Ecological distribution of stream macroalgal communities from a drainage basin in the Serra da Canastra National Park, Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Ecological distribution of stream macroalgal communities from a drainage basin in the Serra da Canastra National Park, Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Semiparametric modeling of the spatial distribution of occupational accident risk in the casual labor market, Piracicaba, southeast Brazil

The objective of this study was to estimate the spatial distribution of work accident risk in the informal work market in the urban zone of an industrialized city in southeast Brazil and to examine concomitant effects of age, gender, and type of occupation after controlling for spatial risk variation. The basic methodology adopted was that of a population-based case-control study with particular interest focused on the spatial location of work. Cases were all casual workers in the city suffering work accidents during a one-year period; controls were selected from the source population of casual laborers by systematic random sampling of urban homes. The spatial distribution of work accidents was estimated via a semiparametric generalized additive model with a nonparametric bidimensional spline of the geographical coordinates of cases and controls as the nonlinear spatial component, and including age, gender, and occupation as linear predictive variables in the parametric component. We analyzed 1,918 cases and 2,245 controls between 1/11/2003 and 31/10/2004 in Piracicaba, Brazil. Areas of significantly high and low accident risk were identified in relation to mean risk in the study region (p < 0.01). Work accident risk for informal workers varied significantly in the study area. Significant age, gender, and occupational group effects on accident risk were identified after correcting for this spatial variation. A good understanding of high-risk groups and high-risk regions underpins the formulation of hypotheses concerning accident causality and the development of effective public accident prevention policies.

Nuclear-follower foraging associations among Characiformes fishes and Potamotrygonidae rays in clean waters environments of Teles Pires and Xingu rivers basins, Midwest Brazil

Por meio de observações sub e supra-aquáticas foram registradas associações alimentares do tipo nuclear-seguidor entre três espécies de peixes characiformes - Chalceus epakros, Hemiodus semitaeniatus e Hemiodus unimaculatus - e uma espécie de raia de água doce - Potamotrygon orbignyi - nas bacias dos rios Teles Pires e Xingu, no Centro-Oeste do Brasil. Os peixes teleósteos foram observados seguindo as raias quando estas revolviam o substrato à procura de invertebrados, formando discretas nuvens de sedimento. Essas situações atraíram os peixes que se aproximaram das raias para se alimentar de pequenas presas e outros tipos de alimentos expostos desta forma. Esse é um típico exemplo de relação comensal onde um participante é beneficiado enquanto o outro não é prejudicado e representa o segundo registro na literatura de associação alimentar do tipo nuclear-seguidor entre raias potamotrigonídeas e peixes teleósteos, demonstrando o potencial de estudos naturalísticos para a descoberta de novas interações envolvendo espécies de peixes de água doce.

New species of Harttia (Loricariidae, Loricariinae) from the Rio Sao Francisco Basin

A new species of the mailed catfish genus Harttia is described from the Sao Francisco River drainage, States of Minas Gerais and Bahia, Brazil. The new species is distinguished from congeners by the combination of an abdominal region covered by small bony plates; plates 3-4 times in eye diameter; interorbital width 3.1-4.0 in head length and greater than eye diameter; body width at anal fin origin 6.3-8.3 in standard length; margins of the head and pectoral fin spine of mature males with elongate and conspicuous odontodes; anal fin of males longer than of females. A key to Harttia species and a comparison with other species are provided.

Reproductive migration and population dynamics of the blue crab Callinectes danae in an estuary in southeastern Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Occurrence of Atta laevigata (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the South of Espirito Santo State, Brazil. Recently Introduced or Endangered Species?

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Seroprevalence of anti-Leishmania spp. antibodies in rural dogs from the city of Monte Negro, State of Rondônia, Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Phylogeography and Pleistocene demographic history of the endangered marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) from the Rio de la Plata Basin

The marsh deer is the largest neotropical cervid with morphological and ecological adaptations to wetlands and riparian habitats. Historically, this now endangered species occupied habitats along the major river basins in South America, ranging from southern Amazonia into northern Argentina to the Parana river delta. This particularly close association with wetlands makes marsh deer an excellent species for studying the effects of Pleistocene climatic changes on their demographic and phylogeographic patterns. We examined mitochondrial DNA variation in 127 marsh deer from 4 areas distributed throughout the Rio de]a Plata basin. We found 17 haplotypes in marsh deer from Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina that differed by 1-8 substitutions in a 601 bp fragment of mitochondrial control region sequence, and 486 bp of cytochrome b revealed only 3 variable sites that defined 4 haplotypes. Phylogeny and distribution of control region haplotypes suggest that populations close to the Pantanal area in central Brazil underwent a rapid population expansion and that this occurred approximately 28,000-25,000 years BP. Paleoclimatic data from this period suggests that there was a dramatic increase for precipitation in the medium latitudes in South America and these conditions may have fostered marsh deer's population growth.

Genetic diversity and population structure of pumas (Puma concolor) in southeastern Brazil: implications for conservation in a human-dominated landscape

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Thermochronology of the South American platform in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, through apatite fission tracks

The fission-track method (FTM) in apatite was applied to 45 samples collected in the Serra da Mantiqueira (Mantiqueira mountain range), the Serra do Mar (Mar mountain range), regions next to these mountain ranges and the coastal region between Ubatuba and Santos in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, to study the thermochronology of the South American Platform in southeast Brazil and its influence on Santos and Campos basins. The data presented in this work complement the previously presented data on the same region (Tello Saenz et al., 2003. J. S. Am. Earth Sci. 15, 765-774) with 31 new samples analyzed. The weighted mean of the corrected ages from high Mantiqueira (around 1000 m), (121 +/- 6) Ma, coincides with the South Atlantic opening. The fact that its thermal history starts at a relatively low temperature (similar to 80 degrees C) suggests that the age of similar to 120 Ma would be the formation age of Serra da Mantiqueira due to a rapid pulse, in which tracks had no time to be retained at the closure temperature, that is similar to 120 degrees C. The Serra do Mar presents a more complicated thermal history, with several reactivations indicated by the changes in the slope of its cooling curve. The thermal histories obtained in the regions next to these mountain ranges are compatible with the results mentioned above. The Santos Basin has unconformities that agree with changes in the slope thermal histories of the studied region. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fission track and U-Pb in situ dating applied to detrital zircon from the Vale do Rio do Peixe Formation, Bauru Group, Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Trauma and envenoming caused by stingrays and other fish in a fishing community in Pontal do Paranapanema, state of São Paulo, Brazil: epidemiology, clinical aspects, and therapeutic and preventive measures

INTRODUÇÃO: Os acidentes causados por peixes são comuns em comunidades de pescadores fluviais no Brasil, sendo acidentes ocupacionais na maioria das vezes. Estas populações não têm informações dos mecanismos de trauma e envenenamento. MÉTODOS: Através de um questionário aplicado aos pescadores, foram obtidos dados clínicos e epidemiológicos sobre acidentes em Rosana, Pontal do Paranapanema, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Estes dados foram analisados e convertidos em um programa de prevenção e tratamento de acidentes através de um folheto de fácil assimilação RESULTADOS: Trinta e nove pescadores responderam o questionário. Todos os pacientes apresentaram ferimentos causados por algum peixe. Dos peixes mencionados, mandijubas (Pimelodus maculatus) foram os mais associados aos ferimentos, mas outros também causaram traumas. em relação às arraias, seis pescadores tinham sido envenenados. Dor intensa e úlceras foram os principais sintomas. Aproximadamente metade dos acidentados usou apenas medidas de tratamentos populares. CONCLUSÕES: Os pescadores apresentaram acidentes múltiplos por mandis, que são peçonhentos e causam dor intensa, assim como traumas por outros peixes, como surubins, traíras, corvinas de água doce e piranhas. Cerca de 16% dos entrevistados apresentaram envenenamento por arraias. Nossos dados e experiência prévia permitiram a criação de um folheto de fácil assimilação pelas populações locais que pode ajudar os pescadores de forma efetiva, em uma área extremamente carente de serviços de saúde e prevenção de doenças. Esta iniciativa é aplicável a toda a bacia do Rio da Prata, área extensa e de fauna similar.

Genetic diversity in Egeria densa and E. najas in Jupia Reservoir, Brazil

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

New occurrence of microchromosomes B in Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae (Pisces, Characidae) from the Parana River of Brazil: analysis of the synaptonemal complex

The Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae specimens showed a karyotype consisting of 2n = 50 chromosomes with 12 metacentrics, 36 submetacentrics and two subtelocentrics. In addition to the basic karyotype, all the males specimens have cells ranging from zero to two B microchromosomes in mitotic metaphases. These chromosomes were not observed in the female specimens. C-band analysis showed a distribution pattern of characteristic heterochromatin with interstitial and centromeric blocks. However, the B chromosomes were faintly stained with C-banding and were not fluorescent with CMA(3) staining. The meiotic studies showed the formation of bivalents in metaphase I and in pachytene under an optical microscope. Through synaptonemal complex analysis with an electron microscope, the pachytene showed 25 bivalents completely paired and a small bivalent corresponding to the B chromosomes. In the same preparation, one of the B chromosomes was observed in a univalent form. on the basis of pairing behavior and morphology it is assumed that B chromosomes of M. sanctaefilomenae show homology between them and their evolutionary aspects are discussed.