Disponibilidade de matéria seca nas diferentes fitofisionomias do Pantanal, sub-região da Nhecolândia, MS.

O experimento mensurou a altimetria de três fitofisionomias (baixadas, campo limpo e campo cerrado), caracterizou e avaliou a produção de matéria seca e o levantamento florístico (seca e cheia), nessas áreas, na sub-região da Nhecolãndia (MS), na Fazenda Nhumirim, região do Pantanal

Activity Recognition and Uncertain Knowledge in Video Scenes

International audienceActivity recognition has been a growing research topic in the last years and its application varies from auto-matic recognition of social interaction such as shaking hands, parking lot surveillance, traffic monitoring and the detection of abandoned luggage. This paper describes a probabilistic framework for uncertainty handling in a description-based event recognition approach. The proposed approach allows the flexible modeling of composite events with complex temporal constraints. It uses probability theory to provide a consistent framework for dealing with uncertain knowledge for the recognition of complex events. We validate the event recognition accuracy of the proposed algorithm on real-world videos. The experimental results show that our system can successfully recognize activities with a high recognition rate. We conclude by comparing our algorithm with the state of the art and showing how the definition of event models and the probabilistic reasoning can influence the results of real-time event recognitio

Avaliação de produtividade de grãos no desenvolvimento de cultivares de arroz irrigado para a região subtropical brasileira.

O objetivo do trabalho foi quantificar os efeitos desse procedimento no desempenho das linhagens selecionadas em gerações avançadas

SARS-CoV-2 antibody dynamics in blood donors and COVID-19 epidemiology in eight Brazilian state capitals: A serial cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 situation in Brazil is complex due to large differences in the shape and size of regional epidemics. Understanding these patterns is crucial to understand future outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 or other respiratory pathogens in the country. METHODS: We tested 97,950 blood donation samples for IgG antibodies from March 2020 to March 2021 in 8 of Brazil's most populous cities. Residential postal codes were used to obtain representative samples. Weekly age- and sex-specific seroprevalence were estimated by correcting the crude seroprevalence by test sensitivity, specificity, and antibody waning. RESULTS: The inferred attack rate of SARS-CoV-2 in December 2020, before the Gamma variant of concern (VOC) was dominant, ranged from 19.3% (95% credible interval [CrI] 17.5-21.2%) in Curitiba to 75.0% (95% CrI 70.8-80.3%) in Manaus. Seroprevalence was consistently smaller in women and donors older than 55 years. The age-specific infection fatality rate (IFR) differed between cities and consistently increased with age. The infection hospitalisation rate increased significantly during the Gamma-dominated second wave in Manaus, suggesting increased morbidity of the Gamma VOC compared to previous variants circulating in Manaus. The higher disease penetrance associated with the health system's collapse increased the overall IFR by a minimum factor of 2.91 (95% CrI 2.43-3.53). CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the utility of blood donor serosurveillance to track epidemic maturity and demonstrate demographic and spatial heterogeneity in SARS-CoV-2 spread. FUNDING: This work was supported by Itaú Unibanco 'Todos pela Saude' program; FAPESP (grants 18/14389-0, 2019/21585-0); Wellcome Trust and Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowship 204311/Z/16/Z; the Gates Foundation (INV- 034540 and INV-034652); REDS-IV-P (grant HHSN268201100007I); the UK Medical Research Council (MR/S0195/1, MR/V038109/1); CAPES; CNPq (304714/2018-6); Fundação Faculdade de Medicina; Programa Inova Fiocruz-CE/Funcap - Edital 01/2020 Number: FIO-0167-00065.01.00/20 SPU N°06531047/2020; JBS - Fazer o bem faz bem

Human migration and the spread of malaria parasites to the New World

We examined the mitogenomes of a large global collection of human malaria parasites to explore how and when Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax entered the Americas. We found evidence of a significant contribution of African and South Asian lineages to present-day New World malaria parasites with additional P. vivax lineages appearing to originate from Melanesia that were putatively carried by the Australasian peoples who contributed genes to Native Americans. Importantly, mitochondrial lineages of the P. vivax-like species P. simium are shared by platyrrhine monkeys and humans in the Atlantic Forest ecosystem, but not across the Amazon, which most likely resulted from one or a few recent human-to-monkey transfers. While enslaved Africans were likely the main carriers of P. falciparum mitochondrial lineages into the Americas after the conquest, additional parasites carried by Australasian peoples in pre-Columbian times may have contributed to the extensive diversity of extant local populations of P. vivax

Implications of the polymorphism of HLA-G on its function, regulation, evolution and disease association

The HLA-G gene displays several peculiarities that are distinct from those of classical HLA class I genes. The unique structure of the HLA-G molecule permits a restricted peptide presentation and allows the modulation of the cells of the immune system. Although polymorphic sites may potentially influence all biological functions of HLA-G, those present at the promoter and 3′ untranslated regions have been particularly studied in experimental and pathological conditions. The relatively low polymorphism observed in the MHC-G coding region both in humans and apes may represent a strong selective pressure for invariance, whereas, in regulatory regions several lines of evidence support the role of balancing selection. Since HLA-G has immunomodulatory properties, the understanding of gene regulation and the role of polymorphic sites on gene function may permit an individualized approach for the future use of HLA-G for therapeutic purposes

Sustainability Agenda for the Pantanal Wetland: Perspectives on a Collaborative Interface for Science, Policy, and Decision-Making.

Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the increasing human pressure on natural environments, including wetlands. Wetlands provide critical ecosystem services for humanity and can generate a considerable direct or indirect income to the local communities. To meet many of the sustainable development goals, we need to move our trajectory from the current environmental destructive development to a wiser wetland use. The current article contain a proposed agenda for the Pantanal aiming the improvement of public policy for conservation in the Pantanal, one of the largest, most diverse, and continuous inland wetland in the world. We suggest and discuss a list of 11 essential interfaces between science, policy, and development in region linked to the proposed agenda. We believe that a functional science network can booster the collaborative capability to generate creative ideas and solutions to address the big challenges faced by the Pantanal wetland

Development of a software based on automatic multi-temporal aerial images classification to assess retrospective environmental exposures to pesticides in epidemiological studies

International audienceEnvironmental exposure to agricultural pesticides (EEAP) resulting from the drift of agricultural pesticides from treated farmland is suspected to be a risk factor for several diseases, including cancers. The long latency period of cancer development, and evidence on the impact of early exposures stress the need for historical exposure information to capture these exposures. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are increasingly used in environmental epidemiology studies to assess EEAP. Crop acreage proximate to subjects residences has been suggested as a surrogate for EEAP. Retrospective characterization of EEAP is then essential. While Corine Land Cover (CLC) provides land cover data since 1990, earlier data are lacking limiting the capacity to capture the life-course effects of exposure. The use of satellite images or historical aerial images has been suggested. However, characterization of land use from theses images is time and resource consuming. Thereby, this study aim to develop an innovative automated software to analyze the historical monochromatic aerial images in order to reconstruct the historical land cover to characterize EEAP retrospectivel