The aim of this study was to evaluate the published professional association guidelines regarding the current diagnosis and treatment of functional intestinal constipation in adults and to compare those guidelines with the authors’ experience to standardize actions that aid clinical reasoning and decision-making for medical professionals. A literature search was conducted in the Medline/PubMed, Scielo, EMBASE and Cochrane online databases using the following terms: chronic constipation, diagnosis, management of chronic constipation, Roma IV and surgical treatment. Conclusively, chronic intestinal constipation is a common condition in adults and occurs most frequently in the elderly and in women. Establishing a precise diagnosis of the physiopathology of functional chronic constipation is complex and requires many functional tests in refractory cases. An understanding of intestinal motility and the defecatory process is critical for the appropriate management of chronic functional intestinal constipation, with surgery reserved for cases in which pharmacologic intervention has failed. The information contained in this review article is subject to the critical evaluation of the medical specialist responsible for determining the action plan to be followed within the context of the conditions and clinical status of each individual patient.

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This paper investigates for a 25-year period the sediment distribution in a semi-arid Brazilian basin (2 × 10 4 km 2 ) with a network containing more than 4000 surface reservoirs. The methodology is based on rating curves and fitted parameters derived from field data. The results showed that suspended load corresponded to 70% of the total sediment yield (148 t km -2 year -1 ). The relatively low contribution of the suspended load (compared with other semi-arid regions) was attributed to the impact of the numerous upstream reservoirs, which retained 235 t km -2 year -1 . The micro (<1 hm 3 ), small (1-10 hm 3 ), medium-sized (10-50 hm 3 ), and large or strategic (>50 hm 3 ) reservoirs responded to, respectively, 5, 17, 30 and 48% of the total sediment retention by the reservoir network. This indicates that retention in the non-strategic reservoirs has a positive impact on water availability, since siltation of the strategic reservoirs would be expected to more than double if only such reservoirs existed.Key words reservoir network; siltation; sediment yield; semi-arid watershed; Brazil Redistribution des sédiments due à un réseau dense de réservoirs dans un grand bassin versant semi-aride du BrésilRésumé Cet article étudie sur une période de 25 ans la distribution des sédiments dans un bassin versant semi-aride du Brésil (2 10 4 km 2 ) qui est équipé d'un réseau de plus de 4000 réservoirs de surface. La méthodologie est basée sur les courbes de tarage et les paramètres ajustés provenant des données du terrain. Les résultats montrent que la charge en suspension correspond à 70% de la production totale de sédiments (148 t km -2 an -1 ). La contribution relativement faible de la charge en suspension (par rapport aux autres régions semi-arides) est attribuée à l'impact des nombreux réservoirs en amont, qui retiennent 235 t km -2 an -1 . Les réservoirs très petits (<1 hm 3 ), petits (1−10 hm 3 ), moyens (10−50 hm 3 ), et grands ou stratégiques (>50 hm 3 ) représentent, respectivement, 5, 17, 30 et 48% de la rétention totale de sédiments par le réseau de réservoirs. Cela indique que la rétention dans les réservoirs non-stratégiques a un impact positif sur la disponibilité de l'eau, puisque la sedimentation dans ces réservoirs stratégiques pourrait plus que doubler si eux seuls existaient.

Introduction  The Coronavirus belongs to a family of RNA viruses that can cause respiratory infection, with the possibility of gastrointestinal manifestations in approximately 5—50% of the cases. Objective  To report a surgical case with a diagnosis of COVID-19 that developed acute perforated abdomen and pneumothorax. Case report  This was an 80-year-old female patient with respiratory symptoms, with dry cough and fever and diffuse abdominal pain with signs of peritonitis. She had leukocytosis, kidney dysfunction and an increase in D-dimer with positive PCR for COVID. Computed tomography of the chest and abdomen showed pneumothorax on the right and extensive pneumoperitoneum. Conclusion  The presentation of COVID-19 with severe pulmonary and abdominal complications requires specialized and emergency treatments, but it has high mortality rates.

This study investigated phosphorus (P) dynamics in the sediment-water interface of three distinct reservoirs located in a tropical semiarid region. Sequential chemical fractioning of the P content in the sediment and controlled experiments of the sedimentwater interface were performed to understand and model the effect of the different P fractions on the exchange dynamics under anoxic and oxic scenarios. The results revealed that the older the reservoir, the higher the amount of iron and aluminum-bound P in the sediment, and that this fraction was responsible for a 10-fold increase in P concentration in the water during anoxic conditions. After aeration, P in water decreased but did not return to its initial concentration. The most recently constructed reservoir showed the lowest P concentration in the sediment and dominance of the unavailable P fraction, resulting in no potential impact on water quality. Phosphorus release and precipitation rates were well described by zero-and first-order models, respectively.Reservoirs with high P availability in the sediment, not only released more phosphorus but also presented a lower precipitation rate, resulting in higher potential damage to water quality and making some in-lake treatment techniques ineffective.

This study investigates the relationships between yield and evaporation as a function of lake morphology in semi-arid Brazil. First, a new methodology was proposed to classify the morphology of 40 reservoirs in the Ceará State, with storage capacities ranging from approximately 5 to 4500 hm 3 . Then, Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to study the effect of reservoir morphology (including real and simplified conical forms) on the water storage process at different reliability levels. The reservoirs were categorized as convex (60.0%), slightly convex (27.5%) or linear (12.5%). When the conical approximation was used instead of the real lake form, a trade-off occurred between reservoir yield and evaporation losses, with different trends for the convex, slightly convex and linear reservoirs. Using the conical approximation, the water yield prediction errors reached approximately 5% of the mean annual inflow, which is negligible for large reservoirs. However, for smaller reservoirs, this error became important. Therefore, this paper presents a new procedure for correcting the yield-evaporation relationships that were obtained by assuming a conical approximation rather than the real reservoir morphology. The combination of this correction with the Regulation Triangle Diagram is useful for rapidly and objectively predicting reservoir yield and evaporation losses in semi-arid environments.

How to cite: ArAÚJO gM, LIMA NETO IE AND BECKEr H. 2019. Phosphorus dynamics in a highly polluted urban drainage channel-shallow reservoir system in the Brazilian semiarid. An Acad Bras Cienc 91: e20180441.