Discovering the allure of forests: Exploring adolescent queries in nature-rich environments.

This study explores adolescents' inherent curiosity about nature through the production of self-generated questions during a field visit to a nature-rich environment, followed by descriptive-interpretative analysis using focus groups. Utilizing cultural probes and content-free question tokens, we collected 164 valid questions produced by 36 adolescents during the field session. Biotic elements, like species, turned out to be more intriguing than abiotic elements, originating 89.

The BALA project: A pioneering monitoring of Azorean forest invertebrates over two decades (1999-2022).

Globally, there is a concerning decline in many insect populations, and this trend likely extends to all arthropods, potentially impacting unique island biota. Native non-endemic and endemic species on islands are under threat due to habitat destruction, with the introduction of exotic, and potentially invasive, species, further contributing to this decline. While long-term studies of plants and vertebrate fauna are available, long-term arthropod datasets are limited, hindering comparisons with better-studied taxa.

Assessing nature exposure: a study on the reliability and validity of a Portuguese version of the nature exposure scale.

Introduction: Engaging with nature has been widely acknowledged for its positive impact on well-being. Traditionally, assessments of nature exposure focus on estimating green space exposure and outdoor time. However, the Nature Exposure Scale (NES) offers a unique approach by evaluating the quality of nature experiences, encompassing both deliberate and spontaneous encounters.

Mobilome characterization of the beetle Euchroma gigantea (Buprestidae) uncovers multiple long range Tc1-Mariner horizontal transfer events.

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile repetitive DNA sequences that can transfer horizontally between species. Due to their mutagenic characteristics, TEs are associated with different evolutionary events, including chromosomal rearrangements that are abundant in the beetle Euchroma gigantea. In order to understand more in depth the impact of TEs on the genomic evolution of E.

SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores: IV - The spiders of Terceira and Pico Islands (2019-2021) and general diversity patterns after ten years of sampling.

Background: Long-term studies are key to understand the drivers of biodiversity erosion, such as land-use change and habitat degradation, climate change, invasive species or pollution. The long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores) started in 2012 and focuses on arthropod monitoring, using SLAM (Sea, Land and Air Malaise) traps, aiming to understand the impact of the drivers of biodiversity erosion on Azorean native forests (Azores, Portugal). This is the fourth contribution including SLAM project data and the second focused on the spider fauna (Arachnida, Araneae) of native forests on two islands (Pico and Terceira).

Data standardization of plant-pollinator interactions.

Background: Animal pollination is an important ecosystem function and service, ensuring both the integrity of natural systems and human well-being. Although many knowledge shortfalls remain, some high-quality data sets on biological interactions are now available. The development and adoption of standards for biodiversity data and metadata has promoted great advances in biological data sharing and aggregation, supporting large-scale studies and science-based public policies.

Crassicaudiasis in three geographically and chronologically distant Cuvier's beaked whales () stranded off Brazil.

The Cuvier's beaked whale (CBW; ) is a cosmopolitan marine mammal found in deep tropical and temperate waters of all oceans. CBW strandings have been recorded sporadically in Brazil; however, there is lack of information available regarding their causes of stranding and/or death. Herein, we report the epidemiologic, pathologic, morphologic parasitologic features and molecular identification of arterial and renal crassicaudiasis by sp.

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics.

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown.

Diverse mobilome of Dichotomius (Luederwaldtinia) schiffleri (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) reveals long-range horizontal transfer events of DNA transposons.

Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile DNA sequences that are able to move from one genomic location to another. These selfish elements are known as genomic parasites, since they hijack the host molecular machinery to generate new copies of themselves. The mobilization of TEs can be seen as a natural mutagen because new TE copies can insert into different loci and impact host genomic structure through different mechanisms.

Characterization of the mitogenome of Rhammatocerus brasiliensis and phylogenetic analysis of the family Acrididae (Orthoptera).

Acrididae family is characterized by diverse phylogenetic uncertainties, with different paraphyletic subfamilies. This study characterized the mitogenome of the grasshopper Rhammatocerus brasiliensis and determined its phylogenetic position in the family Acrididae. Sequencing was performed on an Illumina platform.

Diagnostic Validity of an Isokinetic Testing to Identify Partial Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic validity of an isokinetic testing to detect partial injuries on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Design: Prospective diagnostic study.

Settings: Orthopedic clinic, physiotherapy clinic, orthopedic hospital, and diagnostic/image clinic.

Standardised inventories of spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) of Macaronesia I: The native forests of the Azores (Pico and Terceira islands).

Background: The data presented here come from samples collected as part of two recent research projects (NETBIOME - ISLANDBIODIV and FCT - MACDIV) which aimed at understanding the drivers of community assembly in Macaronesian islands. We applied the sampling protocol COBRA (Conservation Oriented Biodiversity Rapid Assessment, Cardoso 2009) in sixteen 50 m x 50 m native forest plots in the Azorean Islands of Pico (6 plots) and Terceira (10 plots) to assess spider diversity. Through this publication, we contribute to the knowledge of the arachnofauna of the Azores and, more specifically, to that of the islands of Pico and Terceira.

ATLANTIC EPIPHYTES: a data set of vascular and non-vascular epiphyte plants and lichens from the Atlantic Forest.

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts.

Synthesis and characterization of Fe(μ-OH)Zn complexes: effects of a second coordination sphere and increase in the chelate ring size on the hydrolysis of a phosphate diester and DNA.

The synthesis and characterization of three ligands and their respective heterobinuclear FeZn complexes were carried out, with the goal of mimicking the active site of purple acid phosphatases (PAPs). The ligand 2-hydroxy-3-(((2-hydroxy-5-methyl-3-(((2-(pyridin-2-yl)ethyl)(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)amino)methyl)benzyl)(pyridin-2ylmethyl)amino)methyl)-5-methylbenzaldehyde (HL) was synthesized and its complex (FeZnL) was used as a basis for comparison with similar complexes previously published in the literature. Subsequent modifications were conducted in the aldehyde group, where 1,2-ethanediamine and 1,4-diaminobutane were used as side chain derivatives.

Cave microbial community composition in oceanic islands: disentangling the effect of different colored mats in diversity patterns of Azorean lava caves.

Processes determining diversity and composition of bacterial communities in island volcanic caves are still poorly understood. Here, we characterized colored microbial mats in 14 volcanic caves from two oceanic islands of the Azores using 16S rRNA gene sequences. Factors determining community diversity (α) and composition (β) were explored, namely colored mats, caves and islands, as well as environmental and chemical characteristics of caves.

Comparison of Bacterial Diversity in Azorean and Hawai'ian Lava Cave Microbial Mats.

Worldwide, lava caves host colorful microbial mats. However, little is known about the diversity of these microorganisms, or what role they may play in the subsurface ecosystem. White and yellow microbial mats were collected from four lava caves each on the Azorean island of Terceira and the Big Island of Hawai'i, to compare the bacterial diversity found in lava caves from two widely separated archipelagos in two different oceans at different latitudes.

Highly focalised thermotherapy using a ferrimagnetic cement in the treatment of a melanoma mouse model by low temperature hyperthermia.

Purpose: Evaluation of the effectiveness of highly focalised thermotherapy (HFT) in a melanoma mouse model, using a ferrimagnetic cement (FC) and repeated low hyperthermia treatments.

Materials And Methods: A melanoma mouse model was induced with B16F10 cells in C57BL6 mice. The FC, injected into the tumour, was used as the magnetic vehicle for HFT.