ResumoA expectativa de sobrevida da população idosa tem aumentado nos últimos anos, podendo o processo de envelhecimento ser acompanhado por declínio das capacidades funcionais, físicas e cognitivas dos idosos. Dentro da função cognitiva, a memória apresenta-se como uma das suas principais queixas. Os objetivos do estudo foram analisar a memória declarativa, a capacidade funcional e qualidade de vida de idosos ativos e insuficientemente ativos, a fim de observar se a atividade física interfere positivamente nestas variáveis. Trata-se de estudo transversal, do qual fizeram parte dois grupos de comparação, idosos ativos (G1) e insuficientemente ativos (G2), com idade acima de 60 anos, residentes no município de Santa Maria-RS. A avaliação foi composta pelos seguintes instrumentos: Teste de Memória Emocional, Índice de Katz e Avaliação da Qualidade de Vida: SF-36. Como resultados, foi encontrado que os idosos do grupo G1 apresentaram melhores escores tanto na memória como na qualidade de vida quando comparados aos do grupo G2. Já no quesito capacidade funcional para atividades básicas de vida diária, avaliado pelo Índice de Katz, não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa entre os grupos, mas quando observados os resultados da variável capacidade funcional avaliado pelo SF-36, o G1 apresentou melhores resultados com diferença estatisticamente significativa quando comparado ao G2. Devido à importância da atividade física no retardo dos declínios decorrentes do envelhecimento, torna-se necessário criar estratégias para a participação dos idosos em grupos de atividades, contribuindo para a melhoria da qualidade de vida, independência e participação. AbstractLife expectancy of the elderly population has increased in recent years, and the aging process may be accompanied by functional capacity, physical and cognitive decline in the elderly. In cognitive functions, memory appears as one of their main complaints. This study aimed to analyze the declarative memory, functional capacity and quality of life in active and insufficiently active seniors, in order to observe whether physical Palavras-chave: Idoso. Memória. Atividade Física. Atividade Motora.http://dx

A study of the community dynamics of Drosophilidae was carried out in six insular communities and two others on the mainland. Seasonal collections were carried out throughout two years in Santa Catarina State, southern of Brazil. The diversity index calculations show high values when compared with temperate climate communities. The sites on the mainland (Serra do Tabuleiro) presented the highest diversity, which was measured by the Diversity Index (H'). These sites are covered by primary Atlantic Forest and theoretically should have a higher variation of ecological niches. A dendogram showing the similarity between the communities, calculated by Morisita Index, points to a level of similarity equal to 60% for all communities. In this diagram, we can see two clades: one on the mainland and the other on the islands. The six island sites are grouped into one clade and separated into two subclades, one including the sites on Santa Catarina Island and the other consisting of the islands adjacent to this last and very much larger one. These groupings show the very important role of the spatial component on the prediction of the structure of the communities. This fact raises the discussion about the high complexity of the Atlantic Forest ecosystem and consequently the unpredictability of its fauna, highlighting the need of its conservation.

The Drosophila willistoni subgroup represents a complex with varying taxonomic levels. It encompasses D. willistoni and its five sibling species: D. equinoxialis, D. insularis, D. paulistorum, D. pavlovskiana and D. tropicalis. Of these, D. equinoxialis, D. tropicalis and D. willistoni present differentiation at subspecific level, whereas D. paulistorum represents a superspecies, formed by six semispecies. Despite this taxonomic and evolutionary complexity, many of these semi and subspecific taxa have not yet had their phylogenetic status tested in an explicitly molecular study. Aiming to contribute to the understanding of the evolution of this challenging group, we analyzed nucleotide sequences from two mitochondrial and four nuclear datasets, both individually and simultaneously, through different phylogenetic methods. High levels of incongruence were detected among partitions, especially concerning the mitochondrial sequences. As this incongruence was found to be statistically significant and robust to the use of different models and approaches, and basically restricted to mitochondrial loci, we suggest that it may stem mainly from hybridization-mediated asymmetrical introgression. Despite this, our nuclear data finally led to a phylogenetic hypothesis which further refines several aspects related to the willistoni subgroup phylogeny. In this respect, D. insularis, D. tropicalis, D. willistoni and D. equinoxialis successively branched off from the willistoni subgroup main stem, which recently subdivided to produce D. paulistorum and D. pavlovskiana. As regards the semispecies evolution, we found evidence of a recent diversification, which highly influenced the obtained results due to the associated small levels of genetic differentiation, further worsened by the possibly associated incompletely sorted ancestral polymorphisms and by the possibility of introgression. This study also raises the question of whether these semispecies are monophyletic at all. This reasoning is particularly interesting when one considers that similar levels of reproductive isolation could be attained through infection with different Wolbachia strains.

Understanding patterns of ecological specialization, the processes underlying niche partitioning and how they translate into the structure of interaction networks is a persistent challenge in ecology. Advances on this regard are limited by the prevalent focus on single spatial scales, lack of tests of the mechanisms underlying specialization, and scarce investigation of some types of interactions. Here we investigated the patterns of interaction between plants and florivores (flower‐breeding drosophilids, FBD) at species‐ and community‐level and at local and regional scales, and tested the relative importance of multiple potential drivers of frequencies of interactions in a local network. First, based on a year‐round collection of 42 322 flowers belonging to 82 plant species, we investigated species specialization and network structure and tested whether frequencies of interactions were related to plant–consumer temporal overlap and resource availability. Second, we built a regional florivore–plant meta‐network for the Neotropical region and tested its structure for nestedness, modularity and overall specialization. Our findings revealed that although FBD species span a broad range of degrees of specialization, most species were highly specialized. At both local and regional scales, network structure was highly modular and non‐nested, presenting high complementary specialization. Moreover, phenological overlap between FBD and their hosts was the most influential driver of frequency of interactions, in comparison to abundance and traits. By describing the structure of FBD–plant networks, our results illustrate how a highly diverse and specialized system retains interaction patterns found in other types of interaction networks which are often driven by different processes. Furthermore, despite undersampling of interactions in the meta‐network caused by the lack of studies on this system and the high diversity of Neotropical FBD's, the high modularity and consistency of some clade–clade modules across spatial scales suggests the importance of evolutionary history and physiological constraints in shaping interactions in this system.

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