Desenvolvimento de sistemas micro e nanoestruturados de quitosana/MDI para aplicações cosméticas

Currently, studies in the area of polymeric microcapsules and nanocapsules and controlled release are considerably advanced. This work aims the study and development of microcapsules and nanocapsules from Chitosan/MDI, using a new technique of interfacial polycondensation combined to spontaneous emulsification, for encapsulation of BZ-3. It was firstly elaborated an experimental design of 23 of the particle in white without the presence of BZ-3 and Miglyol, where the variables were the concentrations of MDI, chitosan and solvent. Starting from the data supplied by the experimental design was chosen the experiment with smaller particle diameter and only added like this BZ-3 and Miglyol. The suspension containing concentrations of 6.25 mg/mL, 12.5 mg/mL, 18.75 mg/mL, 25 mg/mL of BZ-3 were prepared, nevertheless, during the storage time, these formulations presented drug precipitates in the suspensions of 18.75 mg/mL and 25 mg/mL of BZ-3. This apparition of precipitate was attributed to the diffusion of BZ-3 for the aqueous phase without any encapsulation, suggesting so the use of the smaller concentrations of the BZ-3. The suspension containing 6.25mg/mL of BZ3 presented average size of 1.47μm, zeta potential of 61 mV, pH 5.64 and this sample showed an amount of BZ-3 and drug entrapment of 100 %. The suspension containing 12.5mg/mL of BZ-3 presented average size of 1.76μm, zeta potential of 47.4 mV, pH 5.71 and this sample showed an amount of BZ-3 and drug entrapment of 100 %. Then, showing such important characteristics, these two formulations were chosen for futher continuity to the study. These formulations were also characterized by the morphology, FTIR, stability for Turbiscan, DSC and a study of controlled release of the BZ-3 was elaborated in different receiving means

Use of glass transition temperature for stabilization of board's cracks of Eucalyptus grandis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Estudo da reidratação do feijão verde (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) desidratado por micro-ondas com e sem pré-tratamento osmótico

The green bean has organoleptic and nutritional characteristics that make it an important food source in tropical regions such as the Northeast of Brazil. It is a cheap source of protein and important for nutrition of rural population contributing significantly in subsistence farming of the families from Brazil s northeast. It is consumed in entire region and together with the dry meat and other products composes the menu of typical restaurants, being characterized as an important product for economy of Northeast. The green bean is consumed freshly harvested and has short cycle, being characterized as a very perishable food, which hampers your market. The drying method is an alternative to increase the lifetime and provide a reduction volume of this product making easier your transportation and storage. However is necessary to search ways of drying which keep the product quality not only from the nutritional standpoint but also organoleptic. Some characteristics may change with the drying process such as the coloring, the rehydration capacity and the grains cooking time. The decrease of drying time or of exposure of the grains to high temperature minimizes the effects related with the product quality loss. Among the techniques used to reduce the drying time and improve some characteristics of the product, stands out the osmotic dehydration, widely used in combined processes such as the pretreatment in drying food. Currently the use of the microwaves has been considered an alternative for drying food. The microwave energy generates heat inside of materials processed and the heating is practically instantaneous, resulting in shorter processing times and product quality higher to that obtained by conventional methods. Considering the importance of the green beans for the Northeast region, the wastefulness of production due to seasonality of the crop and your high perishability, the proposal of this thesis is the study of drying grain by microwaves with and without osmotic pretreatment, focusing on the search of conditions of processes which favor the rehydration of the product preserving your organoleptic characteristics. Based on the analysis of the results of osmotic dehydration and dielectric properties was defined the operating condition to be used in pretreatment of the green bean, with osmotic concentration in saline solution containing 12,5% of sodium chloride, at 40°C for 20 minutes. The drying of green bean by microwave was performed with and without osmotic pretreatment on the optimized condition. The osmotic predehydration favored the additional drying, reducing the process time. The rehydration of dehydrated green bean with and without osmotic pretreatment was accomplished in different temperature conditions and immersion time according to a factorial design 22, with 3 repetitions at the central point. According to results the better condition was obtained with the osmotically pretreated bean and rehydrated at a temperature of 60°C for 90 minutes. Sensory analysis was performed comparing the sample of the green bean in natura and rehydrated in optimized conditions, with and without osmotic pretreatment. All samples showed a good acceptance rate regarding the analyzed attributes (appearance, texture, color, odor and taste), with all values above 70%. Is possible conclude that the drying of green bean by microwave with osmotic pretreatment is feasible both in respect to technical aspects and rehydration rates and sensory quality of the product

Aplicação e análise de metodologia de deterioração ambiental em micro-bacia do seridó potiguar

In the contemporary world to the deterioration of semi-arid areas of the planet has been the focus of media attention and the scientific community. Brazil has a semiarid, considered the most problematic of the world, either by pressure from physical factors, whether as a result of misguided public policies, has over time been suffering from the consequences of a deterioration that expands over the years. Methodologies, that amidst the problems of semi-arid, come against the deteriorating local, have a good chance to be reapplied in other contexts around the world. This research, based on methodological model for analyzing environmental deterioration, introduced and examined the applicability of the methodology in the semi-arid region of Rio Grande do Norte - Brazil. Although the results provide guidelines for the introduction of underground dams, the application of the methodology was ineffective, given the high rates of forest cover that gave low values for the physical diagnosis conservationist

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering and micro-Raman imaging of Langmuir-Blodgett films of rhodium phthalocyanine

Rhodium phthalocyanine (RhPc) was synthesized and ultra thin Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of RhPc were successfully fabricated. The LB film characterization was carried out using both UV-vis absorption spectra and Raman scattering. The Raman spectroscopy was carried out using 633 and 780 nm laser lines. LB films were deposited onto Ag nanoparticles to achieve the surface-enhanced pre-resonance Raman scattering (pre-SERRS) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for both laser lines, respectively, which allowed the characterization of the RhPc ultra thin films. The morphology of the LB RhPc neat film is extracted from micro-Raman imaging. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Micro-Raman spectroscopy and SEM/EDX applied to improve the zircon fission track method used for dating geological formations

The zircon mineral is widely studied in geochronology. In the case of the fission track method (FTM), the age is determined by the density of fission tracks at the zircon surface, which can be observed with an optical microscope after an appropriate chemical treatment (etching). The etching must be isotropic at the zircon grain surface to be used in the FTM, which leads those zircon grains whose etching is anisotropic to be discarded. The only reason for this discarding is the nonuniform morphology of the surface grain seen by optical microscopy, that is, no further physicochemical analysis is performed. In this work, combining micro-Raman and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study the etching anisotropy, it was shown that zircon grains that present at least one area at the surface where the density of fission track is uniform can be used in the FTM. The micro-Raman showed characteristic spectra of the standard zircon sample either from the areas where there are tracks or from where there are not. The only difference found was in the Raman bandwidths, which were broader for the areas with higher density of fission tracks. This suggests simply a decrease in the relative percentage of the crystalline/amorphous phases at these areas. The SEM/energy dispersive spectrometry (EDX) showed that there were no significant differences in the principal chemical composition at the areas with and without fission tracks. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Notes on vibration control of a micro/macromanipulator mounted on a flexible structure

The objective of this study is to describe the design and the implementation of an experimental set-up used to study the dynamics, the experimental identification, and the active vibration control of a flexible structure mounted manipulator system. The system consists of a three-degree-of-freedom cylindrical manipulator system with a flexible link on its tip. A two-degree-of-freedom polar rigid manipulator is mounted on the flexible macromanipulator. The dynamic modelling and experimental modal analysis identification in the frequency domain are being applied to design active digital control strategies for the micro-manipulator system to damp the mechanical vibrations of the flexible structure on the tip of the macro-manipulator system.

Comments on Magnetically levitated micro PM motors by two types of active magnetic bearings

This note clarifies the design of proportional derivative (PD) controllers for the magnetic levitation systems of micro PM motors proposed in the above paper. It is shown that the PD controllers cannot stabilize the described levited micro motors because it is necessary to use other values of parameters for these controllers. We present necessary and sufficient conditions for the stability of the controlled systems described in the paper.

Micro Welding of Ni-based Alloy Monel 400 Thin Foil by Pulsed Nd:YAG laser

In this study a pulsed Nd:YAG laser was used to join Monel 400 thin foil with 100 mu m thickness. Pulse energy was varied from 1.0 to 2.25J at small increments of 0.25J. The macro and microstructures were analyzed by optical microscopy, tensile shear test and microhardness. Sound laser welds without discontinuities were obtained with 1.5 J pulse energy. Results indicate that using a precise control of the pulse energy, and so a control of the bottom foil dilution rate, it is possible to weld Monel 400 thin foil. The process appeared to be very sensitive to the gap between couples.

Membranas de quitosana micro e macroporosas : preparo, caracterização e estudos de permeabilidade

Two methodologies were proposed to obtain micro and macroporous chitosan membranes, using two different porogenic agents. The methodologies proved to be effective in control the porosity as well as the pore size. Thus, microporous membranes were obtained through the physical blend of chitosan and polyethylene oxide (PEO) on an 80:20 (m/m) ratio, respectively, followed by the partial PEO solubilization in water at 80 ◦C. Macroporous chitosan membranes with asymmetric morphology were obtained using SiO2 as the porogenic agent. In this case, chiotsan-silica ratios used were 1:1, 1:3 and 1:5 (m/m). Membranes characterization were carried out by SEM (scanning electronic microscopy), X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermal analysis (TG, DTG , DSC and DMTA). Permeability studies were performed using two model drugs: sodium sulfamerazine and sulfametoxipyridazine. By transmission FTIR it was possible to confirm the complete removal of SiO2. The SEM images confirmed the porous formation for both micro and macroporous membranes and also determined their respective sizes. By thermal analysis it was possible to show differences related with water sorption capacity as well as thermal stability for both membranes. DTG and DSC allowed evidencing the PEO presence on microporous membranes. The absorbance x time curves obtained on permeability tests for micro and macroporous membranes showed a linear behavior for both drugs in all range of concentration used. It was also observed, through P versus C curves, an increase in permeability of macroporous membranes according to the increase in porosity and also a decrease on P with increase in drug concentration. The influences of the drug molecular structure, as well as test temperatures were also evaluated

Craqueamento térmico e termocatalítico do óleo de girassol (Hellianthus annus L.) sobre materiais micro e mesoporosos

Microporous materials zeolite type Beta and mesoporous type MCM-41 and AlMCM-41 were synthesized hydrothermally and characterized by methods of X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, scanning electron microscopy, surface acidity, nitrogen adsorption, thermal analysis TG / DTG. Also we performed a kinetic study of sunflower oil on micro and mesoporous catalysts. The microporous material zeolite beta showed a lower crystallinity due to the existence of smaller crystals and a larger number of structural defects. As for the mesoporous materials MCM-41 and AlMCM-41 samples showed formation of hexagonal one-dimensional structure. The study of kinetic behavior of sunflower oil with zeolite beta catalysts, AlMCM-41 and MCM-41 showed a lower activation energy in front of the energy of pure sunflower oil, mainly zeolite beta. In the thermal cracking and thermocatalytic of sunflower oil were obtained two liquid fractions containing an aqueous phase and another organic - organic liquid fraction (FLO). The FLO first collected in both the thermal cracking as the thermocatalytic, showed very high level of acidity, performed characterizations of physicochemical properties of the second fraction in accordance with the specifications of the ANP. The second FLO thermocatalytic collected in cracking of sunflower oil presented results in the range of diesel oil, introducing himself as a promising alternative for use as biofuel liquid similar to diesel, either instead or mixed with it

Síntese e caracterização de zeólita beta hierarquizada e materiais híbridos micro-mesoporosos aplicados no craqueamento de PEAD

A catalyst of great interest to the scientific community tries to unite the structure of ordered pore diameter from mesoporous materials with the properties of stability and acid activity to microporous zeolites. Thus a large number of materials was developed in the past decades, which although being reported as zeolites intrinsically they fail to comply with some relevant characteristics to zeolites, and recently were named zeolitic materials of high accessibility. Among the various synthesis strategies employed, the present research approaches the synthesis methods of crystallization of silanized protozeolitic units and the method of protozeolitic units molded around surfactant micelles, in order for get materials defined as hierarchical zeolites and micro-mesoporous hybrid materials, respectively. As goal BEA/MCM-41 hybrid catalysts with bimodal pore structure formed by nuclei of zeolite Beta and cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium were developed. As also was successfully synthesized the hierarchical Beta zeolite having a secondary porosity, in addition to the typical and uniform zeolite micropores. Both catalysts were applied in reactions of catalytic cracking of high density polyethylene (HDPE), to evaluate its properties in catalytic activity, aiming at the recycling of waste plastics to obtain high value-added raw materials and fuels. The BEA/MCM-41 hybrid materials with 0 days of pre-crystallization did not show enough properties for use in catalytic cracking reactions, but they showed superior catalytic properties compared to those ordered mesoporous materials of Al-MCM-41 type. The structure of Beta zeolite with hierarchical porosity leads the accessibility of HDPE bulky molecules to active centers, due to high external area. And provides higher conversion to hydrocarbons in the gasoline range, especially olefins which have great interest in the petrochemical industry

Control Design Applied to a Micro Electro Mechanical System: MEMS Comb drive

This paper presents the linear optimal control technique for reducing the chaotic movement of the micro-electro-mechanical Comb Drive system to a small periodic orbit. We analyze the non-linear dynamics in a micro-electro-mechanical Comb Drive and demonstrated that this model has a chaotic behavior. Chaos control problems consist of attempts to stabilize a chaotic system to an equilibrium point, a periodic orbit, or more general, about a given reference trajectory. This technique is applied in analyzes the nonlinear dynamics in an MEMS Comb drive. The simulation results show the identification by linear optimal control is very effective.

Monitoramento de micro-organismos indicadores de higiene em linha de abate de bovinos de um matadouro-frigorífico habilitado à exportação no oeste do Paraná

Indicators microorganisms can be used as a method for evaluating the sanitary quality of food products, indicating the suitability of conditions for obtaining, processing and storage of food. This study sought to evaluate surface contamination of cattle carcasses that come from a slaughter plant under Federal Inspection in western Parana by mesophilic bacteria (AM), Enterobacteriaceae (EB), coliform at 35 degrees C (TC) and E. coli (EC). Surface samples were collected from 25 carcasses, each at 4 different points of slaughter, for non-destructive method. The samples were diluted in decimal scale and incubated in Petrifilm (R) plates. Were found averages of 1.46; 0.3; 0.23 and 0.21 log CFU / cm (2) for AM, EB, CT and EC, respectively. The values to be found were well below those recommended by the decision 471/2001 of the European Union and several other authors surveyed, indicating the effectiveness of the hygienic process industry.

Induction of luteolysis in mares utilizing a micro-dose of prostaglandin F-2 alpha in the sacral lumbar space

An experiment was conducted to examine the luteolytic effectiveness of using low or micro doses of PGF(2 alpha) when administered at the (BAI HUI) acupuncture point, which is frequently used to treat ovarian disturbances in Veterinary Acupuncture. The results indicate that PGF(2 alpha) given at a very low micro dose of 0.5mg (one tenth the conventional recommended dose) when administered at the BAI HUI acupuncture point located at the sacral lumbar space is equally effective at inducing luteolysis in mid-luteal phase mares as conventional PGF(2 alpha) i.m. treatment using a tenfold higher dose. Therefore, based on the results of the present study we suggest that the BAI HUI sacral lumbar route somehow provides an extremely efficient pathway for the drug to the ovarian level.