On the relevance of regional collections

Biological collections are the basis of the Earth’s biodiversity knowledge and most of them are regional collections. Here we present two collections from the Federal University of Espírito Santo—Mammal Collection (UFES-MAM) and the associated Animal Tissue Collection (UFES-CTA)—which have been the main repository for mammal specimens collected in Espírito Santo, mostly georeferenced (~ 90%), and available in public databases. Thus, our objective with this essay was to point out the contributions of these collections to the knowledge of the diversity of mammals in the Atlantic Forest. At the same time, we present the contributions they return to society and the scientific community, highlighting the main obstacles and challenges those regional collections face. Despite being regional, UFES-MAM and UFES-CTA stand out nationally for having biological material from a wide variety of species—mainly rodents, marsupials, and bats—also counting on a series of primate tissues collected during the outbreak of wild yellow fever in Southeastern Brazil from 2017 to 2018. These collecting efforts contributed to 42 new mammal species records for Espírito Santo, and 25 species that had already been registered in the state but were listed only in out-of-state collections or reported in literature without voucher specimens. We hope that the information reported here are examples of good practices and increase knowledge and visibility of the rich collection that these regional collections house.

Medicinal herbs as a panacea for biogenic silver nanoparticles

Background Scientists created a new area known as "green nanotechnology" by combining the concept of sustainability with nanotechnology. Its goal is to eliminate the use of chemicals in nanoparticle manufacturing by replacing them with plant-based materials. Green synthesis is promoted as the best alternative to the traditional method of nanoparticle synthesis in this new domain. Plants that constitute a major portion of our biodiversity are embraced with inherent potentiality to be transformed as miracle medicine due to its phytochemicals. These phytochemicals efficiently replace the classical wet chemical ingredients involved in nanoparticle synthesis by upgrading to greener method for its synthesis. By incorporating plant-based sources as the chief ingredient of nanoparticle synthesis, we are able to reduce the hazards of greenhouse gas emissions and enlighten the insights of our scientific community with nanotechnology for green innovation. Hence, this review simultaneously aims at promoting plant extracts as the most efficient as well as renewable recipe for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and preparing earth for a greener tomorrow. Methodology Scientific articles and publications were selected from reputed journals and sorted out with pertinent keywords of this review. Electronic sources like Google Scholar, PubMed, Research Gate, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, Web of Science and Scopus were searched for potential articles and recent breakthroughs published in the area of silver nanoparticle synthesis via green chemistry and biological methods using plant extracts. Scientific names of medicinal plants were checked using botanical databases like Plant List and International Plant Names Index. Conclusion This review pinpoints on empowering better life on earth by protecting it from hazardous effects of conventional nanotechnological production through replacing the former with sustainable green synthesis approach. Ergo, it outlines that by incorporating plant-based sources as the chief ingredient of nanoparticle synthesis, we are able to reduce the hazards of greenhouse gas emissions in turn by slowing down increasing climate change disasters globally and enlighten the insights of our scientific community with nanotechnology for green innovation.

Targeting of Regulators as a Promising Approach in the Search for Novel Antimicrobial Agents

Since the discovery of penicillin in the first half of the last century, antibiotics have become the pillars of modern medicine for fighting bacterial infections. However, pathogens resistant to antibiotic treatment have increased in recent decades, and efforts to discover new antibiotics have decreased. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to treat bacterial infections successfully, and we look forward to more significant efforts from both governments and the scientific community to research new antibacterial drugs. This perspective article highlights the high potential of bacterial transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulators as targets for developing new drugs. We highlight some recent advances in the search for new compounds that inhibit their biological activity and, as such, appear very promising for treating bacterial infections.

The Pages of History of the Russian Federal Centre of Forensic Science of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation

The author dedicates this article to the 60th anniversary of the Russian Federal Centre of Forensic Science of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. He observes the “academic biography” of the Centre and the prerequisites for the emergence of its forensic scholarly tradition. The article also clarifies the features of the scientific school, whereby the scientific community of scientists of the Center received the status of a scientific school and the period of its occurrence.

Efficient Gene Knockout and Knockdown Systems in Neospora caninum Enable Rapid Discovery and Functional Assessment of Novel Proteins

Neospora caninum is a parasite with veterinary relevance, inducing severe disease in dogs and reproductive disorders in ruminants, especially cattle, leading to major losses. The close phylogenetic relationship to Toxoplasma gondii and the lack of pathogenicity in humans drives an interest of the scientific community toward using N. caninum as a model to study the pathogenicity of T. gondii .

A Review of Recent Developments in Autotuning Methods for Fractional-Order Controllers

The scientific community has recently seen a fast-growing number of publications tackling the topic of fractional-order controllers in general, with a focus on the fractional order PID. Several versions of this controller have been proposed, including different tuning methods and implementation possibilities. Quite a few recent papers discuss the practical use of such controllers. However, the industrial acceptance of these controllers is still far from being reached. Autotuning methods for such fractional order PIDs could possibly make them more appealing to industrial applications, as well. In this paper, the current autotuning methods for fractional order PIDs are reviewed. The focus is on the most recent findings. A comparison between several autotuning approaches is considered for various types of processes. Numerical examples are given to highlight the practicality of the methods that could be extended to simple industrial processes.

Paleoenvironmental insights from the deposition and diagenesis of Aptian pre-salt magnesium silicates from the Lula Field, Santos Basin, Brazil

ABSTRACT Since the discovery of giant Aptian pre-salt reservoirs in Brazilian margin basins, the study of lacustrine carbonates has drawn great attention from the scientific community. Comparatively, minor attention was given to the characterization and genesis of the Mg-silicates (e.g., stevensite, kerolite) which are commonly associated with these carbonates. A systematic petrological study was performed in the Aptian Barra Velha Formation (BVF) within distinct structural compartments of the giant Lula Field in the Santos Basin, in order to recognize the patterns of primary formation and diagenetic alteration of these Mg-silicates. Mg-silicates occur as peloids, ooids, intraclasts, and fine-grained laminated deposits, either mixed in variable proportions with other particles, such as carbonate bioclasts and volcanic rock fragments, or constituting specific intrabasinal deposits. In the BVF interval, clay peloids and laminated deposits are associated with spherulitic and fascicular calcite aggregates, as substrate and hosts for these precipitates. Ooids are interpreted as formed at the sediment–water interface by the nucleation of concentric envelopes on the surface of particles (heterogeneous nucleation), through repeated rolling under gentle wave and current action. Laminated deposits, interpreted as precipitated directly from the water column (homogeneous nucleation) in highly supersaturated and low-hydrodynamic-energy environments, constitute extensive deposits in the BVF. Peloids were probably formed in intermediate energy conditions. Some ooidal arenites show porosity from the dehydration and contraction, and/or the dissolution of ooids. In some rocks, these pores are filled with fibrous calcite, while the remaining Mg-silicates are replaced by dolomite, calcite, or silica. A similar diagenetic pattern occurs in the laminated deposits, where magnesite and dolomite fill shrinkage pores formed along their characteristic wavy laminae. Owing to their elevated solubility, most of the Mg-silicates were dissolved, or intensely replaced by calcite, dolomite, or silica. The detailed petrologic analysis indicates that the original volumes of Mg-silicates were substantially larger, and that their deposition was widespread in the basin, including on structurally high areas. The types and intensity of diagenetic alteration of the Mg-silicate deposits are distinct for each structural compartment, being more intense towards the highs and closer to the overlying evaporites, which imposed a strong influence on reservoir quality.

Political Endorsements by Scientific Organizations Reduce Trust in Scientific Expertise During COVID-19

High-profile political endorsements by scientific organizations and publications have been common in recent years, which raises concerns about political backlash against the endorsing organization in particular and scientific expertise in general. In a pre-registered large-sample online controlled experiment, I randomly assign subjects to receive information about Nature's endorsement of Joe Biden for the 2020 U.S. presidential election in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing the endorsement message leads to large reductions in self-reported trust in Nature among Trump supporters. This distrust translates into lower demand for COVID-related information provided by Nature, as evidenced by substantially reduced requests for Nature articles on vaccine efficacy and emerging COVID variants when offered. The endorsement also reduces Trump supporters' stated trust in scientists in general, suggesting "reputational externalities" on the scientific community. Treatment effect estimates for Biden supporters are positive but small and often statistically insignificant across outcomes. Finally, I find little evidence that the endorsement is successful at changing subjects' views about Biden and Trump. These results show political endorsement by scientific organizations can undermine public confidence in the endorsing organization and in the scientific community.

Tax Policy in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Publications in Leading Economic Journals

In the context of the world-long coronavirus pandemic, it is now essential that it is successful to overcome, break out painlessly and restore economic growth as soon as possible. Tax policy has a significant place in solving these problems. The purpose of the review is to identify, generalize and interpret information on the nature, degree of systemicity, depth, quality, discussion, existing trends and trends, synergy of tax policy research in the conditions of the coronacism in leading economic journals to identify problematic and understudied areas of knowledge that are important for tax science and practice, which require an early solution and whose development is the most in-demand in modern historical conditions. The scientific community in any scientific industry, including the tax industry, is required to build a single interconnected system of dynamically and effectively developing knowledge, rather than simply producing a set of interesting but disparate ideas. The research methods are a strategy of identifying keywords and search terms from the sphere of taxation and pandemic, screening sources and their primary filtering, content analysis of selected articles, critical reflection of groups of articles. As a result, it has been revealed that the palette of tax problems in the covid-19 environment explored in the publications of leading economic journals is fairly broad, but it goes beyond the front, not ahead of it develop models of various forward-looking scenarios for alternative tax options in force majeure; a clear interpretation of the pandemic realities of the pressing problems of the tax agenda of the present historical moment; writing new reviews as tax publications emerge between Cand19 and the exit from the medical and economic crisis.

Construction of Scientific Facts – Why is Relativism Essential in Bypassing Incommensurable Gaps in Humanities. Case of Personal Involvement – Biased Scientific Facts

This paper addresses the theory of knowledge in relativistic terms of Paul Feyerabend, stressing the importance of personal involvement in the research and theorizing. Since the topic is a constant and widely accepted premise the author is insisting that it has been actually ignored in the sociology and philosophy of science. It is apparent in discursive form, neglected in actual consequences for science in general. Defending the thesis of relativism had remained unacknowledged by the general scientific community. Biographies of mavericks and their struggle and exclusion from scientific community etc. had been constant in the history of science. Is science nowadays able to accept criticism and implement arguments of knowledge beyond the institutionalized standards? Throughout this article we argue that personal involvement creates biased scientific facts; acknowledging and applying tacit knowledge we move beyond personal involvement and create appropriate interpretations of facts and phenomena under investigation, where we reconsider the construction of facts and personal beliefs, knowing that our fields of expertise are incommensurable.