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The presence of livestock in riparian areas raises several questions about the conservation and sustainable use of water resources and biodiversity in Brazil. Although the Native Vegetation Protection Law (No. 12,651) focuses on riparian vegetation, protected as Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs), it does not exclude the presence of livestock in these fragile areas. Here, we provide an overview of APPs in Brazil and analyze the legal instruments that enable livestock in these areas, gathering the scientific evidence on associated environmental impacts. Currently, cattle in riparian areas represent a direct threat to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and services, especially because these animals promote trampling, loss of vegetation, soil erosion, siltation, and pollution through urine and feces. To avoid cattle in APPs, legislation should be revised to implement more stringent restrictions; in parallel, alternatives for watering the animals must be sought, such as, for example, the installation of artificial ponds and drinking fountains. It would be appropriate to propose legislation or create incentives to fence livestock in pasture areas to preventing it from accessing APPs. Increasing cattle confinement is an alternative measure to traditional ranching in open pasture. Riparian zones represent a critical environment for biodiversity and society, so the presence of cattle and its associated negative impacts should be seriously considered by authorities., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Socio-education is an educational and (re)socialization proposal for young people having troubles with the law, a law which also includes the right to health care guaranteed by the Unified Health System (SUS). This study aims to investigate the relationship between health services and socio-educational units in Paraná state, from the perspective of service workers and managers. The qualitative and exploratory research consisted of sixteen semi-structured interviews in five municipalities in the state, with subsequent categorization of the narratives based on hermeneutic analysis. As a result, there was considerable weakness in the coordination between the network's facilities to promote overall health care, specifically the mental health of young people. Security issues have a strong influence on the regulation of actions, even health actions, in socio-education. The current policy of comprehensive health care in socio-education, implemented in Brazil in 2014, is, however, an important counterpoint for the reordering and nudging policies in this area.

Objectives: to identify mothers' perceptions about caring for newborns in the home environment, from the perspective of complexity thinking., Methods: qualitative, exploratory and descriptive research, carried out between November/2022 and February/2023. Data were collected through individual interviews with 21 mothers from southern Brazil who cared for newborns at home and analyzed using the thematic analysis technique., Results: the four thematic axes resulting from the data analysis: Living amidst order and disorder; embracing singularities; dealing with the certain and the uncertain; support network in the (re)organizing process demonstrate that the mother caring for a newborn in their home environment experiences a distinct and plural adaptive process, which must be welcomed and understood by health professionals who work within the family environment., Final Considerations: the care of newborns in a home environment, in the perception of mothers, requires differentiated attention and a formal or informal support network that considers the unique specificities of each woman/mother in the personal, family and social spheres. Therefore, in addition to the social support network, it is important to rethink home intervention approaches.

During a recent collection expedition to the Rio Negro, in the state of Amazonas, Brazil, eight individuals of an unknown species were collected, with a combination of characteristics that placed the species in the genus Rhadinoloricaria. Furthermore, the presence of two autapomorphic characteristics, including numerous elongated papillae on the lower lip and unbranched barbelets on the margin of lower lip, suggests that it is a new species. From morphological and phylogenetic analyses, including the sequencing of specific genes to calculate the maximum likelihood analyses, coupled with osteological computed tomography (CT) scan analyses, the authors corroborated that the specimens represent a new species of Rhadinoloricaria, described in the present study., (© 2023 Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

The Neotropical family Heptapteridae comprises 228 valid species widely distributed in South America. Imparfinis is one of the most diverse genera of this family, with 25 valid species widely distributed, inhabiting streams from Costa Rica to Argentina. Old descriptions coupled with lack of recent systematic studies of the species of Imparfinis from the Upper Paraná river basin have led to a taxonomic impediment and hindered the advancement of studies in other areas, such as ecology, cytogenetic, phylogenetic, and evolution. We conducted the first integrative study analyzing both molecular and morphological data of Imparfinis from the Upper Paraná River basin. Our analyses strongly support the existence of four independent evolutionary lineages in this river system, three of them are the nominal species I. mirini, I. schubarti, and I. piperatus, and a new species from Goiás state described herein.

The Neotropical catfish genus Kronichthys contains three species distributed along coastal rivers of southern and southeastern Brazil. Although phylogenetic hypotheses are available, the molecular and morphological diversity and species boundaries within the genus remain unexplored. In this study, the authors generated mitochondrial data for 90 specimens combined with morphometric and meristic data to investigate species diversity, species boundaries and putative morphological signatures in Kronichthys. Phylogenetic and species delimitation results clearly show the presence of four genetic lineages, three within Kronichthys heylandi along the coast from Rio de Janeiro to southern São Paulo and a single lineage encompassing both the nominal species Kronichthys lacerta and Kronichthys subteres from the Ribeira de Iguape basin to Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. Nonetheless, morphological data show overlapped ranges in morphometrics and a definition of only two morphotypes, with clear phenotypic differences in the teeth number: K. heylandi differs from K. subteres + K. lacerta by the higher number of premaxillary teeth (30-52 vs. 19-28) and higher number of dentary teeth (28-54 vs. 17-28). Headwater captures and connections of paleodrainages because of sea-level fluctuations represent the two major biogeographic processes promoting species diversification and lineage dispersal of Kronichthys in the Atlantic coastal range of Brazil., (© 2020 Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

In Brazil, since 2001, pesticides in food products have been monitored by the Program for Analysis of Pesticide Residues in Food Products (PARA, in Portuguese). The study aimed to analyze the challenges and strides in the control of pesticide residues in food products in Brazil based on the program's results from 2001 to 2015. A descriptive-analytical document review was conducted that used data from reports by the PARA, available at the website of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency. The program's main challenges feature the wide variation in the number of samples and active ingredients analyzed, as well as the reports' format. There is a need for more in-depth discussions of the criteria used for classification and authorization of active ingredients in Brazil, as well as the information's transparency to society. A total of 25 types of foods were analyzed, with more than 30,000 samples, since the PARA has been in force, but the maximum number of active ingredients analyzed was 228. The presence of active ingredients unauthorized for crops and unauthorized in the country was the principal cause of irregularities diagnosed in the foods. Although the program still faces various challenges, it helps spawn debate on the issue in society. Given the current government context of greater flexibility in the authorization of active ingredients in Brazil, it is necessary to strengthen the PARA.

A new species of Phenacorhamdia is described from Paranapanema River, Upper Paraná River basin, southeastern Brazil. The new species is distinguished from congeners by the combination of following characters 45-46 vertebrae; an entirely dark-brown body; nine pleural ribs; eight branched rays in upper lobe of caudal fin; seven branched rays in pectoral fin; 13 anal-fin rays with 9-10 branched; first basal radial inserted at the 13th vertebrae and eight branchiostegal rays.

Studies have demonstrated the role of acanthocephalan as environmental bioindicators. The dynamics in the parasite-host relationship that define the patterns of distribution of trace metals in parasites and, in its host, are extremely variable. In addition, the neotropical region, which is a major maintainer of the biodiversity of fish and parasites, remains little explored in this subject. Therefore, our objective was to analyze and compare the concentration of Cadmium (Cd) in the tissues of Prochilodus lineatus and Serrasalmus marginatus collected from Baía and Paraná rivers, as well as to assess the use of acanthocephalan as environmental bioindicators of pollution and their Cd bioaccumulation capacity. We collected 53 fish, 20 specimens of Prochilodus lineatus from Paraná River and 17 from Baía River, in addition to 16 specimens of Serrasalmus marginatus from Baía River, in September 2017 and March 2018. Tissues of the fish along with their parasites were subjected a Cd concentration analysis by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. The results revealed that the parasites had higher concentrations than all the tissues of S. marginatus, P. lineatus from Baía River and Paraná River. The high Cd concentrations in these parasites derived from their bioaccumulation capacity, because of the absorption of nutrients directly from the intestinal content of the fish through the tegument, as well as for the presence of Cd on the surface waters of Praná River floodplain. Besides that, the Coefficient of Spearman Rank Correlation showed that the infrapopulation size seems to affect Cd bioaccumulation in the parasites, smaller infrapopulations demonstrate a higher accumulation capacity compared to the larger ones. With that, we concluded that the two acanthocephalans species analyzed in this study have a good capacity for Cd accumulation, and can be used as accumulation indicators of trace-metal pollution. Accumulation indicators provide important information on the biological availability of pollutants., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

An integrative review was performed to identify and analyze national studies on barriers to patient safety incident reporting by health professionals within Brazilian health services. A search in the Virtual Health Library (BVS) Portal, PubMed and Web of Science was performed in January 2017 for papers published in the last ten years. One thousand and seven publications were identified and, following application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, eight papers were analyzed, five of which were qualitative and three quantitative. All research was conducted in hospitals, exclusively with nursing professionals, and 75% was conducted in Southeast Brazil. Most studies showed an under-reporting of incidents, and the main reasons were fear about reporting, reporting focused on more severe incidents, lack of knowledge about the subject or how to report and, registered nurse-centered reporting. While study of this theme is still incipient in Brazil, this review found important weaknesses in the process and barriers to incident reporting by professionals, revealing a need for encouraging their participation, eliminating or reducing such barriers with a view to strengthening patient safety.

A new species of Parotocinclus is described from the Rio Tocantins basin, Tocantins State, Brazil. The new species is distinguished from congeners by a combination of characters such as: (1) a unique pattern of body coloration with five transverse dark bars; (2) absence of an adipose fin or small platelet at typical adipose-fin region; (3) absence of conspicuous dark dots broadly distributed on the body; (4) absence of a triangular dark blotch at the anterior base of the dorsal fin; and (5) presence of a V-shaped spinelet.

In the present study, we describe a new species of Neoplecostomus from central Brazil. The new species is known from Córrego Cachoeira a right tributary of the upper Rio Paraná basin. It can be distinguished from all congeners by absence of adipose fin or azygous plates on the dorsum surface of the caudal peduncle. Additionally, the new species differs from N. botucatu and N. paranensis by having a dark caudal fin with a unique v-shaped hyaline vertical area and a larger lower lip. A discussion on the morphological variation of adipose fin among species of Neoplecostomus is also provided.

A new species of Hisonotus from rio Juma, located at the right margin of the lower rio Aripuanã, rio Madeira basin is described. The new species is distinguished from its congeners mainly by a reddish-tipped premaxillary and dentary teeth, a V-shaped spinelet, three lateral plates in abdominal series, the coloration pattern of caudal fin with three transversal dark bars, and by morphometric characters.

We describe two new species of Corumbataia from Central Brazil. The new species are known from Rio Corrente, a tributary of the upper Rio Paraná basin. Furthermore, the two species are distinguished from congeners, mainly by the presence of a broad naked area without plates or odontodes on the dorsal portion of the snout. Additionally, the two new species described here can be distinguished from each other by the caudal-peduncle depth, number of infraorbitals plates series and by the general color pattern of caudal fin.

Objective: to describe the actions performed by nurses in the preceptorship of students in the Basic Health Unit (Portuguese acronym: UBS); to identify the knowledge of nurses and competencies they need to acquire or develop in order to act in the preceptorship of students in the UBS; to discuss the implications of the pedagogical practice of preceptor nurses in their own continuing education., Method: qualitative, descriptive and exploratory nature. Scenario: A UBS. Participants: six preceptor nurses. Data collection: semi-structured interview., Results: Bardin's content analysis was used. Emerging categories: Approaching the concept of preceptor and the teaching role; The fragile institutional recognition of UBS as a field of internship and the offer of knowledge of preceptors: overcoming difficulties; Preceptor nurses' performance in face of dynamics of facts arising and shaping the reality in a UBS; Opportunities and limitations of the pedagogical practice implying on continuing education., Conclusion: it is necessary to discuss and rethink the strategies of interest of preceptors and develop their competencies.

Purpose of Review: The Amazon region has a high biodiversity of flora, with an elevated variety of fruits, such as Camu-Camu (Myrciaria dúbia), Açaí (Euterpe oleracea Mart.), Tucumã (Astrocaryum aculeatum and Astrocaryum vulgare), Fruta-do-conde (Annona squamosa L.), Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum), Graviola (Annona muricata L.), Guarana (Paullinia cupana Kunth var. sorbilis), and Pitanga (Eugenia uniflora), among many others, that are rich in phytochemicals, minerals and vitamins with prominent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential., Recent Findings: Studies evaluating the chemical composition of these fruits have observed a high content of nutrients and bioactive compounds. Such components are associated with significant biological effects in treating various non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and related complications. Regular intake of these fruits from Amazonas emerges as a potential therapeutic approach to preventing and treating NCDs as a nutritional strategy to reduce the incidence or mitigate common complications in these patients, which are the leading global causes of death. As studies remain largely unexplored, this narrative review discusses the possible health-beneficial effects for patients with NCDs., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Parasite communities correspond to the definition of metacommunity, as species interact and disperse within hosts. The present study evaluated parasite metacommunities in a tropical floodplain. The study was conducted in the Western Amazon around the municipalities of Cruzeiro do Sul, state of Acre, and Guajará, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Six sampling sites were selected and grouped into conserved and degraded environments. Fish were caught between periods of drought and flood, using passive and active sampling methods; in the laboratory, they were measured weighed, and necropsied. Parasites found were fixed, evaluated, and identified. Physical and chemical variables and environmental conservation characteristics were measured in all sites. Diversity index, ANOVA, Tukey, local contribution to beta diversity (LCBD), species contribution to beta diversity by individual species (SCBD), and variance partitioning were summarized. The α species diversity increased in conserved environments and varied between seasonal periods, mainly in detritivorous and omnivorous hosts. Local contributions to beta diversity showed significantly higher values in conserved environments for the endoparasite fauna of piscivorous and omnivorous hosts, indicating that these environments presented unique parasite infracommunities and revealing the conservation status of these environments. Variations in infracommunities were explained mainly by niche-based processes, including environmental conditions, degree of conservation, and host characteristics. Thus, these data will serve as a tool to understand the way parasite communities are structured, which is important information for the management and conservation of aquatic environments., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study evaluated the effects of environmental contamination caused by pasture intensification and pasture-sugarcane conversion on oxidative stress, biotransformation, esterase enzymes, and development of Scinax fuscovarious and Physalaemus nattereri. Tadpoles were exposed in mesocosms allocated in three treatments: (1) untreated extensive pasture (EP); (2) intensive-pasture conversion (IP) (2,4-D herbicide + fertilizers); and (3) pasture-sugarcane conversion (SC) (fipronil + 2,4-D + fertilizers). After 7 days of exposure, IP reduced catalase (CAT) and increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in P. nattereri, while this treatment decreased glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) and CAT activities in S. fuscovarious. SC decreased CAT, G6PDH, and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities in P. nattereri. In S. fuscovarius, SC reduced G6PDH, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and carboxylesterase (CbE) activities. MDA was raised in both tadpole species exposed to SC, evidencing oxidative stress. Integrated biomarker responses showed higher scores in both species exposed to SC. Our results warn that management practices currently applied to sugarcane cultivation in Brazil can negatively impact the functional responses of amphibians at natural systems., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Wheat blast caused by the Triticum pathotype of Pyricularia oryzae poses a serious threat to wheat production in South America and Asia and is now becoming a pandemic disease. Here, we show that Rmg8, a promising wheat gene for resistance breeding, is suppressed by PWT4, an effector gene of P. oryzae, and in turn that the suppression is counteracted by Rwt4, a wheat gene recognizing PWT4. When PWT4 was introduced into a wheat blast isolate carrying AVR-Rmg8 (an avirulence gene corresponding to Rmg8), PWT4 suppressed wheat resistance conferred by Rmg8. PWT4 did not alter the expression of AVR-Rmg8, but higher expression of PWT4 led to more efficient suppression. This suppression was observed in rwt4 carriers, but not in Rwt4 carriers, indicating that it is counteracted by Rwt4. PWT4 was assumed to have been horizontally transferred from a weed-associated cryptic species, P. pennisetigena, to an Avena isolate of P. oryzae in Brazil. This implies a potential risk of the acquisition of PWT4 by the wheat blast fungus and the 'breakdown' of Rmg8. We suggest that Rmg8 should be introduced together with Rwt4 into a wheat cultivar when it is used for resistance breeding., (© 2020 The Authors New Phytologist © 2020 New Phytologist Trust.)

Our study evaluated 163 individuals, being 74 soybean farmers, occupationally exposed to pesticides, and 89 individuals from Goias municipalities, Central Brazil, with similar conditions to the exposed group, comprising the control group. Of the 74 soybean farmers, 43 exposed directly to pesticides and 31 exposed indirectly. The exposed group consisted of individuals aged 19 to 63 years, 21 women and 53 men, and the control group had ages ranging from 18 to 64 years, being 36 women and 53 men. 18.9% of the exposed group were poisoned by pesticides, and the most common symptoms were headache and gastrointestinal problems. The genotype frequencies of the rs2031920 (T>C) polymorphism in the CYP2E1 gene present significant differences between the exposed and control groups (p = 0.02), showing that 24.3% of the exposed group were heterozygotes against 6.7% in the control group. For the OGG1 gene, two SNPs, rs1052133 (G>C) and rs293795 (T>C), were evaluated and the genotype frequencies were not statistically different between the exposed and control groups. The DNA damage was distinct (p < 0.05) in the three analyzed comet parameters (tail length, Olive tail moment, %DNA) between groups. However, there was no influence of age and alcohol consumption between the groups associated with the polymorphisms in the CYP2E1 and OGG1 genes and DNA damage. We also did not find altered hematological and biochemical parameters in the exposed group. Thus, this pioneering study at Goias State carried out an overview of the health of soybean farmers. We evaluated classic laboratory exams, associated with exposure markers (comet assay) and susceptibility markers (genetic polymorphisms), emphasizing the need to expand the Brazilian health assessment protocol. We found, in soybean farmers, increased DNA damage and a higher number of heterozygotes in CYP2E1 gene, compared with the control group, despite the lack of association with age, educational level, smoking, drinking habits, and genetic polymorphisms.

Worldwide, there are an insufficient number of primary care physicians to provide accessible, high-quality primary care services. Better knowledge on the health impacts of policies aimed at improving access to primary care physicians is important for informing future policies. Using a generalised synthetic control estimator (GSC), we estimate the effect of the increase in primary care physicians from the Programa Mais Médicos in Brazil. The GSC allows us to estimates a continuous treatment effects which are heterogenous by region. We exploit the variation in physicians allocated to each Brazilian microregion to identify the impact of an increasing Mais Médicos primary care physicians. We explore hospitalisations and mortality rates (both total and from ambulatory care sensitive conditions) as outcomes. Our analysis differs from previous work by estimating the impact of the increase in physician numbers, as opposed to the overall impact of programme participation. We examine the impact on hospitalisations and mortality rates and employ a panel dataset with monthly observations of all Brazilian microregion over the period 2008-2017. We find limited effects of an increase in primary care physicians impacting health outcomes - with no significant impact of the Programa Mais Médicos on hospitalisations or mortality rates. Potential explanations include substitution of other health professionals, impacts materialising over the longer-term, and poor within-region allocation of Mais Médicos physicians., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of [ 68 Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in the diagnosis of recurrent prostate cancer (PC) after prostatectomy in a large multicentre cohort., Methods: The centres, which contributed to this study, were the departments of nuclear medicine of Heidelberg (Germany), Technical University of Munich (Germany) and Albert Einstein Hospital of São Paulo (Brazil). A total of 2533 patients who were scanned with [ 68 Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT at 1 h p.i. due to recurrent PC after prostatectomy were included in this retrospective analysis. Exclusion criteria were as follows: patients with untreated primary tumour, previous chemotherapy or Xofigo®; those previously treated with exclusively external beam radiation therapy or HIFU; those referred for PSMA-therapy; and those treated with ADT (including first- and second-generation ADT) within the last 6 months. Potential influences of different factors such as PSA level, PSA doubling-time (PSA DT ), PSA velocity (PSA Vel ), Gleason Score (GSC, including the separate analysis of 7a and 7b), age and amount of injected tracer were evaluated in a multivariable analysis., Results: The rate of pathologic PET/CT-scans was 43% for PSA ≤ 0.2 ng/ml, 58% for PSA > 0.2 to ≤ 0.5, 72% for PSA > 0.5 to ≤ 1.0 and increased to a maximum of 93% for PSA > 10 ng/ml. A pathological PET/CT was significantly (p = 0.001) associated with PSA level and higher GSC. Amount of injected tracer, age, PSA DT and PSA Vel were not associated with a higher probability of a pathological scan., Conclusion: [ 68 Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT at 1 h p.i. confirmed its high performance in the largest patient cohort yet analysed. Tumour detection showed a clear association with higher PSA and higher GSC. No association was found between a pathological [ 68 Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT and age, amount of injected tracer, PSA DT or PSA Vel .