Flower-Insect Timed Counts (FIT Count):protocol adaptation and preliminary results in Brazil

FIT Count (Flower-Insect Timed Counts) is a citizen science initiative that seeks to monitor flower visitation by diverse pollinator groups, including bumblebees, stingless bees, honeybees, flies, hummingbirds, among others. The protocol entails determining a 50 x 50 cm plot area around a target plant species, photographing the plant and conducting a standardized 10-minute survey on this area to estimate the frequency of flower visits by different pollinator groups. Conducting FIT Counts in different habitats and locations produces data on the temporal and spatial dynamics of these interactions (Carvell 2022, UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme 2018).FIT Count methodology was originally developed by the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS) and has been used in the United Kingdom since 2017, with over 8,500 counts conducted to date. In 2021, the FIT Count application (app) was launched in the United Kingdom, and became available in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and some other European countries in 2022. After installation, users may select in which country the observations will be conducted and their preferred language, either English or the main native language of participating countries. The adaptation of the application for use by Brazilian citizen scientists involved not only the translation of the interface, but also relied on the expertise of a local team who helped select which plant species and pollinator groups would be appropriate and representative of biodiversity within the country (Fig. 1). The application is supported by a website that features a dedicated page for each country. Users can download the app on Google Play or App Store (Fig. 2).To allow the participation of non-experts, who generally are not familiar with taxonomy or species identification, the flower visitors are identified in general categories such as bumblebees and carpenter bees (grouped together), flies, and others (see Fig. 1), representing the main functional groups of pollinators. If a flower visitor cannot be identified, it should be classified as "other insect" or marked as "I don't know". Including the possibility of uncertainty in flower visitor identification was a suggestion of the Brazilian team for quality assurance during data collection.Currently, 834 flower visits have been counted by 15 participants, who performed 109 FIT Counts across Brazil as a pilot testing phase of the app. Two training workshops were held to disseminate the app, and an illustrated guide was published to help participants identify flower types and flower visitor groups (Koffler 2022). Nineteen plant species were monitored, but most flower-visits counted were on basil (Ocimum basillicum, n = 47) and false heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia, n = 33). The mean number of flower visitors per FIT Count was 8 (min = 0, max = 45). While most visits were performed by honeybees, participants also recorded visits by beetles, butterflies or moths, small insects, solitary bees, wasps and other insects. Next steps include assessing data quality and promoting strategic partnerships to further disseminate this citizen science initiative. For instance, quality control measures may include assessing whether participants perform the protocol steps according to instructions and whether plants and flower visitors are correctly identified and counted. Also, we are exploring the prospective implementation of the Darwin Core standard (Darwin Core Task Group 2009) along with the Plant-Pollinator Interactions vocabulary (Salim 2022) to standardize data description

Low-Level Laser Application in the Early Myocardial Infarction Stage Has No Beneficial Role in Heart Failure

Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been targeted as a promising approach that can mitigate post infarction cardiac remodeling. There is some interesting evidence showing that the beneficial role of the LLLT could persist long-term even after the end of the application, but it remains to be systematically evaluated. Therefore, the present study aimed to test the hypothesis that LLLT beneficial effects in the early post-infarction cardiac remodeling could remain in overt heart failure even with the disruption of irradiations. Female Wistar rats were subjected to the coronary occlusion to induce myocardial infarction or Sham operation. A single LLLT application was carried out after 60 s and 3 days post-coronary occlusion, respectively. Echocardiography was performed 3 days and at the end of the experiment (5 weeks) to evaluate cardiac function. After the last echocardiographic examination. LV hemodynamic evaluation was performed at baseline and on sudden afterload increases. Compared with the Sham group, infarcted rats showed increased systolic and diastolic internal diameter as well as a depressed shortening fraction of LV. The only benefit of the LLLT was a higher shortening fraction after 3 days of infarction. However, treated-LLLT rats show a lower shortening fraction in the 5th week of study when compared with Sham and non-irradiated rats. A worsening of cardiac function was confirmed in the hemodynamic analysis as evidenced by the higher LV end-diastolic pressure and lower +dP/dt and dP/dt with five weeks of study. Cardiac functional reserve was also impaired by infarction as evidenced by an attenuated response of stroke work index and cardiac output to a sudden afterload stress, without LLLT repercussions. No significant differences were found in the myocardial expression of Akti NEGF pathway. Collectively, these findings illustrate that LLLT improves LV systolic function in the early post-infarction cardiac remodeling. However, this beneficial effect may be dependent on the maintenance of phototherapy. Long-term studies with LLLT application are needed to establish whether these effects ultimately translate into improved cardiac remodeling.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnologicoFAPESPNove de Julho Univ, Lab Biophoton, Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Lab Cardiac Physiol, Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilNove de Julho Univ, Program Med, Sao Paulo, BrazilUniv Sao Judas Tadeu, Brazil Phys Educ & Aging Sci Program, Translat Physiol Lab, Sao Paulo, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Lab Cardiac Physiol, Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilCNPq: 4400851/2014-8FAPESP: 09-54225/8FAPESP: 15/11028-9Web of Scienc

Flower-insect timed counts (FIT Count): protocol adaptation and preliminary results in Brazil

FIT Count (Flower-Insect Timed Counts) is a citizen science initiative that seeks to monitor flower visitation by diverse pollinator groups, including bumblebees, stingless bees, honeybees, flies, hummingbirds, among others. The protocol entails determining a 50 x 50 cm plot area around a target plant species, photographing the plant and conducting a standardized 10-minute survey on this area to estimate the frequency of flower visits by different pollinator groups. Conducting FIT Counts in different habitats and locations produces data on the temporal and spatial dynamics of these interactions

Analysis and verification support methodologies for high abstractions level platforms

Orientadores: Sandro Rigo, Guido Costa Souza de AraújoTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: A crescente complexidade das descrições de hardware em alto nível tem motivado a criação de metodologias de desenvolvimento por vários anos, sendo o mais recente nível de abstração representado pelo que é chamado de projeto Electronic System Level (ESL) e os projetos baseados em plataformas. Neste cenário, a exploração simultânea de diversos modelos arquiteturais, como os Systems-on-Chip (SoC), é a chave para se obter um bom balanceamento no particionamento hardware-software e melhorar o desempenho tanto do hardware quanto do software. Isto demanda uma infraestrutura de simulação de plataformas capaz de simular com rapidez, em um alto nível de abstração, tanto o software quanto o hardware. SystemC despontou como uma das linguagens de descrição mais adotadas e, juntamente com a modelagem em nível de transação (TLM, do inglês Transaction Level Modeling), vem sendo amplamente reconhecido como a técnica mais propícia para desenvolvimento em ESL. Uma das características mais marcantes de TLM é a possibilidade de reutilizar toda a infraestrutura da plataforma para a simulação de hardware e software [12]. A integração da verificação no fluxo de projeto é muito importante em uma metodologia baseada em TLM. Uma das técnicas de verificação mais conhecidas é a injeção de estímulos, usada para guiar a simulação para casos limite. Este tipo de funcionalidade é útil para aumentar a cobertura da verificação. As ferramentas disponíveis para descrições SystemC não permitem injeção de estímulos sem que o modelo seja alterado ou sem a utilização de um núcleo de simulação modificado para tal tarefa. Para a depuração, não temos notícia de nenhuma ferramenta de código aberto disponível, porém existem boas ferramentas comerciais preparadas especificamente para a depuração de modelos em SystemC. Nesta tese são propostas três metodologias para melhorar a capacidade de introspecção, depuração e análise de modelos de hardware descritos em alto nível de abstração. A primeira delas é composta por uma metodologia de reflexão computacional aplicável a módulos SystemC através da inserção de módulos de inspeção, que chamamos de ReFlexBox. A segunda técnica desenvolvida foi chamada de SignalReplay, e representa uma evolução da primeira técnica voltada para a captura, análise e injeção dos dados coletados pela reflexão. A última metodologia proposta, chamada de PDFA (do inglês, Platform Dataflow Analysis) visa extrair metadados através da reflexão de tipos sobrecarregados, permitindo que o projetista aplique técnicas de compiladores para a análise de hardware. Os resultados obtidos são apresentados como experimentos, implementados na forma de estudos de caso. Estes experimentos permitiram avaliar a eficácia das técnicas propostas que, ao contrário de trabalhos correlatos, aderem a seis princípios que consideramos fundamentais: (1) não são intrusivas em relação as modificações no modelo que podem ser necessárias para implementar a introspecção; (2) não necessitam de modificações no ambiente de simulação, compiladores ou bibliotecas, incluindo nossa linguagem alvo: SystemC; (3) geram uma sobrecarga pequena no tempo de simulação; (4) proveem observabilidade e controlabilidade; (5) são extensíveis, permitindo a adaptação para utilização em trabalhos similares, com pouca ou nenhuma modificação nas metodologias; e (6) protegem a propriedade intelectual do módulo sob verificaçãoAbstract: The increasing complexity of high level hardware descriptions has motivated the creation of development methodologies for several years, being the most recent level of abstraction represented by projects based on platforms and on the so called Electronic System Level design (ESL). In this scenario, simultaneously exploring different architectural models, like Systems-on-Chip (SoC), is the key to achieve a good balance on hardware-software partitioning and improve performance of both hardware and software. This requires a platform simulation infrastructure able to simulate at high speeds and high level of abstraction, both software and hardware. SystemC emerged as one of the most widely adopted description languages and, when used with the Transaction Level Modeling (TLM), has been widely recognized as the most suitable for ESL development. One of the most striking features of TLM is the possibility to reuse all the infrastructure platform for the simulation of hardware and software [12]. Integration of the verification into design flow is a key point in a TLM-based methodology. One well-known verification technique is the injection stimuli, used to guide the simulation to borderline states. This kind of functionality is useful to increase the coverage of the verification. The tools currently available for SystemC descriptions do not allow stimuli injection without model modifications, or without the use of a modified SystemC simulation core specially crafted for this task. We could not find any open source tool for debugging, but there are good commercial tools specifically prepared to SystemC model debugging. This thesis proposes three methodologies focused on improving the support for introspection, debug, and analysis of hardware models described in high abstraction level. First one is a methodology using computational reflection, applicable to SystemC descriptions by inserting inspection modules, that we call ReflexBoxes. The second technique is called SignalReplay, an evolution of the first technique focused on the capture, injection, and analysis of data collected by reflection. The last proposed methodology, called Platform Dataflow Analysis (PDFA), aims on the metadata extraction through overloaded type reflection, allowing the designer to use compiler techniques for hardware analysis. The results are presented as experiments, implemented as case studies. These experiments allowed us to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques that, unlike related work, adhere to what we consider six fundamental principles: (1) are not intrusive regarding any model modifications that may be necessary to implement introspection; (2) do not require any change in simulation environment, compilers, or libraries, including our target language: SystemC; (3) generate minimal overhead in simulation time; (4) provide observability and controllability; (5) are extensible, allowing the adaptation for use in similar work with little or no change in the methodology; and (6) protect the intellectual property of the module under verificationDoutoradoCiência da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã