The use of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and Crowdsourcing in Disaster Management: a Systematic Literature Review

The number of crisis events around the world has been increasing in the last years and suggests there is a real need to make communities more resilient to them. In addition to providing conventional authoritative data, ordinary citizens and residents in the affected areas are also voluntarily supplying information about the affected areas, in what has been called Crowdsourced or Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). This paper conducts a Systemic Literature Review aimed at assessing the current state of research in the use of VGI as a source of information to aid the management of disasters. The results suggest there is an increasing body of knowledge of VGI and the way it can improve disaster management. It also reveals gaps in the use of VGI in the research areas of ‘preparedness’ and ‘recovery’, as well as the need for more robust case studies and experimental research to support this promising field

CXCL-16, IL-17, and bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) are associated with overweight and obesity conditions in middle-aged and elderly women.

The current concept of overweight/obesity is most likely related to a combination of increased caloric intake and decreased energy expenditure. Widespread inflammation, associated with both conditions, appears to contribute to the development of some obesity-related comorbidities. Interventions that directly or indirectly target individuals at high risk of developing obesity have been largely proposed because of the increasing number of overweight/obese cases worldwide. The aim of the present study was to assess CXCL16, IL-17, and BMP-2 plasma factors in middle-aged and elderly women and relate them to an overweight or obese status. In total, 117 women were selected and grouped as eutrophic, overweight, and obese, according to anthropometric parameters. Analyses of anthropometric and circulating biochemical parameters were followed by plasma immunoassays for CXCL-16, IL- 17, and BMP-2

Principais causas e diagnósticos de epistaxes na pediatria

A epistaxe é definida como qualquer hemorragia originada nas narinas, e toda a área nasal, como fossas, seios ou nasofaringe, na pediatria em geral, é visto em caráter benigno, sendo idiopática, auto-limitada e raramente severa. Por vezes, pode ser um sinal de condições que não estão apresentadas de forma clara, como por exemplo, tumores, agressões ou até mesmo discrasias hemorrágicas. As epistaxes são um problema comum, considerados pela otorrinolaringologia como a segunda urgência mais frequente, tendo como um número estimado de 10% da população que sofre esse tipo de ocorrência. A classificação da epistaxe é anterior ou posterior, baseada na localização primária da hemorragia, no plexo de Kiesselbach, localizado  na porção ântero-inferior do septo nasal, contendo vários vasos que se anastomosam entre si, ou plexo de Woodruff que se localiza na região póster-inferior, que é formado pelas anastomoses das artérias esfenopalatinas e faríngea.  Em geral, os casos de epistaxes na pediatria, se devem à traumas digitais ou alta fragilidade vascular, podendo ser induzido por uma inflamação ou infecção nasal. Quanto aos exames em paciente acometidos epistaxe, incialmente cabe avaliar o estado geral das vias aéreas e sinais vitais, seguido de uma observação de cabeça e pescoço, focando nas fossas nasais. Quando se tratar de um epistaxe de associação traumática, é necessário excluir fraturas dos ossos nasais e hematomas, já que estes podem levar a uma destruição cartilagínea gerando uma deformidade a longe prazo. Agregado ao exame nasal, a avaliação de cabeça e pescoço podem apresentar pistas diagnósticas importantes. O tratamento a partir das diversas abordagens terapêuticas podem ser feitas por médicos generalistas em casos mais comuns, pois a grande maioria dos casos é tratado de forma fácil com medidas conservadoras ou por cauterização, em geral os casos tem origem idiopática

Arquitetura residencial verticalizada em São Paulo nas décadas de 1930 e 1940

O presente trabalho aborda o tema, ainda pouco estudado, da arquitetura residencial verticalizada em São Paulo, nas décadas de 1930 e 1940. A partir de alguns estudos de caso representativos, são apresentadas observações relativas a aspectos como: as estratégias de disseminação da nova forma de morar; as opções estéticas disponíveis; a definição dos programas das unidades e as soluções de planta desenvolvidas. Espera-se evidenciar a riqueza e complexidade do assunto, que se configura não apenas como importante tema da história da arquitetura paulistana, mas, principalmente, como significativo patrimônio cultural da cidade, a ser conhecido e protegido.The present work addresses the topic, as yet scarcely studied, of high-rise residential architecture in Sao Paulo during the 1940s and 50s. Supported by some representative case studies, observations were drawn on the following aspects: the strategies used to propagate this new dwelling form, the available aesthetical options for these buildings, the definition of these units' purposes and uses and the development of ground plan architectural solutions. This article aims to render evident the great value and complexity of its subject matter, which is not only extremely important as a theme of Sao Paulo's architectural history, but also, and foremostly, as a significant cultural heritage of this city, which should be acknowledged and safeguarded

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

Geography and ecology shape the phylogenetic composition of Amazonian tree communities

Aim: Amazonia hosts more tree species from numerous evolutionary lineages, both young and ancient, than any other biogeographic region. Previous studies have shown that tree lineages colonized multiple edaphic environments and dispersed widely across Amazonia, leading to a hypothesis, which we test, that lineages should not be strongly associated with either geographic regions or edaphic forest types. Location: Amazonia. Taxon: Angiosperms (Magnoliids; Monocots; Eudicots). Methods: Data for the abundance of 5082 tree species in 1989 plots were combined with a mega-phylogeny. We applied evolutionary ordination to assess how phylogenetic composition varies across Amazonia. We used variation partitioning and Moran\u27s eigenvector maps (MEM) to test and quantify the separate and joint contributions of spatial and environmental variables to explain the phylogenetic composition of plots. We tested the indicator value of lineages for geographic regions and edaphic forest types and mapped associations onto the phylogeny. Results: In the terra firme and várzea forest types, the phylogenetic composition varies by geographic region, but the igapó and white-sand forest types retain a unique evolutionary signature regardless of region. Overall, we find that soil chemistry, climate and topography explain 24% of the variation in phylogenetic composition, with 79% of that variation being spatially structured (R$^{2}$ = 19% overall for combined spatial/environmental effects). The phylogenetic composition also shows substantial spatial patterns not related to the environmental variables we quantified (R$^{2}$ = 28%). A greater number of lineages were significant indicators of geographic regions than forest types. Main Conclusion: Numerous tree lineages, including some ancient ones (>66 Ma), show strong associations with geographic regions and edaphic forest types of Amazonia. This shows that specialization in specific edaphic environments has played a long-standing role in the evolutionary assembly of Amazonian forests. Furthermore, many lineages, even those that have dispersed across Amazonia, dominate within a specific region, likely because of phylogenetically conserved niches for environmental conditions that are prevalent within regions

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types