PEGylated amyloid peptide nanocontainer delivery and release system

A micellar nanocontainer delivery and release system is designed on the basis of a peptide-polymer conjugate. The hybrid molecules self-assemble into micelles comprising a modified amyloid peptide core surrounded by a PEG corona. The modified amyloid peptide previously studied in our group forms helical ribbons based on a beta-sheet motif and contains beta-amino acids that are excluded from the beta-sheet structure, thus being potentially useful as fibrillization inhibitors. In the model peptide-PEG hybrid system studied, enzymatic degradation using alpha-chymotrypsin leads to selective cleavage close to the PEG-peptide linkage, break up of the micelles, and release of peptides in unassociated form. The release of monomeric peptide is useful because aggregation of the released peptide into beta-sheet amyloid fibrils is not observed. This concept has considerable potential in the targeted delivery of peptides for therapeutic applications.

Lower and Upper Neoproterozoic magmatic records in Itaiacoca Belt (Parana-Brazil): Zircon ages and lithostratigraphy studies

The Itaiacoca Belt is a sequence of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks that crop out east of Parana and southeast of Sao Paulo states, in southern Brazil. This geologic-geochronologic study supports division of the Itaiacoca Belt into two major lithologic sequences. The older is a carbonate platform sequence (dolomitic meta-limestones/metamarls/calc-phyllites/ carbonate phyllites) with minimum deposition ages related to the end of the Mesoproterozoic/beginning of the Neoproterozoic (1030-908 Ma:U-Pb, zircon of metabasic rocks). The younger sequence contains mainly clastics deposits (meta-arkoses/metavolcanics/metaconglomerates/metapelites) with deposition ages related to the Neoproterozoic (645-628 Ma:U-Pb,zircon of metavolcanic rocks). These ages are quite close to K-Ar ages (fine fraction) of the 628-610 Ma interval, associated with metamorphism and cooling of the Itaiacoca Belt. The contact between the dolomitic meta-limestones and meta-arkoses is marked by intense stretching and high-angle foliation, suggesting that the discontinuity between these associations resulted from shearing. It is proposed here that the term Itaiacoca Sequence, should represent the dolomitic meta-limestones, and the term Abapa Sequence represents the meta-arkoses/metavolcanics/phyllites. in a major tectonic context, these periods are related to the break-up of Rodinia Supercontinent (1030-908 Ma) and the amalgamation of the Gondwana Supercontinent (645-628 Ma). (C) 2008 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Alternativas para a superação de obstáculos relativos à criação de valor, aumento da competitividade e acordos comerciais Internacionais na negociação comercial do Brasil com a China: o caso da soja

China and Brazil have got commercial potentials and strategic partnerships are desired from both sides, but in order to guarantee long term, stable relationship these countries must overcome barriers and obtain mutual gains. The objective of this study was to determine how one can overcome obstacles related to value creation, enhance of competitiveness and international deals in terms of Brazil-China commercial negotiation specifically for soy beans. The CEO of one of the biggest and most important international trading-companies has been contacted and mentioned problems faced by his company in terms of brazillian soy beans sale to chinese clients. Problems such as: the break up of legally based contracts, demanding public pressure, insufficient infra-structure in Brazil for production dispatching, cultural differences, lack of trust, power asymmetry were related and has been analyzed on this study. The perspective used on this study refers to elements, processes and forms of negotiation between these two continental giants.

Diálogos da Alma: uma outra história da loucura

The tesis intends to awake a new way of looking at madness. It presents as reference the Psychiatric Hospital Doctor João Machado (Natal/RN) and histories of life and narratives of four intern residents. The research in an ethical horizon, intends to give back to the subjects the voices long silented behind the institutions walls by their families and society in general. As well as to open the interpretations of science to receive and to dialogue with other itineraries of thought that, if on one hand does not restitute the explanation of the Real, on the other hand expresses other forms to see the world. Dislocated of the bigger social environment, the people identified as insane, construct their histories endowed with autonomy and displacements in relation to the social rules and structures that characterize our society, as much as in relation to the logical principles of thought that assume an objective and rational reality. As well as a remnants bedspread configured in a complex and unfinished object, the break up of histories of life of the interns, interviews with medical on psychiatrists to the Doctor João Machado Hospital, documents of the institution and depositions of that house, were the raw material to construct, with this tesis, another chapter of the 'history of madness'. In elapsing of the work innumerable voices have been heard. Some that study the phenomenon of madness, others that live this 'state of the being' in the world. We opt to detaching the first of an open conception on the theme through intellectuals as: João da Costa Machado, Ulysses Pernambucano, Nise da Silveira and Boris Cyrulnik. They express ethics compromised to the humanity of the being

Paraná Basin: Mineral resource potentials in Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay

The Paraná Basin is a Western Gondwanan cratonic basin that is better defined as the Paraná depositional site, since it has a diverse history as a basin. Sedimentation started in the Ordovician-Silurian, followed by extensive marine Devonian deposition. A Late Paleozoic/ Triassic facies cycle wedge was clearly built during Pangean time. The Early Cretaceous was characterized by extensive basaltic lava flows immediately before the break-up of Pangea. Following these rifting and drifting processes, the basin's structural framework was totally rebuilt, generating new depositional sites in the Late Cretaceous to Tertiary. Based on more recent data, at least two different basins may be defined during the evolution of what was once considered a unique basin. Nevertheless, even if considered as a single basin, the sedimentary pile of the Paraná Basin has considerable economic potential, until now exploited only rudimentarily, except for its groundwater resources. Aggregates, limestones, clays, industrial sands, gems, dimension stones, hydrocarbons, coal, peat, and uranium are some of the potential mineral resources of this basin. Copyright © 1997 by V. H. Winston & Son, Inc. All rights reserved.

Marginality and social integration in Uruguay

Includes bibliography

Four-Boson Systems Close to a Universal Regime

Universal properties of weakly-bound four-boson systems near the scaling limit are discussed by considering recent results obtained from the solution of Faddeev-Yakubovsky (FY) equations, which confirm a previous conjecture on a four-body scale dependence. In the present contribution, within a discussion on our numerical results obtained for the binding energies of two consecutive tetramer states, we are analyzing the relative relevance of the two possible configurations of the four-body system. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Wien.

Range Corrections to Universal Tetramer Properties

The universal properties of weakly-bound tetramers close to the scaling limit are investigated by solving a subtracted set of Faddeev-Yakubovsky (FY) equations for identical bosons with a zero-range interaction. The solution demands a four-body scale independent of the trimer properties. Furthermore, the effect of a finite effective range is introduced in the FY equations, which we show produces results that are distinct from the scale variation. In particular range effects to two universal scaling functions for the tetramers are investigated. The correlation between successive tetramer energies corresponding to states within two Efimov trimer energies, proposed before and studied close to the unitary limit; and the correlation between the position of the four-atom recombination peaks. In this case, we found a shift in the scaling function due to the range, which can be associated to the shift of the data found for caesium atoms, with respect to zero-range calculations, due to a nonvanishing range in the actual experimental setups. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Wien.

Evolução geológica do sudoeste do cráton amazônico região limítrofe Brasil-Bolívia - Mato Grosso

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Aspectos petrográficos dos carbonatos da Formação Riachuelo - Albiano, bacia de Sergipe

The carbonatic rocks have great importance in petroleum geology, since most hydrocarbons reservoirs in the world are associated to this kind of rock. The new giant petroleum fields discovered in the Brazilian southeast Atlantic margin are directly connected to calcareous rocks, which are subjacent to the Aptian evaporite pack. This demand an increase in the number of geologists able to study such deposits. The Aptian carbonatic platform is completely exposed only in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin. Therefore, it works as a natural laboratory to the study and understanding of this kind of rock. The Sergipe Basin is situated in the east Brazilian coast, and has its evolutional history is intimately related to the formation of the South Atlantic Ocean, through the break-up of the Gondwana supercontinent. The marine sequence of the Brazilian marginal basins is of Albian age and is marked by the development of carbonatic platforms. In doing so, this paper aims to analyze the Albian limestones from Riachuelo Formation of the Sergipe Basin. The project gave to the student the opportunity to increase his knowledge in carbonates, due to the laboratory and outdoor activities. The studied deposits, within a regional outline, were petrografically described, allowing interpretations about the evolution of the former South Atlantic Ocean. Ten points were visited where samples were collected for making of thin sheets. In this work several carbonatic facies were identified totaling 116 laminates described.

The 1420 Ma Indiavai Mafic Intrusion (SW Amazonian Craton): Paleomagnetic results and implications for the Columbia supercontinent

The configuration and the timing of assembly and break-up of Columbia are still matter of debate. In order to improve our knowledge about the Mesoproterozoic evolution of Columbia, a paleomagnetic study was carried out on the 1420 Ma Indiavai mafic intrusive rocks that crosscut the polycyclic Proterozoic basement of the SW Amazonian Craton, in southwestern Mato Grosso State (Brazil). Alternating field and thermal demagnetization revealed south/southwest ChRM directions with downward inclinations for sixteen analyzed sites. These directions are probably carried by SD/PSD magnetite with high coercivities and high unblocking temperatures as indicated by additional rock magnetic tests, including thermomagnetic data, hysteresis data and the progressive acquisition of isothermal remanent magnetization. Different stable magnetization components isolated in host rocks from the basement 10 km NW away to the Indiavai intrusion, further support the primary origin of the ChRM. A mean of the site mean directions was calculated at Dm = 209.8 degrees, Im = 50.7 degrees (alpha(95) = 8.0 degrees, K = 22.1), which yielded a paleomagnetic pole located at 249.7 degrees E, 57.0 degrees S (A(95) = 8.6 degrees). The similarity of this pole with the recently published 1420 Ma pole from the Nova Guarita dykes in northern Mato Grosso State suggests a similar tectonic framework for these two sites located 600 km apart, implying the bulk rigidity of the Rondonian-San Ignacio crust at that time. Furthermore these data provide new insights on the tectonic significance of the 1100-1000 Ma Nova Brasilandia belt-a major EW feature that cuts across the basement rocks of this province, which can now be interpreted as intracratonic, in contrast to previous interpretation. From a global perspective, a new Mesoproterozoic paleogeography of Columbia has been proposed based on comparison of these 1420 Ma poles and a 1780 Ma pole from Amazonia with other paleomagnetic poles of similar age from Baltica and Laurentia, a reconstruction in agreement with geological correlations. (C) 2012 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deep ocean ventilation, carbon isotopes, marine sedimentation and the deglacial CO2 rise

The link between the atmospheric CO2 level and the ventilation state of the deep ocean is an important building block of the key hypotheses put forth to explain glacial-interglacial CO2 fluctuations. In this study, we systematically examine the sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 and its carbon isotope composition to changes in deep ocean ventilation, the ocean carbon pumps, and sediment formation in a global three-dimensional ocean-sediment carbon cycle model. Our results provide support for the hypothesis that a break up of Southern Ocean stratification and invigorated deep ocean ventilation were the dominant drivers for the early deglacial CO2 rise of ~35 ppm between the Last Glacial Maximum and 14.6 ka BP. Another rise of 10 ppm until the end of the Holocene is attributed to carbonate compensation responding to the early deglacial change in ocean circulation. Our reasoning is based on a multi-proxy analysis which indicates that an acceleration of deep ocean ventilation during the early deglaciation is not only consistent with recorded atmospheric CO2 but also with the reconstructed opal sedimentation peak in the Southern Ocean at around 16 ka BP, the record of atmospheric δ13CCO2, and the reconstructed changes in the Pacific CaCO3 saturation horizon.

Deep ocean ventilation, carbon isotopes, marine sedimentation and the deglacial CO2 rise

The link between the atmospheric CO2 level and the ventilation state of the deep ocean is an important building block of the key hypotheses put forth to explain glacial-interglacial CO2 fluctuations. In this study, we systematically examine the sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 and its carbon isotope composition to changes in deep ocean ventilation, the ocean carbon pumps, and sediment formation in a global 3-D ocean-sediment carbon cycle model. Our results provide support for the hypothesis that a break up of Southern Ocean stratification and invigorated deep ocean ventilation were the dominant drivers for the early deglacial CO2 rise of ~35 ppm between the Last Glacial Maximum and 14.6 ka BP. Another rise of 10 ppm until the end of the Holocene is attributed to carbonate compensation responding to the early deglacial change in ocean circulation. Our reasoning is based on a multi-proxy analysis which indicates that an acceleration of deep ocean ventilation during early deglaciation is not only consistent with recorded atmospheric CO2 but also with the reconstructed opal sedimentation peak in the Southern Ocean at around 16 ka BP, the record of atmospheric δ13CCO2, and the reconstructed changes in the Pacific CaCO3 saturation horizon.

Parental Divorce in Young Adulthood: Some Preliminary Findings

Developmental differences in reactions to parental divorce have not been examined beyond adolescence, and the impact of divorce on older offspring has thus been minimized. Central themes that emerged from an exploratory study of 18-to-23-year-olds suggest that the break-up of their parents' marriage represents a critical event deserving of further attention from researchers and clinicians.

¿Desde dónde intervenimos cuando intervenimos? El caso del "proyecto Tomate Platense"

Este trabajo se propone una reflexión crítica sobre una experiencia de intervención (El Proyecto Tomate Platense) en la que los autores de este artículo hemos participado desde su comienzo. Dicha reflexión implica poner en evidencia y en discusión, el qué y el cómo de la intervención para el desarrollo rural. Para esto, trabajamos los conceptos de: modelos de desarrollo e intervención, tecnología, hegemonía y agricultura familiar; y planteamos a su vez como estrategia metodológica, al estudio de caso. Posteriormente, realizamos una descripción del proceso de la intervención, identificando etapas y poniendo en relieve aspectos que consideramos significativos. En ese sentido visualizamos un proceso de legitimación de una propuesta alternativa, que implica en un sentido un quiebre del espiral tecnológico dominante presente en el cinturón hortícola de La Plata. La formulación inicial de la propuesta surge a partir de un diagnóstico de gabinete, realizado en el ámbito de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales de la UNLP, que tiene un posterior devenir participativo que implica reformulaciones parciales y periódicas de la propuesta inicial