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Rare animals vital for ecosystem life support

  Rare animal species are vital to maintaining tropical ecosystems and could cause a chain reaction of disastrous biodiversity loss if they go extinct, a study warns.

  Animals that are considered rare – because they occupy a niche environment or there are few of them – are more likely than common animals to perform specialised and often irreplaceable roles in their environments, the study found. This is especially true for highly biodiverse environments, such as the tropics, the researchers say. “Losing rare species today may mean losing much more complex processes in the long term,” says lead author Rafael Leitão, a biologist at the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus, Brazil.

  The study notes that rare animals perform essential “ecosystem services” such as dispersing seeds, filtering water and controlling other animal populations and invasive species. “There is no way to know exactly how, in future, an ecosystem     11     with the loss of those rare species, but chain effects are common, meaning that the loss of some functions can lead to other losses, making the whole environment crumble,” says Leitão.

(www.scidev.net. Adaptado.)

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

Rare animals vital for ecosystem life support

  Rare animal species are vital to maintaining tropical ecosystems and could cause a chain reaction of disastrous biodiversity loss if they go extinct, a study warns.

  Animals that are considered rare – because they occupy a niche environment or there are few of them – are more likely than common animals to perform specialised and often irreplaceable roles in their environments, the study found. This is especially true for highly biodiverse environments, such as the tropics, the researchers say. “Losing rare species today may mean losing much more complex processes in the long term,” says lead author Rafael Leitão, a biologist at the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus, Brazil.

  The study notes that rare animals perform essential “ecosystem services” such as dispersing seeds, filtering water and controlling other animal populations and invasive species. “There is no way to know exactly how, in future, an ecosystem     11     with the loss of those rare species, but chain effects are common, meaning that the loss of some functions can lead to other losses, making the whole environment crumble,” says Leitão.

(www.scidev.net. Adaptado.)

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

Rare animals vital for ecosystem life support

  Rare animal species are vital to maintaining tropical ecosystems and could cause a chain reaction of disastrous biodiversity loss if they go extinct, a study warns.

  Animals that are considered rare – because they occupy a niche environment or there are few of them – are more likely than common animals to perform specialised and often irreplaceable roles in their environments, the study found. This is especially true for highly biodiverse environments, such as the tropics, the researchers say. “Losing rare species today may mean losing much more complex processes in the long term,” says lead author Rafael Leitão, a biologist at the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus, Brazil.

  The study notes that rare animals perform essential “ecosystem services” such as dispersing seeds, filtering water and controlling other animal populations and invasive species. “There is no way to know exactly how, in future, an ecosystem     11     with the loss of those rare species, but chain effects are common, meaning that the loss of some functions can lead to other losses, making the whole environment crumble,” says Leitão.

(www.scidev.net. Adaptado.)

Favela Chic: gentrifying the slums of brazil

A walk through Rio de Janeiro’s Vidigal favela is a full sensory experience on any given day. The smell
of grilled meat mixes with that of exhaust from motorcycle taxis traversing the slum’s corridors.
And then there are the sounds. Normally it’s Rio’s trademark funk music blaring from various
cars or trucks, but lately it has been the sound of German, English or French being spoken by its
[5] new inhabitants.
Favela Chic, as it’s come to be known, has quickly taken Vidigal by storm, as well as its favela
neighbor Rocinha. A combination of new security forces, low prices and curiosity by outsiders have
brought a wave of new renters to neighborhoods that were once considered unsafe to even visit.
American Kristine moved into Vidigal during the World Cup and says she loves it. “It has more
[10] life because there’s always something going on”, says the 27-year-old New Jersey native. “Bars with
people spilling out of them at 6 a.m., music blaring constantly, always people in the street”.
But in addition to a spate of World Cup visitors, Rio’s favelas have also become popular among
venture capitalists looking to rent or sell to higher-income buyers. Less than 10 years ago, a modest
home here would cost only $2,500. Today it can fetch $75,000 or more.
[15] While some former favela residents are being priced out of their homes by land prospectors from
the U.S. and Europe, others have been forcibly removed. In Rio, as many as 250,000 have been
relocated, many to the outskirts of the city, far from their former homes. Many complain that the
compensation packages, when offered, are inadequate.
Besides, favelas have often acted as the shelter for those unable to afford other housing options.
[20] “From the beginning, favelas have been not only housing for the poor, but also the poor’s preferred
housing, given the alternatives available and consistent actions of the state to not provide for the
poor, but to hide them from sight”, writes Jason Cummings in his dissertation for Harvard Graduate
School of Design, “Confronting the Favela Chic”.
With the 2016 Rio Olympics looming on the horizon, what will the gentrification in Rio and
[25] throughout Brazil mean for the 12 million people who inhabit the slums out of necessity? Priced
out or forced out, this creates a continuing clash of class for which there are no easy solutions. 

theroot.com

Favela Chic: gentrifying the slums of brazil

A walk through Rio de Janeiro’s Vidigal favela is a full sensory experience on any given day. The smell
of grilled meat mixes with that of exhaust from motorcycle taxis traversing the slum’s corridors.
And then there are the sounds. Normally it’s Rio’s trademark funk music blaring from various
cars or trucks, but lately it has been the sound of German, English or French being spoken by its
[5] new inhabitants.
Favela Chic, as it’s come to be known, has quickly taken Vidigal by storm, as well as its favela
neighbor Rocinha. A combination of new security forces, low prices and curiosity by outsiders have
brought a wave of new renters to neighborhoods that were once considered unsafe to even visit.
American Kristine moved into Vidigal during the World Cup and says she loves it. “It has more
[10] life because there’s always something going on”, says the 27-year-old New Jersey native. “Bars with
people spilling out of them at 6 a.m., music blaring constantly, always people in the street”.
But in addition to a spate of World Cup visitors, Rio’s favelas have also become popular among
venture capitalists looking to rent or sell to higher-income buyers. Less than 10 years ago, a modest
home here would cost only $2,500. Today it can fetch $75,000 or more.
[15] While some former favela residents are being priced out of their homes by land prospectors from
the U.S. and Europe, others have been forcibly removed. In Rio, as many as 250,000 have been
relocated, many to the outskirts of the city, far from their former homes. Many complain that the
compensation packages, when offered, are inadequate.
Besides, favelas have often acted as the shelter for those unable to afford other housing options.
[20] “From the beginning, favelas have been not only housing for the poor, but also the poor’s preferred
housing, given the alternatives available and consistent actions of the state to not provide for the
poor, but to hide them from sight”, writes Jason Cummings in his dissertation for Harvard Graduate
School of Design, “Confronting the Favela Chic”.
With the 2016 Rio Olympics looming on the horizon, what will the gentrification in Rio and
[25] throughout Brazil mean for the 12 million people who inhabit the slums out of necessity? Priced
out or forced out, this creates a continuing clash of class for which there are no easy solutions. 

theroot.com

Reducing preventable harm in hospitals

Each year, in the United States, millions of patients are harmed while receiving care in hospitals.
They get infections, experience adverse reactions to drugs, develop dangerous bedsores or come
down with pneumonia from the very ventilators meant to help them breathe.
The estimates of the number of people who die each year as a result of hospital errors have ranged
[5] from as many as 98,000 in a landmark Institute of Medicine report from 1999 to as many as 440,000
in a 2013 study.
It’s believed that most of these deaths could be prevented if health care providers always adhered
to evidence-informed practices. In recent years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
have sought to drive improvements by linking payments to hospital performance, including patient
[10] safety.
Amid the complexity, the chaotic pace and the increasing need for coordination, how can hospitals
do better to improve patient safety? How can they ensure, for example, that every single time a
patient receives a medication, precautions are taken to reduce the risks of an adverse drug reaction?
The big challenge is not just designing systems with better defenses; it is gaining acceptance for
[15] them, and properly implementing them. Over the past decade, for example, many hospitals have
adopted a key feature of aviation safety − checklists − to improve safety in areas where standard
protocols can save many lives, such as inserting central line catheters, using ventilators and while
performing surgery and assisting childbirth.
When the checklists are well implemented, the results of their use have been stunning. However,
[20] as checklists have proliferated, the results have been inconsistent, often because front-line
practitioners rejected them or adopted them halfheartedly. The devotion to protocol that pilots
see as integral to their professionalism is derided by some doctors as “cookbook medicine”. Atul
Gawande, a surgeon and contributor to The New Yorker, has said that the high value that physicians
place on autonomy and independence makes them reluctant to submit to checklists.
[25] So the big question is: how can health systems be made safer when success means changing the
attitudes and habits of health care professionals at a time when many are overwhelmed and deeply
frustrated by all of the demands being made on them? What does it take to get them to embrace,
with urgency, new ways of working?

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com