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Research highlights: Tropical forest restoration can be supported by the production of timber species in their understory. While they may appear at odds, they can be reconciled to promote environmental conservation and services. The lack of information on the management of tropical species causes a technical constraint for timber production in the understory of restoration sites, especially given the light restrictions. This issue could be amended with the development of methods to easily manage and estimate light availability, targeting management practices that balance restoration success and productivity. Materials and Methods: We conducted this study in an area within the Atlantic Forest, Brazil, where we tested the efficiency of chemical thinning to increase light availability in the understory of a five-year-old restoration planting, aiming to increase the growth rates of desirable timber species. Moreover, we tested the viability of using hemispherical photography taken with a smartphone to assess light incidence to assist restoration management practices. We calculated the percentage of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) using a ceptometer in four different thinning intensities and compared them to the smartphone measures using correlation analysis. Results: Chemical thinning increased light incidence in the understory, with potential impacts on timber species productivity. Light management through PAR and canopy opening were highly correlated overall, especially after three months of management and 60% of thinning intensity. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the potential for chemical thinning as a management practice to enhance light availability in the understory of tropical forest restoration sites. Additionally, our study highlights the value of using affordable and accessible tools like smartphones and fisheye clips for the indirect assessment of light conditions to promote natural regeneration and guide forest management and timber production in tropical forest restoration.

Natural regeneration is key for large‐scale forest restoration, yet it may lead to different biodiversity outcomes depending on socio‐environmental context. We combined the results of a global meta‐analysis to quantify how biodiversity recovery in naturally regenerating forests deviates from biodiversity values in reference old‐growth forests, with structural equation modeling, to identify direct and indirect associations between socioeconomic, biophysical and ecological factors and deviation in biodiversity recovery at a landscape scale. Low deviation within a landscape means higher chances of multiple sites in naturally regenerating forests successfully recovering biodiversity compared to reference forests. Deviation in biodiversity recovery was directly negatively associated with the percentage of cropland, forest cover, and positively associated with the percentage of urban areas in the surrounding landscape. These three factors mediated the indirect associations with rural population size, recent gross deforestation, time since natural regeneration started, mean annual temperature, mean annual water deficit, road density, land opportunity cost, percentage cover of strictly protected forest areas, and human population variation in the surrounding landscape. We suggest that natural forest restoration should be prioritized in landscapes with both low socioeconomic pressures on land use conversion to pasturelands and urban areas, and high percentage of forest cover.

A high level of variation of biodiversity recovery within a landscape during forest restoration presents obstacles to ensure large‐scale, cost‐effective and long‐lasting ecological restoration. There is an urgent need to predict landscape variation in forest restoration success at a global scale. We conducted a meta‐analysis comprising 135 study landscapes to predict and map landscape variation in forest restoration success in tropical and temperate forest biomes. Our analysis was based on the amount of forest cover within a landscape — a key driver of forest restoration success. We contrasted 17 generalized linear models measuring forest cover at different landscape sizes (with buffers varying from 5 to 200 km radii). We identified the most plausible model to predict and map landscape variation in forest restoration success. We then weighted landscape variation by the amount of potentially restorable areas (agriculture and pasture land areas) within the same landscape. Finally, we estimated restoration costs of implementing Bonn Challenge commitments in three specific temperate and tropical forest biome types in the United States, Brazil and Uganda. Landscape variation decreased exponentially as the amount of forest cover increased in the landscape, with stronger effects within a 5 km radius. Thirty‐eight per cent of forest biomes have landscapes with more than 27% of forest cover and showed levels of landscape variation below 10%. Landscapes with less than 6% of forest cover showed levels of variation in forest restoration success above 50%. At the biome level, Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests had the lowest (12.6%), whereas Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests had the highest (22.9%) average of weighted landscape variation in forest restoration success. Our approach can lead to a reduction in implementation costs for each Bonn Challenge commitment between US$ 973 Mi and 9.9 Bi. Policy implications. Our approach identifies landscape characteristics that increase the likelihood of biodiversity recovery during forest restoration — and potentially the chances of natural regeneration and long‐term ecological sustainability and functionality. Identifying areas with low levels of landscape variation can help to reduce the risks and financial costs associated with implementing ambitious restoration commitments. A high level of variation of biodiversity recovery within a landscape during forest restoration presents obstacles to ensure large scale, cost‐effective, and long‐lasting ecological restoration. To guide forest restoration policies, plans and implementation, we developed a new approach to predict and map landscape variation in forest restoration success in tropical and temperate forest biomes. Our approach helps to: (a) establish forest landscape restoration targets, (b) identify cost‐effective priority areas for restoration, (c) improve regulations for biodiversity offsetting, and (d) estimate implementation costs of forest restoration in regions across the globe.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) expression may increase due to upregulation in patients using angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). Because renin-angiotensin system blockers increase levels of ACE2, a protein that facilitates coronavirus entry into cells, there is concern that these drugs could increase the risk of developing a severe and fatal form of COVID-19. The impact of discontinuing ACEI and ARBs in patients with COVID-19 remains uncertain. BRACE CORONA is a pragmatic, multicenter, randomized, phase IV, clinical trial that aims to enroll around 500 participants at 34 sites in Brazil. Participants will be identified from an ongoing national registry of suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19. Eligible patients using renin-angiotensin system blockers (ACEI/ARBs) with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 will be randomized to a strategy of continued ACEI/ARB treatment versus temporary discontinuation for 30 days. The primary outcome is the median days alive and out of the hospital at 30 days. Secondary outcomes include progression of COVID-19 disease, all-cause mortality, death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, stroke, transient ischemic attack, new or worsening heart failure, myocarditis, pericarditis, arrhythmias, thromboembolic events, hypertensive crisis, respiratory failure, hemodynamic decompensation, sepsis, renal failure, and troponin, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), N-terminal-proBNP, and D-dimer levels. BRACE CORONA will evaluate whether the strategy of continued ACEI/ARB therapy compared with temporary discontinuation of these drugs impacts clinical outcomes among patients with COVID-19. [Display omitted]

Yellow fever (YF) is a viral disease that affects both humans and non-human primates (NHPs). Neotropical monkeys are more severely stricken by YF and the impact of the disease can be devastating to the endangered golden-headed lion tamarins (GHLTs, Leontopithecus chrysomelas). Susceptible GHLTs were immunized with the commercial Brazilian YF 17DD live attenuated vaccine or two other experimental non-replicating YF vaccines: a purified whole-virus, b-propiolactone-inactivated vaccine and a plant-derived recombinant subunit vaccine. Safety, immunogenicity and viremia and RNAemia blockade were characterized. No YF clinical manifestations were observed in any of the GHLTs that received the attenuated virus, either as a vaccine or as the homologous vaccination with the live attenuated vaccine used as the challenge virus. All three concentrations of the attenuated vaccine induced neutralizing antibodies and only one in 16 animals had detectable viremia and RNAemia after challenge. The inactivated vaccine elicited neutralizing antibodies preventing post-challenge viremia and RNAemia in five out of six animals. The plant-based vaccine induced neutralizing antibodies in five out of six animals and prevented viremia and RNAemia in three out of six against challenge. The safety profile and the immunogenicity of the YF attenuated vaccine were demonstrated in GHLTs with a blocking effectiveness over 90 %, where blockade can be defined as the capacity to prevent viremia and RNAemia after homologous vaccination with the live attenuated vaccine. The use of the inactivated vaccine in this species served as a preliminary pre-clinical study for this approach and after administration in three-dose regimen demonstrated a blocking profile of 83 %. Using a two-dose regimen, the plant-based vaccine was able to block viremia and RNAemia in 50 % of the animals. The present study can endorse the use of attenuated or non-replicating yellow fever vaccines in New World primates threatened by the recent disease outbreaks in Brazil. •Experimental yellow fever vaccines showed a good safety profile in tamarins.•Yellow fever vaccines induce seroconversion in golden-headed lion tamarins.•Yellow fever inactivated vaccine confers immunity in golden-headed lion tamarins.•Yellow fever vaccines can potentially block viremia in endangered non-human primates.

The present work proposes a Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) to obtain availability projections for Hydroelectric Power Plants (HPP), based mainly on regulatory aspects involving the Availability Factor (AFA). The main purpose of the simulation is to generate scenarios to obtain statistics for risk analysis and decision-making in relation to the HPP. The proposed methodology consists of two steps, firstly, the optimization of the maintenance schedule of the hydroelectric plant is carried out, in order to allocate the mandatory maintenance in the simulation horizon. Then, for the MCS, scenarios of forced shutdowns of the Generating Units (GU) will be generated, which directly influence the operation and, consequently, the availability of the HPP. The scenarios will be inserted into an operation optimization model, which considers the impact of forced shutdown samples on the MCS. The proposed modeling was applied using real data from the Santo Antônio HPP, which is one of the largest hydroelectric plants in Brazil.

We explored the effect of discontinuing versus continuing angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) on clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 according to baseline disease severity. We randomized 659 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 and classified them as having mild or moderate COVID-19 disease severity at hospital presentation using blood oxygen saturation and lung imaging. The primary outcome was the mean ratio of number of days alive and out of the hospital at 30 days according to disease severity. At presentation, 376 patients (57.1%) had mild and 283 (42.9%) had moderate COVID-19. In patients with mild disease, there was no significant difference in the number of days alive and out of the hospital between ACEI/ARB discontinuation (mean 23.5 [SD 6.3] days) and continuation (mean 23.8 [SD 6.5] days), with a mean ratio of 0.98 (95% CI 0.92-1.04). However, in patients with moderate disease, there were fewer days alive and out of the hospital with ACEI/ARB discontinuation (mean 19.6 [SD 9.5] days) than continuation (mean 21.6 [SD 7.6] days), with a mean ratio of 0.90 (95% CI 0.81-1.00; P-interaction = .01). The impact of discontinuing versus continuing ACEIs/ARBs on days alive and out of hospital through 30 days differed according to baseline COVID-19 disease severity. Unlike patients with mild disease, patients with moderate disease who continued ACEIs/ARBs had more days alive and out of hospital through 30 days than those who discontinued ACEIs/ARBs. This suggests that ACEIs/ARBs should be continued for patients with moderate COVID-19 disease severity. ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04364893).

The protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi is responsible for triggering a damage immune response in the host cardiovascular system. This parasite has a high affinity for host lipoproteins and uses the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor for its invasion. Assuming that the presence of LDL cholesterol in tissues could facilitate T. cruzi proliferation, dietary composition may affect the parasite-host relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate myocarditis in T. cruzi-infected C57BL/6 mice—acute phase—fed a high-fat diet and treated with simvastatin, a lipid-lowering medication. Animals (n=10) were infected with 5×103 cells of the VL-10 strain of T. cruzi and treated or untreated daily with 20 mg/kg simvastatin, starting 24 h after infection and fed with a normolipidic or high-fat diet. Also, uninfected mice, treated or not with simvastatin and fed with normolipidic or high-fat diet, were evaluated as control groups. Analyses to measure the production of chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2), interferon- (IFN-) γ, interleukin- (IL-) 10, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF); total hepatic lipid dosage; cholesterol; and fractions, as well as histopathological analysis, were performed on day 30 using cardiac and fat tissues. Our results showed that the high-fat diet increased (i) parasite replication, (ii) fat accumulation in the liver, (iii) total cholesterol and LDL levels, and (iv) the host inflammatory state through the production of the cytokine TNF. However, simvastatin only reduced the production of CCL2 but not that of other inflammatory mediators or biochemical parameters. Together, our data suggest that the high-fat diet may have worsened the biochemical parameters of the uninfected and T. cruzi-infected animals, as well as favored the survival of circulating parasites.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) may increase due to upregulation in patients using angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB). Because renin-angiotensin system blockers increase levels of ACE2, a protein that facilitates coronavirus entry into cells, there is concern that these drugs could increase the risk of developing a severe and fatal form of COVID-19. The impact of discontinuing ACEI and ARBs in patients with COVID-19 remains uncertain. BRACE CORONA is a pragmatic, multicenter, randomized, phase IV, clinical trial that aims to enroll around 500 participants at 32 sites in Brazil. Participants will be identified from an ongoing national registry of suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19. Eligible patients using renin-angiotensin system blockers (ACEI/ARBs) with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 will be randomized to a strategy of continued ACEI/ARB treatment versus temporary discontinuation for 30 days. The primary outcome is the median days alive and out of the hospital at 30 days. Secondary outcomes include progression of COVID-19 disease, all-cause mortality, death from vascular causes, myocardial infarction, stroke, transient ischemic attack, new or worsening heart failure, myocarditis, pericarditis, arrhythmias, thromboembolic events, hypertensive crisis, respiratory failure, hemodynamic decompensation, sepsis, renal failure, troponin, B-type natriuretic peptide, N-terminal-pro hormone and D-dimer levels. BRACE CORONA will evaluate whether the strategy of continued ACEI/ARB therapy compared with temporary discontinuation of these drugs impacts clinical outcomes among patients with COVID-19.