Variation in feeding ecology of five cnemidophorine lizard species along Brazilian eastern coast

Feeding ecology of a particular species is associated to population dynamics and contributes for the understanding of natural history and trophic interactions in ecosystems. We investigated changes in the feeding habits of 16 populations belonging to five cnemidophorine lizard species (being four bisexual and one unisexual) along approximately 4000 km extension of the Brazilian eastern coast. Fieldwork was carried out in 15 areas of restinga habitats and for each cnemidophorine population, the composition of the diet was analyzed based on the number, volume (mm3) and frequency of each prey category or plant material.The arthropods were categorized in the taxonomic level of Order or Family (e.g.Formicidae). Cnemidophorine populations/species studied were mainly carnivorous and had, in general, a diet consisting predominantly of larvae and/or termites, with few instances of plant material consumption. The availability of termites locally at each restinga habitat was not a determinant factor in the increase of termite consumption by the local cnemodophorine population. However, differences in diet composition among populations partially resulted from differential consumption of termites, leading to the formation of two distinct groups depending on higher or lesser consumption of termites. Some populations had onthonegetic variation in diet, but males and females of different populations/species tended to have similar diet composition. The head width of lizards affected significantly the volume and the length of the largest prey ingested in 60% (3/5) of the species studied, indicating that adults tended to consume larger food items compared to coespecifics juveniles. The high level of importance of termites and larvae in almost all populations/species probably contributed to the low intra-and interspecific differences in food habit. The diet of cnemidophorine species studied in restinga habitats in general, tended to be similar to that found to other cnemidophorines, regardless its geographic distribution. Invertebrates were the dominant prey on cnemidophorines diet, but predation on vertebrates was also registered.A ecologia alimentar de uma determinada espécie está associada a dinâmica da população e contribui para a compreensão da história natural e das interações tróficas nos ecossistemas. No presente estudo, investigamos mudanças nos hábitos alimentares de 16 populações pertencentes a cinco espécies de lagartos cnemidophorines (quatro bissexuais e uma unissexual) ao longo de aproximadamente 4000 km da costa leste brasileira. O trabalho de campo foi realizado em 15 áreas de restinga. A composição da dieta de cada população foi baseada no número, volume (mm3) e frequência de cada categoria de presa e de material vegetal. Os artrópodes foram categorizados no nível taxonômico de Ordem ou Família (por exemplo, Formicidae). As populações/ espécies de cnemidophorines estudadas foram principalmente carnívoras com uma dieta constituída predominantemente por larvas e/ou cupins, com pouco consumo de material vegetal. A disponibilidade de cupins localmente em cada restinga não foi um fator determinante no aumento do consumo de cupins pela população do lagarto cnemidophorino local. No entanto, as diferenças na composição da dieta entre as populações resultaram do consumo diferencial de cupins, levando a formação de dois grupos distintos, dependendo do consumo maior ou menor de cupins. Algumas populações apresentaram variação ontogenética na dieta, mas machos e fêmeas tenderam a ter uma composição alimentar semelhante em cada população/espécie. A largura da cabeça afetou significativamente o volume e o comprimento da maior presa ingerida em 60% (3/5) das espécies estudadas, indicando que os adultos tendem a consumir itens alimentares maiores que os jovens coespecíficos. O elevado índice importância de cupins e larvas em quase todas as populações/espécies provavelmente contribuiu para as baixas diferenças intra e interespecíficas no hábito alimentar. A dieta das espécies estudadas, em geral, tendeu a ser semelhante a encontrada para outros cnemidophorinos, independentemente de sua distribuição geográfica. Os invertebrados foram as presas predominantes na dieta, mas a predação em vertebrados foi também registrada.Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Avaliação ambiental do rio mongaguá, sp, utilizando macroinvertebrados bentônicos

Estudar a qualidade ambiental de um corpo d’água leva ao conhecimento da qualidade ambiental do seu entorno. Uma das comunidades biológicas muito estudada, neste sentido, é o grupo dos macroinvertebrados bentônicos, seres com dimensões entre milímetros e centímetros que habitam o sedimento do fundo dos corpos d’água. Segundo a literatura, muitos invertebrados macroscópicos são usados para diagnosticar a saúde de rios e lagos. O presente trabalho buscou compreender a qualidade das águas do Rio Mongaguá, SP, através da análise de parâmetros físicos, químicos e biológicos, utilizando a contagem e identificação de macroinvertebrados bentônicos em dois pontos do Rio Mongaguá, e um terceiro ponto em um afluente localizado na divisa entre Praia Grande e Mongaguá, os pontos foram denominados 1, 2 e 3. Os resultados das análises químicas e físicas demonstraram o pH e turbidez dentro dos valores referências para águas doces de classe 2 da resolução CONAMA 357/05. No ponto 1 foram encontrados organismos Chironomidae, que possuem resistência para sobreviver em águas com baixos níveis de oxigênio. Este ponto apresentava grande quantidade de lixo como garrafas plásticas e restos de alimentos. Não foi possível determinar a qualidade ambiental do ponto 2, pois o único organismo encontrado não foi identificado. Os organismos encontrados no ponto 3, dos grupos Plecoptera, Trichoptera, Ephemeroptera e Lepdoptera, habitam águas limpas com alto índice de oxigênio, podendo-se inferir que, neste ponto, a qualidade da água era boa. &nbsp

Contributions of mean and shape of blood pressure distribution to worldwide trends and variations in raised blood pressure: A pooled analysis of 1018 population-based measurement studies with 88.6 million participants

© The Author(s) 2018. Background: Change in the prevalence of raised blood pressure could be due to both shifts in the entire distribution of blood pressure (representing the combined effects of public health interventions and secular trends) and changes in its high-blood-pressure tail (representing successful clinical interventions to control blood pressure in the hypertensive population). Our aim was to quantify the contributions of these two phenomena to the worldwide trends in the prevalence of raised blood pressure. Methods: We pooled 1018 population-based studies with blood pressure measurements on 88.6 million participants from 1985 to 2016. We first calculated mean systolic blood pressure (SBP), mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and prevalence of raised blood pressure by sex and 10-year age group from 20-29 years to 70-79 years in each study, taking into account complex survey design and survey sample weights, where relevant. We used a linear mixed effect model to quantify the association between (probittransformed) prevalence of raised blood pressure and age-group- and sex-specific mean blood pressure. We calculated the contributions of change in mean SBP and DBP, and of change in the prevalence-mean association, to the change in prevalence of raised blood pressure. Results: In 2005-16, at the same level of population mean SBP and DBP, men and women in South Asia and in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa would have the highest prevalence of raised blood pressure, and men and women in the highincome Asia Pacific and high-income Western regions would have the lowest. In most region-sex-age groups where the prevalence of raised blood pressure declined, one half or more of the decline was due to the decline in mean blood pressure. Where prevalence of raised blood pressure has increased, the change was entirely driven by increasing mean blood pressure, offset partly by the change in the prevalence-mean association. Conclusions: Change in mean blood pressure is the main driver of the worldwide change in the prevalence of raised blood pressure, but change in the high-blood-pressure tail of the distribution has also contributed to the change in prevalence, especially in older age groups

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries(1,2). However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world(3) and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health(4,5). However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol-which is a marker of cardiovascular riskchanged from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million-4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world.Peer reviewe

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

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

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

Global variations in diabetes mellitus based on fasting glucose and haemogloblin A1c

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose diabetes, but may identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117 population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected as having diabetes in survey screening had elevated FPG, HbA1c, or both. We developed prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa. The age-standardised proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed, and detected in survey screening, ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66% in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the agestandardised proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29-39% across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c more common than isolated elevated FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global gap in diabetes diagnosis and surveillance.peer-reviewe