Can timber provision from Amazonian production forests be sustainable?

Around 30 Mm3 of sawlogs are extracted annually by selective logging of natural production forests in Amazonia, Earth's most extensive tropical forest. Decisions concerning the management of these production forests will be of major importance for Amazonian forests' fate. To date, no regional assessment of selective logging sustainability supports decision-making. Based on data from 3500 ha of forest inventory plots, our modelling results show that the average periodic harvests of 20 m3 ha−1 will not recover by the end of a standard 30 year cutting cycle. Timber recovery within a cutting cycle is enhanced by commercial acceptance of more species and with the adoption of longer cutting cycles and lower logging intensities. Recovery rates are faster in Western Amazonia than on the Guiana Shield. Our simulations suggest that regardless of cutting cycle duration and logging intensities, selectively logged forests are unlikely to meet timber demands over the long term as timber stocks are predicted to steadily decline. There is thus an urgent need to develop an integrated forest resource management policy that combines active management of production forests with the restoration of degraded and secondary forests for timber production. Without better management, reduced timber harvests and continued timber production declines are unavoidable

Sharing and community curation of mass spectrometry data with Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking

The potential of the diverse chemistries present in natural products (NP) for biotechnology and medicine remains untapped because NP databases are not searchable with raw data and the NP community has no way to share data other than in published papers. Although mass spectrometry techniques are well-suited to high-throughput characterization of natural products, there is a pressing need for an infrastructure to enable sharing and curation of data. We present Global Natural Products Social molecular networking (GNPS, http://gnps.ucsd.edu), an open-access knowledge base for community wide organization and sharing of raw, processed or identified tandem mass (MS/MS) spectrometry data. In GNPS crowdsourced curation of freely available community-wide reference MS libraries will underpin improved annotations. Data-driven social-networking should facilitate identification of spectra and foster collaborations. We also introduce the concept of ‘living data’ through continuous reanalysis of deposited data

Freqüência de aglutininas anti-Leptospira interrogans em eqüídeos, em Minas Gerais, 2003 a 2004 Frequency of anti-Leptospira interrogans agglutinins in equidae in Minas Gerais, Brazil, from 2003 to 2004

The goal of this research was to find the frequency and spatial distribution of infection caused by Leptospira interrogans in equidae in Minas Gerais State from September 2003 to March 2004. Samples of blood serum (6,475) were analyzed by microscopic agglutination test. From the total, 381 samples were positive (5.9 %), with title equal or superior to 1:200 for one or more serovars of leptospira. The most frequent serovars were Hardjo (Norma), Pomona, Bratislava, and Batavie. The higher frequency of equidae reagents were recorded at the North and Northeast region of Minas Gerais, followed by Triângulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaíba, then Central, West, Metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, and South/Southwest

GPR para a verificação do nível d'água subterrânea em transição floresta amazônica e cerrado Ground Penetratin Radar (GPR) water level monitoring study of a mature transitional tropical forest

Um estudo do monitoramento do nível de água foi realizado com medidas diretas e com Radar de Penetração no Solo (GPR) em uma floresta tropical de transição para o cerrado. Três poços de monitoramento do nível de água foram instalados durante 2001/2002 em três locais diferentes: o primeiro em uma área de floresta permanente, outro em área de floresta manejada e outra em uma área de pasto. Os perfis de GPR mostram que o nível do topo do lençol freático aparece como um refletor horizontal forte em março e em agosto de 2002, e como um refletor fraco durante medidas em maio e outubro de 2001 com descontinuidades devido a diversas lentes de solo laterítico no solo. O topo do lençol de água é facilmente confundido com a presença de tais lentes. A umidade do solo teve uma influência nestes sinais da reflexão, mudando a constante dielétrica do solo. A profundidade do topo do lençol da água variou 1,8 m sob a floresta permanente, 0,9 m sob a floresta manejada e 3,7 m sob o pasto.<br>A Ground Penetratin Radar (GPR) water level monitoring study of a mature transitional tropical forest is presented. Three water tables monitoring wells were installed during 2001/2002 at three different sites: under permanent forest, under managed forest and pasture. The GPR profiles show that the water table appears as a strong horizontal reflector in March and August, 2002,and as a weak, discontinuous reflector during measurements in May and October 2001. Due to several laterite lenses in the soil, the water table can easily be mistaken in place of such lenses. Soil moisture had an influence on these reflection signals, changing the dielectric constant of soil. The depth of the water table varied 1.8 m under permanent forest, 0.9 m under management forest and 3.7 m under pasture

Alterações fenotípicas e genéticas do metabolismo do ferro numa população portuguesa com doença de Alzheimer: potenciais implicações no conhecimento da fisiopatologia e no diagnóstico desta demência

Fundação Astrazeneca e INSA, I.P

Genetic and biochemical markers in patients with Alzheimer's disease support a concerted systemic iron homeostasis dysregulation

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly individuals, resulting from a complex interaction between environmental and genetic factors. Impaired brain iron homeostasis has been recognized as an important mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of this disease. Nevertheless, the knowledge gathered so far at the systemic level is clearly insufficient. Herein, we used an integrative approach to study iron metabolism in the periphery, at both genotypic and phenotypic levels, in a sample of 116 patients with AD and 89 healthy control subjects. To assess the potential impact of iron metabolism on the risk of developing AD, genetic analyses were performed along with the evaluation of the iron status profile in peripheral blood by biochemical and gene expression studies. The results obtained showed a significant decrease of serum iron, ferritin, and transferrin concentrations in patients compared with the control subjects. Also, a significant decrease of ferroportin (SLC40A1) and both transferrin receptors TFRC and TFR2 transcripts was found in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients. At the genetic level, significant associations with AD were found for single nucleotide polymorphisms in TF, TFR2, ACO1, and SLC40A1 genes. Apolipoprotein E gene, a well-known risk factor for AD, was also found significantly associated with the disease in this study. Taken together, we hypothesize that the alterations on systemic iron status observed in patients could reflect an iron homeostasis dysregulation, particularly in cellular iron efflux. The intracellular iron accumulation would lead to a rise in oxidative damage, contributing to AD pathophysiology

Optimal strategies of ecosystem services provision for Amazonian production forests

Data and source R codes to support the article "Optimal strategies of Ecosystem Services provision for Amazonian production forests", published in Environmental Research Letters. The main code "main_Rscript_figshare.R" must be opened and run with the statistical software R ; it calls and opens other codes and data included in this repository