustado=0,688).ConclusõesPacientes com AR têm prevalência de quedas aumentada, sendo a incapacidade funcional o principal fator relacionado ao risco de quedas.AbstractObjectivesIdentify fall prevalence in the last 12 months among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and verify the influence of disease activity and physical function in the risk of falls.Methods43 patients with RA participated in this study. The following parameters were evaluated: clinical aspects; fall occurrence in the last 12 months; ESR (mm/h); pain on a visual analogue scale (VAS) ranging from 0 to 10cm; disease activity, measured by the Disease Activity Score 28/ESR (DAS‐28/ESR); physical function, assessed by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ); and risk of falling, assessed by two tests, the 5‐time sit down‐to‐stand up test (SST5) and the timed get up and go test (TUG).ResultsThe fall prevalence in the last 12 months was 30.2% (13/43). The HAQ total score was the independent risk factor that had significant influence on SST5 performance, and the other variables did not succeeded to explain the SST5 variability. HAQ explained 42.9% of SST5 variability (P<0.001, adjusted R2=0.429). HAQ total score and ESR had a significant influence on TUG score performance. Together, these two variables explained 68.8% of the total variation in TUG score (adjusted R2=0.688).ConclusionPatients with RA have high fall prevalence and the functional disability represents the main factor related to falls risk

The impact of normalization and segmentation on resting state brain networks

Graph theory has recently received a lot of attention from the neuroscience community as a method to represent and characterize brain networks. Still, there is a lack of a gold standard for the methods that should be employed for the preprocessing of the data and the construction of the networks, as well as a lack of knowledge on how different methodologies can affect the metrics reported. We used graph theory analysis applied to resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) to investigate the influence of different node-defining strategies and the effect of normalizing the functional acquisition on several commonly reported metrics used to characterize brain networks. The nodes of the network were defined using either the individual FreeSurfer segmentation of each subject or the FreeSurfer segmented MNI (Montreal National Institute) 152 template, using the Destrieux and sub-cortical atlas. The functional acquisition was either kept on the functional native space or normalized into MNI standard space. The comparisons were done at three levels: on the connections, on the edge properties and on the network properties levels. Our results reveal that different registration and brain parcellation strategies have a strong impact on all the levels of analysis, possibly favoring the use of individual segmentation strategies and conservative registration approaches. In conclusion, several technical aspects must be considered so that graph theoretical analysis of connectivity MRI data can provide a framework to understand brain pathologies.(undefined

Low temperature dissolution of yeast chitin-glucan complex and characterization of the regenerated polymer

Chitin-glucan complex (CGC) is a copolymer composed of chitin and glucan moieties extracted from the cell-walls of several yeasts and fungi. Despite its proven valuable properties, that include antibacterial, antioxidant and anticancer activity, the utilization of CGC in many applications is hindered by its insolubility in water and most solvents. In this study, NaOH/urea solvent systems were used for the first time for solubilization of CGC extracted from the yeast Komagataella pastoris. Di erent NaOH/urea ratios (6:8, 8:4 and 11:4 (w/w), respectively) were used to obtain aqueous solutions using a freeze/thaw procedure. There was an overall solubilization of 63–68%, with the highest solubilization rate obtained for the highest tested urea concentration (8 wt%). The regenerated polymer, obtained by dialysis of the alkali solutions followed by lyophilization, formed porous macrostructures characterized by a chemical composition similar to that of the starting co-polymer, although the acetylation degree decreased from 61.3% to 33.9–50.6%, indicating that chitin was converted into chitosan, yielding chitosan-glucan complex (ChGC). Consistent with this, there was a reduction of the crystallinity index and thermal degradation temperature. Given these results, this study reports a simple and green procedure to solubilize CGC and obtain aqueous ChGC solutions that can be processed as novel biomaterialsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Changes in Surgical Conduct Due to the Results of Intraoperative Transesophageal Echocardiography

SummaryBackground and objectivesTransesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is extremely useful in surgeries like valvuloplasty, of the thoracic aorta, and correction of congenital cardiopathies. The low degree of invasiveness and the capacity to aggregate information that can change the course of the surgery are among the advantages of TEE. The objective of this report was to present a case in which the surgical conduct was changed due to a new diagnosis provided by intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography, and to emphasize the importance of using the transesophageal echo in surgeries to correct congenital cardiopathies.Case reportA 28-year old female, ASA II, with a history of dyspnea progressing from medium to small efforts was referred by another department for elective surgical correction of stenosis of the pulmonary valve diagnosed by transthoracic echocardiography. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography showed patent foramen ovale, infundibular stenosis of the right ventricular outlet, and perimembranous subaortic interventricular communication (IVC) of 0.4 cm with left to right shunt. After beginning ECC, the above mentioned diagnoses were confirmed and the surgery included closure of the foramen ovale and IVC, and resection of the infundibular stenosis. Intraoperative intercurrences were not observed and the patient was intubated when she was transferred to the intensive care unit.ConclusionsTransesophageal echocardiography is extremely useful in patients undergoing surgical correction of congenital cardiopathies because, besides helping the hemodynamic management, it can provide new information capable of improving the final result of the surgery

Deacetylation and Desuccinylation of the Fucose-Rich Polysaccharide Fucopol: Impact on Biopolymer Physical and Chemical Properties

FucoPol is an acylated polysaccharide with demonstrated valuable functional properties that include a shear thinning fluid behaviour, a film-forming capacity, and an emulsion forming and stabilizing capacity. In this study, the different conditions (concentration, temperature, and time) for alkaline treatment were investigated to deacylate FucoPol. Complete deacetylation and desuccinylation was achieved with 0.02 M NaOH, at 60 ºC for 15 min, with no significant impact on the biopolymer’s sugar composition, pyruvate content, and molecular mass distribution. FucoPol depyruvylation by acid hydrolysis was attempted, but it resulted in a very low polymer recovery. The effect of the ionic strength, pH, and temperature on the deacetylated/desuccinylated polysaccharide, d-FucoPol, was evaluated, as well as its emulsion and film-forming capacity. d-FucoPol aqueous solutions maintained the shear thinning behaviour characteristic of FucoPol, but the apparent viscosity decreased significantly. Moreover, contrary to FucoPol, whose solutions were not affected by the media’s ionic strength, the d-FucoPol solutions had a significantly higher apparent viscosity for a higher ionic strength. On the other hand, the d-FucoPol solutions were not affected by the pH in the range of 3.6–11.5, while FucoPol had a decreased viscosity for acidic pH values and for a pH above 10.5. Although d-FucoPol displayed an emulsification activity for olive oil similar to that of FucoPol (98 +- 0%) for an oil-to-water ratio of 2:3, the emulsions were less viscous. The d-FucoPol films were flexible, with a higher Young0s modulus (798 +- 152 MPa), a stress at the break (22.5 +- 2.5 MPa), and an elongation at the break (9.3 +- 0.7%) than FucoPol (458 +- 32 MPa, 15.5 +- 0.3 MPa and 8.1 +- 1.0%, respectively). Given these findings, d-FucoPol arises as a promising novel biopolymer, with distinctive properties that may render it useful for utilization as a suspending or emulsifier agent, and as a barrier in coatings and packaging filmsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

OS VÍCIOS DA REFORMA AGRÁRIA

O presente artigo tem por tema a Política Pública de democratização ao acesso à terra, Reforma Agrária, e o fenômeno de polarização no âmbito político-social. O objetivo é analisar a execução da Reforma Agrária, identificar os vícios na sua implementação e propor intervenções às dificuldades apontadas pelos acampados e assentados, estes beneficiários diretos da Reforma Agrária. O método utilizado foi o dedutivo, com base em pesquisa bibliográfica, documental e base de dados dos órgãos Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (INCRA) e Ministério Público Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (MPF/MS), além de visitas a Assentamentos e entrevistas informais com membros de movimentos sociais que reivindicam a execução da Reforma Agrária. Como resultados apontam-se a conclusão de que a polarização não ocorre no âmbito científico quando se fala da referida Política Pública, percebeu-se nas obras analisadas uma divisão tênue entre estudiosos com posicionamento direcionados mais para questões econômicas enquanto outros acreditavam que as questões sociais eram mais importantes. Já em relação aos resultados das propostas de Intervenção, foram enumerados os Vícios da Reforma Agrária, entre os quais se citam: Aquisição de terras inapropriadas para produção; falta de convergência entre os assentados; desqualificação técnica dos assentados entre outros e cada um desses tópicos foi enfrentado como se fosse um vício a ser sanado