On the role of specific interactions in the diffusion of nanoparticles in aqueous polymer solutions

Understanding nanoparticle diffusion within non-Newtonian biological and synthetic fluids is essential in designing novel formulations (e.g., nanomedicines for drug delivery, shampoos, lotions, coatings, paints, etc.), but is presently poorly defined. This study reports the diffusion of thiolated and PEGylated silica nanoparticles, characterized by small-angle neutron scattering, in solutions of various water-soluble polymers such as poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), poly(Nvinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), and hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) probed using NanoSight nanoparticle tracking analysis. Results show that the diffusivity of nanoparticles is affected by their dimensions, medium viscosity, and, in particular, the specific interactions between nanoparticles and the macromolecules in solution; strong attractive interactions such as hydrogen bonding hamper diffusion. The water-soluble polymers retarded the diffusion of thiolated particles in the order PEO > PVP > PAA > HEC whereas for PEGylated silica particles retardation followed the order PAA > PVP = HEC > PEO. In the absence of specific interactions with the medium, PEGylated nanoparticles exhibit enhanced mobility compared to their thiolated counterparts despite some increase in their dimensions.

West is east: the Irish Saracens in 'Of Arthour and of Merlin'

Among the more striking episodes in the Middle English poem Of Arthour and of Merlin is an invasion of England by, amongst others, an army of gigantic Irish pagans. Adapted from the French Estoire de Merlin, the English poem’s depiction of the Irish represents one of the more intriguing points of divergence between the two versions. Of Arthour and of Merlin paints the Irish in a highly negative light and repeatedly refers to them as ‘Saracens’. The French text, by contrast, depicts the Irish as gigantic, but it does not suggest that they are ignoble or pagan. Although, the term ‘Saracen’ was sometimes applied to non-Islamic enemies of England, such as the Vikings, this appears to be its only application to a historically Christian people dwelling west of England. This paper argues that the depiction of the Irish in the poem reflects a complex of ideas about Ireland in circulation in England in the period. In particular, the influential writings of Gerald of Wales lay great emphasis on supposed Irish heterodoxy and repeatedly link the Irish Occident with the Orient as the furthest extremities of the world, abounding in marvels but rendered barbaric by their isolation

Energy Efficient Buildings with Functional Steel Cladding

The aim of the study is to develop a model for the energy balance of buildings that includes the effect from the radiation properties of interior and exterior surfaces of the building envelope. As a first step we have used ice arenas as case study objects to investigate the importance of interior low emissivity surfaces. Measurements have been done in two ice arenas in the north part of Sweden, one with lower and one with higher ceiling emissivity. The results show that the low emissivity ceiling gives a much lower radiation temperature interacting with the ice under similar conditions. The dynamic modelling of the roof in ice arenas shows a similar dependence of the roof-to-ice heat flux and the ceiling emissivity.A second part of the study focus on how to realise paints with very low thermal emissivity to be used on interior building surfaces.

Thermal Evaluation of a Solarus PV-T collector

Low concentrator PV-T hybrid systems produce both electricity and thermal energy; this fact increases the overall efficiency of the system and reduces the cost of solar electricity. These systems use concentrators which are optical devices that concentrate sunlight on to solar cells and reduce expensive solar cell area. This thesis work deals with the thermal evaluation of a PV-T collector from Solarus.Firstly the thermal efficiency of the low concentrator collector was characterized for the thermal-collector without PV cells on the absorber. Only two types of paint were on the absorber, one for each trough of the collector. Both paints are black one is glossy and the other is dull,. The thermal efficiency at no temperature difference between collector and ambient for these two types of paint was 0.65 and 0.64 respectively; the U-value was 8.4 W/m2°C for the trough with the glossy type of paint and 8.6 W/m2°C for the trough with dull type of paint. The annual thermal output of these two paints was calculated for two different geographic locations, Casablanca, Morocco and Älvkarleby, Sweden.Secondly the thermal efficiency was defined for the PV-T collector with PV cells on the absorber. The PV cells cover 85% of the absorber, without any paint on the rest of the absorber area. We also tested how the electrical power output influences the thermal power output of the PV-T collector. The thermal and total performances for the PV-T collector were only characterized with reflector sides, because of the lack of time we could not characterize them with transparent sides also.

Revestimento de sementes de milho superdoce (sh2)

A semente de milho doce é leve e rugosa. A rugosidade torna difícil a classificação das sementes quanto à forma e ao tamanho e isso dificulta a semeadura. Uma solução para esse problema seria a utilização da técnica de revestimento. Assim, este trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar diferentes materiais de enchimento, cimentantes e corantes na peletização de sementes de milho superdoce e verificar quais combinações de materiais seriam eficientes na manutenção da qualidade fisiológica das sementes após o armazenamento e que permitissem vazão e distribuição uniformes durante a semeadura. Foram então testados doze materiais de enchimento (calcários 1 e 2, caulim, carvão vegetal ativado, areia, vermiculita, fubá de milho, farinha de trigo, polvilho de mandioca, amido de milho, celite e terra de diatomáceas), dois cimentantes (goma arábica e cascorez extra) e seis corantes (tintas guache, acrílica, plástica e para tecido, corante para alimento e gelatina). As avaliações da qualidade física e fisiológica das sementes revestidas e nuas foram efetuadas por meio dos testes: teor de água, fragmentação, peso de mil sementes, volume aparente e plantabilidade, germinação, primeira contagem da germinação e emergência de plântulas em campo. O revestimento de sementes de milho superdoce proporciona homogeneidade de forma e tamanho às sementes, melhora a vazão e a distribuição dos péletes na semeadura e não compromete a emergência de plântulas em campo depois de quatro meses de armazenamento.

Estudo dos parâmetros de extração de fenol de efluentes aquosos por um tensoativo não iônico

Environmental sustainability has become one of the topics of greatest interest in industry, mainly due to effluent generation. Phenols are found in many industries effluents, these industries might be refineries, coal processing, pharmaceutical, plastics, paints and paper and pulp industries. Because phenolic compounds are toxic to humans and aquatic organisms, Federal Resolution CONAMA No. 430 of 13.05.2011 limits the maximum content of phenols, in 0.5 mg.L-1, for release in freshwater bodies. In the effluents treatment, the liquid-liquid extraction process is the most economical for the phenol recovery, because consumes little energy, but in most cases implements an organic solvent, and the use of it can cause some environmental problems due to the high toxicity of this compound. Because of this, exists a need for new methodologies, which aims to replace these solvents for biodegradable ones. Some literature studies demonstrate the feasibility of phenolic compounds removing from aqueous effluents, by biodegradable solvents. In this extraction kind called "Cloud Point Extraction" is used a nonionic surfactant as extracting agent of phenolic compounds. In order to optimize the phenol extraction process, this paper studies the mathematical modeling and optimization of extraction parameters and investigates the effect of the independent variables in the process. A 32 full factorial design has been done with operating temperature and surfactant concentration as independent variables and, parameters extraction: Volumetric fraction of coacervate phase, surfactant and residual concentration of phenol in dilute phase after separation phase and phenol extraction efficiency, as dependent variables. To achieve the objectives presented before, the work was carried out in five steps: (i) selection of some literature data, (ii) use of Box-Behnken model to find out mathematical models that describes the process of phenol extraction, (iii) Data analysis were performed using STATISTICA 7.0 and the analysis of variance was used to assess the model significance and prediction (iv) models optimization using the response surface method (v) Mathematical models validation using additional measures, from samples different from the ones used to construct the model. The results showed that the mathematical models found are able to calculate the effect of the surfactant concentration and the operating temperature in each extraction parameter studied, respecting the boundaries used. The models optimization allowed the achievement of consistent and applicable results in a simple and quick way leading to high efficiency in process operation.

Influence of belt speed, grit sizes and pressure on the sanding of Eucalyptus grandis wood

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

Effect of polymerization and accelerated aging on iris color stability of ocular prosthesis

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

Alteration of blue pigment in artificial iris in ocular prosthesis: Effect of paint, drying method and artificial aging

The artificial iris is the structure responsible for the dissimulation and aesthetics of ocular prosthesis. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the color stability of artificial iris of microwaveable polymerized ocular prosthesis, as a function of paint type, drying method and accelerated aging. A total of 40 discs of microwaveable polymerized acrylic resin were fabricated, and divided according to the blue paint type ( n = 5): hydrosoluble acrylic, nitrocellulose automotive, hydrosoluble gouache and oil paints. Paints where dried either at natural or at infrared light bulb method. Each specimen was constituted of one disc in colorless acrylic resin and another colored with a basic sclera pigment. Painting was performed in one surface of one of the discs. The specimens were submitted to an artificial aging chamber under ultraviolet light, during 1008 h. A reflective spectrophotometer was used to evaluate color changes. Data were evaluated by 3-way repeated-measures ANOVA and the Tukey HSD test (alpha = 0.05). All paints suffered color alteration. The oil paint presented the highest color resistance to artificial aging regardless of drying method. (C) 2010 British Contact Lens Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Speciation of butyltin derivatives in surface sediments of three southern Brazilian harbors

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Contaminação ambiental por compostos organoestânicos

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

Determination of butyltin compounds in surface sediments from the São Paulo State coast (Brazil) by gas chromatography-pulsed flame photometric detection

Occurrence and the effects of butyltin compounds (BTs) have been studied for some years, mainly in countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Due to widespread use of tributyltin compounds (TBTs) and considering their deleterious effects, it is necessary to conduct studies on its occurrence, especially in the marine environment because of its excessive use in coatings of ship hulls to prevent fouling. Moreover, it was important to extend the evaluation to areas where there is no current information about their occurrence. The present work reports the occurrence of BTs in marine sediments of São Paulo state, Brazil. Commercial and leisure harbor sampling sites were selected because these areas are potentially exposed to BTs from antifouling paints used on ship hulls. Analytical conditions for organotin analysis in marine sediments were optimized for GC with pulsed flame photometric detection. Detection limits ranged from 8.4 to 66.3 ng g(-1) using a 610-nm filter, and the linearity range was 20-500 ng g(-1). Concentration levels of BTs were highest in Santos harbor (360 ng g(-1) TBT in average) and Guaruja marina (670 ng g(-1) TBT in average), which seems to be related to intensive boat traffic. Lower levels of BTs were observed in Cananeia, where only fishing boats are present (50 ng g(-1) TBT in average). (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

GC analysis of organotin compounds using pulsed flame photometric detection and conventional flame photometric detection

Organotin compounds, largely used as biocides in antifouling paints, are among the most toxic materials introduced into the aquatic environment. Sensitive analytical methods are thus required to characterize their occurrence in environmental and biological matrices. The comparison between two different photometric detectors in terms of analytical performance was carried out for the analysis of organotin compounds. A flame photometric detector (FPD) and a pulsed flame photometric detector (PFPD) were optimized. Their respective sensitivity, linearity range and selectivity were evaluated. Limits of detection obtained for a tributyltin compound (TBT) were 5.0 and 0.9 pg (as Sn) for the FPD and PFPD, respectively, using a 390 nm filter. The PFPD showed higher selectivity, besides reduced gas consumption in the flame, and is very attractive for organotin compound speciation in complex environmental matrices.

Kinetic parameters obtained for thermal decomposition of acrylic resins present in commercial paint emulsions

Samples of water based commercial acrylic resin paints were spread in a film form on slides, dried at room temperature and exposed to solar radiation for up to eight months.The characterization and quantification of resins and charges in the white paint emulsion were carried out for the thermal decomposition. Besides this, X-ray diffractometry was used to identify CaCO3 as charge and TiO2 (rutile phase) as pigment.It was observed through thermal techniques similar behavior to the samples even though with varied exposure time.Kinetic studies of the samples allowed to obtain the activation energy (Ea) and Arrhenius parameters (A) to the thermal decomposition of acrylic resin to three different commercial emulsion (called P-1, P-2, P-3) through non-isothermal procedures. The values of E. varied regarding the exposition time (eight months) and solar radiation from 173 to 197 U mol(-1) (P-1 sample), from 175 to 226 W mol(-1) (P-2 sample) and 206 to 197 kJ mol(-1) (P-3 sample).Kinetic Compensation Effect (KCE) observed for samples P-2 and P-3 indicate acrylic resin s present in these may be similar in nature. This aspect could be observed by a small difference in the thermal behavior of the TG curves from P I to P-2 and P-3 sample.The simulated kinetic model to all the samples was the autocatalytic estdk Berggreen.