Reverse supply chain practices for construction and demolition waste in the Brazilian Amazon: a multi-stakeholder view.

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is an environmental problem that affects all regions of the world. Particularly in the Brazilian Amazon Forest region, the volume of CDW generated almost doubled between 2007 and 2019. Indeed, despite Brazil having environmental regulations for waste management, these have been insufficient to solve the environmental problem because there is no CDW reverse supply chain (RSC) properly developed in the Amazon region. Previous studies have proposed a conceptual model of a CDW RSC but have hitherto failed to apply them against real world practice. This paper, therefore, attempts to test existing conceptual models that describe a CDW RSC against real industry practice prior to developing an applied model of a CDW RSC for the Brazilian Amazon. To modify the conceptual model for CDW RSC, qualitative data through 15 semi-structured interviews with five different types of stakeholders of the Amazonian CDW RSC were collected and analyzed using qualitative content analysis methods using NVivo software. The proposed applied model includes present and future reverse logistics (RL) practices, and strategies and tasks necessary for the implementation of a CDW RSC in the city of Belém of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon. Findings reveal that several overlooked problems, particularly the limitations of the existing legal framework in Brazil, are not enough to promote a robust CDW RSC. This is perhaps the first study to examine CDW RSC in the Amazonian rainforest. Arguments provided in this study highlight the necessity for an Amazonian CDW RSC that must be promoted and regulated by the government. This can be addressed by the utilizing public-private partnership (PPP) for developing a CDW RSC.

One brief exposure to a psychological stressor induces long-lasting, time-dependent sensitization of both the cataleptic and neurochemical responses to haloperidol.

Rats were exposed for 10 minutes to one of several enclosures graded in novelty. In one experiment they were then simply sacrificed and plasma corticosterone determinations made in order to obtain an index of the relative stressfulness of these enclosures. In a second experiment the animals received haloperidol and were tested for catalepsy, 2 hours or two weeks following the novel experience. The most novel experience, exposure to a black box, resulted in the highest corticosterone levels and was the only one of our pre-treatments to induce significant enhancement of catalepsy as well as alteration of nucleus accumbens dopamine levels, 2 weeks--but not 2 hours--later. These findings indicate that brief exposure of adult animals to a psychological stressor can induce a long-term alteration in both behavioral and neurochemical responses to a drug and that this effect requires a minimum level of stress to get started and once triggered gets stronger with the passage of time.

Amphetamine or haloperidol 2 weeks earlier antagonized the plasma corticosterone response to amphetamine; evidence for the stressful/foreign nature of drugs.

We inquired whether a single exposure to amphetamine (AM) or haloperidol (HALO) could modify the plasma corticosterone (CORT) response to a second injection of AM 2 weeks later. Male rats were injected with 4 mg/kg d-AM sulfate and tested for water intake for 5 h before sacrifice. Overall, AM induced water intake but none of the pretreatments altered this effect. By contrast, preexposure to AM, HALO or its vehicle 2 weeks earlier prevented the elevation of plasma CORT obtained when AM was administered without pretreatment. A combined pretreatment of HALO or its vehicle with AM produced an even greater blockade of AM-induced CORT elevation. Manipulations which prevented AM-induced drinking reduced the effectiveness of AM pretreatment in attenuating AM-induced elevation in CORT, suggesting that the pretreatment may have been sensitizing the effectiveness of a coping response--drinking--in reducing the CORT effect. Our findings also indicate that a dopamine agonist (AM), a dopamine antagonist (HALO) and a nonspecific stressor (acidic vehicle) can all induce the same, long-lasting action on CORT. This strongly suggests that the effects of AM and HALO in this instance cannot be explained in terms of their pharmacological actions, which are opposite to one another, but instead relate to their properties as stressful/foreign agents to the organism.

Immobilization 12 days (but not one hour) earlier enhanced 2-deoxy-D-glucose-induced immunosuppression: evidence for stressor-induced time-dependent sensitization of the immune system.

1. Prior exposure to a stressor can either increase or decrease subsequent behavioral, neurochemical, and endocrine reactivity to stress, depending on the pattern of stress exposure. 2. Massed or frequent exposures typically induce a reduction in reactivity whereas intermittent or widely spaced exposures increase subsequent reactivity. 3. In the present study, the authors examined whether a single presentation of a temporally remote stressor would increase the immunosuppressive effects of a subsequent stressor. Specifically, the authors investigated the effectiveness of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) in suppressing the responsiveness of splenic lymphocytes in male, Sprague-Dawley rats that received either no prior treatment, or immobilization either one hour or 12 days earlier. 4. Splenic lymphocyte responsiveness to the T-cell mitogens, Concanavalin A (Con-A) and phytohemagglutinin (PHA) was suppressed following a single injection of 2-DG. 5. The group exposed to the stress of immobilization one hour prior to 2-DG demonstrated a comparable level of immune suppression. 6. In contrast, animals immobilized 12 days prior to the administration of 2-DG showed a more pronounced suppression of immune responsiveness which was significantly greater than the other groups injected with 2-DG. 7. Neither the stress-induced elevation in corticosterone, nor the suppression of blood lymphocyte reactivity to Con-A and PHA was enhanced by prior immobilization. 8. The results indicate that the immunosuppressive effects of an acute stressor can sensitize with the passage of time.