Indicadores socieconômicos e criação de áreas naturais protegidas em Minas Gerais

Nature Protection Areas (NPA) are important in the modern world, although still created with no well-defined criteria, overall in state and municipal spheres. In addition, there are no consistent information on the existence or factors that influence the creation and distribution of these areas. The present work had the objectives of identifying the Nature Protection Areas in Minas Gerais, Brazil, considering the municipalities and their mesoregions; perform a space-temporal analysis of the NPAs in Minas Gerais; relate the existence of NPAs with the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) and the municipal Gini Index (GI); relate the existence of NPA with the space-temporal and population density of each municipality; relate the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the presence of NPAs; relate the existence of NPAs with the occurrence of preservation areas in municipalities within the Atlantic Forest Biome; and verify the influence of the Ecological Sales and Services Tax (Ecological ICMS) institute over the creation of municipal NPAs in Minas Gerais. To reach these objectives, we researched databases, governmental websites, contacted managers and sent questionnaires to the 853 municipalities of Minas Gerais. After tabulating the data, statistical tests were applied to verify possible correlations. The results showed that the state has 9.26% of its territory protected, with the predominance of units of Sustainable Use, especially Environmental Protection Areas, which constitute 69.9% of this area. Only 1.96% of the territory are protected by Integral Protection (IP). We found no correlation between MHDI and the presence of NPAs. However, we verified that municipalities with IP units present higher GI when compared to the others, suggesting that the presence of this conservation unit (CU) model may be associated to social inequality. The results also showed a higher concentration CU in regions that use little of its natural resources as main economic basis and in municipalities with higher GDP. We also registered a positive correlation between the size of the municipalities, of the mesoregions, preserved area of the Atlantic Forest and population density. The Ecological ICMS did not contribute for a better IP in the state and, currently, does not represent an incentive to the creation of CU in Minas Gerais, even in the case of Environmental Protection Areas. This work registered a high degree of vulnerability if the protection system in this state, based on low restriction conservation units.

Inovação do método MIA-QSAR: aplicação para doenças tropicais negligenciadas

Multivariate image analysis applied to the quantitative structure-activity relationships (MIA-QSAR) is a 2D QSAR technique that has been presenting promising outcomes for the development of new drug candidates, due to its simplicity, rapidity and low cost. In this way, the present study aims at introducing, consolidating and improving the new dimensions named aug-MIA-QSAR and aug-MIA-QSARcolor, as well as applying them to the study of neglected diseases, in order to obtain new drug targets using chemico-biological interpretation of the MIA molecular descriptors. Four compound data sets with experimental bioactivities against Chagas disease, malaria, dengue and schistosomiasis were evaluated using three approaches: MIA-QSARt, aug-MIA-QSAR and aug-MIA-QSARcolor. In general, representations of atoms as spheres with different colors and sizes proportional to the corresponding van der Waals radii (aug-MIA approaches) improved the predictive ability and interpretability in all data sets. The use of colors proportional to the Pauling´s electronegativity showed that MIA descriptors are capable of identifying periodic properties relevant for the studied activity. Finally, solid colors instead of spotlighted atoms allowed a correct identification of atoms by means of pixel values in the studies for malaria, dengue and schistosomiasis, which were, subsequently, useful for the chemical interpretation related to the bioactivity. It can be inferred that semicarbazones and thiosemicarbazones derivative with a tri-substituted ring in R1 group and a trifluoro methyl group in the R 3 position instead of a chlorine antitripanossoma resulted in higher activity. The antimalarial activity of quinolon-4(1H)imines can be improved if: 1) R1 and R2 are electron donor groups, 2) R3 has long aminoalkyl chains, and 3) R4 possesses substituents with big atomic volume. In the study for dengue, it was found that tetrapeptides with unbranched small size amino acids in the A1 and A4 positions can increase the substrate affinity (Km) to the NS3 protein, and when in A1 and A2 positions, the substrate cleavage rate (kcat). On the other hand, acidic amino acids in the A2 and A4 positions were found to be related with low substrate affinity to the NS3 protein and when present in A1, with low substrate cleavage rate. Finally, the presence of metoxy substituents in R1 (or R2) and R5 in the neolignan backbone can favor their antischistosomal activity.