MORTALIDADE POR CAUSAS EXTERNAS EM CRIANÇAS DE 0 A 12 ANOS: UMA ANÁLISE DOS REGISTROS DE ÓBITOS / EXTERNAL CAUSES OF MORTALITY IN CHILDREN FROM 0 TO 12 YEARS OLD: AN ANALYSIS OF DEATH RECORDS

Introdução: Estudos recentes revelam que causas externas são fatores, cada vez, mais importantes no quadro da mortalidade de crianças. Objetivo: Analisar o perfil epidemiológico dos óbitos por causas externas, na faixa etária de zero a doze anos, registrados no Instituto Médico Legal (IML) de São Luís, Maranhão, nos anos de 2009 a 2011. Métodos: Trata-se de estudo do tipo retrospectivo e observacional. As informações sobre a mortalidade por causas externas foram coletadas em laudos denecropsia do Instituto Médico Legal de São Luís (MA) e classificados de acordo com a Classificação Internacional de Doenças (CID). Resultados: Dos 101 óbitos estudados, 39,6% foram por acidente de trânsito, 25,7% por afogamentos, 8,9% por homicídios e 25,8% por outros acidentes; o coeficiente de mortalidade por causas externas foi mais expressivo no ano de 2010 (15,3 óbitos por 100 mil habitantes). Das vítimas, 54 eram do sexo masculino (53,5%) e 47 eram do sexo feminino (46,5%). Quando analisada a distribuição de sexo dentro de cada grupo de idade, destaca-se o predomínio do sexo masculino em todas as faixas etárias, à exceção da faixa etária de 1 a 4 anos em que o predomínio do sexo feminino foi maioria. Os meses de julho e agosto apresentaram os maiores percentuais de óbitos com 11,9% cada. Conclusão: Os óbitos por causas externas foram decorrentes, principalmente, de acidentes de trânsito. Os achados contribuem para ampliar o conhecimento epidemiológico de tais eventos, reforçando a necessidade da prevenção.Palavras-chave: Criança. Causas Externas. Mortalidade. Violência.AbstractIntroduction: Recent studies have shown that external causes are factors increasingly more important in the context of children mortality. Objective: To analyze the epidemiology profile of deaths due to external causes of 0-12 years old children in the Medicolegal Office of São Luís, Maranhão, from 2009 to 2011. Methods: This is a retrospective and observational study. Information about mortality due to external causes was collected from necropsy reports of the Medicolegal Office of São Luís. The classification of these causes was made according to the International Classification of Diseases. Results: Out of deaths studied, 39.6% were due to traffic accident, 25.7% by drowning, 8.9% by homicides and 25.8% by other accidents. The mortality rate from external causes was more significant in 2010 (15.3 deaths per 100.000 inhabitants). Of all victims, 54 were male (53.5%) and 47 were female (46.5%). When we analyzed the sex distribution in each age group, the percentage of males in all age groups is predominant, except for the age group 1-4 years in which the predominance of females was evident. The months of July and August had the highest percentages of deaths with 11.9% each. Conclusion: Deaths by external causes were due to mainly traffic accidents. The findings contribute to increasing epidemiological knowledge of such events, which reinforces the need for prevention.Keywords: Child. External Causes. Mortality. Violence

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location: Amazonia. Taxon: Angiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots). Methods: Data for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega-phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran\u27s eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny. Results: In the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white-sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R$^{2}$ = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R$^{2}$ = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types. Main Conclusion: Numerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long-standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location: Amazonia. Taxon: Angiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots). Methods: Data for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega‐phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran's eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny. Results: In the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white‐sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R2 = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R2 = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types. Main Conclusion: Numerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long‐standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution

Author correction: One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains

In the version of the article initially published, the affiliation of Edgardo Manuel Latrubesse was incorrect and has now been amended to Environmental Sciences Graduate Program-CIAMB, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil in the HTML and PDF versions of the article

One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains

Amazonia’s floodplain system is the largest and most biodiverse on Earth. Although forests are crucial to the ecological integrity of floodplains, our understanding of their species composition and how this may differ from surrounding forest types is still far too limited, particularly as changing inundation regimes begin to reshape floodplain tree communities and the critical ecosystem functions they underpin. Here we address this gap by taking a spatially explicit look at Amazonia-wide patterns of tree-species turnover and ecological specialization of the region’s floodplain forests. We show that the majority of Amazonian tree species can inhabit floodplains, and about a sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is ecologically specialized on floodplains. The degree of specialization in floodplain communities is driven by regional flood patterns, with the most compositionally differentiated floodplain forests located centrally within the fluvial network and contingent on the most extraordinary flood magnitudes regionally. Our results provide a spatially explicit view of ecological specialization of floodplain forest communities and expose the need for whole-basin hydrological integrity to protect the Amazon’s tree diversity and its function

Epidemiological analysis of hand fractures in a tertiary hospital

Introduction: Hand trauma is an epidemic occurring due to several factors, such as work accidents and urban violence. This significantly impacts it as it is a vulnerable and important anatomical unit for daily activities and work. Therefore, a more in-depth epidemiological assessment is necessary regarding hand fractures and understanding their high morbidity. Method: A descriptive and retrospective study was conducted by analyzing the medical records of patients treated in a tertiary hospital from January 2018 to December 2020. Results: 290 patients participated in the study, 85.7% male and 14.3 % female. One hundred thirty-eight individuals were between 20 and 39 years old, representing 47.6%. 51.6% were from the interior of the state of Ceará, and 48.4% were from the capital. The main trauma mechanism associated with fractures was traffic accidents (36.4%), followed by work accidents (26.9%) and firearm injuries (14%). Concerning fractured bones, there was a marked prevalence of phalangeal involvement in all age groups, representing 210 patients (72.4%). Conclusion: The present study corroborates the data present in the literature. In this way, the repetition of the prevalence of age group, main trauma mechanisms involved, as well as bones affected by hand fractures is evidenced