Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

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

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 The Ecological Society of Americ

Atenção primária à saúde de indígenas sul-americanos: revisão integrativa da literatura

Objetivo. Revisar a literatura acerca do acesso à atenção primária à saúde (APS) por comunidades indígenas da América do Sul, identificando os principais obstáculos a esse acesso. Métodos. Revisão integrativa de artigos publicados de 2007 a 2017 nas bases de dados LILACS, PubMed e SciELO. Para a busca, foram utilizados os descritores “indígenas AND saúde AND Brasil” e “indígenas AND saúde NOT Brasil” nos idiomas português e inglês. Foram incluídos artigos publicados em inglês, português ou espanhol e que abordassem estritamente a APS em indígenas sul-americanos. Resultados. Foram incluídos 40 artigos que descreveram aspectos da APS de indígenas em oito países: Brasil, Peru, Colômbia, Bolívia, Argentina, Chile, Paraguai e Equador. Os principais obstáculos de acesso à APS detectados foram a dificuldade de acesso aos serviços de saúde mais próximos das aldeias; linguagem e ilustrações das cartilhas de educação em saúde inapropriadas ao contexto indígena; dificuldade de comunicação com os profissionais de saúde; carência de meios de transporte adequados até as unidades de saúde; escassez de dados epidemiológicos das aldeias indígenas; ausência de informação sobre as culturas indígenas locais; e medo de discriminação ou humilhação por parte do paciente indígena. Conclusões. Ainda são escassos os estudos sobre saúde indígena na América do Sul. Também é evidente que os sistemas de saúde nacionais ainda precisam avançar na direção de uma medicina intercultural, de respeito às realidades sociais, culturais e econômicas de todas as comunidades assistidas, com conhecimento e consideração pelas diferentes formas de cuidado

Analytical validation of caffeine quantification method in decaffeinated coffee by HPLC-UV/ Validação analítica do método de quantificação de cafeína em café descafeinado por HPLC-UV

This study aimed to determine the caffeine content and to verify that the contents of decaffeinated coffee are within the standards determined by regulatory agencies. This paper describes a rapid (7.0 min) and sensitive (LLOQ 0.8 µg/mL) analytical method for the quantitation of Caffeine (CFF) in decaffeinated coffee. The method is based on High-performance Liquid chromatography-Ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) with a wavelength of 285nm. Sample preparation involved liquid-liquid extraction with chloroform. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a ACE C18 (150 x 4,6 mm) reversed-phase column and a mobile phase containing acetonitrile/water (20:80 v/v), in isocratic conditions. The assay was linear in the concentration range of 10 – 100 µg/mL. The mean recovery for CFF was 99.89%. Intra- and inter-day precision (R.S.D.) were 1.5 % and 1.82 %, respectively and the accuracy (R.E.) was in the range ± 2.14 %.The results, verified by the validation, showed an adequate technique to be applied in the samples evaluated, in addition to a simple, fast execution methodology, with lower costs

Principais dificuldades e obstáculos enfrentados pela comunidade surda no acesso à saúde: uma revisão integrativa de literatura

RESUMO Buscou-se identificar na literatura os principais obstáculos e dificuldades enfrentadas por pessoas surdas quanto ao acesso à saúde. Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa de literatura, considerando estudos publicados entre 2006 e 2016, utilizando combinações de descritores controlados. As bases de dados virtuais utilizadas foram: LILACS, PUBMED e SciELO, incluindo artigos publicados em Inglês, Português e Espanhol. A amostra final foi composta por 24 artigos, selecionados após análise dos títulos, resumos e textos na íntegra. Os estudos selecionados foram categorizados quanto às principais temáticas e dificuldades enfrentadas pela comunidade surda, sendo principalmente relacionadas à barreira comunicacional existente entre ouvintes e surdos. Tal fato culmina em interferências na relação profissional-paciente, compreensão deficitária das pessoas surdas quanto ao processo saúde-doença e as dificuldades de integração da pessoa surda na comunidade. Na maioria dos estudos analisados, evidenciou-se que as dificuldades enfrentadas pelas pessoas surdas quando buscam atendimento em saúde são ligadas à comunicação, bem como desconhecimento de Língua Brasileira de Sinais (LIBRAS) por grande parte dos profissionais de saúde. Além disso, também há a necessidade de familiar ou intérprete presente durante a consulta e a falta de compreensão de grande parte da comunidade surda como sujeitos bilíngues e multiculturais

Cardiac Autonomic Function and Functional Capacity in Post-COVID-19 Individuals with Systemic Arterial Hypertension

Individuals diagnosed with systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) are considered risk groups for COVID-19 severity. This study assessed differences in cardiac autonomic function (CAF) and functional capacity (FC) in SAH individuals without COVID-19 infection compared to SAH individuals post-COVID-19. Participants comprised 40 SAH individuals aged 31 to 80 years old, grouped as SAH with COVID-19 (G1; n = 21) and SAH without COVID-19 (G2; n = 19). CAF was assessed via heart rate variability (HRV), measuring R–R intervals during a 10-min supine period. Four HRV indices were analyzed through symbolic analysis: 0V%, 1V%, 2LV%, and 2UV%. FC assessment was performed by a 6-min walk test (6MWT). G1 and G2 showed no significant differences in terms of age, anthropometric parameters, clinical presentation, and medication use. G2 exhibited superior 6MWT performance, covering more distance (522 ± 78 vs. 465 ± 59 m, p p < 0.05). Shorter walking distances were observed during 6MWT in SAH individuals post-COVID-19. However, the study did not find impaired cardiac autonomic function in SAH individuals post-COVID-19 compared to those without. This suggests that while COVID-19 impacted FC, CAF remained relatively stable in this population