Abstract The oil spill of unknown origin that hit the Brazilian coast in 2019 led to the first activation of the National Contingency Plan, outside the scope of an exercise. The Brazilian Navy, the ...Environmental Agency and the Oil Agency worked together during the oil spill emergency at the Federal level, as the plan´s Monitoring and Evaluation Group. However, the distinctive characteristics and proportions of the incident demanded unanticipated actions. Therefore, this work aims to analyze the response actions, to evaluate policies and procedures in place and to propose improvements for the future. The paper discusses the anonymous and voluntary feedback from 150 professionals, obtained during the event, through a structured online form. The results of the survey are compared to findings in official documents, especially the Incident´s Final Report, prepared by the Brazilian Navy. The conclusion is that the Incident Command System, used to manage and coordinate clean-up operations, provided a swift and coordinated response as the oil reached the shore of 11 states. In contrast, there is a need to review the legal framework, including the Decree that established the National Contingency Plan, revisit response manuals, improve liaison and enhance communication channels among different authorities in the Brazilian Government.
Inceptisols are poorly developed soils with original material characteristics and high or low base saturation depending on the environment in which they developed. This study aimed to evaluate the ...spatial variability of chemical pedoindicators in an Inceptisol under different management systems. The study was carried out in three agricultural areas cultivated with cassava, sugarcane and an agroforestry system, with cultivation time of 15, 8 and 17 years, respectively. All the areas investigated were located in Southern Amazonas state, Brazil. In these areas, a square mesh was established measuring 70.00 x 70.00 m, with cross points spaced 10.00 m apart and a total of 64 sampling points in each grid. Soil samples were then collected at a depth between 0.00 and 0.10 m to determine organic matter, pH, calcium, magnesium, potassium, available phosphorus, potential acidity, sum of bases, cation exchange capacity and base saturation, in addition to magnetic susceptibility in all the samples, using 10 cm3 of soil. Data were analyzed using multivariate, descriptive and geostatistics. It was found that magnetic susceptibility may be a pedoindicador for areas under cassava cultivation, potential acidity for the agroforestry environment, and pH for areas under sugarcane cultivation. The agroforestry area had higher data heterogeneity, since a nugget effect was encountered for all the properties analyzed. Based on the scaled semivariograms, the lower range values indicate greater spatial variability in the sugarcane and agroforestry systems, due to the specificities of the management system.
Premise
Laticifers have evolved multiple times in angiosperms and have been interpreted as a key innovation involved in plant defense mechanisms. In Malpighiaceae, laticifers were previously known ...from a single lineage of trees and shrubs, the Galphimia clade, but with detailed anatomical analyses here, we show that their distribution is broader in the family, also encompassing large clades of lianas.
Methods
From 15 genera, 70 species of Malpighiaceae were surveyed through careful anatomical ontogenetic analysis of roots, stems, and leaves and detailed histochemical tests to elucidate the nature of laticifers and latex in the family.
Results
Articulated anastomosing laticifers were encountered in roots, stems, and leaves of two distantly related megadiverse genera of Malpighiaceae lianas: Stigmaphyllon (stigmaphylloid clade) and Tetrapterys s.s. (tetrapteroid clade). From the apex downward, in Stigmaphyllon the laticifers are derived from the procambium and from the cambium during its early activity and are present in the outermost part of the vascular cylinder of stems and leaves and in the pericycle of roots, whereas in Tetrapterys s.s. they are derived from the ground meristem, procambium, and cambium throughout the plant body and are present in the cortex and pith, either the pericycle in roots or the outermost part of the vascular system in stems and leaves, and the primary and secondary phloem.
Conclusions
Laticifers seem to have evolved at least three times independently in Malpighiaceae, once in a lineage of trees and shrubs and twice in two distantly related megadiverse lianescent lineages. Laticifer evolution in Malpighiaceae is homoplastic and may be related to increases in species diversification.
The Amazon region is one of the most pristine continental areas whose concentrations of atmospheric trace gases and aerosol particles are very low, mainly in the wet season. This study provides ...observational results of aerosol optical and radiative characteristics in situ as well as atmospheric columnar at a pristine forest in Central Amazonia. Spectral variation of the aerosol properties (aerosol optical depth AOD, single scattering albedo SSA, and asymmetry parameter AP) was evaluated using the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) data. The SSA values under natural atmospheric column conditions (AERONET) were compared to the SSA values calculated with in situ measurements. The values of shortwave aerosol radiative forcing (SWARF) on top of the atmosphere (TOA) and the surface (SUR) were estimated using the SBDART model and were validated with the AERONET values with regression analysis. SWARF had a high correlation to TOA (0.97) and SUR (0.92), including dry and wet seasons. Monthly, seasonal and annual mean values of SWARFTOA and SWARFSUR were negative while SWARFATM values were positive. SWARFTOA was –9.18 ± 2.80 W m–2 and SWARFSUR was –20.77 ± 5.04 W m–2 in the dry season, inducing a heating rate (HR) of 0.37 ± 0.13 K.day–1. This study showed that, for a long series of measurements, the effects caused by aerosols on the radiative flux in the pristine forest of Central Amazonia were of the order of SWARFTOA of –3.66 ± 1.59 W m–2 and SWARFSUR of –11.86 ± 2.35 W m–2 during the wet season
Incorporation of the epigenetic modifier suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) into a potato dextrose broth culture of the endophytic fungus Aspergillus sp. AST0006 affected its polyketide ...biosynthetic pathway providing two new 3-(4-oxopyrano)-chromen-2-ones, aspyranochromenones A (1) and B (2), and the isocoumarin, (−)-6,7-dihydroxymellein (3). Eight additional metabolites (4–11) and two biotransformation products of SAHA (12–13) were also encountered. The planar structures and relative configurations of the new metabolites 1–2 were elucidated with the help of high-resolution mass, 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic data and the absolute configurations of 1–3 were determined by comparison of experimental and calculated ECD data. Possible biosynthetic pathways to 1 and 2 are presented.
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•The secondary metabolites of Aspergillus sp. AST0006 cultured with the epigenetic modifier SAHA were investigated.•Incorporation of SAHA enhanced production of metabolites and afforded new compounds aspyranochromenones A and B.•Aspyranochromenones A and B contain a new carbon skeleton, despite numerous metabolites are known from Aspergillus spp.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) should form part of the comprehensive healthcare agenda for adolescents and young people (A&Y) and testing plays a strategic role in STI prevention. However, ...little attention has been paid to the social and programmatic obstacles to this practice among A&Y. The aim of this study is
to describe the prevalence of testing for syphilis and HIV reported by a group of A&Y, analyzing its relationship with variables potentially indicative of inequities related to vulnerability to STIs.
This was a cross-sectional survey applied to students at public high schools in three cities in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The responses of 369 young people who reported having started sexual life were analyzed. The analysis included description of the frequencies of demographic and socioeconomic variables and their associations with testing for syphilis and HIV through the chi-square test. The concentration index (CI) was also calculated, with construction of the respective concentration curve for the associated variables. Positive associations were found between occurrence of testing and living in homes with up to three inhabitants, living in a marital situation with a regular or committed partnership, previous use of primary care services and previous use of hospitals or emergency services. The concentration curve for testing STIs showed significant contributions from the associated variables. The findings indicated that situations of inequity need to be addressed in order to reduce A&Y's vulnerability to STIs.
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Sepsis affects 31.5 million people worldwide. It is characterized by an intense drop in blood pressure driving to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Modern supportive care has increased ...survival in patients; however, after experiencing sepsis, several complications are observed, which may be potentiated by new inflammatory events. Nevertheless, the interplay between sepsis survivors and a new immune challenge in cardiovascular regulation has not been previously defined. We hypothesized that cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) cause persistent cardiovascular dysfunctions in rats as well as changes in autonomic-induced cardiovascular responses to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Male Wistar rats had mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) recorded before and after LPS or saline administration to control or CLP survivor rats. CLP survivor rats had similar baseline MAP and HR when compared to control. LPS caused a drop in MAP accompanied by tachycardia in control, while CLP survivor rats had a noteworthy enhanced MAP and a blunted tachycardia. LPS-induced hemodynamic changes were related to an autonomic disbalance to the heart and resistance vessels that were expressed as an increased low- and high-frequency power of pulse interval in CLP survivors after saline and enhancement in the low-frequency power of systolic arterial pressure in control rats after LPS. LPS-induced plasma interferon γ, but not interleukin-10 surges, was blunted in CLP survivor rats. To further access whether or not LPS-induced autonomic disbalance in CLP survivor rats was associated with oxidative stress dysregulation, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) plasma levels changes were measured. LPS-induced oxidative stress was higher in CLP survivor rats. These findings indicate that key changes in hemodynamic regulation of CLP survivors rats take place in response to LPS that are associated with oxidative stress changes, i.e., reduced SOD activity and increased TBARS levels.
Abstract Diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in close contacts is critical for tuberculosis control. Smoking is a risk factor for M. tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease but ...its effect on longitudinal interferon γ release assay (IGRA) results remains unknown. We conducted a multisite prospective study in Brazil between 2015 and 2019, among close contacts of adults with culture-confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis. IGRA was performed at baseline, at month 6 if results were negative at baseline, and at months 24–30 after enrollment. IGRA results were categorized as IGRA positive (maintained from baseline to the last visit), IGRA conversion (from negative to positive at any time), IGRA reversion (from positive to negative at any time), and IGRA negative (maintained from baseline to the last visit). Associations between IGRA results and smoking status at baseline (current/former vs never) in contacts were evaluated using propensity score-adjusted logistic regression models. Estimated propensity score was used as a covariate in models, which regressed the outcome (IGRA positive, IGRA conversion, IGRA reversion) on smoking status. Of 430 close contacts, 89 (21%) were IGRA positive, 30 (7%) were converters, 30 (7%) were reverters and 22 were indeterminate. Smoking frequency was 26 (29%) among IGRA-positive contacts, 7 (23%) in converters, and 3 (10%) in reverters. Smoking in contacts was associated with lower odds of IGRA reversion (adjusted odds ratio, 0.16 95% confidence interval, .03–.70). We did not detect associations between smoking and IGRA positive or IGRA conversion. Our findings highlight the importance of smoking on longitudinal IGRA results. This has implications for clinical care and clinical trials in which IGRA status is monitored or used as an outcome.
COVID‐19 has a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations associated with the host immune response heterogeneity. Despite the advances in COVID‐19 research, it is still crucial to seek a panel of ...molecular markers that enable accurate stratification of COVID‐19 patients. Here, we performed a study that combined analysis of blood transcriptome, demographic data, clinical aspects and laboratory findings from 66 participants classified into different degrees of COVID‐19 severity and healthy subjects. We identified a perturbation in blood‐leukocyte transcriptional profile associated with COVID‐19 aggravation, which was mainly related to processes that disfavoured lymphocyte activation and favoured neutrophil activation. This transcriptional profile stratified patients according to COVID‐19 severity. Hence, it enabled identification of a turning point in transcriptional dynamics that distinguished disease outcomes and non‐hospitalized from hospitalized moderate patients. Central genes of this unique neutrophil signature were S100A9, ANXA3, CEACAM6, VNN1, OLFM4, IL1R2, TCN1 and CD177. Our study indicates the molecular changes that are linked with the differing clinical aspects presented by humans when suffering from COVID‐19, which involve neutrophil activation.
COVID‐19 aggravation is linked to distinct transcriptional profiles of blood leukocytes.
The turning point in transcriptional dynamics is associated with a unique signature of neutrophils and COVID‐19 severity.
Youths living in crowded impoverished urban areas face higher risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2. This article presents lessons learned from a preventive intervention project intersected by the COVID-19 ...crisis that moved from a mix-methods study design to online ethnography. The 'home-officed' research team e-witnessed high-school students' daily lives and collaborated in youths' and community-based organisations' responses in the territories where they study and live. Psychosocial distress increased, also driven by the disastrous governmental response to the health and economic crises. There was growing anxiety about meeting friends and dating, with structural limits for sustaining the recommended social distancing, which added to gender/sexuality-based violence. Simultaneously, we observed students becoming relevant actors through co-producing preventive practices, surpassing risk-group notions and combining SARS-CoV-2 prevention with sexuality, gender, racism and mental-health issues. They managed internet-mediated applications to promote critical thinking and collective actions aimed at health promotion among their peers, from their homes. Freire's concept of 'untested-feasibility' fostered researchers', students' and community leaders' imaginations in the face of this unprecedented crisis, thereby enhancing social responses to the epidemic to become rights-based comprehensive dialogical preventive activities. This ongoing intervention-research stresses how prevention sciences can go beyond reduction of this pandemic to a viral event.
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