Human toxocariasis: contribution by Brazilian researchers

In the present paper the main aspects of the natural history of human infection by Toxocara larvae that occasionally result in the occurrence of visceral and/or ocular larva migrans syndrome were reviewed. The contribution by Brazilian researchers was emphasized, especially the staff of the Tropical Medicine Institute of São Paulo (IMT)

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

O problema do seqüenciamento da produção em uma indústria química: avaliação de uma aplicação real Production sequencing problem in a chemical company: evaluation of an application

A presente pesquisa relata uma aplicação real observada no planejamento da produção em uma empresa química, que produz segundo ordens dos clientes. Várias particularidades dificultaram o uso direto dos modelos do tipo lote econômico de produção (ELSP). O trabalho relata alguns desafios encontrados e discute as opções adotadas referentes aos custos de setup, à seqüência de produção e à produção de pequenas ordens, as quais exigem pouco tempo produtivo mas longos tempos de setup. O trabalho prossegue com o desenvolvimento de uma proposta de metodologia de seqüenciamento da produção baseada no problema do caixeiro viajante, seguida de um algoritmo para reduzir as penalidades de antecipação e atraso na produção das várias ordens.<br>The present research discusses an application of production management relevant to the production planning of a chemical firm which produces goods according to orders placed by clients. A number of difficulties have precluded the direct use of the ELSP type of model. This paper describes the challenges met and discusses the options adopted relative to setup costs, production sequencing, and the production of small orders, which require a short production time but long setups. The study includes the development of a production sequence methodology based on the traveling salesman problem, followed by an algorithm to reduce earliness and tardiness penalties