The Federal University of Alfenas (Brazilian Portuguese: Universidade Federal de Alfenas, Unifal-MG) is a public institution of undergraduate and postgraduate education situated in Alfenas and having campuses in the cities of Poços de Caldas and Varginha, all in the southern region of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais..
Fungal diseases in fruit crops compromise productivity even when synthetic fungicides are applied. However, growing health and environmental concerns have made such products less attractive to consumers. In this context, the present study aimed to extract and characterise the essential oil (EO) from leaves and flowers of African basil (Ocimum gratissimum L.) by hydrodistillation and to evaluate its bioactivity against the fungi Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium guttiforme and Colletotrichum musae. Average EO yields were 3.90
Advancing lignocellulose biorefining is imperative for the deployment of cellulosic (2G) biofuels. This work investigates the tailoring of the alkaline deacetylation and mechanical refining (DMR) pathway for the bioconversion of sugarcane bagasse. Experiments are conducted at laboratory and pilot scales, varying the pretreatment conditions (70–92 °C; 48–100 gNaOH/kg) and the mechanical refining technologies (PFI and disk refining). The pretreatments selectively solubilize acetyl groups (> 86
Snakebite envenomation is a neglected tropical disease with a significant impact on public health, especially in socially vulnerable regions. Our objective was to describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of cases and identify factors associated with severity in a Brazilian mesoregion. A retrospective ecological study was conducted using secondary data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System, including all reported cases of snakebite envenomation between 2014 and 2024. Sociodemographic, clinical, and healthcare-related variables were analyzed. Severity was classified as mild, moderate, or severe according to national guidelines. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to assess factors associated with severity. Missing data were handled using multiple imputation by chained equations. 1,272 cases were recorded, corresponding to an incidence of 346.87 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Most cases occurred in males (69.5
Fire is a major driver of ecological change in tropical forests, yet the combined effects of fire history and habitat loss on frugivorous birds and post-fire vegetation recovery remain poorly understood. We evaluated how fire severity, extent, and frequency—together with forest cover—shape frugivore abundance and influence short-term (≤ 10 years) forest resilience in the Cantareira–Mantiqueira Corridor, southeastern Brazil. Using frugivore surveys conducted at fixed points across 15 landscapes, combined with satellite-derived fire metrics and kNDVI-based estimates of engineering resilience, we applied a set of hypothesis-driven Generalized Linear Models and segmented regressions. Fire characteristics alone did not explain frugivore abundance; however, a strong interaction between fire severity and forest cover revealed that forest cover buffered fire impacts under a low severity but failed under high-severity conditions, leading to marked declines in frugivore abundance. Forest recovery was primarily governed by fire characteristics rather than by frugivore abundance. Fire extent showed a linear negative effect on kNDVI trend, while fire frequency displayed nonlinear behavior, with a threshold near three fire events beyond which recovery became highly variable and unpredictable. Together, these findings provide evidence that fire and habitat loss interact to shape frugivore communities, and that repeated burning can push fire-sensitive tropical forests toward resilience thresholds. Effective conservation and restoration strategies must therefore integrate both fire prevention and habitat maintenance to safeguard ecosystem recovery.
Although the effects of cover crops on soil are well known, there are still gaps in our understanding of how their residues influence soil enzyme and microbial activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the enzymatic activity, molecular composition of organic matter, plant litter, and microbial diversity in crops under brachiaria intercropping (CB) and mixed cover crops (CM) and compare them with an area of natural vegetation (NV). Trenches were opened and samples collected between the rows of coffee trees and in different soil layers (0.0-0.10; 0.10-0.30; 0.30-0.60 and 0.60-1.0 m). Arylsulfatase activity was lower in CB and CM than in NV, ranging from 71.5 to 90.1 mg p-nitrophenol kg- 1 soil h- 1. The highest beta-glucosidase and acid phosphatase activities were observed in CM (76.7 mg p-nitrophenol kg- 1 soil h- 1) and CB (321.4 mg p-nitrophenol kg- 1 soil h- 1) in the surface layer (0.0-0.10 m), respectively. The molecular composition of soil organic matter and plant litter is influenced by the management system and soil depth. The greatest abundance of recalcitrant compounds, such as alkanes (14-26), lipids and lignin derivatives, occurred in the subsurface layers in CB and CM, which suggests greater potential for stabilizing soil organic matter. Microbial diversity varied between the systems, with a greater abundance of fungi, actinobacteria and bacteria. The higher fungus/bacteria ratio and the predominance of fungal biomarkers in deeper layers indicate an environment favorable to the decomposition of recalcitrant residues.
