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This article discusses how prejudice and differences are approached in children's literature aimed at the K-12 education by the National Program of Schoolbook (Programa Nacional do Livro Didático - PNLD, 2013 edition). It is based on the Historical Cultural Theory. Fourteen literary works which deal with prejudice and/or differences were analyzed. In these books, daily life is the usual scenery and the main scope where prejudice originates. Children's literature should contribute to allow the readers to create other meanings to the prejudicial situations, using their own life experiences as reference. However, it is fundamental to discuss the differences by their historical dimension, considering that they are produced by unequal processes of production of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: despite the overwhelming evidence of its effectiveness, oral anticoagulation continues to be underused in the elderly, presumably due to physicians’ misconceptions when estimating bleeding risk and ability to comply with treatment.Objective: to investigate the quality of anticoagulation control among deprived elderly and younger patients.Design: prospective observational study.Setting: a public anticoagulation clinic in a developing country.Subjects: all adult patients on intended long-term (>90 days) oral anticoagulation. We studied 171 patients (79 elderly and 92 non-elderly) with a mean follow-up of 273 ± 84.9 days.Methods: the main outcome measure was the quality of anticoagulation management as measured by the time in therapeutic (TTR) international normalised ratio (INR) range. Elderly patients (≥60 years) were compared with younger patients with respect to the educational level and co-morbidities.Results: the mean number of years of formal education was 4.37 ± 3.2 years. The mean TTR was 62.50 ± 17.9% in non-elderly and 62.10 ± 16.6% in elderly (P = 0.862) subjects, despite the higher prevalence of co-morbidities in the latter group: heart failure (46.3 versus 28.6%, P = 0.042), diabetes mellitus (22.8 versus 8.7%, P = 0.011), renal failure (estimated glomerular filtration rate <50 ml/min: 38.0 versus 7.1%, P < 0.001) and polypharmacy (84.8 versus 58.7%, P < 0.001). Fifty elderly and 84 non-elderly subjects require little or no assistance in taking medications. Among them, the elderly had lower educational levels (3.42 ± 2.5 versus 5.55 ± 3.4 years of formal education, P < 0.001) and higher rates of cognitive impairment (34.0 versus 13.1%, P = 0.004), but a similar mean TTR (62.46 ± 16.1 versus 63.02 ± 17.8%, P = 0.856). The oldest (≥75 years) patients did as well as those aged ≤50 years (mean TTR: 62.54 ± 16.0 versus 62.23 ± 16.4%, respectively, P = 0.98).Conclusions: good-quality management of oral anticoagulation is achievable in deprived populations attending an anticoagulation clinic. Elderly patients may experience similar quality of anticoagulation despite having higher levels of co-morbidities and polypharmacy. These results add evidence to the safety of such therapeutic interventions in the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of legal instruments, starting with the Federal Constitution, regulate the activities of potential polluters, by dictating norms and procedures for those operations that should occur under controlled conditions. Article 225 of the Constitution, known as the Chapter on the Environment, establishes that, “All shall have the right to a balanced ecological environment, with proper use of public access areas being essential to health and quality of life, empowering the public and the collective the duty to defend and preserve it for future generations.” This Article requires that the government provide, according to law, environmental impact studies to the public prior to execution of work or potentially degrading activities to the environment. Further, it is indicated that, by law, the activities for the exploitation of mineral resources be required to recuperate the impact to the affected environmental conditions, according to a technical solution provided by a competent public organ. The recuperation of regions impacted by mining operations normally involve activities of with the objective to reestablish the vegetation. The degradation of the soil constitute a socioeconomic threat and represent an enormous risk to future generations because these areas lose the vegetation leaving the soils uncovered and undernourished, suffer erosion and potential drainage instabilities. Therefore, it is important that the affected areas be reestablished to its natural balance and equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethyl ferulate, a phenylpropanoid derived from rice hulls has aroused interest because of its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. However, it has low solubility in water which compromises the absorption in the gastrointestinal tract, decreases the bioavailability and compromises the reproducibility of the effects in vivo. To increase the solubility of ethyl ferulate, inclusion complexes were obtained by physical mixing, malaxing, lyophilization and spray drying and characterized using thermal analysis, XRD and FTIR. The complexes obtained were evaluated for ethyl ferulate content, stability, dissolution profile and evaluation of anti-inflammatory activity in vivo through carrageenan-induced paw edema model in rats. The inclusion complexes obtained resulted in increased solubility and stability compared to the isolated ethyl ferulate. In addition, the complexes obtained by malaxage, lyophilization and spray drying showed greater inhibition of the edema formation induced by carrageenan compared to ethyl ferulate 100 mg/kg v.o. The inclusion of ethyl ferulate in B-cyclodextrin resulted in the formation of stable inclusion complexes with potent antidematogenic activity possibly attributed to the increased solubility, dissolution profile of the active. Unlabelled Image • Ethyl ferulate/B-cyclodetrin inclusion complex have been developed to increase the dissolution. • The spray dried method showed high efficiency in the formation of inclusion complexes. • Spray dried complex presented better antidematogenic action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]