Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

Resumo Introdução: Pesquisa multicêntrica em centros de diálise brasileiros são escassas. Descrevemos as fases de recrutamento e implementação do estudo SARC-HD, visando investigar a sarcopenia e seu impacto em desfechos clínicos adversos. Métodos: O SARC-HD é um estudo de coorte realizado com pacientes em hemodiálise no Brasil. A fase de recrutamento foi considerada o período entre convite ao centro e início da inclusão de pacientes, enquanto a fase de implementação durou a partir de então até a conclusão do recrutamento e coleta de dados basais. Após a implementação, um questionário estruturado foi distribuído para coletar feedback dos principais pesquisadores. Resultados: 21 centros de três regiões brasileiras consentiram em participar, com duas desistências. Dez pesquisadores principais supervisionaram 19 locais. Nove centros (47%) eram totalmente financiados por planos de saúde. 1525 pacientes foram avaliados para elegibilidade e 1008 foram incluídos, com taxa de recrutamento de 66,1%. Recrutamento e coleta de dados basais levaram 12 semanas [intervalo interquartil: 5–15]. A análise qualitativa de conteúdo identificou barreiras como falta de infraestrutura e logística para pesquisa. Os facilitadores incluíram gestão e organização do comitê gestor. Os desafios da coleta de dados foram relatados principalmente quanto à avaliação global subjetiva de 7 pontos e o questionário internacional de atividade física. O principal desafio para a fase de manutenção será a falta de informações padronizadas nos prontuários eletrônicos. Conclusões: As fases de recrutamento e implementação do estudo multicêntrico SARC-HD foram viáveis. Barreiras e facilitadores identificados pelos pesquisadores principais podem auxiliar futuras iniciativas multicêntricas a integrar tarefas relacionadas à pesquisa na rotina clínica, facilitando experiências bem-sucedidas.

Introduction: Multicenter research initiatives in Brazilian dialysis centers are scarce. We described the recruitment and implementation phases of the SARC-HD study, aimed at investigating sarcopenia and its impact on adverse clinical outcomes. Methods: The SARC-HD is a cohort study being conducted with patients on hemodialysis in Brazil. The recruitment phase was defined as the period from the invitation to the center until the start of patient enrollment, whereas the implementation phase lasted from then until the completion of enrollment and baseline data collection. Upon implementation, a structured questionnaire was distributed to collect feedback from principal investigators. Results: 21 centers from three Brazilian regions consented to participate, with two dropping out. Ten principal investigators oversaw the 19 sites. Nine centers (47%) were funded entirely by health insurance companies. A total of 1525 patients were screened for eligibility and 1008 were enrolled, with a 66.1% recruitment rate. Recruitment and baseline data collection took 12 [interquartile range: 5–15] weeks. Qualitative content analysis identified barriers such as a lack of infrastructure and logistics for research. Facilitators included the management and organization of the steering committee. Data collection challenges were mainly reported with the subjective 7-point global assessment and the international physical activity questionnaire. The main challenge for the ongoing maintenance phase will be the lack of standardized information in electronic health records. Conclusions: The recruitment and implementation phases of the multicenter SARC-HD study were feasible. Barriers and facilitators identified by principal investigators may help future multicenter initiatives to integrate research-related tasks into clinical routine, facilitating successful experiences.

Cyclic dithiocarbonates of the type 1,3‐oxathiolane‐2‐thione were selectively and efficiently produced from the reaction between epoxides and CS2 using disodium bis‐benzimidazolate salts as catalysts. We have designed and synthesized this group of three nucleophilic catalysts from the neutral forms of bis‐benzimidazole compounds (BBE‐Me, BBE‐H and BBE‐NO2), through simple and efficient procedures. All three catalysts, with aryl substituents possessing different electronic characteristics, were able to selectively catalyze the production of cyclic dithiocarbonates. BBE‐Me proved to be the most effective catalyst in the initial screening with 1,2‐epoxy‐3‐phenoxypropane, converting 95 % of the epoxide with 99 % of selectivity for the cyclic dithiocarbonate 1,3‐oxathiolane‐2‐thione. This catalyst was subsequently used to evaluate various reaction parameters and then several epoxides were selectively converted to the respective cyclic dithiocarbonates, under mild conditions, with a low catalyst loading, short reaction times, and in a solvent‐ and additive‐free system. A mechanistic proposal, supported by high‐resolution mass spectrometry, demonstrated for the first time that a nucleophilic catalyst in this system can simultaneously activate both CS2 and the epoxide molecule.

Aquatic and palustrine plants are a group of plants that have morphological and anatomical adaptations to occupy permanent or temporary aquatic environments. In this study, we carried out the first floristic survey of aquatic and palustrine plants in restingas (restinga swamps and swamp forests) of a Ramsar site in the municipality of Guimarães, western coast of Maranhão State and easternmost Amazon, Brazil. In total, 52 species of 43 genera and 28 families were collected between July 2022 and October 2023, during the dry and rainy seasons. Voyria aphylla (Jacq.) Pers. is a new record for Maranhão. Melastomataceae (9 spp.) was the most representative family, followed by Fabaceae and Plantaginaceae (4 spp. each). Palustrine and emergent plants accounted for 58% and 31% of the species richness, respectively. This study adds important information for local and national policies to ensure biodiversity conservation of the plant biodiversity in Maranhão’s coastal ecosystems.

Ridge and Lasso regressions are types of linear regression, a machine learning tool for dealing with data. Based on multiobjective optimization theory, we transform Ridge and Lasso regression into bi-objective optimization problems. The Pareto fronts of the resulting problems provide a range of regression models from which the best one can be selected. We employ the NFDA-Nonsmooth Feasible Directions Algorithm devised for solving convex optimization problems to construct the Pareto fronts of Ridge and Lasso when regarded as bi-objective problems. Keywords: Ridge regression; Lasso regression; multiobjective optimization; Pareto front

Repetitive DNA contributes significantly to plant genome size, adaptation, and evolution. However, little is understood about the transcription of repeats. This is addressed here in the plant green foxtail millet (Setaria viridis). First, we used RepeatExplorer2 to calculate the genome proportion (GP) of all repeat types and compared the GP of long terminal repeat (LTR) retroelements against annotated complete and incomplete LTR retroelements (Ty1/copia and Ty3/gypsy) identified by DANTE in a whole genome assembly. We show that DANTE‐identified LTR retroelements can comprise ∼0.75% of the inflorescence poly‐A transcriptome and ∼0.24% of the stem ribo‐depleted transcriptome. In the RNA libraries from inflorescence tissue, both LTR retroelements and DNA transposons identified by RepeatExplorer2 were highly abundant, where they may be taking advantage of the reduced epigenetic silencing in the germ line to amplify. Typically, there was a higher representation of DANTE‐identified LTR retroelements in the transcriptome than RepeatExplorer2‐identified LTR retroelements, potentially reflecting the transcription of elements that have insufficient genomic copy numbers to be detected by RepeatExplorer2. In contrast, for ribo‐depleted libraries of stem tissues, the reverse was observed, with a higher transcriptome representation of RepeatExplorer2‐identified LTR retroelements. For RepeatExplorer2‐identified repeats, we show that the GP of most Ty1/copia and Ty3/gypsy families were positively correlated with their transcript proportion. In addition, guanine‐ and cytosine‐rich repeats with high sequence similarity were also the most abundant in the transcriptome, and these likely represent young elements that are most capable of amplification due to their ability to evade epigenetic silencing.

The adjectives are many and varied, but they express the same idea: the fact that there is something that transcends human cultural diversity and plurality andtherefore deserves to be highlighted and safeguarded as a Common Heritage of Humanity. It is from this understanding that the idea of World Heritage of Humanity is born, which over time will be reconfigured and bifurcated as World Heritage and Heritage of Humanity, respecting their definitions and differences, the first focusing on the materiality of heritage and the second linked to immateriality; the evolution of the concept of heritage for all people in the world has built, over these five decades, a series of understandings that brought visibility to this topic. In this text, we will discuss how the concept of World Heritage has become an expensive and rare article brand. At the same time as it became an end, it became a means to acquire more visibility, recognition and tourist presence. There is a popular consensus on the idea that a World Heritage Site is valuable because it has been approved by an organisation with international credibility such as UNESCO. But what are the side effects of this approval?

Would it be reasonable to tear down statues that we criticise today? Or, on the contrary, to what extent does the maintenance of these historical figures not corroborate the already denounced imposition of some groups over others? In this chapter, these and other questions (difficult to answer) will guide us, starting from the challenge of a “demonumentalisation” of statues, places and toponymies, thus seeking a less condescending appropriation in relation to the so-called unrepresented minorities. Starting from the concepts of decoloniality and soft power and case studies that discuss two sides of the same coin: The international trafficking of cultural goods and repatriation, we seek to present an argument that places the role of the historian at the centre of contemporary decisions, precisely because it is one of the most conflicting social roles and the one that society believes can respond to the demands of the present. This text discusses the role that the decolonial vision plays in everyday life, the weight of this option and how hegemonic political positions try to transform it into a passing fad.

The consequences of the development of large-scale tourism and the expansion of tourist activity on a global scale are destroying the environment, which does not make any sense, since tourism depends on the environment and vice versa. Although between 2019 and 2022, tourism Gross Domestic Product of Tourism (GDP) growth in the European Union was recorded greater than carbon emissions (just to give an example), tourism remains at the centre of the debate on its purpose and power in light of the needs of the 2030 Agenda. Tripartite concern of the dimensions of the agenda: Social; environmental and economic aspects found an echo in the search for tourism management that involves sustainability and is based on its premises. When a movement begins to review the harmful impacts that unrestrained tourism causes to places, their residents, and tourists themselves, solutions to prevent this predatory tourism from becoming the rule gained prominence, especially in countries in the global north. We will discuss in this text how the expression of tourismophobia has guided the denial of the most visited cities in the world, which seeks to put an end to the negative side effects of mass tourism.

Born from the rationality of people, as a mirror of their emotions and sensibilities, UNESCO built a very positive image that often broke regionalism and linguistic, religious and border prejudices, which ended up naturalising a shift in the flame of rationality that had emerged, for an almost emotional understanding, of the feeling of belonging of those who were part of the institution. It is true that (in some cases) the search for presence at UNESCO will, over time, turn into a political springboard for another coveted stage, the United Nations arena, but from the point of view of membership, the subscription to a state part remains a genuine action. Countries feel welcomed and demonstrate that they enjoy being part of the institution. In this text, we will present evidence from which it is assumed that UNESCO is going through a crisis in addition to the financial debacle. Apparently, issues linked to representation, objectives and, above all, their identity have generated side effects that help consolidate the idea of crisis within the World Heritage Centre, the managing body of World Heritage. A critical discussion on the 50th anniversary of the 1972 World Heritage Convention concludes the list of weaknesses faced by UNESCO in the past five decades.

Record numbers of refugees and migrants have crossed international borders fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty. In 2024, more than 100 million people were considered forced migrants in the world. The refugee status, this “compulsory difference” imposed on the lives of these people, can certainly help the academic community to share experiences that only the difficulties of the refugee situation teach. Focusing on approaches to safeguarding living heritage in situations of conflict and forced displacement, this text seeks to reinforce awareness of the dual role of living heritage in emergency situations: Both as a victim of conflict and as a valuable resource that communities can use as a coping mechanism. Give me an answer. Welcoming is a part of diversity. The result of an experience in development, the project: Reception as soft power: the universe of refugees between heritage, language and education synthesises the actions that have been developed by refugee university professors within the scope of the Brazilian public university.

Of the various heritage sites safeguarded by UNESCO, documentary heritage is the youngest child. With the aim of preventing the irrevocable loss of documentary heritage—documents or collections of documents of significant and lasting value, whether on paper, audiovisual, digital or any other medium, the UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) programme aims to safeguard this heritage and make it more accessible to the general public. The growing awareness of the risks suffered by documentary heritage responds to the understanding that the majority of people’s memory is contained in bibliographic and archival documents that are physically fragile and at constant risk from natural disasters, inadequate custody, theft and war. Sometimes there are practical and political obstacles that prevent access to it, and in other cases, it is threatened with deterioration or destruction. In this text, access and prevention as fundamental principles of the Memory of the World (MoW) programme will guide us through successful examples of safeguarding collections that today form a valuable and unique source. There is a lot to improve, but this instrument has expanded the safeguarding of documentary heritage on a global scale, as it becomes better known, which accredits it as a relevant safeguarding instrument on a global scale.

Natural heritage is today an imperative reality. Since it is part of the invaluable and irreplaceable assets not only of each nation but also of all humanity as a whole, the loss, through degradation or disappearance, of any of these eminently precious resources constitutes an impoverishment of the heritage of all peoples of the world. Human beings are not dissociated from the Earth or nature; they are parts of the same whole. In this text, we will seek to answer three questions, which will guide us in the search for a less opaque understanding of the situation of degradation of natural heritage around the planet: (a) What strategies can be used to guarantee the safeguarding and requalification of these spaces, together with the instruments for protecting and enhancing natural heritage that already exists? (b) What are the reasons for the intense threat to these natural spaces, and what are the impacts of the deterioration of these natural World Heritage Sites? (c) What is the relationship established between the failures of preservationist policy, in the past and present, and what is the future perspective for these heritage sites? If it is true that human nature has lost its measure by gradually destroying its natural heritage, the efforts made in the past 50 years have shown that the rope tensioned on one side by humans and on the other by nature has clearly demonstrated which way it will lean.

The path taken by the Portuguese language in the four continents in which it is present defined a route full of virtuous purposes. Lusophony as a heritage or the heritage of Lusophony (with the Portuguese language as its centre and direction) must rather be the result of intersections and dialogues that oscillate between perenniality, ephemerality and existence. According to the United Nations, in the last 50 years, the Portuguese-speaking population has more than doubled. The topics listed in this text establish the CPLP as a privileged space as a driver and catalyst for the Portuguese language around the planet. If in science it is a language that was born in the Atlantic, being perhaps the sixth most used language in the area of natural and exact sciences and the fifth in the area of social sciences, the Portuguese language and Lusophone diversity are today a giant space for international scientific co-operation in for sustainable development and the growth of Lusophony. In this context, CPLP—Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries—ensures that the most spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere is adequately represented within the scope of UNESCO. Spoken on four continents by more than 300 million people and characterised by diversity and welcoming, the Portuguese language is today one of the official languages of the UNESCO General Conference, present in all sectors of the organisation. In this text, we will present examples that consolidate the idea that the Portuguese language has established itself as an important vector for uniting people, as well as a powerful soft power in the world of heritage preservation on an international level.

We will detail the concept of “soft power” (attraction through persuasion and behaviour rather than coercion) and how it encompasses and problematises the multiplicity of topics on the contemporary international agenda, focusing on one of its least discussed elements: the universe of the internationalisation of cultural heritage and the relationship between actors and preservationist actions in the globalised world. A wide range of historical examples are drawn to illustrate the effects of soft power on international relations, of which we will focus on the following: (a) the criticism of the cartography represented in the list of world/human heritage sites linked to UNESCO and (b) the action surrounding international trafficking and the recovery/repatriation/return of cultural goods, in the universe of the so-called international criminogenic collectibles.