Chronic wasting disease risk assessment in Portugal: analysis of variability and genetic structure of the Portuguese roe deer population

Among the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in cervids is now the rising concern in wildlife within Europe after the first case detected in Norway in 2016. CWD shows a notable horizontal transmission, affecting both free-ranging and captive cervids. Furthermore, several genetic variants in the Prion Protein (PRNP) gene coding sequence of the cervid were identified, which increase the susceptibility to the disease.This work was supported by the project WastingPrionRisk [POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029,947/ PTDC/CVT-CVT/29947/2017] funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). FCT PhD grant [SFRH/BD/146961/2019] financed by FCT through FSE (Fundo Social Europeu). This work was also supported by national funds [UIDB/CVT/00772/2020], [LA/P/0059/2020] and [UIDB/04033/2020] by FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Palliative patients in the portuguese public hospitals

Introdução: A identificação e referenciação precoce dos doentes com necessidades paliativas é fundamental para que em tempo útil possam usufruir da efetividade da intervenção precoce de cuidados paliativos. Referenciar para cuidados Paliativos é um importante, crescente e complexo desafio e processo para a prática dos profissionais de saúde, nomeadamente para os médicos. A falta de informação e formação podem impedir a proatividade no processo de referenciação precoce. Atualmente, existem já alguns instrumentos multidimensionais que ajudam a identificar a população com necessidades paliativas. A pergunta surpresa, validada para Portugal, “Ficaria surpreendido se este doente morresse durante o próximo ano?” é uma ferramenta importante, útil e fiável para esta identificação. Objetivo: determinar a prevalência de doentes adultos com necessidades paliativas internados em hospitais públicos. Como objetivos secundários, determinar o número de doentes referenciados para cuidados paliativos e identificar os motivos de não referenciação destes doentes. Materiais e Métodos: Estudo analítico, observacional e transversal, realizado no primeiro trimestre de 2015 em 11 hospitais do SNS. O instrumento de colheita de dados consistiu num questionário com caracterização demográfica e clinica, a pergunta surpresa relativa a 1 ano, 6 e 1 mês e, 15 dias, e 19 possíveis motivos para não referenciação dos doentes. Os dados recolhidos forma analisados com recurso à estatística descritiva e analítica, considerando-se significância estatística se p<0.05. Resultados: De um total de 1273 doentes, 51.4% eram doentes com necessidades paliativas, a maioria proveniente dos serviços de oncologia (79.3%) e medicina (62.3%), e maioritariamente com doença oncológica (67.2%). Apenas estavam referenciados 6.8 a 9.9% dos doentes, maioritariamente oncológicos (15.1%) ou com 15 ou menos dias de vida (9.8%). Os cinco principais motivos para não referenciação foram: ainda estar a fazer tratamento ativo (61.5%), “ainda se poder fazer alguma coisa do ponto de vista curativo” (40.9%), o doente estar controlado a nível sintomático (33.2%), ainda não estar a morrer (27.6%) e os cuidados paliativos não serem uma mais-valia para o doente (15.4%). Conclusão: Elevada prevalência de doentes e baixa taxa de referenciação. É necessária e imperiosa a formação e capacitação dos profissionais de saúde para uma adequada identificação e referenciação e tempo útil dos doentes com necessidades paliativas.Early identification and referral of patients with palliative needs is essential so they can benefit from the effectiveness of early intervention of palliative care. Referral for palliative care is an important, growing and complex challenge and process for the practice of health professionals, particularly for physicians. Lack of information and training may prevent proactivity in the process of early refer Currently, some multidimensional instruments help to identify the population with palliative needs. The surprise question, validated for Portugal, “Would you be surprised if this patient died during the next year?” is an important, useful and reliable tool for this identification.Aim: to determine the prevalence of adult patients with palliative needs hospitalized in public hospitals; to determine who were referenced for palliative care and to identify the reasons for non-referral of these patients.Material and Methods: an analytical, observational and cross-sectional study was performed in the first quarter of 2015 in 11 hospitals of the Portuguese Health System. The data collection instrument consisted of a questionnaire with demographic and clinical characterization, the surprise question regarding 1 year, 6 and 1 month and, 15 days, and 19 possible reasons for non-referral of patients. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics, considering statistical significance if p <0.05.Results: From a total of 1273 patients, 51.4% were patients with palliative needs, the majority coming from the oncology (79.3%) and medicine services (62.3%), and mainly with oncological disease (67.2%). Only 6.8 to 9.9% of the patients were referred, mainly oncological (15.1%) or with 15 days or less of life (9.8%). The five main reasons for non-referral were: still being under active treatment (61.5%), “still able to do something from a curative point of view” (40.9%), the patient being symptomatically controlled (33.2%), not considered to be actively dying (27.6%) and not being an added value to the patient (15.4%).Conclusions: High prevalence of patients with palliative care need, low referral rate. The training and qualification of health professionals is necessary and imperative for an adequate identification and referral in a useful time of patients with palliative needs

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

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

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

Os relevos quartzíticos do sector de Soutelo - Arrancada do Vouga - Águeda (NW de Portugal) : enquadramento estratigráfico e morfotectónico

This work aims at presenting a stratigraphic and morphotectonic regional framework of the quartzite relief of the Soutelo - Arrancada do Vouga - Águeda structural domain (Iberian Massif, NW Portugal). The Armorican quartzite discontinuous outcrops take the form of a narrow N-S strip, with a 1 km wide, of Lower Palaeozoic age, which is included in a major crustal-scale strike-slip zone, the so-called Porto-Coimbra-Tomar shear zone. This crystalline basement bears a very characteristic and ubiquitous tectonostratigraphy. The morphotectonic and geological surveys led us to newly describe and mapping the quartzite relief structure to the North of Águeda village, until the left margin of Vouga River. The large-scale relief is strongly associated with the existence of scarps along inherited regional fault and shear zones. These results suggest that relief development in this region was mainly controlled by tectonics through fault zones reactivation

Middle and upper Palaeozoic basins from Estarreja-Coimbra-Tomar region (Porto-Tomar-Ferreira do Alentejo shear zone, W Portugal) : clay mineralogy, organic metamorphism, palynology and tectonostratigraphy review

Chaminé Helder I., Rocha Fernando T., Moço Luís P., Fernandes José P., Flores Deolinda, Gomes Celso, Lemos de Sousa Manuel J., Gama Pereira Luís C., Fonseca Paulo E. Middle and upper Palaeozoic basins from Estarreja-Coimbra-Tomar region (Porto-Tomar-Ferreira do Alentejo shear zone, W Portugal) : clay mineralogy, organic metamorphism, palynology and tectonostratigraphy review. In: Documents des Laboratoires de Géologie, Lyon, n°156, 2002. STRATI 2002. 3ème congrès français de stratigraphie. Lyon, 8-10 juillet 2002. pp. 68-69

Metodologias interdisciplinares em estudos de geoconservação de património geológico-mineiro : o caso da antiga mina de volfrâmio das Aveleiras (Mire de Tibães) : the case of ancient Aveleiras wolfram mine (Mire de Tibães)

This work emphasizes the importance of recovery processes of abandoned mining heritage, as an example of the transformative process of an organization towards a second life cycle. This perspective reflects an important measure for sustainability, either for the organization and the surrounding environment. The Aveleira Mine is an old wolfram mine, belonging to the Monastery of St Martin of Tibães, near Braga, in the North of Portugal. It was the mother house of the Benedictine order in Portugal. By the initiative of the Tibães Monastery this mine will probably reconverted, partially, in a geosite and, probably, near future in mining museum. The work aim was to present a methodological approach, in a geoconservation point of view, allowing an ulterior partially recovering and stabilization of the Aveleiras ancient mine