Sleeping microbes

Sleeping microbes wake up after 100 million years buried under the seafloor

By Rafi Letzter - Staff Writer 11 hours ago

No one knew that single-celled organisms could live so long.

A magnified image shows the revived microbes.

(Image: © JAMSTEC)

Microbes found themselves buried in the dirt 101.5 million years ago, back before even Tyrannosaurus rex when Earth’s biggest meat-eating dinosaur, called Spinosaurus roamed the planet. Time passed, continents shifted, oceans rose and fell, great apes emerged, and eventually human beings evolved with the curiosity and skills to dig up those ancient cells. And now, in a Japanese lab, researchers have brought the single-celled organisms back to life.

Researchers aboard the drill ship JOIDES Resolution collected sediment samples from the bottom of the ocean 10 years ago. The samples came from 328 feet (100 meters) below the 20,000-foot-deep (6,000 m) bottom of the South Pacific Gyre. That's a region of the Pacific Ocean with very few nutrients and little oxygen available for life to survive on, and the researchers were looking for data on how microbes get along in such a remote part of the world.

Inclusion Health

Recomendado pela AMICOR Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja
What works in inclusion health: overview of effective interventions for marginalised and excluded populations
Serena Luchenski, Nick Maguire, Robert W Aldridge, Andrew Hayward, Alistair Story, Patrick Perri, James Withers, Sharon Clint, Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Nigel Hewett

Inclusion health is a service, research, and policy agenda that aims to prevent and redress health and social inequities among the most vulnerable and excluded populations. We did an evidence synthesis of health and social interventions for inclusion health target populations, including people with experiences of homelessness, drug use, imprisonment, and sex work. These populations often have multiple overlapping risk factors and extreme levels of morbidity and mortality. We identified numerous interventions to improve physical and mental health, and substance use; however,
evidence is scarce for structural interventions, including housing, employment, and legal support that can prevent exclusion and promote recovery. Dedicated resources and better collaboration with the affected populations are needed to realise the benefits of existing interventions. Research must inform the benefits of early intervention and implementation of policies to address the upstream causes of exclusion, such as adverse childhood experiences and poverty./.../

4th People's Health Assembly

Let's come together at the 4th People's Health Assembly !

Fourth People’s Health Assembly taking place 15-19 November 2018 in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Civil society mobilization and policy dialogue for health equity and accountable national and global governance for health.

Background to the Assembly

We are faced today with a global health crisis that is characterized by inequities related to a range of social determinants of health and in access to health services within countries and between countries. In many regions of the world, health systems are poorly designed, under-resourced, and of poor quality, thereby contributing to unacceptable rates of morbidity and mortality.  In large measure, the poor and the vulnerable are being pushed further to the margins due to pitifully inadequate measures to address the social determinants of health. They are also denied access to quality health services as a consequence of unfair economic structures and social conditions that lock people into poverty and ill-health. In recent years, austerity measures in both the global South and the North have further compromised access, often as a consequence of the dismantling of public services and the increasing reliance on private provision of healthcare. The achievement of universal and secure access to comprehensive healthcare services can be a reality only through the revitalization of comprehensive primary health care, as envisioned in the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978. The People's Charter for Health endorses the Alma Ata declaration, and   affirms that health is a social, economic and political issue -- but above all, a fundamental and inalienable human right./.../

Europe: Public Health

REPORTS

Health at a Glance: Europe 2012 (OECD 2012)

Health at a Glance: Europe 2012

This second edition of Health at a Glance: Europe presents a set of key indicators of health and health systems in 35 European countries, including the 27 European Union member states, 5 candidate countries and 3 EFTA countries. The selection of indicators is based largely on the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) shortlist, a list of indicators that has been developed by the European Commission to guide the development and reporting of health statistics. It is complemented by additional indicators on health expenditure and quality of care, building on the OECD expertise in these areas.

Each indicator in the book is presented in a user-friendly format, consisting of charts illustrating variations across countries and over time, brief descriptive analyses highlighting the major findings conveyed by the data, and a methodological box on the definition of the indicators and any limitations in data comparability. An annex provides additional information on the demographic and economic context within which health systems operate.

This publication is the result of collaboration between the OECD and the European Commission, with the help of national data correspondents from the 35 countries. 

Report(2 MB)

Executive summary (available in 22 languages)(119 KB) 

The State of Men's Health in Europe: extended re

Overpopulation

Why the Real Victim of Overpopulation Will Be the Environment

By BRYAN WALSH Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011

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Zebras roam at the Nairobi National Park in Kenya, one of many developing countries experiencing a population boom

PETER MACDIARMID / GETTY IMAGES

• Maybe it's just the fact that the official day has been set for Oct. 31 — Halloween — but there's a distinct whiff of panic and fear around the expected birth of the 7 billionth person on the planet. Here's Roger Martin, chair of the NGO Population Matters, writing in the Guardian recently:

The 7 Billion Day is a sobering reminder of our planet's predicament. We are increasing by 10,000 an hour. The median UN forecast is 9.3 billion by 2050, but the range varies by 2.5 billion — the total world population in 1950 — depending on how we work it out.

Every additional person needs food, water and energy, and produces more waste and pollution, so ratchets up our total impact on the planet, and ratchets down everyone else's share — the rich far more than the poor. By definition, total impact and consumption are worked out by measuring the average per person multiplied by the number of people. Thus all environmental (and many economic and social) problems are easier to solve with fewer people, and ultimately impossible with ever more.

2011 World Population Data Sheet

2011 World Population Data Sheet Global population will reach 7 billion later in 2011, just 12 years after reaching 6 billion in 1999. Today's world population is double the population in 1967. But while the overall growth rate has slowed, the population is still growing, and growth rates in some countries show little if any decline. The Population Reference Bureau's2011 World Population Data Sheet and its summary report (Population Bulletin) offer detailed information on 18 population, health, and environment indicators for more than 200 countries. Also online: * Interactive Map: View 17 variables from the World Population Data Sheet. You can easily embed the map, world view or regional view, on your blog or website. *Video: "7 Billion and Counting." Watch an informative and compelling 3-minute video that explains global population trends and varying levels of population growth and decline among countries. * Webinar: PRB demographers Carl Haub, James Gribble, and Linda Jacobsen.

Population Bulletin: "The World at 7 Billion" This Population Bulletin looks at the four phases of the demographic transition as descriptive of past and future population growth. The report highlights four countries to illustrate each phase and its implications for human well-being: Uganda (high birth rate, fluctuating death rate); Guatemala (declining birth and death rates); India (approaching replacement-level fertility); and Germany (low or very low birth and death rates)./.../

How Human Beings Are Downgrading Life on Planet Earth

Posted by BRYAN WALSH Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 2:24 pm

49 Comments • Related Topics: wildlife , ecosystem, extinction, food chain, go species, impact, science, species, wildlife

Matt Hansen / Getty Images

We live in the Anthropocene, as some scientists have come to call our new geologic era. The term acknowledges the fact that human beings—nearly 7 billion strong and growing—have so much influence over the life, geography and even chemistry of planet Earth that we're now essentially responsible for the whole show. For good and for ill, the planet from now on will be what we make of it./.../

PNAD 2010

08/09/2010 - 10h00

Pnad: Um em cada cinco brasileiros é analfabeto funcional

Rafael Targino
Do UOL Educação
Em São Paulo

Um em cada cinco brasileiros (20,3%) é analfabeto funcional, de acordo com a Pnad (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios) 2009, divulgada nesta quarta-feira (8) pelo IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística). É considerada analfabeta funcional a pessoa com 15 ou mais anos de idade e com menos de quatro anos de estudo completo. Em geral, ele lê e escreve frases simples, mas não consegue, por exemplo, interpretar textos.

Segundo a pesquisa, o problema é maior na região Nordeste, na qual a taxa de analfabetismo funcional chega a 30,8%. Na região Sudeste, onde esse índice é menor, a taxa ainda supera os 15%.

No entanto, o número vem caindo desde 2004, quando, segundo o IBGE, o país tinha 24,4% de analfabetos funcionais. Em 2008, o total era de 21%. Em comparação com 2009, a taxa caiu 0,7 pontos percentuais.

Analfabetismo total
A taxa de analfabetismo no Brasil entre pessoas com 15 anos ou mais caiu 0,3 pontos percentuais entre 2008 e o ano passado, de acordo com a Pnad. O índice saiu de 10% há dois anos para 9,7% em 2009. Segundo o órgão, o isso representa 14,1 milhões de analfabetos –em 2008, eram 14,2 milhões.

De acordo com o IBGE, a maioria dos analfabetos (92,6%) está concentrada no grupo com mais de 25 anos de idade. No Nordeste, a taxa de analfabetismo entre a população com 50 anos ou mais chega a 40,1%, enquanto que no Sul, esse número é de 12,2%. Os nordestinos têm as maiores taxas em todas as faixas de idade.

Leia mais

• Pesquisa visitou mais de 150 mil domicílios em 2009
• 14,1 milhões de brasileiros que não sabem ler nem escrever
• Cresce trabalho formal, e Brasil já tem 32,4 milhões com carteira assinada
• Celular cresce no país; 5 milhões de aparelhos estão com jovens de 10 a 14 anos
• Computador chega a 35% dos domicílios brasileiros; 27% dos lares têm internet
• Mulheres ampliam vantagem sobre homens em tempo de estudo, aponta Pnad
• Região Norte foi onde o desemprego mais cresceu em 2009, diz IBGE
• Famílias que ganham mais têm mais filhos na escola, mostra IBGE
• Maioria estuda em escola pública, mas cursa faculdades particulares
• No RJ, uma em cada sete pessoas tem mais de 60 anos
• Região Sudeste concentra metade dos internautas do Brasil, diz Pnad
• DF é a única unidade federativa na qual maioria da população vem de fora, revela IBGE
• Cresce proporção de pardos e pretos no país; brancos, amarelos e indígenas perdem espaço
• Homens concentram 80% dos maiores rendimentos do país
• Renda no Nordeste é a que mais cresce, e diferença para regiões mais ricas cai, aponta IBGE
• Pela primeira vez em seis anos, cai o percentual de domicílios com acesso à rede de esgoto
• Norte é a região com maior proporção de solteiros; Sudeste concentra viúvos e separados
• Cai o peso da agricultura entre os setores que mais empregam, diz IBGE
• Casas próprias já representam 73% dos domicílios no Brasil, diz IBGE
• Trabalho infantil continua em queda, mas ainda há mais de 4 mi de pequenos trabalhadores

As Megacidades

As Megacidades do país, elas ainda têm solução • Outros vídeos Em VEJA • Bicicletas: Dicas de segurança para circular na cidade • A solução foi cobrar • Ideias mortas Em Megacidades • Unhabitat Seção da Organização das Nações Unidas para as cidades. Dá acesso a publicações eletrônicas sobre temas urbanos (em inglês). • Metropolis Mantido pela rede Metropolis, criada em 1985 para incentivar o intercâmbio de informações e experiências entre as grandes cidades. • Observatoriodasmetropoles Instituto virtual que reúne mais de 200 pesquisadores de 51 instituições universitárias de todo o país. • www.nossasaopaulo.org.br • www.riocomovamos.org.br • www.bogotacomovamos.org Movimento "Como Vamos", inspirado na experiência bem-sucedida iniciada em Bogotá, capital da Colômbia. No Brasil, 22 cidades integram a rede. • www.vivercidades.org.br Organização não-governamental voltada para a capacitação de quadros e a idealização e desenvolvimento de soluções relacionadas a políticas públicas, urbanas e regionais.

Health Situation in the Americas: 2009

Health Situation in the Americas: Basic Indicators 2009

Chronic noncommunicable diseases currently are reaching epidemic proportions in the Americas and are contributing substantially to overall mortality and disease burden in the Region. They result from complex and dynamic socially determined health processes, including epidemiological and demographic transitions. Once thought to be an issue primarily affecting the older population in high-income countries, chronic noncommunicable diseases are now affecting younger population segments and the poor in the lower-income countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The means for preventing and controlling most noncommunicable diseases are already well established and high-income countries—followed by middle-income countries— are now showing continuous progress in both prevention and control interventions. The low- and lower-middle-income countries, on the other hand, face the dual challenge of coping with scarce resources to address both noncommunicable and communicable diseases, as well as infant and maternal mortality. Among chronic noncommunicable diseases, cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Americas, occurring increasingly within the working age population and thereby contributing disproportionately to the loss of potential years of healthy life and economic productivity. This situation is already recognized as a major and growing public health problem, particularly affecting low- and middle-income countries, but what is less recognized is the role of social disparities as determinants of the premature mortality due to cardiovascular diseases in the Region. The purpose of this publication is to call the attention of the general public and the governments of the Americas to an exploratory analysis of the relationship between premature mortality due to cerebrovascular diseases (CeVD) and potential socioeconomic inequality determinants at the ecological level. The map on the first page of this brochure depicts the quintile distribution of proportional premature mortality due to cerebrovascular disease in the countries and territories of the Americas. The material presented in this brochure has been compiled, drafted, and reviewed by PAHO regional staff, and staff from ministries of health. Basic Indicators 2009

Human Development Report 2009

Human Development Report 2009

Overcoming barriers:
Human mobility and development

Human development is about putting people at the centre of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives they value. Since 1990, annual Human Development Reports have explored challenges including poverty, gender, democracy, human rights, cultural liberty, globalization, water scarcity and climate change.

Migration, both within and beyond borders, has become an increasingly prominent theme in domestic and international debates, and is the topic of the 2009 Human Development Report (HDR09). The starting point is that the global distribution of capabilities is extraordinarily unequal, and that this is a major driver for movement of people. Migration can expand their choices —in terms of incomes, accessing services and participation, for example— but the opportunities open to people vary from those who are best endowed to those with limited skills and assets. These underlying inequalities, which can be compounded by policy distortions, is a theme of the report.

The report investigates migration in the context of demographic changes and trends in both growth and inequality. It also presents more detailed and nuanced individual, family and village experiences, and explores less visible movements typically pursued by disadvantaged groups such as short term and seasonal migration.

There is a range of evidence about the positive impacts of migration on human development, through such avenues as increased household incomes and improved access to education and health services. There is further evidence that migration can empower traditionally disadvantaged groups, in particular women. At the same time, risks to human development are also present where migration is a reaction to threats and denial of choice, and where regular opportunities for movement are constrained.

National and local policies play a critical role in enabling better human development outcomes for both those who choose to move in order to improve their circumstances, and those forced to relocate due to conflict, environmental degradation, or other reasons. Host country restrictions can raise both the costs and the risks of migration. Similarly, negative outcomes can arise at the country levels where basic civic rights, like voting, schooling and health care are denied to those who have moved across provincial lines to work and live. HDR09 shows how a human development approach can be a means to redress some of the underlying issues that erode the potential benefits of mobility and/or force migration.

Download the Report

Complete report [3,884 KB]
Summary [739 KB]
Errata [70 KB]
Flyer [257 KB]

Chapters and Language versions
Human mobility data
Research Papers