Risk Analysis and Occurrence of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) in Domestic Swine in Northeast Brazil

Anti-HEV antibodies were detected in animals from abattoir and in farms from northeast Brazil. Our results suggest that HEV is highly disseminated in the swine population and might present a great risk to animal handlers and for consumption of raw or undercooked meat and meat products in northeast Brazil.     

A Methodology for the Evaluation of Water Policies in European Countries

Periodic assessment of progress toward established policy goals is crucial to understanding whether the applied efforts are effective. In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) adopted in year 2000 set ambitious environmental objectives to be achieved by the end of 2015 through the implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles. While at this stage it is premature to measure the impact of this Directive in terms of environmental outcomes, it is nonetheless important to develop indicators in order to monitor whether water management practices throughout Europe are aligning towards IWRM. This article presents the methodological development of the Water and Wetland Index, a comparative water policy assessment by environmental NGOs that was carried out in 2002–2003, and highlights the interest of repeating it in 2015, when the first WFD planning cycle will be completed.     

Green synthesis, characterization and antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles using methanolic root extracts of Diospyros sylvatica

The current research study focuses to formulate the biosynthesized silver nanoparticles for the first time from silver acetate using methanolic root extracts of Diospyros sylvatica, a member of family Ebenaceae. TEM analysis revealed the average diameter of Ag NPs around 8 nm which is in good agreement with the average crystallite size (10 nm) calculated from X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. Further the study has been extended to the antimicrobial activity against test pathogenic Gram (+) ve, Gram (−) ve bacterial and fungal strains. The bioinspired Ag-NP showed promising activity against all the tested bacterial strains and the activity was enhanced with increased dosage levels.     

Hepatitis A Virus,Hepatitis E Virus,and Rotavirus in Foods of Animal Origin Traded at the Borders of Brazil,Argentina, and Uruguay

The aim of this study was to investigate hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis E (HEV), and rotavirus (RV) in fresh and processed meat traded on the border of Brazil with Argentina and Uruguay. In total, 159 samples of raw and processed foods of animal origin were collected in Paso de los Libres, Argentina (n?=?53 raw meat, n?=?24 processed meat) and Rivera, Uruguay (n?=?55 raw meat, n?=?18 processed meat), or were seized by the Brazilian International Agricultural Surveillance System—VIGIAGRO (Brazil–Argentina border) (n?=?8 raw meat, n?=?1 bush meat). All samples were tested for the presence of HAV, HEV, and RV genomes. HAV genes were detected in 18.23% of samples and RV genes in 23.89%. No HEV-positive samples were detected. HAV was also detected in two of the VIGIAGRO samples. Processed meats from Argentina and Uruguay had a higher rate of HAV and RV than raw meat (P?>?0.05). The median HAV in the Argentinian and Uruguayan samples was 6.9?×?10⁴ and 3.5?×?10³ copies/g, respectively. The presence of RV viral genes in raw meats from Argentina was significant, and this was not observed in processed meats. The presence of HAV and RV genes in a significant portion of products from Argentina and Uruguay is a potential source of human infection. This also indicates precarious conditions of acquisition, processing, and manipulation, which could be improved by improved regulation of food across borders.     

Life-cycle inventory for hydroelectric generation: a Brazilian case study

Representative Life-Cycle Inventories (LCIs) are essential for Life-Cycle Assessments (LCAs) quality and readiness. Because energy is such an important element of LCAs, appropriate LCIs on energy are crucial, and due to the prevalence of hydropower on Brazilian electricity mix, the frequently used LCIs are not representative of the Brazilian conditions. The present study developed a LCI of the Itaipu Hydropower Plant, the major hydropower plant in the world, responsible for producing 23.8% of Brazil's electricity consumption. Focused on the capital investments to construct and operate the dam, the LCI was designed to serve as a database for the LCAs of Brazilian hydroelectricity production. The life-cycle boundaries encompass the construction and operation of the dam, as well as the life-cycles of the most important material and energy consumptions (cement, steel, copper, diesel oil, lubricant oil), as well as construction site operation, emissions from reservoir flooding, material and workers transportation, and earthworks. As a result, besides the presented inventory, it was possible to determine the following processes, and respective environmental burdens as the most important life-cycle hotspots: reservoir filling (CO₂ and CH₄ emission; land use); steel life-cycle (water and energy consumption; CO, particulates, SO_x and NO_x emissions); cement life-cycle (water and energy consumption; CO₂ and particulate emissions); and operation of civil construction machines (diesel consumption; NO_x emissions). Compared with another hydropower studies, the LCI showed magnitude adequacy, with better results than small hydropower, which reveals a scale economy for material and energy exchanges in the case of Itaipu Power Plant.     

How stable are personalities? A multivariate view of behavioural variation over long and short timescales in the sheepshead swordtail,Xiphophorus birchmanni

Many studies have revealed repeatable (among-individual) variance in behavioural traits consistent with variation in animal personality; however, these studies are often conducted using data collected over single sampling periods, most commonly with short time intervals between observations. Consequently, it is not clear whether population-level patterns of behavioural variation are stable across longer timescales and/or multiple sampling periods or whether individuals maintain consistent ranking of behaviours (and/or personality) over their lifetimes. Here, we address these questions in a captive-bred population of a tropical freshwater poeciliid fish, Xiphophorus birchmanni. Using a multivariate approach, we estimate the among-individual variance-covariance matrix (I), for a set of behavioural traits repeatedly assayed in two different experimental contexts (open-field trials, emergence and exploration trials) over long-term (56 days between observations) and short-term (4-day observation interval) time periods. In both long- and short-term data sets, we find that traits are repeatable and the correlation structure of I is consistent with a latent axis of variation in boldness. While there are some qualitative differences in the way individual traits contribute to boldness and a tendency towards higher repeatabilities in the short-term study, overall, we find that population-level patterns of among-individual behavioural (co)variance to be broadly similar over both time frames. At the individual level, we find evidence that short-term studies can be informative for an individual’s behavioural phenotype over longer (e.g. lifetime) periods. However, statistical support is somewhat mixed and, at least for some observed behaviours, relative rankings of individual performance change significantly between data sets.