Special Issue on Stingless bees: Integrating basic biology and conservation

It is easy to see why stingless bees (Meliponini) were chosen for this special issue, entitled Stingless bees: Integrating basic biology and conservation. Interest in these bees is increasing each day, with their role as ecosystemservices providers in the pollination of wild and cultivated plants, and their fascinating biology and social behavior. Yet, despite having been kept by the Native Americans for hundreds of years for their honey, they remain much understudied compared to their better known relatives, the bumblebees and honeybees. This is in part due to their massive biodiversity, with known species now numbering over 500 – all with a tropical distribution. The diversity and rich social behavior of the stingless bees has often been compared to the knowledge of the other group of eusocial bees, including the bumblebees (Bombini) and honeybees (Apini). Yet, the development of new scientific techniques and research methods, and progress in deciphering their phylogeny, now allows for an updated interpretation of the evolution, biology and conservation of Meliponini bees

A CONSTRUÇÃO MIDIÁTICA DO RIO DOS SINOS/RS PELO JORNAL NH: UMA ANÁLISE DE DISCURSO

O Rio dos Sinos ocupa um papel preponderante na região em que está localizado. É um rio que percorre, em seu trajeto, 3.820 km2, passando por 11 cidades. Diante desses números, verifica-se a importância do rio para a região, e, em virtude dessa relevância, objetiva-se verificar, em um veículo de comunicação da região (Jornal NH), o modo como o rio é representado para a sua comunidade. Esta discussão parte da seguinte problemática: como um veículo de comunicação representa, o Rio dos Sinos? A fim de identificar tal representação, foram selecionadas matérias publicadas ao longo de 2014 a 2016. Para a análise dessas matérias foram utilizadas a Análise de Conteúdo (Bardin, 2004), e a Análise de Discurso, Pêcheux (1997) e de Orlandi (2003). A relevância desta discussão pode ser observada em dois aspectos, primeiro pelo fato de que o Rio dos Sinos é o mais importante da região, e em seguida porque este estudo discute como produções linguajeiras podem elaborar a imagem que o rio tem para a população que o circunda

In vitro evaluation of alkaline lignins as antiparasitic agents and their use as an excipient in the release of benznidazole

Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.The Amazon rainforest is considered the largest tropical timber reserve in the world. The management of native forests in the Amazon is one of the most sensitive geopolitical issues today, given its national and international dimension. In this work, we obtained and characterized physicochemical lignins extracted from branches and leaves of Protium puncticulatum and Scleronema micranthum. In addition, we evaluated in vitro its potential as an antioxidant, cytotoxic agent against animal cells and antiparasitic against promastigotes of Leishmania amazonensis, trypomastigotes of T. cruzi and against Plasmodium falciparum parasites sensitive and resistant to chloroquine. The results showed that the lignins obtained are of the GSH type and have higher levels of guaiacyl units. However, they show structural differences as shown by spectroscopic analysis and radar charts. As for biological activities, they showed antioxidant potential and low cytotoxicity against animal cells. Antileishmanial/trypanocidal assays have shown that lignins can inhibit the growth of promastigotes and trypomastigotes in vitro. The lignins in this study showed low anti-Plasmodium falciparum activity against susceptible strains of Plasmodium falciparum and were able to inhibit the growth of the chloroquine-resistant strain. And were not able to inhibit the growth of Schistosoma mansoni parasites. Finally, lignins proved to be promising excipients in the release of benznidazole. These findings show the potential of these lignins not yet studied to promote different biological activities.publishersversionpublishe

Módulo IX: Tecnologias do cuidado em saúde

Ministério da Saúd

The origin and evolution of queen and fertility signals in Corbiculate bees

Abstract\ud \ud Background\ud In social Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), various chemical compounds present on the cuticle have been shown to act as fertility signals. In addition, specific queen-characteristic hydrocarbons have been implicated as sterility-inducing queen signals in ants, wasps and bumblebees. In Corbiculate bees, however, the chemical nature of queen-characteristic and fertility-linked compounds appears to be more diverse than in ants and wasps. Moreover, it remains unknown how queen signals evolved across this group and how they might have been co-opted from fertility signals in solitary ancestors.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud Here, we perform a phylogenetic analysis of fertility-linked compounds across 16 species of solitary and eusocial bee species, comprising both literature data as well as new primary data from a key solitary outgroup species, the oil-collecting bee Centris analis, and the highly eusocial stingless bee Scaptotrigona depilis. Our results demonstrate the presence of fertility-linked compounds belonging to 12 different chemical classes. In addition, we find that some classes of compounds (linear and branched alkanes, alkenes, esters and fatty acids) were already present as fertility-linked signals in the solitary ancestors of Corbiculate bees, while others appear to be specific to certain species.\ud \ud \ud Conclusion\ud Overall, our results suggest that queen signals in Corbiculate bees are likely derived from ancestral fertility-linked compounds present in solitary bees that lacked reproductive castes. These original fertility-linked cues or signals could have been produced either as a by-product of ovarian activation or could have served other communicative purposes, such as in mate recognition or the regulation of egg-laying.RCO and CAO were supported by scholarships from CNPq-Brazil (238127/2012-5\ud and 201959/2012-7). RCO was supported by FWO (international mobility\ud V406714N). TW was supported by FWO and the KU Leuven Centre of Excellence\ud PF/2010/007, DAA was supported by FAPESP (2010/19717-4) and PNPD-CAPES.\ud TW and FN were supported by CNPq-Brazil (402661/2012-5). Special thanks to\ud Jelle van Zweden for the valuable comments and insights and to Prof. Jocelyn\ud Millar for providing us the synthetic aldehyde standards and for helping with the\ud chemical compounds identification

Family and Community Health Medical Residency Program for Hypertense Care

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the care provided to patients with systemic arterial hypertension by comparing the basic health units (BHU) of the municipality of Gurupi-TO with and without the family and community health residency program. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional and retrospective research conducted in twelve BHUs. Project approved by the research ethics committee of the University of Gurupi, in which health servants answered the QualiAB assessment and monitoring instrument and the data were tested by the chi-square test to verify if there is a difference in care considering p≤5%. or 0,05. Of the 21 items analyzed, 14 obtained better levels in UBS with MRPFCH. Therefore, it is concluded that BHU with MRPFCH, as single health system policies, have better quality in the care of hypertension

WorldFAIR (D10.3) Agricultural biodiversity FAIR data assessment rubrics

The WorldFAIR Case Study on Agricultural Biodiversity (WP10) addresses the challenges of advancing interoperability and mobilising plant-pollinator interactions data for reuse. Previous efforts, reported in WorldFAIR Deliverable 10.1, ‘Agriculture-related pollinator data standards use cases report’ (Trekels et al., 2023), provided an overview of projects, good practices, tools, and examples for creating, managing and sharing data related to plant-pollinator interactions. It also outlined a work plan for conducting pilot studies. Deliverable 10.2 (Drucker et al., 2024) presented Agricultural Biodiversity Standards, Best Practices and Guidelines Recommendations. This deliverable presented results from six pilot studies that adopted standards and recommendations from the earlier report. The current report complements the efforts with Agricultural Biodiversity FAIR data assessment rubrics.We introduce a set of FAIR assessment tools tailored to the plant-pollinator interactions domain. These tools are designed to help researchers and institutions evaluate adherence to the FAIR principles. In the discovery phase, we found that a significant amount of data on plant-pollinator interactions is available as supplementary files of research articles, in a diversity of formats such as PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, and text files. The diversity of approaches and the lack of appropriate data vocabularies lead to confusion, information loss, and the need for complex data interpretation and transformation. Our proposed framework primarily targets researchers in this domain who wish to assess the FAIRness of the data they produce and take action to improve it. However, we believe it can also benefit data reviewers, data stewards, data repository managers and librarians dealing with plant-pollinator data. Our approach focuses on being as familiar as possible with the researcher's practices, language, and jargon. Ultimately, we aim to promote data publishing and reuse in the plant-pollinator interactions domain.We present a ‘Rubric for the assessment of Plant-Pollinator Interactions Data’ with examples from the data from the pilots developed in Deliverable 10.2 and in relation to the FAIR Implementation Profile (FIP) created by Work Package 10. We conduct ‘dataset assessments’ of available data from research projects surveyed in the discovery phase. Additionally, we describe in detail the ‘Automated FAIR-enabled Data Reviews’ generated by the Global Biotic Interactions (GLoBI) infrastructure, with examples from the pilots. We believe the tools described in this report will encourage data publishing and reuse in the plant-pollinator interactions domain. Moving from diverse approaches and siloed initiatives to widely available FAIR plant-pollination interactions data for scientists and decision-makers will enable the development of integrative studies that enhance our understanding of species biology, behaviour, ecology, phenology, and evolution

WorldFAIR (D10.2) Agricultural Biodiversity Standards, Best Practices and Guidelines Recommendations

The WorldFAIR Case Study on Agricultural Biodiversity (WP10) addresses the challenges of advancing interoperability and mobilising plant-pollinator interactions data for reuse. Previous efforts, reported in Deliverable 10.1 - from our discovery phase - provided an overview of projects, best practices, tools, and examples for creating, managing and sharing data related to plant-pollinator interactions, along with a work plan for conducting pilot studies. The current report presents the results from the pilot phase of the Case Study, which involved six pilot studies adopting standards and recommendations from the discovery phase. The pilots enabled the handling  of concrete examples and the generation of reusable materials tailored to this domain, as well as providing better estimates for the overall costs of adoption for future projects. Our approach for plant-pollinator data standardisation is based on the widely-used standard for representing biodiversity data, Darwin Core, developed and maintained by the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), in conjunction with a data model and vocabulary proposed by the Brazilian Network of Plant-Pollinator Interactions (REBIPP). The pilot studies also underwent a process of “FAIRification” (i.e., transforming data into a format that adheres to the FAIR data principles) using the Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI, Poelen et al. 2014) platform. Additionally, we present the publishing model for Biotic Interactions developed in collaboration with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), which leads the WorldFAIR Case Study on Biodiversity, as part of the proposed GBIF New Data Model, along with a concrete example of its use by one of the pilots. This effort led to the development of ‘FAIR best practices’ guidelines for sharing plant-pollinator interaction data. The primary focus of this work is to enhance the interoperability of data on plant-pollinator interactions, aligning with WorldFAIR efforts  to develop a Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework. We have successfully promoted the adoption of standards and increased the interoperability of plant-pollinator interactions data, resulting in a process that allows for tracing the provenance of the data, as well as facilitating the reuse of datasets crucial for understanding this essential ecosystem service and its changes due to human impact. Our effort demonstrates there are several possible paths for FAIRification, tailored to institutional needs, and we have shown that different approaches can contribute to promoting data interoperability and data availability for reuse, which is the ultimate goal of this initiative. Consequently, we have successfully ensured FAIR data for understanding plant-pollinator interactions at biologically-relevant scales for crops, with broad participation from initiatives in Europe, South America, Africa, North America, and elsewhere. We have also established concrete guidelines on FAIR data best practices customised for pollination data, metadata, and other digital objects, promoting the scalable adoption of these standards and FAIR data best practices by multiple initiatives. We believe this effort can assist similar initiatives in adopting interoperability standards for this domain and contribute to our understanding of how plant-pollinator interactions contribute to sustain life on Earth. Visit WorldFAIR online at http://worldfair-project.eu. WorldFAIR is funded by the EC HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-41 Coordination and Support Action under Grant Agreement No. 101058393.