Based on a bibliographic review, the article identifies and offers a critical analysis of scientific production by the public health field in Brazil on genetically modified organisms and food (in)security. Of the 716 articles found on the portals of the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and the Coordinating Agency for the Development of Higher Education (Capes), only 8 address the f...

BACKGROUND Reducing the amount of water-soluble fermentation inhibitors like furfural is critical for downstream bio-processing steps to biofuels. A theoretical approach for tailoring absorption polymers to reduce these pretreatment contaminants would be useful for optimal bioprocess design. RESULTS Experiments were performed to measure aqueous furfural partitioning into polymer resins of 5 b...

2014 The behavior of a single, flexible polymer chain near the Flory temperature 0398 is analysed in analogy with a magnetic phase transition. The transition to a collapsed state is related to a tricritical point for the magnetic problem. A solute polymer chain expands in a good solvent, and collapses in a poor solvent [1]. By suitable changes in temperature, or in solvent composition, it is po...

Neutron scattering experiments were performed on three molecular weight pairs of symmetric, isotopic blends of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) of near-critical composition. Scattering data covering close to 3 decades in size were globally fit using the random phase approximation (RPA) and the Debye function for Gaussian polymer coils using the interaction parameter, ø, and statistical segment len...

Systems of highly degenerate ordered or frozen state may exhibit inverse melting (reversible crystallization upon heating) or inverse freezing (reversible glass transition upon heating). This phenomenon is reviewed, and a list of experimental demonstrations and theoretical models is presented. A simple spin model for inverse melting is introduced and solved analytically for infinite range, cons...

The classical Voorn-Overbeek thermodynamic theory of complexation and phase separation of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes is generalized to account for the charge accessibility and hydrophobicity of polyions, size of salt ions, and pH variations. Theoretical predictions of the effects of pH and salt concentration are compared with published experimental data and experiments we performed, on...

The Flory-Huggins interaction is measured for a model rod-coil block copolymer system, poly(alkoxyphenylenevinylene-b-isoprene), by fitting the interfacial segregation of block copolymer to a homopolymer interface and by using the random phase approximation (RPA) for block copolymers. The measured interfacial segregation of a block copolymer to the interface between homopolymers, fit with a sel...

Polymer translocation through a nanopore in a thin membrane is studied using a coarse-grained bead-spring model and Langevin dynamics simulation with a particular emphasis to explore out of equilibrium characteristics of the translocating chain. We analyze the out of equilibrium chain conformations both at the cis and the trans side separately either as a function of the time during the translo...

Public opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) remains strong. By contrast, studies demonstrate again and again that GM crops make a valuable contribution to the development of a sustainable type of agriculture. The discrepancy between public opinion and the scientific evidence requires an explanation. We argue that intuitive expectations about the world render the human mind vulner...

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>We investigate the longtime behavior of solutions to Navier-Stokes-Cahn-Hilliard system (also known as Model H) with singular (e.g. Flory-Huggins) potential and non-constant viscosity. We prove that initial boundary value problem generates a strongly continuous semigroup on suitable phase-space. Next, we establish existence global attractor exponential attract...