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Background: Occupational stress and workplace violence are highly prevalent risk factors among healthcare professionals and can affect not only the psychosocial well-being of workers but also that of patients and healthcare organizations. Objective: The objective of this study is to translate and cross-culturally adapt the ENvironmental PRotectors against hOspital work Stress scale to facilitate future psychometric validation of the instrument. Methods: A methodological study was conducted at the School of Medicine of São Paulo State University (UNESP) in São Paulo, Brazil. This study involved three steps: translation and backtranslation by independent native language speakers, analysis by an expert panel, and a pre-test phase. Ten specialists adjusted and approved the final version for semantic, idiomatic, and cultural accuracy across nine items. Results: The content validity index was satisfactory (CVI ≥ 0.80). The final version was administered to 36 nursing and medical staff at a public hospital in São Paulo. No items were excluded from the instrument. Satisfactory content and face validity were achieved, and the criteria recommended by the literature were met. Conclusions: The Portuguese version of ENPROS is appropriate and culturally adapted for use in Brazil.

Over the recent decades, an apparent worldwide rise in Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs) has been observed due to the growing exploitation of the coastal environment, the exponential growth of monitoring programs, and growing global maritime transport. HAB species like Alexandrium catenella -responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP)- Protoceratium reticulatum , and Lingulaulax polyedra (yessotoxin producers) are a major public concern due to their negative socioeconomic impacts. The significant northward geographical expansion of A. catenella into more oceanic-influenced waters from the fjords where it is usually observed needs to be studied. Currently, their northern boundary reaches the 36°S in the Biobio region where sparse vegetative cells were recently observed in the water column. Here, we describe the environment of the Biobio submarine canyon using sediment and water column variables and propose how toxic resting cyst abundance and excystment are coupled with deep-water turbulence (10 -7 Watt/kg) and intense diapycnal eddy diffusivity (10 -4 m 2 s -1 ) processes, which could trigger a mono or multi-specific harmful event. The presence of resting cysts may not constitute an imminent risk, with these resting cysts being subject to resuspension processes, but may represent a potent indicator of the adaptation of HAB species to new environments like the anoxic Biobio canyon.

The changes in the cell physiology (growth rate, cell size, and cell DNA content), photosynthetic efficiency, toxicity, and sexuality under variable light and nutrient (phosphates) conditions were evaluated in cultures of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum obtained from a red tide in the Ría de Vigo (NW Spain). The cells were grown at low (40 and 150 µE m -2 s -1 ), moderate (400 µE m -2 s -1 ), and high (800 µE m -2 s -1 ) light intensities in a medium with phosphate (P+) and without (P-). Cultures were acclimated to the irradiance conditions for one week, and the experiment was run for ~1 month. The cell size and DNA content were monitored via flow cytometry. Two different clonal strains were employed as a monoculture (in a P- or P+ medium) or, to foster sexuality and resting cyst formation, as a mixed culture (only in a P- medium). A. minutum growth was favored by increasing light intensities until 400 µE m -2 s -1 . The DNA content analyses indicated the accumulation of S-phase cells at the highest light intensities (400 and 800 µE m -2 s -1 ) and therefore the negative effects on cell cycle progression. Only when the cells were grown in a P- medium did higher light intensities trigger dose-dependent, significantly higher toxicities in all the A. minutum cultures. This result suggests that the toxicity level is responsive to the combined effects of (high) light and (low) P stress. The cell size was not significantly affected by the light intensity or P conditions. The optimal light intensity for resting cyst formation was 150 µE m -2 s -1 , with higher irradiances reducing the total encystment yield. Encystment was not observed at the lowest light intensity tested, indicative of the key role of low-level irradiance in gamete and/or zygote formation, in contrast to the stressor effect of excessive irradiance on planozygote formation and/or encystment.

Toxic and harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a global problem affecting human health, marine ecosystems, and coastal economies, the latter through their impact on aquaculture, fisheries, and tourism. As our knowledge and the techniques to study HABs advance, so do international monitoring efforts, which have led to a large increase in the total number of reported cases. However, in addition to increased detections, environmental factors associated with global change, mainly high nutrient levels and warming temperatures, are responsible for the increased occurrence, persistence, and geographical expansion of HABs. The Chilean Patagonian fjords provide an "open-air laboratory" for the study of climate change, including its impact on the blooms of several toxic microalgal species, which, in recent years, have undergone increases in their geographical range as well as their virulence and recurrence (the species Alexandrium catenella , Pseudochattonella verruculosa , and Heterosigma akashiwo , and others of the genera Dinophysis and Pseudo-nitzschia ). Here, we review the evolution of HABs in the Chilean Patagonian fjords, with a focus on the established connections between key features of HABs (expansion, recurrence, and persistence) and their interaction with current and predicted global climate-change-related factors. We conclude that large-scale climatic anomalies such as the lack of rain and heat waves, events intensified by climate change, promote the massive proliferation of these species by creating ideal conditions for their growth and persistence, as they affect water-column stratification, nutrient inputs, and reproductive rates.

Phalacroma rotundatum is a rare cosmopolitan heterotrophic dinoflagellate. This species, included in the IOC-UNESCO Taxonomic Reference List of Harmful Microalgae, may be a diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxin vector, but little is known about its ecophysiology and behavior. A vertical net haul collected during the austral summer of 2018 in Reloncaví Sound (Chilean Patagonia) revealed an unusually abundant population of P. rotundatum and prompted intensive 24 h sampling on 16-17 January to study the cell cycle and feeding behavior of this species. Hydrographic measurements from a buoy revealed the local characteristic estuarine circulation, with a brackish surface layer (salinity 26-28) separated from saltier, colder bottom waters by a pycnocline at a depth modulated by the tidal regime. A high proportion of P. rotundatum cells were packed with digestive vacuoles (peak of 70% at 14:00), and phased cell division ( µ = 0.46 d -1 ) occurred 3 h after sunrise. The division time (T D ) was 2 h. This is the first cell cycle study of P. rotundatum . The results here disagree with those of previous field studies that considered asynchronous division in some Dinophysis species to be related to heterotrophic feeding. They also question the very specific prey requirements, Tiarina fusus , reported for P. rotundatum in northern Europe.