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Biological soil covers (BSCs) play a pivotal role in ecosystem functioning by enhancing soil stability, mediating nutrient cycling, and influencing soil hydrology. Recognized as ecosystem engineers, they can physically modify, maintain, or create habitats, facilitating plant community development. Through these intricate interactions, BSCs contribute significantly to ecological processes, highlighting their importance in the overall health and functionality of the ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula. Here we present the results obtained from the contributions of the citizen scientists uploaded from November 2019 to January 2021 with eBryoSoil, an app that allows citizens to participate in mapping the BSC communities across the Iberian Peninsula. Here, we emphasize the importance of habitats and consequently, their interaction with climatic variables for the persistence of BSCs (lichens and bryophytes). Conservation efforts targeted at preserving diverse habitats are essential to ensure the continued presence of lichen and bryophyte communities. Despite challenges posed by the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, this citizen science project demonstrated success in utilizing a specifically tailored app to gather valuable information on BSC communities, providing insights into their vulnerability to climate change. This program serves as an illustrative example of how citizen science can effectively identify and study vulnerable habitats, offering a blueprint for future studies focused on understudied organisms., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

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Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Background & Aims: Depression and anxiety can have negative effects on patients and are important to treat. There have been few studies of their prevalence among patients with cirrhosis. We aimed to characterize the prevalence and risk factors for depression and anxiety in a large multi-center cohort of patients with cirrhosis., Methods: We conducted a telephone-based survey of patients with cirrhosis at 3 health systems in the United States (a tertiary-care referral center, a safety net system, and a Veterans hospital) from April through December 2018. Of 2871 patients approached, 1021 (35.6%) completed the survey. Depression and anxiety were assessed using the PHQ-9 (range 0-25) and STAI (range 20-80) instruments, with clinically significant values defined as PHQ-9 ≥15 and STAI ≥40. We performed multivariate logistic regression analysis to identify factors associated with significant depression and anxiety., Results: The median PHQ-9 score was 7 (25 th percentile-75 th percentile, 3-12) and the median STAI score was 33 (25 th percentile-75 th percentile, 23-47); 15.6% of patients had moderately severe to severe depression and 42.6% of patients had high anxiety. In multivariable analyses, self-reported poor health (odds ratio [OR], 4.08; 95% CI, 1.79-9.28), being widowed (OR, 2.08; 95% CI, 1.07-4.05), fear of hepatocellular carcinoma (OR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.04-3.42), higher household income (OR, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.10-0.95), and Hispanic ethnicity (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.33-0.97) were associated with moderately severe to severe depression. Male sex (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.51-0.98), self-reported poor health (OR, 2.73; 95% CI, 1.73-4.32), and fear of hepatocellular carcinoma (OR, 2.24; 95% CI, 1.33-3.78) were associated with high anxiety., Conclusions: Nearly 1 in 6 patients with cirrhosis have moderately severe to severe depression and nearly half have moderate-severe anxiety. Patients with cirrhosis should be evaluated for both of these disorders., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Introduction: Occupational accidents are caused by predisposing factors, which can be handled by preventive actions., Objectives: To analyze factors related to work accidents involving professionals in a referral hospital for infectious diseases in the state of Amazonas, Brazil., Methods: This is an observational, cross-sectional, quantitative study. Data were collected between January 2018 and June 2020 from reports and notification sheets of the Specialized Service in Occupational Health and Safety and Epidemiological Surveillance Group. As for ethical aspects, we followed Resolution No. 466 (2012), which regulates studies with human beings. The study was submitted to and approved by the Research Ethics Committee under protocol No. 3.657.218., Results: Nursing professionals (64.52%), women (77.41%), professionals aged between 42 and 52 years (35.49%), who worked in the public sector (87.10%), and were married (58.06%) were the most affected by accidents. Accidents were mainly work-related (96.77%), represented biological hazards (61.29%), and happened with sharps (51.52%) due to cutaneous injury (48.39%); hands (48.39%) were the main affected site, due to unsafe work conditions (45.16%) during patient care (41.94%). The most frequently used preventive measure was the toolbox talk (41.94%)., Conclusions: This study provides an outline of occurrences, from accidents to the subsequent procedures, and despite being comparable with other studies, provides relevant information for prevention and presents data from a region with few reports of this kind., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: None

Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

This paper explores the question: is working as a child harmful to an individual in terms of adult outcomes in earnings? Although this is an extremely important question, little is known about the effect of child labor on adult outcomes. Estimations of an instrumental variables earnings model on data from Brazil show that child labor has a large negative impact on adult earnings for male children even when controlling for schooling and that the negative impact of starting to work as a child reverses at around ages 12–14.

In a preliminary study in Juruti, a mining municipality in western Pará State, Brazil, 12 out of 21 patients suspected of presenting cutaneous leishmaniasis showed positive PCR (SSUrDNA and G6PD): Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis (9/12; 75%) and L. (V.) sp. (3/12; 25%). Entomological studies in the same location revealed the presence of 12 different phlebotomine species (n =105). One of the most common species was Lutzomyia (Psychodopygus) complexa (17%) which is both highly anthropophilic and a known vector of L. (V.) braziliensis in other regions of Pará. These preliminary findings should serve to guide future epidemiological surveillance in Juruti.