In view of the public consultation recently launched by the World Health Organization on Regulatory Convergence of Cell and Gene Therapy Products and the Proposal for a Regulation on substances of ...human origin (SoHO) repealing the European Union Directives on Blood and on Tissues and Cells, an opportunity arises to define an ethical and transparent framework of collaboration between industry and authorities responsible for SoHO-derived products, comprising medicines, medical devices, transfusion, and transplantation. The commodification of SoHO-derived medicinal products and medical devices entails important risks to the sustainability of healthcare systems and threatens the equitable access of patients to innovative therapies. It may also jeopardize the principle of altruistic donation of SoHO that is required for the treatment and survival of thousands of patients every year. This article puts forward several proposals aimed at reconciling the ethical principles of voluntary and unpaid SoHO donation and the noncommercialization of the human body with obtaining a profit that allows business activities, while ensuring high quality, safety, and efficacy standards of tissues and cells for clinical use.
The paper and pulp industry produces lignin as a byproduct, which could be a bio‐based reinforcing filler for rubber. Carboxylated nitrile rubber (XNBR) contains carboxyl groups that form ionic bonds ...with zinc oxide, potentially increasing compatibility with lignin, compared to usual nonpolar rubbers. This study employed the traditional mixing method, two‐roll mill, to incorporate hardwood Kraft lignin without chemical or physical modification as a reinforcing filler in commercial XNBR. A mixture design of experiments was used to explore the effect on rubber/lignin interaction of the carboxyl group content (from 1% to 7% in blends of XNBR) and the amount of lignin (from 0 to 40 phr). Adding 40 phr of lignin increased stress at 100% in XNBR 7% from 1.7 to 6.3 MPa. In XNBR 1%, the increase was from 1.2 to 1.9 MPa. Lignin showed better interaction and dispersion with XNBR 7%, determined from response surface of G′ at high deformations and SEM, respectively. Loss of thermal transition in DMA indicates interaction through ionic groups. These results show that the presence of carboxyl groups enhances the rubber/lignin interaction. This research open possibilities of compatibilization of lignin, offering guidance for future studies and technologies involving lignin in technical applications.
Highlights
Lignin dispersion increased as the carboxyl group content increased to 7% (w/w).
Stress at 100% elongation increased 370% with 40 phr of lignin and 7% carboxyl.
Rubber/lignin interaction as per G′ increased with carboxyl groups.
Loss of thermal transition suggests lignin/carboxy/zinc oxide interaction.
Lignin can be used as a reinforcing filler in nitrile carboxylated rubber.
Tensile stress vs strain curves for rubber composites with different carboxyl groups contents, with or without lignin.
•Crosslink densities of aged nitrile rubber were characterized by low field NMR.•NMR findings corroborates the mechanical properties of aged nitrile rubbers.•NMR detect the plastification of nitrile ...rubber network by swelling with oil.•Thermo-oxidative aging caused a chain breakage of polysulfidic bonds.•The higher acrylonitrile increases the aging resistance of nitrile rubber.
This study investigates the impact of aging on nitrile rubber (NBR) compositions under thermal and thermochemical aging conditions. The effects of aging were assessed using the 1H Double Quantum Time Domain NMR (DQ-NMR) technique, providing molecular-scale insights into average cross-link density, spatial heterogeneity, and network inelastic defects. The aging's influence on the macroscopic mechanical properties of NBR, including hardness, elongation, and stress at break, known to be closely related to cross-linking, was examined. It was observed that temperature-induced aging affected NBR differently based on the acrylonitrile content and solvent absorption capacity. 1H Double Quantum Time Domain NMR provided evidence of increasing heterogeneous cross-linking, which created a denser network structure. The changes in mechanical properties during aging were consistent with the NMR analyses, providing valuable insights for understanding, customizing, and predicting the service life of a specific O-Ring based NBR formulation.
To understand the Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) that have occurred in Brazilian soccer in a recent 10-year period, comparing them to international data, to know the Brazilian profile.
A review of ...the AAR in the Doping Control Commission database of the Brazilian Football Association from 2008 to 2017. The AAR in professional male soccer players between 2008 and 2017 were considered.
The sample selected in this research was composed of 40,092 doping tests, with 113 AAR, identified in 18 different competitions (0.28%) in the professional category, in Brazilian national and state competitions between 2008 and 2017, flagged in doping control exams through urine samples. Stimulants were detected most frequently (31.0%), followed by glucocorticoids (21.2%), diuretics, and masking agents (19.5%). The Brazilian Championship series did not show a relationship with any of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) groups of substances. Series A showed 0.07% of AAR, Series B 0.21%, Series C 0.75% and Series D 1.49.
The rate of AAR in Brazilian soccer was 0.28%, lower than the average for all soccer worldwide, and shows similar percentages among field positions. Stimulants were the most prevalent drugs. The national elite soccer competitions showed significantly fewer cases than the lower divisions.
The increasing applications of poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) in the industry makes this polymer appealing for the development of a new industry focused on its production. PEEK displays remarkable ...mechanical properties that are not commonly found in polymeric materials, and its biocompatibility becomes attractive for the manufacture of prosthesis, stents and many other medical apparatuses. In addition, the new technique of Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables the printing of highly complex geometries with low weight, aiming the automotive and aeronautic industries as well. Despite not being relatively new, there are not many enterprises producing PEEK in the world, especially in the South American market. This raises a question regarding the size of the PEEK market in this region and the expected demand for the upcoming years. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze and predict the demand of PEEK for the Mercosur and Brazil markets, verifying the feasibility of the creation of a specialized industry in the region.
C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and the −174 GC IL-6 gene polymorphism were analyzed after coronary angioplasty in 50 patients, 25 of whom were treated with the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa ...platelet receptor inhibitor eptifibatide for 24 hours. It was found that glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibition significantly blocked postangioplasty CRP increases in all patients but blocked IL-6 increases only in patients carrying the −174 GG genotype.
Introducción: La estimación de la audición con Potenciales Evocados Auditivos de Tallo Cerebral (PEATC) obtenidos mediante estímulos tipo chirp constituye una alternativa de reciente aplicación. ...Varios autores han demostrado que, este tipo de estimulación compensa el retardo de la onda sonora en la codificación de frecuencias, generando un PEATC con componentes de amplitudes mayores. Objetivos: Diseñar y generar un estímulo chirp (banda ancha) en el sistema AUDIX para evaluar su viabilidad en el registro de Potenciales Evocados Auditivos de Tallo Cerebral en sujetos con audición normal. Métodos: Las formulaciones que se utilizaron en la generación del estímulo fueron implementadas como una función en Matlab®, y luego, insertada en el sistema AUDIX con las siguientes especificaciones técnicas, frecuencia de muestreo: 48 kHz, composición de frecuencias (ascendente): 350-11300 Hz, y duración total: 4.95 ms. Se obtuvieron registros de PEATC mediante estímulos chirp y click a un nivel de intensidad fija (60 dB nHL) en 9 sujetos adultos (18 oídos) con audición normal. Resultados: El estímulo chirp diseñado tuvo un comportamiento funcional similar a lo reportado en la literatura. Cuando se compara con el PEATC-click, la onda V del Potenciales Evocados Auditivos de Tallo Cerebral -chirp mostró valores de amplitud significativamente mayores (relación de amplitud chirp/click: 1.62), con una ganancia promedio de 54 % (p< 0,001, n= 18, prueba de rangos de Wilcoxon). Conclusiones: El estímulo chirp (banda ancha) diseñado resulta más eficiente que el estímulo click para obtener registros de PEATC. Con respecto a la amplitud de la onda V, el sistema muestra un funcionamiento lineal (mejor sincronía neural). Este tipo de estimulación pudiera resultar de mucha utilidad en programas de pesquisa auditiva neonatal pues la obtención de una onda V de mayor amplitud permitiría su fácil y rápida detección, y posible automatización.
Nitrogenous contaminants in the diesel fraction are converted to NOx compounds in an automotive combustion chamber. Afterwards, they are reduced to nitrogen by catalytic reduction/oxidation reactions ...in presence of ammonia derived from a 32.5 wt.% urea solution. This process is named selective catalytic reduction (SCR). In Brazil, the urea solution for SCR is ARLA 32 and must comply with the limit content of 0.3 wt.% of biuret. However, the commercial Brazilian urea solution has an average biuret content of 0.5 wt.%. Thus, it is necessary to adjust the biuret content in urea solution to be used as ARLA 32, and adsorption is a low energy option. The objective of this study was to evaluate commercial adsorbents for removing biuret from solution of commercial urea to adjust it to the specification of ARLA 32. Two activated coals and one ion exchange resin were tested in adsorption assays, with best performances of both coals.
nema
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