Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Valores energéticos de diferentes alimentos de origem animal para aves Energetic values of different feedstuffs of animal origin for poultry

Objetivou-se determinar, utilizando-se o método tradicional de coleta total, os valores de energia metabolizável aparente (EMA), aparente corrigida (EMAn), verdadeira (EMV) e verdadeira corrigida (EMVn), bem como os coeficientes de metabolizabilidade da EB, de 11 alimentos. Avaliaram-se amostras de três farinhas de vísceras de aves (FVA), três farinhas de penas (FP), duas farinhas de carne e ossos (FCO), duas farinhas de vísceras suínas (FVS) e uma farinha de penas e vísceras (FPV) de diferentes procedências. Foram utilizados 360 frangos de corte machos Ross com 21 dias de idade, distribuídos em blocos ao acaso em 11 tratamentos e uma ração-referência, com duas repetições por bloco e cinco aves por unidade experimental. Cada alimento substituiu em 20% a ração-referência. As aves receberam ração à vontade por 12 dias, sendo os cinco dias finais destinados à coleta total de excretas. Durante os cinco dias de coleta, 30 aves (distribuídas em seis gaiolas) foram mantidas em jejum por 72 horas, sendo as 24 horas iniciais para esvaziamento do trato gastrointestinal e as 48 horas restantes para coleta das excretas, que foram quantificadas e extrapoladas para cinco dias. Os valores de EMA e EMAn, expressos em kcal/kg de MS, foram em média de 1.647 e 1.422 para a FCO, de 2.143 e 1.875 para a FP, de 3.062 e 2.844 para a FVA, de 1.889 e 1.779 para a FVS e de 2.497 a 2.209 para a FPV. Os valores de EMV e EMVn, expressos em kcal/kg de MS, foram em média de 1.753 e 1.462 para a FCO, de 2.269 e 1.452 para a FP, de 3.211 e 2.740 para a FVA, de 2.002 e 1.562 para a FVS e de 2.615 e 1.944 para a FPV.<br>The traditional method of total collection was used to determine the values of apparent metabolizable energy (AME), corrected apparent energy (AMEn), true metabolizable energy (TME) and corrected true energy (TMEn) of eleven feedstuffs and the respective coefficients of metabolizability of GE. The feedstuffs were as follows: three samples of poultry by-product (PBP), three of feather meal (FM), two of meat and bone meal (MBM), two of swine viscera meal (SVM) and one of viscera and feather meal (VFM) of different origins. Three hundred and sixty male Ross broiler chickens, with 21 days old, were assigned to a randomized block design with eleven treatments and one control, with two replicates per block and five birds per experimental unit. The feedstuffs replaced 20% of the control. The birds were fed ad libitum during 12 days (last five days for total feces collection). During the collection, 30 poultry were allotted to six cages and fasted for 72 hours (the first 24 hours were for the gastrointestinal emptying and the 48 hours remaining for feces collection, that were quantified and extrapolated for five days). The average values of AME and AMEn expressed in kcal/kg on DM basis were as follows: 1,647 and 1,422 for MBM, 2,143 and 1,875 for FP, 3,062 and 2,844 for PBP, 1,889 and 1,779 for SVM and of 2,497 and 2,209 for VFM. The average values of TME and TMEn expressed in kcal/kg of DM, were: 1,753 and 1,462 for MBM, 2,269 and 1,452 for FM, 3,211 and 2,740 for PBM, 2,002 and 1,562 for SVM and 2,615 and 1,944 for VFM

Avaliação da resposta inflamatória hematológica em cascavéis (Crotalus durissus Linnaeus, 1758) inoculadas com BCG Assessment of blood inflammatory response in BCG stimulated rattlesnakes (Crotalus durissus Linnaeus, 1758)

A criação de serpentes peçonhentas em cativeiro para produção de soros antipeçonhas possui crescente importância para a saúde pública devido ao aumento do número de notificações de acidentes ofídicos a cada ano no Brasil. Iniciado no século XX, ainda hoje essa atividade apresenta alguns desafios como a instalação de doenças no plantel. O hemograma é um exame de triagem clínica que auxilia no diagnóstico de diversas moléstias que acometem diferentes espécies de animais, no entanto ainda pouco estudado em serpentes. A caracterização das alterações hematológicas em cascavéis inoculadas experimentalmente com BCG pode servir de base na utilização deste exame no auxílio ao diagnóstico de infecções bacterianas na espécie. Dessa forma, foram realizados exames hematológicos em 10 serpentes da espécie Crotalus durissus pertencentes ao plantel da Divisão de Herpetologia do Instituto Vital Brazil. Os animais foram divididos em dois grupos (Grupos 1 e 2), homogêneos entre si em relação ao peso e proporção sexual. Os dois grupos foram inoculados com BCG e submetidos à coleta de sangue antes da inoculação e em três momentos pós-inoculação (3º, 5º, e 7º dias para o Grupo 1 e 11º, 17º e 21º dias para o Grupo 2). O hemograma foi realizado por método semidireto pela utilização de líquido de Natt e Herrick e as lâminas foram coradas pelo Giemsa. Observou-se anemia discreta, com redução dos valores de concentração de hemoglobina corpuscular média e da hemoglobina globular média no Grupo 1 que foi relacionada à doença inflamatória. A trombocitopenia observada no Grupo 2 sugeriu a atuação deste tipo celular em processos inflamatórios. Um único animal do Grupo 1 apresentou granulocitose e alguns animais apresentaram discreta azurofilia. Observaram-se alterações morfológicas nos leucócitos. Os granulócitos apresentaram granulações grosseiras e os azurófilos apresentaram aumento de tamanho e grandes vacúolos. De forma geral, a inoculação de BCG em cascavéis desencadeia respostas inflamatórias hematológicas caracterizadas pela participação de trombócitos, granulócitos e azurófilos.<br>The high demand for anti-venom production in response to the increased number of cases of snakebite envenomation highlights the importance of raising and breeding venomous snakes in captivity. Knowledge of types of venoms and anti-venoms is of great interest to public health. The maintenance of venomous serpents in captivity started in the early twentieth century, but still nowadays it is a challenge to manage and prevent diseases in captive fauna. Hematology is commonly used for general health assessment and illness detection. However, data on serpent blood analysis are still scarce. Alterations in hematological parameters were experimentally induced in rattlesnakes by the inoculation of BCG. Based on this, hemograms can be used as a health auxiliary diagnosis method for bacterial diseases in this species. In this study, blood samples were taken from 10 healthy specimens of rattlesnakes (Crotalus durissus) born and bred in captivity in the Herpetological Division of Vital Brazil Institute. Animals were divided into two groups (group 1 and 2) with similar live weight and sex proportion, and were then inoculated subcutaneously with BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin). Blood samples were taken before and after inoculation at three experimental times (days 3, 5 and 7 for group 1 and days 11, 17 and 21 for group 2). Hematological analysis was performed through semi-direct technique, blood samples were diluted in Natt and Herrick solution and smears were stained by Giemsa. Serpents from group 1 developed discrete anemia due to the inflammatory syndrome, and showed significant decrease of MCH and MCHC. Granulocytes were characterized by the presence of rough granules. The azurophils varied in shape and size and showed large amount of cytoplasmic vacuoles. The thrombocytopenia observed in group 2 suggests that these cells participate in the inflammatory process. A single individual from group 1 showed granulocytosis and a few animals showed a discrete azurophilia. In general, BCG inoculation unleashes hematological inflammatory responses characterized by the presence of thrombocytes, azurophils and granulocytes cells