Construção de um sistema de indicadores da qualidade das águas superfíciais numa bacia hidrográfica

Tese mestrado em engenharia municipalA Directiva Quadro da Água estabelece uma plataforma comum para a gestão integrada e sustentável das águas naturais. Isto implica a necessidade das entidades gestoras se equiparem com instrumentos de análise para suporte à decisão. A bacia hidrográfica, unidade primordial de planeamento e gestão, está normalmente submetida a inúmeras pressões e alterações ambientais resultantes principalmente das actividades humanas. À escala de uma bacia hidrográfica existe a necessidade de se estabelecerem metodologias que permitam a monitorização sistemática da qualidade da água para a posterior caracterização do seu estado, através de uma análise correcta dos dados recolhidos, para que as actuais e futuras pressões possam ser identificadas, compreendidas, evitadas e minimizadas. A avaliação da interacção pressão-estado-impacto numa bacia hidrográfica pode ser facilitada com a ajuda de indicadores ambientais que, actualmente, estão na base de um dos possíveis métodos de análise, tratamento e informação, de modo a tornar os dados de cariz científico facilmente perceptíveis e utilizáveis pelos diversos públicos. O presente trabalho descreve a metodologia desenvolvida na implementação de um sistema de indicadores de qualidade de águas superficiais na Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Ave. Esta ferramenta baseou-se no modelo conceptual de Pressão-Estado-Resposta e pode ser aplicada na avaliação de três tipos de variáveis de qualidade: biológica, físico-química e hidromorfológica. Contudo, no âmbito do presente trabalho, esta abordagem restringiu-se unicamente a elementos de qualidade físico-química, utilizando dados da Rede Nacional de Qualidade da Água relativos aos anos de 2002, 2003, 2004 e 2005. A caracterização da qualidade das águas superficiais comportou um conjunto de etapas e cobriu as temáticas eutrofização, balanço de oxigénio, contaminação microbiológica, matéria orgânica e metais pesados, definindo para cada temática, indicadores de pressão, de estado e de resposta.The European Water Framework Directive establishes a common framework for sustainable and integrated management of natural waters. This implies a tight connection between management bodies and instruments of analysis for decision making. The river basin, primordial unity of planning and management, is usually submitted to pressures and changes, due to human activities. At a river basin scale there is a need to establish a methodology for systematic data monitoring, for the characterization of surface water quality and for the correct analysis of collected data, so that the present and expected future pressures may be identified and understood. The assessment of pressure-state-impact interaction can be facilitated using environmental indicator tools, which are on the basis of one of possible methods of analyses, treatment and information capable of transforming scientific data in clear way of communication with public. This research work describes the methodology developed in the implementation of an indicator system for the Portuguese River Ave Basin surface waters. This assessment tool is based on the conceptual model Pressure-State-Response and may be used to evaluate three types of quality variables: biological, physical-chemical and hydro-morphological. In the present work, this approach was applied only to physical-chemical quality variables. For the indicators calculation, data from the National Water Quality Network relative to the years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 were used. The characterization of the surface waters quality consists on a group of steps and deals with eutrophication, dissolved oxygen, contamination by microorganisms, organic matter and heavy metals. For each of these thematics, pressure, state and response indicators were defined

Occupational accidents among nursing professionals in a home care service in the state of São Paulo

This is a cross-sectional study whose objective is to identify and describe accidents with biological material as told by nursing professionals in a home care service in a city in the state of São Paulo. Of the 30 subjects who provided that service in the data collection period, 28 agreed to participate and 12 (42.8%) claimed to have suffered at least one accident with biological material while carrying out professional procedures for that service. Most of the exposures were percutaneous (91.7%) and blood was the most often involved fluid (75%). Regarding procedures, 75% of the individuals were administering drugs when the accident happened and 50% admitted that they were recapping hollow needles. The current study enabled the identification of situations described by the professionals and which led to the occurrence of accidents with biological material during home care. These findings can support preventive measures and guide future studies that involve this type of accident at homes

The dysfunctional immune system in common variable immunodeficiency increases the susceptibility to gastric cancer

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Gastric carcinoma (GC) represents the most common cause of death in patients with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID). However, a limited number of cases have been characterised so far. In this study, we analysed the clinical features, bacterial/viral infections, detailed morphology and immune microenvironment of nine CVID patients with GC. The study of the immune microenvironment included automated digital counts of CD20+, CD4+, CD8+, FOXP3+, GATA3+ and CD138+ immune cells, as well as the evaluation of PD-L1 expression. Twenty-one GCs from non-CVID patients were used as a control group. GC in CVID patients was diagnosed mostly at early-stage (n = 6/9; 66.7%) and at younger age (median-age: 43y), when compared to non-CVID patients (p < 0.001). GC pathogenesis was closely related to Helicobacter pylori infection (n = 8/9; 88.9%), but not to Epstein-Barr virus (0.0%) or cytomegalovirus infection (0.0%). Non-neoplastic mucosa (non-NM) in CVID-patients displayed prominent lymphocytic gastritis (100%) and a dysfunctional immune microenvironment, characterised by higher rates of CD4+/CD8+/Foxp3+/GATA3+/PD-L1+ immune cells and the expected paucity of CD20+ B-lymphocytes and CD138+ plasma cells, when compared to non-CVID patients (p < 0.05). Changes in the immune microenvironment between non-NM and GC were not equivalent in CVID and non-CVID patients, reflecting the relevance of immune dysfunction for gastric carcinogenesis and GC progression in the CVID population.This article is a result of the projects DOCnet (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000003/000029), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This research was funded by FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, grantnumber PTDC/MED-PAT/32462/2017 and PTDC/BIM-MEC/2834/2014.This work is funded by grant PAC-PRECISE-LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-016394, co-funded by FEDER through POR Lisboa 2020—Programa Operacional Regional de Lisboa PORTUGAL 2020 and FCT, and UID/BIM/50005/2019 funded by FCT/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (MCTES) through Fundos do Orçamento de Estadoinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Letter to the Editor: Primary Immunodeficiencies in Adults – Multicentric Cooperation to Characterize the Portuguese Reality

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Pró-letramento: experiências pedagógicas em matemática e linguagem

O livro trata das relações da Unesp com o programa “Pró-Letramento – Mobilização pela Qualidade da Educação”, realizado pelo Ministério da Educação e Cultura (MEC) em parceria com universidades que integram a Rede Nacional de Formação Continuada. Trata-se de um programa voltado para professores com vista à melhoria da qualidade do ensino e da aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita em Matemática e Linguagem nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental. O papel das universidades é o de principalmente servirem como centros de pesquisa e de criação de atividades, sendo o corpo de pesquisadores da Unesp composto por especialistas nas áreas de Matemática, Linguagem e Educação em geral, que atuam inclusive com o apoio da educação a distância. Desde a criação do Pró-Letramento, em 2006, a Unesp está envolvida, por exemplo, com a formatação de cursos e com a elaboração do material a ser utilizado, baseado sempre na problematização dos conteúdos e das práticas cotidianas dos professores. Esse material traz ainda orientações de atividades a serem desenvolvidas entre os professores e aplicadas em sala de aula

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora