Amiloidose cardíaca: Cardiac amyloidosis

Introdução: A amiloidose cardíaca é uma doença rara e multissistêmica, causada por depósito amiloide de proteínas solúveis, que precipitam nos tecidos na forma de agregados fibrilares amiloides. Esses depósitos amiloides podem causar vários distúrbios cardíacos, e seus portadores são divididos em quatro grupos. Apresentação do caso: paciente com 73 anos, apresentou-se à urgência e emergência devido dispneia aos médios e pequenos esforços, com piora progressiva dos últimos meses. Hipertenso crônico, sem outras comorbidades. Apresentava-se lúcido, orientado em tempo e espaço, acianótico, anictérico, hipocorado, dispneico, com ritmo cardíaco irregular, bulhas normofonéticas, e presença de terceira bulha. Presença de estertores crepitantes bilateralmente, com redução discreta do murmúrio vesicular em terço inferior pulmonar esquerdo e direto. Edema de membros inferiores bilateral em região perimaleolar e tibial (++/++++), panturrilhas livres. Discussão: Por apresentar achados inespecíficos, seu diagnóstico é limitado, suspeitado diante de casos de insuficiência cardíaca encontrada em ecocardiograma e alterações de condução em eletrocardiogramas. Durante investigação, é comum a presença de depósito amiloide em rins, fígado, baço e outros órgãos, dentre eles o coração, causando alterações em seus tecidos. Conclusão: O diagnóstico precoce é necessário para evitar a progressão da doença. O tratamento é baseado na estabilização dos depósitos e drogas para alívio sintomático, além de controle das anormalidades clínicas e hemodinâmicas

Histoplasmose Pulmonar: Pulmonary Histoplasmosis

Introdução: A histoplasmose pulmonar é uma micose causada pelo fungo dimórfico Histoplasma capsulatum, sendo uma das infecções respiratórias fúngicas mais comum no mundo. Apresentação do caso: paciente do sexo feminino, 49 anos de idade, foi admitida no hospital, queixando-se de dor torácica predominante em hemitórax direito, com piora progressiva nos últimos 5 meses. Afirmou que a dor tem intensidade 5 de 10 com duração intermitente. Negou febre, tosse, dispneia e emagrecimento. Apresenta alterações clínicas e radiográficas típicas de tuberculose ou neoplasia, mas que teve essas hipóteses descartadas, confirmando a histoplasmose pulmonar. Discussão: Essa doenca é prevalente no continente americano e acomete mais o sexo masculino. A gravidade do quadro varia de acordo com o grau de exposição ao fator causador, podendo variar da ausência de sintomas à falência respiratória ou morte. O diagnóstico é feito por exames complementares e laboratoriais e, tendo em vista a semelhança radiológica entre lesões malignas e a histoplasmose pulmonar, é de suma importância a exclusão desse diagnóstico diferencial a fim de evitar iatrogenias. Conclusão: Ao achado radiológico de um nódulo pulmonar solitário, a principal hipótese diagnóstica é de uma neoplasia maligna, entretanto a histoplasmose pulmonar deve ser considerada por também apresentar infiltrados reticulonodulares à radiografia,  principalmente em pacientes residentes em áreas endêmicas

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

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

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

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