Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias最新文献

Brazil is an important cattle producer and the world's third-largest pet market, with the second-highest number of dogs. This makes antiparasitic drugs crucial in the animal health sector, addressing a wide range of parasites affecting livestock and pets. This study presents an analysis of patent filings concerning veterinary antiparasitic drugs in Brazil, spanning a 25-year period from 1997 to 2022. Data were extracted from the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) database, identifying 66 patents for antiparasitic compounds. The patents were categorized based on their status, type of applicant, and origin. The study also highlights key historical milestones in Brazilian veterinary parasitology and identifies significant global legal issues influencing the evolution of patents in this field. Findings show that companies dominate the patent landscape, with São Paulo and Goiás leading in the number of filings, while the United States is the top non-resident applicant. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of innovation in antiparasitic drugs in Brazil, serving as a basis for further research and technological advancements in veterinary parasitology.

Arsenic is found widely in nature, with mining and the use of pesticides in agriculture being the leading carriers of this metalloid. Considering the harm caused by As in cultivation media, a simple and sensitive method for arsenic speciation in paddy field water samples was developed by square wave cathodic stripping voltammetry using a hanging mercury drop electrode. Due to the low solubility of arsenic in mercury, this element was combined with Cu to form an intermetallic compound that is highly soluble (CuxAsy). In the case of As(V), it must first be reduced to As(III) with sodium thiosulfate to be later quantified by the difference in concentration between the inorganic As and As(III) total. Parameters such as concentration of HCl, Cu, and sodium thiosulfate (only for As(V)), potential deposition, frequency, and amplitude were evaluated. Under ideal conditions, limits of detection of 0.025 and 0.12 μg L-1 and limits of quantification of 0.082 and 0.39 µg L-1 were obtained for As(III) and As(V), respectively. The method presented high accuracy (recoveries from 97 to 110%) and was applied to determine both species in ten samples of paddy field water.

Early disease detection is vital. Biosensors using phospholipid films or core-shell lipid-based nanostructures can aid this process. This study examined the influence of gold surface functionalization with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on liposome adsorption using Atomic Force Microscopy and Quartz Crystal Microbalance. Comparing hydrophobic octanethiol and hydrophilic 3-mercaptopropionic acid (3-MPA) SAMs, we found that liposome adsorption on the hydrophilic surface occurred significantly faster, requiring only 20 seconds, compared to hydrophobic surfaces which took over 1,000 seconds. Furthermore, the hydrophilic surface exhibited a higher adsorbed mass of approximately 200 ng, suggesting multilayer formation, while hydrophobic surfaces showed around 150 ng of deposited liposomes. These results highlight the crucial role of surface wettability, dictated by SAM polarity, in controlling the kinetics and extent of lipid bilayer formation for applications in biosensors and drug delivery nanotechnology.

The Neotropical flora is known for its remarkable species diversity, which is daily threatened due to human actions, such as land change use for extensive agriculture and habitat fragmentation. In Brazil, the Cerrado is one of the most plant diverse biomes, even though a small piece of its area is under full protection. This work aims explore the distribution of Oocephalus species, to identify areas of high species richness, and to highlight regional environment threats, required to assess the species conservation status. Oocephalus is currently composed of 22 species, which are almost entirely endemic to the Brazilian campo rupestre, a vegetation type with high levels of species richness and endemism. We identified three distribution patterns in Oocephalus: Brazilian Central Plateau, Serra do Espinhaço, and Chapada Diamantina. The latter is subdivided in two sub patterns, Serra das Almas and Serra do Sincorá. The results showed that Brazilian Central plateau, especially the Chapada dos Veadeiros region, and Chapada Diamantina, are the richest areas of Oocephalus, and that 22 species are under threat, being classified as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered, with some of them being known for few collections.

The transfer factor is an important concept for assessing hazard indices associated with radionuclide intake. In this study, radionuclide transfer factors were determined for the infusion process using gamma spectrometry. For raw herbs, the activity concentration values ranged from (10.04 ± 4.25) to (1565.05 ± 68.25) Bq·kg-1 for K-40, from (<0.93) to (6.84 ± 3.68) Bq·kg-1 for Ra-228, and from (<2.06) to (30.40 ± 3.68) Bq·kg-1 for Ra-226. The transfer factors were found to be 4.96% for K-40 and 23.29% for Ra (Ra-226 and Ra-228). In addition to demonstrating that infusion consumption does not represent a radiological risk, this study highlights the importance of exercising caution in risk estimates related to radionuclide incorporation, as overly conservative approaches may result in unnecessary mitigation measures.

The Pterosauria comprises the Mesozoic flying reptiles whose unique anatomy imposes some challenging constraints to be surpassed when it comes to biomechanical studies, besides having left no modern descendants. Thus, trying to understand its motion dynamics is quite challenging and much relies on technological devices. Here a review on the literature encompassing pterosaur locomotion and general biomechanics is provided. The number of articles per year have increased continuously since 90's. "Evolution" and "Flight" were the most frequent words and usually cited together in scientific production, and the trend topics of the XXI century. Flight was also the trending topic before 2001 and played an important role as expected for volant reptiles. It also suggests that further scientific studies are needed to better understand other biological issues regarding land locomotion, musculoskeletal system, mechanostat, density and properties, neuromechanical aspects, and biomimetics. An increasing integration between paleontology and fields such as engineering, physics, and computational sciences is anticipated-particularly through the use of modeling, 3D simulations, and computer graphics software. This interdisciplinary approach is expected to advance our understanding of the movement dynamics of these flying reptiles, while also enabling the application of their biological principles in the development of bioinspired engineering technologies.

The purpose of this study was to compare and characterize honeys from different botanical origins (monofloral: assa-peixe, coffee, cipó-uva, eucalyptus, gurucaia, and laranjeira; polyfloral: silvestre; and honeydew: bracatinga) during storage at room (RT), freezing (FR) and refrigeration (REF) temperatures and to determine the most suitable storage conditions for maintaining honey stability over a 6-month period. The honeys were stored at room (the average temperature was 28°C during the experiment), at freezing (-20°C) and refrigeration (7°C) temperatures. The quantification of sugars (fructose (F) and glucose (G)), moisture (M), F/G and G/M ratio at T0 and T180 (Time 180); analysis of water activity, absorbance, electrical conductivity, color (parameters L*, C* and h°), rheological behavior and microscopic analysis were performed during 6 months (T0, T30, T60, T90, T120, T150 and T180 days). Assa-peixe and cipó-uva honeys are more prone to crystallization, especially at REF at T180. Honeys underwent more changes in their original composition when stored at REF conditions, in general. Honeys from different botanical origins may need varied storage conditions to maintain quality. Therefore, knowledge of their behavior during storage is of great importance and interest for the industry, beekeepers and consumers, influencing product fractionation and packaging processes.

The Reserva Biológica do Alto da Serra de Paranapiacaba, established in 1909, was the first biological reserve in South America and spans 336 hectares of Atlantic Forest on the Serra do Mar. Managed for over 30 years by Frederico Carlos Hoehne, the Reserve has been a focal point for botanical research. This study reanalyzed 1,105 bryophyte specimens from the SP Herbarium, comparing them with early 20th-century and recent literature. Of 142 species confirmed in the literature, 103 were classified as resilient, persisting across two periods (1900-1922 and 2000-2022). Seventy-two species were exclusive to the early period, while 114 were recorded only in the past 20 years. Additionally, 133 species mentioned in the literature for the Reserve were not observed in the herbarium material consulted. The findings revealed significant shifts in the bryophyte community and identified previously unrecorded species in the region.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations consist of 17 general objectives, subdivided into 169 targets to be achieved by 2030. Several SDG indices and indicators require continuous analysis and evaluation, and most of these indices are supported in the unit interval ((0,1)). To incorporate the flexibility of the modified Weibull (MW) distribution in doubly constrained datasets, the first objective of this work is to propose a new unit probability distribution based on the MW distribution. For this, a transformation of the MW distribution is applied, through which the unit modified Weibull (UMW) distribution is obtained. The second objective of this work is to introduce a quantile regression model for random variables with UMW distribution, reparameterized in terms of the quantiles of the distribution. Maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) are used to estimate the model parameters. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to evaluate the MLE properties of the model parameters in finite sample sizes. The introduced methods are used for modeling some sustainability indicators related to the SDGs, also considering the reading skills of dyslexic children, which are indirectly associated with SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 3 (Health and Well-Being).