Preliminary observation of the use of sodium bicarbonate solution as an adjunct in the treatment of coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19): prognosis improvement in patients requiring intensive care / Observação preliminar do uso de solução de bicarbonato de sódio como coadjuvante no tratamento da doença coronavírus 2019 (COVID-19): melhora do prognóstico na necessidade de terapia intensiva

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the use of sodium bicarbonate solution as an adjunct in the treatment of critically ill patients in an intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: A group of 76 patients were followed up, of which 44 received treatment with a sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) solution along with the conventional treatment, and 32 patients used only the conventional treatment. Results: In patients treated, there was an improvement in radiological findings, a decrease in opacity and bilateral consolidations, as well as reduced length of stay in the ICU, and mortality. Conclusion: The use of NaHCO3 solution as an adjunct in the treatment of COVID-19 improved prognosis compared to conventional treatment. 

Assessment of risk scores to predict mortality of COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit

ObjectivesTo assess the ABC2-SPH score in predicting COVID-19 in-hospital mortality, during intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and to compare its performance with other scores (SOFA, SAPS-3, NEWS2, 4C Mortality Score, SOARS, CURB-65, modified CHA2DS2-VASc, and a novel severity score).Materials and methodsConsecutive patients (≥ 18 years) with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 admitted to ICUs of 25 hospitals, located in 17 Brazilian cities, from October 2020 to March 2022, were included. Overall performance of the scores was evaluated using the Brier score. ABC2-SPH was used as the reference score, and comparisons between ABC2-SPH and the other scores were performed by using the Bonferroni method of correction. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality.ResultsABC2-SPH had an area under the curve of 0.716 (95% CI 0.693–0.738), significantly higher than CURB-65, SOFA, NEWS2, SOARS, and modified CHA2DS2-VASc scores. There was no statistically significant difference between ABC2-SPH and SAPS-3, 4C Mortality Score, and the novel severity score.ConclusionABC2-SPH was superior to other risk scores, but it still did not demonstrate an excellent predictive ability for mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Our results indicate the need to develop a new score, for this subset of patients

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

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

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

AVALIAÇÃO DOS DANOS AMBIENTAIS PROVOCADOS PELO DESASTRE TECNOLÓGICO DA MINERADORA VALE S.A. NO VALE DO RIO PARAOPEBA

Resumo: No dia 25 de janeiro de 2019, o Brasil foi assolado por mais um desastre tecnológico de proporções alarmantes, denotando as insuficiências dos dispositivos institucionais voltados ao planejamento ambiental. O rompimento da Barragem I do Complexo Minerário do Córrego do Feijão (Vale S.A.), em Brumadinho-MG, gerou um aporte de 12 milhões de m³ de rejeito no Ribeirão Ferro-Carvão, afluente do Rio Paraopeba, promovendo significativos danos ambientais e perda de centenas de vidas. Na urgência de compreender a geograficidade da tragédia, foi organizada uma expedição para reconhecimento dos danos ambientais no vale do Rio Paraopeba. As informações de campo, somadas aos dados secundários obtidos junto aos órgãos do governo e à empresa responsável pela barragem, permitiram a aplicação de uma matriz de avaliação de impactos ambientais. Os resultados obtidos denotam expressivos danos aos meios físico, biótico e sociocultural, não apenas nas áreas recobertas pelos rejeitos, mas em toda a extensão do corredor hídrico afetado, o que permitiu uma imersão sobre a natureza da degradação ambiental gerada, bem como sua espacialidade ante à magnitude da tragédia. Palavras-Chave: Degradação Ambiental. Brumadinho. Vale S.A. Rompimento de Barragem. Avaliação de Impactos.   Abstract: On January 25, 2019, Brazil was plagued by another technological disaster of alarming proportions, denoting the insufficiencies of institutional arrangements for environmental planning. The disruption of one of the Vale S.A. Mining Complex Dams in Brumadinho-MG generated a contribution of 12 million m³ of tailings in the Ferro-Carvão river, a tributary of the Paraopeba River, causing significant environmental damage and loss of hundreds of lives. In an urgent need to understand the geography of the tragedy, an expedition was organized to identify the environmental damages in the Paraopeba River valley. The field information gathered, added to the secondary data obtained from the government agencies and the mining company, allowed the application of an environmental impact assessment matrix. The results show significant damage to the physical, biotic and sociocultural environments, not only in the areas covered by the tailings, but in the entire length of the affected water corridor, which allowed for an immersion into the nature of the environmental degradation generated, as well as in its tragedy’s spatiality. Key-words: Ambiental degradation. Brumadinho. Vale S.A. Dambreak; Impact Assessment

Selection strategy of phage-displayed immunogens based on an in vitro evaluation of the Th1 response of PBMCs and their potential use as a vaccine against Leishmania infantum infection

Abstract Background The development of a vaccine for the prevention of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) still represents a significant unmet medical need. A human vaccine can be found if one takes into consideration that many people living in endemic areas of disease are infected but do not develop active VL, including those subjects with subclinical or asymptomatic infection. Methods In this study, a phage display was used to select phage-exposed peptides that were specific to immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies from asymptomatic and symptomatic VL patients, separating them from non-infected subjects. Phage clones presenting valid peptide sequences were selected and used as stimuli of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from both patients’ groups and controls. Those with higher interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)/interleukin (IL)-10 ratios were further selected for vaccination tests. Results Among 17 evaluated clones, two were selected, B1 and D11, and used to immunize BALB/c mice in an attempt to further validate their in vivo protective efficacy against Leishmania infantum infection. Both clones induced partial protection against the parasite challenge, which was evidenced by the reduction of parasitism in the evaluated organs, a process mediated by a specific T helper (Th)1 immune response. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to use a rational strategy based on in vitro stimulation of human PBMCs with selected phage-displayed clones to obtain new immunogens against VL

HEMORRAGIA PÓS-PARTO: MANEJO QUE SALVA VIDAS

INTRODUÇÃO: a hemorragia pós-parto (HPP) consiste no sangramento excessivo após o parto e pode ocorrer antes ou após expulsão da placenta. Atualmente, é a principal causa de morte materna no mundo, com cerca de 140.000 mortes anuais e frequência de uma morte a cada quatro minutos. Essas mortes, na maior parte, são consideradas evitáveis e ocorrem em países de baixa e média rendas. O diagnóstico tardio acarreta complicações, que variam de momentâneas e leves, até aquelas capazes de causar sequelas crônicas e, até mesmo, a morte. METODOLOGIA: consiste numa revisão narrativa de literatura científica baseada em estudos e fontes literárias pregressas. O levantamento bibliográfico nos portais: Scientific Electronic Library On Line (SciELO) e PubMed, sendo utilizados os seguintes descritores: (hemorragia pós-parto) OR (sangramento pós-parto) AND (causas) AND (manejo). OBJETIVO: explicitar as principais causas de HPP, citar o quadro clínico, explicar o diagnóstico precoce, além de descrever de forma objetiva e didática o passo a passo do manejo a ser seguido frente a uma situação de sangramento pós-parto. CONSIDERAÇÕES FINAIS: observa-se a importância acerca do conhecimento sobre esta temática, priorizando o diagnóstico precoce e manejo efetivo a fim de promover a estabilização hemodinâmica, conter sequelas a curto/médio/longo prazo e, principalmente, a morte materna por HPP.POSTPARTUM HEMORRHAGE: MANAGEMENT THAT SAVES LIVE