Analysis of Strict Social Isolation (SSI-Lockdown) Measures Impacts on Atmospheric Pollutant Emissions and Health Risks on Roads with Intense Vehicle Flow in the City of Fortaleza-Ceara/Brazil

In early 2020, governments of many countries adopted strict social isolation (SSI) measures to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Disease (COVID-19). Thus, the present work aimed to evaluate the influence of those SSI measures on atmospheric pollutants emissions and their potential health risks in the city of Fortaleza - Ceará. To this end, static and dynamic analyses were carried out in order to investigate the levels of some atmospheric pollutants found in four main avenues during SSI and post-SSI periods.  In addition, some health indicators were investigated by analyzing potential Particulate Matter (PM) deposition in the respiratory tract of populations exposed to those environments. Our results for both dynamic and static analyses show that all pollutant concentrations from those avenues displayed an increase between SSI and the post-SSI period. The total PM2.5 dose deposited in the respiratory tract and potential total PM10 respiratory deposition showed increases between the SSI and post-SSI periods. The inhaled-dose numbers also showed considerable increases for all avenues when comparing SSI and post-SSI periods. According to our results, SSI contributed to decreases in atmospheric pollutant emissions, in potential particulate matter respiratory tract deposition and, consequently, in the inhaled particulate matter dose

ATLANTIC-PRIMATES: a dataset of communities and occurrences of primates in the Atlantic Forests of South America

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate species, as hybrids in the genera Callithrix and Alouatta. The dataset includes 700 primate communities, 8,121 single species occurrences and 714 estimates of primate population sizes, covering most natural forest types of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and some other biomes. On average, primate communities of the Atlantic Forest harbor 2 ± 1 species (range = 1–6). However, about 40% of primate communities contain only one species. Alouatta guariba (N = 2,188 records) and Sapajus nigritus (N = 1,127) were the species with the most records. Callicebus barbarabrownae (N = 35), Leontopithecus caissara (N = 38), and Sapajus libidinosus (N = 41) were the species with the least records. Recorded primate densities varied from 0.004 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta guariba at Fragmento do Bugre, Paraná, Brazil) to 400 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta caraya in Santiago, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Our dataset reflects disparity between the numerous primate census conducted in the Atlantic Forest, in contrast to the scarcity of estimates of population sizes and densities. With these data, researchers can develop different macroecological and regional level studies, focusing on communities, populations, species co-occurrence and distribution patterns. Moreover, the data can also be used to assess the consequences of fragmentation, defaunation, and disease outbreaks on different ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, species invasion or extinction, and community dynamics. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this Data Paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data. © 2018 by the The Authors. Ecology © 2018 The Ecological Society of Americ

Analysis Of Potential Lubricants For In Vitro Wear Testing.

A critical testing aspect for a reliable two-body wear simulation may be the lubricity condition. The main hypothesis tested in this study was that, over the experiment duration, the presence or absence of lubricants would provide to a composite similar wear rates to those observed under human saliva lubrication. Seventy specimens, fabricated from a minifill composite, were tested in a programmable logic controlled wear simulator with human saliva (HS), mucin-based artificial saliva (MC), carboxymethylcellulose-containing saliva (CM), deionized water (DW) or with no lubrication (UN). Wear depth was quantified at the end of 1000, 5000, 10,000 and 50,000 cycles and at each 50,000 through 250,000 cycles. Over all the test period, UN led to the greatest wear. Initially, lubrication resulted in no significant differences among the wear rates. Subsequently, up to 50,000 cycles, depths of wear provided by HS and MC were still similar, being the lowest, whereas DW yielded greater wear than CM. Later, interposition of CM and HS resulted in equivalent wear. At 250,000 cycles, wear of the composite ranked as follows: MC<HS<CM<DW<UN. Regression analyses showed that for all lubricity conditions wear of the composite rose logarithmically with number of cycles. The role of the interposed lubricant was of importance for the wear testing. The present findings supported by studies on the lubricity ability of mucin-based artificial saliva, allowed to conclude that this preparation may be considered as a potential lubricant for in vitro wear test purposes.2277-8