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It was aimed to simultaneously study standardized ileal digestible (SID) tryptophan (Trp) and lysine (Lys) for gilts. A digestibility assay was previously conducted to determine the SID amino acid in the basal diet (low levels of SID Trp and Lys). Sixty-four gilts (15.04 ± 1.44 kg) were allotted to 16 diets in a 4 × 4 factorial arrangement (1.55, 1.85, 2.15 and 2.45 g/kg SID Trp and 9.72, 11.12, 12.52 and 13.92 g/kg SID Lys) with four replicates per treatment. Performance, longissimus muscle (LM), backfat thickness (BF) and blood variables were evaluated. An interaction was observed for G:F, and by response surface model, the optimum Trp level was achieved at 2.15 g/kg (0.159 g/MJ of ME). A quadratic effect of Trp was observed on body weight (BW) and average daily gain (ADG); the daily feed intake increased linearly as Trp increased. The optimum Trp levels of 2.25 and 2.24 g/kg were estimated for BW and ADG, respectively. The BF increased with increasing levels of Trp. There was a quadratic and linear effect of Trp and Lys, respectively, on the LM, in which the optimum Trp level was determined as 2.05 g/kg in the diet. Plasma urea nitrogen decreased as Trp and Lys levels increased. Using estimates provided by response surface, maximized G:F ratio was obtained at 2.15 g SID Trp/kg of diet and at least 13.92 g SID Lys/kg of diet is necessary to optimize the G:F for 15–30 kg gilts, providing a Trp:Lys ratio of 15.4:100.

Habitat loss and fragmentation represent major threats for the conservation of apex predators, such as the jaguar (Panthera onca). Investigating species’ resource selection behavior in response to landscape alteration is critical for developing relevant conservation management plans. The jaguar is found across a variety of habitats with different gradients of human disturbance, making them a good candidate to study how apex predators respond to increasing intensity of human land use. We developed resource selection models to characterize patterns of jaguar resource selection at two different spatial scales, home range (coarse) and foraging scale (fine). This analysis was based on the largest existing GPS-location dataset for jaguars (n = 40 individuals, n = 87,376 locations), spanning the species’ geographic range in Brazil and Argentina. We found that both males and females jaguars exhibited an overall preference for forests and areas close to watercourses at both the home range and foraging scale. At the foraging scale, areas of high livestock density “attracted” male jaguars. We also performed a follow-up analysis to test for context-dependent resource selection (i.e., functional responses) by relating individual behavior to local habitat characteristics. We found that jaguars in heavily-forested landscapes showed strong avoidance of non-forest. Furthermore, we found that only the individuals in closest proximity to watercourses showed positive selection for water. Our results highlight that jaguars display different patterns of resource selection in different areas, demonstrating a considerable ability to use or tolerate a wide variety of different conditions across the species geographic range. This plasticity may allow jaguars to adjust their behavior according to land use changes but also increases human-jaguar conflict and jaguar mortality, especially in areas with high livestock density. Fil: Morato, Ronaldo G.. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; Brasil. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Conservation Ecology Center; Estados Unidos. Instituto Pró-carnívoros; Brasil Fil: Connette, G.M.. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Conservation Ecology Center; Estados Unidos Fil: Stabach, J.A.. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Conservation Ecology Center; Estados Unidos Fil: De Paula, R.C.. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; Brasil. Instituto Pró-carnívoros; Brasil Fil: Ferraz, K.M.P.M.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasil. Instituto Pró-carnívoros; Brasil Fil: Kantek, D.L.Z.. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; Brasil Fil: Miyazaki, Silvia Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; Brasil Fil: Pereira, T.D.C.. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; Brasil Fil: Silva, L.C.. Universidade Federal de Viçosa; Brasil Fil: Paviolo, Agustin Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico; Argentina Fil: de Angelo, Carlos Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico; Argentina Fil: Di Bitetti, Mario Santiago. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico; Argentina Fil: Cruz, María Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico; Argentina Fil: Lima, F.. Univesidade Estadual de São Paulo; Brasil. Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas; Brasil Fil: Cullen Jr., Laury. Univesidade Estadual de São Paulo; Brasil Fil: Sana, D.A.. Instituto Pró-carnívoros; Brasil. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; Brasil Fil: Ramalho, E.E.. Instituto Pró-carnívoros; Brasil. Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá; Brasil Fil: Carvalho, M.M.. Instituto de Defesa e Preservação dos Felídeos Brasileiros; Brasil Fil: da Silva, M.X.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasil Fil: Moraes, M.D.F.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasil Fil: Vogliotti, Ana. Instituto Pró-carnívoros; Brasil. Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana; Brasil Fil: May Jr., J.A.. Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina; Brasil. Associação Onçafari; Brasil Fil: Haberfeld, M.. Associação Onçafari; Brasil Fil: Rampim, L.. Associação Onçafari; Brasil Fil: Sartorello, L.. Associação Onçafari; Brasil Fil: Araujo, G.R.. Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul; Brasil Fil: Wittemyer, G.. State University of Colorado - Fort Collins; Estados Unidos Fil: Ribeiro, M.C.. Univesidade Estadual de São Paulo; Brasil Fil: Leimgruber, P.. Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Conservation Ecology Center; Estados Unidos

Venous punctures are among the most common procedures performed by healthcare professionals. In particular, the cubital fossa is the site where the venous accesses are frequently made due to the number of superficial veins and the numerous anastomoses in this region. The arrangement of these venous connections is of particular interest for clinical application in several areas, thus, the healthcare professional must possess knowledge about these vessels and their anatomical relationships. The present study aims to analyze the venous pattern of the cubital fossa among individuals from Brazil. This study was approved by a Research Ethics Committee. The sample had 100 healthy individuals (50 men and 50 women). The superficial veins of the cubital fossa were analyzed with the aid of a sphygmomanometer. When inflated, the pressure in the forearm increased and the veins became prominent. It was observed that in the selected sample the types with the highest prevalence were the Type I and Type VII, both with 22% in 200 limbs studied. The chi2 test showed a significant statistical difference between the anastomosis pattern and the sex of the studied sample. The anastomotic pattern of the superficial veins of the studies sample is similar to African, European and Asian populations. The study of these variations is necessary to provide scientific basis for the healthcare professional during a venipuncture in order to avoid iatrogenic errors and damages in cutaneous nerves or neighboring arteries.

Our aim was to verify the effect on gain and genetic diversity through the restriction of the number of trees per family in selection, in order to compose an elite population of Eucalyp­tus urophylla in two trials under distinct management levels. We studied 166 open-pollinated families of E. urophylla in Anhembi, Sao Paulo State, Brazil under commercial practices, and the same families in Selvíria, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Bra­zil under lower management level (mainly no mineral fertiliza­tion). Mortality, height and diameter at breast height (DBH) were measured. DBH was analyzed by the REML/BLUP to select the best 25 trees, with four levels of tree restriction per family (no restriction; 1; 2 and 3 per family). We evaluated heritability; genetic gain and effective size of number of total and private alleles; observed and expected heterozygosity; coancestry and fixation index. A large difference in survival (48 and 83 %) and productivity (MAI of 26 and 44 m3ha-1y-1) was observed bet­ween trials due to the different levels of management applied. The highest restriction in number of individuals per family caused a small decrease in gain, corresponding to 7 % in the more productive trial and 3 % in the less productive one. Observed and expected heterozygosity, coancestry and fixati­on index were not significantly (lower than 5 %) affected by the restriction in both sites. The restriction of one tree per family allowed different alleles to be kept in the selected population and higher effective population size in order to insure variation for the next generations.

Snakebites comprise a serious health problem in several countries due to their global incidence, which exceeds 2.5 million per year, and the elevated number of victim fatalities. To counteract envenomations, antivenoms have been used regularly for more than a century. Apart from side effects including anaphylactic reactions, antivenoms are not able to efficiently neutralize local tissue damage, which contributes to increasing the severity and morbidity observed in patients. This fact, in turn, may be responsible for economic hardship, particularly in rural populations of developing countries. In the present work, we evaluated the antiophidian properties of 12 Brazilian plant extracts against the hemolytic, coagulant, hemorrhagic and proteolytic effects of Lachesis muta venom. Taken together, our data revealed that most of these aqueous products were capable of inhibiting those activities at different levels, except for Sapindus saponaria extract. In contrast, Stryphnodendron barbatiman extract completely neutralized all the analyzed biological activities. Thus, we may conclude that Brazilian flora may also be useful against L. muta accidents.

Glycogen synthases catalyze the transfer of a glucosyl moiety from a nucleotide phosphosugar to a nascent glycogen chain via an alpha1--4 linkage. Although many genes coding for glycogen synthases have been described, the enzymes from rabbit and yeast are the best characterized. The fungus Neurospora crassa accumulates glycogen during exponential growth, and mobilizes it at the onset of stationary phase, or when placed at high temperature or starved for carbon. Through a PCR methodology, the gsn cDNA coding for the N. crassa glycogen synthase was isolated, and the amino acid sequence of the protein was deduced. The product of the cDNA seems to be the only glycogen synthase present in N. crassa. Characterization of the gsn cDNA revealed that it codes for a 706-amino acids protein, which is very similar to mammalian and yeast glycogen synthases. Gene expression increased during exponential growth, reaching its maximal level at the end of the exponential growth phase, which is consistent with the pattern of glycogen synthase activity and glycogen level. Expression of the gsn is highly regulated at the transcriptional level. Under culture conditions that induce heat shock, conidiation, and carbon starvation, expression of the gsn gene was decreased, and glycogen synthase activity and glycogen content behaved similarly.