Epidemic outbreak of tegumentary leishmaniasis in Puerto Esperanza, Misiones, 1998

La provincia de Misiones en 1998 notificó 205 casos de leishmaniosis, 98% en la localidad de Puerto Esperanza. El análisis de las fichas clínicas (n:129) de los casos atendidos en Hospital Puerto Esperanza (enero a septiembre 1998) mostró una mayor proporción de lesión cutánea simple (97,2%), localizada en miembros inferiores (72,5%), sin casos de lesión mucosa. Los resultados fueron coherentes con los de la literatura de otros focos epidémicos en Argentina debidos a Leishmania (V.) Braziliensis. No hubo diferencia significativa de incidencia entre sexos, se registró en todos los grupos etarios, y fue susceptible al tratamiento convencional. El foco principal se registró en el Barrio Km1 con un máximo de transmisión en abril de 1998. La intradermoreacción de Montenegro en población general (n:205) no mostró reactividad en asintomáticos. Se capturaron 577 Phlebotominae pertenecientes a 8 especies, las más abundantes fueron Lutzomyia intermedia (79,7%) y Lu. whitmani (10,9%), presentes en peridomicilios de Km1 asociados a selva paranaense residual y vegetación secundaria. Los resultados se discuten en el marco de estrategias posibles de vigilancia y control.The province of Misiones reported 205 leishmaniasis cases during 1998, 98% of them from the locality of Puerto Esperanza. The resports of Puerto Esperanza Hospital (January to September 1998) for leishmanuasis were analysed (n:129). The mainly reported lesion was the single cutaneous ulcer (97,2%), localized in the inferior limbs (72,5%), without any mucosa involvement. The reults are consistent with the knowledge from other Argentinean leishmaniasis foci due to Leishmania (V.) braziliensis. The difference in incidence among sexes was not significant, leishmaniasis was reported in all age groups, and it was suceptible to the convenctional treatment. The main focus was located in Km1 neighbourhood, the transmission peak was during April 1998. The Montenegro skin test among general population (m:205) did not show reactivity among asymptomatic people. The prevalent Phlebotominae species was Lutzomyia intermedia (79,7%) and Lu. whitmani (10,9%), among the 577 individuals belonging to 8 species collected. The Phlebotominae were abundant in periodomestic habitats of Km1 neighbourhoood, close to human dwellings, in places associated with residual primary forest and secondary vegetation. The results are discussed in the fram of surveillance and possible control stategies.Fil: Salomón, Oscar Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Centro Nacional de Diagnóstico e Investigaciones Endemo-epidémicas; ArgentinaFil: Sosa-estani, Sergio Alejandro. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Centro Nacional de Diagnóstico e Investigaciones Endemo-epidémicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Monzani, Ángel S.. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Centro Nacional de Diagnóstico e Investigaciones Endemo-epidémicas; ArgentinaFil: Studer, Catalina. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Centro Nacional de Diagnóstico e Investigaciones Endemo-epidémicas; Argentin

pH-dependent redox and CO binding properties of chelated protoheme-L-histidine and protoheme-glycyl-L-histidine complexes

The pH dependence of redox properties, spectroscopic features and CO binding kinetics for the chelated protohemin-6(7)-L-histidine methyl ester (heme-H) and the chelated protohemin-6(7)-glycyl-L-histidine methyl ester (heme-GH) systems has been investigated between pH 2.0 and 12.0. The two heme systems appear to be modulated by four protonating groups, tentatively identified as coordinated H2O, one of heme's propionates, N epsilon of the coordinating imidazole, and the carboxylate of the histidine residue upon hydrolysis of the methyl ester group (in acid medium). The pK(a) values are different for the two hemes, thus reflecting structural differences. In particular, the different strain at the Fe-N-epsilon bond, related to the different length of the coordinating arm, results in a dramatic alteration of the bond strength, which is much smaller in heme-H than in heme-GH. It leads to a variation in the variation of the pKa for the protonation of the N-epsilon of the axial imidazole as well as in the proton-linked behavior of the other protonating groups, envisaging a cross-talk communication mechanism among different groups of the heme, which can be operative and relevant also in the presence of the protein matrix

Editorial: Highlights in psychology: cognitive bias

Editorial on the Research Topic Highlights in psychology: cognitive bia

3D Position Sensitive XeTPC for Dark Matter Search

The technique to realize 3D position sensitivity in a two-phase xenon time projection chamber (XeTPC) for dark matter search is described. Results from a prototype detector (XENON3) are presented.Comment: Presented at the 7th UCLA Symposium on "Sources and Detection of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe

Constraints on inelastic dark matter from XENON10

It has been suggested that dark matter particles which scatter inelastically from detector target nuclei could explain the apparent incompatibility of the DAMA modulation signal (interpreted as evidence for particle dark matter) with the null results from CDMS-II and XENON10. Among the predictions of inelastically interacting dark matter are a suppression of low-energy events, and a population of nuclear recoil events at higher nuclear recoil equivalent energies. This is in stark contrast to the well-known expectation of a falling exponential spectrum for the case of elastic interactions. We present a new analysis of XENON10 dark matter search data extending to E$_{nr}=75$ keV nuclear recoil equivalent energy. Our results exclude a significant region of previously allowed parameter space in the model of inelastically interacting dark matter. In particular, it is found that dark matter particle masses $m_{\chi}\gtrsim150$ GeV are disfavored.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Developments on CMOS with LF, AMS and TJ technology

HV-CMOS sensors represent a solid candidate detector for the future of high-energy physics experiments. The LFoundry (LF) 150 nm, the Austria Micro System (AMS) aH18 180 nm and the TowerJazz (TJ) 180 nm HV-CMOS process has been under investigation for pixel detectors at the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The pixel response of an LF prototype in terms of gain and times of signal, an efficiency estimation of an AMS one along with measurements on fall and rise times, ToT and time walk and for TJ results from a test beam at CERN showed that this technology can qualify for the design of the outer pixel layers of the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk)

A search for light dark matter in XENON10 data

We report results of a search for light (<10 GeV) particle dark matter with the XENON10 detector. The event trigger was sensitive to a single electron, with the analysis threshold of 5 electrons corresponding to 1.4 keV nuclear recoil energy. Considering spin-independent dark matter-nucleon scattering, we exclude cross sections \sigma_n>3.5x10^{-42} cm^2, for a dark matter particle mass m_{\chi}=8 GeV. We find that our data strongly constrain recent elastic dark matter interpretations of excess low-energy events observed by CoGeNT and CRESST-II, as well as the DAMA annual modulation signal.Comment: Manuscript identical to v2 (published version) but also contains erratum. Note v3==v2 but without \linenumber

The scintillation and ionization yield of liquid xenon for nuclear recoils

XENON10 is an experiment designed to directly detect particle dark matter. It is a dual phase (liquid/gas) xenon time-projection chamber with 3D position imaging. Particle interactions generate a primary scintillation signal (S1) and ionization signal (S2), which are both functions of the deposited recoil energy and the incident particle type. We present a new precision measurement of the relative scintillation yield \leff and the absolute ionization yield Q_y, for nuclear recoils in xenon. A dark matter particle is expected to deposit energy by scattering from a xenon nucleus. Knowledge of \leff is therefore crucial for establishing the energy threshold of the experiment; this in turn determines the sensitivity to particle dark matter. Our \leff measurement is in agreement with recent theoretical predictions above 15 keV nuclear recoil energy, and the energy threshold of the measurement is 4 keV. A knowledge of the ionization yield \Qy is necessary to establish the trigger threshold of the experiment. The ionization yield \Qy is measured in two ways, both in agreement with previous measurements and with a factor of 10 lower energy threshold.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. To be published in Nucl. Instrum. Methods

Search for extended gamma-ray emission from the Virgo galaxy cluster with Fermi-LAT

Galaxy clusters are one of the prime sites to search for dark matter (DM) annihilation signals. Depending on the substructure of the DM halo of a galaxy cluster and the cross sections for DM annihilation channels, these signals might be detectable by the latest generation of $\gamma$-ray telescopes. Here we use three years of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data, which are the most suitable for searching for very extended emission in the vicinity of nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. Our analysis reveals statistically significant extended emission which can be well characterized by a uniformly emitting disk profile with a radius of 3\deg that moreover is offset from the cluster center. We demonstrate that the significance of this extended emission strongly depends on the adopted interstellar emission model (IEM) and is most likely an artifact of our incomplete description of the IEM in this region. We also search for and find new point source candidates in the region. We then derive conservative upper limits on the velocity-averaged DM pair annihilation cross section from Virgo. We take into account the potential $\gamma$-ray flux enhancement due to DM sub-halos and its complex morphology as a merging cluster. For DM annihilating into $b\overline{b}$, assuming a conservative sub-halo model setup, we find limits that are between 1 and 1.5 orders of magnitude above the expectation from the thermal cross section for $m_{\mathrm{DM}}\lesssim100\,\mathrm{GeV}$. In a more optimistic scenario, we exclude $\langle \sigma v \rangle\sim3\times10^{-26}\,\mathrm{cm^{3}\,s^{-1}}$ for $m_{\mathrm{DM}}\lesssim40\,\mathrm{GeV}$ for the same channel. Finally, we derive upper limits on the $\gamma$-ray-flux produced by hadronic cosmic-ray interactions in the inter cluster medium. We find that the volume-averaged cosmic-ray-to-thermal pressure ratio is less than $\sim6\%$.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ; corresponding authors: T. Jogler, S. Zimmer & A. Pinzk

First Results from the XENON10 Dark Matter Experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory

The XENON10 experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory uses a 15 kg xenon dual phase time projection chamber (XeTPC) to search for dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The detector measures simultaneously the scintillation and the ionization produced by radiation in pure liquid xenon, to discriminate signal from background down to 4.5 keV nuclear recoil energy. A blind analysis of 58.6 live days of data, acquired between October 6, 2006 and February 14, 2007, and using a fiducial mass of 5.4 kg, excludes previously unexplored parameter space, setting a new 90% C.L. upper limit for the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross-section of 8.8 x 10^{-44} cm^2 for a WIMP mass of 100 GeV/c^2, and 4.5 x 10^{-44} cm^2 for a WIMP mass of 30 GeV/c^2. This result further constrains predictions of supersymmetric models.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let