Dyes adsorption from aqueous solutions by Chitosan

In this study the ability of chitosan to remove acid, basic, reactive and direct dyestuffs by adsorption was studied. The effect of several factors influencing dye adsorption such as dye concentration, grain size, pH and temperature were investigated. Desorption of dyes at different pH was also examined. It was shown that the adsorption capacities of chitosan were comparatively high for acid and direct dyes and that the adsorption was controlled by the acidity of the solution. The kinetics of adsorption were found to be of pseudo second order. Batch isotherm studies showed that adsorption of dyes from aqueous solution by chitosan was described by the Langmuir equation

Intermolecular interaction and solid state characterization of abietic acid/chitosan solid dispersions possessing antimicrobial and antioxidant properties

The aim of this work was to prepare and characterize solid dispersions of abietic acid (AB) and chitosan (CS) to investigate how formulation of the mixture may help in the battle against microbial colonization in different areas, such as the biomedical field or the food industry. Solid dispersions were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, polarized optical microscopy, zeta potential and size analysis. The data showed that the dispersion/solvent evaporation method formed solid dispersions in which abietic acid was molecularly dispersed in the carrier. A synergistic effect between the two components in terms of antioxidant and antimicrobial properties was found, especially in the formulations obtained with 1/1 AB/CS molar ratio. Interestingly, the aggregation state (amorphous/crystalline) of AB seemed to affect the antimicrobial activity of the formulation, suggesting increased bioactivity when the drug was in the amorphous state. These findings, together with the demonstrated biocompatibility of the formulations, seem to open promising perspectives for a successful application of the developed AB/CS formulations in the biomedical field or in the food industry

Rousseau And Condorcet: Public Education Versus State Education

O artigo buscou explorar as ideias de pensadores iluministas - sobretudo Condorcet e Rousseau - no que diz respeito às relações entre processo civilizatório, liberdade, igualdade e democratização do saber. Na elaboração de Condorcet, o papel social e político da educação é iluminado pelo nexo estabelecido por esses pensadores entre a realização da "comunidade dos livres e iguais" e a apropriação universal do conhecimento. Daí sua preocupação em criar condições para que a instrução seja instrumento de democratização do poder, evitando o monopólio do recrutamento, responsável pela ossificação de correntes doutrinárias e pela estratificação de privilégios corporativos. O pensamento de Rousseau, com seus elementos passadistas e pessimistas, é sublinhado para mostrar outro lado dessa questão. E talvez nos ajude a pensar esses temas em nossos tempos, em que se pode observar "a derrota e o progressivo desaparecimento de modelos societários mais cooperativos em favor da consolidação de agregados conflitivos, em que os indivíduos mais fortes organizam o todo de forma vantajosa para si".3713533734

From necessity to freedom: a note on Diderot and Condorcet's proposals for higher education

Along the XVIIIth century prompted by their quest for a fairer, freer and more egalitarian society, the men of the Enlightenment got involved in spreading scientific and cultivated knowledge among the masses. They thought these, once enlightened about their own capacities and interests, could autonomously partake in the economical, political and social life of their nations. Focusing on the relationships between the highest and lowest degrees of education, this paper explores the proposals Diderot, then director of the Encyclopedia, and Condorcet, then a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Revolutionary France, respectively elaborated for a universal, free public education. The renewal of the traditional contents to privilege the studies of arts and sciences, which may be applied to practical life, and the implementation of didactics that, albeit simplifying its language, would preserve the rigor the theoretical knowledge both reveal the range and limits of this universal access formally guaranteed to common men. Scrutinizing the educational ideas that stake out the course of public education shows a gap between the liberal conceptualization of promotion through merit and the democratizing vocation, which aims at a social coexistence built upon the free intertwining of people's talents, knowledge and tastes.Movidos pela busca de uma sociedade mais justa, livre e igualitária, os homens das Luzes, ao longo do século XVIII, engajaram-se em alastrar o saber científico e cultivado entre as massas populares, para que estas, esclarecidas a respeito de suas próprias capacidades e interesses, pudessem participar, com autonomia, da vida econômica, política e cultural das nações. Este artigo examina as propostas para uma educação pública, gratuita e universal, elaboradas respectivamente por Diderot, diretor da Enciclopédia, e Condorcet, membro da Assembléia legislativa na França revolucionária, focalizando as relações entre os degraus superiores e mais elementares do ensino. A renovação dos conteúdos tradicionais, privilegiando o estudo das ciências e artes, aplicáveis à vida prática, e a implementação de uma didática que preserva o rigor do saber teórico simplificando sua linguagem, evidencia os alcances e limites do acesso universal formalmente garantido aos homens comuns. O exame dos ideais educacionais que norteiam o percurso da instrução pública indica um descompasso entre a conceituação liberal da ascensão pelo mérito e a vocação democratizante, que tem em perspectiva uma convivência social erguida sobre o livre entrelaçamento entre talentos, saberes, gostos dos indivíduos.65567

Revolutionary utopia and public education: paths for a new ethic city

During the French Revolution, the confrontation of educational reform projects was a continuation of the debate inaugurated by the Encyclopedists, by translating the different points of view in public policies. On the one hand, the more progressive wing of the liberal trends proposed universal access to education to offer equal opportunities and autonomy to the individuals-citizens. Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's critics to the competitive society, other trends saw educational policies as the main instrument to fight against a culture impregnated with individualism, by privileging moral and collective training. This paper explores aspects of the debate that began in revolutionary France and its echoes among the XIXth century reformers of public education. It points out some of the current challenges for public education in what regards building an actually universal access and an autonomous knowledge that can be critical of the market determinations and to the competitive culture.Na Revolução Francesa, o confronto dos projetos de reforma educacional deu continuidade ao debate inaugurado pelos Enciclopedistas, traduzindo em políticas públicas os diferentes pontos de vista. A ala mais progressista das correntes liberais propunha o acesso universal à instrução, para propiciar oportunidades iguais e autonomia aos indivíduos-cidadãos. Outras correntes, inspirando-se na crítica de Jean-Jacques Rousseau à sociedade competitiva, identificavam na política educacional o principal instrumento de combate à cultura impregnada pelo individualismo, privilegiando a formação moral e coletiva. Este artigo examina aspectos do debate iniciado na França revolucionária e seus ecos entre reformadores do século XIX, apontando para alguns dos desafios atuais da educação pública, no que diz respeito à construção de um acesso efetivamente universal e de um saber autônomo e crítico em relação às determinações do mercado e à cultura competitiva.71573

Vargas e Prestes: uma comparação entre o trabalhismo e o comunismo no Brasil

This article constitutes a part of the second chapter of our M.A. dissertation - The Free Act: considerations on the workers' politics - Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo (Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences, University of São Paulo). In this article, I try to show the impressive similarity between theoretical suppositions underlying a discourse that articulates a "bourgeois conception" of social relations, built for the control of the workers' class, and its supposed opponent, which intended to articulate a socialist conception and, explicity, was developing the marxist point of view. In order to attain this aim, I compare the speaches of Getulio Vargas (pronounced in the years of 1946 and 1947) with the discourses of Luiz Carlos Prestes (written in 1945). I conclude this exposition with a brief reflexion over the origin of these presuppositions in the womb of the international communist moviment.Este texto veio a constituir parte do segundo capítulo de nossa tese de Mestrado - O Ato Livre: considerações a respeito da política operária - Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo. Nele, procuro mostrar a impressionante semelhança de pressupostos teóricos subjacentes tanto a um discurso que articula a "concepção burguesa" das relações sociais, criado para o controle da c/asse operária, quanto a seu suposto oponente, que articularia a concepção socialista e que, explicitamente, estaria desenvolvendo o ponto de vista marxista. Com esse objetivo, cotejo os discursos de Getúlio Vargas (pronunciados nos anos de 1946 e 1947) com os quase contemporâneos discursos de Luis Carlos Prestes (escritos em 1945). Concluo com uma breve reflexão a respeito da origem desses pressupostos no interior do movimento comunista internacional

Amino-functionalized poly(l-lactide) lamellar single crystals as a valuable substrate for delivery of HPV16-E7 tumor antigen in vaccine development

Background: Poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) is a biodegradable polymer currently used in many biomedical applications, including the production of resorbable surgical devices, porous scaffolds for tissue engineering, nanoparticles and microparticles for the controlled release of drugs or antigens. The surfaces of lamellar PLLA single crystals (PLLAsc) were provided with amino groups by reaction with a multifunctional amine and used to adsorb an Escherichia coli-produced human papillomavirus (HPV)16-E7 protein to evaluate its possible use in antigen delivery for vaccine development. Methods: PLLA single crystals were made to react with tetraethylenepentamine to obtain amino-functionalized PLLA single crystals (APLLAsc). Pristine and amino-functionalized PLLAsc showed a two-dimensional microsized and one-dimensional nanosized lamellar morphology, with a lateral dimension of about 15–20 µm, a thickness of about 12 nm, and a surface specific area of about 130 m2/g. Both particles were characterized and loaded with HPV16-E7 before being administered to C57BL/6 mice for immunogenicity studies. The E7-specific humoral-mediated and cell-mediated immune response as well as tumor protective immunity were analyzed in mice challenged with TC-1 cancer cells. Results: Pristine and amino-functionalized PLLAsc adsorbed similar amounts of E7 protein, but in protein-release experiments E7-PLLAsc released a higher amount of protein than E7-APLLAsc. When the complexes were dried for observation by scanning electron microscopy, both samples showed a compact layer, but E7-APLLAsc showed greater roughness than E7-PLLAsc. Immunization experiments in mice showed that E7-APLLAsc induced a stronger E7-specific immune response when compared with E7-PLLAsc. Immunoglobulin G isotyping and interferon gamma analysis suggested a mixed Th1/Th2 immune response in both E7-PLLAsc-immunized and E7-APLLAsc-immunized mice. However, only the mice receiving E7-APLLAsc were fully protected from TC-1 tumor growth after three doses of vaccine. Conclusion: Our results show that APLLA single crystals improve the immunogenicity of HPV16-E7 and indicate that E7-APLLAsc could be used for development of an HPV16 therapeutic vaccine against HPV16-related tumors

Rousseau E Condorcet: Educação Pública Versus Educação Estatal

This paper explores the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers — especially Condorcet and Rousseau — as to relations between the civilizing process, freedom, equality and democratization of knowledge. According to Condorcet, the social and political role of education is lead by the link established by these thinkers between the realization of the “community of the free and equal” and universal appropriation of knowledge. Hence his concern to create conditions to make instruction a tool for power democratization, avoiding the monopoly of recruitment, which is responsible for the fossilization of doctrinal currents and stratification of corporate privileges. The thought of Rousseau, his “passive” and pessimistic elements are emphasized to show the other side of this issue. And maybe help us think about these matters in our times, when one can observe “the defeat and gradual disappearance of more cooperative corporate models in favor of the consolidation of conflictive aggregates where the strongest individuals organize everything as best suit them”. © 2016, Centro de Estudos Educacao e Sociedade - CEDES. All rights reserved.3713533734

The Diterpenoids of the Genus Marrubium (Lamiaceae)

The occurrence and chemical structures of labdane diterpenoids from the genus Marrubium are reviewed and the published 13C NMR spectroscopic data for these compounds is presented. The pharmacological activities and biogenesis of these diterpenoids are also reported

Application of temperature modulation to FTIR spectroscopy: an analysis of equilibrium and non-equilibrium conformational transitions of poly(ethylene terephthalate) in glassy and liquid states

AbstractIn this paper, the application of a temperature modulation to the temperature-resolved FTIR analysis is reported. The advantage offered by the spectroscopic investigation, able to follow the micro-structural and conformational sample modification involved in sample thermal transformation, was merged to that of temperature modulation, related to the possibility to separate the reversing (in-equilibrium within the experimental condition) to the non-reversing (non-equilibrium) processes. The potentiality of the technique (modulated temperature FTIR, MTFTIR) is highlighted through the study of the thermal transitions of amorphous poly(ethylene terephthalate) from 50 °C to the cold-crystallization. After the presentation of the theoretical framework and the experimental conditions, a step-by-step description of acquired data elaboration is given. The total variation of a selected band intensity as function of mean temperature as well as its reversing and non-reversing components are obtained. The evolution of the bands at 1340 and 971 cm−1, assigned to the trans conformation of the ethylenic unit and to the all-trans conformation of the repeating unit, respectively, are investigated. As expected, the glass transition is observed in the reversing components meanwhile the recovery of the glass relaxation and cold crystallization in non-reversing ones. Particularly interesting resulted the behaviour of the sample in the supercooled liquid state, between the glass transition and the cold-crystallization onset, in which the results show that the ethylenic conformers are in-equilibrium while the all-trans sequences are not. MTFTIR is confirmed to be a technique particularly suitable for the characterization of non-equilibrium conformational states of polymers