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No description available.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Liquid crystalline precursors are surfactant systems that can contain active substances as Citrus sinensis essential oil (CSEO) with exhibits biological activity against Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti) larvae. These systems can undergo into phase transition in aqueous solution and become more structured aggregates. Thereby, the aim of this work was to obtain and characterize nanostructured systems through water/ oil stabilized by polyoxypropylene (5) polyoxyethylene (20) cetyl ether (procetyl AWS®, PPG-5 CETETH-20) surfactant to obtain a system that in contact with aqueous fluids becomes a high viscosity liquid crystal mesophase with potential application on Ae. aegypti larvicidal control. First, the phase diagram was constructed in order to obtain the systems, composed by water, PPG-5 CETETH-20: oleic acid (OA) 1:1 and 2:1 and CSEO. There was performed critical micelle determination of PPG-5 CETETH-20, PPG-5 CETETH-20: OA 1:1 and 2:1. The systems were evaluated by polarized light microscopy (PLM), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), rheology and lethal concentration evaluation against Ae. aegypti larvae. PPG-5 CETETH-20 has shown CMC= 0,2 g/ L, PPG-5 CETETH-20: OA 1:1 CMC= 0,077 g/ L and 2:1 CMC= 0,0578 g/ L, indicating that there is a synergism between the surfactant and cosurfactant for lowering the surface tension. In the phase diagram 2:1, there were observed four regions: liquid crystal (LC), emulsion, microemulsion (ME) and phase separation, however in the 1:1 phase diagram, the LC region wasn t observed. The microscopy distinguished isotropic systems like MEs from anisotropic as lamellae and hexagonal LCs. SAXS measurements confirmed PLM structures, with broad bands of low intensity for MEs (all samples from 1:1 and six samples from 2:1), phase transition and for lamellar LC structure, the positions of the peaks should obey the relationship 1:2:3 and 1:√3:√4 for hexagonal. The rheological analysis showed that ME and phase transitions ME-LC presents Newtonian behavior, while LC presents non-newtonian behavior and the increase of aqueous phase increases the LC elasticity modulus. The larvicidal activity the samples A3 (15% A/ 5% OECS/ 80% PPG-5 CETETH-20: AO) and A4 (20% A/ 5% OECS/ 75% PPG-5 CETETH-20: AO) of diagram 2:1 exhibited LC50 6,55 ppm and 5,93 pm, respectively, indicating that these systems microstructure has improved the oil solubility in aqueous medium. Thereby, it can be concluded that there were obtained liquid crystalline precursors with a potential use against Ae. aegypti larvae. / Precursores de fase líquido-cristalina são sistemas estabilizados por tensoativos que podem conter substancias ativas como o óleo essencial de Citrus sinensis (OECS), apresenta atividade contra as larvas do Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti). Esses sistemas podem sofrer transição de fase em contato com meio aquoso e se transformar em agregados mais estruturados. Desse modo, o objetivo do trabalho foi obter e caracterizar sistemas nanoestruturados a partir da utilização de água/óleo estabilizados por tensoativo do tipo álcool graxo etoxilado e propoxilado (procetyl AWS®, PPG-5 CETETH-20) visando obter um sistema que, em contato com fluidos aquosos, se converta numa mesofase líquido-cristalina de alta viscosidade, com potencial aplicação no controle larvicida do Aedes aegypti. Primeiramente, os sistemas foram obtidos através da construção do diagrama de fases composto por água (A), PPG-5 CETETH-20: ácido oléico (AO) nas proporções 1:1 e 2:1 e OECS. Foi realizada a determinação da concentração micelar crítica (CMC) do PPG-5 CETETH-20 e das misturas PPG-5 CETETH-20: AO 1:1 e 2:1. Os sistemas escolhidos foram analisados através das técnicas de microscopia de luz polarizada (MLP), espalhamento de raios-X a baixo ângulo (SAXS), análise reológica, e avaliação da concentração letal média (CL50) frente a larvas do Ae. aegypti. O PPG-5 CETETH-20 exibiu CMC= 0,2 g/ L, PPG-5 CETETH-20:AO 1:1 CMC= 0,077 g/ L e 2:1 CMC= 0,0578 g/ L, indicando que existe um sinergismo entre o tensoativo e o cotensoativo para baixar a tensão superficial. Foram observadas quatro regiões distintas no diagrama 2:1, cristal líquido (CL), emulsão, microemulsão (ME) e separação de fases, sendo que no diagrama 1:1 não foi observada região de cristal líquido. Através das micrografias obtidas por MLP, foi possível diferenciar os sistemas isotrópicos, como MEs dos anisotrópicos, como CLs lamelares e hexagonais. As medidas de SAXS confirmaram as estruturas visualizadas por MLP, exibindo picos largos e de baixa intensidade para MEs (todas do diagrama 1:1 e seis amostras no diagrama 2:1), transição de fase e razão entre os picos de CL lamelar de 1:2:3 e 1:√3:√4 para o hexagonal. O estudo das propriedades reológicas demonstrou que os sistemas MEs e transição de fase são newtonianos e os CLs são não-newtonianos e que o aumento da fase aquosa aumenta o componente elástico dos CL. Para a atividade larvicida, as amostras A3 (15% A/ 5% OECS/ 80% PPG-5 CETETH-20: AO) e A4 (20% A/ 5% OECS/ 75% PPG-5 CETETH-20: AO) do diagrama 2:1 demonstraram CL50 6,55 ppm e 5,93 ppm, respectivamente, indicando que a microestrutura presente nesses sistemas corroborou para o aumento da solubilidade do óleo em meio aquoso. Desse modo, pode-se concluir que foram obtidos precursores de fase líquido-cristalina com potencial uso contra as larvas de Ae. aegypti.

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This manuscript demonstrates the regularity and uniqueness of some geometric heat flows with critical nonlinearity. First, under the assumption of smallness of renormalized energy, several issues of the regularity and uniqueness of heat flow of harmonic maps into a unit sphere or a compact Riemannian homogeneous manifold without boundary are established. For a class of heat flow of harmonic maps to any compact Riemannian manifold without boundary, satisfying the Serrin's condition, the regularity and uniqueness is also established. As an application, the hydrodynamic flow of nematic liquid crystals in Serrin's class is proved to be regular and unique. The natural extension of all the results to the heat flow of biharmonic maps is also presented in this manuscript.

By using cryo-electron microscopy, we analyzed the morphology and structure of long double-stranded DNA chains condensed upon addition of varying amounts of the tetravalent polycation spermine (polyamine). Experiments have been performed i) with chains diluted in the bulk and ii) with individual chains confined in a virus capsid.Bulk experiments have been done with lambda DNA (48.5 kbp) at low concentration (0.03 mM Ph) and in low salt conditions (10 mM Tris HCl, 1 mM EDTA, pH 7.6). We explored a wide range of spermine concentration, from the onset of precipitation (0.05 mM sp) up to above the resolubilization limit (400 mM sp). Sixteen min after mixing spermine and DNA, samples have been trapped in thin films and vitrified in liquid ethane to keep ionic conditions unchanged, and imaged at low temperature with low doses of electrons (cryoTEM). DNA chains mostly form large aggregates of toroids in which DNA chains are hexagonally packed with interhelical spacings of 2.93, 2.88, and 2.95 nm at 0.05, 1 and 100 mM spermine, respectively, in agreement with previous X-ray data. At higher spermine concentration (200 mM), hexagonal toroids are replaced by cholesteric bundles with a larger interhelical spacing (3.32 nm). We conclude that the shape and the structure of the liquid crystalline sp-DNA condensates are linked to the DNA interhelix spacing and determined by the ionic conditions i.e. by the cohesive energy between DNA strands. Outside of the precipitation domain (400 mM spermine), DNA chains form a soluble network of thin fibers (4-6 nm in diameter) that let us reconsider the state of these DNA chains in excess of spermine. We also designed experiments to visualize condensates formed 6-60 sec after mixing Lambda DNA with 0.05 mM spermine, under identical buffer conditions. Among multiple original shapes (not found after 16 min), the presence of stretched and helical elongated fibers seen only 9sec after addition of spermine let us propose that DNA chains are immediately stretched upon addition of spermine, relax into helical structures and finally form small toroids (containing in some cases less than one Lambda chain) that further grow and aggregate. We also analyzed the dimensions and structural details of the complete collection of toroids, and reveal the existence of geometric constraints that remain to be clarified. Since it was only exceptionally possible to prevent the aggregation of DNA in dilute solution, we used another approach to observe the collapse of single DNA chains. We handled a population of T5 viruses containing a fraction of their initial genome (12-54 kbp long). The Na-DNA chain, initially confined in the small volume of the capsid (80nm in diameter) is collapsed by the addition of spermine. Compared to the first set of experiments, we explored a higher DNA concentration range (0.45 mM Phosphates in the whole sample) and the spermine concentration was varied from 0.05 to 0.5 mM (which corresponds to much lower +/- charge ratios). Experiments are thus performed close to the precipitation line, in the coexistence region, between the region where all chains are in a coil conformation, and the region where all chains are collapsed into toroids. We describe the existence of intermediate states between the coil and the toroidal globule that were not reported yet. In these "hairy toroids", part of the DNA chain is condensed in the toroid and the other part stays uncondensed outside of it. The interhelical spacing was also measured; it is larger in these partly-condensed toroids than in the fully organized toroids formed at higher spermine concentration.These two series of experiments show the interest of cryoEM to analyze the structural polymorphism and local structure of spermine-DNA aggregates. We also demonstrated how the confinement interferes with DNA condensation and the interest to investigate such effects that are important in the biological context.

Liquid crystals are traditionally aligned via a rubbed substrate. The rubbing creates anisotropic defects and strain in the material which provide an energetically favorable orientation for the liquid crystal (LC). This is a well-developed technology that is used in virtually all liquid crystal displays (LCDs). However, it is only capable of uniform alignment on a large planar substrate. This work utilizes a new class of photoalignment materials (PM) that replace the traditional buffing technique. PMs allow for patterned LC alignment using polarized photo-lithography. Further, instead of using a nematic liquid crystal, a UV curable liquid crystal polymer (LCP) is coated on this patterned alignment material. This generates a cured, aligned, and patterned thin film that has retardance and diattenuation if a dichroic dye is incorporated in the LCP. Using these materials and methods, retarders, polarizers, and polarized fluorescent sources are fabricated with dimensions as small as a few microns. In addition to exploring the material and processing properties of the PM and LCP system, arrays of micropolarizer are fabricated for the construction of a prototype polarization camera, termed an imaging polarimeter. An imaging polarimeter is a device that measures not only the intensity but also the polarization state of a light field. My imaging polarimeter design incorporates a patterned LCP polarizer focal plane array (FPA) that is aligned and mounted to a charge-couple-device (CCD) image sensor. A polarizer FPA allows an individual pixel on a CCD sensor to detect a unique polarization state, such as a specific linear polarization orientation or right or left handed circular polarization. Neighboring pixels are designed to detect different states and each cluster can then estimate the incident polarization state. Results of a linear LCP polarimeter operating in the visible spectrum are presented.

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