Marx e a questão ambiental: caminhos e fronteiras:

Resumo: Este artigo busca investigar as contribuições e as implicações metodológicas de Marx e da tradição marxista para pensar a questão ambiental. Tratamos de indicar as aproximações entre a problemática ambiental e os textos de Marx. A partir desse apanhado, tentamos contestar as posições que identificamos como equivocadas. Por meio desse exercício, o artigo: i) identifica que as raízes da problemática de dominação da natureza não se resolvem apenas com uma preocupação epistemológica; ii) problematiza a noção de que para Marx haveria uma relação automática entre progresso econômico e social; iii) propõem uma reflexão que pretende equacionar: questão camponesa, tradição marxista e estudos socioambientais

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

"Planting with memory": The homegardens as spaces of life in the poetics of people, time and place

A experiência humana na trajetória da roça para a cidade guarda memórias relacionadas ao espaço e ao tempo vivido. Este trabalho buscou compreender como algumas dessas pessoas, seja de forma coletiva ou individual, territorializam memórias, afetos e conhecimentos em espaços do domínio da vida. Dentre os vários espaços do domínio da vida memorizados pelas pessoas enfatizarei os quintais. Esse lugar está povoado de campesinidades, simbolismos, cosmologias e significados. Como parte indissociável da casa, os quintais nas periferias urbanas representam micromundos onde se reproduzem memórias de momentos anteriores à migração. Sendo constantemente territorializados por plantas de uso alimentício e medicinal, classificadas por sistemas de conhecimentos e, algumas, utilizadas em rituais de curas e benzeções, os quintais materializam também a memória biocultural. Em uma abordagem etnográfica e microsocial, acompanhei quatro moradores que cultivam seus quintais em Nova Viçosa, Viçosa (MG). Dos quatro sujeitos entrevistados foram relatadas experiências de deslocamentos distintos a partir de seus lugares de origem até chegar ao bairro Nova Viçosa. Dois deles têm suas origens em Cajuri e em Porto Firme, na microrregião de Viçosa. Entrevistei, também, uma senhora benzedeira que nasceu em Taquaraçu, município próximo a Mariana (MG) e mais uma senhora das Posses, bairro vizinho de Nova Viçosa. Optei por trabalhar com quatro moradores para trazer uma diversidade nos significados e sentidos que são atribuídos aos quintais por essas pessoas. Para compreender os quintais como espaço de memória, utilizei instrumentos qualitativos de análise, sejam eles a observação participante, entrevistas abertas e diários de campo. Por meio desses instrumentos metodológicos registrei depoimentos e elaborei uma descrição em diário de campo das práticas realizadas nos quintais durante o trabalho de campo. Além disso, realizei um levantamento biocultural das espécies cultivadas, bem como os usos e cosmologias a elas associadas. As entrevistas abertas e vivências realizadas com os sujeitos de pesquisa indicaram que os quintais e a casa são lugares de sociabilidade, privilegiados no presente em uma relação de temporalidade com o passado. Os quintais são lembrados como lugares de experimentações e brincadeiras sendo também cultivados, na atualidade, como lugar de deleite. Para além de uma utilidade apenas material, as pessoas compreendem as plantas em seus quintais não como objetos, mas como atoras não-humanas que potencializam as relações. É através de trocas simbólicas realizadas com vizinhos que os quintais são espaços de uma diversidade biocultural. As vivências realizadas nos quatro quintais de Nova Viçosa trouxeram depoimentos e práticas que apontam a coexistência das práticas cotidianas dos quintais com o tempo disciplinado do trabalho determinado pelo relógio. Nessa coexistência de ritmos de vida distintos os quintais surgiram como espaços de reconstrução das trajetórias de vida dos sujeitos de pesquisa. Sob esta perspectiva, os quintais estão permeados de campesinidades e ritmos de tempos não industriais e não capitalistas, como também territorializam memórias que provocam o caminho para um mundo pós-capitalista, para as terras do bem-viver.The human experience of migration from the countryside to the city keeps memories related to space and time lived before. This study intends to understand how some of these people, whether collectively or individually, territorialize memories, affection and knowledge in spaces of the domain of life. Among the various spaces of the domain of life that people memorize, we will emphasize the homegardens. This place is full of peasantries, symbolisms, cosmologies and meanings. As an inseparable part of the house, homegardens in urban peripheries represent microworlds where memories of moments before migration are reproduced. People constantly territorialize themselves in the space of their homegardens, growing plants of alimentary and medicinal use , classified by systems of knowledge that the people own and some of these plants are used in rituals of cures and blessings. So, it is possible to affirm that homegardens materialize also the biocultural memory. In an ethnographic and micro-social approach we followed four residents who grow their homegardens in Nova Viçosa, Viçosa (MG). These four residents interviewed had different experiences of displacements from their places of origin until arriving at the neighborhood of Nova Viçosa. Two of them came from Cajuri and Porto Firme in the micro-region of Viçosa. We also interviewed a lady who was born in Taquaraçu, a small city near Mariana (MG) and another lady who is from “Posses”, a place near Nova Viçosa. The decision to work with four residents was to bring a diversity in the meanings that are attributed to the homegardens by these people. To understand homegardens as a space of memory we used qualitative analysis tools, as participant observation, open interviews, and field journals. Through these methodological instruments, the testimonies were recorded and a field diary description was made describing practices performed during field insertion. In addition, a biocultural survey of the cultivated species was carried out, as well as the uses and cosmologies associated with them. The open interviews and diverse experiences with the research subjects indicated that the backyards and the house are places of sociability, privileged in the present in a relation of temporality with the past. The homegardens are remembered as places of experimentation and play, and are also cultivated today as a place of delight and affection. In addition to a merely material utility, people understand plants in their yards not as objects, but as non-human actors that potentialize relationships. It is through symbolic exchanges with neighbors that the homegardens are spaces of a biocultural diversity. The experiences carried out in the four homegardens of Nova Viçosa have brought us testimonies and practices that point to the coexistence of the daily practices in the homegardens with the disciplined time of work determined by the clock. In this coexistence of distinct rhythms of life, homegardens were pointed out to us as spaces for the reconstruction of the life trajectories of our research subjects. From our perspective, homegardens are permeated by a peasantry ethos, and non-industrial and non-capitalist time rhythms, as well as it territorialize memories that lead the way to a post-capitalist world, to the lands of well-living.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superio

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In this data set, we make available occurrence and abundance data on mammal species that (1) transposed a geographical barrier and (2) were voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into the Neotropics. Our data set is composed of 73,738 historical and current georeferenced records on alien mammal species of which around 96% correspond to occurrence data on 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Data cover 26 continental countries in the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal-central Florida in the southeast United States) to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay, and the 13 countries of Caribbean islands. Our data set also includes neotropical species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered alien in particular areas of Neotropics. The most numerous species in terms of records are from Bos sp. (n = 37,782), Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), and Canis familiaris (n = 10,084); 17 species were represented by only one record (e.g., Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans). Primates have the highest number of species in the data set (n = 20 species), partly because of uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species Callithrix aurita, Callithrix flaviceps, Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix kuhlii, Callithrix penicillata, and their hybrids. This unique data set will be a valuable source of information on invasion risk assessments, biodiversity redistribution and conservation-related research. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when using the data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us on how they are using the data

Worldwide Disparities in Recovery of Cardiac Testing 1 Year Into COVID-19

BACKGROUND The extent to which health care systems have adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide necessary cardiac diagnostic services is unknown.OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the pandemic on cardiac testing practices, volumes and types of diagnostic services, and perceived psychological stress to health care providers worldwide.METHODS The International Atomic Energy Agency conducted a worldwide survey assessing alterations from baseline in cardiovascular diagnostic care at the pandemic's onset and 1 year later. Multivariable regression was used to determine factors associated with procedure volume recovery.RESULTS Surveys were submitted from 669 centers in 107 countries. Worldwide reduction in cardiac procedure volumes of 64% from March 2019 to April 2020 recovered by April 2021 in high- and upper middle-income countries (recovery rates of 108% and 99%) but remained depressed in lower middle- and low-income countries (46% and 30% recovery). Although stress testing was used 12% less frequently in 2021 than in 2019, coronary computed tomographic angiography was used 14% more, a trend also seen for other advanced cardiac imaging modalities (positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance; 22%-25% increases). Pandemic-related psychological stress was estimated to have affected nearly 40% of staff, impacting patient care at 78% of sites. In multivariable regression, only lower-income status and physicians' psychological stress were significant in predicting recovery of cardiac testing.CONCLUSIONS Cardiac diagnostic testing has yet to recover to prepandemic levels in lower-income countries. Worldwide, the decrease in standard stress testing is offset by greater use of advanced cardiac imaging modalities. Pandemic-related psychological stress among providers is widespread and associated with poor recovery of cardiac testing. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American College of Cardiology Foundation

Paediatric COVID-19 mortality: a database analysis of the impact of health resource disparity

Background The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric populations varied between high-income countries (HICs) versus low-income to middle-income countries (LMICs). We sought to investigate differences in paediatric clinical outcomes and identify factors contributing to disparity between countries.Methods The International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) COVID-19 database was queried to include children under 19 years of age admitted to hospital from January 2020 to April 2021 with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis. Univariate and multivariable analysis of contributing factors for mortality were assessed by country group (HICs vs LMICs) as defined by the World Bank criteria.Results A total of 12 860 children (3819 from 21 HICs and 9041 from 15 LMICs) participated in this study. Of these, 8961 were laboratory-confirmed and 3899 suspected COVID-19 cases. About 52% of LMICs children were black, and more than 40% were infants and adolescent. Overall in-hospital mortality rate (95% CI) was 3.3% [=(3.0% to 3.6%), higher in LMICs than HICs (4.0% (3.6% to 4.4%) and 1.7% (1.3% to 2.1%), respectively). There were significant differences between country income groups in intervention profile, with higher use of antibiotics, antivirals, corticosteroids, prone positioning, high flow nasal cannula, non-invasive and invasive mechanical ventilation in HICs. Out of the 439 mechanically ventilated children, mortality occurred in 106 (24.1%) subjects, which was higher in LMICs than HICs (89 (43.6%) vs 17 (7.2%) respectively). Pre-existing infectious comorbidities (tuberculosis and HIV) and some complications (bacterial pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and myocarditis) were significantly higher in LMICs compared with HICs. On multivariable analysis, LMIC as country income group was associated with increased risk of mortality (adjusted HR 4.73 (3.16 to 7.10)).Conclusion Mortality and morbidities were higher in LMICs than HICs, and it may be attributable to differences in patient demographics, complications and access to supportive and treatment modalities