No abstract

Tourist occupancy in coastal environments threatens the stability of various coastal ecosystems and is thus a cause for concern for the environmental sector. As such, it is important to perform environmental monitoring in a way that analyses and quantifies the environmental impact of coastal ecosystems. Porto de Galinhas beach (Pernambuco – Brazil) has one of the highest visitation rates in Brazil and suffered from restrictions to human mobility due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These restrictions allowed for the evaluation of the impact of tourism on Porto de Galinhas beach and the effects that the lack of tourist occupancy had during the lockdown period of 2020. Blood samples from the species Abudefduf saxatilis were collected monthly over a period of 1 year and during the lockdown quarter, in order to perform micronucleus (MN) and nuclear morphological alteration (NMA) tests, and data were analyzed at a seasonal level (dry/rainy period) using a comet assay. For the control group, A. saxatilis samples were collected in an environmentally protected area on Tamandaré beach (68 km from Porto de Galinhas). The MN and NMA tests showed a greater frequency of genomic damage when there was greater tourist flow. In relation to rain seasonality, the comet assay showed a greater incidence of genomic damage during the dry period, where there was a higher rate of tourist migration, compared to the rainy period. The lockdown period presented a lower incidence of genotoxic damage compared to the period without restrictions on human mobility and the control. The results show that tourism has been causing a significant environmental impact on Porto de Galinhas beach. The data collected during the lockdown period demonstrated how the absence of human movement results in changes that are favorable to environmental recuperation, as illustrated by the lower frequency of genomic damage.

No abstract

No abstract

Hospital infections caused by resistant bacteria are a worldwide public health problem that mainly affects immunocompromised patients. These infections are mainly caused by inadequate antibiotic prescriptions, self-medication and long hospital stays. The World Health Organization mentions a list of resistant bacteria, especially Gram-negative ones considered as priorities for research, discovery and development of new drugs. These pathogens to survive and propagate use a varied set of strategies known as virulence factors. The present study corresponds to a review of the state-of-the-art related to main factors associated with pathogenicity in clinical important Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The virulence factors, alone or together, guarantee important defenses to the host organism's immune system, as well as adverse external conditions. Consequently, there is an increase in morbidity and mortality rates in hospital environments. Thus, effective microbial control measures are needed, especially in health institutions; also, the encouragement of new therapeutic approaches that target the main virulence factors.