Feeding ecology of Erythrolamprus jaegeri jaegeri (Günter, 1858) and Erythrolamprus poecilogyrus sublineatus (Cope, 1860) in the coastal zone of Subtropical Brazil (Serpentes, Dipsadidae)

ABSTRACT The snakes Erythrolamprus jaegeri jaegeri and Erythrolamprus poecilogyrus sublineatus are sympatric and syntopic in the coastal region of southern Brazil. Herein, we analyzed the diet composition to evaluate the niche breadth and the prey selection by both species. We examined 192 specimens, and analysis of stomach contents revealed that both species predominantly consume anurans. However, the diet of E. j. jaegeri consists mainly of fish and amphibians, whereas that of E. p. sublineatus is broader, including fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. The Standardized Levins Index presented lower values for E. j. jaegeri (BA = 0.17) than for E. p. sublineatus (BA = 0.61), evidencing specialist and generalist strategies for each species, respectively. Regarding prey selection, E. p. sublineatus presented a larger snout-vent length, head, mouth and lower jaw than E. j. jaegeri and fed on larger prey. In addition, positive correlations between the size and weight of predators and prey were confirmed in both species. The results show the development of different mechanisms for co-occurrence of the two species, such as prey selection by size, such that the size of the predator is related to the size of their prey, or by developing different strategies to decrease niche overlap between species

The efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation for chronic orofacial pain: A systematic review.

BackgroundTranscranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) have been described as promising alternatives to treat different pain syndromes. This study evaluated the effects of TMS and tDCS in the treatment of chronic orofacial pain, through a systematic review.MethodsAn electronic search was performed in major databases: MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase, LILACS, BBO, Open Gray and CINAHL. The eligibility criteria comprised randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that applied TMS or tDCS to treat chronic orofacial pain. The variables analyzed were pain, functional limitation, quality of life, tolerance to treatment, somatosensory changes, and adverse effects. The risk of bias was assessed through the Cochrane Collaboration tool, and the certainty of evidence was evaluated through GRADE. The protocol was registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42018090774).ResultsThe electronic search resulted in 636 studies. Thereafter, the eligibility criteria were applied and the duplicates removed, resulting in eight RCTs (four TMS and four tDCS). The findings of these studies suggest that rTMS applied to the Motor cortex (M1), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the secondary somatosensory cortex (S2) provide adequate orofacial pain relief. Two studies reported significant pain improvement with tDCS applied over M1 while the other two failed to demonstrate significant effects compared to placebo.ConclusionsrTMS, applied to M1, DLPFC or S2, is a promising approach for the treatment of chronic orofacial pain. Moreover, tDCS targeting M1 seems to be also effective in chronic orofacial pain treatment. The included studies used a wide variety of therapeutic protocols. In addition, most of them used small sample sizes, with a high risk of biases in their methodologies, thus producing a low quality of evidence. The results indicate that further research should be carried out with caution and with better-standardized therapeutic protocols

Praziquantel-solid lipid nanoparticles produced by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction: physicochemical characterization, release profile, and cytotoxicity

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) can be produced by various methods, but most of them are difficult to scale up. Supercritical fluid (SCF) is an important tool to produce micro/nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution and high encapsulation efficiency. The aim of this work was to produce cetyl palmitate SLNs using SCF to be loaded with praziquantel (PZQ) as an insoluble model drug. The mean particle size (nm), polydispersity index (PdI), zeta potential, and encapsulation efficiency (EE) were determined on the freshly prepared samples, which were also subject of Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), drug release profile, and in vitro cytotoxicity analyses. PZQ-SLN exhibited a mean size of ~25 nm, PdI ~ 0.5, zeta potential ~−28 mV, and EE 88.37%. The DSC analysis demonstrated that SCF reduced the crystallinity of cetyl palmitate and favored the loading of PZQ into the lipid matrices. No chemical interaction between the PZQ and cetyl palmitate was revealed by FTIR analysis, while the release or PZQ from SLN followed the Weibull model. PZQ-SLN showed low cytotoxicity against fibroblasts cell lines. This study demonstrates that SCF may be a suitable scale-up procedure for the production of SLN, which have shown to be an appropriate carrier for PZQ.This research was funded by Coordenação Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Sergipe (FAPITEC), and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, #443238/2014-6, #470388/2014-5). This work was also financed through the project M-ERA-NET/0004/2015, from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation, Ministry of Science and Education (FCT/MEC) from national funds, and co-financed by FEDER, under the Partnership Agreement PT2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In this data set, we make available occurrence and abundance data on mammal species that (1) transposed a geographical barrier and (2) were voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into the Neotropics. Our data set is composed of 73,738 historical and current georeferenced records on alien mammal species of which around 96% correspond to occurrence data on 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Data cover 26 continental countries in the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal-central Florida in the southeast United States) to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay, and the 13 countries of Caribbean islands. Our data set also includes neotropical species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered alien in particular areas of Neotropics. The most numerous species in terms of records are from Bos sp. (n = 37,782), Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), and Canis familiaris (n = 10,084); 17 species were represented by only one record (e.g., Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans). Primates have the highest number of species in the data set (n = 20 species), partly because of uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species Callithrix aurita, Callithrix flaviceps, Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix kuhlii, Callithrix penicillata, and their hybrids. This unique data set will be a valuable source of information on invasion risk assessments, biodiversity redistribution and conservation-related research. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when using the data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us on how they are using the data