90 research outputs found

    A Biodiversidade Alimentar: Relações e Aplicações na Gastronomia

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    A Vida, tal como a conhecemos hoje, é o resultado de mais de 3000 M.a. de evolução, e o planeta Terra, expressa-a numa extraordinária variedade: a biodiversidade ou diversidade biológica. Esta biodiversidade, entre outras coisas, fornece alimento, ou seja, «espécies alimentares» que funcionam como fonte de energia e matéria. O seu valor económico é de grande valia. As «espécies alimentares» podem ser fornecidas pela Natureza ou pelo Homem (variedades cultivadas, raças e híbridos). Estes dois tipos de biodiversidade alimentar (natural e artificial) são a matéria-prima da gastronomia. O objetivo do trabalho descrito nesta dissertação é a escrita de um livro, de modo a divulgar a correlação positiva entre biodiversidade, biodiversidade alimentar e gastronomia. Este é direcionado para o público-geral, incluindo todos os interessados por matérias relacionadas com a alimentação, especialmente as de carácter gastro-científico. Nele procura-se encontrar respostas para questões do tipo: O que se come? Porque se come o que se come? Como se faz o que se come? Na parte I do livro faz-se uma breve incursão por temas como a «Vida», a «Classificação Biológica», a «Biodiversidade», a «Domesticação» e a «Seleção Alimentar». Tópicos indispensáveis para o entendimento íntegro, ou quase, de «espécie alimentar». Na Parte II e III do livro tratam-se doze taxa vegetais e animais. Para cada espécie ou taxa elaborou-se uma ficha técnica, com a identificação, caracterização taxonómica, morfológica, usos culinários e outros. Para além disso, a cada taxa corresponde um conjunto de textos diversos, cujos temas estão relacionados com gastronomia molecular, etnologia, processamento e tecnologia de matérias-primas, entre outros. Finaliza-se com uma aplicação culinária criada pelos alunos e ex-alunos do curso de mestrado em «Ciências Gastronómicas» (FCT/UNL e ISA/UL) e alguns chefes de cozinha. No conjunto tentou-se conciliar duas áreas científicas: as «Ciências Gastronómicas» e a «Biologia», incitando assim o leitor a uma visão mais holística da gastronomia. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é divulgar o valor e o conhecimento biológico da(s) espécie(s) na gastronomia, usando os argumentos das «Ciências Gastronómicas»

    Knowing signs and symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder: Scope Review

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    Objetivo: identificar na literatura os sinais e sintomas do TDM nas dimensões físicas, psíquicas e comportamentais a fim de levantar as melhores evidências para contribuir na autogestão do tratamento. Metodologia: trata-se de um Scoping Review norteada pelos pressupostos do Joanna Briggs Institute segundo Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Foram analisados estudos seguindo das bases de dados Ageline, B-On, BDENF, BMC Psychology, BMC Sacaid Nursing, BVS, Cochrane, EMBASE, IBECS, Lilacs, MedLine, Pepsic, Psycinfo, PubMed, SciELO, SCOPUS e Web of Science, utilizando os descritores “Signs and Symptoms”, “Depressive Disorder, Major”, “Adult”. Resultados: a amostra final constituiu-se de 51 artigos. Nos estudos predomina a dimensão psíquica 82,35%, seguido da física 68,62% e comportamental 43,13%. Os sinais e sintomas mais prevalentes foram alterações do sono, fadiga, sentimento de culpa, alterações do apetite, humor deprimido, baixa concentração, anedonia, alterações psicomotoras, alterações do peso e ideação suicida. Conclusão: o TDM afeta mente e corpo, e embora sua apresentação clínica seja heterogênea, os estudos evidenciaram que os sinais e sintomas mais frequentes se concentram na dimensão psíquica.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Minas esgotada : antecedentes e impactos do desastre da Vale na Bacia do Paraopeba

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    -A obra oferece um panorama das questões sociais e ambientais ligadas à mineração em Minas Gerais, trazendo os sujeitos e a paisagem como protagonistas da narrativa. Ela reúne autores que assumem a responsabilidade social do fazer científico, analisando a assimetria de poder, o jogo político, os antecedentes e consequências ambientais do rompimento da barragem da Vale S.A no Complexo Paraopeba II, em 2019. Os textos transitam entre esforços teórico-reflexivos e aproximações empíricas; nascem do histórico de engajamento dos pesquisadores com a problemática da mineração e questões socioambientais, adornado por sucessivos trabalhos de campo e contatos com a população atingida

    Evidências sobre a redução do colesterol de lipoproteínas de baixa densidade com outras drogas além de estatinas e inibidores de PCSK6 / Evidence on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reducing with drugs other than statins and PCSK6 inhibitors

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    Os agentes de alteração de lipídios abrangem várias classes de medicamentos, incluindo estatinas, inibidores de absorção de colesterol, derivados de ácido fíbrico, sequestrantes de ácidos biliares, inibidores de proproteína convertase subtilisina/kexina tipo 9, ácido nicotínico e outros. Embora as estatinas sejam a terapia preferida para a maioria dos pacientes que necessitam de tratamento de dislipidemia, outros agentes estão disponíveis com vários níveis de evidência para benefícios clínicos. Em pacientes que não atingem a meta desejada de colesterol de lipoproteína de baixa densidade com terapia com estatina, adicionamos ezetimiba com mais frequência do que qualquer outra droga que altera os lipídios. O principal uso da terapia com fibratos é no manejo de pacientes com hipertrigliceridemia, o ácido nicotínico é pouco utilizado no tratamento do LDL-C e pode ser usado para diminuir a lipoproteína. A maioria dos pacientes para os quais uma terapia com medicamentos prescritos é considerada aconselhável terá uma elevação no nível de colesterol de lipoproteína de baixa densidade e uma estatina é a terapia de primeira linha estabelecida. Outros medicamentos hipolipemiantes são usados para aumentar os efeitos das estatinas no LDL-C, substituir as estatinas quando essa classe não pode ser usada, pode ser uma opção, ou para tratar distúrbios não-LDL-C, principalmente hipertrigliceridemia

    Building a Portuguese Coalition for Biodiversity Genomics

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    The diverse physiography of the Portuguese land and marine territory, spanning from continental Europe to the Atlantic archipelagos, has made it an important repository of biodiversity throughout the Pleistocene glacial cycles, leading to a remarkable diversity of species and ecosystems. This rich biodiversity is under threat from anthropogenic drivers, such as climate change, invasive species, land use changes, overexploitation or pathogen (re)emergence. The inventory, characterization and study of biodiversity at inter- and intra-specific levels using genomics is crucial to promote its preservation and recovery by informing biodiversity conservation policies, management measures and research. The participation of researchers from Portuguese institutions in the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) initiative, and its pilot effort to generate reference genomes for European biodiversity, has reinforced the establishment of Biogenome Portugal. This nascent institutional network will connect the national community of researchers in genomics. Here, we describe the Portuguese contribution to ERGA’s pilot effort, which will generate high-quality reference genomes of six species from Portugal that are endemic, iconic and/or endangered, and include plants, insects and vertebrates (fish, birds and mammals) from mainland Portugal or the Azores islands. In addition, we outline the objectives of Biogenome Portugal, which aims to (i) promote scientific collaboration, (ii) contribute to advanced training, (iii) stimulate the participation of institutions and researchers based in Portugal in international biodiversity genomics initiatives, and (iv) contribute to the transfer of knowledge to stakeholders and engaging the public to preserve biodiversity. This initiative will strengthen biodiversity genomics research in Portugal and fuel the genomic inventory of Portuguese eukaryotic species. Such efforts will be critical to the conservation of the country’s rich biodiversity and will contribute to ERGA’s goal of generating reference genomes for European species.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    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

    Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980-2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

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    Background Global development goals increasingly rely on country-specific estimates for benchmarking a nation's progress. To meet this need, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2016 estimated global, regional, national, and, for selected locations, subnational cause-specific mortality beginning in the year 1980. Here we report an update to that study, making use of newly available data and improved methods. GBD 2017 provides a comprehensive assessment of cause-specific mortality for 282 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2017. Methods The causes of death database is composed of vital registration (VR), verbal autopsy (VA), registry, survey, police, and surveillance data. GBD 2017 added ten VA studies, 127 country-years of VR data, 502 cancer-registry country-years, and an additional surveillance country-year. Expansions of the GBD cause of death hierarchy resulted in 18 additional causes estimated for GBD 2017. Newly available data led to subnational estimates for five additional countries Ethiopia, Iran, New Zealand, Norway, and Russia. Deaths assigned International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes for non-specific, implausible, or intermediate causes of death were reassigned to underlying causes by redistribution algorithms that were incorporated into uncertainty estimation. We used statistical modelling tools developed for GBD, including the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODErn), to generate cause fractions and cause specific death rates for each location, year, age, and sex. Instead of using UN estimates as in previous versions, GBD 2017 independently estimated population size and fertility rate for all locations. Years of life lost (YLLs) were then calculated as the sum of each death multiplied by the standard life expectancy at each age. All rates reported here are age-standardised. Findings At the broadest grouping of causes of death (Level 1), non-communicable diseases (NC Ds) comprised the greatest fraction of deaths, contributing to 73.4% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 72.5-74.1) of total deaths in 2017, while communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) causes accounted for 186% (17.9-19.6), and injuries 8.0% (7.7-8.2). Total numbers of deaths from NCD causes increased from 2007 to 2017 by 22.7% (21.5-23.9), representing an additional 7.61 million (7. 20-8.01) deaths estimated in 2017 versus 2007. The death rate from NCDs decreased globally by 7.9% (7.08.8). The number of deaths for CMNN causes decreased by 222% (20.0-24.0) and the death rate by 31.8% (30.1-33.3). Total deaths from injuries increased by 2.3% (0-5-4-0) between 2007 and 2017, and the death rate from injuries decreased by 13.7% (12.2-15.1) to 57.9 deaths (55.9-59.2) per 100 000 in 2017. Deaths from substance use disorders also increased, rising from 284 000 deaths (268 000-289 000) globally in 2007 to 352 000 (334 000-363 000) in 2017. Between 2007 and 2017, total deaths from conflict and terrorism increased by 118.0% (88.8-148.6). A greater reduction in total deaths and death rates was observed for some CMNN causes among children younger than 5 years than for older adults, such as a 36.4% (32.2-40.6) reduction in deaths from lower respiratory infections for children younger than 5 years compared with a 33.6% (31.2-36.1) increase in adults older than 70 years. Globally, the number of deaths was greater for men than for women at most ages in 2017, except at ages older than 85 years. Trends in global YLLs reflect an epidemiological transition, with decreases in total YLLs from enteric infections, respirator}, infections and tuberculosis, and maternal and neonatal disorders between 1990 and 2017; these were generally greater in magnitude at the lowest levels of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI). At the same time, there were large increases in YLLs from neoplasms and cardiovascular diseases. YLL rates decreased across the five leading Level 2 causes in all SDI quintiles. The leading causes of YLLs in 1990 neonatal disorders, lower respiratory infections, and diarrhoeal diseases were ranked second, fourth, and fifth, in 2017. Meanwhile, estimated YLLs increased for ischaemic heart disease (ranked first in 2017) and stroke (ranked third), even though YLL rates decreased. Population growth contributed to increased total deaths across the 20 leading Level 2 causes of mortality between 2007 and 2017. Decreases in the cause-specific mortality rate reduced the effect of population growth for all but three causes: substance use disorders, neurological disorders, and skin and subcutaneous diseases. Interpretation Improvements in global health have been unevenly distributed among populations. Deaths due to injuries, substance use disorders, armed conflict and terrorism, neoplasms, and cardiovascular disease are expanding threats to global health. For causes of death such as lower respiratory and enteric infections, more rapid progress occurred for children than for the oldest adults, and there is continuing disparity in mortality rates by sex across age groups. Reductions in the death rate of some common diseases are themselves slowing or have ceased, primarily for NCDs, and the death rate for selected causes has increased in the past decade. Copyright (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

    Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

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    BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

    Mapping geographical inequalities in access to drinking water and sanitation facilities in low-income and middle-income countries, 2000-17

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    Background: Universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities is an essential human right, recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals as crucial for preventing disease and improving human wellbeing. Comprehensive, high-resolution estimates are important to inform progress towards achieving this goal. We aimed to produce high-resolution geospatial estimates of access to drinking water and sanitation facilities. Methods: We used a Bayesian geostatistical model and data from 600 sources across more than 88 low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) to estimate access to drinking water and sanitation facilities on continuous continent-wide surfaces from 2000 to 2017, and aggregated results to policy-relevant administrative units. We estimated mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive subcategories of facilities for drinking water (piped water on or off premises, other improved facilities, unimproved, and surface water) and sanitation facilities (septic or sewer sanitation, other improved, unimproved, and open defecation) with use of ordinal regression. We also estimated the number of diarrhoeal deaths in children younger than 5 years attributed to unsafe facilities and estimated deaths that were averted by increased access to safe facilities in 2017, and analysed geographical inequality in access within LMICs. Findings: Across LMICs, access to both piped water and improved water overall increased between 2000 and 2017, with progress varying spatially. For piped water, the safest water facility type, access increased from 40·0% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 39·4–40·7) to 50·3% (50·0–50·5), but was lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, where access to piped water was mostly concentrated in urban centres. Access to both sewer or septic sanitation and improved sanitation overall also increased across all LMICs during the study period. For sewer or septic sanitation, access was 46·3% (95% UI 46·1–46·5) in 2017, compared with 28·7% (28·5–29·0) in 2000. Although some units improved access to the safest drinking water or sanitation facilities since 2000, a large absolute number of people continued to not have access in several units with high access to such facilities (>80%) in 2017. More than 253 000 people did not have access to sewer or septic sanitation facilities in the city of Harare, Zimbabwe, despite 88·6% (95% UI 87·2–89·7) access overall. Many units were able to transition from the least safe facilities in 2000 to safe facilities by 2017; for units in which populations primarily practised open defecation in 2000, 686 (95% UI 664–711) of the 1830 (1797–1863) units transitioned to the use of improved sanitation. Geographical disparities in access to improved water across units decreased in 76·1% (95% UI 71·6–80·7) of countries from 2000 to 2017, and in 53·9% (50·6–59·6) of countries for access to improved sanitation, but remained evident subnationally in most countries in 2017. Interpretation: Our estimates, combined with geospatial trends in diarrhoeal burden, identify where efforts to increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities are most needed. By highlighting areas with successful approaches or in need of targeted interventions, our estimates can enable precision public health to effectively progress towards universal access to safe water and sanitation
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