Influência de fármacos lipofílicos na estabilidade de emulsões de uso terapêutico

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

A magia do cinema na praça:apropriação do espaço e sociabilidade em Salvador-BA

It s in the city spaces, molded from the uses and daily appropriations, that life is woven, as a product of the social relationships from the accumulation of history along with the present day fabric. Within this relationship, the old and the new are elements which make up this tapestry, as a result of the contribution of successive generations. The public square is seen as an example of this relationship, since it consists of a fertile space for opportunities of urban life coexistence. It is within the trace of these considerations that the present study emerges regarding the appropriation and sociability of the Tomé de Sousa Square, located in the city of Salvador, BA, having as its main focus the special relation between the cinema and the public square, as it relates to the space of the exhibition of cinematographic art. The showing of films in public squares makes possible a distinctive means of appropriation which has occurred ever since the beginning of the cinema. Today in Brazil, projects of this nature abound, which aim at presenting the seventh art to a great portion of the population which doesn t have access to conventional movie theater projection rooms. This particular Projeto Cinema na Praça Cinema in the Square Project carried out in Salvador, has become the empirical reference point for such work. This journey reveals the fascination that this great art has woven through time, attracting and charming multitudes. The cinema touches people in a special way, stirring up affectionate feelings, which are reflected in multiple social practices. Regarding this work, what stands out above all are the projections in the squares, initiatives which make it possible for the films to be watched collectively. What was taken into account in order to carry out this work were the reports of those who came regularly to watch the cinema in the Square sessions, those involved with the cinema projects team, and the film makers. To do the work, besides a bibliographical revision, observations were made of participants in the Tomé de Sousa Square, taken from semi-structured interviews with people involved with the film projection projects and those who came regularly to the cinema in the Square sessions. Also investigations were made in newspapers, printed magazines and the internet, from document and iconographic sources. The photographic documentation proved to be an important contribution to the field work. The research therefore develops from the understanding that the social practices are what make possible the uses of and the appropriation of the spaces. Within this perspective the public square emerges as a privileged locus where possibilities flourish for multiple manifestations that social practices can generate

A dimensão ética do cinema de Walter Salles: hospitalidade, religação e perdão

Soulignant l´importance des transformations du discours politique du cinéma brésilien actuel, cet étude entreprend une analyse de la dimension éthique du cinéma de Walter Salles. Pour cela, nous avons parti de trois films long-métrages du directeur: Terra Estrangeira, Central do Brasil et Abril Despedaçado. Les films sélectionnés constituent les trois diférents chapitres de cette mémoire de maîtrise, qui s´articulent a des diférentes dimensions de l´éthique - l´hospitalité, la réliaison, et le pardon- et se présentent em format essayistique. Au texte, ces dimensions éthiques émergent à partir des récits, surtout des expériences existencielles des protagonistes et de ses singulières rencontres avec l´altérité. Comme tel, dialoguent avec des réflétions d´auteurs comme Edgar Morin, Zigmunt Bauman, Julia Kristeva, Paul Ricoeur et Hannah Arendt. Des diférents régistres de la connaissance -artistique, scientifique, religieuse- s´articulent donc dans le travail, et dialoguent en condition d´égalité. La recherche fait usage de matériels multiples qui incluent, au-delà des films mentionnés, et de ses respectifs scripts, des références à d´autres long-métrages et documentaires du directeur, ainsi que, des makingoffs, entretiens, et interprétations de commentaristes comme Lucia Nagib, Luiz Zanin Oricchio, Ivana Bentes, Pedro Butcher e Jurandir Freire Costa

Cinematografando o consumo :as narrativas e práticas culturais dos clientes de videolocadoras de Natal (RN)

The present work is an exercise of analysis of cultural practices related to movie consume by the clients of video rental stores in Natal city (Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil). With sociology of practice as support, especially that one which develops from the seminal works of Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu, we have searched, from the apprehension of the narratives build up by these actors from the movies they attend, to point the way they build exercises of reflexivity and creativity in the reception of works commonly identified as products of the so called mass culture . This path allows us, in the steps of Nestor Garcia Canclini, researcher in reception within Latin-American context, create and, somehow confirm the hypothesis that consume is also useful for thinking . In order to get to this result, we have carried out a camp research that used instruments and techniques both quantitative and qualitative. After the data analysis we came to the conclusion that consume of movies taken as commercial type and as not very noble in the environment of cultural production, also impels exercises of creativity and social reflexivity

Escrever o movimento: o cinema itinerante como reinvenção de uma estética do viver

La tesis parte del presupuesto que el cine ofrece la imensa capacidad de entretejer de forma compleja realidad e imaginación. Con eso sugerimos que tal cual una "escuela de vida", según la definición de Edgar Morin (2003), el cine, por medio de sus producciones y exibiciones, pude ser capaz de operar un movimiento de reinvención de una estética del vivir en el espacio de lo improbable. De ahi surge la pregunta: ¿Cómo un fenómeno artístico, estético e imagético puede realizar tal movimiento? Tomando como referencia el guión de vida del personaje de la vida real José Isaias de Lucena Filho, más conocido por Zezeco, encontramos pistas de esa reinvención. Residente de una pequeña ciudad del interior de la província de Rio Grande do Norte, llamada Ouro Branco, en la década del 1960, se desplazó hacia el centro-sur de Brasil y retornó a su lugar de partida con la idea de trabajar proyectando peliculas. De manera singular y plural, este sujeto asumió el riesgo y la incertidumbre de enfrentar determinismos sociales, climáticos y culturales para proponer nuevas simbolizaciones por medio del cine itinerante. La presencia del séptimo arte en pequeñas ciudades de hábitos rurales marcadas por la miséria, el hambre, la negligéncia, el coronelismo político y los problemas climáticos, alteró escenários, actualizó mitos y proporcionó nuevas interacciones entre los sujetos. Zezeco entró en las cifras del éxodo rural y emigró hacia Rio de Janeiro, pero su éxodo fue cinematográfico, porque le sirvió como base para la inserción de efectos especiales fantásticos y poéticos en guiones de vidas inmersas en lo trivial y lo contingente. Tal cual un cinematógrafo vivo, capturó el escenário cultural efervescente de Rio de Janeiro y lo proyectó en la pequeña ciudad de Ouro Branco y en otras ciudades del interior de las províncias de Rio Grande do Norte y Paraiba. Con ello le atribuyó un nuevo uso a la vida de su lugar de partida y de retorno. Actuó en la ambiguedad, la ambivalencia y la complejidad entre el sapiens e el demens; real e imaginario; prosa y poesia de la vida; razón y pasión; racional y simbólico; lógico y mítico. El alcance de la investigación contempla entrevistas, memória, registros manuscritos y fotografías de colección particular de habitantes de la ciudad de Ouro Branco-RN. Como referenciales teóricos principales, tenemos las obras de Edgar Morin sobre el cine y de otros autores como Giorgio Agamben y Maria da Conceição de Almeida que expanden la comprensión sobre el entreejido de realidad e imaginación, vida e ideas

Reinvenção da cidade, produção fílmica e visibilidade sociocultural: o uso do território na roliúde nordestina - Cabaceiras - PB

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

Cinema e educação :interfaces, conceitos e práticas docentes

This project goes beyond the interfacial field of cinema, History and education. We take as our object the epistemological potential of the cinema at the educational scenario, specifically the use of films integrated to the practices of History teachers and educative processes in which we have taken part as a builder. Our objective is to map, initially, the knowledge around this use to search a synthesis and its empirical application. From the methodological point of view, we have made use of different perspectives: (a) interviews with the educator subjects; (b) observation of their practices and formative circumstances; (c) filmic analysis and the relation of the cinema s epistemology with the other areas ones (initially History and further Journalism). Our analysis allowed us to portrait the film such as an epistemological-troubling category, what makes the cinema rather a builder technology and not simply a complementary and illustrative technological resource. Therefore, we have realized that the restriction to the cinema s educational function is linked to the restrictions to the theoretical categories to an only interfacial aspect: historical film as a film which portraits the past (at the historical field) and film on journalism as a film which approaches a single object of Journalism (at the journalistic field). These discussions happen, consequently, at the arena of the nature of cinema s genres (fiction and documentary), which are understood in a naïve way, simpler than its epistemological possibilities, boosted at this research when we analyze the confluence between fiction and reality. The reflections on educative practices and in formation related to the cinema had occurred in three empirical realities: research with professors in performance, practices docent s and accompaniment of students of history. Have to do with our personal career as a teacher and researcher and, when analyzed other practices, have become, unavoidably, the subject and object of this project

Consciência corporal e educação física escolar: possibilidades de intervenção

The investigation about the body consciousness in school Physical Education had as main objective reporting a possibility of intervention, linking it directly to the contents of Physical Education and considering it as a crosscutting theme in this research. In this scope, we worked specifically with two contents of Physical Education - knowledge about the body and fights. During the study, we are going to discuss about teaching strategies for the themes of body awareness. To develop this work, we used the following study questions: how is treated the body consciousness in Physical Education and how it has been addressed in educational interventions? What are the difficulties found to the themes of body awareness on different issues of school Physical Education? How body awareness thematized in contents in Physical Education is received by the students and what are the attitudes demonstrated by them during the development of these lessons? Based from questions of study, we used the following methodological tools: participant observation, interviews, photographic records, debates, films, dramatizations and dynamics, which they were performed to stimulate students' critical thinking about their body and the other children s one. The research with ethnographic characteristics was conducted in two schools: one elementary school I, in Natal and one elementary school II, held in the municipality of the João Câmara, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. We developed a structure in order that the three dimensions of contents conceptual, procedural and attitudinal were experienced by students. The work is structured in five chapters. At first, we made an introduction to justify the motivations that led us to write about body awareness at school. In the second chapter, we discussed reflection about the body and its possibilities of understanding, reflecting on the body and how this awareness was being treated in physical education classes at school. In the third chapter, dealing with the body awareness and dialogue with the Physical Education, we had made a theoretical approach, from authors such as CLARO (1988), NÓBREGA (2000), ARAGÃO (2004), MELO (2006), LORENZETTO and MATTHIESEN (2008) in order to situate the body consciousness and its relationship with physical education. In the fourth chapter, we talked about body awareness thematized in physical education contents: knowledge about the body and fights. We introduced the teaching experience developed in the school and we discussed with authors such as OLIVIER (2000), DARIDO AND RANGEL (2008), among others, about how was the reflection about the body leaving of these experiences. The fifth chapter was intended to closing remarks, in which we concluded that the body awareness, treated in physical education in school by sociocultural and historical aspects, it will contribute in building a man, a body and a society. Although the body consciousness is crafted in a few moments of Physical Education, based on the practices of body awareness or alternatives; in our proposal, we pointed out another perspective to work with body awareness, bringing its elements to permeate and pass through the contents of Physical Education. At work we can see a suggestion for that these experiences are carried out by other Physical Education professionals, obviously adapting the activities according to age and educational level of students

Somos todos canibais: antropofagia, corpo e educação sensível

Cette étude présente l anthropophagie comme une notion théorique et experiementale du corps qui réhabilite le sensible et réveille le monde perçu. L argumentation fait ressortir la dimension sensible du corps et de la connaissance, en considerant sa sensibilité et motricité, corps qui ne se sépare pas de la nature et de l histoire, en actuant dans le monde comme présence vive, originaire, en mouvement ; en supposant un sujet qui, au même temps que construit ses propres senses, il dépend de l expérience de l autre et du monde, en créant et en recréant la culture, et il agrandit le processus de connaître, de sentir, de penser, d agir, d être, de se transformer. Cette attitude annonce une connaissance sensible et un corps qui est suscetible de sensations, mais d expréssions aussi, de communication, de création, aspects indispensables pour se pensar l éducation comme un space sensible, d apprantissage et réssignification de la culture ; que dévient possible la communion avec le corps, le temps, le space ; qu enseigne à réapprendre à voir le monde, que considère la réversibilité des senses et l esthésie comme champs de l expérience sensible et de l imputation des senses ; qu évoque la beauté des multiples léctures du vécu et qu agrandit la compréhension du soi et de l autre. L objectif de ce travail est comprendre l anthropophagie comme une attitude du corps et de la connaisance sensible, qu approfondit la rélation de l être au monde, la rélation avec l autre et permet la création de senses culturelles, ésthetiques et éxistentielles our l éducation. Nos présentons l attitude phénomologique de Maurice Merleau-Ponty comme référence théorique et méthodologique de notre recherche. Il s agit d une attitude de la pensée qui place la conaissance au centre de nos expériences vécues au monde ; une attitude qui ne propose pas un sens définitif des choses et des personnes et qui contribue pour la compréhension de l anthropophagie, du corps, du sensible, du monde et de l autre, en indiquant des développements de ces réflexions pour l éducation. En créant des horizonts de sense et strastégies de pérception sur l anthopophagie, nos considérons comme choix notre expérience vécu, comme les voyages; atelier d extension avec des élèves du cours de Technologie en Production Culturelle de l Institut Fédéral d Éducation, Science et Technologie du Rio Grande do Norte-IFRN, Campus Cidade Alta ; l anthropophagie comme élement de l Art Moderne Brésilien ; les créations et les récits des élèves ; images ; filmes et livres recherchés ; dialogues avec les penseurs Lévi-Strauss, Montaigne et Oswald de Andrade, qui constituent nos principales références conceptuelles et qui ont permis traversé des savoirs et promouvoir un dialogue entre divers champs de connaissance, comme l Anthropologie, la Philosophie, l Art et l Éducation. Ces stratégies constituent le resultat partiel et inachevé d un processus de connaisance de soi et de l autre, que permet de revivre des mémoires, faire ressortir des couleurs, des senses, des goûts, des découvertes sensibles et encourageantes sur la connaissance, sur l art, des découvertes sur soi même, sur l autre, sur le monde, sur la vie, indiquant que l éducation peut être un processus fort sensible, dans lequel le corps est une présence indispensable, aussi comme le toucher, le créer, les delires, les affections, les encontres et l invention

Esporte como experiência estética e educativaEsporte educativa: uma abordagem fenomenológica

This paper deals with sport as a possibility of disclosing the sensible, and defends the idea that being a sportsperson equals living an aesthetic and educative experience in which one can interacts with the sensible by the athletic body s reverberation of sensations in the dimension of the experienced. We try to answer, in our work, basically three questions: what moves the athlete when practicing a sport? Which are the meanings and motivations for the practice of sports? At what measure the athlete s experience gains an educational character? Sport is debated in this work as an extension of the living, as long as it tries to understand the meanings inherent to sport itself as well as to the sportive experience as a kind of education. In support of our argument, we give a theoretic and philosophical approach to our thesis, based on thinkers like Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Walter Benjamin, Marcel Mauss and Friedrich Schiller. For this purpose, we get support on the phenomenology of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Our reference is the living world of the athlete and his experience as a field of the sensible. Our point of departure is the analysis of the narratives of sport experiences, including five aesthetic elements; time and space of the body in the sports courts; the look on the sportive context; the contact with the adversary; victory and defeat; the technical gesture. Besides it, we worked out an aesthetic evaluation of the movies Olympia and Invictus , what let us discuss three thematic categories: sensibility, emotions and the play paradox. Subsequently, we point sport as an optimizer of the sensible education, present on the body s processes, like the body in movement. It was also made clear along this paper that we tried to accomplish an analysis on sports centered in the athlete s body as an outfit of the senses to things related to the sensible, whose aesthetic experience overpasses any deterministic conception that should sum up the sportive world to mercantilization, discipline practices and mechanicism. This approach franchises gateways to a Physical Education which, containing sports as one of its support, let pupils enjoy the pleasure of constructing common objectives, incorporating the capacity of replicating, re-making and playing as a field of possibilities offered by an education characterized as being moving, sensible and fitful to a body in movement

Análise e síntese de antenas e superfícies seletivas de frequência utilizando computação evolucionária e inteligência de enxames

The frequency selective surfaces, or FSS (Frequency Selective Surfaces), are structures consisting of periodic arrays of conductive elements, called patches, which are usually very thin and they are printed on dielectric layers, or by openings perforated on very thin metallic surfaces, for applications in bands of microwave and millimeter waves. These structures are often used in aircraft, missiles, satellites, radomes, antennae reflector, high gain antennas and microwave ovens, for example. The use of these structures has as main objective filter frequency bands that can be broadcast or rejection, depending on the specificity of the required application. In turn, the modern communication systems such as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and WiMAX, whose services are highly demanded by society, have required the development of antennas having, as its main features, and low cost profile, and reduced dimensions and weight. In this context, the microstrip antenna is presented as an excellent choice for communications systems today, because (in addition to meeting the requirements mentioned intrinsically) planar structures are easy to manufacture and integration with other components in microwave circuits. Consequently, the analysis and synthesis of these devices mainly, due to the high possibility of shapes, size and frequency of its elements has been carried out by full-wave models, such as the finite element method, the method of moments and finite difference time domain. However, these methods require an accurate despite great computational effort. In this context, computational intelligence (CI) has been used successfully in the design and optimization of microwave planar structures, as an auxiliary tool and very appropriate, given the complexity of the geometry of the antennas and the FSS considered. The computational intelligence is inspired by natural phenomena such as learning, perception and decision, using techniques such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, fractal geometry and evolutionary computation. This work makes a study of application of computational intelligence using meta-heuristics such as genetic algorithms and swarm intelligence optimization of antennas and frequency selective surfaces. Genetic algorithms are computational search methods based on the theory of natural selection proposed by Darwin and genetics used to solve complex problems, eg, problems where the search space grows with the size of the problem. The particle swarm optimization characteristics including the use of intelligence collectively being applied to optimization problems in many areas of research. The main objective of this work is the use of computational intelligence, the analysis and synthesis of antennas and FSS. We considered the structures of a microstrip planar monopole, ring type, and a cross-dipole FSS. We developed algorithms and optimization results obtained for optimized geometries of antennas and FSS considered. To validate results were designed, constructed and measured several prototypes. The measured results showed excellent agreement with the simulated. Moreover, the results obtained in this study were compared to those simulated using a commercial software has been also observed an excellent agreement. Specifically, the efficiency of techniques used were CI evidenced by simulated and measured, aiming at optimizing the bandwidth of an antenna for wideband operation or UWB (Ultra Wideband), using a genetic algorithm and optimizing the bandwidth, by specifying the length of the air gap between two frequency selective surfaces, using an optimization algorithm particle swarm

Estudo da oxidação superficial de ligas odontológicas de Ni-Cr em plasma pulsado para uso em restaurações metalocerâmicas

Metal ceramic restorations matches aesthetic and strength, and in your making occurs an interface oxide layer, wetting resulting and atomic and ionic interactions resulting between metal, oxide and porcelain. However, frequent clinical fails occurs in this restoration type, because lost homogeneous deposition oxide layer and lost interface bond. Thus, in this study, thought depositate homogeneous oxide films above Ni-Cr samples surfaces polite previously, at plasma oxide environment. Six samples was oxided at 300 and 400ºC at one hour, and two samples was oxided in a comum chamber at 900ºC, and then were characterized: optical microscopic, electronic microscopic, micro hardness, and X ray difratometry. Colors stripes were observed at six samples plasma oxided and a grey surface those comum oxided, thus like: hardness increase, and several oxides from basic metals (Ni-Cr)

Eletrofiação e caracterização de membranas biopoliméricas a base de quitosana extraídas dos exoesqueletos de crustáceos

Chitin and chitosan are nontoxic, biodegradable and biocompatible polymers produced by renewable natural sources with applications in diverse areas such as: agriculture, textile, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and biomaterials, such as gels, films and other polymeric membranes. Both have attracted greater interest of scientists and researchers as functional polymeric materials. In this context, the objective of this study was to take advantage of the waste of shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei and Aristeus antennatus) and crabs (Ucides cordatus) from fairs, beach huts and restaurant in Natal/RN for the extraction of chitin and chitosan for the production of membranes by electrospinning process. The extraction was made through demineralization, deproteinization, deodorization and deacetylation. Morphological analyzes (SEM and XRD), Thermal analysis (TG and DTG), Spectroscopy in the Region of the Infrared with Transformed of Fourier (FTIR) analysis Calorimetry Differential Scanning (DSC) and mechanical tests for traction were performed. In (XRD) the semicrystalline structure of chitosan can be verified while the chitin had higher crystallinity. In the thermal analysis showed a dehydration process followed by decomposition, with similar behavior of carbonized material. Chitosan showed temperature of maximum degradation lower than chitin. In the analysis by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) the curves were coherent to the thermal events of the chitosan membranes. The results obtained with (DD) for chitosan extracted from Litopenaeus vannamei and Aristeus antennatus shrimp were (80.36 and 71.00%) and Ucides cordatus crabs was 74.65%. It can be observed that, with 70:30 solutions (v/v) (TFA/DCM), 60 and 90% CH3COOH, occurred better facilitate the formation of membranes, while 100:00 (v/v) (TFA/DCM) had formation of agglomerates. In relation to the monofilaments diameters of the chitosan membranes, it was noted that the capillary-collector distance of 10 cm and tensions of 25 and 30 kV contributed to the reduction of the diameters of membranes. It was found that the Young s modulus decreases with increasing concentration of chitosan in the membranes. 90% CH3COOH contributed to the increase in the deformation resulting in more flexible material. The membranes with 5% chitosan 70:30 (v/v) (TFA/DCM) had higher tensile strength

Análise da lubricidade do biodiesel brasileiro de ésteres etílicos de soja e girassol

Fuel is a material used to produce heat or power by burning, and lubricity is the capacity for reducing friction. The aim of this work is evaluate the lubricity of eight fossil and renewable fuels used in Diesel engines, by means of a HFRR tester, following the ASTM D 6079-04 Standard. In this conception, a sphere of AISI 52100 steel (diameter of 6,000,05 mm, Ra 0,050,005 μm, E = 210 GPa, HRC 624, HV0,2 63147) is submitted to a reciprocating motion under a normal load of 2 N and 50 Hz frequency to promote a wear track length of 1.10.1mm in a plan disc of AISI 52100 steel (HV0,05 18410, Ra 0,020,005 μm). The testing extent time was 75 minutes, 225,000 cycles. Each one test was repeated six times to furnish the results, by means of intrinsic signatures from the signals of the lubricant film percentage, friction coefficient, contact heating, Sound Pressure Level, SPL [dB]. These signal signatures were obtained by two thermocouples and a portable decibelmeter coupled to a data acquisition system and to the HFRR system. The wettability of droplet of the diesel fuel in thermal equilibrium on a horizontal surface of a virgin plan disc of 52100 steel, Ra 0,02  0,005 μm, were measured by its contact angle of 7,0  3,5o, while the results obtained for the biodiesel B5, B20 and B100 blends originated by the ethylic transesterification of soybean oil were, respectively, 7,5  3,5o, 13,5  3,5o e 19,0  1,0o; for the distilled water, 78,0  6,0o; the biodiesel B5, B20 and B100 blends originated by the ethylic transesterification of sunflower oil were, respectively, 7,0  4,0o, 8,5  4,5o e 19,5  2,5o. Different thickness of lubricant film were formed and measured by their percentage by means of the contact resistance technique, suggesting several regimes, since the boundary until the hydrodynamic lubrication. All oils analyzed in this study promoted the ball wear scars with diameters smaller than 400 μm. The lowest values were observed in the scar balls lubricated by mixtures B100, B20 and B5 of sunflower and B20 and B5 of soybean oils (WSD < 215 μm)

Síntese citrato-hidrotermal e caracterização eletroquímica de LSCF para aplicação como catodo em célula a combustível de temperatura intermediária

The lanthanum strontium cobalt iron oxide (La1-xSrxCo1-yFeyO3 LSCF) is the most commonly used material for application as cathode in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs), mainly due to their high mixed ionic electronic conductivity between 600 and 800ºC. In this study, LSCF powders with different compositions were synthesized via a combination between citrate and hydrothermal methods. As-prepared powders were calcined from 700 to 900°C and then characterized by X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, thermal analyses, particle size analyses, nitrogen adsorption (BET) and scanning electronic microscopy. Films of composition La0,6Sr0,4Co0,2Fe0,8O3 (LSCF6428), powders calcined at 900°C, were screen-printed on gadolinium doped ceria (CGO) substrates and sintered between 1150 and 1200°C. The effects of level of sintering on the microstructure and electrochemical performance of electrodes were evaluated by scanning electronic microscopy and impedance spectroscopy. Area specific resistance (ASR) exhibited strong relation with the microstructure of the electrodes. The best electrochemical performance (0.18 ohm.cm2 at 800°C) was obtained for the cathode sintered at 1200°C for 2 h. The electrochemical activity can be further improved through surface activation by impregnation with PrOx, in this case the electrode area specific resistance decreases to values as low as 0.12 ohm.cm2 (800°C), 0.17 ohm.cm2 (750°C) and 0.31 ohm.cm2 (700°C). The results indicate that the citrate-hydrothermal method is suitable for the attainment of LSCF particulates with potential application as cathode component in intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs)