Utilidades e a importância econômica da Copernicia prunifera para o Rio Grande do Norte: uma espécie em extinção / Utilities and economic importance of Copernicia prunifera for Rio Grande do Norte: an endangered species

A carnaubeira Copernicia prunifera é uma espécie de palmeira nativa do Brasil que pertence a família Aracaceae. Essa palmeira ocorre no Nordeste Brasileiro nos vales dos rios da região da caatinga, principalmente do Parnaíba e seus afluentes, do Jaguaribe, do Acaraú, do Apodi e do médio São Francisco. Portanto, a presente revisão teve como objetivo explanar as utilidades e a importância econômica da Copernicia prunifera para o Estado do Rio Grande do Norte e o risco de extinção. A economia da carnaúba consiste no conjunto de atividades que utilizam as folhas, o caule, o talo, a fibra, o fruto e as raízes dessa palmeira para a fabricação de inúmeros produtos artesanais e industriais. De suas folhas é retirado o pó cerífero utilizado para a produção de cera, que é o seu principal produto, obtida através de processos artesanais ou industriais. Extima-se que nos estados do Rio Grande do Norte, Piauí e Ceará, 200 mil pessoas sejam ocupadas direta ou indiretamente pela atividade de obtenção pó de carnaúba para a produção de cera no período de safra (verão). A Copernicia prunifera apresenta-se como uma importante fonte econômica para o Nordeste brasileiro, devido a sua vasta gama de produtos e subprodutos, gerando empregos e renda não só no meio rural, mas também nos grandea centroa urbanos, porém, vem sendo explorada de forma errônea, com grandes indícios de extinção da presente espécie

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states

Análise comparativa das abordagens cirúrgicas no tratamento de cardiopatias

Em análise a evolução histórica e as inovações na cirurgia cardíaca, este estudo objetiva analisar comparativamente as abordagens cirúrgicas no tratamento de cardiopatias, destacando a transição das técnicas tradicionais de cirurgia aberta para métodos minimamente invasivos como a videolaparoscopia e a cirurgia robótica. Para tanto, procede-se à uma revisão narrativa da literatura, explorando uma gama extensiva de estudos e relatos científicos que ilustram os avanços tecnológicos e seus impactos nos resultados clínicos. Desse modo, observa-se que as técnicas minimamente invasivas oferecem benefícios substanciais, como redução no tempo de recuperação, diminuição do trauma cirúrgico, e menores taxas de complicações e mortalidade perioperatória em comparação com a cirurgia aberta. Estes resultados permitem concluir que a cirurgia minimamente invasiva representa um avanço significativo na prática cardiológica, proporcionando procedimentos mais seguros e eficazes, com menor impacto para os pacientes e melhores prognósticos a longo prazo. Para futuras pesquisas, sugere-se o aprofundamento na análise dos resultados a longo prazo e na integração de novas tecnologias, como inteligência artificial e realidade aumentada, para otimizar ainda mais as práticas cirúrgicas e expandir as possibilidades de tratamento das cardiopatias

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

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

Transpiratory rate of eucalypt seedlings in response to water levels in the soil and to association with brachiaria

Objetivou-se avaliar a interferência de Brachiaria brizantha Stapf sobre a taxa transpiratória de mudas de Eucalyptus citriodora Hook e Eucalyptus grandis W. Hill ex Maiden, cultivadas em solos com diferentes níveis de água, em condições de casa de vegetação. O delineamento utilizado foi o de blocos ao acaso, com quatro repetições, em arranjo fatorial (2x3x4): duas espécies (E. citriodora e E. grandis), três níveis de água (20%, 23% e 26%) e quatro populações de B. brizantha (0, 1, 2 e 3 plantas/vaso). O nível de água nos vasos foi mantido constante, até a última avaliação do experimento, 70 dias após o transplante das mudas. A mensuração da taxa transpiratória foi realizada com um analisador de gás infravermelho. Brachiaria brizantha, independentemente do nível de água no solo, demonstrou ser competitiva no crescimento inicial de E. citriodora ou E. grandis, pela redução da taxa transpiratória. As folhas do terço superior das mudas de E. citriodora ou de E. grandis apresentaram maior taxa transpiratória que as folhas dos terços mediano e inferior, independentemente da população de B. brizantha e do nível de água no solo.The effects of Brachiaria brizantha Stapf on the transpiratory rate of Eucalyptus citriodora Hook and E. grandis W. Hill ex Maiden seedlings cultivated in soils with three levels of water under greenhouse conditions were evaluated. Treatments were arranged in a factorial design, with four repetitions (2x3x4): two species (E. citriodora and E. grandis), three levels of water (20%, 23% and 26%), and four populations of B. brizantha (0, 1, 2 and 3 plants per vase). Water level in the vases was maintained constant until the last experiment evaluation, at 70 days after seedlings transplant. Measurements were done with an infrared gas analyzer (IRGA). Independently of water level in the soil, Brachiaria brizantha demonstrated its competitiveness for E. citriodora and E. grandis initial growing, by transpiratory rate reduction. E. citriodora or E. grandis seedlings upper third leaves presented higher transpiratory rate than mean and lower third leaves, independently of B. brizantha population and water level in the soil

Leishmania infantum ecto-nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase-2 is an apyrase involved in macrophage infection and expressed in infected dogs

Visceral leishmaniasis is an important tropical disease, and Leishmania infantum chagasi (synonym of Leishmania infantum) is the main pathogenic agent of visceral leishmaniasis in the New World. Recently, ecto-nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolases (E-NTPDases) were identified as enablers of infection and virulence factors in many pathogens. Two putative E-NTPDases (∼70 kDa and ∼45 kDa) have been found in the L. infantum genome. Here, we studied the ∼45 kDa E-NTPDase from L. infantum chagasi to describe its natural occurrence, biochemical characteristics and influence on macrophage infection. We used live L. infantum chagasi to demonstrate its natural ecto-nucleotidase activity. We then isolated, cloned and expressed recombinant rLicNTPDase-2 in bacterial system. The recombinant rLicNTPDase-2 hydrolyzed a wide variety of triphosphate and diphosphate nucleotides (GTP> GDP  =  UDP> ADP> UTP  =  ATP) in the presence of calcium or magnesium. In addition, rLicNTPDase-2 showed stable activity over a pH range of 6.0 to 9.0 and was partially inhibited by ARL67156 and suramin. Microscopic analyses revealed the presence of this protein on cell surfaces, vesicles, flagellae, flagellar pockets, kinetoplasts, mitochondria and nuclei. The blockade of E-NTPDases using antibodies and competition led to lower levels of parasite adhesion and infection of macrophages. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry showed the expression of E-NTPDases in amastigotes in the lymph nodes of naturally infected dogs from an area of endemic visceral leishmaniasis. In this work, we cloned, expressed and characterized the NTPDase-2 from L. infantum chagasi and demonstrated that it functions as a genuine enzyme from the E-NTPDase/CD39 family. We showed that E-NTPDases are present on the surface of promastigotes and in other intracellular locations. We showed, for the first time, the broad expression of LicNTPDases in naturally infected dogs. Additionally, the blockade of NTPDases led to lower levels of in vitro adhesion and infection, suggesting that these proteins are possible targets for rational drug design