A Qualitative Assessment of Guinea-Bissau’s Hunting History and Culture - and Their Implications for Primate Conservation

Illegal hunting and trade threaten the high biodiversity of Guinea-Bissau (GB) in West Africa, particularly for nonhuman primates (NHP). Primate carcasses are sold at bushmeat markets and at restaurants and the primate pet trade is active. Traditional medicine practitioners also use NHP body-parts further promoting the commerce of NHP skins. A better understanding of hunting and related trade activities, including the profile of hunters and their motivations, would improve NHP conservation in GB. However, information on commercial hunting is incomplete due to a general unwillingness to describe illegal activities by the local communities. Here, we investigated aspects of hunting practice and related commercial activities targeting NHP in GB by collecting qualitative ethnographic information using semi-structured interviews. Participants were asked about hunted species, techniques and hunting locations, their motivations to hunt wild NHP, uses of carcasses, and their perceptions on the demographic trajectory of hunted species. Eight participants in the study listed species hunted in GB, which included a total of seven NHP. Hunting areas described were spread across southern GB and included locations within the limits of national protected areas and formalized ecological corridors. Participants mentioned the trade in NHP meat at bushmeat restaurants as the primary motivation for primate-targeted hunting, with the exception of western chimpanzees, which are specifically targeted for the exotic pet trade. Several strategies are used in hunting NHP, including traps, firearms, and hunting dogs. The majority of hunted NHP were perceived as having declined in population size during recent decades. Episodes when military groups hunted NHP intensively using more sophisticated weapons and methods in the 1980s were also described. This study highlights how hunting and related activities are complex and multi-dimensional and illustrates the use of ethnographic methods to improve knowledge about illegal and concealed practices impacting NHP conservation. Our results suggest an urgent need to raise awareness of local communities and subsistence hunters living within protected areas about the environmental and social impacts of hunting.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O TRABALHO ESCRAVO COMO EXPRESSÃO LATENTE DA QUESTÃO SOCIAL

O presente texto elucida algumas implicações da escravidão para efeito de comprovar a sua caracterização como expressão latente da raiz da questão social no Brasil Colônia. Traz de maneira introdutória a importância de tal análise para as ciências sociais

Un análisis sobre accesibilidad web de los sitios web más utilizados en el sector turístico en Portugal

Technologies have been experiencing strong growth in the tourism industry, mainly with the use of emerging technologies. This growing predominance is based on web 2.0 with regard to communication and also the semantic web, allowing an easy integration be-tween the tourist entities involved. However, are web tools designed and coded proper-ly, for use by people with disabilities? This article aimed to present the results of acces-sibility on the websites of tourism. Each home page was analyzed in terms of web ac-cessibility from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It has been found that the ma-jority of home pages fail in one or more W3C web accessibility measures, which means that users with disabilities may have substantial problems accessing the websites. Several suggestions on how to improve the accessibility of the websites are offered. This study contributed to the discussion on the use of tourism technologies by people with disabilitiesLas tecnologías han experimentado un fuerte crecimiento en la industria del turismo. Este predominio creciente se basa en la web 2.0 con respecto a la comunicación y también en la web semántica, lo que permite una fácil integración entre las entidades turísticas involucradas. Sin embargo, ¿las herramientas web están diseñadas y codificadas correctamente para que las utilicen las personas con discapacidad? Este artículo tuvo como objetivo presentar los resultados de accesibilidad en los sitios web de turismo. Cada página de entrada se analizó en términos de accesibilidad web del World Wide Web Consortium. Se ha encontrado que la mayoría de las páginas de entrada fallan en medidas de accesibilidad, o sea, los usuarios con discapacidades pueden tener problemas sustanciales para acceder a los sitios web. Se ofrecen varias sugerencias sobre cómo mejorar la accesibilidad de los sitios web. Este estudio contribuyó a la discusión sobre el uso de tecnologías turísticas por personas con discapacida

Gaucher Disease: an underdiagnosed disorder

OBJECTIVE: Gaucher disease is an inborn error of metabolism, clinically heterogeneous, whose prognosis may vary according to the presentation subtype. CASE DESCRIPTION: Patient at the age of three years and six months with a history of anemia and splenomegaly for the past two years. Physical examination showed: moderate paleness, systolic murmur in mitral and tricuspid areas without irradiation, significant splenomegaly and mild hepatomegaly. Hemogram presented normocytic and normochromic anemia and mild thrombocytopenia. To investigate bone marrow-related anemias, a myelogram was indicated and the results showed medullary infiltration by Gaucher cells. The diagnosis of the disease was confirmed by assay of acid beta-glucosidase. Genetic counseling was requested and imiglucerase therapy was started. COMMENTS: This was the only documented case of Gaucher disease diagnosis in the General Hospital of Uberlândia Federal University, between 1999 and 2008, which assists a population of approximately 3 million people in 86 municipalities, indicating underdiagnosis of this inborn metabolic error. Thus, it is important to consider Gaucher disease as a differential diagnosis on patients with chronic anemia and splenomegaly during childhood.OBJETIVO: A doença de Gaucher é um erro inato do metabolismo, clinicamente heterogêneo, cujo prognóstico pode variar de acordo com o subtipo de apresentação. DESCRIÇÃO DO CASO: Paciente de três anos e seis meses com história de anemia e esplenomegalia há dois anos. Ao exame físico, mostrava mucosas discretamente hipocoradas, sopro sistólico em focos mitral e tricúspide sem frêmito ou irradiação, esplenomegalia importante e hepatomegalia discreta. O hemograma evidenciou anemia normocítica e normocrômica e plaquetopenia discreta. Demais exames normais. Para investigar causas medulares de anemia foi realizado o mielograma, que constatou infiltração medular por células de Gaucher. O diagnóstico foi confirmado pela dosagem de beta-glicosidase ácida. O aconselhamento genético foi solicitado e a terapia de reposição com imiglucerase foi orientada. COMENTÁRIOS: O caso foi o único documentado com o diagnóstico de doença de Gaucher no Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, entre 1999 e 2008, que abrange uma população de aproximadamente 3 milhões de pessoas em 86 municípios, sugerindo haver subdiagnóstico desse erro inato. Ressalta-se a importância de ter em mente a doença de Gaucher como diagnóstico diferencial em pacientes com anemia crônica e esplenomegalia na infância.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)UFUUniversidade de São Paulo Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão PretoUFU Faculdade de Medicina Departamento de PediatriaUFU Faculdade de MedicinaUNIFESPSciEL

Dual-stage triterpenoids from an African medicinal plant targeting the malaria parasite

Sixteen triterpenoids (1–16), previously isolated from the aerial parts of the African medicinal plant Momordica balsamina or obtained by derivatization, were evaluated for their activity against liver stages of Plasmodium berghei, measuring the luminescence intensity in Huh-7 cells infected with a firefly lucif erase-expressing P. berghei line, PbGFP-Luccon. Toxicity of compounds (1–16) was assessed on the same cell line through the fluorescence measurement of cell confluency. The highest activity was displayed by a derivative bearing two acetyl residues, karavoate B (7), which led to a dose-dependent decrease in the P. berghei infection rate, exhibiting a very significant activity at the lowest concentration employed (1 lM) and no toxicity towards the Huh-7 cells. It is noteworthy that, in previous studies, this compound was found to be a strong inhibitor of blood-stages of Plasmodium falciparum, thus displaying a dual-stage antimalarial activity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards customized footwear with improved comfort

A methodology enabling the customization of shoes for comfort improvement is proposed and assessed. For this aim, 3D printed graded density inserts were placed in one of the critical plantar pressure zones of conventional insoles, the heel. A semi-automated routine was developed to design the 3D inserts ready for printing, which comprises three main stages: (i) the definition of the number of areas with different mesh density, (ii) the generation of 2D components with continuous graded mesh density, and (iii) the generation of a 3D component having the same 2D base mesh. The adequacy of the mesh densities used in the inserts was previously assessed through compression tests, using uniform mesh density samples. Slippers with different pairs of inserts embedded in their insoles were mechanically characterized, and their comfort was qualitatively assessed by a panel of users. All users found a particular pair, or a set, of prototype slippers more comfortable than the original ones, taken as reference, but their preferences were not consensual. This emphasizes the need for shoe customization, and the usefulness of the proposed methodology to achieve such a goal.This work was funded by National Funds through FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, Reference UID/CTM/50025/2019 and UIDB/04436/2020, and Project FAMEST, Reference POCI-01-0247-FEDER-024529, co-financed by COMPETE2020 through PT2020 and FEDER

Phase behaviour and miscibility studies of collagen/silk fibroin macromolecular system in dilute solutions and solid state

Miscibility is an important issue in biopolymer blends for analysis of the behavior of polymer pairs through the detection of phase separation and improvement of the mechanical and physical properties of the blend. This study presents the formulation of a stable and one-phase mixture of collagen and regenerated silk fibroin (RSF), with the highest miscibility ratio between these two macromolecules, through inducing electrostatic interactions, using salt ions. For this aim, a ternary phase diagram was experimentally built for the mixtures, based on observations of phase behavior of blend solutions with various ratios. The miscibility behavior of the blend solutions in the miscible zones of the phase diagram was confirmed quantitatively by viscosimetric measurements. Assessing the effects of biopolymer mixing ratio and salt ions, before and after dialysis of blend solutions, revealed the importance of ion-specific interactions in the formation of coacervate-based materials containing collagen and RSF blends that can be used in pharmaceutical, drug delivery, and biomedical applications. Moreover, the conformational change of silk fibroin from random coil to beta sheet, in solution and in the final solid films, was detected by circular dichroism (CD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) exhibited alterations of surface morphology for the biocomposite films with different ratios. Surface contact angle measurement illustrated different hydrophobic properties for the blended film surfaces. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that the formation of the beta sheet structure of silk fibroin enhances the thermal stability of the final blend films. Therefore, the novel method presented in this study resulted in the formation of biocomposite films whose physico-chemical properties can be tuned by silk fibroin conformational changes by applying different component mixing ratios228sem informaçãosem informaçã

URBSOIL-LISBON-Geoquímica dos solos urbanos de Lisboa: caracterização e cartografia, suporte para futuros estudos de saúde humana: resultados preliminares

A Geologia, e em especial a Geoquímica em ambiente urbano, têm-se revelado ferramentas essenciais não só no estudo dos materiais naturais neste ambiente, como na ligação entre a Geologia e a acção antrópica. Este estudo, com uma metodologia que usa vários meios de amostragem, pretende avaliar quais os elementos químicos que podem intervir num contexto de interacção em que as crianças são tomadas como alvo principal. Os primeiros resultados sobre concentrações de elementos químicos para os solos urbanos de Lisboa apontam para uma exposição esparsa na cidade de alguns dos elementos químicos inorgânicos, mas havendo por vezes um zonamento por tipologia de local ou de elemento químico. Foram definidos quatro grupos de pontos de amostragem consoante o tipo de uso, e escolhidos para uma análise mais próxima alguns elementos considerados tendencialmente de input antrópico e que se relacionam com a saúde humana.