Minerals and vitamin B9 in dried plants vs. infusions: assessing absorption dynamics of minerals by membrane dialysis tandem in vitro digestion

Vitamins and mineral elements are among the most important phytochemicals due to their important role in the maintenance of human health. Despite these components had already been studied in different plant species, their full characterization in several wild species is still scarce. In addition, the knowledge regarding the in vivo effects of phytochemicals, particularly their bioaccessibility, is still scarce. Accordingly, a membrane dialysis process was used to simulate gastrointestinal conditions in order to assess the potential bioaccessibility of mineral elements in different preparations of Achillea millefolium (yarrow), Laurus nobilis (laurel) and Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia (dandelion). The retention/passage dynamics was evaluated using a cellulose membrane with 34 mm pore. Dandelion showed the highest levels of all studied mineral elements (except zinc) independently of the used formulations (dried plant or infusion), but yarrow was the only species yielding minerals after the dialysis step, either in dried form, or as infusion. In fact, the ability of each evaluated element to cross the dialysis membrane showed significant differences, being also highly dependent on the plant species. Regarding the potential use of these plants as complementary vitamin B9 sources, the detected values were much lower in the infusions, most likely due to the thermolability effect.

Direito da religião

This dissertation stands out the religious and social role of Christian religious minorities in Portuguese society, where the vast majority of the believers profess the Catholic faith. This work serves to demystify the widespread prejudice against minorities and clarify its place in the religious phenomenon in Portugal. We intend to define the concept of Religion, missing in the Portuguese legislation, framing it in Portuguese constitutional history, which allows us to evaluate the relations State/Catholic Church and State/religious minorities, since Liberalism. We attempt to measure how the legal system accepts the religious phenomenon and how to deal with religious diversity, according to the principle of religious freedom postulated in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic. It is also our intention to relate the concepts of sect and religious minority, which tendentiously are misunderstood. In order to understand the underlying dynamics of religious minorities, we take the example of the Portuguese Evangelical Alliance, which we monitored closely throughout the investigation. We will give some space for a small analysis of the state and social discrimination experienced by the minorities. With this work we can conclude in general that Portugal, despite its weak religious diversity, has a good advance on the religious freedom. The Portuguese State has made a remarkable effort to cooperate with the churches, an effort that must be continued in order to fill some gaps found, particularly in the absence of legislation regarding the criminalization of religious discrimination and competence of the Committee on Religious Freedom in case of a possible complaint. We prove similarly that there is also a special attention to the Catholic Church in the composition of the Committee on Religious Freedom and the Committee Broadcast Time of Religious Confessions. In the end, we prove that the society is the major source of discrimination against minorities.

Ecclesia triumphans? Sectarianism and the Maronite Community 1943-1975

Durante la Segunda República Libanesa (1943-1975) existía la percepción de que la comunidad maronita era la secta dominante del país y ostentaba un papel casi hegemónico dentro del marco confesional del Estado. Mediante el análisis de tres acontecimientos históricos clave (la “Revolución del Agua de Rosas” de 1952, la crisis de 1958 y las elecciones presidenciales de 1970), este ensayo tratará de probar que la comunidad maronita no ostentaba un control desproporcionado sobre la política libanesa y que el sectarianismo no era el factor predominante y definitorio de su sistema político, sino uno más entre otros lazos tradicionales, cuya influencia era aún mayor.

Introduction : why are discursive approaches to language policy necessary?

This volume is a series of explorations of language policy from a discursive perspective. Its chief aim is to systematically explore the interconnectedness of language policy and discourse through what we are terming ‘discursive approaches to language policy’ (DALP). We show that language policy is a multilayered phenomenon that is constituted and enacted in and through discourse (which is defined more closely in Sect. 1.2). Language policy is a fast-growing, vibrant, and interdisciplinary field of inquiry that offers a variety of theoretical frameworks, methodologies, analytic approaches, and empirical findings: the framing sections at the beginning of each part of this volume and the commentary at the end frame the discussion of developments in language policy and especially the role of DALP therein.