Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The complete genome sequence of Chromobacterium violaceum reveals remarkable and exploitable bacterial adaptability

Chromobacterium violaceum is one of millions of species of free-living microorganisms that populate the soil and water in the extant areas of tropical biodiversity around the world. Its complete genome sequence reveals (i) extensive alternative pathways for energy generation, (ii) ≈500 ORFs for transport-related proteins, (iii) complex and extensive systems for stress adaptation and motility, and (iv) wide-spread utilization of quorum sensing for control of inducible systems, all of which underpin the versatility and adaptability of the organism. The genome also contains extensive but incomplete arrays of ORFs coding for proteins associated with mammalian pathogenicity, possibly involved in the occasional but often fatal cases of human C. violaceum infection. There is, in addition, a series of previously unknown but important enzymes and secondary metabolites including paraquat-inducible proteins, drug and heavy-metal-resistance proteins, multiple chitinases, and proteins for the detoxification of xenobiotics that may have biotechnological applications

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Aprendizado do uso do inalador dosimetrado após explicação por pneumologista Metered-dose inhaler technique learning after explanation given by pulmonologist

Introdução: O uso do inalador dosimetrado para administração de drogas inalatórias tem sido preconizado há vários anos. Apesar disso, um grande número de pacientes deixa de ser tratado por essa via de administração. Médicos deixam de prescrever drogas inalatórias por esse dispositivo por acreditar que os pacientes serão incapazes de realizar a técnica corretamente. Por outro lado, os médicos não despendem tempo apropriado para ensinar a técnica correta de uso dos inaladores dosimetrados. Objetivo: Avaliar a percentagem de pacientes, nunca ensinados a usar inalador dosimetrado, que aprendem a utilizar corretamente este dispositivo, após explicação fornecida por pneumologista. Material e métodos: Foram estudados, prospectivamente, 119 pacientes em uma clínica privada em São Paulo. Os pacientes eram ensinados exaustivamente a utilizar o dispositivo na primeira consulta e orientados a retornar em dez dias, quando eram solicitados a realizar a técnica exatamente como estavam fazendo no domicílio. Foi classificada em quatro categorias a técnica de uso: correto, pouco errado, erro intermediário, muito errado. Resultados: Foram excluídos 26 pacientes, devido ao não comparecimento à consulta de retorno no tempo previsto. A amostra resultou em 93 pacientes. A idade dos pacientes variou de 9 a 81 anos, com média de 42,6 (± 21) anos; 59,2% eram do sexo masculino e 40,8% do feminino. Após dez dias, 45 pacientes (48,4%) realizaram a técnica correta. Usaram de forma totalmente errada o inalador dosimetrado 16,2% dos pacientes; 19,3% apresentaram técnica pouco errada e 16,2%, erro intermediário. Os erros mais freqüentes foram: colocação do dispositivo dentro da boca; inspiração antes de acionar o jato; inspiração rápida; inspiração pelo nariz. Apenas 33,3% dos pacientes abaixo de 15 anos e acima de 75 anos souberam realizar a técnica de forma totalmente correta. Conclusão: Este estudo demonstrou que a maioria dos pacientes aprende a usar corretamente ou quase corretamente a medicação por esse dispositivo após uma primeira explicação, desde que exaustivamente ensinada.<br>Introduction: The use of inhaled drugs through metered-dose inhaler has been advocated for years. Nonetheless, a small number of patients are routinely treated by this technique. Prescriptions of inhaled drugs by healthcare providers are not frequent, usually because they anticipate patients will not be able to perform the technique correctly. In addition, healthcare providers do not usually take their time to appropriately teach patients how to use metered-dose inhalers correctly. Objective: To evaluate the percentage of uninstructed patients that learn how to use a metered-dose inhaler correctly after being taught by a pneumologist. Patients and methods: One hundred and nineteen patients from a private clinic were prospectively studied in São Paulo, southeastern Brazil. Patients were exhaustively taught how to use the metered-dose inhaler at the first consultation and were told to return after 10 days, when they were asked to perform the technique exactly the way they were doing it at home. Their performance was classified as correct, slightly incorrect, intermediately incorrect, and totally incorrect. Results: Twenty-six patients were excluded for not coming to the second appointment. The final sample comprised 93 patients. Age ranged from 9 to 81 years (mean age 42.6 ± 21); 59.2% of the patients were male and 40.8% female. Considering all patients, only 16.25 of them used the metered-dose inhaler totally incorrectly and 19.3% performed the technique intermediately incorrectly. The most frequent mistakes were: metered-dose inhaler device was placed inside the mouth; inspiration before jet was activated; fast aspiration; inspiration through the nose. Thirty-three percent of patients who were under 15 and over 75 years performed the technique correctly. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that the majority of the patients learned how to use the metered-dose inhaler correctly after being properly and extensively taught

Surgical and postmortem pathology studies: contribution for the investigation of temporal lobe epilepsy

Pathology studies in epilepsy patients bring useful information for comprehending the physiopathology of various forms of epilepsy, as well as aspects related to response to treatment and long-term prognosis. These studies are usually restricted to surgical specimens obtained from patients with refractory focal epilepsies. Therefore, most of them pertain to temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) and malformations of cortical development (MCD), thus providing information of a selected group of patients and restricted regions of the brain. Postmortem whole brain studies are rarely performed in epilepsy patients, however they may provide extensive information on brain pathology, allowing the analysis of areas beyond the putative epileptogenic zone. In this article, we reviewed pathology studies performed in epilepsy patients with emphasis on neuropathological findings in TLE with MTS and MCD. Furthermore, we reviewed data from postmortem studies and discussed the importance of performing these studies in epilepsy populations

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved