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

Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

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

Staphylococci: colonies morphological caracteristics, coagulase and EEA production colected from cooled raw milk samples

Os relatos de intoxicação estafilocócica, principalmente por S. aureus, são frequentemente associados à ingestão de 100 ng de enterotoxina/g ou mL de alimento. A produção de enterotoxina pelos estafilococos está associada fortemente à produção de coagulase. Neste trabalho foram avaliadas amostras de leite de 51 propriedades leiteiras em Londrina (RS) e 50 em Pelotas. Todas as 101 amostras apresentaram contagens de estafilococos coagulase positivos (ECP). Das 552 colônias avaliadas, 256 foram coagulase positivas e destas cerca de 60% eram típicas no àgar Baird Parker e, em média, 60% do total de 296 estafilococos coagulase negativos (ECN) eram colônias atípicas. Quanto à capacidade enterotoxigênica, testou-se 109 colônias ECP, sendo 5,5% (6) positivas e 18 ECN, sendo 1 (5,5%) positiva. Assim, a freqüência de ECN produtores de EEA (5,5%) foi semelhante a dos ECP. Conclui-se que há extensa contaminação do leite cru por ECP, sendo grande parte (40%) das colônias atípicas produtoras de coagulase.The stories of food poisoning from staphylococci, mainly by S. aureus, are frequently associates to the ingestion of food with 100 ng of enterotoxin/g or mL. The production of enterotoxin using staphylococci is strongly associated with the production of coagulase. In this paper, milk samples of 51 milk properties in Londrina (RS) and 50 in Pelotas had been evaluated. All the 101 samples had presented counts of coagulase positive staphylococci (CPS). From 552 colonies studied, 256 were CPS where 60% of the colonies were typical in Baird Parker agar and, from 296 coagulase negative staphylococcus (CNS), in mean, 60% were atypical colonies. Due to the enterotoxigenic capacity, were tested 109 CPS, being 5,5% (6) positive and 18 CNS where 1 (5,5%) were positive. The frequency of CPS EEA (5,5%) producer was similar of the CNS. There is a wide milk contamination with CPS, where, a big part (40%) of the atypical colonies is coagulase producers

Suscetibilidade a antibióticos em bactérias isoladas de amostras dos balneários do rio Guaíba

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Suscetibilidade a antibióticos em bactérias isoladas de amostras dos balneários do rio Guaíba

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