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

Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

Background Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for death and disability, but its overall association with health remains complex given the possible protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption on some conditions. With our comprehensive approach to health accounting within the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016, we generated improved estimates of alcohol use and alcohol-attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 195 locations from 1990 to 2016, for both sexes and for 5-year age groups between the ages of 15 years and 95 years and older. Methods Using 694 data sources of individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use, we produced estimates of the prevalence of current drinking, abstention, the distribution of alcohol consumption among current drinkers in standard drinks daily (defined as 10 g of pure ethyl alcohol), and alcohol-attributable deaths and DALYs. We made several methodological improvements compared with previous estimates: first, we adjusted alcohol sales estimates to take into account tourist and unrecorded consumption; second, we did a new meta-analysis of relative risks for 23 health outcomes associated with alcohol use; and third, we developed a new method to quantify the level of alcohol consumption that minimises the overall risk to individual health. Findings Globally, alcohol use was the seventh leading risk factor for both deaths and DALYs in 2016, accounting for 2.2% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1.5-3.0) of age-standardised female deaths and 6.8% (5.8-8.0) of age-standardised male deaths. Among the population aged 15-49 years, alcohol use was the leading risk factor globally in 2016, with 3.8% (95% UI 3.2-4-3) of female deaths and 12.2% (10.8-13-6) of male deaths attributable to alcohol use. For the population aged 15-49 years, female attributable DALYs were 2.3% (95% UI 2.0-2.6) and male attributable DALYs were 8.9% (7.8-9.9). The three leading causes of attributable deaths in this age group were tuberculosis (1.4% [95% UI 1. 0-1. 7] of total deaths), road injuries (1.2% [0.7-1.9]), and self-harm (1.1% [0.6-1.5]). For populations aged 50 years and older, cancers accounted for a large proportion of total alcohol-attributable deaths in 2016, constituting 27.1% (95% UI 21.2-33.3) of total alcohol-attributable female deaths and 18.9% (15.3-22.6) of male deaths. The level of alcohol consumption that minimised harm across health outcomes was zero (95% UI 0.0-0.8) standard drinks per week. Interpretation Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss. We found that the risk of all-cause mortality, and of cancers specifically, rises with increasing levels of consumption, and the level of consumption that minimises health loss is zero. These results suggest that alcohol control policies might need to be revised worldwide, refocusing on efforts to lower overall population-level consumption.Peer reviewe

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

Níveis glicêmicos e de colesterol em ratos com Diabetes Mellitus aloxano induzido, tratados com infusão de Bauhinia candicans ou Syzygium Jambolanum Glucose and cholesterol plasma levels in rats with alloxan-induced Diabetes Mellitus treated with infusion of Bauhinia candicans or Syzygium Jambolanum

Este estudo verificou a eficiência de infusão de duas plantas usadas na medicina popular, Syzygium jambolanum (Sj) e Bauhinia candicans (Bc). Sessenta (60) ratos adultos, machos, da linhagem Wistar, pesando entre 220 e 240g, foram submetidos à indução de Diabetes mellitus insulino dependente (DMID) com Aloxano. O estudo foi dividido em dois experimentos. No primeiro, 15 ratos receberam a administração de Aloxano na dosagem de 40mg/kg em dose única e no segundo, 60mg/kg uma vez ao dia, durante três dias, ambos por via intraperitonial. A hiperglicemia foi confirmada no terceiro dia de cada experimento. Após esta confirmação, os animais foram divididos aleatoriamente em três grupos de cinco e quinze animais para o primeiro e segundo experimento, respectivamente. O grupo 1 (C) serviu como controle, o grupo 2 (TI) recebeu infusão de Sj "ad libitum" como fonte líquida e o grupo 3 (TII) recebeu infusão de Bc, por um período de 21 e 40 dias, para o primeiro e segundo experimento, respectivamente. A colheita de sangue foi realizada por punção do plexo venoso retro-orbitário com os animais anestesiados, nos dias 3, 9, 16 e 23 do primeiro experimento e nos dias 3, 16, 24 e 40 do segundo. Após vinte e um dias da fase de tratamento, o grupo TI do primeiro experimento apresentou marcante redução de hiperglicemia (P The present study verified the efficiency of two plants used in folk medicine for the reduction of hyperglycemia in diabetic people. Sixty adult male wistar rats, with body weights ranging from 220 to 240g were treated with Alloxan to induce insulin-dependent Diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Two experiments were performed. In the first, 15 rats were treated with a single dose of alloxan (40mg/kg, i.p.); while in the second experiment animals received 60mg/kg, daily for three days. Three days after the last injection, hyperglycemia was confirmed. Positive animals were allocated into 3 groups of 5 and 15 rats for experiments I and II, respectively. Group 1 (C) was the control group, receiving standard rodent feed and water ad libitum. Group 2 (TI) received rodent feed and an infusion of Syzygium jambolanum ad libitum. Group 3 (TII) received the feed and an infusion of Bauhinia candicans. Animals were treated for a period of 21 and 40 days for experiments I and II respectively. Blood was collected by retro orbital sinus puncture with animals under ether anesthesia on days 3, 9, 16, and 23 for experiment I; and days 3, 12, 24, and 40 for experiment II. At the end of both experiments, all animals were euthanized and liver and pancreas samples were collected for light microscopy. All animals, in both experiments, had blood glucose levels above 170mg% on the third day after last alloxan injection. In the first experiment, plasma glucose was lower (P < 0.001) in TI as compared to C on day 23. In experiment II, plasma glucose was lower in TI when compared to C on days 16 (P < 0.004) and 40 (P < 0.0001). Moreover, clinical signs of IDDM like polyfagya, polydpsya were attenuated in this group. Plasma cholesterol showed a slight increase in all animals in experiment II but no differences were observed between control and treated groups. Histopathological analysis of pancreas and liver samples in the first experiment did not show marked differences between C and treated groups. However, in experiment II, 9 out of 10 pancreas samples examined from C, and 5 out of 9 samples from TII presented necrosis. Meanwhile, only 2 out of 9 pancreas samples from TI showed islet necrosis. In conclusion, the results suggest that the use of an infusion of Syzygium jambolanum instead of water is efficient in the control of hyperglycemia and reduction of clinical signs associated with IDDM. On the other hand, the use of an infusion of Bauhinia candicans has no effect over theses variables

USO DE ANTIOXIDANTES PARA MELHORAR A EFICIÊNCIA REPRODUTIVA DE REBANHO BOVINO SUBMETIDO A PROTOCOLO DE SINCRONIZAÇÃO COM PROGESTERONA (P4)

Estrus synchronization with progesterone is commonly used in farms with better reproductive control. Free radicals production, i.e. oxidative stress, is associated with progesterone levels. The oxidative stress is responsible for aggression to the cellular membrane, leading to a lise and lipoperoxide formation. In this work, the antioxidant compensatory effect (Vitamins C and E) associated with the exogenous progesterone implant (P4), used in estrus synchronization protocols in cattle, was evaluated. Twenty-five cows were randomly selected in 5 different groups: 1) control without P4, 2) control with P4, 3) P4 + vitamin C and E, 4) P4 + vitamin E, 5) P4 + vitamin C. The lipid lipoperoxidation was measured trough Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBA-RS) and Glutatione Peroxidase enzyme (GSHpx) at days 0 and 7 of the estrus synchronization protocol. The use of vitamin E, in this experiment, showed a better pregnancy rate, however, the results must be validated before orienting the use of the vitamin in cows synchronized with P4

EFFECT OF BORDERLINE TREES IN POPULATION PARAMETERS ESTIMATED BY VARIABLE SAMPLING AREA METHODS

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of the borderline\ud tree in the population parameters estimated by Bitterlich (1948), Prodan (1968) and\ud Strand (1958) sampling methods. The database came from a census carried out in a\ud fragment of Mixed Ombrophylous Montana Forest located in the Campus III, of Federal\ud University of Parana, Curitiba-PR, Brazil. All trees with DBH ≥ 10 cm were measured,\ud identified, georeferenced, and considered as possible plot center of the sampling units in\ud each method. The sampling simulation was conducted with 185 randomly selected points\ud for the estimation of N.ha-1, G.ha-1 and V.ha-1 to three different treatments: without the\ud influence of borderline tree, count half borderline tree and count of partial borderline\ud tree corrected by the P factor introduced by Péllico Netto (1994). Regardless of the\ud method and the treatment used there was always an overestimation of N.ha-1. To estimate\ud the basal area and volume per hectare, the Bitterlich method achieved the best results,\ud followed by Strand and Prodan, respectively. Application of P factor in borderline trees\ud did not cause a significant improvement in the population estimators compared with the\ud estimates generated by borderline trees counted as half a tree or without its influence