Marked decline in forest-dependent small mammals following habitat loss and fragmentation in an Amazonian deforestation frontier

Agricultural frontier expansion into the Amazon over the last four decades has created million hectares of fragmented forests. While many species undergo local extinctions within remaining forest patches, this may be compensated by native species from neighbouring open-habitat areas potentially invading these patches, particularly as forest habitats become increasingly degraded. Here, we examine the effects of habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation on small mammal assemblages in a southern Amazonian deforestation frontier, while accounting for species-specific degree of forest-dependency. We surveyed small mammals at three continuous forest sites and 19 forest patches of different sizes and degrees of isolation. We further sampled matrix habitats adjacent to forest patches, which allowed us to classify each species according to forest-dependency and generate a community-averaged forest-dependency index for each site. Based on 21,568 trap-nights, we recorded 970 small mammals representing 20 species: 12 forest-dependents, 5 matrix-tolerants and 3 open-habitat specialists. Across the gradient of forest patch size, small mammal assemblages failed to show the typical species-area relationship, but this relationship held true when either species abundance or composition was considered. Species composition was further mediated by community-averaged forest-dependency, so that smaller forest patches were occupied by a lower proportion of forest-dependent rodents and marsupials. Both species richness and abundance increased in less isolated fragments surrounded by structurally simplified matrix habitats (e.g. active or abandoned cattle pastures). While shorter distances between forest patches may favour small mammal abundances, forest area and matrix complexity dictated which species could persist within forest fragments according to their degree of forest-dependency. Small mammal local extinctions in small forest patches within Amazonian deforestation frontiers are therefore likely offset by the incursion of open-habitat species. To preclude the dominance of those species, and consequent losses of native species and associated ecosystem functions, management actions should limit or reduce areas dedicated to pasture, additionally maintaining more structurally complex matrix habitats across fragmented landscapes

Current challenges and future perspectives

: The research group was funded by IPOLFG EPE and by iNOVA4Health (UID/Multi/04462/2019) a program financially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)/Ministério da Educação e Ciência, through national funds. We also acknowledge funding from FCT-MCTES through Filipa Lopes-Coelho PhD (PD/BD/128337/2017).Anti-angiogenic therapy is an old method to fight cancer that aims to abolish the nutrient and oxygen supply to the tumor cells through the decrease of the vascular network and the avoidance of new blood vessels formation. Most of the anti-angiogenic agents approved for cancer treatment rely on targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) actions, as VEGF signaling is considered the main angiogenesis promotor. In addition to the control of angiogenesis, these drugs can potentiate immune therapy as VEGF also exhibits immunosuppressive functions. Despite the mechanistic rational that strongly supports the benefit of drugs to stop cancer progression, they revealed to be insufficient in most cases. We hypothesize that the rehabilitation of old drugs that interfere with mechanisms of angiogenesis related to tumor microenvironment might represent a promising strategy. In this review, we deepened research on the molecular mechanisms underlying anti-angiogenic strategies and their failure and went further into the alternative mechanisms that impact angiogenesis. We concluded that the combinatory targeting of alternative effectors of angiogenic pathways might be a putative solution for anti-angiogenic therapies.publishersversionpublishe

PINK1 : a bridge between mitochondria and Parkinson's disease

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Mitochondria are known as highly dynamic organelles essential for energy production. Intriguingly, in the recent years, mitochondria have revealed the ability to maintain cell homeostasis and ultimately regulate cell fate. This regulation is achieved by evoking mitochondrial quality control pathways that are capable of sensing the overall status of the cellular environment. In a first instance, actions to maintain a robust pool of mitochondria take place; however, if unsuccessful, measures that lead to overall cell death occur. One of the central key players of these mitochondrial quality control pathways is PINK1 (PTEN-induce putative kinase), a mitochondrial targeted kinase. PINK1 is known to interact with several substrates to regulate mitochondrial functions, and not only is responsible for triggering mitochondrial clearance via mitophagy, but also participates in maintenance of mitochondrial functions and homeostasis, under healthy conditions. Moreover, PINK1 has been associated with the familial form of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Growing evidence has strongly linked mitochondrial homeostasis to the central nervous system (CNS), a system that is replenished with high energy demanding long-lasting neuronal cells. Moreover, sporadic cases of PD have also revealed mitochondrial impairments. Thus, one could speculate that mitochondrial homeostasis is the common denominator in these two forms of the disease, and PINK1 may play a central role in maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis. In this review, we will discuss the role of PINK1 in the mitochondrial physiology and scrutinize its role in the cascade of PD pathology.The authors are supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Grant references for FBG SFRH/BD/134316/2017, VAM IF/01693/2014, Funding reference: PTDC/BIA-CEL/31230/2017 by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT); ERC-StG-679168 by European Research Council; and EMBO-IG/3309 by European Molecular Biology Organization.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Study of Xenopus orthologs of novel genes expressed in the mouse AVE

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impact of pharmaceutical counseling in minor health problems in rural Portugal

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited."Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of self-medication and to evaluate the clinical impact of pharmaceutical counseling. Methods: A cross-sectional study was used with a prospective component, the latter to evaluate the impact of pharmaceutical counseling . The study was conducted in a rural community pharmacy for 14 consecutive days in December 2012, recruiting all individuals who agreed to participate and met the eligibility criteria. During a facetoface direct interview demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were registered, followed by a pharmaceutical intervention, which consisted of evaluating the symptoms, selecting the most appropriate nonprescription medicine (NPM) available and advising the patient on pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic measures, all according to established protocols for minor health problems. When appropriate, the patient was referred to a medical appointment. One week later, the clinical outcome of such intervention was measured by asking the patients about the resolution of their minor health problems. Results: Data from 298 patients were analyzed, the majority being female (60.1%) with an average age of 44.84 years (SD=22.41). Respiratory problems were the most frequent (n=78; 26.2%) and respiratory tract medication was the most frequently indicated (n= 77; 27.8%). The observed prevalence of self-medication was 40.7%. Of the 271 patients’ beneficiaries of pharmaceutical counseling, 86.8% had their minor health problems solved after one week (ranging from 77.5% to 88.2% according to a sensibility analysis for drop-outs). Conclusions: This work is important as it demonstrates the beneficial impact of pharmaceutical counseling, a very relevant area for the pharmacist and where literature is particularly scarce.

Assessing recovery rates of distinct exogenous controls for gDNA extraction efficiency using phenol-chloroform or silica-column based extractions

Assessment of genomic DNA (gDNA) extraction efficiency is required for accurate bacterial quantification by qPCR. Exogenous DNA molecules are often added after bacterial cultures are lysed, but before DNA purification steps, to determine extraction efficiency. Herein we found that different exogenous DNA controls have different recovery rates, suggesting distinct DNA extraction efficiencies. Recovery rates are also affected by the gDNA extraction method being more affected in silica-based columns than in phenol-chloroform extraction. Overall, we determined that the use of long DNA fragments, such as gDNA, as exogenous controls have a higher recovery rate than use of smaller size DNA molecules.This work was partially funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), with the strategic funding of the unit (UIDB/04469/2020). It was also partially funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R01AI146065-01A1 to CAM). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Policies of accountability in Portugal

This communication stems from the global/local method proposed by Pinar (2006) for analysing changes that have affected curricular development in Portugal in the globalised context. It is argued that the most evident effects of globalisation on current curricular changes relate to homogenisation and standardisation (Anderson-Levitt, 2008), intersected by key concepts, such as accountability, good practices, quality, efficiency, evaluation and testing, amongst others, even though heterogeneity of practices persists. In Portugal, the political agenda has suffered a two-fold pressure – on one side, from globalisation and transnationalisation and, on the other, the trend to Europeanise educational policies – leading to processes of curricular re-centralisation and a performance-oriented culture in schools (Ball, 2004). The concept of accountability is seen as one of the central aspects for understanding this, so this text uses a series of reflective questions, organised in three regulatory dimensions - political, institutional and pedagogical - to analyse the concept of accountability