The new centrality of water and sanitation post COVID-19

COVID-19, known for severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by coronavírus SARS-Cov-2 is characterized by its rapid spread. The pandemic culminated in a social isolation creating significant impacts on the economy and it has taken attention to the key aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene and the identification of the coronavírus presence in wastewater. The purpose of this article is to explain some of the aspects associated with the centrality of the water and sanitation binomial that may prove to be decisive for recovering the world economy in the post COVID-19 period, through the presentation and evaluation of statistics and scientific studies, namely:: 1) human right to water and sanitation, for guarantee life quality, productive capacity and public health, but with a challenge, especially for economically vulnerable countries; 2) relationship with the epidemiology and occurrence of the coronavírus in the sewage, drawing the attention of the scientific community, society and decision makers, even though there is still no scientific evidence of its fecal-oral transmission; 3) the relationship between water and the economy, considering it a basic resource for industrial and agricultural production and job creation. The construction of the concept ?new centrality of water and sanitation? can be considered as a key factor for the economy recovery post-COVID-19.A COVID-19, conhecida por síndrome respiratória aguda grave, causada pelo coronavírus SARS-CoV-2, por ser de rápida propagação, culminou no estabelecimento do isolamento social, causando impactos significativos à economia. Assim, a pandemia da COVID-19 tem chamado a atenção para o tema água e saneamento em aspectos relacionados à essencialidade do seu provimento, à medida preventiva de higienização das mãos e à identificação da presença do coronavírus no esgoto sanitário. O objetivo do presente artigo é, por meio da apresentação e avaliação de estatísticas e estudos científicos, explicitar alguns dos aspectos associados à centralidade do binômio água e saneamento que podem revelar-se determinantes para o relançamento da economia mundial no período pós-COVID-19, nomeadamente: 1) direito humano à água e ao saneamento, fundamentais para a garantia da qualidade de vida, da capacidade produtiva e da saúde pública, porém com uma realidade ainda desafiadora especialmente para países economicamente vulneráveis; 2) relação com a epidemiologia e ocorrência do coronavírus no esgoto sanitário, chamando a atenção da comunidade científica, da sociedade e dos tomadores de decisão, mesmo que ainda sem evidências científicas da sua transmissão feco-oral; 3) relação da água com a economia, considerando-a recurso base para produção industrial e agrícola e geração de empregos. Conclui-se assim pela construção do conceito “nova centralidade da água e do saneamento” como fator chave para a retomada da economia pós-COVID-1

Adaptação aos impactos das mudanças climáticas na perspectiva do plano diretor da cidade do Recife

Defining measures for climate change adaptation is a complex task given the existence of social, environmental, and economic demands, particularly in cities with poor urban infrastructure. As a result of analyzing the revision process of the Recife Master Plan, it is possible to observe that a reduction in the social and environmental vulnerabilities has implied carrying out more consistent studies, which may entail the implementation of structuring measures, and that environmental sustainability requires multilevel governance, with policy reforms on a global, regional and local scale, difficult to implement in the short term, although necessary for refocusing climate policies and for overcoming the inability to provide resources for a tailored adaptation infrastructure. The path to building a resilient city that provides a safer environment for the future depends on an inclusive development model, which enables the population to improve urban conditions and minimize the impacts brought about by extreme weather events.É complexa a tarefa de definir medidas de adaptação às mudanças climáticas diante da existência de demandas sociais, ambientais e econômicas, sobretudo em cidades que apresentam infraestrutura urbana deficiente. Como resultado da análise do processo de revisão do Plano Diretor do Recife (PDDR), vê-se que a redução das vulnerabilidades socioambientais implica a realização de estudos mais consistentes, que possam acarretar a implementação de medidas estruturadoras, e que a sustentabilidade ambiental demanda uma governança multinível, com reformas políticas em escala global, regional e local, de difícil aplicação no curto prazo, mas necessárias para reorientar as políticas do clima e superar a inabilidade de prover os recursos para uma infraestrutura adequada à adaptação. O caminho para construir uma cidade resiliente, que proporcione um ambiente mais seguro para as futuras gerações, depende de um modelo de desenvolvimento inclusivo, que permita melhorar as condições urbanas para a população e minimizar os impactos ocasionados pelos eventos climáticos extremos

Contribution for new genetic markers of rheumatoid arthritis activity and severity : sequencing of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene promoter

© 2007 Fonseca et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe objective of this study was to assess whether clinical measures of rheumatoid arthritis activity and severity were influenced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) promoter genotype/haplotype markers. Each patient's disease activity was assessed by the disease activity score using 28 joint counts (DAS28) and functional capacity by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) score. Systemic manifestations, radiological damage evaluated by the Sharp/van der Heijde (SvdH) score, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug use, joint surgeries, and work disability were also assessed. The promoter region of the TNF-alpha gene, between nucleotides -1,318 and +49, was sequenced using an automated platform. Five hundred fifty-four patients were evaluated and genotyped for 10 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, but 5 of these markers were excluded due to failure to fall within Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium or to monomorphism. Patients with more than 10 years of disease duration (DD) presented significant associations between the -857 SNP and systemic manifestations, as well as joint surgeries. Associations were also found between the -308 SNP and work disability in patients with more than 2 years of DD and radiological damage in patients with less than 10 years of DD. A borderline effect was found between the -238 SNP and HAQ score and radiological damage in patients with 2 to 10 years of DD. An association was also found between haplotypes and the SvdH score for those with more than 10 years of DD. An association was found between some TNF-alpha promoter SNPs and systemic manifestations, radiological progression, HAQ score, work disability, and joint surgeries, particularly in some classes of DD and between haplotypes and radiological progression for those with more than 10 years of DD.This work was supported by grant POCTI/SAU-ESP/59111/2004 from Fundação Ciência e Tecnologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comparative cytogenetic analysis of two grasshopper species of the tribe Abracrini (Ommatolampinae, Acrididae)

The grasshopper species Orthoscapheus rufipes and Eujivarus fusiformis were analyzed using several cytogenetic techniques. The karyotype of O. rufipes, described here for the first time, had a diploid number of 2n = 23, whereas E. fusiformis had a karyotype with 2n = 21. The two species showed the same mechanism of sex determination (XO type) but differed in chromosome morphology. Pericentromeric blocks of constitutive heterochromatin (CH) were detected in the chromosome complement of both species. CMA3/DA/DAPI staining revealed CMA3-positive blocks in CH regions in four autosomal bivalents of O. rufipes and in two of E. fusiformis. The location of active NORs differed between the two species, occurring in bivalents M6 and S9 of O. rufipes and M6 and M7 of E. fusiformsi. The rDNA sites revealed by FISH coincided with the number and position of the active NORs detected by AgNO3 staining. The variability in chromosomal markers accounted for the karyotype differentiation observed in the tribe Abracrini