Dyslipidaemia and Undernutrition in Children from Impoverished Areas of Maceió, State of Alagoas, Brazil

Chronic undernutrition causes reduced growth and endocrine adaptations in order to maintain basic life processes. In the present study, the biochemical profiles of chronically undernourished children were determined in order to test the hypothesis that chronic undernutrition also causes changes in lipid profile in pre-school children. The study population comprised 80 children aged between 12 and 71 months, including 60 with moderate undernutrition [height-for-age Z (HAZ) scores ≤ −2 and > −3] and 20 with severe undernutrition (HAZ scores ≤ −3). Socioeconomic, demographic and environmental data were obtained by application of a questionnaire, and anthropometric measurements and information relating to sex, age and feeding habits were collected by a trained nutritionist. Blood samples were analysed for haemoglobin, vitamin A, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and serum lipids, while cortisol was assayed in the saliva. Faecal samples were submitted to parasitological investigation. Analysis of variance and χ2 methods were employed in order to select the variables that participated in the multivariate logistic regression analysis. The study population was socioeconomically homogeneous, while the lack of a treated water supply was clearly associated with the degree of malnutrition. Most children were parasitised and anaemia was significantly more prevalent among the severely undernourished. Levels of IGF-1 decreased significantly with increasing severity of undernutrition. Lipid analysis revealed that almost all of the children had dyslipidemia, while low levels of high-density lipoprotein were associated with the degree of undernutrition. It is concluded that chronic malnutrition causes endocrine changes that give rise to alterations in the metabolic profile of pre-school children

Fighting HIV/AIDS in a developing country: lessons from a small cohort from the largest Brazilian city

Not Applicabl

Dispersion and release of embelin from electrospun biodegradable, polymeric, membranes

In this work, microfiber meshes containing embelin, a poorly water-soluble bioactive agent, were prepared by solubilizing embelin in a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer matrix of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL). Plain or drug-loaded, highly porous, fibrous membranes with a high area-to-volume ratio were obtained by electrospinning. Non-woven microfibrous meshes were formed by uniform bead-free fibers with a mean diameter of 1.2 μm. Non-porous films were obtained by solution casting, and were used for comparison. The drug-loading content of the prepared systems was appropriate for topical applications. The thermal properties revealed that the crystallinity of embelin significantly decreased, the drug having almost completely dissolved in the PCL fibers. The in situ bioavailability of embelin, an antimycotic agent, is an important aspect to consider in topical drug applications. The drug-loaded systems presented different contact areas with the biological environment. When comparing the ability to expose embelin with the biological environment of the prepared systems, drug-loaded fibrous scaffolds showed a higher bioavailability of the bioactive agent because of an increase by 86% in the area-to-volume ratio, providing an effective area per unit mass that was 5.8-fold higher than that of the film. For the meshes, 90% embelin release was observed after 12h of exposure to phosphate-buffered saline, whereas for the films a comparable level of release occurred only after 72h.Fil: Cortez Tornello, Pablo Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigación En Ciencia y Tecnología de Materiales (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Feresin, Gabriela Egly. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Tapia, Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Biotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Veiga, Itiara G.. Universidade Estadual de Campinas; BrasilFil: Moraes, Ângela M.. Universidade Estadual de Campinas; BrasilFil: Abraham, Gustavo Abel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigación En Ciencia y Tecnología de Materiales (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Cuadrado, Teresita Raquel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigación En Ciencia y Tecnología de Materiales (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentin

The status of the world's land and marine mammals: diversity, threat, and knowledge

Knowledge of mammalian diversity is still surprisingly disparate, both regionally and taxonomically. Here, we present a comprehensive assessment of the conservation status and distribution of the world's mammals. Data, compiled by 1700+ experts, cover all 5487 species, including marine mammals. Global macroecological patterns are very different for land and marine species but suggest common mechanisms driving diversity and endemism across systems. Compared with land species, threat levels are higher among marine mammals, driven by different processes (accidental mortality and pollution, rather than habitat loss), and are spatially distinct (peaking in northern oceans, rather than in Southeast Asia). Marine mammals are also disproportionately poorly known. These data are made freely available to support further scientific developments and conservation action

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-PRIMATES: a dataset of communities and occurrences of primates in the Atlantic Forests of South America

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate species, as hybrids in the genera Callithrix and Alouatta. The dataset includes 700 primate communities, 8,121 single species occurrences and 714 estimates of primate population sizes, covering most natural forest types of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and some other biomes. On average, primate communities of the Atlantic Forest harbor 2 ± 1 species (range = 1–6). However, about 40% of primate communities contain only one species. Alouatta guariba (N = 2,188 records) and Sapajus nigritus (N = 1,127) were the species with the most records. Callicebus barbarabrownae (N = 35), Leontopithecus caissara (N = 38), and Sapajus libidinosus (N = 41) were the species with the least records. Recorded primate densities varied from 0.004 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta guariba at Fragmento do Bugre, Paraná, Brazil) to 400 individuals/km 2 (Alouatta caraya in Santiago, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Our dataset reflects disparity between the numerous primate census conducted in the Atlantic Forest, in contrast to the scarcity of estimates of population sizes and densities. With these data, researchers can develop different macroecological and regional level studies, focusing on communities, populations, species co-occurrence and distribution patterns. Moreover, the data can also be used to assess the consequences of fragmentation, defaunation, and disease outbreaks on different ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, species invasion or extinction, and community dynamics. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this Data Paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data. © 2018 by the The Authors. Ecology © 2018 The Ecological Society of Americ

VIII Encuentro de Docentes e Investigadores en Historia del Diseño, la Arquitectura y la Ciudad

Acta de congresoLa conmemoración de los cien años de la Reforma Universitaria de 1918 se presentó como una ocasión propicia para debatir el rol de la historia, la teoría y la crítica en la formación y en la práctica profesional de diseñadores, arquitectos y urbanistas. En ese marco el VIII Encuentro de Docentes e Investigadores en Historia del Diseño, la Arquitectura y la Ciudad constituyó un espacio de intercambio y reflexión cuya realización ha sido posible gracias a la colaboración entre Facultades de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño de la Universidad Nacional y la Facultad de Arquitectura de la Universidad Católica de Córdoba, contando además con la activa participación de mayoría de las Facultades, Centros e Institutos de Historia de la Arquitectura del país y la región. Orientado en su convocatoria tanto a docentes como a estudiantes de Arquitectura y Diseño Industrial de todos los niveles de la FAUD-UNC promovió el debate de ideas a partir de experiencias concretas en instancias tales como mesas temáticas de carácter interdisciplinario, que adoptaron la modalidad de presentación de ponencias, entre otras actividades. En el ámbito de VIII Encuentro, desarrollado en la sede Ciudad Universitaria de Córdoba, se desplegaron numerosas posiciones sobre la enseñanza, la investigación y la formación en historia, teoría y crítica del diseño, la arquitectura y la ciudad; sumándose el aporte realizado a través de sus respectivas conferencias de Ana Clarisa Agüero, Bibiana Cicutti, Fernando Aliata y Alberto Petrina. El conjunto de ponencias que se publican en este Repositorio de la UNC son el resultado de dos intensas jornadas de exposiciones, cuyos contenidos han posibilitado actualizar viejos dilemas y promover nuevos debates. El evento recibió el apoyo de las autoridades de la FAUD-UNC, en especial de la Secretaría de Investigación y de la Biblioteca de nuestra casa, como así también de la Facultad de Arquitectura de la UCC; va para todos ellos un especial agradecimiento

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