Acetylated cashew gum-based nanoparticles for the incorporation of alkaloid epiisopiloturine

The natural alkaloid epiisopiloturine has recently become the focus of study for various medicinal properties, particularly for its anti-inflammatory and antischistosomal effect. The incorporation of active molecules in natural polymeric matrices has garnered increasing interest during recent decades. A new derivative of cashew gum successfully obtained by gum acetylation has shown great potential as a carrier in controlled drug release systems. In this work, epiisopiloturine was encapsulated in acetylated cashew gum nanoparticles in order to increase solubility and allow slow release, whereas the morphology results were supported by computer simulations. The particles were produced under a variety of conditions, and thoroughly characterized using light scattering and microscopic techniques. The particles were spherical and highly stable in solution, and showed drug incorporation at high levels, up to 55% efficiency. Using a dialysis-based in vitro assay, these particles were shown to release the drug via a Fickian diffusion mechanism, leading to gradual drug release over approximately 6 h. These nanoparticles show potential for the use as drug delivery system, while studies on their potential anti-inflammatory action, as well as toxicity and efficacy assays would need to be performed in the future to confirm their suitability as drug delivery candidates.This work was conducted in partnership with the Polymer Laboratory of the Federal University of Ceará for polymer modification. The authors thanks Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the fellowships SFRH/BD/97995/2013 (AP) and SFRH/BD/95983/2013 (MPA), in the context of the POCH program. The work at UCIBIO/REQUIMTE was supported by FCT through project UID/MULTI/04378/2013 – POCI/01/0145/FEDER/007728 with financial support from FCT/MCTES through national funds and co-financed by FEDER, under the Partnership Agreement PT2020. The work at REQUIMTE/LAQV received financial support from the European Union (FEDER funds through COMPETE) and National Funds (FCT) through project UID/QUI/50006/2013. The computational time was provided by GRID-Unesp, SICC/IFSP and CENAPAD/SP. The authors also acknowledge CNPq and CAPES for a scholarship and financial aid.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MAim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species

Estimates of extinction risk for Amazonian plant and animal species are rare and not often incorporated into land-use policy and conservation planning. We overlay spatial distribution models with historical and projected deforestation to show that at least 36% and up to 57% of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened under International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria. If confirmed, these results would increase the number of threatened plant species on Earth by 22%. We show that the trends observed in Amazonia apply to trees throughout the tropics, and we predict thatmost of the world’s >40,000 tropical tree species now qualify as globally threatened. A gap analysis suggests that existing Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories will protect viable populations of most threatened species if these areas suffer no further degradation, highlighting the key roles that protected areas, indigenous peoples, and improved governance can play in preventing large-scale extinctions in the tropics in this century

O clickbait no ciberjornalismo português e brasileiro: o caso brasileiro

O trabalho tem como proposta analisar a incidência de "clickbait" no jornalismo online português e brasileiro. Faz parte de uma atividade realizada em conjunto por pesquisadores brasileiros e portugueses, em que cada grupo efetuou a verificação em 18 veículos de informação geral do seu país com abrangência nacional, com produção própria e atualizada frequentemente, tanto nas páginas Web, assim como no Facebook. Este artigo traz os resultados encontrados na amostra brasileira que apontam um alto índice de "clickbait" ao se verificar os dados gerais, com 54,4% da amostra com ocorrência desta prática. Ao mesmo tempo, os valores se reduzem ao olharmos os 32 indicadores individualmente, em que apenas três tiveram índices superiores a 10%.The paper aims to analyze the incidence of clickbait in Portuguese and Brazilian online journalism. It is part of an activity carried out jointly by Brazilian and Portuguese researchers, in which each group carried out the verification in the Web and Facebook pages of 18 general information vehicles of such countries, each having national coverage, as well as its own production and frequent updates. This article presents the results found in the Brazilian sample that shows a high clickbait index, of 54.4%, when crosschecking the general data. On the other hand, the values are reduced when we look at the 32 indicators individually, in which only three had rates above 10%

O clickbait no ciberjornalismo português e brasileiro: o caso português

A investigação que aqui se apresenta partiu da proposta de analisar a incidência de clickbait no ciberjornalismo português e brasileiro. Faz parte de um projeto desenvolvido em conjunto por investigadores brasileiros e portugueses, em que cada grupo efetuou a verificação em 18 cibermeios de informação geral do seu país com abrangência nacional e com produção própria e atualizada frequentemente, tanto nas páginas Web como no Facebook. Neste artigo apresentamos os resultados encontrados nos 270 títulos/conteúdos que constituíram a amostra portuguesa, que apontam para um índice de clickbait de 39,6%. Analisando individualmente os 32 indicadores, verificamos que nenhum chega aos 10%, destacando-se como valor mais alto a "Informação empolada", presente em 8,5% da amostra.The paper aims to analyze the incidence of clickbait in Portuguese and Brazilian online journalism. It is part of an activity carried out jointly by Brazilian and Portuguese researchers, in which each group carried out the verification in the Web and Facebook pages of 18 general information vehicles of such countries, each having national coverage, as well as its own production and frequent updates. This article presents the results found in the Portuguese sample that shows a high clickbait index, of 39,6%, when cross-checking the general data. On the other hand, the values are reduced when we look at the 32 indicators individually, all of them with rates below 10%