Contribution of the Cerrado as Habitat for Sunflower Pollinating Bees

Agricultural landscapes sometimes include natural habitats which can support the ecosystem by enhancing the pollination of crops, thus boosting the productivity. This research was conducted between May and July 2017, in the municipality of Tangará da Serra, Mato Grosso, Brazil, to assess the Cerrado from the perspective of it being a crucial habitat to sustain the sunflower-pollinating bees (Helianthus annuus L.). The bees were sampled using entomological nets and pan traps, in specifically marked out plots (20 m x 150 m), in the Cerrado, and in a sunflower crop, at different distances from the Cerrado border. The assessment was done in terms of the composion and species richness, abundance of individuals and the mass (g) of the sunflower chapters exposed and isolated from the floral visitors. While species richness showed no differences between the Cerrado and sunflower crop, a difference was observed for abundance, with more numbers of individuals in the sunflower crop, most likely because of the food source supply. In the sunflower crop, the bee diversity decreased proportionally as the distance from the border increased. The seed mass of the sunfl ower chapters was significantly higher in the flowers open to visitors than in those of the isolated chapters open for visitation. From the results, it was evident that the bees presente in the Cerrado visit the sunflower crop to gather pollen and nectar, and thus assist in cross-pollinating them and raising the productivity

NOTAS E RESENHAS

A CONTRIBUIÇÃO DA GEOGRAFIA FÍSICA NA EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL: O ENSINO DE 1.º E 2.º GRAUS - David Márcio Santos Rodrigues PROBLEMAS EPISTEMOLÓGICOS Y SOCIOLÓGICOS DE LA INVESTIGACIÓN: EL CASO DE LA GEOGRAFIA - Néstor Sebastian Lizarraga TEMPO LIVRE COMO OBJETO DE CONSUMO E LAZER DIRIGIDO COMO OPORTUNIDADE DE MANIPULAÇÃO - Adyr A. Balastreri Rodrigues VARIAÇÕES MICROCLIMATICAS EM ÁREAS DE MATA TROPICAL E DE REFLORESTAMENTO - Anderson Luís Hebling Christofoletti; Maria Juraci Zani dos Santos UM EXEMPLO DE INTERVENÇÃO DO ESTADO NO ESPAÇO: A BARRAGEM DE ANAGÉ - BAHIA - Lucas Batista Pereira À MARGEM DA GEOGRAFIA: ESPAÇO, PODER E NACIONALIDADE EM EUCLIDES DA CUNHA - Fadel David Antonio Filho; Silvio Carlos Bray CONTRIBUIÇÕES À HISTÓRIA, ÀS CONCEPÇÕES E AOS PROCEDIMENTOS METODOLÓGICOS EM GEOGRAFIA - Antonio Christofoletti  CONTRIBUIÇÕES AO ENSINO E À PESQUISA EM GEOGRAFIA HUMANA - Antonio Christofoletti  PROGRESS IN PHYSICAL AND IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY - 1988 - Antonio Christofoletti  O USO DE COMPUTADORES EM GEOGRAFIA - Amândio Luís de Almeida Teixeir

The ARIQUELI study: potentiation of quetiapine in bipolar I nonresponders with lithium versus aripiprazole

Abstract\ud Background:The treatment of bipolar disorder (BD) remains a challenge due to the complexity of the disease. Current guidelines represent an effort to assist clinicians in routine practice but have several limitations, particularly concerning long-term treatment. The ARIQUELI (efficacy and tolerability of the combination of lithium or aripiprazole in young bipolar non or partial responders to quetiapine monotherapy) study aims to evaluate two different augmentation strategies for quetiapine nonresponders or partial responders in acute and maintenance phases of BD treatment.\ud Methods/Design: The ARIQUELI study is a single-site, parallel-group, randomized, outcome assessor-blinded trial. BD I patients according to the DSM-IV-TR, in depressive, manic/hypomanic or mixed episode, aged 18 to 40 years, are eligible. After diagnostic assessments, patients initiated treatment in phase I with quetiapine. Nonresponders or partial responders after 8 weeks are allocated into one of two groups, potentiated with either lithium (0.5 to 0.8 mEq/l) or aripiprazole (10 or 15 mg). Patients will be followed up for 8 weeks in phase I (acute treatment), 6 months in phase II (continuation treatment) and 12 months in phase III (maintenance treatment). Outcome assessors are blinded to the treatment. The primary outcome is the evaluation of changes in mean scores on the CGI-BP-M between baseline and the endpoint at the end of each study phase.\ud Discussion: The ARIQUELI study is currently in progress, with patients undergoing acute treatment (phase I), potentiation (phase II) and maintenance (phase III). The study will be extended until January 2015. Trials comparing lithium and aripiprazole with potentiate treatment in young BD I nonresponders to quetiapine in monotherapy can provide relevant information on the safety of these drugs in clinical practice. Long-term treatment is an issue of great importance and should be evaluated further through more in-depth studies given that BD is a chronic disease.\ud Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01710163The authors would like to thank the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of Sao Paulo, especially the members of the Mood Disorders Unit (GRUDA), for their dedication and hard work, as well as the volunteers for their collaboration.The authors would like to thank the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of Sao Paulo, especially the members of the Mood Disorders Unit (GRUDA), for their dedication and hard work, as well as the volunteers for their collaboration

Aspectos epidemiológicos das arboviroses no município de Vitória da Conquista - Bahia, Brasil, no período de 2015 a 2020/ Epidemiological aspects of arboviroses in the municipality of Vitória da Conquista- Bahia, Brazil, in the period from 2015 to 2020

O aumento de doenças infectocontagiosas como as arboviroses tem crescido significativamente no Brasil, especificamente, nas últimas décadas como consequência de diversas mudanças decorrentes da complexa relação homem-natureza, a exemplo do desmatamento, as alterações climáticas e as condições sanitárias precárias. Assim, esta pesquisa tem como escopo analisar e descrever os aspectos epidemiológicos de Vitória da Conquista, no sudoeste baiano, entre os anos de 2015 a 2020. Para tal fim, desenvolveu-se um estudo epidemiológico quantitativo, descritivo e de série histórica, no qual foram coletados dados das arboviroses no município por meio do Sistema de Informações Único de Saúde (DATASUS), disponibilizados pela Secretaria Municipal de Saúde, no período mencionado. Dentre os achados desta pesquisa, destaca-se que a dengue é a arbovirose com maior número de casos notificados no município, sendo essa prevalência constatada em cada ano analisado, destacando os anos de 2016 e 2020 com 2.985 e 6.874 casos notificados, respectivamente. Ademais, percebeu-se que a distribuição dos casos notificados se concentra nos intervalos dos meses de janeiro e junho, prevalecendo entre os adultos com faixa etária de 20 a 49 anos. A Chikungunya, por sua vez, foi a que registrou um menor número de casos. Conclui-se, portanto, a partir dos dados coletados e da análise posterior, que apesar de o número elevado de notificações de dengue em 2020, devem ser consideradas as semelhanças dos quadros sintomatológicos das demais arboviroses investigadas, bem como, a possibilidade de diagnósticos e notificações equivocadas

CD8+ T-Cells Expressing Interferon Gamma or Perforin Play Antagonistic Roles in Heart Injury in Experimental Trypanosoma Cruzi-Elicited Cardiomyopathy

In Chagas disease, CD8+ T-cells are critical for the control of Trypanosoma cruzi during acute infection. Conversely, CD8+ T-cell accumulation in the myocardium during chronic infection may cause tissue injury leading to chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy (CCC). Here we explored the role of CD8+ T-cells in T. cruzi-elicited heart injury in C57BL/6 mice infected with the Colombian strain. Cardiomyocyte lesion evaluated by creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme activity levels in the serum and electrical abnormalities revealed by electrocardiogram were not associated with the intensity of heart parasitism and myocarditis in the chronic infection. Further, there was no association between heart injury and systemic anti-T. cruzi CD8+ T-cell capacity to produce interferon-gamma (IFNγ) and to perform specific cytotoxicity. Heart injury, however, paralleled accumulation of anti-T. cruzi cells in the cardiac tissue. In T. cruzi infection, most of the CD8+ T-cells segregated into IFNγ+ perforin (Pfn)neg or IFNγnegPfn+ cell populations. Colonization of the cardiac tissue by anti-T. cruzi CD8+Pfn+ cells paralleled the worsening of CCC. The adoptive cell transfer to T. cruzi-infected cd8−/− recipients showed that the CD8+ cells from infected ifnγ−/−pfn+/+ donors migrate towards the cardiac tissue to a greater extent and caused a more severe cardiomyocyte lesion than CD8+ cells from ifnγ+/+pfn−/− donors. Moreover, the reconstitution of naïve cd8−/− mice with CD8+ cells from naïve ifnγ+/+pfn−/− donors ameliorated T. cruzi-elicited heart injury paralleled IFNγ+ cells accumulation, whereas reconstitution with CD8+ cells from naïve ifnγ−/−pfn+/+ donors led to an aggravation of the cardiomyocyte lesion, which was associated with the accumulation of Pfn+ cells in the cardiac tissue. Our data support a possible antagonist effect of CD8+Pfn+ and CD8+IFNγ+ cells during CCC. CD8+IFNγ+ cells may exert a beneficial role, whereas CD8+Pfn+ may play a detrimental role in T. cruzi-elicited heart injury

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

Phylogenetic classification of the world's tropical forests

Knowledge about the biogeographic affinities of the world’s tropical forests helps to better understand regional differences in forest structure, diversity, composition, and dynamics. Such understanding will enable anticipation of region-specific responses to global environmental change. Modern phylogenies, in combination with broad coverage of species inventory data, now allow for global biogeographic analyses that take species evolutionary distance into account. Here we present a classification of the world’s tropical forests based on their phylogenetic similarity. We identify five principal floristic regions and their floristic relationships: (i) Indo-Pacific, (ii) Subtropical, (iii) African, (iv) American, and (v) Dry forests. Our results do not support the traditional neo- versus paleotropical forest division but instead separate the combined American and African forests from their Indo-Pacific counterparts. We also find indications for the existence of a global dry forest region, with representatives in America, Africa, Madagascar, and India. Additionally, a northern-hemisphere Subtropical forest region was identified with representatives in Asia and America, providing support for a link between Asian and American northern-hemisphere forests.</p