Plectoplebeia, a new Neotropical genus of stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

ABSTRACT A new stingless bee genus, Plectoplebeia gen. nov., is proposed to accommodate a peculiar Neotropical species currently placed in Plebeia Schwarz, 1938. The brief, but convoluted taxonomic history of its type species, Trigona nigrifacies Friese, 1900, is documented, with Trigona (Plebeia ) intermedia Wille, 1960 being placed as its junior synonym. Plectoplebeia gen. nov. resembles an enlarged species of Plebeia , differing by its larger body size, wider distance between the clypeus and the eye, presence of a shallow depression on the frons above the antennal sockets, coarser punctures on the head and mesosoma, a shorter, convex scutellum, an elongate propodeum and metapostnotum, long wings, with a higher number of hamuli, and by an elongate metasoma, with an unusually long first tergum. The single included species, Plectoplebeia nigrifacies comb. nov., is known only from the Bolivian Yungas, an ecoregion extending from west-central Bolivia to southeastern Peru

Bee assemblage (Hymenoptera, Apidae) of an area of natural grasslands in Vila Velha State Park and comparisons with bee surveys in other Brazilian areas of grasslands and cerrado

A assembléia de abelhas (Hymenoptera, Apidae) de uma área restrita de campos naturais do Parque Estadual de Vila Velha, Paraná e comparações com áreas de campos e cerrado. Foram realizadas coletas sistemáticas de abelhas em uma área restrita no Parque Estadual de Vila Velha, Paraná, no período de outubro de 2003 a setembro de 2004. Essa amostragem visou gerar subsídios para comparações entre áreas de campo dentro do Parque e com outras áreas de vegetação aberta brasileiras. A área de estudo possui cerca de quatro hectares e foi subdividida em quatro subáreas contínuas e com o mesmo perímetro. As abelhas em flores e em vôo foram capturadas com auxílio de rede entomológica. Foram coletados 1.459 espécimes pertencentes a 122 espécies de abelhas. Estas espécies estão distribuídas em 51 gêneros, 20 tribos e cinco subfamílias. As plantas visitadas correspondem a 93 espécies, pertencentes a 62 gêneros e 29 famílias. Neste estudo e em outro estudo realizado anteriormente em outra área do Parque foram coletadas 222 espécies sendo 74 espécies em comum as duas áreas e uma soma de 148 espécies restritas a uma ou outra área. Ainda, registros históricos de abelhas para Vila Velha elevam a riqueza conhecida para 261 espécies. O índice de similaridade de Morisita entre as áreas foi de 0,50 quando utilizadas as plantas como variáveis e 0,88 quando utilizados gêneros e espécies de abelhas, revelando uma notável heterogeneidade. Comparações entre as áreas do Parque Estadual de Vila Velha e áreas de campos e cerrado foram realizadas através do índice de similaridade e da análise de correspondência. Foram observados dois agrupamentos fortemente evidentes, referentes aos campos e ao cerrado. A análise de correspondência sugere que alguns gêneros podem ser relacionados a determinadas formações vegetais. Esse estudo indica que a fauna de abelhas de Vila Velha é composta principalmente por gêneros relacionados às áreas de campos, porém com presença de elementos de cerrado.Systematic samplings of bees were conducted at a site in Vila Velha State Park, Paraná state, Brazil, from October 2003 to September 2004. This study aimed at gathering data to compare the bee fauna of grassland sites of Vila Velha with other Brazilian bee assemblages from areas covered with open plant formations. The study area has four hectares and was subdivided in four contiguous subareas of one hectare each for sampling purposes. Bees visiting flowers or in flight were captured with entomological nets. A total of 1.459 specimens, belonging to 122 bee species, 51 genera, 20 tribes and five subfamilies, were collected. The bees visited a total of 93 plant species belonging to 62 genera and 29 families. Summing the present assemblage with that from a previous study in another site at the Park resulted in a total of 222 bee species, 74 of which are species shared between the two sites and 148 were found at one of the sites only. Additional data from historic samplings at Vila Velha rise the known richness to 261 species. The Morisita similarity index between the areas is 0.50 when visited plants species are used as variables and 0.88 when using bee genera and species. The fauna of Vila Velha was compared to other bee assemblages from natural grasslands and cerrado areas using similarity indexes and correspondence analysis. Two groupings, one composed by grasslands sites and the other by cerrado sites, were recovered by the analyses. Also, the correspondence analysis indicates that some bee genera are associated to specific plant formations. Based on this study, the bee fauna of Vila Velha is composed mainly by genera related to grasslands with presence of some elements from the cerrado.CNPqTesouro Naciona

Orchid bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in the coastal forests of southern Brazil: diversity, efficiency of sampling methods and comparison with other Atlantic forest surveys

Surveys of orchid bees at the Brazilian Atlantic forest have been restricted to a few regions, making difficult to understand latitudinal patterns of distribution and diversity of these bees. For this reason we sampled the euglossine fauna at Atlantic forest areas at the coastal region of São Paulo (Sete Barras, Faz. Morro do Capim: SP3) and state of Paraná (Antonina, Reserva Natural do Rio Cachoeira: PR3), in southern Brazil. In PR3, we also evaluated the efficiency of collecting methods for sampling the fauna, comparing bait traps with direct collecting using entomological nets on fragrance baits. The diversity and abundance of bees was very low: we caught only 39 males of eight species in SP3 (Euglossa iopoecila, Euglossa roderici, Eulaema nigrita, Euglossa annectans, Eulaema cingulata, Euglossa pleosticta, Euglossa viridis and Exaerete smaragdina) and 254 males of six species in PR3 (Euglossa iopoecila, Euglossa annectans, Euglossa stellfeldi, Euglossa roderici, Euglossa pleosticta and Eulaema nigrita). Comparing the sampling methodologies, use of insect nets on fragrance baits (six species; 221 specimens) was more efficient than bait traps (three species; 33 specimens). When comparing the faunas of these two areas with other surveys at the Atlantic forest sites, through a DCA analysis, we found that the two surveys presented in this paper were placed relatively close to each other, but apart from the other sites analyzed, not clustering with the southernmost survey at the subtropical Atlantic forest of Rio Grande do Sul or with the remaining surveys carried out at northern lowland sites of this biome.Os levantamentos da fauna de abelhas euglossíneas realizados até o momento ao longo da floresta Atlântica são restritos a poucas regiões e não permitem um entendimento mais aprofundado dos padrões latitudinais de distribuição e diversidade dessas abelhas. Por este motivo, duas áreas de floresta Atlântica do sul do Brasil, na planície costeira de São Paulo (Sete Barras, Faz. Morro do Capim: SP3) e do Paraná (Antonina, Reserva Natural do Rio Cachoeira: PR3), tiveram sua fauna de euglossíneos amostrada. Em PR3, foi avaliada também a eficiência de dois métodos alternativos de coleta, fazendo-se a comparação entre armadilhas plásticas, iscadas com fragrâncias, e coleta direta com rede entomológica em iscas odoríferas. A diversidade e abundância das abelhas foram muito baixas: apenas 39 machos de oito espécies foram coletados em SP3 (Euglossa iopoecila, Euglossa roderici, Eulaema nigrita, Euglossa annectans, Eulaema cingulata, Euglossa pleosticta, Euglossa viridis e Exaerete smaragdina) e 254 machos de seis espécies em PR3 (Euglossa iopoecila, Euglossa annectans, Euglossa stellfeldi, Euglossa roderici, Euglossa pleosticta e Eulaema nigrita). A comparação entre os métodos de amostragem mostrou que a coleta direta (seis espécies; 221 espécimes) foi mais eficiente do que o uso de armadilhas (três espécies; 33 espécimes). A análise de correspondência (DCA) mostrou que os dois levantamentos apresentados aqui se posicionaram relativamente próximos entre si, porém afastados dos outros locais comparados, não se agrupando com o levantamento mais meridional nos domínios da floresta Atlântica do Rio Grande do Sul, nem com aqueles conduzidos em áreas de terras baixas mais ao norte nesse bioma

Avaliação do stress parental em mães de crianças com perturbação de hiperatividade com défice de atenção

Introdução: Pretendeu-se identificar os níveis de stress nas mães de crianças e adolescentes com perturbação de hiperatividadecom défice de atenção e verificar se existe uma associação entre o stress percecionado por estas mães e o funcionamento familiar.Métodos: Foram utilizados o índice de stress parental, versão reduzida, que caracteriza o stress parental total de acordo comtrês dimensões (dificuldade parental, interação pais / criança e criança difícil), e a escala de avaliação da adaptabilidade e coesãofamiliar, que classifica as famílias em equilibradas, meio-termo ou extremas.Resultados: Participaram neste estudo 89 mães. Obtiveram-se valores médios no questionário índice de stress parental acimado percentil 85 (valor de cutoff) nas subescalas interação disfuncional criança-pais, criança difícil e no valor de stress total.Verificou-se ainda que havia uma forte correlação entre stress total e as três subescalas, isto é, mães com níveis mais elevadosde stress tendem a ter uma maior perceção de dificuldade parental, de interação disfuncional com a criança e de criança difícil.Não se verificaram diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre o tipo de família (equilibrada versus meio-termo ou extrema,ou monoparental versus nuclear) e o stress parental.Discussão: Concluiu-se que as mães das crianças com perturbação de hiperatividade com défice de atenção apresentam elevadosníveis de stress, o qual parece advir fundamentalmente das características da criança, que é percecionada como sendouma criança difícil, e de uma interação disfuncional entre os pais e a criança. Não parece haver relação entre o nível de stressexperienciado por estas mães e a funcionalidade ou organização da famíli

Influence of cultivation conditions on the bioenergy potential and bio-compounds of Chlorella vulgaris

This study aims to evaluate the influence of cultivation conditions on the bioenergy and high value biocompounds contents of Chlorella vulgaris. Results show that the use of nitrate rich media, from 170.7 mg/L, favors a faster biomass growth, reaching values above 800 mg/L biomass. In addition, it favors higher pigments concentrations with more emphasis for the cultures with a nitrate concentration of 569 mg/L, where chlorophyll-a and carotenoids reached maximum concentrations of 6 and 2 mg/L, respectively. As regards the lipid content, nitrate deprivation (<28.4 mg/L) favors the accumulation of lipid content by microalgae (around 42%). The use of media with lower iron concentrations (0.5 mg/L) was favorable for obtaining biomass with higher concentrations of chlorophyll-a, at an initial stage, with values varying from 0.2 to 0.6 mg/L. In the tests carried out under mixotrophic conditions (addition of glucose), it was observed that contamination occurred in all the cultures, possibly due to the high concentration of carbon source that had values between 0.5 and 1.5 g/L of glucose, and consequently, growth decreased.Authors thank the financial support of the project IF/01093/2014/CP1249/CT0003 and research grants IF/01093/2014 and SFRH/BPD/112003/2015 funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES, and project UID/EQU/00305/2013 – Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology – CIETI. This work was financially supported by: project UID/EQU/00511/2019 – Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy – LEPABE funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC); Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939 (Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy — LEPABE, UID/EQU/00511/2013) funded by FEDER through COMPETE2020-POCI and by national funds through FCT; Project “LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION” — NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000005, funded by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On Phase Transition and Vortex Stability in the Generalized XY Models

We study a recent generalization proposed for the XY model in two and three dimensions. Using both, the continuum limit and discrete lattice, we obtained the vortex configuration and shown that out-of-plane vortex solutions are deeply jeopardized whenever the parameter of generalization, $L$, is increased. The critical temperature for such models is calculated using the self consistent harmonic approximation. In both, two- and three-dimensional cases, such a temperature decreases with raising $L$. Our results are also compared with other approximated methods available in the literature.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Touristic Virtual Environment of Tunguragua Province

Tourism and the advances that technology has had over the years have turned into useful instruments that are used to develop platforms and virtual touristic environments that can help in its management and positioning promotion-wise. The objective is to design a virtual touristic environment that will promote service providers, cultural activities, routes and touristic attractions that are found in the province of Tungurahua, and which include natural resources and historical sites that have not been exploited yet. The virtual environment’s goal is to integrate relevant information for tourists in the area, plus destinations and locations using a map, geolocation and georeferencing functions. The goal is to increase the flow of national and foreign visitors by using audiovisual archives or files. The validation of the goals was based on studies about the characteristics and the behavior of the tourists and information obtained from national public companies that are primarily related to tourism

A assembléia de abelhas (Hymenoptera, Apidae) de uma área restrita de campos naturais do Parque Estadual de Vila Velha, Paraná e comparações com áreas de campos e cerrado

Systematic samplings of bees were conducted at a site in Vila Velha State Park, Paraná state, Brazil, from October 2003 to September 2004. This study aimed at gathering data to compare the bee fauna of grassland sites of Vila Velha with other Brazilian bee assemblages from areas covered with open plant formations. The study area has four hectares and was subdivided in four contiguous subareas of one hectare each for sampling purposes. Bees visiting flowers or in flight were captured with entomological nets. A total of 1.459 specimens, belonging to 122 bee species, 51 genera, 20 tribes and five subfamilies, were collected. The bees visited a total of 93 plant species belonging to 62 genera and 29 families. Summing the present assemblage with that from a previous study in another site at the Park resulted in a total of 222 bee species, 74 of which are species shared between the two sites and 148 were found at one of the sites only. Additional data from historic samplings at Vila Velha rise the known richness to 261 species. The Morisita similarity index between the areas is 0.50 when visited plants species are used as variables and 0.88 when using bee genera and species. The fauna of Vila Velha was compared to other bee assemblages from natural grasslands and cerrado areas using similarity indexes and correspondence analysis. Two groupings, one composed by grasslands sites and the other by cerrado sites, were recovered by the analyses. Also, the correspondence analysis indicates that some bee genera are associated to specific plant formations. Based on this study, the bee fauna of Vila Velha is composed mainly by genera related to grasslands with presence of some elements from the cerrado.A assembléia de abelhas (Hymenoptera, Apidae) de uma área restrita de campos naturais do Parque Estadual de Vila Velha, Paraná e comparações com áreas de campos e cerrado. Foram realizadas coletas sistemáticas de abelhas em uma área restrita no Parque Estadual de Vila Velha, Paraná, no período de outubro de 2003 a setembro de 2004. Essa amostragem visou gerar subsídios para comparações entre áreas de campo dentro do Parque e com outras áreas de vegetação aberta brasileiras. A área de estudo possui cerca de quatro hectares e foi subdividida em quatro subáreas contínuas e com o mesmo perímetro. As abelhas em flores e em vôo foram capturadas com auxílio de rede entomológica. Foram coletados 1.459 espécimes pertencentes a 122 espécies de abelhas. Estas espécies estão distribuídas em 51 gêneros, 20 tribos e cinco subfamílias. As plantas visitadas correspondem a 93 espécies, pertencentes a 62 gêneros e 29 famílias. Neste estudo e em outro estudo realizado anteriormente em outra área do Parque foram coletadas 222 espécies sendo 74 espécies em comum as duas áreas e uma soma de 148 espécies restritas a uma ou outra área. Ainda, registros históricos de abelhas para Vila Velha elevam a riqueza conhecida para 261 espécies. O índice de similaridade de Morisita entre as áreas foi de 0,50 quando utilizadas as plantas como variáveis e 0,88 quando utilizados gêneros e espécies de abelhas, revelando uma notável heterogeneidade. Comparações entre as áreas do Parque Estadual de Vila Velha e áreas de campos e cerrado foram realizadas através do índice de similaridade e da análise de correspondência. Foram observados dois agrupamentos fortemente evidentes, referentes aos campos e ao cerrado. A análise de correspondência sugere que alguns gêneros podem ser relacionados a determinadas formações vegetais. Esse estudo indica que a fauna de abelhas de Vila Velha é composta principalmente por gêneros relacionados às áreas de campos, porém com presença de elementos de cerrado

Bioremediation of Polluted Waters Using Microorganisms

Water pollution is an issue of great concern worldwide, and it can be broadly divided into three main categories, that is, contamination by organic compounds, inorganic compounds (e.g., heavy metals), and microorganisms. In recent years, the number of research studies concerning the use of efficient processes to clean up and minimize the pollution of water bodies has been increasing. In this context, the use of bioremediation processes for the removal of toxic metals from aqueous solutions is gaining considerable attention. Bioremediation can be defined as the ability of certain biomolecules or types of biomass to bind and concentrate selected ions or other molecules present in aqueous solutions. Bioremediation using microorganisms shows great potential for future development due to its environmental compatibility and possible cost-effectiveness. A wide range of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and algae, can act as biologically active methylators, which are able to at least modify toxic species. Many microbial detoxification processes involve the efflux or exclusion of metal ions from the cell, which in some cases can result in high local concentrations of metals at the cell surface, where they can react with biogenic ligands and precipitate. Although microorganisms cannot destroy metals, they can alter their chemical properties via a surprising array of mechanisms. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide an update on the recent literature concerning the strategies available for the remediation of metal-contaminated water bodies using microorganisms and to critically discuss their main advantages and weaknesses. The focus is on the heavy metals associated with environmental contamination, for instance, lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and chromium (Cr), which are potentially hazardous to ecosystems. The types of microorganisms that are used in bioremediation processes due to their natural capacity to biosorb toxic heavy metal ions are discussed in detail. This chapter summarizes existing knowledge on various aspects of the fundamentals and applications of bioremediation and critically reviews the obstacles to its commercial success and future perspectives

Oscillating Solitons Pinned to a Nonmagnetic Impurity in Layered Antiferromagnets

We argue that an oscillatory motion of impurity-pinned solitons may occur in layered antiferromagnetic compounds. The characteristic frequencies of these modes, that may be detected by resonance or inelastic neutron scattering, are estimated analytically and depend on the soliton sizes and types .Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur