Semiaquatic bugs (Insecta, Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Gerromorpha) from Parque Natural Municipal das Andorinhas, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais state, Brazil

We present a survey of the semiaquatic bugs (Insecta, Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Gerromorpha) from Parque Natural Municipal das Andorinhas, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais State, southeastern Brazil. Thirteen species are recorded from the area based on regular collection events, namely Brachymetra albinervus (Amyot & Serville, 1843); Cylindrostethus palmaris Drake & Harris, 1934; Halobatopsis delectus Drake & Harris, 1941; Ha. platensis (Berg, 1879); Metrobates plaumanni genikos Nieser, 1993; Neogerris kontos Nieser, 1994 (Gerridae); Hydrometra fruhstorferi Hungerford & Evans, 1934 (Hydrometridae); Platyvelia brachialis (Stål, 1860); Rhagovelia macta Drake & Carvalho, 1955; R. robusta Gould, 1931; R. sbolos Nieser & Melo, 1997; R. triangula Drake, 1953; and R. trianguloides Nieser & Melo, 1997 (Veliidae)

The grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Caelifera) of the grasslands in the southern portion of the Espinha?o Range, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Neotropical mountains host much of the Earth?s biodiversity. The Espinha?o Range of Brazil consists of a fragmented series of low-altitude mountains with extensive areas of grasslands. As is often the case with grasslands, grasshoppers are abundant and diverse in this ecosystem, although they are poorly known. The study was carried in three regions of the Espinha?o Range, located at southeastern Minas Gerais state: Serra do Ouro Branco, Serra do Ribeiro, and Serra do Cip?. The sampling of grasshoppers was performed using sweep and insect nets. Forty-six species (Serra do Cip? with 39 species, Serra do Ouro Branco with 25 species, and Serra do Ribeiro with 21 species) were collected. The richest family and subfamily was Acrididae and Gomphocerinae, respectively. This study recorded 17 new species occurrences to Minas Gerais

Environmental factors can influence dengue reported cases

Introduction: Global climate changes directly affect the natural environment and contribute to an increase in the transmission of diseases by vectors. Among these diseases, dengue is at the top of the list. The aim of our study was to understand the consequences of temporal variability of air temperature in the occurrence of dengue in an area comprising seven municipalities of the Greater Sao Paulo. Method: Characterization of a temporal trend of the disease in the region between 2010 and 2013 was performed through analysis of the notified number of dengue cases over this period. Our analysis was complemented with meteorological (temperature) and pollutant concentration data (PM10). Results: We observed that the months of January, February, March, April and May (from 2010 to 2013) were the ones with the highest number of notified cases. We also found that there is a statistical association of moisture and PM10 with the reported cases of dengue. Conclusion: Although the temperature does not statistically display an association with recorded cases of dengue, we were able to verify that temperature peaks coincide with dengue outbreak peaks. Future studies on environmental pollution and its influence on the development of Aedes aegypti mosquito during all stages of its life cycle, and the definition of strategies for better monitoring, including campaigns and surveillance, would be compelling.ABC, FM, Santo Andre, SP, BrazilCoimbra Hlth Sch, Environm Hlth IPC, EsTesC, Coimbra, PortugalEsTesC, Coimbra Hlth Sch, Dept Ciencias Complementares IPC, Coimbra, PortugalFMABC, Gestao Saude Ambiental, Santo Andre, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo Unifesp, Biol Sci Dept, Diadema, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo Unifesp, Biol Sci Dept, Diadema, SP, BrazilWeb of Scienc

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

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

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