Investigation of Human and Animal Viruses in Water Matrices from a Rural Area in Southeastern Region of Brazil and Their Potential Use as Microbial Source-Tracking Markers

Food and Environmental Virology - This study assessed the sources of contamination of water matrices in a rural area using detection of a host-specific virus (human adenovirus [HAdV], porcine...     

Interrogating Social Sustainability in the Biofuels Sector in Latin America: Tensions Between Global Standards and Local Experiences in Mexico,Brazil, and Colombia

Across the Americas, biofuels production systems are diverse due to geographic conditions, historical patterns of land tenure, different land use patterns, government policy frameworks, and relations between the national state and civil society, all of which shape the role that biofuels play in individual nations. Although many national governments throughout the Americas continue to incentivize growth of the biofuels industry, one key challenge for biofuels sustainability has been concern about its social impacts. In this article, we discuss some of the key social issues and tensions related to the recent expansion of biofuels production in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. We argue that a process of “simplification” of ecological and cultural diversity has aided the expansion of the biofuels frontier in these countries, but is also undermining their viability. We consider the ability of governments and non-state actors in multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSI) to address social and environmental concerns that affect rural livelihoods as a result of biofuels expansion. We analyze the tensions between global sustainability standards, national level policies for biofuels development, and local level impacts and visions of sustainability. We find that both government and MSI efforts to address sustainability concerns have limited impact, and recommend greater incorporation of local needs and expertise to improve governance.     

Analysis of energy security and sustainability in future low carbon scenarios for Brazil

This study estimated a series of indicators to assess the energy security of supply and global and local environmental impacts under different mitigation scenarios through 2050 in Brazil, designed with the integrated optimization energy system model MESSAGE‐BRAZIL. The assessment of interactions between environmental impacts and energy security dimensions was complemented through the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Overall results imply energy security establishes more synergies than trade‐offs in increasingly stringent mitigation scenarios, especially patent within the sustainability dimension, which increases energy security and provides additional benefits regarding climate change mitigation and air pollution emissions. It is still necessary to extend analysis to other energy sectors in addition to the power supply sector and to promote a better understanding of repercussions of energy scenario expansion in energy security.     

Genotoxicity,oxidative stress,and inflammatory response induced by crack-cocaine: relevance to carcinogenesis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Crack-cocaine is a cocaine by-product widely consumed by general population in developing countries. The drug is low cost and is associated with more...     

Parental awareness and perception for correct use of child restraint systems and airbags in Brazil

Objective: The objective of this study was to obtain information about the current knowledge and habits of parents who transport children in cars in Brazil.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using specifically designed self-report questionnaires to parents of children attending a private pediatric office in a town in southwest Brazil. Data were collected regarding children's age, gender, height, and weight and possession of an automobile child restraint system (CRS), its type, frequency and adequacy of use, and reasons for not possessing or not using the devices. Parents were asked whether their cars were equipped with airbags and about the use of the restraints in seats with airbags.

Results: We interviewed parents of 293 children transported in cars who met the criteria for use of a CRS. Children were younger than 1 year in 15.3% of the cases, between 1 and 4 years in 38.6%, and older than 4 in 46.1%. Cars were equipped with CRS in 78.5% of the cases, but in only 58% of the cases was the device proper for child's age and adequately installed in the seat. Among owners of the devices, 84.3% reported that they always used it. Reasons for infrequency were forgetting the device at home or in another car (6.4%), the child disliking the device (3.2%), or the false impression that the child was grown enough not to use it (3.2%)l 87.1% did not justify why they did not always use the CRS. Considering type of CRS, correct installation of the seat, and frequency of use, only 44.4% of children under 1 year, 69.9% of those 1 to 4 years, and 52.6% over age 4 were protected. Only 28.6% of the parents knew that children should never be positioned in a seat with active airbags.

Conclusion: Considering appropriateness for age, correctness of installation (in the back seat in the correct orientation), and frequency of use, only 50.85% (149/293) of the children were reported as always protected with a CRS. Children between 1 and 4 years were more likely to always use a CRS in this Brazilian survey. We were also able to identify an important gap in the knowledge about airbags among parents. Further efforts are needed to correct those distortions.     

Resistant weeds were controlled by the combined use of herbicides and bioherbicides

The intensive and abundant use of synthetic herbicides has been questioned in recent decades due to the strong dependence and also the resistance effects that are identified in weeds. Several grain crops suffer from the weed control system because many of the weeds are already resistant to the main herbicides that are used. In recent years, there has been a large gap in the market without the addition of new synthetic herbicides with mechanisms of action that differ from those already existing. The objective of this short piece is to address and overcome this challenge and bring an innovative and alternative solution that proposes a synergistic action system between bioherbicides produced by the fungus Trichoderma koningiopsis and synthetic herbicides (2,4‐dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, glyphosate, and ammonium glufosinate). The plants included in this study were Bidens pilosa (amor seco, or in the United States, beggar ticks or Spanish needle), Euphorbia heterophylla (adeus‐brasil), and Conyza bonariensis (margaridinha‐do‐campo, or, in the United States, hairy fleabane or asthmaweed). It was verified that, in the application of the biocomposites in the presence of chemical herbicides, potentiation of the phytotoxic action (100%) occurred under the target plants, emphasizing phytotoxicity to the weed, C. bonariensis, which is currently resistant to available herbicides. The bioherbicides studied have promising characteristics to be explored in the biocontrol of weeds.     

The effect of diesel exhaust on sperm-shape abnormalities in mice

The sperm-shape abnormality bioassay in mice was used to determine whether chemical mutagens in diesel exhaust reach the testes. Strain A male mice (30 per group from 4 to 6 weeks of age) were exposed for 31 or 39 weeks to either diesel exhaust or clean air. After exposure, Eosin Y-stained, air-dried smears of cauda epididymal sperm were scored for changes in sperm-head abnormalities in three different laboratories. There was no difference in the proportion of abnormally shaped sperm in controls and mice exposed to diesel exhaust.     

Partitioning studies of coal-tar constituents in a two-phase contaminated ground-water system

Organic compounds derived from coal-tar wastes in a contaminated aquifer in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, were identified, and their partition coefficients between the tar phase and aqueous phase were determined and compared with the corresponding n-octanol/water partition coefficients. Coal tar contains numerous polycyclic aromatic compounds, many of which are suspected carcinogens or mutagens. Groundwater contamination by these toxic compounds may pose an environmental health hazard in nearby public water-supply wells. Fluid samples from this aquifer developed two phases upon settling: an upper aqueous phase, and a lower oily-tar phase. After separating the phases, polycyclic aromatic compounds in each phase were isolated using complexation with N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and identified by fused-silica capillary gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Thirty-one of the polycyclic aromatic compounds were chosen for further study from four different classes: 12 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, 10 nitrogen heterocycles, 5 sulfur heterocycles, and 4 oxygen heterocycles. Within each compound class, the tar/water partition coefficients of these compounds were reasonably comparable with the respective n-octanol/water partition coefficient.     

Gas-phase ozonolysis of the monoterpenoids (S)-(+)-carvone, (R)-(−)-carvone, (−)-carveol, geraniol and citral

Biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a fundamental role in atmospheric chemistry. Vegetation is the most abundant natural source of VOCs, while terpenoids, as limonene, α and β pinene and mircene, top the plants emission list. Much interest has been demonstrated in oxidation and photooxidation reactions of VOCs, particularly of monoterpenoids, owing to their diversity and to uncertainties regarding their mechanism of reaction. Quantification of primary carbonylic compounds, as well as of biradical reaction components, is highly relevant to the understanding of the major reactions. In this context, taking into account both structural factors and the fact that these compounds are found in the essential oils of plants typically found in Brazil and that they may be present in the atmosphere from emission by the plants, the monoterpenoids (S)-(+)-carvone, (R)-(−)-carvone, (−)-carveol, geraniol and citral (a mixture of the isomers geranial and neral) were selected for this study.The ozonolysis reactions of the monoterpenoids were carried out under dark conditions for all experiments, due to their photochemical reactivity. The analysis of the results lets us propose a mechanism by which these reactions occur. The observed results of the ozonolysis of S and R carvone suggest that the stereochemistry of asymmetric carbon does not affect either in the yields of both formaldehyde and of OH radicals produced in the reaction, or in the reactivity of these compounds, for which the rate constants were in the scale of 10⁻⁶ s⁻¹.We found that, in the (−)-carveol's cis and trans mixture, even though the hydroxyl in the axial position—in the case of trans-(C) and cis-(D′) isomers—favors the attack by the ozone molecule on the external double bond, thus increasing the mixture's reactivity , it affects the average production of formaldehyde. The presence of geraniol and citral led to the production of formaldehyde, propanone, glyoxal, methyl–glyoxal and cyclohexanone (OH radicals) as reaction products. The influence of an electron attractor group bonded to the carbon of the double bond, on the reactivity of the double bond, could not be observed in the case of citral, due to strong interference occurring in the instrument in all experiments with this monoterpenoid. For this reason, only the kinetics of geraniol was monitored .