Idades de deposição dos sedimentos da falésia de Itaguaré (Bertioga-SP) determinadas por luminescência opticamente estimulada

A região da foz do rio Itaguaré, localizada no Parque Estadual da Restinga de Bertioga-SP, apresenta uma miscelânea de processos sedimentares e formas de leito atuais gerados pela ação de marés, ondas e do próprio rio. Ocorrem também depósitos sedimentares quaternários expostos ao longo de falésia de dezenas de metros de extensão por até 4m de altura, formados por processos de ondas análogos aos observados na praia adjacente. Seus depósitos sedimentares são compostos por areias finas, moderadamente a bem selecionadas, com estratificação plano-paralela, tendo em sua porção inferior (~0,5m) icnofósseis de Ophiomorfa nodosa (galerias de Callichirus sp.). Esta sucessão sedimentar é indicativa de deposição sob o espraiamento de ondas, em condições regressivas, e com nível relativo do mar cerca de 1,4±1,0m acima do atual, estimado pela comparação da cota máxima de ocorrência do O. nodosa com o topo da biozona de Callichirus vivente. Duas amostras de sedimentos (Ber-01, basal, e Ber-02, topo) foram datadas por luminescência opticamente estimulada (LOE), com o uso do protocolo Single Aliquot Regeneration-dose (LOE-SAR). O método geocronológico por LOE-SAR indica, por premissa, a idade de última exposição à luz solar que, nesse caso, é a idade de deposição do sedimento. As medidas de dose equivalente ou paleodose obtidas em 18 (Ber-01) e 20 (Ber-02) alíquotas apresentaram baixos valores de dispersão (7,8% e 7,5%, respectivamente), calculados pelo parâmetro overdispersion de distribuição de dados. Esta baixa dispersão é o melhor indicador de que as amostras foram fotoesvaziadas previamente à deposição e soterradas com sinal LOE residual próximo de zero, e que, portanto, os processos de mistura pós-deposicionais são negligenciáveis para a interpretação dos resultados. As idades (Ber-01: 4,4±0,3 ka e Ber-02: 3,6±0,2 ka) são estratigraficamente coerentes e, além disso, compatíveis com as curvas do nível relativo do mar mais aceitas para a região, o que eleva a confiabilidade dos resultados

An update of the Worldwide Integrated Assessment (WIA) on systemic insecticides. Part 2: impacts on organisms and ecosystems

New information on the lethal and sublethal effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on organisms is presented in this review, complementing the previous WIA in 2015. The high toxicity of these systemic insecticides to invertebrates has been confirmed and expanded to include more species and compounds. Most of the recent research has focused on bees and the sublethal and ecological impacts these insecticides have on pollinators. Toxic effects on other invertebrate taxa also covered predatory and parasitoid natural enemies and aquatic arthropods. Little, while not much new information has been gathered on soil organisms. The impact on marine coastal ecosystems is still largely uncharted. The chronic lethality of neonicotinoids to insects and crustaceans, and the strengthened evidence that these chemicals also impair the immune system and reproduction, highlights the dangers of this particular insecticidal classneonicotinoids and fipronil. , withContinued large scale – mostly prophylactic – use of these persistent organochlorine pesticides has the potential to greatly decreasecompletely eliminate populations of arthropods in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. Sublethal effects on fish, reptiles, frogs, birds and mammals are also reported, showing a better understanding of the mechanisms of toxicity of these insecticides in vertebrates, and their deleterious impacts on growth, reproduction and neurobehaviour of most of the species tested. This review concludes with a summary of impacts on the ecosystem services and functioning, particularly on pollination, soil biota and aquatic invertebrate communities, thus reinforcing the previous WIA conclusions (van der Sluijs et al. 2015)

The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.Peer reviewe

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Taphonomic analysis on fossils of Pleistocene mammals from deposits submerged along southern Rio Grande do Sul coastal plain, Brazil

Volume: 66Start Page: 213End Page: 22

A reference process for automating bee species identification based on wing images and digital image processing

Pollinators play a key role in biodiversity conservation, since they provide vital services to both natural ecosystems and agriculture. In particular, bees are excellent pollinators; therefore, their mapping, classification, and preservation help to promote biodiversity conservation. However, these tasks are difficult and time consuming since there is a lack of classification keys, sampling efforts and trained taxonomists. The development of tools for automating and assisting the identification of bee species represents an important contribution to biodiversity conservation. Several studies have shown that features extracted from patterns of bee wings are good discriminatory elements to differentiate among species, and some have devoted efforts to automate this process. However, the automated identification of bee species is a particularly hard problem, because (i) individuals of a given species may vary hugely in morphology, and (ii) closely related species may be extremely similar to one another. This paper proposes a reference process for bee classification based on wing images to provide a complete understanding of the problem from the experts' point of view, and a foundation to software systems development and integration using Internet services. The results can be extended to other species identification and taxonomic classification, as long as similar criteria are applicable. The reference process may also be helpful for beginners in this research field, as they can use the process and the experiments presented here as a guide to this complex activity