It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Replacing animal products with a plant-based diet leads to weight loss, finds new analysis
Replacing animal products with plant-based foods, whether these were so-called healthful or unhealthful plant-based foods according to the plant-based diet index, is associated with weight loss in overweight adults, reduced cholesterol and fat intake, and increased fiber intake, according to a new analysis by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“While a low-fat vegan diet rich in fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans is the gold standard for weight loss and improved health, the good news is that a plant-based diet that eliminates animal products and minimizes the consumption of oil can help with weight loss in people who are overweight,” says study co-author Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
The findings are from a secondary analysis of a Physicians Committee study in which 244 overweight adults were randomly assigned to a vegan group that followed a low-fat vegan diet or a control group that made no diet changes for 16 weeks. Calorie intake was not limited for either group, and neither group was given diet quality instructions.
The new analysis assessed the association of a plant-based diet index (PDI), healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI), and unhealthful plant-based diet index (uPDI) with weight loss. The PDI measures adherence to a plant-based diet in general, the hPDI includes more fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans, and the uPDI includes more foods such as refined grains and fruit juices. The scores of all three indexes are higher with increased consumption of plant-based foods and reduced consumption of animal products.
In the analysis, all three scores increased for participants following a vegan diet, which was significantly associated with an average weight loss of about 13 pounds, due primarily to the reduction in fat mass and visceral fat. Increased consumption of whole grains and legumes and reduced consumption of meat, vegetable oil, and sweets in the vegan group was associated with weight loss. There was no change in scores in the control group.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE RESEARCHER ALBAN GAULTIER AND HIS TEAM HAVE DISCOVERED HOW LACTOBACILLUS, A BACTERIUM FOUND IN FERMENTED FOODS AND YOGURT, HELPS THE BODY MANAGE STRESS AND MAY HELP PREVENT DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY.
University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have discovered how Lactobacillus, a bacterium found in fermented foods and yogurt, helps the body manage stress and may help prevent depression and anxiety. The findings open the door to new therapies to treat anxiety, depression and other mental-health conditions.
The new research from UVA’s Alban Gaultier, Ph.D., and collaborators is notable because it pinpoints the role of Lactobacillus, separating it out from all the other microorganisms that naturally live in and on our bodies. These organisms are collectively known as the microbiota, and scientists have increasingly sought to target them to battle disease and improve our health. UVA’s new research represents a major step forward in that effort, providing scientists an innovative new approach to understand the role of individual microbes that could facilitate the development of new treatments and cures for a wide variety of diseases, both mental and physical.
“Our discovery illuminates how gut-resident Lactobacillus influences mood disorders, by tuning the immune system,” said Gaultier, of UVA’s Department of Neuroscience, the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG Center) and the TransUniversity Microbiome Initiative. “Our research could pave the way towards discovering much-needed therapeutics for anxiety and depression.”
The Microbiota and Depression
Our guts are naturally home to countless bacteria, fungi, and viruses. There are more microorganisms living in and on us than there are cells in our bodies. That may sound disgusting, even alarming, but scientists have increasingly realized that these tiny organisms and their endless interactions are critical to our immune systems’ health, our mental health, and many other facets of our well-being. Disruptions of the microbiota, whether from illness, poor diet, or other causes, are known to contribute to many diseases and even help cancer spread. So, researchers have been hugely excited in recent years about the potential to battle diseases by targeting the microbiota.
Early attempts to manipulate the gut flora with beneficial bacteria, called probiotics, have produced mixed results. A big part of the problem has been the sheer complexity of the microbiome. It’s estimated that there are 39 trillion microorganisms inside each of us, so trying to understand what specific bacteria or fungi do – much less how they interact with all the other microorganisms and their host – can be like trying to count grains of sand on the beach.
Gaultier and his team took an innovative approach to hone in on Lactobacilli in specific. Prior research from Gaultier’s lab suggested that the bacteria could reverse depression in lab mice – a hugely promising finding. But the researchers needed to understand how.
“We were aware from our prior research that Lactobacillus was beneficial in improving mood disorders and was lost following psychological stress, but the underlying reasons remained unclear, primarily due to the technical challenges associated with studying the microbiome.”
Gaultier and his team decided to continue their depression research using a collection of bacteria, known as Altered Schaedler Flora, which includes two strains of Lactobacillus and six other bacterial strains. With this rarely used bacterial community, the team was able to create mice both with and without Lactobacillus,circumventing the need for antibiotics.
Sure enough, the Altered Schaedler Flora produced exciting results. Gaultier and his colleagues were able to explain exactly how Lactobacilli influence behavior, and how a lack of the bacteria can worsen depression and anxiety. Lactobacilli in the family Lactobaccillacea, they found, maintain the levels of an immune mediator called interferon gamma that regulates the body’s response to stress and helps stave off depression.
Armed with this information, researchers are poised to develop new ways to prevent and treat depression and other mental-health conditions in which Lactobacillus plays an important role. For example, patients struggling with (or at risk for) depression might one day take specially formulated probiotic supplements that will optimize their levels of helpful Lactobacillus.
“With these results in hand, we have new tools to optimize the development of probiotics, which should speed up discoveries for novel therapies,” said researcher Andrea R. Merchak, Ph.D. “Most importantly, we can now explore how maintaining a healthy level of Lactobacillus and/or interferon gamma could be investigated to prevent and treat anxiety and depression.”
Findings Published
The UVA scientists have published their findings in the journal Brain Behavior and Immunity. The research team consisted of Merchak, Samuel Wachamo, Lucille C. Brown, Alisha Thakur, Brett Moreau, Ryan M. Brown, Courtney Rivet-Noor, Tula Raghavan and Gaultier. The researchers have no financial interest in the work.
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grants T32 NS115657, T32 GM008136, F31 AI174782, T32 GM007267 and T32 GM148379; the Owens Family Foundation; the Miller Family; the UVA TransUniversity Microbiome Initiative; and the UVA Presidential Fellowship in Neuroscience.
UVA’s TransUniversity Microbiome Initiative, or TUMI, serves as the central hub for the University’s cutting-edge microbiome research. The initiative aims to expand our understanding of the microbiome to better treat and prevent disease.
STUDY CO-AUTHOR DALE BROCKWAY (LEFT) AND BLADEN LAKES STATE FOREST SUPERVISOR HANS ROHR (RIGHT) SURVEY LONGLEAF PINE TREES IN SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA.
New research on tree reproduction is helping solve a puzzle that has stumped tree scientists for decades. Many tree species exhibit a reproductive phenomenon known as “masting”, where individual trees have very low seed production in most years followed by a sudden burst of seed production that is synchronized over large parts of its range. The reason for this coordinated reproduction within a species is unclear.
A new study by scientists at The Jones Center at Ichauway and the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station showed that one pine species increases cone production in the years following a hurricane, which may explain why masting is observed in some coastal species.
“There are several hypotheses for why masting occurs,” says the study’s lead author Jeffery Cannon. “One idea is that seed-eating animals like rodents devour all available seed in most years. By making an occasional burst of seed production, trees can overwhelm seed-eaters and ensure some seeds are leftover to germinate. Another explanation is that trees produce bumper seed crops if weather patterns foreshadow good conditions for germination success,” he adds.
The research focused on longleaf pine, which is part of an imperiled ecosystem that once dominated the southeastern U.S., but now occupies only 5% of its historic range in small pockets throughout the region. Because of its status, the USDA Forest Service has tracked and reported pine cone production continuously since the 1950s. Reports on cone monitoring allow pine growers to take advantage of bumper seed crop years to improve reproduction and help restoration efforts.
“People who manage longleaf pine forests have long held the belief that seed production increases after hurricanes, but this is the first time anyone has tested it,” says the study’s co-author and manager of longleaf pine forests, Brandon Rutledge.
“In our study, we combined decades-long records of cone production with hurricane occurrence to see if mast years corresponded with hurricanes,” explains Cannon. “We found that in the two years after a hurricane, cone production increases 31%, then 71%, before returning to baseline levels,” he adds. Hurricanes bring an average of four inches of rain in late summer which is an otherwise dry period. This timely delivery of rain is most likely responsible for triggering the boost in reproduction, the study finds.
Other weather events such droughts or fires can trigger masting in some species. Longleaf pine may be the first tree species where researchers discovered masting directly caused by hurricanes; however, there are many oak and pine species that occur in hurricane-prone regions across the globe that may respond similarly. “Next, we hope to take a closer look at whether this is a widespread phenomenon,” says Cannon.
Generally speaking, hurricanes can create good conditions for pine seed germination. Accompanying high winds topple trees, which provides extra light, as well as uproot trees, exposing bare soil that is necessary for longleaf pine seeds to germinate. “Our findings support the idea that trees can respond to weather conditions that lead to good germination environments. But it also helps us better appreciate the role of hurricanes,” says Cannon. “Although they can sometimes be catastrophic, they can be also an integral part of the longleaf pine ecosystem.”
About The Jones Center at Ichauway
The Jones Center at Ichauway is a non-profit research and conservation center located in Newton, Georgia. The Center’s research, education, and conservation programs focus on ecology and management of southeastern ecosystems, especially longleaf pine. The research program is home to laboratories focusing on forest, plant, wildlife, insect, and stream ecology. Further information can be found on the web site at www.jonesctr.org/.
Animal models are a necessary research tool for understanding how diseases develop and how therapies work in biological systems and can be credited for breakthroughs ranging from effective antibiotics to the COVID vaccines.
The responsible and judicious use of animal models is prioritized by research institutions around the world and a unique research protocol developed by Melanie Pearson, Ph.D., of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, and her team at University of Michigan Medical School is garnering widespread interest among microbiologists.
In a recent paper in the journal Infection and Immunity, her group describes a product called organ agar that could be deployed to more efficiently screen bacteria that cause urinary tract infections.
Agar is a gelatinous product made of seaweed routinely used in laboratories to grow colonies of bacteria in petri dishes.
Pearson discovered that creating a mixture composed of the agar plus human urine and the organ her team wanted to study, specifically the bladder and kidneys, enabled their team to screen more than 1,700 mutants of the UTI-causing bacteria Proteus mirabilisusing a quarter of the mice typically required.
Pearson explains that in a classic mouse study of a urinary tract infection, mutated bacteria—bacteria that are missing individual genes— are introduced into an animal’s bladder and then the dominant strains assessed to determine what bacterial genes are important for infection. Knowing this could enable researchers to target specific variants for drug development, for example.
The use of organ agar has multiple potential benefits, explains Pearson.
For one, it can help microbiologists get around what is known as the bottleneck problem.
In a living system, only a certain number of mutants are able to gain a foothold, with the rest lost at random.
When Pearson tried the screening method using organ agar, her team found that the dominant bacteria reproduced those that were dominant in a live animal.
What’s more, bacteria that did not do well on organ agar also did not do well in a live animal.
Furthermore, organ agar could enable researchers without access to animal models to create physiologically relevant models of infection or colonization and allow for more efficient screening of bacterial and other microorganism candidates for further study.
Paper cited: “Organ agar serves as physiologically relevant alternative for in vivo bacterial colonization,” Infection and Immunity. DOI: 10.1128/iai.00355-23
THE TARGET OF THE STUDY,FESNCO0.2SXOY/NF (GREEN LINE), REQUIRES LESS VOLTAGE TO INDUCE OXYGEN EVOLUTION REACTIONS (OER) AND HYDROGEN EVOLUTION REACTIONS (HER) THAN IRO2||PT/C (RED LINE)
There is an ever-present struggle to reduce carbon-based energy sources and replace them with low or no-carbon alternatives. The process of splitting water could be the resolution.
Hydrogen production is a simple, safe, and effective method to produce more energy than gasoline can by the simple process of splitting water. Harvesting energy this way as opposed to relying heavily (or at all) on carbon-based energy sources is increasingly becoming the standard. Researchers have found a method to use transition metal sulfides, like tin (Sn), cobalt (Co), and iron (Fe) on nickel foam to develop non-precious metal electrocatalysts for use in cost-effective and environmentally responsible water splitting.
Researchers published their results in Nano Research Energyon November 22, 2023.
To be successful in this carbon-reducing venture, some reactions need to be stabilized for this process. The star of the study is FeSnCo0.2SxOy/NF, which can act as both an anode and cathode in the process of splitting water at a low voltage. The two reactions of concern here are oxygen evolution reactions (OER) and hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). OER generates O2 via a chemical reaction from water. HER yields H2 from a two-electron transfer reaction. The resulting H2 is useful as fuel. Using both of these reactions is ideal in the creation of a bifunctional electrocatalyst. Electrocatalysts can be defined as catalysts (or reaction-starters) that function at electrode surfaces, which are surfaces that can carry an electrical current.
HER has proved to be stable at 55 hours of continuous use and also requires a lower overpotential than OER. Overpotential is the difference in the amount of energy needed for a given catalyst to operate.
Unfortunately, OER stability is not where it needs to be. This is partially due to the extra step involved in the electron transfer, but also because the electrolytes they function under are typically harsh. While OER is stable with continuous use of around 70 hours, its activity does decrease with more cobalt content.
“It is pivotal to improve the OER stability of transition metal sulfides, so that they can be used as bifunctional HER and OER catalysts for reversible hydrogen fuel cell,” said Jingqi Guan, author and researcher of the study.
OER also has a higher overpotential than HER. With a higher amount of energy needed to induce the catalyst into operation, OER can be more “difficult.” However, the combination of iron, tin and cobalt on nickel foam boasts some improvement in bifunctional stability and both HER and OER activity.
The combination of these metals and the heterostructural interfaces formed can adjust the distribution of the electrons across the electrolyte surface. “Heterostructural” here refers to a semiconductor that can have an altered chemical composition based on the position the two chemicals are in. In this instance, it is a sulfide/oxyhydroxide duo. Even distribution of electrons helps to increase the rate of charge transfer throughout the whole structure which then promotes the transfer of electrons. Due to the nature of this semiconductor, increasing stability naturally would improve overall activity and function.
Overall, these transition metals have a synergistic effect on each other, especially when undergoing HER. This effect makes them ideal candidates for the main challenge proposed by researchers: reducing carbon-based energy sources.
Though the results were very promising, there are always steps that can be made in the future to perfect a process. Finding a catalyst that minimizes the overpotentials can reduce the energy input needed to catalyze the reaction. Additionally, ensuring the electrocatalysts developed are durable enough to be used commercially and can withstand long hours of continuous usage without any ill effects is imperative to the long-term success of the heterostructural interfaces.
Siyu Chen, Ting Zhang, Jingyi Han, Shihui Jiao and Jingqi Guan of the Institute of Physical Chemistry at Jilin University, Hui Qi of the Second Hospital of Jilin University, and Changmin Hou of the State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry at Jilin University contributed to this research.
The National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province supported this research.
Nano Research Energy is launched by Tsinghua University Press, aiming at being an international, open-access and interdisciplinary journal. We will publish research on cutting-edge advanced nanomaterials and nanotechnology for energy. It is dedicated to exploring various aspects of energy-related research that utilizes nanomaterials and nanotechnology, including but not limited to energy generation, conversion, storage, conservation, clean energy, etc. Nano Research Energy will publish four types of manuscripts, that is, Communications, Research Articles, Reviews, and Perspectives in an open-access form.
SciOpen is a professional open access resource for discovery of scientific and technical content published by the Tsinghua University Press and its publishing partners, providing the scholarly publishing community with innovative technology and market-leading capabilities. SciOpen provides end-to-end services across manuscript submission, peer review, content hosting, analytics, and identity management and expert advice to ensure each journal’s development by offering a range of options across all functions as Journal Layout, Production Services, Editorial Services, Marketing and Promotions, Online Functionality, etc. By digitalizing the publishing process, SciOpen widens the reach, deepens the impact, and accelerates the exchange of ideas.
THERE’S A SPECIES OF ANT THAT IS SO RARE, ONLY A HANDFUL OF RECORDS EXIST FROM ACROSS THE ENTIRE EASTERN UNITED STATES. NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER MICHELLE KIRCHNER NOT ONLY FOUND THESE ANTS IN THE TRIANGLE REGION OF NORTH CAROLINA, SHE IS THE FIRST TO DOCUMENT AN ENTIRE COLONY FOR SCIENTISTS, TAXONOMISTS AND ANT-THUSIASTS EVERYWHERE. THIS PHOTO SHOWS A FEMALE WORKER ANT FROM THE SPECIES, APHAENOGASTER MARIAE FOREL.
There’s a species of ant that is so rare, only a handful of records exist from across the entire eastern United States. North Carolina State University researcher Michelle Kirchner not only found these ants in the Triangle region of North Carolina, she is the first to document an entire colony for scientists, taxonomists and ant-thusiasts everywhere.
Aphaenogaster mariae Forel are a rare type of spine-wasted ant. Unlike their cousins that nest mostly in the detritus of forest floors, these ants live most of their lives high in tree canopies. This arboreal lifecycle is a fairly common practice for ants in tropical areas, but little was known about the presence or prevalence of arboreal ants in the Triangle, until now.
“I was not expecting to find these ants at all, so I was shocked when I found an entire colony,” says Michelle Kirchner, lead author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student in applied ecology and entomology at NC State. “With the whole colony, we’re able to document every life stage of this rare ant species, which is a first for science.”
Until now, there were no photographs or documented collections of the males of this species. Likewise, it is unknown how many populations exist, where they are, or what habitats they prefer. However, these new, detailed descriptions of all members of the colony provide some clues.
“The queens of these species are pretty small compared to other ant queens,” says Kirchner. “This small body type is similar to parasitic ant queens since being small makes them more easily mistaken as a fellow worker ant by a colony she is about to infiltrate.”
Around 250 species of ant have been identified in North Carolina, and Kirchner’s rediscovery of this species helps us better understand the unique makeup of North Carolina’s biodiversity.
“We don’t know how important this species is to the ecology of forests in the Triangle,” says Kirchner. “This different surveying effort has changed what we’re finding and our perspective on what’s possible out there. There are still discoveries to be made, even in the Neuse River game lands.”
“This is a great case of a species that’s so rarely encountered that it’s impossible to draw any conclusions about how rare it actually is or isn’t,” says Elsa Youngsteadt, a professor of applied ecology at NC State and co-author of the study. “Michelle’s observations suggest that these species are fairly localized, but more work needs to be done.”
Colony structure and redescription of males in the rarely collected arboreal ant, Aphaenogaster mariae Forel (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Researchers profile pollutants present in an important river basin in São Paulo state, Brazil
Scientists analyzed samples taken at 15 points in the basin and detected 45 contaminants, including compounds from agricultural, industrial and household effluents not yet regulated by Brazilian legislation
The Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiaà (PCJ) River Basin comprises 76 municipalities in São Paulo state, Brazil, with more than 5.8 million inhabitants and a drainage area of more than 14,000 square kilometers. These three rivers and their tributaries are essential sources of drinking water, energy, irrigation for agriculture and water for industrial processes. Demand is very high, and the resulting water shortage is exacerbated by the climate crisis. This is not the only problem or the worst, however: the many rivers, brooks and creeks in the basin are severely contaminated by agricultural, industrial and domestic effluents.
Visible evidence of this pollution is frequently highlighted by the media, but until now there have been no in-depth scientific studies that identify the main contaminated areas, the specific contaminants and mixtures of contaminants, with their concentrations, occurrences and toxicities, and the potential risks to people and aquatic organisms.
Just such a study has recently been completed by researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and colleagues affiliated with other institutions in Brazil and abroad.
“Besides the usual contaminants, which are well-known and subject to legislation, we also found emerging contaminants not covered by any legislation and with levels of toxicity in conditions of chronic exposure. Our study provides the first overview of the occurrence of PFAS compounds in São Paulo’s rivers,” said Cassiana Carolina Montagner, a professor at UNICAMP’s Institute of Chemistry and principal investigator for the study.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a group of thousands of synthetic chemical compounds used by industry in a vast array of products to make them waterproof, stain-resistant and non-stick. Most non-stick cooking pans are coated with a form of PFAS, for example.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), exposure to PFASs causes many human health problems, including an increased risk of kidney, prostate and testicular cancer. “The occurrence of seven PFASs in different rivers in São Paulo state is reported for the first time in our study,” Montagner said. “We also detected many other contaminants, making a total of 45. The most frequent were the agricultural pesticides atrazine, carbendazim, tebuthiuron and 2,4-D, which we found in 100% of the samples collected. Caffeine and bisphenol A [BPA], which enter rivers in household waste, were also in 100% of the samples.”
Caffeine is well-tolerated by humans but can be extremely harmful to aquatic organisms, Montagner noted. BPA is an organic chemical (2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) propane) used in the production of polymers and high-performance coatings. Plastic containing BPA is used in appliances, computers, toys, disposable cutlery, baby bottles, food and drink can linings and epoxy resin. BPA is also often used to coat the thermal paper used in cash registers and credit card receipts, ATM printouts and other everyday transactions.
Underscoring the severity of all this pollution, it should be noted that the area served by the PCJ Basin is important agriculturally and industrially, contains several major cities, and accounts for 5.3% of Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP). Highlights include sugarcane growing in Piracicaba, textiles in Americana, and a large population in Campinas (1.1m in 2022).
“Not only is the PCJ Basin the main source of drinking water for the entire area, but it also supplies water for irrigation, which isn’t treated at all before farmers use it. At the same time, the region contains many small towns that discharge raw sewage into the rivers,” Montagner said.
Emerging contaminants such as pesticides, hormones, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals and PFASs are being dumped in the PCJ Basin, and no monitoring is required by the existing Brazilian legislation.
“In our study, we collected samples at 15 different points in the basin and measured the contaminants present considering three factors: concentration, frequency and toxicity. Alongside the high frequencies already mentioned, we obtained elevated risk quotients for the herbicides diuron and atrazine, as well as the insecticide imidacloprid,” she said.
“In addition to longstanding unsolved pollution problems, such as contamination by fecal coliforms, for example, new problems are being caused by the presence of emerging contaminants, which are produced to guarantee the quality of modern life but pollute the environment owing to mismanagement of solid waste and inefficient sanitation. Our study suggests the need for a comprehensive monitoring program to assure the protection of aquatic life and human health.”
Monitoring
In response to enquiries from Agência FAPESP, the São Paulo State Environmental Corporation (CETESB) stated that it currently samples water at 519 points, of which 91 are in the PCJ Basin, analyzing traditional parameters such as organic matter, nutrients, fecal coliforms and metals, as well as agrochemicals and some emerging compounds, which it quantifies indirectly by means of two assays: one measuring estrogen activity to detect endocrine interferents (which mimic female hormones, including BPA); and another measuring glucocorticoid activity to detect anti-inflammatory drugs.
The statement also said CETESB has measured 42 different agrochemicals since 2017 in water samples from rivers in mainly agricultural areas.
“In the case of the PCJ Basin, we have monitored agrochemicals since 2018 in the headwaters of the Corumbataà [...] in the municipality of Analândia, where land use is agricultural in 65% of the basin. The agrochemicals most frequently detected in this part of the Corumbataà during the period 2018-22 were the insecticide imidacloprid [also very frequent in the samples analyzed by the UNICAMP researchers] and the herbicide tebuthiuron [found in 100% of the samples analyzed in the study]. Concentrations of imidacloprid frequently exceeded the chronic ecotoxicity limit for aquatic invertebrates set by the EPA [via the Office of Pesticide Programs, OPP], which is 10 ng/L [nanograms per liter]. In the same period, we did not detect 2,4 D or atrazine [both detected in 100% of the samples analyzed by the UNICAMP researchers], for which quality standards are specified for the protection of aquatic life in federal legislation [National Environmental Council (CONAMA) Resolution 357/2005],” the statement from CETESB said.
Finally, the statement said no values have been established in legislation for estrogen or glucocorticoid activity, adding that the “levels found in both of these two assays during the last five years in the PCJ Basin are considered low or insignificant on the basis of studies performed previously and international experience.”
About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.
Uncovering the impact of agricultural activities and urbanization on rivers from the Piracicaba, Capivari, and Jundiaà basin in São Paulo, Brazil: A survey of pesticides, hormones, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, and PFAS
