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Background: Time spent on screen devices affects sleep quality and duration leading to several health impairments in youth. Although physical activity (PA) benefits sleep patterns and decreases screen time in adolescents, it is unclear whether the relationship between sleep quality/duration and screen time could be influenced by PA levels., Objective: To analyze the association between sleep quality and duration with screen time in Brazilian adolescents according PA levels., Methods: The sample included 1010 adolescents aged 13.2 ± 2.4 years (n = 556 females - 55 % of the sample). Sleep quality and sleep duration, and PA were assessed by Mini Sleep and Baecke questionnaires, respectively. Participants in the highest quartile were classified as physically active. Screen time was analyzed by the self-reported number of hours spent on different screen devices (i.e., television, computer, videogame, and cellphone/tablet). Participants in the highest tertile were classified as having high screen time. Sex, age, and body mass index were considered covariates in binary logistic regression models., Results: Poor sleep quality was observed in 52.3 % of the sample, whereas 46.6 % reported sleeping less than eight hours/day. High screen time was associated with poor sleep quality (OR = 1.45; 95 %CI = 1.01-2.12) and insufficient sleep duration (OR = 1.52; 95 %CI = 1.01-2.03) in adolescents insufficiently active. There were no associations between screen time and sleep parameters in active adolescents., Conclusion: High screen time was associated with poor sleep quality and insufficient sleep duration only in insufficiently active adolescents. These results suggest that high PA levels may contribute to improving sleep patterns in pediatric population., Competing Interests: 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., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: The role of sociodemographic factors in the association between early sports participation (ESP) and sedentary behavior is unclear. We analyzed the association of ESP with sedentary behavior and identified the influence of sociodemographic factors in adulthood., Methods: A sample of 264 community-dwelling adults was randomly assessed (42.6 [17.0] y old, 57.6% women). Sociodemographic factors (age, gender, and socioeconomic status) and ESP (retrospectively) were assessed by questionnaire. Sedentary behavior was measured by accelerometer and self-reported for domains identification. The association between ESP and sedentary behavior domains and sociodemographic factors was analyzed by Poisson regression and presented in prevalence ratio (PR). Sociodemographic factors were separately included as covariates to identify their role in the main association analysis., Results: The ESP prevalence was 56.4% (n = 149). ESP participants included a higher proportion of men (59.7% vs 20.0%), had a lower age (36.8 [15.3] vs 50.8 [15.9]), and included a smaller proportion of individuals with low socioeconomic status (24.8% vs 43.5%) compared with those without ESP. The ESP was inversely associated with older age (PR = 0.58, P < .001 for middle aged; PR = 0.34, P < .001 for older participants), female gender (PR = 0.79, P < .001), low socioeconomic status (PR = 0.63, P = .036), and TV watching (PR = 0.67, P = .011). ESP was associated with driving (PR = 1.50, P = .028), office/paper work (PR = 1.63, P = .012), and using a cellphone (PR = 1.60, P = .009). The age was the main confounding factor of association between ESP and sedentary behavior, followed by socioeconomic status. No mediation role was identified., Conclusion: The ESP was associated with mentally active behavior domains and inversely associated with mentally passive sedentary behavior domains, but this association was majorly affected by sociodemographic factors, mainly by age.

The highest prevalence of mental illnesses and mental suffering in contemporary society has raised awareness of the theme and their connection to work. In Brazil, university servants (professors and technical-administrative staff) are a focused occupational group. We developed this research with the objective of exploring the relationship between the perception of working conditions and the mental health of these servants. Structured questionnaires were applied to 285 servants, 33.5% being professors and 66.5% technical-administrative staff. Regarding working conditions, the questionnaires included items that measured 15 primary factors and questions about their contracts and legal conditions. To evaluate mental health, the participants answered a questionnaire about common psychic symptoms, negative and positive affects, self-esteem, and family-work conflict. We composed groups of participants according to their mental health indicator scores (cluster analysis), and after that, we compared the mean scores in working conditions for the groups. Then, we found that the mean scores of 13 from the 15 working condition factors were significantly different between the mental health groups. Our results showed the importance of improving working conditions in universities to prevent mental illnesses. Understanding the content of each working condition factor presents potency to contribute to defining the priorities among different aspects of working conditions.

Background: After 2006 the cross-border region between the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil) and the Germán Busch Province (Bolivia) became risk areas for canine rabies antigenic variant 1, previously unknown in the Brazilian territory., Objectives: To perform a descriptive analysis of canine rabies from 2006 to 2014, analyzing the database of the official rabies diagnostic laboratory of the State Agency of Animal and Plant Health Protection of Mato Grosso do Sul., Methods: A descriptive analysis of canine rabies from 2006 to 2014 was performed using the database of the official rabies diagnostic laboratory of the State Agency of Animal and Plant Health Protection of Mato Grosso do Sul. Location, time and residence status of the animals were analyzed. Monthly frequencies were calculated as the ratio of the number of positive samples to the total of sent samples and were then statistically compared., Findings: In the period, 539 samples of nervous system from dogs and cats were sent for rabies diagnosis, of which 37 (6.9%; CI95% 5.0-9.3) canine and no positive feline samples were found positive. Twenty-four (64.9%, CI95% 48.8-78.2) positive samples were from Bolivia and 13 (31.1%, CI95% 21.8-51.2) from Brazil. Most positive animals were owned. The years 2008 and 2009 showed the highest occurrence of canine rabies, with 18 cases recorded in 2008 and 6 in 2009 (17 in Bolivia and 7 in Brazil). Annual samples sent in Brazil presented a decreasing trend (R2 = 0.53) and, over the months, a higher concentration of samples was observed between May and August (R2 = 0.69). No annual or monthly trends were observed for Bolivian samples (R2 < 0.003)., Conclusions: AgV1 canine rabies due to antigenic variant 1 is still considered an endemic disease in the Brazil-Bolivia border region, requiring an international One Health Approach to mitigate canine rabies in Latin America., Competing Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.)

Although the importance of bees as the pollinators responsible for maintaining gene flow for many native and cultivated plants in ecosystems around the world is recognized, much of their biodiversity and behavior remains to be discovered. Stingless bees are considered key pollinators for several plant species in tropical and subtropical ecosystems and they also provide pollination services for economically important agricultural crops. Many countries are using the honey bee (Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758, Hymenoptera: Apidae) as a surrogate to evaluate the risk of pesticides to all species of bees. However, there is uncertainty regarding the extent to which honey bees can serve as surrogates for non-Apis bee species in the risk assessment for pesticides. This paper provides a short overview of the life history traits relevant in risk assessment of stingless bees. It summarizes what is known about stingless bee exposure to pesticides compared to that of honey bees and presents criteria for potential candidate species from Brazil for use in pesticide risk assessment in tropical environments. This paper also identifies gaps in knowledge of bee biology and pesticide exposure routes not covered by the current honey bee exposure assessment paradigm. Based on these gaps, research is needed on life history traits, estimates of nectar and pollen consumption, mud, resin, and water collection and available protocols to adequately assess toxic effects of pesticides to stingless bees. This review is part of a series of papers on the risk of exposure of non-Apis bees to pesticides.

Background: Defecography is an established method of evaluating dynamic anorectal dysfunction, but conventional defecography does not allow for visualization of anatomic structures., Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the use of dynamic 3-dimensional endovaginal ultrasonography for evaluating perineal descent in comparison with echodefecography (3-dimensional anorectal ultrasonography) and to study the relationship between perineal descent and symptoms and anatomic/functional abnormalities of the pelvic floor., Design: This was a prospective study., Setting: The study was conducted at a large university tertiary care hospital., Patients: Consecutive female patients were eligible if they had pelvic floor dysfunction, obstructed defecation symptoms, and a score >6 on the Cleveland Clinic Florida Constipation Scale., Interventions: Each patient underwent both echodefecography and dynamic 3-dimensional endovaginal ultrasonography to evaluate posterior pelvic floor dysfunction., Main Outcome Measures: Normal perineal descent was defined on echodefecography as puborectalis muscle displacement ≤2.5 cm; excessive perineal descent was defined as displacement >2.5 cm., Results: Of 61 women, 29 (48%) had normal perineal descent; 32 (52%) had excessive perineal descent. Endovaginal ultrasonography identified 27 of the 29 patients in the normal group as having anorectal junction displacement ≤1 cm (mean = 0.6 cm; range, 0.1-1.0 cm) and a mean anorectal junction position of 0.6 cm (range, 0-2.3 cm) above the symphysis pubis during the Valsalva maneuver and correctly identified 30 of the 32 patients in the excessive perineal descent group. The κ statistic showed almost perfect agreement (κ = 0.86) between the 2 methods for categorization into the normal and excessive perineal descent groups. Perineal descent was not related to fecal or urinary incontinence or anatomic and functional factors (sphincter defects, pubovisceral muscle defects, levator hiatus area, grade II or III rectocele, intussusception, or anismus)., Limitations: The study did not include a control group without symptoms., Conclusions: Three-dimensional endovaginal ultrasonography is a reliable technique for assessment of perineal descent. Using this technique, excessive perineal descent can be defined as displacement of the anorectal junction >1 cm and/or its position below the symphysis pubis on Valsalva maneuver.

Many lab-scale studies have been carried out regarding the effect of feed strategy on the performance of anaerobic sequencing batch reactors (ASBR); however, more detailed pilot-scale studies should be performed to assess the real applicability of this type of operation. Therefore, the objective of this work was to assess the effect of feed strategy or fill time in a 1-m(3) mechanically stirred pilot-scale sequencing batch reactor, treating 0.65 m(3) sanitary wastewater in 8-h cycles at ambient temperature. Two reactor configurations were used: one containing granular biomass (denominated ASBR) and the other immobilized biomass on polyurethane foam as inert support (denominated anaerobic sequencing batch biofilm reactor (AnSBBR)). The reactors were operated under five distinct feed strategies, namely: typical batch and fed-batch for 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the cycle length. Stirring frequency in the ASBR was 40 rpm with two flat-blade turbine impellers and 80 rpm in the AnSBBR with two helix impellers. The results showed that both the ASBR and AnSBBR when operated under typical batch, fed-batch for 50% and 75% of the cycle length, presented improved organic matter removal efficiencies, without significant differences in performance, thus showing important operational flexibility. In addition, the reactors presented operation stability under all conditions.