This communication is the first report of the occurrence of the order Mormonilloida (Mormonilla phasma) in the tropical Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Female individuals were found in surface waters from the shelf break state of Rio Grande do Norte (Northeastern Brazil) and between depths of 60 and 100 m in the epipelagic layer around the St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago (equatorial Atlantic). This finding extends the vertical limits for this species.

Brazilian strategic interest in the Madeira River basin, one of the most important of the southern Amazon tributaries, includes the development of hydropower to satisfy the country’s growing energy needs and new waterways to boost regional trade and economic development. Because of evidences that climate change impacts the hydrological regime of rivers, the aim of this study was to assess how global climate change and regional land cover change caused by deforestation could affect the river’s hydrological regime. To achieve this goal, we calibrated a large-scale hydrological model for the period from 1970–1990 and analyzed the ability of the model to simulate the present hydrological regime when climate model simulations were used as input. Climate change projections produced by climate models were used in the hydrological model to generate scenarios with and without regional land-use and land-cover changes induced by forest conversion to pasture for the period from 2011–2099. Although results show variability among models, consensus scenarios indicated a decrease in the low-flow regime. When the simulations included forest conversion to pasture, climate change impacts on low flows were reduced in the upper basin, while, in the lower basin, discharges were affected along the whole year due to the more vigorous land-use conversion in the Brazilian region of the basin.

O artigo analisa como o tema das mudanças climáticas vem sendo incorporado à agenda pública na região do Seridó Potiguar, estado do Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil. Tomando como referência empírica cinco municípios dessa região, um deles identificado, inclusive, pelo Ministério do Meio Ambiente (2005) como núcleo de desertificação, o artigo mostra como o tema da mudança climática ainda é marginal no âmbito do Estado e das organizações da sociedade civil. Mesmo concebendo as estratégias de convivência com o semiárido e/ou ações de combate à desertificação como temas correlatos às mudanças climáticas, estes ainda tomam lugar marginal na agenda pública e encontram-se desarticulados das demais ações estatais, a exceção da política de 1 Milhão de Cisternas. Apesar da severidade das condições climáticas, sobretudo com a seca dos últimos quatro anos, considerada uma das piores dos últimos 40 anos, as práticas de enfrentamento dessas condições por parte do Estado ainda são frágeis diante da gravidade e urgência do problema.

The city of São Paulo, home to 11 million people, suffers constantly the effects of flooding caused by extreme precipitation. Localized floods occur every summer in various parts of the city. Besides the losses and inconvenience felt by the residents, floods produce damages that cross the city boundaries, affecting income and output in the metropolitan area as well as in other parts of the state and the country. The objective of this study is to evaluate the economic impacts of floods in the city of São Paulo through the use of a Spatial Computable General Equilibrium (SCGE) model integrated to GIS information related to the location of points of floods and the firms within their influence. It is estimated that floods contributed to reduce city growth and residents’ welfare, as well as hampering local competitiveness in both domestic and international markets. An intra-city total impact-damage ratio of 2.2 and an economy-wide total impact-damage ratio of 5.0 were found.

Epigeous termite mounds are frequently observed in pasture areas, but the processes regulating their population dynamics are poorly known. This study evaluated epigeous termite mounds in cultivated grasslands used as pastures, assessing their spatial distribution by means of geostatistics and evaluating their vitality. The study was conducted in the Cerrado biome in the municipality of Rio Brilhante, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. In two pasture areas (Pasture 1 and Pasture 2), epigeous mounds (nests) were georeferenced and analyzed for height, circumference and vitality (inhabited or not). The area occupied by the mounds was calculated and termite specimens were collected for taxonomic identification. The spatial distribution pattern of the mounds was analyzed with geostatistical procedures. In both pasture areas, all epigeous mounds were built by the same species, Cornitermes cumulans. The mean number of mounds per hectare was 68 in Pasture 1 and 127 in Pasture 2, representing 0.4 and 1 % of the entire area, respectively. A large majority of the mounds were active (vitality), 91 % in Pasture 1 and 84 % in Pasture 2. A “pure nugget effect” was observed in the semivariograms of height and nest circumference in both pastures reflecting randomized spatial distribution and confirming that the distribution of termite mounds in pastures had a non-standard distribution.

Introdução: Vanillosmopsis arborea é uma espécie medicinal nativa da Floresta Nacional do Araripe, Ceará, cujo óleo essencial é rico em alfa bisabolol, que apresenta atividades antibacteriana, antifúngica e antiinflamatória.
Objetivos: verificar a influência da altura da planta e do diâmetro dos ramos do candeeiro sobre o teor e rendimento do seu óleo essencial, identificar seus constituintes e seu efeito alelopático sobre a alface (L. sativa L.) e repolho (B. oleracea var. capitata L.).
Métodos: ramos secundários de plantas nativas de V. arborea Baker com altura média de 1,80; 3,70 e 6,0 m passaram por processo de hidrodestilação para analisar o teor e rendimento de seu óleo essencial. Da mesma forma para o experimento avaliando o diâmetro dos ramos de aproximadamente 3,0; 5,0 e 8,0 cm. Foi realizada análise da composição química do óleo essencial e avaliada a sua ação alelopática.
Resultados: não houve efeito da altura das plantas (1,8; 3,7 e 6 m) sobre o teor e rendimento de óleo essencial. Ramos com diâmetro intermediário de 5,0 cm apresentaram maior quantidade de óleo essencial. A análise cromatográfica do óleo essencial permitiu identificar 10 constituintes químicos, sendo que o sesquiterpeno alfa bisabolol foi o constituinte encontrado em maior quantidade (93,83 %).
Conclusões: houve influência do diâmetro dos ramos sobre o teor e rendimento de óleo essencial. O sesquiterpeno alfa bisabolol foi o constituinte majoritário do óleo essencial de candeeiro. O óleo essencial não apresentou ação alelopática sobre a as espécies avaliadas, sendo necessários novos ensaios com o uso de maiores concentrações deste óleo.

Available climatological information of Distrito Federal does not satisfy the requirements for detailed climate diagnosis, as they do not provide the necessary spatial resolution for water resources management purposes. Annual and seasonal climatology (1971–2000) of precipitation from 6 meteorological stations and 54 rain gauges from Central Brazil were used to test eight different spatial interpolation methods. Geographical factors (i.e., altitude, longitude and latitude) explain a large portion of precipitation in the region, and therefore, multivariate models were included. The performance of estimations was assessed through independent validation using mean square error, correlation coefficient and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency criterion. Inverse distance weighting (IDW), ordinary kriging (OK) and the multivariate regression with interpolation of residuals by IDW (MRegIDW) and OK (MRegOK) have performed the lowest errors and the highest correlation and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency criterion. In general, interpolation methods provide similar spatial distributions of rainfall wherever observation network is dense. However, the inclusion of geographical variables to the interpolation method should improve estimates in areas where the observation network density is low. Nevertheless, the assessment of uncertainties using a geostatistical method provides supplementary and qualitative information which should be considered when interpreting the spatial distribution of rainfall.

Available climatological information of Distrito Federal does not satisfy the requirements for detailed climate diagnosis, as they do not provide the necessary spatial resolution for water resources management purposes. Annual and seasonal climatology (1971–2000) of precipitation from 6 meteorological stations and 54 rain gauges from Central Brazil were used to test eight different spatial interpolation methods. Geographical factors (i.e., altitude, longitude and latitude) explain a large portion of precipitation in the region, and therefore, multivariate models were included. The performance of estimations was assessed through independent validation using mean square error, correlation coefficient and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency criterion. Inverse distance weighting (IDW), ordinary kriging (OK) and the multivariate regression with interpolation of residuals by IDW (MRegIDW) and OK (MRegOK) have performed the lowest errors and the highest correlation and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency criterion. In general, interpolation methods provide similar spatial distributions of rainfall wherever observation network is dense. However, the inclusion of geographical variables to the interpolation method should improve estimates in areas where the observation network density is low. Nevertheless, the assessment of uncertainties using a geostatistical method provides supplementary and qualitative information which should be considered when interpreting the spatial distribution of rainfall.

Objetivo: identificar a síndrome em técnicos de enfermagem de Unidades Básicas de Saúde através do Inventário de Burnout Maslach. Método: o estudo tem natureza exploratória e abordagem quantitativa. A análise dos dados deu-se por estatística descritiva. Resultados: a maioria dos profissionais atua na saúde há mais de 10 anos e consideram seu trabalho estressante (nove – 82%); queixa-se de dores musculares e de cabeça (oito – 73%); dores de estômago (4 – 36%); irritabilidade, dificuldade de concentração e fadiga fácil (três – 27%). O risco para a síndrome de burnout foi identificado em dois (18%). Conclusão: há necessidade do desenvolvimento de políticas públicas de saúde, sobretudo no campo da saúde mental voltadas para as reais necessidades dos trabalhadores, produzindo sentimentos positivos com relação as suas atividades, reduzindo as pressões geradoras de estresse crônico e os transtornos emocionais dele advindos, atitudes que desfavorecem o desenvolvimento da síndrome de burnout.

A key challenge for climate projection science is to serve the growing needs of impact assessments in an environment with substantial differences in the projections of climate models and an increasing number of relevant climate model results. In order to assist the assessment of water resources impacts under future climate change, this work provides a synthesis of the simulations of General Circulation Models (GCMs) for the region of Distrito Federal, Brazil. The work analyzes projections of mean surface air temperature and precipitation of 22 GCMs, as well as seven extreme indices of 10 GCMs. Trends of the multi-model ensemble median, as well as their significance, were calculated. The consistency in the sign of change was assessed through the percentage of agreement of simulations with the median. Finally, the probability density function of the multi-model ensemble provides valuable information about the uncertainties of projections. Investigations were performed for annual and seasonal temporal scales for the period 2011-2050. The main results here identified are: (a) a consensus of the multi-model ensemble and median to increasing temperature; (b) a slightly, but less consistent, decrease of precipitation in the dry season; and (c) increase of heat waves and droughts events, although changes in precipitation extremes are much less coherent than for temperature. The approach used gives a comprehensive assessment of the possible future climate until the middle of the twenty-first century, as well as the uncertainties involved in the multi-model ensemble projections.

Este artigo apresenta uma extensão do trabalho de Haddad e Teixeira (2014) em que se avaliaram os impactos econômicos dos alagamentos em São Paulo considerando-se um conceito mais amplo de prejuízo, que inclui não só as perdas diretas tradicionais relacionadas à interrupção da produção, mas também os custos indiretos avaliados por meio das ligações das cadeias produtivas em que a cidade se insere. Os resultados globais foram decompostos possibilitando a identificação das perdas potenciais por ponto de alagamento, ampliando o escopo de análise. Com esse novo conjunto de informações, foram identificados os hotspots econômicos, ou seja, os pontos que causaram as maiores perdas econômicas potenciais à cidade de São Paulo e ao Brasil. Ademais, a técnica de decomposição utilizada proporciona uma ferramenta auxiliar para análise de custo-benefício de projetos locais para redução de alagamentos.