Multiscale adaptive analysis of circadian rhythms and intradaily variability: Application to actigraphy time series in acute insomnia subjects

Circadian rhythms become less dominant and less regular with chronic-degenerative disease, such that to accurately assess these pathological conditions it is important to quantify not only periodic characteristics but also more irregular aspects of the corresponding time series. Novel data-adaptive techniques, such as singular spectrum analysis (SSA), allow for the decomposition of experimental time series, in a model-free way, into a trend, quasiperiodic components and noise fluctuations. We compared SSA with the traditional techniques of cosinor analysis and intradaily variability using 1-week continuous actigraphy data in young adults with acute insomnia and healthy age-matched controls. The findings suggest a small but significant delay in circadian components in the subjects with acute insomnia, i.e. a larger acrophase, and alterations in the day-to-day variability of acrophase and amplitude. The power of the ultradian components follows a fractal 1/f power law for controls, whereas for those with acute insomnia this power law breaks down because of an increased variability at the 90min time scale, reminiscent of Kleitman&rsquo;s basic rest-activity (BRAC) cycles. This suggests that for healthy sleepers attention and activity can be sustained at whatever time scale required by circumstances, whereas for those with acute insomnia this capacity may be impaired and these individuals need to rest or switch activities in order to stay focused. Traditional methods of circadian rhythm analysis are unable to detect the more subtle effects of day-to-day variability and ultradian rhythm fragmentation at the specific 90min time scale.<br /

The Importance of Biodiversity E-infrastructures for Megadiverse Countries

Addressing the challenges of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development requires global cooperation, support structures, and new governance models to integrate diverse initiatives and achieve massive, open exchange of data, tools, and technology. The traditional paradigm of sharing scientific knowledge through publications is not sufficient to meet contemporary demands that require not only the results but also data, knowledge, and skills to analyze the data. E-infrastructures are key in facilitating access to data and providing the framework for collaboration. Here we discuss the importance of e-infrastructures of public interest and the lack of long-term funding policies. We present the example of Brazil’s speciesLink network, an e-infrastructure that provides free and open access to biodiversity primary data and associated tools. SpeciesLink currently integrates 382 datasets from 135 national institutions and 13 institutions from abroad, openly sharing ~7.4 million records, 94% of which are associated to voucher specimens. Just as important as the data is the network of data providers and users. In 2014, more than 95% of its users were from Brazil, demonstrating the importance of local e-infrastructures in enabling and promoting local use of biodiversity data and knowledge. From the outset, speciesLink has been sustained through project-based funding, normally public grants for 2–4-year periods. In between projects, there are short-term crises in trying to keep the system operational, a fact that has also been observed in global biodiversity portals, as well as in social and physical sciences platforms and even in computing services portals. In the last decade, the open access movement propelled the development of many web platforms for sharing data. Adequate policies unfortunately did not follow the same tempo, and now many initiatives may perish

Soil biochemistry and microbial activity in vineyards under conventional and organic management at Northeast Brazil.

The São Francisco Submedium Valley is located at the Brazilian semiarid region and is an important center for irrigated fruit growing. This region is responsible for 97% of the national exportation of table grapes, including seedless grapes. Based on the fact that orgThe São Francisco Submedium Valley is located at the Brazilian semiarid region and is an important center for irrigated fruit growing. This region is responsible for 97% of the national exportation of table grapes, including seedless grapes. Based on the fact that organic fertilization can improve soil quality, we compared the effects of conventional and organic soil management on microbial activity and mycorrhization of seedless grape crops. We measured glomerospores number, most probable number (MPN) of propagules, richness of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species, AMF root colonization, EE-BRSP production, carbon microbial biomass (C-MB), microbial respiration, fluorescein diacetate hydrolytic activity (FDA) and metabolic coefficient (qCO2). The organic management led to an increase in all variables with the exception of EE-BRSP and qCO2. Mycorrhizal colonization increased from 4.7% in conventional crops to 15.9% in organic crops. Spore number ranged from 4.1 to 12.4 per 50 g-1 soil in both management systems. The most probable number of AMF propagules increased from 79 cm-3 soil in the conventional system to 110 cm-3 soil in the organic system. Microbial carbon, CO2 emission, and FDA activity were increased by 100 to 200% in the organic crop. Thirteen species of AMF were identified, the majority in the organic cultivation system. Acaulospora excavata, Entrophospora infrequens, Glomus sp.3 and Scutellospora sp. were found only in the organically managed crop. S. gregaria was found only in the conventional crop. Organically managed vineyards increased mycorrhization and general soil microbial activity

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

The shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiver sity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxo nomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world’s known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world’s most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend be yond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still un equally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the coun try. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora.Fil: Gomes da Silva, Janaina. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro, BrasilFil: Filardi, Fabiana L.R. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Barbosa, María Regina de V. Universidade Federal da Paraíba: Joao Pessoa; BrasilFil: Baumgratz, José Fernando Andrade. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: de Mattos Bicudo, Carlos Eduardo. Instituto de Botânica. Núcleo de Pesquisa em Ecologia; BrasilFil: Cavalcanti, Taciana. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia; BrasilFil: Coelho, Marcus. Prefeitura Municipal de Campinas; BrasilFil: Ferreira da Costa, Andrea. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Museu Nacional. Department of Botany; BrasilFil: Costa, Denise. Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Dalcin, Eduardo C. Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute; BrasilFil: Labiak, Paulo. Universidade Federal do Parana; BrasilFil: Cavalcante de Lima, Haroldo. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Lohmann, Lucia. Universidade de São Paulo; BrasilFil: Maia, Leonor. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; BrasilFil: Mansano, Vidal de Freitas. Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Menezes, Mariângela. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Museu Nacional. Department of Botany; BrasilFil: Morim, Marli. Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Moura, Carlos Wallace do Nascimento. Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana. Department of Biological Science; BrasilFil: Lughadha, Eimear NIck. Royal Botanic Gardens; Reino UnidoFil: Peralta, Denilson. Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais; BrazilFil: Prado, Jefferson. Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais; BrasilFil: Roque, Nádia. Universidade Federal da Bahia; BrasilFil: Stehmann, Joao. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: da Silva Sylvestre, Lana. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Trierveiler-Pereira, Larissa. Universidade Estadual de Maringá. Departamento de Análises Clínicas e Biomedicina; BrasilFil: Walter, Bruno Machado Teles. EMBRAPA Cenargen Brasília; BrasilFil: Zimbrão, Geraldo. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Forzza, Rafaela C. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Morales, Matías. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Recursos Biológicos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Morón. Facultad de Agronomía y Ciencias Agroalimentarias; Argentin

New Brazilian Floristic List Highlights Conservation Challenges

A comprehensive new inventory of Brazilian plants and fungi was published just in time to meet a 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity target and offers important insights into this biodiversity's global significance. Brazil is the home to the world's richest flora (40,989 species; 18,932 endemic) and includes two of the hottest hotspots: Mata Atlantica (19,355 species) and Cerrado (12,669 species). Although the total number of known species is one-third lower than previous estimates, the absolute number of endemic vascular plant species is higher than was previously estimated, and the proportion of endemism (56%) is the highest in the Neotropics. This compilation serves not merely to quantify the scale of the challenge faced in conserving Brazil's unique flora but also serves as a key resource to direct action and monitor progress. Similar efforts by other megadiverse countries are urgently required if the 2020 targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation are to be attained.Ministerio do Meio AmbienteMinisterio do Meio AmbienteCentro Nacional de Conservacao da FloraCentro Nacional de Conservacao da FloraNational Council for Scientific and Technological DevelopmentNational Council for Scientific and Technological DevelopmentBentham and Moxon TrustBentham and Moxon Trus

Catálogo de plantas e fungos do Brasil

"Parabenizo a todos os botânicos que contribuíram para completar o presente catálogo. O Brasil é o país que provavelmente possui a maior flora do mundo, portanto, a produção de uma lista completa dessa flora é uma extensa tarefa. Os coordenadores mobilizaram uma grande equipe de pessoas para compilar a lista, e é ótimo ver que este projeto, diferentemente do que se observa em outros países, foi coordenado no Brasil. Isto demonstra o alto nível e a capacidade da comunidade botânica brasileira que se desenvolveu rapidamente nas últimas décadas. Este catálogo, por ter sido preparado na sua maioria por especialistas dos grupos estudados, mostra quais espécies são correntemente aceitas pelos botânicos envolvidos. As espécies foram padronizadas por meio da citação de materiais-voucher, a maioria dos quais foi coletada por brasileiros e está alojada em herbários do Brasil. A informação a respeito da distribuição geográfica de cada espécie será extremamente útil para fins de conservação, e é interessante notar o número expressivo de espécies endêmicas do Brasil. Este catálogo certamente será utilizado por estudantes de diversas áreas envolvendo botânica, ecologia e outras, e tenho certeza de que a sua existência estimulará futuras pesquisas a respeito de plantas brasileiras e que a sua versão online o manterá atualizado. O desafio agora é conservar os muitos ecossistemas diferentes nos quais estas espécies ocorrem, para manter a diversidade botânica do país.