Morphinofobia: the situation among the general population and health care professionals in North-Eastern Portugal

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Morphinofobia among the general population (GP) and among health care professionals (HP) is not without danger for the patients: it may lead to the inappropriate management of debilitating pain. The aim of our study was to explore among GP and HP the representation and attitudes concerning the use of morphine in health care.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was done among 412 HP (physicians and nurses) of the 4 hospitals and 10 community health centers of Beira Interior (Portugal)and among 193 persons of the GP randomly selected in public places. Opinions were collected through a translated self-administered questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A significant difference of opinion exists among GP and HP about the use of morphine. The word morphine first suggests drug to GP (36,2%) and analgesia to HP (32,9%.). The reasons for not using morphine most frequently cited are: for GP morphine use means advanced disease (56%), risk of addiction (50%), legal requirements (49,7%); for HP it means legal risks (56,3%) and adverse side effects of morphine such as somnolence - sedation (30,5%) The socio-demographic situation was correlated with the opinions about the use of morphine.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>False beliefs about the use of morphine exist among the studied groups. There seems to be a need for developing information campaigns on pain management and the use of morphine targeting. Better training and more information of HP might also be needed.</p

Precision restoration: a necessary approach to foster forest recovery in the 21st century

We thank S. Tabik, E. Guirado, and Garnata Drone SL for fruitful debates about the application of remote sensing and artificial intelligence in restoration. E. McKeown looked over the English version of the manuscript. Original drawings were made by J. D. Guerrero. This work was supported by projects RESISTE (P18-RT-1927) from the Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento, y Universidad from the Junta de Andalucia, and AVA201601.19 (NUTERA-DE I), DETECTOR (A-RNM-256-UGR18), and AVA2019.004 (NUTERA-DE II), cofinanced (80%) by the FEDER Program. F.M.-R. acknowledges the support of the Agreement 4580 between OTRI-UGR and the city council of La Zubia. We thank an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments that improved the manuscript.Forest restoration is currently a primary objective in environmental management policies at a global scale, to the extent that impressive initiatives and commitments have been launched to plant billions of trees. However, resources are limited and the success of any restoration effort should be maximized. Thus, restoration programs should seek to guarantee that what is planted today will become an adult tree in the future, a simple fact that, however, usually receives little attention. Here, we advocate for the need to focus restoration efforts on an individual plant level to increase establishment success while reducing negative side effects by using an approach that we term “precision forest restoration” (PFR). The objective of PFR will be to ensure that planted seedlings or sowed seeds will become adult trees with the appropriate landscape configuration to create functional and self-regulating forest ecosystems while reducing the negative impacts of traditional massive reforestation actions. PFR can take advantage of ecological knowledge together with technologies and methodologies from the landscape scale to the individual- plant scale, and from the more traditional, low-tech approaches to the latest high-tech ones. PFR may be more expensive at the level of individual plants, but will be more cost-effective in the long term if it allows for the creation of resilient forests able to providemultiple ecosystemservices. PFR was not feasible a few years ago due to the high cost and low precision of the available technologies, but it is currently an alternative that might reformulate a wide spectrum of ecosystem restoration activities.Junta de Andalucia P18-RT-1927European Commission AVA201601.19 A-RNM-256-UGR18 AVA2019.004OTRI-UGR 4580city council of La Zubia 458

Pratos e mais pratos: louças domésticas, divisões culturais e limites sociais no Rio de Janeiro, século XIX

Reply to ten comments on a paper published in the last issue of this journal. The discussion follows along six main lines: History museums, identity, ideology and the category of nation; the need of material collections and their modalities: patrimonial, operational, virtual; theater versus laboratory; visitors and their ambiguities; Public History: the museum and the academy.Resposta aos comentários de dez especialistas que contribuíram no debate de texto publicado no último número desta revista. A discussão orientou-se segundo seis tópicos principais: museus históricos, identidade, ideologia e a categoria de nação; a necessidade de acervos materiais e suas modalidades: acervo patrimonial, operacional, virtual; teatro versus laboratório; o público e suas ambigüidades; História Pública: o museu e a Academia

Patterns and origin of intraspecific functional variability in a tropical alpine species along an altitudinal gradient

Background: Intraspecific functional variability (IFV) along altitudinal gradients is a powerful proxy to infer the responses of plants to abrupt environmental changes. We envisage that IFV shows distinctive patterns in tropical and extratropical alpine regions. Aims: To characterise the patterns and explore the origin of IFV in a tropical alpine species in a context of upward range extension. Methods: We examined variations in a series of plant functional traits in Lasiocephalus ovatus, inside and outside a nurse plant along a 600 m altitudinal gradient in the Ecuadorian Andes, and we studied its genetic variability. Results: More conservative traits were developed at higher elevation, in contrast to extratropical alpine plants, which commonly develop opportunistic traits in response to late snowmelt close to their upper altitudinal limit. The presence of nurse cushions did not alter this trend. Increasing genetic distance along the gradient suggested that IFV might be partly genetically induced. Conclusions: Our data combined with existing literature in tropical alpine environments lead the way to a stimulating scientific challenge: determining if patterns of plant altitudinal distribution in tropical alpine areas in response to climate change are predictable from patterns described in extratropical alpine areas

How anthropogenic disturbances affect the resilience of a keystone palm tree in the threatened Andean cloud forest ?

To conserve tropical forests, it is crucial to characterise the disturbance threshold beyond which populations of tropical trees are no longer resilient. This approach is still not widely employed, especially with respect to the effects of moderate disturbances. Compensation effects, such as positive interactions among plants, are addressed even more rarely. We attempt to identify the extents to which the distribution of the keystone palm tree Ceroxylon echinulatum is regulated by various regimes of deforestation in a threatened tropical montane cloud forest in the North-West Andes of Ecuador. The demographic structure of this palm tree was examined in three habitats: old-growth forest, forest disturbed by selective logging, and deforested pasture. Patterns were related to stand structure, microclimate, and soil composition. Seedling desiccation owing to severe aboveground water stress led to the absence of juvenile palms in pastures, and thus was predictive of a near extinction of the species in this habitat. However, shade provided by dominant bunchgrass in pastures considerably reduced above- and belowground water stress by diminishing light intensity. Selective logging resulted in a higher density of individuals in disturbed forests than in old-growth forests, but was associated with a spoiled spatial structure. Therefore, the protection of residual old-growth forests is a prerequisite for the conservation of C. echinulatum, although secondary forests might act as provisional refuges that promote its resilience. The reduction of water stress by nurse grasses in pastures represents a promising approach to promote the resilience of tropical tree species and their associated communities after deforestation

P16 Evaluation de l’effet hypotenseur de l’extrait aqueux d’écorces de tronc de Anacardium occidentale Linn (Anacardiaceae) chez le lapin

Introduction : Anacardium occidentale Linn. 1753 (Anacardiaceae) est une plante très utilisée en médecine traditionnelle en Afrique de l’Ouest pour le traitement de diverses pathologies, notamment cardiovasculaires. L’objectif de cette présente étude est d’évaluer l’effet hypotenseur de l’extrait aqueux de Anacardium occidentale. Matériel et méthodes : Le matériel biologique de cette étude est constitué d’écorces de tronc de Anacardium occidentale et de lapins de l’espèce Oryctolagus cuniculus (Leporideae) pesant en moyenne deux (2) kilogrammes. L’extrait aqueux d’écorces de tronc de Anacardium occidentale (ANO) est obtenu après macération dans deux (2) litres d’eau distillée de cinquante (50) grammes de poudre de plante. Le filtrat obtenu est évaporé sous vide à 70°C grâce à un évaporateur Rotavapor de type "Bucchi" et lyophilisé. L’enregistrement de la pression artérielle de lapin est effectué grâce à un manomètre de LUDWIG, comprenant un tube en U contenant du mercure dont l’un des cathéters est relié à la carotide mise à nu du lapin. Les variations de la pression carotidienne du lapin sont transmises à la colonne de mercure et sont transcrites à l’aide d’un stylet inscripteur, sur un cylindre recouvert de papier enduit de noir de fumée et tournant à vitesse constante. Résultats et discussion : ANO, à des doses comprises entre 2,5.10-4 g/kg P.C et 6,2.10-2 g/kg P.C., provoque une hypotension soutenue dose-dépendante semblable à celle induite par l’acétylcholine de 5,6.10–7 à 5,5.10–4 g/kg de PC. Ces résultats sont en accord avec ceux de TCHIKAYA et al. (2003) qui ont travaillé dans les mêmes conditions expérimentales sur le même extrait aqueux. Ces effets pharmacologiques sont comparables à ceux de l’acétylcholine, une substance hypotensive (FURCHGOTT et VANHOUTTE, 1989), dont l’atropine, antagoniste compétitif des récepteurs cholinergiques de type muscarinique (GEROVA et al., 2005), n’a pas d’effet important sur les propriétés hypotensives de ANO. Les substances hypotensives contenues dans cet extrait brut ne seraint donc pas des substances cholinomimétiques de type muscarinique. Les effets hypotenseurs de notre extrait aqueux étant totalement inhibés par la chlorpromazine, un antipsychotique (BORDET, 2004), ANO pourrait avoir une action centrale comme la clonidine et l’alpha-métyldopa (DE CORT et al., 2004). De par ses effets sur le système nerveux central, cet extrait brut pourrait inhiber le système orthosympathique et provoquer chez l’animal entier c'est-à-dire chez le lapin une cardioinhibition et une vasodilatation induisant ainsi un effet hypotenseur. Cela justifierait ainsi l’utilisation de cette plante dans le traitement de l’hypertension artérielle

Métodos para estudiar el efecto del cambio climático sobre los bofedales y sus servicios ambientales inherentes

Uno de los principales objetivos del proyecto BIOTHAW es el estudio de los patrones de diversidad de las comunidades acuáticas en pozas de bofedales altoandinos en relación con su extensión, características ambientales, influencia glacial y uso antropogénico para pastoreo. es este modo, se describen los métodos para la colecta y análisis de las comunidades acuáticas metafiton, zooplancton, macroinvertebrados bentónicos y macrófitas (consideradas como variables de respuesta), analizados a diferentes escalas espaciales. A escala regional se considera al bofedal como unidad de evaluación, donde se analizan factores como: área de bofedal, heterogeneidad ambiental (una medida de similitud ambiental entre pozas), porcentaje de influencia glaciar, altitud, densidad de heces de ganado y cantidad de agua en los humedales (frecuencia de pozas, ríos y pantanos por unidad de área). A escala intermedia (entre bofedal y poza) se pueden considerar la distancia geográfica y la distancia ambiental (similitud físico-química y mofométricas entre pares de pozas). A escala local (poza) se consideran la cobertura de macrófitas, las características morfométricas de las pozas y físico-químicas del agua. El objetivo para proveer esta metodología es facilitar la elaboración de un futuro plan de monitoreo con indicadores clave que permitan evaluar los cambios en la biodiversidad por efecto del retroceso de glaciares. (résumé d'auteur