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The multidimensional nature of challenges delivered by the increasing loss of natural capital imposes the need for innovative strategies to ensure a continuous and sustainable flow of human prosperity. Such strategies, however, will only be successful if they are based on a solid knowledge backbone on the determinants of human well-being and their interfaces with humanity's natural wealth. Due to the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of phenomena such as climate change, biodiversity loss and persistent poverty, what are the strategies available to facilitate the understanding of the dynamics interactions between natural and socioeconomic systems? On one hand, this paper advocates that the approach of ecosystem services can provide important analytical and conceptual contributions to build an interdisciplinary research agenda in which the interdependence between natural capital and human prosperity is explicitly recognized. This is because ecosystem services are known as the basic interface between natural capital and human welfare. On the other hand, it is argued that the mutual interactions between society and nature can be better understood by adopting some operational tools such as the ecological-economic modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed at investigating the effects of intestinal cleansers on fecal contamination during labor and delivery amongst women assisted in a university hospital. The subjects were 90 pregnant women (43 normal births, 27 forceps and 20 caesarean sections). The population was divided in two randomized groups: with and without the use of intestinal cleansers. It was possible to conclude that intestinal cleansers did not provide faster labor and did not reduce fecal contamination. However, the women who had used an intestinal cleanser tended to regard it as positive.

Systematized study was made in 56 esophagi of chronic chagasics (17 with and 39 without megas) aiming to: 1) to evaluate the esophageal caliber and thickness ranges; 2) analyse qualitative and quantitatively, the myenteric plexuses, trying to evaluate the relation of their lesions and the development of megaesophagus (ME); 3) study the lesions of the muscularis propria to verify if they contribute or not to the beginning of the process; 4) search for T. cruzi and its eventual relationship with the inflammation; 5) identify the principal mucosal alterations. It was confirmed that the severest lesions were found in the muscularis propria and in the plexures of Auerbach ganglia. In the former, the main alterations were myositis and fibrosis. The myentric plexuses showed inflammation and neuronal depopulation when compared with non-mega chagasic esophagi and even more when compared with the controls. On the other hand, there were normal caliber esophagi with severe denervation. It is possible that several factors may lead to the esophagopathy, especially to the ME. The search for T. cruzi was found positive in four out of eight esophagi with mega and in none of eight chagasic esophagi without mega. Mucosal and submucosal lesions were unremarkable and do not seem to be involved with the development of the process.