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News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-May-2025 11:08 ET (1-May-2025 15:08 GMT/UTC)

Scientists identify molecules associated with recurrence in blood samples from malaria patients

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As described in Scientific Reports, the study involved analysis of blood samples from volunteers infected by Plasmodium vivax, which produces forms that lie dormant in the host and can be reactivated months after treatment. The findings will help detect and diagnose these forms, with significant potential to enhance control and treatment of the disease in future.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Model combines physical parameters and machine learning to predict storm tides

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, the system used the port city of Santos as a sample space, and could enhance the efficiency of civil defense activities in the context of extreme weather events.

Journal: Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

For sustainable livestock farming bordering the Amazon Rainforest, look to the women

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Women near Colombia’s Amazon Rainforest highly value trees on their small livestock farms. Better integration of what motivates farmers to conserve the environment could improve the odds for successful landscape restoration projects in post-conflict areas, new research shows.

Journal: Scientific Reports

Assessing regressive erosion effects: Unveiling riverside land use land cover changes post hydroelectric project construction

Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The energy crisis due to climate change is not the only challenge facing Ecuador's dependence on hydropower. On 2 February 2020, the San Rafael waterfall collapsed. Months later, land subsidence and sinkholes were more frequent in the proximity of the Coca River. The authors addressed the problems associated with the operations of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric

power plant using remote sensing techniques. This is the first study to assess changes in land use and land cover and to analyze fluvial dynamics processes; through a spatio-temporal assessment using satellite imagery.

Journal: Environmental Challenges
Funder: Impact of Land Cover change in the Amazon

Study proposes novel hypothesis to explain occupation of Brazil’s southern coast 2,000 years ago

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New analysis of an archaeological site near the town of Laguna refutes the theory that the ancestors of the Southern Jê replaced the people who built shell middens and burial mounds known as sambaquis for more than 5,000 years on the coast of Santa Catarina state. The results are reported in PLOS ONE.

Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Brazilian scientists develop functional bread to help prevent asthma

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Bread produced with probiotic yeast performed well in experiments with mice, showing potential to combat asthma, which affects 20 million Brazilians.

Journal: Current Developments in Nutrition
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Mindfulness alleviates stress and anxiety among nursing staff, study confirms

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A systematic review of 14 scientific articles on studies conducted in seven countries detected a statistically significant improvement in mental health after treatment with mindfulness.

Journal: Archives of Psychiatric Nursing
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Group tests novel therapeutic strategy to minimize progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The use of photobiomodulation and an antioxidant drug called idebenone strengthened the regenerative capacity of muscle fibers in an experimental model, a study conducted at the State University of Campinas shows.

Journal: PLOS One
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Advances in techniques used to identify sharks and rays have not prevented trade and increase in extinction risk

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An analysis of scientific papers published in a 15-year period on molecular methods to identify elasmobranch species shows that better detection of illegal trade has not enhanced protection.

Journal: Biological Conservation
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

Use of WhatsApp messages by public health service to treat depression in older people produces results, study shows

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

With simple audio messages and images, the Viva Vida program produced significant improvements in over-sixties living in a major city in metropolitan São Paulo (Brazil). An article on the study is published in Nature Medicine.

Journal: Nature Medicine
Funder: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo

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