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

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events. © 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 The Ecological Society of Americ

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 understanding 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,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 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 underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities 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 organism 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 neglected 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 lost

E-cadherin immunoreactivity in primary colorectal cancer and lymph node metastasis

A Caderina-E està intimamente relacionada com a transiÃÃo epitelial-mesenquimal e com a progressÃo tumoral em muitos tipos de cÃncer, inclusive no cÃncer colorretal. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a imunoexpressÃo de Caderina-E no cÃncer colorretal primÃrio e nas respectivas metÃstases linfonodais, na mucosa colÃnica normal, e investigar possÃveis correlaÃÃes desta expressÃo com parÃmetros clÃnicopatolÃgicos. Setenta e sete casos de colectomias por carcinoma colorretal e dez casos de linfonodos metastÃticos, dos arquivos do Departamento de Patologia e Medicina Legal/Universidade Federal do CearÃ, foram utilizados. Realizou-se o Tissue Microarray e imunohistoquÃmica, com anticorpo monoclonal anti-Caderina-E. Foram avaliados os seguintes escores: 0 = ausÃncia de expressÃo; 1 = expressÃo citoplasmÃtica; 2 = expressÃo mista (citoplasmÃtica e membranar); 3 = expressÃo membranar pura. Foi utilizada tanto a classificaÃÃo proposta por Jawhari et al., agrupando os casos em expressÃo anormal (escores 0, 1 e 2) e expressÃo normal (escore 3), como os critÃrios propostos por Almeida et al., agrupando os casos como expressÃo nÃo-membranar (escores 0 e 1) e expressÃo membranar (escores 2 e 3). Os tumores primÃrios tiveram mais casos de expressÃo de Caderina-E anormal em comparaÃÃo com a mucosa normal (p < 0.0001). NÃo houve diferenÃa significante entre expressÃo de Caderina-E no tumor intestinal e em metÃstases linfonodais, embora nestas a expressÃo membranar tenha sido mais freqÃente do que no sÃtio primÃrio. Tumores de cÃlulas agrupadas apresentaram maior expressÃo de Caderina-E membranar do que os de cÃlulas isoladas, tanto utilizando a classificaÃÃo de Jawhari et al. (p = 0.0230), como os critÃrios propostos por Almeida et al. (p = 0.0043). Em conclusÃo, a expressÃo anormal de Caderina-E no tumor primÃrio, com persistÃncia freqÃente da imunomarcaÃÃo membranar associada à marcaÃÃo citoplasmÃtica (marcaÃÃo anormal heterogÃnea ou mista), reforÃa as evidÃncias de que esta alteraÃÃo no cÃncer à mais qualitativa do que propriamente quantitativa. O predomÃnio da expressÃo membranar no sÃtio primÃrio da neoplasia e na metÃstase, com ou sem expressÃo citoplasmÃtica associada, principalmente em tumores de cÃlulas agrupadas, sugere que a presenÃa da Caderina-E à essencial para a invasÃo local e progressÃo tumoral, em oposiÃÃo ao clÃssico paradigma de que a progressÃo tumoral se exacerba com a perda desta molÃcula de adesÃo.E-cadherin is closely related to epitelial-mesenchymal transition and tumor progression in many cancers, including colorectal cancer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the expression of E-cadherin in primary colorectal cancer as well as in lymph node metastasis, establishing also a comparison with the expression of E-cadherin in normal colonic mucosa. We utilized 77 cases of colectomies for colorectal carcinoma and 10 cases of metastatic lymph nodes from the files of the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine/Federal University of Ceara. Tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry were performed with monoclonal anti-E-cadherin, evaluated using the following scores: 0 = no staining; 1 = cytoplasmic staining; 2 = mixed staining (cytoplasmic and membranous); 3 = membranous staining. It was used the classification proposed by Jawahri et al. which includes cases of abnormal expression (0, 1 and 2 scores) and cases of normal expression (3 score), and was also used the classification proposed by Almeida et al. which includes cases of non-membranous expression (0 and 1 scores) and membranous expression (2 and 3 scores). Primary tumors presented more cases of abnormal E-cadherin expression in comparison to normal colonic mucosa (p < 0.0001). There were no differences between E-cadherin expression in the primary tumor in comparison to lymph node metastasis. The grouped cell tumors showed increased expression of E-cadherin in comparison to isolated cell tumors, either using the classification proposed by Jawhari et al. (p = 0.0230) and the classification proposed by Almeida et al. (p = 0.0043). In conclusion, abnormal expression of E-cadherin in the primary tumor, with frequent membranar immunostaining associated with the cytoplasmic marking (abnormal heterogeneous or mixed staining), reinforces the evidence that E-cadherin expression change in cancer is more qualitative than quantitative. The predominance of membranar expression in primary tumor and lymph node metastasis, with or without associated cytoplasmatic expression, particularly in cell-grouped tumors, suggests that E-cadherin presence is essential for local invasion and tumor progression, as opposed to the classical paradigm that tumor progression is exacerbated by the loss of this adhesion molecule

Temperature Distribution on Fuel Rods: A Study on the Effect of Eccentricity in the Position of UO2 Pellets

Este trabalho trata de um estudo de condução de calor em elementos de combustível do tipo haste. Um método de resolver as equações de transferência de calor aplicados em barras de combustível nuclear, utilizando o método de elementos finitos foi desenvolvido a fim de avaliar o desempenho de sistemas de segurança e nucleares. A código computacional foi desenvolvido a fim de avaliar as equações que governam o problema, a fronteira, e as condições iniciais. Este programa é acoplado a GiD, que é um universal, pré e pós-processador para simulações numéricas em ciência adaptativa e user-friendly e engenharia. O método foi validado contra uma solução analítica derivada por Nijsing em referência [1] com o erro menos do que 1,4% e com respeito a uma solução analítica melhorada apresentados na referência [2] para a haste axisymmetric e rod excentricidade com erro de menos de um 3,6%. Os pedidos foram desenvolvidos utilizando temperatura propriedades físicas dependentes para o resolução de uma haste de simetria axial e para a resolução de uma haste com excentricidade. o presente método permite a análise de barras de combustível, nas situações previstas e outros cenários, também, é uma ferramenta substancial para a análise de barras de combustível.This work deals with a study of heat conduction in rod type fuel elements. A method of solving the heat transfer equations applied in nuclear fuel rods using the finite element method was developed in order to evaluate the performance and safety of nuclear systems. A computational code was developed in order to evaluate the equations governing the problem, the boundary, and initial conditions. This program is coupled to GiD, which is a universal, adaptive and user-friendly pre and postprocessor for numerical simulations in science and engineering. The method was validated against an analytical solution derived by Nijsing in reference [1] with error less than 1.4% and with respect to an improved analytical solution given in reference [2] for axisymmetric rod and eccentricity rod with error less than a 3.6%. Applications have been developed using temperature dependent physical properties for the resolution of an axisymmetric rod and for the resolution of a rod with eccentricity. The present method allows the analysis of fuel rods in the given situations and other scenarios, also, it is a substantial tool for the analysis of fuel rods