Explore the vast range of titles available.

Despite evidence about the contribution of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) to conservation, prevailing strategies still seek their separation from nature, often triggering conflicts. Current pledges to expand global protected area coverage suggest a need for the critical analysis of governance quality and the way conservation interacts with the well‐being of IPLCs. We present the case of Catimbau National Park in the Caatinga dry forest of northeast Brazil, where we explored connections between the well‐being of IPLCs and landscape through different values, practices and institutions, and perceptions of how environmentally just the park's governance has been. The well‐being of IPLCs is inextricably connected with the Caatinga landscape, through multiple place‐based relational values that, although differing between Indigenous and non‐indigenous inhabitants, have in both cases developed over generations. Although often framed as degraders, IPLCs exhibit a strong motivation to conserve, reflected through local institutions including forest gardens, sustainable use regulations, restoration activities and prevention of external encroachment. The strict form of protected area implemented at Catimbau, instead of a locally led or sustainable use reserve, explicitly targeted the resettlement of IPLCs and livelihood reorientation. These imposed objectives have clashed with a way of life in this peopled landscape and precluded local stewardship on a larger scale. Long‐term conflict arose through governance deficiencies which sparked multidimensional injustices. These include not only the misrecognition of local values and customary institutions but also the lack of procedures for consent or decision‐making influence, plus distributional harms including tenure insecurity and denied development assistance. Development and conservation strategies must reject narratives about poor, resource‐dependent rural communities and embrace the opportunities that local knowledge and institutions bring for effective conservation. As conservation efforts are expanded post‐2020, the people of the Caatinga and beyond must be recognised as embedded and a key part of any solution. In strict protected areas like Catimbau, where social conflict constrains their ability to function, seeking legal changes in governance type can be onerous. However, we describe other local‐level actions to build relationships and agency that may foster transitions towards better governance, and just treatment of IPLCs. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. Resumo Apesar das evidências sobre a contribuição dos Povos Indígenas e Comunidades Locais (PICLs) para a conservação, as estratégias predominantes ainda buscam sua separação da natureza, muitas vezes desencadeando conflitos. As promessas atuais de expandir a cobertura global de áreas protegidas sugerem a necessidade de uma análise crítica da qualidade de governança e da maneira como a conservação interage com o bem‐estar das PICLs. Apresentamos o caso do Parque Nacional do Catimbau na floresta seca da Caatinga no nordeste do Brasil, onde exploramos as conexões entre o bem‐estar das PICLs e a paisagem por meio de diferentes valores, práticas e instituições, e percepções de quão ambientalmente justa tem sido a gestão do parque. O bem‐estar das PICLs está intrinsecamente ligado à paisagem da Caatinga, por meio de múltiplos valores relacionais de base local que, embora diferentes entre indígenas e não indígenas, em ambos os casos se desenvolveram ao longo de gerações. Embora muitas vezes classificadas como degradantes, as PICLs exibem uma forte motivação para conservar, refletida por meio de instituições locais, incluindo cultivos florestais, regulamentações de uso sustentável, atividades de restauração e prevenção de invasões externas. A forma inflexível de área protegida implementada no Catimbau, em vez de uma reserva localmente controlada ou de uso sustentável, visava explicitamente o reassentamento das PICLs e a reorientação dos meios de subsistência. Esses objetivos impostos colidiram com um modo de vida nesta paisagem povoada e impediram a gestão local em uma escala maior. O conflito de longo prazo surgiu por meio de falhas de gestão que geraram injustiças multidimensionais. Isso inclui não apenas o não reconhecimento de valores locais e instituições de usos e costumes, mas também a falta de procedimentos para consentimento ou influência na tomada de decisões, além de danos distributivos, incluindo insegurança de posse e negação de assistência ao desenvolvimento. As estratégias de desenvolvimento e conservação devem rejeitar narrativas sobre comunidades rurais pobres e dependentes de recursos e abraçar as oportunidades que o conhecimento local e as instituições trazem para uma conservação eficaz. À medida que os esforços de conservação são expandidos pós‐2020, o povo da Caatinga e além deve ser reconhecido como uma parte fundamental de qualquer solução. Em áreas estritamente protegidas como o Catimbau, onde o conflito social restringe sua capacidade de funcionamento, buscar mudanças legais do tipo de gestão pode ser dispendioso. No entanto, descrevemos outras ações em nível local para construir relacionamentos e ações que possam promover transições para uma melhor gestão e tratamento justo de PICLs. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

The environmental impacts in this XXI century increased dangerously and, thus, was reinforced the paradigm of maintaining the environment. In the context of an urban forest, was recommended the increase of green areas and the connectivity between them, as well as encourage greater use of native essences, even as an expansion in the diversity of species. The aim of this study was to diagnose the environmental conditions of Chico Mendes Municipal Park. The qualitative analysis of avifauna and plant was based on the presence and absence compared to other studies. The Sørensen index was estimated for flora and avifauna, and a review of the phytosanitary conditions of tree specimens. Thus, in the present study were cataloged 51 species of birds in the Chico Mendes Park, being 23 considered migratory and 28 as residents, 2 species of amphibians, reptiles 10, 9 mammals and 55 plants. The Sørensen index for avifauna expressed a similarity value of 0.65420 when compared to other studies; while the same index for tree flora was in order of 0.37500. It is necessary the development of awareness and transformation tools that promote behavioral change in the surrounding community.

Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) is a major cause of infertility, but its etiology remains poorly understood. Using whole-exome sequencing in a family with three cases of POI, we identified the candidate missense variant S167L in HSF2BP , an essential meiotic gene. Functional analysis of the HSF2BP-S167L variant in mouse showed that it behaves as a hypomorphic allele compared to a new loss-of-function (knock-out) mouse model. Hsf2bp S167L/S167L females show reduced fertility with smaller litter sizes. To obtain mechanistic insights, we identified C19ORF57/BRME1 as a strong interactor and stabilizer of HSF2BP and showed that the BRME1/HSF2BP protein complex co-immunoprecipitates with BRCA2, RAD51, RPA and PALB2. Meiocytes bearing the HSF2BP-S167L variant showed a strongly decreased staining of both HSF2BP and BRME1 at the recombination nodules and a reduced number of the foci formed by the recombinases RAD51/DMC1, thus leading to a lower frequency of crossovers. Our results provide insights into the molecular mechanism of HSF2BP-S167L in human ovarian insufficiency and sub(in)fertility.

With the effects of global climate change impacting the world, collective efforts are needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The energy sector is the single largest contributor to climate change and many efforts are focused on reducing dependence on carbon-emitting power plants and moving to renewable energy sources, such as solar power. A comprehensive database of the location of solar panels is important to assist analysts and policymakers in defining strategies for further expansion of solar energy. In this paper we focus on creating a world map of solar panels. We identify locations and total surface area of solar panels within a given geographic area. We use deep learning methods for automated detection of solar panel locations and their surface area using aerial imagery. The framework, which consists of a two-branch model using an image classifier in tandem with a semantic segmentation model, is trained on our created dataset of satellite images. Our work provides an efficient and scalable method for detecting solar panels, achieving an accuracy of 0.96 for classification and an IoU score of 0.82 for segmentation performance.

Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) is a major cause of infertility, but its etiology remains poorly understood. Using whole-exome sequencing in a family with 3 cases of POI, we identified the candidate missense variant S167L in HSF2BP, an essential meiotic gene. Functional analysis of the HSF2BP-S167L variant in mouse, compared to a new HSF2BP knock-out mouse showed that it behaves as a hypomorphic allele. HSF2BP-S167L females show reduced fertility with small litter sizes. To obtain mechanistic insights, we identified C19ORF57/MIDAP as a strong interactor and stabilizer of HSF2BP by forming a higher-order macromolecular structure involving BRCA2, RAD51, RPA and PALB2. Meiocytes bearing the HSF2BP-S167L mutation showed a strongly decreased expression of both MIDAP and HSF2BP at the recombination nodules. Although HSF2BP-S167L does not affect heterodimerization between HSF2BP and MIDAP, it promotes a lower expression of both proteins and a less proficient activity in replacing RPA by the recombinases RAD51/DMC1, thus leading to a lower frequency of cross-overs. Our results provide insights into the molecular mechanism of two novel actors of meiosis underlying non-syndromic ovarian insufficiency.

Maternal Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during pregnancy can associate with severe intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), placental damage, and metabolism disturbance, as well as newborn neurological abnormalities. Here, we investigated whether maternal ZIKV infection affects placental nutrient transporters and nutrient-sensitive pathways. Immunocompetent (C57BL/6) mice were injected with Low (103 PFU-ZIKVPE243) and High (5×107 PFU-ZIKVPE243) ZIKV titers at gestational day (GD) 12.5, for tissue collection at GD18.5 (term). Feto-placental growth of male fetuses was dramatically affected by ZIKV, whereas no differences were observed in female fetuses. ZIKV promoted increased expression of glucose transporter type 1 (Slc2a1/Glut1) and decreased levels of glucose-6-phosphate in female placentas, with no differences in amino-acid transport potential. In contrast, glucose transport in male placentas was not affected by ZIKV, whilst a decreased placental protein expression of sodium-coupled neutral amino acid 2 (Snat2) was detected in the male low-dose ZIKV-infected group. There were also sex-dependent differences in the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP) and O-GlcNAcylation in ZIKV infected pregnancies, showing that ZIKV can cause disturbance in the nutrient handling in the placental tissue. Our findings thus identify relevant molecular alterations in the placenta caused by maternal ZIKV infection related to nutrient transport and availability. Notably, our results suggest that female and male placentas adopt different strategies to cope with the altered metabolic state caused by ZIKV. This may have relevance for understanding the effects of congenital Zika syndrome and could potentially assist future therapeutic strategies. The Zika virus (ZIKV) has emerged as a major global health concern in the past decade. ZIKV infection during pregnancy can cause infants to be born with microcephaly and fetal growth restriction, among other pregnancy complications. Currently, the number of cases of ZIKV disease declined onwards globally. However, transmission persists at low levels in several countries in the Americas and other endemic regions, with neither a licensed vaccine nor an antiviral drug available for prevention and treatment. Here, we use a mice model of maternal ZIKV infection to analyze placental nutrient transporters and nutrient-sensitive pathways as a potential link to the complications related to congenital ZIKV infection. We found that feto-placental growth of male fetuses was dramatically affected by ZIKV, whereas no differences were observed in female fetuses. We also found that placental nutrient transporters and nutrient-sensitive pathways were altered in response to ZIKV infection, depending on the fetal sex. Our study presents relevant molecular alterations caused by maternal ZIKV infection and suggests that female and male placentas adopt different strategies in response to the altered environment caused by ZIKV. Our observations may have relevance for understanding the effects of ZIKV infection and could potentially assist future therapeutic strategies.