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Biologists Laura Carolina Leal and Felipe Passos performed a series of experiments in Brazil's Northeast region - specifically in the interior of Bahia State, where the semiarid Caatinga biome predominates - to determine how plants with extrafloral nectaries interact with ants. Extrafloral nectaries are nectar-secreting glands not involved in pollination which supply insects with carbohydrates in exchange for defense against herbivores. The nectar attracts predatory insects that consume [...]

Natural compounds isolated from Nectandra leucantha, a neotropical tree species belonging to the laurel family (Lauraceae) and endemic to the Atlantic Rainforest biome in Brazil, where its common name is canela-seca or canela-branca, could result in new medications for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis and Chagas disease. In a study supported by São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP , researchers at Adolfo Lutz Institute (IAL) in São Paulo City found that neolignans [...]

Brazilian and European researchers have demonstrated exactly how a nanotechnology-based compound delivers an oral vaccine against hepatitis B to the immune system. When particles containing silica and an antigen combine, even though they are different sizes, they reach the intestine without being destroyed by the acidity of the digestive system. A compound of nanostructured SBA-15 silica and HBsAg, the hepatitis B surface antigen, was submitted to different types of X-ray imaging in European [...]

Flexible electronics is one of the most important trends in technology today. The market is growing so fast that it is expected to double in value in the next decade. Extremely light and even bendable optoelectronic equipment that supplies, detects and controls light will become commonplace in the near future. A great deal of research is progressing in this direction, as exemplified by a paper recently published in Scientific Reports. The paper describes an experimental and theoretical study [...]

An immune mechanism that makes babies more likely than adults to die from sepsis has been identified by scientists affiliated with the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases ( CRID in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State (Brazil). The study is published ) in Critical Care. The scientists are planning to test new therapeutic approaches based on the discovery. "We're designing a clinical trial with drugs that have been approved for human use and are known to induce this [...]

Brazilian scientists at São Paulo State University (UNESP) collaborating with colleagues at the University of Maryland and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a dairy cattle breeding method that adds a new parameter to genetic selection and conserves or even improves a population’s genetic diversity. The study, which is published in Journal of Dairy Science, was funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP and USDA. Besides [...]

The origin of the virus responsible for the ongoing yellow fever epidemic in Brazil, the worst for 40 years, has just been identified by scientists affiliated with two Brazilian institutions: Adolfo Lutz Institute (IAL) and the University of São Paulo (USP). By means of a molecular study of yellow fever viruses found in dead monkeys and in mosquitoes, the group discovered that the strain behind the current epidemic originated in Pará State in North Brazil in 1980. The virus [...]

Researchers have found bullfrog tadpoles with clear signs of infection by ranavirus in Brazil. The specimens were collected from two ponds in the city of Passo Fundo, South of the country (state of Rio Grande do Sul), in November 2017. Ranavirus causes skin ulcerations, edema and internal hemorrhage. It does not affect humans but can be lethal to amphibians and fish. This is the first infection of wild amphibians detected in Brazil. “The discovery causes concern, as it’s the first [...]

Heat flows from hot to cold objects. When a hot and a cold body are in thermal contact, they exchange heat energy until they reach thermal equilibrium, with the hot body cooling down and the cold body warming up. This is a natural phenomenon we experience all the time. It is explained by the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the total entropy of an isolated system always tends to increase over time until it reaches a maximum. Entropy is a quantitative measure of the disorder in a [...]