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

Ensino da Bioética Convergente de ricardo maliandi nos Cursos de medicina

RESUMO Este artigo sublinha a patente deficiência dos currículos de Medicina em relação às Ciências Humanas e defende que o estudo da Bioética — disciplina que procura integrar as Ciências Humanas às Ciências Biológicas — poderá ajudar a preencher essa nociva lacuna. Apresentamos a Bioética Convergente de Ricardo Maliandi e Oscar Thüer como um valioso arcabouço teórico capaz de auxiliar o médico a protagonizar a resolução dos conflitos éticos inerentes à sua prática profissional, sem incorrer em unilateralidade. Comparamos sua fundamentação teórica com a conhecida proposta, também principialista, de Beauchamp e Childress, apontando as vantagens daquela em relação a esta. Exemplificamos sua aplicabilidade com a análise de potenciais conflitos éticos inferidos de informações obtidas em prontuário de uma paciente internada no Centro de Terapia Intensiva do Hospital Universitário Antônio Pedro. Para a realização dessa análise, buscamos, na literatura médica, dados probabilísticos em relação ã doença em questão (neoplasia de esôfago com fístula traqueoesofageana complicada por choque séptico pulmonar), ressaltando que esses dados podem ajudar na melhor compreensão do prognóstico, sem que por isso possam ser utilizados como respaldo da equipe médica para decisões unilaterais de limitação terapêutica. A literatura médica também nos brindou com propostas de condução de casos difíceis do ponto de vista ético, como o da paciente em tela. Escolhemos uma delas (Azoulayet al.12), reconhecendo e demonstrando sua compatibilidade com a Bioética Convergente de Maliandi e Thüer. Trata-se de um ensaio teórico sobre limitação terapêutica, no qual procuramos unir a fundamentação da literatura à aplicabilidade em um caso real de paciente crítica. Acreditamos que este artigo poderá ser um ponto de partida para a difusão da Ética Convergente — trabalho de toda a vida do filósofo Ricardo Maliandi, explicitada, no que tange à Bioética, com auxílio do médico Oscar Thüer — nos cursos de Medicina, trazendo mais segurança e menos solidão ao difícil processo de tomada de decisão inerente à relação médico-paciente ou médico-família, em especial no que se refere à atenção médica no fim da vida

Dopplerfluxometria de ducto venoso: identificação não invasiva da acidemia em fetos prematuros centralizados Ductus venosus velocimetry: noninvasive identification of fetal acidemia in preterm fetuses with brain sparing reflex

OBJETIVO: estabelecer o ponto de corte a partir do qual seja possível identificar fetos prematuros com centralização do fluxo sangüíneo que apresentem gasometria anormal. MÉTODO: foi realizado estudo observacional transversal, cuja população consistia de 60 gestantes com fetos centralizados (relação umbílico-cerebral maior que 1), com idade gestacional entre 25 e 33 semanas. O ducto venoso foi identificado com auxílio da dopplerfluxometria colorida e obtida a relação S/A a partir do sonograma (relação entre a velocidade de pico da sístole ventricular e a velocidade de pico da sístole atrial). Imediatamente após a cesariana foi colhida amostra de sangue da veia umbilical para gasometria. Os conceptos foram classificados de acordo com a análise gasométrica e considerados anormais quando pH OBJECTIVE: to assess through Dopllerfluxometry the S/A ratio of the ductus venosus and determine the cut-off point to identify preterm fetuses with the 'brain sparing phenomenon". METHOD: a cross-sectional study was performed in 60 pregnant women that presented the "brain sparing phenomenon" (umbilical cerebral ratio >1) and gestational age between 25 and 33 weeks. The following parameters were studied: S/A ratio of the ductus venosus, pH and base excess (BE) of a fetal blood sample collected from the umbilical vein immediately after birth. The fetuses were classified according to the gas analysis result. They were considered abnormal when pH <7.20 and BE < -6 mmol/l. A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to examine the relationship between S/A ratio and fetal acidemia. RESULTS: sixty pregnant women in the period of January 1998 to January 2003 were selected. In the moment of the study the gestational age varied from 25 to 33 weeks, with an average of 29.7 weeks (±1.8 weeks). All of the fetuses presented the "brain sparing phenomenon". Among them 14 presented abnormal gas analysis at birth and 46 presented normal gas analysis. The prevalence of fetuses with abnormal gas analysis in the studied material was 23.33%. Significant association was observed between the abnormal ductus venosus velocimetry and abnormal gas analysis at birth (chi2 = 784.44, p < 0.00001) in preterm fetuses with "brain sparing phenomenon". The best cut-off point of the S/A ratio (where the ROC curves bent) was 3.4. CONCLUSION: fetal acidemia in preterm fetuses with "brain sparing phenomenon" may be noninvasively identified by Doppler measurement of the ductus venosus when the S/A rises above 3.4