Valuing wind farms’ environmental impacts by geographical distance: a contingent valuation study in Portugal

Wind energy is currently one the most important energy sources in the production of electricity. In this study, we use the CVM to elicit the monetary value attached to wind power’s environmental impacts from three different groups of individuals: local residents, residents in a nearby town, and residents outside the area of a wind farm located in Portugal, one of the top 10 countries in the world with the highest cumulative wind power capacity to date. In each case, our empirical analysis employs a novel likelihood function that is constructed to be appropriate for the type of data collected. The main results are supportive of a NYMBY effect, but also indicate that the amount needed to compensate local residents for the negative impacts caused by the wind farm can be raised by the constitution of a compensation fund paid by non-residents, thereby overcoming the inefficiency caused by the NYMBY effect.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)The authors thank the participants at the 2013 XVI Applied Economics Meeting, Granada-Spain, for helpful comments. This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the Applied Microeconomics Research Unit (NIMA) and the project Economic valuation of environmental impacts of renewable energies (PTDC/EGE-ECO/122402/2010)

Contribution for new genetic markers of rheumatoid arthritis activity and severity : sequencing of the tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene promoter

© 2007 Fonseca et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe objective of this study was to assess whether clinical measures of rheumatoid arthritis activity and severity were influenced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) promoter genotype/haplotype markers. Each patient's disease activity was assessed by the disease activity score using 28 joint counts (DAS28) and functional capacity by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) score. Systemic manifestations, radiological damage evaluated by the Sharp/van der Heijde (SvdH) score, disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug use, joint surgeries, and work disability were also assessed. The promoter region of the TNF-alpha gene, between nucleotides -1,318 and +49, was sequenced using an automated platform. Five hundred fifty-four patients were evaluated and genotyped for 10 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, but 5 of these markers were excluded due to failure to fall within Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium or to monomorphism. Patients with more than 10 years of disease duration (DD) presented significant associations between the -857 SNP and systemic manifestations, as well as joint surgeries. Associations were also found between the -308 SNP and work disability in patients with more than 2 years of DD and radiological damage in patients with less than 10 years of DD. A borderline effect was found between the -238 SNP and HAQ score and radiological damage in patients with 2 to 10 years of DD. An association was also found between haplotypes and the SvdH score for those with more than 10 years of DD. An association was found between some TNF-alpha promoter SNPs and systemic manifestations, radiological progression, HAQ score, work disability, and joint surgeries, particularly in some classes of DD and between haplotypes and radiological progression for those with more than 10 years of DD.This work was supported by grant POCTI/SAU-ESP/59111/2004 from Fundação Ciência e Tecnologia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A RELAÇÃO ENTRE O USO EXCESSIVO DE REDES SOCIAIS E A SAÚDE MENTAL DOS JOVENS

This study explores the relationship between excessive social media use and mental health in young people. The research reveals that intense use of these platforms is associated with increased symptoms of depression and anxiety, reflecting the growing concern about the psychological impact of social media. Evidence analysis points out that frequent use contributes to issues such as low self-esteem and stress. The literature review indicates that both young adults and adolescents are negatively affected, showing a significant increase in emotional disorders due to prolonged exposure to social media. The main objective of the work is to better understand how excessive social media use influences mental health and to suggest strategies to mitigate these adverse impacts.Este estudo explora a relação entre o uso excessivo de redes sociais e a saúde mental dos jovens. A pesquisa revela que o uso intenso dessas plataformas está associado a um aumento dos sintomas de depressão e ansiedade, refletindo a crescente preocupação com o impacto psicológico das redes sociais. A análise das evidências aponta que o uso frequente dessas redes contribui para problemas como baixa autoestima e estresse. A revisão bibliográfica indica que tanto jovens adultos quanto adolescentes são afetados negativamente, apresentando um aumento significativo nos transtornos emocionais devido à exposição prolongada a redes sociais. O objetivo principal do trabalho é compreender melhor como o uso excessivo de redes sociais influencia a saúde mental e sugerir estratégias para mitigar esses impactos adversos

Neuroproteção na ressecção cirúrgica de gliomas cerebrais: revisão da evidência atual

Os gliomas cerebrais são tumores primários do sistema nervoso central que se desenvolvem a partir de células gliais e têm alta morbimortalidade. Seu tratamento padrão envolve a ressecção cirúrgica, radioterapia e quimioterapia, os quais possivelmente podem levar os pacientes a um prognóstico desfavorável. Nesse contexto, a neuroproteção entra como uma aliada para minimizar os efeitos colaterais da ressecção cirúrgica e melhorar a sobrevida e a qualidade de vida dos pacientes. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo tem como objetivo discutir sobre a evidência atual da neuroproteção na ressecção cirúrgica de gliomas cerebrais. Para isso, foram selecionados quatro artigos que que abordavam sobre a evidência atual da neuroproteção na ressecção cirúrgica de gliomas cerebrais, por meio de uma estratégia de busca com recorte temporal entre 2014 e 2023, nas bases de dados PubMed (Medline), Embase e Cochrane Library. Os resultados indicam que o grupo de pacientes que recebeu dexmedetomidina apresentou melhora significativa na cognição e redução da inflamação cerebral em comparação com o grupo-controle pós-ressecção dos gliomas cerebrais, além de menor incidência de efeitos colaterais anestésicos, como náusea e vômitos (p < 0,05). Ademais, foi observado que a modulação da via metabólica do glutamato/glutamina pode inibir o crescimento de gliomas e proteger o parênquima cerebral. Nesse sentido, as evidências atuais indicam que proteger as células nervosas é uma estratégia importante para minimizar os efeitos colaterais da ressecção cirúrgica de gliomas cerebrais, e a dexmedetomidina e a co-cultura de células de glioma e astrócitos que aumenta a concentração extracelular de glutamato e glutamina parecem ser importantes aliadas nessa profilaxia

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 EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 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

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

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others