Spatial distribution of citizen science casuistic observations for different taxonomic groups

PT acknowledges support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/MCTES) (SFRH/BD/89543/2012). ACH acknowledges support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/MCTES) (UID/BIA/50027/2013) and from FEDER through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors – COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006821). TAM thanks partial support by CEAUL (funded by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the project UID/MAT/00006/2013). CC acknowledges support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) FCT for funds to GHTM - UID/Multi/04413/2013. We thank all volunteers who participate in BioDiversity4All project.Opportunistic citizen science databases are becoming an important way of gathering information on species distributions. These data are temporally and spatially dispersed and could have limitations regarding biases in the distribution of the observations in space and/or time. In this work, we test the influence of landscape variables in the distribution of citizen science observations for eight taxonomic groups. We use data collected through a Portuguese citizen science database (biodiversity4all.org). We use a zero-inflated negative binomial regression to model the distribution of observations as a function of a set of variables representing the landscape features plausibly influencing the spatial distribution of the records. Results suggest that the density of paths is the most important variable, having a statistically significant positive relationship with number of observations for seven of the eight taxa considered. Wetland coverage was also identified as having a significant, positive relationship, for birds, amphibians and reptiles, and mammals. Our results highlight that the distribution of species observations, in citizen science projects, is spatially biased. Higher frequency of observations is driven largely by accessibility and by the presence of water bodies. We conclude that efforts are required to increase the spatial evenness of sampling effort from volunteers.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Modeling the dynamics of contractual relations

Contracts usually have clauses that enable contracted parties to adjust their contractual positions in time, e.g., to relieve another party from duty or to grant new permission. This is especially important in long-running service relations, which require contracts to be adjusted to accommodate new or unforeseen circumstances. Despite that, the representation of dynamic aspects of contractual relations has not been given enough attention in the literature. In this study, we address this gap by employing the notions of legal power and legal subjection. We propose an ontological analysis of unilateral contractual changes based on a well-founded legal core ontology that adopts a relational perspective for legal positions. We present a case study to show the benefits of representing different types of contractual changes and how these changes can impact contractual dynamics. The case study is based on recent changes to WhatsApp terms of service.</p

The dynamics of stress: a longitudinal MRI study of rat brain structure and connectome

Stress is a well-established trigger for a number of neuropsychiatric disorders, as it alters both structure and function of several brain regions and its networks. Herein, we conduct a longitudinal neuroimaging study to assess how a chronic unpredictable stress protocol impacts the structure of the rat brain and its functional connectome in both high and low responders to stress. Our results reveal the changes that stress triggers in the brain, with structural atrophy affecting key regions such as the prelimbic, cingulate, insular and retrosplenial, somatosensory, motor, auditory and perirhinal/entorhinal cortices, the hippocampus, the dorsomedial striatum, nucleus accumbens, the septum, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the thalamus and several brain stem nuclei. These structural changes are associated with increasing functional connectivity within a network composed by these regions. Moreover, using a clustering based on endocrine and behavioural outcomes, animals were classified as high and low responders to stress. We reveal that susceptible animals (high responders) develop local atrophy of the ventral tegmental area and an increase in functional connectivity between this area and the thalamus, further spreading to other areas that link the cognitive system with the fight-or-flight system. Through a longitudinal approach we were able to establish two distinct patterns, with functional changes occurring during the exposure to stress, but with an inflection point after the first week of stress when more prominent changes were seen. Finally, our study revealed differences in functional connectivity in a brainstem-limbic network that distinguishes resistant and susceptible responders before any exposure to stress, providing the first potential imaging-based predictive biomarkers of an individual's resilience/vulnerability to stressful conditions.This work is part of the Sigma project with the reference FCT-ANR/NEU-OSD/ 0258/2012 co-financed by the French public funding agency ANR (Agence National pour la Recherche, APP Blanc International II 2012), the Portuguese FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) and by the Portuguese North Regional Operational Program (ON.2 – O Novo Norte) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN), through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) as well as the Projecto Estratégico co-funded by FCT (PEst-C/SAU/LA0026-/2013) and the European Regional Development Fund COMPETE (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-037298). DAB and AN were funded by grants from FCT-ANR/NEU-OSD/0258/2012. RM is supported by the FCT fellowship grant with the reference PDE/BDE/113604/2015 from the PhDiHES program; AC was supported by a grant from the foundation NRJ. PM was funded by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal; ‘Better mental health during ageing based on temporal prediction of individual brain ageing trajectories (TEMPO)’), Grant Number P-139977. We thank Drs Patrício Costa and Pedro Moreira for support on the various statistical analyses.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Safinamide: a new hope for Parkinson's disease?

The loss of dopaminergic neurons (DAn) and reduced dopamine (DA) production underlies the reasoning behind the gold standard treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD) using levodopa (L-DOPA). Recently licensed by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), safinamide [a monoamine oxidase B (MOA-B) inhibitor] is an alternative to L-DOPA; as we discuss here, it enhances dopaminergic transmission with decreased secondary effects compared with L-DOPA. In addition, nondopaminergic actions (neuroprotective effects) have been reported, with safinamide inhibiting glutamate release and sodium/calcium channels, reducing the excitotoxic input to dopaminergic neuronal death. Effects of safinamide have been correlated with the amelioration of non-motor symptoms (NMS), although these remain under discussion. Overall, safinamide can be considered to have potential antidyskinetic and neuroprotective effects and future trials and/or studies should be performed to provide further evidence for its potential as an anti-PD drug.The authors acknowledge funding from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (IF development grant IF/ 00111/2013 to A.J.S.) and a postdoctoral fellowship to F.G.T. (SFRH/BPD/118408/2016). This work was funded by FEDER funds, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by national funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038. This article has also been developed under the scope of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000023, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)

Infrared spectroscopy to assess manufacturing procedures of bone artefacts from the chalcolithic settlement of Vila Nova de São Pedro (Portugal)

Vibrational spectroscopy was applied to study cylindrical engraved bone boxes from the Chalcolithic settlement of Vila Nova de São Pedro (VNSP, Azambuja, Portugal) which has the largest and richest artefact assemblage of Copper Age Western Iberia. The objectives were to reconstitute manufacturing techniques, determine the role of pyrotechnology in the production of cylindrical engraved bone boxes and assess oxygen conditions during burning. Four fragments of cylindrical engraved bone “boxes” from VNSP were used in this research. Anaerobic experimental burn conditions were recreated by using a home-made steel airtight chamber under vacuum. Human bone fragments were burnt at 400–1000 °C for 120–211 min. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analyses were performed on bone powder samples. The resulting spectra and chemometric indices were used as a reference to establish comparisons with the archaeological artefacts. None of these presented spectral features compatible with anaerobic burning. Therefore, aerobic burns were used to achieve the whitish look and were most probably used to attain the darker shade displayed by the artefacts. Artefact manufacturing appears to have relied on bone cutting, bone engraving and maybe polishing, followed by heat treatment. The population from VNSP appears to have been highly specialized in the use of fire to work different raw materials.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fundamental parameters related to selenium kα and kβ emission x-ray spectra

This research was funded in part by FCT (Portugal) under research center grants UID/FIS/04559/2020 (LIBPhys) and UID/MULTI/04046/2020 (BioISI). This work was also funded through the project PTDC/FIS-AQM/31969/2017, "Ultra-high-accuracy x-ray spectroscopy of transition metal oxides and rare earths." J.M. and J.P.S acknowledge the support of EMPIR, under Contract No. 17FUN02MetroMMC. The EMPIR initiative is co-funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the EMPIR participating States.We present relativistic ab initio calculations of fundamental parameters for atomic selenium, based on the Multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock method. In detail, fluorescence yields and subshell linewidths, both of K shell, as well as Kβ to Kα intensity ratio are provided, showing overall agreement with previous theoretical calculations and experimental values. Relative intensities were evaluated assuming the same ionization cross-section for the K-shell hole states, leading to a statistical distribution of these initial states. A method for estimating theoretical linewidths of X-ray lines, where the lines are composed by a multiplet of fine-structure levels that are spread in energy, is proposed. This method provides results that are closer to Kα1,2 experimental width values than the usual method, although slightly higher discrepancies occur for the Kβ1,3 lines. This indicates some inaccuracies in the calculation of Auger rates that have a higher contribution for partial linewidths of the subshells involved in the Kβ1,3 profile. Apart from this, the calculated value of Kβ to Kα intensity ratio, which is less sensitive to Auger rates issues, is in excellent agreement with recommended values.publishersversionpublishe

Type-Based Verification of Message-Passing Parallel Programs

We present a type-based approach to the verification of the communication structure of parallel programs. We model parallel imperative programs where a fixed number of processes, each equipped with its local memory, communicates via a rich diversity of primitives, including point-to-point messages, broadcast, reduce, and array scatter and gather. The paper proposes a decidable dependent type system incorporating abstractions for the various communication operators, a form of primitive recursion, and collective choice. Term types may refer to values in the programming language, including integer, floating point and arrays. The paper further introduces a core programming language for imperative, message-passing, parallel programming, and shows that the language enjoys progress.Under revie

Factors influencing terrestriality in primates of the Americas and Madagascar

Among mammals, the order Primates is exceptional in having a high taxonomic richness in which the taxa are arboreal, semiterrestrial, or terrestrial. Although habitual terrestriality is pervasive among the apes and African and Asian monkeys (catarrhines), it is largely absent among monkeys of the Americas (platyrrhines), as well as galagos, lemurs, and lorises (strepsirrhines), which are mostly arboreal. Numerous ecological drivers and species-specific factors are suggested to set the conditions for an evolutionary shift from arboreality to terrestriality, and current environmental conditions may provide analogous scenarios to those transitional periods. Therefore, we investigated predominantly arboreal, diurnal primate genera from the Americas and Madagascar that lack fully terrestrial taxa, to determine whether ecological drivers (habitat canopy cover, predation risk, maximum temperature, precipitation, primate species richness, human population density, and distance to roads) or species-specific traits (body mass, group size, and degree of frugivory) associate with increased terrestriality. We collated 150,961 observation hours across 2,227 months from 47 species at 20 sites in Madagascar and 48 sites in the Americas. Multiple factors were associated with ground use in these otherwise arboreal species, including increased temperature, a decrease in canopy cover, a dietary shift away from frugivory, and larger group size. These factors mostly explain intraspecific differences in terrestriality. As humanity modifies habitats and causes climate change, our results suggest that species already inhabiting hot, sparsely canopied sites, and exhibiting more generalized diets, are more likely to shift toward greater ground use.Fil: Eppley, Timothy M.. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance; Estados Unidos. Portland State University; Estados UnidosFil: Hoeks, Selwyn. Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen; Países BajosFil: Chapman, Colin A.. University of KwaZulu-Natal; Sudáfrica. Wilson Center; Estados Unidos. Northwest University; China. The George Washington University; Estados UnidosFil: Ganzhorn, Jörg U.. Universitat Hamburg; AlemaniaFil: Hall, Katie. Sedgwick County Zoo; Estados UnidosFil: Owen, Megan A.. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance; Estados UnidosFil: Adams, Dara B.. Humboldt State University; Estados Unidos. Ohio State University; Estados UnidosFil: Allgas, Néstor. Asociación Neotropical Primate Conservation Perú; PerúFil: Amato, Katherine R.. Northwestern University; Estados UnidosFil: Andriamahaihavana, McAntonin. Université D'antananarivo; MadagascarFil: Aristizabal, John F.. Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez; México. Universidad de los Andes; ColombiaFil: Baden, Andrea L.. City University of New York; Estados Unidos. New York Consortium In Evolutionary Primatology; Estados UnidosFil: Balestri, Michela. Oxford Brookes University (oxford Brookes University);Fil: Barnett, Adrian A.. University Of Roehampton; Reino Unido. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; BrasilFil: Bicca Marques, Júlio César. Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Bowler, Mark. University Of Suffolk; Reino Unido. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance; Estados UnidosFil: Boyle, Sarah A.. Rhodes College; Estados UnidosFil: Brown, Meredith. University of Calgary; CanadáFil: Caillaud, Damien. University of California at Davis; Estados UnidosFil: Calegaro Marques, Cláudia. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Campbell, Christina J.. California State University Northridge (calif. State Univ. Northridge);Fil: Campera, Marco. Oxford Brookes University (oxford Brookes University);Fil: Campos, Fernando A.. University of Texas at San Antonio; Estados UnidosFil: Cardoso, Tatiane S.. Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi; BrasilFil: Carretero Pinzón, Xyomara. Proyecto Zocay; ColombiaFil: Champion, Jane. University of Calgary; CanadáFil: Chaves, Óscar M.. Universidad de Costa Rica; Costa RicaFil: Chen Kraus, Chloe. University of Yale; Estados UnidosFil: Colquhoun, Ian C.. Western University; CanadáFil: Dean, Brittany. University of Calgary; CanadáFil: Kowalewski, Miguel Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral. Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia". Estación Biológica de Usos Múltiples (Sede Corrientes); Argentin

Agenesia e lipoma de corpo caloso: relato de caso

The agenesis and lipoma of the corpus callosum is a very rare association. We report the case of a 18-years old woman with rare epileptic seizures since the age of 6 years, normal neurological examination, as well as normal electroencephalogram. The brain computed tomography scanning and the magnetic resonance showed the lipoma and the agenesis of the corpus callosum.A agenesia e lipoma do corpo caloso é uma associação muito rara. Relatamos o caso de uma paciente de 18 anos com raras crises epilépticas desde os 6 anos de idade, exame neurológico normal, assim como eletrencefalograma normal. A tomografia computadorizada de crânio e a ressonância magnética mostraram o lipoma e a agenesia de corpo caloso.Escola Paulista de MedicinaUNIFESP, EPMSciEL