Long-term monitoring data on (Newman, 1838) (Coleoptera, Rutelidae) across the Azorean Islands.

Background: The Japanese Beetle, Newman, 1838 (Coleoptera, Rutelidae), is a univoltine agricultural pest that poses a serious threat to various agricultural crops. For more than 16 years, the Azorean official authorities have implemented a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) programme that is crucial for understanding the dynamics of insect pests, such as the Japanese Beetle, and their impacts on agricultural ecosystems. The significance of this long-term monitoring extends beyond understanding the pest's life cycle.

Macroalgae of the Campeche Bank, Gulf of Mexico.

Background: The coastal habitats in the southern Gulf of Mexico face multiple threats, such as rising water temperatures, acidification, increased turbidity, invasive species and pollutants. This imperils the biodiversity of beaches, wetlands and coral reefs. To address this, there is a need for comprehensive baseline information on marine biodiversity.

Polyclads (Platyhelminthes) in the southern Gulf of Mexico: unveiling biodiversity and descriptions of two new species.

The order Polycladida (Platyhelminthes) in Mexico has historically received limited attention from researchers, primarily due to challenges associated with its low detectability and the scarcity of specialists. This study addresses part of the gap by conducting a comprehensive assessment of polyclad diversity in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Our investigation revealed a total of 27 distinct species, belonging to 17 genera and 12 families, within the suborders Cotylea and Acotylea.

Revealing the Bioactivities of Venom Using as a Model.

, commonly known as the Portuguese Man o' War, is one of the most venomous members of the Cnidaria yet is poorly understood. This article investigates the toxicity of venom by assessing its behavioral and toxicological effects on . The venom administered orally revealed dose- and time-dependent mortality, with an LD50 of 67.

Pharmaceuticals in urban streams: A review of their detection and effects in the ecosystem.

The presence of pharmaceuticals in urban freshwater has been considered an emerging issue. Although rivers are better studied, the streams crossing the cities, which are prone to higher concentrations of pharmaceuticals, and with a higher potential to affect animals, plant and human health, were never specifically addressed in a review. Thus, here we performed a literature review on the existing pharmaceutical contamination and impacts of these compounds in the urban stream ecosystems.

Analysis of the immune transcriptome of the invasive pest spotted wing drosophila infected by .

is a pest of global concern due to its great impact on several crops. The entomopathogenic nematode was highly virulent to the larvae of the fly although some immune mechanisms were triggered along the infection course. Thus, to understand the gene activation profile we performed a comparative transcriptome of larvae infected with and to map the differentially expressed genes involved in the defence response.

Epstein-Barr virus-positive inflammatory follicular dendritic cell sarcoma: A brief report of a rare neoplasm diagnosed with cytopathology on a splenic biopsy.

Splenic biopsies for cytology remain challenging due to the inherent difficulty in obtaining adequate samples and the paucity of literature on rare entities arising in the spleen. Among these, are tumors arising from blood vessels, lymphomas and rarely, mesenchymal dendritic cell neoplasms. An important but rarely considered entity primarily arising in the spleen is Epstein-Barr virus-positive inflammatory follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (EBV+ IFDCS).

Topology Testing and Demographic Modeling Illuminate a Novel Speciation Pathway in the Greater Caribbean Sea Following the Formation of the Isthmus of Panama.

Recent genomic analyses have highlighted the prevalence of speciation with gene flow in many taxa and have underscored the importance of accounting for these reticulate evolutionary processes when constructing species trees and generating parameter estimates. This is especially important for deepening our understanding of speciation in the sea where fast-moving ocean currents, expanses of deep water, and periodic episodes of sea level rise and fall act as soft and temporary allopatric barriers that facilitate both divergence and secondary contact. Under these conditions, gene flow is not expected to cease completely while contemporary distributions are expected to differ from historical ones.

Medication Use Among Pregnant Women With SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Risk of Hospitalization-A Study in Two Brazilian Hospitals.

There is limited evidence about the use of medications among pregnant women with COVID-19, as well as risk factors for hospitalization due to COVID-19 in pregnancy. We aimed to describe the use of medications among SARS-CoV-2-positive pregnant women at the time around infection and identify predictors for hospitalization due to COVID-19 in two hospitals in Brazil. This is a hospital record-based study among pregnant women with positive SARS-CoV-2 tests between March 2020 and August 2022 from two Brazilian hospitals.

Biocontrol potential of six strains isolated in the Azores Archipelago.

Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are closely associated with and potentially used as their biological control agents, although field results proved inconsistent and evoked a continual pursuit of native EPNs more adapted to the environment. Therefore, we surveyed the Azorean Archipelago to isolate new strains of and to evaluate their virulence against the model organism under laboratory conditions. Six strains were obtained from pasture and coastal environments and both nematode and symbiont bacteria were molecularly identified.

Marine Bioprospecting: Enzymes and Stress Proteins from the Sea Anemones and .

The bioprospecting of sea anemone tissues and secretions has revealed that they are natural libraries of polypeptides with diverse biological activities that can be utilized to develop of biotechnological tools with potential medical and industrial applications. This study conducted a proteomic analysis of crude venom extracts from Verrill, 1869, and Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1860. The obtained data allowed us to identify 201 polypeptides, of which 39% were present in both extracts.

Geographic range size and species morphology determines the organization of sponge host-guest interaction networks across tropical coral reefs.

Sponges are widely spread organisms in the tropical reefs of the American Northwest-Atlantic Ocean, they structure ecosystems and provide services such as shelter, protection from predators, and food sources to a wide diversity of both vertebrates and invertebrates species. The high diversity of sponge-associated fauna can generate complex networks of species interactions over small and large spatial-temporal gradients. One way to start uncovering the organization of the sponge host-guest complex networks is to understand how the accumulated geographic area, the sponge morphology and, sponge taxonomy contributes to the connectivity of sponge species within such networks.

Does depth divide? Variable genetic connectivity patterns among shallow and mesophotic coral populations across the Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean.

Despite general declines in coral reef ecosystems in the tropical western Atlantic, some reefs, including mesophotic reefs (30-150 m), are hypothesized to function as coral refugia due to their relative isolation from anthropogenic stressors. Understanding the connectivity dynamics among these putative refugia and more degraded reefs is critical to develop effective management strategies that promote coral metapopulation persistence and recovery. This study presents a geographically broad assessment of shallow (<30 m) and mesophotic (>30 m) connectivity dynamics of the depth-generalist coral species .

Monitoring Arthropods in maize and pasture fields in São Miguel and São Jorge Islands: IPM-Popillia Project.

Background: The dataset presented here is an achievement of the H2020 European project "Integrated Pest Management of the Invasive Japanese Beetle, (IPM-Popillia)". This project addresses the challenge of a new risk to plant health in Europe, the invasion of the Japanese beetle, (Newman, 1838) (Coleoptera, Rutelidae) and provides an environmentally friendly IPM Toolbox to control the expanding pest populations across Europe. This study aims to present the records of terrestrial arthropod diversity with a special focus on four groups belonging to Carabids and Staphylinid beetles (Coleoptera), Opiliones and Anisolabididae (Dermaptera), collected with the potential to be used as biocontrol agents against in future Integrated Pest Management programmes.

Exploring Gut Microbiome Variations between Populations of Azores.

(: ), is an emerging invasive pest in Europe and America. In the Azores, this pest was first found on Terceira Island during the sixties and soon spread to other islands. The rate of infestation differs between islands, and we hypothesized that microbiome composition could play a role.

Use of Microbiological and Chemical Data to Evaluate the Effects of Tourism on Water Quality in Karstic Cenotes in Yucatan, Mexico.

Cenotes are spectacular karst formations in Yucatan, Mexico, often used for recreation. However, their impact on water quality has yet to be explored in detail. Therefore, during Easter, water samples were collected from four cenotes to identify variations in water quality associated with the presence of tourists.

High taxonomic turnover and functional homogenization of rotifer communities in an amazonian river.

Patterns of beta diversity of plankton communities in rivers have been mainly determined by hydrological factors that alter the dispersion and composition of species and traits. Rotifers in the Guamá River (eastern Amazonian River) were sampled (monthly between October 2017 and June 2019) to analyze the temporal variation of taxonomic and functional beta diversity and its partitions (turnover and nestedness) as well as the effects of temporal, environmental, and seasonal dissimilarities. Taxonomic turnover and functional nestedness over time were observed as well as functional homogenization, which was arguably due to the hypereutrophic condition of the river.

The modulation effect of the Steinernema carpocapsae - Xenorhabdus nematophila complex on immune-related genes in Drosophila suzukii larvae.

Larvae of the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii are susceptible to the Steinernema carpocapsae - Xenorhabdus nematophila complex and an assessment of the immune-regulatory system activation in this insect was performed to understand the response to the nematode infection. The expressions of 14 immune-related genes of different pathways (Imd, Toll, Jak-STAT, ProPO, JNK, TGF-β) were analyzed using qRT-PCR to determine variations after nematode penetration (90 min and 4 h) and after bacterial release (14 h). Before the bacteria were present, the nematodes were not recognized by the immune system of the larvae and practically none of the analyzed pathways presented variations when compared with the non-infected larvae.

A ShK-like Domain from with Bioinsecticidal Potential.

Entomopathogenic nematodes are used as biological control agents against a broad range of insect pests. We ascribed the pathogenicity of these organisms to the excretory/secretory products (ESP) released by the infective nematode. Our group characterized different virulence factors produced by that underlie its success as an insect pathogen.

Excreted secreted products from the parasitic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae manipulate the Drosophila melanogaster immune response.

Steinernema carpocapsae is an entomopathogenic nematode (EPN) that rapidly infects and kills a wide range of insect hosts and has been linked to host immunosuppression during the initial stages of infection. The lethal nature of S. carpocapsae infections has previously been credited to its symbiotic bacteria; however, it has become evident that the nematodes are able to effectively kill their hosts independently through their excretion/secretion products (ESPs).

Predator control of marine communities increases with temperature across 115 degrees of latitude.

Early naturalists suggested that predation intensity increases toward the tropics, affecting fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes by latitude, but empirical support is still limited. Several studies have measured consumption rates across latitude at large scales, with variable results. Moreover, how predation affects prey community composition at such geographic scales remains unknown.

Scaphoid Dislocation: A Rare Pattern of Wrist Instability - A Case Report.

Introduction: Scaphoid dislocations are rare injuries, usually resulting from high-energy trauma and therefore associated to other lesions which may obscure the diagnosis.

Case Presentation: The authors present a case of a 59-year-old man with a partial complex dislocation of the scaphoid, diagnosed 6 days after the initial injury. Closed reduction was unsuccessfully attempted, so the patient was submitted to open reduction and internal fixation.

Pigment and Fatty Acid Heterogeneity in the Sea Slug Is Not Shaped by Habitat Depth.

Long-term retention of functional chloroplasts in animal cells occurs only in sacoglossan sea slugs. Analysis of molecules related to the maintenance of these organelles can provide valuable information on this trait (kleptoplasty). The goal of our research was to characterize the pigment and fatty acid (FA) composition of the sea slug and their associated chloroplasts that are kept functional for a long time, and to quantify total lipid, glycolipid and phospholipid contents, identifying differences between habitats: shallow (0-4 m) and deeper (8-12 m) waters.