Collagen has a major role in the structural organization of tendons. Picrosirius red (PSR) staining viewed under polarized light microscopy is the standard method to evaluate the organization of collagen fibers in tissues. It is also used to distinguish between type I and type III collagen in tissue sections. However, accurate analysis and interpretation of PSR images are challenging because of technical factors and historical misconceptions. The aim of this study was to clarify whether collagen types I and III can be distinguished by PSR staining in rat Achilles tendons, using double immunohistochemistry as the positive control. Our findings showed that PSR staining viewed with polarized light microscopy was suitable for qualitative and quantitative assessment of total collagen but was not able to distinguish collagen types. We found it critical to use a polarizing microscope equipped with a rotating stage; tendon section orientation at 45° with respect to crossed polarizers was optimal for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of collagen organization. Immunohistochemistry was superior to PSR staining for detection of collagen type III. We also compared formalin and Bouin solution as fixatives. Both produced similar birefringence, but formalin-fixed tendons provided higher quality histological detail with both hematoxylin–eosin and immunostaining:

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The purpose of this essay is to explain the relation between representative argumentation, understood as the rational and democratic justification of authoritative decisions in the field of law, with the legitimacy of electoral justice, understood as the legal ways that guarantee the validity of the elections and, thus, to safeguard the individuals' political rights, in order to justify the rationality of electoral justice as a criterion of legitimacy of modern constitutional democracies. Thereby, in the first section I explain the relation between argumentation and deliberative democracy, while in the second section I make a reconstruction of the idea of electoral justice as an argumentative representation; later, in the third section, I develop the dual dimension of electoral justice and, finally, in the last section, I carry out some considerations on judicial activism regarding electoral justice.

O presente artigo explica a pretensão de correção e os seus efeitos limitadores sobre o Direito, de acordo com a teoria do direito de Robert Alexy. Para apresentar isso, na primeira seção é apresentado o conceito e a natureza normativa da pretensão de correção na visão de Robert Alexy. Na segunda seção são apresentadas as respostas de Eugenio Bulygin e Joseph Raz à pretensão de correção. Na terceira seção é conectada a pretensão de correção à ideia de lmitações morais para, no final, na quarta seção, ser apresentadas considerações sobre a pretensão de correção, em especial, proposta para reduzir o grau de arbitrariedade e injustiça no direito.