Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul

Borba M.G., Val F.F., Sampaio V.S., Alexandre M.A., Melo G.C., Brito M., Mourão M.P., Brito-Sousa J.D., Baía-da-Silva D., Guerra M.V., Hajjar L.A., Pinto R.C., Balieiro A.A., Pacheco A.G., Santos J.D., et. al.

Importance There is no specific antiviral therapy recommended for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In vitro studies indicate that the antiviral effect of chloroquine diphosphate (CQ) requires a high concentration of the drug. Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of 2 CQ dosages in patients with severe COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants This parallel, double-masked, randomized, phase IIb clinical trial with 81 adult patients who were hospitalized with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was conducted from March 23 to April 5, 2020, at a tertiary care facility in Manaus, Brazilian Amazon. Interventions Patients were allocated to receive high-dosage CQ (ie, 600 mg CQ twice daily for 10 days) or low-dosage CQ (ie, 450 mg twice daily on day 1 and once daily for 4 days). Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcome was reduction in lethality by at least 50% in the high-dosage group compared with the low-dosage group. Data presented here refer primarily to safety and lethality outcomes during treatment on day 13. Secondary end points included participant clinical status, laboratory examinations, and electrocardiogram results. Outcomes will be presented to day 28. Viral respiratory secretion RNA detection was performed on days 0 and 4. Results Out of a predefined sample size of 440 patients, 81 were enrolled (41 [50.6%] to high-dosage group and 40 [49.4%] to low-dosage group). Enrolled patients had a mean (SD) age of 51.1 (13.9) years, and most (60 [75.3%]) were men. Older age (mean [SD] age, 54.7 [13.7] years vs 47.4 [13.3] years) and more heart disease (5 of 28 [17.9%] vs 0) were seen in the high-dose group. Viral RNA was detected in 31 of 40 (77.5%) and 31 of 41 (75.6%) patients in the low-dosage and high-dosage groups, respectively. Lethality until day 13 was 39.0% in the high-dosage group (16 of 41) and 15.0% in the low-dosage group (6 of 40). The high-dosage group presented more instance of QTc interval greater than 500 milliseconds (7 of 37 [18.9%]) compared with the low-dosage group (4 of 36 [11.1%]). Respiratory secretion at day 4 was negative in only 6 of 27 patients (22.2%). Conclusions and Relevance The preliminary findings of this study suggest that the higher CQ dosage should not be recommended for critically ill patients with COVID-19 because of its potential safety hazards, especially when taken concurrently with azithromycin and oseltamivir. These findings cannot be extrapolated to patients with nonsevere COVID-19. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT04323527

Luedtke J.A., Chanson J., Neam K., Hobin L., Maciel A.O., Catenazzi A., Borzée A., Hamidy A., Aowphol A., Jean A., Sosa-Bartuano Á., Fong G. A., de Silva A., Fouquet A., Angulo A., et. al.

AbstractSystematic assessments of species extinction risk at regular intervals are necessary for informing conservation action1,2. Ongoing developments in taxonomy, threatening processes and research further underscore the need for reassessment3,4. Here we report the findings of the second Global Amphibian Assessment, evaluating 8,011 species for the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. We find that amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class (40.7% of species are globally threatened). The updated Red List Index shows that the status of amphibians is deteriorating globally, particularly for salamanders and in the Neotropics. Disease and habitat loss drove 91% of status deteriorations between 1980 and 2004. Ongoing and projected climate change effects are now of increasing concern, driving 39% of status deteriorations since 2004, followed by habitat loss (37%). Although signs of species recoveries incentivize immediate conservation action, scaled-up investment is urgently needed to reverse the current trends.

Nazir H., Louis C., Jose S., Prakash J., Muthuswamy N., Buan M.E., Flox C., Chavan S., Shi X., Kauranen P., Kallio T., Maia G., Tammeveski K., Lymperopoulos N., Carcadea E., et. al.

The efforts on energy system decarbonization and improved sustainable energy efficiency in developed countries led energy enthusiasts to explore alternative highly effective pathways in accomplishing these goals. Specifically, the transition from hydrocarbon to H2 economy using fuel cells and H2 technologies is a sustainable and favorable approach forward in meeting stationary, transportation, industrial, residential, and commercial sectors. This review in three Parts brings out the capability of H2 for enabling an energy revolution through much-needed flexibility in renewable energy resources. The review identifies the developments and challenges within the H2 generation, storage, transportation, distribution, and usage - as well as applications along with national and international initiatives in the field, all of which suggest a pathway for a greener H2 society. The review also highlights the opportunities and challenges in major energy sectors for H2 technologies. Part I of the series highlights the importance of H2 economy and initiatives from various agencies, and presents several H2 generation methods.

Osco L.P., Marcato Junior J., Marques Ramos A.P., de Castro Jorge L.A., Fatholahi S.N., de Andrade Silva J., Matsubara E.T., Pistori H., Gonçalves W.N., Li J.

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) learn representation from data with an impressive capability, and brought important breakthroughs for processing images, time-series, natural language, audio, video, and many others. In the remote sensing field, surveys and literature revisions specifically involving DNNs algorithms' applications have been conducted in an attempt to summarize the amount of information produced in its subfields. Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) based applications have dominated aerial sensing research. However, a literature revision that combines both "deep learning" and "UAV remote sensing" thematics has not yet been conducted. The motivation for our work was to present a comprehensive review of the fundamentals of Deep Learning (DL) applied in UAV-based imagery. We focused mainly on describing classification and regression techniques used in recent applications with UAV-acquired data. For that, a total of 232 papers published in international scientific journal databases was examined. We gathered the published material and evaluated their characteristics regarding application, sensor, and technique used. We relate how DL presents promising results and has the potential for processing tasks associated with UAV-based image data. Lastly, we project future perspectives, commentating on prominent DL paths to be explored in the UAV remote sensing field. Our revision consists of a friendly-approach to introduce, commentate, and summarize the state-of-the-art in UAV-based image applications with DNNs algorithms in diverse subfields of remote sensing, grouping it in the environmental, urban, and agricultural contexts.

Ranzani O.T., Hitchings M.D., Dorion M., D’Agostini T.L., de Paula R.C., de Paula O.F., Villela E.F., Torres M.S., de Oliveira S.B., Schulz W., Almiron M., Said R., de Oliveira R.D., Vieira da Silva P., de Araújo W.N., et. al.

Abstract Objective To estimate the effectiveness of the inactivated whole virus vaccine, CoronaVac (Sinovac Biotech), against symptomatic covid-19 in the elderly population of São Paulo state, Brazil during widespread circulation of the gamma variant. Design Test negative case-control study. Setting Community testing for covid-19 in São Paulo state, Brazil. Participants 43 774 adults aged ≥70 years who were residents of São Paulo state and underwent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2 from 17 January to 29 April 2021. 26 433 cases with symptomatic covid-19 and 17 622 test negative controls with covid-19 symptoms were formed into 13 283 matched sets, one case with to up to five controls, according to age, sex, self-reported race, municipality of residence, previous covid-19 status, and date of RT-PCR test (±3 days). Intervention Vaccination with a two dose regimen of CoronaVac. Main outcome measures RT-PCR confirmed symptomatic covid-19 and associated hospital admissions and deaths. Results Adjusted vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic covid-19 was 24.7% (95% confidence interval 14.7% to 33.4%) at 0-13 days and 46.8% (38.7% to 53.8%) at ≥14 days after the second dose. Adjusted vaccine effectiveness against hospital admissions was 55.5% (46.5% to 62.9%) and against deaths was 61.2% (48.9% to 70.5%) at ≥14 days after the second dose. Vaccine effectiveness ≥14 days after the second dose was highest for the youngest age group (70-74 years)—59.0% (43.7% to 70.2%) against symptomatic disease, 77.6% (62.5% to 86.7%) against hospital admissions, and 83.9% (59.2% to 93.7%) against deaths—and declined with increasing age. Conclusions Vaccination with CoronaVac was associated with a reduction in symptomatic covid-19, hospital admissions, and deaths in adults aged ≥70 years in a setting with extensive transmission of the gamma variant. Vaccine protection was, however, low until completion of the two dose regimen, and vaccine effectiveness was observe to decline with increasing age among this elderly population.

Silva D.R., Sardi J.D., Pitangui N.D., Roque S.M., Silva A.C., Rosalen P.L.

Probiotics are defined as microorganisms that live in symbiosis with the human host. When ingested in adequate quantities, probiotics may modulate biological functions, with health benefits. Different biological properties have been reported for probiotics, including antimicrobial activity. However, there are few studies investigating the use of probiotics as candidates for alternative antimicrobial therapy or as a source of new antibiotics. Thus, in this review we provide a general approach to the current situation of probiotic antimicrobial research and point out future directions in the field. Despite the promising benefits of probiotics on intestinal health, there remains no consensus or standardization on the development of delivery systems and on the application of probiotic formulations for antimicrobial therapy. Thus, further bioguided studies and clinical trials are needed to address the existing gaps in the knowledge. Future research should focus on the isolation, doses, clinical efficacy, safety and mechanisms of action of probiotics in humans.

Theerthagiri J., Park J., Das H.T., Rahamathulla N., Cardoso E.S., Murthy A.P., Maia G., Vo D.N., Choi M.Y.

The electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate waste into ammonia allows both the removal of nitrate contaminants and an alternative production of ammonia compared to the classical Haber–Bosch industrial process. Ammonia is useful in agriculture for manufacturing fertilizers, and as a reagent in pharmaceuticals, metallurgy, explosives, and the textile industry; ammonia is also an energy carrier in the automobile industry for next-generation fuel cells. Here we review the nitrate-to-ammonia conversion by electrocatalysis of industrial and agricultural waste, with focus on catalysts, reaction intermediates, side reactions, and reaction conditions. Electron transfer is facilitated by electrocatalysts with transition metals having occupied d-orbitals with similar energy levels to that of the nitrate lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. Green electro-conversion using carbon-based materials is also discussed. Results show nitrate conversion from 53 to 99.8% and ammonia selectivity from 70 to 97.4%.

Watling J.I., Arroyo‐Rodríguez V., Pfeifer M., Baeten L., Banks‐Leite C., Cisneros L.M., Fang R., Hamel‐Leigue A.C., Lachat T., Leal I.R., Lens L., Possingham H.P., Raheem D.C., Ribeiro D.B., Slade E.M., et. al.

Decades of research suggest that species richness depends on spatial characteristics of habitat patches, especially their size and isolation. In contrast, the habitat amount hypothesis predicts that (1) species richness in plots of fixed size (species density) is more strongly and positively related to the amount of habitat around the plot than to patch size or isolation; (2) habitat amount better predicts species density than patch size and isolation combined, (3) there is no effect of habitat fragmentation per se on species density and (4) patch size and isolation effects do not become stronger with declining habitat amount. Data on eight taxonomic groups from 35 studies around the world support these predictions. Conserving species density requires minimising habitat loss, irrespective of the configuration of the patches in which that habitat is contained.

Nazir H., Muthuswamy N., Louis C., Jose S., Prakash J., Buan M.E., Flox C., Chavan S., Shi X., Kauranen P., Kallio T., Maia G., Tammeveski K., Lymperopoulos N., Carcadea E., et. al.

The goal of the review series on the H 2 economy is to highlight the current status, major issues, and opportunities associated with H 2 production, storage, transportation, distribution and usage in various energy sectors. In particular, Part I discussed the various H 2 (grey and green) production methods including the futuristic ones such as photoelectrochemical for small, medium, and large-scale applications. Part II of the H 2 economy review identifies the developments and challenges in the areas of H 2 storage, transportation and distribution with national and international initiatives in the field, all of which suggest a pathway for establishing greener H 2 society in the near future. Currently, various methods, comprising physical and chemical routes are being explored with a focus on improving the H 2 storage density, capacity, and reducing the cost. H 2 transportation methods by road, through pipelines, and via ocean are pursued actively in expanding the market for large scale applications around the world. As of now, compressed H 2 and its transportation by road is the most realistic option for the transportation sector. • H 2 storage in compressed form is the commercially viable technology at present. • Critical cost factors in H 2 storage, transportation and distribution are provided. • Logistic flow of H 2 from storage points to various mobility applications is presented. • H 2 transportation by road, pipeline and ocean is reviewed for large-scale application. • Compressed H 2 transportation by road is the viable option for the automotive sector.

Nazir H., Muthuswamy N., Louis C., Jose S., Prakash J., Buan M.E., Flox C., Chavan S., Shi X., Kauranen P., Kallio T., Maia G., Tammeveski K., Lymperopoulos N., Carcadea E., et. al.

Energy enthusiasts in developed countries explore sustainable and efficient pathways for accomplishing zero carbon footprint through the H2 economy. The major objective of the H2 economy review series is to bring out the status, major issues, and opportunities associated with the key components such as H2 production, storage, transportation, distribution, and applications in various energy sectors. Specifically, Part I discussed H2 production methods including the futuristic ones such as photoelectrochemical for small, medium, and large-scale applications, while Part II dealt with the challenges and developments in H2 storage, transportation, and distribution with national and international initiatives. Part III of the H2 economy review discusses the developments and challenges in the areas of H2 application in chemical/metallurgical industries, combustion, and fuel cells. Currently, the majority of H2 is being utilized by a few chemical industries with >60% in the oil refineries sector, by producing grey H2 by steam methane reforming on a large scale. In addition, the review also presents the challenges in various technologies for establishing greener and sustainable H2 society.