Modulação de julgamentos morais e da satisfação com a vida após treinamento de meditação na compaixão

Os julgamentos morais e a compaixão são objetos de constantes pesquisas, em várias épocas, nas mais diversas e amplas áreas do conhecimento. Baseado na existência de diferentes matrizes morais, que divergem na ênfase de alguns fundamentos morais (justiça, cuidado, fidelidade, respeito, pureza e liberdade), ocorrem muitos conflitos entre pessoas e grupos por causa dessas distinções. Alguns fatores capazes de interferir nos julgamentos morais variam desde elementos fisiológicos, cognitivos, sociais até estados emocionais. A compaixão é uma das emoções com maior potencial promotor de cooperação em atitudes pró-sociais. Ela ocorre em situações em que o sofrimento, físico ou emocional, concentra a atenção e leva a avaliação das possibilidades de atenuar ou eliminar a dor; expressando uma resposta no sentido de minimizar ou extinguir tal sofrimento. Várias pesquisas recentes demonstraram que a capacidade de compaixão pode ser desenvolvida por meio de treinamentos compostos por práticas meditativas. Tais práticas têm o potencial de gerar benefícios no bem-estar, saúde e até na plasticidade neuronal. Além disso, a compaixão apresenta intrinsecamente uma propriedade de julgamento sobre a responsabilidade do indivíduo vulnerável sobre o seu próprio sofrimento e sua prática demonstrou ativação de regiões cerebrais correlatas com as ativadas nas tarefas de julgamento moral. Por isso, avaliamos nesta pesquisa os efeitos de treinamento de compaixão com base cognitiva (CBCT), durante oito semanas, quanto a compaixão, a modulação dos julgamentos morais e a satisfação com a vida. Participaram desta pesquisa adultos saudáveis (n=62) com idades entre 18 e 35 anos. O grupo experimental apresentou diferença significativa com aumento dos índices de compaixão, de satisfação com a vida e no fundamento moral da lealdade. Também houve diferença significativa demonstrando maior tolerância com comportamentos ditatoriais ou abusivos sobre a liberdade de opiniões ou tomadas de decisões. Esses resultados são semelhantes a outros estudos que avaliam o efeito desses treinamentos sobre o bem-estar e a capacidade compassiva e inspiram outras pesquisas sobre seus impactos sobre os julgamentos morais.Moral judgments and compassion are objects of constant research, at various times, in the most diverse and wide areas of knowledge. Based on the existence of different moral matrices, which diverge in the emphasis of some moral foundations (justice, care, fidelity, respect, purity and liberty), there are many conflicts between people and groups because of these distinctions. Some factors capable of interfering in moral judgments vary from physiological, cognitive, social elements to emotional states. Compassion is one of the emotions with the greatest potential promoter of cooperation in prosocial attitudes. It occurs in situations where suffering, physical or emotional, concentrates attention and leads to an assessment of the possibilities of mitigating or eliminating pain; expressing a response in order to minimize or extinguish such suffering. Several recent researches has shown that the capacity for compassion can be developed through meditative practices. Such practices have the potential to generate benefits in wellbeing, health and even neuronal plasticity. In addition, compassion has intrinsically presents a property of judgment about the responsibility of the vulnerable individual over their own suffering and their practice has demonstrated activation of brain regions correlated with those activated in the tasks of moral judgment. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of cognitive-based compassion training (CBCT) for eight weeks on compassion, modulation of moral judgments, and satisfaction with life. This study included healthy adults (n = 62), aged between 18 and 35 years. The experimental group presented a significant difference with increased indices of compassion, satisfaction with life and the moral foundation of loyalty. There was also a significant difference demonstrating greater tolerance for dictatorial or abusive behavior on freedom of opinion or decision making. These results are similar those of other studies that evaluate the effect of these trainings on well-being and compassionate capacity and inspire further research on their impact on moral judgments

Prioritizing conservation in sub-Saharan African lakes based on freshwater biodiversity and algal bloom metrics

As agricultural land-use and climate change continue to pose increasing threats to biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa, efforts are being made to identify areas where trade-offs between future agricultural development and terrestrial biodiversity conservation are expected to be greatest. However, little research so far has focused on freshwater biodiversity conservation in the context of agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we aim to prioritize areas where freshwater biodiversity is most likely to be affected by the effects of eutrophication and Harmful Algal Blooms (i.e., when algae multiple to the extent that they cause toxic effects on people and freshwater fauna), some of the most important emerging threats to freshwater ecosystems worldwide with the onset of climate change. Using novel remote-sensing techniques, we identify lakes with overlap between high biodiversity and algal blooms, which are likely to signal negative impacts on freshwater systems. By calculating the richness of freshwater species and the Normalized Difference Chlorophyll Index (NDCI), we identify 169 'priority lakes' in Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia and bordering countries with which they share watersheds. Our results give the first assessment of where freshwater biodiversity may be most threatened by algal blooms in these three sub-Saharan countries, highlighting Zambian lakes as those at greatest risk. Our findings emphasize that threats to freshwater biodiversity occur at the watershed scale, often extending beyond a country's political boundaries. We highlight the importance of water resource management and freshwater biodiversity conservation at the watershed scale, emphasizing the importance of collaborative conservation action across country borders. We also demonstrate the potential of remote-sensing tools for prioritizing freshwater systems for conservation according to algal-bloom risk, vital in remote, under-sampled regions of the world, especially given the increasing threat posed to freshwater biodiversity by rapidly expanding agriculture and climate change. Article Impact Statement: Spatial analysis reveals areas of overlap between freshwater biodiversity and potentially harmful algal blooms in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Zambia

Representative Landscapes in the Forested Area of Canada

Canada is a large nation with forested ecosystems that occupy over 60% of the national land base, and knowledge of the patterns of Canada’s land cover is important to proper environmental management of this vast resource. To this end, a circa 2000 Landsat-derived land cover map of the forested ecosystems of Canada has created a new window into understanding the composition and configuration of land cover patterns in forested Canada. Strategies for summarizing such large expanses of land cover are increasingly important, as land managers work to study and preserve distinctive areas, as well as to identify representative examples of current land-cover and land-use assemblages. Meanwhile, the development of extremely efficient clustering algorithms has become increasingly important in the world of computer science, in which billions of pieces of information on the internet are continually sifted for meaning for a vast variety of applications. One recently developed clustering algorithm quickly groups large numbers of items of any type in a given data set while simultaneously selecting a representative—or “exemplar”—from each cluster. In this context, the availability of both advanced data processing methods and a nationally available set of landscape metrics presents an opportunity to identify sets of representative landscapes to better understand landscape pattern, variation, and distribution across the forested area of Canada. In this research, we first identify and provide context for a small, interpretable set of exemplar landscapes that objectively represent land cover in each of Canada’s ten forested ecozones. Then, we demonstrate how this approach can be used to identify flagship and satellite long-term study areas inside and outside protected areas in the province of Ontario. These applications aid our understanding of Canada’s forest while augmenting its management toolbox, and may signal a broad range of applications for this versatile approach

TRAUMATISMO DENTÁRIO COM SUCESSO NO REIMPLANTE: UM RELATO DE CASO.

Introdução: Avulsão dentária está relacionada com causas extrínsecas, como acidentes e intrínsecas, como a cárie. Tendo maior incidência em crianças de 7-12 anos, sendo os incisivos centrais superiores os dentes mais acometido

Forest fragmentation in Massachusetts, USA: a town-level assessment using Morphological spatial pattern analysis and affinity propagation

Forest fragmentation has been studied extensively with respect to biodiversity loss, disruption of ecosystem services, and edge effects although the relationship between forest fragmentation and human activities is still not well understood. We classified the pattern of forests in Massachusetts using fragmentation indicators to address these objectives: 1) characterize the spatial pattern of forest fragmentation in Massachusetts towns using Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA); and (2) identify regional trends using archetypal towns in relation to town history, geography and socioeconomic characteristics. Six fragmentation indicators were calculated using MSPA for each town to represent patterns and processes of fragmentation. We then used these indicators and the proportion of forested land to group towns across Massachusetts with similar patterns of fragmentation. Six representative towns typify different types of forest fragmentation, and illustrate the commonalities and differences between different fragmentation types. The objective selection of representative towns suggests that they might be used as the target of future studies, both in retrospective studies that seek to explain current patterns and in analyses that predict future fragmentation trends

Characterization and mapping of dwelling types for forest fire prevention

Définition des habitats isolés, diffus et groupés. Méthode de caractérisation et de cartographie de ces types d'habitat dans le contexte de prévention du risque d'incendie. Mise en relation des types d'habitat avec le risque d'incendie. / In a context of forest fire risk , the development of actions concerning wildfire prevention and land management is necessary and essential particularly in wildland urban interfaces (WUI). The term WUI' always includes components such as human presence and wildland vegetation. Both the hazard (probability of fire outbreak, distribution) and the vulnerability of urban areas can be characterized through the spatial organization of houses and vegetation. The first required step is to characterize and map WUI in large areas and at a large scale, which in turn requires qualifying different types of dwellings and mapping them. With this goal in view, the paper presents a brief synthesis of results coming from an exploratory process for the characterization of dwelling types (Lampin et al., 2007), and develops a method based on GIS-geo treatments to characterize different types of dwelling with regard to fire risk. Three types of dwellings were classified: isolated dwellings, scattered dwellings and clustered dwellings, using criteria based on the distance between houses, the size of clusters of houses and housing density, which can be mapped automatically. Within dwelling types, the density value of forest fire ignition changed and was twice as high for isolated dwellings as for clustered dwellings. The spatial organization of dwellings seems to have a real impact on fire occurrence. Thus maps of different dwelling types can be interpreted for use in developing fire fighting strategies or prevention actions concerning end-users such as forest and land planning managers or fire-fighters

Vegetation transitions drive the autotrophy-heterotrophy balance in Arctic lakes

“Arctic greening” will alter vegetation quantity and quality in northern watersheds, with possible consequences for lake metabolic balance. We used paleolimnology from six Arctic lakes in Greenland, Norway, and Alaska to develop a conceptual model describing how climate-driven shifts in terrestrial vegetation (spanning herb to boreal forest) influence lake autotrophic biomass (as chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments). Major autotrophic transitions occurred, including (1) optimal production of siliceous algae and cyanobacteria/chlorophytes at intermediate vegetation cover (dwarf shrub and Betula; dissolved organic carbon (DOC) range of 2–4 mg L21 ), below and above which UVR exposure (DOC; 4 mgL21 ), respectively limit algal biomass, (2) an increase in potentially mixotrophic cryptophytes with higher forest cover and allochthonous carbon supply. Vegetation cover appears to influence lake autotrophs by changing influx of (colored) dissolved organic matter which has multiple interacting roles—as a photoprotectant—in light attenuation and in macronutrient (carbon, nitrogen) supply

Quantifying the Human Influence on Fire Ignition Across the Western USA

Humans have a profound effect on fire regimes by increasing the frequency of ignitions. Although ignition is an integral component of understanding and predicting fire, to date fire models have not been able to isolate the ignition location, leading to inconsistent use of anthropogenic ignition proxies. Here, we identified fire ignitions from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Burned Area Product (2000–2012) to create the first remotely sensed, consistently derived, and regionally comprehensive fire ignition data set for the western United States. We quantified the spatial relationships between several anthropogenic land-use/disturbance features and ignition for ecoregions within the study area and used hierarchical partitioning to test how the anthropogenic predictors of fire ignition vary among ecoregions. The degree to which anthropogenic features predicted ignition varied considerably by ecoregion, with the strongest relationships found in the Marine West Coast Forest and North American Desert ecoregions. Similarly, the contribution of individual anthropogenic predictors varied greatly among ecoregions. Railroad corridors and agricultural presence tended to be the most important predictors of anthropogenic ignition, while population density and roads were generally poor predictors. Although human population has often been used as a proxy for ignitions at global scales, it is less important at regional scales when more specific land uses (e.g., agriculture) can be identified. The variability of ignition predictors among ecoregions suggests that human activities have heterogeneous impacts in altering fire regimes within different vegetation types and geographies

Combining remote sensing and household level data for regional scale analysis of land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon

Land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon depends on the spatial variability of political, socioeconomic and biophysical factors, as well as on the land use history and its actors. A regional scale analysis was made in Rondônia State to identify possible differences in land cover change connected to spatial policies of land occupation, size and year of establishment of properties, accessibility measures and soil fertility. The analysis was made based on remote sensing data and household level data gathered with a questionnaire. Both types of analyses indicate that the highest level of total deforestation is found inside agrarian projects, especially in those established more than 20 years ago. Even though deforestation rates are similar inside and outside official settlements, inside agrarian projects forest depletion can exceed 50% at the property level within 10–14 years after establishment. The data indicate that both small-scale and medium to large-scale farmers contribute to deforestation processes in Rondônia State encouraged by spatial policies of land occupation, which provide better accessibility to forest fringes where soil fertility and forest resources are important determinants of location choic