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

Educomunicação e suas áreas de intervenção: Novos paradigmas para o diálogo intercultural

oai:omp.abpeducom.org.br:publicationFormat/1O material aqui divulgado representa, em essência, a contribuição do VII Encontro Brasileiro de Educomunicação ao V Global MIL Week, da UNESCO, ocorrido na ECA/USP, entre 3 e 5 de novembro de 2016. Estamos diante de um conjunto de 104 papers executivos, com uma média de entre 7 e 10 páginas, cada um. Com este rico e abundante material, chegamos ao sétimo e-book publicado pela ABPEducom, em seus seis primeiros anos de existência. A especificidade desta obra é a de trazer as “Áreas de Intervenção” do campo da Educomunicação, colocando-as a serviço de uma meta essencial ao agir educomunicativo: o diálogo intercultural, trabalhado na linha do tema geral do evento internacional: Media and Information Literacy: New Paradigms for Intercultural Dialogue

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

Feasibility indicators of telemedicine for patients with dementia in a public hospital in Northeast Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BackgroundThe use of telemedicine has become a fundamental tool in healthcare in recent years, especially at times of Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, there are several telemedicine tools that are simple, inexpensive, and effective means of communication. This article aims to describe indicators of feasibility including patient recruitment, attendance, discomfort (internet connection issues and/or noncompliant patient behavior), satisfaction, and travel time and cost savings of virtual telemedicine consultations for patients with dementia.MethodsThe study was conducted at the Geriatrics Department of Hospital Universitário Walter Cantídio (HUWC) in Fortaleza, Brazil, between May 1st and December 31, 2020. The eligibility criteria included previous diagnosis of dementia syndrome and receiving care at the hospital's dementia outpatient clinic in face-to-face consultations in the preceding 12 months. Patients were excluded if they did not feel comfortable with virtual consultations, did not have the required communication technology available or their caregiver was not available to attend the remote consultation. The patients were recruited from the outpatient dementia clinic's medical appointment scheduling list. The intervention was designed as a one-time consultation and it included treatment approaches and health promotion recommendations.ResultsPatient recruitment, attendance and discomfort rates were 85.5%, 97.7% and 9.4%, respectively. To attend face-to-face visits, they reported an average travel time (including the consultation) of 233.21 minutes and average total cost of 60.61 reais (around USD 11). The study intervention was well accepted among the patients and their caregivers with 97.6% being satisfied. Many were happy to avoid long waits in crowded medical waiting rooms and the risk of covid-19 contagion.ConclusionsWe found good recruitment, attendance, and acceptance rates of remote care for the follow-up of dementia patients as well as low discomfort rates.Trial registrationBrazilian Trial Registry (REBEC) RBR-9xs978

Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells Reduce Airway Inflammation in a Model of Dust Mite Triggered Allergic Inflammation

Submitted by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio ([email protected]) on 2018-08-10T13:31:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Aragão- França LS Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells Reduce Airway .....pdf: 1922401 bytes, checksum: dbf221be6218cbc66098da51b4b339fa (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio ([email protected]) on 2018-08-10T13:45:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Aragão- França LS Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells Reduce Airway .....pdf: 1922401 bytes, checksum: dbf221be6218cbc66098da51b4b339fa (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T13:45:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aragão- França LS Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells Reduce Airway .....pdf: 1922401 bytes, checksum: dbf221be6218cbc66098da51b4b339fa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018Programa de Excelência em Pesquisa (PROEP-CNPq).Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Hospital São Rafael. Centro de Biotecnologia e Terapia Celular. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, BrasilUniversidade de São Paulo. Departamento de Medicina. São Paulo, SP, BrasilUniversity of Texas Health Science Center. Department of Diagnostics and Biomedical Sciences. Houston, USAFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Hospital São Rafael. Centro de Biotecnologia e Terapia Celular. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Universidade Federal da Bahia. Faculdade de Medicina. Salvador, BA, BrasilHospital São Rafael. Centro de Biotecnologia e Terapia Celular. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, BrasilUniversidade Federal da Bahia. Hospital Universitário Edgard Santos. Serviço de Imunologia. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, BrasilUniversidade Federal da Bahia. Instituto de Ciências da Saúde. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Hospital São Rafael. Centro de Biotecnologia e Terapia Celular. Salvador, BA, BrasilFundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, BrasilThe use of tolerogenic dendritic cells (TolDCs) to control exacerbated immune responses may be a prophylactic and therapeutic option for application in autoimmune and allergic conditions. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of TolDC administration in a mouse model of allergic airway inflammation caused by mite extract. Methods: Mouse bone marrow-derived TolDCs were induced by incubation with granulocyte- macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and dexamethasone, and then characterized by flow cytometry and cytokine production by enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). For the in vivo model of Blomia tropicalis-induced allergy, mice transplanted with antigen-pulsed TolDCs were sensitized intraperitoneally with B. tropicalis mite extract (BtE) adsorbed to aluminium hydroxide. After challenge by nasal administration of BtE, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), lungs, spleen and serum were collected for analysis. Results: Induction of TolDCs was efficiently achieved as shown by low expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II, programmed death-ligand (PD-L) 2 and pro-inflammatory cytokine production, and up-regulation of interleukin (IL)-10, upon LPS stimulation in vitro. Transplantation of 1 or 2 doses of BtE-pulsed TolDCs reduced the number of inflammatory cells in BALF and lungs as well as mucus deposition. Moreover, compared to saline-injected controls, TolDC-treated mice showed lower serum levels of anti-BtE immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies as well as reduced Gata3 and IL-4 gene expression in the lungs and decreased IFN-γ levels in the supernatant of splenocyte cultures Transplantation of TolDCs increased the percentage of the regulatory T cells in the spleen and the lungs. Conclusions: Preventive treatment with TolDCs protects against dust mite-induced allergy in a mouse model, reinforcing the use of tolerogenic dendritic cells for the management of allergic conditions