Plato’s Republic and some aspects of political psychology in 20th century philosophy

Platonova Država se u XX i XXI veku čita i tumači kao političko-pravni spis, kao svestrano filozofsko delo i kao remek-delo dramske književnosti. Namera ovog rada je da pokaže da je Država i veliko psihološko delo. Kao što su u Državi postavljena i razmatrana pitanja koja su u XX veku ključna za većinu filozofskih disciplina: za logiku, epistemologiju, metafiziku, kosmologiju, teologiju, estetiku, etiku, politiku, zbog čega je Vajthed napisao da je celokupna zapadna filozofija samo fusnota uz Platona, u Državi su postavljena ili razmatrana psihološka pitanja i problemi kojima se bave najvažnije discipline i oblasti psihologije XX veka: opšta psihologija, individualna psihologija, socijalna psihologija, školska psihologija i klinička psihologija, zatim, psihologija muzike, psihologija sporta, psihologija detinjstva, psihologija starosti, psihologija seksualnosti, kao i najintegrativnija od disciplina, psihologija ličnosti. U Državi su izneseni i nacrti nekoliko zanimljivih i veoma savremenih psiholoških teorija, kakve su: teorija o strukturi ljudske psihe, teorija potreba i teorija nagona. Platon je u Državi psihoanalitičar pre Frojdove psihoanalize zbog toga što je opisao niz njenih pojmova kakvi su: nesvesno, asocijacije, eros, sublimacija, racionalizacija, potiskivanje, san i cenzura. Od ključne važnosti za ovaj rad jeste to što ukazuje da je u Državi psihologija Platonova preokupacija koliko i politika, a teorija ličnosti, koliko i teorija države. Platonova tipologija političkih karaktera ima ubedljivost, iako nije ni približno slavna kao Teofrastovi Karakteri i Hipokratovi tipovi temperamenata. Ovaj rad ima za cilj da Platona predstavi kao utemeljivača filozofske psihologije, socijalne, i političke psihologije koje su sve aktuelne i u našem vremenu.In the 20th and 21st centuries, Plato’s Republic is read and interpreted as both a political and legal text, a comprehensive philosophical work and a masterpiece of dramatic literature. The intention of this dissertation is to show how, in addition to the above interpretations, Republic is also a great work pertaining to the field of psychology. Republic poses and considers questions that were crucial for the majority of philosophical disciplines in the 20th century: logic, epistemology, metaphysics, cosmology, theology, aesthetics, ethics and politics, which is why Whitehead wrote that the entirety of Western philosophy is but a series of footnotes to Plato. Republic raises and discusses questions and problems dealt with by the most important disciplines of the field of psychology in the 20th century: general psychology, individual psychology, social psychology, school psychology, clinical psychology, the psychology of music, the psychology of sport, the psychologies of childhood and old age, the psychology of sexuality and, the most interdisciplinary of all disciplines, personality psychology. Several highly interesting and modern psychological theories were also presented in Republic: the theory of the structure of the human psyche, the theory of needs and the theory of drives. In Republic, Plato is a psychoanalyst who predates Freud’s psychoanalysis because he described a number of its key concepts such as the subconscious, association, eros, sublimation, rationalisation, suppression, dreaming and censorship. Of key importance for this dissertation is the indication that, in Republic, Plato is as preoccupied with psychology as he is with politics, and with the theory of personality as much as with the theory of the state. Plato’s typology of political characters is persuasive, despite lacking the recognition of Theophrastus’s Characters and Hippocrates’ four temperaments. This dissertation aims to present Plato as the founder of philosophical psychology, social psychology and political psychology, all of which are as relevant now as they were during his time

The bio-ethanol production with the thin stillage recirculation

In this paper, the bioethanol production with the thin stillage recirculation in mashing was investigated. The mashing was performed with recirculation of: 0, 10, 20 and 30 % of the thin stillage. The thin stillage recirculation was repeated six times. In the experiment without the thin stillage, the recirculation bioethanol yield (compared to the theoretical yield) was 97.96 %, which implicates that the experiment conditions were chosen and performed well. With the addition of the thin stillage, the bioethanol yield increased and was above 100 %. Higher bioethanol yield than 100 % can be explained by the fact that the thin stillage contains carbohydrates, amino acids and yeast cells degradation products. The bioethanol yield increased with the increased number of thin stillage recirculation cycles. Dry matter content in fermenting slurry increased with the increased thin stillage quantity and the number of the thin stillage recirculation cycles (8.04 % for the first and 9.40 % for the sixth cycle). Dry matter content in thin stillage increased with the increased thin stillage quantity and the number of thin stillage recirculation cycles. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that thin stillage recirculation increased the bioethanol yield. The highest bioethanol yields were obtained with recirculation of 10% thin stillage

An EPR spin-probe and spin-trap study of the free radicals produced by plant plasma membranes

Plant plasma membranes are known to produce superoxide radicals, while the production of hydroxyl radical is thought to occur only in the cell wall. In this work it was demonstrated using combined spin-trap and spin-probe EPR spectroscopic techniques, that plant plasma membranes do produce superoxide and hydroxyl radicals but by kinetically different mechanisms. The results show that superoxide and hydroxyl radicals can be detected by DMPO spin-trap and that the mechanisms and location of their production call be differentiated using the reduction of spin-probes Tempone and 7-DS. It was shown that the mechanism of production of oxygen reactive species is NADH dependent and diphenylene iodonium inhibited. The kinetics of the reduction of Temponc, combined with scavengers or the absence of NADH indicates that hydroxyl radicals are produced by a mechanism independent of that of superoxide production. It was shown that a combination of the spill-probe and spin-trap technique can be used in free radical studies of biological systems, with a number of advantages inherent to them

The application of physicochemical methods for the analysis of radiation processed food products

The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence and stability of free radicals in freeze-dried samples of cow milk, pineapple and banana after irradiation (10 kGy dose), using the ESR spectroscopy, as well as to assess possible changes in their protein structure by means of electrophoresis.The Conference is dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the academician Pavle Savić birthday and 20th Anniversary of the Society of Physical Chemists of SerbiaPhysical chemistry 2010 : 10th international conference on fundamental and applied aspects of physical chemistry; September 21-24, Belgrade, 2012

Cyclic Voltammetric Study of the Influence of Porosity on Electrochemical Response of Nickel-Alumina Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode

Pure and nickel-modified alumina powders with different porosity were synthesized and applied on the glassy carbon electrode by means of Nafion polymer. The data obtained from the nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm confirmed that the pore structures in these materials are complex and tend to be made up of interconnected networks of pores of different size and shape. The addition of Ni2+ ions caused the changes in the textural properties of the samples. The influence of porosity on the electrochemical behavior of modified electrodes in quasi-reversible process was tested by cyclic voltammetry. Numerical correlations between electrochemical responses of GCE modified with alumina samples and textural properties have been established

ANTIRADICAL ACTIVITY OF NEW STRAWBERRY CULTIVAR EXTRACTS INCORPORATED INTO LIPOSOMES – AN EPR STUDY

Strawberries are rich in various health-promoting compounds. A particularly high yield of these molecules could be extracted using methanol which is unfortunately harmful to living beings. To surpass the problem of solvent toxicity, in this paper, we have incorporated methanol extracts of two novel strawberry cultivars into liposomes. Our results show that both extracts possess significant antiradical activity towards hydroxyl and DPPH radicals, unaltered by lipids from liposome membranes. These results indicate that otherwise toxic extracts could easily be turned into a promising pharmaceutical product

Supplementary data for the article: Mancic, L.; Djukic-Vukovic, A.; Dinic, I.; Nikolic, M. G.; Rabasovic, M. D.; Krmpot, A. J.; Costa, A. M. L. M.; Marinkovic, B. A.; Mojovic, L.; Milosevic, O. One-Step Synthesis of Amino-Functionalized up-Converting NaYF 4 :Yb,Er Nanoparticles for: In Vitro Cell Imaging. RSC Advances 2018, 8 (48), 27429–27437. https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ra04178d

Supplementary material for: [https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ra04178d]Related to published version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/2225

Photosensitizer potential of doped and undoped nanostructured TiO2

Treating cancer remains a major challenge, despite the development of many therapies and advances in general knowledge about the disease. The treatments commonly used are invasive and non-selective, leading to severe side effects and unsatisfactory long-term outcomes. Nevertheless, external stimuli activating therapeutic agents in the affected area can be more beneficial than these aggressive therapies. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a minimally invasive, selective treatment that uses photosensitizer (PS) to damage cancer cells. The PS is activated by light, triggering a series of processes that produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), ultimately leading to cancer cell death. Numerous types of nanomaterial possess the capability to act as PS, one of which is TiO2 [1]. Although nanostructured TiO2 is biocompatible in the absence of light, its valence band electrons can be stimulated only by ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. Since the penetration of UV light into tissue is limited, for application in PDT, nanostructured TiO2 can be doped with heteroatoms like N or C to allow visible light responsiveness [2,3]. This work evaluated the PS properties of unmodified nanostructured TiO2 (spherical nanoparticles TiO2 NPs and prolate nanospheroids, TiO2 PNSs) and doped TiO2 (N- and C-TiO2 NPs). After the synthesis, the size of TiO2 was confirmed to be in the nanoscale range (5-104 nm) by transmission electron microscopy [3,4]. The doped TiO2 was found to absorb visible light, as demonstrated by UV-Vis spectroscopy and bandgap calculations. Additionally, hydroxyl radicals were detected in water suspensions of TiO2 PNSs by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, both with and without UV light illumination [4]. However, this radical was observed only with blue light stimulation of the water suspensions of N- and C-TiO2 NPs [3]. Cell experiments further revealed the internalization process of nanostructured TiO2 within cells, their cytotoxicity profiles, and the different death modalities triggered by their uptake. After confocal microscopy indicated the successful internalization of the investigated TiO2, viability tests on different cell lines confirmed their good biocompatibility without light [3,4]. The PDT's efficacy using nanostructured TiO2 and appropriate light stimuli was evaluated on various cancer cell lines. The most significant viability reduction (60 %) was observed in the HeLa cell line with the combined treatment of C-TiO2 NPs-blue light. In addition to EPR results, blue light-induced C-TiO2 NPs-catalyzed generation of ROS was confirmed intracellularly, implying that oxidative stress was the leading cause of HeLa cell death. Fluorescent labeling allowed distinguishing morphological changes inside the cells after the C-TiO2 NPs, blue light, and the combined C-TiO2 NPs-blue light treatment. Blue light exposure led to the appearance of large necrotic cells with deformed nuclei, cytoplasm swelling, and membrane blebbing. In contrast, the combined therapy with C-TiO2 NPs-blue light resulted in controlled cell death, such as autophagy. Since programmed cell death is the desired cancer cell death mechanism, the combined treatment presented here can provide a better outcome of local anticancer therapy.IX International School and Conference on Photonics : PHOTONICA2023 : book of abstracts; August 28 - September 1, 2023; Belgrad

Rich in Phenolics—Strong Antioxidant Fruit? Comparative Study of 25 Strawberry Cultivars

Phenolic compounds of 25 newly introduced strawberry cultivars were profiled using spectrophotometry, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, and high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Total phenolic and anthocyanin content (TPC and TACY, respectively), as well as vitamin C, and concentrations of individual phenolic compounds in fruits were evaluated to identify the most promising cultivars according to their phenolic profile. The highest values of TPC, TACY, and vitamin C were recorded in ´Premy´ (1.53 mg eq GA g-1 FW), ´Sandra´ (30.60 mg eq Pg-3-g 100 g-1 FW) and ´Laetitia´ (56.32 mg 100 g-1 FW), respectively. The DPPH and •OH radicals scavenging activity of fruit methanolic extracts was estimated using EPR spectroscopy. All cultivars are almost uniformly effective in the scavenging of •OH radical, while ´Tea´, ´Premy´, and ´Joly´ were marked as highly potent cultivars (over 70%) in terms of DPPH-antiradical activity. Specific peroxidase activities were the highest in ´Garda´, ´Federica´, and ´Rumba´ (0.11, 0.08, and 0.06 U mg-1 prot, respectively). ´Laetitia´, ´Joly´, ´Arianna´, ´Tea´, and ´Mila´ cultivars were distinguished from others as the richest concerning almost all flavonoids and phenolic acids, including some other parameters of bioactivity. These cultivars could be recommended to consumers in terms of fruit as a functional food

Supplementary material for the article: Pejin, B.; Nakarada, D.; Novakovic, M.; Tesevic, V.; Savic, A.; Radotic, K.; Mojovic, M. Antioxidant Volatiles of the Freshwater Bryozoan Hyalinella Punctata. Natural Product Research 2014, 28 (18), 1471–1475. https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2014.905565

Supplementary material for: [https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2014.905565]Related to published version: [http://cherry.chem.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/1828