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The recent (re)discovery of the meningeal lymphatic system has opened new theories as to how immune cells traffic and interact with the central nervous system (CNS). While evidence is accumulating on the contribution of the meningeal lymphatic system in both homeostatic and disease conditions, a lot remains unknown about the mechanisms that allow for interaction between the meningeal lymphatic system and immune cells. In this review, we synthesize the knowledge about the lymphatic immune interaction in the CNS and highlight the important questions that remain to be answered.

Objetivo. Identificar e sintetizar evidências sobre efetividade e custo-efetividade da metodologia Aedes com Wolbachia para redução dos casos de arboviroses. Método. Revisão sistemática rápida, com busca realizada em fevereiro de 2022 em cinco portais de busca e bases de dados bibliográficas online. As etapas de seleção foram conduzidas por dois revisores, com resolução de conflitos por um terceiro. A extração dos dados foi feita por um revisor e conferida posteriormente por outro. Os critérios de inclusão foram estudos com descrição de custo-efetividade e efetividade da metodologia Aedes com Wolbachia, a partir de intervenções em campo, publicados nos idiomas português, inglês e espanhol, sem restrição de data de publicação. Resultados. Foram incluídos quatro estudos, sendo um ensaio randomizado em cluster, dois quase- experimental e um antes-depois, publicados entre 2019 e 2021 em quatro países. Os estudos encontrados tiveram resultados efetivos em alguns dos desfechos avaliados, como na diminuição da incidência de casos de dengue, Zika e chikungunya. Apesar de não terem sido identificados estudos experimentais abordando custo-efetividade da estratégia Aedes com Wolbachia, alguns estudos de modelagem demonstraram um potencial custo-benefício desta estratégia. Conclusão. Considerando os resultados apresentados, conclui-se que a Wolbachia apresenta potencial para ser uma estratégia economicamente efetiva e que leva à redução da incidência de casos de dengue, Zika e chikungunya. Apesar disso, não é possível, todavia, recomendar a estratégia como política pública, pois ainda são necessários mais estudos de grande porte e de alta qualidade metodológica para subsidiar a tomada de decisão política.

This study evaluated the relationships and sensitivity of denitrifying microbial gene abundance, as well as the activities of soil enzymes β-glucosidase (GLU) and arylsulfatase (ARYL), to assess the quality of sugarcane soils managed with vinasse (V), filter cake (FC), and mineral fertilizer (MF). Composite soil samples were collected using a systematic sampling approach that included two soil classes (Ferralsol and Acrisol), two textures (clayey and sandy), three management systems (V, V+FC, and MF), two sampling seasons (rainy and dry), and three replicates, totaling 72 samples. Analysis of soil organic carbon (SOC), and macro- and micronutrients differentiated the Ferralsol and Acrisol samples into distinct groups based on agricultural management (Global R = 0.554) and showed some overlap based on soil texture (Global R = 0.369). The number of nirK, nirS, and nosZ I gene copies per gram of soil, determined by Real-Time Quantitative PCR (qPCR) based on genomic DNA isolated from the 72 soil samples, was higher in the rainy season compared to the dry season (P

The Atlantic Forest is a highly diverse and threatened ecosystem that has been significantly reduced and degraded by human activities. This study provides a comprehensive inventory of bird species inhabiting the human-modified Atlantic Forest landscapes within the municipalities of Estrela Dalva and Volta Grande in the state of Minas Gerais, situated in the middle-lower Paraíba do Sul River basin, Brazil. Our data encompass non-systematic visual and audio records supplemented by MacKinnon lists collected between 2013 and 2019. Our survey identified 175 bird species, representing 54 families and 21 orders, including one species regionally categorized as Vulnerable and two species globally categorized as Near Threatened. Among the recorded species, 8.6% exhibited partially migratory habits, while 9.4% of the resident species were endemic to the Atlantic Forest. These findings underscore the critical importance of preserving forest fragments within historically degraded regions, such as the landscapes along the Paraíba do Sul River basin.

ABSTRACT Climate change has made food security vulnerable. Therefore, it is important to have discussions on the subject and take actions that minimize the environmental impacts on family farming, that will be directly or indirectly affected by climatic events. With this in mind, this study aimed to identify climate changes in the state of Piauí based on climate projections and to verify their possible impacts on the suitability of growing food crops, such as beans, corn, cassava, and cashew. The climate scenarios analyzed were 2011–2040, 2041–2070, and 2071–2100. The observed data on current climate came from the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), and future climate projections came from the Brazilian Portal of Climate Projections of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Based on the climatic data obtained (current and future), the climatological water balance was calculated, using the method proposed by Thorntwaite, with consecutive characterization of the suitability for crops. All maps were generated in QGIS. According to the results, crops that may suffer from water deficit are beans and cashews. The latter, in the RCP 8.5 scenario (2071–2100) shows unsuitability for cultivation throughout the state. The population with the highest rate of social vulnerability is the one that will be most damaged by the events caused by climate change.

ABSTRACT: The growing demand for coconut water has led to the expansion of irrigated green dwarf coconut cultivation; however, the inefficient use of water has contributed to the degradation and waste of water resources, making fundamental studies aiming to optimize the use of water. The objective of this study was to determine the physical productivity and water productivity of green dwarf coconut palms under the climatic conditions of Santa Izabel do Pará, eastern Amazonia, Brazil. The experiment was carried out from 2020 to 2021, in a green dwarf coconut plantation spaced 7.5 m x 7.5 m in a triangle, at Fazenda Reunidas Sococo, with an area of approximately 7 ha. Water productivity (WP) was determined both in terms of fruit production (WPf) and coconut water production (WPca), through the relationship of fruit productivity (fruit biomass and water volume) with accumulated evapotranspiration. The dwarf coconut tree presented a total production of 105 and 186 fruits plant-1 and 37 and 62 L plant-1 of coconut water in the years 2020 and 2021. The largest volumes of water and the highest weights occurred during the wettest season. WPf was of 1.87 fruits m-3 (2020) and 2.94 fruits m-3 (2021) and WPca 0.66 L m-3 (2020) and 0.98 L m-3 (2021).

O Manual da Alimentação Cardioprotetora para Profissionais da Atenção Básica (MAC) tem objetivo de traduzir as recomendações alimentares das diretrizes sobre o tratamento e prevenção de fatores de risco cardiovascular em uma única estratégia lúdica e compreensiva. Entretanto, não se sabe como e qual o melhor método para implementá-lo na Atenção Primária em Saúde (APS). O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar o protocolo do estudo de implementação do MAC na APS de dois municípios do sudeste do Brasil. Trata-se de um estudo de implementação híbrido tipo II com desenho de ensaio clínico randomizado em cluster. Todos os serviços da APS dos municípios (n=59) serão randomizados (1:1) para o grupo que receberá uma estratégia multifacetada para implementação do MAC, que inclui não só a distribuição do material, mas uma capacitação e Auditoria e Feedback (intervenção) ou para o grupo que inclui apenas a distribuição do material, mimetizando o cenário atual (controle). O desfecho primário de implementação será avaliado a partir da taxa de orientação da Alimentação Cardioprotetora e o desfecho primário de efetividade será avaliado pelo consumo de vegetais dos usuários, em seis meses de seguimento. Os desfechos secundários são: compreensão da orientação por parte dos usuários e dos profissionais, taxa de orientações complementares ao MAC, a percepção da incorporação da orientação na prática clínica dos profissionais, a identificação de barreiras e facilitadores para a implementação do MAC e ainda peso dos usuários. Se positiva, será discutida a ampliação da capacitação para outros municípios brasileiros.

Abstract: Assai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) cultivars BRS-Pará (BRS-PA) and BRS-Pai d’Égua (BRS-PDE) were selected for cultivation in upland regions of the Amazon. Given these cultivars were developed from different progenitors, we postulated that they differ regarding water-deficit tolerance. To test this hypothesis, plants of both cultivars were evaluated under well-watered (control) and water-deficit conditions (pre-dawn leaf water potential of – 2.33 MPa). Relative to control, the water-deficit decreased net CO2 assimilation rate (A) and transpiration by 82% and 86% in both cultivars, while the stomatal conductance (gs) was reduced by 93% and 87% in stressed plants of BRS-PDE and BRS-PA. The water-deficit improved instantaneous water-use efficiency by 43% in both cultivars, while intrinsic water-use efficiency (A/gs) increased by 193% and 33% in BRS-PDE and BRS-PA. The water-deficit induced 44% increase in foliar proline and 27% decrease in soluble carbohydrates in both cultivars, while foliar sucrose decreased by 53% in BRS-PA and 16% in BRS-PDE in relation to control. The relative water content in stressed plants of both cultivars was decreased by 8.5% in relation to control. In conclusion, the more efficient stomatal opening control and higher A/gs in BRS-PDE indicate this cultivar better copes with drought than BRS-PA.

We document from the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the first record of Microspingus cinereus (Bonaparte, 1850), which was observed in the municipality of Barra Mansa in October 2020. The species was originally documented in central Brazil, potentially linked to Cerrado habitats. However, recent observations from eBird and WikiAves databases indicate that M. cinereus has been spreading towards the southeast for several years. It has been considered Vulnerable for almost two decades due to the loss of grassland habitats. Our discovery expands the known geographic range of M. cinereus to eastern Brazil and may have importance for future biogeographic studies and the conservation of this species.

Understanding the green dwarf coconut palm development is essential to improve its management. This study aimed to characterize and understand the seasonality of the green dwarf coconut palm development and yield under rainfed and irrigated conditions in the northeastern region of the Pará state, Brazil. The longitudinal and transverse diameters, fruit mass and yield, in addition to the number of live leaves, live bunches, fruits of the bunches nº 11 and 14 and female flowers were monitored. The coconuts between the bunches nº 20 and 22 showed larger dimensions and biomass (fresh and dry). The partition of the production components varies according to the time of the year, with the liquid albumen mass, which is a component of greater commercial focus, being higher in the rainy season, with lower percentage losses in the irrigated cultivation. The meteorological seasonality plays a key role in flower dropping and fruit abortion, directly contributing to the amount of produced fruits.

In the context of online banking, new users have to register their information to become clients through mobile applications; this process is called digital onboarding. Fraudsters often commit identity fraud by impersonating other people to obtain access to banking services by using personal data obtained illegally and causing damage to the organisation’s reputation and resources. Detecting fraudulent users by their onboarding process is not a trivial task, as it is difficult to identify possible vulnerabilities in the process to be exploited. Furthermore, the modus operandi for differentiating the behaviour of fraudulent actors and legitimate users is unclear. In this work, we propose the usage of a process mining (PM) approach to detect identity fraud in digital onboarding using a real fintech event log. The proposed PM approach is capable of modelling the behaviour of users as they go through a digital onboarding process, while also providing insight into the process itself. The results of PM techniques and the machine learning classifiers showed a promising 80% accuracy rate in classifying users as fraudulent or legitimate. Furthermore, the application of process discovery in the event log dataset produced an insightful visual model of the onboarding process.

Business processes have undergone a significant transformation with the advent of the process-oriented view in organizations. The increasing complexity of business processes and the abundance of event data have driven the development and widespread adoption of process mining techniques. However, the size and noise of event logs pose challenges that require careful analysis. The inclusion of different sets of behaviors within the same business process further complicates data representation, highlighting the continued need for innovative solutions in the evolving field of process mining. Trace clustering is emerging as a solution to improve the interpretation of underlying business processes. Trace clustering offers benefits such as mitigating the impact of outliers, providing valuable insights, reducing data dimensionality, and serving as a preprocessing step in robust pipelines. However, designing an appropriate clustering pipeline can be challenging for non-experts due to the complexity of the process and the number of steps involved. For experts, it can be time-consuming and costly, requiring careful consideration of trade-offs. To address the challenge of pipeline creation, the paper proposes a genetic programming solution for trace clustering pipeline synthesis that optimizes a multi-objective function matching clustering and process quality metrics. The solution is applied to real event logs, and the results demonstrate improved performance in downstream tasks through the identification of sub-logs.

This study evaluated the relationships and sensitivity of denitrifying microbial gene abundance, as well as the activities of soil enzymes β-glucosidase (GLU) and arylsulfatase (ARYL), to assess the quality of sugarcane soils managed with vinasse (V), filter cake (FC), and mineral fertilizer (MF). Composite soil samples were collected using a systematic sampling approach that included two soil classes (Ferralsol and Acrisol), two textures (clayey and sandy), three management systems (V, V+FC, and MF), two sampling seasons (rainy and dry), and three replicates, totaling 72 samples. Analysis of soil organic carbon (SOC), and macro- and micronutrients differentiated the Ferralsol and Acrisol samples into distinct groups based on agricultural management (Global R = 0.554) and showed some overlap based on soil texture (Global R = 0.369). The number of nir K, nir S, and nos Z I gene copies per gram of soil, determined by Real-Time Quantitative PCR (qPCR) based on genomic DNA isolated from the 72 soil samples, was higher in the rainy season compared to the dry season (P <0.05). None of the genes evaluated revealed a consistent response to different sugarcane soil managements, showing specific response patterns for each soil class and texture. In the Ferralsol, the activities of GLU and ARYL increased in the following order: V < MF < V+FC, regardless of soil texture (sandy or clayey) and sampling season. The average activity of the two enzymes in both V+FC and MF treatments was 1.8 times higher in sandy soil and 3.9 times higher in clayey soil compared to soil managed with vinasse. In the Acrisol, no significant differences among the treatments were observed. Statistical analyses revealed negative correlations (P <0.05) between the number of copies of the nir K and nos Z I genes and GLU and ARYL activities in the soil during both seasonal periods analyzed. The number of copies of these two microbial genes was also negatively correlated with the soil organic matter in the rainy season. Thus, the indications of sugarcane soil quality based on enzymatic analyses were corroborated by the lower abundance of genes associated with denitrification process. The findings of this study open the possibilities to infer about the potential for N2O emission from these sugarcane soils based on GLU and ARYL activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Esse artigo apresenta uma utilização de metodologia de decisão multicritério, especificamente o Método de Análise Hierárquica (AHP), para escolha do programa computacional mais adequado para ser adotado por uma empresa operadora de saúde de porte médio que atua no mercado brasileiro, para a análise e gerenciamento de seu banco de dados. Foram definidos em comum acordo com a empresa as alternativas, os critérios e os especialistas e, estão explicitados no texto. Também são apresentados, o modelo desenvolvido com os cálculos, os resultados encontrados que apontaram o SQL como a solução mais adequada, a análise de consistência dos julgamentos e a análise de sensibilidade, que demonstrou a robustez dos resultados.

Background: The Cardioprotective Nutritional Program (BALANCE Program) was created for the secondary cardiovascular prevention setting, shown to be effective in improving the diet quality, body weight and cardiovascular risk factor in individuals with previous cardiovascular disease. However, it has been not tested among employees at primary cardiovascular prevention conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the BALANCE Program in a workplace, and its possible effects on diet quality, body composition and cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: This was a before-after feasibility study conducted in an Occupational Medicine Service at a tertiary hospital. The nutritional-education program intervention comprised a ludic nutritional counselling about healthy and affordable foods, and individual/group counselling sessions as well. One hundred twenty-one workers with cardiovascular risk factors were enrolled to follow the BALANCE Program for 6 months. In addition to the dietary intake, glycemic and blood lipids profile, blood pressure and body composition features were evaluated. Feasibility was measured by participant's adherence to a specific diet quality index (the BALANCE index) and to the protocol sessions. Mean data differences from baseline to 3 and 6 months were compared using a paired Student's t-test or Wilcoxon test. Results: The BALANCE Program improved diet quality by increasing BALANCE Index (P = 0.001). 80% of participants attended the individual visits with dietitian. There was a significant reduction at 6 months in anthropometric indexes [body mass index (P = 0.034), waist and neck circumferences (P = 0.003 and P

The Atlantic Forest is one of the most biodiverse biomes in the world and has been severely degraded and fragmented, with the extirpation of most medium-sized and large vertebrates from the forest remnants. Here we present the results of a survey of medium-sized and large mammals in an area of protected seasonal semideciduous forest, the Floresta da Cicuta Area of Relevant Ecological Interest (ARIE-FC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, part the Atlantic Forest biome. We used camera traps (2,257 camera days) and direct observations over a 23-month period. We recorded 19 species (including two domestic species), seven of which are classified as at-risk, such as Leopardus guttulus (Hensel, 1872), Sylvilagus tapetillus Thomas, 1913, Alouatta clamitans Cabrera, 1940, and Chrysocyon brachyurus (Illiger, 1815). A diverse terrestrial mammal assemblage in the ARIE-FC reinforces the importance of small forest fragments for the conservation of biodiversity in human-modified landscapes of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.