Dendrimer Nanocarriers and their Aerosol Formulations for the Delivery of Therapeutics to and through the Lungs

In this presentation we discuss how the chemistry of dendrimer nanocarriers can be used to modulate their interaction with the pulmonary epithelium and how such knowledge can be used to develop efficient strategies for local or systemic delivery of drugs to and through the lungs. We also discuss particle engineering approaches that allow us to design portable oral inhalation formulations of the dendrimer nanocarriers with aerosols conducive to deep lung deposition. We employ a range of experimental and computational tools to probe the system at various size scales, from atomic to molecular to nano and micron, in order to design the nanocarriers and their formulations. We will discuss some of the potential applications of these carriers, including the formulation of biologics and small molecules, and targeting of intra-cellular organelles such as mitochondria, and demonstrate their applicability in treating an in vivo model of metastases to the lungs

Microlenses array made with AZ4562 photoresist for stereoscopic acquisition

In this paper is presented a fabrication process for obtaining refractive microlenses arrays with high reproducibility and low cost. This process was specifically optimized for the AZ4562 photoresist. Functional prototypes of microlenses arrays with dimensions in the range of 30 m, 4.9 mm and 5 m for width, length and thickness, respectively, were fabricated and tested. The pre-thermal reflow spacing between adjacent isosceles trapezoids is 1.35-5.43 m, from bottom to top, respectively. This separation allows the photoresist to reflow and join the adjacent microlens creating a consistent and homogeneous array.This work and Rui Pedro Rocha are fully supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the project FCT/PTDC/EEA-ELC/109936/2009 and the financial grant SFRH/BD/33733/2009, respectively. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr.-Ing Christian Koch from MicroChemicals GmbH for the technical support

FATORES GEOMORFOLÓGICOS DETERMINANTES DO PROCESSO DE AVULSÃO: O VALE ALUVIAL DO RIO DO PEIXE, SP.

O estudo avaliou a geomorfologia do rio do Peixe, SP, e identificou aspectos que contribuíram para a formação e extensão de um processo de avulsão. Informações cartográficas, levantamentos em campo e dados hidrológicos foram usados nesta análise. Os resultados mostraram o maior processo de avulsão dos últimos 50 anos no rio do Peixe que alterou a rede de drenagem criando o único trecho multicanal. Os dados indicam a largura da planície e a reocupação de paleocanais como propulsores da avulsão

A cost-effective microfluidic device for determination of biodiesel content in diesel blends

The increasing production and extensive use of biodiesel in the latest years call for the development of fast and cost-effective procedures for point-of-care analysis. One of the main quality parameters is the biodiesel content in diesel blends, which needs to conform to regional legislations. In this work, a microfluidic device exploiting chemical derivatization of alkyl esters and detection by smartphone-based digital-image colorimetry was developed. It was designed to ensure proper experimental conditions for chemical derivatization, including re- agent release, and photometric measurements. Analytes reacted with alkaline hydroxylamine yielding the cor- responding alkyl hydroxamates, measured as colored Fe(III) complexes. Analytical response was based on the measurement of the G (green) channel from RGB color system. By taking methyl linoleate as a model compound, a linear response was obtained from 0.1% to 0.6%(v/v) (Analytical signal = 69.6 +2.1 C, r = 0.999), coefficient of variation (n = 10) of 4.0% and limit of detection (99.7% confidence) of 0.04%(v/v). Procedure consumes 1.2 µL of sample, 230 µg of hydroxylamine, 480 µg of NaOH, 14 µg of Fe(III) and equivalent to 1.2 µL of 69%(v/v) HNO3. Accurate results were achieved in relation to the MIR reference method, with agreement at the 95% confidence levelThe authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Fundaç˜ao de Amparo `a Pesquisa do Estado de S˜ao Paulo FAPESP (proc. 2021/12242–5 and 2018/07687–5). and the support from the Spanish “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” (Project PID2019–103938RB- I00) and Junta de Andalucía (Projects B-FQM-243-UGR18 and P18-RT- 2961)

The Two-Nucleon Potential from Chiral Lagrangians

Chiral symmetry is consistently implemented in the two-nucleon problem at low-energy through the general effective chiral lagrangian. The potential is obtained up to a certain order in chiral perturbation theory both in momentum and coordinate space. Results of a fit to scattering phase shifts and bound state data are presented, where satisfactory agreement is found for laboratory energies up to about 100 Mev.Comment: Postscript file; figures available by reques

The CORDEX Flagship Pilot Study in southeastern South America: a comparative study of statistical and dynamical downscaling models in simulating daily extreme precipitation events

The aim of this work is to present preliminary results of the statistical and dynamical simulations carried out within the framework of the Flagship Pilot Study in southeastern South America (FPS-SESA) endorsed by the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiments (CORDEX) program. The FPS-SESA initiative seeks to promote inter-institutional collaboration and further networking with focus on extreme rainfall events. The main scientific aim is to study multi-scale processes and interactions most conducive to extreme precipitation events through both statistical and dynamical downscaling techniques, including convection-permitting simulations. To this end, a targeted experiment was designed considering the season October 2009 to March 2010, a period with a record number of extreme precipitation events within SESA. Also, three individual extreme events within that season were chosen as case studies for analyzing specific regional processes and sensitivity to resolutions. Four dynamical and four statistical downscaling models (RCM and ESD respectively) from different institutions contributed to the experiment. In this work, an analysis of the capability of the set of the FPS-SESA downscaling methods in simulating daily precipitation during the selected warm season is presented together with an integrated assessment of multiple sources of observations and available CORDEX Regional Climate Model simulations. Comparisons among all simulations reveal that there is no single model that performs best in all aspects evaluated. The ability in reproducing the different features of daily precipitation depends on the model. However, the evaluation of the sequence of precipitation events, their intensity and timing suggests that FPS-SESA simulations based on both RCM and ESD yield promising results. Most models capture the extreme events selected, although with a considerable spread in accumulated values and the location of heavy precipitation.Thanks to CORDEX for endorsing the FPS-SESA. This work was supported by the University of Buenos Aires 2018- 20020170100117BA grant; JMG, MLB, SAS, RPR funding from the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) I-COOP+ Program “reference COOPB20374”. JMG, JF and AL-G acknowledge support from the Spanish R&D Program through projects MULTI-SDM (CGL2015-66583-R) and INSIGNIA (CGL2016-79210-R), co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF/FEDER). AL-G acknowledges support from the Spanish R&D Program through the predoctoral contract BES-2016-078158. Universidad de Cantabria simulations have been carried out on the Altamira Supercomputer at the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA-CSIC), member of the Spanish Supercomputing Network. MB acknowledges support from the Simons Associateship of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics. RH acknowledges support from the project LTT17007 funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic

The powerful in vitro bioactivity of Euterpe oleracea Mart. seeds and related phenolic compounds

The Euterpe oleracea Mart. (açaí) is a plant from the Amazon region, classified as "super fruit" because of its various functional properties. However, limited investigation has been performed on açaí by-products, such as seeds. Therefore, the aim of this work was to characterized the phenolic compounds of the aqueous extract of açaí seeds and further evaluate its bioactivity (antioxidant and cytotoxic activities. Only proanthocyanidins were detected, being a B-type (epi)catechin tetramer the most abundant; however, procyanidin trimmers were the most predominant form. Açaí seeds extract revealed a high antioxidant (EC50 ranging from 3.6 to 19.4 μg/mL) and cytotoxic activity, being more effective in the cervical carcinoma cell line (HeLa; GI50 = 18 μg/mL); it did not show toxicity for non-tumor cells. Açaí seeds are considered a waste and could have an added economic benefit, through the extraction of natural antioxidants, particularly proanthocyanidins, that could find applications in food and pharmaceutical industries.The authors are grateful to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to the research centre CIMO (strategic project PEst OE/AGR/UI0690/2011) and L. Barros researcher contract under “Programa Compromisso com Ciência - 2008”. The authors are also grateful to Jamil S. Oliveira by the initial discussions on the preparation of samples

Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy

We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude, with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc