State University of Santa Cruz

About: State University of Santa Cruz is a education organization based out in Ilhéus, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Species richness. The organization has 3266 authors who have published 4642 publications receiving 51876 citations. The organization is also known as: Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz.

What do insects, anurans, birds, and mammals have to say about soundscape indices in a tropical savanna

Abstract: The application of acoustic indices is incipient and still needs validation before it can reliably characterize soundscapes and monitor rapidly disappearing hot-spot areas as the Brazilian tropical savanna (Cerrado). Here we investigate which of six acoustic indices better correlate with the 24 h zoophony richness of insects, anurans, birds, and mammals. We sampled one minute every 30 minutes for seven days on three sites in Serra da Canastra National Park (Minas Gerais state, Brazil) and extracted the sonotype richness and six indices based on recordings with a bandwidth of up to 48 kHz. The Acoustic Diversity, Evenness, Entropy, and Normalized Difference Soundscape indices followed the temporal trends of the sonotype richness of insects and anurans. The Acoustic Complexity (ACI) and Bioacoustic (BIO) indices did not correlated with sonotype richness. ACI and BIO were influenced by sonic abundance and geophony. We emphasize the need to include insects and anurans on soundscape and acoustic ecology analyses and to avoid bias on avian fauna alone. We also suggest that future studies explore measures of sonic abundance and acoustic niche occupation of sonotypes to complement measures of zoophony richness and better understand what each faunal group is telling us about indices.

Diversity of Anastrepha spp. (Diptera: Tephritidae) and associated braconid parasitoids from native and exotic hosts in southeastern Bahia, Brazil.

Abstract: We documented fruit fly-host associations and infestation rates over 5 yr in the state of Bahia, Brazil, by systematically collecting native and introduced fruits in backyard and commercial orchards, experimental stations, and patches of native vegetation Fruit were collected in multiple sites in the southern and southernmost regions of Bahia A total of 94222 kg from 27 fruit species in 15 plant families was collected throughout this study Of these, 15 plant species from six families were infested by Anastrepha species A total of 11,614 fruit flies was reared from the fruit (5,178 females and 6,436 males) No specimens of Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) were recovered Eleven Anastrepha species were recovered from the collected fruit: Anastrepha antunesi Lima (004%), Anastrepha distincta Greene (01%), Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann) (535%), Anastrepha leptozona Hendel (45%), Anastrepha manihoti Lima (01%), Anastrepha montei Lima (10%), Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart) (330%), Anastreph

Assessment of Alcohol and Tobacco Use Disorders Among Religious Users of Ayahuasca.

Abstract: The aims of this study were to assess the impact of ceremonial use of ayahuasca-a psychedelic brew containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and β-carboline -and attendance at Uniao do Vegetal (UDV) meetings on substance abuse; here we report the findings related to alcohol and tobacco use disorder. A total of 1,947 members of UDV 18+ years old were evaluated in terms of years of membership and ceremonial attendance during the previous 12 months. Participants were recruited from 10 states from all major regions of Brazil. Alcohol and tobacco use was evaluated through questionnaires first developed by the World Health Organization and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Analyses compared levels of alcohol and tobacco use disorder between the UDV and a national normative sample (n = 7,939). Binomial tests for proportions indicated that lifetime use of alcohol and tobacco was higher in UDV sample compared to the Brazilian norms for age ranges of 25-34 and over 34 years old, but not for the age range of 18-24 years old. However, current use disorders for alcohol and tobacco were significantly lower in the UDV sample than the Brazilian norms. Regression analyses revealed a significant impact of attendance at ayahuasca ceremonies during the previous 12 months and years of UDV membership on the reduction of alcohol and tobacco use disorder.

The K Luminosity-Metallicity Relation for Dwarf Galaxies and the Tidal Dwarf Galaxies in the Tails of HCG 31

Abstract: We determine a K-band luminosity-metallicity (K-Z) relation for dwarf irregular galaxies, over a large range of magnitudes, -20.5 < M_K < -13.5, using a combination of K photometry from either the 2-micron all sky survey (2MASS) or the recent study of Vadivescu er al. (2005), and metallicities derived mainly with the T_e method, from several different studies. We then use this newly-derived relation, together with published K_s photometry and our new spectra of objects in the field of HCG 31 to discuss the nature of the possible tidal dwarf galaxies of this group. We catalogue a new member of HCG 31, namely "R", situated ~40 kpc north of the group center, composed by a ring of H alpha knots which coincides with a peak in HI. This object is a deviant point in the K-Z relation (it has too high metallicity for its luminosity) and its projected distance to the parent galaxy and large gas reservoir makes it one of the most promising tidal dwarf galaxy candidates of HCG 31, together with object F. The subsystems A1, E, F, H and R all have metallicities similar to that of the galaxies A+C and B, result that is expected in a scenario where those were formed from material expelled from the central galaxies of HCG 31. While objects A1, E and H will most probably fall back onto their progenitors, F and R may survive as tidal dwarf galaxies. We find that two galaxies of HCG 31, G and Q, have A+em spectral signatures, and are probably evolving toward a post-starburst phase.