Fifty-four water samples were collected between July and December 2019 at nine monitoring stations and fifteen parameters were analysed to provide an updated diagnosis of the Piabanha River water ...quality. Further, forty years of monitoring were analysed, including government data and previous research projects. A georeferenced database was also built containing water management data. The Water Quality Index from the National Sanitation Foundation (WQI
) was calculated using two datasets and showed an improvement in overall water quality, despite still presenting systematic violations to Brazilian standards. Principal components analysis (PCA) showed the most contributing parameters to water quality and enabled its association with the main pollution sources identified in the geodatabase. PCA showed that sewage discharge is still the main pollution source. The cluster analysis (CA) made possible to recommend the monitoring network optimization, thereby enabling the expansion of the monitoring to other rivers. Finally, the diagnosis provided by this research establishes the first step towards the Framing of water resources according to their intended uses, as established by the Brazilian National Water Resources Policy.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a strong negative impact on economic and social life worldwide. It has also negatively influenced people's general health and quality ...of life. The aim of the present study was to study the impact of social distancing on physical activity level, and the association between mood state (depression and anxiety level) or sex with actual physical activity levels, the change in physical activity caused by social distancing period, the adhesion level to social distancing, the adoption time of social distancing, family income and age.
A self-administered questionnaire with personal, quarantine, physical activity, and mood state disorders information's was answered by 2140 Brazilians of both sex who were recruited through online advertising.
The physical activity level adopted during the period of social distancing (3.5 ± 0.8) was lower than that the adopted prior to the pandemic period (2.9 ± 1.1, p < 0.001). Thirty percent of the participants presented symptoms of moderate/severe depression and 23.3% displayed moderate/severe anxiety symptoms. A greater presence of symptoms related to anxiety and depression were associated with low physical activity levels, low family monthly income, and younger age. A higher percentage of men who had no mood disorders was observed among those who were very active than among those less active.
The COVID-19 pandemic has a negative impact on physical activity. Those who reduced their level of physical activity had the highest levels of mood disorders. Therefore, physical activity programs should be encouraged, while respecting the necessary social distancing to prevent the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2.
Antibiotic-induced dysbiosis is a key factor predisposing intestinal infection by Clostridium difficile. Here, we show that interventions that restore butyrate intestinal levels mitigate clinical and ...pathological features of C. difficile-induced colitis. Butyrate has no effect on C. difficile colonization or toxin production. However, it attenuates intestinal inflammation and improves intestinal barrier function in infected mice, as shown by reduced intestinal epithelial permeability and bacterial translocation, effects associated with the increased expression of components of intestinal epithelial cell tight junctions. Activation of the transcription factor HIF-1 in intestinal epithelial cells exerts a protective effect in C. difficile-induced colitis, and it is required for butyrate effects. We conclude that butyrate protects intestinal epithelial cells from damage caused by C. difficile toxins via the stabilization of HIF-1, mitigating local inflammatory response and systemic consequences of the infection.
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•Butyrate mitigates the pathogenicity of colitis induced by Clostridium difficile•Butyrate increases expression of tight junctions in epithelial cells•Butyrate reduces intestinal inflammation and bacterial translocation•HIF-1 stabilization is necessary to the protection induced by butyrate
Fachi et al. demonstrate that butyrate is able to protect the intestinal epithelium from the damage caused by Clostridium difficile toxins by stabilizing HIF-1 and increasing tight junctions, which reduces intestinal epithelial permeability, thus inhibiting intestinal inflammation and bacterial translocation.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the annual standardized precipitation index (SPI) obtained from the DrinC software based on multivariate analysis in the identification of rainfall and ...drought extremes in the State of Alagoas and its relationship with El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Monthly rainfall data from 1960 to 2016 from National Water Agency were analysed. Annual SPI (SPI‐12) has been designed for comparison with ENSO phases via Oceanic Niño Index for 3.4 region and in identifying climate extremes in the State of Alagoas. The principal component analysis and cluster analysis techniques were applied to the rainfall series of SPI‐12. Extreme events were identified in both rainy and drought periods according to SPI‐12, and were associated with the ENSO phases (El Niño, La Niña, and Neutral). The first four principal components explained 46.68% of the variance. Our findings are crucial for agriculture and civil defence since northeastern Brazil has several areas of risk and social vulnerability.
Monthly rainfall data from 1960 to 2016 from National Water Agency. The time series was treated for failures using data imputing technique and then used by DrinC to obtain the SPI‐12. The principal component analysis and cluster analysis techniques were applied to the rainfall series of SPI‐12. Extreme events were identified in both rainy and drought periods according to SPI‐12, and were associated with the ENSO phases (El Niño, La Niña, and Neutral).
COVID-19 has presented a novel pedagogical challenge in dealing with the sudden shift from classic instruction to emergency remote teaching (ERT). It had an impact on the well-being and mental health ...of lecturers, increasing burnout risk. A cross-sectional, quantitative, qualitative and analytical online study was conducted to collect participants’ sociodemographic data, responses to ERT open-ended questions and mental health assessments using relevant instruments (CBI for burnout, Resilience Scale, DASS for depression, anxiety and stress, SWLS for satisfaction with life). High personal burnout levels were found in 41.2% of participants, high work-related burnout in 37.3% and high student-related burnout in 15.7%. Satisfaction with life, sleep routine changes and stress were determinants for personal burnout; stress and resilience for work-related burnout; satisfaction of life and sleep routine changes for students-related burnout. Opportunities for pedagogical innovation were pointed out as the main advantages to ERT, while the main negative impacts were on practical lessons and social interaction. Students and lecturers’ safety and adequate institutional support might be insured, considering their expectations and needs, promoting mental health. Combining the advantages of online and traditional methods in a so-called “blended learning” approach, with close collaboration and communication between all those involved, appears to achieve better results.
The energy levels of hydrogen-like atomic systems can be calculated with great precision. Starting from their quantum mechanical solution, they have been refined over the years to include the ...electron spin, the relativistic and quantum field effects, and tiny energy shifts related to the complex structure of the nucleus. These energy shifts caused by the nuclear structure are vastly magnified in hydrogen-like systems formed by a negative muon and a nucleus, so spectroscopy of these muonic ions can be used to investigate the nuclear structure with high precision. Here we present the measurement of two 2S-2P transitions in the muonic helium-4 ion that yields a precise determination of the root-mean-square charge radius of the α particle of 1.67824(83) femtometres. This determination from atomic spectroscopy is in excellent agreement with the value from electron scattering
, but a factor of 4.8 more precise, providing a benchmark for few-nucleon theories, lattice quantum chromodynamics and electron scattering. This agreement also constrains several beyond-standard-model theories proposed to explain the proton-radius puzzle
, in line with recent determinations of the proton charge radius
, and establishes spectroscopy of light muonic atoms and ions as a precise tool for studies of nuclear properties.
•Mathematical modeling in a public health problem.•Application of fractional calculus in the mathematical system.•A detailed local and global stability analysis of a fractional differential ...system.•The use of the extended Barbalat’s lemma to the fractional-order system.•Numerical results.
This paper describes the dynamics of hepatitis B by a fractional-order model in the Caputo sense. The basic results of the fractional hepatitis B model are presented. Two equilibrium point for the model exists, the disease-free point and the infected point. The local and global stability analysis of the system is given in terms of the basic reproductive number. We execute the global stability analysis using the extended Barbalat’s lemma to the fractional-order system. The results show that the extension of Barbalat’s Lemma is a robust tool for the asymptotic analysis of the fractional dynamic systems. Moreover, numerical simulations by Nonstandard Finite Difference Schemes show that the solutions converge to an equilibrium point as predicted in the stability analysis.
Factors Associated with Cocaine Consumption among Suicide Victim Abreu, Luisa Caroline Costa; Conceição, Sarah Dos Santos; Carvalho, Delmason Soares Barbosa de ...
International journal of environmental research and public health,
11/2022, Letnik:
19, Številka:
21
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Cocaine use is an increasingly frequent event, especially in young people, and can cause irreversible consequences, such as suicide. To evaluate the factors associated with cocaine use in the moments ...preceding to suicide. This is a population-based, cross-sectional, and analytical study conducted in the Brazilian Federal District by researchers from the Department of Health and the Civil Police Institute of Criminalistics. All people who died due to suicide in 2018 were included in the survey. Cocaine use was considered the dependent variable, and robust Poisson regression was performed to estimate the crude and adjusted prevalence ratios and their respective population confidence intervals. In 2018, 12,157 deaths were recorded, of which suicide accounted for 1.56% of all deaths. It was observed that being between 25 and 44 years old, male, and under the influence of alcohol or cannabis, had a strong positive association with cocaine consumption among suicide victims. Males, people with black skin, with lower level of education, with employment, and who were under the effect of the use of cannabis and/or alcohol in the previous hours of death had a higher propensity to consume cocaine immediately before suicide, with a moderate to strong magnitude of prevalence ratio. The findings of this research indicated the need for monitoring, by health services, of people most vulnerable to suicide through the consumption of psychoactive substances.
Fractional calculus has been widely used in mathematical modeling of evolutionary systems with memory effect on dynamics. The main interest of this work is to attest, through a statistical approach, ...how the hysteresis phenomenon, which describes a type of memory effect present in biological systems, can be treated by fractional calculus. We also analyse the contribution of the historical values of a function in the evaluation of fractional operators according to their order. To illustrate the efficiency of this non-integer order calculus, we consider the SIR (susceptible–infected–recovered) compartmental model which is widely used in epidemiology. We employ this compartmental model to study the dynamics of the spread of COVID-19 in some countries, one version with memory and one without memory.
Diarrheal diseases (DD) have distinct etiological profiles in immune-deficient and immune-competent patients. This study compares detection rates, genotype distribution and viral loads of different ...enteric viral agents in HIV-1 seropositive (n = 200) and HIV-1 seronegative (n = 125) children hospitalized with DD in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Except for group A rotavirus (RVA), which were detected through enzyme immunoassay, the other enteric viruses (norovirus NoV, astrovirus HAstV, adenovirus HAdV and bocavirus HBoV) were detected through PCR or RT-PCR. A quantitative PCR was performed for RVA, NoV, HAstV, HAdV and HBoV. Infections with NoV (19% vs. 9.6%; p<0.001), HBoV (14% vs. 7.2%; p = 0.042) and HAdV (30.5% vs. 14.4%; p<0.001) were significantly more frequent among HIV-1 seropositive children. RVA was significantly less frequent among HIV-1 seropositive patients (6.5% vs. 20%; p<0.001). Similarly, frequency of infection with HAstV was lower among HIV-1 seropositive children (5.5% vs. 12.8%; p = 0.018). Among HIV-1 seropositive children 33 (16.5%) had co-infections, including three enteric viruses, such as NoV, HBoV and HAdV (n = 2) and NoV, HAstV and HAdV (n = 2). The frequency of infection with more than one virus was 17 (13.6%) in the HIV-1 negative group, triple infection (NoV + HAstV + HBoV) being observed in only one patient. The median viral load of HAstV in feces was significantly higher among HIV-1 positive children compared to HIV-1 negative children. Concerning children infected with RVA, NoV, HBoV and HAdV, no statistically significant differences were observed in the medians of viral loads in feces, comparing HIV-1 seropositive and HIV-1 seronegative children. Similar detection rates were observed for RVA, HAstV and HAdV, whilst NoV and HBoV were significantly more prevalent among children with CD4+ T lymphocyte count below 200 cells/mm3. Enteric viruses should be considered an important cause of DD in HIV-1 seropositive children, along with pathogens more classically associated with intestinal infections in immunocompromised hosts.
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