Determinação da Lipoperoxidação em óleo alimentar

O ensaio realizado visa a determinação do índice de peróxidos (IP) em amostras de óleo alimentar refinado através do aquecimento das amostras durante 10, 20, 60 minutos. Com os sucessivos aquecimentos é possível avaliar o grau de degradação do produto alimentar pela formação de substâncias oxidantes esperando-se que, consoante o tempo de aquecimento, ocorra um aumento IP. Uma exposição contínua aos radicais livres poderá desencadear alterações a longo prazo no organismo do consumidor.

Avaliação das actividades antioxidante e antimicrobiana do óleo de café verde em formulações cosméticas

O óleo de café verde (OCV) e formulações cosméticas que contendo 2,5, 5, 10 e 15% de óleo foram avaliados por métodos in vitro quanto às suas atividades antioxidante e antimicrobiana. O OCV e as suas formulações demostraram baixa actividade antioxidante, avaliada pelo método DPPH (42% do OCV foi equivalente a 0,002% de BHT). Não se observou atividade antimicrobiana para o OCV e as suas formulações contra Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacilus subtilis, Propionibacterium acnes e Candida albicans, utilizando o método de difusão em poço. Embora o OCV seja utilizado há muitos anos em formulações cosméticas, ainda são necessários mais estudos para apoiar adequadamente a utilidade do óleo de café em produtos para cuidado da saúde da pele e em cosméticos.

Avaliação das propriedades sensoriais de uma formulação cosmética contendo óleo de café verde

O óleo de café verde (OCV) é um ingrediente bastante conhecido com propriedades cosméticas como: manter a hidratação da pele, melhorar o fator de proteção solar e manter a função barreira da pele. Assim, o objectivo deste estudo foi avaliar a influência da adição de uma quantidade considerável de OCV (15%) nas propriedades sensoriais de uma formulação cosmética. O painel sensorial consistiu de 19 voluntários com idades entre 19 e 43 anos. Os atributos sensoriais foram avaliadas em uma região definida de 25 cm2 na parte interna do antebraço. Os voluntários foram instruídos a avaliar as propriedades sensoriais que eles sentiam para cada formulação imediatamente e 5 minutos após a aplicação. As formulações mostraram quase a mesma percepção entre os voluntários. A maioria dos voluntários percebeu a pele suave e hidratada após a aplicação das formulações. No entanto, a percepção de um resíduo oleoso sobre a pele foi o principal efeito da formulação contendo OCV. Assim, podemos concluir que a quantidade total de OCV utilizado mostrou propriedades interessantes para aplicação em peles secas ou cremes noturnos, uma vez que foi capaz de deixar uma película oleosa sobre a pele.

The lion and the ox: Oakeshotts engagement with Leo Strauss on Hobbes

Recent studies of Michael Oakeshott have stressed the mutually constitutive importance of Hobbes to Oakeshott, arguing in part that Oakeshott’s Hobbes largely reflected his own concerns and broader philosophical project. This paper does not dispute this, but proposes a complementary account: Oakeshott’s interpretation of Hobbes was also formed in large measure by both his sympathy for Leo Strauss’s account and by his perception of it as the principal rival to his own. To demonstrate the existence of such a formative engagement, a close reading of Oakeshott’s essay The moral life in the writings of Thomas Hobbes is undertaken. Not only is Oakeshott found to have absorbed much of Strauss’s interpretation (surprisingly including Strauss’s distinction between esoteric and exoteric doctrines), the key impetus of the essay is shown to be a refutation of Strauss’s characterization of Hobbes as a ‘moralist of the common good’.

“Pussy cat, pussy cat where have you been..?” Evaluating the use of stable isotopes, radiogenic isotopes and trace elements for investigating the ecology of Panthera leo

1. Understanding the behaviour and ecology of large carnivores is becoming increasingly important as the list of endangered species grows, with felids such as Panthera leo in some locations heading dangerously close to extinction in the wild. In order to have more reliable and effective tools to understand animal behaviour, movement and diet, we need to develop novel, integrated approaches and effective techniques to capture a detailed profile of animal foraging and movement patterns. 2. Ecological studies have shown considerable interest in using stable isotope methods, both to investigate the nature of animal feeding habits, and to map their geographical location. However, recent work has suggested that stable isotope analyses of felid fur and bone is very complex and does not correlate directly with the isotopic composition of precipitation (and hence geographical location). 3. We present new data that suggest these previous findings may be atypical, and demonstrate that isotope analyses of Felidae are suitable for both evaluating dietary inputs and establishing geo-location as they have strong environmental referents to both food and water. These data provide new evidence of an important methodology that can be applied to the family Felidae for future research in ecology, conservation, wildlife forensics and archaeological science.

The philosopher's courtly love? Leo Strauss, Eros, and the law

This essay poses a critical response to Strauss' political philosophy that takes as its primary object Strauss' philosophy of Law. It does this by drawing on recent theoretical work in psychoanalytic theory, conceived after Jacques Lacan as another, avowedly non-historicist theory of Law and its relation to eros. The paper has four parts. Part I, `The Philosopher's Desire: Making an Exception, or “The Thing Is...''', recounts Strauss' central account of the complex relationship between philosophy and `the city'. Strauss' Platonic conception of philosophy as the highest species of eros is stressed, which is that aspect of his work which brings it into striking proximity with the Lacanian-psychoanalytic account of the dialectic of desire and the Law. Part II, `Of Prophecy and Law', examines Strauss' analysis of Law as first presented in his 1935 book, Philosophy and Law, and central to his later `rebirth of classical political philosophy'. Part III, `Primordial Repression and Primitive Platonism', is the central part of the paper. Lacan's psychoanalytic understanding of Law is brought critically to bear upon Strauss' philosophy of Law. The stake of the position is ultimately how, for Lacanian psychoanalysis, the Law is transcendental to subjectivity, and has a founding symbolic force, which mitigates against speaking of it solely or primarily in terms of more or less inequitable `rules of thumb', as Plato did. Part IV, `Is the Law the Thing?' then asks the question of what eros might underlie Strauss' paradoxical defense of esoteric writing in the age of `permissive' modern liberalism - that is, outside of the `closed' social conditions which he, above all, alerts us to as the decisive justification for this ancient practice.

Che Vuoi? Politico-philosophical remarks on Leo Strauss' Spinoza

Rumors surrounding the Hebraic-American classical philosopher Leo Strauss’ supposed influence on leading neoconservative politicians and commentators make reconsidering Leo Strauss’ thought and legacy a philosophical task of the first political importance today. A host of articles have appeared by students and (more recently) books by Stephen Smith (2006), Heinrich Meier (2006) and Catherine and Michael Zuckert (2006). This essay is proffered as a critical contribution, by a non-Straussian student, to this literature. Its methodology and justification is to return to and reconsider Strauss’ earliest works, on the ‘political theology’ of Benedict de Spinoza. The paper argues two theses. The first is that the popular depiction of Strauss as an esoteric Nietzschean hiding behind a ‘noble’ classical or theological veneer importantly misses the mark. The second is that Strauss’ early work shows his proximity, via Jacobi, to the Heideggerian disclosure of the groundless grounds of philosophical reason, given which one must extra-rationally choose reason over faith. One striking implication of this argument, in the contemporary political climate, is to underscore the unlikely convergence between the philosophical sources of neoconservative and the ‘post-structuralist’ thought associated with much of the intellectual left in France and the Anglophone world. Yet in contrast to the widespread image of Strauss, I argue that the mature Strauss’ continuing commitment to this decisionistic framework is in fact most clear is his ‘exoteric,’ public statements on religion – i.e. it is not the ‘esoteric’ purloined letter Strauss’ critics seek out. The reason for Strauss’ continuing public advocacy of the impossibility of reason’s disproving faith, I propose, highlights the primarily political (versus philosophical) nature of this turn: in Strauss’ conservative acceptance of the political necessity of religion for social order, framed in terms of a revised commitment to the ‘medieval’ (versus modern) enlightenment of Maimonides and Farabi.

Book review : Marketing principles by Craig Walters and Leo-Paul Dana

Marketing Principles. by Craig Walters and Leo-Paul Dana. 4th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 576pp. ISBN: 1-87737-137-8

'In the court of a great king': some remarks on Leo Strauss' introduction to the guide for the perplexed

This essay, which will be divided between two SOPHIA editions, proposes to test the consensus in Maimonidean scholarship on the alleged intellectualism of Leo Strauss’ Maimonides by making a close interpretive study of Strauss’ 1963 essay ‘How to Begin to Study the Guide for the Perplexed’. While the importance of this essay, which is Strauss’ last extended piece on the Guide, is established in Maimonidean scholarship, its recognised esotericism has been matched by a dearth of detailed studies of the piece. We aim in this essay to try to rectify this situation, by reading ‘How to Begin to Study’ as Strauss directs us to read esoteric texts in Persecution and the Art of Writing. As one control on our exegetical claims, we will close by situating our reading of ‘How to Begin to Study’ and Strauss’ positions there on philosophy, prophecy and the Torah alongside the claims of his earlier, much less esoteric, but also rarely studied: ‘Some Remarks on the Political Science of Maimonides and Farabi’. Because of the now widely recognised foundational importance of Maimonides in understanding Leo Strauss’ own lasting positions, this work will have wider importance in Strauss scholarship, and hopefully make a contribution to the continuing task of trying to understand Strauss’ important thoughts on Athens and Jerusalem, reason and revelation, the city and man.