Contrasting multi-taxa diversity patterns between abandoned and non-intensively managed forests in the southern Dolomites

The abandonment of silvicultural activities can lead to changes in species richness and composition of biological communities, when compared to those found in managed forests. The aim of this study was to compare the multi-taxonomical diversity of two mature silver fir-beech-spruce forests in the southern Dolomites (Italy), corresponding to the European Union habitat type 9130. The two sites share similar ecological and structural characteristics, but differ in their recent management histories. In the last 50 years, one site underwent non-intensive management, while the other was left unmanaged and was included in a forest reserve. The species richness and composition of eight taxa were surveyed in the two sites between 2009 and 2011. The difference in mean species richness between the two forest management types was tested through permutation tests, while differences in species composition were tested by principal coordinates analysis and the permutational multivariate analysis of variance. Mean species richness of soil macrofungi, deadwood lichens, bark beetles, and longhorn beetles were significantly higher in the abandoned than in the non-intensively managed forests. Deadwood fungi and epiphytic lichens did not differ in mean species richness between the two study sites, while mean species richness of ground beetles and birds were higher in the non-intensively managed than in the abandoned forest. Significant differences in species composition between the two sites were found for all the taxa, except for longhorn beetles. These results indicate that improving forest landscape heterogeneity through the creation of a mosaic of abandoned and extensively managed forests should better fulfill the requirements of ecologically different taxa

Analysis of Dominant HIV Quasispecies Suggests Independent Viral Evolution Within Spinal Granulomas Coinfected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and HIV-1 Subtype C

Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is a significant public health challenge in South Africa and worldwide, largely fuelled by the HIV epidemic. In spinal TB, Mycobacteria infect the spinal column without dissemination to the spinal cord. The immune microenvironment, target cell characteristics, and other evolutionary forces within granulomas during HIV/TB coinfection are poorly characterized. We investigated whether spinal TB granulomas represent a sequestered anatomical site where independent HIV evolution occurs, and assessed the role of macrophages as a target cell for both HIV and mycobacteria. RNA was extracted from plasma and granulomatous tissue from six antiretroviral-naive HIV-1/spinal TB-coinfected patients, RT-PCR amplified, and the C2-V5 env segment was cloned and sequenced. Analysis of genetic diversity, phylogeny and coalescence patterns was performed on clonal sequences. To investigate their role in HIV sequestration, macrophages and the HIV-1 p24 protein were immune localized and ultrastructural features were studied. Intercompartment diversity measurements and phylogenetic reconstruction revealed anatomically distinct monophyletic HIV-1 clusters in four of six patients. Genotypic CCR5-tropic variants were predominant (98.9%) with conservation of putative N-linked glycosylation sites in both compartments. CD68(+) reactivity was associated with higher tissue viral load (r = 1.0; p < 0.01) but not greater intrapatient diversity (r = 0.60; p > 0.05). Ultrastructural imaging revealed the presence of bacterial and virus-like particles within membrane-bound intracellular compartments of macrophages. Spinal tuberculosis granulomas may form anatomically discreet sites of divergent viral evolution. Macrophages in these granulomas harbored both pathogens, suggesting that they may facilitate the process of viral sequestration within this compartment

Plantas de cobertura verde podem controlar o excesso de vigor de uva vinífera.

A vitivinicultura na serra catarinense tem como aliado o clima que permite a colheita tardia, em relação às regiões tradicionalmente produtoras. Entretanto, a alta disponibilidade de nitrogênio do solo, aliada ao uso do porta enxerto P-1103 geralmente promovem vigor excessivo nas videiras, o que favorece a incidência de doenças e diminui a qualidade da uva. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a influência de plantas de cobertura e seu manejo no crescimento vegetativo da vinífera Cabernet Sauvignon em solos de altitude do sul do Brasil. O trabalho foi localizado no município de São Joaquim-SC em Cambissolo Distrofico a 1.120 metros de altitude. Foram avaliados cinco tratamentos compostos de um controle, com plantas espontâneas controladas por herbicida na linha e por roçada na entre linha; uma sucessão de plantas anuais, trigo mourisco-aveia branca; uma planta perene, festuca; e dois manejos, com e sem transferência do resíduo cultural da linha para a entre linha. Avaliou-se o crescimento de ramos da videira, na safra 2012-13 que é a quarta após o início do experimento. Na poda verde não se observou influencia das plantas de cobertura na massa média de ramos. Entretanto, em avaliação referente à poda seca, o consórcio de videira com festuca reduziu o vigor na videira, tanto nos tratamentos manejados com, como sem a transferência dos resíduos culturais da linha para entrelinha.Resumo expandido

Procedimentos metodológicos utilizados na compilação de dados do Modeflora para construção de mapas dinâmicos no cartão microSD para uso no GPS.

O planejamento da exploração florestal em florestas tropicais, realizada com técnicas de precisão recomendadas pelo Modelo Digital de Exploração Florestal (Modeflora), permite significativas vantagens. Porém, para que o planejamento da exploração florestal seja executado com precisão e agilidade pelas equipes de campo, é necessário que todas as informações estejam consolidadas num mapa dinâmico. Para que todas as informações fiquem consolidadas num único conjunto de mapas dinâmicos, há necessidade de compilar os dados em um formato de arquivo digital (IMG), o qual é reconhecido pelos receptores GPS e navegadores automotivos. As informações permanecem armazenadas num cartão de memória (SD ou microSD) e o aparelho de GPS fica com memória livre para a coleta de pontos e trilhas. Caso não se faça a compilação dos dados para o cartão de memória, a quantidade de waypoints e trilhas a serem inseridas no GPS será limitada, além de impossibilitar a gestão em campo para adicionar ou retirar um mapa de exploração de determinado pátio.bitstream/item/27594/1/Circular-tec-52.pd

Vegetation Fraction Images Derived from PROBA-V Data for Rapid Assessment of Annual Croplands in Brazil.

Abstract: This paper presents a new method for rapid assessment of the extent of annual croplands in Brazil. The proposed method applies a linear spectral mixing model (LSMM) to PROBA-V time series images to derive vegetation, soil, and shade fraction images for regional analysis. We used S10-TOC (10 days synthesis, 1 km spatial resolution, and top-of-canopy) products for Brazil and S5-TOC (five days synthesis, 100 m spatial resolution, and top-of-canopy) products for Mato Grosso State (Brazilian Legal Amazon). Using the time series of the vegetation fraction images of the whole year (2015 in this case), only one mosaic composed with maximum values of vegetation fraction was generated, allowing detecting and mapping semi-automatically the areas occupied by annual crops during the year. The results (100 m spatial resolution map) for the Mato Grosso State were compared with existing global datasets (Finer Resolution Observation and Monitoring?Global Land Cover (FROM-GLC) and Global Food Security?Support Analyses Data (GFSAD30)). Visually those maps present a good agreement, but the area estimated are not comparable since the agricultural class definition are different for those maps. In addition, we found 11.8 million ha of agricultural areas in the entire Brazilian territory. The area estimation for the Mato Grosso State was 3.4 million ha for 1 km dataset and 5.3 million ha for 100 m dataset. This difference is due to the spatial resolution of the PROBA-V datasets used. A coefficient of determination of 0.82 was found between PROBA-V 100 m and Landsat-8 OLI area estimations for the Mato Grosso State. Therefore, the proposed method is suitable for detecting and mapping annual croplands distribution operationally using PROBA-V datasets for regional analysis

A standardized framework for accurate, high-throughput genotyping of recombinant and non-recombinant viral sequences

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1), hepatitis B and C and other rapidly evolving viruses are characterized by extremely high levels of genetic diversity. To facilitate diagnosis and the development of prevention and treatment strategies that efficiently target the diversity of these viruses, and other pathogens such as human T-lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1), human herpes virus type-8 (HHV8) and human papillomavirus (HPV), we developed a rapid high-throughput-genotyping system. The method involves the alignment of a query sequence with a carefully selected set of pre-defined reference strains, followed by phylogenetic analysis of multiple overlapping segments of the alignment using a sliding window. Each segment of the query sequence is assigned the genotype and sub-genotype of the reference strain with the highest bootstrap (>70%) and bootscanning (>90%) scores. Results from all windows are combined and displayed graphically using color-coded genotypes. The new Virus-Genotyping Tools provide accurate classification of recombinant and non-recombinant viruses and are currently being assessed for their diagnostic utility. They have incorporated into several HIV drug resistance algorithms including the Stanford (http://hivdb.stanford.edu) and two European databases (http://www.umcutrecht.nl/subsite/spread-programme/ and http://www.hivrdb.org.uk/) and have been successfully used to genotype a large number of sequences in these and other databases. The tools are a PHP/JAVA web application and are freely accessible on a number of servers including