20 research outputs found

    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    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

    Teoria do valor: bases para um método

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    A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

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    Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

    Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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    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

    Hantavirus Reservoirs: Current Status with an Emphasis on Data from Brazil

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    Since the recognition of hantavirus as the agent responsible for haemorrhagic fever in Eurasia in the 1970s and, 20 years later, the descovery of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in the Americas, the genus Hantavirus has been continually described throughout the World in a variety of wild animals. The diversity of wild animals infected with hantaviruses has only recently come into focus as a result of expanded wildlife studies. The known reservoirs are more than 80, belonging to 51 species of rodents, 7 bats (order Chiroptera) and 20 shrews and moles (order Soricomorpha). More than 80genetically related viruses have been classified within Hantavirus genus; 25 recognized as human pathogens responsible for a large spectrum of diseases in the Old and New World. In Brazil, where the diversity of mammals and especially rodents is considered one of the largest in the world, 9 hantavirus genotypes have been identified in 12 rodent species belonging to the genus Akodon, Calomys, Holochilus, Oligoryzomys, Oxymycterus, Necromys and Rattus. Considering the increasing number of animals that have been implicated as reservoirs of different hantaviruses, the understanding of this diversity is important for evaluating the risk of distinct hantavirus species as human pathogens

    Fatal outcome of chikungunya virus infection in Brazil

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    Federal University of Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil / Central Public Health Laboratory of Ceará State. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.University of São Paulo. Virology Research Center. Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.Federal University of Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.University of Oxford. Department of Zoology. oxford, United Kingdom.University of São Paulo. Virology Research Center. Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.University of Oxford. Department of Zoology. oxford, United Kingdom / Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies. Department of Research in Virology and Biotechnology. Panama City, Panama.Central Public Health Laboratory of Ceará State. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Central Public Health Laboratory of Ceará State. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil / Centro Universitário Christus. Faculdade de Medicina. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Central Public Health Laboratory of Ceará State. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Federal University of Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.State Health Secretariat of Ceará. Death Verification Service Dr Rocha Furtado. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Federal University of Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Ananindeua, PA, Brasil.Federal University of Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Ananindeua, PA, Brasil.Centro Universitário Christus. Faculdade de Medicina. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Ananindeua, PA, Brasil.Centro Universitário Christus. Faculdade de Medicina. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Ananindeua, PA, Brasil.Centro Universitário Christus. Faculdade de Medicina. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Centro Universitário Christus. Faculdade de Medicina. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Centro Universitário Christus. Faculdade de Medicina. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Federal University of Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil / Ministry of Health. Brasilia, DF, Brazil.Ministry of Health. Brasilia, DF, Brazil.Ministry of Health. Brasilia, DF, Brazil.Ministry of Health. Brasilia, DF, Brazil.Faculdade de Medicina São Leopoldo Mandic. Campinas, SP, Brazil.Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Ananindeua, PA, Brasil.University of Oxford. Department of Zoology. Oxford, United Kingdom.University of São Paulo. Virology Research Center. Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.University of Oxford. Department of Zoology. Oxford, United Kingdom / Imperial College London. Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. London, United Kingdom.Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Ananindeua, PA, Brasil.Federal University of Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.Federal University of Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil / Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - Branch Ceará. Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.BACKGROUND: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) emerged in the Americas in 2013 and has caused approximately 2.1 million cases and >600 deaths. A retrospective investigation was undertaken to describe clinical, epidemiological, and viral genomic features associated with deaths caused by CHIKV in Ceará state, northeast Brazil. METHODS: Sera, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and tissue samples from 100 fatal cases with suspected arbovirus infection were tested for CHIKV, dengue virus (DENV), and Zika virus (ZIKV). Clinical, epidemiological, and death reports were obtained for patients with confirmed CHIKV infection. Logistic regression analysis was undertaken to identify independent factors associated with risk of death during CHIKV infection. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted using whole genomes from a subset of cases. RESULTS: Sixty-eight fatal cases had CHIKV infection confirmed by reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (52.9%), viral antigen (41.1%), and/or specific immunoglobulin M (63.2%). Co-detection of CHIKV with DENV was found in 22% of fatal cases, ZIKV in 2.9%, and DENV and ZIKV in 1.5%. A total of 39 CHIKV deaths presented with neurological signs and symptoms, and CHIKV-RNA was found in the CSF of 92.3% of these patients. Fatal outcomes were associated with irreversible multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Patients with diabetes appear to die at a higher frequency during the subacute phase. Genetic analysis showed circulation of 2 CHIKV East-Central-South African (ECSA) lineages in Ceará and revealed no unique virus genomic mutation associated with fatal outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The investigation of the largest cross-sectional cohort of CHIKV deaths to date reveals that CHIKV-ECSA strains can cause death in individuals from both risk and nonrisk groups, including young adults. © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America

    Ferrovias, doenças e medicina tropical no Brasil da Primeira República Railroads, disease, and tropical medicine in Brazil under the First Republic

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    Aborda o impacto da malária no âmbito da modernização republicana, basicamente nas ferrovias, que asssumiram então o papel de integrar o território e operar a expansão simbólica e material da nação brasileira. Os cientistas destacados para debelar os surtos epidêmicos não se limitaram a realizar as campanhas. Fizeram observações sobre aspectos da doença, inclusive suas relações com hospedeiros e ambientes, contribuindo com novos conhecimentos e com a institucionalização, no Brasil, de novo campo que então se estabelecia nas potências coloniais européias: a medicina tropical. O artigo articula essas inovações - especialmente a teoria da infecção domiciliária - com as campanhas em prol de ferrovias e com estágio subseqüente no enfrentamento da malária no Brasil, nos anos 1920.<br>The article explores the impact of malaria on infrastructure works - above all, railroads - under the republican drive towards modernization. Railways helped tie the territory together and foster the symbolic and material expansion of the Brazilian nation. The scientists entrusted with vanquishing such epidemic outbreaks did not just conduct campaigns; they also undertook painstaking observations of aspects of the disease, including its relations to hosts and the environment, thus contributing to the production of new knowledge of malaria and to the institutionalization of a new field in Brazil, then taking root in Europe's colonies: "tropical medicine." The article shows the ties between these innovations (especially the theory of domiciliary infection) and the sanitary campaigns that helped the railways, which in the 1920s were followed by a new phase in Brazil's anti-malaria efforts
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