Métodos alternativos para o controle de fitopatógenos habitantes do solo: parte II – controle biológico
Agentes de biocontrole, Supressividade, biofertilizantes
As doenças causadas por fitopatógenos habitantes do solo são de difícil controle, pois seus agentes causadores apresentam, geralmente, mais de uma forma de sobrevivência. Além disso, os métodos químicos não dispõem de produtos registrados para a maioria das culturas e, quando disponíveis, não possuem equipamentos eficientes para sua aplicação, tornando baixa a efetividade de controle. O controle biológico pode ser considerado uma importante ferramenta contra doenças de solo, principalmente quando associado aos métodos físicos. A incorporação de formulados comerciais de agentes de biocontrole e a produção de bioferitilizantes são métodos práticos e viáveis ao produtor rural para introdução de agentes de biocontrole na lavoura.
Alexandre Visconti, Fábio Martinho Zambonim, Keny Henrique Mariguele, Alessandro Borini Lone
Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária e Extensão Rural de Santa Catarina - Epagri
https://publicacoes.epagri.sc.gov.br/RAC/article/view/29
El Papel de la Agricultura Familiar para la Diversificación y Valorización de la Producción de Alimentos Después de la Revolución Verde en Brasil
Agricultura Familiar, Direito à alimentação, desenvolvimento
Ese artigo pretende hacer una análisis de la cuestión de la producción de alimentos, después la revolución verde, y la eficacia del derecho a la alimentación en el país. A partir de los años 60, la modernización del campo a mantenido el modelo de los latifundios y del monocultivo en el escenario agrícola brasileiro y excluyendo la agricultura familiar del acceso a las nuevas tecnologías. Con eso, hubo una alteración en el modelo productivo de alimentos, reduciendo la diversidad de productos y comprometiendo el desarrollo de la relación hombre-alimento- sociedad. Considerando que, el modo de producción de alimentos tiene ligación directa a la relación del hombre con su medio y con la cultura en la cual está inmerso. Así, la agricultura familiar consistiría en una manera de explotación capaz de adaptar y persistir en ambientes con el predominio de las prácticas de naturaleza capitalista, así como es capaz de si adaptar a las nuevas exigencias de la sociedad (efectividad del derecho a la alimentación, el desarrollo sostenible agrícola, el combate a la hambre y miseria y la preservación ambiental).
Revista de Direito Agrário e Agroambiental
Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Pós-graduação em Direito (CONPEDI)
http://www.indexlaw.org/index.php/rdaa/article/view/319
Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence, Law
Codon Usage and Phenotypic Divergences of SARS-CoV-2 Genes
Natural selection, host adaptation, coronaviruses, codon usage bias, mutational bias, SARS-CoV-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which first occurred in Wuhan (China) in December of 2019, causes a severe acute respiratory illness with a high mortality rate, and has spread around the world. To gain an understanding of the evolution of the newly emerging SARS-CoV-2, we herein analyzed the codon usage pattern of SARS-CoV-2. For this purpose, we compared the codon usage of SARS-CoV-2 with that of other viruses belonging to the subfamily of Orthocoronavirinae. We found that SARS-CoV-2 has a high AU content that strongly influences its codon usage, which appears to be better adapted to the human host. We also studied the evolutionary pressures that influence the codon usage of five conserved coronavirus genes encoding the viral replicase, spike, envelope, membrane and nucleocapsid proteins. We found different patterns of both mutational bias and natural selection that affect the codon usage of these genes. Moreover, we show here that the two integral membrane proteins (matrix and envelope) tend to evolve slowly by accumulating nucleotide mutations on their corresponding genes. Conversely, genes encoding nucleocapsid (N), viral replicase and spike proteins (S), although they are regarded as are important targets for the development of vaccines and antiviral drugs, tend to evolve faster in comparison to the two genes mentioned above. Overall, our results suggest that the higher divergence observed for the latter three genes could represent a significant barrier in the development of antiviral therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2.
Alexandros G Georgakilas, Athanasia Pavlopoulou, Andrea Giansanti, Maddalena Dilucca, Sergio Forcelloni
Cycling in the Era of COVID-19: Lessons Learnt and Best Practice Policy Recommendations for a More Bike-Centric Future
covid-19, cycling, transport planning, Bike sharing, e-bikes, cycle lanes
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our cities in monumental ways with no sector likely being more severely impacted than transport. Lockdowns, physical spacing, transport restrictions and stay-at-home guidelines have transformed personal mobility and highlighted the mistakes of an unbalanced pro-car culture that defined a century of urban planning. One immediate effect of the virus in relation to travel demand and supply was the emergence of active travel modes because of their unique ability to provide a socially distanced way of transport. Cycling is one of the modes that has enjoyed significant attention. Numerous cities have reallocated street and public space to cyclists and introduced pro-bike interventions like pop-up cycle lanes, e-bike subsidies, free bike-share use and traffic calming measures. This newly found outbreak-induced momentum creates an opportunity to establish a new ethos that allows the promotion of potentially permanent strategies that may help cycling to be (re-)established as a robust, mainstream and resilient travel mode for inner city trips and not as a second-class alternative operating under the automobile’s giant shadow. This paper provides a state-of-the-art description of the anti-COVID cycling-friendly initiatives that have been introduced globally, the successes and failures of these initiatives, the lessons learnt that can help us redefine the bicycle’s role in local societies today and a best cycling practice policy guide for planning a more bike-centric future.
Alexandros Nikitas, Stefanos Tsigdinos, Christos Karolemeas, Efthymia Kourmpa, Efthimios Bakogiannis
Environmental effects of industries and plants, Renewable energy sources, Environmental sciences
Understanding Surgical Risk During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Rationale Behind the Decisions
safety, emergency surgery, pandemia, surgeon, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19
Alexandros Triantafyllidis, Konstantinos Blouhos, Anestis Hatzigeorgiadis, Aikaterini Paraskeva, Konstantinos Andreas Boulas, Maria Nathanailidou, Konstantinos Hatzipourganis
Safe and effective two-in-one replicon-and-VLP minispike vaccine for COVID-19: Protection of mice after a single immunization.
Vaccines of outstanding efficiency, safety, and public acceptance are needed to halt the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Concerns include potential side effects caused by the antigen itself and safety of viral DNA and RNA delivery vectors. The large SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein is the main target of current COVID-19 vaccine candidates but can induce non-neutralizing antibodies, which might cause vaccination-induced complications or enhancement of COVID-19 disease. Besides, encoding of a functional S in replication-competent virus vector vaccines may result in the emergence of viruses with altered or expanded tropism. Here, we have developed a safe single round rhabdovirus replicon vaccine platform for enhanced presentation of the S receptor-binding domain (RBD). Structure-guided design was employed to build a chimeric minispike comprising the globular RBD linked to a transmembrane stem-anchor sequence derived from rabies virus (RABV) glycoprotein (G). Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and RABV replicons encoding the minispike not only allowed expression of the antigen at the cell surface but also incorporation into the envelope of secreted non-infectious particles, thus combining classic vector-driven antigen expression and particulate virus-like particle (VLP) presentation. A single dose of a prototype replicon vaccine complemented with VSV G, VSVΔG-minispike-eGFP (G), stimulated high titers of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies in mice, equivalent to those found in COVID-19 patients, and protected transgenic K18-hACE2 mice from COVID-19-like disease. Homologous boost immunization further enhanced virus neutralizing activity. The results demonstrate that non-spreading rhabdovirus RNA replicons expressing minispike proteins represent effective and safe alternatives to vaccination approaches using replication-competent viruses and/or the entire S antigen.
Alexandru A Hennrich, Bevan Sawatsky, Rosalía Santos-Mandujano, Dominic H Banda, Martina Oberhuber, Anika Schopf, Verena Pfaffinger, Kevin Wittwer, Christiane Riedel, Christian K Pfaller, Karl-Klaus Conzelmann
Students` perceptions about the impact of COVID-19 on learning process. A sociological approach
Pandemic, education, higher education, students, impact
The last six months have been marked by the worldwide spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) which has triggered a global pandemic crisis. Thus, among the most affected fields of activity is education, educational institutions being forced to transfer all the curricular activities in the online environment, by using various digital tools and also Social Media. Due the rapidly spreading of the novel coronavirus, since the beginning of this year, thousands of higher education institutions around the world have been gradually constrained by local gouvernments and public authorities to replace traditional in-person educational activities with distance education, mediated by the digital environment. In turn, the Romanian educational system, as in the case of other countries, has been forced to respond promptly to the arising pandemic crisis challenges. Over the past decades, several researchers from various scientific fields have shown a growing interest in studying the ways in which technology (Marchello and Kelly, 1989), information and communication technology – ICT (Campbell, 2006; Aczel and Hardy, 2007; Saadik, 2008) or digital tools (Säljö, 2010) can be successfully integrated into curricular activities. Nowadays, all these contributions acquire a special significance, once the educational system has had to adapt, willingly or unwillingly, to the current context. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to present several results of an exploratory quantitative sociological research conducted between 26th of March - 20th of April 2020, at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, on a sample of 643 students. The main purpose of this research was to highlight the impact of the pandemic crisis on the learning process among students. Among the main research objectives were: (a) to identify students perceptions about the closure of face-to-face university courses and seminars; (b) to measure the proportion of students who were considering, at the time of the study, that the Romanian educational system is ready to switch traditional learning activities with online courses and seminars; (c) to analyze the main concerns among students toward the effects of pandemic crisis on their future educational path and educational outcomes.
VIRUSURI RESPIRATORII NOI ÎN INFECŢIILE DE TRACT RESPIRATOR INFERIOR LA COPIL: PROFILURI CLINICE ŞI EPIDEMIOLOGICE
bocavirus, Metapneumovirus, coronavirus, rhinovirus C, Pneumonie, bronşiolită
Infecţíile virale de tract respirator reprezintă una din cauzele principale de morbiditate şi mortalitate în patologiapediatrică. Autorii aduc informaţii de ultima oră privind structura, mecanismele patogenetice, caracteristicilecli nice, epidemiologice şi răspunsul la tratament a unor virusuri descoperite recent care afectează tractul respirator la copil: bocavirusul, metapneumovirusul, coronavirusurile şi rinovirusul C.
Alexandru-Ioan Ulmeanu, Carmen Zăpucioiu, Coriolan Emil Ulmeanu
CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILES OF NOVEL VIRUSES IN LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS IN CHILDREN
bocavirus, Metapneumovirus, coronaviruses, rhinovirus C, Pneumonia, Bronchiolitis
Viral respiratory tract infections are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in pediatric pathology.The authors provide the latest information on the structure, pathogenesis, clinical features, epidemiology andresponse to treatment of newly discovered viruses affecting the respiratory tract in children: bocavirus, metapneumovirus, coronaviruses, rhinovirus C.
Daphnia lumholtzi Sars, 1885 (Cladocera: Daphniidae) invades Argentina
Daphnia, invasion, Cladocera, zooplankton, Neotropical
The extent of freshwater biological invasions is difficult to predict. The thermophilic Daphnia lumholtzi Sars, 1885) (Cladocera: Daphniidae) has successfully invaded a large section of temperate North America from an Old World source, damaging ecosystems and fisheries. The species was later reported introduced into Mexico and Brazil. Here we report D. lumholtzi in Argentina - the most southerly record in the New World for this species. Our genetic analyses establish haplotype identity with North American specimens, consistent with the colonization of South America from North America. The detection dates of the records in South America and the association with the Paraná River, provide evidence that river ways play a role in expansion of D. lumholtzi. The invasion of D. lumholtzi has now reached a similar wide latitudinal span to the distribution in the Old World.
Environmental sciences, Geography. Anthropology. Recreation, Physical geography