ABSTRACT A 7-week-old male delivered by cesarean section presented with a positive serology for dengue along with preretinal and retinal hemorrhages, vitreous opacities and cotton wool spots. The patient and his mother had positive serologies for Non Structural Protein 1 (NS1) by ELISA. Retinal and vitreous findings improved over a sixteen-week period. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) showed preserved macular architecture. In this case report, we suggest that retinal and vitreous changes may be the ocular presenting features of vertically transmitted dengue in newborns, and that those findings may resolve with no major structural sequelae.

RESUMO Neonato de 7 semanas, do sexo masculino, nascido de parto cesárea, apresentou sorologia positiva para dengue com hemorragias retinianas e pré-retinianas, opacidades vítreas e manchas algodonosas. O paciente e sua mãe haviam apresentado sorologias positivas para Non Structural Protein 1 através de ELISA. Achados na retina e no vítreo melhoraram em um período de dezesseis semanas. O exame de tomografia de coerência óptica de domínio espectral demonstrou arquitetura macular preservada. Neste relato de caso, sugerimos que alterações na retina e no vítreo podem ser os achados oculares aparentes em neonatos com infecção vertical por dengue, e que estes podem se resolver sem maiores sequelas estruturais.

This work describes a green synthesis, the characterization, and biological evaluation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The AgNPs suspension was synthesized using aqueous leaf extract of Eucalyptus grandis, which presented a characteristic band at 407 nm in the UV-Vis spectrum. The AgNPs presented a spherical shape and size of 9.7 ± 0.3 nm. The nanoparticles were stable over a month, indicating that E. grandis’ extract is suitable for their preparation and stabilization. The X-ray analysis showed that the crystallinity of AgNPs corresponded to the centered face phase of silver. The antibacterial and leishmanicidal activities of AgNPs were evaluated. The AgNPs presented antibacterial activity on the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli at 53.9 µg mL-1. The leishmanicidal activity evaluation against promastigote forms of Leishmania infantum, Leishmania amazonensis, and Leishmania braziliensis showed that the biological response is dependent on the volume of AgNP suspension. It was demonstrated that L. infantum was more sensitive to the nanoparticle’s treatment than L. amazonensis and L. braziliensis. The treatment of L infantum promastigotes with 150 µL of AgNP suspension reduced parasite growth by 67.9%, a result which was similar to the treatment with 1 (66.7%) or 2 µL (70.6%) of amphotericin B used as a positive control.

RESUMO Neonato de 7 semanas, do sexo masculino, nascido de parto cesárea, apresentou sorologia positiva para dengue com hemorragias retinianas e pré-retinianas, opacidades vítreas e manchas algodonosas. O paciente e sua mãe haviam apresentado sorologias positivas para Non Structural Protein 1 através de ELISA. Achados na retina e no vítreo melhoraram em um período de dezesseis semanas. O exame de tomografia de coerência óptica de domínio espectral demonstrou arquitetura macular preservada. Neste relato de caso, sugerimos que alterações na retina e no vítreo podem ser os achados oculares aparentes em neonatos com infecção vertical por dengue, e que estes podem se resolver sem maiores sequelas estruturais.

ABSTRACT A 7-week-old male delivered by cesarean section presented with a positive serology for dengue along with preretinal and retinal hemorrhages, vitreous opacities and cotton wool spots. The patient and his mother had positive serologies for Non Structural Protein 1 (NS1) by ELISA. Retinal and vitreous findings improved over a sixteen-week period. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) showed preserved macular architecture. In this case report, we suggest that retinal and vitreous changes may be the ocular presenting features of vertically transmitted dengue in newborns, and that those findings may resolve with no major structural sequelae.

Establishment of the radial distribution function by solving the Ornstein-Zernike equation is still an important problem, even more than a hundred years after the original paper publication. New strategies and approximations are common in the literature. A crucial step in this process consists in defining a closure relation which retrieves correlation functions in agreement with experiments or molecular simulations. In this paper, the functional Taylor expansion, as proposed by J. K. Percus, is applied to introduce two new closure relations: one that modifies the Percus Yevick closure relation and another one modifying the Hypernetted-Chain approximation. These new approximations will be applied to a hard sphere system. An improvement for the radial distribution function is observed in both cases. For some densities a greater accuracy, by a factor of five times compared to the original approximations, was obtained.

Fritz Haber was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for the ammonia synthesis from its gaseous components. This work was fundamental to stop starvation around the world. On the opposite, his engagement to produce chemical weapons during the First World War is also an important fact in the life of this scientist. This polemic scientist visited Brazil in 1923, carrying out a project to extract gold from the sea. The present work tries to recover the historical fact behind the visit of this scientist to Brazil.

Resumo Paciente do sexo feminino, 19 anos, com queixa de diplopia, náusea e vômito de início súbito. Ao exame físico, a paciente apresentava rotação da cabeça para a esquerda e limitação da adução do olho direito, sugerindo paresia do músculo reto medial. Ausência de ptose palpebral ou paresia de outra musculatura ocular extrínseca e sem outras alterações na avaliação oftalmológica. Foi relatado pelo paciente o uso de Metronidazol, duas doses de 500 mg, no mesmo dia em que os sintomas começaram. A ressonância magnética do crânio foi solicitada. O resultado mostrou um cisto da glândula pineal, estando os outros aspectos dentro da normalidade. A paresia do músculo reto medial e diplopia persistiram por 14 dias, mesmo após a suspensão do antibiótico, optando, assim, por iniciar a corticoterapia oral, evoluindo com boa resposta clínica, melhora dos sintomas e regressão da paresia muscular.

Abstract Female patient, 19 years old, with a complaint of diplopia, nausea and vomiting of sudden onset. Upon physical examination, the patient presented herself with the head position rotated to the left and limitation of adduction of the right eye, suggesting paresis of the medial rectus muscle. Absence of palpebral ptosis or paresis of other extrinsic musculature of the eye, and without other alterations in the ophthalmological evaluation. It was reported by the patient the use of Metronidazole, two doses of 500 mg, the same day the symptoms started. The magnetic resonance imaging of the skull was requested. The result showed a cyst of the pineal gland, the other aspects being within normality. The paresis of the medial rectus muscle and diplopia persisted for 14 days, even after the antibiotic was discontinued, thus opting to initiate oral corticosteroid therapy, evolving with good clinical response, improvement of symptoms and regression of muscular paresis.

A general kinetic equation to simulate differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) data was employed along this work. Random noises are used to generate a thousand data, which are considered to evaluate the performance of Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) and a Hopfield neural network (HNN) based algorithm in the fitting process. The HNN-based algorithm showed better results for two different initial conditions: exact and approximated values. After this statistical analysis, DSC experimental data at three heating rates for losartan potassium, an antihypertensive drug, was adjusted by the HNN method using different initial conditions to obtain the activation energy and frequency factor. Additionally, it was possible to recover the parameters for the kinetic model with accuracy, showing that the conversion is described by a complex process, once these values do not correspond to any ideal models described in the literature.

RESUMO Esse artigo contribui para o debate sobre distribuição de renda e riqueza na China ao analisar as principais características do padrão de acumulação chinês que determinam sua dinâmica distributiva em uma perspectiva comparada. Depois de um período de rápido crescimento das desigualdades, acompanhado por redução abissal da pobreza e melhora nas condições de vida de todos os decis da distribuição, as desigualdades se estabilizaram na China desde meados dos anos 2000. Globalmente, a China se encontra hoje em uma situação distributiva pior do que a média da Europa Ocidental ou Japão, mas mais igualitária do que Estados Unidos e muito distante dos limites extremos da má distribuição como Brasil, Índia, África do Sul e Oriente Médio. Neste artigo, nós escrutinamos três características do regime de acumulação na China que arrefecem a tendência concentradora do capital naquele país: 1. o processo de financeirização com características chinesas, 2. a estratégica fatia da propriedade estatal na economia, 3. sua trajetória na questão agrária.

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the debate on income and wealth distribution in China by analyzing the main characteristics of the Chinese accumulation pattern that determine its distributive dynamics in a comparative perspective. After a period of rapid growth of inequalities, coupled with improved living conditions for all distribution deciles, inequalities have stabilized in China since the mid-2000s. Globally, China is today in a distributive pattern worse than Western Europe or Japan, but it is more egalitarian than the United States and far from the world inequality frontier defined by Brazil, India, South Africa and the Middle East. In this article, we scrutinize three characteristics of the regime of accumulation in China that mitigate the capital-concentrating tendency: 1. the financialization process with Chinese characteristics, 2. the strategic share of State ownership in the economy, 3. its trajectory over the agrarian question.

Walther Hermann Nernst is known to have established the basis for the third law of thermodynamics and also as one of the founders of the modern physical chemistry. For his work in chemical thermodynamics, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry, in 1920. An important fact about this scientist life, not always realized, was his stay in Brazil, in 1914, for a short period. He went to the city of São Paulo, where he gave a conference at the Faculdade São Bento. He talked about thermodynamics to a very selected audience. The work presented here explores this visit to Brazil, the importance the newspaper gave to this important visitor, and the community present at his lecture. His impression of Brazil was certainly positive, since one of his daughter immigrates to Brazil in 1939. It is hoped the material will add relevant information to the history of chemistry in Brazil.

The year 2013 marks the centennial of that wondrous year in which Niels Bohr proposed a novel theory about the constitution of atoms and small molecules after which the way we regard atoms and their behaviour began to be drastically altered. Bohr drew on several sources for his original description of the atoms, most importantly on spectroscopy and Balmer's equation thereof, the new quantum hypothesis advanced a few years earlier by Planck, and the planetary atom proposed by Rutherford. Although Bohr's ideas were to be eventually overtaken by the advent of quantum mechanics, his theory was the basis of a new thinking about atoms and molecules which constitutes an invaluable asset in the development of science ever since.

This work propose a recursive neural network to solve inverse equilibrium problem. The acidity constants of 7-epiclusianone in ethanol-water binary mixtures were determined from multiwavelength spectrophotmetric data. A linear relationship between acidity constants and the %w/v of ethanol in the solvent mixture was observed. The proposed method efficiency is compared with the Simplex method, commonly used in nonlinear optimization techniques. The neural network method is simple, numerically stable and has a broad range of applicability.

In the year 2011 it is celebrated the Marie Sklodowska Curie Nobel Prize centenary and the International Year of Chemistry. However, it is not generally known that Marie Sklodowska Curie, one of the greatest scientists of all time, visited Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. She arrived by train at Belo Horizonte city on 16 August 1926, coming from Rio de Janeiro and accompanied by her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie. The scientists visited the Institute of Radium of Belo Horizonte. The approach in this work emphasizes the presence of Marie Sklodowska Curie in Belo Horizonte, exploring the admiration and respect that people had for her.

A neural network procedure to solve inverse chemical kinetic problems is discussed in this work. Rate constants are calculated from the product concentration of an irreversible consecutive reaction: the hydrogenation of Citral molecule, a process with industrial interest. Simulated and experimental data are considered. Errors in the simulated data, up to 7% in the concentrations, were assumed to investigate the robustness of the inverse procedure. Also, the proposed method is compared with two common methods in nonlinear analysis; the Simplex and Levenberg-Marquardt approaches. In all situations investigated, the neural network approach was numerically stable and robust with respect to deviations in the initial conditions or experimental noises.

Coriolis force is an effect which arises in rotating reference frames such as the Earth. This force influences large oceanic motions, atmospheric inertial circles, horizontal and vertical deviations in moving bodies. The Foucault's pendulum is another special case about the Coriolis force influence on macroscopic processes. This pendulum is an example of how experimental sciences can be essential for philosophical and social changes, since it was crucial to prove the Earth's rotation. The Coriolis force has an important role also at microscopic level; it couples vibrational and rotational molecular motions and this fact has consequences in spectroscopic and energetic molecular processes. These points are discussed in this paper.

The relationship between the magnetic dipole-dipole potential energy function and its quantum analogue is presented in this work. It is assumed the reader is familiar with the classical expression of the dipolar interaction and has basic knowledge of the quantum mechanics of angular momentum. Except for these two points only elementary steps are involved.