Aquaculture expansion in Brazilian freshwaters against the Aichi Biodiversity Targets

The Convention on Biological Diversity proposed the Aichi Biodiversity Targets to improve conservation policies and to balance economic development, social welfare, and the maintenance of biodiversity/ecosystem services. Brazil is a signatory of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and is the most diverse country in terms of freshwater fish, but its national policies have supported the development of unsustainable commercial and ornamental aquaculture, which has led to serious disturbances to inland ecosystems and natural resources. We analyzed the development of Brazilian aquaculture to show how current aquaculture expansion conflicts with all 20 Aichi Targets. This case suggests that Brazil and many other megadiverse developing countries will not meet international conservation targets, stressing the need for new strategies, such as the environmental management system, to improve biodiversity conservation.     

A knowledge network to promote the use and valorization of wild food plants in the Pantanal and Cerrado,Brazil

Regional Environmental Change - The conservation and use of wild food plants should include local people in the decision-making process, and many countries have done so. However, interacting with...     

Carnauba (Copernicia prunifera) palm tree biomass as adsorbent for Pb(II) and Cd(II) from water medium

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Plant-based biomass (CFB (carnauba fruit biomass)) obtained from the fruit exocarp of the species Copernicia prunifera (Mill.) H.E. Moore (carnauba)...     

Chemometric tools applied to optimize a fast solid-phase microextraction method for analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in produced water

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Chemometric tools are powerful strategies to efficiently optimize many processes. These tools were employed to optimize a fast-solid phase...     

Injuries and risk-taking behaviours in Portuguese adolescents: Highlights from the health behaviour in school-aged children survey

Aim

Injuries in adolescence are an important public health problem and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in this age group. This study aimed to determine the behaviour profile associated to risk of injury and the differences between genders, region and ethnic origin.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design of a nationally representative sample of 1581 adolescents of the Portuguese Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study.

Results

An occurrence of one injury-related event in the previous year was reported by 21.4% of the respondents and 5.9% referred having more than one injury-related event. Boys reported higher frequency of those events when compared to girls, and non-Portuguese subjects referred higher frequency of events. Scoring higher in violence-related behaviour and psychosomatic complaints was associated to higher chances of referring more than one injury-related event.

Conclusion

Gender, social background and behaviour profile are factors that seem to influence the risk of injuries. This information should guide those involved in the planning of injuries prevention programs in youth.     

Regression models for exceedance data via the full likelihood

Many situations in practice require appropriate specification of operating characteristics under extreme conditions. Typical examples include environmental sciences where studies include extreme temperature, rainfall and river flow to name a few. In these cases, the effect of geographic and climatological inputs are likely to play a relevant role. This paper is concerned with the study of extreme data in the presence of relevant auxiliary information. The underlying model involves a mixture distribution: a generalized Pareto distribution is assumed for the exceedances beyond a high threshold and a non-parametric approach is assumed for the data below the threshold. Thus, the full likelihood including data below and above the threshold is considered in the estimation. The main novelty is the introduction of a regression structure to explain the variation of the exceedances through all tail parameters. Estimation is performed under the Bayesian paradigm and includes model choice. This allows for determination of higher quantiles under each covariate configuration and upper bounds for the data, where appropriate. Simulation results show that the models are appropriate and identifiable. The models are applied to the study of two temperature datasets: maxima in the U.S.A. and minima in Brazil, and compared to other related models.     

Do geomagnetic storms change the behaviour of the stingless bee guiruçu (Schwarziana quadripunctata)?

Six behavioural experiments were carried out to investigate the magnetic field effects on the nest-exiting flight directions of the honeybee Schwarziana quadripunctata (Meliponini). No significant differences resulted during six experiment days under varying geomagnetic field and the applied static inhomogeneous field (about ten times the geomagnetic field) conditions. A surprising statistically significant response was obtained on a unique magnetic storm day. The magnetic nanoparticles in these bees, revealed by ferromagnetic resonance, could be involved in the observed effect of the geomagnetic storm.