Avaliação do estado nutricional de agroecossistemas de café orgânico no estado de Minas Gerais.

A produção de café orgânico vem se constituindo uma tendência necessária e irreversível do agronegócio brasileiro. Essa atividade tem-se destacado como uma alternativa de renda para alguns cafeicultores, devido à crescente demanda mundial por alimentos mais saudáveis. Entretanto, grande parte das técnicas propostas pela agricultura orgânica está sendo aplicada empiricamente no cultivo de café, principalmente no Estado de Minas Gerais, maior região produtora de café do Brasil. Levando-se em consideração a baixa fertilidade natural dos solos dessa região cafeeira, bem como a elevada extração de nutrientes pelo cafeeiro, objetivou-se neste trabalho identificar possíveis fatores limitantes para a produção orgânica do cafeeiro, relacionados à fertilidade do solo e ao estado nutricional das plantas. Foram realizadas avaliações da fertilidade do solo e análise das folhas em vinte e uma lavouras orgânicas representativas do Estado de Minas Gerais. As amostras de solo foram analisadas para determinação do pH, acidez potencial e dos teores de P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Al e matéria orgânica. As amostras foliares foram analisadas para determinação dos teores de N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, B, Cu, Fe, Mn e Zn. Com base nos padrões de interpretação para cafeeiros convencionais propostos pela literatura, estabeleceram-se as freqüências com que os caracteres analisados foram inferiores aos critérios de interpretação da fertilidade do solo e estado nutricional das plantas. A análise dos dados foi realizada por estatística descritiva. Novos trabalhos nessa nova área são necessários, visando a uma melhor interpretação da análise foliar e da fertilidade do solo, quando se trabalha com café orgânico

Sending Granny to Chiang Mai: debating global outsourcing of care for the elderly

This article ties in with existing discussions on global care chains, family separation and the devaluation of social-reproductive work. We explore the new trend of outsourcing care for the elderly to countries with lower wages. We base our analysis on the debate in the German press and supplement it with insights from ethnographic field observations in two care homes in Thailand. We identify a discourse of abandonment, which shows how outsourcing the care of the elderly unsettles the privilege of sedentarism that is often taken for granted in the Global North. Furthermore, the newspaper articles tend to villainize people who seek care for their loved ones abroad. We argue that both discourses foster a neoliberal rationale of individualized responsibility and obfuscate the deep systemic roots of the care crisis in the Global North. However, by extending the discussion on outsourcing care for the elderly beyond the dominant media discourses, we envisage a rich potential for provoking political debate on the revaluation of care

European guidelines (S3) on diagnosis and management of mucous membrane pemphigoid, initiated by the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology – Part I

This guideline on mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) has been elaborated by the Task Force for Autoimmune Blistering Diseases of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) with a contribution of physicians from all relevant disciplines and patient organizations. It is a S3 consensus-based guideline encompassing a systematic review of the literature until June 2019 in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. This first part covers methodology, the clinical definition of MMP, epidemiology, MMP subtypes, immunopathological characteristics, disease assessment and outcome scores. MMP describes a group of autoimmune skin and mucous membrane blistering diseases, characterized by a chronic course and by predominant involvement of the mucous membranes, such as the oral, ocular, nasal, nasopharyngeal, anogenital, laryngeal and oesophageal mucosa. MMP patients may present with mono- or multisite involvement. Patients’ autoantibodies have been shown to be predominantly directed against BP180 (also called BPAG2, type XVII collagen), BP230, laminin 332 and type VII collagen, components of junctional adhesion complexes promoting epithelial stromal attachment in stratified epithelia. Various disease assessment scores are available, including the Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid Disease Area Index (MMPDAI), the Autoimmune Bullous Skin disorder Intensity Score (ABSIS), the ‘Cicatrising Conjunctivitis Assessment Tool’ and the Oral Disease Severity Score (ODSS). Patient-reported outcome measurements (PROMs), including DLQI, ABQOL and TABQOL, can be used for assessment of quality of life to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions and monitor disease course

Observation of the Dynamic Beta Effect at CESR with CLEO

Using the silicon strip detector of the CLEO experiment operating at the Cornell Electron-positron Storage Ring (CESR), we have observed that the horizontal size of the luminous region decreases in the presence of the beam-beam interaction from what is expected without the beam-beam interaction. The dependence on the bunch current agrees with the prediction of the dynamic beta effect. This is the first direct observation of the effect.Comment: 9 page uuencoded postscript file, postscritp file also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, submitted to Phys. Rev.

European Guidelines (S3) on diagnosis and management of mucous membrane pemphigoid, initiated by the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology – Part II

This guideline has been initiated by the task force Autoimmune Blistering Diseases of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, including physicians from all relevant disciplines and patient organizations. It is a S3 consensus-based guideline that systematically reviewed the literature on mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases until June 2019, with no limitations on language. While the first part of this guideline addressed methodology, as well as epidemiology, terminology, aetiology, clinical presentation and outcome measures in MMP, the second part presents the diagnostics and management of MMP. MMP should be suspected in cases with predominant mucosal lesions. Direct immunofluorescence microscopy to detect tissue-bound IgG, IgA and/or complement C3, combined with serological testing for circulating autoantibodies are recommended. In most patients, serum autoantibodies are present only in low levels and in variable proportions, depending on the clinical sites involved. Circulating autoantibodies are determined by indirect IF assays using tissue substrates, or ELISA using different recombinant forms of the target antigens or immunoblotting using different substrates. The major target antigen in MMP is type XVII collagen (BP180), although in 10–25% of patients laminin 332 is recognized. In 25–30% of MMP patients with anti-laminin 332 reactivity, malignancies have been associated. As first-line treatment of mild/moderate MMP, dapsone, methotrexate or tetracyclines and/or topical corticosteroids are recommended. For severe MMP, dapsone and oral or intravenous cyclophosphamide and/or oral corticosteroids are recommended as first-line regimens. Additional recommendations are given, tailored to treatment of single-site MMP such as oral, ocular, laryngeal, oesophageal and genital MMP, as well as the diagnosis of ocular MMP. Treatment recommendations are limited by the complete lack of high-quality randomized controlled trials

European guidelines (S3) on diagnosis and management of mucous membrane pemphigoid, initiated by the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology – Part I

This guideline on mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) has been elaborated by the Task Force for Autoimmune Blistering Diseases of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) with a contribution of physicians from all relevant disciplines and patient organizations. It is a S3 consensus-based guideline encompassing a systematic review of the literature until June 2019 in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. This first part covers methodology, the clinical definition of MMP, epidemiology, MMP subtypes, immunopathological characteristics, disease assessment and outcome scores. MMP describes a group of autoimmune skin and mucous membrane blistering diseases, characterized by a chronic course and by predominant involvement of the mucous membranes, such as the oral, ocular, nasal, nasopharyngeal, anogenital, laryngeal and oesophageal mucosa. MMP patients may present with mono- or multisite involvement. Patients’ autoantibodies have been shown to be predominantly directed against BP180 (also called BPAG2, type XVII collagen), BP230, laminin 332 and type VII collagen, components of junctional adhesion complexes promoting epithelial stromal attachment in stratified epithelia. Various disease assessment scores are available, including the Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid Disease Area Index (MMPDAI), the Autoimmune Bullous Skin disorder Intensity Score (ABSIS), the ‘Cicatrising Conjunctivitis Assessment Tool’ and the Oral Disease Severity Score (ODSS). Patient-reported outcome measurements (PROMs), including DLQI, ABQOL and TABQOL, can be used for assessment of quality of life to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions and monitor disease course

Species Interactions Alter Evolutionary Responses to a Novel Environment

Adaptation to a novel environment is altered by the presence of co-occurring species. Species in diverse communities evolved complementary resource use, which altered the functioning of the experimental ecosystems

Marine cloud brightening

The idea behind the marine cloud-brightening (MCB) geoengineering technique is that seeding marine stratocumulus clouds with copious quantities of roughly monodisperse sub-micrometre sea water particles might significantly enhance the cloud droplet number concentration, and thereby the cloud albedo and possibly longevity. This would produce a cooling, which general circulation model (GCM) computations suggest could—subject to satisfactory resolution of technical and scientific problems identified herein—have the capacity to balance global warming up to the carbon dioxide-doubling point. We describe herein an account of our recent research on a number of critical issues associated with MCB. This involves (i) GCM studies, which are our primary tools for evaluating globally the effectiveness of MCB, and assessing its climate impacts on rainfall amounts and distribution, and also polar sea-ice cover and thickness; (ii) high-resolution modelling of the effects of seeding on marine stratocumulus, which are required to understand the complex array of interacting processes involved in cloud brightening; (iii) microphysical modelling sensitivity studies, examining the influence of seeding amount, seed-particle salt-mass, air-mass characteristics, updraught speed and other parameters on cloud–albedo change; (iv) sea water spray-production techniques; (v) computational fluid dynamics studies of possible large-scale periodicities in Flettner rotors; and (vi) the planning of a three-stage limited-area field research experiment, with the primary objectives of technology testing and determining to what extent, if any, cloud albedo might be enhanced by seeding marine stratocumulus clouds on a spatial scale of around 100×100 km. We stress that there would be no justification for deployment of MCB unless it was clearly established that no significant adverse consequences would result. There would also need to be an international agreement firmly in favour of such action

Plantando, colhendo, vendendo, mas não comendo: práticas alimentares e de trabalho associadas à obesidade em agricultores familiares do Bonfim, Petrópolis, RJ.

Objetivo: verificar a prevalência de obesidade entre adultos das 86 famílias agricultoras de um bairro de Petrópolis, RJ, e analisar seus determinantes socioculturais. Métodos: estudo quantitativo e qualitativo sobre nutrição, práticas alimentares e de trabalho realizado em 2008. Dados antropométricos foram coletados por inquérito nutricional domiciliar e o material qualitativo por observação participante e entrevistas. Resultados: a prevalência de obesidade foi baixa (9,3%) entre os homens, mas bastante elevada entre as mulheres (29,9%). A prática agrícola local implica em atividade física leve para mulheres e intensa para homens. Essa diferença não é acompanhada na dieta, semelhante para homens e mulheres, com predomínio de alimentos de alto valor calórico. A produção familiar objetiva essencialmente a venda. A agricultura mercantil e a decorrente especialização dos cultivos favorecem comprar alimentos no mercado em vez de produzir para autoconsumo. Conclusão: os aspectos socioculturais e ocupacionais estudados podem ter contribuído para elevar a prevalência de obesidade nas mulheres e podem ser úteis no estudo de outros grupos com características semelhantes. Esta pesquisa ratifica a importância de estudar a obesidade em nível local, integrando abordagens quantitativas e qualitativas para identificar possíveis limitações e portas de entrada para ações de intervenção localmente relevantes