Automedicação

A automedicação é um fenómeno frequente nos autocuidados em saúde, desde há muito utilizado e cuja ocorrência e a distribuição estão naturalmente relacionados com a organização do sistema de saúde de cada país, considerando-se como globalmente positivo o aumento da responsabilidade dos doentes pela gestão da sua própria saúde. Na nossa sociedade os cidadãos consideram a farmácia como um local de primeira escolha para aí resolver os seus problemas de saúde, quer pela acessibilidade quer pelos profissionais de saúde que lá trabalham. Assim, facilmente compreendemos a necessidade do profissional de farmácia (farmacêutico ou técnico de farmácia) intervir activamente na transmissão de informação sobre saúde, aconselhamento e dispensa de medicamentos sem receita médica. O nível de informação e o papel dos médicos, farmacêuticos e técnicos de farmácia assume particular importância no acompanhamento dos doentes em automedicação. O principal objectivo deste estudo é compreender os motivos que levam as pessoas a automedicarem-se e analisar a epidemiologia e a prevalência da automedicação na população de Portugal, mais precisamente na cidade de Bragança. De modo a alcançar os objectivos desta investigação, foi definido um estudo que se desenvolveu segundo uma abordagem quantitativa do tipo descritivo simples. Usou-se este tipo de estudo, pois este consiste em descrever simplesmente um fenómeno ou um conceito relativo a uma população, de maneira a estabelecer as características desta. Verificou-se que de um modo geral existe um número elevado de indivíduos que recorre à automedicação, e grande parte julga que os sintomas são comuns e ligeiros e que não justificam uma consulta médica. O seu comportamento face à automedicação embora apresente alguns cuidados, na sua maioria desenrola-se como uma automedicação não responsável. Os indivíduos que a praticam não apresentam conhecimentos dos riscos que o medicamento que usaram poderia ter causado. Foi possível verificar que quando um técnico de farmácia ou até aluno de farmácia intervém na comunidade, mesmo que seja com a aplicação de um questionário faz com que os indivíduos reflictam sobre o tema que está a ser estudado. Neste caso verificou-se que após a aplicação dos questionários alguns indivíduos reflectiam e chegavam mesmo a admitir que não têm vindo a proceder correctamente em relação à automedicação

Automedicação

A automedicação é um fenómeno frequente nos autocuidados em saúde, desde há muito utilizado e cuja ocorrência e a distribuição estão naturalmente relacionados com a organização do sistema de saúde de cada país, considerando-se como globalmente positivo o aumento da responsabilidade dos doentes pela gestão da sua própria saúde. Na nossa sociedade os cidadãos consideram a farmácia como um local de primeira escolha para aí resolver os seus problemas de saúde, quer pela acessibilidade quer pelos profissionais de saúde que lá trabalham. Assim, facilmente compreendemos a necessidade do profissional de farmácia (farmacêutico ou técnico de farmácia) intervir activamente na transmissão de informação sobre saúde, aconselhamento e dispensa de medicamentos sem receita médica. O nível de informação e o papel dos médicos, farmacêuticos e técnicos de farmácia assume particular importância no acompanhamento dos doentes em automedicação. O principal objectivo deste estudo é compreender os motivos que levam as pessoas a automedicarem-se e analisar a epidemiologia e a prevalência da automedicação na população de Portugal, mais precisamente na cidade de Bragança. De modo a alcançar os objectivos desta investigação, foi definido um estudo que se desenvolveu segundo uma abordagem quantitativa do tipo descritivo simples. Usou-se este tipo de estudo, pois este consiste em descrever simplesmente um fenómeno ou um conceito relativo a uma população, de maneira a estabelecer as características desta. Verificou-se que de um modo geral existe um número elevado de indivíduos que recorre à automedicação, e grande parte julga que os sintomas são comuns e ligeiros e que não justificam uma consulta médica. O seu comportamento face à automedicação embora apresente alguns cuidados, na sua maioria desenrola-se como uma automedicação não responsável. Os indivíduos que a praticam não apresentam conhecimentos dos riscos que o medicamento que usaram poderia ter causado. Foi possível verificar que quando um técnico de farmácia ou até aluno de farmácia intervém na comunidade, mesmo que seja com a aplicação de um questionário faz com que os indivíduos reflictam sobre o tema que está a ser estudado. Neste caso verificou-se que após a aplicação dos questionários alguns indivíduos reflectiam e chegavam mesmo a admitir que não têm vindo a proceder correctamente em relação à automedicação

The Potential of Tree and Shrub Legumes in Agroforestry Systems

Climate variability and changes are utmost important primary drivers of biological processes. They are intimately associated with a wide array of abiotic stresses, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems and endangering biodiversity. Nitrogen‐fixing trees and shrubs (NFTSs) constitute a unique group of plants for their wide range of applications at the environmental, social and economic levels. In this chapter, we review and analyse the potential of this group of legumes in agroforestry towards sustainable agriculture in Africa. In the first part, the intertwined pillar of sustainable agriculture is brought forward under the context of growing population and climate changes. The second part addresses general aspects of legumes, including botany and the symbiosis with rhizobia. The third part includes the application of NFTS as N‐fertilizers in agroforestry, highlighting the importance of an accurate choice of the crop(s)/NFTS combination(s) and cropping type (intercropping, multistrata or fallows). The implementation of agroforestry systems with NFTS should be supported by fundamental research strategies such as stable isotopes and systems biology and preceded by experimental assays, in order to identify the factors promoting N‐losses and to design appropriate management strategies that synchronize legume‐N availability with the crop demand

How bias-correction can improve air quality forecast over Portugal

Currently three air quality modelling systems operate routinely with high-resolution over mainland Portugal for forecasting purposes, namely MM5-CHIMERE, MM5-EURAD, and CALIOPE. They each operate daily using different horizontal resolutions (10 km × 10 km, 5 km × 5 km, and 4 km × 4 km, respectively), specific physical and chemical parameterizations, and their own emission pre-processors (with a common EMEP emission database source but different spatial disaggregation methodologies). The operational BSC-DREAM8b model is coupled offline within the aforementioned air quality systems to provide the Saharan dust contribution to particulate matter. Bias-correction studies have demonstrated the benefit of using past observational data to reduce systematic model forecast errors. The present contribution aims to evaluate the application of two bias-correction techniques, the multiplicative ratio and the Kalman filter, in order to improve air quality forecasts for Portugal. Both techniques are applied to the three modelling systems over the full year of 2010. Raw and unbiased model results for the main atmospheric pollutants (O3, NO2, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5) are analysed and compared with data from 18 monitoring stations distributed within inland Portugal on an hourly basis. Statistical analysis shows that both bias-correction techniques improve the raw forecast skills (for all the modelling systems and pollutants). In the case of O3 max-8 h, correlation coefficients improve by 19-45%, from 0.56-0.81 (raw models) to 0.78-0.86 (corrected models). PM2.5 also presents significant improvements, for example correlation coefficients increase by more than 50% (with both techniques), reaching values between 0.50 and 0.64. The corrected primary pollutants NO2 and SO2 demonstrate significant relative improvements compared to O3, mostly because the original modelling system skills are lower for those species. Although the applied techniques have different mathematical formulations and complexity levels, there are comparable answers for all of the forecasting systems. Analysis performed over specific situations such as air quality episodes and cases of unvalidated or missing data reveals different behaviours of the bias-correction techniques under study. The results confirm the advantage of the application of bias-correction techniques for air quality forecasts. Both techniques can be applied routinely in operational forecast systems and they will be useful to provide accurate alerts about exceedances to the population

A Transcriptomic Approach to Understanding the Combined Impacts of Supra-Optimal Temperatures and CO2 Revealed Different Responses in the Polyploid Coffea arabica and Its Diploid Progenitor C. canephora

Understanding the effect of extreme temperatures and elevated air (CO2) is crucial for mitigating the impacts of the coffee industry. In this work, leaf transcriptomic changes were evaluated in the diploid C. canephora and its polyploid C. arabica, grown at 25 C and at two supra-optimal temperatures (37 C, 42 C), under ambient (aCO2) or elevated air CO2 (eCO2). Both species expressed fewer genes as temperature rose, although a high number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were observed, especially at 42 C. An enrichment analysis revealed that the two species reacted differently to the high temperatures but with an overall up-regulation of the photosynthetic machinery until 37 C. Although eCO2 helped to release stress, 42 C had a severe impact on both species. A total of 667 photosynthetic and biochemical related-DEGs were altered with high temperatures and eCO2, which may be used as key probe genes in future studies. This was mostly felt in C. arabica, where genes related to ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) activity, chlorophyll a-b binding, and the reaction centres of photosystems I and II were down-regulated, especially under 42 C, regardless of CO2. Transcriptomic changes showed that both species were strongly affected by the highest temperature, although they can endure higher temperatures (37 C) than previously assumed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Linking Bacterial Rhizosphere Communities of Two Pioneer Species, Brachystegia boehmii and B. spiciformis, to the Ecological Processes of Miombo Woodlands

Miombo is the most extensive ecosystem in southern Africa, being strongly driven by fire, climate, herbivory, and human activity. Soils are major regulating and supporting services, sequestering nearly 50% of the overall carbon and comprising a set of yet unexploited functions. In this study, we used next-generation Illumina sequencing to assess the patterns of bacterial soil diversity in two pioneer Miombo species, Brachystegia boehmii and Brachystegia spiciformis, along a fire gradient, in ferric lixisol and cambic arenosol soils. In total, 21 phyla, 51 classes, 98 orders, 193 families, and 520 genera were found, revealing a considerably high and multifunctional diversity with a strong potential for the production of bioactive compounds and nutrient mobilization. Four abundant genera characterized the core microbiome among plant species, type of soils, or fire regime: Streptomyces, Gaiella, Chthoniobacter, and Bacillus. Nevertheless, bacterial networks revealed a higher potential for mutualistic interactions and transmission of chemical signals among phylotypes from low fire frequency sites than those from high fire frequency sites. Ecological networks also revealed the negative effects of frequent fires on the complexity of microbial communities. Functional predictions revealed the core “house-keeping” metabolisms contributing to the high bacterial diversity found, suggesting its importance to the functionality of this ecosystem.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Overexpression of water-responsive genes promoted by elevated CO2 reduces ROS and enhances drought tolerance in Coffea species

Drought is a major constraint to plant growth and productivity worldwide and will aggravate as water availability becomes scarcer. Although elevated air [CO2] might mitigate some of these effects in plants, the mechanisms underlying the involved responses are poorly understood in woody economically important crops such as Coffea. This study analyzed transcriptome changes in Coffea canephora cv. CL153 and C. arabica cv. Icatu exposed to moderate (MWD) or severe water deficits (SWD) and grown under ambient (aCO2) or elevated (eCO2) air [CO2]. We found that changes in expression levels and regulatory pathways were barely affected by MWD, while the SWD condition led to a down-regulation of most differentially expressed genes (DEGs). eCO2 attenuated the impacts of drought in the transcripts of both genotypes but mostly in Icatu, in agreement with physiological and metabolic studies. A predominance of protective and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging-related genes, directly or indirectly associated with ABA signaling pathways, was found in Coffea responses, including genes involved in water deprivation and desiccation, such as protein phosphatases in Icatu, and aspartic proteases and dehydrins in CL153, whose expression was validated by qRT-PCR. The existence of a complex post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism appears to occur in Coffea explaining some apparent discrepancies between transcriptomic, proteomic, and physiological data in these genotypes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Next-Generation Proteomics Reveals a Greater Antioxidative Response to Drought in Coffea arabica Than in Coffea canephora

Drought is a major threat to coffee, compromising the quality and quantity of its production. We have analyzed the core proteome of 18 Coffea canephora cv. Conilon Clone 153 and C. arabica cv. Icatu plants and assessed their responses to moderate (MWD) and severe (SWD) water deficits. Label-free quantitative shotgun proteomics identified 3000 proteins in both genotypes, but less than 0.8% contributed to ca. 20% of proteome biomass. Proteomic changes were dependent on the severity of drought, being stronger under SWD and with an enrolment of different proteins, functions, and pathways than under MWD. The two genotypes displayed stress-responsive proteins under SWD, but only C. arabica showed a higher abundance of proteins involved in antioxidant detoxification activities. Overall, the impact of MWD was minor in the two genotypes, contrary to previous studies. In contrast, an extensive proteomic response was found under SWD, with C. arabica having a greater potential for acclimation/resilience than C. canephora. This is likely supported by a wider antioxidative response and an ability to repair photosynthetic structures, being crucial to develop new elite genotypes that assure coffee supply under water scarcity levelsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio