. Attitudes of Elements of the Academic Community in Regard to the Rapid Test of HIV/AIDS

Background: Knowing one’s own seropositivity status of HIV/AIDS is important. Seropositivity can be determined by a rapid HIV/AIDS test. Attitudes towards a rapid test of HIV/AIDS show a predisposition to perform the analysis. Objective: This study investigated, the attitudes of students and staff in a Portuguese university toward rapid HIV/AIDS test. Methods: In a convenience sample, the data was collected on campus in three consecutive years. A selfadministered structured questionnaire was used for data collection. A validated scale for Portuguese students was applied. A sample of 947 (86.3%) students and 150 (13.7%) teaching and non-teaching staff participated. The average age was 24.30 years-old (SD=8.64). Non-parametric tests were applied. Results: Attitudes of professors and non-teaching staff are more favorable in relation to the rapid test of HIV/AIDS, compared to students. Attitudes are also more favorable in the first year in which the study was conducted with both employees and students. The male students express more traditional attitudes. Students of nursing polo have expressed more favorable attitudes to the rapid test of HIV/AIDS. Conclusion: The attitudes towards rapid test of HIV/AIDS are generally favorable. It is necessary to conduct further research considering professors and other university staff. Improving favorable attitudes toward rapid HIV/AIDS test must be a positive fact for health.

Carbon sequestration associated to the land-use and land-cover changes in the forestry sector in Southern Brazil.

We studied the Paraíba do Sul river watershed , São Paulo state (PSWSP), Southeastern Brazil, in order to assess the land use and cover (LULC) and their implication s to the amount of carbon (C) stored in the forest cover between the years 1985 and 2015. Th e region covers a n area of 1,395,975 ha . We used images made by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor (OLI/Landsat - 8) to produce mappings , and image segmentation techniques to produce vectors with homogeneous characteristics. The training samples and the samples used for classification and validation were collected from the segmented image. To quantify the C stocked in aboveground live biomass (AGLB) , we used an indirect method and applied literature - based reference values. The recovery of 205,690 ha of a secondary Native Forest (NF) after 1985 sequestered 9.7 Tg (Teragram) of C . Considering the whole NF area (455,232 ha), the amount of C accumulated al ong the whole watershed was 3 5 .5 Tg , and the whole Eucalyptus crop (EU) area (113,600 ha) sequester ed 4. 4 Tg of C. Thus, the total amount of C sequestered in the whole watershed (NF + EU) was 3 9 . 9 Tg of C or 1 45 . 6 Tg of CO 2 , and the NF areas were responsible for the large st C stock at the watershed (8 9 %). Therefore , the increase of the NF cover contribut es positively to the reduction of CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere, and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD + ) may become one of the most promising compensation mechanisms for the farmers who increased forest cover at their farms.