Implantação e ativação de viveiro na comunidade Água Boa 2, município de Rio Pardo de Minas, MG.

Resumo - A evasão sazonal de filhos de agricultores é um evento frequente na comunidade de Água Boa 2 na busca de trabalho fora do município de Rio Pardo de Minas, como colhedores de café no Sul de Minas e no Estado de São Paulo ou em eucaliptais na própria região. Tendo uma área de cultivo de cerca de três hectares, a agricultura não é mais suficiente para gerar alimento e sustento da família, obrigando a busca de outras fontes de renda. O extrativismo de fibras, frutos, artesanato, além do carvão vegetal é também uma alternativa de renda. Algumas mulheres preferem não ter entes da família afastados por meses para trabalhar, enquanto outras acompanham os maridos com seus filhos para o trabalho em outras regiões a fim de reforçar a renda familiar, no período de maio a agosto. A renda certa é ensejada por jovens também, para aquisição de bens como celular, eletro-portátil ou moto, notando que oportunidades são restritas quando permanecem na comunidade, comercializando os produtos da roça ou do extrativismo ou como assalariado local. Este relato trata do início da construção do segundo viveiro em março de 2012 e de sua ativação em janeiro de 2014 como uma alternativa de emprego e renda que a comunidade vislumbrou, planejou e se capacitou a partir de 2007. O primeiro viveiro construído com recurso de doação de bazares, com o objetivo de obter renda, produzir mudas para reflorestar nascentes e obter mudas para plantio nos quintais, foi inativado devido insegurança, falta de registro e de responsável técnico. As dificuldades de instalação de um sistema de abastecimento de água para irrigação foi, dentre outras, a causa do atraso na ativação do segundo viveiro e do grupo de jovens. Por outro lado, em meio às dificuldades e entraves, a comunidade vem crescendo e sendo fortalecido pelo movimento de união em defesa da nascente. Abstract - The seasonal evasion of farmers? sons is a frequent event within the Community of Agua Boa 2, seeking for job outside the municipality of Rio Pardo de Minas, as, coffee harvesters in the South of Minas Gerais and São Paulo State or eucalyptus plantation. Having about three hectares for cultivation area, agriculture is not enough for feeding and supporting the family, forcing to search for other means for their income. The extraction of fiber, fruits, handicrafts, besides charcoal from native vegetation is also an alternative for survival. Some women prefer not to have ones from the family away for months to work, while others follow their husbands with their children to work in other regions to reinforce family income during the period May to August. An assured income is also desired by young people to purchase goods such as mobile phones, portable devices or motorcycles, noting that opportunities are scarce by staying in the community, selling the products from the country or extractivism, or as a local employee. This report deals with the start of construction of the second nursery in March 2012 and its activation in January 2014 as an alternative employment and income that the community glimpsed, planned and trained since 2007. The first nursery built using donations of bazaars, with the aim to earn an income, produce seedlings for reforestation springs and get seedlings for planting in backyards, was inactivated due to insecurity, lack of registration and technical officer. The problem of installing a system of water supply for irrigation was, among others, the cause of the delay in the activation of the second nursery and the youth group. On the other hand, in the midst of difficulties and obstacles, the community is growing and being strengthened by the union movement in defense of the springs

Prognostic value of NT-proBNP, adrenomedullin, copeptin and proenkephalin in patients with pulmonary hypertension

Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2017.Introduction: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) comprises a group of progressive diseases characterized by an increase in pulmonary vascular resistance, leading to right ventricular dysfunction. Risk stratification is essential for prognostic evaluation and therapeutic decision, making the determination of new biomarkers important. Purpose: To assess the prognostic value of new biomarkers in the prognostic evaluation of patients with PH. Methods: Prospective cohort study of patients (pts) with PH confirmed by hemodynamic evaluation. Pts underwent clinical and laboratory evaluations at baseline and every 3 months. Follow-up lasted for 18 months. NTproBNP and the new biomarkers (adrenomedullin, copeptin and proenkephalin) were measured. The Mann-Whitney test, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression were used for statistical analysis. Results: Fifty one pts (75% males, mean age: 54±15 years) belonging to all groups of the WHO PH classification were included. At inclusion, all pts were in WHO functional class II or III. During the study period, 17 pts (33%) died. Baseline NTproBNP values were significantly higher in the non-survivors group (1327; 1061–2703pg/ml vs. 353.5; 190–1661pg/ml; p=0.022). The same did not occur for adrenomedullin, copeptin and proenkephalin baseline levels. The maximum NTproBNP, adrenomedullin and copeptin levels recorded during the follow-up period were significantly higher in the non-survivors group [2347.5 (1667–5073.25) pg/ml vs. 642.5 (208.25–4109.5) pg/ml, p=0.007; 53.6 (38.8- 94.2) pg/ml vs. 33.4 (27–48.8) pg/ml, p=0.0075; 20.69 (13.18–35.69) pmol/L vs. 9.97 (6.18–14.74) pmol/L, p=0.022, respectively]. This did not occur for the maximum proenkephalin level. The NT-proBNP level at admission and adremedullin level at 3 months were independent predictors of mortality (HR 2.78, CI95 1.23–6.30, p=0.01; HR 4.36, CI95 1.17–16.2, p=0.03).Conclusion: The maximum level of NTproBNP, adrenomedullin and copeptin during the follow up were associated with higher mortality in pts with PH. NTproBNP level proved to be an independent predictor of mortality in those patients. These results suggest the prognostic importance of these biomarkers in the approach of pts with PH.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sustainability Assessment of Alternatives for Heat Generation and Transfer in Saunas

Abstract In the search for renewable energy sources, solar energy appears, among others, as a powerful alternative; mainly for those countries located at Earth's equatorial region. This is the case of a Fresnel device that uses solar radiation to warm-up the air; for instance, within saunas. Authors coined the term sustainable technological innovation to refer to a technological innovation in accordance to the principles of sustainability. The object of this research was comparing the sustainability of a Fresnel Lens Solar Concentration (FLSC) against the sustainability of other twelve alternatives to generate heat. This article assesses the sustainability of fourteen technological options for heat generation and transfer to saunas in the northwest region of Mexico where temperatures often reach above 45 C and where there is a greater potential for exploiting solar energy. Emergy accounting, economic analysis, and global warming potential are the three indicators considered in quantifying sustainability. Results show that infrared ceramic photovoltaic, infrared carbon photovoltaic and infrared metal photovoltaic are the most sustainable systems. The Fresnel device reached the fourth and tenth position, using electricity from photovoltaic and from grid respectively, among all fourteen assessed devices, respectively. Although Fresnel equipment does not release any global warming gases into the atmosphere, or even it demands low amount of nonrenewable resources, 1.40 and 4.47 E17 seJF/yr. it requires high economic investment, 20,800 and 79,600 USD/yr, for the implementation and operation phases, which decrease its sustainability performance compared to twelve other evaluated devices

Echinacea purpurea fractions represent promising plant-based anti-inflammatory formulations

Echinacea purpurea is traditionally used in the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Therefore, we investigated the anti-inflammatory capacity of E. purpurea dichloromethanolic (DE) and ethanolic extracts obtained from flowers and roots (R). To identify the class of compounds responsible for the strongest bioactivity, the extracts were fractionated into phenol/carboxylic acid (F1) and alkylamide fraction (F2). The chemical fingerprint of bioactive compounds in the fractions was evaluated by LC-HRMS. E. purpurea extracts and fractions significantly reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin 6 and/or tumor necrosis factor) and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) production by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated primary human monocyte-derived macrophages. Dichloromethanolic extract obtained from roots (DE-R) demonstrated the strongest anti-inflammatory activity. Moreover, fractions exhibited greater anti-inflammatory activity than whole extract. Indeed, alkylamides must be the main compounds responsible for the anti-inflammatory activity of extracts; thus, the fractions presenting high content of these compounds presented greater bioactivity. It was demonstrated that alkylamides exert their anti-inflammatory activity through the downregulation of the phosphorylation of p38, ERK 1/2, STAT 3, and/or NF-κB signaling pathways, and/or downregulation of cyclooxygenase 2 expression. E. purpurea extracts and fractions, mainly DE-R-F2, are promising and powerful plant-based anti-inflammatory formulations that can be further used as a basis for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.This work was financially supported by the FCT to the Ph.D. grants of S.F.V. (PD/BD/135246/2017 and COVID/BD/152012/2021), S.M.G. (SFRH/BD/136814/2018), and C.C. (CEECIND/04058/2018), and the projects PATH (PD/00169/2013), HEALTH-UNORTE (NORTE-01- 0145-FEDER-000039) and the NORTE 2020 Structured Project, co-funded by Norte2020 (NORTE-01- 0145-FEDER-000021