RESUMO:A dengue, doença tropical, atinge, anualmente, de 50 a 80 milhões de pessoas, em mais de 100 países, incluindo o Brasil, sendo 20 mil, aproximadamente, o número de mortos. Esta doença, cujo controle ainda se faz, sobretudo, através do meio ambiente e do modo de vida, é enfocada no presente texto a partir de uma perspectiva histórico-geográfica. A ênfase do estudo relaciona-se à problemática sócio-ambiental urbana, principalmente das últimas quatro décadas, dessa doença no espaço brasileiro. Nesta perspectiva são envolvidos o clima, a urbanização desorganizada e intensa, e a ineficácia das políticas públicas no controle dos vetores da doença no país. Palavras-chave:Dengue. Urbanização. Políticas públicas. Brasil. ABSTRACT:The Dengue's fever, a tropical disease, hits, annualy, from 50 to 80 million people, in more than a hundred countries, including Brazil, and 20 thousand, approximately, is the the number of deaths. This disease, with control is made by the environmental and social factors, is focused through geo-historical analysis, with emphasis on social and urban environmental issues, especially on last four decades on the brazilian space. Within this issue, there is the influence of climate, intensive and disorganized urbanization and ineffective public policies.

Quem quiser poderá observar a estupidez com que pensam, julgam e atuam hoje na política, na arte, na religião e nos problemas gerais da vida e do mundo os"homens de ciência" e é claro que, além deles, médicos, engenheiros, economistas, professores, etc. (...).O resultado mais imediato dessa especialização não compensada é que hoje, quando há maior número de "homens de ciência" que nunca, há muito menos "homens cultos" do que, por exemplo, por volta de 1750. (...)". (ORTEGA; GASSET, 2002; 150) Quaisquer que sejam as concepções que adotemos de espaço geográfi co, em todas elas fi ca evidente a dimensão material da superfície da Terra como objeto de investigação e refl exão geográfi ca. Não sendo uniforme nem homogênea, em função de sua dinamicidade em distintas temporalidades, a superfície do planeta sempre suscitou questionamentos aos homens e suas sociedades, fundamento principal da constituição do pensamento e do conhecimento geográfi co. ResumoA questão ambiental tomou, na atualidade, importante dimensão no âmbito institucional geral e também em todas as preocupações sociais, pois os problemas a ela relacionados intensifi caram-se fortemente na modernidade. A abordagem científi ca moderna tem se mostrado insufi ciente para o trato amplo da problemática ambiental que se manifesta na cidade. A geografi a, no seu particular, apresenta possibilidades interessantes para o tratamento desta problemática, mesmo se a perspectiva das ciências naturais -geografi a física -e das ciências sociais -geografi a humana -encontre ai vários problemas. Considerando a complexidade dos problemas socioambientais urbanos, e a emergência da abordagem dos riscos e vulnerabilidades socioambientais urbanas, acredita-se que o enfoque integrado dos dois subamos da geografi a encontrem nesta perspectiva uma maior interação. Dentro deste contexto o SSAU -Sistema Socio-Ambiental Urbano, uma proposta metodológica para o estudo integrado da cidade, é apresentado.

BackgroundTropical forests cover less than 10 per cent of all land area (1.8 × 107 km2) and over half of the tropical-forest area (1.1 × 107 Km2) is represented by humid tropical forests (also called tropical rainforests). The Amazon basin contains the largest rainforest on Earth, almost 5.8 million km2, and occupies about 40% of South America; more than 60% of the basin is located in Brazil and the rest in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.Over the past decade the positive role of tropical rainforests in capturing large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has been demonstrated. In response to the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, tropical forests act as a global carbon sink.Main bodyAccumulation of carbon in the tropical terrestrial biosphere strongly contributes to slowing the rate of increase of CO2 into the atmosphere, thus resulting in the reduction of greenhouse gas effect. Tropical rainforests have been estimated to account for 32–36% of terrestrial Net Primary Productivity (NPP) that is the difference between total forest photosynthesis and plant respiration. Tropical rainforests have been acting as a strong carbon sink in this way for decades.However, over the past years, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, and especially CO2, in the atmosphere have significantly affected the net carbon balance of tropical rainforests, and have warmed the planet substantially driving climate changes through more severe and prolonged heat waves, variability in temperature, increased air pollution, forest fires, droughts, and floods. The role of tropical forests in mitigating climate change is therefore critical. Over the past 30 years almost 600,000 km2 have been deforested in Brazil alone due to the rapid development of Amazonia, this is the reason why currently the region is one of the ‘hotspots’ of global environmental change on the planet.ConclusionDeforestation represents the second largest anthropogenic source of CO2 to the atmosphere, after fossil fuel combustion. There are many causes of deforestation, including socioeconomic and natural factors, such as clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, as well as droughts, fires and degradation due to climate change. About natural causes of forest degradation, in the context of the Amazon, the major agent of change in the forest ecosystem would most likely be decreased dry-season precipitation. Of the 23 global climate models employed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their 2007 report, 50–70% predict a substantial (above 20%) reduction of dry-season rainfall in eastern Amazonia under mid-range greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, 40% in central Amazonia and 20% in the west. While annual carbon emissions from fossil-fuel combustion have been continually increasing since 1960s, historical trends of deforestation and associated carbon emissions have remained poorly understood.

O clima é um dos importantes elementos formadores do ambiente planetário. Os debates relativos à questão ambiental, notadamente após a década de 1960, têm evidenciado sua importância na análise ambiental, principalmente quando da ocorrência de catástrofes naturais – Natural Hazards. Os impactos do clima sobre a sociedade repercutem, dentre outros, na condição de saúde humana. Este campo de pesquisas – interação entre o clima e a saúde humana – volta a ser objeto de interesse dos geógrafos na atualidade. Aspects of the climate-environment-human health interaction: from nature-society relation to enviromental (un) sustenability Abstract The climate is one of the importants planetary environment elements. The environmental question debates, notably after the sixties, has shown the importance to the environmental analysis, principally when the natural catastrophes – Natural Hazards – occure. The climate impacts over society has repercussion on the human health conditions, among others. This research field – interaction between climate and human health – has been rediscussed by the geographers nowadays.

The current health, political, and environmental crisis ongoing in Brazil and the advances of the impacts of COVID-19 in traditional populations (as indigenous and quilombolas) are not yet prioritized in the scientific production about the novel coronavirus. We performed spatial correlation analysis to map the clusters and outliers of COVID-19 in South of Brazil to identify indigenous and quilombolas communities impacted right now in the pandemic. We show that communities located nearby metropolitan areas and mid-sized cities are the most impacted by the COVID-19 and the advance of the transmission to inner states may intensify the ongoing historical process of elimination of indigenous and quilombolas people. We call for a global response to the indigenous and quilombolas situation in Brazil, pointing to the need of more analysis in the country;

RESUMOO Brasil apresenta um vasto litoral, com cerca de 8.000 quilômetros de extensão. O litoral do estado do Paraná é um dos menores, representando cerca de 100 km deste total numa área de aproximadamente 6.600 quilômetros quadrados. Devido aos fatores estáticos e dinâmicos atuantes, o clima desta área apresenta-se de maneira complexa e particular. O presente trabalho sintetiza as características climáticas do litoral paranaense a partir da abordagem de dois elementos: a temperatura do ar e a pluviosidade. A chuva apresenta-se de forma concentrada nos meses de verão, sendo que as menores médias destacam-se nos meses de inverno. O total médio anual e sazonal varia entre a planície e as áreas mais altas, sendo estas as que apresentam os maiores índices. O total anual de chuvas, nos anos de ocorrência do El Niño, apresentou-se acima da média histórica, evidenciando a ligação entre aquele evento no oceano Pacífico e as chuvas no litoral Atlântico. A temperatura não apresentou grandes diferenças entre as estações analisadas, porém assim como a pluviosidade sofre a influência do relevo que se apresenta de forma bastante irregular nas proximidades da região, chegando a mais de 1 600 m de altitude. O tipo climático predominante na área é o Cfa, controlado por sistemas tropicais e polares. Palavras-chaves: Clima -litoral do Paraná -temperatura do ar -pluviosidade ABSTRACTBrazilian coastline is very vast, with about 8,000 km in length. The coast plane of the state of Paraná is one of the shortest, representing around 100 km of a total area of approximately 6,600 square kilometers. Due to static and dynamic factors, the climate of this area presents itself in ways complex and particular. This paper summarizes the characteristics of the Paraná's coast climate from the approach of two elements: the air temperature and rainfall. The rain presents itself so concentrated in the months of summer, and the medium -to-lower in the winter months. The total annual mean and seasonal ranges increases from the plains to the highest areas, which are those that have the highest rates. The total annual rainfall, in the years of the occurrence of El Niño, showed up above the historical mean, showing the connection between that event in the Pacific

As mudanças climáticas observadas na Era Moderna despertam a atenção detodo o mundo, delineiam o discurso climático-meteorológico-ambiental e seimpõem definitivamente na pauta da geopolítica internacional do presente edo futuro. Um consenso internacional, mesmo marcado por algumas vozesdissonante, formado acerca das previsões para a intensificação do aquecimentoclimático planetário no século XXI aponta para a formação de cenárioscomplicados para os ecossistemas, o meio ambiente e a vida dos homens. Nopresente texto são evidenciadas características naturais do fenômeno, bemcomo das interferências decorrentes das atividades humanas na sua intensificação.Alguns reflexos das mudanças climáticas globais na escala regionalsão evidenciados no presente texto, com destaque para a região Sul do Brasil,na qual foram identificadas alterações térmicas (aquecimento de mais de0,7º C com mudanças, sobretudo, nas temperaturas mínimas) e elevação dostotais pluviométricos anuais (umidificação com tendência à concentração) nasultimas décadas.

BackgroundMetabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Since pathways implicated in different diseases reveal surprising insights into shared genetic bases underlying apparently unrelated traits, we hypothesize that there are common genetic components involved in the clustering of MetS traits. With the aim of identifying these common genetic components, we have performed a genetic association study by integrating MetS traits in a continuous MetS score.MethodsA cross-sectional study developed in the context of the Portuguese Component of the European Health Examination Survey (EHES) was used. Data was collected through a detailed questionnaire and physical examination. Blood samples were collected and biochemical analyses were performed. Waist circumference, blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) levels were used to compute a continuous MetS score, obtained by Principal Component Analysis. A total of 37 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped and individually tested for association with the score, adjusting for confounding variables.ResultsA total of 206 individuals were studied. Calculated MetS score increased progressively with increasing number of risk factors (P < 0.001). We found a significant association between CYP2C19 rs4244285 and the MetS score not detected using the MetS dichotomic approach. Individuals with the A allelic variant seem to be protected against MetS, displaying a lower MetS score (Mean difference: 0.847; 95%CI: 0.163-1.531; P = 0.015), after adjustment for age, gender, smoking status, excessive alcohol consumption and physical inactivity. An additive genetic effect of GABRA2 rs279871, NPY rs16147 and TPMT rs1142345 in the MetS score variation was also found.ConclusionsThis is the first report of a genetic association study using a continuous MetS score. The significant association found between the CYP2C19 polymorphism and the MetS score but not with the individual associated traits, emphasizes the importance of lipid metabolism in a MetS common etiological pathway and consequently on the clustering of different cardiovascular risk factors. Despite the sample size limitation of our study, this strategy can be useful to find genetic factors involved in the etiology of other disorders that are defined in a dichotomized way.