Environmental pollution challenges public health surveillance: the case of mercury exposure and intoxication in Brazil.

Pollution, causing millions of deaths annually, disproportionally affects low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Mercury ranks among the three main chemicals of major public health concern, and even low levels can cause cardiovascular and nervous outcomes, with children and indigenous populations being especially vulnerable. Nearly 80% of all emissions in South America originate from the Amazon. Brazil, the fifth-largest contributor to global mercury emissions, exemplifies the challenges faced by LMICs in effectively monitoring and addressing mercury exposure/intoxication. Despite having powerful tools such as SINAN (a digital platform for compulsory disease reporting), and Community Health Agents, data reveals significant underreporting, especially in the Amazon. Furthermore, SINAN has important delays in its update: for instance, 196 cases of Munduruku Indigenous people in 2019 have only been included in 2023. In this Personal View, we outline insightful recommendations to enhance public health surveillance and implement enduring, effective strategies to monitor, report and address mercury exposure/intoxication, focusing on the Brazilian Amazon. Although these recommendations are tailored to the challenges of this country, they hold potential for adaptation by other Amazonian countries facing similar issues (high mercury emissions and the presence of vulnerable populations, among others).

Mercury in the Amazon: The danger of a single story.

Amazon conservation is essential for the global future. Mercury is currently among the worst global pollutants and most (78.5%) of the South-American emissions are from the Amazon. Current Brazilian legislation on mining activities and trade of gold, and economic interests in soy, beef and large-scale projects such as dams, are key influences in mercury mobilization and emissions in the Amazon with the potential to affect the global environment. However, banning mercury in mining, while desirable, is not an efficient strategy if no other action is taken. The interconnected issues, such as exports (soy, beef and gold) and energy generation, must be addressed together to provide effective protection for human health and the environment. Realistically, to improve mercury emissions in the Amazon, we must stop looking solely at "the single story" (a limited view of reality) of supposedly "artisanal and small-scale gold mining" in the region and understand the complex economic, social, political, and international aspects of this problem. We propose some recommendations for international agencies, governments, communities and the private sector.

Generalized Identity Matching to Sample after Multiple-Exemplar Training in Capuchin Monkeys.

A multiple-exemplar identity matching-to-sample baseline was established to encourage development of generalized IDMTS performances in three adult male capuchins. Mask (blank comparison) or Shuffled S- procedures were used to promote select (sample-S+) control in baseline relations and to assess stimulus control relations in generalized IDMTS tests. The IDMTS baseline comprised eight 3-stimulus sets or four 4-stimulus sets. Probe trials with new stimulus sets were substituted for baseline sets in successive testing sessions and subsequently converted to new baseline relations. All monkeys exhibited high accuracy on generalized IDMTS tests. A monkey who was given the Mask procedure in training and tests showed generalized IDMTS with select relations predominating. Two monkeys who were given training and testing with the Shuffled S- procedure performed somewhat better on Shuffled S- IDMTS test trials than on test trials that contained non-shuffled test IDMTS trials thus suggesting that exclusion of familiar nonmatching comparison stimuli from baseline in Shuffled S-test trials contributed to the higher accuracy scores with the former procedures. Development of select relations appeared to be a positive predictor of development of generalized IDMTS.

Comportamento verbal: uma análise da abordagem skinneriana e das extensões explicativas de Stemmer, Hayes e Sidman / Verbal Behavior: analysis of the skinnerian perspective and theexplaining extensions of Stemmer, Hayes and Sidman

Para Skinner comportamento verbal é um operante modelado e mantido por conseqüências mediadaspor outros. Portanto, poderia ser explicado por meio da descrição de relações funcionais organismoambiente. Entretanto, ao categorizar os operantes verbais Skinner não tratou satisfatoriamente com comportamentos de tipo relacional, provavelmente em função da dificuldade em determinar suas variáveis de controle. Este trabalho procurou analisar a abordagem skinneriana do comportamento verbal e três propostas que buscam ampliá-la (Stemmer, Hayes e Sidman). Stemmer amplia o alcance da explicação skinneriana descrevendo processos de aprendizagem relacional e sintático-gramaticalem termos do estabelecimento de discriminações e generalizações, enfatizando o papel de ouvintecomo condição necessária à aprendizagem de falante. Hayes e Sidman apresentam, respectivamente, a descrição de um novo tipo de operante e de um novo processo comportamental subjacente à aprendizagem de relações. Ainda que as propostas de Hayes e Sidman estejam alcançando resultados promissores no ensino de repertórios relacionais, não existe um consenso sobre quais mecanismos e processos bio-comportamentais são necessários para a aquisição e o desenvolvimento lingüístico. Sugere-se a necessidade de uma padronização conceitual no que se refere às noções de aprendizagemrelacional, classes de estímulos e classes de respostas generalizadas, visando um re-direcionamento das pesquisas sobre comportamento verbal.

Skinner defines verbal behavior as an operant shaped and maintained by consequences mediated by others. Therefore, it could be explained through the description of organism-environment functionalrelations. However, in his categorization of verbal operants Skinner didn?t treat satisfactorily withbehaviors of relational type, probably due to the difficulty to determine the controlling variables. Thiswork analyzed Skinnerian approach to verbal behavior and three proposals that aim to extend it(Stemmer, Hayes and Sidman). Stemmer extends the scope of Skinnerian explanation describingrelational and syntactic-grammatical learning processes in terms of the establishment ofdiscriminations and generalizations, emphasizing the listening role as a necessary condition to thelearning of speaking. Hayes and Sidman present, respectively, the description of a new kind of operant and a new behavioral process underlying relational learning. Although Hayes and Sidman?s proposals are reaching interesting results in teaching relational repertoires, there is not a consensus about what mechanisms and biobehavioral processes are necessary to the language acquisition and development.This work points to the need of a standardization of concepts related to the notions of relationallearning, stimuli classes formation, and generalized response classes, in order to redirect the researchon verbal behavior.

Comportamento verbal: uma análise da abordagem skinneriana e das extensões explicativas de Stemmer, Hayes e Sidman / Verbal Behavior: analysis of the skinnerian perspective and the explaining extensions of Stemmer, Hayes and Sidman

Para Skinner comportamento verbal é um operante modelado e mantido por consequências mediadas por outros. Portanto, poderia ser explicado por meio da descrição de relações funcionais organismo-ambiente. Entretanto, ao categorizar os operantes verbais Skinner não tratou satisfatoriamente com comportamentos de tipo relacional, provavelmente em função da dificuldade em determinar suas variáveis de controle. Este trabalho procurou analisar a abordagem skinneriana do comportamento verbal e três propostas que buscam ampliá-la (Stemmer, Hayes e Sidman). Stemmer amplia o alcance da explicação skinneriana descrevendo processos de aprendizagem relacional e sintático-gramatical em termos de estabelecimento de discriminações e generalizações, enfatizando o papel de ouvinte como condição necessária à aprendizagem de falante. Hayes e Sidman apresentam, respectivamente, a descrição de um novo tipo de operante e de um novo processo comportamental subjacente a aprendizagem de relações. Ainda que as propostas de Hayes e Sidman estejam alcançando resultados promissores no ensino de repertórios relacionais, não existe um consenso sobre quais mecanismos e processos bio-comportamentais são necessários para a aquisição e o desenvolvimento linguístico. Sugere-se a necessidade de uma padronização conceitual no que se refere às noções de aprendizagem relacional, classes de estímulos e classes de respostas generalizadas, visando um re-direcionamento das pesquisas sobre comportamento verbal(AU)